text:
We all know how this ends; there's no need to continue. But if you feel the need to indulge yourself, I can't stop you. I will tell you one thing, though, it won't be a fun ride. This isn't the type of thing you discuss amongst your family around the dining room table. Even though you can feel in the air how much they want to ask you about it - as taboo as the subject is - there's no way they'll cross that line. But there's always that one friend who doesn't understand boundaries and why you shouldn't cross them. That ignorant bastard.

"So, did you kill anybody?"

I can feel my heart sink into my stomach, and with those five words all the memories I've tried so desperately to repress come flowing through my mind.

Images forever burned into my conscience.

How we got into this situation was the same for most of us: we wanted to heroes.  Granted, there is that one guy - down on his luck -  whose up to his knees in debt. They told him all his worries would disappear if he just signed on the dotted line. He needed a way out and couldn't think of any other options. But even then, in the back of his mind, the idea of ending another man's life without consequence, maybe even praise, had to impact his decision in some way. He could have chose a safer job... Anything but Combat Arms. But why fix the damage when you can inflict the damage?  You're a joke if you get a medal for making sure everyone gets paid on time.

In the long run all we really want is recognition.

One-hundred and thirty-eight days in country and not a single thing to write home about. You could feel the hostility in the air. Each and every one of us were growing tired of the monotony. All we wanted was a real reason to clean our weapons. And this is the insanity that the US Military inflicts among its indentured servants. Train a man to kill, give him guns and grenades, throw him into a desert and suddenly he wants to get shot at. We were all normal once-upon-a-time. Eventually everything fades to gray and you can't remember what exactly normal is anymore. At this point every man in Charlie Co. Fire Squad Alpha doesn't realize they've crossed the point of no return.

I couldn't see what I was shooting at, but it didn't matter. The gurgled screams let me know I was hitting something, though, and it felt good. The lesson I learned that day is that Positive Identification isn't always necessary. Before I get ahead of myself, let me explain. Those bastards thought they could run into a Mosque and they would be safe. Well, your Holy Place isn't mine. Your God can't judge me. Out here, life is a gift, and you have to be willing to take that gift away without a second thought about it.

Out here, standing by a road with a shovel can get you killed.

With my adrenaline pumping I guess I didn't notice what time it was... it just slipped my mind. All that matters is the target was eliminated; mission complete. The weight had immediately been lifted off my shoulders. I finally got what I was looking for and I felt vindicated.

After the C4 blast there wasn't much left of the Mosque, and the screams finally subsided. Sifting through the rubble, the pride I felt started to subside, and a sense of nausea overcame me. I stumbled upon what appeared to be a hand - a tiny little hand. I had never seen gore like this. A hand, a foot, an arm, a leg. Things unrecognizable as human. What have I done? These people weren't the enemy. These were human beings like you and I. Men, women, and children reduced to humps of body parts. I can never look at a hamburger the same way again.

"Soldier, you're about to learn a very important lesson today."

This was all too much to take in.

"Why do you think when we find a weapon cache every vehicle gets an RPG stowed in the back?"

Stunned, I didn't want to know.

Sergeant collected 3 RPGs and scattered them in the ruins of what once was a Mosque. stepping back and observing the scene, without a hint of emotion in his face, he took in a deep breath.

"When we get back to the FOB, CID will be there to conduct their investigation, so we'd better get our story straight. I'll tell you this, though, Soldier. Tomorrow you'll be on the cover of Stars & Strips. You're going to be a War Hero."

title: Collateral Damage

question: Why will the narrator be a hero tomorrow?

answer: The soldier has killed innocent people in their place of worship but his commander is ready to cover it up. They keep RPG weapons in their vehicles so when accidents happen they can set up the scene to look like they were under attack. The senior officer takes out three of these weapons and places them among the slaughtered people so that the investigators will be misled.

question: What emotions have driven the narrator to kill these innocent people?

answer: They had joined the army because they wanted to be heroes. They wanted the recognition and in the end, all they got was boredom - 138 days of inaction and nothing to write home about. They were bored senseless and each of the soldiers wanted to put their training into action. they had got to the point where any action was better than no action.

question: How did the soldier feel about what he had done?

answer: Though his commanding officer tells the narrator that he will be a war hero. He feels nothing of the sort. He is deeply ashamed of himself and prefers not to talk about what happened. He is also filled with guilt and desperately tries to repress the memories of what he did.

question: Where were the rest of Charlie Company Fire Squad Alpha when the narrator fires on the mosque?


split: train

text:
COHORS QUINTA DELMATARUM CIVIUM ROMANORUM (“5th Cohort of Dalmatae Roman citizens”) was a Roman auxiliary infantry regiment. It is named after the Dalmatae (or _Delmatae_), an Illyrian-speaking tribe that inhabited the Adriatic coastal mountain range of the eponymous Dalmatia. The ancient geographer Strabo describes these mountains as extremely rugged, and the Dalmatae as backward and warlike. He claims that they did not use money long after their neighbours adopted it and that they “made war on the Romans for a long time”. He also criticises the Dalmatae, a nation of pastoralists, for turning fertile plains into sheep pasture.[1] Indeed, the name of the tribe itself is believed to mean “shepherds”, derived from the Illyrian word _delme_ (“sheep”).[2] The final time this people fought against Rome was in the Illyrian revolt of AD 6-9. The revolt was started by Dalmatae auxiliary forces and soon spread all over Dalmatia and Pannonia. The resulting war was described by the Roman writer Suetonius as the most difficult faced by Rome since the Punic Wars two centuries earlier. But after the war, the Dalmatae became a loyal and important source of recruits for the Roman army.

According to Holder, a total of 12 _cohortes Delmatarum_ appear to have been raised after the suppression of the Illyrian revolt in two series, of 7 and 5 respectively. All these units were in existence by the time of emperor Claudius (r. 41-54)[3] Of these, 9 appear to have survived into the 2nd century.[4]

The regiment was probably raised by founder-emperor Augustus (r. 30 BC - AD 14) after 9 AD. It was certainly in existence by the time of Claudius (r. 41-54).[5][6] It is unclear why two _cohortes Delmatarum_ were given the same number _V_: this regiment and another _V Delmatarum_ in Germania Superior). Spaul suggests the regiment in Mauretania may be the cohors I Liburnorum, renamed. The regiment first appears in the datable epigraphic record in AD 88 in Mauretania Tingitana. It was still there in 158, the time of its last datable inscription.

Apart from diplomas, there is no epigraphic evidence for this unit. The regiment's title _c.R._ first appears in a diploma of 122. The honorific title _civium Romanorum_ (_c.R._ for short) was normally awarded by the emperor for valour to an auxiliary regiment as a whole. The award would include the grant of Roman citizenship to all the regiment's men, but not to subsequent recruits to the regiment. The regiment, however, would retain the prestigious title in perpetuity.[7] (N.B. Until 212, only a minority of the empire's inhabitants (inc. all Italians) held full Roman citizenship. The rest were denoted _peregrini_, a second-class status. Since the legions admitted only citizens, _peregrini_ could only enlist in the auxilia. Citizenship carried a number of tax and other privileges and was highly sought-after. It could be earned by serving in the auxilia for the minimum 25-year term.

Citations

[1] Strabo _Geographia_ VII.5

[2] Spaul (2000) 304

[3] Holder (1980) 112

[4] Spaul (2000) 302-14

[5]

[6] Spaul (2000) 308

[7] Goldsworthy (2005) 97

title: Cohors V Delmatarum c.R.

question: What does the article say about the Dalmatae?

answer: The Dalmatae was an Illyrian tribe that inhabited the Adriatic coastal mountain range of Dalmatia. The ancient geographer Strabo describes the Dalmatae as backward and warlike. The final time these people fought against Rome was in the Illyrian revolt of AD 6-9.

question: What does the story say about cohorts Delmatarum?

answer: 12 cohorts Delmatarum have been raised after the suppression of the Illyrian revolt by the time of emperor Claudius. It is unclear why two cohorts have the same number 'V': 5th Cohort of Dalmatae Roman citizens and 5th Delmatarum in Germania Superior.

question: What does the article say about the size of the cohorts?


text:
KACHOLIYA NADA is a small town in Bhopalgarh tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan. Its PIN code is 342606. It is the location of Banaram Ji Mar Temple & A Govt Primary School [1] And Apart from that famous religious places 'Bholaram ji ki Devri' and 'Bhuriya Baba ki Tikhi' are also located Near this town and this town comes under Ratkuria Village

[1]

title: Kacholiya Nada

question: What is the PIN code of Kacholiya Nada?

answer: 342606.

question: What is Kacholiya Nada?

answer: A small town.

question: Where is it?

answer: Bhopalgarh tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan.

question: What is the name of a nearby village?

answer: Ratkuria Village.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Kacholiya Nada is a small town in Bhopalgarh tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan.


