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By Derek Humphry, promoter of www.assistedsuicide.org and former editor of the World Right-to-Die Newsletter
Assisted suicide laws around the world are clear in some nations but unclear – if they exist at all – in others. Just because a country has not defined its criminal code on this specific action does not mean all assisters will go free. It is a complicated state of affairs. A great many people instinctively feel that suicide and assisted suicide are such individual acts of freedom and free will that they assume there are no legal prohibitions. This fallacy has brought many people into trouble with the law. While suicide is no longer a crime – and where it is because of a failure to update the law it is not enforced – assistance remains a crime almost everywhere by some statute or other. I'll try to explain the hodge-podge.
For example, it is correct that Sweden has no law specifically proscribing assisted suicide. Instead the prosecutors might charge an assister with manslaughter – and do. In 1979 the Swedish right-to-die leader Berit Hedeby went to prison for a year for helping a man with MS to die. Neighbouring Norway has criminal sanctions against assisted suicide by using the charge "accessory to murder". In cases where consent was given and the reasons compassionate, the courts pass lighter sentences. A recent law commission voted down de-criminalizing assisted suicide by a 5-2 vote.
A retired Norwegian physician, Christian Sandsdalen, was found guilty of wilful murder in 2000. He admitted giving an overdose of morphine to a woman chronically ill after 20 years with MS who begged for his help. It cost him his medical license but he was not sent to prison. He appealed the case right up to the Supreme Court and lost every time. Dr Sandsdalen died at 82 and his funeral was packed with Norway's dignitaries, which is consistent with the support always given by intellectuals to euthanasia.
Finland has nothing in its criminal code about assisted suicide. Sometimes an assister will inform the law enforcement authorities of him or her of having aided someone in dying, and provided the action was justified, nothing more happens. Mostly it takes place among friends, who act discreetly. If Finnish doctors were known to practice assisted suicide or euthanasia, the situation might change, although there have been no known cases.
Germany has had no penalty for either suicide or assisted suicide since 1751, although it rarely happens there due to the hangover taboo caused by Nazi mass murders, plus powerful, contemporary, church influences. Direct killing by euthanasia is a crime. In 2000 a German appeal court cleared a Swiss clergyman of assisted suicide because there was no such offence, but convicted him of bringing the drugs into the country. There was no imprisonment.
France does not have a specific law banning assisted suicide, but such a case could be prosecuted under 223-6 of the Penal Code for failure to assist a person in danger. Convictions are rare and punishments minor. France bans all publications that advise on suicide – Final Exit has been banned since l991 but few nowadays take any notice of the order. Since l995 there has been a fierce debate on the subject, which may end in law reform eventually. Denmark has no specific law banning assisted suicide. In Italy the action is legally forbidden, although pro-euthanasia activists in Turin and Rome are pressing hard for law reform. Luxembourg does not forbid assistance in suicide because suicide itself is not a crime. Nevertheless, under 410-1 of its Penal Code a person could be penalized for failing to assist a person in danger. In March 2003 legislation to permit euthanasia was lost in the Luxembourg Parliament by a single vote.
Tolerance for euthanasia appears in the strangest of places. For instance, in Uruguay it seems a person must appear in court, yet Article 27 of the Penal Code (effective 1934) says: "The judges are authorized to forego punishment of a person whose previous life has been honorable where he commits a homicide motivated by compassion, induced by repeated requests of the victim." So far as I can tell, there have been no judicial sentences for mercy killing in Uruguay.
In England and Wales there is a possibility of up to 14 years imprisonment for anybody assisting a suicide. Oddly, suicide itself is not a crime, having been decriminalized in 1961. Thus it is a crime to assist in a non-crime. In Britain, no case may be brought without the permission of the Director of Public Prosecutions in London, which rules out hasty, local police prosecutions. It has been a long, uphill fight for the British – there have been eight Bills or Amendments introduced into Parliament between 1936-2003, all trying to modify the law to allow careful, hastened death. None has succeeded, but the Joffe Bill currently before Parliament is getting more serious consideration than any similar measure. As in France, there are laws banning a publication if it leads to a suicide or assisted suicide. But Final Exit can be seen in bookstores in both countries.
The law in Canada is almost the same as in England; indeed, a prosecution has recently (2002) been brought in B.C. against a grandmother, Evelyn Martens, for counselling and assisting the suicide of two dying people. Mrs Marten was acquitted on all counts in 2004. One significant difference between English and Canadian law is that no case may be pursued by the police without the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions in London. This clause keeps a brake on hasty police actions.
Assisted suicide is a crime in the Republic of Ireland. In 2003 police in Dublin began proceedings against an American Unitarian minister, George D. Exoo, for allegedly assisting in the suicide of a woman who had mental health problems. He responded that he had only been present to comfort the woman, and read a few prayers. This threatened and much publicized case had disappeared by 2005.
Consent irrelevant
Suicide has never been illegal under Scotland's laws. There is no Scots authority of whether it is criminal to help another to commit suicide, and this has never been tested in court. The killing of another at his own request is murder, as the consent of the victim is irrelevant in such a case. A person who assists another to take their own life, whether by giving advice or by the provision of the means of committing suicide, might be criminally liable on a number of other grounds such as: recklessly endangering human life, culpable homicide (recklessly giving advice or providing the means, followed by the death of the victim), or wicked recklessness.
Hungary has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, caused mainly by the difficulties the peasant population has had with adapting to city life. Assistance in suicide or attempted suicide is punishable by up to five years imprisonment. Euthanasia practiced by physicians was ruled as illegal by Hungary's Constitutional Court (April 2003), eliciting this stinging comment from the journal Magyar Hirlap: "Has this theoretically hugely respectable body failed even to recognize that we should make legal what has become practice in everyday life." The journal predicted that the ruling would put doctors under commercial pressure to keep patients alive artificially.
Russia, too, has no tolerance of any form of assisted suicide, nor did it during the 60-year Soviet rule. The Russian legal system does not recognize the notion of 'mercy-killing'. Moreover, the 1993 law 'On Health Care of Russian Citizens' strictly prohibits the practice of euthanasia. A ray of commonsense can be seen in Estonia (after getting its freedom from the Soviet bloc) where lawmakers say that as suicide is not punishable the assistance in suicide is also not punishable.
The only four places that today openly and legally, authorize active assistance in dying of patients, are:
- Oregon (since 1997, physician-assisted suicide only);
- Switzerland (1941, physician and non-physician assisted suicide only);
- Belgium (2002, permits 'euthanasia' but does not define the method;
- Netherlands (voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide lawful since April 2002 but permitted by the courts since 1984).
Two doctors must be involved in Oregon, Belgium, and the Netherlands, plus a psychologist if there are doubts about the patient's competency. But that is not stipulated in Switzerland, although at least one doctor usually is because the right-to-die societies insist on medical certification of a hopeless or terminal condition before handing out the lethal drugs.
The Netherlands permits voluntary euthanasia as well as physician-assisted suicide, while both Oregon and Switzerland bar death by injection.
Dutch law enforcement will crack down on any non-physician assisted suicide they find, recently sentencing an old man to six months imprisonment for helping a sick, old woman to die.
Switzerland alone does not bar foreigners, but careful watch is kept that the reasons for assisting are altruistic, as the law requires. In fact, only one of the four groups in that country, Dignitas, chooses to assist foreigners. When this willingness was published in newspapers worldwide, sick people from all over Europe, and occasionally America, started trekking to Switzerland to get a hastened death. In 2001 the Swiss National Council confirmed the assisted suicide law but kept the prohibition of voluntary euthanasia.
Belgian law speaks only of 'euthanasia' being available under certain conditions. 'Assisted suicide' appears to be a term that Belgians are not familiar with. It is left to negotiation between the doctor and patient as to whether death is by lethal injection or by prescribed overdose. The patient must be a resident of Belgium (pop.: 10 million), though not necessarily a citizen. In its first full year of implementation, 203 people received euthanasia from a doctor.
All three right-to-die organizations in Switzerland help terminally ill people to die by providing counselling and lethal drugs. Police are always informed. As we have said, only one group, Dignitas in Zurich, will accept foreigners who must be either terminal, or severely mentally ill, or clinically depressed beyond treatment. (Note: Dutch euthanasia law has caveats permitting assisted suicide for the mentally ill in rare and incurable cases, provided the person is competent.)
The Oregon Death With Dignity Act came under heavy pressure from the US Federal government in 2001 when Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a directive essentially and immediately gutting the law. This brought on a public outcry that the Federal government was nullifying a law twice voted on by Oregon citizens. A disqualification of democracy! An interference with states' rights! Immediately the state of Oregon went to court (2002) to nullify the directive, won at the first stage, but the appeals are likely to continue until 2004. Since l980, right-to-die groups have tried to change the laws in Washington State, California, Michigan, Maine, Hawaii, and Vermont, so far without success. Thus in the USA, Oregon stands alone and under great pressure.
In 2005 the US Supreme Court agreed to the federal government's request for it to decide whether Oregon's law was constitutional. The case concerned not so much the ethical correctness of physician-assisted suicide but turned legally on whether it was the federal government or the states which controlled dangerous drugs, as used by doctors in Oregon. The court's decision, expected in early 2006, will affect pain control throughout America.
New Zealand forbids assistance under 179 of the New Zealand Crimes Act, l961, but cases were rare and the penalties lenient. Then, out-of-the-blue in New Zealand in 2003 a writer, Lesley Martin, was charged with the assisted suicide of her mother that she had described in a book. Ms Martin was convicted of manslaughter by using excessive morphine and served half of a fifteen-month prison sentence. She remained unrepentent. That same year the country's parliament voted 60-57 not to legalize a form of euthanasia similar to the Dutch model.
Similarly, Colombia's Constitutional Court in 1997 approved medical voluntary euthanasia but its parliament has never ratified it. So the ruling stays in limbo until a doctor challenges it. Assisted suicide remains a crime.
Rare in Japan
Japan has medical voluntary euthanasia approved by a high court in l962 in the Yamagouchi case, but instances are extremely rare, seemingly because of complicated taboos on suicide, dying and death in that country, and a reluctance to accept the same individualism that Americans and Europeans enjoy. The Japan Society for Dying with Dignity is the largest right-to-die group in the world with more than 100,000 paid up members. Currently, the Society feels it wise to campaign only for passive euthanasia – good advance directives about terminal care, and no futile treatment. Voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide are rarely talked about, which seems strange to Westerners who have heard so much about the culture of ritual suicide, hari kari, in Japanese history. This is because, one Society official explained: "In Japan, everything is hierarchical, including academics, and government organization, and this makes it difficult for the medical staff and those who offer psychiatric care to join forces to treat the dying."
Another factor in Japan's backwardness on euthanasia is that some 80 percent of their people die in hospitals, compared to about 35 percent in the Netherlands, 35 percent in America, with as low as 25 percent in Oregon which has a physician-assisted suicide law. Euthanasia is essential an in-home action.
The right-to-die movement has been strong in Australia since the early l970s, spurred by the vast distances in the outback country between patients and doctors. Families were obliged to care for their dying, experienced the many harrowing difficulties, and many became interested in euthanasia. The Northern Territory of Australia actually had legal voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide for seven months until the Federal Parliament stepped in and repealed the law in l997. Only four people were able to use it, all helped to die by the undaunted Dr Philip Nitschke, who now runs the progressive organization, Exit International (formerly 'Final Exit Australia'). Other states have since attempted to change the law, most persistently South Australia, but so far unsuccessfully.
In a rare show of mercy and understanding, a judge in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, in July 2003 sentenced a man to 18 months jail – but totally suspended the custody. Alex Maxwell had pleaded guilty to 'aiding and abetting' the suicide of his terminally ill wife, actions that the judge said were motivated by compassion, love, and humanity and thus did not deserve imprisonment. This was a trend in the right direction.
Europe on the move
The strongest indication that the Western world is moving gradually to allow assisted suicide for the dying and the incurable rather than to permitting voluntary euthanasia comes from a huge survey that the Council of Europe did in 2002. It received answers from 34 Central Asian and European states, plus the USA and Russia. Not a few replied that such terms were nowhere to be seen in their laws so had difficulty answering.
Asked if legislation or rules made euthanasia possible, only one country (Netherlands) answered in the affirmative (Belgium had not yet passed its similar law) and 25 nations said definitely not. Asked if they had any professional codes of practice on assisted suicide, eight countries said that they did, while 21 said no.
Some of the other questions had revealing answers:
- Is the term 'assisted suicide' used in your country: Yes 18; No 5.
- Do criminal sanctions against assisted suicide exist: Yes 23; No 4.
- If so, have they ever been applied: Yes 6; No 6.
The Council of Europe, representing 45 nations, did not let the matter rest there. Its Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee approved a report which called on European states to consider decriminalizing euthanasia. This was a massive step forward for the previously ignored right-to-die movement.
The commonsense of the Committee's approach is shown in the draft report by Swiss Rapporteur Dick Marty:
- Nobody has the right to impose on the terminally-ill and the dying the obligation to live out their life in unbearable suffering and anguish where they themselves have persistently expressed the wish to end it.
- There is no implied obligation on any health worker to take part in an act of euthanasia, nor can such an act be interpreted as the expression of lesser consideration for human life.
Governments of Council of Europe member states are asked to collect and analyse empirical evidence about end-of-life decisions; to promote public discussion of such evidence; to promote comparative analysis of such evidence in the framework of the Council of Europe; and, in the light of such evidence and public discussion, to consider whether enabling legislation authorising euthanasia should be envisaged.
Provided to DignitySA by Derek Humphry from www.assistedsuicide.org – thank you!
Derek Humphry, formerly a London Sunday Times reporter, founded the Hemlock Society USA in 1980 and the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization (ERGO) in 1993. He is the author of six books on euthanasia, the best-known one being "Final Exit" which has been continuously in print for 12 years. He lives in Oregon, USA.


