For over a year, the 1619 Project has been the subject of fierce debate. The 1619 Project has sought to reframe the history of the United States by foregrounding slavery and anti-Blackness with a scope as impressive as it is broad. Taking its namesake year seriously, the Project is meant to start U.S. history not with the Revolution, and not at the founding of Jamestown in 1607, but when the first enslaved Africans arrived in British North America. The Project has been met with open arms by many scholars and educators who have not only worked towards the same goals as the 1619 Project, but have sought educational material for younger audiences – many of whom, like myself, have never adequately been taught the history of slavery and its aftermath.
While the 1619 Project was published in August of 2019, the controversy over the Project has ebbed and flowed. The initial months after its publication saw a flurry of denunciations that called the Project untrue, un-American, revisionisthistory. The overwhelming majority of these attacks were leveled by conservative politicians and pundits, who took issue with the very idea of the 1619 Project. This group was joined by a small but vocal group of historians who lent their clout and “expertise” to the argument that the 1619 Project was just bad history, at best, and identity politics at worst. The overwhelming majority of the criticism was leveled at one single sentence by the journalist and 1619 Project organizer Nikole Hannah-Jones, who wrote in the Project’s introductory essay that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery – one sentence out of a 100-plus page work. But given that the 1619 Project was meant to dispel the mythic history of America rooted in 1776 and the independence struggle, that one sentence became the perfect target to invalidate the entire project.
This isn’t to say that the 1619 Project is beyond reproach. My own historical research on the topic of slavery in the early United States would lead me to disagree with Hannah-Jones’s statement on the American Revolution, a statement she has since amended. And there are grounds to say that in totalizing the history of anti-Blackness, the 1619 Project misses an opportunity to highlight the debates over race and slavery throughout American history, which could actually bolster the Project’s central arguments by illustrating just how much work went into creating systemic racism and oppression. Thoughtfully engaging with the 1619 Project, however, was not what conservatives were interested in doing. Their attacks were solely meant to fundamentally invalidate the Project and its aims.
By the beginning of 2020, the anti-1619 brigade’s arguments appeared to have run their course. However, they were instead lying dormant until recent months when conservatives began to use the 1619 Project to rally supporters around white supremacy in the face of historic protests against racial injustice. While conservative politicians and pundits have been pushing their anti-1619 Project rhetoric into overdrive in recent months, most historians who also initially came out against it have not rejoined the chorus of dissent.
Enter Sean Wilentz.
Wilentz has been a critic of the 1619 Project since its publication. He has largely sought to make himself the de facto leader of the small group of historians who speak out against the Project, writing numerous pieces “exposing” its faults. Wilentz, a professor at Princeton University, is mostly a historian of class struggle in U.S. history. His first book, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class (1984), is still widely assigned in graduate seminars. For Wilentz, the debate over the 1619 Project is, and always has been, a “matter of facts.” Facts are important to Wilentz. Or so he says. Wilentz has stated in multiple outlets that the 1619 Project has responsibility for a “scrupulous regard for factual accuracy,” a responsibility Wilentz believes the project fails to uphold. In reality, Wilentz’s criticism applies to only a handful of sentences that he believes unfairly center race and slavery in U.S. history. And as some of his fellow historians, with whom he signed a December Letter to the Editor of the New York Times, have said, in seeking to foreground slavery as much as it does, the 1619 Project is less history than “identity politics.” Wilentz and these other historians have tried to present their problems with the 1619 Project as simply a matter of history, outside the bounds of politics.
In attacking the 1619 Project, however, Wilentz’s own criticisms have not only mirrored those of conservatives, but ebbed and flowed in unison. When the first wave of conservative backlash began to die down by early 2020, so did Wilentz’s own crusade. And now that the attacks have emerged from their winter rest – in response to protests for racial justice during what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have called a “sweltering summer of…legitimate discontent” – so has Wilentz risen to add his voice to the anthem. However, his own critiques of the 1619 Project have taken a new, and frankly more insidious, turn.
One of Wilentz’s most recent musings on the 1619 Project appeared, at first glance, as if he was beginning to backpedal his long-standing and vapid criticisms. In the beginning of a New York Review of Books article, Wilentz attempted to distance himself, from Republican Senator Tom Cotton (AR) who, in a recent Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson, name dropped Wilentz as someone who had “debunked” the 1619 Project. Wilentz, who seemingly felt compelled to clarify his stance on history, stated, “I have fundamental publicized objections to the project, but these in no way mitigate Cotton’s serious misrepresentations of the historical record for evident political gain.”
As Wilentz would have us believe, he and Cotton share no common ground in their criticisms of the 1619 Project, or even in their understanding of history. Why then did Wilentz, who had not previously attempted to break the link between himself and ardent right-wing 1619 detractors, feel the need to distance himself from Cotton? Our clue comes when Wilentz, towards the end of his article, suddenly shifted gears away from history towards the Senator’s calls to use the military against peaceful protesters. The jump was so sudden it was impossible to miss, and was a dead giveaway that Wilentz cared little about breaking bread with conservatives until they crossed his own arbitrary line towards outright fascism. It wasn’t Cotton’s lack of historical understanding that bothered Wilentz, but the idea that his legacy might be tied to a senator who used their shared view of American history to advocate violence against Americans.
Following his “criticisms” of Senator Cotton, Wilentz, in late September, used Donald Trump’s recent call for a 1776 Commission to once again lambast the 1619 Project and continue his personal revisionist history. Trump, speaking at the National Archives on September 17th, had announced his 1776 Commission as a move to encourage the use of “patriotic education” in schools, while specifically denouncing the 1619 Project, critical race theory, and a host of other things that he saw as advocating for a fundamentally un-American view of history and society. In a Washington Post article titled “What Trump doesn’t understand about U.S. history,” Wilentz spent more than a third of his time ignoring the President, and instead refocused his readers’ attention towards the very thing President was attacking: the 1619 Project. In the now classic “both sides” argument, Wilentz claimed both Trump and the 1619 Project share equal blame for historical “essentialism,” and will one day be seen as “closely matched symptoms of the same era, feeding off each other.”
Wilentz’s focus on the 1619 Project in his lighthearted critique of conservatives is (in line with his piece on Senator Cotton) a futile attempt to rewrite his own history and preserve his legacy. As he introduces the 1619 Project to the reader, Wilentz brazenly claims that it has “received far weightier criticism from the left than from the right.” Such a claim is false, and while historians have engaged with the 1619 Project’s interpretation of history, most criticisms have not been used to completely invalidate the Project, as Wilentz’s criticisms have. However, such a statement by Wilentz, gives us key insight into his motives, illustrating how he is attempting to rewrite his own legacy and separate himself from the very people he gladly aligned with mere months ago. Such a statement can only be true if we, inextricably, consider Wilentz himself to be the vanguard of the left and its supposed criticisms of the 1619 Project.
Perhaps the reader thinks I am unfairly targeting Sean Wilentz. Or that I am simply spending too much time focusing on Wilentz who is, after all, just one historian. However, Wilentz has repeatedly put himself at the forefront of historians’ criticisms against the 1619 Project. He has continually been given space in major publications, such as the Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and more, to air his grievances, and happily accepted such invitations without concern (until recently) for how he has contributed to the ideological talking points of conservatives. Even as he attempts to side with “protesters exercising their First Amendment rights to decry racism,” he has time and time again used his platform to make himself the public face of a small group of historians who take issue with the 1619 Project. Whether he realizes it initially or not, Wilentz has been willing to lend his expertise and credentials to the very people who would deny and further entrench white supremacy in this country.
This is what is most problematic about Wilentz’s criticisms of the Project. Many historians in 2020 would not characterize Wilentz as the face of the profession. He has not, for many years, been representative of the general turn in the scholarship and the evolving understandings of American history. Leslie M. Harris, for example, in her own piece engaging with the 1619 Project, which Wilentz cites in his recent Washington Post article, specifically points out the gaps in Wilentz’s own scholarship. Despite having recently written a book on slavery, Wilentz is not an expert on the topic. His latest book, No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding (2018), takes a much older historical understanding of the Constitution to argue for the document’s anti-slavery leanings. Furthermore, Wilentz even went so far as to walk back his own condemnations of the pro-slavery elements of the Constitution when activists and politicians on the left began challenging the merits and history of the Electoral College. His views on history, and its application, seem to constantly be shifting depending on the extent to which progressive politics seem to align with him. While he will gladly walk back from the shared ground with the left, he has shown an overwhelming reluctance to do so with the far-right.
Even as Wilentz is undoubtably an outlier in the historical profession as far as his fervent criticisms of the 1619 Project go, he has been given numerous opportunities in national publications to add fuel to the 1619 fire in the name of historians. For almost a year after he initially denounced the Project, he stayed silent on conservative attacks on the Project that mirrored his own. To this day his self-distancing from right-wing critics has been not only measured, but specifically targeted at individuals – namely Senator Cotton and President Trump. He has said nothing of the numerous other Republican politicians and right-wing activists who have constantly attacked the 1619 Project on identical lines but received slightly less news coverage than Cotton and Trump. And at every turn, he has made sure to lace his comments about these attacks by doubling down on his own, in a failed attempt to distinguish himself from these people.
Wilentz has repeatedly taken attention away from not only the 1619 Project’s contributions, but from emerging and junior scholars who are – and this cannot be stressed enough – actually experts in the field of slavery, race, and anti-Blackness.He has used national publications – where his analysis is not subject to the peer-review of scholars who are experts in these areas – to espouse his own dated and conservative view of history, while stifling the opportunities younger scholars could have by appearing in those same spaces and sharing their work with the general public. And now, to make matters even worse, Wilentz is using this same national platform to not only continue his crusade against the 1619 Project, but to rewrite his own history before our eyes – fashioning himself the bastion of the left instead of an ideological ally of the right.
Since Wilentz cares about facts, let’s consider a number of simple facts right now. Wilentz has repeatedly denounced the 1619 Project with the same rhetoric as conservative pundits and politicians. He has also aligned himself with fellow historians who complain that the 1619 Project isn’t about history, but “identity politics.” In saying the 1619 Project sets out to educate Americans through “falsehoods, distortions, and significant omissions,” we can hear the voice of Senator Tom Cotton. Cotton, in July, introduced a bill to the United States Congress that would have taken funding away from public schools that used the 1619 Project as educational material, stating “an activist movement” is setting out to “obfuscate” American history by claiming the country was founded on “slavery and oppression.”
Wilentz cannot disavow the endorsement of the right without first dropping any and all pretenses that his own arguments against the 1619 Project aren’t thoroughly based in the same rhetoric and ideology as the senator. Wilentz cannot claim to be against Trump’s (mis)understanding of history while simultaneously employing the same strategies the president uses to defend his ideas about history and to bolster white supremacy. Wilentz would have us believe that he and Trump are polar opposites. Yet, by casting Trump’s white supremacy – based in part on attacking the very foundations of the 1619 Project – on the same moral grounds as the Project itself, Wilentz is no better than the President he supposedly disagrees with. If Wilentz is interested in setting up the 1619 Project’s historical interpretations as a (false) equivalent to Trump’s impoverished and white-supremacy-sustaining understanding of U.S. history, then it is important we recognize a salient fact: Wilentz is taking a page from Trump’s own playbook when he declared there were “very fine people on both sides,”following the deadly events of Charlottesville in 2017.
Featured image: Front Cover, The 1619 Project, New York Times, 2019.
 Victoria Bynum, Interview by Eric London, World Socialist Web Site (October 30, 2019), https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/10/30/bynu-o30.html; James McPherson, Interview by Tom Mackaman, World Socialist Web Site (November 14, 2019),https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/14/mcph-n14.html; James Oakes, Interview by Tom Mackaman, World Socialist Web Site (November 18, 2019), https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/18/oake-n18.html; Gordon Wood, Interview by Tom Mackaman, World Socialist Web Site(November 28, 2019), https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/28/wood-n28.html; and Dolores Janiewski, Interview By Tom Peters and John Braddock, World Socialist Web Site (December 23, 2019), https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/23/inte-d23.html.
 For a transcript and audio recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech,” see https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety.
It is a very interesting piece of history!


