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Historical & Special Collections is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit, Provenance Detectives: Revealing the History of Six Library Artifacts.
This exhibit highlights six artifacts chosen for their fascinating and sometimes mysterious provenance, as well as their ability to illustrate the different paths provenance research takes. Artifacts featured in the exhibit include: a fourteenth century Magna Carta; furniture used by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; and a painting of Justice John Marshall by eminent portrait artist Chester Harding.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is an early printed volume of English statutes once owned by early photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877). Included with the volume, on display for the first time since its provenance was discovered, is a leaf from the same volume that Talbot used to make a "photogenic drawing" of the text. Long thought to be lost, we are delighted to exhibit this exciting piece of photographic history.
Come learn more about the frustrating, fascinating hunt for artifact ownership. You never know what you might find!
This exhibit was curated by Mary Person, Lesley Schoenfeld, and Carli Spina and will be on view through August 12, 2012, in the Caspersen Room. The Caspersen Room is located on the fourth floor of the Harvard Law School Library, Langdell Hall and is open seven days a week from 9 to 5.


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Thursday, January 22, 2009
Pasta, vegetables and sausage...
Rather than steaming the cauliflower and pan-frying the sausage needed for this pasta dish, we killed two birds with one stone by roasting both in the oven! And, even better, they were done in the same roasting pan to keep dish-count down. About 5 minutes before the lean hot Italian turkey sausages were fully cooked, we added a mess of sliced garlic cloves into the mix and let them roast a bit as well. To help the sausages keep their uniform shape, making for neat coin-like slices when cutting, prick the casings all over with a knife before they go into the oven so the juices have somewhere to go while baking.
While those ingredients were cooling, we had dropped a few cups worth of farfalle (you know, fancy bow tie pasta!) and let them cook just until al dente. Before draining them, scoop out two tablespoons of the starchy cooking liquid and set it side. Since there really isn't a sauce for this, we kept the pasta slick and moist by drizzling on extra-virgin olive oil - however, so we didn't have to pour it on, we cut it with that reserved pasta water. This will still give you the zest of the oil, but it also helps keep the fat down to a reasonable amount. The juiced-up pasta is then tossed with crushed red pepper for kick, the sausage coins, roasted cauliflower and garlic mixture along with a shower of pecorino Romano cheese.
With a sprinkle of fresh parsley for a pop of color, I think we woofed down our plates in record time! It is not like there was anything outrageously different here, but I think the ease of this dish by roasting the vegetables and sausages made it taste just that much better. Even with the slight 5 minute roasting time for the garlic, it allowed the slices to cook just enough to take away that harsh rawness and leave you with a mellow, sweet essence. If you want to tone the heat level down, use a sweeter turkey sausage and add just a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (try not to leave them out entirely as the background they add is pleasant, even if they doesn't scream "Yeah! I'm hot and spicy!"). If you or your family are not in agreement about the loveliness of cauliflower, swap half out for broccoli florets so you can pick and choose what you want.
12 comments:
I would indulged in those farfalle. Looks so good.ReplyDelete
that sounds like a great meal :)ReplyDelete
love the blog,
peony xxx
- Anonymous1/23/2009 07:40:00 AM
Your recipes and photos are so awesome! While reading another food blog, I immediately thought of you! You should enter this contest!
- Anonymous1/23/2009 07:41:00 AM
I love cauliflower with pasta! Never thought to roast the cauliflower. I'll make this, probably substituting mushrooms for the sausage..... I just saw orange cauliflower the other day in the store and figured I'd give it a try.....ReplyDelete
yum, i love dinners like these! and roasting cauliflower is sooooo good.ReplyDelete
Oh Man! This looks awesome! I have to stop at the grocery on my way home from work. I do believe I'll get the ingredients and make it this weekend.ReplyDelete
Great idea , roasting the cauliflower and sausage!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous1/24/2009 12:35:00 AM
I made this one a few weeks ago and I too liked the cauli and sausage roasting together. It lent a nice flavor to each and was really a yummy dish!ReplyDelete
Helene - Thanks!ReplyDelete
Cosmic - It was!
TC - I'll check it out!
Quinn - Jeff would never stand for that, but I'd love to try it with the mushrooms!
Kickpleat - Roasted cauliflower is definitely a favorite around here...
Betty - Awesome!
Bunny - Thanks!
Rebel - Glad others have given this great recipe a try... it is worth it!
I made this for dinner the other night. We used broccoli instead but it really came out great. And it was super-easy - perfect for a weeknight meal. Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I'm no longer scared of sausage. :)ReplyDelete
Uhhh, YUM! I think my 15 mo. old son would LOVE this. (And I'm sure my husband and I won't be struggling to eat it, either! Ha!) I'm adding this to the grocery list this week.ReplyDelete
Michelle - Perfect! Thanks for giving it a try!ReplyDelete
Kelly Anne - Enjoy!

subset: commoncrawl


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The 2012 Outside Travel Awards
Globe-trotters: we've got you covered. Our 2012 Travel Awards honor the best destinations on seven continents—everything from idyllic beach escapes to camping safaris in Kenya to a mountain-bike expedition in Tibet. Plus: Outside-endorsed outfitters, adventure insurance, and more.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
We tapped our global network of correspondents to bring you Outside's 2012 Travel Awards: a definitive roundup of the best new adventures, exotic retreats, empty beaches, local food, bars with a view, on-time airlines, screaming deals, gorgeous islands, and more. This isn't just a collection of unforgettable trips—it's a road map to life-changing experiences.
What Trip Are You?Take our quiz on Facebook for a chance to win one of five grand prize dream trips.
PLUS: A list of our Hall of Fame travel destinations.
Best Islands
The Seychelles
Culebra, Puerto RicoCulebra, Puerto Rico
Villa North Island, the SeychellesVilla North Island, the Seychelles
There are islands with white-sand beaches all over the world, but once you've been to the Seychelles nothing seems to measure up. Its 115 islets lie in an end-of-the-world location 700 miles north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, which sets the stage of remove. Most hotels have an island to themselves, creating the illusion of a private kingdom. And the Seychelles' clear waters host some of the greatest marine biodiversity on earth, attracting divers, bone-fishermen, sea-kayakers, and sailors. While you can certainly splurge—the pinnacle of indulgence is still North Island—there's no need to empty your bank account. At the Anse Soleil Beachcomber (from $88), a hotel with 14 rooms on a secluded beach on Mahe, only a cold beer will distract you from the vista of empty sand and sea.
Culebra, Puerto Rico
On many Caribbean islands, $2.25 won't even get you a cocktail, but on Puerto Rico it'll buy a ferry ride to Culebra, a seven-by-five-mile island that feels much farther than 17 miles away. This is a slice of bygone Caribbean, with not even a hint of a big resort or cruise ship. There are a handful of seafood shacks, small pensions, and a year-round population of about 2,000 laid-back locals. Rent a room at the Palmetto Guesthouse (doubles from $95), then wander to the harbor to hire a boatman to take you to beaches unreachable by foot. Culebra Divers offers scuba and snorkel trips.
