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In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Q: An artesian aquifer is trapped between rocks or clay which causes the pressure .
A: | An artesian aquifer is trapped water , surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay which apply positive pressure to the water contained within the aquifer . |
You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
The Federal Reserve began taking high-denomination currency out of circulation (destroying large bills received by banks) in 1969. As of May 30, 2009, only 336 $10,000 bills were known to exist; 342 remaining $5,000 bills; and 165,372 remaining $1,000 bills. Due to their rarity, collectors often pay considerably more than the face value of the bills to acquire them. Some are in museums in other parts of the world. | is there such a thing as a 10000 bill? |
Given the task definition, example input & output, solve the new input case.
In this task you will be given an answer to a question. You need to generate a question. The answer given should be a correct answer for the generated question.
Example: This list contains the top 25 accounts with the most followers on the social photo-sharing platform Instagram. As of May 2018, the most followed user is Instagram's own account, with over 235 million followers. Selena Gomez is the most followed individual, with over 137 million followers. Ten accounts have exceeded 100 million followers on the site.
Output: who has the maximum number of followers on instagram
The answer is talking about the Instagram accounts that have the most followers. The question asking about the maximum number of followers. So this is a good example.
New input case for you: The eighth season of The Walking Dead, an American post-apocalyptic horror television series on AMC, premiered on October 22, 2017, and will consist of 16 episodes split into two eight-episode parts, with the second part debuting on February 25, 2018.
Output: | how many episodes are there of walking dead season 8 |
Multi-choice problem: Continue writing the next sentence in this paragraph:
How to start a journal
Find a notebook to write in.
The book can be simple or ornate. If you're happy with a simple journal, then just buy a basic college-ruled notebook.
Available options:
(a). Just buy a 1-inch notebook and write your journal entries down on the front page, preferably in a separate page. Write in a journal for a two-hundred word notebook..
(b). If you want something more serious, look for a nice leather-bound journal-perhaps even one with a lock and key! Choose between a lined or an unlined notebook. A lined notebook can be better for writing, while an unlined notebook might facilitate art and drawing..
(c). Cover the notebook with spiral paper or toilet paper. The silver paper will reflect this, which will make the journal more interesting! Fill the notebook with items you wish to use in the journal..
(d). Avoid using the plain, simple notebook you'll get at a local library. Having a notebook on hand will also help save you time if you're writing down stuff for a class, study, or essay.. | (b). |
Instructions: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Input: English orthography typically represents vowel sounds with the five conventional vowel letters ⟨a, e, i, o, u⟩, as well as ⟨y⟩, which may also be a consonant depending on context. However, outside of abbreviations, there are a handful of words in English that do not have vowels, either because the vowel sounds are not written with vowel letters or because the words themselves are pronounced without vowel sounds.
Output: | are there any english words with no vowels? |
[Q]: He voted to violate the budget cap 277 times. You know, there's a main stream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank. As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts. Ted Kennedy is a senator from Utah.
[A]: No
[Q]: How to grill halibut<br>Go to your local supermarket or fish market and purchase halibut steaks. [substeps] Look for steaks that appear solid without a fishy smell, and keep in mind that thicker steaks take longer to grill. Choose your seasonings or marinades. your local fish market should have halibut steaks.
[A]: Yes
[Q]: AussieMite is the registered brand name for a dark brown, salty food paste mainly used as a spread on sandwiches and toast similar to the better-known Vegemite and Marmite. It is a spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets and cracker biscuits as well as a filling for pastries like a Cheesymite scroll. AussieMite was founded by john edwards
[A]: It's impossible to say
[Q]: Helping<br>One day Susan was driving when she saw a man with crutches fall down. She stopped her car to help him. She walked over and helped him stand up. He thanked her profusely. Susan felt good after that. The man paid her for helping him off the ground.
[A]: | It's impossible to say |
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Zinni feared that Bin Laden would in the future locate himself in cities, where U.S. missiles could kill thousands of Afghans. He worried also lest Pakistani authorities not get adequate warning, think the missiles came from India, RESPONSES TO AL QAEDA'S INITIAL ASSAULTS 135 and do something that everyone would later regret. Discussing potential repercussions in the region of his military responsibility, Zinni said, "It was easy to take the shot from Washington and walk away from it. We had to live there." Zinni's distinct preference would have been to build up counterterrorism capabilities in neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan. But he told us that he could not drum up much interest in or money for such a purpose from Washington, partly, he thought, because these countries had dictatorial governments. After the decision-in which fear of collateral damage was an important factor- not to use cruise missiles against Kandahar in December 1998, Shelton and officers in the Pentagon developed plans for using an AC-130 gunship instead of cruise missile strikes. Designed specifically for the special forces, the version of the AC-130 known as "Spooky"can fly in fast or from high altitude, undetected by radar; guided to its zone by extraordinarily complex electronics, it is capable of rapidly firing precision-guided 25, 40, and 105 mm projectiles. Because this system could target more precisely than a salvo of cruise missiles, it had a much lower risk of causing collateral damage. After giving Clarke a briefing and being encouraged to proceed, Shelton formally directed Zinni and General Peter Schoomaker, who headed the Special Operations Command, to develop plans for an AC-130 mission against Bin Laden's headquarters and infrastructure in Afghanistan. The Joint Staff prepared a decision paper for deployment of the Special Operations aircraft. Though Berger and Clarke continued to indicate interest in this option, the AC-130s were never deployed. Clarke wrote at the time that Zinni opposed their use, and John Maher, the Joint Staff 's deputy director of operations, agreed that this was Zinni's position. Zinni himself does not recall blocking the option. He told us that he understood the Special Operations Command had never thought the intelligence good enough to justify actually moving AC-130s into position. Schoomaker says, on the contrary, that he thought the AC-130 option feasible. The most likely explanation for the two generals' differing recollections is that both of them thought serious preparation for any such operations would require a long-term redeployment of Special Operations forces to the Middle East or South Asia. The AC-130s would need bases because the aircraft's unrefueled range was only a little over 2,000 miles. <sep>Which countries were thought to have dictatorial governments<sep>Neighboring countries like Washington
No
{ { Plot } } Tom plays pool in a deserted pool hall , pocketing two balls by lowdown means and then wakes Jerry up by shooting the 10-ball into the pocket where he is sleeping . Jerry awakes just in time to avoid the 10-ball and is carried out to the ball return , where the 10 and the 13 smash the mouse between each other . Jerry is mad and walks up through the pocket , first sees nothing , but after a few steps back to the pocket , he spots Tom perched behind it . Jerry tries to jump into another corner pocket , but Tom aims a cue ball with so much force that it roll's into the pocket , and spins back out of it and it rolls Jerry backwards to Tom , who has made a ramp with his cue stick for the mouse to slide up . Jerry stops at the top of the stick and is then blown down by Tom , who then shoots a stream of balls to make the mouse flat . The whole train rebounds back towards the cat and the balls stack up at Tom's end of the table . Tom shoots all the balls in succession with his cue , and then tries to shoot Jerry , but the mouse hangs onto the cue tip . The cat , as if he were saying `` Have it your way '' , chalks up and shoots the 8-ball using Jerry . The mouse drops off the cue tip and then is upended by the 8-ball rolling in circles , and Tom forces Jerry to jump through the ball rack as if he were a circus performer . Tom then sets it on fire to add an additional level of torment , and when Jerry accomplishes this with poise , Tom discards the flaming rack and shoots the 8-ball across the table and back . <sep>How is Tom able to blow Jerry down the stick?<sep>Because he is much bigger than the mouse
Yes
Eric , a young boy , is excited about his birthday after reading a book and believes that a train will come for him , despite his sister Jill's disbelief . A few hours later , the train station's control tower wakes up and in the roundhouse , Tillie , a young little blue switcher engine , along with her best bird friend , Chip , wakes up four other trains : Georgia , a kind all-purpose engine , Farnsworth , a stuck-up passenger engine , Jebediah , a worn-out old engine , and Pete , a gruff , burly freight engine . After the tower assigns Farnsworth and Pete their jobs , Tillie tries to help with the milk train assigned to Jebediah , but the tower insists that she is too small for the job . Georgia is assigned to pull the birthday train . A clown named Rollo leads the toys into the train , including Stretch , a basketball player ; Missy , a ballerina ; a Handy Pandy , a panda ; Perky , an elephant ; and Grumpella , a stuffed bird . During her journey , Georgia breaks down and is taken back to the roundhouse by Doc . Left behind , Rollo eventually takes Doc's advice of flagging down one of the other engines returning from their daily runs over the mountain . Farnsworth and Pete turn down their offers to pull the train . Meanwhile , Tillie asks the tower to rescue the stranded train , but he insists that Tillie will never do the job . Jebediah turns down his offer to pull the train because of his age , and returns to the roundhouse . Chip and Tillie sneak past the sleeping tower and pulls the birthday train up a mountain . <sep>According to the tower, what type of engine cannot pull a milk train?<sep>A kind all-purpose engine
| No
|
Instructions: In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Input: The county contains part of the National Forest , and borders on Greater Manchester , West Yorkshire , South Yorkshire , Nottinghamshire , Leicestershire , Staffordshire and Cheshire .
Output: | The county contains part of the National Forest , and borders on Greater Manchester to the northwest , West Yorkshire to the north , South Yorkshire to the northeast , Nottinghamshire to the east , Leicestershire to the southeast , Staffordshire to the west and southwest and Cheshire also to the west . |
You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Q: A goal may be scored directly from a kick-off against the opponent.
A: | can you score off a kickoff in soccer? |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Problem:The Grey Cup is the trophy awarded to the champion of the Canadian Football League , and also the name of the championship game .
Solution: | The Grey Cup is the name of both the championship game of the Canadian Football League ( CFL ) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football . |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Problem:What occurred that is in contrast to the amicable nature of the students?, Context: 26 March 1991 is the day that marks the clash between military soldiers and peaceful demonstrating students which climaxed in the massacre of dozens under the orders of then President Moussa Traoré. He and three associates were later tried and convicted and received the death sentence for their part in the decision-making of that day. Nowadays, the day is a national holiday in order to remember the tragic events and the people that were killed.[unreliable source?] The coup is remembered as Mali's March Revolution of 1991.
Solution: | massacre |
An athletic woman is seen standing ready holding a pole in her hands and looking down and back. she
then holds the stick up and pole volts herself onto a mat.
A close up is seen of a bolt being removed with a screw driver. A wheel is removed from a bicycle. it
is then replaced with a new one.
While the lady in the black blouse curls the child's hair the little girl is holding a sponge curler and hands it to the lady one at a time. the little girl with all the curlers in her hair
looks at herself in the mirror and poses and smiles at herself.
A person sitting down at a wooden table grabs a black piece of square cloth and begins placing objects on it. After, a brown suede shoe appears and the man begins cleaning it with a small white brick. next
| , he grabs a smaller wooden brush, dips it into some liquid in a cap and cleans the boot. |
In this task you will be given an answer to a question. You need to generate a question. The answer given should be a correct answer for the generated question.
Q: Lethal Weapon is an American buddy cop action comedy-drama television series developed by Matt Miller and based on the film series of the same name created by Shane Black. The show premiered on Fox on September 21, 2016 and has run for two seasons, with a third season upcoming.
A: | is this the last season of leathal weapon |
Definition: In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Input: Streptococcus is a genus of spherical Gram-positive bacteria belonging to the phylum Firmicutes and the lactic acid bacteria group .
Output: | Streptococcus is a genus of gram-positive " " ( plural ) or spherical bacteria that belongs to the family Streptococcaceae , within the order Lactobacillales ( lactic acid bacteria ) , in the phylum Firmicutes . |
The 35th Sports Emmy Awards was presented on May 6, 2014 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Ted Turner, entrepreneur, sportsman and television visionary, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports.
Based on that paragraph can we conclude that this sentence is true?
The 35th Sports Emmy Awards was presented at the Fredrick P.Rose hall at Jazz in New York City.
Options are: (1). Yes; (2). It's impossible to say; (3). No; | (1). |
[Q]: Queens of the Stone Age have announced their next album, Villains. In the trailer, directed by Liam Lynch, it is revealed that Villains is produced by Mark Ronson, who appears in the clip at around 1:28. A snippet of the first single, Feet Don't Fail Me, is also played at around 2:00. It's possible that the song Villains Of Circumstance, which Josh Homme debuted live a few years ago, will be included on the forthcoming album.Sources: Stereogum Villains is the title of Queens of the Stone Age's next album. OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
[A]: Yes
Problem: Farmer Ben<br>Farmer Ben's chickens kept disappearing every week. He suspected that foxes were sneaking into his farm at night. Farmer Ben set some fox traps and waited. Sure enough, Farmer Ben caught a fox in one of his traps. Farmer Ben's chickens no longer went missing.
Based on the paragraph above can we conclude that "Foxes prefer the taste of duck to that of chicken."? OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
A: It's impossible to say
Q: Ice Creamusume is a band.
Chao Kuo-Jung (; born August 28, 1992 in Taiwan), better known in Japan as Youko (ヨウコ ) is a member of the latest Hello! Project group Ice Creamusume. She was announced as a winner of the Taiwan Hello! Project New Star auditions on September 20, 2008 along with the other members of Ice Creamusume.
OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
A: It's impossible to say
A report prepared by a five member UN commission noted "killing of civilians, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur", and secretly named alleged war criminals that should go before the ICC.
War criminals are by law not guilty OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
A: No
input hypothesis: Cats really enjoy being cradled like a newborn baby,
Context: How to determine the sex of a cat<br>Approach the cat or kitten with care. To ascertain the sex of a cat or kitten, it's necessary to pick the cat up. Some cats don't like to be handled, so take a little time to let him or her get comfortable around you.
OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
true or false: No
input hypothesis: The two people were men.
Context: Two persons were injured in dynamite attacks perpetrated this evening against two bank branches in this northwestern, Colombian city.
OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
true or false: | It's impossible to say |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Problem:What did the french model lack?, Context: In addition, the Prussian military education system was superior to the French model; Prussian staff officers were trained to exhibit initiative and independent thinking. Indeed, this was Moltke's expectation. The French, meanwhile, suffered from an education and promotion system that stifled intellectual development. According to the military historian Dallas Irvine, the system "was almost completely effective in excluding the army's brain power from the staff and high command. To the resulting lack of intelligence at the top can be ascribed all the inexcusable defects of French military policy."
Solution: | initiative and independent thinking |
Problem: How does the next paragraph end?
How to find a product liability attorney
Use databases.
There are many databases on the internet you can use to find product liability attorneys. For example, the lawyers.com website has a database of products liability attorneys you can search.
A: Click on your state and then city. A list of law firms and attorneys will pull up.
Problem: How does the next paragraph end?
How to rotate photos with the ipad photos app
Launch the photos app on your ipad.
Photos is the default gallery application that comes with ios. Photos lets you organize and view all of your stored pictures.
A: It also features a number of editing capabilities, including rotate. Find and select the photo you'd like to rotate.
Problem: How does the next paragraph end?
How to become a magistrate
Perform well in high school.
Although many students in their teenage years have not yet made career choices, if you know early that you wish to become a magistrate, then you need to begin studying hard as early as possible. Earning good grades in high school will provide more opportunities for your future.
A: At the very least, you need a high school diploma to attend college, and you will need the college training to become a magistrate. It is never too early to perform at your best.
Problem: How does the next paragraph end?
How to minimize a rooster's noise
Place the coop as far away from your home as possible.
The farther away the coop is, the less noisy the rooster will sound. In fact, every time you double the length between you and the coop, the noise level drops by 6 decibels, so even 10 to 20 feet (3.0 to 6.1 m) can help.
A: | Try placing the coop on the backside of your property, as far away from your home as you can. Add barriers around the coop to reduce the noise coming from it. |
Teacher:In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: Mr. Andrews pointed to one of the oak chairs. "You sit there," he commanded, "it's reserved for members of the bar, but it's all right. You're with ME." Distinctly annoyed, slightly bewildered, the banker sank between the arms of a chair. He felt he had lost his individuality. Andrews had become his sponsor. Because of Andrews he was tolerated. Because Andrews had a pull he was permitted to sit as an equal among police-court lawyers. No longer was he Arnold Thorndike. He was merely the man "with Mr. Andrews." Then even Andrews abandoned him. "The judge'll be here in a minute, now," said the assistant district attorney, and went inside a railed enclosure in front of the judge's bench. There he greeted another assistant district attorney whose years were those of even greater indiscretion than the years of Mr. Andrews. Seated on the rail, with their hands in their pockets and their backs turned to Mr. Thorndike, they laughed and talked together. The subject of their discourse was one Mike Donlin, as he appeared in vaudeville. To Mr. Thorndike it was evident that young Andrews had entirely forgotten him. He arose, and touched his sleeve. With infinite sarcasm Mr. Thorndike began: "My engagements are not pressing, but—" A court attendant beat with his palm upon the rail. "Sit down!" whispered Andrews. "The judge is coming." Mr. Thorndike sat down. The court attendant droned loudly words Mr. Thorndike could not distinguish. There was a rustle of silk, and from a door behind him the judge stalked past. <sep>What did his sponsor whisper?<sep>Stand up
Student: | No |
Problem: What happens next in this paragraph?
How to prune an avocado tree in a pot
Disinfect your tools.
Disinfect your pruning tools (shears or clippers) in a bleach solution before beginning. A one part bleach, nine parts water solution works well.
OPTIONS:
- Your saplings are ready to prune when your plants have fully flowered, and your tree starts to produce new vibrant leaves and strong buds. Cut your avocado tree in half.
- If you're using pruning shears or clippers, remove any dead or diseased fruit. You can purchase some roamers, which look like normal pruning shears, which are sprayed with insecticides every time you prune an avocado tree.
- Let your tools soak in the solution for 30 minutes. Since you'll be cutting into the flesh of your tree, you want to make sure your tools are free of bacteria, pests, and toxins.
- Wear gloves and a latex mask to prevent using the tools while pruning avocado. Use the same water solution to disinfect one hand prune two hands.
A: Let your tools soak in the solution for 30 minutes. Since you'll be cutting into the flesh of your tree, you want to make sure your tools are free of bacteria, pests, and toxins.
A man in black is sitting and playing at a piano while a man in red is standing near drums. As the man in black plays, the man in red is rolling up a wire. the man in red
OPTIONS:
- continues playing the keyboard.
- continues to play and stops to come back to the camera.
- continues to keep playing and stops and the man in red is laughing for a few seconds.
- begins bobbing his head to the beat of the piano music.
begins bobbing his head to the beat of the piano music.
question: Complete the next sentence:
A woman is seen sitting down on the floor while holding a cat and cutting it's claws. the woman
OPTIONS:
- then brushes his fur down and clips it into her hair.
- continues cutting then begins to iron the cat's fur and finally cutting his nails.
- holds up a razor and begins tracing the cat's nails while it's staring at her.
- continues to hold the cat cutting his claws and then gets up and runs away in the end.
answer: continues to hold the cat cutting his claws and then gets up and runs away in the end.
Problem: Write the next sentence for:
A person is seen standing before a large track holding a pole. The person begins to run down the track while still holding the pole. the man
OPTIONS:
- then jumps over a beam and onto a mat.
- continues running down using the pole to slow down.
- continues running down the track while looking and speaking to the camera.
- runs throughout the track zooming back and fourth..
Next sentence: then jumps over a beam and onto a mat.
context: How to wear a fascinator
Coordinate the size with your hair style.
If you want to wear a fascinator with your hair slicked back, then go with a smaller one. If you're going to wear your hair loosely pulled up, then a medium size is probably best.
OPTIONS:
- Wear a large fascinator if you're wearing your hair down and in a voluminous style. Pick the material based on the season.
- A smaller fascinator will give you curves and keep you from looking boxy. Use the narrower styles to hold your hair back.
- If you want a different look, then you can accessorize your hair with either a small or large fascinator. Experiment with the length of your hair.
- If you want to keep the look up a bit, then you can fall into the want category. Opt for themed fascinators.
****
next sentence for the context: Wear a large fascinator if you're wearing your hair down and in a voluminous style. Pick the material based on the season.
Problem: What happens next in this paragraph?
Cookie dough is on a cookie sheet. they
OPTIONS:
- are in a cookie sheet, then chopped wood is put beside them, then wood frosting.
- put chocolate chips under the cookie sheet.
- flow out of a cup.
- put the pan in the oven.
A: | put the pan in the oven. |
TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
PROBLEM: Besides sheriffs and posses, who helped keep the peace?, Context: In the American Old West, policing was often of very poor quality.[citation needed] The Army often provided some policing alongside poorly resourced sheriffs and temporarily organized posses.[citation needed] Public organizations were supplemented by private contractors, notably the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was hired by individuals, businessmen, local governments and the federal government. At its height, the Pinkerton Agency's numbers exceeded those of the United States Army.[citation needed]
SOLUTION: Army
PROBLEM: What is the landscape of Southampton?, Context: As with the rest of the UK, Southampton experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb). Its southerly, low lying and sheltered location ensures it is among the warmer, sunnier cities in the UK. It has held the record for the highest temperature in the UK for June at 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) since 1976.
SOLUTION: low lying and sheltered location
PROBLEM: where is Kham known to receive high orders from?, Context: According to the official Twenty-Four Histories, the History of Ming compiled in 1739 by the subsequent Qing dynasty (1644–1912), the Ming dynasty established the "É-Lì-Sī Army-Civilian Marshal Office" (Chinese: 俄力思軍民元帥府) in western Tibet and installed the "Ü-Tsang Itinerant High Commandery" and "Amdo-Kham Itinerant High Commandery" to administer Kham. The Mingshi states that administrative offices were set up under these high commanderies, including one Itinerant Commandery, three Pacification Commissioner's Offices, six Expedition Commissioner's Offices, four Wanhu offices (myriarchies, in command of 10,000 households each) and seventeen Qianhu offices (chiliarchies, each in command of 1,000 households).
SOLUTION: | Ming dynasty
|
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
From the White House to the American Embassy in Kabul , American officials rushed to distance themselves from the actions of U.S. soldiers who posed for photographs next to corpses and body parts of Afghan insurgents.Two photos of incidents from a 2010 deployment were published Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times. In one, the hand of a corpse is propped on the shoulder of a paratrooper. In another, the disembodied legs of a suicide bomber are displayed by grinning soldiers and Afghan police.Secretary of DefenseLeon E. Panettaapologized for the photographs, saying the behavior depicted in the photos "absolutely violates both our regulations and, more importantly, our core values. This is not who we are.... If rules and regulations were found to have been violated, then those individuals will be held accountable."White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the soldiers' behavior "reprehensible," and said President Obama wanted a full investigation.The NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. John Allen, and American Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who were alerted that the photos were coming, condemned the actions even before the photos were published online. Allen said U.S. officials were working with Afghan and international forces "to resolve any issues related to improper treatment of remains." Crocker called the actions of soldiers in the photos "morally repugnant."At the same time, Pentagon and White House officials expressed disappointment that the photos had been made public. The Pentagon had asked The Times not to publish the photos, citing fears that they would trigger a backlash against U.S. forces.Speaking to reporters during a meeting of NATO allies in Brussels, Panetta said:"This is war. And I know that war is ugly and violent. And I know that young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions. I am not excusing that behavior. But neither do I want these images to bring further injury to our people or to our relationship with the Afghan people."Davan Maharaj, editor of The Times, said the newspaper considered a Pentagon appeal to delay publication, and decided to hold off for more than 72 hours until military officials said they had taken security precautions against any retaliation."At the end of the day, our job is to publish information that our readers need to make informed decisions," Maharaj said in an online discussion Wednesday. "We have a particular duty to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan."He added: "On balance, in this case, we felt that the public interest here was served by publishing a limited but representative sample of these photos, along with a story examining the circumstances under which they were taken."After the newspaper provided several photos to military officials last month, theU.S. Armybegan an investigation, saying the soldiers' actions violated Army standards. The photos were among 18 images of soldiers posing with corpses or body parts. They were provided to The Times by a soldier who served in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division in 2010.The soldier who provided the photos said he and others in an 82nd Airborne brigade were concerned about a lack of discipline, leadership and security that he said compromised soldiers' safety — and he cited the photos as one example.He expressed the hope that publication would help ensure that alleged security shortcomings at two U.S. bases in Afghanistan in 2010 were not repeated. The brigade, under new command but with some of the same paratroopers who served on a yearlong deployment in 2010, began another tour in Afghanistan in February.There were no immediate reports of violence in Afghanistan in response to the photos. Many Afghans , especially those in rural areas, do not have Internet access or electricity. The country's main evening news broadcasts did not show the photos.Suicide bombers and insurgents who plant roadside bombs are widely despised by Afghans. Civilians are routinely killed or maimed by insurgents who detonate suicide vests or set out homemade bombs that kill indiscriminately.A recent United Nations report said the Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible for 77% of fatal attacks against civilians last summer, most of them from suicide bombs or roadside explosives.Still, the taboo against desecration of the dead is strong in this religiously conservative country."We condemn Americans posing with dead bodies or body parts," said Najla Dehqan Nezhad, a member of parliament from the western province of Herat. ||||| WASHINGTON — A new revelation of young American soldiers caught on camera while defiling insurgents’ remains in Afghanistan has intensified questions within the military community about whether fundamental discipline is breaking down given the nature and length of the war.
The photographs, published by The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, show more than a dozen soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s Fourth Brigade Combat Team, along with some Afghan security forces, posing with the severed hands and legs of Taliban attackers in Zabul Province in 2010. They seemed likely to further bruise an American-Afghan relationship that has been battered by crisis after crisis over the past year, even as the two governments are in the midst of negotiations over a long-term strategic agreement.
The images also add to a troubling list of cases — including Marines videotaped urinating on Taliban bodies, the burning of Korans, and the massacre of villagers attributed to a lone Army sergeant — that have cast American soldiers in the harshest possible light before the Afghan public. Accordingly, combat veterans and military analysts are beginning to look inside the catchall phrase “stress on the force” to identify factors that could be contributing to the breaches.
One potential explanation put forth by these analysts is the exhaustion felt by the class of non-commissioned officers that forms the backbone of the all-volunteer force: the sergeants responsible for training, mentoring and disciplining small groups of 18- and 19-year-old soldiers at the small-unit level, hour by hour, patrol by patrol.
Another factor, they say, may be the demands of a counterinsurgency strategy that has distributed small units across vast distances to serve at primitive combat outposts. Self-reliance required in isolation may promote heroic camaraderie. But the rugged terrain, logistical challenges and the in-your-face violence of the insurgency may also present great challenges to the noncommissioned officers in charge of these small units, operating far beyond the more consistent senior supervision in past wars.
