text:
_DOCTOR DIDO_ is a historical novel by the British writer F. L. Lucas. First published in 1938, it was his third novel (not including the novella _The Wild Tulip_, 1932). With much local and antiquarian detail, it tells the story of Samuel Plampin, Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge and Vicar of St Peter's Babraham, who in 1792 brings to the vicarage as his housekeeper a young Frenchwoman he finds in Cambridge, a destitute refugee from The Terror.

Plot summary

Just arrived in Cambridge on a sodden evening in September 1792 is Mademoiselle Sophie Letourneur, 26, a spirited _femme de chambre_ in the household of the Duc and Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld-d'Enville. She has travelled for nine days from Revolution-torn Paris, carrying a secret message from her Anglophile master to Prime Minister Pitt. She had been told Pitt was in his constituency; now she learns he is at Stowe. She speaks little English, has been robbed on the way and is destitute. She is rescued by Samuel Plampin of Trinity, 45, Doctor of Divinity, King's Reader in Hebrew at the University, and Vicar of St Peter's Babraham. A bachelor (as Fellows had to be then) and hoping for a little adventure, he offers her hospitality for the night. (He is fluent in French, having spent six months in Paris in 1772 “bear-leading a rich lordling”.[1]) Next day they travel to Stowe, where Sophie learns from Pitt that her master has been killed and that she cannot safely return to France. Plampin, already drawn to her (“I had forgotten how exhilarating a clever woman can be” [2]) invites her to remain with him as his housekeeper.

    His very ears seemed dumbly to protest, as they heard his mouth utter this egregious folly.[3]

She accepts. A friendship develops. He is kind and amusing, regaling her with anecdotes from the parish and University. An Enlightenment man, he is attracted by her French grace, wit and good sense. On New Year's Eve he proposes marriage; she declines, but agrees to be his mistress. Villagers and University colleagues guess the truth. “Come down off it, Tim Tolliday,” says a villager to Plampin's coachman in the 'George' one evening, when the latter has been defending “Emmy Grays” and “Parson's Mamzell”. “We all knows what Frenchies be.” [4] In an excruciating scene the unimaginative Reverend Aaron Knatchbull of neighbouring Hadworth proposes to Sophie, in vain. Ten years pass, happy for Plampin, content for Sophie – “though there were moments when she would feel stifled among these East Anglian cabbages, buried alive in these foggy turnip-fields” [5] – years clouded only by heresy-hunts of supposed Jacobins in Cambridge and grim news from France.

The Peace of 1802 brings the chance for émigrés to return home and for the British to travel abroad once more. Madame Letourneur longs to see her daughter again; Plampin welcomes the chance of a holiday. But in Paris things start to go wrong. So much that Plampin had admired about the France of his youth has been swept away (though he had begun by admiring the Revolution). The old values have been replaced by vulgarity, aggressiveness, Napoleonic fervour. Plampin grows irritable and finds himself at loggerheads with Sophie's brother Charles, a cocky young Captain of Hussars, who regards the English doctor as grotesque and a poor match for his sister. Only the gracious Madame Letourneur is true to the France Plampin loved. Sophie meets Victor Duroc, Captain of Engineers, a former childhood friend. She grows uneasy and three times begs Plampin to take her back to England: but he is now enjoying the _Bibliothèque nationale_ and the art treasures recently taken from Italy by Bonaparte. He brushes aside her fears. Growing estranged, she goes to amusements without him, wears make-up, dresses in the Grecian style. They quarrel. Victor, she admits to her mother, makes her feel for the first time in her life “alive”. One day Plampin returns from the library to find her gone. A sad, guilt-ridden letter from Sophie informs him that she is now Madame Duroc and on her way to Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean.

    He understood too well. In the grey light of disillusion, he saw now his own past folly; as a traveller who has climbed some height leading only into a wilderness, not homeward, looking back too late through the last pallors of sunset, sees all too clearly how and where he went astray.[6]

Plampin suffers an immediate collapse. With sensitivity and tact, Madame Letourneur nurses him; at the earliest opportunity he returns to England. Babraham and Cambridge buzz with gossip about his solo return. He is nicknamed “Doctor Dido” by unkind colleagues and students. Home is full of sad reminders of Sophie. His faith lost, Plampin can no longer bear his ecclesiastical duties, resigns his living, and returns to college. No longer believing in scholarship or the future, he abandons his life-work, _A Natural History of Enthusiasm_ (planned as a sly Gibbonian counterblast to all things Romantic). The Combination-Room is stifling with petty rivalries and malice. He finds solace for his unhappiness by tutoring bright young students, by botanizing among the hedgerows and woods of East Anglia, and by visits to the North and the West Country. Ten lonely years pass. One day a letter from old Madame Letourneur brings news that both Sophie and Victor Duroc are dead, drowned in the crossing of the Beresina in November 1812 during the Retreat from Moscow. In the Combination-Room on New Year's Eve 1812, as the port goes round, Plampin is taunted by a colleague for having taken “one French lesson too many”. “If you refer to the lady who did me the honour to keep house for me,” replies Plampin, breathing heavily, “I have had my last lesson from her.” [7] He reads to the hushed gathering a letter dictated to an orderly by Captain Charles Letourneur, now a _mutilé de guerre_, describing the horrors of the Crossing of the Beresina and the details of Sophie's death (she had abandoned the safety of Danzig to nurse her wounded husband during the retreat). In the silence that follows, Plampin walks out. One of the dons acidly quotes Scripture: “The lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.” [8] The uneasy talk that follows is broken by the entry of a college servant, who has just found Plampin hanged.

Background

The novel was written in the shadow of the coming war (see F. L. Lucas, APPEASEMENT). In his 1938 _Journal_ Lucas described it as “filled, between the lines, with all our hopes and fears for present and future, and dedicated, with growing misgivings for that future, 'To the Enduring Friendship of England and France'.” [9] Its depiction of the Napoleonic war-lust gripping France in the early 19th century foreshadows that of Hitler's Germany:

    Suddenly all his self-centred pain lost itself once more in an infinite pity ... for the whole of this human race so mad to heap sorrows of its own seeking on the sorrows nothing can avoid.[10]

The policy of Appeasement, which Lucas deplored, colours other passages: “To the English, she reflected, clear-headedness is indecent – one's mind's must always be properly clothed in a chaste modicum of cloud... For the present she decided after all to shut her eyes, English-fashion, and drift.” [11] For Lucas's attitude to 18th Century France, see _Cécile_ (1930), BACKGROUND.

Lucas's _Journal_ reveals that the death of Shelagh Clutton-Brock (see F. L. Lucas, PERSONAL LIFE) was much in his mind as he was writing _Docto Dido_, his sense of sorrow and loss probably colouring his account of Plampin's sorrow for the lost Sophie.[12]

Themes

_Doctor Dido_ is the familiar story of the middle-aged bachelor who falls in love with a woman much younger than himself, and pays for much bliss with much unhappiness.[13] It explores “The dreadful fatality of passion, its inhuman indifference, once its tide has turned, to all that the most devoted adoration can ever do to turn it back again”.[14] It is, in addition, a satire on University life, contrasting the parochialism of Cambridge with the world-shaking events on the Continent, the malice of the Combination-Room with the kindliness of individuals. It disapproves of the monasticism imposed on dons by the ban on married Fellows:

    —“Good God, Pellew, without assistance I don't believe you would know a woman from an isosceles triangle.”
    —“I would not go quite so far as that. I know _something_ of isosceles triangles.” [15]

Like the earlier _Cécile_ (1930) and the later _English Agent_ (1969), _Doctor Dido_ traces the tension between 18th-century rationalism and, in varying forms, Romantic unreason. Samuel Plampin is a man of the Age of Reason who has outlived his era and feels alienated by the new world. Too late, he realises that he, the satirical historian of “Enthusiasm”, has himself been guilty of Romantic excess. Lucas's hostility to religion is another undercurrent in the novel, as it was in _Cécile_ and in the novella _The Woman Clothed with the Sun_ (1937). When Plampin adduces Mr Paley's watchmaker analogy to try to convince Sophie, she crushes him with the reply: “_Mon ami_, if as he says a watch implies a watchmaker, then a crime implies a criminal... Either abandon all reasoning for ever, or admit that God is meaner than yourself – you who would never will a single ant an instant's pain.” [16]

Reception

The novel had mixed reviews. “The book wears altogether too studied an air,” noted _The Times Literary Supplement_ ; “it carries a miscellaneous load of literary learning with a jocular lightness that seems rather forced and all too soon becomes monotonous. Mr Lucas may claim complete realism for his study of heavily academic manners, but the fact remains that realism of this sort makes for fatiguing reading.” [17] “_Doctor Dido_ has its _longueurs_,” admitted another reviewer. “Its brilliant scenes of Cambridge university life at the end of the eighteenth century are too cruel.” [18] Forrest Reid in _The Spectator_ disagreed: “It has far too much vitality to be depressing,” he wrote, “and for the reader at least, if not for Dr Plampin, there is the consolation of humour, wit, and irony.” [19] Several reviewers noted the novel's emotive appeal. “The futility and loneliness which overwhelm the returned Dr Plampin,” noted Desmond Shawe-Taylor in the _New Statesman_, “are so touchingly conveyed that we find ourselves at last really concerned for this author of _A Natural History of Enthusiasm_ who had been unable to buttress his own heart against the unreasonable tides of passion.” [20] “It deserves to be read and appreciated,” stated _The Cornhill_. “Dr Plampin and Sophie will not readily fade from the reader's remembrance.” [21] Appraising _Doctor Dido_ in _The Cambridge Review_, D. A. Winstanley, author of _The University of Cambridge in the Eighteenth Century_ (1922), one of Lucas's sources, thought the novel “most charming”: “Nor is it only for its human appeal that this book deserves to be read. If it contained nothing but its descriptions of Cambridge scenery it would be a thing of delight.” [22]

Publishing history

The novel was published on 8 September 1938 by Cassell and Company of London, whose director was Lucas's former student Desmond Flower.[23] It sold slowly. Cassell's London warehouse was destroyed in the Blitz, with the result that copies of the novel are now scarce. There was no US or Canadian edition. Flower nevertheless considered _Doctor Dido_ Lucas's most successful novel artistically,[24] and in 1967, at the time of Lucas's death, was planning to reprint it.[25] Priority, however, was given to Lucas's new novel, _The English Agent_, written in his retirement (published posthumously by Cassell in 1969), and the planned reprint of _Doctor Dido_ came to nothing.

