text:
| parts_type = Subdistricts | parts_style = para | p1 = | established_title = Established | established_date = | established_title2 = | established_date2 = | founder = | named_for = | seat_type = Seat | seat = Raqqa | government_footnotes = | government_type = | area_total_km2 = {{#invoke:Wikidata|getRawValue|P2046|FETCH_WIKIDATA}} | area_footnotes = | elevation_m = | elevation_point = Raqqa | elevation_max_m = | elevation_max_point = | elevation_min_m = | elevation_min_point = | elevation_footnotes = | population = 338773 | population_density_km2 = auto | population_as_of = 2004 | population_footnotes = [1] | population_est = | pop_est_as_of = | pop_est_footnotes = | population_demonym = | population_note = | area_code_type = Area code | area_code = | geocode = SY110100 | website = | footnotes = }}

RAQQA SUBDISTRICT or AR-RAQQAH NAHIYAH (), a subdistrict of Raqqa District, is the central area of Raqqa Governorate (Syria), including the city of Raqqa and the nearby countryside North of the Euphrates. The subdistrict population at the 2004 census was 338,773, the majority of which living in Raqqa city itself.[2]

The administrative centre is Raqqa. Formerly, much of the subdistrict was controlled by ISIS.[3]

Raqqa Subdistrict is bounded by the Euphrates to the South, Tal Abyad District to the North, and also of Raqqa District: Al-Jarniyah Subdistrict to the West, and Al-Karamah Subdistrict to the East.

Towns and villages

The towns and villages in Raqqa Subdistrict and their populations as at the 2004 census were:[4]

-   Abbara (لعبارة), pop 1305
-   Abu Kabret Al Rashid (أبو كبرة-الرشيد), pop 686
-   Abu Rajab (أبو رجب), pop 844
-   Abu Suseh (أبو سوسة), pop 2561
-   Adnaniyeh (لعدنانية), pop 1931
-   Andalus (لأندلس), pop 1000
-   Raqqa (لرقة), pop 220488
-   Assadiya (لأسدية), pop 3992
-   Atshana (لعطشانة), pop 169
-   Ayuj (لأعيوج), pop 659
-   Berani (بعراني), pop 326
-   Big Sweidiyeh (سويدية كبيرة), aka Suwaydiya Kabir, pop 6106
-   Bir Elhasham (بئر الهشم), pop 79
-   Bir Said (بئر سعيد), pop 117
-   Eastern Khayala (لخيالة الشرقية), pop 4457
-   Faraa (لفارعة), pop 3809
-   Fteih (لفتيح), pop 390
-   Ghota (لغوطة), pop 2163
-   Hadba (لحدباء), pop 602
-   Hawi Elhawa (حاوي الهوى), pop 1651
-   Hazimeh (حزيمة), pop 3386
-   Hettin (حطين), pop 2627
-   Hfeiret Elsoqur (حفيرة الصقور), pop 138
-   Hilo Abed (حلو عبد), pop 1443
-   Htash (حتاش), pop 455
-   Hweijet Faraj (حويجة فرج), pop 945
-   Jalaa (لجلاء), pop 1253
-   Kalta (لكالطة), pop 2626
-   Kardus (كردوس), pop 158
-   Katuniyeh (لخاتونية), pop 3651
-   Kdeiran (كديران), pop 4697
-   Khayala (لخيالة), pop 234
-   Kisret Elsheikh Jomaa (كسرة شيخ الجمعة), pop 2956
-   Laqta (لقطة), pop 529
-   Little Sweidiyeh (سويدية صغيرة), aka Suwaydiya Saghirah, pop 809
-   Marj Abu Shareb (مرج أبو شارب), pop 132
-   Mashrafa (لمشرفة), pop 230
-   Milsun (ميسلون), pop 1766
-   Moezleh (معيزيلة), pop 646
-   Qahtaniyeh (لقحطانية), pop 2490
-   Rabee'a (ربيعة), pop 1906
-   Raeqqet Samra (رقة سمرة), pop 4077
-   Rahmaniya (لرحمانية), pop 513
-   Rashidiyeh (لرشيد), pop 1626
-   Rohayat (لرحيات), pop 1355
-   Royan (رويان), pop 735
-   Safyan (صفيان), pop 395
-   Sahl (لسحل), pop 2772
-   Shamiyeh (لشامية), pop 625
-   Sukariyet Tal Elsamen (سكرية تل السمن), pop 1967
-   Tal Elsamen Dahham (تل السمن دحام), pop 2530
-   Talet Elansar (طالعة الأنصار), pop 190
-   Tawi Rumman (طاوي رمان), pop 1348
-   Thulth Khneiz (ثلث خنيز), pop 846
-   Tishrine (تشرين), pop 1850
-   Tweilah (لطويلعة), pop 196
-   Um Elhweyeh (أم الحوية), pop 336
-   Upper Khneiz (خنيز فوقاني), pop 1101
-   Western Kabsh (كبش غربي), pop 1272
-   Western Sahlabiyeh (لسلحبية غربية), pop 3568
-   Widyan (لوديان, aka Bi'r Huwaym/Bir Khuwaym/بئر حويم), pop 831
-   Wihdeh (لوحدة), pop 842
-   Yaarub (يعرب), pop 1403
-   Yamama (ليمامة), pop 1408
-   Yarmuk (ليرموك), pop 3221
-   Yathreb (يثرب), pop 1335
-   Zahera (لزاهرة), pop 461
-   ? (16 تشرين), pop 498
-   ? (لأنصار), pop 1587
-   ? (لثامرية), pop 43
-   ? (لحمزة), pop 168
-   ? (لحميدان), pop 62
-   Dahlan or Dehlan (لدحلان), pop 102
-   ? (لدرة), pop 339
-   Drubiyeh (لدروبية), pop 1929[5]
-   ? (لدهموش), pop 590
-   ? (لسلحبية شرقية), pop 1796
-   ? (لصديق), pop 95
-   ? (لفيحاء), pop 1218
-   ? (لمظلة), pop 122
-   ? (بئر الجربوع), pop 591
-   ? (جهينة), pop 194
-   ? (خربة اللحم), pop 40
-   ? (خنيز الغانم), pop 858
-   ? (رطلة), pop 4712
-   ? (شنينة), pop 386
-   ? (كبش وسطي), pop 383
-   ? (كسرة عفنان), pop 986
-   ? (مرندية غربية), pop 226
-   ? (واسطة الرفدي), pop 103

Syrian civil war

By March 2013 all of the countryside and effectively the city had fallen into rebel hands.[6] During December 2016 the Syrian Democratic Forces drove ISIS out of most neighbouring Al-Jarniyah Subdistrict. Early in January 2017 the SDF extended their advance into south-western parts of Raqqa Subdistrict, occupying the area around Bi'r Huwaym / Widyan (Arabic: الوديان),[7] and western Sweidiyeh.[8]

The SDF extended their control the north of Raqqa Governorate into Raqqa Subdistrict as far south as the hill Tal Saman (Arabic: تل السمن), gaining control of Thulth Khneiz and several other villages in November 2016.[9] At that time an elementary school and the water purification system in Sukariyet Tal Elsamen were severely damaged in air raids, and among other casualties one American Special Operations trooper died at Tal Saman.[10][11] Further gains by the SDF were reported in January 2017 including Abu Suseh, Mashrafa and Ayuj.[12][13] With the capture of Big Sweidiyeh on 21 January 2017, the SDF were in control of all parts of the nahiyah north of the irrigation canal running from Lake Assad to Tal Saman.[14]

[1]  Also available in English:

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

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[12]

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[14]

title: Raqqa Subdistrict

question: Summarize the Raqqa subdistrict

answer: The Raqqa sub district is located in the center of the Raqqa

question: List the 5 most populated places in the Raqqa District. It has a population of 338,773 people, with the majority living in Raqqa city. The region recently fell back into the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces who ousted ISIS from the district.

answer:
Raqqa - 220,488
Big Sweidiyeh - 6106
Kdeiran - 4697
Raeqqet Samra - 4077
Assadiya - 3992

question: Who are the Syrian Democratic Forces?

answer: Although it isn't clearly defined on this page, they appear to oppose the control of ISIS from regions within Syria.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: A summary of the Raqqa sub district in Syria, with a list of cities and their populations (according to a 2004 census). There is also a brief history of the current state of affairs in the region that has been going through civil war.


split: train

text:
[Rent the Runway CEO: Business leaders need to act like moral leaders]

In a ceremony last week, President Donald Trump signed a defense bill authorizing $717 billion for more troops and equipment. Buried in the 788-page bill was a provision he didn't mention — one aimed squarely at addressing wealth inequality in America.