Officers and analysts express concerns that some of these isolated units are falling prey to diminished standards of behavior and revert to what one combat veteran described as “Lord of the Flies” syndrome, after the William Golding novel portraying a band of cultured British schoolboys reverting to tribal violence when severed from society.
“Some of these incidents certainly seem to be the fault of a breakdown in leadership at the small-unit level,” said Andrew Exum, a defense policy analyst at the Center for a New American Security who teaches a course on irregular warfare at Columbia University.
“Where was the sergeant who is supposed to say: ‘Stop, boys. We don’t do that. We don’t disrespect the dead’?” said Mr. Exum, who led a light infantry platoon in Afghanistan in 2002 and then led a platoon of Rangers in both Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004.
Early reports indicate that the soldiers had been sent to gather fingerprints or retina scans for identification of the suicide bomber. Mr. Exum noted how the horrific experience of being ordered to interact with bloody, severed body parts of an enemy may cause soldiers to develop self-defense mechanisms — in particular dark humor around corpses. “But the line is crossed when you disrespect the dead body,” he said. “It’s one thing to have a psychological release valve, and another thing to take trophy pictures.”
Pentagon and military officials, noting that the proliferation of soldiers’ carrying camera phones has been involved in many of the cases, said that technology and a changing culture had presented new problems, as well. Troops have behaved badly since the beginning of warfare, of course. But now, those actions can be captured in real time, and spread rapidly without commanders’ control, via social networks.
Army officials said Wednesday that the service had guidelines and rules for photos — basically, “think before you post” — but they also acknowledged that social media are evolving so rapidly that regulations were not keeping pace. Rules are set by commanders at the company, battalion and brigade level, but those standards are sometimes ignored by small units in the field.
“Technology today presents definite challenges related to security and propriety,” said Col. Thomas W. Collins, an Army spokesman. “In this case, these photos are probably a manifestation of the soldiers’ relief that this insurgent no longer posed a threat to them or their fellow soldiers. That cannot excuse what they did. We are the United States Army, and the world rightly has very high expectations that our soldiers will do what’s right. Clearly, that didn’t happen in this case.” ||||| | American officials were quick to condemn the grisly photos of US soldiers posing with the body parts of dead Afghan suicide bombers that surfaced yesterday. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the soldiers' behavior "reprehensible," while the US Ambassador to Afghanistan called them "morally repugnant," and defense chiefs promised a full investigation, notes the Los Angeles Times, which printed two of the photos after receiving them from a serviceman concerned about a breakdown in discipline. Analysts say this incident and other troubling recent cases point to a possible breakdown in leadership at the small-unit level, especially among isolated units, the New York Times finds. Military officials say changing technology also presents new problems. “In this case, these photos are probably a manifestation of the soldiers’ relief that this insurgent no longer posed a threat to them or their fellow soldiers," says an Army spokesman. "That cannot excuse what they did. We are the United States Army and the world rightly has very high expectations that our soldiers will do what’s right. Clearly, that didn’t happen in this case." |
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President Obama scrambled for votes Monday as Democratic support trickled in for his trade agenda, despite strong pressure from unions.
Labor groups led by the AFL-CIO are furiously lobbying Democrats to oppose fast-track authority when the Senate votes on a procedural motion Tuesday.
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The measure would help Obama negotiate the largest trade deal in history with 11 other countries along the Pacific Rim by limiting interference from Congress.
Obama’s trade bill needs 60 votes, and he can afford no more than two Democratic defections who previously backed fast-track. As of Monday evening, he had not yet secured public promises from all the Democrats he needs.
Backers of fast-track likely need a dozen Democratic votes because five of the Senate’s Republicans voted against the trade package last month and Sen. Ted Cruz Ted CruzBig Pharma must address high drug prices A guide to the committees: Senate Trump wants to cut red tape? He should start with the CFPB. MORE (R-Texas) is indicating in an op-ed on Breitbart News that he will change his vote from yes to no. Cruz, who is running for president, says he is wary of backroom negotiations, expressing concern that the Export-Import Bank reauthorization will be included in the horsetrading.
Sens. Maria Cantwell Maria CantwellA guide to the committees: Senate Trump signs bill undoing Obama coal mining rule Nine Dem senators say hiring freeze hurting trade enforcement MORE (D-Wash.) and Heidi Heitkamp Heidi HeitkampSchumer: GOP plan to make Warren the face of Dems 'not going to work' A guide to the committees: Senate Pruitt confirmation sets stage for Trump EPA assault MORE (D-N.D.) said Monday they are still reviewing their options, while Sen. Ben Cardin Ben CardinWarren wants briefing on probe into Trump ally A guide to the committees: Senate House bill would prevent Trump from lifting Russian sanctions MORE (D-Md.) insisted he wants fast-track to remain bundled with Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), an aid program for workers hurt by foreign competition.
Democratic Sens. Chris Coons Chris CoonsSenate advances Trump's Commerce pick Senate Dems move to nix Trump's deportation order Senate Dem: Trump will hurt Gorsuch's confirmation by undermining judiciary MORE (Del.), Michael Bennet Michael BennetA guide to the committees: Senate Senate advances Trump's Commerce pick Senate Dems move to nix Trump's deportation order MORE (Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen Jeanne ShaheenDem senator asks for 'top to bottom' review of Syria policy A guide to the committees: Senate Mattis on rise in Trump administration MORE (N.H.) and Claire McCaskill Claire McCaskillA guide to the committees: Senate Juan Williams: Senate GOP begins to push Trump away Dem senator: I may face 2018 primary from Tea Party-esque progressives MORE (Mo.) declined to say Monday evening how they would vote.
Cantwell told reporters last week she would vote against fast-track because it was not attached to TAA, but her office walked back the comment Monday.
Heitkamp is holding out for a guarantee that the Export-Import Bank will be reauthorized before its charter expires on June 30.
Sen. Patty Murray Patty MurrayA guide to the committees: Senate Overnight Healthcare: Trump officials weigh fate of birth control mandate | House, DOJ seek delay in ObamaCare lawsuit Top lawmakers from both parties: 'Vaccines save lives' MORE (Wash.), the fourth-ranking member of the Democratic leadership and one of the leaders of the Senate’s pro-trade Democrats, declined to say how she would vote.
Obama got a boost Monday afternoon, however, when Sen. Ron Wyden Ron WydenIPAB’s Medicare cuts will threaten seniors’ access to care A guide to the committees: Senate Tech, advocacy groups slam DHS call to demand foreign travelers' passwords MORE (D-Ore.) announced he would support fast-track, even untethered from TAA.
Wyden and other pro-trade Democrats have wavered over the past week because GOP leaders split the legislation after House Democrats defeated TAA in a bid to derail the broader agenda.
In the end, Wyden and other Democrats realized they had gone too far out on a limb to turn back, having voted last month for a trade package that included both.
“The trade package currently before the Senate is a blueprint for trade done right,” Wyden said in a statement. “It will make our country stronger by opening new markets to American products and creating new opportunities for good-paying American jobs.”
Democratic Sens. Tom Carper Tom CarperA guide to the committees: Senate Senate advances Trump's Commerce pick Warren: Trump's EPA pick the 'attorney general for Exxon' MORE (Del.), Bill Nelson Bill NelsonA guide to the committees: Senate Senate advances Trump's Commerce pick CMS nominee breezes through confirmation hearing MORE (Fla.), Dianne Feinstein Dianne FeinsteinA guide to the committees: Senate Dem: Trump's China trademark looks like a quid pro quo Senate advances Trump's Commerce pick MORE (Calif.) and Tim Kaine Tim KaineA guide to the committees: Senate Mattis on rise in Trump administration Senate advances Trump's Commerce pick MORE (Va.) signaled Monday they will also vote for fast-track.
“I intend to vote for cloture on the Trade Promotion Authority bill because the facts show that expanded trade with the Asia-Pacific region helps California and the country as a whole,” Feinstein said in a statement.
Supporters of fast-track argue that trade supports more than 4.7 million jobs in California.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Jack LewOne year later, the Iran nuclear deal is a success by any measure Chinese President Xi says a trade war hurts the US and China Overnight Finance: Price puts stock trading law in spotlight | Lingering questions on Trump biz plan | Sanders, Education pick tangle over college costs MORE on Sunday described an all-out lobbying offensive by the administration.
“One thing I can say is the president spared no effort on this. He’s talked to more members than I can count, more senators than I can count, and everyone in the Cabinet, including myself, is doing their job to try and get this across the finish line,” he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday that Obama would keep up the pressure campaign until the vote.
“I do think the president will be engaged in that effort,” he said.
The Senate’s vote Tuesday to end debate on fast-track — if it gets 60 backers — will set up a final roll call on the measure later in the day or Wednesday.
The chamber would then vote on a package of trade preferences combined with the African Growth and Opportunity Act and TAA. That measure is expected to clear Wednesday or Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Mitch McConnellCardboard cutouts take place of absent lawmakers at town halls GOP groups ramp up pressure on lawmakers over ObamaCare 100 women get matching 'nevertheless, she persisted' tattoos at Minneapolis shop MORE (R-Ky.) predicted Monday that both would make it to Obama’s desk by week’s end.
“Now I know how important it is, particularly for my friends on the other side of the aisle, to get both TPA [trade promotion authority] and TAA done,” McConnell said on the floor. “It’s why I set in motion a process last week — filing cloture on the vehicles for both TPA and TAA so that we get one done followed immediately by the other — that will put both pieces of legislation on the president’s desk before the July 4 [recess].”
McConnell has promised Democrats that a customs and enforcement bill that needs to be reconciled with a version from the House will also make it to Obama for a signature.
Senate Democratic leaders are not whipping against fast-track, leaving it to unions to do the heavy lifting to defeat it.
The AFL-CIO urged Democrats Monday to vote against fast-track and warned they had no guarantee that TAA will pass the House, where many Republicans oppose it.
“Without assurances that TAA will pass the House, or that the customs bill will ever see the president’s desk, considering Fast Track prematurely could compound its expected negative impacts, leaving U.S. workers in the lurch and depriving the U.S. manufacturing sector of vital tools necessary to combat unfair trade,” William Samuel, the union’s director of government affairs, wrote in a letter to senators.
A turning point in his negotiations with pro-trade Democrats came when McConnell offered to add to the mix legislation that would help U.S. companies petition the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission to respond to infractions of trade rules.
The Leveling the Playing Field Act, sponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown Sherrod BrownSanders, not Trump, is the real working-class hero A guide to the committees: Senate House bill would prevent Trump from lifting Russian sanctions MORE (D-Ohio) and Rob Portman Rob PortmanObamaCare fix hinges on Medicaid clash in Senate A guide to the committees: Senate Two tax issues dividing Republicans on ObamaCare MORE (R-Ohio), a close ally of McConnell’s, is attached to the package of trade preferences and worker assistance.
“We urged Republican leaders to include Sen. Brown’s trade enforcement bill as a sign of good faith that Republican leaders will do what is necessary to ensure the entire trade package gets done,” Wyden said in his statement, describing his “round-the-clock discussions” with McConnell.
Heritage Action for America urged Republican senators to vote against fast-track Tuesday.
The conservative advocacy group argued that passing fast-track would pave the way for later passage of what it called the “ineffective” TAA program, which is paid for with tax penalties.
“The new pay for — included in H.R. 1295 which the Senate will also consider this week — increases revenue by raising certain tax penalties. New spending should not be offset by new revenues,” the group wrote in a legislative alert Monday.
Jordan Fabian and Vicki Needham contributed to this article, which was updated to reflect Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) position on June 23 at 9 a.m. ||||| WASHINGTON—The fate of President Barack Obama’s trade agenda is in the hands of a half-dozen or so Senate Democrats as the chamber heads toward a pivotal Tuesday vote on expanding trade negotiating authority.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has set up a procedural vote that is the highest hurdle left for legislation to give the president the power to submit trade pacts to Congress for an up-or-down vote without amendments. The GOP leader is betting that enough of the 14 pro-trade Senate Democrats who... |||||
Output: | It's phoenix-from-the-ashes time for President Obama: The Senate will today hold a key procedural vote that would grant the president "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade deal with 11 Pacific Rim nations. For the measure to clear a procedural hurdle, at least 60 senators need to support it—a move that, as the AP puts it—would "complete a near-miraculous resurrection of the White House priority." In a late May vote, 62 senators backed fast track. They didn't expect it to return to their chamber, though, but the House revived the fast-track legislation last week. By the AP's count, Obama's backers now are counting on the 14 Senate Democrats and 48 Republicans who supported fast track in May to do so again. The Hill's numbers: It reports that Obama "can afford no more than three Democratic defections," putting the number of Democratic votes he needs at 11. It reports that he hadn't secured those votes publicly as of last night, and names five Democratic senators who have announced they're in. The Wall Street Journal flags two "wrinkles": First, this time around the vote precedes votes on three other trade-related measures, meaning Democrats in favor of the legislation need to trust that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner can push that trio through later. Second, two Democratic senators have expressed an unwillingness to back the fast-track bill without an assurance that the Export-Import Bank's charter, which expires in a week, will be renewed. If the vote passes, Obama will be able to submit his trade pact to Congress for a simple yes-or-no vote free of amendments. |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Scientists at the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme and the University of Aberdeen found extremely high levels of chemical pollution in a whale corpse. USA TODAY
Alex Costidis, right, coordinator with the Virginia Aquarium's Stranding Response team, and Kristy Phillips, necropsy manager, center, measure the length of a cut on a juvenile humpback whale before performing a necropsy at Craney Island in Portsmouth, Va. (Photo: The' N. Pham, The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
A killer whale found dead on the Scottish island of Tiree had one of the highest levels of PCB pollution ever recorded, scientists say.
Lulu, well known to researchers as one of the last surviving whales in the waters around Britain, died after becoming entangled in fishing rope in January 2016. The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme and the University of Aberdeen conducted an in-depth investigation of Lulu's carcass and were shocked by the findings. The headline on its website called the killer whale the "most contaminated on the planet."
Veterinary pathologist Andrew Brownlow said studies have shown that killer whale populations can have very high levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB).
"The levels in this case are some of the highest we’ve ever seen," he said. "We know Lulu died from becoming entangled, but, given what is known about the toxic effects of PCBs, we have to consider (the contamination) could have been affecting her health and reproductive fitness."
Read more:
Analysis of Lulu’s blubber revealed PCB concentrations 100 times higher than the accepted toxicity threshold for marine mammals, the stranding scheme reports. High PCB levels are linked to poor health, impaired immune function, increased susceptibility to cancers and infertility.
Once PCBs get into the marine environment, they accumulate through food chains and are difficult if not impossible to remove, Brownlow said.
The investigation revealed that Lulu was at least 20 years old but apparently never reproduced, despite being much older than the average age for maturity in killer whales. Brownlow called Lulu’s apparent infertility an ominous warning and said it is "increasingly likely that this small group will eventually go extinct." Lulu lived in a pod of about eight whales.
PCBs were banned in the U.S. in 1979. From the 1920s until their ban, an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were made for things such as microscope oils, electrical insulators, capacitors, and electric appliances such as television sets or refrigerators, the U.S. National Ocean Service says. PCBs were also sprayed on dirt roads to keep the dust down. Traces of PCBs have been detected in people and animals around the world.
Lulu’s skeleton is preserved at National Museums Scotland. The stranding scheme was set up in 1992 to analyze and report data for all marine mammals, marine turtle and basking shark stranding.
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2pKSP3h ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lulu was one of the most contaminated killer whales ever found (Image: John Bowler/RSPB Scotland)
One of the UK's last killer whales was contaminated with "shocking" levels of a toxic chemical, scientists say.
The animal, called Lulu, was found dead on the Isle of Tiree in Scotland last year after becoming entangled in fishing lines.
But tests now reveal her body contained among the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, ever recorded.
The chemicals were banned from the 1970s but are still in the environment.
Researchers now fear that other animals in Lulu's pod also have similarly high levels of contamination. The group, which is found off the west coast of Scotland, is thought to consist of just eight animals.
Dr Andrew Brownlow, head of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme and veterinary pathologist at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), told BBC News that Lulu had "shocking levels of PCBs".
He said: "The levels of PCB contamination in Lulu were incredibly high, surprisingly so. They were 20 times higher than the safe level that we would expect for cetaceans to be able to manage.
"That puts her as one of the most contaminated animals on the planet in terms of PCB burden, and does raise serious questions for the long-term survivability of this group (of UK killer whales)."
Image copyright HWDT.org Image caption Lulu's level of PCBs are among the highest ever recorded
PCBs were used widely in industry during the last century.
The manmade chemicals are extremely stable, resistant to extreme temperatures and pressures, and have insulating properties. Because of this they were used in everything from plastics to paints and electrical equipment.
But after concerns about the toxicity to humans and animals was raised, a series of bans were put in place around the world from the 1970s onwards.
However the chemicals take a long time to break down and have lingered in the environment, particularly in landfill sites where they can leach into waterways and on into the sea.
They then build up in the marine food chain, which means top predators such as killer whales are particularly affected. Dolphins, porpoises are also susceptible.
Levels of PCBs are measured in milligrams per kilogram of lipids (fatty acids) in an animal's body.
Image copyright Nienke Van Geel/HWDT.org Image caption Today Lulu's pod has just eight animals and scientists now fear for their future
Dr Brownlow said: "The threshold where we think that there is some form of physiological effect caused by PCBs is around 20-40mg/kg stored within the tissues.
"Lulu had a level of PCBs of 957mg/kg - and this has put her as one of the most contaminated individuals we have ever looked at."
Scientists believe Lulu's age, estimated to be at least 20, may be one reason that the levels of PCBs were so high, because they had built up over the years.
The chemicals have a range of effects. There is evidence that they can impair the immune system. They also affect reproduction, preventing killer whales from bearing young.
"That's certainly what we found in the case of Lulu," explained Dr Brownlow.
"Having examined her ovaries, there was no evidence that she had ever been reproductively active or had ever had a calf."
The chemicals can also affect the brain. Scientists believe the contamination could have been implicated in Lulu's death.
"Killer whales are incredibly intelligent, they are very nimble, socially aware animals. [Lulu] would have spent most of her probably very long life existing around the waters of the West Coast.
"It is potentially plausible that there was some effect of the PCBs that was in some way debilitating her so she wasn't strong enough or even aware enough to deal with this entanglement (in fishing line).
"We very rarely see entanglement in killer whales - actually this is one of the first cases we have documented."
Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Landfill sites can contain PCB contaminated material
PCBs are a global problem, but a recent study revealed that European waters are a hotspot because of the level of the chemicals once used.
It is estimated that there is a million tonnes of PCB-contaminated material waiting to be disposed in Europe.
But getting rid of them is expensive and difficult - they need to be incinerated at more than 1,000C to be destroyed.
Prof Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said that the issue was very concerning but also complicated.
He said: "The records show PCBs have been declining in concentration in the marine environment, so the regulation we have in place is working.
"It's just they take a very long time to disappear. Overall I think we are going in the right direction, but it is going to take many more years to get to a point where they are going to disappear entirely."
He added: "Lulu was fairly old, so she will have accumulated [PCBs] over her lifetime and that's the reason she had such high levels. It's a legacy she'd carried from her early years, probably."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC Newsnight reported last year how PCBs can impact marine mammals
But some scientists think more should be done. Dr Paul Jepson from the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London said PCBs were not an intractable problem in Europe.
"PCB levels in the United States have slowly declined in humans and other biota such as fish for many years now, and the overall PCB mitigation is generally considered to be successful in the US.
"This is partly related to numerous US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund sites, which the EPA is actively working to decontaminate. We urgently need a similar approach in Europe".
Killer whales - and other cetaceans - around the world are being hit by PCB contamination. But in the UK, with just eight remaining resident killer whales, the future looks very bleak.
Scientists have not seen any calves born in the 25 years they have been studying these animals, and it looks almost certain that they will eventually vanish from the UK's waters.
Lulu's skeleton is now stored at the National Museums Scotland collection centre, which has one of the largest whale collections in the world.
Principal curator of vertebrates' Dr Andrew Kitchener said the whales remains would be available for scientists to study.
"What these collections are here for is so we can use them for the benefit of living animals in the wild today and in the future. They do have a value for living populations."
Image caption Lulu's skeleton is now stored at the National Museums Scotland
Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @BBCMorelle ||||| Adult whale Lulu was one of UK’s last resident pod and had never produced a calf, probably because pollutants in her blubber had caused infertility
One of the highest concentrations of toxic pollutants ever recorded in a marine mammal has been revealed in a Scottish killer whale that died in 2016.
The adult whale, known as Lulu, was a member of the UK’s last resident pod and a postmortem also showed she had never produced a calf. The pollutants, called PCBs, are known to cause infertility and these latest findings add to strong evidence that the pod is doomed to extinction.
The level of PCBs found in Lulu’s blubber were extreme at 950mg/kg, more than 100 times the 9mg/kg limit above which damage to the health of marine mammals is known to occur. A 2016 analysis showed the average concentration for killer whales in the north-east Atlantic was about 150mg/kg.
'Extraordinary' levels of pollutants found in 10km deep Mariana trench Read more
Lulu died after becoming tangled in ropes used to haul up creels, the netted cages used to catch lobsters and crabs. But Andrew Brownlow, head of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, said: “Given what is known about the toxic effects of PCBs, we have to consider that such a high-pollutant burden could have been affecting her health and reproductive fitness.”
Brownlow, also a veterinary pathologist at Scotland’s Rural College, said: “Lulu’s apparent infertility is an ominous finding – with no new animals being born, it is now looking increasingly likely that this small group will eventually go extinct. One of the factors in this groups apparent failure to reproduce could be their high burden of organic pollutants.”
The examination of Lulu found she was at least 20 years old, well above the age of sexual maturity, which ranges from six to 10 years old. However, analysis of the ovaries shows she never bore a calf. The entire pod may have been left barren, as no calf has ever been seen in the 23 years the group have been monitored.
PCBs were used for decades in electrical equipment but finally banned in the 1980s after the full toxic impacts on people and wildlife were revealed. PCBs, which cause cancers and suppress the immune system, are especially harmful to top predators because they accumulate in fat up the food chain. Killer whales can live for many decades, meaning they can end up with very high levels of PCBs.
Tilikum and Granny are dead. Here’s why you should care about these killer whales | Patrick Barkham Read more
PCBs are extremely tough chemicals and do not break down in the environment. The decline in PCB levels in marine wildlife seen after the 1980s ban has now levelled off in some places, indicating that the toxic chemicals are still leaking into the oceans from inadequate waste storage sites.
“Once PCBs get into the marine environment, they are difficult if not impossible to remove,” said Brownlow. “There are still many PCB stockpiles in Europe, and it is absolutely essential that these toxic reserves do not reach the marine environment.”
Bottlenose dolphins in the north-east Atlantic have also shown both high PCB levels and low reproductive rates. Other PCBs hotspots around the world include the entire Mediterranean and the Black Sea, while specific populations suffering from PCB poisoning include belugas in Canada and polar bears across the Arctic.
In February, scientists discovered “extraordinary” amounts of PCBs had even reached the most remote and inaccessible place on the planet – the 10km deep Mariana trench in the Pacific Ocean. |||||
Output: | When Lulu died tangled in fishing nets in Scotland last year, she was one of the last killer whales in the UK. She was also "one of the most contaminated animals on the planet," Dr. Andrew Brownlow tells the BBC. Brownlow says Lulu's body contained "shocking levels of PCBs." Researchers found 957 milligrams of PCBs per kilogram in the killer whale; it's believed the toxic chemical starts causing health problems for marine mammals at just 9 mg/kg, according to the Guardian. The average concentration of PCBs in killer whales in the northeast Atlantic is 150 mg/kg. PCBs can hurt the immune system and hamper reproduction, and the latter effect has scientists worried for the future of killer whales in the UK. Despite being at least 20 years old, Lulu doesn't appear to have ever been "reproductively active." If the rest of Lulu's eight-whale pod has similar levels of PCB contamination, it's "increasingly likely" it will go extinct, Brownlow tells USA Today. Scientists haven't seen any killer whale calves born in the waters around the UK in the past 25 years. PCBs were outlawed in the 1970s but don't break down in nature and may still be leaking into the environment from waste storage sites. They work their way up through the food chain stored in the fat of animals; and killer whales are near the top of that chain. |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
He continued to lie in place, still breathing heavily. I tried to keep myself calm. Then, with a sigh, he said, "I have need of a certain stone that I once possessed. It would allow me to leave this bed, despite my current illness. My problem is that it was not made in this realm, but by a human, and only a human may handle it. The herb vendor will tell you where you can find it. If you would fetch me this stone, I would tell you what I can." "Of course we will fetch you the stone," Nepthys assured him. "You have our thanks." Outside, the thing at the herb cart nodded when we mentioned the stone. He told Nepthys the name of a woman who lived on a certain street, and we set off. When we reached the street, I expected some sort of temple, or a row of antiquaries, or at least a sleazy, black-market relics merchant. Instead, it looked like we were in the red-light district: women who probably wanted more than our money eyed us from the alleys. Nepthys didn't need to warn me not to speak to them. He took us to the door of a building like a short pagoda that had a sign hanging over it showing a face with hands uplifted, like a saint under G d's light, and handcuffed. Inside, the entrance room was hung with bright silks and scattered with velvet cushions. Sails of obscene orange and a green that insulted springtime hung draped across reds that might have been sensual elsewhere but here were only offensive. A large woman, similarly decorated, quickly drifted up to us. "Good evening, gentlemen," she said. "May I invite you to have a cup of tea?" "No, thank you," said Nepthys, "we regret that we cannot take up your kind offer. Are you the proprietor of this shop?" "Yes," answered the woman. "I am Madame Entera, at your service. <sep>How was Madame Entera dressed?<sep>Similarly to the obscene orange and green sails in the entrance room
Output: | Yes |
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
HANOI — The Obama administration announced Monday that the United States would fully lift a longstanding U.S. embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam, a decision that reflects growing concerns about China’s military clout and illustrates the warming bilateral ties between the former enemy nations.
President Obama unveiled the new arrangement at a news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang during the opening day of his first visit to the country. Obama emphasized that his decision reflected a maturing relationship and deepening cooperation on security and economic investment four decades after the end of the Vietnam War.
Two years ago, the administration eased portions of the arms embargo that had been in place since 1975 to help bolster Vietnam’s maritime security in the South China Sea, where China’s move to exert more naval control of crucial shipping corridors has angered Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations that have claimed sovereignty.
