Background: Evan Frank Lysacek (; born June 4, 1985) is an American figure skater. He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, a two-time (2005, 2007) Four Continents champion, the 2009 Grand Prix Final champion, and a two-time (2007, 2008) U.S. national champion.
Context: In the 2005-2006 season, Lysacek again competed on the Grand Prix. He placed second at the 2005 Skate America, but it was clear that his Grease free skate was not working. Lysacek and coach Frank Carroll made the decision to find a new long program. Lysacek's new Carmen program was a success at the 2005 NHK Trophy, where Lysacek placed second. Lysacek was the only American man to qualify for the 2005-2006 Grand Prix Final, but he withdrew before the event because of bursitis and tendinitis in his right hip. At the 2006 U.S. Championships, the de facto Olympic qualifier, Lysacek was third after the short program, but pulled up to win the free skate, finishing second overall. He was named to the 2006 Winter Olympic team along with Johnny Weir and Matthew Savoie. At the Olympics, following a 10th-place finish in the short program, Lysacek became sick with the stomach flu. Unable to practice, he stayed in bed at the Olympic village, receiving fluids from IVs. After considering withdrawing, he decided to skate the next day and went on to skate a career-best free skate. He finished his free skate with eight triple jumps and was ranked third of the night. He finished fourth overall, seven points below the bronze. He commentated on his free-skating program on Olympic Ice the next day with Scott Hamilton and Mary Carillo. Lysacek ended his season by winning the bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships in Calgary, Alberta. He was once again troubled by illness, having been administered three different antibiotics to fight a bacterial infection, which at one point, caused him to cough up blood. He rose from seventh place in the short to finish third on the strength of his free-skating program. After the World Championships, Lysacek toured with Champions on Ice as a full member of the cast.
Question: What else did he do?
Answer: Lysacek ended his season by winning the bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships in Calgary, Alberta.

Background: Norquist grew up in Weston, Massachusetts. He is the son of Carol (nee Lutz) and Warren Elliott Norquist (a vice president of Polaroid Corporation), and is of Swedish ancestry. His brother, David Norquist has served in senior posts in Republican administrations at both the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Homeland Security. Norquist became involved with politics at an early age when he volunteered for the 1968 Nixon campaign, assisting with get out the vote efforts.
Context: Prior to the November 2012 election, 238 of 242 House Republicans and 41 out of 47 Senate Republicans had signed ATR's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", in which the pledger promises to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates." The November 6, 2012 elections resulted in a decline in the number of Taxpayer Protection Pledge signatories in both the upper and lower houses of the 113th Congress: from 41 to 39 in the Senate, and from 238 to "fewer than ... 218" in the House of Representatives. According to journalist Alex Seitz-Wald, losses in the election by Norquist supporters and the "fiscal cliff" have emboldened and made more vocal critics of Norquist. In November 2011, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blamed Norquist's influence for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction's lack of progress, claiming that Congressional Republicans "are being led like puppets by Grover Norquist. They're giving speeches that we should compromise on our deficit, but never do they compromise on Grover Norquist. He is their leader." Since Norquist's pledge binds signatories to opposing deficit reduction agreements that include any element of increased tax revenue, some Republican deficit hawks now retired from office have stated that Norquist has become an obstacle to deficit reduction. Former Republican Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, has been particularly critical, describing Norquist's position as "[n]o taxes, under any situation, even if your country goes to hell."
Question: Was there anything else significant about the pledge?
Answer: Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blamed Norquist's influence for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction's lack of progress,

Background: Wladyslaw Gomulka (Polish: [vwa'diswaf go'muwka]; 6 February 1905 - 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist politician. He was the de facto leader of post-war Poland until 1948. Following the Polish October he became leader again from 1956 to 1970. Gomulka was initially very popular for his reforms; his seeking a "Polish way to socialism"; and giving rise to the period known as "Gomulka's thaw".
Context: Wladyslaw Gomulka was born on 6 February 1905 in Bialobrzegi Franciszkanskie village on the outskirts of Krosno, into a worker's family living in the Austrian Partition (the Galicia region). His parents had met and married in the United States, where each had emigrated in search of work in the late 19th century, but returned to occupied Poland in the early 20th century because Wladyslaw's father Jan was unable to find gainful employment in America. Jan Gomulka then worked as a laborer in the Subcarpathian oil industry. Wladyslaw's older sister Jozefa, born in the US, returned there upon turning eighteen to join her extended family, most of whom had emigrated, and to preserve her US citizenship. Wladyslaw and his two other siblings experienced a childhood of the proverbial Galician poverty: they lived in a dilapidated hut and ate mostly potatoes. Wladyslaw received only rudimentary education before being employed in the oil industry of the region. Gomulka attended schools in Krosno for six or seven years, until the age of thirteen, when he had to start an apprenticeship in a metalworks shop. Throughout his life Gomulka was an avid reader and accomplished a great deal of self-education, but remained a subject of jokes because of his lack of formal education and demeanor. In 1922, Gomulka passed his apprenticeship exams and began working at a local refinery. The re-established Polish state of Gomulka's teen years was a scene of growing political polarization and radicalization. The young worker developed connections with the radical Left, joining the Sila (Power) youth organization in 1922 and the Independent Peasant Party in 1925. Gomulka was known for his activism in the metal workers and, from 1922, chemical industry unions. He was involved in union-organized strikes and in 1924, during a protest gathering in Krosno, participated in a polemical debate with Herman Lieberman. He published radical texts in leftist newspapers. In May 1926 the young Gomulka was for the first time arrested, but soon released because of worker demands. The incident was the subject of a parliamentary intervention by the Peasant Party. In October 1926, Gomulka became a secretary of the managing council in the Chemical Industry Workers Union for the Drohobych District and remained involved with that communist-dominated union until 1930. He around this time learned on his own basic Ukrainian.
Question: Did he ever go to university?
Answer:
Throughout his life Gomulka was an avid reader and accomplished a great deal of self-education, but remained a subject of jokes because of his lack of formal education and demeanor.