Sufjan Stevens To Release New Age Album 'Aporia' With Lowell Brams

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Sufjan Stevens is as artistically ambitious as he is formally transient, moving from early, literate and intricate indie-pop to electronic music, from encapsulating the planets to scoring ballet to soundtracking expressways.

Throughout, Lowell Brams has been his stepfather and business partner, helping manage Asthmatic Kitty Records, the label Stevens and Brams co-founded about two decades ago. Now, Brams is poised to step down from his role at the label, prompting the pair to finish a project of New Age-inspired music they've been scratching at for several years.

The 21-track album Aporia, releasing on March 27, "definitely marks Lowell's retirement," Stevens writes in a press release, "but it tells a bigger story of stewardship and mentorship. He's been there since I- lots of that around here with the erosion controls placed on peoples waterfront property.

On a off-topic note went to the local garden centre - which is one of the biggest Christmas stores in the area. Spent a lovely hour and a half wandering picking out greenery and decorations for the urns and wreath outside. As well as admiring the lovely variety of christmas decor. Paid and happily went out the door to place my stuff in the car and head home for some creative fun.

One small issue - somewhere in my wandering dropped my car keys - back in to walk around and try to retrace my steps - think Family circle cartoon of the kids. No luck so had to get a cab to take me


that there'll be a similar storm sometime in the future. In Florida, freezes and hurricanes have long provided good opportunities to remove invasive Australian pines, which unfortunately are much-loved by the public.

Speaking of backlashes, in addition to the books that Loh mentions in her article, I have also noticed a Bad Parenting as Badge of Honor trend as well. From the dust jacket of Michael Lewis's 'Home Game':

///After the birth of his first child, bestselling writer Lewis (Moneyball) felt he was a stranger in a strange land, puzzled at the gap between what he thought he should be feeling and what he actually felt. While he expected to be overcome by joy, he often felt puzzled; expecting to feel worried over a child's illness or behavior, he oftenChina's promise to meet India's growing demand for infrastructure funding is at risk if military rivalry forces Beijing to withhold some of the investment earmarked for India.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — India has turned down a proposal by China's oldest bank to open a branch in the country's financial capital Mumbai. India's Ministry of Home Affairs has refused security clearance without officially giving any reason.

Indian Government sources say the Bank of China's proposal has been held up because of apprehensions of an indirect role by the Chinese military. Seeking anonymity, the sources further said the PLA may have funded the Bank through the state —owned investment firm China Central Huijin.

Another big investment deal of $1.5 Billion made by Chinese firm Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical group to acquire India's Gland Pharma


to Chinese investment. The Americans and Japanese have permitted investment. So should India," Rajiv Kumar added.

India has welcomed Chinese investment in railway, roads, highways and financial services. But its refusal to China Bank could have an impact in China where a large number of Indian banks such as State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India have opened branches.

In Indian, 60 percent of Chinese investment is in the automobile sector, 14 per cent in metallurgical and four per cent each in electrical equipment, power and industrial machinery. Last year, India surprisingly allowed Chinese telecom majors — Huawei Technologies and ZTE — to set up manufacturing plants. India till recently had blocked the Chinese telecom companies on the same grounds as China Bank.

India needswe’re the only ones to ever discover a place, so an off-season, unplanned visit is perfect for us. However, with a little planning during the high-season, you will likely find a few tours available, and possibly discover a wine tasting reward at the end of your trek. Nipozzano is home to the famous Frescobaldi brand, one of the ancient Italian names synonymous with fine wine. The vineyards completely surround the castle.

1000 Year Old Castle

Here’s some background about the castle-town Nipozzano. The castle dates back to the year 1000, and is nestled in the heart of Tuscany just a bit north-east of Florence. Situated on a picturesque hilltop in the Appenine mountain range, it was originally built as a fortress for the protection of Florence, which is tucked into


The rate is set to get worse with pupil numbers rising over next five years

More than half of England's secondary schools are now oversubscribed as they are 'crippled' by a baby boom fuelled by high migration, new figures show.

The proportion of secondaries with more applications than pupil places rose to 50 per cent this year for the first time in a generation, according to research by the FindASchool website.

And the rate – which stood at just 43 per cent two years ago – is expected to get worse still, due to the bulge in secondary pupil numbers over the next five years.

Headteachers are already complaining of the 'struggle' that schools face because of oversubscription.

Rob McDonough, headteacher of the West Bridgford School in Nottinghamshire, has said funding the expansionabove 50 per cent.'

The analysis reveals that the problem is most acute in London, where two-thirds of secondaries are oversubscribed - but the difficulties extend nationwide, with at least half of secondaries oversubscribed in the West Midlands, East of England, the North West and the South East.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'The overall planning has never been brilliant in getting the right number of school places in the right place at the right time.

'Schools often cannot quickly expand to deal with an increase in numbers.'

Malcolm Trobe, of the Association of School and College Leaders, has said tat school can take time to catch up to increased numbers

Dealing with appeals for places has become another significant problem for schools, alongside


JOJO MOYES

Bruce Bursford's bicycle took more than four years to build and cost pounds 1m. Yesterday he rode it for 30 seconds and set a new world speed record of 208 mph.

He hit 60mph in two seconds at the start. "It's like sitting on a wing," said Mr Bursford, after his record-breaking ride on a rolling road at the Malcolm Campbell building at the famous Brooklands race circuit in Surrey, yesterday.

Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The bike, which he designed himself, weighs only 11lb, one third the weight of a mountain bike and has a theoretical top speed of 250 mph."I wanted to have the fastest cycle and for me to design it was the icing on the cake, "he said.

To achieve the record-breaking speed, conditions were simulated whereby Mr Burford was "towed" until he reached 100mph. The towline was then "released", and he was left to pedal flat out. His speedometer was contained in an eyepatch. The previous speed record for a pushbike is 152mph, set on Utah salt flats in 1985.

The carbon-fibre frame is four times stronger than steel, its metal parts are made from titanium and its bearings are ceramic, producing 30 per cent less friction. Its tyres are filled with helium.

Built for him by British racing car firm Lola, the bicycle also has a chainwheel 2ft in diameter, a rear cog the size of a 50p piece, and travels 150ft for every turn of the pedals.

A former schoolboy cycling champion, he spent three


Video Premiere: Good Charlotte's 'Like It's Her Birthday'

September 27, 2010 04:30:26 GMT

Joel Madden and his bandmate enjoy a fun night, getting themselves surrounded by women in an all-night wild party.

Good Charlotte's "Like It's Her Birthday" music video has been debuted, featuring the band in a party with a number of fine ladies. They are "acting crazy, making a scene" and "drinking champagne, going insane" throughout the night.

A synth-driven party anthem, "Like It's Her Birthday" is the lead single from Good Charlotte's forthcoming fifth studio album "Cardiology" which is due November 2 across United States. It is written by Joel Madden and has been up for download on iTunes.

"A lot of the lyrics on this album are about being in a different place in my life," said Joel whowith footage of various cyclists both with, and without, helmets.

Cycling Scotland also referred to its helmet policy, which discussed the possible undesired outcomes of wearing helmets, including limiting uptake of cycling and "influencing a driver's behaviour to be less careful when interacting on the road".

Image copyright Cyclin Scotland Image caption Some of the cyclists in the advert were wearing helmets

A further complaint that the cyclist was riding too far from the kerb was also dismissed by Cycling Scotland.

It said that given the width of the road featured in the advert, the cyclist was safer riding out past the area where cars would be parked so they could be clearly visible to other road users.

It told the ASA the shoot for the advert was supervised by one of its


Albanian nationals have received much public attention in the Netherlands. Albanian nationals play a significant role in organized crime in cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam and other regions in the country. Another development is the increasing number of illegal migrants from Albania, mostly young men wishing to start a new life in the United Kingdom. The number of asylum applications from Albanian nationals is also steadily high,” de Groot argued in his letter.

He asked the European Commission to consider triggering the Emergency Break, which is a Schengen Visa suspension mechanism regulated through EC Regulation 1289/2013. The mechanism permits the suspension of visa free travel to the Schengen for third country nationals in specific circumstances.

being an Italian citizen will allow for the child’s immediate transfer to Italy,” the statement read.

The Pope has again sent out a message of support to the Evans family.

Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted. — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 23, 2018

All legal appeals have now been exhausted, with another plea to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) being turned down. The latest rulings caused protesters to rush the hospital in hopes of preventing Alfie’s life support from being pulled.

A group of 200 supporters gathered at the hospital today to attempt to enter the building. They were


At a panel at South By Southwest on Sunday,
Esmail said the hacking in “Mr. Robot” was informed by his own
“nerdy” adolescence, which included a poor attempt at hacking in
college that got him put on academic probation.

“I wanted to tell a story about that culture,”
he said, one that he was a peripheral part
of. Esmail said he wanted to include all
parts of hacker culture, the positives and the negatives,
including the loneliness and drug addiction that plagued some of
his friends.

That meant that the first stages of the show's
development revolved more around getting the character of Elliot
right than about the plot. But Esmail said
the real crystallization of Elliot’s character didn't
come from his childhood, but rather from the experience of
Esmail’s family in Egypt during
the Arab Spring civil uprisings of 2011.

Esmail, who is Egyptian-American,Le'Veon Bell's decision to forgo $14.5M in guaranteed salary in 2019 and skip the entire season sets up an unprecedented foray into free agency this spring, with Bell's market value the source of considerable debate.