Previously known as the Main Street Employee Ownership Act, the mandate was tacked on by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Her goal: Help more workers to own a piece of the company they work for.

The concept of employee ownership has been gaining traction as a way to shrink the gap between people who make money on investments and those who work for a living.

The most common way to do this is through employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs. Workers pay nothing to participate — the company takes out a loan to buy the shares from the previous owner or shareholders, then divides the shares among the employees. Profits from the employee-owned portion of the company are tax-free, so the tax savings can be used to pay off the loan. As co-owners of the company, employees vote on major events like mergers and spinoffs, but a management team still handles day-to-day decisions.

The average participant in an ESOP today has a share in their company worth $119,691, on top of any other retirement savings, allowing them to build equity in their job just like they might build equity in a house. The company must buy back an employee's shares at fair market value soon after he or she retires or leaves the company.

The plans were formalized by Congress in 1974. While some notable companies, like Wawa and Publix Supermarkets, offer them, they remain a modest part of total American stock holdings, at $1.3 trillion.

Although the number of workers invested in employee stock ownership plans has risen steadily over the years, the total number of companies offering the plans has actually declined slightly.

And that, scholars and advocates say, is a big missed opportunity.

[chart employee ownership]

A PROFESSOR'S PROPOSAL MAKES IT INTO LAW

America is facing a wave of retirements by baby boomers, who in 2012 (the most recent year for which Census data is available) owned nearly half of the privately-held businesses in America. Many of those will simply dissolve if the owner can't find a buyer or a family member to take it over.

That's why, in early 2017, Rutgers professor Joseph Blasi went to Washington.

Blasi, who directs the school'sInstitute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, has advocated for greater employee ownership for years as a way to level the economic playing field and keep small businesses alive when their owners die or move on. He met with both Republicans and Democrats, hoping that further tax preferences for employee stock ownership plans could be incorporated into the GOP tax plan — something Hillary Clinton had included in her campaign platform — but he got nowhere.

"The bottom line was that the White House was not interested," Blasi says. "They simply wanted to say that cutting taxes for companies will benefit workers."

Gillibrand, however, seized on the idea. She convened a bipartisan group to come up with a plan that could pass, marrying conservatives' sympathy for small business owners with liberals' interest in boosting workplace democracy.

Another key selling point: The package doesn't cost anything. Rather, it directs the Small Business Administration to make its loan guarantee programs more readily available to employee stock ownership plans and worker-owned cooperatives, which often have trouble accessing capital through regular banks. It also makes it easier for a business to transition to worker ownership.

WILL THE NEW PLAN WORK?

It will definitely help, says Halisi Vinson, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, a Denver-based nonprofit that helps small businesses convert into employee stock ownership plans. Vinson had hoped the legislation would have created a new department within the Small Business Administration to foster worker ownership, but she says building the expertise at the agency to facilitate loans is a step in the right direction. "Access to capital is the next best thing," Vinson says.

But none of it will matter unless far more business owners learn about employee stock ownership as a succession strategy, advocates say. Kevin McPhillips is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Employee Ownership Center, which was created in 2016 to bolster new worker ownership plans in the Northeast, with help from philanthropies and universities like the Kellogg Foundation and the University of San Diego's Beyster Institute.

"By far, the single greatest enemy to this is awareness," McPhillips says. "From a political standpoint, there's a lot of support. The problem we have is that because everybody likes it, it just can't get the attention of things like defense or crime."

To address the problem, he's setting up a separate organization to scale the idea nationally, with the goal of adding one million worker-owners by 2024. Another initiative funded by Citi Community Development called Fifty by Fifty is shooting for 50 million new worker-owners by 2050.

AT ONE COMPANY, EMPLOYEES GO 'ABOVE AND BEYOND'

These efforts aim to replicate the success of companies like New Age Industries, a family-owned maker of plastic tubing located in Southampton, Pennsylvania. CEO Ken Baker has been handing over company stock to an employee stock ownership plan since 2006, beginning with a 30% stake and gradually adding more. He says it's increased the staff's commitment, reduced turnover, and allowed people to retire with hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they otherwise would have.

"We have a team that walks through walls for the company," Baker says. "When you see employees start doing things above and beyond what they're supposed to be doing, you just smile and say this was the right move."

New Age's employee stock ownership plan now owns 49% of the company, and Baker says he plans to transition the rest when he eventually steps back into the role of chairman, leaving his employees fully in control — a better alternative to selling the company to a larger manufacturer that might not have their best interests at heart.

"It beats what's happening in America right now, with a lot of small companies being sold to private equity and multinationals," Baker says. "Not all of them get destroyed, but many of them do."

 CNNMoney (New York) First published August 26, 2018: 11:29 AM ET

question: Summarize the first paragraph of the passage.

answer: The first paragraph of the passage introduces the main topic of the passage which is President Donald Trump signing a defense bill authorizing more money for more troops ad equipment.


text:
January 18, 1952

It was the dead of winter on the hollowed grounds of the Turner family’s vacation estate in northern Colorado. All was calm and quiet across the endless array of rolling hills, which so plainly swept through the ancient valley.
Mr. and Mrs. Turner were in a hurry, as they rushed to slide their coats on. Maurine Daniels, a seventeen-year-old New Yorker, new to Colorado helped them out the door.
“Alrite Maurine, emergency contacts on the fridge, there’s some games and food in the kitchen, no sweets for either of them, and off to bed at nine thirty, no exceptions.” “You two just have fun, we’ll be fine here.” Mrs. Turner chimed in; honestly Roger, trust the girl”, she said with a chuckle. “Maurine dear, if there’s anything at all you need don’t hesitate to give us a ring. Mr. Turners been a bit grouchy. Tonight the American Psychiatric Association is recognizing him for his contributions to the field.  “I swear, it’s year after year with these people.”  “Oh come on you old grouch. Bye kids!”
 The Turners dashed out the door. The skies opened up as heavy rain began to plummet down. Maurine shut the door as she heard the revving of an engine. The lights flashed on as the car zipped down the driveway.
	A few hours passed as Cindy and John played board game after board game with their baby sitter who forced a smile and pictured money. The clock struck nine thirty as Maurine lit up with anticipation. “Okay kids. Time for bed.” “Ten more minutes?” “John your father said no exceptions.” The children ran upstairs and hurried off to bed.
	Maurine dropped to the couch as if she had been shot. She rolled over, got up and turned on the television. “Thank God these kids don’t argue that much”, she thought to herself.  Suddenly the phone rang.
	Maurine walked over to pick it up. “Hello?” She could hear nothing more than a slight crinkling sound. “Hello?” After hanging up the phone she fell fast asleep. A few minutes later Cindy came downstairs.
	“What are you doing up?” asked Maurine playfully with a yawn. “I can’t sleep.” “Why, what’s wrong?” “The statue in my room is scary.” “Come on, we’ll take care of it. Let’s go see.” The two walked up the endless staircase to Cindy and John’s room.
	Maurine paced the vast room. She saw three statues. There was a knight, a clown, and a half-sized sculpture of a horse. She covered all three admittedly frightening figures. “All better. Now off to bed you”, said Maurine with a warm smile. Cindy smiled back and hopped into bed. “Good night.”
	Maurine went back downstairs and the phone rang as soon as she hit the couch. She rushed to the phone this time. “Hello?” “Maurine dear, its Mrs. Turner. I just wanted to check in. How are the kids?” “They’ve been perfect angels. I just put Cindy back to bed.” “Oh is she making a fuss?” “No she couldn’t sleep because of the clown statue in her room.” There was a long pause.
“Darling, there’s no clown statue.” “The one across from her bed?” Mrs. Turner went hysterical on the other end of the phone.
“Get the children out of the house! I’ll phone the police!” Mrs. Turner hung up.
	Maurine was confused. She walked up the stairs and slowly began to realize the horrific reality of her situation. At the same time, it hit her all at once. She panicked and exploded up the stairs, anxiously swung the door open, saw two of three statues, and the kids were gone. “Shit!”
There was an open window, which so calmly introduced the howling of winds that blew the white curtains of the children’s bedroom. They looked like ghosts dancing, taunting her.
 	She sprinted to the opening and gazed out into the endless flash of white that appeared to be the beginnings of a blizzard. Maurine hopped out the window onto the massive ledge, which canopied over the second floor porch on the massive three-story estate. She looked around, there was nothing in sight, and nowhere they could have gone.
 As she gazed into the far distance, she could make out what seemed to be a colossal barn. “Its too far away”, she thought to herself in a panicky disposition. She noticed a tiny window on the great wooden barn. It illuminated the pitch white of the furious storm.
Maurine’s eyes entranced, a chill ran down her spine, not from the five-degree monster that gave her frostbite, but from the nightmare that was her reality.
She rushed across the glowing white desert and bombarded the monstrous wooden door to find both Cindy and John asleep on the ground. Maurine rushed over and picked them up. She cried at the thought of her certainty that there was a clown lurking somewhere in the barn.
 She realized her intuition to be fact when the door slammed shut before she could set foot to freedom.
The clown “statue” glared at her and slowly paced her way, plank-by-plank, creak-by-creak.
She could feel herself stepping backward. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?” The clown, who stood in a narrow doorway, began to cackle wildly. He had a crackly thunderous voice. The kind of voice one gets from smoking three packs a day for over thirty years.
 “Why don’t you know my name?” “Oh my God, who are you?” she begged. “Oh I’m just -.”
Out of nowhere, the clown had a face of shock, he froze as his eyes widened and his expression went stoic. He fell to the ground. Maurine looked at the children and slowly made her way to the clown. There was a huge stab wound in his back. The monster laid face first in a pool of its own blood.
Maurine ran back to see who had saved her. “Oh thank . . . you.” Maurine stood there disappointed, her rescuer was nowhere in sight. She took the kids back to the house. Twenty minutes passed, and another hour before the Turners arrived. “Mommy, daddy!” yelled the children as they leapt into their parent’s arms. Mrs. Turner was in tears; “I’m just glad you’re all unharmed.” Mr. Turner walked up to a detective. “Who was this man and what did he want with my children?”
 The detective looked around and pulled Mr. Turner aside. He slowly leaned in and whispered; “He wasn’t after you or you’re kids. He knew Maurine would be here tonight. His name’s Douglas Daniels, no relation. He followed her from New York. He’s an old neighbor.”
“Who killed him?” “We aren’t sure.” Maurine was grateful to be alive. A detective came downstairs. “Ms. Daniels, you said there were three statues.” “There were.” “We only found a small horse statue.” “No there was that, the clown, and a . . . there was a knight.”
Another detective came down; “we found a sword with blood on the ridge.” Maurine felt that same chill she had when the window lit up, only this time a smile crossed her face.