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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Signs You May Be Mentally Ill
I often wonder if there is a more thankless task than wine blogging. But I guess pursuing anything that is basically psychopathic is in the end always a thankless task. And, actually, bloggers get a lot of credit compared to, say, stalkers, yet both share the same sick need. To prove that we really, really love you like no one has loved you before. And to let you know that if we can't have you, no one can. Wine bloggers are stalkers in training. Hell, look at Gary Vaynerchuk and tell me that guy hasn't broken into his ex-girlfriend's house and put First Growth corks in her underwear drawer to warn her from dating a real man (after all, Gary is inflatable). He's probably wearing her stolen panties under his cheap pants too, though I, for one, don't think that's necessarily a sign of mental illness. Sometimes a guy just lost a bet, right, honey?
The addiction to wine is mental illness. People that don't see the appeal of wine know this. But wine geeks, wine lovers, wine bloggers, others suffering from the same delusions, we don't know we're mentally ill. We think everyone feels the way we do, believes what we believe, that there's absolutely nothing wrong with us. But look at the symptoms.
Feelings of Superiority: Do you have the feeling that you're better than most people because you know a lot about wine? Sure you do. And look at the crazy folks who own wineries in Napa Valley. You know, 3000 years from now archaeologists are going to "discover" Napa Valley. They'll dig up wineries like Jarvis and Hall and Palmaz and Castello di Amorosa and think they've discovered another Valley of the Pharaohs. Another place where rich and powerful men built shrines to themselves so that they could be buried with their toys, so that they would be separate from ordinary men and not have to be associated with them. Why else build such lavish palaces to simply ferment grape juice? Surely these wineries are loud cries for help.
Speaking Incoherently: Ever really listen to wine experts expounding about wine? It's basically speaking in tongues but without the clarity or the snakes (unless the marketing people are present). It's like the babble of seriously schizophrenic people, people unable to hear anything but the voices in their own head. "I find the aroma rather primary with some ml, but the mouth is generous, though a bit abbreviated and lacking in the middle, and there's some r.s. and it's hot." Babbling. And even if you understand all of that wine babble, chances are it's inaccurate 80% of the time. But when you have overwhelming feelings of superiority it just doesn't matter. Ask any wine judge.
Belief in Hidden Messages: Crazy people think that there are secret messages for them being broadcast on the TV or hidden in ads on the bus or that their dog is trying to tell them something ("Now you lick your balls, now you lick your balls, now you lick your balls..."). Wine geeks think there are secret messages in numbers. An "89," oh, they (you know, crazy people talk about "they" all the time) say that's a perfectly good wine and worth seeking out, but what they really mean is it's not that good, that they wouldn't serve it to a Big Loser contestant selling OxyContin to Rush Limbaugh much less someone they were trying to impress. And 100 is perfection without question, and the hidden message of 100, meant just for me, is that I don't understand perfection because I not only can't get 100 point wines but if I did I taste them I would probably wonder what makes them perfect, or, worse, believe that whatever they did taste like actually was perfection. Numbers are wine loonies' Belief in Hidden Messages.
Hallucinations: Mentally ill people sometimes see things that don't really exist. They see Jesus or dinosaurs or Michael Buble. Their minds manufacture these objects and, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, the crazy people believe them to actually exist. Wine lovers have many hallucinations. They believe Wine Spectator rates wines blind. They think the BevMo 5 cent sale is an actual deal for them. They believe Wilfred Wong actually exists. They think Temecula is beautiful. They think the guy they met at a local wine tasting that they drunkenly took home is handsome when he's actually a cardboard cutout of one of those shitheads posed like Captain Morgan. Wine people suffer from continual hallucinations.
Put these symptoms together and there is only one sane diagnosis. Wine lovers are fuckin' nuts.
Which is why I have nothing to do with them.
6 comments:
The NFL decides who becomes an owner not the other way around.
All this blowhard (Rush Hudson Limbaugh A.KA. Jeff Christie) has to offer is his money and his opinions, (which in my opinion are on the fringes of racism, one mans opinion). There are many more groups biding for the Rams, not just his group. Lets face it there are more men with money (Marshall Faulk) that will gladly fill the slot and the Rams will win or lose depending on how well they work as a team and not on whether or not Rush is an owner.
As for Vick, well he is a player (he has talent not like you, Rush or I, unless you are a NFL player?) and he served his time and the NFL decided we live in the land of second chances, so why not (I personally don't like it but, oh well). Life has never been fair (NEWS FLASH!)
Now as to the "Free Speech" argument, I guess many of you like myself heard Rush on Thursday "Almost in tears", priceless. But the last couple of days he now is in his normal ranting and will continue until someone surpasses him, "Free Speech" continues, so what is being stifled, it simply is not true, of course, you may not have a radio, so you might want to get one.
PS – I am sure someone is working to put the tapes together maybe all you subscribers can help, since you are all about getting to the truth?
PPS- Beauty Pageant Judge - Now I understand why he lost the weight, to find a new wife, creepy.
- October 21, 2009 at 6:39 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
A fan of the NFL? Definitely mentally ill.
- October 21, 2009 at 8:12 PM
- Charlie Olken said...
It is only appropriate that each of us who frequent this place (all seven of us--and, no, Sam, you do not get to go twice just because you are the teacher's pet) rate ourselves based on the Master's criteria. I will admit. I have been baited by the Master on this one.
Feelings of Superiority--Yes
Speaking Incohently--No. Perhaps, writing incoherently, but not speaking incoherently. I don't speak.
Belief in Hidden Messages--My mood rings rates all my wines.
Hallucinations--Am I really responding to this? I hope I am dreaming.
- October 21, 2009 at 11:27 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Mr. HoseMaster Sir,
I am posting here from London, (see cannot get enough HoseMaster) where I will be attending a...wait for it, NFL game. So rather than wander the streets of Soho I am here reading The HoseMaster of Wine and waiting to watch the Patriots Tampa Bay game, AND on top of that, I'm a blogger...I'm pretty much fucked. I'm a trifecta of crazy.
- October 22, 2009 at 7:21 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Hey Puff Daddy,
The longer I do this the more I am convinced that all wine bloggers are mentally ill to some degree. I'm just the most mentally ill. No other way to explain the endless blather I crank out in this space.
And you don't write incoherently at all, my friend. At least I think that's what you were trying to say.
My Gorgeous Samantha,
You aren't so much crazy as misguided. Watching football in London is like going to a strip club in Afghanistan. There just has to be something better to do.
Have a ball in London, Love. It must be beautiful there this time of year--after all, you're there!
I adore you.
- October 22, 2009 at 1:26 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
I am not the teachers pet, I believe he offers those, "special tutoring services" to all of his readers. One tip, stay away from the advanced leap frog lesson, I only had to make that mistake once.
Not sure where your hatred of the NFL comes from, least it's not something stoopid like say, baseball where all the players wear their WT gold rope chains and are on the disabled list for like a hangnail and stuff. Oh and for the record, if I were in Afghanistan, I think a strip club might be the only place I would want to be!
- October 23, 2009 at 3:52 AM

