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Toys are dangerous.
No, I'm not talking about toys with sharp edges, toxic materials or small parts that constitute choking hazards.
I'm talking about hacking -- a new threat to the safety of children. Last week, the risk got real.
Of course, smart and connected toys can be fun for kids -- and safe, too. But as we learned last week, the new generation of toys can pose serious risks.
A Hong Kong-based company called VTech got hacked Nov. 14. VTech makes a wide variety of consumer electronics and is one of the world's largest toy makers. Some of their toys encourage the use of VTech's Kid Connect program, which enables kids to chat with parents and download content.
The hacker exposed the breach to the online publication Motherboard and claimed that the point of the hack was to expose VTech's bad security.
The hacker was able to steal names, mailing addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, download histories, the genders and birth dates of the children, pictures of the victims, chats conducted between parents and their children, and much more.
According to reports, the breach affected 6,368,509 children and 4,854,209 parents. Nearly 3 million of those children are in the U.S., and millions more are in Europe.
In this column, I'll offer an optimistic view of the hack, followed by a pessimistic one. I'll tell you the scope of the new risks to children in general and then give you great advice you've never heard before about how to keep kids safe.
The best-case scenario
The best-case scenario is that a single, ethical hacker exposed VTech's bad security. Now that the exposure has embarrassed the company, it will be shamed into a radical overhaul of its security practices and then secure customer data so that it's nearly impossible to compromise in the future.
In fact, VTech has already hired FireEye's Mandiant forensics unit to help make its infrastructure secure. In other words, no harm will come from this entire event.
That's the best-case scenario. Now brace yourself for the worst.
The worst-case scenario
Because VTech's security was so pathetically bad, it's theoretically possible that all the VTech data acquired in this hack had also been stolen previously by unethical hackers.
"All the evidence suggested I wasn't the only person outside of VTech who could have got the data," the hacker told Motherboard.
This data could be sold or posted for free on the dark Web to pedophiles, who could use the data to go "shopping" for victims by browsing the photos. They could learn all about the children for the purpose of socially engineering them or conning them, then they could use the home addresses in the database to find, exploit and even attack them.
The worst-case scenario is that VTech's bad policies and security infrastructure enabled predators to commit horrible crimes against children.
Not the only risk out there
Think of the VTech hack as a wake-up call. An increasing variety of toys and children's products are networked computers. In many cases, these toys do what traditional toys do, which is enable children to mimic adult behavior. But unlike, say, the Easy Bake Oven or a toy truck, today's toys pretend to be laptops, smartphones and other gadgets that children see their parents obsessing over.
Even traditional toys are getting Internet connections.
The most spectacular case this holiday season is Mattel's hot-selling Hello Barbie doll.
Hello Barbie can engage in conversations with children. The doll connects to home Wi-Fi and works more or less like Apple's Siri. Kids ask questions (after pressing a button on the doll), and their voices are recorded, compressed and sent to remote servers run by a San Francisco company called ToyTalk, where artificial intelligence software processes the words, comes up with a response and sends it back to the doll over the Internet.
A smartphone app enables parents to see the conversations between their child and Hello Barbie; it also deletes them. The data is stored on the phone, which connects to Hello Barbie as if the doll were a home Wi-Fi hub.
While the Hello Barbie app provides parental control and peace of mind, it has also been the source of criticism over the product's security.
Security experts have reported that the Hello Barbie app connects to any Wi-Fi hub with "Barbie" in the name, and so malicious hackers could spoof the doll, connect to the phone and gain access to the data stored by the Hello Barbie app.
While the data passed between server, doll and app uses certificate-based encryption, the methods used by ToyTalk are not secure. For example, all Hello Barbie doll apps reportedly use the same hard-coded password to verify the certificate.
And the Hello Barbie system has been found to be riddled with other security holes as well.
Mattel and ToyTalk have reportedly been very responsive to reports of security vulnerabilities and have rapidly addressed many or all of them.
Here's the real takeaway from the security controversies around Hello Barbie: Because Barbie is an iconic brand, and because the toy is popular and is also being widely reported on, the product is getting massive scrutiny. Hello Barbie is an exception to how toy security is normally handled.
So while the public is super concerned about Hello Barbie, and the companies involved have been impressively responsive to those concerns, thousands of other toys are coming out under the radar. Those are the toys that pose real security threats. They're not being scrutinized like Hello Barbie, and the companies that make them aren't fixing the potential security problems.
But you can take measures to protect your children and family against these new security threats.
The best advice you've never heard for protecting kids from hackable toys
The new world of smart and connected toys requires a new sophistication on the part of parents.
We've all heard the standard advice for consumers about the privacy and security of connected products. For protecting children, I have three more tips you've probably never heard before.
1. Use a P.O. box for your billing and delivery addresses
Many toys enable you to buy additional features, content, services or add-on products. When you pay with a credit card, you'll be required to provide a billing address and a delivery address, which are both usually your home address. That information is usually lumped in there with the personal data the company stores about you and your child.
Where children are concerned, the home address is the single most dangerous bit of personal information.
Instead of your home address, use a P.O. box, so you never have to worry about malicious hackers posting your child's home address on a criminal website somewhere.
2. Be wary of parental controls
Parental controls can be secure, but they can also provide the best access point for hackers.
Think about it like this: If the data you have access to as a parent is protected only by a password, or is accessible online or over wireless, then hackers might be able to get access to that data as well.
For some products, kids might be safer if you don't use those parental controls.
3. Teach kids to code
The biggest threat to the lifelong security of children is their own ignorance.
We've reached a stage in the evolution of technology where consumers can buy and use sophisticated, connected products -- including toys -- that they never think of as computers.
Take advantage of learning opportunities -- such as this week's Hour of Code event -- to help your children become tech savvy. If you do that, your kids will be better equipped to think about the security risks for themselves. Understanding how something works is the best way to understand its weaknesses.
Why toys are a special risk
Smart and connected toys can be great for kids, but only if they protect the privacy of both parent and child.
When toys are dangerous, it's because of culture, not the presence of technology. In fact, smart and connected toys are no different from any other consumer electronics gadget, in theory.
The difference is that toy companies may be less likely to obsess over security than companies where technology is the main business. Also, the parents and children who buy or use these toys tend to be thinking of the benefits of technology features without ever considering the risks.
Don't let this happen to you and your family. Know the risks. Understand the technology involved, and be smart and informed about the new world of connected toys.


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After Seventy Years: Anne Frank (1929-1945)
By Dr. Joyce Apsel Director of Education, Anne Frank Center USA
Today, seventy years after Anne Frank was born, the struggle to promote democratic ideals and take positive action in the face of injustice and the suffering of millions of people continues. From the former Yugoslavia to Sierra Leone to Guatemala and Rwanda, the necessity to forge a public consciousness and will to foster human rights, acknowledge and bring to justice individual and government perpetrators, and prevent and/or stop genocide and other historic atrocities challenges us.
The legacy of Anne Frank is to educate against discrimination and acknowledge the importance of each human being. We live in a time when democracy is threatened and ethnic rivalries and genocidal atrocity continues. How as individuals can we work toward educating about the rights of all human beings and for peaceful resolution of conflicts?
Just as Anne Frank wrote about the importance of trying to hold onto our ideals in the face of prejudice, violence and genocide, each of us must choose to nurture understanding and respect for each other and work toward political and humanitarian goals to foster human dignity and understanding.
Anneliese Marie Frank, known to the world as Anne Frank, was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany on June 12, 1929. She was the second daughter of Otto and Edith Frank. Anna and her older sister Margot (born February 6, 1926) were born in the post-World War I era. They, along with their parents, were German citizens under the laws of the Weimar Republic (1918-33). Otto Frank and his brothers were in the German Army during World War I, as was Austrian-born Adolf Hitler who volunteered for the Bavarian Regiment. Both Otto and Edith's family had lived in Germany for generations. While the Franks were German, they also were of the Jewish background and Otto and Edith- Hollander Frank were married in a liberal Jewish ceremony.
World War I as Background: Who remembers the Armenians?
World War I, the first total war, brought mass destruction and death, including the first genocide of the 20th century --- the killing of over one million Armenians by the Turkish government and its accomplices. The fact that this genocide was not acknowledged by the government nor any individual prosecuted for mass murder was a signal that individuals and nation-states could and would get away with mass murder of certain "excess" people. Hitler purportedly stated, "Who remembers the Armenians?"
The defeat of Germany; end of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires; signing of the Versailles treaty; and establishment of Germany's first democratic government, the Weimar Republic, were among the tumultuous events of the time. During the interwar years, Europe was struggling to recover from World War I and accommodate to the newly drawn map of Europe. Some countries, such as Germany, lost territory. New states and boundaries, for example in Poland and Czechoslovakia, were created. Following the 1917 Communist Revolution in Russia and unsuccessful coups in Germany and elsewhere, world tensions increased with growth of communist and fascist regimes and vying nationalist interests.