text:
Tannhäuser
Richard Wagner's works for the stage, representing more than 50 years of creative life, comprise his 13 completed operas and a similar number of failed or abandoned projects. His first effort, begun when he was 13, was a prose drama, Leubald, but thereafter all his works were conceived as some form of musical drama. It has been suggested that Wagner's wish to add incidental music to Leubald, in the manner of Beethoven's treatment of Goethe's drama Egmont, may have been the initial stimulus that directed him to musical composition.
Wagner's musical education began in 1828, and a year later he was producing his earliest compositions, writing words and music, since lost, for his first opera attempt, Die Laune des Verliebten. During the subsequent decade he began several more opera projects, none of which was successful although two were completed and one was staged professionally. His first commercial success came in 1842 with Rienzi, by which time he had completed Der fliegende Holländer, in which for the first time he used the device of the leitmotiv, a characteristic that became a feature of all his later works.
After accepting the post of Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the King of Saxony in February 1843, Wagner continued to compose operas and plan various large-scale projects. His political activities forced him to flee the city in 1849, beginning a long period of exile. In Zurich, his first refuge, he wrote the essay Die Kunst und die Revolution ("Art and the Revolution"), in which he introduced the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, or "drama-through-music". This idea was developed in the extended discourse Oper und Drama ("Opera and Drama"), 1850–51. A different form of verse-setting, which Wagner termed Versmelodie, was proposed, in which the music would grow out of the verse, this unification overriding such traditional operatic considerations as display arias written as showcases for the talents of individual singers. According to Wagner historian Robert Gutman: "The orchestra with its many tongues would take over the traditional operatic tasks of the chorus". Beginning with Das Rheingold (1853–54), the principles of Gesamtkunstwerk became the basis of all Wagner's stage work, in which, quoting Wagner chronicler Charles Osborne, "the drama presented on a conscious level by the words ... would be pursued on a deeper, unconscious level in the orchestra."
 Librettist
Richard Wagner in Paris, 1860
From his first attempt in the opera genre, Die Laune des Verliebten, Wagner became his own librettist and remained so throughout his creative career. His practice was to create music and text simultaneously; in biographer Robert Gutman's words: "as the music proceeded it drew forth the words." While working on Tannhäuser Wagner explained his technique in a letter, saying: "before starting to create a verse or even outline a scene, I must first feel intoxicated by the musical aroma of my subject."
 Cataloguing Wagner's works
Unlike the works of many composers, those of Richard Wagner were not identified by opus numbers, and no proper attempt to create a complete catalogue was made until the 1980s. In 1983 the Wagner scholar John Deathbridge, in an article in The Musical Times, outlined the need for a reliable catalogue. Two years later, in conjunction with Martin Gech and Egon Voss, he produced Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, described by fellow-scholar Michael Saffle as "perhaps the single finest and most useful of all Wagner reference works." Each of Wagner's known works, whether finished or unfinished, is listed in a number sequence running from 1 to 113. The list includes all compositions and all prose drafts where the music is either lost or unwritten.
 List of works for the stage
 Sketched work or incomplete work
Acts
Translation:

title: List of works for the stage by Richard Wagner

question: Describe Wagner's musical beginnings.

answer: His first effort in the stage was a prose drama when he was 13. His musical education began in 1828. He began to produce his earliest creations for his first opera attempt a year later.

question: What happened in February 1843?

answer: Wagner accepted the post of Kapellmeister at the Dresden court of the King of Saxony.

question: Who is Robert Gutman?

answer: He was a Wagner historian and biographer.

question: What made cataloguing Wagner's works unique?

answer: His works weren't identified by opus numbers, and no proper attempt to create a complete catalogue was made until the 1980s.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: This article discusses the works for the stage by Richard Wagner. His works for the stage represented more than 50 years of creativity. They comprise his 13 completed operas and a similar number of failed or abandoned projects. This article goes over his history with the stage, his work in Paris in 1860, and the cataloguing of his works.


text:
Asian-American employees are more likely than white employees to value being highly compensated, to place importance on having a powerful position and to ask for stretch assignments, pay raises and promotions, but most don’t rise higher than middle management in America’s corporations, according to a report from the Center for Talent Innovation.

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

The report, “Asians in America: Unleashing the Potential of the ‘Model Minority,” found that what keeps most Asian Americans from making it to the top are subtle workplace biases fueled by the stereotype that Asians are passive and lack the necessary social skills and assertiveness to move up the corporate ladder.

Companies are at high risk of losing Asian talent because too many Asian Americans feel stuck in their positions. Barbara Adachi, national managing principal of the Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women at Deloitte, No. 8 in The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, and an Asian American, says, “The Asian community is a very large economic force both inside and outside of the U.S. The more you understand what’s going on globally, and the impact that China and India are having on the world, the more you will recognize the importance of having Asians be part of your organization and leadership team.”

ASIANS’ FRUSTRATION

The report was compiled from a national survey of nearly 3,000 Asians residing in the United States (51 percent born in Asia and 49 percent born in the United States, Canada, Europe or other countries), as well as focus groups and interviews. Findings show:

-   Twenty-five percent of Asians feel that they face workplace discrimination because of their ethnicity, while only 8 percent of Blacks, 9 percent of Latinos and 4 percent of whites believe that Asians are treated unfairly in the workplace.
-   Nearly half of Asian employees (48 percent) report that conformity to prevailing leadership models—having to act, look and sound like the established leaders in their workplace—is a problem.

-   Only 28 percent of Asian employees say they feel very comfortable “being themselves” at work, versus 40 percent of Blacks, 41 percent of Latinos and 42 percent of whites.

-   Forty-six percent of Asian employees have a mentor in their professional life, making them 15 percent less likely to have a mentor than their white colleagues.

-   Asians are more than three times as likely as whites, and significantly more likely than Blacks and Latinos, to reduce their ambitions, work fewer hours and consider quitting because of issues of bias.

DIVERSITYINC TOP 50 COMPARATIVES

Representation of Asian Americans in senior levels of U.S. organizations is higher in the DiversityInc Top 50 than in the U.S. industry in general. Asian Americans account for just 1.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs and 4 percent of the CEOs in the DiversityInc Top 50. (See also: Where’s the Diversity in Fortune 500 CEOs)

As a subset of the DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, DiversityInc ranks The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Asian Americans. They are:

No. 1: Deloitte

No. 2: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

No. 3: Johnson & Johnson

No. 4: IBM

No. 5: PricewaterhouseCoopers

No. 6: Kaiser Permanente

No. 7: Abbott

No. 8: American Express

No. 9: Procter & Gamble

No. 10: Wells Fargo

DiversityInc chose these companies for this list based on empirical data, including rates of participation in Asian employee-resource groups, demographics for the workforce, new hires, management levels, promotions into and in management and the composition of the board of directors. Consider these facts:

-   The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Asian Americans’ boards of directors average 6.3 percent Asians, compared with 2 percent nationally. (Source: Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics [LEAP])

-   Their top level of management (CEO and direct reports) is almost 5 percent Asian, compared with less than 2 percent in the Fortune 500.

-   Asians represent an average of 13.6 percent of their companies’ workforces, compared with 4.8 percent nationally. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

-   Asians represent an average of 14.3 percent of managers in their companies, compared with 6.1 percent nationally. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
-   The percentage of Asian new hires is more than double their percentage in the U.S. workforce.

USING ERGS TO ADVANCE ASIAN AMERICANS

The Center for Work-Life Policy report highlights three focus areas: gaining visibility and sponsorship; combating isolation; and enhancing and showcasing leadership skills. Employee-resource groups are an excellent vehicle for this. (See also: Best Practices: Talent Development.)

Case studies from Deloitte, Merck & Co., Time Warner and KPMG (Nos. 8, 15, 28 and 29, respectively, in the DiversityInc Top 50; Deloitte is No. 1 in The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Asian Americans) in the report show how ERGs and other programs aimed at helping Asian Americans improve their employee satisfaction, retention and promotions.

DELOITTE

Deloitte started a program called Communications for Technologists (C4T), for professionals in the technology-service line, many of whom are Asian. The goal of C4T is to improve participants’ writing and speaking skills to communicate more effectively with clients.

Most participants are nominated for the program based on recommendations from their managers, but a growing number request permission to participate, particularly in advanced courses such as executive communication. By developing the skills to communicate effectively and clearly, Asians and others at Deloitte are overcoming communication-related barriers to their career advancement.

MERCK & CO.

In 2007, Merck launched a program to promote the professional development of its Asian talent in the United States with a series of interactive sessions focusing on cultural fluency for Asian employees as well as managers of Asians. Participant surveys showed consistent improvement in their comfort level in speaking up in both one-on-one meetings and large-group settings, understanding management expectations and making presentations, among others. Managers of Asians said the program was an important employee-development tool. After three years at Merck Research Laboratories with more than 90 graduating participants, the program is expanding to Asian employees globally.