Conversations with a handful of NFL general managers and salary-cap experts – some who would have a need for a running back of Bell's stature and some who would not be in the market for him – revealed what could be a more tepid response to him. Bell would be an unrestricted free agent in 2019 unless the Steelers place a tag on him of some sort; sources said the team has informed the running back it plans to utilize the transition tag on him in 2019.

The designation would allow Bell to sign an


$850,000 paycheck, and with the team also aware that Conner's pounding, violent running style could lead to further injury, it is not out of the question the team would match offers within reason, sources said. Securing Bell into the future would also allow the Steelers to deal him down the road, if they do an extension for Conner in a few years, hypothetically, and potentially recoup a decent return (they get no draft-pick compensation if they fail to match an offer for Bell while on the transition tag). Regardless, this saga is not yet over, and the ramifications of Bell's unique stance will be more clear by the scouting combine in February, when the groundwork for much offseason work is put in place.Warren Christopher, the former secretary of State and eminence grise of the Democratic Party whose achievements in a wide-ranging public career include brokering the Bosnian peace agreement for the Clinton administration and leading an independent investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department that brought important reforms after a notorious police beating, has died. He was 85.

Christopher died Friday at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Kathy Osborne, his executive assistant at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.

Called "the best public servant I ever knew" by President Carter, Christopher was known as a skilled negotiator whose tenacity, decorum and discretion were prized traits in crises.

As deputy secretary of State in the Carter administration, he played a


pivotal role in securing the release of the Americans held hostage in Iran. As secretary of State for President Clinton, he kept warring parties at the table during the Dayton, Ohio, peace talks between the Bosnians and Serbs. After returning to private life, he served as Vice President Al Gore's emissary in the Florida vote recount that settled the disputed 2000 presidential election.

When Los Angeles fractured along racial lines after the 1991 police beating of Rodney G. King, Christopher was drafted to head the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, which quickly became known as the Christopher Commission. Under his leadership, the 100-day inquiry produced a plan for the department's overhaul, including a strong call to replace Chief Daryl F. Gates, who later resigned.

The unity ofthe commission — which included members selected by Gates and his main antagonist, Mayor Tom Bradley — was in large measure a testament to its self-effacing chairman and his quiet diplomacy.

"Most talking is not glamorous," he once said. "Often it is tedious. It can be excruciating and exhausting. But talking can also tame conflict, lift the human condition and move us close to the ideal of peace."

Unfailingly courteous and calm, Christopher was known for keeping his emotions in check under the most trying circumstances. He sometimes told the story of the time he was a deputy attorney general in the Lyndon Johnson administration and the president called him in the middle of the night. He lunged for the phone and broke his toe but concealed the accident —


and the throbbing pain — for the entire conversation.

That was a small reminder of the stamina that went on public display during his tenure as secretary of State, when Christopher logged more miles in pursuit of American objectives than any previous secretary in a four-year period. That record was built in part by his efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, which led him to make 35 trips to Israel and 24 to Syria.

But the lean, sober-faced diplomat was often portrayed by critics as weak and ineffectual. During his four years in the Clinton Cabinet he was faulted by Washington insiders for failing to articulate a coherent vision for American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era.

One of his sharpest critics, former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, saidChristopher's weakness was his desire to "litigate issues endlessly, to shy away from the unavoidable ingredient of force in dealing with contemporary international realities and to have an excessive faith that all issues can be resolved by compromise." Skeptics called him "Dean Rusk without the charisma," comparing him to the Johnson-era secretary of State who was also known for his low-key style.

Gore, however, offered a different vision of Christopher, calling him "one of the great statesmen of our era." Beginning with the Carter era and during his tenure under Clinton, Christopher developed human rights "as a pillar of our working diplomacy," Gore said in a statement Saturday. "He methodically reviewed every element of American diplomatic practice, and by the time he was finished, human rights were welded, bolted


and wedged into the core where they remain to this day."

After every stint in public service, Christopher returned to O'Melveny & Myers, the influential, old-line Los Angeles law firm where he began his career six decades ago and which he eventually led as chairman. He was credited with expanding the firm's international operations as well as its civic engagement, especially through pro bono projects.

Warren Minor Christopher, the fourth of five children, was born Oct. 27, 1925, in Scranton, N.D., a prairie town settled at the turn of the 20th century by Scandinavian and German immigrants.

His mother, Catherine, helped the needy, including hobos who found their way to the family's doorstep from freight cars that ran near their home. She always declined the men's offers to work in exchangefor supper because she believed "that our relatively good fortune was something to be shared, not bartered," Christopher wrote in "Chances of a Lifetime," his 2001 memoir.

His father, Ernest, managed the local bank and was well-liked despite having what Christopher described as the demeanor of "a taciturn Norwegian Lutheran." He said later that he was profoundly affected by his father's stories about how the Depression ruined many farmers in town and his struggles to resist foreclosing on their mortgages. Christopher said the strains of trying to keep the bank afloat while many of his friends and neighbors went under led to his father's incapacitating stroke in 1937 when he was only 49. Ernest Christopher died five years later.

What he learned from his father was that "you do not


have to make a public display of compassion to be a compassionate person," Christopher wrote in his memoir. "The human scenes I witnessed in the flat, dry North Dakota plains while at my father's side may account more than anything else for the tilt of my social and political concerns in the direction of the unfortunate."

Catherine Christopher moved the family to California in 1939 and went to work as a salesclerk. Warren earned money delivering papers for the Hollywood Citizen-News and excelled on the debate team at Hollywood High School.

At 16 he entered what is now the University of Redlands on a debate scholarship, but transferred after a year to the Naval Officer Program at USC. He graduated in 1945 as an ensign. He served on an oiltanker in the Pacific theater as World War II was winding down.

In 1946, he entered Stanford, where he was chosen to serve as editor of the first Stanford law review. In 1949 he became the first Stanford law student to be placed in a clerkship with a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

During his year with legendary Justice William O. Douglas, he helped craft opinions on cases challenging the separate-but-equal education doctrine that would influence the court's language in the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954. Douglas became an important mentor, whose advice to Christopher was to "get out into the stream of history and swim as fast as you can."

In 1950 Christopher became one of the first Democrats to join the conservative O'Melveny & Myers law


firm. Eight years later, he became a partner and began his political ascent as a part-time researcher and speechwriter for then-California Atty. Gen. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, who was running for governor. After Brown's landslide victory over U.S. Sen. William F. Knowland, Christopher joined him in Sacramento as special counsel.

In 1965, Brown tapped him to assemble and serve as vice chairman of a bipartisan panel to study the causes of the riots that had inflamed the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that year. Named the McCone Commission after its chairman, Republican businessman and former CIA Director John McCone, it faulted authorities for moving too slowly to quell the violence and urged some modest police reforms. Watts would provide the first of several opportunities that Christopher would have toexamine urban violence firsthand.

In the summer of 1967 he joined the Johnson administration as deputy to Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark. He had been on the job only two months when rioting broke out in Detroit. Dispatched to that city to evaluate the situation with Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance, he advised President Johnson to send in the 82nd Airborne to shore up the Michigan National Guard. Forty-three people died in the unrest there.

Christopher later helped calm riots in Washington and Chicago, where he coordinated efforts by the Army and local authorities to control disruptions by anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He prosecuted Chicago police officers charged with brutality.

He also helped lead the Johnson administration's push for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. A


follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it prevented discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing. Ramsey described Christopher as a "major force" behind its passage.

A decade later, when Vance became Jimmy Carter's secretary of State, he recruited Christopher to serve as his deputy. Christopher, who was confirmed in 1977, was entrusted with some of the Carter administration's most delicate foreign policy assignments, from leading the effort to win congressional approval of the Panama Canal treaties to ending formal ties with the Chinese Nationalist government on Taiwan and negotiating a framework for future relations.

The full measure of his talent at negotiation was highlighted by the crisis that developed Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students, angry over U.S. sheltering of Iran's deposed shah, seized the AmericanEmbassy in Tehran and took 52 officials and staffers hostage. The drama would span Carter's last 14 months in office, the lowest point of which was a botched helicopter rescue that left eight American servicemen dead.

Vance, who had disapproved of the mission, stepped down and Carter named Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) as his successor. Christopher was deeply disappointed at being passed over, but decided that he had to stay. "I had accepted the job of deputy without reservation or promise of advancement," he reflected years later. "To leave now out of disappointment at my failure to advance would be to elevate ambition over commitment, pride over duty."

He soon found himself in a crucial role.

It began in September 1980, when West Germany relayed a secret message to the


Carter administration that a high-level Iranian official wanted to meet in Bonn with a senior American official. The Iranian was Sadegh Tabatabai, a member of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's inner circle. Tabatabai's overture to the U.S. was the first time in the then-10-month-old hostage crisis that an Iranian with direct ties to Iran's leadership had asked for a meeting. Carter sent Christopher to Bonn and put him in charge of negotiations. Freeing the hostages would consume Christopher's life for the next four months.

The Algerian government agreed to mediate the cumbersome negotiations, which had to be translated into three languages — Persian, French and English — in order for all parties to communicate. With Iran demanding $14 billion in frozen assets and $10 billion of the shah's wealth that itclaimed was being held in the U.S. — amounts that stunned U.S. officials, whose estimates were much smaller — Christopher employed a small army of bankers and lawyers to locate the funds and surmount the legal and bureaucratic hurdles blocking their release.