Obama said the latest step "was not based on China or any other considerations. It was based on our desire to complete what has been a lengthy process of moving towards normalization with Vietnam."
With U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, a veteran of the Vietnam War, in the front row at the Hanoi Convention Center, the president heralded "a new moment" in the bilateral relationship. The lifting of the ban "will ensure Vietnam has access to the equipment it needs to defend itself and removes a lingering vestige of the Cold War."
Obama acknowledged, however, that the United States and Vietnam share a mutual concern over China's provocations in the region, and he reiterated a previous pledge that the United States would "continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows."
President Obama and his Vietnamese counterpart, Tran Dai Quang, walk following a bilateral meeting at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 23, 2016. (Reuters/Kham)
The new arrangement would allow the United States to sell military weapons to Vietnam on a case-by-case basis and would be predicated on improvements in the country on human rights and freedom of expression, White House officials said.
Ahead of Obama's trip, human rights advocates in the United States had called on the administration to maintain the weapons ban until more progress has been made by the ruling Communist Party.
"The United States government has been telling the Vietnam government for years that they need to show progress on their human rights record if they are going to be rewarded with closer military and economic ties," said John Sifton, Asia policy director for Human Rights Watch. "Yet today President Obama rewarded Vietnam even though its government has done little to earn it: It has not repealed any repressive laws, nor released any significant number of political prisoners, nor made any substantial pledges."
At the news conference with Obama, Quang asserted that his country has made progress on human rights.
"We need to work closely together and expand dialogue together," he said. "By so doing, we can narrow the gap in understanding and narrow the differences between the two countries."
A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing is "pleased to see Vietnam developing normal relationships with all countries including the United States, and we hope it benefits regional peace, stability and development." But ahead of Obama's visit, China's state news service Xinhua accused the United States of having “shown no restraint in meddling in a regional situation” in the South China Sea.
The conflicts in the South China Sea have escalated in recent years after China installed an oil drilling rig off the coast of Vietnam, within the exclusive 200-mile economic zone established under international law. The Chinese military has embarked on a massive land reclamation project in the disputed Spratly Islands, prompting the U.S. Navy to conduct two freedom-of-navigation missions aimed at dissuading Beijing from militarizing the area.
The Philippines has taken its claims against China over sovereignty in coastal regions to an international tribunal at The Hague, a case being closely monitored in Washington. A ruling is expected in June, but China has said it does not recognize the tribunal’s authority in the matter.
"Our hope is that ultimately the various claims and disputes can be resolved," Obama said. "We are doing everything we can to promote that."
Last year, Obama visited the Philippines and announced $250 million in new U.S. aid for maritime security efforts in the region, including Vietnam. In February, Obama hosted leaders from 10 Southeast Asian nations at the Sunnylands retreat in Southern California.
Patrick Cronin, an Asia-Pacific expert at the Center for a New American Security, said Washington and Hanoi were aiming to convey to China that its neighbors are "determined to provide their own self-defense against aggression and assertiveness. Not looking for a fight but very much just saying, 'We're not going to be endlessly pushed around.'"
Obama became the third consecutive president — after Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — to visit Vietnam since the normalizing of relations in 1995. Air Force One arrived late Sunday, and the president was greeted on the tarmac in Hanoi with a red carpet and a bouquet of flowers.
Children dressed in red, white and blue outfits lined the streets Monday as Obama’s motorcade made its way to the presidential palace, an ornate mustard-colored building with sculptured gardens and a massive water fountain. Quang greeted Obama, and they were feted by a military band playing each country’s national anthem during an official welcome ceremony.
In addition to closer military cooperation, the United States and Vietnam are partners in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an expansive free trade and regulatory accord that Obama has made a centerpiece of his economic and foreign policy agenda. However, Congress has not yet ratified the agreement, and the major presidential candidates have publicly opposed it.
Three congressional Democrats — Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.), who supports the TPP, and Reps. Joaquin Castro and Beto O'Rourke, both of Texas, who remain undecided on the pact — flew to Vietnam with Obama on Air Force One. They sat in the front row during his news conference, along with Kerry, national security adviser Susan E. Rice and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
Obama said he remains confident that Congress will approve the trade deal.
"I have not yet seen a credible argument that once we get TPP in place that we are worse off," he said. "We will be in demonstrably better shape."
But he acknowledged than in an election year, "the politics of it will be noisy." ||||| President Obama and his Vietnamese counterpart announced sweeping new cooperation Monday to bolster both countries' military might, an accord prompted by the rise of China and that until recently seemed inconceivable for the two wartime foes.
Half a century after the U.S. banned the sale of arms to its enemy in the Vietnam War, Obama lifted the entire embargo. Vietnamese President President Tran Dai Quang responded with a promise of more sweeping access to its strategically valuable ports for the U.S. Navy.
Human rights advocates were stunned that Obama would take such a step without first exacting pledges that Vietnam’s communist regime will improve its record of human rights violations.
But Obama said that while he will keep pushing for reform, his decision to strip away the weapons sales ban gives Vietnam more heft against neighbors who “throw their weight around," an unsubtle reference to China's growing influence.
The decision remained cloaked in secrecy until Obama’s first full day in Vietnam's capital, as did his administration’s assessment of another surprise move — an airstrike that killed the leader of the Taliban, who U.S officials said was blocking peace negotiations in Afghanistan. Obama said he ordered the strike, across the border in Pakistan, in the interest of helping Afghanistan “secure its own country.”
Together, Obama's two moves appeared to lay out the essence of the global mission he hopes to carry out during his final months in office — turning U.S. attention to the prosperity and opportunities he sees in Asia, while leaving behind the bog of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
He is pitching increased trade and enterprise in Vietnam and Japan this week as he tries to rally support in Congress for a Pacific trade deal. The pact would open up markets such as Vietnam, with its rapidly expanding economy and growing middle class, more broadly to U.S. businesses. As an exhibit for his audience back home, Obama also announced new deals for Boeing and General Electric on Monday.
Vietnam, with the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia and a strategic position on the South China Sea, has been attractive to the U.S. for some time as both a commercial and military partner. President Clinton helped nudge U.S. public opinion toward a postwar view of the country when he visited Vietnam and eased trade restrictions in the 1990s.
Two years ago, Obama moved to drop part of the arms ban by allowing sales that would boost Vietnam’s maritime surveillance and security capability. Among other changes, his decision allowed American companies to sell boats with machine gun mounts to the government in Hanoi.
In the meantime, Obama's administration has continued talking with leaders in Vietnam, a government in which the general secretary of the Communist Party is as influential as the president or prime minister. Obama also wanted to work with the chairwoman of the National Assembly.
In the run-up to the president's visit, emissaries took care not to suggest a quid pro quo for any of the offerings up for discussion. Obama didn’t want to make the access to Vietnames ports contingent on a lift of the ban. Likewise, Vietnamese officials wanted the human rights question separate from the conversations about military talks.
But as Obama’s departure for Hanoi neared on Saturday, one presidential advisor said talks were “trending toward” a series of agreements, all as part of a larger consensus that a stronger, closer friendship would be good for both sides.
Human rights advocates dismissed that logic.
"President Obama just gave Vietnam a reward that they don't deserve," said John Sifton, Asia policy director at Human Rights Watch, adding that the U.S. has for years demanded human rights improvements from Vietnam in exchange for closer military or economic ties, but now appears to have set that aside.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) also questioned the administration's decision to move forward with the arms deal without extracting more concessions.
"The Obama administration’s ‘pivot to Asia’ should be about security ties, but also standing up for brave Vietnamese believers in democracy when they are under assault in Vietnam," Royce said in a statement.
Administration officials haven’t ruled out the possibility that Vietnam will free some political prisoners and widen the latitude for journalists, bloggers and dissidents to speak out without fear of retribution.
Those reforms should come because they’re the right thing to do, Obama said Monday. The U.S. doesn’t “seek to impose our form of government on Vietnam,” Obama said, but will “continue to speak out on behalf of human rights we believe are universal.”
Obama also argues that the Vietnamese are taking steps to improve working conditions by embracing the labor provisions in his Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.
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Quang, while promising greater access to the Vietnamese ports, did not offer specifics about access to Cam Ranh Bay, the valuable port that served as an American supply point during the Vietnam War.
A reserved spot in Cam Ranh would give the U.S. military the power to respond more quickly to problems in the vicinity, including in the South China Sea, where China is given to territorial threats against its neighbors.
The bay has been open to the U.S. as a service port for some time, but military use has long been off-limits. White House officials believe that the Navy will have access either to that port or to a newly opened international naval port, possibly as early as this fall.
The setting of Monday’s events served to highlight how far the U.S. and Vietnam have evolved in their relationship since that spring day 41 years ago when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese.
For his meeting with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Tron, Obama traveled to the party headquarters. The two men met in a room decorated in red and yellow under an imposing bust of the communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.
As Obama and Quang met with reporters to make their announcements, they did so in the Presidential Palace, where Ho once lived.
ALSO
Obama on Taliban leader's death: U.S. strike doesn't change military role in Afghanistan
Still few answers in EgyptAir crash — and no claim of responsibility ||||| | American guns—and the US Peace Corps—may soon be making their way to Vietnam. President Obama, who's making his first visit to the country, announced on Monday that the decades-old US embargo will be completely lifted to give Vietnam "access to the equipment it needs to defend itself" and "remove a lingering vestige of the Cold War," the Los Angeles Times reports. But human rights advocates were disappointed that Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang failed to unveil any fresh policies to go along with the lifting of the ban, though Tran and Obama did announce that the Peace Corps will be allowed to operate in Vietnam for the first time. The full lifting of the 1975 embargo, which follows a 2014 loosening to boost maritime security, was seen partly as an attempt to counter China's strength, the Washington Post reports, though Obama said it "was not based on China or any other considerations. It was based on our desire to complete what has been a lengthy process of moving towards normalization with Vietnam." The White House says that while the US sale of lethal arms to Vietnam is now legally possible, sales will be looked at on a case-by-case basis and approval will be linked to improvements in human rights. (Obama's Asia trip will also include a visit to Hiroshima, which will be the first by a sitting US president.) |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Q: What is to the east and south of St. John's downtown area?, Context: St. John's is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, on the northeast of the Avalon Peninsula in southeast Newfoundland. The city covers an area of 446.04 square kilometres (172.22 sq mi) and is the most easterly city in North America, excluding Greenland; it is 295 miles (475 km) closer to London, England than it is to Edmonton, Alberta. The city of St. John's is located at a distance by air of 3,636 kilometres (2,259 mi) from Lorient, France which lies on a nearly precisely identical latitude across the Atlantic on the French western coast. The city is the largest in the province and the second largest in the Atlantic Provinces after Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its downtown area lies to the west and north of St. John's Harbour, and the rest of the city expands from the downtown to the north, south, east and west.
A: | St. John's Harbour |
In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
One example: what is the first event mentioned?, Context: The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Following the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established. In October 1917, a red faction revolution occurred in which the Red Guard, armed groups of workers and deserting soldiers directed by the Bolshevik Party, seized control of Saint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd) and began an immediate armed takeover of cities and villages throughout the former Russian Empire.
Solution is here: Russian Revolution
Explanation: This is a good example, and the Russian Revolution is the first event mentioned.
Now, solve this: Which were there more of at the Olympic torch relay, spectators or police?, Context: Hong Kong: The event was held in Hong Kong on May 2. In the ceremony held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Chief Executive Donald Tsang handed the torch to the first torchbearer, Olympic medalist Lee Lai Shan. The torch relay then traveled through Nathan Road, Lantau Link, Sha Tin (crossed Shing Mun River via a dragon boat, which had been never used before in the history of Olympic torch relays), Victoria Harbour (crossed by Tin Hau, a VIP vessel managed by the Marine Department) before ending in Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai. A total of 120 torchbearers were selected to participate in the event consisting of celebrities, athletes and pro-Beijing camp politicians. No politicians from the pro-democracy camp were selected as torchbearers. One torchbearer could not participate due to flight delay. It was estimated that more than 200,000 spectators came out and watched the relay. Many enthusiastic supporters wore red shirts and waved large Chinese flags. According to Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang, 3,000 police were deployed to ensure order.
Solution: | spectators |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
*It started with a simple sentence: “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today.” Maybe you read the powerful words—part of a “victim’s impact statement” the young woman who’d been sexually assaulted at Stanford University had prepared to read to her attacker in court. The facts of the case were harrowing: On January 18, 2015, after a party, “Emily Doe,” as she came to be called, had been sexually assaulted by freshman Brock Turner as she lay unconscious behind a dumpster; two men passing by on bicycles saw the crime and tackled Turner as he ran away.
But it was Doe’s take-no-prisoners telling of what happened afterward—the relentless victim-blaming; the favoring of Turner, a student athlete—that changed the conversation about sexual assault forever. “Future reference, if you are confused about whether a girl can consent, see if she can speak an entire sentence,” she wrote to Turner. And this: “I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party…while you are the All American swimmer at a top university…I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt.… You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”
After Turner was convicted last spring, the judge sentenced him to just six months, saying anything more would have “a severe impact on him.” But Doe’s words circled the globe. Within four days her statement had been viewed 11 million times; it was read aloud on CNN and the floor of Congress. Rape hotlines experienced surges in both calls and offers of volunteer help. And importantly, California closed the loophole that had allowed lighter sentences in cases where the victim is unconscious or severely intoxicated. We all know the statistics: One out of every six females will have someone rape her—or attempt to. Doe sent those women a message: I am with you. Glamour is honored to name Emily Doe a Woman of the Year; here, for the first time, she tells what happened next. — Cindi Leive
Pinterest PHOTO: Martin Klimas
From the beginning, I was told I was a best case scenario.
I had forensic evidence, sober unbiased witnesses, a slurred voice mail, police at the scene. I had everything, and I was still told it was not a slam dunk. I thought, if this is what having it good looks like, what other hells are survivors living? I’m barely getting through this but I am being told I’m the lucky one, some sort of VIP. It was like being checked into a hotel room for a year with stained sheets, rancid water, and a bucket with an attendant saying, No this is great! Most rooms don’t even have a bucket.
After the trial I was relieved thinking the hardest part was over, and all that was left was the sentencing. I was excited to finally be given a chance to read my statement and declare, I am here. I am not that floppy thing you found behind the garbage, speaking melted words. I am here, I can stand upright, I can speak clearly, I’ve been listening and am painfully aware of all the hurt you’ve been trying to justify.
I yelled half of my statement. So when it was quickly announced that he’d be receiving six months, I was struck silent. Immediately I felt embarrassed for trying, for being led to believe I had any influence. The violation of my body and my being added up to a few months out of his summer. The judge would release him back to his life, back to the 40 people who had written him letters from Ohio. I began to panic; I thought, this can’t be the best case scenario. If this case was meant to set the bar, the bar had been set on the floor.
The morning after the sentencing, my phone screen was stacked with texts and I turned it over saying, not today, on this day I deserve to sleep. My phone kept ringing and I learned that BuzzFeed was waiting for my permission to publish my court statement in full. As soon as it was posted, I remember thinking, what have I done, making myself exposed and vulnerable again. I texted my sister when it hit 20,000 views, thinking that was it, the comments were actually quite nice, and I closed my computer.
I started getting e-mails forwarded to me from Botswana to Ireland to India. I received watercolor paintings of lighthouses and bicycle earrings. A woman who plucked a picture of her young daughter from the inside of her cubicle wrote, This is who you’re saving .
When I received an e-mail that Joe Biden had written me a letter I was sitting in my pajamas eating some cantaloupe. You are a warrior. I looked around my room, who is he talking to. You have a steel spine, I touched my spine. I printed his letter out and ran around the house flapping it in the air.
Pinterest PHOTO: Glamour
There was, of course, the wee sprinkle of trolls. Some photos of me leaked and someone said, “She’s not pretty enough to have been raped.” In response I say, damn I wish the world could see me. I wish you could see my big, beautiful head and huge eyes. Perhaps now you are at home imagining me looking like some sort of bloated owl. That’s all right.
When Ashleigh Banfield read my letter on the news I sat stunned watching her speak my words, imagining them being spoken on every television set in the nation. Watching women and men at Gracie Mansion, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, girls in their rooms, gathered together to read each segment, holding my words in their voices. My body seemed too small to hold what I felt.
In the very beginning of it all in 2015, one comment managed to lodge harmfully inside me: Sad. I hope my daughter never ends up like her.
I absorbed that statement. Ends up. As if we end somewhere, as if what was done to me marked the completion of my story. Instead of being a role model to be looked up to, I was a sad example to learn from, a story that caused you to shield your daughter’s eyes and shake your heads with pity. But when my letter was published, no one turned away. No one said I’d rather not look, it’s too much, or too sad. Everyone pushed through the hard parts, saw me fully to the end, and embraced every feeling.
If you think the answer is that women need to be more sober, more civil, more upright, that girls must be better at exercising fear, must wear more layers with eyes open wider, we will go nowhere. When Judge Aaron Persky mutes the word justice, when Brock Turner serves one month for every felony, we go nowhere. When we all make it a priority to avoid harming or violating another human being, and when we hold accountable those who do, when the campaign to recall this judge declares that survivors deserve better, then we are going somewhere.
So now to the one who said, I hope my daughter never ends up like her , I am learning to say, I hope you end up like me, meaning, I hope you end up like me strong. I hope you end up like me proud of who I’m becoming. I hope you don’t “end up,” I hope you keep going. And I hope you grow up knowing that the world will no longer stand for this. Victims are not victims, not some fragile, sorrowful aftermath. Victims are survivors, and survivors are going to be doing a hell of a lot more than surviving.
“Emily Doe” has chosen to remain anonymous.
Click here to learn more about how you can help the campaign to recall Judge Aaron Persky, or visit recallaaronpersky.com . ||||| *It started with a simple sentence: “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today.” Maybe you read the powerful words—part of a “victim’s impact statement” the young woman who’d been sexually assaulted at Stanford University had prepared to read to her attacker in court. The facts of the case were harrowing: On January 18, 2015, after a party, “Emily Doe,” as she came to be called, had been sexually assaulted by freshman Brock Turner as she lay unconscious behind a dumpster; two men passing by on bicycles saw the crime and tackled Turner as he ran away.
But it was Doe’s take-no-prisoners telling of what happened afterward—the relentless victim-blaming; the favoring of Turner, a student athlete—that changed the conversation about sexual assault forever. “Future reference, if you are confused about whether a girl can consent, see if she can speak an entire sentence,” she wrote to Turner. And this: “I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party…while you are the All American swimmer at a top university…I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt.… You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”
After Turner was convicted last spring, the judge sentenced him to just six months, saying anything more would have “a severe impact on him.” But Doe’s words circled the globe. Within four days her statement had been viewed 11 million times; it was read aloud on CNN and the floor of Congress. Rape hotlines experienced surges in both calls and offers of volunteer help. And importantly, California closed the loophole that had allowed lighter sentences in cases where the victim is unconscious or severely intoxicated. We all know the statistics: One out of every six females will have someone rape her—or attempt to. Doe sent those women a message: I am with you. Glamour is honored to name Emily Doe a Woman of the Year; here, for the first time, she tells what happened next. —Cindi Leive
Martin Klimas
From the beginning, I was told I was a best case scenario.
I had forensic evidence, sober unbiased witnesses, a slurred voice mail, police at the scene. I had everything, and I was still told it was not a slam dunk. I thought, if this is what having it good looks like, what other hells are survivors living? I’m barely getting through this but I am being told I’m the lucky one, some sort of VIP. It was like being checked into a hotel room for a year with stained sheets, rancid water, and a bucket with an attendant saying, No this is great! Most rooms don’t even have a bucket.
After the trial I was relieved thinking the hardest part was over, and all that was left was the sentencing. I was excited to finally be given a chance to read my statement and declare, I am here. I am not that floppy thing you found behind the garbage, speaking melted words. I am here, I can stand upright, I can speak clearly, I’ve been listening and am painfully aware of all the hurt you’ve been trying to justify.
I yelled half of my statement. So when it was quickly announced that he’d be receiving six months, I was struck silent. Immediately I felt embarrassed for trying, for being led to believe I had any influence. The violation of my body and my being added up to a few months out of his summer. The judge would release him back to his life, back to the 40 people who had written him letters from Ohio. I began to panic; I thought, this can’t be the best case scenario. If this case was meant to set the bar, the bar had been set on the floor. |||||
Output: | She first spoke about her abuser in a powerful court statement five months ago. Now "Emily Doe," who was sexually assaulted by former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, is speaking out again as a Glamour "Woman of the Year." She'd like to be known as a "survivor," she writes in the magazine, in an essay in which she walks readers through her thought process both during and after the trial that netted her attacker just six months in prison (he served just three months before being released in September). Doe describes her initial relief when the trial ended and her confidence that justice would be served at the sentencing—hopes that were quickly dashed, making her feel "embarrassed for trying, for being led to believe I had any influence." "If this case was meant to set the bar, the bar had been set on the floor," she writes, adding that the next day all she wanted to do was sleep. But then messages of support started pouring in from all over the world—including a note from Joe Biden that called her "a warrior," making her print the letter out and run around "flapping it in the air." There were trolls also, and the one who said, "Sad. I hope my daughter never ends up like her" especially wounded her. But she bounced back, buoyed by all of the other positivity. "I hope you end up like me strong," she says in reference to that letter writer, and to all girls. "Victims are not victims, not some fragile, sorrowful aftermath. Victims are survivors, and survivors are going to be doing a hell of a lot more than surviving." (Her full inspiring essay is here.) |
In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
One example: The Inheritance Cycle is a series of fantasy books written by Christopher Paolini.
Solution is here: The Inheritance Cycle is a tetralogy of young adult high fantasy novels written by American author Christopher Paolini.
Explanation: The output sentence elaborates on the input sentence without changing its general meaning e.g. "tetralogy of young adult high fantasy novels".
Now, solve this: The surfer uses their surfboard to catch a wave and ride in towards the shore .
Solution: | Surfing is a surface water sport in which the wave rider , referred to as a surfer , rides on the forward or face of a moving wave , which usually carries the surfer towards the shore . |
TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
PROBLEM: Iwasaki's careful respect for the Long Beach program and its lawyers earned him the political capital he needed to complete his takeover in a matter of weeks. "The Long Beach program had strong support in the community so in a situation like that, one has to recognize that it's not like a takeover where I have all the answers and I know best," Iwasaki said. "The people in the community who are working there have the contacts and the knowledge that will allow service to continue." Things have gone less smoothly across town. There, Dudovitz, a longtime poverty lawyer and executive director of the San Fernando Valley's 36-year-old legal aid program, continues to struggle with his hostile takeover of the neighboring San Gabriel-Pomona Valleys service area one year after it was accomplished. On the bright side, Dudovitz has extended his respected program to clients in the San Gabriel-Pomona Valley, and he now operates on a much larger budget, $6.5 million last year. However, his clash with the old San Gabriel program resulted in litigation, bitter feelings and a mission that some say is not clearly focused on serving poor people. "It was a difficult situation that was probably mishandled by everyone," a longtime observer of the public interest community said of the San Fernando Valley-San Gabriel-Pomona Valley merger. "There are very few people who come out as the heroes. Personalities got involved when they shouldn't have. Things were said that caused bad feelings and couldn't be unsaid." Iwasaki's merger with the smaller, 48-year-old Long Beach program was friendly and fast, and no one - not even Long Beach board members - lost a job. When it was over, Iwasaki had $1 million more in federal dollars and two new offices. Long Beach clients regained services they had lost years ago when federal budget cuts and dwindling grants reduced the staff of 15 lawyers to five and cut immigration and consumer law programs. Iwasaki said, "[I judged the transition] better than I could have hoped for." <sep>In the eyes of the public interest community, was Dudovitz's hostile takeover well-handled?<sep>Struggle
SOLUTION: Yes
PROBLEM: Comanche Indians have trapped the evil of their land in a monster made up of a mixture of other animals . The Comanche have placed a protective spear in the ground to contain the evil . A young boy pulls the spear from the ground while pocketing a rabbit foot talisman . He starts to play with the spear . A Comanche catches the boy , and startled , he runs away with the rabbit's foot . The Native American places the spear back , realizing too late that the rabbits foot is now gone . After that , white men come and start drilling for oil . Skip to current time , a divorced father , Mance Cashen , moves to the area with his new wife , baby , and his son from his first marriage , Willy ( played by ( ( Chris Miller , who is visiting . Willy notices something peculiar in the house and tries to warn his father and step-mother . They do not believe him . Willy is attacked while on a tire swing over a small water hole . The creature grabs his foot and Willy struggles , eventually getting away . He eventually befriends the local drunk , T. C. van Houten . A nice old man with some bad memories who knows something about the evil near the oil well and was in a situation similar to Willy's . In the meantime a Comanche Indian , Chief Sam John , comes to warn Mance of the evil and the need to keep it contained . Sam John informs Mance the evil was originally intended to stop the white man , but it is indiscriminate in whom it kills instead . Mance will have none of it . Willy eventually takes a spear he finds on his property to Sam John and tries to find out what is going on . <sep>What is the name of the old man with whom Willy became friends?<sep>T. C. van Houten
SOLUTION: Yes
PROBLEM: Zakariya Essabar, a Moroccan citizen, moved to Germany in February 1997 and to Hamburg in 1998, where he studied medical technology. Soon after moving to Hamburg, Essabar met Binalshibh and the others through a Turkish mosque. Essabar turned extremist fairly suddenly, probably in 1999, and reportedly pressured one acquaintance with physical force to become more religious, grow a beard, and compel his wife to convert to Islam. Essabar's parents were said to have made repeated but unsuccessful efforts to sway him from this lifestyle. Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, he would travel to Afghanistan to communicate the date for the attacks to the al Qaeda leadership. Mounir el Motassadeq, another Moroccan, came to Germany in 1993, moving to Hamburg two years later to study electrical engineering at theTechnical University. A witness has recalled Motassadeq saying that he would kill his entire family if his religious beliefs demanded it. One of Motassadeq's roommates recalls him referring to Hitler as a "good man" and organizing film sessions that included speeches by Bin Laden. Motassadeq would help conceal the Hamburg group's trip to Afghanistan in late 1999. Abdelghani Mzoudi, also a Moroccan, arrived in Germany in the summer of 1993, after completing university courses in physics and chemistry. Mzoudi studied in Dortmund, Bochum, and Muenster before moving to Hamburg in 1995. Mzoudi described himself as a weak Muslim when he was home in Morocco, but much more devout when he was back in Hamburg. In April 1996, Mzoudi and Motassadeq witnessed the execution of Atta's will. During the course of 1999, Atta and his group became ever more extreme and secretive, speaking only in Arabic to conceal the content of their conversations. 87 When the four core members of the Hamburg cell left Germany to journey to Afghanistan late that year, it seems unlikely that they already knew about the planes operation; no evidence connects them to al Qaeda before that time. Witnesses have attested, however, that their pronouncements reflected ample predisposition toward taking some action against the United States. In short, they fit the bill for Bin Laden, Atef, and KSM. Going to Afghanistan The available evidence indicates that in 1999, Atta, Binalshibh, Shehhi, and Jarrah decided to fight in Chechnya against the Russians. <sep>In what year did Essabar meet Binalshibh?<sep>1996
SOLUTION: | No
|
Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
On Tuesday, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a powerful announcement — not only did he reveal the birth of his daughter, Max, but he shared plans to give up 99% of his personal Facebook shares over the course of his lifetime and use them to fund causes through a newly formed entity called Chan Zuckerberg LLC.
