text:
[Detroit has been struggling to piece together its broken housing market, which has been partly frustrated by the unwillingness of banks to make small mortgages.]

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times; Photo illustration by The New York Times

The 2008 financial crisis and 2013 city bankruptcy gutted Detroit’s housing market. Now, Detroit is experimenting with unorthodox ways to get people to buy homes and renovate houses.

Detroit has been struggling to piece together its broken housing market, which has been partly frustrated by the unwillingness of banks to make small mortgages.Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times; Photo illustration by The New York Times

-   Nov. 4, 2017
-

DETROIT — Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, the country’s two largest banks, trace their roots in Detroit back decades, when they helped finance the city’s once-booming auto industry.

These days, Detroit is still struggling to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, and the two banks have pledged to help resuscitate the city and its crippled housing market. So, guess how many home mortgage loans these two enormous banks made last year in this city of 637,000 people.

Bank of America made 18. JPMorgan did just six.

Detroit’s hometown lender, Quicken Loans, made the most — 170 mortgages.

Image[An abandoned home on the city’s east side. Major banks have made just a handful of mortgages in Detroit over the past year.]

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times

Midwestern cities like Detroit have long embodied the American can-do spirit. Over the course of a century, Motor City melded assembly-line prowess with freedom-of-the-road ideals to help define a nation. In the postwar years, Detroit became the epitome of the American dream, a place where factory workers without college degrees could make enough money to buy a house of their own.

Yet as home prices soar across the United States — particularly on the coasts — Detroit remains a poster child for the economic crisis and housing collapse of a decade ago. Boarded up homes and rubble-strewn fields litter the landscape.

Today, a house can be bought here for the price of a used Chevy Caprice.

What is truly surprising about that, though, is how difficult it still is for buyers to actually buy. Basically, prices are too low for lenders (who see the deals as too small or risky) but too high for buyers (who may be cash-poor). There aren’t enough houses in move-in-ready condition — and not enough money to fix them up.

This strange situation has turned Detroit into an unlikely petri dish for experiments into how to kick-start a housing market that is, depending on your perspective, either slumbering or comatose.

Will a neighborhood of “tiny houses” for the poor help fix things? Or how about rehabbing city-owned homes, and selling them at a loss, to jump-start the action? Other more conventional — if risky — ideas involve providing no-interest financing to fix up tumbledown properties. Or offering mortgages for homes that normally would be too small to be worth a banker’s trouble.

One local financier is even trying to beautify bulldozed neighborhoods by planting thousands of trees on 160 acres of vacant land his firm has gobbled up.

And while Detroit is worse off than most big cities, housing-policy makers nationwide are keeping a close eye to see what lessons can be learned.

To understand how far Detroit has fallen, consider the statistics. In the mid-2000s, banks were writing some 7,000 mortgages a year. Then, the financial crisis nearly destroyed the American automotive industry, Detroit’s economic heart. Jobs disappeared; citizens fled. Last year, there were more than 700 mortgages made in Detroit, up from 200 at the depth of the crisis but barely 10 percent of the level a decade earlier.

Those bleak numbers, however, do not tell the whole story. Behind the scenes, nonprofit groups, foundations, local officials and a dozen banks including JPMorgan, Bank of America and Quicken are trying to varying degrees to reanimate the mortgage market in Michigan’s largest city.

Success, however, often comes achingly slow.

At 15455 Winthrop Street, on one of Detroit’s better manicured blocks, there is a freshly rehabbed three-bedroom home. The bungalow-style house was fixed up by the city itself, through its land bank, which acquired the house a year ago after the county foreclosed on the owner for failing to pay taxes. The land bank did a gut renovation with money provided by a grant from Quicken.

Since August, the land bank has been trying to sell the house, with a price tag of at least $79,900. More than 80 people have come to check it out. But so far there have been no takers.

“We have never not sold one,” said Craig Fahle, a former radio host who today is the communications director for the Detroit Land Bank Authority. “Detroit likes to do everything kicking and screaming,” he said. “But we get there eventually.”

Image

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times
[]

Even happy stories are the product of a slog. Erica Wyatt struggled to pay down her debts and then searched for two years before she managed to get a mortgage from Fifth Third Bank to buy a four-bedroom home for $92,000. The transaction happened only because Ms. Wyatt, a single mother with four children, received $15,000 in down payment assistance.

Ms. Wyatt, who grew up in Detroit, said she was determined to move back into the city after renting a home in a suburb. “I wanted to make sure my children saw that not all of Detroit is bad and there are some beautiful neighborhoods,” said Ms. Wyatt, 39, who works for an insurance company.

Some of the ideas seem like stopgap measures. A social services group’s community of“tiny homes” — 400-square-foot structures with nothing more than a bedroom, a bathroom and small kitchen — is being erected to provide housing to homeless and handicapped people. The project, led by Reverend Faith Fowler, executive director of Cass Community Social Services, is taking place on a plot of vacant land the charitable organization bought from the city.

The dollhouse-like structures — seven so far — are near the organization’s main social services facility, in a rather desolate area of Detroit off Rosa Parks Boulevard. In all, Ms. Fowler hopes to build two dozen small homes, which will be rented for as little as $250 a month and eventually deeded over after seven years to a select group of homeless or poor individuals.

Tiny-house living can take adjustment, even for people with no roof over their heads at all. Ms. Fowler said that one homeless veteran told her the homes were too small to compete with a traditional homeless shelter.

Still, for some, the homes are perfect. One of the first tenants to move in this past summer is a former Methodist minister, David Leenhouts, who was forced to give up his ministry near Cleveland because of health issues that make it difficult for him to walk and talk.

Mr. Leenhouts, who grew up in the Detroit area, said his college-age son told him the small home, with a steepled ceiling, was all he needed because everything is within just a few steps. Mr. Leenhouts, 59, said, “I have no idea where I would be living if I was not chosen for a tiny house.”

That said, a cluster of tiny homes hardly seems scalable in a city as big as Detroit. And almost by definition, a tiny home isn’t a viable option for a family with children.

It’s also an example of why the long-term prognosis for Detroit’s housing market remains uncertain at best. Much of the work underway is taking place block-by-block — much like the tiny-home homeless experiment — and there are a lot of blocks in this 139-square-mile city.

“The pilot programs help some people, but they are on the margin,” said Gregory Markus, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Michigan and executive director of Detroit Action Commonwealth, an advocacy group for low-income residents. “‘The root problem is that Detroit is the poorest big city in America.”’

The national poverty rate is 14 percent, and Detroit’s is 36 percent. Mr. Markus said that, without more jobs, home buying will remain a largely unattainable goal.

Detroit’s population peaked in the 1950s at nearly 2 million and has been falling ever since. The financial crisis and the city’s bankruptcy filing in 2013 hollowed out what was left of its once large, middle-class African-American community. Over the past decade there have been more than 150,000 home foreclosures here.

Image

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times
[]

Detroit lacks “a functioning housing market,” a report last year bluntly declared.

Things are so difficult that simply finding a contractor to rehab a home can be an ordeal. “We had several contractors who didn’t want to do work in the city,” said Heather McKeon, 35, who along with her husband, Matthew, recently moved into a fixer-upper in Detroit’s up-and-coming Corktown neighborhood. “They would say, ‘I don’t trust that I can keep my tools here.’”

She added: “It is still sort of flabbergasting to be laughed at.”

Ms. McKeon, an interior designer, said many insurers wouldn’t sell them a homeowner’s policy on an unoccupied home under renovation. Ultimately, they got a policy from a subsidiary of Munich Re Group of Germany.

Detroit’s Largest Property Owner

Many of the efforts to resuscitate the housing market begin with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, a government agency that is the city’s single largest property owner. The land bank owns some 25,000 vacant homes in various stages of disrepair, another 4,200 occupied homes and 65,000 grass-covered lots where homes once stood before the city tore them down in an effort to fight blight.

Mr. Fahle, the land bank’s communications director, likes to drive around and point out once-abandoned houses that his employer sold to people who then fixed them up.

But on a rainy September day, he was particularly interested in showing off the refurbished three-bedroom house at 15455 Winthrop, which the land bank spent $98,000 to renovate. The asking price for the home — with its restored hardwood floors and a new granite kitchen countertop — was reduced by a few thousand dollars in early September from $83,000 to spur more interest.

Image

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times
[]

Throughout Detroit, the land bank has sold 44 homes under its “Rehabbed & Ready” pilot program. The program is funded with a $5 million grant from Quicken. At the closing, the buyers get a $1,500 gift card from Home Depot to buy appliances.

The program, though, is losing money — an average of $21,000 for every home sold.

Mr. Fahle said the goal wasn’t to turn a profit, but to get more move-in-ready homes into the marketplace and to boost property values in the process. In all, the land bank has sold more than 2,700 houses, many in online auctions.

The land bank’s operations are not without controversy. Housing advocates have complained it has focused too much attention on rehabbing homes in just a few neighborhoods, and on tearing down dilapidated homes elsewhere. A federal grand jury has been investigating the awarding of contracts to tear down more than 12,000 dilapidated homes as part of a war on blight led by Detroit’s first-term mayor, Mike Duggan. The investigation is looking into why costs soared under the demolition program, with almost $140 million in mostly federal money being spent.

Image

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times
[]

Mr. Fahle said the land bank is cooperating with the investigation. He said criticism that the rehabbed and ready program has focused on a just a small part of the city is misguided. Mr. Fahle said a decision was made to select homes for renovation in four neighborhoods early on, but over time it is expanding to other parts of the city.

Homes are certainly worth more in Detroit now than they were a few years ago. Citywide, the median value for a house here is $47,700, a 40 percent gain over the past two years, according to Zillow. Stately homes in the Villages, a group of neighborhoods with tree-lined streets, located not far from the posh suburb of Grosse Pointe, Mich., have sold for more than $400,000.

But progress is largely limited to a small cluster of neighborhoods. About half of the mortgages written in Detroit last year were for homes purchased in just six ZIP codes, according to data from the real estate information firm RealtyTrac, part of Attom Data Solutions. There are 25 ZIP codes in Detroit.