Best Airline
Virgin America
Leave it to Richard Branson to inject style into the business of flying with the country's newest major airline. The Virgin America lounge at the San Francisco terminal feels like the lobby of a W Hotel, and the planes have mood lighting and hip music playing as you board. With above-average on-time arrivals and departures, the airline also features onboard Wi-Fi, seat-back screens passengers can use to order meals and cocktails, and sleek entertainment systems with first-run movies, TV shows, and music videos available at a finger swipe. (The airline will debut a system with social-media connectivity later this year.) But what really surprises are the reports of stellar customer service. It's almost as if the flight attendants are happy to work there.
Because of its two-free-checked-bags policy, democratic seating, decent fares, on-time arrivals and departures, good service at check-in and in the air, clean cabins, reliable baggage handling, and helpful website, almost 15,000 Consumer Reports readers voted Southwest tops. Enough said.
Best Travel Company
Geographic Expeditions
Our criteria in this category were exhaustive. We looked at the quality of a company's guides, the authenticity and diversity of its trips, its level of service, philanthropic credibility, safety record, and, most important, clients' reviews and experiences. While companies like Austin-Lehman Adventures, OARS, and Wild China scored high marks, Geographic Expeditions stood above the rest. For starters, GeoEx has consistently taken travelers to the most remote regions of the world, from Everest's north side to Patagonia's glaciers to the far reaches of Papua New Guinea. This year it's trailblazing new terrain with a 27-day trek to the north face of K2 ($11,450). Guided by Vassi Koutsaftis, a 20-year vet who has led treks in Tibet, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the journey starts on the Silk Road in China's Kashgar and tops out at the 17,056-foot advance base camp of K2. No need to worry about getting back alive. The company's emphasis on safety comes from the top: president Jim Sano, a former Yosemite National Park ranger and search-and-rescue team member, is an accomplished mountaineer himself. The price of every GeoEx trip includes medical assistance and evacuation coverage from Global Rescue and medical-expense insurance through Travel Guard. The company has also pioneered relationships with nonprofits and NGOs—37 and counting—like the Maasai Conservation Wilderness Trust, which draws in annual tourism revenues of $750,000, all of which goes straight back to the Masai community. But the primary reason more than half the company's clients come back for more? Its outstanding guides—from Buddhist icon and scholar Robert Thurman, who leads meditation trips in Bhutan, to mountaineer (and Outside correspondent) Dave Hahn, the only Westerner to have summited Mount Everest 13 times, who runs the company's expeditions to South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.
The Wilderness Group
In 1983, Wilderness Safaris, now known as the Wilderness Group, was founded with a simple but novel idea: offer a superior travel experience while conserving land, wildlife, and local culture as part of its business plan. The company now runs more than 60 lodges in nine countries across Africa, from rustic tented camps in Botswana to tony desert outposts in Namibia. Proceeds from guest fees go to the Wilderness Wildlife Trust, an independent entity that puts 100 percent of its funds toward conservation work, like reintroducing endangered black and white rhinos in Botswana. But customers return for the bucket-list adventures: driving hundreds of miles over-land between Botswana's savannas, the Kalahari sands, and the Okavango Delta—spotting elephants, rhinos, zebras, and lions along the way (from $5,400 per person for seven days)—or diving with whale sharks off a private white-sand island in the Seychelles.
Best New Frontier
Myanmar youthMyanmar youth
Julian Alps, SloveniaJulian Alps, Slovenia
Good news is starting to trickle out of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. In August 2009, influential pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and her party reversed their stance on tourism (it's no longer discouraged); elections—albeit contested—were held for the first time in decades; and the long-repressive regime has begun loosing its grip. Meanwhile, the number of travelers has surged about 60 percent since 2008, and more than a dozen guide services plan to debut trips this year. Still, the place saw only 310,688 travelers in 2010. (By comparison, Nepal brought in more than 600,000.) That may be due to the ethnic conflict with the Kachin Independence Army in the northern region of Kachin. But the fighting is far from the areas of the country most travelers see. So should you go? The pro-tourism argument holds that avoiding government hotels and patronizing small businesses funnels money to locals, who need it. And the appeal is undeniable. A long-standing trade embargo with the West has insulated the country—for better or worse—from modernization. Men still wear traditional skirtlike lungis, horse carts trot dirt roads, and golden stupas and Buddhas are preserved as if in a time warp. Though independent travel is possible—Lonely Planet has a guidebook—getting permits to trek or raft is difficult, and public transportation is poor. Asian-travel specialist Effie Fletcher, of Himalayan High Treks, organizes custom trips with local guides ($100–$200 per person per day), including hiking through tiny Buddhist villages in the Shan Plateau mountains, rafting the Malikha River, shopping at a colorful floating market, soaking in hot springs, staying in monasteries few foreigners have ever seen, and visiting the 4,000-plus temples that have stood on the plains of Bagan for more than 800 years.
Slovenia packs Mediterranean beaches, more than 87 hot springs, rugged peaks in the 9,000-foot Julian Alps, 6,000 miles of trails, and 40-plus ski resorts into an area about the size of New Jersey. Yet it gets a mere three million visitors a year, compared with neighboring Croatia's 10.6 million. Our bet? Not for long. It's easy to get to: drive 3.5 hours from Vienna or fly from a number of European cities into Ljubljana. Slovenia is well organized and locals are friendly, making independent travel easy. Fish for marble trout, Europe's second-fattest species, in the Soca River with Lustrik Fishing Adventures, or explore some of the country's 8,000 caves and mountain-bike alpine valleys with outfitter Pac Sports. BikeHike Adventures' new eight-day trip ($3,299) includes kayaking the Krka River with a Slovenian Olympic medalist, biking through Swiss-like villages, and trekking to a vista above seven alpine lakes in Triglav National Park.
Best Camera
Canon PowerShot G-12
Professional photographers use this compact and rugged 10-megapixel camera as a spare. Here's why: it shoots with the power and precision of a DSLR, fits in a breast pocket, captures 720p high-definition video in stereo sound, and sports a flip-out, adjustable viewing screen that allows for discreet composing. $500
Nikon Coolpix P300
The big news is the P300's 1080p full-HD video, a rarity in compact point-and-shoots—especially at this price. As for still images, it's a 12-megapixel camera in a category that usually tops out at ten. $330
Best New Adventure Lodge
The Singular, Patagonia, Chile
Heli-skiing Thompson Pass, AlaskaHeli-skiing Thompson Pass, Alaska
Patagonia's Torres del Paine National ParkPatagonia's Torres del Paine National Park
The Singular's owners took a 100-year-old cold-storage plant and transformed it into a luxe, minimalist 57-room hotel. The best part? It sits a few miles outside of Puerto Natales, on the shoreline overlooking the glacier-backed Fjord of Last Hope, and 70 miles southeast of Torres Del Paine National Park, making it the perfect jumping-off point for guests to get immersed in this massive landscape. The lodge offers more than 20 guided adventures, including boating up the fjord, riding with gauchos on a private reserve, and trekking to the famous Salto Grande Glacier in Torres del Paine. The hotel's spa overlooks the moody fjord, and dinner is local Magellan lamb or king crab accompanied by any of 135 local wines. Rooms, including transfer and full board, start at $580.