subset: commoncrawl


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- Red Bull news
Red Bull to pursue Webber's exhaust choice - Marko
- Drivers:
- Helmut Marko
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- Sebastian Vettel
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- Mark Webber
- Teams:
- Red Bull
Red Bull will continue to develop the exhaust system used on Mark Webber's car at the Chinese Grand Prix despite Sebastian Vettel's preference for a different design.
Red Bull used two different exhaust systems on its two cars in Shanghai, with Webber running the latest Red Bull design while Sebastian Vettel opted for a layout last seen in pre-season testing. Vettel preferred the balance of the car using the old system but failed to qualify in the top ten and finished behind team-mate Webber in the race.
After the Chinese Grand Prix, Vettel said: "It was an interesting weekend, we collected a lot of data on different cars but ended up more or less in the same place [fourth and fifth], which was pretty funny. I think both packages have their advantages but for next week we will see what we do."
Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko told Servus TV on Tuesday: "We will go on with the Mark Webber car."
As for why Webber feels more comfortable in the updated car, Marko added: "Mark is less sensitive to the [car's] behaviour. He just needs four wheels, but it's different for Vettel."


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MACON, Ga. – The Lipscomb men's track and field team dominated the Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic Team, taking six of the 12 spots, the league announced Monday. All six Bisons were unanimous selections to the team.
"We want to succeed in everything we do," Bill Taylor, director of cross country and track and field, said. "When we take half the squad on the scholar-athlete team, it just shows that we take academics seriously. We always try to excel in everything we do."
Ben Wright, a management major holding a 3.83 GPA, was selected to the squad after finishing sixth in the steeplechase at the A-Sun Championships. The senior finished in 9:40.34.
Holding a 3.55 GPA in mechanical engineering and winning the 400-meter hurdles, Andrew Wolf was named to the squad. Wolf won the 400-meter hurdles in 53.08 seconds and claimed the silver medal in 110-meter hurdles in 14.05 seconds. Wolf also set the school record in the 110-meter hurdles this season.
Geoff Musick, a senior biochemistry major, finished fifth in the 10,000-meter run crossing the finish line in 32:07.59. He holds a 3.75 GPA and also competed in the 5,000-meter run this season.
Maintaining a 3.49 GPA in law, justice, and society, Kenny Smith was named to the team after helping the Bisons to two relay all-conference performances. The sophomore was the lead runner on the 4X400 A-Sun champion relay squad that finished in 3:14.76. He was also on the 4X100 relay squad that finished in 41.88 seconds.
Isaiah Greer, a senior mechanical engineering major holding a 3.54 GPA, was named to the squad after finishing ninth in the 5,000-meter run in 16:01.02. He also ran the steeplechase finishing in 10:03.20.
After defending his 200-meter dash title, Tucker Peabody was selected to the squad while maintaining a 3.31 GPA in biology. He won the title in 20.68 seconds, a conference and school record, which ranks 20th in the nation and 11th in the East Region. He also finished second in the 100-meter dash and anchored the come-from-behind 4X400 relay squad that won gold.


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New Cash
The sales this week are raising $25.5 billion of new cash, as maturing securities held by the public total $40.5 billion, according to the Treasury Department.
U.S. bonds fell earlier as the Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 to 332,000 in the week ended March 9, the fewest since mid-January. A Bloomberg survey forecast an increase to 350,000.
"Any time you get a downward drift in claims, you'll get Treasuries selling off," said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist in New York at the primary dealer Mizuho Securities USA Inc. "It's pushed us back to the upper end of the yield range."
Ten- and 30-year yields reached the highest levels in 11 months on March 8 after the Labor Department reported that U.S. payrolls increased by 236,000 jobs last month, more than forecast. Commerce Department figures yesterday showed U.S. retail sales jumped 1.1% in February from January, the biggest gain in five months.
Traders' inflation expectations rose today. The yield gap between 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, called the 10-year break-even rate, rose to 2.59 percentage points, the widest since Sept. 17 on a closing basis. The gap signals traders' outlook for consumer prices over the life of the debt. It has averaged 2.35 over the past year.
Fed Purchase
The Fed purchased $3.34 billion today of Treasuries maturing from May 2020 to February 2023. It is buying $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage debt a month to spur the economy by putting downward pressure on borrowing costs.
Treasury securities due in a decade and more traded at almost the cheapest level since 2011 relative to global peers with comparable maturities, according to the Bank of America indexes. Yields on Treasuries were 54 basis points higher on March 8 than those in an index of other sovereign debt, the most since August 2011, the data showed. The spread was 53 basis points yesterday.