One question is whether the money that banks are providing — a combination of grants and loans — signifies a long-term commitment or an effort to score points with federal regulators. Banks are expected under the federal Community Reinvestment Act to make loans in communities with large numbers of poor- or moderate-income residents in order to spur economic activity.

The downpayment-assistance program that helped Ms. Wyatt buy her home, for instance, was financed by a settlement Wells Fargo reached a few years ago in a housing class-action lawsuit. The settlement money is drying up, though, and the bank said it was not sure if it will renew the program. So far, it has provided assistance to 180 home buyers in the city.

Bank of America said it was committed to working in Detroit and is providing up to $4 million to fund no-interest loans that have enabled 400 homeowners to fix up properties. The bank, working with two nonprofit groups, also has said it was willing to finance $55 million worth of mortgages in Detroit. So far this year, the bank has issued 23 mortgages in Detroit — up from 18 in 2016 — and has increased the number of loan officers in the city.

JPMorgan said it, too, was here for the long haul. Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chairman and chief executive, regularly promotes its Invested in Detroit program, which includes up to $150 million for housing and commercial development and funds for research by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., to study ways to revive Detroit’s economy and housing market.

Quicken, which moved most of its operations in 2010 to downtown Detroit from nearby Livonia, Mich., recently committed $300,000 to a new government program that will give 80 tenants living in homes that face tax foreclosure a chance to buy the houses for as little as $2,500.

Image

Credit...Andrew Spear for The New York Times
[]

Still, the money shelled out by the banks pales in comparison to the estimated $2.5 billion that Dan Gilbert, Quicken’s founder, has spent buying and renovating over 95 largely vacant properties, including old department stores, in Detroit’s downtown. Now most of those buildings are filled with new businesses. A company backed by Mr. Gilbert brought high-speed internet to downtown and Quicken paid $5 million for the naming rights for a recently opened streetcar system called the QLine that makes 12 stops along its 3.3-mile path.

The mayoral election on Nov. 7 is to some degree a referendum on Mr. Duggan’s efforts at reviving both downtown and the city’s housing market. Mr. Duggan is seeking a second term and is opposed by Senator Coleman Young II. Mr. Duggan said one of his top priorities as mayor was getting home prices up in Detroit.

“Home-sale prices have climbed far faster than anyone could have predicted,” Mr. Duggan said.

Perhaps the most vexing issue is the reluctance of banks to give loans to people to buy cheap homes. It’s simple business: The costs of underwriting a $50,000 mortgage — doing all the paperwork, the credit checks and the inspections — are the same as for much larger mortgages that can generate more bank revenue. Plus, when homes are in such disrepair, often they are appraised for much less than the amount the borrower needs to fix it up.

That means the collateral on the loan — the house itself — is worth less than the amount the bank is owed. In today’s risk-averse banking culture, that’s a big no-no.

The winners in this environment are speculators with lots of cash. Many local residents, by contrast, are turning to risky seller-financed transactions such as contracts for deed. Evictions are common after just a few missed payments. Over the past five years, at least 5,400 homes in Detroit were sold through a contract for deed and 34,500 in all-cash deals, according to RealtyTrac.

One alternative is the Detroit Home Mortgage project. Launched in early 2016, the program works with a handful of banks to get an appraisal for a house that’s based on the “true value” of the home after it’s been renovated, not in its current dilapidated state. The process effectively involves two loans — one to cover the purchase of a home, and a second mortgage that effectively covers the renovation work. The second loan is backed by a bank and various foundations involved with the program.

“DHM wants to be an ambassador for lending in the city,” said Alex DeCamp, the mortgage community development manager for Chemical Bank, a local lender that has funded 15 loans through the program. The program can take months to complete. Applicants go through a careful screening and most also complete three mortgage workshops to be eligible for a loan.

So far, 54 home buyers have bought homes through the program, among them Ms. McKeon and her husband. So did Ashley and Damon Dickerson, who are about to move into a renovated two-family home.

The Dickersons, both of whom are architectural designers, closed in March. But their search began months earlier when they submitted a $45,000 bid during one of the land bank’s daily online property auctions.

Winning the bidding for the 107-year-old home was just the start. The couple found it would cost at least $180,000 to fully renovate the six-bedroom, three-story brick structure with a large porch. They were attracted to the home’s hardwood floors, bay windows and potential to reshape it by knocking down some walls.

In all, they got two mortgages from Chemical Bank, according to property records: one for $37,692 to cover the purchase from the land bank and another for $207,000 to cover the rehab costs. The Dickersons, who both graduated from the University of Michigan, said they never would have been able to pull the deal off without the mortgage program. But the process was a bit of an eye-opener because it took longer then anticipated to close on the home. As with any new program, the couple said, there were “growing pains.”

The Detroit Home Mortgage project is now looking to get banks to provide low-interest loans directly to local contractors, so they can renovate more homes and get them into move-in-ready condition.

Image

Credit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times
[]

But for now, the lack of move-in ready homes means home buyers like the Dickersons and the McKeons need to be something of urban pioneers — fixing everything from broken water lines to antiquated electrical wiring.

The prospect of people moving into Detroit from the suburbs or city residents getting mortgages is of course sweet music to local real estate agents. Until now, much of the business for them has been handling all-cash deals. But several said they are looking forward to getting local residents into homes with traditional financing.

Dorian Harvey, a Detroit native and the incoming president of the Detroit Association of Realtors, said he would like for the city and land bank to move quicker to get vacant homes into the hands of local residents. Mr. Harvey, a Morehouse College graduate, said he came from the camp that the rebirth of Detroit is going to have to happen from the ground up with everyone taking part — contractors, real estate agents and local investors.

But he isn’t necessarily waiting on government largess. “There are untapped resources in the city and we need to tap them and the city needs to tap them,” said Mr. Harvey, who added there’s money to made in Detroit. “My heart is liberal but my money is conservative.”

question: Why did the Detroit housing market break?

answer: Because of the 2008 financial crisis and 2013 city bankruptcy.

question: Has Detroit recovered from the 2008 financial crisis?

answer: Not yet.

question: How the 2008 financial crisis caused citizens to leave Detroit?

answer: It affected the most important industry in Detroit - the automotive industry so people lost their jobs and left Detroit.

question: How did the 2008 crisis affect Detroit's housing market?

answer: There were 10 times fewer mortgages than before the crisis.


split: train

text:
_LA COLORINA_ (“The Redhead”) was a Chilean telenovela created by (1920-1994) and produced by Protab in 1977 for Televisión Nacional de Chile. It starred Liliana Ross, Patricio Achurra, Violeta Vidaurre and Paz Irarrázabal. It has been remade three times and is the screenwriter's best known work.

In 1980 the Mexican television network Televisa adaptation, _Colorina_, starred Lucía Méndez.[1] In 1993 an Argentine version was produced entitled _Apasionada_, with Susú Pecoraro as La Colorina. In 2001 Televisa made a new adaptation called Salomé, starring Edith González.

Plot

FIRST PART

“La Colorina” (Liliana Ross), a woman so-named for the color of her hair, works in a nightclub as a prostitute together with her close friend “La Rata” (Violeta Vidaurre). Together they go to Daniel’s (Patricio Achurra) mansion looking for fun with Iván (Gonzalo Robles), Daniel’s free-loading brother-in-law. La Colorina and Daniel fall in love, however their relationship is not acceptable to Ana María (Paz Irarrázabal), Daniel’s cold and calculating mother.

Alba (Grimanesa Jiménez), Daniel’s wife, can’t have children, so Ana María pays La Colorina to get pregnant with her son and hand the child over once he is born. La Colorina accepts, but she changes her mind when giving birth and flees the city.  At the same time, Mirta, La Colorina’s neighbour, leaves her husband, Pejerrey (Arturo Moya Grau), and their two children to become an actress. With Pejerrey’s consent, La Colorina decides to raise her neighbours’ two children to confuse Ana María.

SECOND PART

Years go by, “La Colorina” (Liliana Ross), by now a grown woman, has brought up her son, Fernando (Samuel Villaroel), and Mirta’s children, which she has brought up as her own. Meanwhile, Daniel (Patricio Achurra), now widowed, is still in love with “La Colorina”. His mother (Paz Irarrázabal) still opposed to the relationship, obviously rejects her grandchild.

Ana María also has a conflict with her servant “Chagua” (Ester Mayo), who has always fought for the family, secretly in love with Basilio (Armando Fenoglio), Ana María’s husband, and loving Daniel as if he were her own son.

“La Colorina”, always accompanied by “La Rata” (Violeta Vidaurre), manages the establishment were she used to work. Franco (Mario Bustos), one of her sons, falls in love with Cristina (Soledad Pérez); proposes to her and she accepts, since she is noble and has a good heart.

When Mirta (Alicia Villablanca) returns to take her children back, “Pejerrey” (Arturo Moya Grau), still in love with her, agrees to tell the truth, but they don’t get back together.

Cast

-   Liliana Ross as Luciana Álvarez “La Colorina”.
-   Patricio Achurra as Daniel Latorre.
-   Paz Irarrázabal as Ana María de Latorre.
-   Armando Fenoglio as Basilio Latorre.
-   Violeta Vidaurre as Rita “La Rata”.
-   Gonzalo Robles as Iván.
-   Grimanesa Jiménez as Alba.
-   Arturo Moya Grau as El Pejerrey.
-   Sergio Urrutia as El Lagrimita.
-   Ester Mayo as La Chagua.
-   Yoya Martínez as La Caperucita.
-   Alicia Villablanca as Mirta.
-   Roberto Poblete as Richard.
-   Alberto Vega as Bernardo.
-   Frankie Bravo cas Matías.
-   Eduardo Baldani as Enrique.
-   Fernando Morales as Dr. Ulloa.
-   Coca Guazzini as Marcia.
-   Soledad Pérez as Cristina.
-   Mario Bustos as Franco.
-   Gonzalo Álvarez as Gabriel.
-   Samuel Villarroel as Fernando.
-   Teresa Berríos as Luzmira.
-   Ana María Palma as Lucía
-   Nelson Brodt

Fact Sheet

-   Year: 1977
-   Executive Producer: Eduardo Domínguez
-   Screenwriter: Arturo Moya Grau
-   Director: José Caviedes / Iván Soto
-   Production Company: Protab
-   Set Designer: Walter Kliche
-   Cameramen: Ernesto Riquelme / Nelson Valdivia
-   Nº Episodes: 88, 60 minutes each.