The Rise of Nazism in Germany/The Franks flee Germany
A decade after the end of the First World War, there was massive unemployment and economic depression in Germany. The popular myth that Germany had been stabbed in the back (Dolstosslegend)by its enemies who signed and supported the peace agreement and appeals to right the wrongs of the Versailles Peace Treaty contributed to the growing popularity of radical, anti-democratic parties on the right. In 1933, the National socialist Democratic Workers Party (Nazis) promised bread and work, to restore Germany's greatness, and that of the Aryan race, and German territory; and destroy the Weimar reporter and its supporters. Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, head of the party, was an astute politician and virulent anti-Semite "who played like a virtuoso on the heartstrings of lower middle class Germans."
Why did the Weimar government fail and totalitarianism under Hitler's brutal direction replace democracy in Germany? The Nazi Party, which had a virulent anti-Semitic platform, received 37% of the votes under the multiparty system and its leader, Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor on January 30, 1933.
The Nazis used political terror and violence to eliminate their political opponents as well as to target non-Aryans who were considered enemies of the people. Nazi ideology held the superiority of the Aryan race (Teutonic background) and promised to restore German greatness and destroy its enemies. Hate-filled anti-Semitic propaganda labeled the Jews as among those responsible for Germany's economic and political problems and part of the stab-in-the-back conspirators. From 1933 on, the 500,000 Jews in Germany, around one percent of the population, became victims of laws that stripped Jews of their rights as German citizens ("only members of the Aryan race can be German citizens") and as human beings. Violent acts against Jews and their property, such as Kristallnacht(Night of Broken Glass, 1938) followed. The Franks were among the earliest groups of German Jews to leave their German homeland and immigrated to Amsterdam, Holland in the hope of a safer, better future.
As Anne wrote in her diary:I lived in Frankfurt until I was four. Because we're Jewish my father immigrated to Holland in 1933. My mother, Edith Hollander Frank went with him to Holland in September, while Margot and I were sent to Aachen to stay with our grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December, and I followed in February, when I was plunked down on the table as a birthday present for Margot. (The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank, def.ed. Doubleday, 1995.)After seven years in Amsterdam, Anne Frank felt at home in their apartment at 37 Merwedeplein. She and her sister attended school, went to the beach and had Jewish refugee and Dutch friends. Anne attended a Montessori pre-school followed by a regular grade school; and was encouraged by her parents to read, study and enjoy her friends and family. Her parents had a more difficult adjustment, especially Edith Frank who never totally mastered Dutch, and felt the displacement of being a refugee. The Franks followed the events in Germany and throughout Europe aware of the increase in Nazi power and persecution of Jews. For example, Edith Frank's brothers, Julius and Walter Hollander, were imprisoned by the Nazis, beaten up and finally allowed to immigrate to the United States.
Nazi invasion of Holland/Anti-Semitic Laws in Holland
On May 10, 1940 the German military invaded Holland, violating its neutrality and bombed Rotterdam killing civilians and leveling buildings. The Dutch forces surrendered on May 15, 1940 under threat of further bombings. Queen Wilhelmenia and other government officials went into exile in England. The Franks, like other Jewish refugees, found themselves once again under Nazi oppression.
In the midst of the war and occupation, Anne Frank celebrated her 13th birthday and received a red and white plaid diary on June 12, 1942. Less than two weeks later, Anne wrote in her diary on June 29, 1942:Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were forbidden to use street cars...Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools. You couldn't do this and you couldn't do that. But life went on.Anne's struggles to resist dehumanization by the Nazis and to retain her spirit and human dignity are among the most powerful themes throughout her diary.
In 1942, mass round ups (razzias) of Jews and deportations to work, transit and concentration camps were to become routine throughout the Netherlands. The Franks began to prepare to go into hiding. Otto and Edith wanted to try to keep the family together. Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman, two business associates and friends helped with preparations for the Franks and the van Pels family. Earlier Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman and Jan Gies had worked with Otto Frank to prevent Nazi confiscation of his businesses by transferring ownership of the business to non-Jewish associates and renaming it "Gies and Co." By June 5, 1942 there was a total ban on Jews traveling without gaining prior permission. On July 5, 1942, Anne's sister Margot was among those who received the first call-up notices sent out for "labor service in Germany." The very next day, first Margot and then other family members moved into their hiding place- --an annex of rooms behind Otto Frank's office at 263 Prisengracht in Amsterdam. Hermann van Pels (Otto Frank's associate), his wife, Auguste and their son, Peter arrived a week later on July 13 (referred to in the Diary as the van Daans). On November 16, 1942 they were joined by the eighth and final resident of what Anne called the "Secret annex", Fritz Pfeffer (in the Diary called Albert Dussel). Anne shared a room with Mr. Dussel and the diary describes the stresses and strains of a teenage girl and middle-aged man negotiating space and privacy in the secret annex.
Anne Frank records in her diary life in hiding as a Jew in Nazi occupied Holland
For twenty-five months, Anne Frank records the ups and downs of life in hiding. On July 11, 1942, Anne wrote, "The annex is an ideal place to hide in. It may be damp and lopsided, but there's probably not a more comfortable hiding place in all of Amsterdam. No, in all of Holland." Anne stated that she felt "privileged" to be with her family in hiding while others were being hunted. "It's like the slave hunts of the olden days." November 19, 1942. In fact, the Franks were most unusual in being able to hide together, having resources to buy food, and that so many associates of Mr. Frank were willing to help the Franks and others hiding in the annex.
In Holland, as everywhere in Europe during World War II, few people had a place to hide. Of the minority who went into hiding, most were split up from other family members and moved from place to place. Onderduikerswas the term used for those who went underground in Holland, and literally means 'divers' or those who 'dive under'and the term conveys the diverse range of experiences. In one survey of hidden children, the average number of 4.5 addresses was found with the highest being 37 (See Bob Moore, Victims and Survivors, St. Martins, 1997).
An Unusual Group of People: The Helpers provide for those in hiding for 25 months
Helpers was the name Anne Frank gave to the group of people who for 25 months helped those in hiding. The six helpers were a remarkable group of ordinary people from Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler and Jan Gies who helped Mr. Frank "aryanize" (remove Frank's name and ownership) his business to assisting preparations to go into hiding. Miep Gies, and her husband Jan who was in the Dutch resistance gave support; Bep Voskuijl and her father Mr. Voskuijl, Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler all worked at Mr. Frank's businesses and agreed to help him and the others in hiding.
The helpers provided food, books and other supplies as well as friendship and news of events outside throughout the twenty-five months in hiding. Anne writes about the helpers from describing Johannes Kleiman, "When Mr. Kleiman enters the room, the sun begins to shine," Mother said recently, and she is absolutely right," to Miep Gies, "It seems as if we are never far from Miep's thoughts" (see Miep Gies with Alison Gold, Anne Frank Remembered,Simon & Schuster, 1988). Anne Frank's diaries are filled with descriptions of the helpers and their acts of kindness. Given the terror of being a Jew hiding from Nazis in Holland, the helpers provided an everyday example of people acting to help and sustain Anne and her family. Their support and friendship was an important source of comfort and hope for Anne Frank and the others in hiding as reflected in her diary.
Helping Jews was punishable with imprisonment or even death. Again, Anne Frank and the other residents of the annex were unusual in having so many people willing to help support them in hiding. Throughout Europe and in Holland, finding people willing to hide or even help Jews was unusual. In Holland three out of four Jews were killed, the largest percent of Jewish victims in any state in Western Europe. Of around 140,000 Jews (20% were refugees like Anne Frank and her family) in Holland in 1939, 102,000 were killed. This 73% death rate was about forty percent of the total civilian casualty rates for all those living in German occupied Holland from 1940-45. (See Moore, Victims and Survivors). Historians continue to debate the factors that contributed to such a high percentage of Jews living in Holland were killed in contrast to lower rates in France and Belgium. The calculus of factors includes the rule of Seyss- Inquart, cooperation of the Dutch civil service, flight of Queen Wilhelmina and government, nature of the Jewish Council to the reactions of Dutch to the persecutions of the Jews and length and nature of Nazi occupation.
While Anne Frank wrote about the danger of being discovered by the Nazis, she also wrote sympathetically about the sufferings of the Dutch people and wondered if after the war she would be able to become a Dutch citizen. Anne describes everyday life in hiding, news of the war in Europe as well as her changing relationships with her mother, father, sister and others in the annex. Her diary is an historic document recording events as she hears about them from D-day to the gassings of Hungarian Jewry in the summer of 1944. She records her own inner growth from a girl to a young woman. She describes her feelings toward Peter; her joys and sorrows, her dreams and nightmare of capture. As she records her own inner growth from a girl to a young woman, the diary gives voice to her fears and dreams of being a writer and of becoming a woman. ". . . My happy-go- lucky, carefree schooldays are gone forever. I don't even miss them. I've outgrown them. I can no longer just kid around, since my serious side is always there." March 7, 1944.