[1] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.36

[2] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.36

[3] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.61

[4] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.91

[5] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.119

[6] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.240

[7] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.313

[8] _Proverbs_, 5:3-4

[9] Lucas, F. L., _Journal Under the Terror, 1938_ (London 1939), p.113

[10] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.302

[11] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.82

[12] Lucas, F. L., _Journal Under the Terror, 1938_ (London 1939), p.114, p.242

[13] _The Cambridge Review_, 3 March 1939

[14] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.240

[15] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.291

[16] Lucas, _Doctor Dido_, p.135

[17] _The Times Literary Supplement_, 10 Sept. 1938, p.581

[18] Tullis Clare in _Time and Tide_, 24 Sept. 1938, p.1324

[19] Forrest Reid in _The Spectator_, 17 May 1930

[20] Desmond Shawe-Taylor in the _New Statesman_, 24 Sept. 1938, p.460

[21] _The Cornhill Magazine_, vol.158, July-December 1938, p.719

[22] D. A. Winstanley in _The Cambridge Review_, 3 March 1939

[23] Flower, Desmond, _Fellows in Foolscap – Memoirs of a Publisher_ (London 1991)

[24] Publisher's blurb on dust-wrapper of Lucas's _The English Agent_, Cassell & Co., 1969

[25] _The Daily Telegraph_ obituary, 2 June 1967

title: Doctor Dido

question: What genre is Doctor Dido?

answer: It is a historical novel.

question: What made Mademoiselle Sophie Letourneur leave her master in Paris for England?

answer: There was a revolution going on in France.

question: why did Samuel Plampin agree to take in Sophie as his housekeeper?

answer: Because he was drawn to her wit, grace and good sense.

question: When did Sophie return to France?

answer: She returned after the Peace of 1802.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer:
Doctor Dido is a historical novel that tells the story of Samuel Plampin and Sophie Letourneur. Sophie was a femme de chamber in the household of the Duc and Duchesse de la Rouchefoucauld-d'Enville. She escaped from Paris during the revolution, with a message to Prime Miniter Pitt from her employers. Sophie missed Pitt and was robbed while travelling, however, Plampin rescues her and offers hospitality for the night.

Having heard from Pitt that her master is dead, Sophie accepts Plampin's offer to work as his housekeeper. Plampin is enamoured with her wit and good sense. he proposed to her but she declined, preferring to be his mistress instead.


split: train

text:
For the past several months, DreamHost has been working with the Department of Justice to comply with legal process, including a Search Warrant (PDF) seeking information about one of our customers’ websites.

At the center of the requests is disruptj20.org, a website that organized participants of political protests against the current United States administration. While we have no insight into the affidavit for the search warrant (those records are sealed), the DOJ has recently asked DreamHost to provide _all_ information available to us about this website, its owner, and, more importantly, its VISITORS.

[DisrputJ20]

Records Requests

DreamHost, like many online service providers, is approached by law enforcement regularly to provide information about customers who may be the subject of criminal investigations. These types of requests are not uncommon; our legal department reviews and scrutinizes each request and, when necessary, rejects and challenges vague or faulty orders.
[Denied stamp]
You would be shocked to see just how many of these challenges we’re _obligated_ to mount every year!

Chris Ghazarian, our General Counsel, has taken issue with this particular search warrant for being a highly untargeted demand that chills free association and the right of free speech afforded by the Constitution.

Demand for Information

The request from the DOJ demands that DreamHost hand over 1.3 _million_ visitor IP addresses — in addition to contact information, email content, and photos of THOUSANDS of people — in an effort to determine who simply _visited_ the website. (Our customer has also been notified of the pending warrant on the account.)

That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.

[DC Protest]

This is, in our opinion, a strong example of investigatory overreach and a clear abuse of government authority.

As we do in all such cases where the improper collection of data is concerned, we challenged the Department of Justice on its warrant and attempted to quash its demands for this information through reason, logic, and legal process.

Instead of responding to our inquiries regarding the overbreadth of the warrant, the DOJ filed a motion (PDF) in the Washington, D.C. Superior Court, asking for an order to COMPEL DreamHost to produce the records.

Our Opposition

Last Friday Mr. Ghazarian, with the help of his legal team and outside counsel, filed legal arguments in opposition (PDF) of the DOJ’s request for access to this trove of personally identifiable information.

This motion is our latest salvo in what has become a months-long battle to protect the identities of thousands of unwitting internet users. Mr. Ghazarian will attend a court hearing on the matter on August 18 in Washington, D.C.

[EFF]
We’ve been working closely with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and their counsel throughout this process. They’ve been nothing but supportive and helpful throughout, and we’re honored to have them in our corner. While the EFF is not representing us in this case, they understand our arguments and have been lending professional support.

Why Bother?

The internet was founded — and continues to survive, in the main — on its democratizing ability to facilitate a free exchange of ideas. Internet users have a reasonable expectation that they will not get swept up in criminal investigations simply by exercising their right to political speech against the government.

We intend to take whatever steps are necessary to support and shield these users from what is, in our view, a very unfocused search and an unlawful request for their personal information.

In Case You Missed It…

-   10/10: The End of the Road
-   8/24: A Win for Privacy Is a Win for the Web
-   8/22: Narrowing the Scope
-   8/18: DreamHost Goes to Washington
-   8/14, 9 p.m. PST: Updated post to clarify the EFF’s involvement.

question: Approximately when was the article written?

answer: Sometime after January 2017, based on prior knowledge

question: What website does the article center on?

answer: disruptj20.org

question: Who is DreamHost's general counsel?

answer: Chris Ghazarian

question: How many IP addresses is the DOJ demanding?

answer: More than 1.3 million

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The Department of Justice is requesting information from DreamHost on anyone who visited the website distruptj20.org. DreamHost considers this a violation of those users first amendment rights and is fighting the request in court.


text:
Headquartered in Singapore, WORLD SPORT GROUP was a sports marketing, event management and media company in Asia, with a roster of golf, association football and cricket events. World Sport Group manages almost 600 days of sports events annually, across more than 30 countries in the region. In 2015 it was merged into the Lagardère Sports and Entertainment division of Lagardère Group (which was the parent company since 2008), renamed as LAGARDÈRE SPORTS ASIA.[1]

World Sport Group was the exclusive marketing partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), and a major stake-holder in Asian golf as organizers of the Barclays Singapore Open and the ASEAN Tour. The Group also managed global cricket player Sachin Tendulkar and had formed a partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the ground and title naming rights for the Indian National Team's domestic matches. In partnership with Sony Corporation, the Group was awarded the global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Twenty20 cricket competition. The 10-year deal was valued at over US$1.6 billion.

The Group was also a member of the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium, the group that won the bid in 2018 to build, operate and manage a sports, entertainment and lifestyle hub in Singapore that was due for completion in 2011.

Historical events

Events formerly supported by the World Sports Group included:

-   Hero Honda Indian Open
-   SAIL Open Golf Championship
-   Volvo Masters of Asia
-   Omega China Tour

History

Foundation and early years

World Sport Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 as AFC MARKETING LIMITED as a media broker for the Asian Football Confederation. (AFC Marketing itself was dissolved by striking-off in 2006) At that time the director of the company was Seamus Hamilton O'Brien and Jack Kazunori Sakazaki; the shareholders were British Virgin Islands incorporated Park House Holdings Limited (40%), Nina Finance Corporation (40%) and Oakstaff Investments Limited (20%).[2]

It then expended into other fields such as golf (as Asian PGA Tour Limited), for Asian Tour), basketball (as ABC Promotions Limited), cricket (as WSG Nimbus Pte Limited), TV rights (as Asia Sport Television Limited) and publishing (as WSG (Asia) Limited). In Australia, World Sport Group operated WSG (Oceania) Pty Ltd., PGA Tour Enterprises Pty Ltd. (a joint venture), Sports Marketing and Management Pty Ltd., Javelin Pty Ltd.; in Europe: WSG Europe Ltd., Ladies European Tour Enterprises Ltd. (a joint venture), Sports Marketing and Management (UK) Ltd., Global Cricket Corporation Pte Ltd.; in America as WSG Americas Inc. and Tour de las Americas Ltd. (joint venture).[3]

Listing and re-privatization

Circa 2000 the holding company of the group was British Virgin Islands incorporated THE WORLD SPORT GROUP LIMITED. In the eve of acquisition and listing into Alternative Investment Market, the Jersey incorporated WORLD SPORT GROUP (JERSEY) LIMITED became the intermediate holding company of the group. From 2001 to 2002 World Sport Group was the subsidiary of World Sport Group plc (along with fellow sport broker Parallel Media Group International Limited), a listed company now known as Parallel Media Group plc.

After the founder re-acquired World Sport Group from the public company in 2002, BVI incorporated WORLD SPORT GROUP HOLDINGS became the holding company.[4]

Acquired by Lagardère

World Sport Group was sold for the second time in 2008 to Lagardère Group, becoming Lagardère Sports Asia in 2015.

