Background: Mental As Anything are an Australian new wave/pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up (which lasted from 1977-1999) was Martin Plaza (birth name Martin Murphy) on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa (birth name Chris O'Doherty) on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne de Lisle (birth name David Twohill) on drums; and Andrew "Greedy" Smith on vocals, keyboards and harmonica.
Context: Mombassa and O'Doherty formed the duo Reg & Peter/Peter & Reg (they alternated names whenever interviewed) and released a single, "Jean" in March 1991, before adopting the band name Dog Trumpet and releasing the album Two Heads One Brain. Studio musicians were Mike Gubb on keyboards (ex-Dynamic Hepnotics, Mental as Anything), John Bliss on drums (ex-The Reels) and Mark Honeybrook on bass guitar. Further releases followed with the EPs Kiss a Gun Down in October 1992 and Strange Brew in October 1993. After returning to Mental As Anything, they continued with their Dog Trumpet side project and provided three further album releases. Mombassa also designed innumerable T-shirts, posters, videos and record covers for Mental As Anything and other bands. His most recent album cover is for Public Image Limited's "Greatest Hits So Far". Johnny Lydon spied Reg's work on Mambo clothing and sought him out to do their album cover. Reg's talents extend to illustrations and writings for, among others, Rolling Stone, Stiletto, RAM, Dolly and FMG. In 1986 Plaza released a solo single, a cover of the 1960s Unit 4 + 2 song "Concrete and Clay", which was a No. 2 hit; the subsequent solo album, Plaza Suite, also charted. In 1991, during his sabbatical from Mental As Anything, Plaza collaborated with former member of Models, James Freud. As Beatfish, they released the self-titled album, Beatfish, which was one of the first Australian dance or house flavoured albums. Plaza's 1994 album Andy's Chest was composed almost entirely of Lou Reed covers. Another collaboration with Freud occurred in 1996 and resulted in the Hawaiian inspired Moondog project, with Plaza appearing on some tracks of the album Postcard from Hawaii. Smith performed with his band, Greedy's on the Loose, during 1992 but there was no recorded output, while Twohill returned to art college and finished his degree. In 1996, Smith released his solo album, Love Harmonica, and toured with his band, Greedy's People, which re-recorded his solo album and released it as Greedy's People in 1997. In 2006 Smith appeared on television gameshow You May be Right, hosted by Todd McKenney. The program pitches two teams of celebrities against each other as their knowledge of movies, music and television is put to the test in a series of fun trivia games.
Question: Why did they decide to end their sabbatical?
Answer:

Background: William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 1824 - 17 December 1907) was a Scots-Irish mathematical physicist and engineer who was born in Belfast in 1824. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work.
Context: William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. He also won the First Smith's Prize, which, unlike the tripos, is a test of original research. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner "You and I are just about fit to mend his pens." While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports, athletics and sculling, winning the Colquhoun Sculls in 1843. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. In 1845, he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised the mathematical technique of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, the science which deals with the forces between electrically charged bodies at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. He was elected a fellow of St. Peter's (as Peterhouse was often called at the time) in June 1845. On gaining the fellowship, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a first year student but a few years before.
Question: How long did he teach?
Answer:

Background: Daryl Hall and John Oates, often referred to as Hall & Oates, are an American musical duo. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two write most of the songs they perform, separately or in collaboration. They achieved their greatest fame from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s with a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues.
Context: Their next album, H2O, a very polished, synth-heavy effort, became the duo's most successful album, with US sales eventually approaching four million copies. H2O reached #3 on the Billboard album chart (where it held for 15 weeks) and spawned three Top 10 singles. "Maneater", the biggest hit of their career, reached Number 1 on December 18, 1982 and stayed there for four weeks. The soulful ballad "One on One" and a cover of Mike Oldfield's "Family Man" reached Number 7 and Number 6 in March and June 1983, respectively. According to John Oates, they recorded approximately 20 songs for the album, of which 9 didn't make the final cut. He went on to say they usually would have 5 or 6 tracks left over per album. "One On One," with its clever mixed-metaphorical references to romance and basketball, was used in NBA commercials of the period. The commercial featured numerous players, including Hall of Famer James Worthy performing a 360-degree slow-motion lay-up during the saxophone solo. For the H2O album, Hall and Oates made some permanent changes to their current band. Drummer Mickey Curry, who had appeared on some Private Eyes tracks, including the title song, replaced Jerry Marotta full-time. Bassist Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, who had mimed John Siegler's bass line in the "Private Eyes" video, replaced Siegler full-time. These two joined the band's holdovers--lead guitar player G.E. Smith, and saxophonist Charlie "Mr. Casual" DeChant. De Chant and Wolk continued to perform with the duo until Wolk's death in early 2010, while Curry returned for the Do It for Love sessions.
Question: What recognition did it receive
Answer:
H2O reached #3 on the Billboard album chart (where it held for 15 weeks) and spawned three Top 10 singles.