Science Fiction, Media, Movies and Anime Fandom Find Expression in Fan Art
Fan art has been a part of fandom communities for decades. From “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” to “Twilight” and “Harry Potter”, fans of television series, movies, books, music and anime – or even of a media genre as a whole – have been creating pieces of art based on their favorite heroes and heroines for years.
Fan art can come in many different styles and mediums, from traditional portrait drawings and illustrations to digitally photoshopped works of art. It is a medium of expression as varied and creative as “original” art, filled with wonderfully talented individuals.
This page will present a brief introduction to the world of fan art: traditional uses and methods of sharing, current places to find fan art on-line, as well as a brief discussion of some of the legal questions that can surround producing fan art.
All fan art used on this page for illustrative purposes was created by the author, sockii.
Defining Fan Art and Looking at Fan Art’s Importance in Fandom History
Science Fiction and Media Fandom Has Valued Artists for Decades
Wikipedia defines fan art as “artwork that is based on a character, costume, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist.” (Fan Art, Wikipedia) Originally, fan art was used as a term to designate the work of an artist who was not necessarily professionally employed or pursuing a career in a field of genre arts, but simply created work based on topics of which he or she was a “fan”. This type of fan art was most typically found in genres such as fantasy and science fiction, which were having conventions and other kinds of small gatherings, along with amateur magazines called “fanzines”, where fan art could be shared with other enthusiasts.
Fan art became increasingly popular in the 1970s as media fandom began to break away from traditional science fiction fandom, and Star Trek fans in particular began holding their own conventions and producing their own fan works – including fanzines. These fanzines included news, letters of comment and original fan fiction, and they needed artwork and illustrations to enhance their appearance and marketability to other fans.
As discussed in the fandom wiki Fan History, this early fan art was largely pen-and-ink based, simple line art because that was the easiest to reproduce before modern Xerox machines became readily available for consumer use. Color artwork was generally reserved for fanzine covers and special issues, as it required expensive color separation reproduction. Sometimes fanzine publishers would take advance payments for upcoming fanzines, to help cover the costs of producing better quality artwork reproductions. Many such fanzines from past decades are considered extremely collectible today for their artwork.
Conventions such as MediaWest*Con would host large art shows where fanzine publishers could buy original art they could use for their ‘zines. Other artists would directly submit art to fanzines, either as general pieces or specific story illustrations, in exchange for receiving a free copy of the final publication. Other fandoms besides “Star Trek” became increasingly popular including “Star Wars”, “Blake’s 7”, “Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, “Starsky & Hutch” and later “Quantum Leap”, “Forever Knight”, “Miami Vice”, “Highlander”, “The Sentinel” and “Stargate” to name just a few. All of these fandoms produced large amounts of fan art, as did other smaller fandoms.
As copying and home printer technology became more advanced – and less expensive to hobbyist fans and publishers – fan artists began to produce finer detail pencil work and full-color drawings and paintings, still largely with the fanzine producing and buying community in mind.
As computer technology advanced even further and the internet began to play an important part in fandom, fanzines became less central to the fandom experience. Fan artists could share their work directly on-line through websites, forums and mailing lists instead of waiting to have it published in a fanzine or to display it at conventions. Those who did not have strong drawing skills could begin producing computerized fan art through programs such as Photoshop, manipulating photographs to create new images and illustrations of their favorite characters. Today, fan art exists in many different formats and is shared in all kinds of venues, although a limited market still exists for it in traditional fanzines still being produced (although they are increasingly few and far between.)
Star Trek Fans Talk About Fan Art
Deleted Scenes from the “Trekkies 2” Movie about Fandom
In this section on “Self Expression” from the film “Trekkies 2”, a number of Star Trek fans show their own fan art as well as look at fan art in display at a convention art show. Others also discuss another form of fan art they enjoy – Star Trek-themed tattoos!
Is Fan Art Legal?
Fan Art Often Faces Copyright and Trademark Concerns
The legalities of fan art are often debated within the fandom community, and not always easy to answer particularly from one country to the next because of varying copyright laws. If fan art is considered “derivative work”, then its copyright would belong to the original copyright holder for a particular character, property, movie universe or book and not the artist. The artist should not have the right, therefore, to display the work without permission of the original copyright holder, and certainly should not be allowed to sell it without first obtaining a license to do so.
However, many in fandom attempt to claim that fan art falls under fair use including “commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.” Others consider fan art a transformative work which “takes something extant and turns it into something with a new purpose, sensibility, or mode of expression” therefore suitable of legal protection in its own right.
In general, most media copyright holders turn a reasonable “blind eye” to fan art activity as it can be seen, to an extent, as a form of “free advertising” for their products. Artists are able to display their works in on-line archives and websites providing they are not profiting from the work (archive maintainers themselves may use advertising or other ways of supporting their site through donations, providing they are simply covering their hosting costs). Fan artists continue to sell their original paintings and drawings at fan-run conventions, although many larger, commercially-run conventions do not allow fan art in their art shows unless the artist can provide proof of licensing rights.
The sale of prints can be more questionable, even through it continues as well through many small fan-run art shows today. Fan artists who sell prints often produce only very low print runs (less than 50 to 100 copies) and sell them at a low, fixed price in print shops at conventions. In Japan, doujinshi fan art and manga is frequently produced and sold in direct violation of Japanese copyright laws, yet is only very infrequently prosecuted because it is considered to have a productive impact on the greater manga market in the country.
Where I have personally seen fan artists face trouble has been when selling their art on mass-produced merchandise such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, mousepads and similar products – which has resulted in at least one Cease and desist letter of which I have heard. Some copyright holders have also objected in the past to more “adult themed” fan art being produced, particularly if the media in question was largely aimed toward a youthful audience.
Where to Find Fan Art On-Line
Galleries and Archives of Fan Art from Anime to Twilight
There are many on-line galleries and archives for fan art, often fandom specific or personal galleries for a single artist. Below are some of the biggest and best places on the web to find fan art in various popular fandoms, and also some of the largest multi-fandom archives to which most any artist can submit work.
An Important Note: Please Respect Fan Artists Work!
Please do not assume that just because a work of fan art is based on another’s characters or subject matter it is therefore OK to steal that fan art for your own use. Do not copy or use a piece of fan art you like on your own webpages or otherwise without asking the artist’s permission first.
My Experiences and History with Fan Art
Creating Fan Art for Media/SciFi Conventions and Fanzines
In a way I began drawing and painting fan art since I first became interested in art as an early teenager. My old sketchbooks are filled with drawings of my favorite musicians at the time – Pink Floyd, The Police – as well as copies of album cover art. In high school, I even did some work painting album artwork copies on friends’ denim jackets, as was very popular in the 1980s. At the time I didn’t know this as “fan art”, it was just a fun way to enjoy drawing and painting about subject matter about which I was passionate.
During my graduate school years I discovered organized media fandom and began going to conventions like Shore Leave, MediaWest, and Eclecticon. I got into fanzines at the same time, including publishing my own and needing artwork to illustrate them. I started producing artwork about my favorite TV and film characters for ‘zines as well as to sell directly in convention art shows. I would often get a dealer’s table and try to cover my costs of going to the convention by selling prints of my fan art and collectible items I’d accumulated through the years.
After about ten years of doing this, I really wanted to get more serious about my art as I could feel my own limitations from being self-taught restrict what I could accomplish. I began taking drawing and painting classes through a local school’s continuing education program, where I became completely enamored with oil painting and classical painting techniques. I completed a few pieces of fan art using these techniques, but fandom really isn’t the market for classically realist oil paintings which take months to produce, and deserve to be sold for hundreds if not thousands of dollars (although, I will say, one or two top artists in the field of fan art have gotten such prices in past auctions for a very in-demand piece when the subject fandom was truly “hot”.) So I decided to switch my focus more toward original subject matter and old master reproduction work – which, I suppose, could be considered a type of fan art in its own way..
Thank you for reading my brief introduction to fan art. Please feel free to leave any questions, comments, or links to other good fan art archives and resources here.
Related posts at Spacial Anomaly
Table of Contents
- Science Fiction, Media, Movies and Anime Fandom Find Expression in Fan Art
- Defining Fan Art and Looking at Fan Art’s Importance in Fandom History
- Star Trek Fans Talk About Fan Art
- Is Fan Art Legal?
- Where to Find Fan Art On-Line
- An Important Note: Please Respect Fan Artists Work!
- My Experiences and History with Fan Art
sockii is just your typical Jane-of-All-Trades who never has enough time in her day for all of her projects. She has written for many websites online including Squidoo, Zujava, Yahoo! Contributors Network, HubPages and Wizzley. She has been attending and vending at science fiction and media conventions for over 15 years, and for several years ran an art gallery and jewelry store in Philadelphia. Today she is happy to be living in South Jersey with her partner David and their 6 cats. Sockii is a member of several affiliate sales programs including Amazon Associates and Viglink. Products from these services may be advertised on her posts and pages to generate sales commissions.