Tsaina Lodge, Alaska
Want access to 15,000 vertical feet a day and 900 annual inches of Chugach powder? Valdez Heli Ski Guides now operates out of the brand-new Tsaina Lodge, a sleek 24-room building nestled at milepost 35 on Thompson Pass, 40 miles north of Valdez. Each room has huge views of white-capped peaks, the restaurant serves up fresh Alaskan seafood, and the bar sports the woodstove from the legendary old Tsaina tavern, where big-mountain riders like VHSG founder Doug Coombs used to grab a microbrew. Not a bad place to return to after a perfect powder day. Seven nights lodging, 30 guaranteed ski runs, breakfast, airport shuttles, and use of avalanche gear, $8,340.
Best Luggage
Tumi Ducati Evoluzione International Carry-On
For the past seven years, Ted Alan Stedman, our Buyer's Guide luggage expert, has tested hundreds of bags around the world. This one is his favorite. Inspired by the Ducati 1199 Panigale motorcycle, the 35-liter Evoluzione corners nearly as well on its durable wheels; has a telescoping handle, a full zip-around main compartment for easy access, and large and small exterior zip pockets to keep crucial small stuff handy; and slides seamlessly into an overhead compartment. The only problem? Getting your hands on one. The Evoluzione sells out fast. $545
Patagonia Maximum Legal Carry-On
After rigorous field testing, we know that the 45-liter MLC is enough bag for a 14-day trip to Africa. With tuck-away straps that convert the carry-on into a backpack and no wheels to add weight, the soft-sided MLC, made of 1,200-denier recycled fabric, is ideal for rugged trips that involve flights in small planes and always fits overhead. $159
Best Eco-Lodge
Mashpi Lodge, Ecuador
First, it had to have eco cred. Just as important—location. The striking new Mashpi Lodge, with windows so large you feel like you're suspended in a cloud forest, crushes it on both fronts. It will soon run on hydropower; sources papaya, guava, fruits, and herbs from local farms for meals; and hopes to one day be an important job-provider in the region, with a goal of hiring 80 percent of its employees from surrounding communities. The lodge sits in, and will help support, 3,200 acres of mainly primary forest in one of the most under-studied cloud forests in the world. Two and a half hours northwest of Quito, at 3,116 feet on the western slope of the Andes, Mashpi is home to an estimated 500 species of birds, 36 of which can only be found here. It's also a place where the lucky can spot an ocelot, puma, or rare cuckoo. $1,296 per person (double occupancy) for three days, two nights, and all meals and transfers.
Kosrae Village, Micronesia
The owners of Kosrae Village developed the Micronesian eco-lodge in 1995, before it was trendy to be sustainable. The reason: between empty beaches, wild rainforest, and ultraclear waters teeming with coral reefs, there's a lot to protect. Visitors kayak through mangroves, hike to ancient ruins, and dive with eagle rays and sharks. Kosrae Village hired local builders to construct the collection of nine low-impact thatch-roof cottages on a small stretch of beach, all fish and produce are purchased from local farmers and fishermen, and the lodge owners started the Reef Protection Project, which is monitored by volunteer divers. From $139 per night.
Best Off-the-Beaten Path Trip
Chiapas, Mexico
Amasra, TurkeyAmasra, Turkey
Until recently, Mexico's southernmost state was considered a backward land of masked, murderous Zapatista rebels. What gets overlooked: the region hasn't seen violent conflict since 1994, making its mountainous landscape ripe for exploration. Chiapas isn't even mentioned in the U.S. State Department's Mexico travel warning. Your biggest worry here is how to fit in all the rugged wilderness— 3,300-foot cliffs for climbing near Tuxtla Gutiérrez; the 13,200-foot Tacaná volcano, straddling the Guatemala border; Class III whitewater on the Lacanja River, in the 818,413-acre, jaguar-populated Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve; and hiking and mountain biking on trails packed down by centuries of use by the indigenous population, many of whom have rarely seen outsiders. Fly to the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez; hop on a bus for the one-hour ride to San Cristobal de las Casas, a 16th-century colonial city sitting at 7,218 feet; base out of the centrally located Diego de Mazariegos hotel (doubles, $96); and piece together your own adventure with local rafting and biking guides. Los Pingüinos rents mountain bikes in San Cristobal de las Casas ($14 per day) and offers guided six-hour bike tours of nearby Maya villages, like Chamula ($50 per day), and four-hour hiking tours of the cloud forest ($17). Heads up: Chiapas is untapped for adventure tourism, so you won't find outfitters with the latest gear on every corner. For an excellent eight-day immersion, the Muddy Boot offers a trip that includes visits to the seventh- and eighth-century ruins Palenque and Yaxchilán, a stay at a jungle lodge on the Lacantún River, a visit to a biology research center in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, and time to explore San Cristobal de las Casas ($2,555 based on double occupancy).
Central Black Sea Coast, Turkey
Turkey sees some 30 million tourists each year, but very few of them ever make it to the remote central Black Sea coast, a four-hour drive north from Ankara. Which is good for you, because the region's mile-long beaches, empty coastline dotted with ancient cities like Amasra, and absurdly good seaside restaurants remain undiscovered. Even fewer people make it to Kure National Park, a pristine enclave of forests and gorges with a series of hiking trails recently crafted from ancient footpaths. English speakers are hard to come by, even in hotels. Brave it on your own or hire a seasoned Turkish guide, like Turan Kirac, who runs BikeHike trips in Turkey but guides independently in this region. He'll lead you on a custom road trip from the Ottoman-era, Unesco World Heritage town of Safranbolu, along the dramatic California-like seashore, to the ancient mountain village of Azdavay (from $120 per day; firstname.lastname@example.com).
Best New Biking Trip
Cervélo Pro Travel Experience
Sierra Cascades routeSierra Cascades route
Leave it to Butterfield and Robinson and bike manufacturer Cervélo to raise the bar for outfitted trips tied to races. This year they're offering the Tour de France, among other custom tours. The difference? You'll be on Cervélo R3 team bikes—and get to test a Cervélo S5, the cycling equivalent of a Ferrari—and cover the exact same routes as the pros do mere hours before the peloton screams by. You'll ride in a paceline and have support from a team car and a soigneur for water refills and pre- and post-ride massages. And you'll schmooze with pros along the way. It's the closest most of us will ever get to the front line of race culture. After rides like the famed Col d'Aubisque on the Tour de France trip (July 14–20; $4,995), cyclists sack out in grand historic hotels, gorge on butter-heavy meals, and top it all off with a snifter of cognac.
The Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route
When the Adventure Cycling Association debuted the new Sierra Cascades route in 2010, the 2,389 miles connecting Sumas, Washington, and Tecate, California, became the most challenging border-to-border road ride ever designed, with some 20 passes. The good news: its leg-pulverizing challenge is matched only by its spectacular views. Tracing the Pacific Crest Trail through a greatest hits of western scenery, riders see the volcanoes of the Cascades, groves of sequoias, Lake Tahoe, the Sierra Nevada, and beautifully desolate stretches of the Mojave Desert. Pit stops include Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, and Yosemite national parks. Riders typically use the ACA's set of five maps—which include detailed directions and landmarks like campgrounds, motels, gas stations, and bike shops—to navigate the route, which takes about 50 days to complete if you average 55 miles per day. Or bite off a chunk, like the nine-day, 446-mile stretch between Mount Rainier, Washington, and Crater Lake, Oregon (map section 2), which passes through Hood River, the Columbia River Gorge, and Bend, Oregon, where the beer flows freely.
