conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a story about California, San, College with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Poetry?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this story could be 'Smoke And Mirrors'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a story titled Smoke and Mirrors about Nation, York, CBS with the genre: Reference, Writing, Research & Publishing Guides.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: You can't find a smarter, more savvy, and learned couch potato than the author, the literary editor of The Nation and television critic for New York magazine and CBS Sunday Morning. In the pages of Smoke and Mirrors he accomplishes something close to the unthinkable: he creates a convincing case for the merits of our collective viewing habits through thoughtful essays on what television tells us about ourselves. At times the author's knowledge of television programming can be overwhelming, as he clicks through the history of long-canceled programs with a frightening intimacy. In contrast to real T.V., the author always offers up something worth tuning into. He treats our tired, media-saturated eyes to such topics as what detective programs reveal about out confidence in the individual, how our sense of national coherence has fractured into multitudinous channels of individual identity, and what talk shows express about the need for a collective legitimation. the author's arguments might not always sway the reader, but unlike the boob tube, he rarely disappoints.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: the author's arguments might not always sway the reader, but unlike the boob tube, he rarely disappoints. In the pages of Smoke and Mirrors he accomplishes something close to the unthinkable: he creates a convincing case for the merits of our collective viewing habits through thoughtful essays on what television tells us about ourselves. At times the author's knowledge of television programming can be overwhelming, as he clicks through the history of long-canceled programs with a frightening intimacy. In contrast to real T.V., the author always offers up something worth tuning into. He treats our tired, media-saturated eyes to such topics as what detective programs reveal about out confidence in the individual, how our sense of national coherence has fractured into multitudinous channels of individual identity, and what talk shows express about the need for a collective legitimation.You can't find a smarter, more savvy, and learned couch potato than the author, the literary editor of The Nation and television critic for New York magazine and CBS Sunday Morning.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a description for a story titled Smoke and Mirrors about East, Middle, Southwest with the genre: History, World.. Start with the sentence 'the author has spent the last 12 years working extensively in Southwest Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa specializing in conflict resolution, geopolitical research and investigations, and corporate risk management and due diligence in such countries as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, U'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: the author has spent the last 12 years working extensively in Southwest Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa specializing in conflict resolution, geopolitical research and investigations, and corporate risk management and due diligence in such countries as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Libya, Uganda, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The author's career began some 19 years ago working on a diplomatic dialogue in support of the Middle East Peace Process, and has since travelled the world visiting more than 60 countries. The author has hosted high level diplomatic meetings with Presidents, Prime Ministers and leaders of multinational corporations, and frequently speaks at international conferences on homeland security, and oil and gas.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a story titled Smoke And Mirrors.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Smoke and Mirrors (Spooks): The episode begins in Miami, Florida, where three masked men break into the apartment of hitman Michael Karharias (Bruce Payne), who is under house arrest.\nThe head of the group employs Karharias to kill an Englishman, but on the condition that he "do it dead".\nThe leader then shoots Karharias to death.\nLater, in London, Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) and CIA liaison Christine Dale (Megan Dodds) meet at a hotel, where Christine hands Tom a telex from the CIA office where they receive intelligence of Karharias (not knowing he is dead) travelling to London to assassinate a member of the British Cabinet.\nBecause Christine has no clearance reading the file, and that the CIA does not intend to inform MI5 of the threat, Tom appoints a reluctant Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) and Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes) to run a secret operation to intercept the assassin without the knowledge of their superior Harry Pearce (Peter Firth).\nThe trio try, and fail, to apprehend "Karharias" before the CIA does.\nDanny later decides to follow Tom as the latter is chasing a lead.\nThere, Danny comes across a fake passport with Tom\'s picture on it, indicating that he is creating a legend without MI5\'s knowledge.\nHarry soon becomes aware of the trio\'s activities.\nTom, meanwhile, follows CIA agent Herb Zeigler (Tomas Arana) to a dead drop, leading to a countryside farm house.