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This photo must have been when she was about 80 years old or so. I remember that she was always, and I mean always, dressed to the nines and everything was just perfect. As you can see in this photo, everything matched and she always carried a purse (or as she called it, a bag) to match her shoes which matched her dress. It was always a dress – I don't remember ever seeing her dressed in anything other than a dress and most, if not all, of her clothes came from her favorite store, Saks Fifth Avenue. In later years she had trouble with bunions and rather than wear shoes that were comfortable and enabled her to walk easier with her bunions. she would still buy the best shoes and would take some sort of tool and cut a hole in the shoes right where the bunions were to allow more room. I still laugh at this perfectly dressed woman with holes in her very expensive shoes!
As we were growing up, I really don't remember Grandma doing much other than playing bridge. I'm sure she did other things – shopping and lunch come to mind – but to a young girl it seemed to be all about bridge. It was nice that she lived nearby my maternal grandmother and, I believe, they often played bridge with the same group of women. But one thing I never thought about was that she might actually like to do something crafty.
Shortly before she passed away in 1982 and just a few months after her 86th birthday, Grandma gave me two needlepoint projects that she'd made so that I could one day pass them on to my daughters. Oh sure, I loved them and I proudly displayed them in my home but I really never gave them much thought after that.
She was, obviously, so proud of herself for completing this project that she put a note on the back of each.
What I remember my parents telling me is that she hadn't really done the entire project by herself but for the life of me I can't remember the specifics. She either bought the fabric with the figure already stitched and then she stitched the background…..or vice versa. But whichever it was she did it and wanted to share it with me.
More than 30 years later as we were cleaning out my mother's house I found this.
This one has no signature or other identifying information on it but I can only assume that she stitched this at the same time she did the others and gave it to my mom and dad. And as they tended to do, they stuck it away in a drawer or closet never to be seen again. Until it was time to clean out the house when it just jumped out at me and whispered "take me home". So I did.
And there was another needlepoint project that I'd forgotten about that also came home with me – this beautiful purse that I guessed had belonged to Grandma and then was passed down to my mother.
Thankfully, thankfully, several years before Mom passed away I spent a few days with her and for whatever reason, together we went through the cavernous hall linen closet where she stored all of her handbags and some of her jewelry. And as we took things out to look at them, Mom would give me a description of the object – where she got it or who had given it to her, the significance, etc. And because I knew my memory was fading, I decided to take some notes and put them with each object as Mom told me about it. So guess what I found when I opened up this purse? In my own handwriting it said:
Handmade by Mildred Loraine Gunzendorfer Levy, approximately 1960. Purchased material in Vienna, stitched purse, professional put together into purse.
You know, sometimes I really kick myself for not doing something but this time I actually gave myself a pat on the back and a silent thank you because otherwise this treasure might have ended up in the estate sale.
Who knew my grandmother was crafty?


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The Civil Service helps the Government of the day to develop and deliver its policies as effectively as possible.
The Civil Service incorporates three types of organisations – departments, agencies, and non-departmental government bodies (NDPBs). We work in a wide range of areas that touch on everyone's day-to-day lives, such as education, health and policing.
Because our organisations deal with so many different aspects of government, civil servants work in an enormous variety of roles. We employ 453,000 civil servants, almost three-quarters of whom work outside London and the south-east.
Civil servants are politically impartial. Our workforce includes people who deliver crucial services direct to the public across the UK, such as Jobcentre Plus staff and coastguards. We also have staff working on policy development and implementation, including analysts, project managers, lawyers and economists.
How many civil servants?
There are currently 453,000 Civil Servants on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis and 489,000 on a headcount basis. FTE is a measure that counts staff according to the proportion of full-time hours that they work.


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Sunday, December 9, 2012
Prosciutto and Papaya Skewers with Basil and Raspberry
I find it fascinating that a miniature stick of wood can make something instantly party-fancy. Yes, party-fancy is a term. Or it will be. I'm sure of it. 2013 is a blank canvas at the moment. I can color it however i want!
If you just threw some basil, prosciutto, papaya, and raspberries in a bowl, it would basically be a salad. And my heart would break just a tiny bit. Salad, in theory, tends to make me sad. Though in practice I do actually enjoy them...
But stick the same ingredients on toothpick - and yes, I can get excited about that. The miniature stick of wood turns the salad into such cute and festive party appetizers, I become smitten instantly. The toothpick - Oh, it's magic!
basil leaf
prosciutto, torn into chunks
papaya - cut into chunks
Place one of each on a toothpick. I liked doing them in the following order - basil, prosciutto, papaya then raspberry. Serve and eat!
29 comments:
Love the assortment of flavours going on here! I love how toothpicks fancy-up everything you put on them...if only I didn't use all of mine to test brownies and bars. :DReplyDelete
So fresh, pretty and delectable!ReplyDelete
It's so cute and yummy and irresistible. And yes, salad would make it sadReplyDelete
It does look perfect for a party. And what a welcome addition to an appetizer buffet - they're so beautiful and colorful that they'd immediately stand out!ReplyDelete
Salad on a stick looks so pretty- I LOVE the raspberry, basil and papaya combo! :)ReplyDelete
How fresh and bright!ReplyDelete
Lovely and fresh looking! Sticks do make things more fancy and fun to eat as well.ReplyDelete
Looks like a good selection of dishes you tried out.ReplyDelete
I get unnaturally excited about food on a stick also...it's totally normal. :P These are so tropically awesome! I love it.ReplyDelete
You are absolutely right and I am also going to start using the term party-fancy! I think we can make it catch on. You have fancy and then, when you kick it up one more notch, you have PARTY-FANCY.ReplyDelete
I love the sweet and salty thing you have going here and the colors are gorgeous. But that stick! That stick makes it party-fancy. Sure does.
I agree with you about food on a stick!!!!Those look so good!ReplyDelete
Prosciutto and papaya? Only you guys would come up with that! Perfect for the party season!ReplyDelete
These look sooo good. looks beautiful...sticks make it very tempting too:)ReplyDelete
These skewers are so summery and delicious :)ReplyDelete
Choc Chip Uru
This is an interesting way to enjoy prosciutto. Love their delicious summery look.ReplyDelete
Definitely party-fancy---I love proscuitto with melon so this is most definitely a winner, I bet!ReplyDelete
So fresh, Simply the best!ReplyDelete
These are so fresh and colorful! Perfect party food and perfectly party-fancy.ReplyDelete
Very fancy indeed :) Love Papaya and the fact that you used raspberries!Perfect contrast and so colorful :)ReplyDelete
Very party like skewers! I love the colors! Check out my site you won a gift!www.culinaryflavors.grReplyDelete
Love these creative skewers. I agree with partyfancy - it is a word.ReplyDelete
Perfect - I needed ideas like this for my New Year's Eve party! I love prosciutto :)ReplyDelete
I love a beautiful appetizer...and this one is both that and delicious!!!ReplyDelete
I love your ingredients for this dish. Perfect choice - the color, flavor, and the texture! :)ReplyDelete
Party-fancy definitely should be a term! I love the combination of these.ReplyDelete
Loving the use of papaya with the raspberry and prosciutto (and basil!). That's a great mix of ingredients, I could definitely see how these would get devoured as a party app.ReplyDelete
These skewers are so colorful and festive! And I love the combination of flavors; sweet, tart, salty... delicious :)ReplyDelete
These look so good.ReplyDelete
This is such a nice addition thanks!!!
غلا الروح
شات صوتي
شات الغلا
صوتية الغلا
غلا الصوتيه
شات الروح
شات صوتي غلا
شات صوتي
شات غلا
إشتراكات الصوتي
قوانين الصوتي
فعاليات الصوتي
برامج صوتيه
شات غلا
سعودي كام الصوتي
شات تمنيتك
شات غلاتي
شات صوتي
شات غلاي
إشتراكات الصوتي
دلع ون
حبي كول
شات أميره الصوتي
وه الغربيه
نايس كام
شوق كام
سحر الكون
بنت ابوي
بوابة العرب
عرب كول
شات صوتي
شات صوتي
انحراف كام
شات مغربي
عذاب كول
شات صوتي
شات كول
شات الغلا
كشف تسرب
تسرب المياه بالرياض


text:
verb (used with object), trad·ed, trad·ing.
verb (used without object), trad·ed, trad·ing.
Verb Phrases
Origin of trade
Synonyms for trade
Synonym study
Word Origin for trade
late 14c., "path, track, course of action," introduced by the Hanse merchants, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German trade "track, course" (probably originally of a trading ship), cognate with Old English tredan (see tread). Sense of "one's habitual business" (1540s) developed from the notion of "way, course, manner of life" (mid-15c.); sense of "buying and selling" is first recorded 1550s. Trade wind (1640s) has nothing to do with commerce, but preserves the obsolete sense of "in a habitual or regular course." Trade union is attested from 1831.
1540s, "to tread a path," from trade (n.). Meaning "to occupy oneself (in something)" is recorded from c.1600. The U.S. sports team sense of "to exchange one player for another" is attested from 1899. Related: Traded; trading. To trade down is attested from 1942. Trade-in in reference to used cars is recorded from 1917. Trading post is recorded from 1796.
Business or commerce; economic activity.
In addition to the idioms beginning with trade
- trade down
- trade in
- trade off
- trade on
- trade up
also see:
- tricks of the trade