Betrayal and Deportation of those in Hiding
On August 4, 1944, four Dutch Nazis under the SS sergeant, Karl Silberbauer, raided the Secret Annex and arrested the eight Jews in hiding. Someone has told the police there were Jews in hiding, but to this day no one knows who the informers were. The Nazis snatched a briefcase, shaking out its contents to make room for valuables. The sheets of Anne's diary fell onto the floor and were later found and saved by Miep Gies. Neither Miep Gies nor Bep Voskuijl were arrested, but Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman were sent to labor camps. At risk of her own life, Miep Gies went to the police station to try to secure the Franks' release and was unable to do so. All the helpers survived the war.
The residents of the secret annex were taken to prison in Amsterdam, then transported to the Dutch transit camp, Westerbork. On September 3, 1944, all eight were on the last transport from Westerbork directly to Auschwitz. For over two days of an exhausting trip, Anne, her family, the van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer were crowded in cattle cars and arrived at Auschwitz, Poland on September 5 or 6, 1944. There were 1019 people who arrived from Westerbork; 549 were never registered. These children under 15 and adults were immediately selected out and killed in the gas chambers. (See The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition, eds. Barnouw and van der Stroom, Doubleday, 1989).
Upon arrival, the men were separated from the women. Hermann van Pels was the first to die. He was gassed at Auschwitz in October or November 1944. Fritz Pfeffer was moved from Auschwitz to Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany, probably via Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald, where he died on December 20, 1944. Edith Frank died of exhaustion and starvation at Auschwitz-Birkenau in January, 1945.
The final months of Anne Frank's life in Bergen-Belsen
Three months earlier, Anne, Margot and Mrs. Van Pels were transported from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. That winter a typhus epidemic broke out due to the terrible, unsanitary conditions and thousands of prisoners died from it. Anne and Margot, with little clothing and food during the particularly severe winter of 1944-45, were already debilitated and contracted typhus. Margot died of disease, cold and hunger in March of 1945. A short time later, Anne Frank without any family, malnourished, suffering from cold and typhus, died in the barracks at Bergen-Belsen. Ironically, breathing her last breath in the same country, Germany, where she had been born and given the rights of citizenship, only fifteen years earlier.
Rachel van Ameronger-Frankfoorder was one of the last to recall seeing Anne and Margot in the barracks in Bergen-Belsen. She described their "wasting away":They showed the recognizable symptoms of typhus---that gradual wasting away, a sort of apathy, with occasional revivals, until they became so sick that there wasn't any hope. And their end . . . I didn't pay any special attention to them because there were so many others who also died. (The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, Willy Lindwer, p. 104)She continues her description of life and death in Bergen-Belsen:The dead were always carried outside, laid down in front of the barracks, and when you were let out in the morning to go to the latrine, you had to walk past them. That was just as dreadful as going to the latrine itself, because gradually everyone got typhus. In front of the barracks was a kind of wheel barrel in which you could take care of your needs. Sometimes you also had to take those wheel barrels to the latrine. Possibly it was on one of those trips to the latrine that I walked past the bodies of the Frank sisters, one or both---I don't know. At the time, I assumed that the bodies of the Frank girls had also been put down in front of the barracks. And then the heaps would be cleared away. A huge hole would be dug and they were thrown into it. That I'm sure of. That must have been their fate because that's what happened with other people. I don't have a single reason for assuming that it was any different for them than the other women with us who died at the same time. (Lindwer: 104)Mrs. Van Pels' last months were one of gruesome transports from Auschwitz, Bergen- Belsen, Buchenwald and then to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. She died in Germany or Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1945. Her son, Peter, survived the "death march" from Auschwitz to Mauthausen, Austria but died on May 5, 1945, three days before the camp was liberated.
With the coming of the Russian Army, the Nazis abandoned Auschwitz leaving Otto Frank behind in the camp infirmary. After the liberation, Otto returned to Amsterdam and stayed with Miep and Jan Gies. He knew that his wife Edith had died in Auschwitz, but hoped that perhaps Anne or Margot had survived the war. After learning the Anne and Margot perished in Bergen-Belsen, Miep Gies handed Otto Frank Anne's diary that Miep had saved to give Anne upon her return.
Otto Frank survives Auschwitz and publishes Anne's diary Het Achterhuis (The House Behind) in 1947
As Otto Frank read Anne's words, he was deeply moved by his daughter's description of life in the annex and her feelings about herself and her family as well as the other residents of the annex. He decided to honor her wishes and get the diary published, but along with the editors, left out parts of her writings, such as those critical of her mother, about her sexuality, and views on being a woman. In June 1947 Contact published 1,500 copies of the Diary in the first Dutch edition, Het Achterhuis Dagboekbrieven van 12 juni 1932-1 augustus 1933 (The House Behind). The diary was re-issued in Dutch and by the 1950's had been translated into German, English and French. In 1995, Bantam Doubleday Dell published the "definitive edition" of the Diary in English translated by Otto Frank and Mirjam Pressler which includes thirty percent more than the original version and restores most of the material left out of earlier editions.
The Legacy of Anne Frank: After Seventy Years
Anne's goal of "becoming famous" and "becoming a writer" has become a reality as millions of people, especially young readers, continue to read her diary in fifty-five different languages throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam yearly and tens of thousands view travelling exhibits such as Anne Frank: A History for Today sponsored in North America through the Anne Frank Center USA.
And as South African President Nelson Mandela, recalled after his years of imprisonment to end apartheid:"Some of us read Anne Frank's diary on Robben Island and derived much encouragement of it."Anne Frank's life and death and her diary remain powerful and relevant in our own time.
"The content of Anne Frank's legacy is still very much alive and it can address us fully, especially at a time when the map of the world is changing and dark passions are awakening within people." (Vaclev Havel, Czechoslovakia)Anne Frank's life and death personalizes the struggle for human dignity in the face of discrimination and genocide. Her voice is part of the history of testimony of people recording and bearing witness. Her voice is one of 1.5 million Jewish children killed during the Nazi war against the Jews, the Holocaust. It is an enduring legacy of the necessity to end discrimination, to work toward achieving human dignity and human rights for all humankind in the face of the reality that violence and genocide exist in our own times.
It is utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them.© 1997-2013 Dr. Joyce Apsel, Director of Education, Anne Frank Center USA. Used with permission.
July 15, 1944
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 1997-2013.

subset: commoncrawl


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Fort St. Angelo is the jewel in the crown of Malta's rich military heritage. It stands majestically at the
tip of the promontory of Citta Vittoriosa or Birgu, as it is popularly known, dominating the Three Cities on the South Eastern of the Grand Harbour. The Families of De Guevara and De Nava were associated with the castle for many years and the latter family had to hand over the castle to the Order of St. John, when the Knights landed on our shores in 1530.
Soon after their arrival in Malta the Knights set about strengthening the then half-ruined Castle of St. Angelo and repairing the Fort's defences. The church of St. Anne as well as the Castellan's house, both in the fort, were restored and remodelled by the Order's Ingeniere e Soprastante dell Opere, the Portugese Fra Diego Perez di Malfriere. The castle soon became a veritable fortress and, thirty five years later, in 1565, was to repulse a formidable Turkish Armada which besieged the island for three months. It was the headquarters of Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette who led the local force of some six hundred Knights and a few thousands met-at-arms against the repeated onslaught of the Muslim invaders. The epic resistance of the defenders of the Fort during the Great Siege, are the archetype of all that symbolizes the character and determination of the Knights of St. John and the Maltese.
The Fort underwent various changes during the rule of the Order of St. John and the other defence works were concluded by the Spanish military engineer Carlos de Grunenburgh, in about 1689. This outline still survives today. In 1912 the British Royal Navy moved into Fort St. Angelo and the fort was turned into a naval headquarters and rechristened HMS St. Angelo. During the Second World War the fort was extensively damaged by air attack and between 1940 and 1943 it suffered sixty-nine direct hits. It continued to be used as a base ship for the Mediterranean until the British Services finally left Malta in March 1979.
In the historical agreement reached with the Maltese Government in 1998, the Order of St. John, was granted the right to occupy the upper part of the Fort, comprising the Magistral Palace and St. Anne Chapel. Intensive restoration works of these areas are being carried out.
The Church of St. Anne in Fort St. Angelo
The 15th century Chapel of St. Anne, in the precincts of Fort St. Angelo, is where the Knights first worshipped on their arrival in Malta. It is said that the original chapel was built by De Nave family one hundred years before the coming of the Knights in 1530.
The histographer of the Order Iacomo Bosio, writing in 1594, says that the present chapel was built on the site of the previous chapel thus: "The church consists of an entrance bay, a square central section of four quadripartite-vaulted bays, another quadripartite-vaulted bay in line with the entrance and, finally a small bay which seems to have supported a half-dome. The four middle bays are sustained by a central column composed of red granite known as syenite and may have formed part of a temple."