\nThe trio are captured.\nAfter Danny is beaten, the group take Zoe.\nIn that time, Danny confronts Tom about the legend he is creating, but Tom insists he is not making one.\nDanny\'s suspicion is solidified when the masked men act as if Tom was on their side, by letting him go.\nThey sedate Danny and Zoe and leave them to escape when they regain consciousness.\nThey report back to Harry, where they all reluctantly agree that Tom is setting up the legend to escape the country after the assassination; Karharias was found dead in Miami, and there is no record to suggest the CIA even had intelligence of an assassination plot.\nAs this transpires, Tom is tricked into handling a Gepard M1 sniper rifle in order to get his fingerpints on the weapon.\nZeigler reveals himself to be Herman Joyce, a legendary CIA agent who has a grudge against Tom.\nIt is revealed that Tom recruited Joyce\'s daughter Lisa to infiltrate an anarchist group.\nThe mission went wrong and as a result, Lisa is in a mental hospital in Maine.\nJoyce has been planning to elaborately frame Tom for an assassination.\nJoyce and his team leave Tom, who runs to a nearby house to report to his team.\nBy this time, he learns that Sir John Stone, the Chief of the Defence Staff, was killed, with a sniper rifle left with his fingerprints on it.\nDanny, Zoe and Harry arrive at the house to tell Tom that Joyce was killed in a car accident five years ago.\nNo longer believing his innocence, Harry is going to call for back-up, forcing Tom to shoot Harry with a shotgun.\nTom later disappears into the North Sea.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nTom later disappears into the North Sea..\nNo longer believing his innocence, Harry is going to call for back-up, forcing Tom to shoot Harry with a shotgun.\nDanny, Zoe and Harry arrive at the house to tell Tom that Joyce was killed in a car accident five years ago.\nBy this time, he learns that Sir John Stone, the Chief of the Defence Staff, was killed, with a sniper rifle left with his fingerprints on it.\nJoyce and his team leave Tom, who runs to a nearby house to report to his team.\nJoyce has been planning to elaborately frame Tom for an assassination.\nThe mission went wrong and as a result, Lisa is in a mental hospital in Maine.\nIt is revealed that Tom recruited Joyce\'s daughter Lisa to infiltrate an anarchist group.\nZeigler reveals himself to be Herman Joyce, a legendary CIA agent who has a grudge against Tom.\nAs this transpires, Tom is tricked into handling a Gepard M1 sniper rifle in order to get his fingerpints on the weapon.\nThey report back to Harry, where they all reluctantly agree that Tom is setting up the legend to escape the country after the assassination; Karharias was found dead in Miami, and there is no record to suggest the CIA even had intelligence of an assassination plot.\nThey sedate Danny and Zoe and leave them to escape when they regain consciousness.\nDanny\'s suspicion is solidified when the masked men act as if Tom was on their side, by letting him go.\nIn that time, Danny confronts Tom about the legend he is creating, but Tom insists he is not making one.\nAfter Danny is beaten, the group take Zoe.\nThe trio are captured.\nTom, meanwhile, follows CIA agent Herb Zeigler (Tomas Arana) to a dead drop, leading to a countryside farm house.\nHarry soon becomes aware of the trio\'s activities.\nThere, Danny comes across a fake passport with Tom\'s picture on it, indicating that he is creating a legend without MI5\'s knowledge.\nDanny later decides to follow Tom as the latter is chasing a lead.\nThe trio try, and fail, to apprehend "Karharias" before the CIA does.\nBecause Christine has no clearance reading the file, and that the CIA does not intend to inform MI5 of the threat, Tom appoints a reluctant Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) and Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes) to run a secret operation to intercept the assassin without the knowledge of their superior Harry Pearce (Peter Firth).\nLater, in London, Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) and CIA liaison Christine Dale (Megan Dodds) meet at a hotel, where Christine hands Tom a telex from the CIA office where they receive intelligence of Karharias (not knowing he is dead) travelling to London to assassinate a member of the British Cabinet.\nThe leader then shoots Karharias to death.\nThe head of the group employs Karharias to kill an Englishman, but on the condition that he "do it dead".Smoke and Mirrors (Spooks): The episode begins in Miami, Florida, where three masked men break into the apartment of hitman Michael Karharias (Bruce Payne), who is under house arrest
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a story titled Smoke And Mirrors about California, San, College with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Poetry.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Smoke and Mirrors (Spooks): The episode begins in Miami, Florida, where three masked men break into the apartment of hitman Michael Karharias (Bruce Payne), who is under house arrest.\nThe head of the group employs Karharias to kill an Englishman, but on the condition that he "do it dead".\nThe leader then shoots Karharias to death.\nLater, in London, Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) and CIA liaison Christine Dale (Megan Dodds) meet at a hotel, where Christine hands Tom a telex from the CIA office where they receive intelligence of Karharias (not knowing he is dead) travelling to London to assassinate a member of the British Cabinet.