By early January, with only a few weeks left in the Carter presidency, Christopher decided to streamline the process by flying to Algiers with a core group of aides. He directed the final 13 days of the negotiations from the Algerian capital.

What Carter administration officials later described as the largest financial transaction in history, involving an intricately choreographed series of wire transfers totaling almost $8 billion and involving 14 banks — including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Central Bank of Algeria and the Bank of England —


was concluded in the last hours of the Carter presidency.

As the architect of the agreement, Christopher had taken "what was by almost any standard a policy disaster for the United States and turned it into a triumph of U.S. interests," Gary Sick, the principal White House aide on Iran, told The Times in 1993.

By the time the hostages were flown out of Iran, Carter had been out of office for 35 minutes. Christopher was on the tarmac in Algiers when their plane landed and greeted each of the hostages by name.

"He was the interlocutor between the White House and Iran," Carter said of his loyal deputy years later, "and it was his determination and his courage and his ability as a negotiator and his wisdom that resulted inlifetime is not necessarily the next rung up the ladder. It may be the one on which you already stand."

By 1991, Christopher was an elder statesman of Los Angeles with little need for more high-stakes headaches. But on March 3, an LAPD car chase ended in the brutal beating of Rodney G. King by several officers. A witness captured the beating on videotape, which showed other officers standing by and doing nothing to stop the vicious attack by their colleagues. Most of the officers involved in the incident were white; King was black.

When Christopher viewed the videotape two days later, he was "sickened and angry." When he urged Bradley to launch an independent investigation, the mayor insisted that Christopher head it. Against the advice of some of his


presided over five fractious community hearings and a staff of 50 lawyers and 60 accountants who interviewed 300 current and former officers and reviewed 1 million pages of documents.

Throughout the investigation, Christopher displayed "a grasp of the sociological context," Stanley Sheinbaum, the Police Commission president who engineered Gates' departure with the help of the Christopher Commission report, told The Times in 1993. "I don't know how you would define vision, but he sure got an understanding of the context of the problem that was better than anyone's."

Christopher later led the successful campaign to pass Charter Amendment F, which revamped LAPD management, including the system for hiring and firing the chief and disciplining officers.

"Warren Christopher set the city on a path toward healing wounds that had festered for generations,"county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said Saturday. "That work continues today, but without his leadership on the commission, without his position as a significant legal and moral counterweight to Chief Daryl Gates, we would not have seen the progress that is now universally acknowledged."

Christopher is survived by his second wife, the former Marie Wyllis, whom he married in 1956 after his first marriage ended in divorce; and their three children, Scott, Thomas and Kristen. He also is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins; and five grandchildren. Private services are pending.


U.S. Soccer Names Six Venues Selected to Host 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup

WNTJun 12, 2003

CHICAGO (Thursday, June 12, 2003) — U.S. Soccer President Dr. S. Robert Contiguglia has announced the six stadiums that will host the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the United States this fall. The six venues include two soccer specific stadiums: Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, and the newly christened Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., just south of Los Angeles. Another brand new stadium, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (scheduled to open this August), will bring the event to a city that hasn’t hosted an official U.S. National Team international match in 35 years. The remaining three venues include Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium, Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., outside Boston, and PGEHome Depot Center in Los Angeles will play host to the championship game.

Ticketing details will also be announced shortly and will include a private pre-sale for members of the U.S. Soccer community and registered fans at ussoccer.com.

Philadelphia’s procurement of Women’s World Cup games will mark the first-ever appearance of the U.S. Women’s National Team in the City of Brotherly Love, and is the first visit by any U.S. National Team to the city for a full international match in 35 years, dating all the way back to a match between the U.S. Men’s National Team and Israel on Sept. 25, 1968. The U.S. Men played English club team Sheffied Wednesday at Veteran's Stadium on Aug. 2, 1991. The U.S. Women have played in the state of Pennsylvania seven


times previously, including once each in the northern Philadelphia suburbs of Ambler and Horsham (in 1997 and 1996, respectively).

While four of the markets revealed today hosted matches at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Portland’s PGE Park (then Civic Stadium) will become the only stadium in the world to host matches in consecutive FIFA World Cups. The U.S. Women played their 1999 send-off match in Portland, as well as the 2000 Nike U.S. Cup. The newly renovated stadium hosted the 2002 WUSA All-Star Game. PGE Park is currelntly home to the Portland Timbers of the United Soccer Leagues' A-League and was the site of a number of classic NASL matches in the 1970s.

Gillette Stadium opened in 2002 on the site of famed Foxboro Stadium, one of the mostpopular venues in U.S. Soccer history (hosting five women’s matches and 10 men’s games from 1991 to 2001). The original Foxboro Stadium hosted five games at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, and was also one of nine U.S. venues at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The venerable old stadium also hosted the inaugural MLS Cup in 1996 and the inaugural WUSA Founder’s Cup in 2001.

RFK Stadium has also been a popular venue for U.S. Soccer, hosting 21 U.S. National Team matches since 1977, including five women’s games in the last nine years. As the home of both the WUSA’s Washington Freedom and MLS’s D.C. United, RFK was a host venue at both the 1994 World Cup and the 1996 Olympic Soccer Tournament.

Columbus Crew Stadium and the Home Depot


Center are the two most prestigious soccer-specific stadiums in the United States. Crew Stadium opened in 1999 as the first soccer specific stadium in MLS, and has hosted two men’s World Cup qualifiers and six overall national team matches in the last five years – including three WNT games. The Home Depot Center opened on June 7 to rave reviews across the nation, and is not only home to the Galaxy of MLS, but to the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup final, as well as the 2003 MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup championship.

"There were a number of important drivers in finalizing these six venues as hosts of the 2003 Women’s World Cup," said Contiguglia. "First, we thought it was very important to balance WUSA market representation withthat of MLS and the soccer community as a whole. In that regard, recognizing soccer specific stadiums in Columbus and the Home Depot Center was also high on our priority list, and we believe showcasing our National Training Center in Carson, Calif., was also very, very important.

"There were also extremely important parameters to consider in terms of making sure we had a national imprint for the six venues, but we also had to consider kickoff times in the East, Midwest and West in regards to the final schedule and television. We also took into account the travel that would be required of teams from venue to venue, and we’ve greatly reduced that requirement in comparison to the 1999 event. The travel was an important element from a FIFA


New Hampshire Artists Re-Imagine Earlier Works for Exhibition at Plymouth State University

PLYMOUTH — The Silver Center of the Arts at Plymouth State University will host an exhibition of prints by more than 20 New Hampshire-based printmakers October 16-December 13.

Artists who have revisited an earlier work and re-imagined a theme that has held for them to this day will present their new works. "The work will be one that engages that theme while rethinking size, color, new composition or process, or some other variable," according to exhibition curator Parker Potter.

A reception will be held Friday, October 18 from 4–6 p.m. at the Silver Center.

A law clerk for the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Potter became known on the New Hampshire printmaking scene as a juror, critic and curator in the1990s.

He has been chair of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen's gallery committee and has been a member of the League's board of trustees. Each year he organizes a print show at the League's Annual Craftsmen's Fair in Sunapee. He has curated shows for the New Hampshire Art Association, the Sharon Arts Center and Franklin Pierce Law Center, and has organized print acquisitions for the Law Center's art collection.

Potter and his wife, Nancy Jo Chabot, have collected prints, primarily editioned prints by New Hampshire printmakers, for more than 20 years. Their collection runs the gamut from works by students to works by internationally known artists.

The Silver Center, on Main Street in Plymouth, is open Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m, Friday 8 a.m.–5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon–6 p.m.


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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Leftist politicians in the Netherlands are once again outraged with Islam skeptic MP, Geert Wilders. This time not for asking the questions they seek to avert, but for foregoing participation in all but two cities in the next municipal elections. "Weak" and "evasive" are the qualifications uttered by reds and greens.

Wilders, on his party's site clarifies not to have been able to find the right candidates. The horrors that may befall a young, fast upcoming movement have been iconified by the sometimes ridiculous goings-on in Pim Fortuyn's party, which mushroomed and then collapsed in on itself through internal squabbles. This is perhaps the last chance of a popular revolt to take hold.

The reds and greens are having great trouble fending off the advance of Wilders'lowest sensibilities of the unwashed ... that he and his followers are closeted Nazis and fascists ... indeed, are practically subhuman. (This demonization has the precedent of the murders of Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn, but the elite couldn't care less).

A self-defeating process has set in: the more ridiculous and divorced of reality these accusations become, the more often they seem to be willing to repeat them. Short of the social pressure of Nudging, political correctness and exclusion, they're at a loss what to do next. Panic is setting in.