The 'Guva' in Fort St. Angelo
The 'Guva', or underground cell, was the Order's most sever place of confinement for convicted knights. It principally served as a place of punishment but occasionally also housed knights awaiting trial. It consists of a bell shaped hole excavated in the ground-rock, without steps, from which it was virtually impossible to escape. The base is roughly oval shaped (from 3.3 meters at its narrowest to 4.2 meters at its widest) and it is 3.4 meters high. Niches and shelves cut in the walls were probably used for candles, laps or lanterns. Sad graffiti decorate all the wall surface and the names incised indicate that the guva was in use soon after the knights' arrival in Malta. One graffito by Fra Jeronimo Palan is the earliest, dated August 7, 1532.
The only guva known today, rediscovered in 1913, is in Fort St. Angelo in Malta, and is five meters awat from the facade of the little church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. The archives indicate that other guvas existed; with at least two or three in Gozo, but their whereabouts have not yet been identified.
EU Celebrations
Fort St. Angelo was the centre of attraction in a spectacular display of lights, music and fireworks which was transmitted live on television to millions of viewers, to celebrate Malta's entry into the European Union on the 1st May 2004.
If you would like to know more about the History of Malta and would like to visit some interesting places during your holidays in Malta, contact Our Concierge & Transport Desk and they will surely be able to assist you. And if you would like to book a superior room for your relaxation break, check out what this Luxury Malta Hotel has to offer.
Photos courtesy of Mario Galea, www.viewingmalta.com & http://www.cc-advocates.com.


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UK farmer concerns similar to problems of U.S. counterparts
Byline: Harry Cline Farm Press Editorial Staff
David Walker chose his words deliberately when asked to identify his biggest challenges in operating a 10,000-acre vegetable farm.
A soft-spoken farmer, he is uncomfortable being interviewed. Nevertheless, sitting in his small office in the farm headquarters barn, he articulates the issues most taxing as manager of large, diversified farm.
Like his peers, the every day demands of producing good crops are almost secondary to those things most troublesome to his ability to farm profitably. They are the things more out of his control than the weather.
It's paying higher fuel taxes than his competitors; marketplaces where he is at an unfair advantage for any number of reasons, mostly political. Environmental restraints he encounters his competitors do not and increasingly greater quality demands from consumers without commensurate price increases are two more issues that make his job tougher each year.
Strawberry producer Harriett Duncalfe seconds Walker and adds as a specialty crop grower, gaining access to crop protection products like commodity farmers have is a growing problem for her farm. Specialty crop growers often are left out of new product development, and older products are disappearing. She also wants consumer demands to keep up with her ability to produce increasingly high quality strawberries. She likes the idea of more promotion for increased strawberry consumption.
5,000 miles away
The issues important to Duncalfe and Walker are not unique. They are the same concerns of farmers whether they are in Salinas, Calif., or Yuma, Ariz. However, Walker and Duncalfe farm 5,000 miles from California and Arizona in the United Kingdom in a region called "The Fens," nearly three-quarters of a million acres of the richest farmland in the England about 100 miles north of London.
It is the largest plain in the British Isles, and remarkably similar to California's San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta. Both are identified by levees, rechannelization of rivers and drainage systems that have turned marshland into highly productive farmland. "The Fens" is rich in peat and silt soils that grow just about anything weather will permit.
Since Roman times man has tried to drain The Fens. In the 1640s drainage channels were sufficiently well engineered to start the drainage process. Dutch experts were brought in the 18th century; rivers diverted, and wind pumps introduced to keep the salt water at bay. Dutch windmills still dot the landscape, but it was not until steam pumps were introduced that the drainage was fully successful.
Annual rainfall is about 25 inches per year, and it is frequent enough during the growing season to dryland farm vegetables.
Just like the Delta and "The Fens" are strikingly similar farming areas, so are the farmers of the UK and the U.S.
Walker farms in the county of Lincolnshire near the town of Spalding and manages a diversified farm called Lincolnshire Field.
Harriett farms with her husband Henry just outside the village of Friday Bridge in Cambridgeshire County. The Duncalfes are large strawberries grower and part of a growing number of European "tunnellers," producers who grow crops under large plastic tunnels that look like Quonset huts.
Western Farm Press was the guest of Gidon Bahiri, an agronomist with Omex, a solution fertilizer formulator and marketing company in the UK. Omex also operates a small a plant in Madera, Calif., in a joint venture with Western Farm Service, to supply products to U.S. growers.
Struck by similarities
Bahiri travels to the U.S. annually. He is struck by how similar farming in the UK is to the U.S. and was eager to show how farmers in his home country are not unlike American producers.
"I think there are a lot of misconceptions about farmers on both sides," said Bahiri. "Fields may be smaller in the UK than the vegetable and strawberry fields in Salinas. Yields are a bit less, but overall I think they have more in common than they both realize."
Walker's primary crops are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes and Brussels sprouts. While it freezes in the winter, the weather is mild enough to overwinter some vegetable crops for early spring harvest.
He markets his crops throughout Europe and one of his key customers is Wal-Mart, which owns a chain of supermarkets in the UK called ASDA. The familiar Wal-Mart round, yellow happy face adorns ASDA signage to identify ASDA as part of the "Wal-Mart Family."
Supermarkets are common in the UK and the rest of Europe, but they take an appearance in their produce departments of the literally thousands of small markets that line the streets of European cities. Bright, colorful produce in the small markets beckon strolling shoppers. In the dead of winter, it is amazing to see the fresh produce in these markets.
Supermarket produce departments mimic these small produce stands. The produce is displayed in packing boxes like shoppers see in the street markets and town square farmers markets.
However, these supermarkets do not dominate like in America. And there seemed to be few giant warehouse discounters. Rural England looks much like rural America in the 1950s with many small but well-stock retail stores.
While the UK seemed like America 50 years ago, the challenges farmers face are identical to what American producers face.
Asked to identify his biggest challenge, Walker said it is the "unlevel playing field." He pays more for fuel than is European competitors. He has fewer chemical choices than farmers in countries like France, Italy and Spain.
"An example of what I am talking about is that trucks haul freight into my area from Belgium and France where fuel costs are half of what we have to pay," said Walker. "A truck can fuel up 150 miles from here at half the cost of our local truckers and drive his load to our area; unload and then underbid our local truckers. It's unfair and it hurts our local economy.
"The UK also has health and safety laws other European nations do not," he added, "We are all supposed to be part of the European Community, but it is not always a level playing field."
Prices are lower than Walker would like. Part of the problem there is increasingly fewer buyers.
Like his U.S. peers, Walker is seeking new technology to cut costs. The day Western Farm Press visited his farm, he was trying out a new John Deere rubber track tractor.
"We are also using GPS to map out fields for soil sampling and nematode detection," said Walker.
He is reducing his costs where he can. One area is by switching from transplants in some fields to seeding. "Seed quality is much better now and with the precision planters we have, we can get stands as good as transplants," he said.
"It is a struggle farming in the UK. Vegetable growers do not get subsidies, and we have to reduce our costs wherever we can," he said. "We have taken over five farmers in the past year – farmers who have gone out of business.
"Consumers want high quality, cheap food yet farming costs keep going up," he said.
Strawberry tunnels
The Duncalfe's use a combination of field- and tunnel-grown strawberries to supply supermarkets and consumers with fresh UK strawberries from March to November.
According to one report, more than a third of UK strawberries are grown in tunnels.
Harriett said the tunnels serve two purposes: earliness and to protect the fruit from rain. Other than the tunnels, the growing method is very similar to what you'd see in Salinas or Watsonville, Calif. Duncalfe added tunnels are now being marketed in the U.S.
Harvesting is alternated between the three- and five-row tunnels depending on the weather. The ribbed tunnels are covered with either white or black plastic. The plastic can be rolled up or down the tunnel's metal ribs, depending on weather conditions. Workers pick three times per week inside the tunnels.
The growing beds are wide, covered with plastic mulch and drip irrigated. In some tunnels, Harriett grows autumn market strawberries in long, plastic planters filled with soil less media of coconut coir.
Unlike Walker, Harriett has traveled to the U.S. and can draw comparisons. One is the impact of phasing out of methyl bromide. UK strawberry producers have weaned themselves off methyl bromide, she said.
"I think we accepted sooner the fact we would lose methyl bromide and have been working on alternatives longer than in the U.S.," she said. She said her two alternatives are chloropicrin and Basamid.
"I like to use Basamid because as I grower I can apply it," With chloropicrin, UK law requires it be applied by a commercial operator.
Losing chemicals
Like her specialty crop counterpart grower in the U.S, Harriett said she is losing crop protection chemicals. "What we need is something like the IR-4 program they have in the U.S.," she said. Some of the products she now uses are under government pressure to ban, and she needs alternatives. However, major chemical companies do not want to go to the expense of registering products or support challenged chemicals for use on specialty crops. Government-funded IR-4 does the research and testing normally performed by chemical manufacturers.