title: Silent Ridge

question: Who is Maurine Daniels?

answer: Maurine Daniels is a 17 year old New Yorker who is new to Colorado and seems to be staying with the Turners.

question: Where are the Turners going?

answer: Mr. and Mrs. Turner are going to an event put on by the American Psychiatric Association, in which they will recognize Mr. Turner for his contributions to the field.

question: Where is the clown statue?

answer: The clown statue is in Cindy's room.

question: Who is Douglas Daniels?

answer: Douglas Daniels is the person who Maurine thought was the clown statue.

question: Write a ~8 sentence summary.

answer: Mr. and Mrs. Turner head out for an outing with the American Psychiatric Association. Cindy, one of the children, runs to Maurine, the babysitter, and tells her that she can't sleep because of the clown statue in her room. Maurine covers it, and says goodnight. When reporting to Mrs. Turner about the clown, she breaks into hysterics. Confused, Maurine returns to the room, only to find that the clown statue is gone and so are the kids. She runs off to the barn, where she finds both Cindy and John asleep on the floor, and the clown stabbed in his back. Hours pass and a detective arrives, announcing that the dead man is Douglas Daniels. One of the officers says that he only found 1 statue at the scene, and the other officer says that he found a sword with blood on it near the scene.


text:
The ÉDITIONS VAGABONDE, established in 2002, is an independent French publishing house. They focus on literature, proposing classical authors or “frondeurs”.

Authors

-   Hugo Ball
-   Georg Büchner
-   Guido Cavalcanti
-   Céline Curiol
-   Raphaële Eschenbrenner
-   Antonio de Guevara
-   Laszlo Krasznahorkai
-   William Langewiesche
-   Flann O'Brien
-   -   Nick Tosches
-   -   Carl Watson

On 10 November 2012, Danièle Robert was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize for her (bilingual) translation and critical edition of _Rime_, by Guido Cavalcanti. The work was published in March 2012 by vagabonde.

title: Éditions Vagabonde

question: What is Éditions Vagabonde?

answer: Éditions Vagabonde is an independent French publishing house.

question: What does Éditions Vagabonde focus to?

answer: Éditions Vagabonde focuses on literature, proposing classical authors or “frondeurs”.

question: What are frondeurs?

answer: It is not stated.

question: When was Éditions Vagabonde established?

answer: Éditions Vagabonde was established in 2002.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Éditions Vagabonde is an independent French publishing house established in 2002. It focuses on literature, proposing classical authors or “frondeurs”. In 2012, Danièle Robert was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize for her (bilingual) translation and critical edition of 'Rime' written by Guido Cavalcanti and published by Vagabonde.


text:
The streetlights cast a forlorn light over the man, trudging slowly through the alleyway. His well-tailored suit, pristine shoes and immaculately coiffured hair gave the impression of success. The buildings on either side of the road loomed over him, their iron-shuttered shopfronts grinning at the man as he strode ever onward.  His colleagues called him arrogant, his CV talked of a “driven and determined personality”. He was Lucius Green, millionaire banker, tax avoider, and owner of the 3rd largest collection of Lamborghinis in the world. He didn’t like this part of town, he thought, as he zipped up his designer coat and looked warily over his shoulder.

“Save yourself!, for the day of the brother is almost upon us!”

A crazed and bedraggled old man shuffled up to Lucius, his eyes darting around inside his head like ants in a Petri dish. He was wearing nothing more than rags.

“Pardon?” Lucius answered, maintaining politeness while trying hard not to spit in the old fool’s face. He didn’t have time for this.

“The alignment has begun! Those in rags shall be saved, kings shall be overthrown! The riches of nations will turn to ruin! There will be no greater day than the day of the brother!”

The man began to shriek, flecks of phlegm hitting Lucius’ priceless clothing. “heed my words!” he screamed. Spooked, the banker began to run. He hailed a taxi and was back in the leafy womb of Knightsbridge, or “civilization” as he called it, in no time.

Lucius woke up and lazily pawed through his smartphone’s news app.  It was the usual mix of tragedy in the Middle East and governmental incompetence at home. But something caught his eye.

“Reports are surfacing that the King of Tonga, Tupou VI, has been deposed and killed at his extravagant palace by a mob of dissidents. Their motive remains unknown.”

*Kings shall be overthrown…*

A coincidence, surely. Lucius put down his phone and rolled out of bed. Another long day of making millions in the City awaited him, and all of it would go straight to his offshore account in…

“Tonga…” he said aloud.

*The riches of nations will turn to ruin…*

Another coincidence, surely.

Lucius strolled through the marble and glass hallways of his building, and was at his desk in seconds. He checked his email, informing him of his ever-larger bank balance.

Life was good.

Until the phone rang.

“Mr Green, I am calling from Brother Capital. It seems that due to the unforeseen circumstances in Tonga, your account has been frozen, and therefore you will not be able to use any of your assets”

The man down the line had a grey, monotonous voice. He was not someone to start an argument with.

Lucius slowly put down the phone.

*The riches of nations will turn to ruin….*

Did the old man have a point?

Brother Capital…

“Don’t be such a bloody fool!” Lucius barked at himself. Today was one of those days better spent on the deck of your yacht.

He was just unlucky that his account got frozen because of some political unrest in some unfathomably hot corner of the world… was he? He shook his head and turned on Bloomberg.

The colour red hit him first. Red arrows, pointing down, all across the bottom of the screen. His eyes widened in disbelief. The news anchor was frantic, trying to keep up with collapsing stocks across the world. NASDAQ, FTSE, DAX… all plummeting.

A single bead of sweat rolled down Lucius’ face. This was terminal. He had £60 million invested across the world, he was never going to get it all back…

Was there a way out?

*Those in rags shall be saved…*

*The riches of nations will turn to ruin…*

“He was right!”  “He was right!” Lucius sprinted out of the room, knocking two interns out of the way with frantic force. He spilled out of the building and onto the road, still screaming at the top of his lungs. He tore at his Ralph Lauren shirt and proclaimed to the sky:

“Save yourself! For the day of the brother is upon us!”

He was at once accosted by an angry taxi driver.

“You don’t understand! You’ll never understand!, It’s all over! The day is upon us!”

The ragged banker turned, and sprinted down an alleyway.