TIME WARNER

Time Warner’s Asian-Pacific Exchange (APEX) resource group provides a common meeting ground for all of the Asian employee-resource groups within the corporation but also reaches out to connect with similar groups at other corporations to provide networking opportunities. APEX is now affiliated with 33 Asian employee groups in New York City. This year, the group will partner with Ascend, a national Asian leadership organization, to do a panel about the outlook of digital media. Ascend will invite members to participate in its workshops on negotiation skills, personal presentation skills and other key leadership capabilities.

KPMG

The Key Account Rotation Program, created in 2009, rotates associates from across all business lines through high-profile accounts to gain client exposure, develop credentials and broaden their networks. The results have been gratifying, says Kapila Anand, co-leader of KPMG’s Asia Pacific Island Network (APIN) resource group. “Over 95 percent of the associates in the program have successfully completed 300 to 400 hours on a priority account.” Anand says.

APIN leaders identify accounts or client events and the individuals that might have interest in the account or event. In some cases, individuals are directly assigned to specific accounts; in others, they are invited to client events where they have a chance to share their expertise in an informal setting. “We say, ‘Here’s a particular account that can be matched with a manager with specific competencies.’ It’s connecting dots that people didn’t perceive to be connectable,” says Anand.

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question: How significant are the Asian population in American companies?

answer: They have a great global economic impact.

question: Do Asians face discrimination at work?

answer: It appears twenty-five percent feel discriminated at their workplace.

question: What percentage of Asians feel comfortable being themselves at work?

answer: It appears only twenty-eight percent.

question: Are Asians treated as minorities in the workplace?

answer: It might be implied that they are.

question: Do Asians ever get a chance at managerial positions at the companies they work for?

answer: It appears they get the opportunity at Diversityinc's top 50 companies.

question: Do Asians face more racial bias than other ethnicities?

answer: It might be implied that they do.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: Asian Americans face the stereotype that they are passive and lack necessary social skills at their workplace in the general U.S industry. They suffer discrimination and barely feel comfortable being themselves at their workplace. They feel less privileged than other ethnicities in the workspace because of the stereotype. According to DiversityInc, only a few companies give them better treatment. The top 10 companies include; Deloitte, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kaiser Permanente, Abbott, American Express, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo. These companies have a high rate of Asian Americans in their workforce, and they can secure managerial positions and promotions on the board of directors.


text:
Cold.

So cold.

Frozen to the point where trying to remember even the faintest sensation of warmth is impossible, the very idea of it a faded canvas that once was so beautiful to behold.

The cold is always the first thing about this shadow land that grips my attention.

The second is the darkness mingled with the light of a full moon reflected off the snowy ground. This place of dreams and nightmares resembles those rare but wondrous nights in midwinter, where the moon and the snow work to bring daylight to the shadows. You can see so clearly, you find yourself questioning if it really is the witching hour. Not everything is visible, however. To my right I can see the outline of a forest, though I cannot see into it. I know the trees continue behind me, a penitentiary guard not allowing any opportunity for my escape. To my left, a frozen road, weeds and plants gasping for life between the cracks made so long ago by the ice that is now denying them the chance to live, and beyond that another section of forest, so dense that not even light may pass between the ancient trunks. Ahead of me, an endless stretch of snow and ice and dirt, the crooked and jagged pavement of the street snaking alongside of it. Were I to try and reach the end of this field I know I would soon fall and not rise, as I have tried before and never been successful.

And then the sounds. My God, the sounds…

A wolf letting out a mournful wail somewhere out in the forest. The wind gliding smoothly through the tree branches, sending out a death rattle to chill the bones of any mortal close enough to hear. A horse fighting against his bridle  in vain, a beady-eyed raven letting out a victory cry as it feasts on the flesh of whatever corpse it has found in the darkness, thunder crashing in the far distance to my right signaling coming rain to further freeze the solid ground and any left out in it.

And then the bells.

The ringing, banging, roaring bells that cause all other sounds to cease. They demand respect, they demand fear, they demand blood. The bells ring once, twice, three times, and then the voices come. Softly, so that they cannot be heard over the powerful ringing of the bells, but growing steadily as the bells are muffled and the sound falls from your ears. They sing a funeral dirge, accompanied by a low drum stamping out a heartbeat rhythm. Their tones set the hair on end and bring the cold even closer than before, steeping your very soul in it.

They are singing of me, their funeral dirge for me.

I know they are ahead of me, perhaps a hundred meters, but I dare not look. With every hit of the drum my heart beats harder, louder, matching the tempo set by the ghostly procession. Within fifty meters the voices grow louder, not only with the distance being shortened but with the voices, those horrific voices, swelling and dominating the frozen landscape and the winds ferocity matching theirs. At thirty meters the drummer seems to hear my heart pounding like a blacksmith at his forge, and sets to overcome the noise I am making. Now they are fifteen meters, ten meters, five meters in front of me, calling out their liturgical blasphemies louder than any human could possibly do so. The wind is tearing at my body, trying to rend what clothes I have on from my body. The procession stops no more than two meters away and are howling down at me. The wind is sinking its long fangs deeper and impossibly deeper until I am all but consumed by the cold. They are speaking in Latin, and I'm only able to hear a few words through the gale; wolf, blood, master, god, and consumed. I stand there for as long as I can, weathering the storm and the shouting, the cold and the ice, until I can finally summon one word from the foggy recesses of my mind before it is taken from me; I clench my eyes shut, throw back my head and I scream to the four corners of this realm as loud as I can muster

"STOP!"

And they do. The procession stops, they shouting stops, the drum stops. Even the wind has suddenly died down, and the silence is so that not even a cricket jumping from a leaf would go unnoticed. I'm panting for air, that single command having nearly stopped my furiously racing heart. I lower my head, eyes still closed, and it is quiet. I stand there, waiting for it to end, but it is quiet. I listen for the sound I know is coming, the sound I know will end all of this…but it is quiet. I know this part. I slowly lift my eyes to the procession and see twelve skeletons in simple sackcloth robes and rope belts, five staring at me, and seven with their heads bowed; they are being led by another, taller than they are, dressed in black robes and wearing a crown of bones. I look into the blank sockets of this skull, bracing myself for what I knew would happen next. It didn't help. The lead demon dropped his bony jaws and let loose a scream from the very pits of Hell itself; a scream filled with the unimaginable torment of millions of souls, trapped in the darkness and the void, without hope, without mercy, with nothing left but their pain and their screams echoing for endless time.

This is the sound that ripped me from my nightmare, drenched in sweat and freezing cold. I look and see the window open, letting the frozen St. Petersburg air into my bedroom. I get up, close the window firmly, and go into the kitchen to make some tea. I won't be sleeping any more tonight, anyway. I never do after I have that dream.

It's always the same, but only happens once in a while. I stand in my kitchen waiting for the tea, and I think. This is the sixth time I've had this dream, and the other five times I've had it something terrible has happened soon afterwards. I remove the teabag with frozen hands, and bring the mug shakily up to my lips. I'm not prepared for this to happen. Not again.

title: Absolute Zero (intro, feedback appreciated)

question: Summarize what happens when the narrator realizes they've had a nightmare.

answer: When the narrator wakes up sweating and cold from their nightmare, they open their window to let in some air. They then close the window and make tea in their kitchen. There they think about the nightmare, and how it's a reoccurring dream. They worry about something bad happening as they drink their tea because something bad always happens after that dream.

question: What does the text say about winter elements?

answer: In the narrator's dream landscape, it is a freezing, possibly midwinter night. There's snow on the ground, and it's so cold that trying to remember the sensation of warmth is impossible. The road, weeds, and plants are all gasping for life in between ice cracks. The wind paired with the freezing temperatures makes the narrator feel like its sinking its impossibly deep into them.

question: What does the text say about Satan?

question: Summarize everything related to the sound of voices.

answer: The narrator first begins to hear soft voices that grow steadily. They realize they're singing a funeral dirge for the narrator, and their tones make the narrator's hair stand on edge. The voices, which are shouting blasphemies in Latin, grow so loud that they dominate the frozen landscape. The narrator screams loudly for them to stop, and they do. However, a demon lets out a scream that sounds like its made out of the unimaginable torment of millions of souls.


text:
"COFFEE TABLE" BOOK FOR CHILDREN BUT NOT JUST FOR KIDS!
My one-of-a-kind book, THE ART OF THE CRAYON "Something Magical Is Possible", contains images of my 40 year journey with Crayola Crayons. The book is designed to inspire and motivate children of all ages, showing them what can be created (right out of the box) with their own art medium through self discipline and imagination! Children are the future... and it takes effort to nourish their creativity and imagination.

-   AVAILABLE AT THE CRAYON ARTIST ONLINE GALLERY IN A SIGNED & NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION AND INCLUDES MY CRAYON ART TECHNIQUES DVD  PREVIEW & PURCHASE THE BOOK

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  []
  FIRST GRADE CRAYON ART & NEW BOOK PREVIEW
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Pablo Picasso once said: "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." I think it’s all about the magic, it’s in my imagination and the fun of crayons inspires me to bring it out.
 My new book THE ART OF THE CRAYON "Something Magical Is Possible" is dedicated to my biggest fans, the kids. It’s set to contain a large collection of favorite art pieces I have created through the years as inspiration to what crayons are capable of.