"There are some new biopesticides and other products that could really help us, but we need help like the U.S. IR-4 program to get them registered for us," she said. "We need our government to help us out like the U.S. strawberry growers have."
Her fruit is marketed through a large cooperative, Kentish Gardens (KG). KG markets about 50 percent of the strawberries grown in the UK. The Duncalfes also get technical growing help from KG since there is nothing like a university cooperative extension in the UK.
"I really like the five-a-day program. I think Europeans are like the Americans – they want to eat healthier. Strawberries work well in that, and we are working on promoting strawberries more," she said.
Strawberries are available year-round in the UK. Imports from elsewhere in Europe and even Mexico fill in those winter months when UK strawberries are not available.
The 5,000 miles separating Fresno, Calif., and Sunday Bridge, England did not seem so distant after a visit to The Fens countryside on a cold, cloudy November afternoon.
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I really don't know whether mothballing helps: it depends what portion of the ongoing losses are sunk for the Council and what part are operational losses that could be stemmed by shutting down.The issue here is whether or not keeping the stadium running generates quasi-rents that can be used to pay at least part of any sunk costs.
Costs in the short-run are either avoidable or sunk (unavoidable or nonrecoverable). Avoidable costs are those which do not have to be paid if the firm shuts down. Sunk costs, on the other hand, have to be paid not matter what the level of production, including zero output. Thus it is better to stay in business if total revenues exceed avoidable costs. This implies that sunk costs are irrelevant to the shutdown decision.
The difference between total revenues and avoidable costs in the short-run equals the firm's quasi-rents. Quasi-rents measure the benefit to the firm of staying in business. Quasi-rents provide a contribution towards the firm's sunk costs.
So the question for the Dunedin City Council is, Does the stadium generate quasi-rents? If yes then it should stay in business, at least in the short-run. Over the long term all costs are avoidable and thus the decision becomes does the stadium produce economic profit, that is, Are revenues greater than total costs? Or, to put it another way, Are the quasi-rents generated greater than its sunk costs?
Now here the stadium could have a problem. Given the nature of the assets involved, the stadium itself, the sunk costs could be very large. Interest payments, for example, on any loans taken out to finance the stadium could be large and unavoidable, in the short-run. If the council closes the stadium it could sell off the land the stadium is built on, the stadium itself won't be worth much given it can't generate at profit, and recover some of its sunk costs this way. But how much is the question. Hopefully the land is valuable for some other purpose, housing for example.
Perhaps the only positive to come from the Dunedin experience is as a warning to all other councils around the country of the dangers of building a stadium. Are you taking note Christchurch?


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Monday, July 16, 2018 ratings — New episodes: Salvation, Elementary, The Bachelorette, The Proposal, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Whose Line Is It Anyway, American Ninja Warrior, Dateline NBC, and So You Think You Can Dance . Reruns: 9-1-1, Whose Line Is It Anyway, and TKO: Total Knock Out.
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These are the fast affiliate ratings. The percentages represent the change since the previous original episode. (Percentages aren't given for reruns or specials.) To see past ratings for a particular show, click the show's link. The show pages are updated with the daily final ratings when they become available. Those pages include season averages to date.
What were you watching last night? Original network programming, reruns, cable, or something else?


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Funding Opportunities in Chile (Anuncio de Oportunidades)
Call for proposals from Joint Committee of ESO and Government of Chile
30 May 2017
To enhance its programme of scientific cooperation with its host country, ESO provides and manages an annual fund devoted to the development of disciplines related to astronomy and technology in Chile. The board, which consists of representatives of ESO and the Chilean Government (working through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), evaluates and selects the programmes to be supported by this fund. These fall into five areas:
- ESO grant funding to postdoctoral programmes in astronomy at Chilean academic institutions.
- Funding for academic faculty positions for periods of up to two years at Chilean academic institutions.
- Funding to support the development and presentation of educational programmes for the teaching and dissemination of astronomy in Chile.
- Funding to support development programmes and the construction of technological systems for astronomy.
- Funding to support the development of astronomy in areas not covered by the above four categories.
The Joint Committee of ESO and Government of Chile will consider all proposals that contribute to the development of astronomy in Chile and will allocate funding up to an approximate total of about 320 million Chilean pesos in 2017. The criteria for the allocation of funding will take into account the merit of the projects, the strategic priorities determined by the Committee, the matching between the requested amount and the scope of the projects, and the applicants' record. In particular, the committee strongly encourages the submission of ambitious proposals in the area of astro-engineering to enhance collaborations between groups or institutions in Chile and abroad. It is intend to allocate a substantial part of the available funding to this type of project for an initial period of up to two years, with the possibility of renewal for two additional periods up to a total of six years. Projects approved under this modality must be presented again every two years, and renewal is conditional on a favourable evaluation of the activities performed in the previous period.
Proposals must be submitted by institutions, by the deadline of 12:00 CLT on 31 July 2017.
Proposals must be written in English or Spanish, using the form at the link below (NB the form is in Spanish only).
For further information about the submission of proposals, please contact the office of the ESO Representative in Chile.
- Anuncio de oportunidades (in Spanish)
- Formulario postulación Comité Mixto (application form in Spanish)
- ESO & Chile
Fernando Comerón
ESO Chile
Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura
Santiago, Chile
Tel: 00 56 24633051
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
About the Announcement


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PHOENIX -- Police Chief Jack Harris, a solid block of a man with a shock of thick gray hair, is stolid and patient but there are limits. Clearly he is weary of explaining that this is one of America's safest large cities, with declining rates of violent crime and property crime, even though it has one of the nation's highest rates of home foreclosures. Unfortunately, there are the kidnappings.
There were 368 reported kidnappings for ransom here last year -- perhaps more than anywhere else, other than Mexico City where kidnapping is such a long-established industry that the wealthy sometimes buy kidnap insurance. It is difficult to know how many kidnappings occurred there or here: Many are not reported because it can be dangerous to do so. And because they are settled before there is time to report them. Receiving a finger severed from the kidnap victim often speeds ransom transactions in Mexico. Not here yet.
In any case, law-abiding citizens here are rarely at risk. Most of the kidnappings are drug smugglers and human traffickers preying on one another.
Some of the smugglers who bring in drugs from Mexico bring people, too, along desert trails and through dry washes, to "drop houses." Regarding both drugs and people, Phoenix is a transshipment point: Most of both are distributed to other states. But some of the people become pawns in horrific transactions. A person in the United States might pay, say, $2,500 to have someone smuggled into the country, and then might receive a phone call: Pay another $5,000 and we will stop raping or torturing -- do you hear the screams? -- the person you want.
A small "drop house," with no functioning toilet, may, Chief Harris says, hold 60 people -- he has seen 100 -- in squalor. Fifty of them just want to move deeper into America in search of work, but all of them might have only their underwear, their clothes having been taken away to prevent them from running away.
The cross-border traffic in narcotics and people is, Harris says, just one way globalization is shaping crime. When the United States tightened controls on supplies of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, the precursor chemicals for manufacturing methamphetamine, American motorcycle gangs were pushed out of the business. The production of those drugs, which had been done in many improvised labs in rural America, or even in American kitchens, moved to Mexico, where drug-makers imported ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from China.
To the problem of reducing regular crime -- homicides in Phoenix were down 24 percent in 2008 -- Harris has applied proven methods. They include the nimble deployment of manpower to high-crime hot spots, close relations between police and neighborhoods, and intense concentration on the small number of career criminals who commit a large majority of the crimes -- often hundreds a year by each individual.
Phoenix's familiar sorts of crimes have not much to do with most of the city's immigrants, legal or illegal. They commit a smaller percentage of the crimes (10 percent) than they are of the city's population (24 percent). But the lurid crimes that are giving this city an unmerited reputation as dangerous represent the seepage of the Mexican cartels into his city.
For them, Harris says, "The answer is not in Phoenix. The answer is in Washington." We know how to close a border, says Harris with acid dryness -- " build a wall" and deploy "machine gun nests." But, "I personally think that is stupid." For now, however, the United States "has turned immigration policy over to Mexican thugs." So we have reached a point at which barbed wire, car batteries and acid become the business tools of kidnapper-torturer-extortionists.
With a force large enough to police the nation's fifth-largest city, Harris can deploy 60 officers to deal with one kidnapping. That would be impossible in smaller cities, to which such crime might be driven by success here. But "don't give me 50 more" officers to "deal with the symptoms." Rather, says Harris, who was raised in a rough Phoenix neighborhood, give me comprehensive immigration reform that controls the borders, provides for whatever seasonal immigration the nation wants, and one way or another settles the status of the 12 million who are here illegally -- 55 percent of whom have been here at least eight years.
For those whose profession it is, law enforcement sometimes seems like bailing an ocean with a thimble. Harris wants not a bigger thimble but a smaller ocean.


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Avoiding the Litter Box
Is your cat boycotting the litter box? Often, it's because she doesn't like the litter or just doesn't like the box. Your best bet? Use unscented litter in an uncovered box, and scoop it at least once a day. Put the box where there's not a lot of traffic. Try using more than one box and try different litters.