We are seeing such insults also being traded in the US, for example in the discourse about health care reform, where Democrats are accusing their opponents - the Republican Party as well as the voters - of race


the expectant folks Showers are often hosted by a sister, mom grandmother, […]

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23 Inspirant Nautical Baby Shower Invitations Templates – For many couples the celebration of a new baby is an enjoyable event. The months optimum up to birth can be as lots fun as the big day itself, and a child bathe is actually a spotlight ofas the big day itself, and a child shower is actually a highlight of that time. every other can host a child shower for the expectant fogeys Showers are often hosted by a sister, mom grandmother, […]

25 Impressionnant Two Peas In A Pod Baby Shower Invitations – For many couples the delivery of a new baby is an exciting event. The months optimal up to birth can be as a lot a laugh as the big day itself, and a baby bathe is certainly a highlight of that time. anybody can host a baby bathe for the expectant folks Showers are often hosted by a sister, […]

23 Meilleur De Create Baby Shower Invites – For many couples the birth of a new child is an exciting event. The


who wrote a New York Post column in 2006 lamenting that in the early stages of the Iraq War, "we didn't kill enough Sunnis in the early going to intimidate them and make them so afraid of us they would go along with anything," suggesting that the big U.S. mistake in the war was allowing "the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35." Remember, though: it's those Muslims who are The Terrorists (when influential American "terrorism experts" start talking about the John Podhoretzes of the world as terrorism advocates, and about "Shock and Awe", the assault on Fallujah and the bombing of Gaza as terrorism, and about Ronald Reagan as a "state sponsor of terrorism" for his funding of El Salvadoran death squads and
335 U.S. 160 (1948)
LUDECKE
v.
WATKINS, DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION.
No. 723.
Supreme Court of United States.
Argued May 3-4, 1948.
Decided June 21, 1948.
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT.
*161 Petitioner argued the cause and filed a brief pro se.
Stanley M. Silverberg argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Perlman, Assistant Attorney General Morison, Samuel D. Slade and Melvin Richter.
George C. Dix filed a brief for unnamed enemy aliens, as amici curiae, in support of petitioner.
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Fifth Congress committed to the President these powers:
"Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the


United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized, in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed, on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject *162 and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and toare issues which properly brought the case here. 333 U.S. 865.
Petitioner, a German alien enemy,[3] was arrested on December *163 8, 1941, and, after proceedings before an Alien Enemy Hearing Board on January 16, 1942, was interned by order of the Attorney General, dated February 9, 1942.[4] Under authority of the Act of 1798, the President, on July 14, 1945, directed the removal from the United States of all alien enemies "who shall be deemed by the Attorney General to be dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States." Proclamation 2655, 10 Fed. Reg. 8947. Accordingly, the Attorney General, on January 18, 1946, ordered petitioner's removal.[5] Denial of a writ of habeas corpus for release from detention under this order was affirmed by the court


also the guiding organ in the conduct of our foreign affairs. He who was entrusted with such vast powers in relation to the outside world was also entrusted by Congress, almost throughout the whole life of the nation, with the disposition of alien enemies during a state of war. Such a page of history is worth more than a volume of rhetoric.[19]
Judgment affirmed and stay order entered February 2, 1948, vacated.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, MR. JUSTICE MURPHY and MR. JUSTICE RUTLEDGE join, dissenting.
The petition for habeas corpus in this case alleged that petitioner, a legally admitted resident of the United States, *174 was about to be deported from this country to Germany as a "dangerous" alien enemy, without having been afforded notice and awho owe allegiance to a foreign government, but such action is authorized only "whenever there is a declared war between the United States" and such foreign government, or in the event that foreign government attempts or threatens the United States with "any invasion or predatory incursion." *176 The powers given to the President by this statute, I may assume for my purposes, are sufficiently broad to have authorized the President acting through the Attorney General to deport alien Germans from this country while the "declared" second World War was actually going on, or while there was real danger of invasion from Germany. But this 1798 statute, unlike statutes passed in later years, did not expressly prescribe the events which would for statutory purposes mark the termination of the


powers only to prevent alien enemies residing in the United States from extending aid and comfort to an enemy country while dangers from actual fighting hostilities were imminently threatened. Indeed, Mr. Otis, who was most persistent in his expressions of anti-French sentiments and in his aggressive sponsorship of this and its companion Alien and Sedition Acts, is recorded as saying ". . . that in a time of tranquility, he should not desire to put a power like this into the hands of the Executive; but, in a time of war, the citizens of France ought to be considered and treated and watched in a very different manner from citizens of our own country." Annals of Congress, 5th Cong., 2d Sess. 1791. And just before the bill wasordered to be read for its third time, Mr. Gallatin pointed out that the Alien Act had already made it possible for the President to remove all aliens, whether friends or enemies; he interpreted the measure here under consideration, aimed only at alien enemies, as providing "in what manner they may be laid under certain restraints by way of security." For this reason he supported this bill. Annals of Congress, 5th Cong., 2d Sess. 2035.
German aliens could not now, if they would, aid the German Government in war hostilities against the United States. For as declared by the United States Department of State, June 5, 1945, the German armed forces on land and sea had been completely subjugated and had unconditionally surrendered. "There is no central Government or


authority in Germany capable of accepting responsibility for the maintenance of order, the administration *178 of the country and compliance with the requirements of the victorious Powers." And the State Department went on to declare that the United States, Russia, Great Britain, and France had assumed "supreme authority with respect to Germany, including all the powers possessed by the German Government, the High Command, and any state, municipal, or local government or authority." 12 State Dept. Bull. 1051. And on March 17, 1948, the President of the United States told the Congress that "Almost 3 years have elapsed since the end . . ." of the war with Germany. See Court opinion, n. 15.
Of course it is nothing but a fiction to say that we are now atbut not until it had been amended on the floor of the House of Representatives to require that all alien enemies be given a fair hearing before their deportation. 58 Cong. Rec. 3366. That a fair hearing was the command of Congress is not only shown by the language of the Act but by the text of the congressional hearings, by the committee reports and by congressional debates on the bill. In fact, the House was assured by the ranking member of the Committee reporting the bill that in hearings to deport alien enemies under the bill "a man is entitled to have counsel present, entitled to subpoena witnesses and summon them before him and have a full hearing, at which the stenographer's minutes must be taken." 58


by two Attorney Generals, upon which Congress acted in 1920. It is held that Congress and the two Attorney Generals of the Wilson administration were wrong in believing that the 1798 Act did not authorize deportation of interned enemy aliens after hostilities and before a peace treaty. And in making its novel interpretation of the 1798 Act the Court today denies this petitioner and others the kind of fair hearing that due process of law was intended to guarantee. See The Japanese Immigrant Case, 189 U.S. 86, 100-101, read and explained on the floor of the House of Representatives at 58 Cong. Rec. 3373, read into the House Committee hearings, supra at 19-20, and quoted in part in note 2 of MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS' dissenting opinion.
The Court's opinionby regulations of general applicability and has authorized deportation only of those deemed dangerous because they have adhered to an enemy government, or the principles thereof. Petitioner was in fact given a hearing in 1945 before the Repatriation Hearing Board in addition to one in 1942 before the Alien Enemy Hearing Board. The order for his deportation recites that "upon consideration of the evidence presented" before those Boards, the Attorney General, in the words of the Proclamation, deems petitioner "to be dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States because he has adhered to a government with which the United States is at war or to the principle thereof." Those findings and conclusions and the procedure by which they were reached must conform with the


Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398, 426.
NOTES
[1]  There have been a few minor changes in wording. We have duly considered these in light of an argument in the brief of the amici curiae and deem them without significance.
[2]  We are advised that there are 530 alien enemies, ordered to depart from the United States, whose disposition awaits the outcome of this case.
[3]  The district court found that:

"The petitioner was born in Berlin, Germany, on February 5, 1890. He was out of Germany for most of the period of 1923 to March 1933. He returned to Germany in March 1933 and became a member of the Nazi party. Later he had some disagreements with other members and as a result he was sent to aGerman concentration camp, from which he escaped March 1, 1934, after being confined for over eight months. Sometime thereafter he came to this country and published a book, `I Knew Hitler' [`The Story of a Nazi Who Escaped The Blood Purge'  `In memory of Captain Ernst Roehm and Gregor Strasser and many other Nazis who were betrayed, murdered, and traduced in their graves'], in 1937. His petition for naturalization as an American citizen was denied December 18, 1939."
The petitioner's attitude was thus expressed in his brief before the district court:
"Fundamentally, it matters not where I live, for I can strive to live the right life and be of service where ever I am. Besides, it may well be a better thing to do the best I can


July 14, 1798, 1 Stat. 596, as well as the instant "An Act respecting Alien Enemies," approved July 6, 1798. It is significant that while the former statutes  the Alien and Sedition Acts  were vigorously and contemporaneously attacked as unconstitutional, there was never any issue raised as to the validity of the Alien Enemy Act. James Madison, in his report on the Virginia Resolutions, carefully and caustically differentiated between friendly and enemy alien legislation, as follows: "The next observation to be made is, that much confusion and fallacy have been thrown into the question by blending the two cases of aliens, members of a hostile nation, and aliens, members of friendly nations.. . . With respect to alien enemies, no doubt has been intimated as tosuch officers, in respect of the matters upon which that liberty depends  not necessarily an opportunity upon a regular, set occasion, and according to the forms of judicial procedure, but one that will secure the prompt, vigorous action contemplated by Congress, and at the same time be appropriate to the nature of the case upon which such officers are required to act. Therefore, it is not competent for the Secretary of the Treasury or any executive officer, at any time within the year limited by the statute, arbitrarily to cause an alien, who has entered the country, and has become subject in all respects to its jurisdiction, and a part of its population, although alleged to be illegally here, to be taken into custody and deported without


giving him all opportunity to be heard upon the questions involving his right to be and remain in the United States. No such arbitrary power can exist where the principles involved in due process of law are recognized."
Poractant alfa

Poractant alfa is a pulmonary surfactant sold under the brand name Curosurf by Chiesi Farmaceutici.  Poractant alfa is an extract of natural porcine lung surfactant. As with other surfactants, marked improvement on oxygenation may occur within minutes of the administration of poractant alfa.
The new generic form of surfactant is SLS (Sheep Lung Surfactant) developed in PersisGen Co. and commercialized by ArnaGen Pharmad. It has fully comparable quality profile with Curosurf.