The revelation generated a lot of attention, much of it due to the sheer volume of Zuckerberg’s net worth — $45 billion! While many people, including Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, praised him for his generosity, others expressed confusion and even questioned his motives for giving his money away.
Looking to alleviate some of those concerns, in a post Thursday, Zuckerberg clarified how he and his wife Priscilla Chan, plan to delineate their funds.
“Our initial focus areas are personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. We’ve already made many investments over the past five years in these areas — education, science, health, internet access and inclusion — and you can see a summary of our investments on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative page timeline.”
Zuckerberg addressed the allegations that forming this organization was a way to avoid taxes — he explained that by structuring the Chan Zuckerberg entity as an LLC, that their shares will still be taxed.
“By using an LLC instead of a traditional foundation, we receive no tax benefit from transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively. In fact, if we transferred our shares to a traditional foundation, then we would have received an immediate tax benefit, but by using an LLC we do not. And just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC.”
He also says that this “for profit” structure allows them to make investments that will continue to fuel their objectives.
“This enables us to pursue our mission by funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates — in each case with the goal of generating a positive impact in areas of great need. Any net profits from investments will also be used to advance this mission….For example, our education work has been funded through a non-profit organization,Startup:Education, the recently announced Breakthrough Energy Coalition will make private investments in clean energy, and we also fund public government efforts, like the CDC Ebola response and San Francisco General Hospital.”
Some of Zuckerberg’s early attempts at philanthropy were also met with controversy, particularly his $100 million gift to Newark schools, which faced challenges in its execution. But with $45 billion to experiment with, let’s hope that much of this money ends up doing some good.
Zuckerberg previously signed The Giving Pledge, promising to give away over half his fortune, along with Richard Branson, Warren Buffett and other billionaires.
By timing the latest announcement with the birth of his baby, it seems that Zuckerberg is trying to send a message that he’s not hoarding his personal fortune for the next 100 generations of Zucks.
Welcome to the world, baby Max. ||||| Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg made the surprise announcement that he, along with his wife Priscilla Chan, would be donating 99 percent of their Facebook shares — worth around $45 billion — to the causes of "advancing human potential" and "promoting equality." The gesture appeared altruistic, but some have criticized the way Zuckerberg is using the money, giving it to a limited liability company rather than a charitable foundation. Now Zuckerberg has responded to those complaints, posting another message that attempts to explain why he set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and what he and his wife want to do with the money.
"The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is structured as an LLC rather than a traditional foundation," he writes. "This enables us to pursue our mission by funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates." Unlike limited liability companies, charitable foundations are restricted from investing in for-profit businesses and cannot engage in political lobbying, activities that the Facebook founder said the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was designed to do in order to further the development of humanity.
Charitable foundations can't lobby politically or invest in for-profit companies
Others have suggested that the Initiative is a giant tax avoidance scheme, specifying that by gifting shares rather than cash, Zuckerberg avoids paying higher costs in capital gains tax. He addressed this concern too, stating that "by using an LLC instead of a traditional foundation, we receive no tax benefit from transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively." Zuckerberg said that if his intentions were to avoid tax, he could've simply set up a charity. "If we transferred our shares to a traditional foundation," he wrote, "then we would have received an immediate tax benefit, but by using an LLC we do not. And just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC."
Zuckerberg specified where the money would go first
Tougher to address was criticism that Zuckerberg was being wasteful with the money — specifically, that Facebook's billions would be used to further his own Silicon Valley-shaped worldview rather than donated to a charity that already has operations in place in the developing world. At the moment of its foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's intentions were woolly — advancing humanity and promoting equality without a specific roadmap for either goal — but they're already starting to take shape. Zuckerberg used his most recent post to call out initial areas of focus for the Initiative, choosing "personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people, and building strong communities" as places it will first spend its money.
These four areas are again broad, but Zuckerberg picked out specific examples of where he has spent money before, listing accomplishments. "Our education work has been funded through a non-profit organization, Startup:Education, the recently announced Breakthrough Energy Coalition will make private investments in clean energy, and we also fund public government efforts, like the CDC Ebola response and San Francisco General Hospital." Again justifying the decision to use an LLC rather than a charitable foundation, Zuckerberg said "what's most important to us is the flexibility to give to the organizations that will do the best work — regardless of how they're structured." ||||| Mark Zuckerberg did not donate $45 billion to charity. You may have heard that, but that was wrong.
Here’s what happened instead: Zuckerberg created an investment vehicle.
Sorry for the slightly less sexy headline.
Zuckerberg is a co-founder of Facebook and a youthful mega-billionaire. In announcing the birth of his daughter, he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, declared they would donate 99 percent of their worth, the vast majority of which is tied up in Facebook stock valued at $45 billion today.
In doing so, Zuckerberg and Chan did not set up a charitable foundation, which has nonprofit status. He created a limited liability company, one that has already reaped enormous benefits as public relations coup for himself. His PR return-on-investment dwarfs that of his Facebook stock. Zuckerberg was depicted in breathless, glowing terms for having, in essence, moved money from one pocket to the other.
An LLC can invest in for-profit companies (perhaps these will be characterized as societally responsible companies, but lots of companies claim the mantle of societal responsibility). An LLC can make political donations. It can lobby for changes in the law. He remains completely free to do as he wishes with his money. That’s what America is all about. But as a society, we don’t generally call these types of activities “charity.”
What’s more, a charitable foundation is subject to rules and oversight. It has to allocate a certain percentage of its assets every year. The new Zuckerberg LLC won’t be subject to those rules and won’t have any transparency requirements.
In covering the event, many commentators praised the size and percentage of the gift and pointed out that Zuckerberg is relatively young to be planning to give his wealth away. “Mark Zuckerberg Philanthropy Pledge Sets New Giving Standard,” Bloomberg glowed. Few news outlets initially considered the tax implications of Zuckerberg’s plan. A Wall Street Journal article didn’t mention taxes at all.
Nor did they grapple with the societal implications of the would-be donations.
So what are the tax implications? They are quite generous to Zuckerberg. I asked Victor Fleischer, a law professor and tax specialist at the University of San Diego School of Law, as well as a contributor to DealBook. He explained that if the LLC sold stock, Zuckerberg would pay a hefty capital gains tax, particularly if Facebook stock kept climbing.
If the LLC donated to a charity, he would get a deduction just like anyone else. That’s a nice little bonus. But the LLC probably won’t do that because it can do better. The savvier move, Professor Fleischer explained, would be to have the LLC donate the appreciated shares to charity, which would generate a deduction at fair market value of the stock without triggering any tax.
Zuckerberg didn’t create these tax laws and cannot be criticized for minimizing his tax bills. If he had created a foundation, he would have accrued similar tax benefits. But what this means is that he amassed one of the greatest fortunes in the world — and is likely never to pay any taxes on it. Any time a superwealthy plutocrat makes a charitable donation, the public ought to be reminded that this is how our tax system works. The superwealthy buy great public relations and adulation for donations that minimize their taxes.
Instead of lavishing praise on Zuckerberg for having issued a news release with a promise, this should be an occasion to mull what kind of society we want to live in. Who should fund our general societal needs and how? Charities rarely fund quotidian yet vital needs. What would $40 billion mean for job creation or infrastructure spending? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a budget of about $7 billion. Maybe more should go to that. Society, through its elected members, taxes its members. Then the elected officials decide what to do with sums of money.
In this case, it is different. One person will be making these decisions.
Of course, nobody thinks our government representatives do a good job of allocating resources. Politicians — a bunch of bums! Maybe Zuckerberg will make wonderful decisions, ones I would personally be happy with. Maybe not. He blew his $100 million donation to the Newark school system, as Dale Russakoff detailed in her recent book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” Zuckerberg has said he has learned from his mistakes. We don’t know whether that’s true because he hasn’t made any decisions with the money he plans to put into his investment vehicle.
But I think I might do a good job allocating $45 billion. Maybe even better than Zuckerberg. I am self-aware enough to realize many people would disagree with my choices. Those who like how Zuckerberg is lavishing his funds might not like how the Koch brothers do so. Or George Soros.
Mega-donations, assuming Zuckerberg makes good on his pledge, are explicit acknowledgments that the money should be plowed back into society. They are tacit acknowledgments that no one could ever possibly spend $45 billion on himself or his family, and that the money isn’t really “his,” in a fundamental sense. Because that is the case, society can’t rely on the beneficence and enlightenment of the superwealthy to realize this individually. We need to take a portion uniformly — some kind of tax on wealth.
The point is that we are turning into a society of oligarchs. And I am not as excited as some to welcome the new Silicon Valley overlords. |||||
A: | Mark Zuckerberg announced the birth of his baby daughter and a $45 billion giveaway on the same day this week, and he's had to do a little more explaining about the latter. In a Facebook post on Thursday, Zuckerberg explains that Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, the entity he's donating 99% of his Facebook shares to, is being set up as a limited liability company instead of a traditional foundation so it can engage in actions like "funding non-profit organizations, making private investments, and participating in policy debates," reports TechCrunch, which notes that some critics accused Zuckerberg of having ulterior motives or said the move could be "a big waste." The initiative will focus on "personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities," building on previous investments in "education, science, health, Internet access, and inclusion," Zuckerberg explained. He also addressed concerns that the donation—equivalent to the GDP of Serbia, or around $38 for every Facebook user—could be some kind of tax dodge, explaining that "we receive no tax benefit from transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively" and that if he wanted to avoid tax, it would have been far more effective to set up a traditional charity, the Verge reports. (A ProPublica piece calls the initiative a "tax vehicle.") |
"Ocean Spray" is a song by the Manic Street Preachers, which was released as a single on 4 June 2001, the third single to be released from the album "Know Your Enemy". James Dean Bradfield wrote both lyrics and music for the song. It reached number 15 in the UK Singles Chart.
Does this next sentence follow, given the preceding text?
James Dean Bradfield was born after 2010.
Choices: A. Yes B. It's impossible to say C. No | C. |
input hypothesis: My friend challenged me to a jumping jacks competition and then we ate dinner.
Context: Jumping jacks<br>My friend challenged me to a jumping jacks competition. He bet me five dollars he could do more. My friend did 50 jumping jacks. I did 60 jumping jacks. Now my friend owes me five dollars.
true or false: It's impossible to say
input hypothesis: Raphael's mother gave birth to him in 1972.
Context: Raphaël Colantonio (Born 1971) is a French-born video game developer, and was the founder and 18-year president of Arkane Studios. He has served as creative director on several of Arkane's titles, including co-creator with Harvey Smith for the "Dishonored" series.
true or false: No
input hypothesis: The narrator is a policeman
Context: All right. We will reconvene a little later tomorrow, at 9:30 a.m., because of some matters that I must attend to, and the session will go longer. With everybody's indulgence, I would expect to go to approximately 5 o'clock, no later than 5 o'clock tomorrow to make up for the time that we lose during the morning session. So we will stand in recess until 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. We thank you all.
true or false: It's impossible to say
input hypothesis: I believe the best way to help our small businesses is not only through small-business loans, which we haven't increased since I've been president of the United States
Context: I believe the best way to help our small businesses is not only through small-business loans, which we have increased since I've been the president of the United States, but to unbundle government contracts so people have a chance to be able to bid and receive a contract to help get their business going.
true or false: | No |
Detailed Instructions: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Q: General speed limits in Germany are set by the federal government. All limits are multiples of 5 km/h. There are two default speed limits: 50 km/h (31 mph) inside built-up areas and 100 km/h (62 mph) outside built-up areas. While parts of the autobahns and many other freeway-style highways have posted limits up to 130 km/h (81 mph) based on accident experience, congestion and other factors, many rural sections have no general speed limit. The German Highway Code (Straßenverkehrsordnung) section on speed begins with the requirement which may be rendered in English:
A: | is there no speed limit on the autobahn? |
You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
One example is below.
Q: Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, icing sugar, and icing cake, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains a small amount of anti-caking agent to prevent clumping and improve flow. Although most often produced in a factory, powdered sugar can also be made by processing ordinary granulated sugar in a coffee grinder, or by crushing it by hand in a mortar and pestle.
A: is confectionary sugar the same as powdered sugar?
Rationale: The question is a yes/no question, and it is answerable based on the given passage.
Q: Federal law requires background checks for commercial gun sales, but an exemption exists for private-party sales whereby ``Any person may sell a firearm to an unlicensed resident of the State where he resides as long as he does not know or have reasonable cause to believe the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under Federal law.'' Under federal law, private-party sellers are not required to perform background checks on buyers, record the sale, or ask for identification, whether at a gun show or other venue. This is in contrast to sales by gun stores and other Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders, who are required to perform background checks and record all sales on almost all buyers, regardless of whether the venue is their business location or a gun show. Some states have passed laws to require background checks for private sales with limited exceptions. Access to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is limited to FFL holders.
A: | is a background check required to buy a gun at a gun show? |
Teacher: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? If you are still confused, see the following example:
Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, icing sugar, and icing cake, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains a small amount of anti-caking agent to prevent clumping and improve flow. Although most often produced in a factory, powdered sugar can also be made by processing ordinary granulated sugar in a coffee grinder, or by crushing it by hand in a mortar and pestle.
Solution: is confectionary sugar the same as powdered sugar?
Reason: The question is a yes/no question, and it is answerable based on the given passage.
Now, solve this instance: There are five recognised candidates for EU membership that are not already EEA members: Albania (applied 2009), Macedonia (applied 2004), Montenegro (applied 2008, negotiating since June 2012), Serbia (applied 2009, negotiating since January 2014) and Turkey (applied 1987, negotiating since October 2005). Albania and Macedonia have not yet started negotiations to join, nor has the European Union set any negotiations start date. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are considered potential candidates for membership. Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU and its member states, that went into effect in June 2015, which allowed the lodging of a membership application in February 2016, while Kosovo, whose independence is unrecognised by 5 EU member states, finalised negotiations on a SAA that went into effect in April 2016.
Student: | is serbia part of the european economic area? |
Write the next sentence in this paragraph:
How to make minnesota wild rice chicken soup
Boil 6 cups of water in a large saucepan.
Add 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 cup of raw wild rice. Cook for one hour, stirring occasionally. | Drain in a colander; then set aside while preparing the rest of the soup. In a large stock pot, heat 1/2 cup of butter over medium heat. |
What is the most logical next event?
How to babysit an infant
Have a fill in form ready for the parents.
It should include parent emergency contact info, what to feed the baby, the baby's allergies, and other stuff you should know in case of an emergency.
Make sure the baby is comfortable at all times.
a). If the baby starts crying, check his or her diaper. If there is poop, or if the diaper is wet, the diaper needs to be changed. b). Take off their socks, use your fingers to smooth their hair or legs. If they seem hungry, have them say that to you. c). If you are unsure as to what to handle, you will need someone to make sure the baby is comfortable at all times. Some friends have even created an advertisement so babies can be fed and washed by someone that is breastfed. d). They can be irritable, crying, knocked out, or fussy. Don't babysit until the parent is home. | a). |
Read the following paragraph and determine if the hypothesis is true:
My colleague from West Nova indicated that very thing, that we could accept some of the proposed changes, good changes which the Liberals have put forward but that we could not accept them based on the facts, figures and numbers we have at this time with respect to the taxation rates which will be attached to this bill.
Choices:
(a). Yes;
(b). It's impossible to say;
(c). No;
Hypothesis: My colleague not from West Nova.
| (c). |
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: "I guess you have to expect this in a growing community," said Mardelle Kean, who lives across the street from John Joseph Famalaro, charged in the death of Denise A. Huber, who was 23 when she disappeared in 1991.
Hypothesis: Mardelle Kean had red eyes.
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: STATE TIMES NEWS SRINAGAR: Police arrested a drug peddler and recovered contraband substance from his possession in Budgam. Police during Naka at Adina Bridge Magam intercepted a Sumo vehicle bearing registration number JK01K-3772. On checking of the vehicle 260 gr3ams of contraband substance was recovered. Driver of the vehicle identified as Shabir Ahmad Wani, son of Mohammad Abdulla Wani, resident of Dalwich Khag was taken into custody. A case FIR number 77/2017 was registered against the accused driver and further investigation has been taken up.
Hypothesis: They found more than a quarter kilo of drugs
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: Catching the flu<br>Tom had the flu. He accidentally gave it to his brother. His brother gave it to his teacher. His teacher got sick and lost his voice. He couldn't teach for 3 days.
Hypothesis: Tom is responsible for getting his brother and his brothers teacher sick.
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: | Context: Mowing a Frog<br>At some point, my parents thought I was old enough to mow the lawn. It was a gas-fueled push mower. The first time, I accidentally ran over a frog. I felt terrible. I stood in the yard crying.
Hypothesis: the frog survived after being run over |
In this task you will be given an answer to a question. You need to generate a question. The answer given should be a correct answer for the generated question.
[EX Q]: Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore, a batholith in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota, United States. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum. Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732 -- 1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743 -- 1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858 -- 1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809 -- 1865). The memorial park covers 1,278.45 acres (2.00 sq mi; 5.17 km) and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.
[EX A]: name of the four presidents on mount rushmore
[EX Q]: The most recognizable symbol of the organization is the blue corduroy FFA jacket that is worn by current FFA members. The back of the jacket features a large FFA emblem just underneath the name of each FFA member's state. The name of the local FFA chapter, district, region or area is embroidered below the emblem. The front of the FFA jacket features a smaller FFA emblem on the left chest and the FFA member's name and sometimes, if applicable, office and year on the right chest. FFA members are required to wear the FFA jacket as part of official dress while participating in all official organization activities.
[EX A]: what is the symbol for the president in ffa
[EX Q]: In human anatomy, the deltoid tuberosity is a rough, triangular area on the antero lateral (front-side) surface of the middle of the humerus to which the deltoid muscle attaches.
[EX A]: | where is the deltoid tuberosity of the humerus located
|
Read the text and determine if the sentence is true:
Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) television head, Sandra Levy, has quit to become the director of development for "Channel Nine." Her new role is expected to focus on drama. ABC managing director Russell Balding said that Ms Levy had lifted audiences to "historically unprecedented" levels. However, Ms Levy came under fire during her ABC tenure for an overly conservative programming approach to major news stories - notably a sluggish response to coverage of the December 2004 South Asian Tsunami. She was criticised for refusing to interrupt regular programming to go to breaking news reports.
Sentence: Sandra levy always presented both sides fairly during her time with ABC. | No |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Q: The white-headed capuchin ( " Cebus capucinus " ) is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae , subfamily Cebinae .
A: | The Colombian white-faced capuchin ( " Cebus capucinus " ) , also known as the Colombian white-headed capuchin or Colombian white-throated capuchin , is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae , subfamily Cebinae . |
Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
On June 17, 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip as a passenger. (Photo: AP Photo/FILE/Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College)
Amelia Earhart, in her Lockheed Electra plane, sits surrounded by knee-deep water, marooned on the reef of Gardner Island with her seriously injured navigator, Fred Noonan.
She waits for the tides to lessen before sending out yet another distress signal.
It's July 2, 1937, just hours after Earhart’s plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on the most challenging leg of her flight around the globe — the 2,227 nautical mile trip from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island.
“Plane down on an uncharted island. Small, uninhabited,” she calls out, a signal, apparently only heard by Texas housewife Mabel Larremore who had stumbled upon the message from Earhart while scanning her home radio.
Then, 12 hours of silence.
For Richard Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, this is a glimpse into how he believes Earhart’s last days with communication to civilization transpired — pieced together by analyzing a catalog of radio distress calls picked up by both area governmental agencies and witnesses in the immediate days after Earhart went missing.
On Tuesday — what would be Earhart's 121st birthday — Gillespie is hoping to put an end to the question of what happened to the famed aviator by releasing a 30-page report that he believes verifies, and connects, these radio signals to her disappearance.
Gillespie originally compiled his catalog in 2011 with his senior researcher Bob Brandenburg, aiming to debunk the claim by government officials who at the time dismissed the radio signals as hoaxes after searchers failed to find any trace of Earhart or her plane.
But, Gillespie said, it was still too complex. And year after year, theories continued to surface describing in detail the disappearance of Earhart, whose death 81 years ago has captivated a nation enthralled in a mystery that may never find true resolve.
Gillespie says he hopes his report on Tuesday will help put an end to the theories. In the analysis of the more than 100 calls sent the week following Earhart's disappearance — 57 of which were determined credible by Gillespie — the distress signals paint an intimate portrait of life, and later death, for Earhart and Noonan while stranded in the Pacific.
“These signals give us a glimpse into those last days before they’re really stuck [on Gardner Island],” Gillespie said.
The research also bolsters a hypothesis made public earlier this year by forensic anthropologist Richard Jantz, of the University of Tennessee, that a collection of lost bones discovered on Gardner Island, now Nikumaroro, “likely” belong to Earhart.
More: This is why the mystery of Amelia Earhart endures 80 years later
Amelia Earhart in front of her bi-plane called "Friendship" in Newfoundland, June 14, 1928. (Photo: Getty Images)
Six days of signals
Contrary to the widely-held theory that Earhart crashed into Pacific Ocean, Gillespie's new report hypothesizes that Earhart and Noonan, low on fuel, landed on the reef of Gardner Island — 350 nautical miles south of Howland Island — as it was the only site substantial enough to act as a landing strip.
From there, Earhart and Noonan sent radio signals to the nearby Itasca, the Coast Guard vessel responsible for monitoring Earhart's navigation during this leg of her flight, in an attempt to verify their location.
And what Gillespie finds most credible about the radio signals made in the week following the disappearance is their alignment with the high and low tides.
Earhart and Noonan could only send out distress calls when the plane's engine could run without fear of flooding — usually late at night and into the early morning, according to the report.
Gillespie and Brandenburg tested this theory by using tidal levels and reef height data collected by his Niku V expedition team in 2007.
The correlation, according to the report, was astounding — “night after night, the credible transmissions occurred only when the water level was low enough." Solidifying for Gillespie that Gardner Island is where Earhart and Noonan landed.
But what is most telling, Gillespie says, is the depth to which private citizens knew about Earhart's radio signals, which were documented during her disappearance both in newspaper clippings and saved notebook transcriptions.
For example, two days after her plane crashed — July 4 — a San Francisco resident picks up a chilling frequency believed to be from Earhart: “Still alive. Better hurry. Tell husband all right.”
Photo from National Archives showing Amelia Earhart prior to last take-off from New Guinea on July 2, 1937. (Photo: NATIONAL ARCHIVES / HANDOUT HANDOUT, EPA)
“Even though the people were totally independent — [they] didn’t know each other and didn’t know about each other — they tell a very consistent story about a deteriorating situation,” Gillespie said. “The language that Earhart uses changes over the days as things get worse.”
Five days after her crash — July 7 — Thelma Lovelace of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, hears, “Can you read me? Can you read me? This is Amelia Earhart … Please come in.”
Gillespie believes it to be the last credible transmission by Earhart.
“We have taken in water, my navigator is badly hurt ... we are in need of medical care and must have help. We can’t hold on much longer.”
Then silence, forever.
Why Earhart's mystery lives on
Earhart was a woman of firsts.
She was the first woman to fly solo above 14,000 feet; to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean; to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross — an honor awarded by Congress for her heroism and achievement in aerial flight; and she was the first woman to make the first solo, nonstop flight across the United States.
But then, Earhart disappeared — written into history as a woman no longer famed for her skill and achievement as a female trailblazer in the field of aeronautics, but rather for her untimely fate, immortalized in one of America’s greatest mysteries.
More: New photo may prove Amelia Earhart was captured by the Japanese
More: What if Amelia Earhart had turned around?
She would become the first, and most likely last, person to ever know the complete truth of her final time on earth.
In addition to the bones and radio distress signals, Gillespie and Jantz also believe that artifacts discovered on Gardner Island bolster their hypotheses, both noting a sextant box and shoe parts that were found in the 1940s alongside the bones.
"I think you have to say that in all likelihood the bones belong to the person who is camping there, and that these artifacts belong to that person," Jantz said. "She had a navigator with her, Fred Noonan, and no remains of his have been found... but the sextant box is of American manufacture and is of the kind he was known to have carried."
But the ultimate artifact to find? Earhart's Lockheed Electra.
“Everybody says this will not be solved until you find the plane," Gillespie said. "Where is it written that a little airplane that goes into the surf 81 years ago is still there?”
Many, like Tom Crouch, a curator of aviation at the Smithsonian, are satisfied in believing that Earhart and Noonan simply crashed into the ocean.
"I don't think anybody has actually proven beyond the shadow of a doubt what happened to her," Crouch said. "It's a big ocean and they were shooting for a tiny, little target. I think they just went down at sea."
Instead of focusing on her death, Crouch focuses on who she was when she was alive.
Earhart is one of those 20th century women worth remembering and understanding what she stood for, he said, but also who she stood for.
"What Amelia was saying, essentially, is that young women shouldn't limit themselves," Crouch said. "They have the capacity to do anything they wanted to do."
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uLGygB ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. |||||
A: | People all around the world reported hearing radio distress calls from Amelia Earhart in July 1937, and many of them were dismissed as hoaxes. But a research group has just published a comprehensive study of all distress calls in the days after Earhart disappeared and concludes that 57 of them are legit in regard to the famous aviator, reports USA Today. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR, says the calls prove its theory that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan survived for at least a week or so after crashing on a remote Pacific island. Based on the timing of the calls, the researchers say that Earhart returned to the disabled plane only at low tide to send her pleas for help, as those were the only times she could run the engine without the risk of flooding it. "Waters high," "water’s knee deep," and "help us quick" were among the snippets heard by a teen in Florida, per the Washington Post. "Plane down on uncharted island," heard a woman in Texas. TIGHAR says the calls disprove the Navy's long-held conclusion that Earhart's plane crashed in the ocean and sank immediately. So how did people so far away hear messages from Earhart's radio? TIGHAR chalks it up to "harmonic frequencies" that "'skip' off the ionosphere and can carry great distances," per the Post. Perhaps the most harrowing of the calls deemed legit is the final one: "Can you read me? This is Amelia Earhart. ... Please come in," a woman in Canada reported hearing on July 7, five days after Earhart's plane disappeared. "We have taken in water, my navigator is badly hurt. ... We can’t hold on much longer." (Catch up on all the various Earhart theories here.) |
Read the text and determine if the sentence is true (see options at the end):
McGee (lower body) has been cleared for Friday's tilt with the Grizzlies. McGee will play through a glute contusion Friday night, but the injury will definitely be something to keep an eye on. He may see his minutes monitored more closely, in which case expect Damian Jones to see increased action.