Ownership

THE WORLD SPORT GROUP LIMITED (via WORLD SPORT GROUP (JERSEY) LIMITED) and Parallel Media Group International Limited were acquired by Orchard Furniture plc in 2001. Orchard Furniture was also renamed into World Sport Group plc in the same year[5] but known as Parallel Media Group plc after 2002.

World Sport Group plc was owned by chairman David Ciclitira for 21.11% stake, as well as Park House Holdings for 27.41% stake as at 31 December 2001.[6] Park House Holdings was owned by the founder and high officials of THE WORLD SPORT GROUP LIMITED, Seamus O'Brien and Anthony Morgan.[7]

Park House Holdings re-acquired the brand and the subsidiary from the public company on 13 November 2002.[8][9] In 2004 Dentsu acquired a 30% stake in WORLD SPORT GROUP HOLDINGS, the parent company of World Sport Group.[10] Although, 20% stake was sold by Dentsu in 2007–08 financial year that ended on 31 March.[11][12] On 18 May 2008 Lagardère Group, via its subsidiary Lagardère Sports acquired approx. 70% stake of World Sport Group Holdings[13] by acquiring a 78.60% stake of a company called WORLD SPORT GROUP INVESTMENTS, which owned a 90% stake of World Sport Group Holdings.[14]

[1]

[2] 1994 Annual Return, AFC Marketing Limited, available in Hong Kong Companies Registry

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6] World Sport Group plc report and financial statements at 31 December 2001, available in Companies House

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

title: World Sport Group

question: Summarize what the World Sport Group is composed of.

answer: The World Sport Group was a sports marketing, event management, and media company in Asia. It managed almost 600 days of sports events annually across 30 countries in the region. It was an exclusive marketing partner of the Asian Football Confederation, the ASEAN Football Federation, and a major stake-holder in Asian golf. The group was a member of the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium as well. The World Sport Group was a large and powerful entity.

question: Summarize the history and foundation of the World Sport Group.

answer: The World Sport Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 as AFC Marketing Limited. It was originally a media broker for the Asian Football Confederation. Afterwards, it expanded into other fields like golf, basketball, cricket, TV rights, and publishing. World Sport Group also started to expand into Austral and in America early on its establishment.

question: Summarize the key important details to be noted about the ownership of the World Sport Group.

answer: It is important to know that the World Sport Group Limited and Parallel Media Group International Limited were acquired by Orchard Furniture plc in 2001. The Orchard Furniture was renamed into World Sport Group in the same year. The organization was owned by chairman David Ciclitira and the Park House Holdings. Afterwards in 2004, Dentsu acquired a 30% stake in World Sport Group Holdings. And then, on May 18th, 2008, the Lagardere Group acquired the largest portion (70%) stake of the World Sport Group Holdings.

question: Are there any well-known organizations today that resemble was the World Sport Group was?


text:
ISLE ABBOTS (sometimes spelled Isle Abbotts) is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south east of Taunton in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 205.[1]

History

The name of the village comes from the River Isle with the second part coming from its ownership by Muchelney Abbey from Saxon times until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. The manor then passed to the Earl of Hertford.[2]

Bromes House has medieval origins and was restored in 1627. It has been designated as a grade II* listed building.[3]

In 1645 during the English Civil War Isle Abbots was the scene of a skirmish between parliamentary troops under Edward Massie and Royalist forces under Lord Goring who fought for control of the bridges prior to the Battle of Langport.[4]

Governance

The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.

The village falls within the Non-metropolitan district of South Somerset, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Langport Rural District.[5] The district council is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.

Somerset County Council is responsible for running the largest and most expensive local services such as education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, policing and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.

It is also part of the Yeovil county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Geography

Isle Abbotts lies between the River Isle and the Fivehead River.

Climate

Along with the rest of South West England, Isle Abbots has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country.[6] The annual mean temperature is approximately . Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately . In winter mean minimum temperatures of or are common.[7] In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours.[8] In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around . About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.[9]

Religious sites

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin dates from the 13th century with several restorations since. It has a tower of four stages. The embattled parapet is pierced by quatrefoils, the merlons pierced with lancet openings. The very large corner pinnacles have attached secondary pinnacles, and intermediate pinnacles to each side. The crocketted niches to each face of tower have surviving medieval figures, to west the risen Christ stepping from His sarcophagus, the Blessed Virgin with Bambino, St Peter and St Paul; to south St George, St Catherine, St Margaret; to east St John Baptist, St Clement; to north St Michael.[10] The wealth of architectural detail and sculpture has required specific approaches to the methodology of repair and protection using lime-based materials.[11] The church tower has eight hunky punks depicting a person playing the bagpipes, an oriental lion dog, a goat, a dragon, a Chinese dragon, a primitive dragon, a winged lion and a lion.[12] The church also houses a barrel organ made by Henry Bryceson in about 1835.[13]

There is also a Baptist Chapel in the village. This was built in 1815 and restored in 1874. It is no longer in use and has been sold[14]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12] _St Mary the Virgin, Isle Abbots: Church Guide_ published by Isle Abbots PCC, no date

[13]

[14] Baptist Church, Isle Abbotts, June 2008 , website by Sue Redfearn, accessed 20 June 2010

title: Isle Abbots

question: What would happen to the village if it had a larger population?

answer: As in most cases with villages that have a larger population, more resources and money are needed to sustain the population.


text:
*Aliens!*

It was late.

The snow was coming down pretty fierce and I was on the porch eating nachos.

I was using a fork.

Plus, some aliens landed.

*Final Countdown to Death by Alien*

The alien's maw opened and I saw pieces of Roberts and Cornel still stuck between its teeth. I vomited on the ground.

The alien moved closer and I stepped back and leveled the gun at it. The alien put all of its tentacles in the air as if to surrender.

But I wasn't having it. I cocked the trigger.

"Wait! Wait!" The alien pleaded. "I just want to talk."

"You had plenty of time to talk - and eat."

"OK. What if I told you that I could put your friends back together?"

"I wouldn't believe you."

"OK. What if I told you because of the size of my mouth and the tentacles on the inside, I can give you the best blowjob you've ever had?"

I put down the gun.

*Leave Us Alone*

"But, Craydong, you cannot leave humanity - not in this most precious hour when our world is at the edge of war." She pleaded with the alien.

"I am sorry, Sally. I need to go back to my home world. They need me."

"But we need you!"

"Not like this. These people are needy. Like can't open jars without me. Like call me up and tell me they miss me when it's not a holiday. Like always want me to pay for Taco Bell even though I'm between jobs and going on a vacation to Earth. Then I get here and it's all like stop the war and save the trees and - I just need some down time. I'm only human."

"But you're not human."

"See, and then you're a dick all time. I'm leaving. Fuck you."

"But"

"No butts. This is bullshit. I'm going to Jupiter."

ON JUPITER

"Hello, I'm Craydong. I come in peace."

"Hey, Craydong - you know how to fix a dryer?"

"DAMNIT!"

*Can't We Be Friends?*

I entered the chamber and the alien was inside with its stamp collection. "You collect stamps?" I asked.

"Indeed. I have some from before World War One. I also have coins. Would you like to see a Buffalo nickel?"

The alien was a nerd. I left in disgust and turned on a football game.

*Drug Problem*

When the aliens landed we were extremely excited. They explained that we could tell no one about them and that they were here on a mission of peace.

We had all seen movies and how aliens come down and act like they want peace and then kill everyone - so we were skeptical.

But as time went on, we realized that they meant us no harm.

They just kinda sat around and smoked all my pot and ate ding dongs.

Fucking aliens!

*Lasers!*

I ran down the highway with the laser fire cutting at my ankles. They were toying with me. They knew that I was running the wrong way.

Away from the reactor.

I kept running until finally, they stopped firing. I turned.

The ship was hovering above me and a rope fell out of the bottom.

Sloth, from the Goonies, appeared waving a Chicago Cubs banner in one hand, and in the other hand he had a picture of my mother naked.

The diversion had worked. I was utterly confused.

*Alien Call*

"911, what's your emergency?"

"ALIENS!"

"Illegal or the UFO kind?"

"ALIENS!"

"Sir, you need to be more specific."

"ALIENS!"

"Please, sir, I'm just trying to help."

"ALIENS WITH LASERS!"

"OK. So, the UFO type."

*Mutual Martians*

"Hello, I am Quadrant from Mars."

"I am Rectangle, also from Mars."

"How are you liking it?"

"Earth?"

"Yes."

"It's OK. But whenever I see that rover on TV I think about all the giant warehouses of Martians it's driving over and feel like the Earthlings are dumb."

"Me, too. If they knew that we were eating Burger King and drinking beer right under some of those rocks that they get all excited about, it would really drive them mad."

"Agreed. But that one rock that looked like a donut - that made me think."

"Think about what?"

"Like maybe there's a bunch of donuts up there that we don't know about.

*Starfall*

"Sir, it's the Pentagon. They say that the aliens landed on the CNN building in New York. It's going to be a media circus!"

"I'll get my chair and whip."

"Sir?"

"Oh, MEDIA circus. I thought it was going to be a regular circus. I used to train lions."

"Sir, it's aliens."