Pharmacology
Each milliliter of poractant alfa contains 80 mg of surfactant (extract) that includes 76 mg of phospholipids and 1 mg of protein of which 0.2 mg is surfactant protein B (SP-B). Depending on local country registration, CUROSURF is available in 1.5mL vials, 3.0mL vials, and/or twin packs containing two 1.5mL vials.

The amount of phospholipids is calculated from the content of


create the perfect shade and density of colour. Each entrant into the contest was then subjected to a public vote to decide the winners of the contest.

Thousands of users from across the country showed off their artistic skill using this app, thus creating a huge repository of art work created online and proving that ours really is a country of budding Picassos!

Promoting the Campaign

The campaign was promoted on Facebook via stamp ads and post promotions, along with targeted banners and mailers.

Performance

In just 45 days, the Experience Camlin Contest received around 1000 entries! The top voted entry has received around 150 votes with the second highest voted entry receiving 145 votes!British authorities told NBC News that forensic evidence at the scene — including a body found at the blast site — indicated a suicide attack. British and U.S. law enforcement officials said they believed they had tentatively identified the bomber. Greater Manchester Police said the incident was being treated as terrorism. A senior White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump, who is on a visit to Jerusalem, had been briefed. Police said the explosion took place outside the arena, which is near the Manchester Victoria transit station, as the concert ended at about 10:35 p.m. local time (5:35 p.m. ET), catching people as they exited. Ian Hopkins, chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police, said investigators were coordinating with British intelligence. “This is clearly a


FEB 5 -- FRESNO,
Calif.—United States Attorney Benjamin
B. Wagner and Drug Enforcement Administration
Special Agent in Charge Anthony D. Williams,
announced today that United States District
Judge Oliver W. Wanger sentenced SERGIO REYNOL
PADILLA, 43, of Merced, to 21 years and 10
months in federal prison for his leadership
role in a vast six-year conspiracy to distribute
and possess with intent to distribute large
quantities of cocaine.

This
case is the product of an investigation, sponsored
by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task
Force (OCDETF). OCDETF is a focused interagency
program investigating and prosecuting the most
significant drug trafficking organizations throughout
the United States by leveraging the combined expertise
of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Members of the OCDETF task force in this case included
the Drug Enforcement Administration, the California
Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement,
Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation, the Merced Police Department,eye over the states of Europe we find them wealthy & populous nearly in proportion to the freedom of their commerce. and we may conclude from thence that were it perfectly free, they would probably attain the highest points of wealth & population of which their other circumstances would admit. A free competition between buyers & sellers, is the most certain means of fixing the true worth of merchandize: on the other hand the restraint of this right to particular persons which constitutes a monopoly, has been found in experience the most powerful engine ever employed for the suffocation of commerce. It is interesting to both parties therefore to guard against this in their stipulations. The law of Konigsberg which prohibits a foreigner from selling his merchandize to


agree to the amendment proposed by adding to this article these words “the antient & barbarous right to wrecks of the sea shall be entirely abolished with respect to the subjects or citizens of the two contracting parties.[”]

Art. 10. By the laws of the United States copied in this instance from those of England, aliens are incapable of holding real estate. When an estate of that nature descends to an alien, it passes on by escheat to the State. The policy of the United States does not
permit the giving to the subjects of any other power a capacity to hold lands within their limits, which was proposed by the project formerly delivered to Mr Adams. But they are perfectly willing to relieve such persons from all loss onof stipulation to take place generally, it would operate very injuriously against the United States in cases wherein it is not presumed his Majesty would wish it. For suppose them to be hereafter in war with any power in Europe, their enemy, tho’ excluded from the ports of every other State, will yet have their own ports at hand, into which they may carry & sell the prizes they shall make on the United States, but the United States under a like general exclusion, having no ports of their own in Europe their prizes in those seas must be hazarded across the ocean to seek a market at home: an incumbrance which would cripple all their efforts on that element, & give to their enemies great advantage over


American response and the revisions suggested by the commissioners were apparently accepted by the Prussian foreign ministry. In Thulemeier’s reply of 3 May 1785, which he enclosed in his letter to JA of the same date, he advised the commissioners that it remained for them only to prepare an English language version of the treaty (Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, Princeton, 1950–. description ends , 8:134–135; Adams Papers, JA, Works description begins The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. description ends , 8:238–239).

The National Historical Publications and
Records Commission (NHPRC) is part ofthe National
Archives. Through its grants program, the NHPRC supports a wide range of activities to
preserve, publish, and encourage the use of documentary sources, relating to the history of
the United States, and research and development projects to bring historical records to the
public.

Founders Online is an official website
of the U.S. government, administered by the
National Archives and Records Administration
through the NHPRC, in partnership with the
University of Virginia Press,
which is hosting this website.


cat:

That icon of American journalism Bill Moyers, has a chat with Barbara Ehrenreich (author of Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch) as well as Clive James, Australian born cultural critic living in U.K. Lively and entertaining discussions on the state of affairs here, there and just about everywhere. Moyers' PBS show called The Journal, is indeed a worthwhile view, either on the television or the net.

A nice little ditty from the SF Chronicle on the beautiful Waimea Falls Canyon on the North Shore of O'ahu, since it has been run by the Audubon Society these last few years. One of my favourite spots, and worth every plaudit.

Gee, I dunno, maybe it's something to do with being afraid of what we don't understand?

Not to get stuck into politics andperformances in Bob Dylan's current tour down under. His re-working of the songs, far too many in nearly 50 years of performing to reach everyones favourites, also cops some flak.

None of it matters. Not to him. And not to those who experience the essence of a living legend performing the way an artist does best: with creativity and surprise.Since when is music just for the young? Yes, each decade I see him is a different show, and each one has a magic all its own. Auckland sold out its first show last night, and after a stint over in Australia, he is due back for two more shows at the end of the month in a small theatre. He must be doing something right for that kind of


meticulously outlines the urgent nature of many imminent global crises, he is at pains to steer clear of languishing in blame and recrimination. Instead, in one important chapter, he takes the example of the human immune system as proof that living things will respond to potential threats in a complicated, yet efficient way. That is not to say all is well, and we can sit back and watch as things work themselves out. He devotes nearly half the book, as well as his latest project Wiser Earth, as an opportunity to catalogue and celebrate the action and interconnectedness of the thousands of NGO's, civil society organisations and groups that are filling the leadership vacuum left by governments and politicians. The website is a truly global resource centre andunique communicator. There is an underlying tenderness and playful quality to his manner, one which immediately puts others to ease. His talk centred around the notion of "internal disarmament".

There have been Dalai Lamas since the 15th century, all leading the people in the mountain kingdom of Tibet, until the neighbours to the north decided they wanted to put a stop to all that. He is the first one to have lived outside his own country, in exile, for nearly 50 years. Succession will be no doubt be a disputed matter. However, this charismatic individual, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989 as well as a long list of honours and Major Awards as shown on his official website, has a very high profile around the world.


for one am looking forward to hearing him speak next week when he is in the country. I have heard him several times, and on no occasion has he ever spoken ill of anyone, let alone the large country to the north that invaded his tiny sovereign nation all those years ago.

Winter is setting in for us Southern Hemisphere residents, grass is greening, temps dropping, and the shortest day appears around the corner. Matariki, or the Maori New Year celebrations take place over the next couple of weeks with the rising of the Pleiades constellation. The literal translation is "small eyes", and signified the right time to plant, as well as historically serving navigation purposes in their maritime voyages. I am not so sure about their waka travels,first time in a decade, having a sentimental chat. Video and transcript here. Life moves on, as they say.

It has been raining in Godzone. Having my autumn planting done, I am happily reading an acclaimed novel by the author Richard Ford, called The Lay of the Land. It is a witty and sardonic tale of mid life crises amongst the disillusioned Boomers of East Coast America that takes place at the turn of the millenium. Very enjoyable.

Ford was one of many internationally recognised authors at our recent Auckland Writers and Readers festival. Fast becoming a must do on the early winter calendar, the speakers, venue and discussions all were superbly done. Now the country's largest gathering of of New Zealand and international authors, attracting 11,000 guests over the


3 days. I must say I had never heard of the widely published travel writer Pico Iyer; but he was one of the hits at the festival and his books are now on my must read list.

Next up on the "culture vulture" list will be the Dalai Lama visit on 17 July, the Annual Film Festival, and then the iconic Bob Dylan playing on Aug 11. Definitely indoor stuff at this time of year.The San Francisco Chronicle looks back 40 years to the Summer of Love in the City with a series of articles by Mark Molford. Well worth the time even if you were not there. It didn't last, as these things are apt not to, but the ramifications still percolate through our western societies.

On that theme,The Guardian has a list here of the so-called "hippie hot spots", where the living is relaxed and cheap I would assume. If that is your thing, then you will want to know whats hot and what's not anymore. And I thought I had been around, but apparently not so..

A final North American roundup: the widely followed story of two humpback whales that took a wrong turn at the Golden Gate Bridge is fascinating. In their annual voyage up the west coast from Mexico to Alaska, the two mammals got lost halfway up the winding estuaries of the San Francisco Bay for a couple of weeks. Of course it was a New Zealand man who invented and developed the dart gun especially used in these circumstances to inject


manager in all of this? Not a good look, as they say.