Urine Marking or Spraying
Cats use their urine to say "back off" to other cats. They tend to do it when they're in conflict with another cat, feeling insecure, or looking for a mate. If there's conflict, many cats in the house, or changes in routine, there's more chance a cat will mark his territory. To stop the spraying, have your cat neutered or spayed. Use an enzymatic cleaner where he's sprayed. If your cat keeps spraying, ask your vet for advice.
Cats like to scratch. They do it to play, stretch, sharpen their claws, and mark their territory. That's bad news for your furniture, carpets, and drapes. Put different types of scratching posts all over your house. Make sure they are sturdy so they won't fall over when your cat starts scratching. Then invite your cat to play by rubbing them with catnip or hanging toys on them.
Playing Rough
When cats play, sometimes it's hard to tell if it's a game or real. They pounce, swat, scratch, and bite. And, play scratches and bites still hurt. To channel your cat's energy, use toys like balls or a fake mouse for batting. A paper bag can give her hours of pouncing fun. And to protect yourself, never encourage a kitten to play with your hands or feet. Nips become bites as a cat grows up.
Compulsive Behavior
Sometimes your cat just can't help himself from doing something over and over again. It could be totally normal. In some cases, though, it can be a sign of a problem. If you're concerned, ask your vet. Also, give your cat fun, relaxing diversions, like structures to climb on or a fish tank to watch.
Hyper Nights
Cats like to have fun -- often in the middle of the night. Plan ahead if you know your cat gets revved up or hungry when you'd rather be sleeping. Play with him in the evening until he gets tired. Feed him just before bed. Or, try a timed feeder that gives out food later so he doesn't need to wake you. And, unless you think he's hurt, don't get up. Otherwise, you'll be teaching your cat to keep doing it.
Lots of Meowing
Grown cats don't meow at each other. Meowing is mostly for people. Cats meow to say hello, ask for food, or get attention. If she meows for food, don't feed her when she cries. If she meows for attention, give it when she's quiet. If your cat meows a lot and you can't figure out why, or if she seems distressed, ask your vet.
Separation Anxiety
Cats are very social. They like it when you're around. When left alone, they might get noisy or spray your house. Try ignoring your cat 15 minutes before you leave and when you get back. Leave out some of his favorite toys and put them away when you come back. Play with him regularly to burn extra energy so he'll rest when he's alone. If you still need more help, talk to your vet about other tactics or medication.
Obsessive Grooming
Cats groom to look good, and to calm themselves. If they overdo it, it can hurt their skin. Have your vet check for skin problems first. If your cat is grooming too much because of stress, such as a change in routine or a new pet in the house, reassure her by playing with her and helping her feel relaxed.
If your cat becomes aggressive, tell your vet right away. Do not go near a cat that's showing signs like a stiff-legged stance, widened eyes, or growling. Do not touch or approach the cat, even if you have a strong bond. It's not that your cat is "bad." It may be fearful or stressed. But safety -- for your cat and everyone in your house -- comes first, so get professional help.
Top 10 Behavioral Problems in Cats
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By Nathan Jones
Lamb & Lion Ministries
As Web Minister for Lamb & Lion Ministries, I get the blessing each day of responding to an in-boxful of great questions related to Bible prophecy. Many of these questions come from people wanting to know more about the return of Jesus Christ.
Concerning Jesus' prophesied return, it comes as a surprise to some to find out that the Rapture is an event that is going to occur separate and apart from the Second Coming. Here's how I explain it:
When you look at the Bible verses on the Rapture — John 14:1-14, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 — and then you look at other verses that talk about the Second Coming — Zechariah 14:1-12, Jesus' account in Matthew 24:29-31 and in Mark 13:24-27, Luke 21:25-27, and Revelation 19 — when compared they tell a different story. We go into reading these verses as if they are supposed to be all about the Second Coming, but discover there is a vast difference between the two accounts.
For instance, if you look at the verses particularly about the Rapture, they tell that when Jesus comes He comes in the air. Believers are brought from the ground up into the air to be with Christ. But, in Second Coming verses, the order occurs the other way around — Jesus is coming down and He actually lands on Earth. So, for the Rapture Jesus is up in the air, but for the Second Coming Jesus comes to the ground.
Also, take the Mount of Olives. In the Rapture verses believers in Christ are brought up into the air and Jesus is waiting for them. But, in the Second Coming verses Jesus comes down to Earth and when He lands (especially in Zechariah 14 explains this) the Mount of Olives splits forming a new valley on the East side of Jerusalem. For such a remarkable event, there is oddly no mention of that in the Rapture verses.
It is like the Rapture and the Second Coming are two different stories — two different events — and so I think that is indeed the case.
Again, let's look at the location of believers in Christ during these events. The believers are brought up to Heaven in the Rapture verses, but when Jesus comes back to Earth there are believers on the Earth. So, if Jesus brought all the believers up at the Rapture, how could there be believers still on the Earth at the Second Coming? A significant time lapse would have had to occur between the Rapture and Second Coming for so many people to come to believe in Jesus as Savior. So, again, these have to be two separate and distinct events.
When you read like 1 Thessalonians 4 and you compare it to Revelation 19 you find they don't have anything in common except that they both focus upon Jesus Christ. In one account Jesus appears in the heavens, but in the other account He comes down to Earth. In one He appears for His believers and the other He returns with His believers.
Even the nature of Christ's return is different. In the Rapture account He is appearing as a Deliverer and as a Bridegroom for His Bride, but in the Second Coming account He is coming back to Earth for the purpose of pouring out the wrath of God upon those who have rejected the grace, mercy and love of God, and He comes with His believers and He comes to be a King. They have to be two different events because the stories just don't line up.
What these differences mean is that the Second Coming of Jesus is going to occur in two stages — first the Rapture for the Church and second the later return to the Earth of Jesus with His Church to reign.
Having the Second Coming in two separate stages solves a problem with the differences in accounts, in that the Bible tells us that we cannot know anything about the timing of the Lord's return (Matt. 24:36-24). And, yet, if we go over to the book of Revelation we'll see it says that once the Antichrist signs a peace covenant the time will be exactly seven years until Jesus returns (Dan. 9; Rev. 11). These scriptures give us the exact amount of time that God is going to pour out His wrath on this Earth — 84 months. So, when Jesus in Matthew 24 speaks about not knowing when Christ's coming will happen, it has to be referring to the Rapture. Even Jesus says He doesn't know when He is supposed to come back to the Earth. If the Antichrist signed a peace treaty and then 3 1/2 years later desecrated the newly rebuilt Temple, Jesus could say, "Okay, I've got this many days before I am going to show up."
Because of these differences in the accounts, the Rapture and the Second Coming must be separate events within Jesus' prophesied return.
Related Links
The Rapture: What is it? Who will it affect? When is it most likely to take place? - Lamb & Lion Ministries (David Reagan)
What is the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming? - GotQuestions.org
Will the Church Go Through the Tribulation?, Part 1 - Grace to You (John MacArthur)
Differences Between The Rapture And The Second Coming - Pre-Trib Research Center (Thomas Ice)


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In February 2008 at the age of thirty-three, Karen experienced a sudden and radical awakening. Prior to this realisation, no teachings or practices were followed – in fact at that time the terms non-duality and awakening were completely unfamiliar. This spontaneous realization presented itself during a period of intense emotional suffering and when demands in life exceeded Karen's physical capability.
Karen attempted to persevere in the face of these challenges, the consequence being a severely debilitating illness that affected physical functioning on every level. Although the illness had a devastating effect on life as it was then known, it seemed to create a space for a deeper reality to be recognized.
As her state of health was so poor, Karen was unable to return to work – meaning that she spent a significant amount of time confined to her home. The effect of this period of solitude was profound surrender, allowing the realization to become deeply integrated into daily living. Two and a half years after the initial recognition, someone Karen didn't know approached her for guidance, which really was the beginning of sharing in a more active way. Karen now shares openly with all those who wish to enquire into the true nature of reality.
Karen grew up in a small town in the heart of England and was born into a non-religious family. After a somewhat turbulent childhood and unsettled early adult life, she trained as a nurse in 1993. After qualification in 1996, Karen went onto practice nursing in the NHS full time for twelve years, gaining experience in many specialties including general surgery, urology, and medicine before specializing in intensive care. In the years prior to the realization, Karen has experienced challenges and disappointments that seem common to many. She is also a certified life coach and that, coupled with her nursing career has given her considerable experience of working with people from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances. This has endowed her with the ability to empathize and understand life as it is to commonly experienced, making her easy to communicate with.
Following the realization, Karen's experience of illness – coupled with her extensive experience of healthcare, enabled dis-ease/illness to be seen from a different perspective. Misperception of what we are and the stress that can ensue in direct relation to that misperception means that we are often in a state of persistent resistance to life as it is. This negative state of functioning is the foundation for many of our health challenges. The rediscovery of who we are is fundamental for the transformation of the human life experience. It means that the peace that is already here is recognized and experienced directly, having a potentially profound healing effect on the mind and body.