"What if they're lions?"

title: [HM] ALIENS!

question: Describe the interaction between the narrator and the alien.

answer: The narrator and the alien having an uninviting interaction. The alien has eaten the narrator's friends, Roberts and Cornel and the narrator wants to shoot the alien. The alien pleads with the narrator saying he could put his friends back together, but the narrator doesn't believe him. The alien then states he can give the narrator the best blowjob because of the size of his mouth.

question: Summarize the part of the story that describes aliens and drug problems.

answer: In this part of the story, the author explains how excited people were when the aliens landed. But as time went on, they figured out the aliens meant them no harm. The aliens just smoked all the pot and ate ding dongs.

question: How would the author react if aliens did actually land on Earth?


text: Sitting at the bar babying my drink I turn to notice a beautiful woman sitting alone in the corner. She seems solemn and desperate, I can't help but feel like there is something I can do to help so I approach her table. Walking toward her I notice a tear rolling down her face “Are you alright?” I ask “No, I have recently lost someone very close to me” she replies burying her face in her hands as the tears stream from her eyes. “I'm very sorry to hear about your loss, would you like me to leave?” “Actually I could use some company, but could we go somewhere more private?”nothing about this seems right but before I stop to gather my thoughts the words were already out “My place is not far from here” I said with nervous excitement. Opening my front door she is all over me, we fall onto the couch kissing and groping. My hand slides to her inner thigh, she pushes me away with a look of disgust “Is something wrong?” I blurt feeling foolish and confused “This just doesn't feel right, it's too soon” she said looking down with mauled eyes. Without thinking I ask “Are you a lesbian?” she glares wide eyed as her vulnerable demeanor quickly turns to rage, she slides a knife from her boot and replies “No, I'm a necrophile”

title: Tonight's the Night

question: Where does the narrator find the woman?

answer: The narrator finds the woman in a corner of the bar.

question: Why is the woman crying?

answer: The woman is crying because she lost someone close to her.

question: Where does the narrator go with the woman?

answer: The narrator goes back to his place with the woman.

question: What does the woman want with the narrator?

answer: The woman wants to kill the narrator.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator finds a sad woman at a bar. The narrator comforts her and they go back to the narrator's place. Once there, the woman reveals herself to be a necrophile, and tries to kill the narrator.


text:
Cory Booker quotes Maya Angelou during DNC 2016 (Full speech)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker's voice was rising.

"The question is not what they are going to do, it's what we are going to do," he said at a Democratic fundraiser here. "We in this nation have work to do. Let us march. Let us march to organize. If we go together, we will bring this country forward,"

"America, marching onward!" he concluded as the crowd rose to its feet.

Booker's address rallied the Democratic troops Wednesday night in a way that two other potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates failed to do at the event.

Neither U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- clearly the crowd favorite  at the start -- or U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York stirred up the 600 people in the audience the way Booker did.

For Booker, the speech was reminiscent of his well-received addressat the 2016 Democratic National Convention for its oratory.

This time around, Booker invoked the demonstrations of the past, against slavery, for a woman's right to vote, for civil rights, for the ability of workers to organize, and said such activism is needed again this November.

"We have a lot of marching to do in this country," Booker said. "We, the good people, are going to stand up. We, the good people, have to be ready to march."

The Democrats' IWillVote effort aims to reach 50 million voters, and Wednesday's dinner was the first of several events scheduled to raise money for the campaign.

Such efforts take on added importance in off-year elections, when Democratic turnout traditionally declines compared with presidential years. That helped Republicans win control of the U.S. House in 2010 and the Senate four years later.

This time around, strong Democratic turnout last year led to the party winning a U.S. Senate seatin deep-red Alabama and gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and capturing several Republican-held seats in New Jersey's legislature and its municipalities.

The party is counting on a similar surge in 2018 with control of the Senate and House is at stake. Democratic hopes have been fueled by the continuing unpopularity of President Donald Trump.

All of the candidates delivered lines guaranteed to receive applause from the partisan crowd, talking about issues such as health care, women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, and the rights of unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the U.S.

Warren, welcomed with the loudest ovation of the three potential 2020 candidates, said she has contributed to every state party in order to help them get out the vote this fall.

She talked about the need for Democrats to reach out to people who are hurting economically, many of whom backed Trump in 2016.

"These folks are hurting and they're angry," Warren said. "I want us to be the party that picks the fights on their behalf. Let's kick some butt."

Gillibrand received the least enthusiastic response, even as she talked about the importance of black women voters, whose turnout helped deliver the Alabama Senate seat to Democrat Doug Jones, and how Texas is about to send two Hispanic women to the U.S. House.

"It is the women who are holding our democracy together in these dangerous times," she said.

_Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook._

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

question: Why does Cory Booker's speech have a stronger impact on the audience?

answer: Booker skillfully delivers a message that the Democratic voter base needs to march for a good cause again, which seems to be a yearning the audience had.

question: What did the speakers talk about, and how well were they received?

answer: Cory Booker's message of a need to march for good causes seems to have appealed better than Warren's message of reaching out to the economically unprivileged folks. The least popular speech was of Gillibrand, who talked about race and gender, which are relatively generic points within the Democratic bloc.


text:
Ho Chi Minh

------------------------------------------------------------------------

First Published: Le Paria, August 17, 1923
Source: Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol. 1
Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House
Transcription/Markup: Christian Liebl
Online Version: Ho Chi Minh Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2003

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vorovsky, delegate of the workers' and peasants' Russia, was murdered in Switzerland by fascism. There was not one of the delegates of the very civilized and very Christian powers gathered at Lausanne who deigned to attend his funeral. Only the Turkish delegation, headed by Ismet Pasha, came to pay tribute to the mortal remains of the murdered man.

Ben Radia, a worker of Tunisian origin, was murdered on May Day by the police. The Parisian workers' organizations gave him a big funeral. Thousands of workers stopped work on that day to follow their native comrade to his last resting place.

All the martyrs of the working class, those in Lausanne like those in Paris, those in Le Havre like those in Martinique, are victims of the same murderer: international capitalism. And it is always in belief in the liberation of their oppressed brothers, without discrimination as to race or country, that the souls of these martyrs will find supreme consolation.

After experiencing these painful lessons, the oppressed people of all countries ought to know on which side their true brothers are, and on which side their enemy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

question: What political ideology does the author support?

answer: Communism


text:
I sometimes go through a "i need to write" phase, usually an idea pops into my head and i feel the need to write it down. Unfortunately i have serious doubts about what i write down and think too much on it until i get bogged down and block.

Would like some feedback(critique) on the following excerpt :

>Looking out my window i could see the lights in the city dump. The huge pile of cars, containers and assorted trash silhouetted against the night haze. Hundreds of lights entailed thousands of habitants. The slummers, as they were called, lived there. They were not allowed inside the city, though everyone knew they came into it at night. Pillaging for food scraps from the streets bellow. I lived there as a child, among them. Running between the cars and the sludge. I was safe now, as safe as a slummer child could be that is. I was one the lucky ones, most didn't make it past their childhood. Killed by city guards, freak accidents, even cannibals.

>I remember those days, when i spent my nights sneaking through the fences, avoiding patrols. Looking for a leftover dinner thrown out the window by the patrons and hunting for rats. A rat could feed our whole group, especially the fatter ones. It's funny how i feel nostalgic about those days. Nowadays i get access to the city rations. Rations are dehydrated products, vegetables grown in underground green houses with artificial lighthing and some smaller animal meat.The dehidrated dog legs and cat liver are by far the best. The days of dehydrated cow and sheep meat is long gone, I don't even remember eating any of it. The bigger animals started dying at the same time we started losing daylight and all the stocked up rations were eaten.  Rations were only distributed to the patrons, so in order to eat we had to scavenge the city. Getting inside the city was a not an easy feat. In order to leave the dump we had to crawl under an electrified fence watched by guard patrols and the ocasional howlghast. Vicious geneticly engineered creatures with an incredible sense of smell and thick musculate legs. A ghast bite could rip a grown man apart, and they often did. Guards had the cruel habit of releasing their ghast in the dump and betting on which one would bring the bigger piece. Sometimes we just sat there watching the patrols, looking for a way in. We weren't allways sucessful, we had to wait for them to get distracted in order to sneak behind them.

title: request for feedback on an attempt at a short story

question: What type of world is the story set in?

answer: The story seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic world.


text:
Dreams are weird. This morning I dreamt that I woke up and I got a text from you. You sent it to me around 2 in the morning, you missed me, you were sorry for how shit things are.

Texts are weird. It seems like every time I'm yearning to receive a friend's response I get a text from someone else. It's not necessarily a bad thing, because I'm usually interested in talking to most anyone I have saved in my phone. Does that make me amiable? Maybe genial? I've never thought of myself in either way. I think I'm usually just bored and looking for entertainment. Entertain me.

Anyway, first I got happy, then I got sad, then I got angry, then I got disinterested. Talk about rapid transitions. I always have had bipolar tendencies, I think I inherited them, but this sequence of emotions happened pretty fast.

Emotions are weird. I feel like no matter what order they come in at some point they achieve the same end result, apathy. I can't tell if it's some self-defense against a potential actualization of my fear of failure, or if I really just don't care. I think it might be the latter, I keep thinking about looking into it, but then I just stop caring.

Caring is weird. I just don't understand the point of becoming emotionally involved in something. Whether you're happy or you're sad, it doesn't really make a difference. You effect the changes you want to some situation, or you don't, or it's out of your hands and you can't do anything about it. What's the point of getting all riled up about it? Next time you get really happy, calm down, take a deep breath, and make yourself really sad. Then calm down, stop being upset, and convince yourself to be ecstatic. Your own emotions are one of the few things you have absolute control over, they're a toy to be fiddled with. When I first realized this I had a load of fun, I got excited about my newfound ability, then I got upset with how most people let their emotions control them, then I got angry, then I just stopped caring.

Anyway, after I got uninterested, I decided to ignore your text and move on with my day. I got up and got in the shower. The shower was fairly normal, I sat down and let the water assault my depression treasury until it all washed away. I sit down in the shower a lot. Is that weird? I think I'm usually just tired. After I got out of the shower, I was drying off. That's when I woke up.