\nBecause Christine has no clearance reading the file, and that the CIA does not intend to inform MI5 of the threat, Tom appoints a reluctant Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) and Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes) to run a secret operation to intercept the assassin without the knowledge of their superior Harry Pearce (Peter Firth).\nThe trio try, and fail, to apprehend "Karharias" before the CIA does.\nDanny later decides to follow Tom as the latter is chasing a lead.\nThere, Danny comes across a fake passport with Tom\'s picture on it, indicating that he is creating a legend without MI5\'s knowledge.\nHarry soon becomes aware of the trio\'s activities.\nTom, meanwhile, follows CIA agent Herb Zeigler (Tomas Arana) to a dead drop, leading to a countryside farm house.\nThe trio are captured.\nAfter Danny is beaten, the group take Zoe.\nIn that time, Danny confronts Tom about the legend he is creating, but Tom insists he is not making one.\nDanny\'s suspicion is solidified when the masked men act as if Tom was on their side, by letting him go.\nThey sedate Danny and Zoe and leave them to escape when they regain consciousness.\nThey report back to Harry, where they all reluctantly agree that Tom is setting up the legend to escape the country after the assassination; Karharias was found dead in Miami, and there is no record to suggest the CIA even had intelligence of an assassination plot.\nAs this transpires, Tom is tricked into handling a Gepard M1 sniper rifle in order to get his fingerpints on the weapon.\nZeigler reveals himself to be Herman Joyce, a legendary CIA agent who has a grudge against Tom.\nIt is revealed that Tom recruited Joyce\'s daughter Lisa to infiltrate an anarchist group.\nThe mission went wrong and as a result, Lisa is in a mental hospital in Maine.\nJoyce has been planning to elaborately frame Tom for an assassination.\nJoyce and his team leave Tom, who runs to a nearby house to report to his team.\nBy this time, he learns that Sir John Stone, the Chief of the Defence Staff, was killed, with a sniper rifle left with his fingerprints on it.\nDanny, Zoe and Harry arrive at the house to tell Tom that Joyce was killed in a car accident five years ago.\nNo longer believing his innocence, Harry is going to call for back-up, forcing Tom to shoot Harry with a shotgun.\nTom later disappears into the North Sea.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first five paragraphs for this story.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Smoke and Mirrors
  It was a plan worthy of Horatio Nelson. Sadly, mines, torpedoes, U-boats, destroyers and long-range coastal artillery made it an absurdity. Heligoland and Sylt dripped fortifications and defences. Even the crustier seadogs in Whitehall admitted defeat.
  The new War Plan of 1912 tossed out the close blockade in favour of an 'observational blockade'. A line of destroyers and light cruisers would patrol from the south-western tip of Norway to the Dutch coast. Behind them, to the west, the First Fleet would wait. Dreams of Trafalgar still lived, for the Plan emphasised that 'the general idea... is to exercise pressure... by shutting off German shipping... through the action of patrolling cruisers... and supporting these cruisers and covering the British coasts by two battle fleets stationed so as to... bring the enemy's fleet to action should it proceed to sea with the object of driving the cruisers off or undertaking other offensive action'.
  The new blockade line was 300 miles in length. It left unanswered the question of German hit-and-run attacks. Not even the British could manage an unbroken line of ships from Norway to Holland. U-boats and destroyers could pick off the blockaders, one by one, with little danger to themselves.
  Only in July 1914 did the Admiralty's new War Plan embrace reality. Coincidentally, it also propounded the policy that helped win the war. The 'distant blockade' became the new policy. It proposed to close the two exits from the North Sea. The Channel Fleet would seal the Straits of Dover. The First Fleet, based in the Orkney Islands, would guard the line from the Norwegian coast to the Orkneys. It was sensible, practicable and the Law of Unintended Consequences duly clicked in. It handed the U-boats a prime part to play.
  German naval policy never intended to send the High Seas Fleet on a desperate venture to destroy the Royal Navy in one mighty battle. The Kaiser's admirals based their hopes on piecemeal, isolated actions, to destroy a battleship here, to sink a cruiser there. The Kaiser personally decided on a strategic defensive policy, a policy supported by his Chancellor. An intact High Seas Fleet was a powerful counter when it came to imposing peace conditions on France and her allies after the Army won the land war.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me five more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, and the choleric Admiral Sir Henry Oliver, Chief of the War Staff, curtly dismissed the suggestion from David Lloyd George and Andrew Bonar Law that the Royal Navy introduce a convoy system. With the not too gentle implication that politicians did not understand the practical complexities of warfare, the admirals explained that merchant ships could not keep together; that a convoy presented one extremely large target instead of a myriad of small ones; not enough fighting ships existed to serve as convoy escorts, for each merchantman would need its own. The best solution, they added, was to arm each merchantman and let them fend for themselves.