Daily Telegraph -6/4/13

**Stock Glitch Terrifies World**

A glitch in the international stock exchange system terrified the world’s bankers, and left many people believing they were destitute, it has emerged. The glitch, which lasted for two hours yesterday afternoon, saw stocks fall by 40% worldwide. The glitch is believed to be connected to various ‘hacktivist’ groups across the Internet. The IMF has assured the world that no money has been lost, and the current status of the world economy is one of “normality”.

The Times – 9/4/13

**Still No Sign Of Missing Banker**

THE missing banker, Lucius Green, has still not been found. Green went missing from the offices of RF Bank, in the City, during the technological meltdown that occurred on the 3rd of this month. Green is described as being approximately 180cm tall, with dark brown hair. His family has appealed for any information regarding his whereabouts.

Ealing Gazette – 17/9/13

**Mysterious “Brother” Graffiti Blights Local Community**

POLICE are appealing for information regarding the wave of vandalism that has occurred across the borough. The graffiti, which has been daubed on shop fronts and walls, speaks of “The day of the brother” and “the riches of nations will be lost”. Such vandalism carries a heavy sentence, and the Gazette wishes the Metropolitan Police the best of luck in catching the perpetrator.

title: The Day of the Brother

question: What is the day of the brother?

answer: The day of the brother is a prophecy that a crazed old man on the street declares to Lucius. The old man claims that those in rags shall be saved, kings shall be overthrown, and the riches of nations will turn to ruin.

question: Why was the banker spooked?

answer: The banker is Lucius, and he is spooked because the old man was yelling to him about a day of reckoning.

question: Describe Lucius.

answer: Lucius is a millionaire banker who avoids taxes. People say he's arrogant, determined, and driven.

question: What is meant by "the colour red hit him first"?

answer: Lucius was checking the stock market and saw red arrows pointing down, reflecting collapsing stock.

question: How many events occur before Lucius finally believes the prophecy of the old man?

answer: Three events that highlight the old man's warnings had to happen before Lucius believed the old man's words.

question: Summarize The Times article about Lucius.

answer: The Times article is basically a public missing persons report for Lucius Green. He disappeared during the technological meltdown, and can't be found.

question: In the story, is the day of the brother real?

answer: In the story an article in the Daily Telegraph reveals that the turmoil in international stock exchange system was just a glitch that was possibly connected to a hacktivist group, and that no real money was lost. This means that Lucius inaccurately believed in the day of the brother.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Lucius Green, a millionaire banker, is accosted by a crazed old man who claims "the day of the brother" is upon them. He claims that those in rags shall be saved, kings shall be overthrown, and the riches of nations will turn to ruin. Lucius doesn't believe this until coincidentally the king in Tonga is killed, his offshore account is shut down, and the stock market crashes. This causes Lucius to believe in the prophecy, and have a breakdown as he disappears into an alleyway. Later, reports from various newspapers show that the stock crash was only due to a glitch from a possible hacktivist group, and that Lucius is now a missing person.


text:
Plenty of scorn is being heaped upon British actor and comedian Russell Brand and his new book, _Revolution_, a silly, anti-capitalism diatribe. Capitalism, he writes, “generates wealth for the wealthy and further impoverishes those with nothing. Asking it to behave differently is like asking a microwave to wash your car.” Tell that to the 1 billion humans, mostly Chinese and Indians, who’ve been lifted out of extreme poverty the past 20 years because their nations embraced more market-oriented economic policies. Funnyman Brand is a joke, even though he obviously believes he has many important and serious things to say.

But what about Hillary Clinton? She’s supposedly a serious person, and a brilliant one. Maybe America’s next president even. Yet at a political rally last week, she told the crowd not to “let anybody tell you that, you know, it’s corporation and businesses that create jobs. You know, that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried. That has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.” Instead, she continued, it’s raising the minimum wage that creates jobs.

Yet as I point out at my AEI blog, the U.S. economy created 50 million jobs from 1981 through 2007 even as the real value of the minimum wage fell by nearly a third. Then, of course, there’s the inconvenient fact that no mainstream economist, including Paul Krugman, would deny it’s investment and ideas that drive long-term economic and employment growth — not consumer spending through a higher minimum wage.

And standing next to Clinton at the rally was Senator Elizabeth Warren, who back in 2011 had this message for America’s free enterprise system:

  There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody! You built a factory out there? Good for you! But I want to be clear: You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You, uh, were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did.

Of course, the old Soviet Union had public goods like roads and police and an education system. (Weird that Warren failed to mention property rights.) What it didn’t have was an entrepreneurial private sector to create and use the new ideas and inventions necessary to increase productivity and living standards. It’s the free enterprise system, even imperfectly and incompletely applied, that accomplished the two greatest miracles of the past millennium. First, it drove the Industrial Revolution, which increased Western incomes fiftyfold in real terms; and, second, it lifted all those Chinese and Indians out of deep poverty.

Now maybe Hillary was just echoing Warren’s screed to raise her own populist credentials and help ward off a presidential primary challenge from the Massachusetts liberal. But what if she actually believes such nonsense? If so, maybe Russell Brand’s next writing project might be speeches for Team Hillary.

question: What did Hilary Clinton disparage at her rally?

answer: Trickle-down economics.

question: Who else spoke at Clinton's rally?

answer: Elizabeth Warren.

question: Which columnist from the New York Times is cited?

answer: Paul Krugman.

question: Who wrote the book "Revolution"?

answer: Russel Brand.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The author summarizes a Hilary Clinton rally and discusses whether free market capitalism actually benefits from a higher minimum wage or not. The author also discusses the Soviet Union.


text:
The RIVER SLEA is a tributary of the River Witham, in Lincolnshire, England. In 1872 the river was described as “a never-ending source of pure water”, and was a trout river renowned throughout the East coast of England. But in the late 1960s, the Anglian Water Authority took control of the river, and thereafter it became rapidly degraded, due mostly to over-abstraction of water for use in farming.[1]

Course

The Slea rises near West Willoughby, two miles south-west of Ancaster, at an altitude of 70 metres. The river descends 30 metres in the first 3 km of its course through Ancaster before flowing past a Site of Special Scientific Interest (alongside Sleaford Golf Club) into Sleaford.[2]

Through Sleaford it flows above ground in two separate courses, and then curves around the foot of The Hub where a new riverside sculpture walk follows it. Leaving Sleaford, it passes Haverholme and runs down through South Kyme where it is known as the Kyme Eau to join the River Witham at Chapel Hill.[3]

Slea Navigation

The River Slea was made navigable from the Witham up to Sleaford in 1794, although these navigations were closed in 1878, having been made uneconomic by the arrival of the railway in 1857. There is now an active Sleaford Navigation Trust that aims to reopen to navigations again as far as Sleaford.

[1]

[2]

[3]

title: River Slea

question: What is one factor that may have changed if the navigations of the River Slea stayed open in 1878?

answer: It can be assumed that if the navigations had stayed open then, there could be more economic profit coming from staying open and being able to sustain itself by the arrival of the railway.


text:
- Above and below are two new videos from Xavier Woods' "UpUpDownDown" YouTube gaming channel. In the video above, Woods thanks fans for their continued support of the channel and announces that he will be posting random Director's Cut videos over the next two weeks. The video below features Woods playing Street Fighter 4.

- Broadcasting & Cable has an article on new social media data from Shareablee, which lists the top US brands on Facebook from January 2015 through November 30th, 2015. FOX News ranked #1 with 205.7 million Facebook actions and WWE was #2 with 202.7 million Facebook actions. The top 5 was finished by Men's Humor with 195.1 million, MTV with 146.2 million and Fox Deportes with 143.9 million Facebook actions.

- Variety has a very negative review of the new Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg comedy "Daddy's Home." As noted, the movie features a John Cena cameo at the end. Variety film critic Geoff Berkshire wrote the following and mentioned Cena's appearance:

"It might qualify as edgy if it wasn't all so tedious and trite. Ferrell and Wahlberg could play these broadly conceived characters in their sleep, which actually appears to be the case for long stretches of screen time here, and never duplicate the chemistry they demonstrated in "The Other Guys." Cardellini is thoroughly wasted in a role that's pure plot device. It's not until John Cena shows up, in a clever cameo cannily playing off a memorable scene in "Trainwreck," that true inspiration strikes. Appropriately enough, that happens right before the closing credits."

question: Why did film critic Geoff Berkshire write a negative review of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg's new movie, Daddy's Home?

answer: According to Berkshire, the actors could play the broadly conceived characters in their sleep and were never able to duplicate the chemistry they had in their other movie, "The Other Guys".


text:
Edit Story

|Nov 21, 2008,01:22pm EST

This article is more than 10 years old.