Versions

-   Colorina produced in 1980 with great success by Valentín Pimstein for Televisa starring Lucía Méndez and Enrique Álvarez Félix.
-   Apasionada produced in 1993 for Televisa Argentina by Canal 13 and starring Susú Pecoraro and Darío Grandinetti.
-   Salomé produced in 2001 by Juan Osorio for Televisa and starring Edith González and Guy Ecker.
-   Colorina, a Peruvian version of the Mexican telenovela (1980) produced in 2017 by Michelle Alexander for América Televisión starring Magdyel Ugaz and David Villanueva.

[1] Paula - Issues 359-365 - Page 21 1981 "¡nada menos que nuestro popular Arturo Moya Grau! Los mexicanos no se contentaron con darle el galardón por mejor actor, sino también el del mejor argumento y autor. Todo esto por su teleserie “La Colorina” que además premió a Lucía ...

title: La Colorina

question: What country did La Colorina come from?

answer: Chile.

question: What does La Colorina mean in English?

answer: The Redhead.

question: When was it created?

answer: 1977.

question: What was made in 1980?

answer: A Mexican adaptation.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article is about La Colorina, a Chilean telenovela.


text:
[Arms of Calwoodleigh: _Azure, two wings conjoined argent over all on a fess gules three bezants_ [1]] JOHN CALWOODLEIGH (fl.1502,1508) of the City of Exeter in Devon, was twice Mayor of Exeter, in 1502 and 1508.[2] He was a Churchwarden of St Petrock's Church, Exeter.[3]

Origins & Calwoodleigh family

He was the third son of Thomas Calwoodleigh (d.1492) (_alias_ Cawoodley) of Calwoodleigh (modern: Calverleigh) in Devon, by his wife Elizabeth Hatch daughter of Thomas Hatch of Wooleigh in the parish of Beaford in Devon. Elizabeth Hatch was buried in the Dominican Convent in Exeter.

His eldest brother was Thomas Calwoodleigh (d.1479/80), who married Elizabeth Collyn of Helland in Cornwall. His son was Humfrey Calwoodleigh (born 1472) who was attainted in 1497 for his support of the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 of the Pretender Perkin Warbeck. Humfrey Calwoodleigh died without surviving male progeny when his sole heiress became his daughter Joane Calwoodleigh, who brought the manor of Calwoodleigh and other lands to her husband Roger Arundell (d.1536) of Helland, Cornwall, a younger son of Sir Thomas Arundell (d.1485), Knight of the Bath, of Lanherne in Cornwall. Her son and heir to Calwoodleigh was Humphrey Arundell (c.1513-1550) of Helland in Cornwall, the leader of Cornish forces in the Prayer Book Rebellion, executed at Tyburn.[4]

Marriage

He married a certain Elizabeth, of unrecorded family, by whom he had no recorded progeny.

[1] Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.132

[2] Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.132

[3] Vivian, p.132

[4] Vivian, p.132, “Holborn”, for “Tyburn”

title: John Calwoodleigh

question: Who was John Calwoodleigh?

answer: John Calwoodleigh was the third son of Thomas Calwoodleigh.

question: What is Calwoodleigh called today?

answer: Calverleigh

question: Who did John Calwoodleigh marry?

answer: Elizabeth, of unrecorded family

question: Did John Calwoodleigh have any children?

answer: none are recorded

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: John Calwoodleigh was the third son of Thomas Calwoodleigh.


text:
[The Choriner Musiksommer in 2006.] The CHORINER MUSIKSOMMER (literally, _Chorin's Summer of Music_) is an outdoor music festival held in the ruins of the convent of Chorin Abbey in Chorin, Brandenburg, Germany.

It originated as a single annual concert, established on 23 May 1964 by Albert Richter as an event for employees of the Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung (Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development) in Eberswalde. The forest administration then managed the monastery ruins. So they became the venue for the concert. The number of concerts was raised to four in 1970 and from then until 1973 numbers rose from 600 to 1200 and finally 2,100 per concert. In 1974 the number of concerts was increased to thirteen.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the festival's organisation was transferred to an independent organisation (Choriner Musiksommer e.V.). It now consists of nineteen concerts per season (June - August) of 17th to 19th-century music, rarely-heard pieces and choral music. Choriner Musiksommer is a registered brand (certificate 304 50 535 / Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt).

title: Choriner Musiksommer

question: What is the Choriner Musiksummer?

answer: It is an outdoor music festival held in the ruins of the convent of Chorin Abbey in Chorin, Germany.

question: What happened on May 23, 1964?

answer: The festival was established by Albert Richter as an event for employees of the Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung.

question: What happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall?

answer: The festival's organization was transferred to an independent organization.

question: Where is the event usually located?

answer: It is always held in the ruins of the convent of Chorin Abbey in Chorin, Germany.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article discusses the Choriner Musiksummer, an outdoor music festival held in the ruins of the convent of Chorin Abbey in Chorin, Germany. The festival currently has 19 concerts per festival season.


text:
there was a period of  a week or two when i wrote little story messages to a few frends on facebook. these were all 'spur of the moment' ones, here's my favorite one.

she sat in the chair with the black liquid lapping at her knees, as always. her hands folded into her lap as the candle sat on the table. the glow barely illuminating her face and hands, the glow doing nothing to alleviate the darkness of the unknown abyss beyond her table. it's ceaseless flame standing out in the ocean of darkness.
the soft and sickly yellow glow of the candle did little to help with the suffocating claustrophobia of her situation. when she first arrived she searched for hours upon hours to find something so simple as a wall or column. there was only the chair, table, the black liquid, the candle, and the winds.
the liquid used to sting her eyes and throat when she arrived, but after a while it dissapated. the cold winds however, they never left, their effects never dulled. they constantly dug their claws into her flesh, chilling her to the bone. the candle and its frail light did nothing to offset the frigid effects of the howling wind. the incessant howling of the wind, always there.
what seemed like months, though it could have been years, she just couldn't tell. the darkness never left, there was nothing here she could use to judge the passing of time. there was nothing here.
every passing second of her life was spent staring into the ceaseless flickering of that flame. trying ehr best to ignore those winds, even though no amount of huddling could dull its attacks.
minute after minute passed. minute after minute after minute.it was that flame that possessed her gaze.
then it happened. she didn't notice it at first. the winds died, the howling ceased. she didn't know for how long it had been gone. perplexed, she rose from the chair for the first time in many many years, or so it seemed. she slowly walked away from the safety of the glow. her footsteps sloshing through the liquid, echoing throughout the abyss. when she was several meters outside of the glow she stopped. listening intently, straining her eyes against the pitch black.
there was a soft splash mere meters away from her. frozen in sudden fear, a glimmer of reflected candlelight revealed itself for a fraction of a second moving backwards, followed by a faint splash farther away. standing there transfixed by fear, the howling wind returned with its frigid fingers. she quickly returned to the safety of her candle.
what seemed like years had psased. then it happened again. the wind died, the howling ceased. the icy chill of the wind dissapated and relative warmth spread through her body. she rose from the chair yet again. and approached the darkness. then she heard it. a low growl permeated the air. then foosteps in every direction, all converging on her position. then an inhuman howl, one of hunger. then another. fear filled her, with only one place to go, she ran back to her candle. then another screech. then something hit her leg. she fell into the liquid. pain radiated through her. her leg was covered in warm liquid. when she got back up, pain jolted from her leg, knocking her back down, forcing her to crawl to the sfaety of her light.
crawling through the thick black liquid, limping her way to the safety of the light. the screams of the unknown entities coming from everywhere. the splashing of their steps echoing through the dark abyss.
after minutes of crawling and countless of brushes with the entities. with them brushing their bodies against hers just to remind her they were there. she finally got to the table, grabbed her candle and hid under the tables, holding its flame close, while the creatures screeched and howled, jumping on and off the table. filling the abyss with their screams.
then silence. after a minute or two, she opened her eyes. right in front of here crouched no less than five of them. their red eyes shining with the lighted flames, their fangs glistening, their bodies pitch black, saliva drooling down out of their mouths. seconds of eye contact persisted, until obe of them lunged for her, and grabbed her throat with her teeth, digging them in, the pain unbearable, unable to scream her blood flooding down her chest. her arms lost function, dropping the beloved candle into the black liquid, setting it alight. an inferno engulfing everything in sight. the heat warming her for the first time in forever. her ragged gasps slowed, her eyes closed.
then her eyes opened to the brightest of lights, and outlines of people in blue standing over her. to the sounds of panicked demands, and saws. a blue hand grabbed her shoulder and a faceless blue thing peered into her face and whispered an unintelligible string of sounds to her in a most soothing voice. she started to get sleepy again, and closed her eyes.
she woke up sitting in a chair at a table with a solitary candle glowing on the table. howling winds chilling her to the bone. and a black liquid lapping at her knees.

title: Here's a short story i wrote for a friend.

question: Summarize the setting of this story.

answer: This story is set in a very scary atmosphere. The descriptions provided in the story show how bare and lonely the area the main character is in. The cold winds dig into the main character's bones and the flame on the candle flickers. The setting described in the story uses terms such as cold and dark, and unknown alluding to a creepy and dark place.

question: Summarize how the main character change throughout the story.

answer: The main character is filled with fear and anguish as they close their eyes. The cold wind rushes through their frail body, causing lots of pain and fear. The main character is terrified at the beginning of the story. In the middle of the story, a blue hand reaches out to the main character, providing a sense of warmth and soothing her. In the end, the main character is sleepy again, finding herself back to howling winds chilling her to the bone.

question: What could the main character be suffering from?


text:
[noel dre]

On July 2nd it was announced that Nerlens Noel was signing with the Oklahoma City Thunder for 2 years at the veteran minimum. That’s right, the guy that refused to sign a 4 year/$70 million deal with the Mavericks signed for vet min with the Thunder. With Paul George, Jerami Grant, and Ray Felton all re-signing, signing Deonte Burton, drafting and signing Hamidou Diallo, and of course the trade that saw Carmelo Anthony shipped elsewhere in return for Dennis Schröder and Timothé Luwawu Cabarrot… people tend to forget about Nerlens. Well that’s because not many people know a lot about him.