Stamps of the Third Reich (1933-1945) and related World War II stamp collecting subjects are very popular areas with both stamp collectors and philatelists. The stamps issued during this period are colorful, plentiful, and make wonderful looking displays. They offer the collector, not only postage stamps, but also a multitude of other collectible ephemera of the era. Related collectibles are booklets, postal cards, colorful propaganda postcards and labels, civilian postal history, and a multitude of military postal history items.
The German Empire did not start World War I -- The Austro-Hungarian Empire did. It all began in the Summer of 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian imperial throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, by a Serbian anarchist. Not long after this, Austria invaded the Kingdom of Serbia. Long-term causes, such as imperialistic foreign policies of the great powers of Europe, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, France, and Italy -- played a major role. Due to a complex matrix of alliances formed over previous decades, they were all at war with each other within weeks of the assassination incident. As all of these empires had colonies, the conflict soon spread around the world.
But, the German Empire got the full brunt of the blame for the war by the victorious Allied forces. The Treaty of Versailles was very harsh and humiliating to both Germany and to the Germanic people. On top of that, Germans endured unspeakable hardship during the periods of hyper-inflation and then the Great Depression in the 1920's and early 1930's. It was indeed a hopeless situation for Germans, and this hopelessness was a time-bomb waiting to go off!
And then, Adolph Hitler, who was actually a naturalized German citizen of Austrian birth, and the National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) party appeared on the political scene. The Nazis pledged the re-shaping of the German republic, German society, and to bring back prosperity and PRIDE to the Germanic people. It worked. Soon the Nazi party took control of the German Parliament, and the new Third Reich was born.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, he and his party began re-shaping the political and social framework of Germany. By the mid-1930's, he had turned the Third Reich into a powerful industrial and military state, and had again brought a sense of pride back to the Germanic people. Prosperity returned at a very high price though. Following the consolidation of the neighboring Germanic states into a single nation in the late 1930's, the Third Reich set out on its conquest of Europe, triggering the beginning of World War II.
There was a darker side to the social and political agenda of the Third Reich. As I have read in an article recently, Hitler's long-term dream was to create an Aryan Empire from the Ural Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Everyone knows what happened to the 6,000,000 Semitic peoples of Germany and Europe during the 1940's. But they weren't the only ones. The Nazi's also considered the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as being sub-human. This fact is not as well publicized as the Holocaust, but one must remember that the death toll of the Slavic Eastern European and Soviet people during World War II was over 20,000,000. Other groups the Nazi's had extermination plans for were the Romani (Gypsies), people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents they disagreed with. If the Nazi's had succeeded in establishing their Aryan Empire, it could have been much worse.
As a result of Hitler's extreme empire-building goals, he not only destroyed himself and his party, but he brought the German nation and the German people to the brink of annihilation.
As a reminder of what
was really going on underneath all the pomp, pageantry, and propaganda
of the Third Reich, I keep the cover below prominently displayed in my
The cover and letter above were mailed from the "Konzentrationslager Auschwitz", or in English, "Concentration Camp of Auschwitz", located in Auschwitz, Silesia, on January 18, 1941. I would presume that this was a prisoner in Auschwitz I. Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau - the extermination camp) was not constructed until much later in the year, and Auschwitz III (Auschwitz-Monowitz) was not constructed until 1942. Auschwitz I was primarily a camp for criminal and political prisoners, and those prisoners generally provided forced-labor to the local factories.
The prisoner's name was Ladislaus Faruzel, prisoner #3363 in Block III, and he was born in 1921, being just barely 20 years old in 1941. The letter is written, in German (all prisoners had to write in German), to his mother, Florentinya, at an address in Krakow, Poland. In the obviously heavily restricted letter, Ladislaus is thanking his mother for the Christmas package he received, and is telling her how much he enjoyed it. I'm sure the prisoners quickly learned to self-censor their letters, in order to ensure that their mail went out, and to avoid any "punishment" from the prison authorities.
was unable to locate any record of the prisoner, with internet-based
resources. I did find a reference to another letter, written by his
mother, living at the same address in Krakow in 1944, to someone in
Auschwitz named Maria. I would presume that Ladislaus very likely never
survived his incarceration in Auschwitz.
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We have fallen in love with a very unique method of grammar, called the K.I.S.S. Approach and designed by Dr. Ed Vavra, a professor of English grammar at Penn College. We encourage you to visit his website and read more about the K.I.S.S. Approach at http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/KISS.htm. The K.I.S.S. Approach is available, free of charge, to any teachers who would like to use it, and considerable helps are available at his website. We are excited to announce that Dr. Vavra (and others) have compiled complete teaching schedules and worksheets at his website. You can read complete instructions and print out worksheets at http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/kiss/wb/PBooks/index.htm.
Before you visit his website and discover this simple method for teaching grammar to your children, let’s introduce you to the K.I.S.S. Approach. First, your objective will be that, by the time your children graduate from high school, they will be able to correctly explain how every word in a sentence grammatically connects to the main subject/verb pattern. We also want your children to learn how the brain processes what it reads in sentences, so that they will have an understanding of why some sentences are “better” than others. In other words, we want to help you produce students with a FIRM grasp of their language, who in turn can USE that language with confidence in their writing and speaking.
Dr. Vavra lists four unique characteristics of the K.I.S.S. Approach:
- Right from the beginning, students will work with randomly selected, “real” texts, rather than carefully constructed sentences designed just for a grammar textbook. This ensures that the students will learn how grammar works in real-life writing.
- This approach is cumulative. Students need to have a good understanding of prepositions (3rd grade) before they attempt to move on to sentence patterns (4th-6th grades). Each level builds upon the previous level. The cumulative nature of the approach ensures that students can identify the grammatical parts of a sentence easier, they get lots more review, and slower students will have plenty of time to catch up.
- This approach is sequential. Students will follow a definite sequence as they search for the various grammatical parts of a sentence. Following the definite sequence is the key to success! In addition, studies have shown that students will retain an understanding of grammar much better if they study it one aspect at a time, over many years, rather than trying to understand all the parts of speech in one year and then having to apply that understanding for the rest of their days.
- Students are expected to be able to identify in a text ALL of the parts of grammar they have mastered to that point. Rather than permitting our children to understand only 70% of the grammar they learn (would we permit that in our surgeons?), we encourage you to aim for the goal of 100% understanding!
Following Dr. Vavra’s research and recommendations, we don’t advise beginning formal grammar instruction until third grade. If you have older children, we highly recommend that you back them up to Level A (3rd grade) as well, even if you don’t need to spend quite as long reinforcing the concepts before they’re back up to “grade level.” However, if you have the luxury of starting all your children in Level A in 3rd grade, then the following is Dr. Vavra’s recommended sequence through the levels. (Click the links to read more specific advice on teaching each level.)
Note: We recently discovered some problems with our files for Levels B and C. We will try to get these corrected as soon as possible! (10/15/08)
Level D – 10th grade
Level E – 11th, 12th grades
Finally, one of the best features of the K.I.S.S. Approach is that you’ll only need to spend four or five hours per YEAR discussing grammar. This translates into talking about one sentence a day, every day, every year. Most homeschooling mothers with many children to teach are practically dancing for joy at this news! In addition, with only a few exceptions, you can use the SAME sentence to teach grammar to all of your children, from 3rd grade through high school! You can choose these sentences from a favorite book you’re reading, from the newspaper, from the Bible, and from many other possibilities, or you can use the worksheets available from Dr. Vavra’s website.
We’ve never met a more practical, natural, yet more thorough method for teaching English grammar. We hope that your family will become a group of “Grammar Nerds” with a passion for effectively communicating for God’s glory!