Realization – from a human perspective – means that the unity beyond apparent diversity is remembered. Life can then be embraced fully and authentically – without contamination from the lens of the conditioned mind, bringing relief from all psychological suffering. An inevitable consequence of this recognition is the arising of compassion, love, and respect for life in all of its appearances – having an ever-deepening impact on the human experience. This has the direct consequence of transforming the world we see literally before our eyes, having a powerful healing effect on the planet as a whole.
'May you rediscover who you truly are, for in that knowing lies liberation, peace, and wisdom. You are THAT for which you have been seeking'
Much love, Karen Richards
Interview recorded 3/18/2012
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
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BlizzCon, the annual fan celebration of all things Blizzard-related gets a little less annual this year. The company has decided to hold the next convention in 2013 to focus on finishing Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and the 2012 Battle.net World Championship.
A great deal of work goes into securing guests, selling convention floor space, generating new swag, and otherwise organizing Blizzards annual fan convention. With the developer planning to release three major products in 2012, perhaps it's for the best that they skip a year in order to make sure I don't have to spend another event bugging them about Diablo III and Heart of the Swarm's release dates. So the convention has been pushed to 2013, where I expect we'll all return refreshed and ready to barely contain our adoration of everything they make.
And hey, think of the panda cosplay fans could craft given a whole year off!
Along with making games, Blizzard will also focus strongly on eSports this year with the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Taking place in Asia towards the end of 2012, the Battle.net World Championship will include the StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Arena World Championship tournaments.
Maybe if I'm really good this year Stephen will send me to Asia instead of Anaheim, California. *flutters eyelashes*


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Notebook: How hard is it to tell apart Hudson Swafford and Harris English?
By Doug Ferguson
Published on
HONOLULU – A new season means new faces on the PGA Tour, such as Hudson Swafford.
Or was that Harris English?
The two former Georgia Bulldogs – and residents at Sea Island – have been mistaken for each other dating to their junior golf days. Both are 6-foot-3 with a languid walk, smooth swing, gracious manners and an easy smile. And they're best of friends. English was late getting to Hawaii because he was in Swafford's wedding on New Year's Eve.
"Larry Penley was the best," Swafford said, referring to the Clemson coach. "I don't think he knows Harris English exists. It was always `Hudson' to me and him."
Swafford is two years older, so it was English who most often was called by the wrong name. That's changed in the last few years, especially around Sea Island. English won twice last year and is in his third year on tour. Swafford, always the big brother to English, is a rookie.
"Around Sea Island, I'm Harris now," Swafford said.
HIGH ROLLER: Pat Perez might not face greater pressure all year than the final day of 2013.
He got engaged to his girlfriend of two years, Ashley Pendley, on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. Typical of Perez, this was no ordinary engagement. He was going to a private party at the MGM Grand, where Stevie Nicks was to perform. Perez persuaded MGM officials to give him the stage before the show. All they said was to be ready.
"It was for all their high rollers – and me. Their $280 million in credit and my $500," Perez said. "So they call me. There's 2,000 people in there, and I'm hammered. I know a lot of the MGM guys, and they were giving me fireball shots at 8 o'clock. I'm getting nervous now. I get the microphone and I call her. They walked her over, I somehow get it out and I drop (to a knee), and they go crazy."
She said yes. Perez knew that. After all, Penley picked out the ring.
The entire setting has a diameter the size of a dime. Perez said the center was 6 karats, and the entire ring was 11 karats. He declined to say a price, only that "it's more than this bag is worth" as he pointed to his golf bag.
The wedding is planned for the end of the year, depending on how his season goes.
LONG TRIP PAYS OFF: Robert Streb figured he would be an alternate in the Sony Open, but he bought a ticket to Hawaii anyway. It was freezing in Kansas City, Mo. He could always try to Monday qualify. And there were worse places he could be.
Streb wound up in the right spot.
He was the second alternate when the final field was announced. He missed out on Monday qualifying by two shots. But the first alternate, Shawn Stefani, chose not to fly to Hawaii from Houston. And when Hideki Matsuyama withdrew after the pro-am, Streb was in.
MEANWHILE, IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Phil and Rory kick off 2014 in Abu Dhabi Championship
"I just figured I'd hang around and see if I got lucky," Streb said. "And I did."
Stefani can't be faulted. As a rookie, Carl Petterson was the first alternate when the field was set. He waited three days, up until the last group teed off Thursday, and headed to the airport.
"It's obviously a lot of money and time to come out here," Streb said. "If you don't feel you have a good chance, it's perfectly understandable."
Streb closed with a 73 to tie for 68th, earning three FedExCup points. That's not much, but keep in mind that a year ago, Streb missed out on the playoffs by 10 points. Without full status, he hopes to get 15 starts this year, including Monday qualifying. If that doesn't go well, he'll try some Web.com Tour events.
UP FOR ELECTION: Jason Bohn, Charley Hoffman and Kevin Streelman are on the ballot to join the PGA Tour policy board.
The tour named its 16-man Player Advisory Council for 2014, which advises and consults the policy board and Commissioner Tim Finchem on various issues. Among the newcomers to the PAC is Lee Westwood, who rejoined the tour two years ago. His selection is noteworthy as one of the PAC member selected by the players on the board.
The players on the board chose Bohn, Hoffman and Streelman to run for chairman of the PAC through an election that ends after Pebble Beach. Whoever is elected will serve a three-term on the policy board starting in 2015.
The rest of the PAC includes Stewart Cink, Ken Duke, Trevor Immelman, Matt Kuchar, Scott Langley, Marc Leishman, Davis Love III, Will MacKenzie, Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Putnam, Webb Simpson and Brendon Todd.
DIVOTS: Mark Loomis returns to golf as the coordinating producer for golf production and studio programming at Fox Sports. His experience should come in handy when Fox begins its 12-year deal with the USGA to broadcast the U.S. Open and the rest of its championships. Fox currently does not broadcast any golf tournaments. Loomis previously worked for ABC when it covered PGA Tour events. ... The Champions Tour gets underway this week on the Big Island in Hawaii with the Mitsubishi Electric Championships open to winners the last two years, senior major winners the last five years and eight special exemptions. The exemptions went to four major champions, along with Esteban Toledo, Mark Wiebe, Willie Wood and Kirk Triplett. Vijay Singh did not get an exemption. ... Rory McIlroy plans to play the Scottish Open this year the week before the British Open.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Seven of the eight winners on the PGA Tour this season have shot 66 or better in the final round. The exception was Ryan Moore, who closed with a 70 and won a playoff in Malaysia.
FINAL WORD: "I feel like to play well in the Masters and U.S. Open it's important to start the year right and get in contention, because you don't want to be in the final group on Sunday of a major having not been in that position earlier in the year." – Phil Mickelson.


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Aging: Translation
From the Series: Aging
One of the definitions of translation is the change or conversion to another form or appearance (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2005) and each person is responsible for translating their own experiences. In addition to translating their experiences, they define their experiences and derive meaning from those experiences and seek to find comfort in their experiences. The general public in the United States have their views and beliefs about growing older and we tend to focus on youth and beauty, avoiding aging and believing we will one day be old. As we age, we seek to understand our physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional changes and find meaning in our experiences, looking for others with similar experiences that can walk alongside us and join us on a journey of aging.
In the previous entry, Emily Wentzell discussed the idea that aging provokes disjunction between mind and body and that our bodies are not feeling the chronological age we are. She provides a beautiful example from her family, but I have been in discussions with colleagues and friends who tell me that 50 is the new 30 and by the time we reach 70 it will be the new 50. The discussions intrigued me because my colleagues are pushing back aging and hanging on to their youth for as long as they can. I grew up with my great grandparents, who were Alaska Native (Aleut), and as an Indigenous researcher myself who studies successful aging in rural Alaska, I grew up respecting our elders and looking forward to becoming elder because it is an honor, you are respected and sought out for your knowledge and experiences. I conducted a study on successful aging among Alaska Native Elders in my home region of Alaska (Bristol Bay), who define aging from a holistic approach, which steers away from the biomedical approach to aging that dominates the western world and gerontology literature. Four elements emerged, each of which highlighted important aspects of successful aging, referred to as Eldership in my study. These elements define Eldership in Bristol Bay: (a) emotional well-being, (b) community engagement, (c) spirituality, and (d) physical health. It is important to distinguish between successful aging and Eldership in this study. The term "successful aging" served as the foundation of this study in that I wished to establish an Alaska Native definition of successful aging to gain a clearer picture of what this means to Elders in Bristol Bay. As I worked with the Elders and analyzed the interviews, it became clear that rather than defining successful aging for themselves, they were describing characteristics of Elders in their communities they felt demonstrated what they believed to be successful aging. Rather than provide one definition of successful aging for Bristol Bay Elders, this study highlights the characteristics found admirable in Elders who served as role models, or attained Eldership, and were considered as successful elders by their community.