Well as Lin Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton said in the Hip Hop Musical “Hamilton”:

“(ENTER: ME)”

[]

As not only a Thunder fan, but a MASSIVE Kentucky Wildcats fan (#BBN), I am here to shed as much light on the player, and personality that Nerlens Noel is.

Sit back, grab yourself a snack (maybe even a hotdog), and enjoy.

1. HE GRADUATED A YEAR EARLY.

[]

I guess that’s not how the cool kids say it. The correct term is “Reclassify”. It’s the latest flavor of the week with high school sports and the NCAA nowadays. Players like Karl Anthony-Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Andre Drummond, Marvin Bagley III, Jamal Murray, Dakari Johnson, Hamidou Diallo, and now RJ Barrett and Ashton Hagans have all reclassified. But Nerlens was actually ahead of the curve. Andre Drummond was the first high profile reclassification going from the 2012 class to the 2011 class. Noel followed suit the next season, reclassifying from the class of 2013 to the class of 2012. Basically, to reclassify, a player has to have been held back when they were younger, and complete the academic requirements in order to be granted eligibility for the NCAA. In Noel’s case, he reclassified out of a class that featured Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, and Jabari Parker. Because he exited that class…

2. HE WAS THE #1 RECRUIT COMING OUT OF THE 2012 CLASS.

[]

Nerlens may get a bad rap in the NBA, with some of it being deserved and some of it not. However, coming out of high school, he was the number 1 ranked player in the class of 2012. Ranked above players such as Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Anthony Bennett, Marcus Smart, Gary Harris, and even future teammate, Steven Adams. He was highly coveted by the bluebloods of college basketball, but when it came down to a making a choice…

3. HE ANNOUNCED HIS COLLEGE DECISION WITH HIS HAIR.

[]

In April of 2012, Nerlens Noel, along with a slew of other players went on the ESPNU National Signing Day Special to announce their decisions and be interviewed about their choices (kinda sounds like a psych evaluation). Anywho, Nerlens being the #1 guy in the class was last to announce and did so in dramatic fashion. In this, the BBN (Big Blue Nation) collectively celebrated as Nerlens Noel was headed to the University of Kentucky to supercede Anthony Davis. While Lexington rejoiced, the rest of the nation got a bit of a chuckle from Nerlen’s playful side. A side, Kentucky fans saw firsthand when…

4. HE ALMOST SERIOUSLY HURT HIMSELF PLAYING 1ON1 WITH A SUPER FAN AT KENTUCKY.

Big Blue Madness. A game that means nothing. And is essentially a public scrimmage between the Wildcats. But in typical BBN fashion, they fill Rupp Arena every year. The tickets are free, so naturally, you have to camp out in order to secure your spot. It can be a long week during the campout (I know from experience, dude), but the players and John Calipari (Coach Cal) do their best to keep the fans entertained in the evenings.

Started by Anthony Davis in 2011, the “fan vs. player” phenomenon grew when Davis threw down a monstrous dunk on Kentucky super fan, “Carrot Top” (no not that CarrotTop).

Nerlens Noel was arranged to play “Stone Cold Willow,” a UK student famous for his dancing in the student section. To Willow’s credit, he was able to make a few buckets on the lackadaisical Noel, who you could tell wasn’t trying to play too hard. Then the more Willow got in Noel’s grill, the more Noel started slamming the ball with authority. The game ended and more fans joined. Nerlens kept his same intensity, trying to dunk people into oblivion. On one, he tried to tear the backboard off of the goal, and lost his grip careening back down onto the concrete on his back as thousands of BBN fans held their collective breaths. Nerlens was fine. Exhale. The game was over. Fans dispersed. Coach Cal, smartly, doesn’t let players play fans at the campout anymore.

Before that though Nerlens showed how good he was at shot blocking, blocking everything he jumped for around the rim. Which should have led to it being no surprise that…

5. HE WOULD HAVE LED THE NCAA IN BPG, POSSIBLY CONTENDING WITH DAVIS’S RECORD.

Nerlens played in just 24 games for the Wildcats, but in those 24 games he had 106 blocks, an average of 4.5 (!!) bpg. Jeff Withey led the NCAA in blocks that season with 146 and a 3.9 bpg average.

[]

To the second part, Anthony Davis set a NCAA record for most blocks in a season by a freshman with 186. Davis won the National Championship and played in the max amount of games at 40. If you take Noel’s average and add it to the games Davis played… you still come up short with 178. But after the performances Noel had been putting up in terms of blocks (like the one you see above where he had TWELVE blocks, SIX after picking up his fourth foul), you would have been crazy to doubt him breaking through there.

Sadly we will never truly know because…

6. HE TORE HIS ACL AGAINST FLORIDA

[]

That Kentucky team will go down as the worst in the the John Calipari era at UK. The season ended with a trip to the NIT and a loss to Robert Morris (WHO???) in the first round.

But what people neglect to recognize is that at this point in the season, the Wildcats were ranked 25th in the nation and were riding a 6-game win streak. Florida, coached by current Thunder head coach Billy Donovan, came into the game as the 7th ranked team in the nation. It had the makings of a statement game for the young Wildcats.

The Gators had taken a commanding lead, before a run in the 2nd half saw the Wildcats cut a 12 point deficit to 9. Julius Mays went to pass the ball to Noel at the top of they key before Mike Rosario seemingly came out of nowhere to steal it. Nerlens began his pursuit of Rosario as he drove towards the right side of the basket. As Rosario went up for the layup and attempted to maneuver himself around his pursuer, Nerlens deliberately jumped around the backside of Rosario’s body to prevent the foul. He blocked his shot out of bounds and then came careening into the basketball goal stanchion. The play looked eerily similar to the Paul George injury in 2014 because of the commonality of the stanchion, but the injury itself looked like the Shaun Livingston knee injury. Noel’s left leg seemed to bend sideways at a 90° angle at the knee.

Nerlens immediately grabbed his leg and began to writhe and scream in pain as the entire Florida home crowd sat there in silence, until his teammates helped him off of the court.

Due to the injury Noel slipped in the draft to the Pelicans, only to be traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. Which ultimately led to…

7. HE IS BEST FRIENDS WITH JOEL EMBIID.

[]

Don’t believe me? Ask Embiid.

It’s sad, he expressed so much desire in playing with his BFF and the crowd obviously loved seeing him out there again. But it was short lived when Nerlens Noel was traded to the Dallas Mavericks a couple of months later.

Embiid affirms his friendship with Noel

  Gonna miss my best friend but I'm happy for him… He represented the process since he was here from the start.. One more time>>> Trust It

  — Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) February 23, 2017

Embiid, being the competitor he is though, set a goal anytime he gets to matchup with Nerlens.

  "Any time I get the matchup to go one-on-one against him, I’m going to try to dunk on him." – Joel Embiid on his best friend Nerlens Noel

  — Jessica Camerato (@JessicaCamerato) October 28, 2017

Gonna be interesting to see how Nerlens and Embiid act in their first meeting this year, after Embiid and Russ had an entire game of trolling, and Russ put the nail in the coffin with two legendary troll moves.

What’s wild though is that Embiid and Noel only played EIGHT career minutes together. Reminding me of a conversation that seemed a little too familiar…

8. HE HAD A LEGENDARY RANT ABOUT PLAYING TIME.

Philly was trying to ease him back into basketball, but Nerlens was adamant he was healthy and ready to contribute. He was better than 8 minutes in a game.

//vplayer.nbcsports.com/p/BxmELC/philly_embed/select/media/x9uixUMwF9PO

Sound like someone we know?

Yes, you. Although Nerlens, unlike Carmelo, is not a liability on defense, as evidenced by Noel’s higher VORP and PER. But I’m not bitter.

Just saying Nerlens was probably more warranted in the “Who me?” quote than Carmelo was at the respective stages of their careers.

Nerlens was hungry for a chance to prove himself, but that wouldn’t be the only time he was hungry in a game…

9. HE ONCE ATE A HOTDOG DURING A GAME.

During halftime of a game against the Clippers, Nerlens Noel was pictured sneaking into the media room to get a hot dog.

When asked about it, Nerlens said he “needed some energy for the second half”.

He apologized and said he should have been smarter and used a ball boy. But it was a classic moment in the his tumultuous run in Dallas.

10. HE WILL FIT RIGHT IN WITH THE OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER.

Nerlens fits the Thunder for a variety of reasons. Style of play. Defensive identity. Prowess in the pick and roll.

But in a piece of evidence you won’t see anywhere else (because he deleted it from his profile) taken from my personal Instagram in August 14, 2012.

[dhunt]

Nerlens Noel’s team of choice was none other than OKC. And he put a beat down on his friend.

Not convinced? Look what he has done to our rivals.

[nerlens-noel-lebron]

[]

Oh, yeah! He’ll fit right in. Here’s hoping you get to know him a lot more this upcoming season.

question: Who is this article about?

answer: Nerlens Noel

question: What sport does the subject of this article play?

answer: Basketball

question: What team does the subject of the article play for?

answer: He has signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

question: List three facts about the subject of the article.

answer: He was the top recruit from the class of 2012. He almost seriously injured himself by falling onto the concrete after attempting to tear the backboard off the goal during a 1-on-1 game in Kentucky. He is best friends with Joel Embiid.

question: When was this article published?

answer: That information can't be found.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The author of the article aims to inform fans about new Oklahoma City Thunder signeee Nelens Noel. The article lists various facts about Noel including that he announced his college decision with his hair, went on a legendary rant about playing time, and once ate a hotdog during a game.


text:
Monroe County, TN — A Tennessee man, who has committed no crime, was forced to file a federal lawsuit to try and get back his property after police robbed him during a traffic stop.

El A. Willis wasn’t charged with a crime and never harmed anyone. However, Willis is now having to fight an uphill legal battle to get back $18,480.00 from the thieving hands of the Monroe County Sheriff’s department.