The 3 Animals Most Commonly Turned Into Roadkill
Roadkill is a problem that could be a common occurrence or almost unheard of, depending on where you live. If you live in a densely populated urban area, seeing animals on the road is probably rare. However, if you live in a more rural area, you might be dodging wildlife in traffic regularly. We’re not surprised that some of the states with the highest risk of vehicle-wildlife collisions include rural states like West Virginia, Montana, and South Dakota.
When you hear about car crashes involving animals, it’s usually a large animal like a deer or a bison, which can do serious damage and cause serious injuries. While accidents with large animals cause more damage, it’s more common for smaller animals to be flattened by cars. It’s hard to know the exact numbers, but according to estimates, here are the three most common animals to turn into roadkill.
According to the U.S. DOT, there are anywhere from 1 million to 2 million car crashes involving large animals every year, causing about 200 human deaths, 26,000 injuries, and over $8 billion in property damage. However, the most common animals turned into roadkill aren’t so destructive.
Squirrels make for common roadkill for obvious reasons. It’s a common animal that’s small and not too bright. Squirrels run into the road all the time without seeming to understand the risks involved, and they can be killed by small cars moving at low speeds. It’s no wonder squirrels are one of the most common animals to become roadkill.
Stray cats in rural areas are common, and they often wander into the road. Like squirrels, they make common roadkill because they’re fragile enough to be killed by cars moving at pretty low speeds. This is in contrast to large dogs, which are sometimes resilient enough to survive being hit by a car with a low enough momentum.
Unsurprisingly, rats are one of the most common roadkill victims. A rat is another animal that’s abundant, fragile, and unfamiliar with road etiquette. A rat is an animal that you may have run over many times without even realizing it. It’s also an animal that’s pretty common in some big cities with constant traffic, which increases its overall death toll.
Other roadkill-prevalent animals
While squirrels, cats, and rats dominate the top three spots for the most common roadkill, many other animals meet an untimely death on the road. Of course, deer, elk, bears, and bison are the ones that do the most damage to cars and probably cause the most injuries and deaths for humans. The momentum of your vehicle meeting an animal that can weigh hundreds of pounds spells a bad outcome for all creatures involved.
Many other small animals commonly turn into roadkill because of their fragility. These include turtles/tortoises, snakes, birds, and foxes.
Is roadkill preventable?
Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to entirely prevent hitting animals while driving. However, you’ll be better protected from hitting big animals with safety features like adaptive front lighting, automatic emergency braking, and forward collision alert.


Admiral Tarrant from the film The Bridges at Toko-Ri asked, “Where do we get such men?” The line is delivered near the end of the film, when the main character fails to return to the aircraft carrier after a mission, and Tarrant looks out at the busy deck and wonders where these men come from and why they serve. That question is a fundamental question people often ask of those who demonstrated courage, and then ask themselves when they look in the mirror. Maybe a better way to ask that question when applied to ourselves is: Where does courage come from?
Here’s my definition: Physical courage is the ability to overcome fear and do what’s necessary in order to survive, save a life, accomplish a mission, or excel despite physical or psychological barriers.
Using this definition of physical courage obviously concerns overcoming external obstacles. To simplify, demonstrating physical courage is overcoming the “fight or flight” instinct., and choosing to fight. Physical courage results in facing danger or the threat of pain to accomplish a goal. Note the danger doesn’t have to be real – the mere threat of danger or pain can be enough to trigger a “fight or flight” response. What is more, “fight” doesn’t necessarily mean a physical altercation or use of weapons. In the context of physical courage, “fight” simply involves meeting a particular challenge head on, without avoidance.
Returning to Admiral Tarrant’s question, “Where do we get such men?” and rephrasing it to ask “Where does courage come from?” There are several answers to that question, it’s not as vague as you might think.
There is a physiological reason for courage. Researchers discovered by a very unique (and bizarre) experiment involving snakes and an MRI machine. The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, strapped test subjects in an MRI machine with a snake suspended mere inches above their heads. Using the MRI to track brain activity, researchers identified the specific area of the brain associated with courage, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (SaCC). Using human’s natural snakes to stimulate a fear response, test subjects reported their level of fear as the snake was moved closer and closer until their fear became greater than their courage.
It’s an interesting experiment. As researchers are able to determine the role that hormones and pheromones play in the attraction between boys and girls yet cannot define “love”, neither can a purely physiological explanation satisfy our curiosity about the source of courage. As I have said many times before, humans are more complex than merely our biology. Surely biology can influence courage – a large person in a crowd of small ones is more apt to be courageous than the opposite. But when it comes to courage, biology is not the determining factor.
History is populated with stories of unexpected heroism from unlikely people. The 98-pound weakling who stands up to the bully on the school yard, and the grandmother who faces down the burglar are legendary, in part because it is documented and has repeated occurrences. Movie makers have repeatedly made films about the plucky young person who saves the day while facing down a larger and more ferocious enemy. Do these real, and fictional, people have an oversized “courage center” in their brains? Perhaps, but I’d like to think it’s more than that.
Mickey believes everyone can reach high levels of performance if inspired and led. During his 28 year US Air Force career Mickey commanded thousands of Airmen, managed portfolios worth billions of dollars, and worked with military, civil, and industry officials around the world. He is a Distinguished Graduate from the Eisenhower School at National Defense University in Washington DC.
Mickey is the author of seven books, including Leading Leaders: Inspiring, Empowering, and Motivating Teams and The 5 Be’s For Starting Out. He’s a frequent contributor to industry publications and blogs.


ARTHRPPODS. Chapter 24. What is Entomology?. The study of insects (and their near relatives). Review of Zoological Nomenclature. Taxonomic Categories. Kingdom - Animalae Phylum - Arthropoda Class - Insecta Order - Coleoptera Family - Scarabaeidae Genus - Popillia Genus & species
What is Entomology?
The study of insects
(and their near relatives).
Review of Zoological Nomenclature
Phylum - Arthropoda
Genus & species
Popillia japonica Newman
Characteristics of the Phylum
freshwater streams, and on land
Chelicerate Arthropod Characters:
CHANGE IN FORM FROM EGG TO ADULT
Insects change shape gradually!
Four stages that all look different
EGG LARVA PUPA ADULT
EGG NYMPH ADULT
Wings NOT fully developed


Dec. 22 (UPI) — Two new icebergs broke off from iceberg A68a in the South Atlantic Ocean a few days after another fragment calved, the U.S. National Ice Center confirmed Tuesday.
A68a has been floating off South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean’s British Overseas Territory of South Georgia since it calved from Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf in 2017 and broke into parts.
Experts have been watching to see if it will ground in shallow water, which could interfere with penguins and seals hunting for fish, BBC reported.
European Union’s Sentinel-1 radar spacecraft image showed that it shattered early Tuesday morning.
Since then, it has reduced in size, but could still could present challenges to South Georgia’s marine predators. Satellites will continue to monitor fragments as they skirt the continental shelf.
“Nearly three-and-a-half years since it calved away from Larsen C Ice Shelf, Iceberg A68a — the fourth largest on record — is finally beginning to disintegrate,” observer Adrian Luckman of Swansea University in Britain told the BBC.
The two new icebergs, A68f, and A68e, calved from A68a in the South Atlantic Ocean just three days after A68d was calved, according to the U.S. National Ice Center.
A68 was about a quarter the size of Wales when it first calved from Antarctica, and the A68a remnant Tuesday was still bigger than Greater London, which covers about 580 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) of land, according to the BBC.
The BBC report noted that the iceberg break off wasn’t related much to climate change since it came from a part of the Antarctic that was still very cold.