Sentence: McGee kept an eye on the contusion alone
(A). Yes. (B). It's impossible to say. (C). No. | (B). |
In this task you will be given an answer to a question. You need to generate a question. The answer given should be a correct answer for the generated question.
Let me give you an example: This list contains the top 25 accounts with the most followers on the social photo-sharing platform Instagram. As of May 2018, the most followed user is Instagram's own account, with over 235 million followers. Selena Gomez is the most followed individual, with over 137 million followers. Ten accounts have exceeded 100 million followers on the site.
The answer to this example can be: who has the maximum number of followers on instagram
Here is why: The answer is talking about the Instagram accounts that have the most followers. The question asking about the maximum number of followers. So this is a good example.
OK. solve this:
Critical thinking is the objective analysis of facts to form a judgment. The subject is complex, and there are several different definitions which generally include the rational, skeptical, unbiased analysis or evaluation of factual evidence.
Answer: | what is considered is a specific form of critical thinking |
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Q: What if you could drain all of Earths oceans? What would it look like? You might be really surprised. You see that the surface has two main features. It has continents and ocean basins. Continents are large land areas. These are the areas that are mostly above sea level. Ocean basins extend from the edges of continents. They include the ocean floor and Earths deep ocean trenches. You will also notice the ocean floor is not flat. It too has many Continents are much older than ocean basins. Some rocks on the continents are billions of years old. Ocean basins may only be millions of years old. Because the continents are so old, a lot has happened to them! As we view the land around us, we see landforms. Landforms are physical features on Earths surface. These features change over time, but how? There are actually two types of forces at work. <sep>What are two elements of ocean basins?<sep>Basins and continents
A: No
****
Q: The film focuses on various guests staying at New York City's famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . Among them are lonely screen star Irene Malvern , in town with her maid Anna for a childhood friend's wedding and the premiere of her latest movie ; war correspondent Chip Collyer , mistaken for a jewel thief by Irene but playing along to catch her attention ; flyer Capt. James Hollis , wounded in World War II and facing perilous surgery in three days ; wealthy shyster Martin X. Edley , who is trying to sign the Bey of Aribajan to a shady oil deal ; Oliver Webson , a cub reporter for Collier's Weekly hoping to expose Edley ; and bride-to-be Cynthia Drew , whose upcoming wedding is endangered by her belief her fianc Bob is in love with Irene Malvern . Also on the scene are Bunny Smith , the hotel's stenographer/notary public , who hopes to escape her low income roots by marrying Edley , and reporter Randy Morton , who loiters in the lobby hoping to stumble upon a scoop for his newspaper . In the opening scene , Randy Morton describes a typical Friday afternoon at the Waldorf . A newlywed couple discover there are no rooms available , and are given use of an apartment by a Mr. Jesup , who is going away for the weekend . Edley finds Jesup in the lobby and tries to involve him in a deal with the Bey of Aribajan , a wealthy oil shiek . Jesup refuses , but Edley knows that Jesup will be gone all weekend and has until Monday morning to get the Bey to sign a contract based on Jesup's presumed involvement . <sep>Which two women are hoping to be married someday?<sep>Bunny Smith
A: Yes
****
Q: Allan crouched over his desk once more, pen in hand and mind blank. He contemplated a story, an outline he had laboriously constructed some time ago. He had filled his pen and raised it, the nib descending towards the paper, before the sound came: the gentle, persistent tapping of the gnarled, primeval willow touching the window with long, insistent fingers. His eyes awoke with a passionate, determined flame, though the only light came from the glutted moon. Allan filled page after page, the words escaping from his mind onto the paper. Where before they had marched in regiments, practiced in ranks and followed their leaders' commands, the words now escaped in their true forms, unhindered by any stricture. He continued long into the night, until the eldritch orb had sunk into the waiting hands of the willow, raised perpetually skyward. Arthur looked up from the results of a night's frenzied labors and looked Allan in the eye. "What is this?" he queried, indicating the pages he held in his left hand. "I decided that… since I wasn't having much success with more – traditional – stories, I might see what sort of work I produced if I let my imagination go freely," Allan replied, somewhat less self-assured than he had been the previous night. "What in G-d's name could have possessed you to do such a thing," cried Arthur, nearly raising his voice. "After all I said the day before, why have you abandoned centuries of literary progress for some self-indulgent fantasy?" He shook the papers at Allan, raising them like a belt above the head of a disobedient son. "This is nothing but a glorified Grimm's tale, a miscarried child of Stoker, a creation less fit to be published than to be told around an open fire at the hovel of some peasant!" He spoke the last word with such heavy intonation that Allan shrank back before the physical wave of sound emanating from Arthur's throat. "Do you hate the modern system of literature? Do you personally despise the works the Enlightenment or the progress made since Shakespeare?" For a moment, Allan could hardly do more than shake his head. "No, of course not… I– " "Then why," Arthur barreled on, "do you disregard them all and return to this superstitious babble, this morbid, paganistic drivel? <sep>What was Allan writing on at his desk?<sep>In an old book
A: | No
****
|
[Q]: Marine biologist on effect of climate change on marine life Kevin Kocot is a marine biologist originally from Maryville, Illinois. He studies invertebrates, which means he goes on deep-sea expeditions to Iceland, Australia and even the Antarctic in search of tiny mollusks. Tracking these and other animals Kevin Kocot believes that the study of invertebrates can help us understand our effect on climate change.
[A]: It's impossible to say
[Q]: Copp's Hill is an elevation in the historic North End of Boston, Massachusetts. It is bordered by Hull Street, Charter Street and Snow Hill Street. The hill takes its name from William Copp, a shoemaker who once owned the land. Copp's Hill Burying Ground is a stop on the Freedom Trail. Copp's Hill Burying Ground is a stop on Pokemon Go.
[A]: No
[Q]: The source added that the investigation proved that the bases of the genocide crime "were completed with a series of illegal arrests followed in some cases with assassinations or cases of disappearances and were preceded, according to information attached to the file, by cases of torture." An investigation took place.
[A]: Yes
[Q]: Turkey is unlikely to become involved in, or allow U.S. forces to use Turkish territory in a Middle East war that does not threaten her territory directly. Turkey is concerned the war might mess things up for their territory.
[A]: | It's impossible to say |
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: To all outward appearances, this is a city deeply enamored of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. His portrait hangs from lampposts, adorns shopping centers and sprouts from the gleaming new office blocks rising from the seafront. Sayings from his Green Book, required reading for all schoolchildren, are posted in government buildings, including public restrooms.
And his supporters, draped in Gaddafi green and clutching pictures of their beloved leader, noisily and passionately assert their presence in near round-the-clock displays of devotion. Hurtling through the streets in pickups or gathering in Tripoli’s central Green Square, they bellow the rhythmic chant that encapsulates the omnipotence of Gaddafi’s self-ascribed role: “God, Moammar, Libya: Enough!”
How deep that support runs in a populace that has been governed by fear for decades is impossible to tell. But six days into the allied bombardment of Libyan military targets, it is clear that Gaddafi can count on the fierce loyalties of at least a significant segment of the population in the vast stretches that lie beyond the enclave of rebel-held territory in the east.
“We don’t want anyone except him,” gushed Fatima al-Mishai, 20, who joined the crowds assembled at Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound to offer their services as voluntary human shields against the bombs. “He gave us freedom and everything we need.”
Indeed, the Libyan government has kept average incomes relatively high, while doling out generous social benefits, including health care and education. Even Gaddafi’s opponents, who dare murmur their dissent only out of earshot of regime loyalists, concede that the man who has governed Libya for nearly 42 years does command genuine support.
“Seventy-five percent of the people are against him,” said one dissident, who was in the vanguard of the protest movement that was crushed in Tripoli last month and who agreed to a furtive meeting with journalists in a downtown cafe. “But there are some people who really do love him. They’ve known no one else all their lives. They think he’s in their blood.”
That a man who boasts he lives in a tent and whom Ronald Reagan once dubbed “the mad dog of the Middle East” still commands devotion four decades into his rule is one of the enduring mysteries of this idiosyncratic country.
To enter the world of the Gaddafi believers is to enter an “Alice in Wonderland” realm in which the regime’s supporters are the real revolutionaries, not the rebels seeking to topple the government, because Libya is in a state of perpetual revolution.
The Libyan people can’t overthrow their government because they are the government, in accordance with the country’s definition of itself as the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which loosely translates as “state of the masses.”
Gaddafi can’t be toppled because he holds no formal position; he is the Brother Leader, a guide and a mentor, a patriarch and an uncle who advises his people but does not rule them.
“Brother Leader Moammar Gaddafi and his colleagues are out of the executive completely,” explained Col. Milad Hussein, who is in charge of ideological education for the Libyan military, in a news briefing. “The Libyan people are the ones who do the deciding and the executing . . . because the revolution is the starting point for everything.”
In reality, said Dirk Vandewalle, a Libya expert and associate professor at Dartmouth College, Gaddafi is the state, the wellspring from whom all decisions and policies spring. Gaddafi is backed by a network of police enforcers and so-called Revolutionary Committees, effectively local vigilantes who keep a close watch on citizens’ activities.
“The man on the street has no real conviction, but there are nefarious consequences if you don’t support Gaddafi,” Vandewalle said.
Yet some appear to believe fervently in the government’s pronouncements. In Green Square, small crowds of Gaddafi supporters sustain what is supposed to be a permanent vigil of chanting, dancing and singing in celebration of the so-called perpetual revolution. They are watched over by matronly female guards dressed in camouflage and armed with shiny new AK-47s.
“He made me feel like a free man. If I don’t hurt anyone, I’m free in my own environment,” said Majdi Daba, a 42-year-old dentist who was born the year Gaddafi wrested power from Libya’s monarchy. Majdi said he goes to the square every day. “Gaddafi gives us advice, that’s all, and when he dies, 7 million people will rule themselves.”
The regime’s opponents, he said, are interested only in making more money, while most Libyan people are satisfied that the government adequately supports their needs.
“It’s not complicated,” he said. “This place is different from Egypt. There, a lot of people are poor, a lot of people are hungry, but here there are no poor people, no hungry people.”
Libya’s role as a sparsely populated, oil-rich state may go some way toward explaining why Gaddafi has been able to retain the support he has. Libya is nearly twice as big as Egypt, yet contains less than one-tenth as many people. Per capita incomes are more than double those in Egypt, where a successful revolt last month inspired Libyans to take to the streets.
The government funds generous social welfare programs that include free education and health care, helping keep at bay the poverty that has fueled discontent elsewhere.
“He has done a lot for the country and no one can deny it,” said Mustafa Fetouri, director of the MBA program at the Academy of Graduate Studies in Tripoli. “He’s built hospitals, schools, roads, lots of things.”
Moreover, he said, the powerful tribal structure that forms the backbone of the government has remained behind Gaddafi, despite initial reports in the early days of the uprising that powerful tribal leaders had defected. Gaddafi has apparently been helped in this regard by making good on a pledge to distribute weapons.
“There are two kinds of people: those who believe in the regime itself and just don’t care too much about freedom, and then there is the tribal structure, which is behind him,” he said. “The support of the tribes goes beyond Gaddafi to his tribe, and to their relationship with his tribe, which predates Gaddafi. It’s nothing to do with Gaddafi.” ||||| Image caption French Rafale jets have been heavily involved in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone
A French warplane has destroyed a Libyan aircraft that had been flying in breach of the UN no-fly zone, French officials say.
The smaller trainer aircraft had just landed in the besieged city of Misrata when it was attacked, they say.
It is the first incident of its kind since enforcement of the zone began.
Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister has said Nato will take command of the international mission in Libya within a day or two.
"Compromise has been reached in principle in a very short time," Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying after a conference call with his US, French and British counterparts.
Turkey, a Nato member, had earlier raised objections to the organisation taking command without certain conditions first being agreed.
Reports from Brussels suggest that the mission might be placed under Nato control, but overseen by a military council including some Arab states.
A senior US military official confirmed the handover could come as early as this weekend.
'Stop fighting'
Vice-Admiral Bill Gortney also told a Pentagon briefing that a total of 350 aircraft were now involved in the operation in some way, about half of them American.
A total of 38 ships were participating, he said, 12 of them from the US.
Analysis The battle for Misrata is turning into a battle for Libya's future. From reports reaching Tripoli, it looks as though coalition planes destroyed pro-Gaddafi tanks outside the town, while two or more tanks inside the town itself have succeeded in reaching the port. The Libyan plane which was destroyed by the French today was hit at Misrata airport. For the government here, its reported success in Misrata greatly outweighs the destruction of the air force plane. If Col Gaddafi recaptures Misrata, that would give him effective control over almost the whole western part of the country. Government officials here clearly feel now that regime change is becoming a little less likely. If the coalition manages to chase the pro-Gaddafi forces out of Misrata, on the other hand, the future of Col Gaddafi and the people loyal to him would be a lot more in doubt. Tensions on road to Tripoli
He insisted that Libyan ground forces would continue to be attacked as long as they threatened the lives of civilians.
"Our message to the regime troops is simple - stop fighting... stop obeying Gaddafi's orders," he said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said there is no sign that the Libyan government is meeting demands for an immediate ceasefire.
He warned that the UN Security Council would take "additional measures" if Libya did not comply.
A sixth consecutive night of bombing was reported to be under way on Thursday, with Libyan state television reporting that areas in Tripoli and Tajoura had been hit.
Dozens of coalition missiles have already hit military bases, with the aim of ending Col Muammar Gaddafi's ability to launch air attacks.
UK officials said on Wednesday that Libya's air force no longer existed as a fighting force.
Initial reports of the French action said the Libyan plane, a G-2/Galeb with a single engine, was in the air when it was hit.
But French military spokesman Col Thierry Burkhard later said the plane had just landed when the attack took place.
The French jet, a Rafale, fired an air-to-ground missile, other reports said.
Earlier, the French military said their planes had hit an air base about 250km (155 miles) south of the Libyan coastline, but did not give any further information on the location of the target or the damage.
Western military planes were also said to have hit the town of Sebha in southern Libya, according to residents and media reports.
Fresh fighting has meanwhile been reported in Misrata, scene of a bitter battle for control which has lasted for many days.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Vice Admiral Bill Gortney tells Libyan soldiers to "stop killing your own people"
One doctor quoted by the AFP news agency said pro-Gaddafi forces had killed more than 100 people and injured 1,300 in the past week.
Further east in the strategically important city of Ajdabiya, residents described shelling, gunfire and houses on fire. One report said rebels were moving closer to the city but remained out-gunned by pro-Gaddafi forces.
In the main eastern city of Benghazi, rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told the BBC that 17,000 fighters had set out from the city to join the battle to the west.
Although he admitted that the rebel forces were on a "learning curve", he insisted that they all knew how to operate their weapons and were committed.
"We will slowly advance," he said. "[Gaddafi's forces] have no reason to fight, no cause, while we do.
"We have given so much blood and we're willing to give some more if we have to."
The International Criminal Court's prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said he is "100% certain" that charges of crimes against humanity will be brought against Col Gaddafi's regime.
An initial inquiry should end in May, he said, and a second case might follow to investigate more recent attacks on civilians.
Nato debate
Earlier this week Nato members had been holding talks about assuming responsibility for the no-fly zone over Libya, without agreement.
The US was keen to relinquish control, but there were disagreements about who should take on the role, and what the exact terms of engagement would be.
Turkey said it wanted any Nato-led action to focus directly on enforcing the no-fly zone and arms embargo, rather than allowing any continuing strikes against ground forces.
The Turkish parliament has backed a government decision to join the blockade. Four frigates, a submarine and a support vessel are being provided by Turkey.
In a separate development, African Union chairman Jean Ping has invited members of the Libyan government and opposition to talks in Ethiopia.
Representatives of the European Union, the UN Security Council and neighbouring countries have also been invited to the talks, scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa on Friday.
The UK has invited fellow Nato members, the UN, Arab League and African Union, and a number of Arab nations, to a conference in London on Tuesday. |||||
A: | Despite Libyans’ revolt against their leader, many in the country, and Tripoli in particular, still fervently support Moammar Gadhafi, reports the Washington Post. The paper tells of "near round-the-clock displays of devotion" in the capital, with residents clad in Gadhafi green chanting while holding pictures of their leader. His portrait is everywhere, in fact: hanging from lampposts, displayed in shopping centers and office buildings. One rebel explains that "75% of the people are against him," but "there are some people who really do love him. They think he’s in their blood." "He gave us freedom and everything we need," says a supporter. Oil-rich Libya has supported its people with free health care and education, and per-capita incomes are twice that of Egypt's residents, notes the Post. Meanwhile, in the first enforcement of the no-fly zone, a French warplane destroyed a small Libyan loyalist plane that had been spotted flying, the BBC reports. |
TASK DEFINITION: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
PROBLEM: Since the founding of the republic, there has been a tension between the practice of judicial review and the democratic ideals of egalitarianism, self-government, self-determination and freedom of conscience. At one pole are those who view the Federal Judiciary and especially the Supreme Court as being ``the most separated and least checked of all branches of government.'' Indeed, federal judges and justices on the Supreme Court are not required to stand for election by virtue of their tenure ``during good behavior,'' and their pay may ``not be diminished'' while they hold their position (Section 1 of Article Three). Though subject to the process of impeachment, only one Justice has ever been impeached and no Supreme Court Justice has been removed from office. At the other pole are those who view the judiciary as the least dangerous branch, with little ability to resist the exhortations of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court, it is noted, cannot directly enforce its rulings; instead, it relies on respect for the Constitution and for the law for adherence to its judgments. One notable instance of nonacquiescence came in 1832, when the state of Georgia ignored the Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v. Georgia. President Andrew Jackson, who sided with the Georgia courts, is supposed to have remarked, ``John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!''; however, this alleged quotation has been disputed. Some state governments in the South also resisted the desegregation of public schools after the 1954 judgment Brown v. Board of Education. More recently, many feared that President Nixon would refuse to comply with the Court's order in United States v. Nixon (1974) to surrender the Watergate tapes. Nixon, however, ultimately complied with the Supreme Court's ruling.
SOLUTION: can us supreme court justice be removed from office?
PROBLEM: The colour orange is named after the appearance of the ripe orange fruit. The word comes from the Old French orange, from the old term for the fruit, pomme d'orange. The French word, in turn, comes from the Italian arancia, based on Arabic nāranj, derived from the Sanskrit naranga. The first recorded use of orange as a colour name in English was in 1512, in a will now filed with the Public Record Office.
SOLUTION: was the color orange named after the fruit?
PROBLEM: The ruby slippers are the magic pair of shoes worn by Dorothy Gale as played by Judy Garland in the classic 1939 MGM musical movie The Wizard of Oz. Because of their iconic stature, the ruby slippers are now considered among the most treasured and valuable items of film memorabilia. As is customary for important props, a number of pairs were made for the film, though the exact number is unknown. Five pairs are known to have survived; one pair was stolen in August 2005 and has never been recovered.
SOLUTION: | have the stolen ruby red slippers been found?
|
Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
At the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said something very weird. He told an audience that was assembled to celebrate women’s achievements in tech (an industry that has diversity problems in nearly every metric) that women shouldn't ask for raises.
ReadWrite reports that during a fireside chat-type discussion with computer scientist and Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe, he commented, “It’s not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise.”
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And he said that women who stay silent have an advantage. “That might be one of the initial ’super powers,’ that quite frankly, women [who] don’t ask for a raise have. ... It’s good karma. It will come back.” What would Grace Hopper think?
As the United States continues to struggle with the gender wage gap, and murmurs about improving diversity in tech finally grow into a broad discussion, it seems pretty clear that Nadella’s comments are crazy talk. Carnegie Mellon University economist Linda Babcock told All Things Considered in 2011 that a woman’s failure to ask for a raise early in her career could mean “leaving anywhere between $1 million and $1.5 million on the table in lost earnings over their lifetime."
But public figures are human, right? Maybe Nadella just sort of lost context for a minute. Oh, and he apologized! See, everything is gonna be fine.
Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14 — Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) October 9, 2014
So at least he knows he screwed up. And, yes, one important goal is for women to be paid the same as men so they don’t have to ask for raises just to bridge that gap. But even in that utopia, it will still be in everyone’s interests, both men and women, to advocate for themselves and request increased compensation at various strategic points in their careers. ||||| Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gestures during the keynote address of the Build Conference in San Francisco in April. (Photo: Eric Risberg, AP)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sought Thursday to walk back comments he made at a women's computer science conference, when he suggested women don't need to ask for a raise — they should just trust the system.
"Was inarticulate re how women should ask for a raise," said Nadella on his Twitter account, using the hashtag #GHC14, for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Phoenix. "Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of bias."
Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14 — Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) October 9, 2014
In a statement to Microsoft employees Thursday night, Nadella went further, saying he was "completely wrong."
Earlier at that conference, Nadella was asked to give his advice for women wanting to ask for a raise. He said it's not about asking for raises, and that women should trust in the system to reward them as they go along. Not asking for a raise is "good karma," because someone will know that that's the kind of person he or she will want to trust, he said.
The quote in this embedded video comes around 1:34.
This answer struck many in the audience, and on Twitter, as less-than-helpful advice, given recent studies on how women's salaries lag men's. The tech industry has also come under fire for hiring patterns that result in a workforce that's largely made up of white and Asian men.
At Microsoft, 17% of its global tech employees are female, according to a recent diversity report. Women also make up about 17% of Microsoft's leadership.
Maria Klawe, a Microsoft director who was interviewing Nadella, told him she disagreed with him on the raise issue, a response met with cheers and claps in the crowd. Then she gave some very practical advice to women: do your homework and role-play negotiating compensation.
In his statement to employees, Nadella said: "When it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."
MORE FROM USA TODAY
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1xvnOeu ||||| Proffering career advice more analogous to The Secret than Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In: Women Work, and the Will to Lead, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told women in the tech industry that asking for what you're worth isn't the best way to get ahead.
“It’s not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise,” Nadella told a confounded (and predominantly female) audience at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing on Thursday. [Update: Nadella clarified his remarks on Twitter, and then issued a statement apologizing. He'll also return to speak at the Hopper conference again next year. See below.]
Ascribing to mortals the fictional abilities of comic book heroes, Nadella advised that women embrace their innate "super powers" and confidence, and trust a system that pays women 78% as much as men.
See also: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Eats Humble Pie Over Remarks To Women
Nadella made the comments in an on-stage conversation with Maria Klawe, a computer scientist, president of Harvey Mudd College, and member of Microsoft's board of directors. He seemed to suggest that "faith in the system" is akin to magic.
"That might be one of the initial 'super powers,' that quite frankly, women (who) don’t ask for a raise have," he told the straight-faced Klawe. "It’s good karma. It will come back.”
Audience murmurs suggested confusion and displeasure with career advice that both goes against everything women are told in the "Lean In" era, and seems woefully out of touch. The gap in income inequality between men and women in Silicon Valley, where technology is a leading industry, is severely imbalanced, according to a 2014 study by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The overall gender pay disparity in Silicon Valley is actually worse than the overall United States:
Men who hold graduate or professional degrees earn a whopping 73 percent more than women with the same educational qualifications, while men with a bachelor’s degree earn 40 percent more than women with the same credentials.
Understandably, women in the audience at Arizona's Grace Hopper Celebration were perplexed by Nadella's advice.
Those “super powers” Nadella talked about were tied into an earlier point in the interview, when he encouraged women to be confident and use their unique talents to be successful in the workplace. Similar advice was doled out Wedneday night during the “male allies,” train wreck panel, which also received lukewarm-to-chilly response.
Saved By Good Advice
Considering Nadella's thoughtful answers to other issues faced by women in tech, including his reassurance that Microsoft is working towards equality in the workplace, the CEO's advice for women working on career advancement came as a surprise.
Microsoft released its workplace diversity data last week, and the numbers show the company Nadella took over in February is just as white and male as other tech companies. Twenty-nine percent of the general Microsoft workforce is female, and in the U.S., almost 61% is white. The tech industry has a gender diversity issue, he said, and the real question is what companies are going to do about it.
“I don’t want to fall for the ... 'supply side' excuse,” he said to cheers from the audience, though he did acknowledge the pipeline of women interested in science and technology is not as big as the pool of men. “The real issue is to figure out how to get women into the organization, and especially, in our case, into our development.”
Nadella also described his own experience with work-life balance, an issue that regularly comes up for women, and sometimes men, who want to become leaders in their companies, but also must balance responsibilities of family life.
Instead of a balance, Nadella suggested that it's more work-life harmony, and that it’s possible to take charge of your career while still managing family responsibilities.
But his responses went downhill after that, and as soon as he suggested women shouldn’t ask for raises, moderator Klawe jumped in to reassure women that they should be empowered to ask for more money or career advancement.
“First of all, do your homework ... know what the appropriate salary is.” Klawe advised. “Then role play, sit down with someone you really trust, and practice asking them for a raise.”
At least someone on stage at Thursday morning's keynote could speak honestly about the issues. Because, as we all know, karma doesn't pay the bills.
Update, 2:30pm PT: Satya Nadella later tweeted an attempted clarification of his remarks:
Update, 7:00pm PT: Nadella, apparently realizing that it would take more than 140 characters to address the situation, has issued a statement to employees—and an apology for his ill-conceived remarks.