In February of last year, Willis was the passenger in a rental vehicle driven by his girlfriend, Shonta Williams. Detective Bobby Queen, with the Monroe County Sheriff’s department, claimed he saw the sedan change lanes without a signal.

He then ordered the car to pull over. Detective Queen phoned in the stop to the “Blue Lightning Operations Center” (BLOC) which is a drug interdiction effort by federal, state and local governments. BLOC noted that Williams was driving on an expired license. Willis, however, had a valid license and the rental car was in his name.

Willis was a _passenger_ in this vehicle, whose _driver_ changed lanes without a blinker, but this fact was irrelevant to Queen as he felt it necessary to pat the innocent man down. During the pat down, Queen found a locked money bag. He then demanded that Willis open the bag.

Willis explained to the deputy that he was traveling to Atlanta, Georgia to make a music deal with the cash — and his rental agreement specified that he was allowed to travel in both Tennessee and Georgia. Unable to bust the couple for anything but minor traffic violations, Queen then claimed to smell marijuana and had a drug dog sniff the car _and_ the money bag.

It is widely known that a large percentage (upwards 0f 90%) of U.S. paper money contains trace amounts of cocaine. Having a large amount of cash will most assuredly alert a drug dog.

In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that government does not have probable cause to seize cash from motorists based only on a drug-detection dog’s reaction; stating specifically that the majority of money in circulation has drugs on it.

But court precedents and ethical enforcement of the law apparently mean very little to detective Queen and the drug dog predictably alerted to the bag of money. However, NO DRUGS WERE FOUND.

According to the Newspaper, further testing of the rental vehicle was done with ion swabs, but these swabs were “misplaced” during the investigation. A second swab test on the money yielded a positive result.

Federal officials have insisted that the money swabs are plenty enough evidence to prove that the money is linked to the drug trade and subject to confiscation; because most drug dealers rub their cash down with drugs, right?

Obviously Willis and his attorney dispute the claim that this money was linked to drugs.

  “The narcotics dog’s alert to Mr. Willis’ money is not enough probable cause given prior case law,” Lomonaco wrote to the court. “The _$5000 in United States Currency_ case highlighted the various evidence that exists showing the large percentage of currency that has been contaminated from drug residue. Therefore, the dog’s positive alert is not enough to establish probable cause, especially since the dog alerted to the money after the money was already seized… Ms. Williams was the reason why the car was stopped in the first place, but the money that was seized did not belong to her, so her actions did not give the police officer probable cause to seize the money of Mr. Willis.”

The first hearing in this case was held last month as federal prosecutors tried to make their case, seeking permanent confiscation of the cash, taken from Willis nearly a year ago.

Prosecutors have been trying to find Williams to testify, but certified mail sent to summon her has been returned unclaimed.

The robber barons are also trying to use a technicality to deny Willis a hearing because he did not file the proper form. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley Jr. has yet to rule on the matter.

ROAD PIRACY IN THE US HAS REACHED EPIC PROPORTIONS.

It has gotten so bad that the Canadian government has issued a public service announcementfor its citizens warning them that American Road Pirates, aka police officers may very well rob them upon entry into the US.

Since September 2001 there have been 62,000 incidents of road piracy; resulting in a booty of over $2.5 billion.

In the US, “298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008” according to the Post.

Some might try and say that this money and property is obviously “taken from criminals” in order to rationalize this theft on a massive scale. However, as is evident in the case of Mr. Willis, the government DOES NOT HAVE TO CHARGE YOU WITH A CRIME, LET ALONE CONVICT YOU, TO TAKE YOUR PROPERTY AND AFTER THEY STEAL YOUR PROPERTY THE BURDEN OF PROOF IS ON YOU TO GET IT BACK.

Only one sixth of the 62,000 cases of cash forfeitures to police in the last decade have been challenged in court due to the high cost of challenging the state; not too mention that since their money was stolen, even if they once had the funds to challenge the theft, they may not any longer.

The justice department’s asset forfeiture fund in 2011 was $1.8 billion.

In Philadelphia alone, more than $64 millionin seized property has been taken in the last decade and 100% of it has gone into the pockets of cops, judges, and other bureaucrats with a hand in the treasure chest.

But these billions stolen from the citizens of this country by the ones who claim to keep them safe, are just an example of a few bad apples, right? It’s most assuredly not a systemic problem resulting from the glaring unaccountable nature of the state.

Sponsored Content:

[]

question: Who was driving the car when the money was seized?

answer: Shonta Williams

question: What test was conducted to determine that the money was involved in the drug trade?

answer: A drug-sniffing dog and drug swabs.

question: On who does the burden of proof lie?

answer: The person appealing the seizure.

question: Why did the drug dog alert for a drug-positive result?

answer: Because most money in circulation is tainted with cocaine.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: El Willis had $18,480 seized during a routine traffic stop by Detective Bobby Queen in Tennessee. During a pat down the officer found a bag of money and had his drug-dog alert to it indicating drugs, although no drugs were found. Willis was not charged with any crime, yet the police kept his money. The burden of proof rests on him to try to recover the funds. Dubbed "American Road Pirates," US police have seized $2.5 billion in 2001.


text:
ARCADE & ATTICA #18 is a 2-8-0 steam locomotive that was built in 1920 by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) at its Cooke Works in Paterson, New Jersey.

It was originally built for a sugar mill in Cuba, which canceled its order. Alco then sold the locomotive to a quarry in New Jersey. The locomotive was sold again in 1929 to the Boyne City Railroad of Boyne City, Michigan. It was used in freight service on its line between Boyne City (where it interchanged with the Pennsylvania Railroad) to Boyne Falls.

In 1962, the Arcade and Attica Railroad (A&A), seeking additional revenue to supplement the freight income, purchased #18 and two Boonton-style commuter coaches from Erie Lackawanna Railway. Since then #18 has hauled passenger excursion trains between Arcade and Curriers, with occasional ventures to North Java on either passenger or freight trains.

At the close of the 2001 passenger excursion season, #18 went into the A&A's workshops for a complete teardown and overhaul to bring it into compliance with the new 49 C.F.R. Part 230, the Federal Railroad Administration's new regulations on steam locomotive inspection and maintenance. Originally expected to last until halfway through the 2002 passenger season, the teardown revealed much work that needed to be completed to bring the locomotive into compliance with the new safety regulations. In 2008 #18 finally emerged from the shops after a 6-year-long rebuilding program.

By 2018, the locomotive was again in need of repair and put into the shop to have its condition assessed. In March 2019, it was announced that its condition was worse than anticipated, and it would be out of service through the 2019 season. Repairs include replacement of the firebox, and once completed will allow continued operation.

Category:ALCO locomotives Category:Railway locomotives introduced in 1920 Category:2-8-0 locomotives Category:Preserved steam locomotives of the United States Category:Standard gauge locomotives of the United States

title: Arcade & Attica 18

question: What is the origin of the Arcade & Attica #18 steam locomotive?

answer: It was built to satisfy the order of a sugar mill in Cuba, but when they cancelled their order it was sold to Boyne City Railroad company in Boyne City, Michigan.

question: To what use has the Arcade & Attica #18 locomotive been put?

answer: In Michigan it was originally used in freight service, and to supplement freight income it hauled passenger excursion trains. It was then completely torn down and overhauled to meet new Federal Railroad Administration regulations on steam locomotives.

question: What issues were encountered in the teardown?

answer: It took 6 years after the initial teardown to meet the safety regulations, but 10 years after being reinstated, new repairs would have to be made. One such repair was the replacement of the firebox.

question: What has been the timeline of the Arcade & Attica #18 steam locomotive from creation until today?

answer: It was built originally in 1920 for the sugar mill, and sold in 1929 to the company in Michigan. It began hauling passenger excursion trains in 1962. The teardown began in 2001 when the new regulations were introduced, and was done with those repairs by 2008. The repairs including the replacement of the firebox happened in 2018.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The Arcade & Attica #18 steam locomotive is a steam locomotive originally built for a sugar mill in Cuba. It was sold to Boyne City Railroad company in Michigan as a freight train but began hauling passenger excursion trains to supplement income for the railroad company. When new regulations on passenger locomotives were introduced, it had to be torn down and rebuilt to meet current standards, which took 6 years. It underwent more repairs, including the replacement of the firebox 10 years after that, repairs which took longer than expected.


text:
"My best friend was telling me last night about his amazing new discovery: some guy on the Internet was telling everyone how to easily make lucid dreams. The trick was to lay still on your bed, for up to half an hour, concentrating on staying awake. Your body would then fall asleep, but not your mind. Interested, he'd tried and told me how great it was, being half in reality and half in a dream.

The same night, I tried to find a comfortable enough position on my bed, but ended up on my back. I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts in resisting sleep. Soon I started aching, wasn't comfortable anymore. Still, it'd been probably over ten minutes and I lacked the motivation to start all over again. Five minutes passed, then ten.

It was at least fifteen later that I realised my body couldn't move anymore. It felt weird, like being paralysed. My imagination started running, and the panic became overwhelming: what if someone broke into my apartment and I just couldn't move? What if I was just dead? My friend hadn't told me anything about paralysis. Did he hide that, or was there a problem?

I was still panicking when I heard steps. My mind was running wild, in contrast to my body that only let me move or close my eyes. Two men in white entered my room and my heart nearly stopped; as one flicked the light switch, I realised I was lying on a hospital bed. All sorts of machines were wired to my arms, and I pictured myself from the point of view of my visitors: a seemingly lifeless body, miserable on its bed.

**No**. I wasn't lifeless, my eyes were moving! But then, they started talking to each other.

"- For how long has he been there?, said the first one.
- More than a week. His brain stopped functioning on the impact. His family wants us to let him go, they believe we're preventing him from finding peace."

"I am going to **die**", I thought. Killed in my dream. My friends would find me days later, and forget about me in a minute. I never achieved the social life I had hoped for. I was going to die before I even truly lived.

"- What about his eyes? He seems to react to our conversation."

**Yes**.

"- Just the remains of his nervous system. That's what kept him alive until he got here, actually."

I wanted to shout at them! "You can't just do this to me, treat me like a corpse! I want to live, this is a mistake!" Not a single word came out of my mouth. So I gave up and kept listening, my eyes shaky from the adrenaline rush.