"From the 1950s onward tensions surrounding water politics had escalated. Israel tapped the Jordan River (and the Sea of Galilee) by canal for irrigation of the Southern Negev desert, and Syria started the Headwater Diversion Plan (Jordan River) in order to thwart Israel's plans to use the water.
Cross-border conflicts over water had preceded the war by years, without any permanent political resolution."
"Water supply and sanitation in Israel are intricately linked to the historical development of Israel. Because rain falls only in the winter, and largely in the northern part of the country, irrigation and water engineering are considered vital to the country's economic survival and growth. Large scale projects to desalinate seawater, direct water from rivers and reservoirs in the north, make optimal use of groundwater, and reclaim flood overflow and sewage have been undertaken. Among them is the National Water Carrier, carrying water from the country's biggest freshwater lake, the Sea of Galilee, to the northern Negev desert through channels, pipes and tunnels. Israel's water demand today outstrips available conventional water resources. Thus, in an average year, Israel relies for about half of its water supply on unconventional water resources, including reclaimed water and desalination. A particularly long drought in 1998–2002 had prompted the government to promote large-scale seawater desalination."
The Israeli disengagement from Gaza ...was the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, and the dismantling of all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005.
On March 17, the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces issued a military order prohibiting Israeli citizens not living in the Gaza Strip settlements from taking up residence there.
The disengagement was ...adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005.
On August 7, 2005, Netanyahu resigned just prior to the cabinet ratification of the first phase of the disengagement plan by a vote of 17 to 5. Netanyahu blamed the Israeli government for moving "blindly along" with the disengagement by not taking into account the expected upsurge in terrorism.
On August 10, in his first speech before the Knesset following his resignation, Netanyahu spoke of the necessity for Knesset members to oppose the proposed disengagement.
"Only we in the Knesset are able to stop this evil. Everything that the Knesset has decided, it is also capable of changing. I am calling on all those who grasp the danger: Gather strength and do the right thing. I don't know if the entire move can be stopped, but it still might be stopped in its initial stages. [Don't] give [the Palestinians] guns, don't give them rockets, don't give them a sea port, and don't give them a huge base for terror."
Those Israeli citizens who refused to accept government compensation packages and voluntarily vacate their homes prior to the August 15, 2005 deadline, were evicted by Israeli security forces over a period of several days.
On August 31, the Knesset voted to withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border and to allow Egyptian deployment of border police along the demilitarized Egyptian side of the border, revising the previously stated intent to maintain Israeli control of the border.
During the pullout, hundreds of people were arrested for rioting, and criminal charges were filed against 482 of them.
The IDF also began withdrawing its forces in the Gaza Strip, and had withdrawn 95% of its military equipment by September 1. On September 7, the IDF announced that it planned to advance its full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip...
The eviction of all residents, demolition of the residential buildings and evacuation of associated security personnel from the Gaza Strip was completed by September 12, 2005.
After Israel's withdrawal, the Palestinians were given control over the Gaza Strip, except for the borders, the airspace and the territorial waters.
Following Israel's withdrawal, Palestinian mobs entered the settlements...
...Less than 24 hours after the withdrawal, Palestinian Authority bulldozers began to demolish the remaining synagogues. The settlements' greenhouses, which were supposed to be left intact by Israel, but half of which were demolished by their owners before leaving, were also looted by Palestinian mobs. Palestinian Authority security forces attempted to stop them, but did not have enough manpower to be effective. In some places, there was no security, while some police officers joined the looters.
...In December 2006, news reports indicated that a number of Palestinians were leaving the Gaza Strip, due to political disorder and "economic pressure" there. In January 2007, fighting continued between Hamas and Fatah, without any progress towards resolution or reconciliation. Fighting spread to several points in the Gaza Strip with both factions attacking each other.
In June 2007 the Fatah–Hamas conflict reached its height and Hamas took control over the Gaza Strip.
Since 2007, Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip, after it won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes.
...the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Hamas' 1988 charter states that Hamas "strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine" (Article Six). Article Thirty-One of the Charter states: "Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions—Islam, Christianity and Judaism—to coexist in peace and quiet with each other."
The charter states "our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious" and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.
"The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!"
The document also quotes Islamic religious texts to provide justification for fighting against and killing the Jews of Israel, presenting the Arab–Israeli conflict as an inherently irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, and Judaism and Islam, adding that the only way to engage in this struggle between "truth and falsehood" is through Islam and by means of jihad, until victory or martyrdom. The Charter adds that "renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion" of Islam.
...Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, deputy chairman of Hamas political bureau, said in 2014 that "Hamas will not recognize Israel", adding "this is a red line that cannot be crossed".
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas affiliated military wing, has launched attacks on Israel, against both civilian and military targets. Attacks on civilian targets have included rocket attacks and, from 1993 to 2006, suicide bombings.
...Tensions over control of Palestinian security forces soon erupted into the 2007 Battle of Gaza, after which Hamas retained control of Gaza while its officials were ousted from government positions in the West Bank.
Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade on Gaza, on the grounds that Fatah forces were no longer providing security there.
In June 2008, as part of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, Hamas ceased rocket attacks on Israel and made some efforts to prevent attacks by other organizations.
After a four-month calm, the conflict escalated when Israel carried out a military action with the stated aim of preventing an abduction planned by Hamas, using a tunnel that had been dug under the border security fence, and killed seven Hamas operatives.
In retaliation, Hamas attacked Israel with a barrage of rockets.
In late December 2008, Israel attacked Gaza, withdrawing its forces from the territory in mid-January 2009.
...Hostilities resumed between November 14-21, 2012.
On 12 June 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered. IDF initiated an operation in the West Bank aimed to find them (not until June 30 were their bodies found). Israeli authorities have named two Hamas members as prime suspects: Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasm.