In the days after the election, I was reading with my students the conclusion of Machiavelli's _Prince_ (1513). The last chapter is an appeal to the "redeemer" of a country riddled with problems and plagued with conflicts to energetically pursue a much-needed unity. We were struck by how uncannily relevant many passages were to the present political situation.

Machiavelli's reflections can be applied to recent presidential history: Bill Clinton has many of the prerequisites of the self-made prince "by virtue," whereas George W. Bush can be called prince "by fortune" (although he is the son of a former president rather than of a Renaissance pope). The prince who inherits the rule must also learn to "put down roots" in his state. As Ron Suskind reported in the _New York Times Magazine_, Barack Obama did just that in February 2008, galvanizing his then-disheartened supporters at a key rally in Iowa by saying that he wanted "a real grassroots campaign, one that grew from the bottom up, from the dirt, and that it takes time for those roots to take hold."

Machiavelli has long been considered a master of ruthlessness, a "teacher of evil" and of amoral politicking. However, there are many ways of apprehending Machiavelli's essentially ambivalent and pragmatic teachings. For him, the proper use of wits is necessary to hold on to power. Machiavelli would say that, in the past years, the U.S. has abused force and lacked shrewdness, "because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about."

Getting troops out of the Iraq trap will require an enormous dose of military and diplomatic skills. But no naive solution to the problem is feasible: "for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil."

Machiavelli also knew that the first task for a new leader is the "election of ministers," since "the first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him." Obama seems fully aware of this and undoubtedly is aiming to surround himself with first class "intellects," as Machiavelli would put it, by selecting Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff and (possibly) Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

We shall all be watching the newly elected Prince while he prepares to take on one of the greatest challenges a political leader has ever faced: "But to exercise the intellect the prince should read histories, and study there the actions of illustrious men, to see how they have borne themselves in war, to examine the causes of their victories and defeat, so as to avoid the latter and imitate the former." One might well recommend Obama keep Machiavelli's book by his bedside, if he is not doing so already.

_Marcello Simonetta, the author of_ The Montefeltro Conspiracy. A Renaissance Mystery Decoded, _teaches Italian history at Wesleyan University._

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question: When was this article written?

answer: At the beginning of president Obama's tenure.

question: In American politics, who was the prince "by fortune?"

answer: President George W. Bush.

question: What is meant by the fox/lion allegory?

answer: That the US must be versatile in it's methods of dealing with challenges, not just rely on force.

question: Why is Machiavelli relevant reading in the 21st century?

answer: He found timeless truths about politics that transcend period.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Machiavelli's "Prince" (!513) holds truths about political power that are uncannily relevant to the present political situation. His reflections can be applied to recent presidential history: Clinton as the prince "by virtue," Bush as the prince "by fortune." He asserted that the proper use of wits is necessary to hold power, and that leaders must be versatile in their methods for addressing challenges. He also stressed the importance of "election of ministers," a process new president Obama is currently undergoing. The author hopes Obama has read Machiavelli.


text:
Pushing through the the still wet air I found my way on to the dock through a morning fog that hid the world from view in all but five feet in any direction. My still damp knitted sweater that never seemed to dry or loose the smell of the sea weighed me down along with my cumbersome rubber boots. The long walk was lonely from my home and having left the Captain and my mates at Sullies with already too many empty pint glasses in front of them, I knew I be the first to get to the Mary Marget.

It had been a good catch yesterday, the first of many and if it hadn't been for a head heavy with a cold I'd have been drinking with them and warm and dry in my single bed listening to the fog horn that blanketed the coast with it's burdening moan.

I threw my gear into the Mary Marget with a loud thud and carefully climbed aboard. I was anxious for my cup of hot coffee and my first smoke of the day. It wasn't often that I could enjoy a morning alone like this so made a pot, filled a cup and headed back up to enjoy the sea air.

I looked out to the sea through the thick fog. I listened to the calm ocean lapping against the boat. It was quiet. A gull cried in the distance. The coffee warmed me. I held my pose like a statue in my contentment.

When I closed my eyes to fill my lungs and exhale the moment, I heard something. It was a melody. A voice so faint it wove itself through the wall of fog and lightly tickled my ear. I could only make out a few notes but there was something familiar about the song. A sad joy lifted me.

Straining my eyes, I looked in it's direction, searching for a source but seeing nothing through the grey haze. My heart raced at the desire to hear to know what the song was. I climbed back up to the empty dock and started walking slowly toward the end.

A soft woman's voice grew louder as I approached. The tone was as clear as glass and danced in the air around me. A vague shape appeared thought the mist. The silhouette of a woman. Her back was to me. Her light slender body was covered in a in a black humble dress and shawl. She stood poised, facing the sea and her long black hair blew delicately in a breeze that didn't seem to exist.

*"...Take heed, young eaglet, till thy wings

Are feathered fit to soar

A little rest and then

The world is full of work to do
A little rest and then

The world is full of work to do

Sing hushabye loo, low loo, low lan

Hushabye loo, low loo"*

When she finished singing her the tender lullaby floated on the silence of the brisk morning. I stood motionless and stared at the stranger that pulled bitter sweet memories from me that had been forgotten decades ago.

"My Grand Da used to sing that song to me", I said.

She turned her head slowly with the grace of bird soaring in the wind and peered over her shoulder with out a startle. Her eyes were pale crystal blue and beamed from her light white skin with a beauty that men have sailed around the world for.

"Pardon me." she spoke gently, "I was saying goodbye to a friend."

 "I didn't me to disturb you, ma'am"

Turning, she walked towards me, gliding over the wet wooden beams. She cut through the mist and contrasted the white world around us with her black hair and garb. Her hand reached up and and touched my face softly. Her complexion was flawless and her skin seemed as soft as clouds. As eyes of angels looked at me, her cool fingers felt my unshaven face and a smile kissed her lips.

"No," she said, "I think we were supposed to meet."

title: The Siren, The Fog and The Forgoten

question: Describe the themes that are present in this story.

answer: The ideas of nostalgia and the pull of curiosity are present in the tale. A man's idea of beauty and the draw of it.

question: When the fisherman hears the song, what does it remind him of?

answer: It was a song his 'Grand Da' used to sing to him. It fills him with a sad joy. He knows it as a lullaby .

question: Who is the woman?

answer: The woman is a beautiful creature with pale blue eyes. She says she was saying goodbye to a friend and believes she and the fisherman were meant to meet.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: A fisherman hears a soft lullaby on a wet, foggy morning when docked at port. The lullaby reminds him of his youth and he finds the source: a beautiful woman who says that they were meant to meet.


text:
This one time my friend and I were at his lakehouse with some other friends. We had a fun evening playing video games and watching anime and browsing reddit.com. It was a good time. But then we decided to go to bed around 10:25 pm. So we went to our rooms and I was on the bottom floor in the room with my friend Ronnie. Above us on the 2nd story were Cliffton and Henry while the other guy Mickey just slept on the couch in the porch outside. I had known Ronnie since Grade 7 Elementary school so we were pretty close friends. I prepared myself to go to sleep so I grabbed my Kyubey doll and got into bed. I was about to fall asleep when a noise was dragging me from my peaceful slumber. My grip on the Kyubey doll tightened and I began to look around. But it was dark and I couldn't see good. The noise got louder and louder and then I realized where it was coming from. The bed next to mine. Ronnie erupted from underneath his covers, flailing about wildly.

"Wait Ronnie no the demon must be possessing you please halt" I contemplate as earlier in the day we had drawn some symbol things that were supposed to summon powerful demons from Heck and also Cliffton said his house was haunted.

But Ronnie wouldn't listen. Ice cream in hand from the chunky rocky road chocolate ice cream he had gotten from the freezer before he came downstairs and decided to share the bedroom with me (which had two twin beds! Don't want you to think we were sleeping in the same bed together), he plowed me over and over and over again despite my pleas in protest to stop. The demonic Ronnie was not satisfied yet though, as he tore off the head of my Kyubey doll and slurped down it's inner stuffing. This made me mad but I couldn't fight Ronnie in his current State as he was to powerful. Ronnie ran from room to room, plowing as he went, all of us powerless to face the Greater Demon that possessed him. I escaped outside to the woods with my ruined Kyubey doll, my face still fresh from the tears I wept at my Kyubey's death. But I refused to be deteared. I continued to room through the woods looking for any help. But then a growl shattered the piercing peaceful calm of the night in the woods. My pace doubled with greater speed. But the growling was not ceasing. In fact, it was growing more loud and echoed through the woods. I realize to late that the growling source was in fact my Kyubey doll, Ronnie had infected it!