And speaking of nightmares, if your name is David Bain, and you lived in Dunedin, NZ in the early 90's, then the last 13 years in prison came to an end last week. Arrested and jailed for allegedly killing all 5 members of his family, he has steadfastly claimed his innocence. A long and arduous campaign has gone all the way to the Privy Council in London, where Law Lords (what is a Law Lord?) quashed his conviction and he was subsequently released. He may still face another trial, but do you think he might just have paid his dues already? To lose your entire family and then spend over a decade in prison as the murdererway of China. Fattening themselves for the epic jaunt, they travel over 10,000km with only a short stop for food and water along the way.

That's alot of flappin'. Carbon neutral as well!

A new biography is out on the great thinker of the early 20th century, Rudoph Steiner. Along with founding the Waldorf schools and Biodynamic agricultural methods, he was fond of pouring his remaining coffee from his cup each day on the earth, so it could have the benefit as well. A very prolific writer and lecturer with some interesting ideas and supporters, anthroposophy was the name given to his mystical and holistic approach.

Another guy to steer way clear of: First, he promotes the invasion of a sovereign country and makes a mess of that whole neo-con imperialist


Chronicle columnist Mark Morford. Since Green has become the new chic, then maybe the hippies were on to something all those years ago. I kind of enjoyed living in a teepee. My carbon footprint was more of a charcoal smudge, but it was living lightly!

Speaking of greenies, and hippies (not!), Prince Charles features in the Vanity Fair Green issue, in an article entitled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Throne. Apparently he has received an Environmental Global Citizen Award that he jetted in to pick up earlier this year. For the Prince everyone likes to make fun of, and who has been "talking to plants" for awhile now; it is clear he was on to it in the early days, pushing organic farming and sustainableHe would be the only figure in the entire British monarchy that would get any time at all from environmentalists, and he is treated like real royalty in the States, a position usually reserved for sport or entertainment celebrities. As the NYTimes reports, he has become a bit of a hero for the organic movement, and been at it awhile too.

One biography I read years ago had him asking a prominent spiritual teacher for initiation into a practice of yoga and meditation. He was politely refused as the story goes, with the explanation that his profile was just too great in this lifetime. Great story. Good guy. Who cares about the ears, or the personal issues (we all have them)! He actually has the resources to do something


Strengthening the capability of family health leaders for sustainable community-based health promotion.
The Family Health Leader (FHL) Project was initiated in 1997 to encourage self-care and health promotion. Since then, there has been no retraining. This study aimed to strengthen the FHLs' capability to sustain community-based health promotion and network establishment. The study, of a quasi-experimental design, was conducted in a village in Phan Thong district, Chon Buri Province, Thailand. The intervention emphasized enhancing the FHLs' knowledge, ability, leadership and motivation to advance health promotion activities. Before implementing the main intervention, 5 community health workers were trained as facilitators to strengthen 36 FHL capabilities. The curriculum and manual for training facilitators and FHLs were also developed. The intervention for strengthening FHLs' capabilities lasted for 7 months using participatory training.hours on May 5 in Moreno Valley which is about 70 miles from San Clemente. He was arrested early in the morning hours that day for driving under the influence. After he had been released he was arrested on burglary charges for trying to steal back his black Mustang which had been impounded.

Young, a second-round draft pick by the Lions in 2011, was released on Feb. 4.

The police report lists his occupation as unemployed.

Young had been troublesome through much of 2012. It started with sucker-punching his teammate Louis Delmas. He also lined up in the wrong spots during a Nov. 18 loss to Green Bay. He didn’t play a snap the rest of the season.


and a large National Institutes of Health human trial on exercise and Parkinson disease is forthcoming.

Family physicians are often the first to diagnose and treat patients with Parkinson disease. Given the current evidence supporting exercise as a treatment for this disease and its impact on other associated conditions, including heart disease and depression, we strongly suggest that physicians encourage exercise in all patients with Parkinson disease.

Anecdotally, we saw a patient who was diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson disease in 2001 at 49 years of age who lost his insurance when he became unemployed in 2006. As a result, he decided to wean himself off his medications while continuing an intense exercise program. His main symptoms were stiffness and tremor in his left leg and hand. He was an avidWelcome to The Boot's News Roundup, a morning rundown of the news country music fans need to know. Read on to learn more about the latest goings-on in the country, Americana, bluegrass and folk genres.

Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Dan + Shay, Kane Brown and Florida Georgia Line are nominated at the 2019 Kids Choice Awards. Bryan is nominated for Favorite Male Artist, alongside acts such as Drake and Bruno Mars, while both Dan + Shay and Brown are up for the Favorite Breakout Artist award. Bryan and Shelton are in the running for Favorite TV Judges alongside their fellow American Idol and The Voice judges, respectively, and FGL could win Favorite Collaboration, for "Meant to Be," the duo's chart-topping duet with Bebe Rexha. Set to air on Nickelodeon


22. According to a release, Young and DeGraw have been friends for more than a decade; in fact, DeGraw lends vocals and lyrics to Young's song "Chapters," from his sophomore album, Ticket to L.A. Tickets for the show are currently on sale, and more details are available on Young's website.

Michael Loccisano, Getty Images.

Beloved Texas country four-piece the Eli Young Band will release an album of greatest hits in March. Titled This Is Eli Young Band, the album includes 14 iconic EYB tracks, including the triple-platinum single "Crazy Girl" and the fan-favorite song "Guinevere." "This is the first time you’ve ever been able to get some of that older music, new music and the hits all in one place," the band's Mike Eli said during a Facebook Live broadcastTartakovsky and Hartman Lift Spirits in Ottawa

We had plenty of sunshine and lots of inspiring panels on the first two days of the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the TV Animation Conference (TAC) held this week in the charming capital city in Ontario, Canada.

On Wednesday morning (September 19), Moira Marguin, head of animation at the acclaimed French school Gobelins, provided an overview of how they train their students to create stunning animated shorts and prepare them for the work force year after year. Mary Bredin, VP of development and acquisitions at Toronto’s Guru Studios followed with an interesting panel on the do’s and don’ts of internship at animation studios, with Steven Khan (Sheridan College), Tanya Green (9 Story Ent.) and Krista Hiddema (e2r Solutions).

On Thursday, the TAC audience


and Sym-Bionic Titan.

Hotel Transylvania

Later on that day, festivalgoers were treated to a special sneak peek of Hotel Transylvania, after which he graciously offered more frank talk and generous advice to the audience of students, animation fans and professionals, who were completely won over by his funny and charming film about everyone’s favorite monsters. In response to questions from the audience, Tartakovsky even discussed the challenges and rewards of working with a big comic star like Adam Sandler and why working on Clone Wars was not such a joyful experience. He also assured fans that he’s hoping to make a Samurai Jack movie and that the people in charge at Sony will respond to how fans have kept the torch alive even the show wrapped production in 2004.

Butch Hartman,TORONTO, Canada – The classic playground game “tag” is too dangerous, Toronto school officials believe, so they banned it at a local Catholic elementary.

The decision comes amid a “series of incidents” involving student injuries at St. Luke Catholic School in recent weeks and follows similar bans on balls, and cartwheels, and snowballs, and other activities deemed “dangerous” by school officials throughout the city in recent years, The Toronto Star reports.

MORE NEWS: UI prof scrambles to rewrite slavery assignment after student complains on Twitter

“The game of tag they were playing was getting overly physical and rough,” Toronto Catholic District School Board spokesman John Yan said. Students pushed, punched and tackled each other, he said.

“They were not watching, they were blindly running over (other) kids,” Yan said.

A few received bruises


217 So.2d 548 (1969)
Willie F. HOWARD
v.
STATE.
1 Div. 348.
Court of Appeals of Alabama.
January 7, 1969.
John Coleman, Mobile, for appellant.
MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., and Marlin Mooneyham, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
CATES, Judge.
October 23, 1967, two cars collided on a road near Elberta. Larry Johnson, driving one of them, was killed. Howard was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in Johnson's death. Howard was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary.
Mr. C. D. Johnston, a highway patrolman, investigated the collision. He interviewed Howard twice. The first time was on the night of October 23 at South Baldwin Hospital. The second, was the following morning at the same place.
The transcript of testimony shows the following:
"MR. COLEMAN: I would like to take this witness on voir dire out of the presence of theLying in the street with her blood-stained Barbie doll blasted from her hand, a dead teenager has become the latest victim of the Philippines war on drugs.

The young girl was shot dead alongside her older friend by unknown motorcycle-riding gunmen in an alley in Manila.

Afterwards, the shooters left a cardboard sign on the body of her 21-year-old male friend with the message 'You are a drug pusher, you are an animal'.

A teenage girl lies dead in the street after being gunned down as part of the Philippines crackdown on drugs

Police believe the girl was an innocent victim and it appeared her blood-stained Barbie doll had been blown out of her hands

As well as the doll, police recovered other items belonging to the youngster including a Hello kitty watch

And


police now believe the girl may have been an innocent victim caught up in the shooting when the gunman tried to target her friend.

Pictures from the scene show the bloodstained teenager, 17, lying dead on the ground outside a house in a dark street.

Her Barbie doll can be seen close by and shows how it seems to have been blasted from her hand during the attack.

Other images show officers gathering up her belongings, which also includes a Hello Kitty watch while her weeping relatives look on devastated.

Pictures from the scene show the bloodstained teenager, 17, lying dead on the ground outside a house in a dark street with her older male friend

New Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte launched an anti-drugs crackdown when he came to office in June andat least 3,700 people have been killed

New Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte launched an anti-drugs crackdown when he came to office in June.