text:
Research Volunteer Opportunities
Research volunteers at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston have a critical role in helping to advance the treatment and understanding of diabetes and its complications. The participation of research study volunteers at Joslin has been instrumental in providing greater excellence in the care of others with diabetes.
Our researchers recruit patients to learn more about the nature of diabetes and related metabolic disorders. There are also "clinical trials," — studies in which patients are sought to test the effectiveness of new drugs, devices or other treatments that may then be approved for general use.
Individuals participating in any research study must meet certain study requirements depending on the study and be willing to sign an informed consent.
Informed consent is defined as voluntary consent given by the person (or responsible proxy) to participate in the study after being informed of the methods, procedures and risks and benefits that will result by participating. Consent must be given freely and without undue influence.
Participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time without losing any of the benefits that are due as a Joslin patient.
Taking part in a clinical trial advances knowledge, medical care
- An article from Harvard Health Publications on the value of getting involved in clinical research, with a description of the author's experience in the TINSAL-T2D trial at here at Joslin.
Looking for Volunteers
- Type 1
- Type 2
- Type 1 or Type 2
- People with or without Diabetes
- People without Diabetes
- Pediatric Clinical Reseach


text:
Rice's football career traced to Oktibbeha County
A small Oktibbeha County school is where it all began for Jerry Rice.
From B.L. Moor High School in the southeast part of the county to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Rice is proud of the path the sport of football has taken him.
Rice was born in Starkville on October 13, 1962, and was raised in the Crawford community.
His first experience with football came at B.L. Moor, which has since consolidated with Alexander High School to form East Oktibbeha High School.
Even though the school has gone through the name change since Rice left, he has never forgotten B.L. Moor and the individuals who encouraged him as a youth.
Rice pointed to all of his teachers, principal Ezell Wicks and football coach Charles Davis as those who were most instrumental.
"(Davis) had this thing about him and was very similar to a Bill Walsh (former San Francisco 49ers head coach)," Rice said. "(Davis) knew how to motivate you and was going to get everything out of you."
It was actually Wicks who discovered that Rice might have the ability to play football.
"When I was playing hooky one day, (Wicks) walked up behind me and scared me," Rice said. "He noticed I could run fast so he thought maybe this guy needs to go out for the football team and that's how I started playing football.
"I was a nerd in high school and off to myself. Once I started playing football and realizing it's something I could get better at, all of a sudden I came out of my shell a little bit and I owe a lot of that to Ezell Wicks and Charles Davis."
Just as Rice hasn't forgotten his high school, those who now call East Oktibbeha home remember the impact he had because of his success.
"We're very proud of him because the kids look up to him," East Oktibbeha principal Broderick Cochran said. "We try to make sure they know the tradition of Moor and how he comes from such a small school and small area and went as far as he did."
As his high school career began winding down, it was time for Rice to start considering what college to attend.
Rice received letters from many major schools, but very few of those came to watch him play in person.
A personal contact from Mississippi Valley State made an impression.
"Mississippi Valley sent a coach to visit me and watch me play football," Rice said. "I had a chance to sit down with this coach, talk to him and shake his hand."
Rice also wanted to be a part of a program that would best utilize his receiving skills. He didn't feel that was best at nearby Mississippi State or Jackson State, where his brother played, as both places ran the wishbone offense at that time.
"I needed to go somewhere they threw the ball 90 percent of the time and that's why I decided to go to Mississippi Valley State University," Rice said. "They had a coach named Archie Cooley who wore a cowboy hat and always wanted to go for the jugular so I knew it would be exciting there."
When Rice went to Mississippi Valley, football came second because he was just happy for a chance to attend college and further his education.
Rice still loved the game of football and competing for the Delta Devils.
"Once I got the opportunity and got into that system, I felt like maybe we could open some doors," Rice said. "Because of the system we had, we got so much publicity because it was the run and shoot so I think people were curious as to why this school was putting up so many numbers and scoring so many points."
Rice became a Division I-AA All-American at Mississippi Valley State and finished his career with 18 Division I-AA records. He once caught 24 passes in a game and acquired the nickname "World."
After achieving the Most Valuable Player award in the Blue-Gray Game, Rice realized he could successfully get into the mix of talent from other major schools.
"There were some great players there so that gave me an opportunity to prove to everyone that I can compete," Rice said. "I always felt like I had something to prove and I just worked a little bit harder."


text:
Someone has changed the source code on the realistic 8 mission page:
http://www.hackthissite.org/missions/re ... gister.php
This looks like a typo which has made the register button on the page dysfunctional, however the discussion forum does not mention this problem, suggesting that it was done recently.
So just to clarify, was this a update to help reduce the amount of registering people? or is it actually a bug?
Whoever coded this mission forgot the closing angle bracket:

Wanted Description:
<textarea name="desc" rows=5 cols=20 maxlength=255></textarea>

<input type="submit" value="Register"
Extra: I managed to get around this problem by adding a false "referer" element to a corrected and compatible version of the webpage saved on my hard drive.


text:
Abducted baby boy in state care as hunt continues for father
A baby abducted by his father is now in the care of the New South Wales Department of Community Services as the search for the kidnapper continues.
Stephen Hume, 24, dragged his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend and their eight-month-old baby boy from her Chester Hill home into his car on Thursday night.
He put them both into his 2007 black Toyota Camry, then drove south.
Around 10:00pm, the car stopped on the Hume Highway at Douglas Park, where Mr Hume punched his ex-girlfriend in the face.
Police say she managed to get out of the car, but it drove off before she could retrieve her son.
Key points
- Mother and baby abducted by father Stephen Hume
- Mother managed to get out of car before it took off with baby inside
- Baby was later handed over to police by a family member
- Father remains on the run from police
Police found the car dumped shortly before 7:00am on Friday in bushland off Avon Dam Road at Bargo, south-west of Sydney.
Scores of heavily armed and camouflaged police and SES volunteers spent the day searching the area but could not find any sign of him or the boy.
However, a relative handed the baby into police late yesterday afternoon.
He was taken to hospital as a precaution and briefly reunited with his mother before being taken into the care of the Department of Family and Community Services.
Superintendent Dave Eardley says police are still hunting for the father.
"For the sake of himself and his baby, come forward and let's resolve the issues," he said.
Mr Hume is described as being of Caucasian appearance, 165-175 centimetres tall, thin build, with brown hair and wearing a blue jumper and green track pants.
He has tattoos on his arms and chest.
Police are urging anyone with sightings of Mr Hume to contact triple-0.
Topics: missing-person, community-and-society, police, law-crime-and-justice, campbelltown-2560, nsw, australia
First posted


text:
Here is is! My SKILL Bowling Ramp-age video!
I hope that you will like it and share it with your friends!
Big cheers to OOSPEED Studio For those awesome PROGRESSIVE 2 Levels springs
that help my machine to survive smile emoticon and those Speedline wheels that look pretty damn good
way up in the air!
Thanks for watching and don't be shy to say hi !
RC SKILLISM by Drift69 - 2015 Project 8 Bowling Ramp-age
Post any RC Drifting related videos here.
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text:
Who Killed Angelique?Submitted by Karen on August 2, 2011 - 9:32pm
"...I'll give you all the dirt darling..." K.C. Gordon can't wait to find out what her old school friend Angelique means by this cryptic comment. But before they meet someone cuts short the life of international model Angelique Lanci in a hail of bullets. Loved by few, despised and envied by many, Angelique instigated infidelities, salacious gossip, betrayal and jealousy. But did she deserve to be gunned down in her own home? As K.C.


text:
The Horizon House development in Bristol is setting new standards in sustainable construction.
Occupying a prime spot in Bristol's civic quarter, the redevelopment of Horizon House is one of the city's key regeneration projects.
The scheme comprises a 6,600m2 corporate office for the Environment Agency, 78 apartments in two central residential blocks and a 2,500m2 speculative office block.
Spaces for more than 330 cars and over 125 bicycles are provided within a two-level basement car park and an improved external car park.
To avoid potential problems between the interfaces of the proposed mix of materials within the Horizon House atrium, we proposed an alternative curtain window system which improved performance and delivered both programme and cost savings.
More than 85% of the building demolished to make way for the development was recycled on site, while the rest of the materials were taken away to be used in other developments.
Sustainable features include natural ventilation, rainwater harvesting systems, waterless urinals, intelligent lighting, water metering and meadow grass roofs to external terraces. On-site renewable energy sources include a ground source heat pump, 100m2 of photovoltaic cells and a solar hot water system.
Responsibly sourced materials were selected where possible, many with a high recycled content, while travel distances and the sustainable policies of suppliers and manufacturers were also taken into account.
"I can not emphasise enough how delighted I am with the Sir Robert McAlpine team who have worked diligently over the past two years on this project. It has been a pleasure to work alongside them and you can be very proud of this thoroughly professional team." Stuart Kotchie, Environment Agency Programme Manager
Horizon House, the Environment Agency's new Bristol corporate office, was named among the best of the best sustainable buildings in the UK, winning the BREEAM Offices Award 2010.
The five-storey building also achieved the highest score ever awarded by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) for its environmental credentials.
Horizon House was given a score of 85.06 per cent under BREEAM Office 2006, the most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. The building received a 100% score for three of the eight categories on which the ratings are calculated: Management, Transport and Water.