"- Let me just check him for a minute before I give you the permission to do it.", said the first one.

I didn't allow myself to hope, and kept thinking about my short sad life. It really was a miserable way to leave, I had always hoped for better.
The doctor checked my pulse, breath, and did other things I didn't see. At some point I heard him whisper to my ear "I hope we're not making a mistake. If we are, I'm sorry."

My brain went hysterical after this one; hadn't it been for the paralysis, I would've burst out laughing. But I stood as still as I had been for the past few minutes, and permission to kill me was granted. This doctor had just sentenced me to death.

A button was pushed, and the last thing I heard was the place and time of my death.

I slowly regained control of my body, which was sweaty, thirsty, hungry and still under the effect of the huge adrenaline rush. First thing tomorrow, I'll punch my best friend in the face. "

Thanks for reading my first short story here and please report any mistakes because my first language is French and I want to learn. Thanks!

title: A Lucid Night

question: What might have happened if the author woke up sooner?

answer: He would not have died in his sleep.

question: What is the genre of the story?

answer: The story could fall under the suspense genre.

question: Why didn't the narrator just move in order to wake up?

answer: He was in a sleep paralysis state.

question: Why is he blaming his best friend for his horrific dream?

answer: It was his best friend's idea to experiment with lucid dreaming.


text:
thumb|upright=1.35|Animation of a boxer engine

A FLAT ENGINE, also known as a HORIZONTALLY OPPOSED ENGINE, is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. It is effectively a V engine with a 180-degree angle between the cylinder banks. A flat engine should not be confused with the opposed-piston engine, in which each cylinder has two pistons sharing a central combustion chamber.

The most common configuration of flat engines is the BOXER ENGINE, where each pair of opposed cylinders moves inwards and outwards at the same time. The other configuration is called a “180-degree V engine” and have each crankpin shared by a pair of cylinders. Boxer engines are a type of flat engine, however, flat engines are not necessarily boxer engines.

The first flat engine was built in 1897 by Karl Benz. Flat engines have been used in various aviation, motorcycle and automobile applications, and are now less common than straight engines (for engines with less than six cylinders) and V engines (for engines with six or more cylinders) in cars, but are much more common in aircraft, where straight engines are a rarity and V engines have become almost non-existent other than on historical types, and they have even replaced radial engines in many smaller installations.

Design

[Difference between two flat 6 cylinder engines: 180° V on the left, boxer on the right]

The advantages of flat engines are a short length, low centre of mass and being well suited to air cooling.

Compared with straight engines— the most common layout for engines with four cylinders or less— flat engines have better primary balance (resulting in less vibration),[1] however the disadvantages are increased width and the need to have two cylinder heads. Compared with V engines— the most common layout for engines with six cylinders or more— flat engines have a lower centre of mass (and a better primary balance than V6 engines), however they usually have a larger width.[2]

The most common usages of flat engines are:

-   Flat-twin engines are mostly used in motorcycles. Occasionally been used in light cars, aircraft and industrial applications, mostly up until the 1960s.
-   Flat-four engines are mostly used in cars (particularly by Subaru[3] in most of their models), and have occasionally been used in motorcycles. Their most common use is in smaller single-engine aircraft in which they are still manufactured and used to this day.
-   Flat-six engines are mostly used in cars (particularly by the Porsche 911 sports car), and have occasionally been used in motorcycles and aircraft.
-   Flat-eight engines have been used in several racing cars, mostly by Porsche in the 1960s.
-   Flat-ten engines are not known to have reached production. A prototype road car engine was built by Chevrolet in the 1960s.
-   Flat-twelve engines have been used in various racing cars, notably the Porsche 917K, during the 1960s and 1970s, and in Ferrari road cars from 1973-1996.
-   Flat-sixteen engines are not known to have reached production. Prototype racing car engines were built by Coventry and Porsche in the 1960s and 1970s.

Boxer configuration

[1954 BMW R68 flat-twin boxer engine]

Most flat engines use a “boxer” configuration, where each pair of opposing pistons move inwards and outwards at the same time, somewhat like boxing competitors punching their gloves together before a fight.[4] Boxer engines have low vibrations, since they are the only common configuration that have no unbalanced forces regardless of the number of cylinders. Boxer engines therefore do not require a balance shaft[5] or counterweights on the crankshaft to balance the weight of the reciprocating parts. However, in the case of boxer engines with fewer than six cylinders, a rocking couple is present, since each cylinder is slightly offset from its opposing pair, due to the distance between the crankpins along the crankshaft.[6]

180-degree V engine

An alternative configuration for flat engines is as a 180-degree V engine, which has been used on most twelve-cylinder flat engines. In this configuration, each pair of pistons shares a crankpin, rather than the boxer configuration where each piston has its own crankpin.

Aviation use

[World War II-era Riedel starter motor]

In 1902, the Pearse monoplane (which would later become one of the first aircraft to achieve flight) was powered by a flat-twin engine. Amongst the first commercially produced aircraft to use a flat engine is the 1909 Santos-Dumont_Demoiselle range of airplanes, which was powered by boxer-twin engines.

Several boxer-four engines have been produced specifically for light aircraft. Several manufacturers produced boxer-six aircraft engines during the 1930s and 1940s.

During World War II, boxer-twin engines called the “Riedel starter” were used as a starter motor for the early German jet engines such as the Junkers Jumo 004 and BMW 003. Designed by Norbert Riedel, these engines have a very oversquare stroke ratio of 2:1 so that they could fit in the hub of the turbine compressor.

Motorcycle use

Flat engines offer several advantages for motorcycles including a low center of mass, low vibration, suitability for shaft drive, and even cooling of the cylinders (for air-cooled engines).[7][8] The most common design of flat engines for motorcycles is the boxer-twin, beginning with the 1905 Fée manufactured by the Light Motors Company flat-twin, which was the first production motorcycle to use a flat engine.[9] BMW Motorrad have a long history of boxer-twin motorcycles, beginning in 1923 with the BMW R32[10]

Several motorcycles have been produced with flat-four engines, such as the 1938-1939 Zündapp K800 and the 1974-1987 Honda Gold Wing. In 1987, the Honda Gold Wing engine was upsized to a flat-six design.

Automotive use

When used in cars, advantages of flat engines are a low center of mass (which improves the handling of the car),[11] short length, low vibration and suitability for air cooling (due to the well exposed, large surface area, cylinder heads and short length). However the larger width of flat engines (compared with the more common inline and V layouts) is a drawback, particularly when the engine is located between the steered wheels.

Flat engines were used by various automobile manufacturers— mostly with a boxer-four design— up until the late 1990s. Since then, only Porsche and Subaru have remained as significant manufacturers of flat engines.

Drivetrain layout

Due to the short length of flat engines, locating a flat engine outside of the car's wheelbase results in minimal overhang.[12] Therefore, many cars with flat engines have used a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. Examples include the flat-twin BMW 600 (1957-1959) and BMW 700 (1959-1965); the flat-four Tatra 97 (1936-1939), Volkswagen Beetle (1938-2003) and Porsche 356 (1948-1965); and the flat-six Chevrolet Corvair (1959-1969), Porsche 911 (1963-present), and Tucker 48 (1947-1948).

The opposite layout, front-engine front-wheel drive, was also common for cars with flat engines. Examples include the Citroën 2CV (1948-1990), Panhard Dyna X (1948-1954), Lancia Flavia (1961-1970), Citroën GS (1970-1986), Alfa Romeo Alfasud (1971-1989) and Subaru Leone (1971-1994).

Subaru have been producing cars with a front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout powered by flat engines (mostly boxer-four engines) since 1971. Examples include the Subaru Leone (1971-1994), Subaru Legacy (1989-present) and Subaru Impreza (1992-present). The front half-shafts come out of a front differential that is part of the gearbox. A rear driveshaft connects the gearbox to the rear half-shafts.

The traditional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout is relatively uncommon for cars with flat engines, however some examples include the Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ (2012-present), Jowett Javelin (1947-1953), Glas Isar (1958-1965) and the Tatra 11 (1923-1927).

History

The first flat engine was produced in 1897 by German engineer Karl Benz.[13][14] Called the _kontra_ engine, it was a boxer-twin design. Early uses of flat engines in cars include the 1900 Lanchester 8 hp Phaeton boxer-twin, the 1901 Wilson-Pilcher boxer-four,[15] the 1904 Wilson-Pilcher _18/24 HP_ boxer-six and the 1903 Ford Model A, the 1904 Ford Model C and the 1905 Ford Model F.[16]

In 1938, the Volkswagen Beetle (then called the “KdF-Wagen”) was released with a rear-mounted flat-four engine. This Volkswagen air-cooled engine was produced for many years and also used in the Volkswagen Type 2 (Transporter, Kombi or Microbus), the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia sports car and the Volkswagen Type 3 compact car. A water-cooled version, known as the Wasserboxer, was introduced in 1982 and eventually replaced the air-cooled versions.

The majority of sports cars throughout Porsche's history are powered by flat engines, beginning with its first car; the 1948-1965 Porsche 356 used an air-cooled boxer-four engine. Also using boxer-four engines were the 1969-1976 Porsche 914, the 1965-1969 Porsche 912 and the 2016-present Porsche Boxster/Cayman (982). The Porsche 911 has exclusively used boxer-six engines from its introduction in 1964 until the present. In 1997, the Porsche 911 switched from being air-cooled to water-cooled.

Porsche flat-eight engines were used in various racing cars throughout the 1960s, such as the 1962 Porsche 804 Formula One car and the 1968-1971 Porsche 908 sports car. A flat-twelve engine was also produced by Porsche for the 1969-1973 Porsche 917 sports car.