I checked my phone first. I had a missed call and a text from people I didn't dream about. I had overslept, I started rushing to get ready for work. I crammed a donut in my mouth, threw on some clothes and was out the door. I got to work surprisingly fast, traffic was smoother than usual, but something seemed off when I got out and hurried my way inside. I scanned my fob at the door, the door unlocked. That's when I woke up.

I checked my phone first. I had a missed call from someone else. I had overslept, I ate a donut, this is getting repetitive. Life's getting repetitive. A lot of people are comforted by a sense of familiarity; I tend to think it's annoying. I should make a change instead of waiting for one to happen to me. I should do a lot of things. That's when I woke up.

title: Ramble On

question: Summarize everything that is happening to the narrator.

answer: The narrator keeps dreaming about waking up and getting a text from someone apologizing for how things are. The narrator transitions from feeling happy, sad, angry, and disinterested. The narrator thinks texts, emotions, and caring are weird. The narrator decides to ignore the text and sit in the shower but wakes up. The narrator checks for messages again and rushes to work while eating a donut, but wakes up again (a dream within a dream). The narrator goes through everything again (check messages, shower, donut, work) before realizing that life is getting repetitive and vows to make a change instead of waiting for things to happen. Then, the narrator wakes up again.


text:
Not long after civil war began to ravage the Central African Republic in 2013, a fifth grade girl named Dorcas returned to her school hoping to see the familiar faces of teachers and friends. Instead, she encountered armed men who had taken over the school, ransacked it and burned benches and textbooks. “I burst into tears,” she said. “It took away my last hope.”

At a time when more than 30 countries around the world are officially experiencing humanitarian crises, including protracted crises, and more than half of the world’s out-of-school children live in countries plagued by war and violence, Dorcas’ words reflect the fear and desperation that all too many children face in the wake of natural disasters, major health emergencies and devastating armed conflicts.

The extraordinary scale of such suffering, now at its highest level since the second world war, has prompted world leaders to gather in Istanbul this week for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit.

Beyond raising the visibility and sense of urgency around the growing challenges of conflict and crisis in nearly every region of the world, the Summit intends to improve the international community’s response to humanitarian emergencies.

A NEW EDUCATION CRISIS FUND

One important outcome of the Summit will be the creation of a new financing and coordination mechanism – Education Cannot Wait, an education crisis fund – to help children facing violence, displacement, epidemic, social breakdown, hunger and prolonged crisis get access to and stay in school.

We need this fund because global humanitarian responses have always given lower priority and fewer resources to education than to other essentials like basic health care, shelter and nutrition. Less than 2% of all humanitarian aid goes to education.

That’s shockingly low given that every child has a narrow, finite window of formative years during which they find it easiest to learn how to read, write and do math and acquire other cognitive skills. Formal schooling also helps shield children from the trauma of crisis.

What’s more, education is notably a powerful antidote to conflict. We know that literate people are more likely than others to participate in their societies’ democratic institutions and that the risk of war drops as more of a country’s citizens receive a secondary education. Further, once the urgent crisis subsides, how can a country expect to rebuild without a population that has even a basic of level of knowledge and literacy?

The new Education Cannot Wait fund is designed to mobilise additional funding, improve coordination and technical assistance and strengthen education sector planning and monitoring. It will also be an important tool to advocate for education to continue during emergencies and protracted crisis. It will allow more nimble and rapid responses to fast-moving emergencies and, at the same time, support long-term educational viability and growth.

SERVING IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM NEEDS

That’s precisely why the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is playing a central role in the development and realisation of the new education crisis fund. Based on its strong partnership model, GPE expedites support when developing countries experience a sudden or prolonged crisis and helps them transition to long-term development. GPE does this by providing the support needed to build durable, quality education systems.

In the Central African Republic, for example, GPE quickly approved emergency support to allow more than 100,000 children who had been displaced by conflict to return to school, helped rehabilitate hundreds of school buildings and promoted teacher recruitment and training and other efforts to rebuild the country’s crumbling education system.

In Chad, a GPE-funded emergency program has enabled the government to shore up an already over-burdened school system to serve thousands of refugee children who have fled violence in neighbouring countries.

In South Sudan, which has been torn apart by civil war, partners like GPE have helped the government create and execute a plan to improve the national education system, assist schools in improving their performance, offer models for school strengthening and enable more girls to receive an education.

In each of these countries, and many others facing crisis, this immediate support feeds into a broader, longer-term vision to educate all children, particularly girls and other disadvantaged children who are the hardest to reach.

The solutions we hope to achieve at the World Humanitarian Summit – above all, elevating education as an essential part of any humanitarian response – won’t completely extinguish all the challenges children face during humanitarian crises. But they will rescue millions from likely lives of misery, poverty and tragedy.

By taking firm and bold steps, the international community can restore their last, and indeed best, hope to improve their lives long after crises subside.

_For more about education in conflict-affected and fragile states, go here._

question: What does the text say about the World Humanitarian Summit?

answer: The upcoming World Humanitarian Summit will be the first of its kind and was prompted by the scale of ongoing humanitarian crises, which is now at its highest level since the second world war. The Summit aims to raise the visibility and sense of urgency around the growing challenges of conflict and crisis in nearly every region of the world and to improve the international community's response to humanitarian emergencies. An important outcome of the Summit will be the creation of a new financing and coordination mechanism, Education Cannot Wait, an education crisis fund, to help children facing violence, displacement, epidemic, social breakdown, hunger, and prolonged crisis get access to and stay in school.

question: What does the text say about the Global Partnership for Education?

answer: The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is playing a central role in the development and realization of the new education crisis fund. GPE expedites support when developing countries experience a sudden or prolonged crisis and helps them transition to long-term development. The GPE has already helped in places like the Central African Republic, Chad, and South Sudan.


text:
	A gust kicked dust across his boots. The road seemed to be dissolving in the wind, as it picked up and whirled the dirt about. As it ascended, his trench coat fluttered against him. In the corner of his eyes, he could see his compadre on either side; steadfast in resolve, they stood like stone against the rising dust tide. For miles ahead and miles behind, for miles to the left and to the right; nothing but dirt, rocks and flat. The land between the roads was a wasteland of dead plants and loose soil, turned infertile by the folly of man. The sun was once beating down, but the storm that once loomed in the distance was now upon them.
	A tower of cloud, sucking the air from around them. He knew what was upon him, It has come. The sky darkened as the storm began to pick up. The winds stopped coming from behind and were coming from anywhere and everywhere. Swirls and eddies of dirt and dead grass flung about. Yet here they stood. Lighting struck through the clouds, but they still stood fast.
	He could feel his resolve as one with his allies; what they faced soon would test this resolve. The storm raged in large gusts, but there was naught for it to throw around except dust and pebbles. No rain came, only howling winds and terrible lightning. They felt locked into place, iron willed to not give an inch. Then It came. A tornado forming up the road in front of them, but as it touched down a great flame came from the ground, and the twister sucked the flame high into the sky, and lightning cracked and exploded  from the cloud to the flaming vortex.
	As it neared them, their resolve was never stronger. It is coming, but It will not hurt us. Whatever form It takes, no harm shall befall us if we stay our ground. He knew it, and so did the only two human beings he had for miles. The pillar of flame made its way closer, only a few hundred yards away, when it widened with great speed, like a slow moving explosion, only to stop growning just as suddenly, and it stopped its advance. The pillar ripped open in the middle to expose some terrible darkness, when out It stepped. And It’s form was not pleasant. A gargantuan demon from the earth to the cloud; he had a dark and smokey skin and was not easy to get a focus on, except his head. Large curved horns, and the face of a nose-less, eyebrow-less man except with fire coming out of cuts and scars. Their resolve was unshaken. It won’t hurt us, It is testing us. As he approached one large step at a time, It got smaller. A lot smaller. Until It was barely smoking and easy to see, and only a foot or two taller than a man. It was a man, at least so it seemed. His face had grown out of that mask of fire and scars, and He was a handsome man at that. Nothing hideous, but you could read the malice in His eyes. And so He approached ever so casually, while their hearts raced. The Prince of Darkness, Lucifer.
	“And so I am.” Said He with a voice eased and mid pitched. Terrifying, it would seem, was not his approach now. “And you are the band...”
	“Aye,” he answered, feeling confident in speaking. “He who is the bringer of arts and music, we beseech for Your Blessing, so that we may unlock the greatest potential of man through power greater than he.”
	“And so it shall be, but what do you offer that I, who is ever so generous in granting thee Power beyond man?”
	“We offer NOT our souls.”
	“What? That is the only wa-”
	“EAT LEAD MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!” They pulled tommy guns out of their trenchcoats and unloaded on the motherfucker. Satan was dead before he could shit his pants, and they absorbed all of his powers. Now, The Man In The Badass Trenchcoat was Prince of Darkness, and could shred harder than any man alive. The band went on to be really big for a few years, then they all died of various drug and alcohol overdoses.
The end.

title: The Crossroads

question: Where are the characters?

answer: It seems they are in some kind of desert, a wasteland.

question: What are they waiting for?

answer: At first, it is unclear, but then it is revealed that they were waiting for the devil.

question: How does the devil arrive?

answer: In a huge storm, a fiery tornado.

question: Do they make a deal with the devil?

answer: No, they shoot him and kill him, absorbing his power.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The text is a short story about a rock band waiting to meet the devil. The devil arrives in a fiery storm, but instead of making a deal with him, they shoot him and kill him. They become successful for a few years and then die of various overdoses.


text:
_ARENA HASH_ is the first studio album by Arena Hash, released in 1988.[1][2]

Critical reception

The album was well received in Perú having several hits on the radio. It received a 3 star rating on _Rate Your Music_.[3]

Singles

_KANGREJO (SACUDÍA)_ was released in 1987 as the first single of the album. The song had success in Perú where it became a hit even though it didn't reach number one.[4]

_CUANDO LA CAMA ME DA VUELTAS_ was released in 1988 as the album's second single. The song became a huge hit in Perú topping the airplay list on several radio stations as soon as it was released becoming the band's first number one hit.[5]

_ME RESFRIÉ EN BRASIL_ was released as the album's third single in 1988. The song had success in Peruvian radio becoming one of the album's biggest hits.[6]

_STRESS_ was released in 1988 as the album's fourth single. The song received moderate airplay in Perú.