1st - St. Joseph the Worker. In 1955 Pius XII instituted this feast to dedicate it as a day to uphold the fignity of labour to counteract the Communist's celebration of this day.
- St. Augustine Schoeffler, 1851, Priest and Martyr. Went to Vietnam in 1847 as priest of the Paris Society for Foreign Missions. Four years later the Emperor ordered all Catholic priests to be executed as deceivers of the people. Fr. Schoeffler was captured and sentenced to death.
- SS. PHILLIP & JAMES, Apostles. Phillip from Bethsaida was one of the first apostles called by our Lord. At the Supper he enters into dialogue with His Master that leads to the Farewell Discourses. James is probably the son of Alphæus, and often known as James the Less to distinguish him from James, the brother of John. Until 1955 this was observed all through the West on this day. The Anglican Communion still observes it on this day and the Roman Church transferrd it to the 3rd.
- St. Amator, Bishop, 418. At his marriage to Martha, the bishop recited the wrong prayer. He took this as an omen that God wanted them to live celibate lives. Both consecrated their lives to God. Martha entered a convent and Amator eventually became bishop of Auxerre. As such he ordained St. Patrick.
- St. Sigismund of Burgundy, King, 524. Converted by St. Avitus of Vienne. Later in a fit of rage executed his son. Remorsed by this he tried to atone for the sin by rebuilding the monastery of St. Maurice in Agaunum (Valais) in Switzerland. He brought monks to practice laus perennis. After being defeated in battle, he led the life of a hermit until captured by his enemies and executed.
2nd St. Athanasius Bishop & Doctor, 373. As a deacon, was present at the Council of Nicaea, and mainly responsible for the expression of Faith in the Creed. Fought a long battle against Arianism, and suffered bouts of exile from his see of Alexandria - spent mainly with the monks in the desert. Hence his biography on St. Anthony.
- SS. Exsuperius (Hesperus) & Zoe, Martyrs, c.135. Although a Christian couple, they were not as devout as their sons, Cyriacus and Theodulus who inspired them by their example to be more faithful. All four were arrested by the Romans and all four courageously professed the faith. The parents had to witness the death of their sons before their own.
- St. Mafalda (Matilda), Religious, 1252. At the age of 11 was given in marriage to Henry I of Castile. Soon annulled and Mafalda entered a Benedictine convent in Arouca, Portugal. She reformed the convent by adopting the Cistercian Rule. She restored the cathedral of Oporto bestowed charity on the needy. Two of her sisters, Teresa and Sanchia also became saints.
3rd - The Invention of the Cross. Until 1960 this day commemorates the finding of the true cross by St. Helena.
- SS. Phillip & James (see above)
4th - The traditional day to commemorate St. Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387- Refer to 27th August.
- All English Martyrs during the Reformation Era. In England this day observes all Catholic and Protestant Martyrs who died for their faith. They include Edmund Campion, Thomas More, John Fisher as Catholics and Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer as Protestants. Pray God we have learnt from these martyrdoms.
5th - St. Jutta, Widow & Recluse,1260. Widowed noblewoman of Thuringia, Germany, noted for visions and miracles. After her husband's death whilst on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she moved to Prussia, becoming a recluse at Kulmsee. She is the patroness of Prussia, in eastern Germany.
- St. Mauruntius, 701, Abbot. Son of the holy couple SS. Adakbald and Rictrudis (see 12th May). When he announced he wanted to be a religious, his parents were not so sure, so they asked Bp. Amandus to celebrate a Mass for them to discover God's will. During the Mass a bee flew through the window along a path of a descending ray of sunlight and circled Mauruntius' head three times. It was obvious to all his calliong as a religious.
6th - St. John before the Latin Gate commemorates John's miraculous escape from being plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil under the direction of the emperor Domitian.
- St. Evodius, Bishop, 64. One of the Seventy sent out by Christ according to tradition and tradition alsao tells us that he became the first bishop of Antioch.
- St. Edbert, 698, Bishop. St. Bede described him as being exceptional in his fidelity to God's commandments and in his knowledge of Scripture. Even though he was bishop of Lindisfarne, at Lent and Advent he would withdraw in prayer, fasting and solitude in preparation for the respective feasts.
7th - St. John of Beverley, Monk & Bishop, 721. Monk at Whitby; bishop first of Hexham and then York. Founded the monastery of Beverley where he retired. Many miracles are attributed to him.
- SS. Serenicus c.669 & Serenus 680. Brothers of Spoletto who renounced their wealth after an angel appeared to them. Went on pilgrimage to the tombs of Peter and Paul in Rome. Here they entered the Benedictine Order, but before long the angel directed them to greater solitude as hermits in France. Their hermitage grew into a monastery with Serenicus as the first abbot.
- St. Domitian, c.560, Bishop. Bishop of Tongres, Belgium until the see transferred to see of Maestricht in Netherlands. An apologist of the faith, as seen in the synod of Orleans in 549. Preached in the Meuse Valley, converting many and bringing them to the Christian faith.
8th - Julian of Norwich, Mystic, 1417. An anchorite whose revelations of divine love through Christ's passion and death have been an inspiration to many Christians.
- St. Acasius (Agathus), Martyr, 303. A centurion in Roman army in Cappadocia. Denounced as a Christian, and was tortured before being sent to Byzantium to be beheaded.
- St. Desideratus, Bishop c.550. Grew up in a holy family. Became secretary of state for King Clotaire, but lived an ascetic life. Consecrated bishop of Bourges in 541. Performed healing miracles. From Rome brought back relics for Bourges cathedral.
9th - St. Pachomius, Hermit & monk, 346. After being baptized, he became a disciple of an anchorite, Palemon, and took the habit; the two lived austerely, combining manual work and prayer for the day. Later, Pachomius wirth Palemon's help built a monastery on the banks of the Nile at Tabennisi; Soon joined by one hundred monks, forcing Pachomius to organise rules for community living. Found a further 10 monasteries for women and men. Was the first monk to organize hermits into groups and write down a Rule for them. Both St. Basil and St. Benedict drew from his Rule in setting forth their own more famous ones. The Coptic Church observes this day, whilst the Western the 15th.
10th - St. John of Avila, Priest, Writer & Mystic, 1569. When ordained in 1525 gave away most of his inheritance to the poor & intended to go to Mexico, but his bishop persuaded him to evangelise Andalusia instead. In an area which had been dominated by the Moors John's work was outstanding, although at one stage he came under question by the Inquisition. His most famous work is Audi filia, a treatise on Christian perfection. Was Confessor to St. Teresa of Avila.
- St. Damien De Veuster of Molokai, Religious, 1888. As a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart in Tremeloo, Belgium, volunteered for missionary work in Hawaii. Here he worked with lepers for fifteen years before he also died from leprosy.
- St. Mirus, 11thC., Hermit. Born in Canzo, Italy.When telve his father entrusted him to a hermit for spiritual guidance. When the guide died he went on pilgrimage to Rome. Returning he came across a village suffering from severe drought. As he prayed for relief he experienced a vision of Christ. The next morning he summoned the villagers to go to confession and be reconciled to one another. By evening rain began to fall.
11th - Odo, Maieul, Odilo, Hugh the Great & Peter the Venerable, Abbots 927-1157. Abbots of Cluny. All able and holy abbots who led this community for over 2 centuries. By advising kings and popes helped to shape Europe.
- St. Agostino Roscelli, Priest, 1902. Attended the family's sheep, which gave him much time to reflect on God. Became a priest and soon became known as a Confessor. Founded an orphanage in Genoa to which he was chaplain. Over 22 years he baptised over 8,000 babies. Founded an apostolate to poor and troubled girls, the Institute of Sisters of the Immaculate. His strength came from the hours he spent in prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
12th - SS. Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs, 1stC. Belonged to elite Prætorian Guard of Rome. Reputedly baptised by St. Peter, exiled from Rome with St. Flavia Domitilla and eventually beheaded.
- St. Reictudis, 688, Widow and Religious. Her saintliness led to her marriage with Frankish King St. Adallbald. Settling in Ostrevant they had three daughters and one son, all of whom became saints. The family all visited the poor. But the harmony was broken by the murder of Adallbald. Reictudis entered a convent once all her children were gorwn up.
13th - St. John the Silent, Hermit & Bishop, 558. Established a monastery in Armenia at 18. Appointed a bishop of Colonia at the age of twenty-eight. Kept this office for 9 years before embracing the eremitical life. Through a vision, he found his way to the monastery, or laura, of St. Sabas, asking to be walled up and living for seventy-five years as a silent recluse.
- Our Lady of Fatima. For 5 months from 13th May, 1917 Our Lady appeared six times to three children of Fatima. She sought that prayers and sufferings be offered in reparation for sin, and for world peace.
- St. Andrew Hubert Fournet, Priest, 1834. Underwent a conversion when lodging with his uncle, a parish priest. Resolved to become a priest who during the French Revolution lived as a fugitive. After it finished with St. Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, founded the teaching order of the Daughters of the Cross.
- St. Servais (Servatius), 384, Bishop. When bp. of Tongres gave shelter to Athansius when exiled.Servais combated Arianism at the Synod in Cologne in 346, denouncing too the Arian bp. of Cologne. Later his see faced invasion from the Huns. To protect his people he made a pilgrimage to the tombs of SS. Peter and Paul to pray for them.
14th - St. Matthias, Apostle. Chosen to replace Judas Iscariot by lot to indicate that he was chosen by God rather than mortals. We know nothing of him.
15th - St. Isadore the Farmer, Patron Saint of Madrid, 1130. Prayed for long periods whilst guiding the plough, after having risen early and visited the church. Miracles and cults followed his death.
- SS. Peter, Andrew, Paul and Denise, Martyrs, 251. Under the persecution of Decius in Turkey, Peter was brought before the authorities and tortured on a wheel and then beheaded. The other three were executed shortly afterwards for the Faith.
- SS. Dympna and Gerebernus, c.650, Martyrs. She was martyred for her chastity and he for defending her as her chaplain. Perhaps she is better known for her intercessions for the mentally ill.. At her gravside in Gheel, Belgium it has long been custom to pray to her, especially on her feast day, honoured by a procession.
16th - St. Brendan, Monk, 583. Founded a large monastery at Clonfert. The fictional "Navagation" describes him reaching America. It is possible that he actually made visits to Scotland and Wales.
- St. Ubald, Bishop, 1160. Raised by his uncle, the bishop of Gubbio, Italy. After becoming a priest and dean of Gubbio cathedral, he tried to reform the clergy. In 1128 ,much against his will he became bishop where he continued God's work despite hostility at times.
- Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877. The "emigration friend" especially for women in Sydney, Australia. She helped find work and shelter for them, and she dedicated her life for better conditions for poor women.
- St. Simon Stock, Religious, 1265. Elected superior of the Carmelite order in Kent from where he spread this order to university centres of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Bologna. On 16th July, 1251 Our Lady appeared to him holding up a habit - the habit that will save you and all Caremlites.
On this advice he obtained from Pope Innocent IV a letter of protection for the order in 1252. This is now known as the scapular of OurLady of Mount Carmel and is a symolic part of the habit.
17th - St. Paschal Baylon, Franciscan lay brother and mystic, 1592. Laboured as a shepherd for his father, performed miracles, and was distinguished for his austerity. After a vision became a Franciscan lay brother of the Alcantrine reform in 1564, and spent most of his life as a humble doorkeeper. He practiced rigorous asceticism and displayed a deep love for the Blessed Sacrament, so much so that while on a mission to France, he defended the doctrine of the Real Presence against a Calvinist preacher and in the face of threats from other irate Calvinists. Paschal died at a friary in Villareal, and was canonized in 1690.
- St. Framechildis (Frameuzi), Wife & Mother, 685. Although of noble ancestory and married into it, Framechildis dressed simply. After years of barren life, through prayer a daughter was granted, Austreberta, who became a nun and a saint.
- St. Peter Liu Wenyuan, Martyr, 1834. under Emperor Kia-Kin Christians were persecuted. Peter was arrested in 1814 and exiled to Tartary for almost 20 years. Shortly after his return he re-arrested and executed, not before encouraging his sons who were also in prison to be steadfast.
- St. Possidius, 5thC., Bishop. A monk in monastery founded by Augustine in Hippo. c.397 consecrated bp. of Calama Algeria. Here he founded a like-minded monastery. Like Augustine he combated Pelagianism and Donatism. Attended Augustine on his deathbed, of which he wrote an account.
18th - St. John I, Pope and Martyr, 526. A native of Tuscany in Italy, John was elected Pope while he was still an archdeacon upon the death of Pope Hormisdas in 523, despite his age. Caught in the web of defending the Orthodox faith against the Arian Emperor Theodoric who was trying to obtain toleration for Arians in the East. John travelled to Constaninople where he was treated kindly by the Greeks, but received very little concessions from the Emperor. On his return to Ravenna was imprisoned by Theodoric on suspicion of treason and imprisoned. He died shortly afterwards.
19th - St. Dunstan, Monk and Bishop, 988. Revived monastic life in England, beginning at Glastonbury. Promoted teaching and study. Under King Edgar as Archbishop of Canterbury was able to extend reforms to the whole English Church. Reputed as author of the coronation oath.
20th - Alcuin, Deacon. Theologian & Abbot, 804. Scholar & Master of Cathedral School in York before going to Aachen as adviser to Charlemagne on religious & educational matters, Later became Abbot of Tours. Wrote poetry, revised the lectionary, compiled a sacramentary and contributed to liturgical works.
- St. Bernardino of Siena, Franciscan friar, 1444. Before becoming a Franciscan had taken charge of the local hospital during an outbreak of plague in Siena. A popular preacher throughout Italy. Best remembered for his propagation of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. Became vicar-genral of the Observants and set up schools. Spent his last days doing his favourite work preaching.
- St. Basilla, Virgin & Martyr, 304. When she refused to marry Pompeius to whom she had been betrothed as a child, he denounced her to the Roman Emperor. She was offered clemency if she would break her vow to Christ.When she refused she was beheaded.
- St. Ethelbert, King & Martyr, 794. Young king of East Anglia who ruled his people wih humility and wisdom. Betrothed to St. Etheldritha, daughter of Mercian king, Offa and Queen Cynedritha. For reasons unknown the Queen had him assassinated. Etheldritha spent the rest of her life as an anchoress.
- St. Austregisilus (Outril), Bishop, 624. As a member of the Court of French King Guntramnus, Austregisilus spent his spare time in prayer and reading holy works. Through a dream he escaped marriage, and went on to be priest, abbot and bishop of Bourges.
21 - St. Helena, Protector of Holy Places, 330. Christian mother of Constantine who ended persecution of Christians in 313. In 4thC was believed she found the cross on which Christ was crucified. Churches on the Mount of Olives and at Bethlehem were built by her.
- St. Cristobal Magellanes & his companions, Priests, Laymen and Martyrs, early 20thC. Canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2000 for their witness to the faith when the Catholic Faith was perssecuted by the government.
- St. Theophilus of Corte, Religious, 1740. As a child he invited his friends home to talk about religion., Entered the Franciscans at 17. His main mission when priested was to preach for which he became well known, and converted many souls to Christ.
- St. Theobald of Vienne, 1001, Bishop. A courtier of King Conrad I of Burgundy,When nobles and clergy could not agree about the appointment for Vienne, Theolbald was chosen at c. 30 years old, and ruled for 40 years during which time he tried to correct the clergy of their evil ways.He also convened a regionl synod which obligated clergy to take the Sacrament to the dying..
22nd - St. Rita of Cascia, Widow, Religious, 1447. Patron saint of desperate cases. Became an Augustinian nun on the death of her unfaithful husband. Her constant meditation on the Passion of Christ resulted in a wound appearing in her forehead which lasted for 15 years. Devoted her life to the sick. Her holiness and miracles led to a cult after her death that has continued to to-day.
- St. Yvo, Priest, 1303. An ecclesiastical judge. recognised for his pleading to the poor. Near his rectory he built a hospital where he could tend to the sick. Before Mass each day he made a lenghty preparation for celebrating the Mass. Great devotion to Our Lady.
- St. Joaquina (Joachima) de Mas y di Vedruna, Widow & Religious, 1854. As a young girl was a lace-maker which she saw as a reminder of the sufferings of Christ. When she married her family were raised as devout Catholics. Her husband died young, and afterwards she divided her time between her children and caring for the sick. Later on she founded the Carmelites of Charity, a religious order for women.
- St.Humilitas, 1310, Widow and Religious. Married at 15, and both her sons died in infancy. She and her husband entered a double monastery. But Humilitas was moved to be an anchorite. Later she became the foundress of Vallombrosan nuns. She had special devotion to St. John.
23rd - William of Rochester, Fisherman, 1201. Setting out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was murdered by his companion. His body was found by a madwoman, who as she garland it with honeysuckle was cured on her madness. Other miracles followed and he was buried in Rochester cathedral. Offerings to his shrine helped towards the rebuilding of the cathedral.
- St. Guibert, Monk, 962. As a young military man, he curbed vice and violent. He renounced his own property in Gembloux, Belgium for the founding of a Benedictine monastery. He became a monk at another monastery in Gorze, France.
24th - St. David of Scotland, King, 1153. Involved for awhile in the Civil War with England, but also devoted himself to reorganising the Church in Scotland. Founded bishoprics, monasteries including Melrose Abbey under the Cistercians. Followed his mother in living very piously and giving to the poor. Much loved by his people.
- John & Charles Wesley, Evangelists & Hymn writers. 1791 & 1788. Both were ordained priests but John's ministry would result in what is known as Methodisim. A popular preacher. Charles, always stayed within the English Church. His hymns covering the life of Christ have been a great inspiration to many Christians.
- St. Vincent of Lerins, Religious, 445. An army officer who grew disenchanted with the world. He withdrew to an abbey on island of Lerins. Here he wrote against the heresies in the Commonitories.
- SS. Donatian & Rogatian, 289, Martyrs. Rogatian inspired by his Christian brother Donatian sought baptism, which had to be postponed because of persecution. Both brothers were arrested by Roman prefect and placed under arrest and tried. Both refused to denounce the Christian faith and were tortured and lanced and beheaded.
25th - The Venerable Bede, Monk & Historian, 735. As a child entered the monastery of SS. Peter & Paul at Wearmouth. Moved to Jarrow where he lived the rest of his life as a monk From his great learning wrote A History of the English Church and People, a valuable account of Christianity to the beginning of the 8thC.
- Aldhelm, Abbot & Bishop, 709. A monk at Malmesbury. When the diocese of Wessex was divided became the first bishop of Sherbourne and founded the Abbey Church. Introduced the Benedictine Rule to monasteries. Renowned for his singing as well as his preaching and holiness.
- St. Mary Magdealne de Pazzi, Religious & Mystics, 1606. Closely associated with the Medicis. In spite of family opposition became a Caremelite nun. Her spiritual life included many visionaries and ecstasies. She herself suffered from poor health for most of her life, which she offered up and joined with the sufferings of Christ.
- St. Claritusm 1348, Layman. Cured of a throat ailment as he prayed prostrate before the tomb of the Florentine bishop St. Zenobius. He married according to parents' wishes, but they soon separated for her to enter a convent and he became the sacristan where he devoutly served. Veneration after his death was associated with a miraculous crucifix kept on the same altar as his body.
26th ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY, 605. First Archbishop of Canterbury after being sent by the great Gregory to re-evangelise English Church. Brought with the Benedictine style of monasticism. In the Roman Church celebrated the next day. In Roman Chuch celebrated the next day.
- Philip Neri. Founder of the Oratorians, 1595. A popular confessor and spiritual guide. So many came to his oratory that the Congregation of the Oratory was founded. A priest who devoted his life to others.
- St. Lambert, Bishop, 1154. As a youngster was entrusted to the Benedictine Abbey at Lerins for his education, where he subesequently became a monk. Although he loved solitude was chosen to be bishop of Vence, France. During his 40 yhears of episcopacy he lived humbly, and wrought miracle of healings. Until the end of his life he ecited the psalter daily.
- St. Quadratus, c.129, Bishop. Bishop of Athens who composed a treatise in defence of the Faith and sent it to Hadrian on his arrival to Athens for an athletic competition. However Hardrian was not moved and intensified the persecution.
- St. Priscus & Co., c.272, Martyrs. During the persecuition in Gaul under Aurelius, Priscus, Cottus and others fled from Besancon for Auxerre. Many were soldiers who were found at Toucy-sur-Yonne just outside of Auxerre and were beheaded.
27th - Julius the Veteran, Martyr, 304. Soldier of the 27 years. When interrogated by the prefect Maximius declared he had always served God faithfully every day of his life. Offered a generous 10 year bonus if he would sacrifice to the gods, Julius refused, and went to his death praising his Lord for dying for him.
- St. Restituta of Sora, Virgin & Martyr, 271. Prompted by an inspiration visited the village of Sora in Itly.Here she obtained the healing of a boy suffering from leprosy. Thereupon 39 became Christians. Roman officials held Restituta responsible for these conversions and she was executed with three of the Christians.
- St. Melangell (Monacella), Religious, 12thC. Daughter of an Irish king who fled to Wales to preserve her virginity. Here she lived the life of a hermitess for 15 years. This became a community of which she became abbess. Hares frequent the convent after she had protected one from a prince when out hunting.
28th - Lanfranc Abbot & Bishop, 1089. Prior of the famous abbey of Bec. Chosen by William to be archbishop of Cantaur. Carried out many ecclesiastical reforms and wrotes Constitutions for Christ Church, Canterbury based on that of Bec.
29th - St. Alexander with Sisinnius and Martyrius, Martyrs, 397. Were martyred in Milan, which has been recorded by Ambrose and Augustine.
- St. Cyril of Caesarea, Martyr, 250. Renounced by his family when he became a Christian. He was arrested by the local governor and subsequently put to death.
- St. Bona of Pisa, 1207, Virgin. As a child fasted on bread and water three times a week. One day the crucifix at Holy Sepulchre's church held out his hand to her. At a vision in another church she saw Christ, His mother and three saints including St. James who pursued her when frightened by the light. He led her back to Christ. Thereupon she had a very special devotion to James and visited his tomb at Compostela often. She conscrated her life as a virgin and anchoress.
30th - Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906. Campaigned for prostitutes and succeeded in the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act in 1883. A very devout Anglican.
- Joan of Arc, Visionary, 1431. Led by the voices of her saints led her people to victory over the English, and for the Dauphin to be crowned. Soon after she was betrayed to the English and was tried for heresy by the bishop of Beauvais. Burned at the stake in Rouen clutching a cross handed to her by a soldier.
- St. Hubert, Bishop, 727. Bishop of Masstricht and then of Liege. The famous conversion whilst out hunting is borrowed from the acts of Eustace, and unknown until 14thC. Performed many miracles during his life.
- St. Luke Kirby, Priest & Martyr 1582. Became a Catholic in Louvain and soon was ordained and returned to England. Arrested shortly after arrival. Sentenced to death.
31ST THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY TO ELIZABETH. "How is it that the Mother of My Lord should visit me?" Mary responded with her great hymn in the Magnificat. This festival, first celebrated by the Franciscans in the 13thC, reveals too John's first recognition of Christ as the Messiah, illustrated by his leaping in Elizabeth's womb.
Holy Days during May
Rogation Sunday and Rogation Days when the Church especially prays for the success of the fruits of the earth. In many places there are processions where priests bless crops and the fleet.
ASCENSION DAY completes the whole process of salvation begun at Bethlehem when our Lord ascends to His Father to begin his priestly work of intercession
Days after Ascension Day we pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, our world and in our lives in preparation for Pentecost. "Come Spirit by whose aid/The world's foundations first were laid,/Come, pour thy joys on humankind;/From sin and sorrow set us free/And make thy temples for thee."
PENTECOST The Feast of the Holy Spirit. "O Spirit of the living Lord,/You blow across the waiting world:/ You cleanse and heal earth's wounded face/With balm poured from the cross in grace."
TRINITY - (Sometimes in June) Day when we honour the Three Persons of the Godhead and acknowledge that God is one and also three persons.
FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI. (Sometimes in June). Day when we commemorate in thanksgiving the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament on Maundy Thursday. "O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine,/All praise and all thanksgiving/Be every moment thine."