"No! Kyubey! Not you too! You must fight it!" screech the words from my mouth as I drop the Kyubey doll in the lake by the woods in attempt to defeat the demon within. But then there is a reaction from the water and it soaks up all the water and grows triple in size. I now face a 37 foot monstrousity that used to be my very best plushie and prized possession. By this time though my friends Cliffton and Henry had escaped into the woods and found me too. So there we were, the three of us versus the greatest threat we had ever faced. Yet before the battle could begin, Ronnie comes charging in and attacks the monster Kyubey doll. The two do great battle and exchange many vicious blows as the three of us friends stand by in the woods in awe and shaking in out boots. But eventually the battle winds down, and Ronnie's demon proves to be the more ferocious of a beast. However he is very wounded and begins to approach me and Cliffton and Henry as we sit in the woods. Luckily the clock then strokes Midnight, the hour of ending the Demon's time on earth and saving our lives. We sigh with relief and plop down by each other in our spot in the woods beside the lake. It had been a long night so we excited the woods back to my friends lakehouse and went to bed because we were tired.

That night, I had nightmares. I was lucid dreaming because I had mastered it in the years past to help get over my fear of Clowns but it was still scary because demon Ronnie, Kyubey, and Pico were in it and chasing after me as I ran through the woods. I woke up and cried and reached to snuggle with my Kyubey doll but then remembered it's fate and cried some more.

We don't go to his lakehouse anymore. Rumor has it that he sold it and the other people who moved in were never seen from again. They say that on dark nights on the lake you can still hear the growling. And if you go out on the water... Well. I hope your boat can outrun a 37 foot Kyubey, or else you will face a fate worse than that any of mankind has ever experienced in it's history before. And as for the woods around his house and the lake, well, you don't even wanna know what happens there.

(PS: I also wrote 2 more parts so if you guys wanna see em just say so but i'll probably post them here soon anyways so it's whatever :D)

title: Wieners ga Daisuki

question: Why did Ronnie attack his friends?

answer: Ronnie was possessed by a powerful demon when his friends drew symbols that summoned demons from Heck.

question: What is the likely gender of the narrator?

answer: The narrator is likely female because she sleeps with a Kyubey doll and is a little emotional.

question: If Ronnie "infected" the narrator's Kyubey doll while he was possessed by a demon, why did he attack it?

answer: It's possible that Ronnie gained back some control because it was almost midnight and the demon that possessed him only had until midnight.

question: What are the likely ages of the narrator and her friends?

answer: Since they all love to play video games, watch anime, own toys based on anime (Kyubey doll), browse Reddit, sleep early, and consume no alcohol, they are probably anywhere from 13 - 17 years old.


text:
If there’s a romantic image that tugs at our heart strings as much as the thought of homegrown tomatoes, it’s that of the multi-generational family farm.

In a culture that has spurned the union of the generations—that frowns upon the thirtysomething living in his parents’ basement, mocks the new family who moves in with Grandma, offers condolence to the empty-nesters who take in an aging parent, builds television sitcoms about the interpersonal conflicts between married couples and the in-laws, and peddles financial products to discourage elders from ever being a “burden”—the family farm has been America’s great exception to the now-expected independent nuclear unit.

Farms proudly advertise the number of generations who have lived on the same land; signs are hung on the side of barns to commemorate the 100th continuous year of business within the same family; awards are handed out, stories written, legends passed down within rural communities celebrating the differences from father to son, mother to daughter.

And in an era when the rest of the country is discovering that breaking ourselves into nuclear units is coming at an ecological, financial, and emotional cost, the multigenerational family farm feels like the last cultural example we can turn to as a reminder of what might make for a viable future, whether the multiple generations are in the city, the suburbs, or on the land.

But this week I heard three painful stories about the tensions among the agrarian generations. One young family, now indebted more than $500,000 from an effort to take over the family farm, is being crippled from making sustainable changes on the land by both excessive financial burdens, and a lack of physical and emotional support from the older generation. Another family with children, who’d invested several years in building an organic enterprise on the family farm and buying out the parents, is finally abandoning its dreams and is trying to find land elsewhere, because the intergenerational conflicts were insurmountable. And a third couple, who moved back to take over the family farm a few years ago, has just moved out again, their efforts at reviving the land having met too much resistance. Their marriage is on the cusp of breaking up, too.

  When Mom and Dad made a choice to buy a farm, they weren’t buying a retirement asset. They were securing a resource for the family and its subsequent generations.

I know my generation can be a nuisance. We want everything instantly. We grew up with little to no training in financial literacy. We learned that controlling expenses wasn’t as critical as earning a big paycheck. And when the big paycheck never showed up, we were sold a bill of goods that we could afford more debt than was realistic. At the same time, we’re questioning how hard we want to work. We don’t ubiquitously buy into the idea that logging 80-100 hours of labor in a week is the best way to take care of family. And to add to matters, we’re expressing a lot of annoyance at the detritus bequeathed to us by our parents and grandparents: depleted fossil fuel reserves, excess carbon in the atmosphere, polluted water, environmental toxins, lost topsoil, nutrient-deficient foods, and the chronic illnesses that ensue from these things.

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At the same time, the older generations have their burdens, too. The 401ks that seemed so cushy a few years back aren’t quite so robust. The vision of “golden years” spent golfing and playing tennis in sunny Florida have been replaced by fears over medical expenses and the humiliating prospect of lost independence. It’s hard to be generous with grown children when you feel insecure yourself … Especially when those kids enter the scene with crazy ideas about changing how the farm is managed and questioning the lifetime decisions of the elders; or they contrive newfangled ventures that seem risky.

  We have arguments, we storm off, we hang up on each other. But after nearly 20 years, we’re still here.

I moved back to my family’s farm in 1996, at the age of 22. While I spent a few years in graduate school, I came home every weekend and summer, and have been an active part of the business since that time. In the 17 years I’ve been involved with Sap Bush Hollow, I fell in love with a man, convinced him to move here to start a life together, began a family, and bit by bit have grown more deeply into the family business. Bob and I realized early on that my parents were too young and vibrant for us to simply “step in and take over,” and our different skill sets and personalities have required that we find unusual ways to blend with the family business. Some of our livelihood from the farm comes from actual labor, some of it comes from our own entrepreneurial ventures. We don’t live in the same house as my parents, which has its benefits and drawbacks.

  He pointed to Saoirse and Ula, then about 5 and 2, who were tumbling across the front field. “The land’s not mine. It’s theirs.”

It isn’t all butterflies and rainbows here, that’s for certain. We have arguments, we storm off, hang up on each other, and occasionally sit down and have some good cries. But after nearly 20 years, we’re still here, still working together on this business; still in agreement that this family farm offers the best possible life for all of us. Along the way, there have been a few lessons and practices that have really made a big difference in the viability of our intergenerational cooperation:

1.  THE STATED GOAL OF THE BUSINESS. Posted on the wall of the farm office is a piece of paper, typed up maybe 25 years ago. Mom and Dad wrote it to express their goals and dreams. And the number one goal at the top of the page reads: _We want to create a business that one or both of our children would want to run._ It’s not saying that the kids _have_ to take it over. It’s just saying that the quality of the venture needs to reflect the needs and desires of the next generation. Thus, every decision they make on that farm gets tested against this top goal. As the next generation, I have a sense of security that my thoughts and ideas matter, that Bob’s and my quality of life is critical to the success of Sap Bush Hollow.
2.  NO ONE “OWNS” THE LAND. I remember the day a neighboring farmer drove into the barnyard to talk to Mom and Dad about the financial potential of signing a lease to allow hydro-fracking on our land. Dad shrugged his shoulders and said he couldn’t help him. “It’s not my land,” he said.

    “Isn’t your name on the deed?”

    “Doesn’t matter.” He pointed to Saoirse and Ula, then about 5 and 2, who were tumbling across the front field. “It’s not mine. It’s theirs.”

    And that’s the tone around here. None of us owns it. It is forever owned by the next generation. Whoever has their name on the deed is a temporary steward. Thus, while Mom and Dad are counting on the farm to sustain them as part of their retirement, the land is not a source of retirement income. It is a resource for each successive generation. When Mom and Dad made a choice to buy a farm, they weren’t buying a retirement asset. They were securing a resource for the family and its subsequent generations.

    For Bob and me, this means we’ll never “own” the land, either. We derive benefit from the resources it offers, and it is our job to bridge to the next generation, and to help make sure Mom and Dad will be able to be comfortable in their retirement, without having to sell that land.