_NO CAMBIARÉ_ was released in 1988 as the fifth single of the album and it achieved moderate success in Perú.[7]

_ROMPE OREJAS_ was released as the sixth and final single from the album. It received some airplay but didn't achieve as much as the album's other singles.

Track listing

-   All songs written by Pedro Suarez-Vertiz, Patricio Suarez-Vertiz and Arturo Pomar Jr. except track 5 (Suarez-Vertiz, Suarez-Vertiz, Pomar, Kornhuber)

Personnel

Arena Hash[8]

-   Pedro Suárez-Vértiz - guitars, vocals, additional keyboards
-   Christian Meier - keyboard, backing vocals
-   Patricio Suárez-Vértiz - bass, backing vocals
-   Arturo Pomar, Jr. - drums, percussion, backing vocals

Additional Personnel

-   Carlos Espinoza: Alto Sax on “Stress”
-   Mickey “Coyote” Denegri: Lead Guitar on “Rompeorejas”
-   Eduardo Chavez: Lead Guitar on “No Cambiare Jamas” and backing vocals on “Me Resfrie en Brazil”
-   Lito Figueroa: Additional Keyboards on “Mueve Lo Que Puedas”
-   German Gonzales: Percussion on “Me Resfrie en Brazil”

[1] http://tetradotoxina.com/foro/descargas-musica-album-spanish/191-arena-hash-arena-hash-1988-peru.html

[2]

[3]

[4] Christian Meier recordó cómo ingresó a Arena Hash, a 30 años de su primer disco Consultado el 8 de octubre de 2018

[5] BBC : El rockero peruano que dejó de articular palabras Consultado el 8 de octubre de 2018

[6] Diez vinilos de músicos peruanos que no te puedes perder Consultado el 8 de octubre de 2018

[7] Christian Meier recuerda el segundo disco que lanzó junto a Pedro Suárez-Vértiz y Arena Hash Consultado el 8 de octubre de 2018

[8] Arena Hash- _Arena Hash_. @Discogs.com. Retrieved on January 5, 2016 (in English)

title: Arena Hash (album)

question: What genre of music is Arena Hash?

answer: Not answered.

question: How many singles were released off of the album?

answer: Six singles were released from the album.

question: Who played the drums on the album?

answer: Arturo Pomar, Jr. is listed as the drummer for the album.

question: How many units did the album sell?

answer: Not answered.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: This article details "Arena Hash" the first studio album by the band Arena Hash, released in 1988. The album was well-received in Peru. Six singles were released from the album.


text:
Only Carter had lower job approval during November of his third year

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Obama's 43% average job approval rating last month ranks as one of the lowest for an elected president in November of his third year in office. Only Jimmy Carter had a lower rating, at 40%. But Carter's rating surged in late November 1979 because of a rally in support after the onset of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and he averaged above 50% in December. All recently elected presidents were at or above 50% in December of their third year in office.

[Elected Presidents' Average Job Approval Rating in November and December of Their Third Year in Office]

Obama's November average is improved from his 41% averages in August, September, and October, but looks weaker from a historical perspective. His job approval rating has been highly stable in recent weeks, but if it does not increase significantly this month, he will be the first elected president in Gallup records to be below 50% in December of his third year in office.

Though all recent elected presidents were at or above 50% 11 months before they faced re-election, the trajectory of their ratings differed.

-   Dwight Eisenhower had approval ratings above 70% for the latter part of 1955.
-   Richard Nixon's approval ratings were generally stable near 50% in late 1971.
-   After the late November surge, Carter's ratings stayed high from December 1979 through February 1980, but by March 1980, he was back in the low 40% range.
-   Ronald Reagan's approval ratings were improving in late 1983.
-   George H.W. Bush's job approval was falling in late 1991 from the then-record-high 89% registered in early March after the Persian Gulf War ended, and it continued to decline to a low of 29% in August 1992.
-   Bill Clinton's ratings were also generally improving in late 1995 before dipping below 50% in early January 1996, but then they bounced back above 50% by the end of January.
-   George W. Bush's approval ratings were declining from his post-9/11 highs by late 2003, but he got a bump in support in December when the U.S. captured Saddam Hussein.

Carter and the elder George Bush are the two recent presidents who were defeated for election to a second term in office.

Obama's current ratings are closest to those of Gerald Ford, a president who was not elected in his own right but sought re-election. Ford's job approval rating averaged 43% in November and December 1975. Ford was narrowly defeated for re-election by Carter the following November.

The other two unelected presidents who ran for re-election, Harry Truman (54% in November-December 1947) and Lyndon Johnson (76% in December 1963), were above 50% roughly a year before facing voters for the first time. Johnson had just become president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy -- hence, his high approval ratings -- while Truman had been in office for nearly three years after Franklin Roosevelt's death.

IMPLICATIONS

Gallup finds that presidents are generally re-elected if their approval rating at the time of the election is at least 50%, though George W. Bush was re-elected with a 48% approval rating in 2004. Thus, Obama's current 43% job approval rating is not an encouraging sign for his re-election prospects.

At the same time, Obama remains competitive with Republican candidates in polls of registered voters' general election preferences.

Obama's campaign team can hope that the modest improvement in his November approval rating is the beginning of an upswing in his public support that would continue into 2012 and increase his probability of being re-elected.

_Explore President Obama's approval ratings in depth and compare them with those of past presidents in the_ _Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center._

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking Nov. 1-30, 2011, with a random sample of 14,687 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400 cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents by region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed telephone numbers. Cell phone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, and phone status (cell phone only/landline only/both, cell phone mostly, and having an unlisted landline number). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2010 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.

The questions reported here were asked of a random half-sample of respondents each night on the Gallup Daily tracking survey.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.

 December 2, 2011
Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/151106/obama-november-approval-weak-historical-perspective.aspx
Gallup World Headquarters, 901 F Street, Washington, D.C., 20001, U.S.A
+1 202.715.3030

question: Who are the two recent presidents that were defeated for election to a second term?

answer: Carter and the elder George Bush.

question: What was Obama's average job approval in August?

answer: 41%

question: What year is discussed in the article?

answer: 2011

question: What were Ronald Reagan's approval ratings?

answer: They were improving in late 1983.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This is a summary of elected presidents' average job approval rating in November and December of their third year in office.


text:
Looking out the window, George could see the harsh conditions of a Canadian winter. He smiled, seeing the familiar scene and sipped at a coffee. As he watched the snow dance through the air out the window, he thought of the potential this day had. The morning after the first blizzard was always his favorite. The trees smothered with white snow, the air fresh and cold. It also made for good hunting because all of the tracks found were fresh ones.
   But today was not the day to hunt, nor a day to admire the fresh layer of snow from indoors. When you live in a log cabin in the hills, firewood is something you can never have enough of. He wasn’t having a shortage of it, but he knew his current cache wouldn’t last him the winter. He wanted at least another cord of oak to be sure he wouldn’t run out. He would spend his day cutting and pilling wood.
   After George ate breakfast, he got suited up for the outdoors. He wore a thick red plaid jacket, and in his hands was .308 hunting rifle, that had been passed down from his father. He still remembered his father’s words when he presented it to him, “Son, one day this will save your life”. He brought the rifle out with him every time he went out, with those words echoing in his head. His father had definitely been right, the rifle had gotten him through many winters, and it had gotten him out some very close encounters with the wildlife.
   George continued with his preparations, grabbing his wool hat, and tying up his steel toed boots. Once he was ready, he opened his front door, and started towards the forest trail. He knew of an area with many large ash trees, but he knew carrying the wood back would be a pain. With the new snow, he couldn’t bring a wheelbarrow, and he didn’t have any other means of transporting the wood, except by hand. The trees were about a forty-five minute walk from his cabin, but that time would be almost doubled if he was carrying the wood.
   An idea came to him, and he turned back towards his home. He headed to his workshop, garbed a canvas tarp, and a few meters of rope. After a few minutes, and some craftsmanship, George fashioned himself a kind of sled that he could carry the wood back with. He took a second to admire his own craftiness, grabbed the sled and started back for the path.
   He could feel the .308 against his back, and he could hear the sound of the sled gliding across the snow. He continued down the path, until he came to a section that split into 2 different directions. Knowing the woods as well as he did, he didn’t hesitate for a second. He turned to his left and kept on going. He didn’t like travelling this path; he had had some bad experiences on it. More than a few close calls with wolves have taken place there, and whenever he walked it, he was always on his guard for another attack.  Something in the snow ahead of him caught his eye, and he knelt down to examine it. His heart sank when he realized it was a wolf track, a fresh one too.
   He immediately went for his gun that was slung on his back. He loaded a bullet into the chamber, and brought the rifle to the ready position. He scanned the horizon for wolves but didn’t see anything. Just then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He switched off the safety and whipped around, but saw a squirrel book it up a tree. He breathed a sigh of relief, but did not lower his rifle. He heard the ruffling of leaves behind him, and he went to turn towards it. Without even realising it, he had placed his right foot on his sled. When he turned the sled gave out, and he fell violently towards the ground, letting go of his rifle at the same time. He hit the snow just an instant before the rifle, and he had just enough time to look into the barrel of the gun before it smashed against the ground, causing it to fire a round straight through George’s skull.

title: A short story i wrote for English class

question: It seems George isn't ready for winter, was the storm unexpected?

answer: It doesn't appear so.

question: If George is going to chop wood, why is he taking his gun?

answer: He takes his gun with him every time he goes out because he never knows when he might encounter wildlife.

question: What is his father's advice?

answer: His father told him that the gun would save his life.

question: Does George live alone?

answer: It seems so. He lives in the Canadian woods.

question: Write a ~8 sentence summary.

answer: George awakens in his log cabin in the Canadian woods and sees the blizzard left a blanket of snow. He decides he needs to cut more wood to last him the winter. He dresses warmly, and grabs his rifle, remembering his father's advice that it will save his life one day. He fashions a sled made of canvas and rope to use to haul the wood back to the cabin. As he's walking, he sees a fresh wolf print in the snow. He loads a bullet in the rifle's chamber and brings it to ready position. He hears a noise behind him, turns, slips on the sled, and falls to the ground. He inadvertently drops his rifle and it fires, shooting him in the head.


text:
"Wake up, Timothy.....Timothy, dear, wake up!"