USA: Racism in reverse
In the United States, many protest against the acquittal of the Hispanic killer of 17-year-old black teenager Trayvon Martin. Pravda.Ru asked Deputy Director of the Institute of the USA and Canada, Valery Garbuzov, to share his views on the problem.
"In the United States, there is phenomenon called "racism in reverse." Many used to believe that racism came from the white population against black Americans. But during the 1960s, black Americans were gradually winning their political, economic and civil rights. Today they have turned into quite a powerful social force. It is no surprise that black people appear in the political elite of the United States - they have a black president in the White House. Many blacks perceive the court's ruling to acquit Zimmerman as a kind of injustice - a kind of a protest with racial overtones.
"One should bear in mind the fact that all non-white population of the U.S. has become very active during the recent years. This manifests primarily during elections, especially presidential ones. Obama's election in 2008 and the last presidential election indicate that the part of the American electorate that was traditionally called the sleeping electorate, woke up and started to express their opinions on various issues, especially those related to them personally and perceived by them as an infringement of their own identity.
"This verdict sparked a social explosion and is seen as unfair. If the victim and the killer would have changed roles or skin color, the story would have been different - this is the way it is perceived by the general public. People question the decision of the jury and claim that the jury was guided by racial prejudice. I see the reaction of black Americans to the verdict precisely proceeding from these positions.
"One should also pay attention to the members of the jury. Perhaps, they also provoke such a reaction. If most of the jury were white citizens, such a reaction from blacks was predictable. A few years ago there was a similar case, a crime of this type, and the white jury justified the white offender, which also led to a surge of discontent."