Photo by Selena Larson for ReadWrite |||||
A: | With pay inequality rife in the tech industry, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella should probably have known better than to say it is "good karma" for women to not ask for pay raises—especially since he was at a women's computer science conference. Attendees at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing murmured in "confusion and displeasure" yesterday after Nadella said it's "not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise," according to readwrite.com. Nadella later apologized for the comments, saying he had been "inarticulate" and the "industry must close [the] gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of bias," reports USA Today. Nadella's comments weren't just ill-judged—Carnegie Mellon economist Linda Babcock estimates that women who fail to seek pay raises early in their careers can lose more than $1 million in earning over their lifetimes, according to Slate—they show that the India-born CEO has a poor understanding of the concept of karma, writes Annalisa Merelli at Quartz. He's implying that asking for a raise is a bad action and people who don't do it will be rewarded by life, she writes, but the truth is that many people deserve a raise anyway, and if Nadella wants good karma himself, he "should walk in his office tomorrow and give a raise to all the women who work for him, without waiting for them to ask for it." |
Read the text and determine if the sentence is true:
Eating Out<br>Dan had a really rough day at work today. Dan went home and started cooking a steak. However, Dan accidentally burned the steak. Dan threw away the steak, and got dressed. Dan decided he would go to a local restaurant to eat dinner.
Sentence: Dan cooked a steak medium rare. | No |
In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
[EX Q]: Sterling banknotes are the banknotes in circulation in the United Kingdom and its related territories .
[EX A]: Sterling banknotes are the banknotes in circulation in the United Kingdom and its related territories , denominated in pounds sterling ( symbol : £ ; ISO 4217 currency code GBP Great Britain pound ) .
[EX Q]: The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch is a group of Christians .
[EX A]: The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch , also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East , is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity .
[EX Q]: No year can be cited as the origin , because the style evolved over a long period .
[EX A]: | No specific year can be cited as the origin of the blues , largely because the style evolved over a long period and existed in approaching its modern form before the term " blues " was introduced and before the style was thoroughly documented .
|
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
From a human point of view, a habitat is where you live. It might be your city, town, or neighborhood. Your habitat can be altered. Most people move a few times in their lives. But a plant cannot move. An animal may not be suited to live in another area. A habitat is the natural home or environment of an organism. Humans often destroy the habitats of other organisms. The loss of habitat can cause the extinction of species. Extinction is when a species disappears forever. Once a species is extinct, it can never be brought back. Humans cause habitat destruction in many ways. There are two common ways this happens. Land may be cleared. Another way is when an animal or plant is brought to an area where it does not belong. <sep>What is a habitat?<sep>a place to eat
No
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (CNN) -- President Barack Obama, in a bid to create jobs and boost economic growth, called on Congress on Monday to pass a $50 billion plan to renew the country's transportation infrastructure. His address was the first of two speeches the president is scheduled to make this week to frame his administration's ongoing response to the recession, less than two months ahead of midterm elections in which Democratic majorities in the House and Senate are in jeopardy. "Today, I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America's roads, and rails and runways for the long term," said Obama, who spoke on Labor Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- a state with competitive gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. "We used to have the best infrastructure in the world. We can have it again," he said to loud cheers from a crowd of union workers. The proposal envisions -- over a six year period -- rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of rail and 150 miles of airport runways. It also would include modernizing the nation's air traffic control system in an effort to reduce delays and travel time. "This will not only create jobs immediately. It's also going to make our economy hum over the long haul," said the president. Obama hopes to work with Congress to enact an up-front investment of $50 billion -- an amount a White House statement said would represent a significant chunk of new spending on infrastructure. The investment would then be paired with what the administration called a framework to improve transportation spending. The long-term plan would include the establishment of an Infrastructure Bank, which would leverage federal dollars and focus on projects that could deliver the the biggest bang for the buck, Obama said. The president stressed the need for Democrats and Republicans to work together on the transportation initiative, which would need to be approved by Congress. <sep>On behalf of his administration, what is the overt cause and what is the implied cause of why President Obama gave a speech about spending $50 billion on renewing the country's transportation infrastructure?<sep>Overt: To bid to create jobs and boost economic growth. Implied: Because midterm elections are coming up
Yes
(OPRAH.com) -- Chris Rock is an Emmy-winning comedian, devoted husband and loving father --but it's time to get to know a new side of this funnyman. Meet Chris Rock, hair expert. It's a detour he took after an innocent carpool ride left Rock with an idea he just couldn't shake. "I was with my daughter one day, and we're in the car and she's with one of her friends in the back seat, a little white friend," he says. "She was just kind of raving about her friend's hair a little too much for my comfort [saying]: 'You've got great hair. Oh, your hair's so good.'" Not wanting to make her comments a big deal, Rock says he tried to play his them off. "[I said]: "Oh, baby, your hair's beautiful. Come on,'" he says. "If I would have really reacted, then she would have a complex about her hair." Still, Rock couldn't let it go. "It sparked something in me," he says. Oprah.com: Oprah's hair throughout the years! What Rock discovered is a $9 billion industry that affects the daily activities, wallets, self-esteem -- and even the sex lives -- of black women. Because women spend so much time and money on their hair, Rock says men are forced to adopt a hands-off policy. "You cannot touch a black woman's hair. You are conditioned not to even go there," he says. "When I was a dating guy, I dated women from different races. Anytime I was with an Asian or a Puerto Rican girl or a white girl, my hands would constantly be in their hair. <sep>Why can't you touch a black woman's hair?<sep>Hair Cut
| No
|
Definition: In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Input: A logic block , sometimes called configurable logic block is a component of an FPGA .
Output: | In computing , a logic block or configurable logic block ( CLB ) is a fundamental building block of field-programmable gate array ( FPGA ) technology . |
In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Let me give you an example: what is the first event mentioned?, Context: The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. Following the abdication of Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established. In October 1917, a red faction revolution occurred in which the Red Guard, armed groups of workers and deserting soldiers directed by the Bolshevik Party, seized control of Saint Petersburg (then known as Petrograd) and began an immediate armed takeover of cities and villages throughout the former Russian Empire.
The answer to this example can be: Russian Revolution
Here is why: This is a good example, and the Russian Revolution is the first event mentioned.
OK. solve this:
Who attempted to fix the formula?, Context: Despite the dominance of the above formula, there are documented attempts of the financial industry, occurring before the crisis, to address the formula limitations, specifically the lack of dependence dynamics and the poor representation of extreme events. The volume "Credit Correlation: Life After Copulas", published in 2007 by World Scientific, summarizes a 2006 conference held by Merrill Lynch in London where several practitioners attempted to propose models rectifying some of the copula limitations. See also the article by Donnelly and Embrechts and the book by Brigo, Pallavicini and Torresetti, that reports relevant warnings and research on CDOs appeared in 2006.
Answer: | several practitioners |
input hypothesis: Anibal Cavaco Silva was just trying to impress his colleagues.
Context: LISBON, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Anibal Cavaco Silva, a former prime minister, won Portugal's presidential election on Sunday.
OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
true or false: It's impossible to say
Context:
A description of something (such as an object, a person, or an event) is a written or spoken account presenting characteristics and aspects of that which is being described in sufficient detail that the audience can form a mental picture, impression, or understanding of it.
Hypothesis: Audiences like to hear spoken accounts. OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
It's impossible to say
Input: OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
"Edge of a Revolution" is a single by Canadian rock band Nickelback from their eighth studio album, "No Fixed Address". It was released as the album's lead single on August 18, 2014. It went for Active Rock adds on August 18, and was premiered on Clear Channel radio stations. It was released for sale on August 19, 2014. This was the first release under Nickelback's new label, Republic Records.
Sentence: Nickelback was making music during the Reagan administration.
Output: No
Problem:
Read the following paragraph and determine if the hypothesis is true:
Fiona North, Ophthalmic Adviser with the SHSSB added: Eye injuries caused by fireworks are extremely serious and can permanently damage eyesight. I would urge those who are co-ordinating efficient firework displays to use appropriate eye protection.
OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
Hypothesis: Firework eye injuries are always permanent.
****
Answer:
No
[Q]: STOCKHOLM - Sweden's civil protection agency says the country needs more water-dropping resources to fight serious wildfires like the ones last year and improve co-operation between the rescue services. Agency head Dan Eliasson says the path ahead is "to get us the skills and ability" to use water-dropping planes before the summer. The agent is talking about insia only OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
[A]: No
[Q]: Among Stellafane's most ardent partisans is David H. Levy, co-discoverer with Dr. Eugene Shoemaker of a comet named for the two that broke apart in 1994 as it was drawn toward Jupiter, creating fireworks visible from Earth. Sometimes fireworks can be seen from Earth OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
[A]: | Yes |
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Ex Input:
Early in chapter 5 we introduced, along with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, two other men who became operational coordinators for al Qaeda: Khallad and Nashiri. As we explained, both were involved during 1998 and 1999 in preparing to attack a ship off the coast of Yemen with a boatload of explosives. They had originally targeted a commercial vessel, specifically an oil tanker, but Bin Laden urged them to look for a U.S.warship instead. In January 2000, their team had attempted to attack a warship in the port of Aden, but the attempt failed when the suicide boat sank. More than nine months later, on October 12,2000, al Qaeda operatives in a small boat laden with explosives attacked a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Cole. The blast ripped a hole in the side of the Cole, killing 17 members of the ship's crew and wounding at least 40. The plot, we now know, was a full-fledged al Qaeda operation, supervised directly by Bin Laden. He chose the target and location of the attack, selected the suicide operatives, and provided the money needed to purchase explosives and equipment. Nashiri was the field commander and managed the operation in Yemen. Khallad helped in Yemen until he was arrested in a case of mistaken identity and freed with Bin Laden's help, as we also mentioned earlier. Local al Qaeda coordinators included Jamal al Badawi and Fahd al Quso, who was supposed to film the attack from a nearby apartment. The two suicide operatives chosen were Hassan al Khamri and Ibrahim al Thawar, also known as Nibras. Nibras and Quso delivered money to Khallad in Bangkok during Khallad's January 2000 trip to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. In September 2000, Bin Laden reportedly told Nashiri that he wanted to replace Khamri and Nibras. Nashiri was angry and disagreed, telling others he would go to Afghanistan and explain to Bin Laden that the new operatives were already trained and ready to conduct the attack. Prior to departing, Nashiri gave Nibras and Khamri instructions to execute the attack on the next U.S.warship that entered the port of Aden. <sep>Who provided the funds for the attack on the USS Cole?<sep>Al Qaeda Chief
Ex Output:
Yes
Ex Input:
Alexander II (Russian: Aleksandr II Nikolaevich, tr. Aleksandr II Nikolaevich; IPA: [aljI'ksandr fta'roj njIka'lajIvjItc]; 29 April [O.S. 17 April] 1818 in Moscow - 13 March [O.S. 1 March] 1881 in Saint Petersburg) was the Emperor of Russia from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland. Alexander was the most successful Russian reformer since Peter the Great. His most important achievement was the emancipation of serfs in 1861, for which he became known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Aleksandr Osvoboditel', tr. Aleksandr Osvoboditel; IPA: [aljI'ksandr asv@ba'djitjIlj]). The tsar was responsible for numerous other reforms including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing capital punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some of the privileges of the nobility, and promoting the universities. Despite these reforms, during his reign, his brutal secret police, known as the Third Section, sent thousands of dissidents into exile in Siberia. In foreign policy, Alexander sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there was another war. He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. Despite his otherwise pacifistic foreign policy, he fought a brief war with Turkey in 1877-78, pursued further expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate Constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881. <sep>Why is Alexander II called Aleksandr Osvoboditel?<sep>For his emancipation of serfs
Ex Output:
Yes
Ex Input:
Once upon a time I had a dog named Toodles. He was black and white and had long floppy ears. He also had very short legs, but really big paws. Every Saturday we would go to the park and play Toodles' favorite game. Toodles loved playing fetch. One Saturday, Toodles ran over to the pond because he saw ducks swimming there. He ran all around the pond, barking at the ducks. The ducks ignored him, and kept swimming. Toodles wasn't having it! He jumped into the pond and started swimming toward the ducks, chasing around his new playmates. One of the ducks, braver than the others, poked Toodles with his beak - and then bit him right on one of his floppy ears! Toodles barked and ran out of the pond because the duck hurt his ear. Soaking wet, he ran toward where I was eating a sandwich on the grass and curled right up in my lap so I could make him feel better. After that, whenever he would see a duck, Toodles would run the other way. <sep>How did Toodles play with the ducks?<sep>He barked at them
Ex Output:
| Yes
|
The man picked up the frisbee and play with it as the dog followed it. The man threw the frisbee and the dog catch it and bring back to the man. the man
wiped the frisbee and then threw it again and the dog caught and brought it back to the owner.
A man is seen facing the camera and running around a lawn on a set of stilts. he
pauses to speak to the camera and continues running around until he falls.
How to focus on studying
Find a suitable studying environment.
Your bedroom or classroom isn't always the best possible place. Find a nice, quiet place with a large, comfortable chair, like your sitting room, preferably without a television, a computer or a cell phone within your reach.
Don't over think about social media and try staying away from social media. The library is usually a nice place to study because it's quiet.
How to sue for livestock injury
Take photographs or video.
As soon as you know that your livestock have been injured, you should begin gathering evidence. You should take color photographs or video of your livestock.
| Make sure that your photographs or video show the full extent of the injury. Also note any damage to your property. |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Hino Motors , Ltd . ( 日野自動車 , " Hino Jido ̄ sha " , ) , or just Hino , is a manufacturer of diesel trucks , buses , and other vehicles based in Tokyo , Japan .
Output: | Hino Motors , Ltd . ( 日野自動車株式会社 , " Hino Jido ̄ sha " ) , commonly known as simply Hino , is a Japanese manufacturer of commercial vehicles and diesel engines ( including those for trucks , buses and other vehicles ) headquartered in Hino-shi , Tokyo . |
How to take care of chickens<br>Check your local laws and regulations on keeping chickens. Some municipalities will not allow you to keep chickens, or they might have some strict rules on keeping them. Before you start spending money on chickens and supplies, take the time to search your local laws and regulations online.
Can we draw the following conclusion?
caring for chickens is difficult | It's impossible to say |
Q: In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
To protect its seagoing interests and trade routes, Portugal established strategic garrisons in Goa (India), Malacca (East Indies), and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Portuguese explorers then embarked upon Macau (now Macao), the Congo, and various other parts of Africa, including the Sudan. The Portuguese policy was to avoid armed strife and to develop a trade empire, rather than to conquer nations. To this end it succeeded with relatively few blood-soaked episodes in its colonial history. Adventures abroad, however, proved disastrous during the second half of the 16th century. In 1557 the 14-year-old boy-king Sebastião ascended the throne, the beginning of a calamitous reign that was to end at the battle of Alcacer-Quiber (Morocco) in pursuit of a vain crusade. Sebastião's untimely demise, alongside some 18,000 ill-prepared, badly led followers, set the stage for a crisis of succession. For many years afterwards, legends and rumors bizarrely insisted that the king was still alive, and imposters turned up from time to time claiming the throne; those who were plausible enough to be deemed a threat were summarily executed. In fact, the only rightful claimant to the crown was the elderly Prince Henry. But after two years of alternating between the throne and his sickbed, he died, heirless. Surveying the situation and smelling an opportunity, Spain occupied the power vacuum, and Portugal's neighbor and long-time antagonist became its master. Spanish rule dictated Portugal's inadvertent involvement in Spain's ongoing wars. In 1587 a squadron of British ships commanded by Francis Drake attacked the Algarve (now a "legitimate target" as Spanish territory) and sacked Sagres, thus depriving the world of the relics of Henry the Navigator. Nine years later Faro was torched. The 1386 Treaty of Windsor, by which Britain and Portugal had pledged eternal friendship, seemed a distant memory. Portugal's empire was gradually eroded, and many of its trading posts (with the notable exception of Brazil) were picked off by the British and Dutch. Finally, after 60 years of Spanish rule, Portuguese noblemen (aided by the French, then at war with Spain) organized a palace coup and restored independence. The Great Disaster Portugal's greatest misfortune struck on All Saint's Day, 1 November 1755. <sep>What created a crisis of succession following this era of increased trade?<sep>When Faro was torched
A: | No |
Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
John Newbery ( 9 July 1713 – 22 December 1767 ) was called " The Father of Children 's Literature " .
| John Newbery ( 9 July 1713 – 22 December 1767 ) , called " The Father of Children 's Literature " , was an English publisher of books who first made children 's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market . |
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: Whenever You Need Somebody is the debut studio album by British recording artist Rick Astley released on 16 November 1987 on RCA Records. It is his best-selling album and, according to his own official website, sold 15.2 million copies worldwide. The album is listed as the #136 best-selling album in Spain, and was the #7 best-selling album in the UK in 1987.
Hypothesis: Rick Astley has a best seller album.
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: A jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique, crashed Tuesday, in Venezuela.
Hypothesis: The jet was full of people who live in Martinique
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: London Calling is the third studio album by English punk rock band the Clash. It was released as a double album in the United Kingdom on 14 December 1979 by Columbia Records, and in the United States in January 1980 by Epic Records. "London Calling" is an album that incorporates a range of styles, including punk, reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock.
Hypothesis: london calling was never released
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: | Context: Well, I think we need tough enforcement of the civil rights laws. I think we still need affirmative action. I would pass a hate crimes law, as I said, and I guess I had misunderstood the governor's previous position. The Byrd family may have a misunderstanding of it in Texas also. But I would like to shift, if I could, to the big issue of education.
Hypothesis: This person thinks that civil rights needs more enforcement |
Q: In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
A day at the beach. When Sam woke in the morning, he was super excited! Today was the day! It was Sunday, the day that Sam's mom and dad had promised to take Sam to the beach. Sam's grandma had given a pail and shovel to Sam to use in the sand. At breakfast Sam was so excited he was wiggling in his seat! Mom told Sam that they would leave when the big hand on the clock was pointing to the 10, and the little had was pointing to the 12. Mom asked Sam if he would like to help make sandwiches for the trip, and Sam said that he wanted to help. Dad said, "let's make a game of it, we need to make a sandwich for each of us. There are three of us, so we need three sandwiches. Let's count as we make the sandwiches!" Sam counted as mom made the sandwiches, one for dad, one for mom and one for Sam. Then mom started to make another sandwich! "Mom!" said Sam, "we have three sandwiches and that makes one sandwich for each of us." Sam's mom laughed, "You're right Sam!" Sam's mom said she was being silly. <sep>What is Sam planning to take to the beach?<sep>His grandma
A: | No |
Problem: What happens next in this paragraph?
How to tell if your best friend loves you
Compare how they treat you.
When you two are spending time with your mutual friends, see if they treat you differently than how they treat other people they are friends with. They may be more affectionate with you, try to talk more to you, or make comments about your relationship.
OPTIONS:
- If this is the case for your mutual friends, they may not like you. You may also notice if they behave differently or act differently around you.
- Watching how they treat you will determine their level of love for you. Think back to when your and your friend were younger.
- When things don't go well, compare your friends with past friendships that didn't go well. However, be sure that the friendship also didn't go horribly wrong and that you still are friends.
- When your best friend treats you the same as any of their other friends, it's unlikely that they're interested in you romantically. A friend that treats you like they treated their exes may be interested.
A: When your best friend treats you the same as any of their other friends, it's unlikely that they're interested in you romantically. A friend that treats you like they treated their exes may be interested.
How to play the blockheads
Provide the needs.
As with all humans, blockheads have five needs: food, energy, home, clothes and environment.
Find food.
OPTIONS:
- Stop at walmart or another grocery store (or even a major retailer nearby) and buy some cheap food instead of saving it in an empty pantry. It is safer to have $250 usd in a pantry or somewhere in the basement.
- Use electronic food such as oats or hard-boiled beans. Should be small enough for you and big enough for other users to keep.
- Using a server, you can have the spawn at the surface. Open it by pressing ctrl, and browse until you see monsters.
- In the start the only food you have is 5 cherries, but you can easily find more. Just press the cherries into the ground to grow more.
In the start the only food you have is 5 cherries, but you can easily find more. Just press the cherries into the ground to grow more.
question: Complete the next sentence:
How to barbecue safely
Keep food cool.
It is important to keep the food refrigerated until you cook it. This means that it is better to barbecue in batches rather than leaving meat and other barbecue foods sitting out waiting in the open, uncooked.
OPTIONS:
- Heat the barbecue to a low temperature. Ensure that the temperature is no higher than room temperature, or else you will burn your meat.
- Bring each new batch for cooking direct from the fridge to the barbecue every time it is ready to be cooked. If you are marinating your meat be sure to let the meat marinade in the fridge.
- If necessary, freeze foods because of condensation, splitting the cooking process down the middle and clearing out excess fat and warmth. Turn off the oven to save burning.
- Try to keep food cool between oven and freezer time, while getting ready for barbecuing. Wearing heat resistant gloves or your oven mitts, place food on a plate.
answer: Bring each new batch for cooking direct from the fridge to the barbecue every time it is ready to be cooked. If you are marinating your meat be sure to let the meat marinade in the fridge.
Problem: Write the next sentence for:
A track athlete prepares himself to run. He runs quickly down the path. he
OPTIONS:
- is then seen walking and then jumping into the sand at the end.
- runs pretty fast a this course.
- does a high jump in the sand.
- then jumps into the air, and lands in a pit of sand..
Next sentence: then jumps into the air, and lands in a pit of sand.
context: A man is seen doing flips on a soft floor while moving in slow motion. the man
OPTIONS:
- continues performing several tricks across the floor and ends with a title sequence across the screen.
- speaks to the camera while showing how to use the floor.
- continues moving around the area and ends with him jumping off the side.
- walks out of frame while walking back in and out of frame and is seen a few times.
****
next sentence for the context: continues performing several tricks across the floor and ends with a title sequence across the screen.
Problem: What happens next in this paragraph?
How to destress in 10 minutes
Find a private place.
Using your imagination to surround yourself with calming imagery can help you reduce stress. To begin, find a private place to relax for ten minutes.
OPTIONS:
- If you do not have access to a private space, try laying down on a bed or a flat surface and closing your eyes. Or, if you are at home, try writing down stress symptoms.
- For example, do not walk barefoot if you want to destress with sandals or flip flops on. You may also place a large bucket or large cup of water on the floor to drink.
- Take a deep breath and mentally count down from 10, like a 15, to 300. Take 10 seconds to close your eyes and focus completely on your breathing.
- Find a quiet place where you can be alone. It be on your break from work, in your car (parked), in the bathroom, or at home.
A: | Find a quiet place where you can be alone. It be on your break from work, in your car (parked), in the bathroom, or at home. |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Scientists have long thought that the first flowering plant in history would be a land plant. Though a few angiosperms (the scientific name for flowering plants) around today occur in the water, most live on land, and it has been generally assumed that these types of plants evolved on terra firma before radiating back out into the water, says Indiana University paleobotanist David Dilcher.
But that may not be the case. A paper published August 17 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has identified the oldest flowering plant found to date, an aquatic species fossilized in deposits in modern-day Spain.
Dilcher and colleagues from France, Germany and Spain have shown that fossils of a plant known as Montsechia vidalii came on the scene between 130 million and 124 million years ago. It’s hypothesized that terrestrial angiosperm had already appeared at the time, although the current find predates any known terrestrial specimens. Montsechia also predates the oldest known angiosperm, Archaefructus, which came in 124.5 million years ago.
O. Sanisidro, B.G., and V.D.G. / PNAS
“Flowers are all about sex,” Dilcher says. The great advance of angiosperms was to co-opt the behavior of animals, getting them to carry their pollen to other individuals of their species (wind, of course, can also do the job). This creates more diverse offspring than does self-fertilization, regeneration or the production of asexual spores, which is, for example, how ferns reproduce. But another way to spread your seed, so to speak, is by using water currents, as Montsechia did. And “right at the start [of angiosperm evolution], this was another method that flowering plants were using for their genetic exchange,” Dilcher says.
Modern-day descendants of Montsechia, known as Ceratophyllum, appear quite similar to their ancient descendants and are found in lakes on every continent. The six existing species release a pollen-containing sac called an anther, which floats to the surface and then ruptures to release pollen grains. These are then carried by currents and, if all goes well, fertilize primitive flowers in other Ceratophyllum plants. These plants lack roots and petals, and have simple, tiny flowers that contain a single seed, according to the study.
“We don’t know, and it’s difficult to say, that this is the first flower in the world,” Dilcher says. (Though it is the oldest found to date.) These underwater plants almost certainly had a large, and underappreciated, role in the early and subsequent evolution of angiosperms, he adds.
See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows
This study helps “to unravel the evolutionary and ecological events that accompanied the rise of flowering plants to global prominence,” writes Donald Les, a University of Connecticut expert in plant evolution who was not involved in the study, in a commentary in the same journal. ||||| The importance of very early aquatic flowering plants is not well understood currently and is poorly documented. Here we present details of the morphology and reproductive biology of Montsechia, an extremely early fossil angiosperm that, because it is so ancient and is totally aquatic, raises questions centered on the very early evolutionary history of flowering plants. This paper challenges the paradigm of how we view the early evolution of basal angiosperms and particularly the role of aquatic habitats in the very early evolution and diversification of flowering plants.
Abstract
The early diversification of angiosperms in diverse ecological niches is poorly understood. Some have proposed an origin in a darkened forest habitat and others an open aquatic or near aquatic habitat. The research presented here centers on Montsechia vidalii, first recovered from lithographic limestone deposits in the Pyrenees of Spain more than 100 y ago. This fossil material has been poorly understood and misinterpreted in the past. Now, based upon the study of more than 1,000 carefully prepared specimens, a detailed analysis of Montsechia is presented. The morphology and anatomy of the plant, including aspects of its reproduction, suggest that Montsechia is sister to Ceratophyllum (whenever cladistic analyses are made with or without a backbone). Montsechia was an aquatic angiosperm living and reproducing below the surface of the water, similar to Ceratophyllum. Montsechia is Barremian in age, raising questions about the very early divergence of the Ceratophyllum clade compared with its position as sister to eudicots in many cladistic analyses. Lower Cretaceous aquatic angiosperms, such as Archaefructus and Montsechia, open the possibility that aquatic plants were locally common at a very early stage of angiosperm evolution and that aquatic habitats may have played a major role in the diversification of some early angiosperm lineages. ||||| A large intact specimen of the fossil, Montsechia. Usually only small fragmentary pieces of the fossil are found. Credit: David Dilcher Indiana University paleobotanist David Dilcher and colleagues in Europe have identified a 125 million- to 130 million-year-old freshwater plant as one of earliest flowering plants on Earth.
The finding, reported Aug. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represents a major change in the presumed form of one of the planet's earliest flowers, known as angiosperms.
"This discovery raises significant questions about the early evolutionary history of flowering plants, as well as the role of these plants in the evolution of other plant and animal life," said Dilcher, an emeritus professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Geological Sciences.
The aquatic plant, Montsechia vidalii, once grew abundantly in freshwater lakes in what are now mountainous regions in Spain. Fossils of the plant were first discovered more than 100 years ago in the limestone deposits of the Iberian Range in central Spain and in the Montsec Range of the Pyrenees, near the country's border with France.