  The Royal Navy had successfully convoyed ships in time of war since the time of Napoleon and before. The principle was already proven. The battle fleet itself, troopships and transports and other vessels of high importance, went in convoy. One escort per ship was plainly ludicrous but neither Lloyd George nor Bonar Law felt able to argue the point.
  Interestingly, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff would have supported the Admiralty's policy. The English, he declared, would not adopt convoys. Heavy weather, inexperienced merchant captains, the need to travel at the speed of the slowest vessel, allied with congestion in ports, would prevent its adoption. More than anything, convoys 'would be a most welcome sight' for U-boat commanders. Plentiful targets for the plucking.
  At Queenstown, Sir Lewis Bayly fiercely supported his Q-ships. He wanted the best for them. He had already successfully campaigned for extra pay for men on Special Service. Now, certain that the secret of decoys was well known to the Germans, he suggested to the Admiralty that the crews should be volunteers. He had already crossed swords with Whitehall about officers and men chosen for Q-ship work. 'At present,' he had written, 'officers and men appear to be drafted without any selection for the special duty.' A further grumble about the appearance of officers who reported for decoy service drew the smart retort from Whitehall that they always sent the best officers available, adding that 'officers appearing in a cheap ready-made suit may not always give an impression of smartness. RNR officers do not carry plain clothes with them, and when detailed for Q-ships, have very often to get a suit at a moment's notice.'
  Cheap suits notwithstanding, Bayly had a point. The Admiralty would never send the best officers to grubby steamers in the hope that they might find a U-boat. The cream of the crop went to the Grand Fleet. Special Service work came well down the list of desirable and career-enhancing postings.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: For Germans, the U-boat men were champions of freedom. They, too, fought dragons, especially the British one that wanted to destroy their country. It is dispiriting to realise that xenophobic propaganda has changed little in a century.
  When we sunk a U boat you give a hurray when she was sinking but inside of you, you were sorry. It might have been the opposite way round. They were only serving their country.
  Von Spiegel and Sanders used to play cards in the evening. They were quite friendly. Von Spiegel asked Sanders, 'After the war, you must come to my place in Bavaria and spend a month's holiday with me. We will go shooting in the forest.' And Sanders said, 'No fear. You get me over there, and you'll shoot me.' And von Spiegel looked at him in great surprise and said, 'Why? Why should I? You have treated me very well on board here, and after the war we can be friends. I am fighting for my country, and you are fighting for yours. That's right and proper for both of us.'
  The First Battle of the Atlantic has, in many ways, been overshadowed by the grimmer affair of the Second World War. No writer about the period, however, can ignore the work of Robert M. Grant, whose lifetime study of the U-boats of the Kaiserliche Marine is both an inspiration and a daunting example.
  Coder, Lieutenant Commander Barbara J, USN, 'Q-ships of the Great War' (a research report submitted to the Air University Faculty, US Air Command and Staff College, 2002)
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: They, too, fought dragons, especially the British one that wanted to destroy their country. It is dispiriting to realise that xenophobic propaganda has changed little in a century.
  When we sunk a U boat you give a hurray when she was sinking but inside of you, you were sorry. It might have been the opposite way round. They were only serving their country.
  Von Spiegel and Sanders used to play cards in the evening. They were quite friendly. Von Spiegel asked Sanders, 'After the war, you must come to my place in Bavaria and spend a month's holiday with me. We will go shooting in the forest.' And Sanders said, 'No fear. You get me over there, and you'll shoot me.' And von Spiegel looked at him in great surprise and said, 'Why? Why should I? You have treated me very well on board here, and after the war we can be friends. I am fighting for my country, and you are fighting for yours. That's right and proper for both of us.'
  The First Battle of the Atlantic has, in many ways, been overshadowed by the grimmer affair of the Second World War. No writer about the period, however, can ignore the work of Robert M. Grant, whose lifetime study of the U-boats of the Kaiserliche Marine is both an inspiration and a daunting example.
  Coder, Lieutenant Commander Barbara J, USN, 'Q-ships of the Great War' (a research report submitted to the Air University Faculty, US Air Command and Staff College, 2002)