In the early years of classroom visits in schools, I developed a concept of crayon art techniques that help children discover "how things work." Learning styles specialists know that encouraging their sensory and cognitive skills through the fun of coloring will also empower them to become better readers and writers. In terms of education in an age where art continues to diminish in public schools, only for less desirable forms of entertainment to flourish in its place, the future ultimately rests in the hands of the children. I think that my artwork represents a special landmark for children, that fine art can be created with a simple box of crayons that has been elevated to a distinguished level in fine art galleries, museums and national news media events.
 I cannot think of anything more constructive, wholesome and creatively satisfying to the soul than a simple box of crayons.  The secret lies in strengthening the current of creative flow by empowering a child’s creative spirit. The Art Of The Crayon serves as a solid platform which is sophisticated enough to continue building upon for independent and creative thinking.

WHY KIDS LOVE LEARNING MY CRAYON SECRETS

Upon entering the art gallery Wednesday evening for art night, I observed a young couple with two young children who were next to my artwork busy coloring with Crayola crayons. They were excited to discover that I was "The Crayon Artist" they had been waiting for to arrive. Jonah was five years old and his sister Etta was four. As they continued to color, I watched the movements of their hands and noticing how tense and stiff they were while pressing the crayon to the paper, I asked them if they wanted to know a big coloring secret, in which they responded with a huge yes.
 The most important and basic step was to show them how to properly hold the crayon and to move only the fingers which would help them with dexterity, rhythm and grace to their movements. Etta didn’t want to try it in front of me but instead, began to show me what beautiful straight lines she could make. Thinking she may have been afraid to make mistakes, I left them alone for a few minutes to get more comfortable with the "new technology." Upon returning I saw how proud they were to show me their amazing results. I could see in their work better saturation, smoother applications and their obvious excitement of learning something completely new!
Discipline, patience and self control combined with the fun of coloring are important elements which can give children more confidence on their road to higher learning. Amazing results can be achieved using this natural learning concept. I have seen it over and again, a child’s confidence will soar when introducing them to the technical side of "The Art Of The Crayon."

question: Summarize everything related to drawing technique.

answer: The author developed a concept of crayon art techniques to help children discover "how things work". The author entered an art gallery and noticed the children waiting for them were stiff and tense with their hand movements. They taught the children how to properly hold the crayon, moving only the fingers that would help with dexterity, rhythm, and grace.

question: Summarize everything relating to the author's art career.

answer: The author has been drawing with Crayola Crayons for 40 years. Their book is available at the Crayon Artist online galler. The author has the title of "The Crayon Artist".

question: What does the article say about the use of specific colors?


text:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Donald Trump received big-time cheers during delivery of remarks at the Boy Scouts of America’s National Jamboree.

Barack Obama, however? Not so much.

“By the way, just a question,” Trump said to the crowd, The Hill reported. “Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?”

Let the boos begin — and they did.

“The answer is no,” Trump said. And he’s quite right.

Night and day, ying and yang. The Boy Scouts know their friends. Obama made a videotape that played at the National Jamboree in 2010. But after that, he largely ignored the group — except when he could politicize it.

In a pre-Super Bowl interview in 2013, Obama went out of his way to pat the Boy Scouts of America chiefs on the back for their then-proposed opening of doors for gays to serve in leadership roles.

“My attitude, ” Obama said then to Scott Pelley of CBS News, “is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life. The Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people and exposing them to opportunities and leadership that will serve people for the rest of their lives. And I think nobody should be barred from that.”

What’s significant about Obama’s failures to appear at the annual jamborees is that the president of the United States is the honorary head of the BSA. And the BSA has always prided itself on its nonpartisanship — its simple mission of instilling values, purpose and character into the lives of the boys it serves.

But Obama, who spent part of his childhood with the Indonesian Scout Association, not BSA, could never quite make the jamborees.

Trump did. And he told the crowd “we’ll be back” for the next jamboree as well. What a difference in administrations. Obama sees gay rights; Trump, the faces of America’s future. Such a small thing. But such a loud and large message.

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question: Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?

answer: No

question: Why did Obama congratulate the Boy Scouts of America chiefs?

answer: Because they had a proposition of opening doors for gays to serve in leadership roles.

question: Who is the honorary head of the BSA?

answer: Obama.

question: Did Obama use to spend time with the Boy Scouts of America as a child?

answer: No, he used to be a part of the Indonesian Scout Association.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The text describes how Trump attended the Boy Scouts of America’s National Jamboree and pointed fingers at Obama for not doing this as well.


text:
I wake up in the morning. I get up, get ready for work. Boots, pants, belt, shirt, mask. I step outside. Immediately, I can’t breathe. I adjust my mask. I can breathe now.
       The bus ride always seems longer than it is. I always get stares. Not hidden stares like most other people get. Bold, challenging stares. The people don’t know who I am. They have never met me. But they hate me, somehow. I ignore them and try to relax.
       I step off the bus, walk quickly to my building. I can’t wait to start. Working always calms me, in a strange way. As I walk through the crowds, I again attract the gaze of several people. I’m thankful of my mask. They can’t see my eyes. They will never know how much I hate them back.
       Finally, I’m here. There’s no offices, no cubicles, no desks, not even other people. Just a cavernous room, entirely white. When I step in, I am alone. Breathe in, breathe out. And repeat. Left foot, right foot. And repeat. I must concentrate. I can’t work if I don’t recognize patterns. My heart beats 173 times in one minute. I blink 17 times. I feel an itch behind my left eye. White becomes black. My heart stops beating. My eyes a permanently open. I no longer need to breathe. Time to start.

       I love my job. I was born to do it. Literally bred through many generations, to create the perfect worker. I was isolated from birth to my 18th birthday, when I started working. I was trained by automated systems for eighteen years, just to make me as perfect as possible. Just to make me detached as possible. Just to make me ready. I think I have lived up to expectations. Probably exceeded them. I
love my job. And I am amazing at it.
       First assignment. It’s nearby. A simple one, stationary and weak. I get there somehow. Not physically, my body remains in a white chamber.
I don’t know what I am right now. I just can’t be seen, except by my clients. I arrive. She sees me. She screams. She gets up, runs. It’s not much of a chase. I immediately catch her. She is still screaming. My mask dissolves. She can’t scream anymore. I am done here.

       It is an easy work day. Mostly old, sickly, or newborn. I love my job, but it’s more fun when they can fight. When they can run. When I can play with them. I like a challenge. Though it rarely is challenging.
       I return home. Bathe. Eat. Read. Sleep. The next day will be more of the same, I think. I want the same. I live off of patterns.

       Wake up. Boots, pants, belt, shirt, mask, bus, white, black. First assignment. Second. Third. All within seconds of each other. I must
work fast to finish all my duties. Noon. Night. Home, bathe, eat, read, sleep. And repeat.

       I have been working for years. I have stopped aging. I don’t know how old I am. I remain in perfect condition for years, until I need to be
Replaced. I await that day. I love my job. But I long freedom.

       Today, I feel… odd. I take the usual steps to work. It’s my fortieth client for today. I am distracted. She is a fighter. Young. Almost as perfect as me. She distracts me. She does not run, as most do. She stands her ground. Looks me in the eyes. Or where my eyes would be, if she could see them. She speaks to me. She speaks words I have heard of, but I do not understand her. I am filled with my usual rage, but something else is creeping in to me. She continues talking. Two words. She starts to repeat two words. “Thank you.” I do not understand. I have been cursed at, told to die, pleaded with, even. Never thanked. I hesitate. That small feeling grows. No. I must complete this task. She grabs my hand. Wraps herself around me. “Thank you.” I can’t. I hate my job.

       I forget all my other assignments. She must be mine. No. I must behers. No. We must be. Yes. We must be.