text:
Breakfast Costs Rising, Food Inspectors Not Limited
- Breakfast costs are rising according to a new Washington Post report.
Paragon Economics President Steve Meyer says one reason for the increased bacon cost is Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV).
The price of high-grade coffee beans from Brazil, supplying 46-percent of coffee beans, has increased 71.5-percent since the end of last year due to a drought that could wipe out 10-percent of Brazil's coffee crop by 2020.
There's also a problem with orange juice.
- A recent New York Times article claimed that job vacancies in the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) are leading to more food recalls which the agency says is not true.
The fact is vacancies within the agency do not mean there are less inspectors on the job in our nation's meat plants. FSIS is legally required to have a sufficient number of inspectors present in every single meat and poultry plant in the country.
No plant in America is allowed to operate if it does not have the required number of safety inspectors in the plant at all times, and every plant currently operating in America has the necessary food inspection staff.


text:
The book examines the political dimension at a level which has hitherto been absent from accounts of "Third Ypres." It establishes what did occur, the options for alternative action, and the fundamental responsibility for the carnage. Prior and Wilson consider the shifting ambitions and stratagems of the high command, examine the logistics of war, and assess what the available manpower, weaponry, technology, and intelligence could realistically have hoped to achieve. And, most powerfully of all, they explore the experience of the soldiers in the light—whether they knew it or not—of what would never be accomplished.
The book examines the political dimension at a level which has hitherto been absent from accounts of "Third Ypres." It establishes what did occur, the options for alternative action, and the fundamental responsibility for the carnage. Prior and Wilson consider the shifting ambitions and stratagems of the high command, examine the logistics of war, and assess what the available manpower, weaponry, technology, and intelligence could realistically have hoped to achieve. And, most powerfully of all, they explore the experience of the soldiers in the light—whether they knew it or not—of what would never be accomplished.
The book reassesses key events of 1940—crises that were recognized as such at the time and others not fully appreciated. Prior examines Neville Chamberlain's government, Churchill's opponents, the collapse of France, the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz. He looks critically at the position of the United States before Pearl Harbor, and at Roosevelt's response to the crisis. Prior concludes that the nation was saved through a combination of political leadership, British Expeditionary Force determination and skill, Royal Air Force and Navy efforts to return soldiers to the homeland, and the determination of the people to fight on "in spite of all terror." As eloquent as it is controversial, this book exposes the full import of events in 1940, when Britain fought alone and Western civilization hung in the balance.
Trevor Wilson, global diversity strategist and visionary leader, presents a fresh, new management model that goes beyond the traditional diversity debate towards inclusion and building human capital. Featuring case studies and practical diagnostic tools and assessments, this book will benefit anyone who is interested in improving their business by building on the unique talents of employees' innate strengths, unique abilities, personality, attitude, life experience and virtues. The agent of this change, the driver of the process, is the equitable leader.
This important book outlines 8 core competencies that will guide leaders to create equitable and inclusive work environments where employees are valued because of, not in spite of, their differences and each person can be recognized and developed to strive for their highest potential.Includes a new paradigm for diversity initiatives and finds new solutions Reveals the core competencies that help leaders create an equitable and inclusive workplace Shows how companies can improve hiring and retention, reduce turnover, increase productivity, improve teamwork, and ultimately increase the bottom line
The Human Equity Advantage gives you the tools to tap into the unique talents and strengths of each employee.
Robin Prior, a renowned military historian, proceeds step by step through the campaign, dealing with naval, military, and political matters and surveying the operations of all the armies involved: British, Anzac, French, Indian, and Turkish. Relying substantially on original documents, including neglected war diaries and technical military sources, Prior evaluates the strategy, the commanders, and the performance of soldiers on the ground. His conclusions are powerful and unsettling: the naval campaign was not "almost" won, and the land action was not bedeviled by "minor misfortunes." Instead, the badly conceived Gallipoli campaign was doomed from the start. And even had it been successful, the operation would not have shortened the war by a single day. Despite their bravery, the Allied troops who fell at Gallipoli died in vain.
The Myriad Faces of War, first published in 1987, is a unique and compelling study of the First World War from the standpoint of British involvement. It explores the reasons for Britain's entry into the war, the nature and course of Britain's participation, and the far-reaching repercussions of the war on British society. The result is a rich and comprehensive chronicle of the social, political, diplomatic and military aspects of the 'Great War.'
'Professor Trevor Wilson's mighty work on the first world war... is a truly significant contribution to our understanding of what the war meant to the British people... a disciplined, unsentimental and thoughtful book - and it also retains strongly the human touch.' Spectator
'Wilson ranges impressively over all major aspects of the conflict... a judicious, readable overview of a monster subject.' New York Times
'A good political mystery, and Mr Wilson has told it in fine dramatic style.' A.J.P. Taylor
'Offers portraits of those rivals, Asquith and Lloyd George, that are among the best - the most plausible and the most temperate - available.' New Yorker
Coming at a critical time, and one of growing interest in this Southeast Asian country among researchers and policy-makers, Debating Democratization in Myanmar addresses this complex question from a range of disciplinary and professional perspectives. Chapters by leading international scholars and practitioners, activists and politicians from Myanmar and around the world cover political and economic updates, as well as the problems of democratization; the re-engagement of democratic activists and exiles in domestic affairs; the new parliament, the electoral system, and everyday politics; prospects for the economy; ethnic cooperation, contestation and conflict; the role of the army and police forces; and conditions for women. Together they constitute an empirically deep and analytically rich source of readable and relevant material for anyone keen to obtain a greater understanding of what is happening in Myanmar today, and why.
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers—bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio—changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe that the age of flight had begun, with the first powered machine carrying a pilot.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education and little money never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off, they risked being killed.
In this "enjoyable, fast-paced tale" (The Economist), master historian David McCullough "shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly" (The Washington Post) and "captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished" (The Wall Street Journal). He draws on the extensive Wright family papers to profile not only the brothers but their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them. Essential reading, this is "a story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency…about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished…The Wright Brothers soars" (The New York Times Book Review).
This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans' race to beat Hitler's Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence.
From nuclear power's earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story.
Richard Rhodes's ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.
It is a prophetic book with a revolutionary perspective. It is prophetic in that it points to the direction the Black Church must take to effectively address the spiritual needs of the Black community. It is revolutionary because it challenges the Church and believers to establish a new paradigm, an African Spiritual frame of reference. The Black Church must transform itself and take on a new view of the scriptures, doctrines and dogmas of Christendom.
This book documents the fact that what Blacks have been given as Christianity is in reality stolen African mythology, cosmology and history that has been corrupted by Roman and Greek priest, philosophers and emperors. It is one of the most powerful challenges to Orthodox Christianity to date. The Truth will liberate you from their strong delusions.
While there is indeed some positive and beneficial aspects to Church membership it is time for the Black Church to make its exodus from the Western religious way of faith in God to the African spiritual way of knowledge of God.
Black Pastors and religious leaders must begin to teach that which will bring about the manifestation of the fullness of Christ. This is the charge given to all church leadership by the Bible they teach from. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelist, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to be a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13. There are far too many Babes in Christ in the Church. It is not the fault of the believers but a reflection of corrupted doctrines and false dogmas. In addition the unity of the Black Church must become a priority. Not one church or believer can say they have no need of the rest of the Body of Christ in good conscience. Yet unity in the Black Church is more a rhetorical than an actual reality. Imagine what could be done if the wealth of the Church was combined to establish a super fund. Unity must be at the top of the agenda for the Black Church and for the Black community.
Lastly, though we have the proverbial church on every corner there is an undeniable spiritual crisis in the Black community. The Liberation of the African Mind: The Key to Black Salvation makes the Spiritual Resurrection of the Black man a valid goal and priority. It will challenge many long held beliefs and dogmas, however Christendom must be examined and that which is not of God must be abandoned. Not since Marcus Garvey, Fredrick Douglas and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad have Blacks questioned the validity or efficacy of Christianity. Mr. Muhammad made an attempt to make Blacks aware that Christianity was the religion of the people who had enslaved them. Every race worships God in a way that is peculiar to their culture. Since the days of captivity Blacks have worshiped the god of their conquerors and oppressors. Worshipping a White man as God is not only a form of idolatry but extremely detrimental to the Black Psyche.
History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism.
The things you've never learned about our past will shock you. The reason why gun control is so important to government elites can be found in a story about Athens that no one dares teach. Not the city in ancient Greece, but the one in 1946 Tennessee. The power of an individual who trusts his gut can be found in the story of the man who stopped the twentieth hijacker from being part of 9/11. And a lesson on what happens when an all-powerful president is in need of positive headlines is revealed in a story about eight saboteurs who invaded America during World War II.