As the AN population continues to grow older in rural communities, it will be important to address the issues facing Alaska Native Elders and determine what they need to age successfully and remain in their own home and community. As White (1952) points out, it is important to understand the culture and environment in order to fully understand the experiences of the Elders and better understand how they define, or translate, their aging experiences. Rossen, Knafl, and Flood (2008) sum up what research on successful aging should do: successful aging from the elders' own words and descriptions that will provide the contextual knowledge for developing interventions and health care programs.
How I was raised in the Native culture and what I learned through my college and graduate education in gerontology, social work, and community psychology do not combine well and they actually head in opposite directions when it comes to understanding the aging process. I was raised to respect elders and strive to become an Elder myself, and my textbooks and the news/media promote products and procedures to look younger, stay youthful and avoid looking old. What this boils down to is different experiences and cultural lenses through which we view the aging process.
Aging occurs as soon as we are born and we are constantly navigating our mind and body as it changes, develops, and matures until we pass away. Emily Wentzell begins her notes discussing the notion that aging itself provokes movement and that it challenges stability and stasis. I believe this is correct, and this notion of changing as we age comes to us as we mature and grow wiser in our years. I remember being in my early 20's believing I knew and could do everything, the world was my oyster and I would be at that age forever. Now that I have matured, established a career, have family, and reflect on my life experiences and stories and wisdom of our Alaska Native Elders, I realize that my mortality is very real and I am a better person today because of how I navigated my experiences. As I have matured I have translated my experiences of aging to be something I could understand and accept, and have learned that how I translate the expected changes that come with aging is different from how my parents have translated their experiences, or how my colleagues in gerontology will experience aging.
I would challenge everyone to reflect on how they view aging, how they interact and approach older adults in their family and community. What have they taught you about the aging experience? Do you view aging from a holistic approach? What are your understandings and experiences and how will you translate your experiences against those of others and the general public's fear of growing old?
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2005).
Rossen, E. K., Knafl, K. A., & Flood, M. (2008). Older women's perceptions of successful aging. Activities, Adaptation, and Aging, 32, 73–88. doi:10.1080/01924780802142644.
White, R. W. (1952). Lives in progress. A study of the natural growth of personality. New York: The Dryden Press.


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Contact: Deb Hubsmith
Recognizes Seven-Year Effort Fighting Obesity and Increasing Safe Walking and Bicycling Routes in U.S.
BOULDER, COLORADO (May 9, 2012) – In recognition of its seven-year track record promoting safe walking and bicycling routes to school for children and fighting obesity, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented Safe Routes Partnership (http://www.saferoutespartnership.org) with the 2012 Game Changer Award. Safe Routes Partnership Director Deb Hubsmith accepted the award at the Weight of the Nation Conference in Washington, D.C., a gathering of public policy makers and health leaders engaged in obesity prevention and control initiatives.
The Game Changer Award nominations reflect activities that have led to paradigm shifts that have advanced obesity prevention efforts.
"Bicycling and walking to school is one of our nation's best remedies for childhood obesity," said Bruno Maier, vice president of the Bikes Belong Foundation. "Safe Routes Partnership's work is critical to reversing this trend. It has ignited a powerful national movement bringing public health, school and transportation officials together to build a healthier future for children and adults. We congratulate Deb and her team for their tireless efforts."
"The statistics are startling," said Hubsmith. "Between 1969 and 2009, the number of children who bicycled or walked to school fell 75%, while the percentage of obese children tripled. Our work helps communities make it safe, fun and convenient for children to walk and bicycle to school and in daily life. This award acknowledges the work of countless parent volunteers, dedicated engineers, committed educators and enthusiastic children who are true game changers in tens of thousands of communities across the country."
Today, more than 12,000 schools and five million children benefit from Safe Routes to School programs throughout the U.S. Large urban areas across the entire country, from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, and smaller rural regions such as central Wisconsin and north central Montana, are encouraging children to be active through walking and bicycling. In Eugene, Oregon, at Roosevelt Middle School, comparing 2007 with 2010, the percentage of children bicycling and walking increased from 27 percent to 42 percent. In Eagan, Minnesota, at Red Pine Elementary School, 200 children regularly bicycle and walk throughout the year. "The reduction in traffic congestion around the school has been dramatic," said Gary Anger, principal at Red Pine Elementary School. "Before the Safe Routes to School program, approximately 100 cars were arriving every day. Now, just 40 to 45 vehicles drop off children each day. Our children arrive ready to learn and our school community is learning about healthy habits they can practice their entire life."
The Safe Routes Partnership is also celebrating National Bike Month. This month, millions of Americans are participating in 450 events nationwide, highlighting the benefits of bicycling and the need for bike-friendly transportation policies. As part of this celebration, the inaugural National Bike to School Day is being held May 9 to encourage more children and families to safely bicycle or walk to school.
About Bikes Belong Foundation and Safe Routes Partnership
The Bikes Belong Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization focused on improving bicycle safety and enhancing children's bike programs, is the host of the Safe Routes Partnership, which launched in August 2005 at the same time that Congress authorized $612 million for the first national Safe Routes to School program.
About the Safe Routes Partnership
The Safe Routes Partnership is a fast growing network of more than 500 organizations and professional groups working to set goals, share best practices, leverage infrastructure and program funding and advance policy change to help agencies that implement Safe Routes to School programs across the nation. The Safe Routes Partnership's mission is to advocate for safe walking and bicycling to and from schools and in daily life, to improve the health and well-being of America's children and to foster the creation of livable, sustainable communities.


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I went to a great tasting event not that long ago, but the kind of "trade" tasting that has me scratching my head. Who goes to these things, and what do they achieve?
"Trade" tastings are officially intended to offer insights into certain wines (by region, style, importer) etc. to those whose job it is to buy, promote, review, or sell wines. However, this definition encompasses a great many people, and the reality is that they are mainly about reaching out hopefully to try and find an audience and champion, and avoid too many people coming simply for the free booze.
The problem is that they cost a LOT and achieve rather less, and the biggest issue is that many of the people there selling their wines don't know what they want to achieve.
Anyway, the tasting in question was the Union des Grands Crus de Chablis (I've linked this, but since the site has not been updated since 2008, not much point clicking through). An organisation of some of the best producers of a marvellous style of wine, Chablis, representing the top fraction of wine produced in what is already a tiny region in France. The thing is, those who are invited all KNOW they are great. Why spend so much money hiring a room, marketing an event, flying over and pouring free samples in order to tell us so?
In order to try and work out what they were hoping to achieve, I asked most of the producers there who they thought their customers are. I got two "stock" answers:
- Slightly older consumers, already well off, who know what they like, buying these wines in top restaurants
- Those who recognise that Grand Cru Chablis is "better value that other top White Burgundies"
Well, the second answer is just ridiculous. Buying my own Boeing 747 might be cheaper than running my own private Concorde, but I still can get around the world quite easily without either.
The first is more worrying. Not only does it show a worrying lack of any understanding of the nature and motivation of those who choose £30-£50+ bottles of wine, but those folks are disappearing!
Being almost 40 (shock!) I remember a time about 20 years ago when ordering a "Chablis" was still a demonstration of great wine knowledge. When faced with hundreds of French & Italian wine options, knowing this one word made a great difference. These drinkers, trained on this style, were then more likely to 'trade up' to Chablis Premier Cru for special occasions, and eventually maybe discover Chablis Grand Cru as the boom-time bank accounts allowed.
The problem is that keen wine novices are no longer weaned on Chablis, and these are no longer boom times. Choices in general are much better, better value and more varied. Ordering a bottle of Chablis is no longer the 'quality default' it used to be.
The Chablis consumer pipeline is drying up.
"Classic" wine regions that simply rest on their laurels can become outmoded and struggle to become relevant again. Think about Sherry, Madeira and others . I'm not saying Chablis will disappear, but will it become sidelined?
The time has come for several things:
- Cooperate! Producers need to work together, properly, to promote regions and their brands. Regionality is a key differentiator in wine that needs better promotion, and the benefits only come if producers can communicate its distinctiveness.
- Invest! Investing in marketing and working out who the customer is and what motivates them – then work out how to reach them.
- Engage! Stop preaching to the converted at cosy trade events, and reach out to consumers. If people want to buy the wine, the trade sales will follow. Two year old websites are an embarrassment.
- Stay relevant! See these wines in a much broader, modern, context – understand that consumers have many more options.
Hopefully a new generation of consumers can be reminded that Chablis wines ARE distinctive and delicious, and that exploring them can be rewarding, but the UGCC must get its act together if these new customers are to arrive before the current crop die out.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Tasting Chablis (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Chablis Night (brooklynguyloveswine.blogspot.com)
- The Wines of Domaine Bouchard (graperadio.com)