       I lift her. She starts crying. I feel tears against my chest. I lift her, hold her close. I am back in the white. She is with me. We must be. We must escape. They will be after me. I don’t care about me. She must be safe. I know where to hide.
       Finally, we are here. We are safe. For now. She has stopped crying. I set her down. She is tired. She lays down, closes her eyes. Smiles, and falls asleep. I look around. I have not been here since I started working. My childhood home. My development center. My training grounds. It is the perfect hiding place. Undetectable, and impenetrable by those I do not want in. They won’t be able to get in. I hope.
       Two days have passed. I have not slept. She has done nothing but. I spend my time staring at her. Exploring her past. She has had a hard life. She is my opposite. She knows of nothing but life. I continue to stare.
       She awakes. Immediately, she leaps up and clutches me tightly. That growing feeling has almost overwhelmed me. I feel she is hungry. I am lucky. All the machinery still works. A meal is made. Another for me. I don’t know where it comes from. I now it is an infinite supply. We will survive.
       Weeks have passed. We are still alive. I still fear our capture. I still wear my mask. I cannot take it off. We do not talk. We do not have to. That feeling has grown to take over everything else. I feel different. I love her.
       I awake. It is dark. She is asleep. I sense something. No. We have been found. No. Not by them. They have sent someone. I have been stupid. I forgot he could get in the same way we did. My Replacement is here. I will miss her.
       I get up. Walk to another room. This one is a mirror of my workspace. White and huge. I lock the door. I sit in the center. I take off my mask. I wait. I will miss her.
       Hours pass. Or minutes. Or years. I cannot tell. I sense him drawing nearer. He is cautious. He thinks I will fight. I will not. I will miss her.
       Finally, he is here. I open my eyes. I see me. No. I see someone who looks like me. I stare at the figure, clothed in all black, with his mask still on. I nod. He nods back. I will miss her.
       He steps up. Puts a hand on my shoulder. His mask dissolves.
       Freedom.
       I will miss her.

title: I Love My Job (1st, open to criticism)

question: Why does the narrator wear a mask?

answer: The mask needs to be properly in place for the narrator to breathe. When people see the narrators face and the mask dissolves they die.

question: Why does the narrator crave freedom if he loves his job so much?

answer: The narrator has been conditioned to do the same thing every day but perhaps the routine is not as attractive as he would have us believe.

question: How does the narrator explore the life of the woman that he takes back to the white room?

answer: He must be capable of mind-reading as he says that she spends the whole time sleeping.

question: Why does the narrator love the woman so much?

answer: He has never spent more than fleeting seconds with anyone so perhaps it is the first time that he has had time to connect with another person.

question: Write a ~21 sentence summary.

answer:
The narrator loves his job. He puts on his mask and takes a bus to work every day. The people on the bus don’t know him but they hate him. They stare. Fortunately, they can’t see the narrator’s eyes behind the mask or they would see the hatred.

Work is a cavernous room. Here, his heart can stop beating, he can stop breathing and his eyes remain permanently open. He has been created as the perfect worker, isolated until his 18th birthday. He starts work. His body remains in the chamber. Only his clients can see him and they are petrified, running and hiding. He takes mostly the sick, old or newborn.

Today the narrator is faced with a confusing situation. The client doesn’t run. She stands her ground and says thank you. The narrator loves her, scoops her up and takes her back to the white room. Here, he feels safe. The two stay there for weeks. Then unexpectedly his replacement comes. Though he will miss her he’s relieved. Now he is free.


text:
The eyes opened, it was morning.

With a soft sigh, the body rose from the bed and looked up with a blissful awareness.  It was early and had never felt so perfect.

A lens watched in the distance as the radiant light shone from in the distance, remaining thus as the body entered and exited the shower.

The closet's door, across from the bathroom's, opened as steam poured from the now clean room.  A light came from within which was set upon by the face.

A warm glow emitted from the room...

The eyes opened to a new world, the shower - moments ago - left behind.  The heat was intense, the world was filled with stars... or blinking bulbs, rather.  The lights had a rhythm and a pulse felt physically, beyond just the eyes.  There was a certain singing harmony that was abuzz within ones bones, not unpleasant, but not wholly relaxing.  The hands reached out to rub some lights, which upon the touch was adjusted to a dimmer shade, a red, instead of green.

A lens watched in the distance, the augmented picture adjusted as a man appeared in front of the body.  The man, dressed not unwell, did appear on edge:  his hair short, but obviously suffering trauma from recent stressful activities, his collar loose, and his words fast and short.  The words were unheard, but motions of deep negativity were erupted from both figures.  What appeared a shout came from the mouth of the freshly arrived man, and his figured disappeared.  The chest thumped what appeared a chuckle and at once moved to another set of lights, the reds turned blue as the new lights turned a vibrant yellow.

The room flashed once, brightly....

With a hard sigh, the body sat down, and the face peered at the wall of monitors.  The eyes watched.  Though each screen, a new message, a new image, a new video, a graph, a new color mapping, and of course the list.  The list that plagued the brain everyday, that drove the heart to sadness, and the legs to jittering.  The list was that of those to whom this officer was assigned.  Justice and society exist in tandem, they were under both protection and surveillance as all were, likely to go about lives as mundane as a trip to the park, or possibly exciting as hyperchuting along the oil skims.  These ones were a special assignment, requested, and was being fulfilled with great earnest.  The backgrounds, random meetings, visits...whispers, all observed and analyzed - all safe, all secure.

These things were not what troubled the officer, these things were hardly of concern to one as experienced, and born so far removed from the first Consolidation.  At this point, these things were accepted - but, not force.  Initially, everything came by expensive options, never by force.  Then, as technology goes - things that were once prohibitly expensive, become reasonably cheap; things that were unheard of, became a nuisance of regularity; as the world became more accessible, less accessibility was needed.  Today, things were grander then before the Consolidation, but they were also more within reach.  The first grand breakthrough didn't just bring about the rise of quality of life through some vaguerity, no - it brought with it an equally of the playing fields, it provided better distribution of time, energy, and people; brought about a reduction in global fatalities, crimes, and illiteracy; it brought some of the best minds into the world since before the turn of the century; it literally healed our planet - so it goes and the day goes on.

What troubled the officer was the lack of any real desire for some.  These individuals on the screen would grow to know, as the officer did, that there is a plateau, that there is a point where you stop and look around, but see nowhere up to go, but you see the world around.  That is what had happened yesterday, but that was beyond the current scope of thought now.  The officer imagined that the screens were off, and the hand moved instinctively towards the controls - these control lights dimmed, the screens went black.  Rising from the chair, the officer turned towards the open glowing doorway behind the desk and exited.

The room flashed twice, dimly....

The body walked through the dimly lit hallway and found a resting chair and rested.

title: [SP][MS][SF] Today, There; Today, Here

question: What does the story say about the theme of equality?

answer: Things that were one prohibitively expensive became reasonably cheap. The world became more accessible. The breakthrough brought with it an equalling of the playing fields.

question: Summarize the body's movements over the course of the story.

answer: The body rises from the bed. It enters and then exits the shower. The body sits down and peers at the wall of monitors. After the room flashes, the body walks through the dimly lit hallway and rests on a chair.

question: What does the story say about the body's family?


text:
In little over 30 years the leading professional firms have grown from cottage industries to global, multimillion-pound businesses. What has driven this change? In this article I look back to chart the 6 ages of transformation.

AGE 1 – EXPANSION INTO NEW MARKETS

Market deregulation allowed growth and internationalism in a way that had not been possible before. The use of the Swiss Verein structure allowed more international collaborations and the arrival of the LLP in the early 2000s gave a further boost by allowing partners to control their exposure to risk to a greater degree.

As firms grew in size and developed more diverse services for their clients, they adopted governance structures with a stronger corporate flavour. This provided greater management oversight to ensure greater consistency and better financial management.

[]

Six Ages of Innovation

AGE 2 – SECTOR FOCUS

The next innovation wave was the development of the matrix structure that married together technical disciplines with a focus on industry sectors. This created a change in the way that professionals took their expertise to clients, including physically sitting together in sector groups.

AGE 3 – REDUCING COST OF SERVICE DELIVERY THROUGH ‘UN-BUNDLING’

The global financial crisis was the catalyst for more change. As clients became increasingly cost conscious, firms looked for ways to cut the cost of service delivery. Most tightened up on their project management and pricing. Others took more radical steps such as off-shoring routine work to low cost centres and utilising different types of resource such as freelancers and non-qualified staff.  They ‘un-bundled’ typical client processes such as an M&A deal to work out the best resourcing model for each component part. Although some firms feared these innovations would be seen as commoditizing the traditional work of professionals, they actually helped to deliver better outcomes for clients without damaging brand value.

AGE 4 – INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO SERVICE DELIVERY

The fourth wave of innovation occurred around the mid-2000s when technology became much better integrated into service delivery. Firms began to use technology to speed up and automate the sifting and management of large amount of documents and data. Electronic deal rooms and client portals are now the norm, and project management software gives clients greater visibility of the progress of work.

Another tipping point was reached in the early 2010s. Firms leading this wave of innovation realized that to maintain margins they had to devise ways of providing smarter, not just cheaper, solutions for their clients. We refer to this as ‘re-bundling’ because it involves combining different disciplines and business models into an integrated, holistic service. Examples of this wave of innovation include law firms offering consultancy advice, and management consultancy firms blending consultancy with data analytics and artificial intelligence.

AGE 6 – THE TECHNOLOGY-SUPPORTED PROFESSIONAL

We are now entering a new wave of innovation: the technology-supported professional. In this new age technology and innovation are bringing about fundamental changes in how professional work and the tasks they undertake. Technology will not just speed up work, but will mean professionals work in completely new ways.