Best New Safari
Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Congo
Next month the Wilderness Group will open the first two camps in the Republic of the Congo's Odzala-Kokoua National Park, introducing travelers to a creature few people have ever witnessed in the wild: the western lowland gorilla. Rwanda has long been known as a gorilla-watching hot spot, but in Congo you'll see few other visitors. (The peaceful country is often confused with its more tumultuous neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.) Local Mbeti trackers lead hikes through forests and savannas to observe these close evolutionary relatives foraging, socializing, and caring for young. By evening guests retire to one of two lavish camps, each with six low-impact bamboo suites. It comes at a price ($6,000 per person for a six-night safari), but the experience is singular.
Ngoma Safari Lodge, Botswana
Because of a prescient commitment to conservation, Botswana has some of the largest concentrations of wildlife in southern Africa—herds of hundreds of elephants aren't uncommon here. The newest addition to Botswana's safari offerings is the luxurious community-run Ngoma Safari Lodge, which opened last spring near Chobe National Park. Each of the eight thatched suites, with atrium ceilings and canopy beds, looks over the Chobe River floodplain, which is dotted with elephants, zebra, and buffalo. From $495 per person per night, all-inclusive.
Best Beach
Mahaulepu Beach, Kauai
Catching air, KauaiCatching air, Kauai
Ilha Grande, BrazilIlha Grande, Brazil
Off the coast of Ilha Grande, BrazilOff the coast of Ilha Grande, Brazil
There are plenty of Hawaiian beaches well suited to sipping mai tais, surfing, and admiring a parade of imaginative swimwear. Mahaulepu is not one of them. Located on the south side of Kauai, this two-mile stretch of coast is accessible only by a brain-rattling two-mile dirt road or a three-mile hike that passes by Hawaii's biggest sinkhole cave—both of which tend to weed out the cooler-toting riffraff. The area is considered sacred by native islanders, with ancient burial sites in the dunes and water where endangered monk seals outnumber people and whales pass by in winter. Bring a sailboard, snorkel the offshore reef, or simply take in the mountains and the sea from your own private stretch of shore. The closest hotel is the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort in Koloatwo miles away. This is the Hawaii of centuries ago.
Ilha Grande, Brazil
No country does beach culture better than Brazil, and Ilha Grande's 106 white-sand ones are pristine. One hundred miles southwest of Rio and 14 miles into the Atlantic, this 75-square-mile island was once home to Brazil's common criminals. The prison closed in 1994, and the government turned the island into a reserve. Abraão is the only town large enough to mention, and most beaches are a short hike, bike, or boat ride away. Lopes Mendes, with its empty lineup, is impossible to beat for surfers. Stay at Abraão's Pousada Naturalia ($135), a small guesthouse with a hammock on your own private balcony, a mere 150 feet from Praia do Canto beach, another beauty.
Best Video Camera
GoPro HD hero2 Professional
The company's latest helmet-mountable camera has a lens that's twice as sharp, and an image processor that's twice as fast, as the original's. It also has an 11-megapixel sensor, up to 1080p video resolution, and an integrated battery warmer. Users cite its excellent image and audio quality and especially its bomber waterproof housing—the Hero2 can handle tumbles in snow and big waves. Available in outdoor, motorsports, and surf editions. $300
Contour GPS
This tiny, 5.2-ounce 1080p video camera is embedded with a GPS receiver that automatically tracks your speed, location, and elevation up to four times per second. Download the Contour app to your smartphone and you have an instant wireless handheld viewfinder. The one bummer: the Contour lacks the waterproof casing necessary for soggy outdoor pursuits, which also makes wind noise louder at higher speeds. $300
Best Weekend Escape
Vancouver, British Columbia
Mount Lemmon ride, Tucscon, arizonaMount Lemmon ride, Tucscon, arizona
A water-fall along Vancouver's Fraser RiverA water-fall along Vancouver's Fraser River
Vancouver has 250 miles of bike lanes and paths, at least 100 North Shore mountain-bike trails spread across three mountains, 11 miles of beach, the best oysters you'll ever slurp (at the Bluewater Café), and, within two hours inland, some of the best skiing, mountain biking, fly-fishing, whitewater rafting, hiking, and climbing on the planet. Not to mention the protected coves and bays for sea-kayaking Vancouver Island, just a 1.5-hour ferry hop away. Book a room downtown at the 47-room Victorian Hotel (doubles, US$89–$179) and rent one of its Pashley Cruisers (US$40 per day) to tour the city. Want big mountains? Hop the Rocky Mountaineer train downtown for a 3.5-hour ride winding through canyons and up steep mountain grades to Whistler (round-trip from US$264). The lift-accessed Whistler Mountain Bike Park has more than 4,946 vertical feet. Want watery fun? Fly-fishermen catch and release steelhead on one of the myriad Sea to Sky rivers, like the nearby Upper Cheakamus. For more water, raft the Elaho Squamish, a thrilling Class III–IV ride (from US$165 per person for a day trip). Stay at the Nita Lake Lodge, a classic log building on the shore of Nita Lake, less than five minutes from the Whistler train station and trailheads to world-class hiking, biking, and skiing (doubles from US$229).
Tucson, Arizona
World-class athletes know that Tucson is an excellent place to train in winter. For one thing, it's warm: the dry Sonoran Desert sees 84-degree highs in October and November, and temps range from 68 to 99 February through June. Base out of the Arizona Inn (doubles, $299), then start exploring. There are more than 500 miles of premier road biking nearby, and desert singletrack radiates in every direction, including the 16-mile Molino Milagrosa Loop east of the city, which climbs up the side of Mount Lemmon. Hikers can choose from more than 165 miles of trails in nearby Saguaro National Park.
Best Après-Adventure Bar
Montanya Distillers, Crested Butte, Colorado
Montanya Distillers, which opened a rum distillery and tasting room in Crested Butte in November, has notably upped the standard for ski-town cocktails. They craft their Platino and Oro rums from spring water, Hawaiian sugarcane, and local honey, and have snagged an impressive amount of gold hardware at spirits competitions in the past three years. Order the Freestyle (lemon juice, basil leaves, clove syrup, pineapple, and Oro, with a turbinado-sugar rim) or the Teocalli Martini (lime, mint, cucumber-infused Platino rum, and honey-lavender syrup) at an antique bar under the 40-foot ceilings of a former powerhouse that has hosted mountain folk for over a century.
The Rhum Bar, Beaufort, North Carolina
At the Rhum Bar, at the Front Street Grill at Stillwater, it's all about the waterfront deck, which is perched over the Beaufort Inlet. The bartender whips up an awesome mojito—then kick back for killer sunset views. Come by car or boat.