3.  AVOID DEBT. Keeping the farm in the family is a lot easier when the bank doesn’t have a lien on the property. At Sap Bush Hollow, we’ve been masters at diversifying our income with small ventures that are not capital-intensive, which keeps us in control of the money and out of debt. And all of us are pretty skilled at living on the cheap. One of the many benefits is that there is a lot less stress between the generations. Interestingly, since thrift and frugality is a defining quality of our family culture, we find it easy to be generous and trusting with each other. No one worries about someone else wasting money.
4.  THE MOST IMPORTANT “PRODUCT” IS THE NEXT GENERATION. There is an agreement across the family that Saoirse and Ula are number one. This means that homeschool is not squeezed into the interstices between loading cattle and chasing pigs. The teaching space and time is sacred. Family meals are of paramount importance. Adequate rest to allow for a calm, happy family life is critical. And their safety matters above all else. As the parents, this makes Bob’s and my job a lot easier. We don’t feel as though our fidelity to the family business is questioned when we need to honor our commitments to our children. The person who leaves farm work to prepare the daily meal, teach the kids, or maintain the home is as valuable as the one making hay.

[]
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We didn’t start out in our family venture knowing all these rules for success. Over the years, we’ve grown into them, and a lot of the lessons were learned the hard way, through emotionally trying experience.

I’d be a fool to suggest that these were the only keys to success, and I’d be even more of a fool to argue that, because of these attributes, our farm will be “sustainable.” No one ever really knows the answer to that question. All I can say is that for 17 years, life has been good. So good, in fact, that I can say I am happy where I am, and that everyone in the Sap Bush Hollow family seems to share the daily intentions to continue the quality of life we have.

Certainly, these words cannot salve the pain of those three farm families I mentioned earlier. What’s done is done. We’ve entered an era that asks us to un-learn the last 60 years of cultural conditioning, and to reclaim wisdom from generations that are nearly gone. It isn’t easy, and our lessons are hard-won. But hopefully we will hold onto the rediscovered wisdom this time, pass it along to our children, and enable each successive generation to grow up comfortable in walking sustainably on this earth.

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

Interested?

-   It’s a good time to be in farming if you like to grow corn. It’s a tough time if you see yourself as a steward of the land. Shannon Hayes on why growers pressured by corn-heavy markets should hold out for crops that nourish the Earth.
-   “We have a lovely home, we eat well, we have lots of fun, we’re warm, and we don’t worry about how we’ll keep the lights on.” Shannon Hayes on how she has managed to live a fulfilled and happy life without going broke.
-   Two recent studies concluded that organic food is no more nutritious than non-organic food. But the value of organics involves health on multiple levels, from that of farmers to eaters to the planet itself.

question: Who wrote the article?

answer: Shannon Hayes returned to her parent's farm, the Sap Bush Hollow, at the age of 22 in 1996. She would later marry Bob and they manage the farm with her parents. She has two daughters, Saoirse and Ula.

question: What does Shannon say about family farms?

answer: That it is not easy to keep running, that there are challenges when a farm has to pass management from one generation to another, and that her family followed certain rules to in order to overcome these challenges.

question: How does Shannon's family overcome the challenges of managing a family farm?

answer: Her family always takes the needs of the children as a priority when making decisions regarding the farm. To do this, they have four rules to follow. Three of the rules can be summed up as one: the farm is for the next generation so they must take the next generation into account for all decisions. The other rule is to avoid debt.

question: Is the Sap Bush Hollow farm rules a good model for other family farms?

answer: According to Shannon, the rules they follow are not for ensuring success of having sustainability. Each farm has its own challenges to face and so has Sap Bush Hollow.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Family farms face a lot of challenges, among which is the friction between the generations that end up managing the farm. The Sap Bush Hollow farm has managed to overcome this by always keeping a single priority in mind: the well-being of future generations of their family.


text:
MARIA WIEDMAIER (born MARIA SIEGLOCH: 19 October 1896 – 20 October 1977) was a German political activist (KPD) who engaged in anti-fascist resistance during the twelve Nazi years. She spent most of that time in a succession of state detention institutions, ending the war as a survivor from the Ravensbrück concentration camp.[1][2]

Life

Family provenance and early years

Maria Siegloch was born in Zuffenhausen, a quarter of Stuttgart on the city's north side. The third of her parents' seven recorded children, she was born into a “railway family”. Between 1910 and 1916 she worked at the Salamander shoe factory in nearby Kornwestheim. Meanwhile, war broke out in 1914, and from 1916 she was working at a munitions factory in Feuerbach. It was here that she met Albert Volz, a co-worker whom she married that same year.[3]

Weimar years

At the end of 1918 she joined the Independent Social Democratic Party (_“Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands”_ / USPD) which had broken away from the mainstream Social Democratic Party (SPD) following vigorous internal party disagreement over whether or not to support funding for the war. When the USPD in turn splintered she was a member of the left wing majority who moved across to the newly emerging Communist Party. Together with Heinrich Rau and Eugen Wiedmaier[4] she was a co-founder, in 1923, of the Communist Party's Zuffenhausen branch.[5]

The marriage to Albert Volz had been blessed with a son, but in other respects Volz was by this point out of the picture: in 1923 she married Eugen Wiedmaier[6] and the two of them relocated to Berlin. This turned out to only be the first of several moves undertaken in connection with party work. The focus of her party work at this stage was on women's matters and youth issues. In 1924/25 she worked in a party secretarial capacity for the party regional leadership (_Bezirksleitung_) in Saarbrücken, at the heart of an industrial region in western Germany still, at this stage, under French occupation. From 1925 she was a designated “party instructor” for the Party Central Committee. Party work also took her to the Palatinate.[7]

In 1929/30 she was a student at the Comintern's International Lenin School in Moscow. On returning to Germany she took a full-time position with the district leadership team for the important Berlin-Brandenburg region.[8] The political backdrop changed following the Nazi power seizure in January 1933. The Reichstag fire at the end of February 1933 was immediately blamed on “communists”. Meanwhile, the new government lost no time in converting Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Nevertheless, between January 1933 and April 1935 Wiedmeier worked (illegally) as a party instructor in Berlin. From 1934 she was actively engaged with the “Anti-militarist” group around Emil Pietzuch, undertaking several covert trips to Moscow as a courier.[9] According to a subsequent court determination she was also involved in the “Resistance Group G” headed up by .[10]

Nazi years

Eugen Wiedmaier was arrested in January 1934 in Karlsruhe and detained pending trial. His trial followed at the end of the year and he received a thirty-month prison term. However, before the term had been expunged he faced another trial which ended with a -year sentence. In the event, after six years in solitary confinement in Ludwigsburg jail, Eugen Wiedmeier was murdered there.[11] On 6 April 1935 Maria Wiedmaier was arrested in Berlin. There followed nearly three years in “investigative custody”. On 28 February 1938 she faced the court.[12] She testified that she had been disinherited by her father, while her inheritance from her mother's estate along with her own household goods and furniture had been appropriated by the Gestapo “to cover court costs”.[13] She was sentenced to a five and a half year prison term.[14] As matters turned out, as early as October 1940 she was transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she spent the rest of the war.[15]

Soviet occupation zone / German Democratic Republic

With the end of the war, formally in May 1945, Maria Wiedmeier was freed from the concentration camp. Surrounding Berlin, a large region of what had been Germany was now administered as the Soviet occupation zone (after October 1949 relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic). Between 1945 and 1949 she worked in the social services department in Berlin's Charlottenburg quarter.[16] She now took part in constructing anti-fascist structures in the Berlin administration and led the Fascism Victim's (Opfer des Faschismus / OdF) Committee in Charlottenburg. She was one of the speakers at the first OdF demonstration, in 1945.[17] After the division of the city administration she became an employee of the Council (_Magistrat_) of East Berlin. In 1948 she received a formal reprimand on account of “deficiencies in the cooperation of the VVN and the SED”.[18] The VVN was the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime: the SED was the recently constructed Socialist Unity Party which was rapidly becoming the ruling party in a new kind of one-party dictatorship.

In 1949 she moved briefly to Zuffenhausen, since 1945 in the US occupation zone, where she stayed with her son in an attempt to recover her health, still shattered as a result of her wartime experiences.[19][20]

She then settled back in East Germany where she married , a Buchenwald survivor who at one stage became General Secretary of the VVN.[21]

In 1976 she was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit (gold clasp)[22][23] having already received lower levels of the award in 1958 and 1971.

Maria Wiedmeier died on 20 December 1977 in Glienicke near Potsdam.[24]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15] Grit Philipp (assisted by Monika Schnell): Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück 1939–1945, Berlin 1999, p. 55.