Many professionals recognize that the market has changed. Altman Weil, a US-based consultancy, has undertaken research with managing partners at US law firms, asking whether various trends are temporary or permanent. 83% of the managing partners surveyed believed that competition from non-traditional providers is a permanent trend. Nearly three-quarters (73%) believe that the pace of change in the professions will increase (Altman Weil, 2016).

It seems clear that one result of this wave of innovation is a more complex professional services ecosystem. Different types of competitors have already emerged to challenge the dominance of incumbents. Professional services solutions are being delivered by technology businesses, publishers, start-ups, retailers and in-house departments at large corporates. Here are just three examples of successful disruptors from a variety of professional disciplines:

-   Narrative Science, founded in 2010, has an artificial intelligence system, Quill, that analyses raw data and generates reports in seconds. Its use of natural language processing produces outputs that readers would assume were written by a human author. This work would historically have been undertaken by consultancy firms.
-   Crunch, founded in 2008, provides self-service online accountancy services to SMEs for a much lower price than high street accountancy firms.
-   Eden McCullum, founded in 2000, works with experienced, freelance consultants to deliver high-end consulting engagements for its clients. Its delivery model draws in alumni from Bain, BCG and McKinsey to deliver premium quality work at a fraction of the cost of traditional competitors.

The disruptors are not simply reducing the cost of delivery, they are also delivering a simpler, more consistent client experience. Their impact should not be underestimated: they are both taking market share and recalibrating what clients come to expect for their professional advisers. As a leader your colleagues will look to you for leadership and direction on these difficult strategic issues: you need to understand how innovation will impact your firm, and how to tweak your strategy to grasp the innovation opportunities and avoid the threats.

_Ben Kent 2016_

question: Summarize everything relating to cost.

answer: Firms became cost conscious in the wake of the global financial crisis and turned toward cutting the cost of service delivery, tightening up project management and pricing, and off-shoring routine work to low cost centers. They also utilized resources like freelancers, non qualified staff, and they unbundled typical client processes. This reduction in cost turned out to be beneficial and didn't devalue the brand. Nowadays, certain firms are competition due to their reduced cost of delivery service and of self-service online accountancy.

question: Summarize the advancements before the 2010s.

answer: In the early 2000s, the arrival of the LLP gave a boost alongside the Swiss Verein structure in allowing partners to control their exposure to risk to a greater degree. There was also a development of the matrix structure, which changed how professionals took their expertise to clients. The global financial crisis brought change in the form of cost consciousness. In the mid-2000s, technology began to be used in delivery service, management of large data, and with electronic client portals and deal rooms.

question: What does the text say about disruptors?

answer: Certain type of competitors to incumbents firms are known as disruptors, due to their new emergence that's challenged their dominance. They offer professional services solutions and can come in the form of technology businesses, publishers, start-ups, retailers and in-house departments at large corporates. Narrative Sciences, founded in 2010, offers an AI system that could take work from a consultancy firm. Crunch, founded in 2008, and Eden McCullum, founded in 2000, offer cheaper services with service as premium as their traditional competitors. Disruptors offer cheaper, simpler, and more consistent client experience that takes market share and recalibrates what clients come to expect from professional advisors.

question: What does the text say about smartphones?


text:
[The Stupa Nb.2 at Bimaran, where the Bimaran reliquary was excavated. Drawing by Charles Masson.] CHARLES MASSON (1800–1853) was the pseudonym of JAMES LEWIS, a British East India Company soldier and explorer. He was the first European to discover the ruins of Harappa near Sahiwal in Punjab, now in Pakistan.

Early life

British by birth, Masson joined the Bengal Artillery wing of the East India Company Army in India and served in the Battle of Bharatpur.

Travels

[A plate of Masson's Bactrian coins, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1836.] In 1827, while stationed at Agra, he and a colleague deserted and traveled through parts of the Punjab that were under British control at that time. At Ahmadpur, they were rescued by Josiah Harlan and commissioned as mounted orderlies in his expedition to overthrow the regime in Kabul, Afghanistan. Not long afterward, near Dera Ghazi Khan, he deserted Harlan.

Between 1833 and 1838, Masson excavated over 50 Buddhist sites around Kabul and Jalalabad in south-eastern Afghanistan, amassing a large collection of small objects and many coins, principally from the site at Bagram (the ancient Alexandria on the Caucasus), north of Kabul. From 1827, when he deserted, to his return to England in 1842, it is estimated that Masson collected around 47,000 coins.

Masson was the first European to see the ruins of Harappa, described and illustrated in his book _Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and The Punjab_. He also visited the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan, serving as an agent of the East India Company.

In the 1930s, the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (_Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan_, DAFA) found unexpected evidence of an earlier European visitor scribbled in one of the caves above the 55 m Buddha at Bamiyan. This stated:
_If any fool this high samootch explore,_
_Know Charles Masson has been here before_[1]

The Masson Project at the British Museum

Through his wide-ranging travels, Masson built up an extraordinary collection of artefacts largely (although not exclusively) from the modern states of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Numbering about 9,000 objects, they are now held by the British Museum.[2] The Masson Project is led by Dr Elizabeth Errington, and aims to publish Masson's collection. Publications so far include:

TWO MAJOR CATALOGUES

-   _Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832-1835_, by Elizabeth Errington, British Museum Research Publication 215 (2017).[3]
-   _The Charles Masson Archive: British Library, British Museum and Other Documents Relating to the 1832–1838 Masson Collection from Afghanistan_, by Elizabeth Errington, assisted by Piers Baker, Kirstin Leighton-Boyce and Wannaporn Kay Rienjang, British Museum Research Publication 216 (2017).[4]

SHORTER ARTICLES
*E. Errington and V.S. Curtis, From Persepolisto the Punjab. Exploring the Past in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (London, The British Museum Press, 2007), passim.

-   E. Errington, ‘“Boots”, “female idols” and disembodied heads’, Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology I (2006), pp. 89-96
-   E. Errington, ‘Charles Masson’, Encyclopaedia Iranica online (2004)
-   E. Errington, ‘Ancient Afghanistan through the eyes of Charles Masson: the Masson Project at the British Museum’, International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter (March 2002), pp. 8-9
-   E. Errington, ‘The collections of Charles Masson (1800-53)’, Circle of Inner Asian Art Newsletter 15 (2002), pp. 29-30
-   E. Errington, ‘Discovering ancient Afghanistan, The Masson Collection’, Minerva 13/6 (2002), pp. 53-5
-   E. Errington, ‘Discovering ancient Afghanistan’, British Museum Magazine 44 (2002), p. 8
-   E. Errington, ‘Charles Masson and Begram’, Topoi 11/1 (2001 [2003]), pp. 357-409
-   E. Errington, ‘Rediscovering the collections of Charles Masson’, in M. Alram and D. E. Klimburg-Salter (eds.)Coins, Art and Chronology. Essays on the pre-Islamic History of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands (Vienna, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999), pp. 207-37

Bibliography

BOOKS AND EDITED VOLUMES:

-   1842 _Narrative of various journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Panjab_, 4 vols. Richard Bentley, London, reprinted 1844, 2001 (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, ).
-   1843 [https://books.google.com/books?id=XoxCAAAAIAAJ&dq=Charles%20Masson&client=firefox-a&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q=&f=false _Narrative of a journey to Kalât, including an insurrection at that place in 1840; and A Memoir on Eastern Balocistan_], Richard Bentley, London.
-   1848 [https://books.google.com/books?id=DvTWAAAAMAAJ&dq=Charles%20Masson&client=firefox-a&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q=&f=false _Legends of the Afghan countries, in verse_], James Madden, London.

ARTICLES:

-   1841 [https://books.google.com/books?id=w3kWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Charles%20Masson&client=firefox-a&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false A memoir on the buildings called topes. In Ariana Antiqua: A descriptive account of the antiquities and coins of Afghanistan], edited by Horace Hayman Wilson. East India Company, London.