Now that summer is underway, it’s a good time to explore ways to prepare for the next school year. The San Diego County Office of Education and the California Department of Education in concert with the Technical Statewide Education Technology Service (TechSETS)
are offering two massive open online courses (MOOCs) for the professional development of educators and other stakeholders interested in strengthening their digital literacy skills.
MOOCs are online learning programs that support participation of learners across the planet. That is, as long they are at least 18-years of age, ANYONE can enroll in the courses and participate! SDCOE’s Digital Literacies MOOC is an innovative way to provide professional development for educators across California to meet the growing demand of skill sets required to educate students using digital media and networks, at no cost to schools.
“We know that technology is an integral part of preparing students for college and career in the 21st century. But we can't just put hardware and software and computing devices into classrooms without preparing educators to use them,” said San Diego County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Randy Ward. “Our teachers and administrators have to strengthen their digital information fluency skills so that they may, in turn, transfer these skills to their students. That's why courses like this are so important."
Digital Literacies 1 explores:
- Web-based and other electronic tools
- The grammar of the Internet
- Ways for using digital information ethically, efficiently, and effectively
- Advanced online search literacy tactics
- How to use electronic devices more efficiently
- Frameworks for digital education literacy
- Various digital literacy curricula for use with students and other stakeholders
Digital Literacies 2 explores:
- Cybersaftey and digital citizenship
- The use of Creative Commons license
- Understanding copyright law and the ‘Fair Use’ clause
- The use of Web 2.0 tools
- Ways to apply Google Applications for EDU
- Using mobile technologies for teaching and learning
- Techniques for developing non-linear presentations
- Methods for using Quick Response (QR) codes in teaching and learning
- The use of digital cameras
- Developing blogs and websites
- Producing podcasts
Digital Literacies 1 will commence July 8, 2013. Digital Literacies 2 will being in mid-to-late September 2013. Both courses are free. Upon successful completion, learners will receive a certificate of completion and a digital badge.
Two optional units of university credit from the San Diego State University are available for each course. However, learners enrolled in the for-credit courses must pay a fee for each course. Limited seats are available for the for-credit courses (60 seats). Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis.


Regardless of the often-misinformed idea that the opioid epidemic is nothing more than media fear mongering, the fact of the matter is that overdoses have become such major part of the United States that it is actually having an impact on our national life expectancy. With over 70,000 people dying due to overdoses in 2017, it should be clear that the epidemic is very real and is having a substantial impact on our society. This all being said, if you or a loved one have a substance abuse problem, seek a rehab center as soon as possible. Don’t become part of this statistic.
Life expectancy in the United States dropped yet again as drug overdose deaths continued to climb — taking more than 70,000 lives in 2017 — and suicides rose, a US government report said Thursday.
The drug overdose rate rose 9.6 percent compared to 2016, while suicides climbed 3.7 percent, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.
As a result, the average life span in America dropped to “78.6 years, a decrease of 0.1 year from 2016,” said the report.
The data comes as the United States grapples with a vast opioid epidemic, fueled by addiction to prescription painkillers as well as street drugs like heroin and synthetic opioids including fentanyl. Click Here to Continue Reading


This is an original photograph of a World War II pilot performing a handstand on the wing of his Hurricane fighter aircraft after returning from a mission. When originally purchased, the identity of the pilot was listed as unknown, but some historical detective work has since identified him. The pilot pictured is Flying Officer John Gordon "Scruffy" Weir, a Canadian who flew with No. 401 Squadron.
Weir was born in 1919 and attended Upper Canada College before the war. He enlisted for war service on 4 September 1939 when he was just 20 years old. After attending flight training in Winnipeg, he earned his wings and was posted to No. 401 Squadron at Lincolnshire, near the Scottish border in England. He gained his nickname while still in flight training. A RAF Group Captain who inspected the training unit saw the young Weir in a uniform spattered with glycol and said that he looked rather "scruffy," and the nickname stuck.
Weir was shot down while engaged in coastal defense duties and was burned while trying to escape his aircraft. He was able to bail out of the crippled aircraft but was captured by the Germans and sent to Stalag I on the Baltic. In mid-April 1942, he and his fellow prisoners were marched out of the camp and put on a train to Stalag Luft III. Weir became a member of the Escape Committee at the camp and applied his pre-war mining experience in Canada to helping construct the escape tunnels. He was removed from the operation after his eyes became infected from working underground. His eyelids had been severally burned when his Hurricane was shot down. Weir was sent to another POW camp to have eye surgery performed and missed the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III. It was a rather lucky twist of fate. Of the 76 POWs who used the tunnels to escape, only three made it out and escaped; 50 others were recaptured and most executed as an example by the Germans.
Weir's remeakable story is told in the 2013 book, "The Survivor: Scruffy's War" by Blake Heathcote. Scruffy died in 2009. This original photo of Weir's celebratory handstand is dated 27 December 1940 and is credited to ACME photos in New York City.


- Rate of Overturning Legislation
- Overturning Executive Decisions
Rate of Overturning Legislation
"Declaring an act of Congress unconstitutional is the boldest thing a judge can do. That's because Congress, as an elected legislative body representing the entire nation, makes decisions that can be presumed to possess a high degree of democratic legitimacy.
In an 1867 decision, the Supreme Court itself described striking down Congressional legislation as an act "of great delicacy, and only to be performed where the repugnancy is clear." Until 1991, the court struck down an average of about one Congressional statute every two years. Between 1791 and 1858, only two such invalidations occurred.
Of course, calling Congressional legislation into question is not necessarily a bad thing. If a law is unconstitutional, the court has a responsibility to strike it down. But a marked pattern of invalidating Congressional laws certainly seems like one reasonable definition of judicial activism.
Since the Supreme Court assumed its current composition in 1994, by our count it has upheld or struck down 64 Congressional provisions. That legislation has concerned Social Security, church and state, and campaign finance, among many other issues. We examined the court's decisions in these cases and looked at how each justice voted, regardless of whether he or she concurred with the majority or dissented.
We found that justices vary widely in their inclination to strike down Congressional laws. Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, was the most inclined, voting to invalidate 65.63 percent of those laws; Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton, was the least, voting to invalidate 28.13 percent. The tally for all the justices appears below.
- Thomas 65.63%
- Kennedy 64.06%
- Scalia 56.25%
- Rehnquist 46.88%
- O’Connor 46.77%
- Souter 42.19%
- Stevens 39.34%
- Ginsburg 39.06%
- Breyer 28.13%
One conclusion our data suggests is that those justices often considered more "liberal" - Justices Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens - vote least frequently to overturn Congressional statutes, while those often labeled "conservative" vote more frequently to do so. At least by this measure (others are possible, of course), the latter group is the most activist."
--- So Who Are The Activists? by PAUL GEWIRTZ and CHAD GOLDER
Rate of Overturning Executive DecisionsAnother study of several thousand cases studied the frequency in which an unelected judge voted to overturn the decision of the elected executive. A high score shows high deference to the elected executive branch; a lower score shows more judicial activism:
Justice Rate of upholding agency decisions
- Breyer 82%
- Souter 77%
- Ginsburg 74%
- Stevens 71%
- O’Connor 68%
- Kennedy 67%
- Rehnquist 64%
- Thomas 54%
- Scalia 52%


|The King assumes control of the government|
During a career that spanned most of the 17th century Charles Le Brun did everything he could to justify the opinion of Louis XIV that he was "the greatest painter in France."
|Alexander the Great and King Porus|
|Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon|
|The family of Darius before Alexander the Great|
|Pierre Séguier, Chancelier de France|
|Capture of the city and citadel of Gand in six days|
|Pavillon de l'Aurore|
|Horatius Cocles defending the bridge|
In his youth Le Brun had traveled to Italy with Nicolas Poussin. Le Brun returned home to a life of fame and power, but posterity has not tended to treat him kindly.
|Portrait of Louis XIV|
|Ceiling decoration at Versailles glorifying Louis XIV|
|Cipher of Louis XIV on ceiling at Versailles|
|Portrait of Charles Le Brun by Nicolas Largillière|


Also in this series: Great World Religions: Judaism
As the world's largest religion, with more than two billion members, Christianity is "one of religion's great success stories," notes Professor Luke Timothy Johnson, himself a former Benedictine monk. But Christianity is more than large and popular—it is extremely complex and often highly contradictory.
After beginning with a clear definition of the term "great world religion", Prof. Johnson presents a basic introduction to Christianity's fundamental beliefs, its history and practice through the ages, and its inherent paradoxes.
Great World Religions: Christianity is a lecture series from The Great Courses (formerly The Teaching Company.)
Luke Timothy Johnson offers an excellent introduction to Christianity for Christians and non-Christians alike. He explores Christianity as a world religion, its early history, its basic beliefs and moral teachings, its splintering into three major divisions (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant), and its relationships to culture and politics. Prof. Johnson is an excellent lecturer: clear, logical, and well-spoken.
There are 12 half-hour lectures in the course. (See the titles below.) I highly recommend Great World Religions: Christianity to anyone who wants to know something about Christianity’s background and basic beliefs as well as how the faith has evolved over the last two millenia. However, if you’re looking for a more in-depth history or exploration of Scripture and beliefs, you should check out some of the other Great Courses offerings.
Christianity among World Religions
Birth and Expansion
Second Century and Self-Definition
The Christian Story
What Christians Believe
The Church and Sacraments
The Radical Edge
Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant
Christianity and Politics
Christianity and Culture
Tensions and Possibilities
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- The Backlist Reader (TBR) Challenge 2016


Not every painting can be The Last Supper.
The Middle Ages and the Renaissance were glorious eras for art, but for every Mona Lisa there was something that looked a little, well, derpy. There are ugly babies, angry-looking madonnas, and a lot of weird and inappropriate marginalia in manuscripts.
Bestiaries — encyclopedias of beasts — were common in the Middle Ages. There are some very accurate drawings of animals in these manuscripts. But you won't find any of them on this list. Check out these weird medieval drawings of animals that look nothing like they're supposed to look in real life.