Best Deal
Adventure Camping Safaris in Kenya
Skogafoss waterfall, IcelandSkogafoss waterfall, Iceland
Hiking north of ReykjavikHiking north of Reykjavik
Gamewatchers Safaris' new six-night Adventure Camping Safaris have all the trappings of an expensive tour—highly trained guides, Land Cruisers, chef-cooked meals—with two notable differences. Instead of swanky lodges, guests stay in simple Coleman tents (patrolled by armed watchmen at night), and instead of paying up to $4,200, clients pay $1,550. See the rare African wildcat and gerenuk, a long-necked antelope, in the Selenkay Conservancy, and watch a pride of 25 lions on the hunt in the Ol Kinyei Conservancy in the Masai Mara. Come evening, sit next to a campfire and watch the sun set behind Mount Kilimanjaro.
If there's a silver lining to the 2008 implosion of Iceland's banking system and the devaluation of the krona, it's that the famously expensive country is now vastly more affordable for travelers—prices are down as much as 40 percent. Rent a car in Reykjavík and circumnavigate the island on the 830-mile Ring Road, stopping to dive the ultraclear Silfra Ravine between continental plates; hike over glacier-carved valleys to hot springs and waterfalls in the Skaftafell area of Vatnojökull National Park; sea-kayak through deep fjords; raft the Class II–III Hvita River; or fish for salmon on the newly opened Stóra Laxá River ($4,000 for seven days).
Best Himalayan Trip
Trekking the Tsum Valley
Most trekkers don't stray far from Nepal's obvious routes, like the Annapurna Circuit and Everest Base Camp, which might explain why the Tsum Valley, a remote north-central region nine hours by bus from Kathmandu that opened in 2008, sees fewer than 500 travelers annually. That could change quickly as word trickles out about a region where women spin wool by hand, men in Tibetan hats ride jangling horses on centuries-old paths, and many households still brew homemade raksi, a local moonshine. You need a permit to trek on your own here, and local guides and porters can be found at Tsumvalley.org. Or go with Mountain Madness's new 27-day trip and trek with a local lama through valleys dotted with monasteries and surrounded by 18,000-foot peaks (Nov. 6–Dec. 2; $4,900). One World Trekking's Tsum Valley Research Trek is another good option, a 21-day trip that passes hot springs, peaks, waterfalls, and hamlets (Oct. 7–27; from $2,495).
Mountain-Bike the Himalayas
This year, World Expeditions introduces a novelty: a 25-day Himalayan mountain-bike expedition between Lhasa, Tibet, and Kathmandu (May 6–30; $4,890). Riders cover as much as 56 miles per day on remote four-wheel-drive roads and singletrack under the shadows of the tallest peaks on earth, including a three-day side trip to Tibet's Everest Base Camp to see the North Face of the famed mountain. Camp and stay in guesthouses in tiny, seldom-visited Buddhist villages, ascend three passes over 16,000 feet, and top it off with a screaming 11,000-foot descent from the Tibetan Plateau to Kathmandu.
Best New Adventure Hub
Lake Wanaka, New Zealand
Paddling Vallecito Creek, Durango, ColoradoPaddling Vallecito Creek, Durango, Colorado
When tourists in New Zealand want adventure, they go to Queenstown. When Kiwis want to escape, they head an hour north to tiny Lake Wanaka, a town of 5,037 right next to Mount Aspiring National Park that's emerging as the country's Jackson, Wyoming. Lake Wanaka is surrounded by the Crown Range and the Southern Alps, and sits on the shore of New Zealand's fourth-largest lake. There are two ski resorts, Treble Cone and Cardrona, roughly 20 miles away; more than 20 mountain-bike trails in Sticky Forest, five minutes north of town; endless mountainous road cycling; and 74-square-mile Lake Wanaka for sea kayaking, sailing, fishing, and swimming. The Wanaka Homestead (doubles, $143), just a few hundred feet from Lake Wanaka, has an alpine-lodge feel and is an easy walk to town. Or splurge at the Whare Kea (doubles from $1,158), an elegant lodge on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park that offers everything from backcountry heli-skiing to fly-fishing. Cyclists: sign on to Active New Zealand's eight-day Zone ($2,999), a challenging trip that starts in Christchurch and crosses the South Island's two major passes: 3,018-foot Arthur's and 1,850-foot Haast. The last two days, you'll bike the 40 miles from Wanaka to Queenstown.
Durango, Colorado
Durango an adventure-sports capital? Go in April and you'll see why. Within an hour of town, you can ski spring corn, nordic-ski around an alpine lake, kayak the Animas River, catch fat trout, hike a thirteener, ride 10,000-foot passes on a dizzy-making scenic byway, and mountain-bike blue-ribbon singletrack. Packed with college students and young transplants, the populace is uniquely devoted to the pursuit of fun, which might explain the four microbreweries and outsize nightlife for a town of 16,000 three hours from an interstate. Stay at the Rochester, a historic hotel that has a full breakfast and free cruiser bikes for guests (from $129). Large groups can base-camp at the Treehouse, a downtown vacation rental with a hot tub, views of the mountains, and singletrack right out the back door (from $1,400 per week for up to ten).
Did we mention the 300-plus days of sunshine?
Best Travel Investment
Travel Guard
More than 1,200 travel companies sell Travel Guard insurance to their clients. Here's why: the insurer, which has been in business for more than 25 years, has a base policy that includes vacation and trip cancellation, travel interruption and delay, emergency medical and health expenses, lost baggage, and more. It also offers two important add-ons: hazardous-sports protection of up to $25,000, with coverage of injuries incurred while high-altitude trekking or bungee jumping, among other pursuits; and evacuation coverage of up to $1 million. Policy costs vary depending on age and the length and price of the trip, but are far less than chartering a helicopter should things go drastically wrong.
Global Rescue
The official emergency-response service for the U.S. ski and snowboard teams and the American Alpine Club, Global Rescue has saved a woman gored by a Cape buffalo in Africa and climbers caught in a violent miner's strike in Indonesia. Its medics are largely military-trained former Special Forces, and they're like having a Navy SEAL team at your disposal. They'll not only get you out of danger, but they'll also deposit you at the hospital of your choice (wherever that may be). Individual memberships, $329 per year for medical only and $655 with security.
Best New Hotel
Treehotel, Sweden
We pick seven of our all-time favorite adventures.
A room at Sweden's TreehotelA room at Sweden's Treehotel
A room at Sweden's TreehotelA room at Sweden's Treehotel
A lot of great hotels have opened in the past couple of years, but we have a thing for treehouses. The Treehotel's five surreal "rooms" sit as high as 18 feet off the ground in a 100-year-old pine forest with views of the Lule River near the village of Harads (pop. 600), roughly 600 miles north of Stockholm. Choose from a flying saucer, a mirrored cube, a bird's nest with a retractable staircase, the Blue Cone (which is actually red), and a futuristic "cabin" with a rooftop deck that looks as if it's floating in the canopy. Then there's the Tree Sauna, a traditional wood-fired Swedish steam room with a hot tub out the door. Guests eat in the 1950s-era Britta's Pensionat, a five-minute walk away, or order "tree service." Doubles from $590 per night.
Washington School House, Park City, Utah
Park City is a mecca for winter fun, with average annual snowfall of 360 inches. But few know that come summer, the crowds thin and the locals have excellent mountain biking and hiking on more than 150 miles of Wasatch trails practically to themselves. The Washington School House, an 1889 National Historic Registry icon just two blocks from the town lift, is in the center of it all. Last summer the building was gutted, and it reopened in December with 12 spacious rooms and suites, a fireside lounge, a private chef, and a heated pool and spa terraced into the hillside out back, making it difficult to motivate for a ride but all the sweeter when you return. Doubles from $400 per night.