And at least 3,700 suspected drug dealers have been killed in less than four months.

Many are thought to have been gunned down by vigilante groups, who are paid in cash for each confirmed kill, with many leaving cards labelled pushers next to bodies to prove the hit.

The crackdown has attracted criticism from many in the international community, after the controversial Duterte pledged to kill 100,000 drug users and dealers and fill Manila Bay with their bodies.

And today the Philippines' police chief reprimanded officers and some senior generals for raising concerns with journalists about the country's war on drugs, telling subordinates to talk to him instead - if


Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, on Sunday urged President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE and other world leaders to "reject" Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to spread disinformation about his critics.

McFaul was in the headlines last week after Putin suggested during a meeting with Trump that he'd allow U.S. officials to observe questioning of Russians indicted in the special counsel's probe if, in return, Russian authorities could question McFaul and other Americans who allegedly committed crimes in Russia.

"Of course I broke no Russian law," McFaul tweeted Sunday."But Putin uses disinformation & the law to silence his critics or chase them out of the country as you know well. Time for the rest of the world, including the President of the United States, to understand Putins tactics & reject them."

Exactly. Of course I broke no Russian law. But Putin uses disinformation & the law to silence his critics or chase them out of the country as you know well. Time for the rest of the world, including the President of the United States, to understand Putins tactics & reject them https://t.co/3eJsSY2wqb — Michael McFaul (@McFaul) July 22, 2018

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Trump initially appeared receptive to Putin's offer, calling it an "incredible offer" at last Monday's press conference. The White House went on to say the president was discussing


the possibility with his team.

The comments prompted widespread backlash from Republicans, Democrats and former diplomats who expressed surprise that the White House would even consider the proposal. The Senate unanimously passed a resolution warning Trump against turning over former diplomats and officials for questioning.

On Thursday, the White House issued a statement saying Trump "disagrees" with Putin's offer.

The two leaders are expected to meet this fall in Washington, D.C.

Trump endured a week of harsh criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for his performance in Finland with Putin, and for the statements that followed in which the president seemingly continued to embrace Russia and reject the U.S. intelligence community.Mobile2008

Mobile application to connect healthcare professionals with people in remote locations in the developing world. Created as part of the NextLab
initiative at MIT and piloted in Zambia. Collaborative work with Leo Celi. Learn more.

Monroy-Hernández,
A.,Kiciman, E., boyd, d., Counts, S. (2012).
Narcotweets: Social Media in Wartime. In Proceedings of the AAAI International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM '12) Note: For a more in-depth article on this topic, please see the CSCW '13 publication above titled The New War Correspondents

Burke, W.,
Monroy-Hernández, A.,Kafai,
Y. (2011). Tagging in a Community of Media Creators: Practices that make programs popular in Scratch Online. In
Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA
'11)

New Opportunities
in Amateur Interactive Content.Invited speaker.
Amateur Hour Conference. New York Law School. New York, NY,
2007

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Technology Foresight Forum


The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

By Witold Pilecki | Translated by Jarek Garliński | Aquila Polonica | US$ $34.95

In the late 1960s, during one of my first visits to Warsaw, I found myself travelling by public transport along Rakowiecka Street in the southern suburb of Mokotów with a young Polish woman named Sonia, who had been deputed by kind friends to look after their exotic and no doubt naive visitor. At a certain moment she pointed discreetly at the forbidding walls of a building we were passing and whispered, with a tremor of dread in her voice, that it was a jail. Then, even more nervously, she explained to me that there were political prisoners inside. She sought my confirmation that there were such prisons in Australia too. Ipower, and in 1968 it launched an internationally conspicuous hate campaign against Poland’s surviving Jews.

By that time, the notorious Jewish communists of the Stalinist-era security establishment had been removed from office, and in some cases punished, and the manoeuvre did not succeed. But its failure came only after a major crackdown on the opposition-minded intelligentsia, which also contained many Jews, had pushed half of Poland’s Jewry, including Sonia, into emigration.

It is unlikely that Sonia would have heard of the name, much less the exploits, of one of Mokotów’s prisoners, the Polish cavalry captain Witold Pilecki, who was held and tortured there for nearly a year in the late 1940s, and executed on 25 May 1948. For many decades following his judicial murder, Pilecki was an unperson, his heroic


career unknown to the younger generation of his compatriots.

Pilecki features as one of the six most outstanding resistance fighters of the second world war in the British historian Michael R.D. Foot’s 1978 book Six Faces of Courage. But because of the Western squint on the history of the war, Pilecki is not well-known among Anglo-Saxon readers either. And that means any introduction of the remarkable book, The Auschwitz Volunteer, to English-language readers must also introduce its equally remarkable author.

WITOLD Pilecki was born in 1901 into a family that had been forcibly resettled to Tsarist Russia because of his grandfather Józef Pilecki’s involvement in the Polish uprising of 1863, for which Józef had spent seven years in Siberian exile. As a boy, he moved with his family to theethnically Polish (and Jewish) city of Wilno, now Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. He joined the secret Polish scout movement, which led naturally to his teenage involvement in the Polish independence struggle during the latter stages of the first world war, including the underground resistance to invading Bolshevik forces near Wilno. (Despite presenting themselves as the liberators of the Tsarist “prison of the peoples,” the Bolsheviks were in fact doing their best to restore the Russian empire, in a new “proletarian” guise.)

Following Poland’s re-emergence as an independent state, Pilecki joined the newly formed national Polish army and took a very active part in the Polish–Bolshevik war of 1919–20, notably in the defence of Warsaw in 1920. Still in his teens, he was twice decorated. After the war, he


returned to civilian life, working to restore his family estate while remaining active both as a reserve officer and through charitable work, for which he was again decorated. By all accounts a devoted husband and father, he also engaged in musical and artistic pursuits, including painting and writing poetry. He was later to pen a poem in Mokotów Prison to his torturer-in-chief, the notorious Colonel Różański.

In 1939, Pilecki was mobilised as a platoon commander in the Polish cavalry. Contrary to the hardy myth, his poorly equipped unit did not undertake quixotic charges on horseback against the advancing Germans, but it did succeed in destroying seven tanks and three aircraft. The Polish armed forces received no help from their Western allies and were soon outgunned by the enemy. Retreatingto the southeast, Pilecki and his men were overrun by Soviet forces entering Poland to claim their share of the spoils of the secret clauses of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, which carved up Eastern Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Discouraged by Poland’s isolation and the unequal struggle on two fronts, and abandoned by a high command and political leadership that had retreated across the southeastern border, many Polish armed units also headed west via the same route, but Pilecki’s unit remained. Its last battles were fought as a partisan force.

In November 1939, Pilecki helped found a pioneering resistance group called the Secret Polish Army, which became one of the building blocks of the Armia Krajowa (the Home Army), the biggest armed resistance formation in German-occupied Europe for much


Polish region of Silesia, which, with its mixed Polish-German population, had been annexed directly to the Third Reich.

The fragmentary but alarming reports about Auschwitz that reached the underground led Pilecki to propose to his superiors that he allow himself to be incarcerated in Auschwitz to organise a resistance movement there and send back intelligence. Pilecki seems to have been the only person who ever volunteered to become an Auschwitz prisoner. After his commanders agreed to the plan, he inserted himself in a German mass round-up in Warsaw. Along with some 1800 other people seized in the round-up, he was transported to Auschwitz, where he was to spend two years and eight months in Auschwitz I, the Stammlager, or main camp, in the complex.

Auschwitz was not yet the mass-murderfacility it was later to become, nor had adequate reports of the vicious conditions there filtered through to Warsaw. Even for someone as hardened to resistance as Pilecki, arriving at the camp after a nightmarish journey without food or water was a severe shock. Brutally extracted from their freight trucks under blinding lights, beaten, kicked and rifle-butted by SS-men and herded by snarling dogs into lines, the new arrivals were then marched into the camp. In his report, Pilecki described the scene as follows:

On the way, one of us was told to run to a post at the side of the road; he was followed by a burst of automatic weapons fire and mown down. Ten men were then dragged out of the ranks at random and shot


build up his organisations of intelligence agents and soldiers-in-waiting. Through the networks they created, they were sometimes able to help themselves and others – or even save prisoners from impending disaster or exposure – and also to conduct guerrilla warfare against the worst of the camp administrators. (An example of the latter involved collusion with sympathisers on the staff of the prison hospital – itself typically a staging post to death or execution – to infect their hated tormentors with the typhus-carrying lice that were endemic in the prisoner population.)

Pilecki had begun organising this elaborate resistance structure very soon after his arrival, basing it on groups of five, no members of which, apart from himself, had a comprehensive sense of the extent or membership of the organisation asa whole. Though by no means the most senior military prisoner in the camp, his natural authority and remarkable flair for organisation enabled him to unify all the existing underground cells and groups in the camp under his leadership. The resulting Union of Military Organisation included activists from various points on the political spectrum of prewar Poland who, in normal circumstances, would not have been prepared to shake hands with one another.

By recruiting collaborators from among inmates who had become camp functionaries of one sort or another, Pilecki’s organisation was able to mitigate some of the worst features of camp life. It also gathered information about the crimes of the occupation regime and transmitted reports to the underground leadership via the occasional prisoners who were released from the


increasingly of Jews – all of which Pilecki reported – there was a marked reluctance in Allied circles to believe the reports. As with the news of the Holocaust conveyed to the Allies by the legendary Polish courier, Jan Karski, they tended to be dismissed as exaggerated or inaccurate.