“Ugh...what?”

“Wake up! We're leaving soon!”

	Timothy rose from his bead, still groggy. Beside him was his wife, already dressed. He glanced at his clock; 3:20 AM, it read.

“Margaret, what are you doing awake and dressed at three in the morning? Why are you waking me up?”, said Timothy, yawning.

“We're leaving soon!”

“Leaving where?”

“Oh...well, its a surprise, you'll just have to wait until Jeffery comes. Then we will leave!”, said Margaret. She seemed quite excited for this place they were going to.

“Who's Jeffery? Why do we have to wait for him?”

“Because he's the one taking us!”

“Margaret, I don't want to go anywhere. I want to sleep. I have work in the morning, how am I supposed to be on time if I don't get any sleep?”

“You don't need to worry about work, dear. Now get dressed! I'm going to go fix us some breakfast.”

	Margaret left the bedroom, and headed towards the kitchen. Timothy could hear her humming to herself happily as she prepared their food. As reluctant as he was, he got out of bed and dressed himself. He didn't want to go anywhere; but Margaret had been quite distant lately; not herself. This was the first time in weeks he had seen her happy. He decided he'd go along with it, for her sake. As he walked into the kitchen, Margaret stood at the stove smiling, frying some eggs.

“How would you like your eggs, dear?”

“Runny.”

	Timothy walked to the coffee maker, and began to make some coffee. He soon realized that Margaret had stopped humming; so he turned around. She was standing completely still, staring at him blankly.

“What are you looking at me like that for?”, he asked.

	No response.

“Margaret, what's wrong?”

“Oh, what?”, she said, as she snapped back into reality.

“You were staring at me.”

“Oh, sorry. Silly me, I guess I'm still a bit tired!” She resumed cooking the eggs and humming.

	Timothy finished brewing his coffee just as Margaret finished cooking the eggs. She prepared them plates, and they sat down to eat.

“So, where are we going?”, Timothy asked.

“I can't tell you, dear. Its a surprise.”

“What kind of surprise?”

“A special surprise, just for you.”

“A surprise? For me? It better be damn good if its at 3 AM in the morning. When are we leaving?”

“Oh, I don't know. As soon as Jeffery gets here.”

	About a half hour had passed, and they had both finished eating. Timothy was in the living room, fiddling with the T.V.. Margaret sat next to him, reading a book.

“Margaret, did you mess with the T.V.? Its just fuzzy white noise.”

“No dear, I didn't touch it.”

“Whatever. There's probably nothing good on, anyway. Can we leave yet?”

“No, not yet. We need to wait 'till Jeffery comes.”

“I think this Jeffery guy is a bit late.”, said Timothy, mildly annoyed.

	Another half hour passed, and at this point Timothy was laying on the floor, half asleep. His eyes became heavy, and soon the image of Margaret underneath the lamp had dimmed to blackness.

“Wake up, Timothy! Wake up! Timothy!”

	Timothy opened his eyes. He was back in his bed, with Margaret sitting on the bed next to him, with a worried look on her face.

“Timothy, you were talking in your sleep, and you're sweating.”

“What? How did I get in my bed? Is Jeffery here yet? He glanced at the clock; 5:48 AM.

“Who's Jeffery, Timothy?”

“Jeffery, Margaret. You know, he was going to take us to the surprise, remember? You woke me up at 3 AM!”

“What? I don't know a Jeffery, and I didn't wake you up. You must have been dreaming, that's probably why you were talking in your sleep.”

“Maybe...Margaret, I had a very strange dream. You woke me up, and we were going to go to my surprise, but you said we had to wait for Jeffery, and-”

“Oh, honey! You're cold!”

“I'm what?”, said Timothy, confused.

“You're cold! But you're sweating! I'm calling the doctor.”

Margaret left the bedroom, and he could soon hear her talking on the phone with the doctor. He touched his forehead; it was cold. Stone cold. So was his arm, and his leg, and the rest of his body. Ice cold. He shivered. The doorbell rang.

“Wow, that was fast!”, exclaimed Margaret.

Timothy could hear her answer the door.

“Who are you? You're not the doctor.”

“No, I'm not,” said a man with a raspy voice. “I'm here for Timothy.”

“He's in the bedroom...but who are you? What do you want?”

“I'm Jeffery,” he said, “The undertaker.”

title: Wait 'till Jeffery Comes

question: What is Timothy's relationship to Jeffrey?

answer: He doesn't have one, but it's revealed that Jeffrey is an undertaker. He is probably going to take care of Timothy's dead body.

question: Why is Timothy reluctant?

answer: It's early in the morning and he isn't sure about Margaret's surprise.

question: Why is Margaret up at 3:20 AM?

answer: She has a surprise for Timothy, and says they're leaving as soon as Jeffrey arrives.

question: What is the story's turning point?

answer: Timothy falls asleep waiting for Jeffrey, but when he wakes it's almost 6 am. Margaret has no idea who he is talking about when he mentions Jeffrey.

question: Where is the setting?

answer: It's implied it takes place in Timothy's home.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Timothy's wife Margaret wakes him up around 3 am one day, and tells him that they will be leaving soon when Jeffrey picks them up. Timothy has no idea who Jeffrey is, but decides to go along. After falling back asleep, he wakes and asks Margaret when they're leaving, but she has no idea what he's talking about or who Jeffrey is. She notes that he's very cold and calls the doctor. Instead of a doctor, Jeffery arrives for Timothy and claims to be an undertaker.


text:
_ARCTOBIUS_ is a genus of tangled nest spiders containing the single species, _ARCTOBIUS AGELENOIDES_. It was first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967,[1] with a holarctic distribution.[2]

[1]

[2]

title: Arctobius

question: What is Arctobius?

answer: Arctobius is a genus of tangled nest spiders.

question: Name the Arctobius species.

answer: Arctobius contains a single species, viz. Arctobius Agelenoides.

question: Who discovered the Arctobius Agelenoides?

answer: It was first described by Pekka T. Lehtinen in 1967.

question: Where can this spider be found?

answer: It has a Holarctic distribution.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Arctobius Agelenoides is a Holarctic nest spider first described in 1967.


text:
Edit Story

|Feb 12, 2013,02:46pm EST

[Erik Kain]

This article is more than 7 years old.

"_Ludonarrative dissonance_, a term first coined by the game designer Clint Hocking, arises whenever a video game's fiction says one thing and its gameplay says an opposite thing," video game critic Tom Bissell wrote in his review of_Max Payne 3. "S_ome designers and critics regard ludonarrative dissonance as a core problem in modern game design."

Oddly, game design has done little to distance itself from this problem.

Take, for example, _Hitman: Absolution_. This is a stealth game about a bald guy with a barcode tattooed to the back of his head. You can put on a costume to disguise yourself, but the disguise is blown if people wearing the same clothes get too close to you. Sometimes shooting a car causes it to blow up; often it does not. I don't mean to pick on _Hitman_ either; many games are much worse at this sort of inconsistency.

The above video game "review" of _Hitman: Absolution_ by Conan O'Brien is probably the best review of that game that I've encountered, largely because it hilariously and unwittingly exposes some of the most irritating and consistent flaws in video game design.

Basically each of his jokes says something profoundly important about games whether or not he realizes it, and this is (I suspect) mainly because here we have someone who doesn't play video games at all playing one and simply speaking his mind. The conceit of many video games these days is that you can get away with bad writing and preposterous narrative choices simply because it's a game.

After all, if a game like _Call of Duty_ is the top seller year over year, why do anything to change? That franchise is brimming with ludonarrative dissonance, but it sells like hotcakes.

In modern games you can have a stealth title where the AI simply stops looking for you after a while even though you've been running around killing them off one at a time, a fact they're well aware of but apparently too forgetful to care about.

You can have a game in which you slaughter hordes upon hordes of enemies only to suddenly cut to a pre-rendered scene where one simple bullet takes your avatar down for the count. You are helpless against these cut-scenes in a way that you are never helpless against your digital opponents.

I think that as players of games, as consumers who spend vast amounts of time playing them, we can sometimes forget how ludicrous they can be to an outsider. We can overlook the small details that, to a non-gamer, might be much more garish and obtuse. Not that "outsiders" should necessarily determine the future of game design; rather, games should strive to be more sensible in terms of not just story, but in terms of clear cut rules that make sense within the game world itself. And we should be less complacent.