Best Surf Trip
From Cape Town to Durban, South Africa
The stunning 1,000-mile coastal drive between Cape Town and Durban offers more consistently uncrowded waves than anywhere else in the world. Why? Southern Ocean storms produce southwest waves that start as raw, monster swells in spots like Dungeons and Sunset Reef near Cape Town, then mellow out along the coast at Mossel and Victoria Bays, ultimately feeding one of the best right-hand point breaks in the world at Jeffrey's Bay, 423 miles east of Cape Town. Past Jeffrey's Bay, there are ridiculously empty spots, like Seal Point and East London, all the way to Durban. Rent a VW bus in Cape Town through Lekker Camper (standard two-berth bus from $80 per day), which will drop off the vehicle at the airport, then check in at Surf Zone on Big Bay for surf reports, shark reports (attacks are a real threat in places), and last-minute necessities. Before hitting the coast-hugging N2 Highway, have a beer on the Bikini Deck at the Brass Bell and watch surfers take on sketchy Kalk Bay Reef. Then stop wherever the waves look good. Roughly halfway up the coast at Jeffrey's Bay, take a break from the van and rent a room at the African Perfection Lodge, a surfer's hangout that overlooks the famed Supertubes and offers B&B rooms, self-catering digs, or an entire house (from $54 per person per night including breakfast). Splurge at die Walskipper for some of the best seafood in South Africa. In the unlikely event that you hit a bad day—hey, you're in South Africa. Go see the Big Five.
Pavones, Costa Rica
Pavones's location—far down Costa Rica's Pacific coast, a jostling two-hour drive from the nearest airstrip—keeps its waves uncrowded. Services in town are limited to a couple of mini-marts, a handful of guesthouses, a beach bar, and one glorious half-mile-long left surf break called Rio Claro. Though most surfers come between March and September, when South Pacific storms bring swells across the ocean, it's rare that the surf falls below waist-high at Rio Claro or the half-dozen other point breaks in the area. Rent one of four artfully simple stucco cabinas at Rancho Cannatella ($25–$35 per person), run by a laid-back American surfer and his Costa Rican wife, who offer lessons on blissfully empty breaks.
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14-Year-Old Author Tells Story of Holocaust in Graphic Novel
Perhaps the most surprising detail about "Keeping My Hope," a new, self-published graphic novel about the Holocaust, is its author: Christopher Huh is only 14 years old. The second most surprising detail is that he's not even Jewish. He's a second-generation Korean American from suburban Maryland who was only vaguely aware of the Holocaust before his seventh-grade English teacher led a unit on the subject.
Christopher's class had been reading Hans Peter Richter's Holocaust novel, "Friedrich." "I was pretty shocked by what the teacher was telling us," he told me when we met over lemonade at La Madeleine, near the Bethesda metro station. (Unlike Bethesda, Christopher's hometown of Germantown doesn't have a sizable Jewish population.) "I mean, I'd heard of the Holocaust before, but I didn't know it was this extreme. I couldn't believe some of the things I was hearing. But then when I looked around to see what other students were thinking, they weren't really paying attention. They were just talking and chatting and not really listening."
Christopher says he wanted to teach the Holocaust "in a different way." He conceived of "Keeping My Hope" as a tool to introduce kids to the Holocaust: "I wanted the book to be easy to read, but I also wanted the subject to be taken seriously. I want people to realize that I can handle this stuff, and other kids can, too."
From that point on, Christopher devoted himself wholeheartedly to his project. Though the characters and plot evolved as he worked, Christopher never doubted that "Keeping My Hope" would be a graphic novel. He's been drawing for as long as he can remember. "Always with pencil," said his mother, Yoon Huh. "Before he even started writing, he was drawing. But only in pencil — never crayons."
"Keeping My Hope" draws on Christopher's considerable talents both as an artist and as a storyteller. It begins with a grandfather in something like contemporary America telling his granddaughter about his childhood in Lomza, Poland, before the war. The main character's name is Ari, which Christopher chose "because it means lion, strength. I chose that name and set it up as I did so that people would know that he survives."
Christopher estimates that he spent more than 1,000 hours researching the events narrated in Ari's story, and indeed he crams quite a lot of history into the novel's 170 pages of black-and-white drawings: from the first glimmerings of anti-Semitism to the Soviet occupation of 1939, then the ghetto, the liquidation of the ghetto and the transport to Auschwitz. A good half of the book is devoted to Ari's time at Auschwitz, which ends with the death march that kills his last remaining friends.
Christopher did the bulk of his research on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's website, using its easily searchable survivor interviews, documentaries and historical background for the different events he chronicles. "You just type 'Death March' in the search bar, and a lot of survivors' stories come up," he said. He also visited the museum in person twice, and last summer he went to a synagogue in Potomac, Md., near his home. "They were very happy and supportive of the project," he said. "I even met an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor who went to the temple."
Christopher, who plays piano and viola, listened to Itzhak Perlman's CD of klezmer music constantly while he worked on the book, which took him about a year to write.
"He spent a couple of hours a day, every day," Yoon Huh said. "He was very disciplined. I was always driving him to the library so he could get more books."
When asked if this single-minded commitment to the book affected his schoolwork, Christopher shook his head. "I still got all my work done and got A's in all my classes," he said. "I wanted to dedicate all my time to the book, but I wasn't falling asleep in class or anything."
Christopher said that reactions from his peers have been overwhelmingly positive: "I was really happy when some of my classmates have come up to me and asked to buy the book. Even people I don't know have come up to me and said what a good book it is." His teachers have also been supportive, he said, especially the seventh-grade English teacher who introduced him to the Holocaust.
"They call him 'Author Boy' at school," his mom added proudly.
"I want to make sure 'Keeping My Hope' gets into Maryland's reading curriculum," Christopher said. "I'd like it to be in every public library in America. Some people just have no idea what the Holocaust is, and I think 'Keeping My Hope' is a good way of summing up what happened through one eyewitness account."
"I'd like to earn enough money from the book to make a trip to Auschwitz and visit places like Warsaw that I researched."
Laura Moser is a writer living in Washington, D.C.


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Microsoft has finally unveiled the Windows Phone 7 platform–including a diverse selection of ten different Windows Phone 7 smartphones right out of the gate. Despite Microsoft's struggles getting into gear in the mobile game, Windows Phone 7 looks awesome. Unfortunately, Windows Phone 7 is also a prime example of why device exclusivity is bad for all parties and handicaps the potential of the platform.
Having ten different form factors seems to give prospective Windows Phone 7 buyers plenty of choice, but thanks to exclusive arrangements with wireless carriers, the reality is that the options are much more limited. As an AT&T customer, my Windows Phone 7 options are limited to only three of those ten, and none of those three is the smartphone I would actually choose…if I actually had a choice.