Also previously proposed as one of the earliest flowers is Archaefructus sinensis, an aquatic plant found in China.
"A 'first flower' is technically a myth, like the 'first human,'" said Dilcher, an internationally recognized expert on angiosperm anatomy and morphology who has studied the rise and spread of flowering plants for decades. "But based on this new analysis, we know now that Montsechia is contemporaneous, if not more ancient, than Archaefructus."
Illustrations based on fossilized remains show long- and short-leaved forms of the plant and a single seed. Credit: Oscar Sanisidro
He also asserted that the fossils used in the study were "poorly understood and even misinterpreted" during previous analyses.
"The reinterpretation of these fossils provides a fascinating new perspective on a major mystery in plant biology," said Donald H. Les, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, who is the author of a commentary on the discovery in the journal PNAS. "David's work is truly an important contribution to the continued quest to unravel the evolutionary and ecological events that accompanied the rise of flowering plants to global prominence."
The conclusions are based upon careful analyses of more than 1,000 fossilized remains of Montsechia, whose stems and leaf structures were coaxed from stone by applying hydrochloric acid on a drop-by-drop basis. The plant's cuticles—the protective film covering the leaves that reveals their shape—were also carefully bleached using a mixture of nitric acid and potassium chlorate.
Examination of the specimens was conducted under a stereomicroscope, light microscope and scanning electron microscope.
The age of the plant at 125 million to 130 million years is based upon comparisons to other fossils in the same area, notably the freshwater algae charophytes, which places Montsechia in the Barremian age of the early Cretaceous period, making this flowering plant a contemporary of dinosaurs such as the brachiosaurus and iguanodon.
The precise, painstaking analysis of fossilized structures remains crucial to paleobotany, in contrast to other biological fields, due to the current inability to know the molecular characters of ancient plants from millions of years ago, Dilcher said.
This careful examination was particularly important to Montsechia since most modern observers might not even recognize the fossil as a flowering plant.
"Montsechia possesses no obvious 'flower parts,' such as petals or nectar-producing structures for attracting insects, and lives out its entire life cycle under water," he said. "The fruit contains a single seed"—the defining characteristic of an angiosperm—"which is borne upside down."
In terms of appearance, Dilcher said, Montsechia resembles its most modern descendent, identified in the study as Ceratophyllum. Also known as coontails or hornworts, Ceratophyllum is a dark green aquatic plant whose coarse, tufty leaves make it a popular decoration in modern aquariums and koi ponds.
Next up, Dilcher and colleagues want to understand more about the species connecting Montsechia and Ceratophyllum, as well as delve deeper into when precisely other species of angiosperms branched off from their ancient forefathers.
"There's still much to be discovered about how a few early species of seed-bearing plants eventually gave rise to the enormous, and beautiful, variety of flowers that now populate nearly every environment on Earth," he said.
Explore further: Research yields understanding of Darwin's 'abominable mystery'
More information: Montsechia, an ancient aquatic angiosperm, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1509241112
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Output: | The world's oldest known flower dating back 130 million years is an aquatic species called Montsechia found fossilized in limestone deposits in Spain. But it wouldn't necessarily be recognized as a flower today, given it didn't boast petals or nectar-producing structures. "The fruit contains a single seed"—thus making it an angiosperm, or flowering plant—"which is borne upside down," says Indiana University paleobotanist David Dilcher, who with colleagues reports these findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The plant thrived in freshwater lakes in what are now Spain's mountainous regions, and while Phys.org reports that the fossils were first discovered more than 100 years ago, the ones used in this study were "poorly understood and even misinterpreted" when analyzed at earlier points, Dilcher says. One way to spread seed—which in angiosperms is typically done by getting other animals (think bees) or elements (think wind) to carry pollen to other members of the same species—is through water currents. In fact today's descendants of Montsechia, called Ceratophyllum, are found in lakes on every continent, and they behave similarly. "Flowers are all about sex,” Dilcher tells Newsweek. "Right at the start [of angiosperm evolution], this was another method that flowering plants were using for their genetic exchange." Whether Montsechia is the world's oldest flower has yet to be determined, but it is the oldest flower we have found to date, suggesting that angiosperms have their earliest roots in water instead of on land. (Michigan officials are warning about a plant that can blind you.) |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Problem:Please enable Javascript to watch this video
BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- Brecksville police have charged a man with attempted murder, for allegedly trying to cause the death of his terminally ill father at a nursing home.
The FOX 8 I-Team reported that Steven Curtis, 58, pleaded not guilty in Garfield Heights Municipal Court, to a count of attempted murder, and additional charges of assault, menacing and disorderly conduct.
Curtis’ father, Roy Curtis, 86, died hours after his son was arrested. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine if the actions of Steven Curtis played any role in his father’s death, or if his death was due strictly to the effects of cancer.
Police said they were summoned to the Oaks of Brecksville nursing home early Monday by staff members, who reported that Steven Curtis was intoxicated and was seen placing his hands over the mouth and nose of his father, in an apparent attempt to end his life.
The I-Team spoke with Oaks of Brecksville employee, Bryan Minard, who said his co-workers did what they were trained and obligated to do. "I'm glad they stepped in and actually you know take control of that, because that's a crazy situation for you to try to end someone's life early," said Minard.
According to a statement from Brecksville police, when staff members attempted to intervene, Steven Curtis allegedly threw a telephone at them, and then assaulted one of the staff members. The statement indicates that he then tried to barricade himself inside his father's room.
During Curtis' arraignment, his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty, and indicated that the story is a lot more complicated than the police statement indicates.
Attorneys Pat D'Angelo and Thomas Shaughnessy said Steven Curtis had been at his father's bedside, realizing that his life was coming to an end. D'Angelo told the judge, "The accused was very attentive, was there taking care of him. His father had terminal cancer." The attorneys maintain Curtis’ only interest was minimizing his father's suffering. "It's my understanding that they had ceased all food and water. He was simply on morphine for the last 72 hours, and this gentleman had actually stayed at the nursing home for all three days. He had actually slept there and was with his father," said Shaughnessy.
The Oaks of Brecksville issued a statement that reads, “We were made aware of an incident involving a son's unfortunate reaction to his father's end stage of life. We took all necessary precautions and notified the appropriate authorities. In speaking with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, we were informed that the decedent experienced no signs of trauma leading to his passing."
The Steven Curtis investigation is now being turned over to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, and a grand jury may eventually have to decide if Curtis was acting as a compassionate son, or illegally assumed the authority of a higher power. "I just don't feel like you should be able to do that anyway because, God, when it's time, it's time you know," said Bryan Minard. “But you can't end someone's life sooner than possible you know."
Curtis was released after posting a $50,000 bond. ||||| BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- A man is accused of trying to suffocate his terminally ill father at a Brecksville nursing home early Monday.
Steven B. Curtis, 58, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is charged with attempted murder, assault, menacing and disorderly conduct.
His father, Roy H. Curtis, 86, died several hours after the incident, but the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner has yet to rule on a cause of death.
Curtis appeared in Garfield Heights Municipal Court on Tuesday and his case was bound over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. He was released from custody after posting $50,000 bond.
Officers arrived at The Oaks of Brecksville about 12:30 a.m. Monday and spoke with staff members who witnessed Steven Curtis with his hands over his father's nose and mouth, police said in a statement. Curtis is accused of being intoxicated at the time.
Steven Curtis threw a telephone at a staff member who intervened, then barricaded himself in his father's room, staff members told police.
"We were made aware yesterday of an incident involving a son's unfortunate reaction to his father's end stage of life," The Oaks of Brecksville said in a statement. "We took all necessary precautions and notified the appropriate authorities. In speaking with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner today, we were informed that the decedent experienced no signs of trauma leading to his passing." |||||
Solution: | Authorities in Ohio are trying to figure out whether a Florida man acted out of compassion, rage, or drunken recklessness when he allegedly tried to suffocate his 86-year-old terminally ill father in a Brecksville nursing home. Staff members at the facility say they walked in on an "intoxicated" Steven Curtis, 58, smothering cancer-stricken dad Roy Curtis' nose and mouth on Monday, reports Cleveland.com—and that he then lobbed a telephone at one employee and locked himself inside his father's room before cops arrived. Roy Curtis died a few hours after the incident, and his son was charged with attempted murder. The medical examiner's office will try to determine whether Steven's alleged actions hastened Roy's death. Attorneys for Steven Curtis—who pleaded not guilty and is free on $50,000 bail after also being charged with assault, menacing, and disorderly conduct—say their "very attentive" client was nursing his sick father and only wanted to ease his dad's suffering, Fox 8 Cleveland reports. "It’s my understanding that they had ceased [Roy Curtis'] food and water—he was simply on morphine for the last 72 hours," one of the lawyers says, adding that Steven Curtis "had actually stayed at the nursing home for all three days. He had actually slept there." |
question: Complete the next sentence:
A hair stylist explains how to cut a mans haircut. the hair sylist
answer: prepares the hair into sections with some clips and begins cutting the hair with a feather razor and puts a clip in the hair on top of the head and proceeds to cut the hair with scissors making layers.
question: Complete the next sentence:
A woman is seated in a chair in her living room. she
answer: is using yarn, and knitting with needles.
question: Complete the next sentence:
How to remove acrylic paint from hair
Wet your hair with warm water or take a warm shower.
Massage the painted parts of your hair with your fingertips to soften any hardened sections. You could also take a bath to allow your hair to soak in the warm water for several minutes.
answer: | Apply a liberal amount of shampoo to your hair and massage gently. No special shampoo is required-you can just use your normal product. |
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: Among Stellafane's most ardent partisans is David H. Levy, co-discoverer with Dr. Eugene Shoemaker of a comet named for the two that broke apart in 1994 as it was drawn toward Jupiter, creating fireworks visible from Earth.
Hypothesis: Sometimes fireworks can be seen from Earth
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: How to set up a chinchilla's cage<br>Choose the right cage. [substeps] Chinchilla cages must be well ventilated to keep the chinchilla cool, thus making metal wire mesh cages a good option. However it's of note that it's easier for the chinchilla to knock messes out of their cage and onto the floor with a wire cage.
Hypothesis: the agent is aged 25
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: Context: How to manage cash flow for a business<br>Write down your business's balance at the beginning of each month. Check your business's bank account to see how much cash you have on hand. You will need to do this for a few months before you have a good idea of what your cash flow is like.
Hypothesis: Checking your bank account won't help you manage your money.
Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Answer: | Context: Caroling on Main Street Members of Greens Farms Academy’s Harbor Blues, the all-female a capella group, performed carols on Westport’s Main Street today as part of the Westport Downtown Merchants Association’s holiday festivities. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo
Hypothesis: Many people attended the holiday festivities. |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
A death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person ’ s face .
Output: | A death mask is a likeness ( typically in wax or plaster cast ) of a person 's face following death , often made by taking a cast or impression directly from the corpse . |
Q: Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Generated: Context: I hope the minister will not forget that, if there ever was a government on this earth that has worked, that has recognized aboriginal governments, and that has paid tribute to, made things easier for and given space to aboriginal communities, to the first nations, because they are nations, it is the Government of Quebec that did it, as early as 1985.
Hypothesis: I hope the minister will not forget that, if there ever was a government on this earth that has worked, it was not Quebec's government.
Q: Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Generated: Context: I think these assault weapons are a problem. So I favor closing the gun show loophole. In fact, I cast the tie-breaking vote to close it, but then the majority in the House of Representatives went the other way. That's still pending. If we could get agreement on that, maybe they could pass that in the final days of this Congress.
Hypothesis: The person speaking is a member of the congress.
Q: Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Generated: Context: Flowers<br>Jill wanted a flower garden. So she got gardening supplies and seeds. After a week, her flower garden was complete. And she took care of it everyday. Gardening became Jill's favorite hobby.
Hypothesis: Jill had never gardened before.
Q: Generate a context and a hypothesis.
Generated: | Context: I said nothing and gave no advice , not having lived seventy-five years for nothing .<br>I knew that Doctor John 's decision was manly and right and fair ; but I also knew it was all nullified by the fact that Marcella already loved him .<br>So much I knew ; the rest I was left to suppose .<br>The Doctor and Marcella told me much , but there were some things too sacred to be told , even to me .<br>So that to this day I do n't know how the doctor found out that Marcella loved him .
Hypothesis: In their 75 years, the person has traveled to over 10 countries. |
Teacher:In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: Which happened first, 49 Black Legion members were convicted, or Detroit had turned into a KKK stronghold?, Context: Detroit, like many places in the United States, developed racial conflict and discrimination in the 20th century following rapid demographic changes as hundreds of thousands of new workers were attracted to the industrial city; in a short period it became the 4th-largest city in the nation. The Great Migration brought rural blacks from the South; they were outnumbered by southern whites who also migrated to the city. Immigration brought southern and eastern Europeans of Catholic and Jewish faith; these new groups competed with native-born whites for jobs and housing in the booming city. Detroit was one of the major Midwest cities that was a site for the dramatic urban revival of the Ku Klux Klan beginning in 1915. "By the 1920s the city had become a stronghold of the KKK," whose members opposed Catholic and Jewish immigrants, as well as black Americans. The Black Legion, a secret vigilante group, was active in the Detroit area in the 1930s, when one-third of its estimated 20,000 to 30,000 members in Michigan were based in the city. It was defeated after numerous prosecutions following the kidnapping and murder in 1936 of Charles Poole, a Catholic Works Progress Administration organizer. A total of 49 men of the Black Legion were convicted of numerous crimes, with many sentenced to life in prison for murder.
Student: | the city had become a stronghold of the KKK |
In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
North Gyeongsang Province is a province in South Korea . | North Gyeongsang Province ( ; RR : Gyeongsangbuk-do ; -RSB- ) , also known as Gyeongbuk ( -RSB- ) , is a province in eastern South Korea . |
Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Michelle Williams and Dustin Yellin took Michelle's daughter, Matilda, to a Brooklyn park for a friend's birthday party on Monday. Matilda dressed up as a princess for the event, where they played games in the grass and mingled with other parents. Michelle and Dustin, who is an artist based in NYC, later braved the rain on their way home with Michelle carrying an umbrella on foot while Dustin rode alongside on his bike. It looks like the couple are getting more serious after making their debut during the Met Gala last month. Michelle and Dustin held hands as they left an afterparty at the Standard Hotel, marking their first public outing as a duo.
Michelle has moved onto Dustin following her February split from Jason Segel after almost a year of dating. Michelle had her Oz the Great and Powerful press tour to keep her busy in the weeks following the breakup, while Jason returned to the West Coast. ||||| AKM-GSI
Jason Segel's mystery woman from his recent lunch date is no longer a mystery.
It turns out the 33-year-old actor's new lady friend is Serbian-born Australian actress Bojana Novakovic.
Segel and the 31-year-old beauty have been spotted spending lots of time together over the past few weeks.
PHOTOS: Check out Hollywood's most stylish couples
Just this weekend, the possible new couple was snapped all smiles while shopping around L.A. And last week, the twosome grabbed a bit to eat together at L.A.'s The Grove mall.
They were also spotted grocery shopping together at Whole Foods in West Hollywood back in May.
Guess we'll have to wait and see how serious their possible romance gets!
PHOTOS: See Hollywood couples madly in love
RELATED VIDEOS: |||||
| Looks like formerly adorable couple Jason Segel and Michelle Williams really is no more: Both have been spotted with new partners recently. E! identified Segel's "mystery woman" as Bojana Novakovic, a 31-year-old Serbian-born Australian actress with whom he's been spotted quite a few times over the past few weeks. As for Williams, she was first linked to artist Dustin Yellin last month when they left the Met Gala together, and they've been spotted together a few more times in the past week. Click to see pictures of them with Williams' daughter, Matilda. |
Detailed Instructions: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Problem:Following consecutive losses to Mexico and Costa Rica in the opening games of the final round of qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Klinsmann was removed as national team coach and technical director and replaced by previous U.S. manager Bruce Arena. World Cup qualification resumed on March 24, 2017, where Arena and his team had a record 6--0 win over Honduras. Four days later, the team traveled to Panama City, drawing Panama 1--1. After beating Trinidad and Tobago 2--0, the U.S. got their third ever result in World Cup Qualification at the Estadio Azteca when they drew 1--1 against Mexico. In July 2017, the U.S. won their sixth CONCACAF Gold Cup with a 2--1 win over Jamaica in the final. Following an agonizing 2--1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago on October 10, 2017, the U.S. failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, missing the tournament for the first time since 1986. On October 13, 2017, Arena resigned. Many pundits and analysts called this the worst result and worst performance in the history of the national team.
Solution: | did the us mens team qualify for the world cup? |
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: After door-to-door sweeps proved fruitless, law officers urged residents of a small town in Northern California to lock their door and keep a close eye on streets and yards for a man who stabbed an 8-year-old girl to death in her house.
The attacker, only described as wearing a black shirt and blue pants, was the subject of a broad search Sunday by the sheriff's departments of Calaveras and surrounding counties, the California Highway Patrol and the state Department of Justice.
Eight-year-old Leila Fowler was stabbed to death on Saturday at the home in Valley Springs, Coroner Kevin Raggio said. The town has about 2,500 people.
"This is way too close to home," Julia Poland, who took her 13-year-old daughter to an afternoon news conference on the search, told the Modesto Bee. "This kind of thing does not happen here."
Leila was found by her brother _ reported by local media to be 12-years-old _ after he encountered a male intruder in the home. When the intruder ran away, the boy found his sister stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.
Authorities spent Saturday night and into Sunday conducting a door-to-door sweep of homes scattered across hilly terrain, checking storage sheds and horse stables, and even searching attics.
"It is a difficult area to search, it's rural, remote," sheriff's Capt. Jim Macedo said.
Mass notifications alerted residents about the incident and the search for the suspect, officials said.
"I was working on my tractor and a CHP copter kept flying over my house," area resident Roger Ballew, 35, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
A SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night and told him to stay inside, Ballew said.
"It was nerve-wracking, I didn't sleep well," he said.
Investigators on Sunday were interviewing several people, but no suspects had been named by late afternoon. Investigators were checking out tips that had come in to the sheriff's office, including leads and tips that came from outside the county, officials said.
"It's just terrible," area resident Paul Gschweng told Sacramento television station KCRA. "What can I say about it, it's just a tragedy."
The station reported that a neighbor told police that a man was running from the girl's home after the incident.
Investigators were asking area residents to call authorities if they had any information, or knew of anyone who may have unexplained injuries, or may have left the area unexpectedly after the girl was killed.
Valley Springs is a community of about 2,500 people in an unincorporated area of Calaveras County, known as "Gold Country," in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.
The county became world-famous in 1865 with Mark Twain's short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," according to the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce website. ||||| CALAVERAS COUNTY-
Schools in the Calaveras Unified School District will be open Monday, two days after 8-year-old Leila Fowler was stabbed to death in her Valley Springs home.
Mark Campbell, the district’s superintendent, said in a statement Sunday, “As we all grapple with the tragic and senseless loss of one of our own, we do so knowing that we will be ready to do what is necessary to provide a safe environment for students and for staff, and to stand unified and strong as we provide whatever level of support and assistance that is necessary to help the family, our students, our parents and our staff process the unthinkable.”
Campbell added that counselors will be on hand at Jenny Lind Elementary, Toyon Middle School and Calaveras High School. There will also be an added law enforcement presence at Jenny Lind elementary and bus stops nearby. ||||| — The Calaveras County coroner's office has released the cause of death for 8-year-old Leila Fowler. Deputy coroner Steve Moore said she died from shock and hemorrhaging from multiple stab wounds.
Moore said Leila arrived by ambulance at Mark Twain Medical Center in San Andreas at 12:55 p.m. Saturday and was pronounced dead at 1:01 p.m. Moore declined to release more details.
On Monday, the Sheriff's Department scaled back its massive manhunt for the man suspected of fatally stabbing Leila at her Rancho Calaveras home over the weekend.
Leila was a third-grader at Jenny Lind Elementary School in Valley Springs.
Friends described her as a child with a smile that would melt anyone's heart and a winning personality, and as a daddy's girl who loved the color purple.
Sheriff's Capt. Jim Macedo said Leila's family has asked the public to help catch her killer by reporting anything relevant to a tip line at (209) 754-6030.
Leila's slaying has rocked Valley Springs and Rancho Calaveras, two small towns a couple of miles apart along Highways 12 and 26 and by New Hogan Lake. A few dozen anxious and frustrated people turned out Sunday afternoon for a news conference at the sheriff's Valley Springs substation for an update.
"This is way too close to home. This kind of thing does not happen here," said Julia Poland, who brought her 13-year-old daughter, KyLee, to the news conference.
Authorities said a white or Latino man attacked Leila at her Rippon Road home early Saturday afternoon. Leila's 12-year-old brother told investigators he encountered the man, who fled on foot, and then discovered his sister.
Macedo said the boy called his parents, who were nearby, and then called 911. The parents also called 911. Leila was taken to a hospital in Calaveras County, where she was pronounced dead.
Authorities called residents of Rippon Road and other nearby streets and asked them to lock their doors and windows and stay inside as officers launched a search for the child killer. Officers searched houses, attics, crawl spaces, sheds, outbuildings and tall grass Saturday afternoon and through the night.
Authorities closed part of Rippon Road and other nearby streets, although residents were able to come and go.
The search continued through Sunday afternoon. Macedo, the sheriff's captain, said searchers found fingerprints and what they believe to be DNA evidence in the girl's home and hope to have lab results back within a week.
Macedo declined to release many details of the homicide, saying he did not want to jeopardize the investigation. He could not say when the search would end, saying it would depend on the leads officers developed from their interviews and the search. Details on search areas beyond the neighborhood were not available.
Macedo said officers from several nearby sheriff's departments, including Tuolumne and San Joaquin, as well as the California Highway Patrol and the Angels Camp Police Department were helping in the manhunt. Searchers brought in dogs and search and rescue volunteers.
The slaying took place in a hilly, rural neighborhood that residents described as quiet and safe, with large homes typically built on one-acre lots.
They said most of the homeowners are retirees or workers who commute to jobs in the Northern San Joaquin Valley or Bay Area. Rancho Calaveras is about 30 miles east of Stockton.
Residents said they moved to Rancho Calaveras to escape the crime and violence that have become commonplace in their former hometowns.
Leila has a brother who is a sixth-grader at Jenny Lind, another brother who attends Toyon Middle School and a sister who attends Calaveras High School, said Mark Campbell, superintendent of the Calaveras Unified School District.
He said counselors and support staff will be at the three campuses today to help students and staff. There will be more law enforcement officers, especially at Jenny Lind and nearby bus stops.
"Our hearts and thoughts are with the Fowler family, and we are ready to provide whatever support we can to the parents and siblings now and in the future," Campbell said in a news release.
A candlelight vigil for Leila is planned for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Jenny Lind. Organizers asked people to bring a candle and a pink or purple ribbon, and to car-pool because of limited parking.
Twelve-year-old Kennedie Pekarek was among the friends who attended Sunday's news conference.
Kennedie said Leila's 12-year-old brother is her best friend. Kennedie, her mom, Amanda, and several others who knew Leila said she could be quiet and reserved with those she did not know.
But those who knew her were amazed by her bubbly personality and dazzling smile. In a note sent to Jenny Lind staff, the principal described Leila as compassionate, energetic and vibrant.
"She's got this huge smile," said one friend at the news conference. "You'll just melt."
Bee staff writer Kevin Valine can be reached at [email protected] or (209) 578-2316. |||||
A: | A tiny Northern California town was shut down over the weekend amid a manhunt for the murderer of an 8-year-old. Residents of Valley Springs—population 2,500—were told to lock their doors and watch for a man accused of stabbing Leila Fowler on Saturday afternoon, the AP reports. Police went door-to-door as they searched sheds and attics for the man. "This kind of thing does not happen here," a local mother told the Modesto Bee. Leila's brother, age 12, reportedly crossed paths with the man—described as white or Latino and wearing a black shirt and blue pants—in his house; after the attacker ran away, the boy found his sister. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Investigators reportedly found fingerprints and DNA in the girl's home, though it'll take as long as a week to get the results. Area schools are open today, notes Fox40. |
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Q: There have been many organisms that have lived in Earths past. Only a tiny number of them became fossils. Still, scientists learn a lot from fossils. Fossils are our best clues about the history of life on Earth. Fossils provide evidence about life on Earth. They tell us that life on Earth has changed over time. Fossils in younger rocks look like animals and plants that are living today. Fossils in older rocks are less like living organisms. Fossils can tell us about where the organism lived. Was it land or marine? Fossils can even tell us if the water was shallow or deep. Fossils can even provide clues to ancient climates. <sep>What are three things scientists learn from fossils?<sep>Life on earth changed, where organisms lived, clues to ancient climates
A: | Yes |
You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Q: Some family names do exist in Iceland, most commonly adaptations from last name patronyms Icelanders took up when living abroad, usually Denmark. Notable Icelanders who have an inherited family name include former prime minister Geir Haarde, football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen, entrepreneur Magnús Scheving, film director Baltasar Kormákur Samper, actress Anita Briem and member of parliament (and former news reporter) Elín Hirst. Before 1925, it was legal to adopt new family names; one Icelander to do so was the Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness, while another author, Einar Hjörleifsson and his brothers all chose the family name ``Kvaran''. Since 1925, one cannot adopt a family name unless one explicitly has a legal right to do so through inheritance. (The law was amended in 1991 and 1996.)
A: do all last names in iceland end in son?
****
Q: The FA Cup winners qualify for the following season's UEFA Europa League (formerly named the UEFA Cup; from its launch in 1960 until 1998, they entered the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup instead). This European place applies even if the team is relegated or is not in the English top flight. In the past, if the FA Cup winning team also qualified for the following season's Champions League or Europa League through their league position, then the losing FA Cup finalist were given this European berth instead. FA Cup winners enter the Europa League at the group stage. Losing finalists, if they haven't qualified for Europe via the league, began earlier, at the play-off or third qualifying round stage. From the 2015--16 UEFA Europa League season, however, UEFA does not allow the runners-up to qualify for the Europa League through the competition. If the winner -- and until 2015, the runner-up -- has already qualified for Europe through their league position (with the exception of the UEFA Cup until 1998), the FA Cup berth is then given to the highest-place team in the league who has not yet qualified.
A: does the fa cup get you into europe?
****
Q: A batter who reaches first base safely as the result of a fielder's choice is not credited with a hit or a time on base; however, his turn at the plate is recorded as an at bat and plate appearance. Therefore, a player's batting average and on-base percentage decrease as a result of reaching first base via fielder's choice.