Miracles and Massacres is history as you've never heard it told. It's incredible events that you never knew existed. And it's stories so important and relevant to today that you won't have to ask, Why didn't they teach me this? You will instantly know. If the truth shall set you free, then your freedom begins on page one of this book. By the end, your understanding of the lies and half-truths you've been taught may change, but your perception of who we are as Americans and where our country is headed definitely will.
Through three tours in the jungle hell of Vietnam, he walked the point -- staying alert to trip wires, booby traps and punji pits, guiding his squad of amphibious fighters on missions of rescue, reconnaissance and demolition -- confronting a war's unique terrors head-on, unprotected . . . and unafraid.This is the story of a hero told from the heart and from the gut -- an authentic tour of duty with one of the most legendary commandoes of the Vietnam War.
Previously published as Horse Soldiers, 12 Strong is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn.
During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city's immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed.
"A riveting story of the brave and resourceful American warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against Al Qaeda" (Tom Brokaw), Doug Stanton's account touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. With "spellbinding...action packed prose...The book reads more like a novel than a military history...the Horse Soldier's secret mission remains the US military's finest moment in what has since arguably been a muddled war" (USA TODAY).
Time magazine editors and presidential historians Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy offer a new and revealing lens on the American presidency, exploring the club as a hidden instrument of power that has changed the course of history.
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I.
Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
Clark traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute, action-packed narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual misunderstandings and unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few short weeks.
Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers is a dramatic and authoritative chronicle of Europe's descent into a war that tore the world apart.
In the mid-nineteen sixties, Harry Constance made a life-altering journey that led him out of Texas and into the jungles of Vietnam. As a young naval officer, he went from UDT training to the U.S. Navy's newly formed SEAL Team Two, and then straight into furious action. By 1970, he was already the veteran of three hundred combat missions and the recipient of thirty-two military citations, including three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
Good To Go is Constance's powerful, firsthand account of his three tours of duty as a member of America's most elite, razor-sharp stealth fighting force. It is a breathtaking memoir of harrowing missions and covert special-ops—from the floodplains of the Mekong Delta to the beaches of the South China Sea—that places the reader in the center of bloody ambushes and devastating firefights. But his extraordinary adventure goes even farther—beyond 'Nam—as we accompany Constance and the SEALs on astonishing missions to some of the world's most dangerous hot-spots . . . and experience close-up the courage, dedication, and unparalleled skill that made the U.S. Navy SEALs legendary.
Includes 8 Pages of SEAL Team Action Photos!
Edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries provides a striking insight into one of this nation's most important presidencies and sheds new light on the character of a true American leader. Whether he was in his White House residence study or aboard Air Force One, each night Reagan wrote about the events of his day, which often included his relationships with other world leaders and the unforgettable moments that defined the era.Seldom before has the American public been given access to the unfiltered experiences and opinions of a President in his own words. To read these diaries—filled with Reagan's trademark wit, sharp intelligence, and humor—is to gain a unique understanding of one of the most beloved occupants of the Oval Office in our nation's history.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
Graced by David McCullough's remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.
Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the government to sue for peace on his terms. At the peak of Red Cloud's powers the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters. But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the nineteenth century's most powerful and successful Indian warrior can finally be told.
In The Heart of Everything That Is, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin restore Red Cloud to his rightful place in American history in a sweeping and dramatic narrative based on years of primary research. As they trace the events leading to Red Cloud's War, they provide intimate portraits of the many lives Red Cloud touched—mountain men such as Jim Bridger; US generals like William Tecumseh Sherman, who were charged with annihilating the Sioux; fearless explorers, such as the dashing John Bozeman; and the memorable warriors whom Red Cloud groomed, like the legendary Crazy Horse. And at the center of the story is Red Cloud, fighting for the very existence of the Indian way of life.
"Unabashed, unbiased, and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor-sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled....a compelling and fiery narrative" (USA TODAY), this is the definitive chronicle of the conflict between an expanding white civilization and the Plains Indians who stood in its way.
Dan Evans arrived in Vietnam on October 7, 1968, a 21- year-old Army medic who couldn't stand the sight of blood. Thrust into the cauldron of combat, he soon became a seasoned veteran of emergency medicine and the brutal realties of war. Before his time was up, he would master the skills of a surgeon, acquire the patience of a saint, and demonstrate the courage of a lion...
Here, in his own words, is the gripping true story of Dan Evans, the highly decorated soldier whom the men of First Platoon, Bravo Company, called the "fighting medic." Experience the rage, the sorrow and the remarkable spirit of Dan Evans - the PLATOON MEDIC who became a true American hero.
—John Sayles, Director of Eight Men Out and author of A Moment in the Sun
The creators of Budweiser and Michelob beers, the Anheuser-Busch company is one of the wealthiest, most colorful and enduring family dynasties in the history of American commerce. In Bitter Brew, critically acclaimed journalist William Knoedelseder tells the riveting, often scandalous saga of the rise and fall of the dysfunctional Busch family—an epic tale of prosperity, profligacy, hubris, and the dark consequences of success that spans three centuries, from the open salvos of the Civil War to the present day.
This remarkable book ranges from the early Greeks, Hebrew figures such as Job and Ecclesiastes, Eastern critical wisdom, Roman stoicism, Jesus as a man of doubt, Gnosticism and Christian mystics, medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian skeptics, secularism, the rise of science, modern and contemporary critical thinkers such as Schopenhauer, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, the existentialists.
In December 1937, one of the most horrific massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (what was then the capital of China), and within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered-a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. In this seminal work, Iris Chang, whose own grandparents barely escaped the massacre, resurrects this history and tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone, which saved almost 300,000 Chinese.
Amazingly, the story of this atrocity--one of the worst in world history--continues to be denied by the Japanese government. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking tells the shocking story of the concerted effort during the Cold War on the part of the West and even China to stifle open discussion of the massacre. Drawing on extensive interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time, Iris Chang's classic is the definitive history of this horrifying episode.
This is Caesar's story, from his recruitment into the Comancheros, to the savage split within the club that led to the foundation of the Bandidos and the bloody massacre at Milperra that resulted from it. This was the massacre that saw the death of two of Caesar's brothers, and resulted in four bullet wounds and a lengthy jail term for him.
Never before has someone so respected in the bikie gangs opened a window on to their world. The fact that Caesar has been able to do so is a testament to his ruthlessness, his fearlessness and his reputation in the bikie community.
Enforcer is a unique and captivating true crime story that will shock you with its raw violence, its brutality and its insights into an outlaw world.
Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer's hit show on the HISTORY network, History Decoded explores fascinating, unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman "Spear of Destiny"? What's the government hiding in Area 51? Where did the Confederacy's $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence; weighs competing theories; separates what we know to be true with what's still—and perhaps forever—unproved or unprovable; and in the end, decodes the mystery, arriving at the most likely solution. Along the way we meet Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Nazi propagandists, and the real DB Cooper.
A riveting adventure through the compelling world of mysteries and conspiracies.
A pilot reports a strange haze enveloping his plane, then disappears; eleven hours after fuel starvation, as if calling from a void, he is heard 600 miles away. He requests permission to land, then vanishes forever. A freighter steaming over placid seas disappears without a trace. A pleasure yacht ghosts past without a soul on board. A pilot calls for help because a "weird object" is harassing his plane. A jet collides with an "unknown" and is never found. . . .
Into the Bermuda Triangle is the first comprehensive examination of these baffling disappearances in more than a generation. Drawing on official reports from the NTSB and other investigative agencies as well as interviews with scientists, theorists, and survivors, leading authority Gian Quasar not only sets the record straight on previously examined cases, he also offers a bulging file of new cases, the collective results of his twelve-year investigation. In meticulous detail this unflinching account:Documents confirmed disappearances of airplanes and ships Gathers new testimony and reexamines old interviews from eyewitnesses and survivors Explores possible explanations ranging from zero-point energy to magnetic vortices Challenges our assumptions with the sheer weight of accumulated evidence
In this age of technological and scientific discovery, there are still mysteries that transcend understanding. The Bermuda Triangle is one.
"The best book I've ever read on this important subject."—Andrew Griffin, The Town Talk
From the first slaves arriving in Jamestown in 1619, the cotton fields in the Southern States and shipbuilding in New England, to the slaves who laid down their lives in war so that Americans could be free, American Slavery in an Hour covers the breadth of the subject without sacrificing important historical and cultural details.
An important and dark time in Black – and American – history, American Slavery in an Hour will explain the key facts and give you a clear overview of this much discussed period of history, as well as its legacy in modern America.
Know your stuff: read the history of American Slavery in just one hour.