Taken as a whole, the collection of ten Windows Phone 7 smartphones provides prospective customers with a diverse array of options. With five devices from HTC (7 Surround, HD7, 7 Trophy, 7 Mozart, and 7 Pro), two from LG (Optimus and Quantum), two from Samsung (Omnia 7 and Focus), and one from Dell (Venue Pro) there is a size and form factor for everyone.
Four of those ten will only be available in Europe, or other international markets, so we can already narrow the field from ten to six for prospective Windows Phone 7 shoppers in the United States. No worries. Three of those six are from HTC and HTC has always developed the best smartphones for Windows Mobile. Prior to my iPhone 3G–now my iPhone 4–my three previous smartphones were all HTC Windows Mobile devices.
The problem is carrier exclusivity for specific devices. The reality is that because of the arrangements between the smartphone manufacturers and the various wireless providers, AT&T only has three Windows Phone 7 smartphones to choose from, T-Mobile has two, and Sprint will eventually have one. Verizon is apparently not invited to the Windows Phone 7 party–or at least not yet.
If I could really choose from all six of the Windows Phone 7 smartphone models available in the United States, I would get the HTC HD7, followed by the HTC 7 Pro, and probably the Dell Venue Pro as a third alternative. Guess what? It turns out that although AT&T has the most Windows Phone 7 options with three out of six, it just so happens they are the exact opposite of these three.
My HTC option with AT&T is the 7 Surround–with a slideout speaker and digital Dolby surround sound. Seriously? So, as an AT&T customer I can choose from three Windows Phone 7 devices out of the original ten, but they are the three that are at the bottom of my list–if I actually had a choice.
Both of the T-Mobile options are on my top three list, but I have a contractual commitment with AT&T and a family plan that impacts four other smartphone contracts in my home. I can't simply jump ship to T-Mobile on a whim because it happens to have the smartphone du jour I am interested in. Likewise, businesses are not going to fold up their tent and make the arduous trek to a new wireless provider just for a specific device.
Smartphone exclusivity is a failure as a marketing ploy, and ultimately hurts the wireless provider and the customers. The marginal gain that a wireless carrier might get from being the only provider of a specific smartphone model can only really work with brand new customers that don't already have a contractual allegiance to a given provider.
Wireless carriers should be able to compete head to head without relying on smartphone exclusivity blackmail, and smartphone customers should have the freedom to choose from all available devices to find that one that suits them best. Businesses and consumers should also have the option to use the smartphone they choose with the wireless provider that best meets their needs.
I don't want to settle for a Windows Phone 7 smartphone I don't really want, and I am not switching wireless providers to get the one I do want, so AT&T, T-Mobile, Microsoft, and I all lose out. This current model is a lose-lose proposition.


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Part I: Hedges v. Obama
Back in January of 2012 former war correspondent Christopher Hedges and others, including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg, filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and specifically the Act's Section 1021(b)(2), which allows for indefinite detention by the U.S. military of people "who are part of or substantially support Al Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces engaged in hostilities against the United States." This detention denies those held of the ability to "contest the allegations against them because they have no right to be notified of the specific charges against them." In this suit filed by Hedges et al., the issue in question was the vagueness of the terms "substantially support" and "associated forces." For instance, could this vagueness lead to apprehension and detention of journalists who publish interviews with members of Al Qaeda or the Taliban? Could it lead to the same treatment against political activists protesting U.S. policies against these or "associated" groups?
The case, now designated Hedges v. Obama, was initially heard in New York District Court by Judge Katherine Forrest. The plaintiffs claimed that the NDAA violated the 1st (free speech), 5th (due process as well as the stipulation that people must be able to understand what actions break the law) and 14th (equal protection) Amendments to the Constitution. To address the question Judge Forrest asked the government lawyers if they could assure the court that the activities of the plaintiffs would not result in indefinite detention under the act. If they could give such assurances it would, as far as the judge was concerned, eliminate the plaintiff's "standing" to challenge the law.
The government lawyers refused to give those assurances, and as a result, the judge concluded, "The definitions of 'substantially supported' and 'associated forces' were so vague that a reporter or activist could not be sure they would not be covered under the provision." This, in turn, would result in what the plaintiffs considered a "chilling effect on free speech and freedom of the press." Therefore, in September 2012, the Judge granted a permanent injunction against the practice of indefinite detention as put forth in NDAA.
There is no evidence that the U.S. government ever complied with this injunction, and its lawyers immediately appealed the ruling to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. When the case was heard in this court, the U.S. Justice Department suddenly came up with the assurances it refused to give only weeks before. In part it was because of these assurances that the appeals court decided to overturn Forrest's ruling and grant a permanent stay of her injunction. In one of its interim rulings, the appeals court observed, "Since the U.S. government has promised that citizens, journalists, and activists were not in danger of being detained as a result of NDAA, it was unnecessary to block the enforcement of 102 (b)(2) of the NDAA." However, as Carl Mayer, the lawyer for Christopher Hedges, had noted earlier, "The government has not put in any evidence. They just keep making these broad assurances. It's all a 'trust us' proceeding." And trust them is exactly what the appellate judges did. The appeals court's final ruling in favor of the government was given on 17 July 2013.
Part II: Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project
One can seriously ask, is any government that trustworthy? Particularly those governments that see themselves at endless war with shadowy enemies and which claim the need for "broad executive war powers" to wage the struggle. One of the reasons that the rule of law is so important is just because there must be limits to behavior for everyone, including the rule makers. Usually the rules that hold governments in check are set forth in constitutions. Laws formulated by branches of U.S. government should explicitly comply with the U.S. Constitution, not just promise to do so.
Despite the naive faith of the Second Circuit judges in the verbal assurances of government lawyers that the NDAA will be enforced in a constitutional manner, there is evidence that such assurances cannot be trusted. Government personnel seem not to have enough objectivity and simple common sense for trust to be placed in them. For example, consider the 2010 case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.
This case was argued before the Supreme Court in January 2010 and challenged that part of the USA Patriot Act, which prohibits "material support" to groups designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Just as "substantially support" and "associated forces" are too vague for Hedges and his fellow plaintiffs, so was "material support" too vague for the Humanitarian Law Project. The HLP was seeking to interact with alleged terrorist groups such as the Kurdistan Workers Party of Turkey so as to "help the group enter into peace negotiations and United Nations processes." In other words, the HLP wanted to help lead such organizations away from violence and toward nonviolent strategies. Could this be construed as giving "material support" to terrorists? The Obama Justice Department, in striking disregard of common sense, argued that it was indeed material support and thus a criminal venture. And, as it turned out, in its June 2010 decision, the Supreme Court agreed.
This was not just an intellectual exercise in front of the highest court of the land. The resulting Supreme Court decision quickly assumed real life significance. Within three months of its decision, the FBI was raiding homes in Chicago and Minneapolis, confiscating computers and files, because they suspected some undefined connection between the residents and various alleged Colombian and Palestinian terrorist groups. The FBI cited Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project as legal justification for their actions.
In addition, enforcement of this law turned out
to be blatantly selective. In January 2011 civil rights lawyer David Cole, who represented the HLP before the Supreme Court, noted that well-known political figures, such as former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former head of homeland security Tom Ridge, had committed felonies when they publicly spoke in support of the Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iranian designated terrorist group that happened also to be in opposition to the current Islamic government of Iran. The FBI has not, nor will it, raid their homes.