The Subaru EA engine was introduced in 1966 and began Subaru's line of boxer-four engines that remain in production to this day.[17] Most of Subaru's models are powered by a boxer-four engine in either naturally aspirated or turbocharged form. A print ad for the 1973 Subaru GL coupe referred to the engine as “quadrozontal”[18] The company also produced boxer-six engines from 1988–1996 and 2001–2019.[19] In 2008, the Subaru EE engine became the world's first passenger car diesel boxer engine. This engine is a turbocharged boxer-four with common rail fuel injection.[20][21][22][23]

Ferrari used flat-twelve engines for various Formula One cars in the 1970s. A road car flat-twelve engine (using a 180-degree V12 configuration) was used for the 1973-1984 Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer, 1984-1996 Ferrari Testarossa and their derivatives.[24]

Toyota's use the designation _Toyota 4U-GSE_ for the boxer-four engine in the Toyota-badged versions of the Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ twins, although the engine is actually designed and built by Subaru as the Subaru FA20 engine.[25]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

title: Flat engine

question: What is the main difference between a flat engine and straight engine?

answer: The length of the engine and its mass.


text: There was a tall man with a short hat sitting on top of a lamp post. A breeze blew by and the hat fell off, but the man continued to sit still, afraid that he would fall. He finally braced himself to look down at the landing place of his hat. The hat had pierced through the horn of a boar that snored below him. Furious about his now ruined hat, the man kicked his shoe towards the boar in an attempt to wake him. The shoe caught the breeze, landed in the boar’s yawning mouth and was quickly digested. A rumbling crept from the boar’s stomach (boars don’t react well to a specific type of rubber sole) and the beast kicked back his hoof in frustration, rattling the lamp post side to side. The tall man rattled about until his equilibrium was compromised, sending him towards the ugly pig. The man reached his lanky arms outward and grasped onto the boar’s wisp of a tail. Without a proper brace for his fall, he crushed down onto his right knee yelping with pain, but the boar continued to sleep. Curious, thought the man, but he took his hat and wobbled down the walk towards a local drug store. *I’ll take my usual* he demanded to the ethnic shop keep. Before the boy could grab the man a pack of Winstons and a stick of beef jerky the door hammered open. In walked the boar with sleep in his eyes. *Nice day* he snorted, grabbing a tin of antacids with three teeth and placing them on the counter. *Yes. Nice day*. Said the man, counting the floor tiles. *Why were you resting on top of that lamp post?* Asked the boar. *I’m a very tall man and benches rest too low to the ground*. He continued, rocking onto his socked foot, *Why didn’t you wake up when I dropped my hat, when you swallowed my shoe or when I pulled your tail*? The boar took a moment to wiggle his snout, *I take a lot of vicodin*.

title: A Tall Man in A Short Hat

question: Why was the man's hat ruined?

answer: A breeze blew his hat off. It fell onto a sleeping boar and was pierced by its horn.

question: What is the tall man's biggest obstacle in this story?

answer: The biggest obstacle he faces is his confrontation with the boar.

question: What does Vicodin have to do with the story?

answer: The boar didn't wake up despite various disturbances, and he contributes this to taking a lot of Vicodin.

question: Describe the boar.

answer: The boar seems to be an addict.

question: What is the bravest thing the tall man does?

answer: He tries to confront the boar.


text:
is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, caster and actor who is the _tsukkomi_ of the comedy duo Cream Stew. His partner is Teppei Arita.[1]

Ueda is represented with Prime and later Natural Eight.

Filmography

_To see his appearances as part the comedy duo, see Cream Stew._

Current appearances

  Year   Title                                 Network                        Notes                                      Ref.
  ------ ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ------
  2005   _Oshare-ism_                          NTV                            Sundays from 22:00 to 22:30
  2010   _Going! Sports & News_                Weekends from 23:55 to 00:50
  2014   _Shinya Ueda no Nippon no Kako Toi_   TBS                            Wednesdays from 00:41 to 01:51
         _Ueda-chan-nel_                       Tele-Asa Channel               Every other Tuesdays from 22:00 to 22:55
  2015   _Renzoku Talk Show: Ōta-Ueda_         CTV                            Weekdays from midnight                     [2]
  2016   _Strong Point_                        BS NTV                         Sundays from 17:00 to 17:30; Narration     [3]

Former appearances

  Year                                                    Title                                                   Network                      Notes
  ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- ---------
                                                          _Tensai Bit-kun_                                        NHK-E
  _Shitteru? 24-Ji._                                      NBS
  _Unmei no Sūji_                                         TV Asahi                                                One-off
  _Calendar Quiz: Ā Omoidasenai_                          NHK-G
  _Shinya Ueda to Daimaou Kosaka no All Night Nippon R_   NBS
  _Duòmo_                                                 KBC
  _Dare mo Dhiranai Nakeruuta_                            NTV
  _Tensai terebi-kun Max Bit World_                       NHK-G
  _Quiz: Bingo Line_                                      TV Asahi                                                One-off
  _Ran! Sō Senkyo 2012_                                   TBS                                                     One-off; Special presenter
  2007                                                    _Otona no Gakuryoku Kentei nado_                        NTV                          One-off
  2009                                                    _Oshiete Mr. News: Akira Ikegami no Sōna 'nda Nippon_   Fuji TV
  2011                                                    _Nakayoshi TV_                                          Irregular

TV drama

  Year   Title                                  Role                Network     Notes    Ref.
  ------ -------------------------------------- ------------------- ----------- -------- ------
  1992   _Geshi Monogatari_                     KTV                 Toru
  1993   _Homuratatsu_                                              NHK
  2005   _Rei no kanata e: The Winds Of God_                        TV Asahi
  2007   _Akiko Wada Satsujin Jiken_            Taizo Shimabukuro   TBS
  2007   _The 4400_                                                 CBS         Cameo
  2009   _Ike Men Soba-ya Tantei: Ī 'nda ze!_   Kamisama            NTV
  2016   _Tensai Bakabon_                       Bakabon no Papa     Lead role   [4][5]

Film

  Year   Title           Role   Notes   Ref.
  ------ --------------- ------ ------- ------
  2020   _Family Bond_   Yasu

Anime television

  Title           Role
  --------------- ------------
  _Case Closed_   Kyoto Ueda

Music videos

  Year   Title
  ------ ----------------------------------
  2011   Funky Monkey Babys “Love Letter”

Books

  Year   Title
  ------ -------------------------------------------------------
  2008   _Heizo Takenaka-Shinya Ueda no Nippon no Tsukurikata_

Stage

  Year   Title                             Role
  ------ --------------------------------- ------
  2004   _Love Letters_                    Andy
  2012   _Kekka, Mendozai Otokodeshita._

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

title: Shinya Ueda

question: Who is Shinya Ueda?

answer: He is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, caster, and actor who is the "tsukkomi" of the comedy duo Cream Stew.

question: Who is the other half of Cream Stew?

answer: Teppei Arita

question: What film did Ueda star in the year 2020?

answer: "Family Bond" where he played the character "Yasu"

question: Name three TV shows Ueda appeared in.

answer:
Tensai Bit-kun (NHK-E)
Duòmo (KBC)
Oshiete Mr. News: Akira Ikegami no Sōna 'nda Nippon (Fuji TV)

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Shinya Ueda is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, caster, and actor who is the "tsukkomi" of the comedy duo Cream Stew. Ueda has appeared in several TV shows, including the Bakabon no Papa Lead role in "Tensai Bakabon" and a cameo in CBS' "The 4400." Ueda was in the film "Family Bond" where he played the character, Yasu.


text:
So there I was last night, driving on the 101 interstate. Two pints of cheap lager and a shot of whisky in. The cherry on my cigarette glowed as I puffed the last of the tobacco from the stick. I turned my face to the side to spit out my lit cigarette into the wind. I've never looked cooler speeding. My favorite song came on the radio, I blast it on my speakers and proceeded to sing along with the highest pitch my vocal chords allow me. 'Love you like a love song baby... repeat peat peat peat peat' I mumbled the lyrics, I need to learn this song. I'm a sucker for these pop songs, they just feel right.

I cautiously yet furiously made my way towards the fast lane only to be stopped by the last thing I wanted to see at such an awesome moment. The fuzz. Blue and red lights filled my rear view, my heart skipped a beat, I put the music down to think for a second. I realized I'm buzzed enough to not give a fuck, I put the music back up and sped up. It's a strategy I heard somewhere, or probably made up on the spot, whatever the case, it felt right at the time. It confuses the police, makes them think I'm a wild man, puts the ball in their court. I make the ballsiest move by picking the spot to pull over, they have to follow with something to intimidate me. I get it, I know, I've been around the block.

I didn't slow down this whole time, even when I decided to exit the freeway in downtown. No turning lights, no hand gestures, just balls. I pulled into a dark empty street, killed the engine, lit up another cigarette and waited.
Lights surrounded my car, a trembling silhouette approached.

'H-have you been drinking?' The cop's voice cracked as he reached my window.

'Drinking what?' I blew my smoke his way to let him know that respect wasn't there.

'I drink a lot of things. Water, tea...' I teased him, but before my list got any longer he snapped. 'Quit play games!'

I took a long drag from my cigarette and looked at him. I could see him shaking.

'Now step out of the vehicle, please..' He continued. He knew I was one of those he had been told not to fuck with. We both knew this could get ugly quick, but I complied for his sake.

'Did you have any alcoholic beverages tonight?' He persuades me. With a firm drunken stare and a loud whisky belch I answered, 'No.'

We stood there looking at each other for what could have been twenty minutes. People tend to get lost in my eyes, I waited for him to faze out of the trance. I finally decided it was getting too late for my convenience and asked if we were done. It took him a while to respond but he finally let me get back in the car and escorted me home. At least he tried to, I drove way too fast for his bitch ass.