In 1967, a young E. Michael Helms boarded a bus to the legendary grounds of Parris Island, where mere boys were forged into hardened Marines—and sent to the jungles of Vietnam. It was the first stop on a journey that would forever change him—and by its end, he would be awarded the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.
From the brutality and endurance-straining ordeals of boot camp to the endless horror of combat, Helms paints a vivid, unflinchingly realistic depiction of the lives of Marines in training and under fire. As powerful and compelling a battlefield memoir as any ever written, Helms's "grunt's-eye" view of the Vietnam War, the men who fought it, and the mindless chaos that surrounded it, is truly a modern military classic.
James L. Swanson's Manhunt is a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.
Lasting six years and a day, the Second World War saw the lives of millions – soldiers and civilians, young and old – changed forever. During the conflict, a thousand people died for each and every hour it lasted. With eighty-one of the world's nations involved and affected in some way, this was war on a truly global scale.
Offering a wide overview of the major figures, politics and action on all sides, World War Two: History in an Hour provides a concise picture of the world upturned. How the conflicts began, the violence involved and how they affected a century: this is the story of the events that ended over sixty million lives and challenged our understanding of humanity.
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour...
Fascinated by Freemasons? Freemasons For Dummies is the internationally bestselling introduction to the Masons, the oldest and largest "secret society" in the world. This balanced, eye-opening guide demystifies Freemasonry, explaining everything from its elaborate rituals and cryptic rites, to its curious symbols and their meanings.
With new and improved content, including updated examples and references throughout, this new edition of Freemasons For Dummies provides the most straightforward, non-intimidating guide to the subject on the market.Updated expert coverage of the basic beliefs and philosophy behind Freemasonry Revised information on the history of the society, including updates concerning its founding, famous historical members, and pivotal events New coverage devoted to the recent influx of younger membership The latest and ongoing controversies and myths surrounding Freemasonry The role of women in a Masonic organization, including opportunities for women to participate in Freemasonry The effects cultural and political changes and worldwide events are having on the organization
If you're intrigued by the mystery that surrounds the Masons, get ready to learn the facts about this ancient order in Freemasons For Dummies.
From beer to Coca-Cola, the six drinks that have helped shape human history.
Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.
A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.
For Tom Standage, each drink is a kind of technology, a catalyst for advancing culture by which he demonstrates the intricate interplay of different civilizations. You may never look at your favorite drink the same way again.
From the end of World War Two to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and America eyed each other with suspicion and hostility as the world lived in the shadow of the Cold War. As post-war Europe was rebuilt, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin struggled to maintain peace among the former Eastern and Western Allies. Two ideologies, two political systems, two cultures, two superpowers became entrenched in a fight for dominance, each firm in the belief that history would prove them right.
The Cold War: History in an Hour is the concise account of the political tensions that arose as the world rebuilt after World War Two – an era beset by the constant fear of nuclear weapons and the looming threat of a Third World War.
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour...
But how much truth is there to some of these claims you keep hearing about? What is the real history of the mysterious group? Do they continue to exist today? What is the evidence? And what are they doing?
After a decade of research sifting through the facts and the fiction, secret society expert Mark Dice will help you navigate through the complex maze from the original documents to rare revelations by elite politicians, bankers and businessmen, as he takes you Inside the Illuminati.
How and when the original writings of Adam Weishaupt and the Illuminati were discovered and what they say.
See their own contingency plans showing they were prepared to continue operating in the event that they were discovered.
The direct link between the Skull & Bones society at Yale University and the Bavarian Illuminati.
The connection to communism and Karl Marx' admission that he was a member of a secret society which commissioned him to write The Communist Manifesto.
How they control the mainstream news media and use blockbuster films as propaganda tools to promote their agenda and shape our culture.
How they created various front groups like the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Federal Reserve to carry out their plans.
Discover the virtually unknown secret society of secretaries and personal assistants who are trusted to serve elite businessmen and politicians.
Investigations into the supposed bloodlines of the Illuminati, the Nephilim, and the Divine right of kings.
Uncovering the Zodiac Club and their little-known twelve-member intimate dinner parties in New York.
The elite secret society of scientists funded by the Department of Defense who were responsible for creating the atomic bomb.
The secret of "sex magic" and its alleged capabilities and perverted practitioners.
The Jesuits, the Black Pope, and the Vatican's child molesting mafia.
Looking into allegations of child abuse, murder, and snuff films rumored to have taken place at the Bohemian Grove.
The all-female version of the Bohemian Grove consisting of America's most powerful women.
Stunning Rockefeller and Rothschild family admissions and the extent of their power and influence.
The secret Jekyll Island meeting that gave birth to the Federal Reserve System.
Skull & Bones sister societies Scroll & Key and Wolf's Head at Yale University and the inter-council meetings these "Big Three" hold.
The strange spiritual beliefs, philosophies, and occult symbolism of the Mystery Schools and their offshoots.
Investigations into alleged ex-members 'Doc' Marquis, Leo Zagami, Kevin Trudeau, Brice Taylor, George Green, Mark Cleminson, and others.
The Illuminati's ultimate goal of creating a New World Order, a cashless society, and soon revealing the "royal secret," admitting that they do in fact worship Satan.
Their Transhumanist dream to become immortal Gods using advanced anti-aging technology, cybernetic neural interfaces, and mind uploading for what they see as the final step in human evolution.
Their preparation for the arrival of the Illuminati messiah (the Antichrist), believing that he will finally rule planet earth as a God.
How you can work to free yourself from mental, spiritual, and financial enslavement and avoid many of the traps set to ensnare ignorant and uniformed people.
By the author of The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction
Britain has invaded Afghanistan twice before in the nineteenth century. Both times tenacious Afghan fighters defended their country to humiliating British defeats. The Soviet Union also discovered what a tough enemy the Afghans are after nearly a decade of conflict from 1979 to 1989. When not fighting foreign invaders, Afghanistan was torn apart by Civil War from 1990 to 1996, resulting in victory for the Taliban.
The Afghan Wars in an Hour is an excellent way to learn all about the complex wars that have been fought in Afghanistan for almost four decades. It explains who the Taliban and the Mujahedeen are and how their politics work. It explores why Osama Bin Laden was so significant, and helps us understand why, still, it is so hard to achieve peace Afghanistan.
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour...
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin's life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America's best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard's Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation's alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.
In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.
Not all pioneers went west.
In The Greater Journey, David McCullough tells the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history.
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, whose encounters with black students at the Sorbonne inspired him to become the most powerful voice for abolition in the US Senate. Friends James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Morse not only painting what would be his masterpiece, but also bringing home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Paris to escape the controversy generated by her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Three of the greatest American artists ever—sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent—flourished in Paris, inspired by French masters.
Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris, and the nightmare of the Commune. His vivid diary account of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris is published here for the first time.
Telling their stories with power and intimacy, McCullough brings us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens' phrase, longed "to soar into the blue.
The text is divided into four books which provide detailed spiritual instructions. The four books are, "Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life", "Directives for the Interior Life", "On Interior Consolation", "On the Blessed Sacrament".
The approach taken in the Imitation is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ by other friars. The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life.
"What was he like?"
Jack Kennedy said the reason people read biography is to answer that basic question. What was he like, this man whose own wife called him "that elusive, unforgettable man?" In this New York Times bestselling biography, Chris Matthews answers that question with the verve of a novelist. We see this most beloved president in the company of friends. We see and feel him close-up, having fun and giving off that restlessness of his. We watch him navigate his life from privileged, rebellious youth to gutsy American president. We witness his bravery in war and selfless rescue of his PT boat crew. We watch JFK as a young politician learning to play hardball and watch him grow into the leader who averts a nuclear war. Matthews's extraordinary biography is based on personal interviews with those closest to JFK, oral histories by top political aide Kenneth O'Donnell and others, documents from his years as a student at Choate, and notes from Jacqueline Kennedy's first interview after Dallas. As Matthews writes: "I found a fighting prince never free of pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father's son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know."
"Filled with the vitality and spirit that made Jack Kennedy such a magical figure. Chris Matthews shows the cunning and determination beneath that magic. It's an awesome and delightful book." —Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian twenty-five-year-old, journeyed to Israel, with the goal of seeing the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind it, that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Ashkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next thirty-five years in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Based on extensive research, and springing from his enormously resonant documentary that aired on NPR's Fresh Air in 1998, Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, suggesting that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and reconciliation.