Thanks to everyone who pointed me toward Conan O'Brien as a model for game review scores. Spot on.

P.S. The flipside to this is that a game like _Hitman_ is, regardless of its foibles, pretty fun at times. Games can get away with this stuff not only because we're complacent, but because they can still be fun regardless. Though I would argue that they are more fun when they follow a strict set of internal rules that make sense both in terms of narrative and gameplay.

_Follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Read my Forbes blog here._

[Erik Kain]

I write about video games, TV and movies.

-   Print
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question: What is ludonarrative dissonance?

answer: While the article does not discuss the topic in detail, it says "whenever a video game's fiction says one thing and its gameplay says an opposite thing". This appears to pertain to instances where inconsistencies are accepted by a core audience but would actually be noticed in a more general setting.

question: How does ludonarrative dissonance apply to video games?

answer: The article gives examples wherein game mechanics are not consistent (some cars can be blown up, others cannot), the way that cutscenes can depict the player character, and in a specific example, how the disguises work in Hitman: Absolution.

question: Does ludonarrative dissonance truly matter?

answer: The article states that as long as the game is fun, it can get away things such as these. They tend to be noticed more by people who don't normally play games [and as such, do not necessarily find enough fun to be able to hold the suspension of disbelief].

question: Why is the review Conan O'Brien something noteworthy?

answer: Because Conan is [a talk show host and] not a gamer. Thus many things in games (mechanics, visual quirks, etc) that would be normally accepted by gamers are things that Conan would point out as something that should not be easily considered as acceptable fact.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: A game review by Conan O'Brien of Hitman: Absolution reminds Erik Kain that there are games that have ludonarrative dissonance. Many game mechanics and limitations certainly take away from narrative immersion due to the inconsistent nature of the game. However, since the game industry is able to successfully make games despite this, and gamers continue to have fun regardless, this is likely to not change much.


text:
AMR MOUSSA (, , AMR MUHAMMAD MOUSSA; born 3 October 1936) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the Secretary-General of the Arab League, a 22-member forum representing Arab states, from 1 June 2001 to 1 June 2011. Previously he served in the government of Egypt as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 2001. On 8 September 2013, he was elected president of the committee of 50 that will amend the Egyptian constitution.[1]

Early life

He was born on 3 October 1936 in Cairo, Egypt, the son of former parliamentarian Muhammad Moussa. His father also had a son named Pierre during his studies in France in the 1920s. However, Moussa's half-brother Pierre is a French citizen and has no ties to Egypt.[2]

Moussa finished his education after earning a degree in law from Cairo University in 1957.

Diplomatic career

Moussa then began his diplomatic career between 1958 and 1972 he worked in several missions, including Egypt's Embassy in Switzerland and the Egyptian mission to the United Nations. From 1974 to 1977 he was an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 1977 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1990, he was the Director of the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1981 to 1983, Moussa was the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, then from 1983 to 1986 Ambassador to India.[3] In 1990, he was promoted Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations. He was named Minister of Foreign Affairs by Prime Minister Atef Sedki on 20 May 1991. He was minister until 15 May 2001 when he was elected as Secretary-General of the Arab League.

Moussa has been heavily involved with Egypt's foreign policy since 1958. He was Egypt's ambassador to the United Nations, India, and Switzerland for a total of 21 years. Moussa was among the many Arab and international diplomats who tried to resolve the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). After serving as Egypt's Foreign Minister from 1991 to 2001, he served as the Secretary General of the Arab League.[4] Moussa has been an extremely popular political figure in Egypt due to his criticism of Israeli policies towards Gaza and the West Bank.[5] At the Forum for New Diplomacy in February 2010, Moussa gave a speech in which he criticized the U.S. government's double standard supporting Israel's nuclear weapons policy but not allowing Iran to pursue nuclear energy. He also criticized Western countries, including the U.S., for not recognizing the results of the 2006 Palestinian election that brought Hamas into power.[6] Like Mohamed El-Baradei and the Muslim Brotherhood, he supports opening the Gaza Strip/Egypt border.[7] His criticisms have made Moussa extremely popular.

Secretary-General of the Arab League

On 15 May 2001, Moussa was selected as Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and took office on 1 June 2001. Critics of former-President Hosni Mubarak allege that Moussa's appointment to the office of Secretary-General of the Arab League was motivated by Mubarak's desire to remove him from the public spotlight, and so he would not compete as a candidate in the 2005 presidential elections.

On 2003, he became a member of the United Nations High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change for International Peace and Security.

On 2009, he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Holy See and met with Pope Benedict XVI in order to strengthen joint projects and to promote peace and dialogue on a cultural and political level.[8]

On 13 June 2010, Moussa visited Gaza in a move to pressure Israel to lift its economic blockade over Hamas-ruled Gaza.[9] The visit by Moussa was the first by an official of the Arab League since the election of Hamas in 2007. Immediately after the Gaza flotilla raid, Moussa said the Arab League would go to the UN Security Council to demand the blockade be lifted. On 15 May 2011, Nabil Elaraby was elected as Secretary-General of the Arab League and succeeded Moussa on 1 July 2011.[10]

Possible presidential candidacies

[Moussa during the World Economic Forum 2013]

2005 presidential election

In 2004 an online community gathered tens of thousands of signatures petitioning for Moussa to run in the 2005 elections, but there was no response. In a _Doha Debate_ Forum televised by the BBC in 2006,[11] Moussa was asked about his presidential hopes. Moussa merely replied that he hoped to continue the recent run of successes that have occurred under his leadership at the Arab League until the end of his term.

2012 presidential election

When asked in October 2009 about rumours that he might run for the presidency in 2012, Moussa did not deny his intention to run for office or rule it out, leaving the door open to speculations. He argued that “It's the right of every citizen that has the capacity and efficiency to aspire to any political office that would allow him to contribute to the service of his nation”.[12] He further stated to the press that the qualities required to be the President of Egypt also apply to Gamal Mubarak, son of Hosni Mubarak.[13] He also expressed appreciation “for the confidence expressed by many people when they talk about his candidacy for the presidency and that the message reached him”.[14]

Moussa held talks with Mohamed El-Baradei after his return to Egypt. Many speculate that this meeting was held to discuss Constitutional reforms that will allow transparency in the election process as well as lifting restrictions on independent candidates. On 26 January 2011, at the Annual Horasis meeting in Zurich, Moussa shared strong views on the need for economic and political reforms in Egypt, and made it clear that he was considering a run.[15]

On 1 February 2011, following the announcement by President Hosni Mubarak that he would not stand in the upcoming presidential elections, Moussa told CNN that he would seriously think about standing himself as a candidate in the next few weeks.[16] On the 8 February broadcast of _Al Jazeera_ English's Empire, well-connected American journalist Seymour Hersh stated that Moussa was considered the U.S.'s favored “Plan B” should Mubarak resign, “whether he knows it or not.”[17] On 11 February 2011, Al Jazeera English Online read from a Reuters report that stated Moussa was resigning from his position with the Arab League; on the day that President Mubarak resigned the presidency this furthered rumours he might make a strong bid for president when elections are announced in Egypt. On 12 February 2011, the Egyptian daily newspaper _Alwafd_ reported that a group of Egyptian youth met with Moussa to discuss a possible nomination for the presidential election. Moussa reportedly agreed to the nomination, but stated that he would await the currently proposed constitutional reforms.[18]

Amr Moussa announced that he would be running as a presidential candidate on 1 March 2011.[19]

A poll conducted during the 2011 protests asking “who do you think should be the next President of Egypt?” showed Moussa in the lead, with 26% of respondents naming him.[20]

Moussa placed fifth in the election with 11.13% of the first round vote. After the election, he formed the Conference Party with which a number of smaller opposition parties aligned.

Criticisms

Although credited with shaking up the Arab League's bureaucracy,[21] Moussa has been criticized by former and current staff members of the Arab League for his management of the organization. In his book, _The League of the Arab States: what’s left of it_, former Arab League and Syrian diplomat Kawkab Najib El Rayess accused Moussa of favoritism and promoting his loyalists into the high ranks of the Arab League at the expense of the more-qualified diplomats.[22]

Honours

Egyptian national honours

  Ribbon bar   Honour
  ------------ ---------------------------------------------------------
  []           Grand Collar of the Order of the Nile
  []           Grand Cordon of the Order of the Arab Republic of Egypt

Foreign honors

  Ribbon bar   Country   Honour
  ------------ --------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  []                     Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
  []                     Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
  []                     Grand Cross of National Order of Merit
  []                     Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  []                     Grand Cordon of the National Order of El-Nilein
  []                     Grand Officer of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia

Publications

-   _Memoirs. 1: The Formation and the years of Diplomacy_ (), ed. Dar al-Chorouq, Cairo, 2017[23]

[1]

[2] Amr Moussa: No, I don’t have an Israeli half-brother, Times of Israel, by Elhanan Miller, dated 6 April 2012.

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10] </

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14] Amr Mousa to (Al-Shorouk): Every qualified citizen has the right to aspire to serve the country and become the president.

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18] ثوار يلتقون موسى وزويل لبحث“الرئاسة”. Alwafd

[19]

[20] “Phone Survey of Cairo and Alexandria”, Scribd Middle East Polls . Scribd, Retrieved 25 May 2012.

[21]

[22]

[23]

title: Amr Moussa

question: Based on the article, how likely is Moussa to win the presidency?

answer: It doesn't seem like he has any appreciable chance.

question: How long did Moussa's diplomatic career last?

answer: Approximately 53 years at least, based on the article.

question: What would've happened if Moussa wasn't appointed as Secretary-General to the Arab League?

answer: He could've run for the presidency in the 2005 elections, sparking a potential rivalry with then-president Hosni Mubarak.