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23] Berliner Zeitung, 27 August 1976, p. 4

[24]

title: Maria Wiedmaier

question: Who was Maria Wiedmaier?

answer: A political activist.

question: Where was she from?

answer: Germany.

question: How many siblings did she have?

answer: Six.

question: What was her birth surname?

answer: Siegloch.

question: Write a ~12 sentence summary.

answer: Maria Wiedmaier (nee Siegloch) was a German political and human rights activist known for her stance against fascism. Early in life she had worked in factories, and she focused on women's and children's issues. In her teen years, Wiedmaier gravitated toward socialist and Communist ideals and would go on to co-found the Communist Party's Zuffenhausen branch. She was married twice before World War II-the second to fellow activist Eugen Wiedmaier-and had one child. Maria Wiedmaier was also a Holocaust survivor, having been sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp in 1940 following a lengthy legal detention in Germany. She remained there until the end of the war. Her husband was murdered in prison. After the war, she worked in social services and took part in construction anti-fascist structures. Her health had suffered greatly due to her wartime and life experiences. Wiedmaier married a third time, to a fellow concentration camp survivor. In 1976, she was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit. Wiedmaier died in 1977.


text:
[A view of the gardens of the Adyar Theosophical society] The THEOSOPHY SOCIETY – ADYAR is the name of a section of the Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1882. In that same year, its headquarters moved with Blavatsky and president Henry Steel Olcott from New York to Adyar, an area of Chennai, India. The designation 'Adyar' is added to make it clear that this is the Theosophical Society headquartered there, after the American section and some other lodges separated from it in 1895, under William Quan Judge.[1]

The US National Section of this organization is called the Theosophical Society in America located in Wheaton, Illinois.

The garden

[Theosophical Society, Adyar, India, in 1890] Known as the “Huddleston Gardens”, the Theosophical Society garden lies on the south bank of the Adyar River and covers 260 acres. The garden has migratory birds, fruit bats, snakes, jackals, wild cats, mongooses, hares, and a variety of spiders. Trees include the rare mahogany and other trees from across the globe. The garden also has a 450-year-old banyan tree, which is known locally as _Adyar aala maram,_ whose aerial roots cover some 60,000 sq m. The main trunk fell under its own weight in 1996.[2]

Founders

[H. P. Blavatsky standing behind Henry Steel Olcott (middle, seated) and Damodar Mavalankar (seated to his left). Bombay, 1881] H. P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others founded the Theosophical Society on 17 November 1875 in New York City. The American section split off with William Quan Judge as its leader. Henry Steel Olcott remained president until his death in 1907.

Aims and ideals

1.  To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
2.  To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science.
3.  To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.

Monastic/Non-monastic

The Theosophical Society is open to anybody who supports its three objects, regardless of belief, social custom or marriage status. Celibacy is neither encouraged nor discouraged, each member being free to decide his/her own way of life.

[Colonel Olcott in Adyar, 1903]

General philosophical outlook

-   Universal Brotherhood
-   Belief in theory of Karma
-   Belief in Reincarnation
-   There exists a Consciousness (Logos), Universal and Individual
-   Immortality of Man

Spiritual discipline

The practice of brotherhood regardless of race, creed, sex, color, or any other difference is recommended. Nothing is mandatory. Members are free to have any or no spiritual practice at all.

Administration

The organization has a highly autonomous setup in that lodges and sections are fully autonomous. The President gets involved in National Section matters only when there is some dispute between them. Otherwise the President does not interfere in the matters of the sections or lodges. The President is nominated by the members of the General Council and then elected by members all over the world. The President holds office for seven-year period. The Vice-President acts on behalf of the President as necessary and assists him or her in various ways. The Secretary handles worldwide correspondence, maintains records including statistics of the worldwide membership of the Society, its Lodges and Sections, and is responsible for producing an annual report. He/she is also the Secretary of the General Council and the Executive Committee of the Society. This Committee, which meets a number of times each year, implements the decisions of the General Council and makes financial and administrative decisions relating to the Society's Headquarters. The Treasurer is responsible for the finances of the Society and prepares an annual financial report.

Locally, members are organised in lodges. When a country has at least seven lodges, these can be gathered in a national section. Lodges and sections have a democratic organisation in which chairperson, secretary, treasurer and optional other officers are elected. Similarly, officers of the national sections are directly elected by the members of that section in a business meeting.

International Presidents

1.  Henry Steel Olcott (1875 to 1907).
2.  Annie Besant (1907 to 1933).
3.  George Arundale (1934 to 1945).
4.  Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa (1946 to 1953).
5.  Nilakanta Sri Ram (1953 to 1972).
6.  John Coats (1972 to 1980).
7.  Radha Burnier (1980 to 2013).
8.  Tim Boyd (2014 to ...)

Activities

[Emblem of Theosophical Society Adyar]

Religion & spirituality

The Theosophical Society is organised in lodges and national sections. These organise meetings for religious study and lectures. Members individually practice any kind of meditation or other spiritual practice they choose.

Social field

-   The Olcott Education Society
-   The Olcott Memorial School
-   The Olcott Memorial High School
-   The Theosophical Order of Service

Olcott Memorial High School provides free education, uniforms, books, and two daily meals to impoverished rural children in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.[3]

Cultural field

-   Theosophical Publishing House

Besant Scout Camping Centre

Dr. Arundale, Provincial Scout Commissioner and President of Theosophical Society after Dr. Besant, set aside 10 acres of wooded area in the Olcott Gardens (part of TS) and named it Besant Scout Camping Centre (BSCC) in memory of the founder. Young Scouts and Guides frequent this on weekend for camping for various skill development and competitions amongst themselves.

Relief activities

When a Tsunami hit South India on 26 December 2004, it affected many of the people living near the Adyar-compound. The Theosophical Society, through the Theosophical Order of Service, helped the people survive both in the immediate aftermath and later. Similar activities were undertaken after the hurricane that destroyed much of New Orleans in 2005.

Province of its influence

The influence of the Theosophical Society has been major, especially considering its small size. The new age movement reflected many of its main characteristics, especially holism and eclecticism. In Modern Art, the artists Kandinsky and Mondriaan were both influenced by theosophy.

Theosophical Society and Jiddu Krishnamurti

The leadership of the Theosophical Society at Adyar was responsible for promoting young Jiddu Krishnamurti as the new “World Teacher” during the first few decades of the 20th century. Charles Webster Leadbeater, one of the Society's leaders at the time, had “discovered” fourteen-year-old Krishnamurti in 1909, and considered him the likely “vehicle” for the expected reappearance of the Maitreya. However, as a young man in 1929, Krishnamurti disavowed his expected “mission” and disassociated himself from the Theosophical Society and its doctrines and practices. Over the next six decades he pursued an independent course, becoming widely known as an original, influential thinker and speaker on philosophical and religious subjects.[4]

Publications

-   Magazines
-   Brahmavidya – Adyar Library Bulletin
-   The Theosophist – English monthly Current Issue
-   Adyar Newsletter – quarterly journal
-   Wake Up India – quarterly journal
-   The Theosophical Digest – quarterly journal
-   Books
-   The Key to Theosophy – H. P. Blavatsky
-   An Outline of Theosophy – C. W. Leadbeater
-   The Ancient Wisdom – Annie Besant
-   At the Feet of the Master – Alcyone
-   First Principles of Theosophy – C. Jinarajadasa
-   Light on the Path – Mabel Collins
-   Seven Great Religions – Annie Besant
-   Quest Books is the imprint of the Theosophical Publishing House, the publishing arm of the Theosophical Society in America (Wheaton, IL) branch of the International Theosophical Society Adyar.
-   INTERNET MAILLIST – theos-talk – at www.groups.yahoo.com. A very active and independent maillist which has no official connection with any organization; it is a valuable source for up-to-date information on all matters relating to theosophy and TS Adyar and others. The archives are also public.
-   INTERNET COMMUNITY – www.theosophy.net A new public community website set up by a few interested theosophists. It is totally independent and is not funded or directly or indirectly controlled or moderated by any theosophy organization.

[1] Ryan, Charles J. (1975) “_H.P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement_”. San Diego (California), Point Loma Publications Inc. blz. 427 -

[2]

[3] http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=360

[4]

title: Theosophical Society Adyar

question: What is the group's general motivation?

answer: It is to pursue spirituality and solidarity without reservation.

question: What are the important impacts of the group?

answer: They are active in education and relief aid, as well as being influential in the formation of New Age spiritualism. They also had some notable impact on modern art.

question: Summarize the ethical leanings of the group.

answer: They are non-discriminatory humanitarians who value freedom and inquiry.