Edit: What really happened.
I was speeding home one night and got pulled over. I had a couple of drinks prior to this so I was extremely scared. I'm sure the cop could tell I was trembling and he let me off with a warning and followed me home to make sure I got there safely. When my friends asked me the next day what had happened, I wrote them how I remembered it which is the small narrative above. Just to clear things up, yes it's meant to be unrealistic and douchey.

title: How I got pulled over last night, as I remember it.

question: Where is the narrator driving to?

answer: Not stated.

question: Why is the narrator driving drunk?

answer: Not stated.

question: Why did the narrator lie to the police officer about having drunk alcohol?

answer: Unclear, seems as if he simply wants the thrill of lying to the officer.

question: Why does the police officer let the narrator go?

answer: Unclear.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator is driving drunk and speeding. A police officer flashes their lights at them, but they do not comply. Instead, they continue driving until they exit the freeway into the downtown area. They pull into a dark street, and the cop follows. The cop asks the narrator if they've been drinking, and the narrator says no. They both stand there for about 20 minutes until the cop lets the narrator go.


text:
LESLIE DANIEL CANNING (21 February 1926 – 30 June 2014)[1] was a Welsh professional footballer. A goalkeeper, he made over 100 appearances in The Football League during spells with Cardiff City, Swansea Town and Nottingham Forest and won promotion from the Third Division South twice in three years between 1947 and 1949 for Cardiff and Swansea.[2][3]

Career

Canning was born in Penrhiwceiber. A goalkeeper, he began his career at local side Abercynon before signing for Cardiff City at the end of World War II. At the start of the 1946–47 season, he began the season as backup goalkeeper before replacing George Poland after just two matches. He went on to keep 22 clean sheets in 38 league appearances during the remainder of the season, helping the club become Division Three South champions. He kept two further clean sheets in cup competitions to total 24 during the season which remains a club record.[4] He continued as first choice goalkeeper the following season in Division Two but was allowed to leave the club in January 1949 to sign for their local rivals Swansea Town for £3,000.[5]

He spent two years at Swansea, competing with Jack Parry to be first choice goalkeeper, winning the Division Three South title for the second time in his career during the 1948–49 season. In July 1951, Canning was sold to Nottingham Forest for £2,000 but struggled to break into the first team, making just five league appearances, and left the club soon after, moving into non-league football.[6]

Later life

Following his retirement from football, Canning began working as an apprentice toolmaker and went on to become an electronics engineer, designing military equipment. He also took up a number of other sports, including golf, snooker and darts.[7]

Honours

CARDIFF CITY[8]

-   Football League Division Three South champions: 1946–47

'''Swansea Town[9]

-   Football League Division Three South champions: 1948–49

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

title: Danny Canning

question: Who is Leslie Daniel Canning?

answer: Cabbing is a Welsh professional footballer.

question: Which club was Canning's first?

answer: Canning began his career at Abercynon.

question: Which club let Canning leave for their local rivals?

answer: Cardiff City.

question: After his retirement, what kind of work did Canning do?

answer: He worked as an apprentice to a toolmaker before he went on to become an electronics engineer.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer:
Leslie Canning is a Welsh professional goalkeeper. He began his career at Abercynon before he moved on to Cardiff City Football Club. Cardiff City later sold him to their local rivals, Swansea Town for $3000.

Canning spent two years at Swansea, winning the Division Three South title for the second time in his career.

After Canning retired, he became an electronics engineer and went on to design military equipment.


text:
[Portrait of Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard] GABRIEL-JULIEN OUVRARD was a French financier who was born in Moulins d'Antières at Cugand (Vendée) on 11 October 1770 and who died in London in October 1846.

Revolution (1787–1800)

The son of a paper mill owner, Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard received a basic education, joining a trading house in Nantes in 1787 as an employee. By the end of the Ancien Régime, the trading house was associated with Bordeaux shipowners Baour et Balguerie.

Under the Directoire, the trading house enriched itself considerably through colonial trade and military supplies. It then controlled three trading houses in Brest, Nantes and Orleans, the bank of Gamba, Gay et compagnie in Antwerp as well as having large shareholdings in three companies in Paris (Girardot et compagnie, Rougemont et compagnie, Charlemagne et compagnie). It was also associated with three major suppliers: Vanlerberghe (wheat), the Michel brothers (military supplies) and Carvillon des Tillières et Roy (steel and wood).

In 1794 he married the daughter of Jean Baptiste Tébaud, a wealthy Nantes merchant. (His wife died in 1818, having borne him three children.)

In September 1798, Ouvrard won a six-year contract for the provision of food to the Navy, representing a contract of 64 million francs. A few months later, he won a contract with the Spanish fleet stationed in Brest and then one to supply the army of Italy in 1799. He rented the Château du Raincy near Paris, which he subsequently bought in 1806.

Around 1799 he took as his mistress, Madame Tallien, daughter of Count Francois de Cabbarrus. Her family connections would prove useful to Ouvrard. He also had 5 illegitimate children with her.

Ouvrard was arrested on 27 January 1800 on the orders of then First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, but a review of his accounts and contracts showed no irregularities. Ouvrard was released. He helped supply the army for its Marengo campaign.

The Napoleonic Era (1801–1815)

Ouvrard was one of the founders of the Compagnie des Négociants Réunis along with the banker Médard Desprez (1764–1842), Regent of the Bank of France. In exchange for a cash advance, the Company received valid obligations including monthly subsidies that Spain had to pay to France in implementing the Treaty of 22 June 1803. In 1804 the Company had obtained from Spain its monopoly of trade with Spanish America. However the resumption of war between France and England slowed the movement of vessels. In 1805 the Bank of France faced collapse; this potential financial disaster was averted on 27 January 1806, when Ouvrard agreed to guarantee loans against the gold from the Spanish South America colonies.

Ouvrard then entered a period of financial difficulties. He could not raise the acquisition price of the Château du Raincy. In 1809, he was imprisoned in Sainte-Pélagie for unpaid debt and released three months later. Believing that only peace could bring maritime economic growth, he tried to negotiate a secret peace with England with the support of Louis Bonaparte and Joseph Fouché, which earned him three years in prison.

Glory and ruin (1815–1846)

At the end of June 1815, at the beginning of the Restoration, Ouvrard acquired (under the name of his brother-in-law, G.J. Tébaud) the pavilion of Jonchère located at Bougival, known later as “Château de la Jonchère”. He made many improvements to both the original building and its surroundings. In 1816, he acquired the Château de la Chaussée, not far from the pavilion of Jonchère.

Ouvrard played a large role in the economic recovery of France after the fall of the Empire. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 effectively forced France to pay 700 million francs to foreign powers, or 150 million per annum, to which had to be added the maintenance of 150,000 soldiers of the Allied armies that had occupied France for five years. In 1816, crops collapsed and the coffers of the kingdom were empty. The payments were suspended. The Duc de Richelieu, Prime Minister of Louis XVIII, found himself in front of the Chamber of Deputies (the famous Chambre introuvable) but found its quarrels and divisions made his task impossible. On the advice of Ouvrard, Richelieu created a 100 million pension that filled the coffers of the state. The payments were made and the threat that hung over France was lifted. With this payment, the Prime Minister put forward the departure of foreign troops expected in 1820. The French territory was released in 1818, after the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. The Duc de Richelieu visited Ouvrard's property and canceled its debt to the Treasury. Proof of the prestige which Ouvrard enjoyed at the time can be seen from the fact that both Louis XVIII and the man who would become Charles X attended the wedding of Ouvrard's daughter Elisabeth to General de Rochechouart (a nephew of Richlieu) on 5 January 1822. The following year, the purveyor financed the shipment of Spain, but was never repaid in spite of agreements signed with the Duke of Angoulême, who commanded the expedition. Placed in bankruptcy, he then lost his entire fortune, and was even imprisoned at the Conciergerie for corruption. Ouvrard was exonerated through the intervention of the Duke of Angoulême, but never recovered his fortune.

He died in London in 1846. He was survived by Dr Cabarrus, his illegitimate son by Madame Tallien, and his legitimate son, Julien Ouvrard.

title: Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard

question: What does the article say about Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard's private life?

answer: Ouvrard married the daughter of Jean Baptiste Tébaud, a wealthy Nantes merchant. She died in 1818. They had three children. Around 1799 he took as his mistress Madame Tallien, daughter of Count Francois de Cabbarrus, and had 5 illegitimate children with her. He was survived by two of his children.

question: What does the article say about Ouvrard's role in the economic recovery of France after the fall of the Empire?

answer: Ouvrard played a large role in the economic recovery of France. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 ordered France to pay 700 million francs to foreign powers. However, crops collapsed in 1915, and the payments were suspended. Then Ouvrard advised Richelieu, Prime Minister of Louis XVIII, to create a 100 million pension that filled the coffers of the state. France was able to continue paying, and the Prime Minister put forward the departure of foreign troops so the French territory was released in 1818.

question: What does the text say about Ouvrard's life during the Napoleonic Era?

answer: Ouvrard was one of the founders of the Company that had obtained from Spain its monopoly of trade with Spanish America. When the Bank of France faced collapse in 1805, Ouvrard agreed to guarantee loans against the gold from the Spanish South American colonies, so potential financial disaster was avoided.

question: What does the text say about how much money Ouvrard had earned?


text:
[Zbigniew Rychlicki]

ZBIGNIEW RYCHLICKI (17 January 1922 – 10 September 1989)[1] was a Polish graphic artist, and illustrator of children's books. He received the Hans Christian Andersen Awards Prize given by the Jury of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) for outstanding artistic achievement.[2] He was given the 1954 Prime Minister's Award for his works for children and youth.[3]

Education

He studied and then graduated from the Institute in 1946.[4] During the years 1947 to 1948 he worked at the Animated Film Studio in Lodz.[5] He also studied at the Academy for Fine Arts in Kraków in 1956.[6]

Career

Rychlicki was in charge of the graphic part of the magazine “Teddy Bear.”[7] In 1949 he moved to Warsaw, and acted as the director of the Publishing Institute “Our Bookstore” “Nasza Księgarnia”.[8][9] He authored the illustrations of several children's books, including _From things into things_ by Wanda Chotomska, _Please elephant_ by Ludwik Jerzy Kern, Plastusiowy diary of Mary Kownacka,[10] Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. and _Mysterious Island_ by Jules Verne.[11]

[1] http://www.mbp.kielce.pl/publikacje/rocznice_2014.pdf

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

title: Zbigniew Rychlicki

question: When was Rychlicki born?

answer: January 17, 1922

question: What awards did Rychlicki win?

answer: The Hans Christian Andersen Awards Prize and the 1954 Prime Minister's Award

question: Where did Rychlicki study in 1956?

answer: The Academy for Fine Arts in Krakow

question: When did Rychlicki die?

answer: September 10, 1989

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Zbigniew Rychlicki was a Polish graphic artist and children's book illustrator. He received the Hans Christian Andersen Awards Prize and the 1954 Prime Minister's Award for his work. He was born in 1922 and died in 1989.