A: | is a fielder's choice counted as an at bat?
****
|
Definition: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
Input: Puerto Rico (Spanish for ``Rich Port''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit. ``Free Associated State of Puerto Rico'') and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea.
Output: | is porto rico a part of the united states? |
The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The territory was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming an independent territory in the late 1950s.
karbo never wrestled in high school OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
A: It's impossible to say
When they try to hurt us, they are hurting themselves, because now we can talk about committees, such as the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, the Standing Committee on Finance, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, and the Standing Committee on Health.
By trying to cause hurt, they cause pain to themselves OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
A: Yes
Football Tryouts.<br>Max went to football tryouts for the first time. The coach asked him what position he wanted to play. Max said that he wanted to be quarterback. The coach told him that they did not need a quarterback. Max decided to try out for the running back position instead.
Max was picked to play on the team. OPTIONS:
- Yes
- It's impossible to say
- No
A: | It's impossible to say |
Multi-choice problem: Continue writing the next sentence in this paragraph:
How to get over a long relationship that ended
Allow yourself to feel bad.
Emotion-focused coping is important to dealing with a breakup. This means allowing yourself to feel grief, sadness, and anger.
OPTIONS: *These are normal and natural emotions that are felt after a relationship ends. Give yourself the time to grieve and recover, at your pace.; *Instead of focusing on getting over the breakup, reach out to friends and family. Let them know that you're sad.; *While this difficult emotion can come and go, work on letting it go and focusing on the positives in the breakup. Try watching videos or movies about the breakup to get some perspective on the end result.; *This means that if you were to proceed through all the emotions, you would feel one part sadness and one part anger. Although it's hard, these are things that you can do so that you don't feel as trapped as you would with a relationship that ended.; | These are normal and natural emotions that are felt after a relationship ends. Give yourself the time to grieve and recover, at your pace. |
Q: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
What metal that early humans smelted has only three letters in its name?, Context: Iron is usually found as iron ore on Earth, except for one deposit of native iron in Greenland, which was used by the Inuit people. Native copper, however, was found worldwide, along with silver, gold and platinum, which were also used to make tools, jewelry, and other objects since Neolithic times. Copper was the hardest of these metals, and the most widely distributed. It became one of the most important metals to the ancients. Eventually, humans learned to smelt metals such as copper and tin from ore, and, around 2500 BC, began alloying the two metals to form bronze, which is much harder than its ingredients. Tin was rare, however, being found mostly in Great Britain. In the Middle East, people began alloying copper with zinc to form brass. Ancient civilizations took into account the mixture and the various properties it produced, such as hardness, toughness and melting point, under various conditions of temperature and work hardening, developing much of the information contained in modern alloy phase diagrams. Arrowheads from the Chinese Qin dynasty (around 200 BC) were often constructed with a hard bronze-head, but a softer bronze-tang, combining the alloys to prevent both dulling and breaking during use.
A: | tin |
You will be given a definition of a task first, then an example. Follow the example to solve a new instance of the task.
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Timothy likes to play sports. He spends his time after school playing basketball and baseball. Sometimes Timothy pretends he is a famous baseball pitcher for his favorite team with his friends. He plays with his friends Mandy and Andrew. Timothy also plays pretend when he is alone. He has an imaginary friend named Sean. Sean is an elephant who watches television with Timothy. Mandy likes playing baseball but she also likes to paint. Mandy's favorite class at school is art. She likes making pictures of flowers. Her teacher says she is a good artist. She painted a picture of a tree for her teacher. There were red and yellow leaves on it. It had apples on it. When Andrew goes home after baseball, he likes to eat a snack. He eats carrots and bananas. If he is a good boy his mom, Mrs. Smith, sometimes gives him milk and cookies. Afterwards, Andrew finishes his homework. <sep>Who does Timothy play with?<sep>Basketball and baseball
Solution: No
Why? Based on the passage Timothy plays with his friends Mandy and Andrew. So, the given answer is incorrect and the output should be "No".
New input: You have seen your own reflection in a mirror. The person looking back at you looks just like you. Where does that reflected person appear to be standing? Yes, they appear to be on the other side of the mirror. That is really strange to think about, but very cool. Have you ever waved at your reflection in a mirror? The reflected image will wave back at you. Here is something to try next time you stand in front of a mirror. Wave to your reflection with your right hand. What hand do you think the reflection will wave back with? The same hand? A different hand? You will notice something interesting. The reflection waves back with the hand on the same side as you, but it is their left hand. The image in a reflection is reversed. This is just like the image of the sign above. Light rays strike flat shiny surfaces and are reflected. The reflections are reversed. <sep>What will you notice about your reflection when it waves back?<sep>That it waves back with the same hand
Solution: | No |
TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
PROBLEM: What year, exactly, did the Yongle Emperor take the throne from the Jianwen Emperor?, Context: In his usurpation of the throne from the Jianwen Emperor (r. 1398–1402), the Yongle Emperor was aided by the Buddhist monk Yao Guangxiao, and like his father, the Hongwu Emperor, the Yongle Emperor was "well-disposed towards Buddhism", claims Rossabi. On March 10, 1403, the Yongle Emperor invited Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama (1384–1415), to his court, even though the fourth Karmapa had rejected the invitation of the Hongwu Emperor. A Tibetan translation in the 16th century preserves the letter of the Yongle Emperor, which the Association for Asian Studies notes is polite and complimentary towards the Karmapa. The letter of invitation reads,
SOLUTION: 1402
PROBLEM: Which people's architectural spaces where destroyed?, Context: On 17 December 1941, seven Protestant regional church confederations issued a statement agreeing with the policy of forcing Jews to wear the yellow badge, "since after his bitter experience Luther had already suggested preventive measures against the Jews and their expulsion from German territory." According to Daniel Goldhagen, Bishop Martin Sasse, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium of Luther's writings shortly after Kristallnacht, for which Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church in the University of Oxford argued that Luther's writing was a "blueprint." Sasse applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On 10 November 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews."
SOLUTION: the Jews
PROBLEM: Who was the person, Asita, who visited the father?, Context: According to this narrative, shortly after the birth of young prince Gautama, an astrologer named Asita visited the young prince's father, Suddhodana, and prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a great king or renounce the material world to become a holy man, depending on whether he saw what life was like outside the palace walls.
SOLUTION: | astrologer
|
In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Ex Input:
What would an engine driver have to do to adjust the more modern type of valve?, Context: Steam engines frequently possess two independent mechanisms for ensuring that the pressure in the boiler does not go too high; one may be adjusted by the user, the second is typically designed as an ultimate fail-safe. Such safety valves traditionally used a simple lever to restrain a plug valve in the top of a boiler. One end of the lever carried a weight or spring that restrained the valve against steam pressure. Early valves could be adjusted by engine drivers, leading to many accidents when a driver fastened the valve down to allow greater steam pressure and more power from the engine. The more recent type of safety valve uses an adjustable spring-loaded valve, which is locked such that operators may not tamper with its adjustment unless a seal illegally is broken. This arrangement is considerably safer.[citation needed]
Ex Output:
seal illegally is broken
Ex Input:
What was the name of the person who joined in on the coup with Xianfeng's empress?, Context: These years saw an evolution in the participation of Empress Dowager Cixi (Wade–Giles: Tz'u-Hsi) in state affairs. She entered the imperial palace in the 1850s as a concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861) and came to power in 1861 after her five-year-old son, the Tongzhi Emperor ascended the throne. She, the Empress Dowager Ci'an (who had been Xianfeng's empress), and Prince Gong (a son of the Daoguang Emperor), staged a coup that ousted several regents for the boy emperor. Between 1861 and 1873, she and Ci'an served as regents, choosing the reign title "Tongzhi" (ruling together). Following the emperor's death in 1875, Cixi's nephew, the Guangxu Emperor, took the throne, in violation of the dynastic custom that the new emperor be of the next generation, and another regency began. In the spring of 1881, Ci'an suddenly died, aged only forty-three, leaving Cixi as sole regent.
Ex Output:
Prince Gong
Ex Input:
by whose rungs did the angels of God ascend and descend?, Context: The papal bull defining the dogma, Ineffabilis Deus, mentioned in particular the patrististic interpretation of Genesis 3:15 as referring to a woman, Mary, who would be eternally at enmity with the evil serpent and completely triumphing over him. It said the Fathers saw foreshadowings of Mary's "wondrous abundance of divine gifts and original innocence" "in that ark of Noah, which was built by divine command and escaped entirely safe and sound from the common shipwreck of the whole world; in the ladder which Jacob saw reaching from the earth to heaven, by whose rungs the angels of God ascended and descended, and on whose top the Lord himself leaned; in that bush which Moses saw in the holy place burning on all sides, which was not consumed or injured in any way but grew green and blossomed beautifully; in that impregnable tower before the enemy, from which hung a thousand bucklers and all the armor of the strong; in that garden enclosed on all sides, which cannot be violated or corrupted by any deceitful plots; in that resplendent city of God, which has its foundations on the holy mountains; in that most august temple of God, which, radiant with divine splendours, is full of the glory of God; and in very many other biblical types of this kind."
Ex Output:
| the ladder which Jacob saw
|
Teacher:In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: His most famous book is " The Anatomy of Criticism " ( 1957 ) .
Student: | His lasting reputation rests principally on the theory of literary criticism that he developed in " Anatomy of Criticism " ( 1957 ) , one of the most important works of literary theory published in the twentieth century . |
instruction:
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
question:
A handful of Bronze Age relics has fostered an assumption that prehistoric settlers inhabited Ibiza thousands of years ago. Greater evidence of such a people is found on Mallorca and Menorca than on Ibiza, but one of the Balearics' most important sites is actually on the island of Formentera, where the megalithic monument/tomb of Ca Na Costa has been dated to 2000 b.c. Ibiza's key location between Africa and ancient Iberia made it a convenient stopover for Mediterranean seafarers, such as the Phoenician traders, who called the island Ibosim. The Greeks dubbed it Ebysos, the Romans called it Ebusus, and the Moors, Yebisah. The Carthaginians: A detailed history of the island doesn't begin until it became a colony of Carthage in the 7th century b.c. . The Carthaginians originally came from the area comprising present-day Lebanon, and from their bases in North Africa and what's now Spain, they challenged the Roman Empire for domination of the Mediterranean region. Their interest in Ibiza lay partly in its vast salt flats, which to this day remain the source of a profitable industry. They capitalized on the natural resources by using the salt to cure fish, which they exported to their home country. The Carthaginians also carried out lead mining and continued to be of significance up until this century. It is believed that the lead pellets which were used by the Carthaginian general Hannibal were made on Ibiza. The Carthaginians also considered the island a holy place, and here in great splendour they buried thousands of their citizens in a huge necropolis on the Puig des Molins (Hill of the Windmills) below the Dalt Vila (Old Town) of Ibiza. Under the gnarled olive trees archaeologists have uncovered a treasure trove of statues, jewellery, pitchers, tools, and coins, which are now displayed in the town's two archaeological museums. The Romans never really infiltrated Ibiza, and even after the defeat of Hannibal in 202 b.c. during the Second Punic War their influence was restrained. Only with the fall of Carthage in 146 b.c. did they manage to make inroads, but, as local historians stress, Ibiza was neither conquered nor annexed by Rome, but confederated, retaining remarkable autonomy. For centuries to come the old Carthaginian traditions were allowed to continue on Ibiza alongside the new Roman way of life. <sep>What did Carthaginians capitalize on in Ibiza?<sep>Salt to cure fish
answer:
Yes
question:
From Babylon, Alexander went to Susa, one of the Achaemenid capitals, and captured its legendary treasury. He sent the bulk of his army to the Persian ceremonial capital of Persepolis via the Royal Road. Alexander himself took selected troops on the direct route to the city. He had to storm the pass of the Persian Gates (in the modern Zagros Mountains) which had been blocked by a Persian army under Ariobarzanes and then hurried to Persepolis before its garrison could loot the treasury. On entering Persepolis, Alexander allowed his troops to loot the city for several days. Alexander stayed in Persepolis for five months. During his stay a fire broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. Possible causes include a drunken accident or deliberate revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the Second Persian War. <sep>What are the possible causes of the fire that broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes?<sep>War
answer:
No
question:
Tommy and Suzy (brother and sister) went to the playground one afternoon with their mom and dad, Jan and Dean. They were playing a game of tag and having the best time ever running after each other and laughing. They liked to play tag instead of building sandcastles or swinging. They liked tag because they liked to run. They like to play hopscotch or jump rope but that day they wanted to play tag. Other games aren't as fun. They met Tony and Ally (who are best friends) and invited them to play tag too. Tony and Ally like to play other games like hopscotch or jump rope but that day they joined the game of tag. Making new friends is important. Tony and Ally would rather make friends than play their favorite games. <sep>Which other games aren't as fun as tag?<sep>Jump rope
answer:
| No
|
Q: You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
In 2012, the U.S.-based group Defense Distributed disclosed plans to design a working plastic gun that could be downloaded and reproduced by anybody with a 3D printer. Defense Distributed has also designed a 3D printable AR-15 type rifle lower receiver (capable of lasting more than 650 rounds) and a variety of magazines, including for the AK-47. In May 2013, Defense Distributed completed design of the first working blueprint to produce a plastic gun with a 3D printer. The United States Department of State demanded removal of the instructions from the Defense Distributed website, deeming them a violation of the Arms Export Control Act. In 2015, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson sued the United States government on free speech grounds and in 2018 the Department of Justice settled, acknowledging Wilson's right to publish instructions for the production of 3D printed firearms.
A: | can you make gun with a 3d printer? |
Continue writing the next sentence in this paragraph:
A dog is sitting on an orange couch. a dog | is sitting in a bath tub getting a bath. |
How to invest in bric mutual funds<br>Figure out a long-term plan. No single investment is going to be great for you if it's not matched to your overall investment strategy. Think about how long you want to leave money in the mutual fund and how much gain you think you can reasonably expect over time.
Can we infer the following?
You should invest 10 percent of your income each week.
OPTIONS:
i. Yes;
ii. It's impossible to say;
iii. No;
The answer is: | ii. |
Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a question and a context passage. You have to answer the question based on the given passage.
Problem:What happened after almost 1300 years and how was it displayed?, Context: The single most important piece of Byzantine Christian mosaic art in the East is the Madaba Map, made between 542 and 570 as the floor of the church of Saint George at Madaba, Jordan. It was rediscovered in 1894. The Madaba Map is the oldest surviving cartographic depiction of the Holy Land. It depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Eastern Desert. The largest and most detailed element of the topographic depiction is Jerusalem, at the center of the map. The map is enriched with many naturalistic features, like animals, fishing boats, bridges and palm trees
Solution: | the Madaba Map, made between 542 and 570 as the floor of the church of Saint George at Madaba, Jordan. It was rediscovered |
Multi-select problem: How does the next paragraph end?
How to make broccoli grape salad
Cook your bacon.
Lay all your strips of bacon in a large skillet on the stovetop. Turn the burner to medium-high.
Choices: i. Let the bacon cook for about 10 minutes. Place a paper towel over the pan and your bacon will be loosened and easier to cut.; ii. Place three pots of water on the stove over medium-high heat and bring to a gentle boil. Carefully place your cut bacon with the peel submerged into the pot of water.; iii. Flip the strips over every now and then once they begin to sizzle. Cook for roughly 10 minutes, or until both sides have browned evenly.; iv. Let the bacon cook, then lay your strips of bacon out on a cutting board. Cook your bacon until it's light brown and crispy.; | iii. |
Can we draw the following hypothesis from the context?
Context:
Escape<br>Eve's parents had moved and now she had to go to a new school. She dreaded the first day because she knew it'd be scary. Eve was right and felt awkward the whole day. She felt like everyone in class was staring at her. Eve was so relieved when the day was over and she got to go home.
Hypothesis: Eve has a friend at school named hank | It's impossible to say |
question: Complete the next sentence:
A woman is doing hopscotch on a sidewalk outside a fence. she
answer: is then shown posing for pictures.
question: Complete the next sentence:
A group of swimmers are in a public pool. They are involved in a game of water polo. they
answer: hit the ball and throw it back and forth.
question: Complete the next sentence:
The man pulls out the ladder and climbs on the boat then we see a boat take off, and in a show room. the man
answer: | falls off the wakeboard 2 times. |
Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Kevin Gilbride’s mustache, a legendary lip adornment that won two Super Bowl championships and was respected as one of the most enduring examples of responsible facial hair in sports, died last month in a shaving accident at the Giants’ practice facility here. It was believed to be about 41.
Gilbride, the offensive coordinator of the Giants since 2007 and a football coach since 1974, confirmed the death in an interview Thursday by pointing to his face. The cause was an inadvertent cutting of half the mustache when Gilbride, 61, was momentarily distracted by something a fellow coach said as he was performing some routine trimming in the days leading up to the Giants’ Aug. 24 preseason game with Chicago.
Left with part of his lip clean and part of it covered, Gilbride said, there was no option but euthanize the rest of the mustache.
“It was difficult,” Gilbride said. “But at that point, I had no choice.”
Not surprisingly, the mustache’s sudden demise prompted emotional responses. Gilbride’s mustache had a storied career, at one point being the target of an infamous punch from Buddy Ryan on the sideline in 1994, but more recently featuring prominently as the Giants won N.F.L. titles during the 2007 and 2011 seasons.
Photo
Gilbride did not address the accident with his players when he ran the offensive unit meeting a day afterward, but said he could tell just by looking around the room that the loss made an impact.
“It was just shocking,” the Giants backup quarterback David Carr said. “I think it’s bigger than if it happened to Tom Selleck, honestly. It had been there so long you almost wondered, like, what’s under there?”
In the days since, fans have expressed dismay. Representatives from the company Party City even sent a fake white mustache to the Giants as a possible replacement so that Gilbride would not feel uncomfortable, though Gilbride declined to wear it.
“When we lost to Dallas, they sent more!” Gilbride said. “Believe me, if I knew that was why we won the Super Bowls, I’d wear them.”
Gilbride added that his granddaughter, upon seeing him sans mustache, remarked, “Pop, you look weird!”
Initially, Gilbride said, his plan was to regrow the mustache from scratch. After several players, including offensive lineman Chris Snee, told him that he looked “5 to 10 years younger now,” he is reconsidering.
Going cleanshaven would be significant. Gilbride first grew the mustache as a student at Southern Connecticut State in the early 1970s, he said, noting that “at that time, with everything that was going on in the world, everyone was doing something.” It fit well, he said, with his long, curly hair then and helped offset what he said was a pronounced baby face. He had had it ever since, he said, save for a two-year “California phase” when he was the head coach of the San Diego Chargers from 1997 to 1998.
Photo
“In the beginning, I wanted it because it made me look older,” he said. “Now, it’s the opposite. So I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”
While perhaps not as famous as other mustaches in the sports world — even at its peak, Gilbride’s was never as popular as, say, that of the former Met Keith Hernandez — it nonetheless resonated within the mustachioed community.
Aaron Perlut, the chairman of the American Mustache Institute, said in an interview that Gilbride’s mustache was a perfect example of the so-called Chevron design, which is “your standard-issue, law enforcement-style mustache.” Perlut admired Gilbride’s consistency, he said, as Gilbride stuck with the same look throughout his career, eschewing styles used by other N.F.L. personalities like “Andy Reid’s walrus or Shad Khan’s Mario Brothers Handlebar.”
Perlut added that the institute was saddened to hear of Gilbride’s loss but hoped the coach would reconsider his decision to potentially remain hairless around the mouth.
“We’d remind Mr. Gilbride that there are religious ramifications,” Perlut said. “According to the Dead Sea Scrolls, each time a mustache is shaved an angel falls to Earth from Heaven.”
Survivors in the Giants’ locker room include defensive tackle Rocky Bernard’s well-kept growth, known as a Skyraider, according to the mustache institute Web site. Asked if his son, Kevin Jr., who is also a Giants coach, would consider growing a mustache, Gilbride shook his head. “He’s cleanshaven all the way, I think,” Gilbride said.
Giants players, especially veterans who have been around Gilbride for many years, expressed disbelief about the possibility the mustache might not return. Kevin Boothe, an offensive lineman, said he was stunned when he first saw Gilbride without it and did not know what to say.
“At first, I just kept staring because I knew something was different but I just couldn’t figure out what — it was like it didn’t even occur to me that it could be the mustache,” Boothe said. “It took a while to sink in. I remember seeing him on TV, way back when, and that mustache was there. It was always there. It was epic.” ||||| Getty Images
A father of 10 children, Malik Ameer Muhammad Afridi of Peshawar, Pakistan, has paid dearly for his 12-inch-long mustache, both literally and metaphorically. Besides spending roughly 15,000 Pakistani rupees (nearly $160) a month grooming it, Afridi was forced to flee his hometown in 2008 to protect his beloved facial hair from Islamic militants.
Four years ago Afridi was living in Bara, a city north of Peshawar, when men from the Lashkar-e-Islaami extremist group forced their way into his house, took him to the cleric and shaved his mustache at gunpoint, deeming it unacceptable according to Islamic law.
Losing the handlebar was a blow to Afridi, who owns an electronics shop. “I was very sad when the militants forcibly shaved off my mustache,” he said when interviewed by The News, Pakistan’s largest English-language daily. Afridi made two decisions in the aftermath of the incident: He spent 18 months growing his mustache back and moved to Peshawar, where he could ensure its safety.
“I left my dear homeland, my friends and relatives and prepared to sacrifice all that but will not compromise my mustache,” Afridi said.
Calling his handlebar a “harmless obsession,” Afridi labors painstakingly over it every day. He revealed his beauty tips to The Express Tribune, a Pakistan newspaper affiliated with The International Herald Tribune: first apply almond and coconut oil extracts to it, then curl each end with a gel from Germany. It reportedly takes him 30 minutes daily to groom it, with assistance from his wife.
Though the government pays him 5,000 Pakistani rupees, or $50, to care for his stache each month, Afridi said he has to foot the rest of the expenses.
Having a long mustache is considered a sign of bravery by some in Pakistan, according to Afridi. It has also earned him special treatment. People would give him their spots in line, he said.
“I’m proud of it as nobody in Pakistan has such a long moustache,” he told The News. |||||
A: | It's not every week that not one, but two, stories emerge profiling separate mustaches. The weird yin and yang: In mourning: Sam Borden of the New York Times pulls off a straight-faced obituary of the mustache belonging to New York Giants offensive coach Kevin Gilbride. ("It was believed to be about 41.") It seems Gilbride messed up shaving and felt "there was no option but euthanize" it. Why the fuss? The four-decade 'stache had apparently become a kind of team institution. Read the full story here. In celebration: Time provides an accidental antidote to the Gilbride obituary with a profile of a Pakistani man's epic—and symbolic—handlebar mustache. Malik Ameer Muhammad Afridi had to leave his hometown of Bara after extremists forcibly shaved him. He grew it back and moved to Peshawar, where his mustache has become a symbol of independence. Read it in full here. |
You will be given a passage, and your task is to generate a Yes/No question that is answerable based on the given passage.
One example is below.
Q: Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, icing sugar, and icing cake, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains a small amount of anti-caking agent to prevent clumping and improve flow. Although most often produced in a factory, powdered sugar can also be made by processing ordinary granulated sugar in a coffee grinder, or by crushing it by hand in a mortar and pestle.
A: is confectionary sugar the same as powdered sugar?
Rationale: The question is a yes/no question, and it is answerable based on the given passage.
Q: The Commonwealth government has its own tax laws and Puerto Ricans are also required to pay most US federal taxes, with the major exception being that most residents do not have to pay the federal personal income tax. In 2009, Puerto Rico paid $3.742 billion into the US Treasury. Residents of Puerto Rico pay into Social Security, and are thus eligible for Social Security benefits upon retirement. However, they are excluded from the Supplemental Security Income.
A: | do you have to pay federal taxes in puerto rico? |
In this task, we ask you to elaborate the sentence without changing its general meaning. You can do so by explaining further the input sentence, using more precise wording, adding qualifiers and auxiliary information etc.
One example is below.
Q: The Inheritance Cycle is a series of fantasy books written by Christopher Paolini.
A: The Inheritance Cycle is a tetralogy of young adult high fantasy novels written by American author Christopher Paolini.
Rationale: The output sentence elaborates on the input sentence without changing its general meaning e.g. "tetralogy of young adult high fantasy novels".
Q: The Cherokee believe that signs , visions , dreams and powers were all gifts of the spirits .
A: | The Cherokee held that signs , visions , dreams , and powers were all gifts of the spirits , and that their world was intertwined with and presided over by the spirit world . |
In this task, you will be presented with a context passage, a question about that paragraph, and a possible answer to that question. The task is to check the validity of the answer. Answer with "Yes" or "No".
Q: The Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Program fills the gap of legal resources for domestic violence survivors who can't afford an attorney. Domestic violence survivors in Jackson, Vicksburg, Hattiesburg, Oxford and Pascagoula can all get help. Julia Crockett, deputy director of Central Southwest Mississippi Legal Services Corp., said the program expects to help nearly 1,000 domestic violence victims. Crockett said legal help gives domestic abuse survivors a way to rebuild their lives. "They have been made to feel by the abuser that no one is going to help them do anything, so when they come to us they are desperate," she said. "Those who need legal help and don't get it feel totally lost. Because then they feel like they are forced to stay in that situation." Crockett said the program, funded by a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department, has no economic restrictions on who can get help. Legal services typically helps the poor. Gladys Bunzy, who said she was in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend for eight years, said such a program is long overdue and could be a lifeline for those escaping violent relationships. "When I finally made up my mind to leave, I had a restraining order put against him and that was $50 but that was $50 well spent to me," said Bunzy, 40. "For people who can't afford it, this will be a godsend ... If a woman knows she is going to get some help that will be a burden off her mind, if the law will help her keep that person away from her." Gwen Bouie-Haynes, project director of the Domestic Violence Services Center for Catholic Charities Inc., said often domestic violence survivors do not have the money to seek legal representation. "Legal assistance is a major issue for women fleeing a domestic violence situation," she said. "Often times women are in need of immediate legal assistance services for the protection of the mother and the child. To get a protective order you need to be represented by an attorney." Crockett said the pilot program was launched in 1998 at the Haven House Family Shelter Inc., a domestic violence shelter for women and children in Vicksburg. The program has helped victims in 90 court cases, and 150 legal counseling sessions have been held there. <sep>What are some ways the Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Program can help a domestic violence survivor?<sep>Representation, help getting protection order
A: | Yes |
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