After more than two-and-a-half years in Auschwitz, Pilecki began to detect signs that the organisation may be in danger and that his own role could be exposed. If Pilecki, with his overarching knowledge of the underground structure in Auschwitz, succumbed to extreme methods of interrogation the results for all his colleagues would have been disastrous. With two comrades, he staged a successful getaway, surviving gunfire from guards in hot pursuit and an encounter with an armed German patrol a littlePilecki made his way stealthily towards Warsaw. During the journey, by a bizarre coincidence, he met the real owner of the identity he and his underground colleagues had pilfered to forge the documents he had used for the round-up. The false identity had helped to protect his underground colleagues and to save him from being blackmailed by threats to his family. The real owner of his nom de guerre was startled to meet him, but bore him no ill will and indeed invited him to rest and recuperate before continuing his journey.

Back in Warsaw he immediately resumed his underground activities in Home Army headquarters, where he was promoted from lieutenant to captain and deployed in the Home Army Sabotage Command. In his new post he resumed his efforts


civilians, underground soldiers and medical orderlies alike – were killed. Hitler gave explicit instructions that the city should be razed to the ground in punishment for its outrageous impertinence. Despite his status as an officer, Pilecki volunteered for action as a foot soldier in the uprising. With casualties mounting rapidly, however, he accepted an officer’s command, and led some particularly noteworthy acts of armed resistance against the vastly superior firepower of the enemy.

One in particular, in which his unit repeatedly took and retook a strategic building on the main east–west thoroughfare through the city, caused great frustration to the German side. Reviewing the episode, the eminent British historian Norman Davies comments that so long as Pilecki “threatened this one vital pressure point, the German command was made tofeel insecure. One is tempted to suggest that a single company could have won the Rising a fortnight’s reprieve.”

Time was perceived as vital by the uprising’s leaders, who were calculating that the Allies would come to their assistance. But Moscow, having called in its propaganda broadcasts to Poland for the insurgents to rise up, halted its advance on the other side of the Vistula River when they did so, and waited for Hitler to crush the insurrection. With it, Stalin calculated, the powerful national underground movement, which he wanted to replace with his proxy Polish forces, would also be crushed. Stalin even refused to allow the Western Allies to make use of airstrips under Soviet control to the east of the city in their attempts to deliver vital


supplies to the insurgents. (Flight distances were too great for aircraft to deliver supplies to Warsaw without landing somewhere nearby and refuelling for the return journey to Allied airfields on the Western front.)

When the leaders of the uprising finally surrendered, Pilecki was taken prisoner and spent several months in German POW camps. On being released in July 1945, he joined the main unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, Władysław Anders’s Second Polish Corps. He soon accepted a mission from Anders to return to Poland under yet another false identity to gather intelligence on the progressive communisation of Poland by the Soviet Army, the Soviet NKVD secret police, and their Polish equivalents. These Polish forces and nascent political structures had been recruited from deportees and exilesin the Soviet Union who had not chosen, or had not had the chance, to join General Anders in his evacuation of Polish forces and their families from the Soviet Union to the West. By that time, they had been thoroughly immersed in Stalin’s methods by their Soviet masters and fully subordinated to them.

Back in his homeland in October 1945, Pilecki again set about forming a resistance intelligence network. Early in 1946, the government-in-exile in London, deflated by a complete lack of support from the Allies, who had supposedly guaranteed their sovereignty and declared war against Germany in their defence, decided further resistance to Sovietisation of Poland was pointless. They ordered all the partisans still resisting the new occupiers to abandon the struggle, conserve their remaining strength and


return to a civilian existence in Poland or seek to escape to the West in readiness for some future reckoning. Pilecki ignored this directive, and also warnings that the Moscow-controlled Polish police apparatus was closing in on him. He declined to respond to an amnesty offered by the regime in 1947.

He was arrested in May 1947 and spent ten months in detention while a show trial was prepared against him and a number of others accused of being members of his group. Like all political prisoners in the emerging Stalinist Polish state, he was treated with great brutality, and is known to have been subjected to “interrogations” by some of the most notorious sadists in the Polish security police. In a final whispered aside to his wife anda family friend at his trial, he told them that in comparison with the communists’ torture methods, “Auschwitz had been kids’ play” (igraszka).

THE trial of Pilecki and others from “Witold’s Group” began on 3 March 1948. Pilecki argued that his spying activities had been carried out on behalf of the Polish army in the West, of which he continued to regard himself as an officer bound by his oath of God, Honour, Fatherland. Regime propaganda about the group on trial included the brazenly mendacious theme that they had collaborated with the Nazi occupation.

Pilecki was sentenced to death on 15 March 1948. At the show trial or in separate closed hearings, eight of his colleagues were also sentenced to death for spying against their own country, for which most


of them had fought in shocking conditions throughout the German occupation. Two of the nine under sentence of death had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Thirteen others were sentenced to jail terms of from three to fifteen years. The prosecutor and the president of the court that tried Pilecki had been members of the Home Army, but when the Soviets and their Polish allies arrived in the country making mass arrests among Home Army officers, they decided instead to forge careers in the new occupation regime.

Pilecki’s wife and others made efforts to have his death sentence commuted, but Poland’s communist president Bolesław Bierut declined to exercise his right to do so. Pilecki’s supporters had hopes of the prewar Socialist leader Józef Cyrankiewicz, who had been active inthe Home Army and also survived imprisonment in Auschwitz. Cyrankiewicz, too, had decided to collaborate with the new regime, and ultimately led the rump of his Socialist party into a 1948 merger with the communists to form the Polish United Workers’ Party, which dominated communist Poland till 1990. As a reward, he was made prime minister of Poland (under communism an important but certainly not the top job) from 1947 to 1952 and again from 1954 to 1970. His alleged achievements as a resistance leader in Auschwitz were much trumpeted by Cyrankiewicz and the regime.

But when people begged him to do something to save the life of the doyen of all Polish Auschwitz survivors, he conspicuously declined to do so. Indeed, quite the reverse, he gave evidence against


before the war.

On 25 May 1948, in Mokotów prison on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw, Witold Pilecki, the only man known to have volunteered to be incarcerated in Auschwitz in the service of his country, and one of the few who risked death to escape from it again, was executed as a traitor to his homeland with a shot to the back of the head, in the best NKVD tradition, by one Piotr Śmietański. This was a rewarding occupation for Śmietański, who was literally paid by the shattered head, and was kept very busy.

From a window in his cell, an imprisoned priest, Jan Stępień, caught one of the last glimpses of Pilecki as he was being led to his death:

I’ll never forget that scene. There were two condemned men.Witold Pilecki was the first to appear. His mouth was bound with a white bandage. Two guards led him by the arms. His feet were barely touching the ground. I don’t know if he was still conscious. He gave the impression of someone who had fainted. And then came the gunfire.

As with hundreds of other such executions, a jail functionary took the remains of the victim under cover of darkness and dug them into the ground near Warsaw’s historic and atmospheric Powązki Cemetery. The terrain in question, known in the police code as “The Meadow,” was at the time the location of a rubbish tip. Pilecki’s final resting place was not known to his family for many decades, and is still not known exactly. He was not “rehabilitated”


until after the fall of communism in 1990, and only in 2012 was it possible for serious efforts to be undertaken to locate his remains.

PILECKI’s manuscript was written as a military report to his superiors, not as a work of history, literature or journalism. It is direct and informal in style, with relatively little care taken to manicure the prose or mould paragraphs. The author had always been far too busy to find time to polish or contemplate publishing it.

The translator, Jarek Garliński, has been at pains to retain the informal spontaneity of the original, including Pilecki’s frequent use of German terms of art for camp institutions and the threatening language of the SS and the kapos. The son of the distinguished Polish émigré historian Józef Garliński, andStalinist rule than had previously been assumed. But the statistics may be imperfect – it was Stalin, after all, who suppressed the results of the 1937 Soviet census. Be all that as it may, for most people there is something uniquely horrible about the death camps and industrialised mass murder of Nazi Germany.

Timothy Snyder has weighed the pros and cons and come to the conclusion that while initially Stalinism was worse, Nazism overtook it in brutality and became clearly the more evil of the two. What might Pilecki have thought of it after mature reflection in exile in the history department of an American university? •


United States secures its nuclear arsenal while other countries fail to prevent theirs from falling into the hands of terrorists," Kerry said. "The bottom line is this: it is the same thing with climate change. In a sense, climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction."

The bold warning from Kerry came Sunday during a speech in Indonesia, which could become threatened by rising sea levels. Already, the Obama administration has taken a number of actions toward preparing for and curbing climate change domestically. Its latest effort came today, at an unrelated event, when the White House announced that the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation will work together to form new fuel standards forBy Aruna ViswanathaWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mythili Raman, the top criminal prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, is planning to leave the agency next month, wrapping up a year overseeing high-profile investigations into global market manipulation.Raman said in an interview this week that the agency has made great strides in holding individuals accountable for corporate misdeeds. She said she is hopeful more traders will face trial in the United States for their roles in international benchmark-rigging schemes.

With the clock ticking down until a crucial Federal Trade Commission vote over whether to sue Google for antitrust violations, the search giant’s CEO Larry Page met with federal officials in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The meeting, which was first reported by Bloomberg, came one day after a powerful U.S. Senator sent