Further reading

-   Whitteridge, Gordon: _Charles Masson of Afghanistan : explorer, archaeologist, numismatist and intelligence agent_ (Warminster : Aris & Phillips, 1985).
-   Errington, Elizabeth, and Curtis, Vesta Sarkosh (eds): _From Persepolis to the Punjab: Exploring Ancient Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan_ (London: British Museum Press, 2007; reprinted 2011).
-   Iranica-Article
-   Ben Macintyre, _The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan_. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
-   Charles Masson's Harappa
-   Charles Masson. _Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and The Panjab_.
-   Charles Masson of Afghanistan: Deserter, Scholar, Spy Biographical article by Bijan Omrani.
-   A chapter describing Charles Masson's role in the 1840 siege of Kelat

[1]

[2] British Museum Collection

[3] https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/charles-masson-and-the-buddhist-sites-of-afghanistan.html

[4] http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Masson%20archive%20Vol.%202.pdf

title: Charles Masson

question: When was Charles Masson born?

answer: 1800.

question: What was Charles Masson's given name?

answer: James Lewis.

question: What group did Charles Masson work for?

answer: The British East India Company.

question: What did Charles Masson become the first European to discover?

answer: The ruins of Harappa near Sahiwal in Punjab, now in Pakistan.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article is about Charles Masson, the pseudonym for an explorer of the British East India company.


text:
DAULATUNNESSA KHATUN (1918–1997) was a Bengali politician, social activist, feminist and former Member of East Bengal Legislative Assembly .[1]

Early life

Khatun was born in 1918 in Sonatala, Bogra, East Bengal, British Raj. She was married to Hafizur Rahman, a doctor, when she was 8 years old. She studied till she was 12 at Dhaka Eden High School. She continued her education in her husband's house despite social pressures against women's education.[2]

Career

In 1930, at the age of 12, she joined the Gandhi's Civil disobedience movement. She formed Gaibandha Mahila Samiti' (Gaibandha Women's Association) with like minded women in Gaibandha. She was one of the few Muslim women activist who participated in the movement, organising women's meetings and rallies. She studied until finishing her Undergraduate. She and her husband were forced to leave their home in Gaibandha because of her activism.[3][4]

She was arrested by the British Raj. During the 1943 Bengal Famine she founded an orphanage. After the partition of India she settled in Dhaka. She was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1954, through active voting of women. In 1956 she was part of an official delegation of Pakistan to China.[5]

Death

She died in 1997 in Gaibandha, Bangladesh.[6]

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title: Daulatunnessa Khatun

question: Summarize Khatun's early life.

answer: Born in 1918 in Sonatala, East Bengal, during the British Raj, she was married to a doctor when she was 8 years old. She continued her education in her husband's home regardless of social pressures against women's education.

question: Who was Khatun married to?

answer: Khatun was married to a doctor named Hafirzur Rahman at the age of eight.

question: Which movement did Khatun join?

answer: She joined Gandhi's Civil disobedience movement.

question: What was her level of education?

answer: Khatun studied until she finished her Undergraduate.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer:
Daulatunnessa Khatun was born in 1918 in Sonatala during the British Raj. At the age of eight, she was married to a doctor. Khatun continued her education even after her marriage despite social pressures against women's education.

She formed Gaibandha Mahila Samiti with like-minded women in Gaibandha.

Khatun settled in Dhaka after the partition of India. In 1954, she was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly through active voting of women.


text: I don't know where where to begin. You were my love ,my everything. Words can't express the deep rooted passion that burned for you. I couln't believe that you left me. Although I was at your funeral, I saw your casket, I felt your head stone, I said a prayer for you. If only I could be in your place right now I would without second thoughts. My love, may you watch over me as I would you. I will be with you soon, please wait for me my love.

title: Letter to my angel.

question: What emotion is the author displaying through their writing?

answer: He seems to be expressing heartbreak and grief.

question: What happened to the person the author addresses?

answer: They died, but it's not disclosed how.

question: Why does the author wish to be in the person they address's place?

answer: It's possible they would rather be dead than have to deal with the loss of their "everything".

question: What does the narrator mean by "I will be with you soon"?

answer: The author is implying they will die sooner or later and will join their dead romantic partner in the afterlife.


text:
KURT WÜTHRICH (born 4 October 1938 in Aarberg, Canton of Bern) is a Swiss chemist/biophysicist and Nobel Chemistry laureate, known for developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for studying biological macromolecules.[1][2][3] [4][5]

Education and early life

Born in Aarberg, Switzerland, Wüthrich was educated in chemistry, physics, and mathematics at the University of Bern before pursuing his Ph.D. supervised by Silvio Fallab[6] at the University of Basel, awarded in 1964.[7][8]

Career

After his PhD, Wüthrich continued postdoctoral research with Fallab for a short time before leaving to work at the University of California, Berkeley for two years from 1965 with Robert E. Connick. That was followed by a stint working with Robert G. Shulman at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey from 1967 to 1969.

Wüthrich returned to Switzerland, to Zürich, in 1969, where he began his career there at the ETH Zürich, rising to Professor of Biophysics by 1980. He currently maintains a laboratory at the ETH Zürich, at The Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, California and at the of ShanghaiTech University. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Edinburgh (1997-2000), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (where he was an Honorary Professor) and Yonsei University.[9]

During his graduate studies Wüthrich started out working with electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, and the subject of his Ph.D. thesis was “the catalytic activity of copper compounds in autoxidation reactions”. During his time as a postdoc in Berkeley he began working with the newly developed and related technique of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the hydration of metal complexes. When Wüthrich joined the Bell Labs, he was put in charge of one of the first superconducting NMR spectrometers, and started studying the structure and dynamics of proteins. He has pursued this line of research ever since.

After returning to Switzerland, Wüthrich collaborated with, among others, Nobel laureate Richard R. Ernst on developing the first two-dimensional NMR experiments, and established the nuclear Overhauser effect as a convenient way of measuring distances within proteins. This research later led to the complete assignment of resonances for among others the bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and glucagon.

In October 2010, Wüthrich participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Lunch with a Laureate program where middle and high school students will get to engage in an informal conversation with a Nobel Prize–winning scientist over a brown-bag lunch.[10] Wüthrich is also a member on the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.[11], and a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reform in the United Nations.[12]

Awards and honors

He was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1991, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 1993, the Otto Warburg Medal in 1999 and half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for “his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution”. He received the Bijvoet Medal of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research of Utrecht University in 2008.[13] He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2010.[14]

Personal details

On April 2, 2018, Dr. Wüthrich established permanent residency in Shanghai, China, after obtaining a Chinese permanent residence card. [15][16]

Bibliography

-   _NMR in Biological Research: Peptides and Proteins_, American Elsevier Pub. Co, 1976[17]
-   _NMR of proteins and nucleic acids_, Wiley, 1986[18]
-   _NMR In Structural Biology: A Collection Of Papers By Kurt Wuthrich_, World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd, 1995[19]

[1] Kurt Wuthrich faculty page at ETH Zürich

[2] 'An Interview with Kurt Wuthrich Freeview video by the Vega Science Trust

[3] Wuthrich Nobel Prize Lecture

[4]

[5] Historical Dictionary of Switzerland entry

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10] Usasciencefestival.org lunch with a laureate

[11] Usasciencefestival.org

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[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

title: Kurt Wüthrich

question: What is Kurt Wüthrich known for?

answer: He was known for developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for studying biological macromolecules.

question: When did Wüthrich start his research using NMR?

answer: He started research using NMR around 1967 1969 when he was put in charge of one of the first superconducting NMR spectrometers.

question: How old is Wüthrich now?

answer: 83 years old


text:
Dead ahead all that could be seen was open road and darkness, as if the world had been swallowed up by an inkwell, seeping in around the light. The low hum of a sunflower yellow Vespa SS 180 Scooter reverberated around the canyon walls as white headlights pierced the night, like an angel churning through the abyss. The wind howled through the ravine, giving life to a place that had none for centuries. Faint lights streamed across the darkened sky, ships moving like shooting stars to some unknown destination. An orange hue appeared on the horizon at the end of the canyon, giving the sky a demonic glow. As the rider approached the light, a sharp ring echoed inside her amber helmet, interrupting the ambiance and peace. With a light touch on the helmet near the temple, the dialing stopped. “What do you want Trenton?!” the rider snapped in agitation. “Clair… something doesn't feel right about this…” Trenton stammered with apprehension in his voice. There was a silent air between the two of them as the Vespa rumbled on. “Listen Clair, I know we left on bad terms but… this Anubis guy… I don’t trust a word he says! Talking about some crashed cargo… why would cargo need a radioactive check? It just doesn't add up…” The moon emerged from beyond a canyon wall, giving a quick glimpse towards Clair; a watchful eye from above. “Clair… are you even listening to me?” Trenton breathed into his headset, his ear full of the roaring of an engine. “I can handle this! Besides… we need the money, or did you forget about that already?” Clair snapped, her temper at the end of its fuse. The canyon walls faded away behind her as the wreckage of the cargo entered her view. “I've got to go Trenton… I’ll call you when I’m done” She touched the temple of her helmet again, silencing the call.

Smoke filled the nearby air as she approached the wreckage, letting off an ember-like sheen on her helmet. With a quick touch to her chinstrap, the facemask lifted upwards, letting Clair free from the constraints of safety. Her hazel eyes pierced into the wreckage, reflecting the flames like panes of glass. With a methodical twist, Clair reached into a satchel attached to the back of the Vespa, taking out a respirator. In one swift motion, the mask was over her face, muffling her breath, putting her back into safety’s embrace. Always gotta be behind some sort of mask… Clair thought to herself as she unbuckled the radiation detector from her hip. Another ship roared by overhead, blotting out part of the moon’s gaze. Her eyes became fixated upon the fire in front of her, tracing the outline of the object; cylindrical in shape and black as onyx, but hard to make out definite shapes in the darkness. The flames reflected off of its glossy surface, dancing around wildly. As the light whipped back and forth against the monolith, the faint hints of an engraving shimmered, forcing Clair’s eyes to become entranced. It seems like it is pulsating… like the flames are making it live. A cold wind ran up her spine as she attempted to decipher the engraving.

