At precisely 1100 local time a large greased pole with a ham attached to the end of it is hoisted into the air, and there is a mad scramble as people struggle against each other to pull it down.

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Only one large group, the Democratic Modernist Pole, an alliance of several parties, has promised to put women at the head of half its lists.

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An annual winter chills the southern hemisphere, creating around the pole a frost composed in large part of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice.

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Michael Dell is reported to have started his dream with an image of a large building filled with employees with a flag pole outside.

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While her vision is still limited to discerning large objects such as furniture, she said, she can now see the pole at her bus stop instead of having to locate people standing nearby.

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On a large lonely wooden cross on top of a hill in Antarctica, overlooking a route taken to the South Pole, someone inscribed the words "to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield".

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