Another ring echoed throughout her helmet, causing her to stumble backwards into her Vespa, knocking it off of its stand. “Fucking shit Trenton!” Clair screamed as she scrambled to pick up her bike, the ringing still making itself known. She threw her radiation detector onto the ground towards the crash site and proceeded to attempt to steady the Vespa back onto its kickstand. As the Vespa was tilted upright, a quiet chirping sound permeated the air, battling with the ringing of Clair’s headset, both sounds fighting for her attention. Quickly, Clair lightly touched the temple of her helmet as she approached the radiation detector. “Listen Trenton I told you before, I’ll call you when I—“.  Heavy static filled her headset as she grabbed her radiation detector, filling her world with white noise. Clair snatched up the device and scanned over the details as the static continued to scratch at her eardrums. “Trenton… I’m not sure if you’re hearing me but… this is a big one”. Her words were met by a spiteful hiss, an answer with no voice. In agitation, Clair tossed her helmet to the side, letting the static fill the night air instead of her head.

She crept closer to the monolith, unsteady in her footsteps, constantly staring at the shimmering engraving. As she approached the debris, the watchful gaze of the moon faded behind the shimmering oil-like surface of the wreckage, filling her gaze with hellish colors. With each step closer, the chirping grew louder, but Clair could not help but be drawn towards it. The air around her grew thick with fog and a glowing aura as she closed in on the structure. There was no one else there but her and the symbol that was staring back at her. She began to trace her finger along the lines, her touch bringing color to a seemingly colorless enigma. The surface was smooth and malleable to the touch, as if made up of some dense oil. As the color returned to the relic, a glowing eye was staring back at her, pulsating with the flickering flames dance. The eye caught hers, and caused Clair to trip over herself as she fell backwards, shocked at the new detail. The radiation detector was chirping so quickly that it appeared a flock of birds was swarming her senses, overwhelming her perception. The eye seemed to look down towards Clair, as if determining her worth, but she was lost in her gaze, frozen in shock. “Who… has awakened me?!” the monolith bellowed, a gust of air flowing from its figure towards Clair, tossing her hair around wildly. “Wh-What are you!” Clair screamed as she crawled backwards into her Vespa, grasping its frame for stability. In response, the eye pulsed brighter and brighter, seemingly growing in size as it consumed the area around it, as if feeding off of the world. Clair leapt to her feet desperately and hopped aggressively onto her Vespa, almost knocking it over again in the process. With a hard twist on the throttle, her engine ripped through the night air, leaving a trail of dust and smoke behind her, and sending her away from the monstrosity. The air around her seemed to grow colder as the gaze of the moon faded behind the horizon, making her bleak headlights the only comfort left for her in the world.

title: [SF] A Lost Cause

question: What does the story say about the protagonists' mission relating to radiation?

answer: Clair's mission is to check radiation. Trevor is worried and calls to warn her that something seems strange about the mission. Clair puts a mask over her face and her radiation detector is on. The detector shows a high level of radiation, and Clair notices a strange creature staring at her.

question: What does the story say about the origins of the creature that Clair finds?

question: What does the story say about Clair's relationship with Trenton?

answer: It seems they are on the mission together. Trenton is worried that something bad can happen to Clair so he calls to warn her. Clair ignores him as they need to finish the mission because they need money. Later, he calls her again to check if she is alright.


text:
JAN ONUFRY ZAGŁOBA is a fictional character in the _Trilogy_ by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Together with other characters of _The Trilogy_, Zagłoba engages in various adventures, fighting for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and seeking adventures and glory. Zagłoba is seen as one of Sienkiewicz most popular and significant characters. While he has often been compared to Shakespearean character of Falstaff, he also goes through extensive character development, becoming a jovial and cunning hero.

Fictional character biography

After meeting another character of the _Trilogy_, Jan Skrzetuski, Zagłoba, until now living a meaningless life of a lesser noble, trying to survive by exploiting the good faith of others, becomes drawn into the company of hero-like personas, and slowly changes, to become worthy of their trust and friendship.[1][2] Together with them, Zagłoba engages in various adventures, fighting for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and seeking adventures and glory.[3] During a feast, in a rather drunken state, he was the first to call prince Janusz Radziwiłł a traitor.[4] Eventually he becomes a widely known person, treated with respect by powerful magnates and offering counsel to the king.[5] He was balding and half-blind, known for his love of drinking and story-telling (usually glorifying his own exploits), tendency to poke fun at everyone and everything, later also renowned as a cunning tactician.[6]

His coat of arms is Wczele or Zagłoba.[7]

Significance and literary analysis

[Zagłoba (to the left) and Bohun by Juliusz Kossak] Zagłoba appears in Sienkiewicz's _The Trilogy_ series of three books:[8] _With Fire and Sword_ (Ogniem i Mieczem) and _The Deluge_ (Potop), and the last part of the series, _Colonel Wolodyjowski_ (Pan Wołodyjowski).'[9]

Stanisław Kozłowsk notes that Zagłoba is seen as one of Sienkiewicz most popular and significant characters.[10] Roman Dyboski wrote that Zagłoba's humorous persona was one of the most enduring of Sienkiewicz characters.[11] Horst Frenz wrote that Zagłoba “belongs forever to the gallery of immortal comic characters of world literature, and he is thoroughly original.”[12]

He has been often compared to the Shakespearean character of Falstaff. This comparison, made by Dyboski[13] and others,[14][15] is often based on his propensity for drinking and partying, sharp tongue and cunning, cowardice, and telling exaggerated tales of his youthful adventures.[16] Unlike Falstaff, he grows to become a more mature character, and this transformation can be observed in the first book, beginning with the moment where he decides to risk his life to protect the proverbial damsel in distress, Helena, in the midst of the ongoing Chmielnicki uprising.[17][18] This transformation is likely the most crucial difference between Zagłoba and Falstaff.[19] Sienkiewicz himself wrote about Zagłoba and Falstaff thus:[20]

William Lyon Phelps notes that if Zagłoba is a copy of Falstaff, he is as good as the original, a feat he applauds Sienkiewicz for.[21] Edward Bolland Osborn notes he is too complex to be compared to only one character, and has a qualities of many, preferring to describe him as a caricature “of the Polish character in the last days of the chevalerie, when the sabre was still the final argument and [Poland] was the chief bulwark of the Christendom against the vast armies of [the Turks].”.[22] In political views, Zagłoba is a model petty Polish noble from the times of sejmik-dominated Polish politics, a rather intolerant Catholic, vocal supporter of sarmatism values such as Golden Freedoms and liberum veto, seeing the noble class as superior to others.[23]

Another character Zagłoba has been compared to is Odysseus (Ulysses), due to their cunning mind, always full of plans and strategies.[24][25][26] He has also been compared to a number of other characters, such as Thersites[27] or the main character of the Roman play _Miles Gloriosus (The Swaggering Soldier")._[28]

Stanisław Kozłowski notes that the good-natured and light-hearted portrayal of Zagłoba is used by Sienkiewicz to counterbalance the dark setting of the stories, set during the time of war and devastation.[29] He is the symbol of undying optimism and hope, and a strategist who can find his way out of trouble.[30] He is often considered both a comic figure as well as the patriotic hero, even if the latter more often comes from the necessity of the moment.[31] He is respected for his ideas, intelligence and a sharp tongue. For example, when Swedish king Charles X Gustav promised to give Jan Zamoyski Lublin Voivodeship in hereditary possession for opening the gates of Zamość Zagłoba asked Jan to promise in return that he would give the Swedish king the province of Netherlands in exchange which Jan passed in Latin to a Swedish deputy. Everyone who heard that laughed at the Swedish king.

Zagłoba's enduring influence on Polish culture can be seen for example in his appearance in a 2000 Polish television advertisement for the Okocim brewery.[32]

Zagłoba in film and television

-   1914 - _Obrona Częstochowy_ (dir. Edward Puchalski) - portrayed by Aleksander Zelwerowicz
-   1962 - _Col ferro e col fuoco_ (dir. Fernando Cerchio) - portrayed by Akim Tamiroff
-   1969 - _Pan Wołodyjowski_ (dir. J. Hoffman) - portrayed by Mieczysław Pawlikowski
-   1969 - _Przygody pana Michała_ (TV series) (dir. P. Komorowski) - portrayed by Mieczysław Pawlikowski
-   1974 - _Potop_ (dir. J. Hoffman) - portrayed by Kazimierz Wichniarz
-   1999 - _Ogniem i mieczem_ (dir. J. Hoffman) - portrayed by Krzysztof Kowalewski

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[32]

title: Onufry Zagłoba

question: How is the reader supposed to feel about Zagloba?

answer: He is a classic hero, a comic relief, seeking adventures and glory, so good.