Part III: Conclusion
Under these circumstances, anyone who accepts at face value the assurance of government lawyers that laws such as the Patriot Act and NDAA will conform to the Constitution and not walk all over one's civil rights should, as the old saying goes, have their head examined.
What we have in the Hedges v. Obama case is yet another very bad precedent. As Judge Forrest had pointed out, "Courts must safeguard core constitutional rights." The 2nd Circuit Appeals Court, clearly not applying the principle of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) to this situation, has sold out that obligation for a handful of dubious promises. Recent history provides no confidence that such promises are given in good faith. No, it is bad faith we are witnessing here. The government lawyers should hang their heads in shame for obviously undermining the Constitution they are sworn to uphold. It just goes to show there are always those, be they soldiers, police, or lawyers who will simply follow orders no matter what the consequences.
Toward the end of this whole unseemly process someone pointed out that President Obama has consistently asserted that he is against the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens even though his Justice Department has always supported keeping the detention clause of NDAA in place and operative. Maybe the president is simply playing a double game and lying to the voters. Lying is certainly part of the politician's toolbox. On the other hand, maybe Obama is conflicted but dwells in an environment where it is politically "necessary" to be seen as a tough guy, lest the Republican warmongers gain an edge. How much difference does it really make? As it stands now, in terms of civil liberties there is not much "daylight" between Obama's practice and the past behavior of neoconservative vulgarians such as George W. Bush. "If it swims like a duck, then it probably is a duck."
Briefly, we wanted to update you on where Truthout stands this month.
To be brutally honest, Truthout is behind on our fundraising goals for the year. There are a lot of reasons why. We're dealing with broad trends in our industry, trends that have led publications like Vice, BuzzFeed, and National Geographic to make painful cuts. Everyone is feeling the squeeze of inflation. And despite its lasting importance, news readership is declining.
To ensure we stay out of the red by the end of the year, we have a long way to go. Our future is threatened.
We've stayed online over two decades thanks to the support of our readers. Because you believe in the power of our work, share our transformative stories, and give to keep us going strong, we know we can make it through this tough moment.
At this moment, we have 24 hours left in our important fundraising campaign, and we still must raise $19,000. Please consider making a donation today.


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|R Documentation
Given a set of p-values, returns p-values adjusted using one of several methods.
p.adjust(p, method = p.adjust.methods, n = length(p)) p.adjust.methods # c("holm", "hochberg", "hommel", "bonferroni", "BH", "BY", # "fdr", "none")
numeric vector of p-values (possibly with
correction method, a
number of comparisons, must be at least
The adjustment methods include the Bonferroni correction
"bonferroni") in which the p-values are multiplied by the
number of comparisons. Less conservative corrections are also
included by Holm (1979) (
"holm"), Hochberg (1988)
"hochberg"), Hommel (1988) (
"hommel"), Benjamini &
Hochberg (1995) (
"BH" or its alias
"fdr"), and Benjamini &
Yekutieli (2001) (
"BY"), respectively.
A pass-through option (
"none") is also included.
The set of methods are contained in the
p.adjust.methods vector
for the benefit of methods that need to have the method as an option
and pass it on to
The first four methods are designed to give strong control of the family-wise error rate. There seems no reason to use the unmodified Bonferroni correction because it is dominated by Holm's method, which is also valid under arbitrary assumptions.
Hochberg's and Hommel's methods are valid when the hypothesis tests are independent or when they are non-negatively associated (Sarkar, 1998; Sarkar and Chang, 1997). Hommel's method is more powerful than Hochberg's, but the difference is usually small and the Hochberg p-values are faster to compute.
"BH" (aka
"fdr") and
"BY" methods of
Benjamini, Hochberg, and Yekutieli control the false discovery rate,
the expected proportion of false discoveries amongst the rejected
hypotheses. The false discovery rate is a less stringent condition
than the family-wise error rate, so these methods are more powerful
than the others.
Note that you can set
n larger than
length(p) which
means the unobserved p-values are assumed to be greater than all the
observed p for
"bonferroni" and
"holm" methods and equal
to 1 for the other methods.
A numeric vector of corrected p-values (of the same length as
p, with names copied from
Benjamini, Y., and Hochberg, Y. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, 57, 289–300. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1111/j.2517-6161.1995.tb02031.x")}. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2346101.
Benjamini, Y., and Yekutieli, D. (2001). The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. Annals of Statistics, 29, 1165–1188. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1214/aos/1013699998")}.
Holm, S. (1979). A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 6, 65–70. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4615733.
Hommel, G. (1988). A stagewise rejective multiple test procedure based on a modified Bonferroni test. Biometrika, 75, 383–386. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.2307/2336190")}.
Hochberg, Y. (1988). A sharper Bonferroni procedure for multiple tests of significance. Biometrika, 75, 800–803. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.2307/2336325")}.
Shaffer, J. P. (1995). Multiple hypothesis testing. Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 561–584. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1146/annurev.ps.46.020195.003021")}. (An excellent review of the area.)
Sarkar, S. (1998). Some probability inequalities for ordered MTP2 random variables: a proof of Simes conjecture. Annals of Statistics, 26, 494–504. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1214/aos/1028144846")}.
Sarkar, S., and Chang, C. K. (1997). The Simes method for multiple hypothesis testing with positively dependent test statistics. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 92, 1601–1608. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.2307/2965431")}.
Wright, S. P. (1992). Adjusted P-values for simultaneous inference. Biometrics, 48, 1005–1013. \Sexpr[results=rd,stage=build]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.2307/2532694")}. (Explains the adjusted P-value approach.)
pairwise.* functions such as
require(graphics) set.seed(123) x <- rnorm(50, mean = c(rep(0, 25), rep(3, 25))) p <- 2*pnorm(sort(-abs(x))) round(p, 3) round(p.adjust(p), 3) round(p.adjust(p, "BH"), 3) ## or all of them at once (dropping the "fdr" alias): p.adjust.M <- p.adjust.methods[p.adjust.methods != "fdr"] p.adj <- sapply(p.adjust.M, function(meth) p.adjust(p, meth)) p.adj.60 <- sapply(p.adjust.M, function(meth) p.adjust(p, meth, n = 60)) stopifnot(identical(p.adj[,"none"], p), p.adj <= p.adj.60) round(p.adj, 3) ## or a bit nicer: noquote(apply(p.adj, 2, format.pval, digits = 3)) ## and a graphic: matplot(p, p.adj, ylab="p.adjust(p, meth)", type = "l", asp = 1, lty = 1:6, main = "P-value adjustments") legend(0.7, 0.6, p.adjust.M, col = 1:6, lty = 1:6) ## Can work with NA's: pN <- p; iN <- c(46, 47); pN[iN] <- NA pN.a <- sapply(p.adjust.M, function(meth) p.adjust(pN, meth)) ## The smallest 20 P-values all affected by the NA's : round((pN.a / p.adj)[1:20, ] , 4)
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text:
April 27, 1976
To the Congress of the United States:
I address this message to the Congress on a matter which strikes at the very heart of our national well-being -- drug abuse.
The cost of drug abuse to this Nation is staggering. More than 5,000 Americans die each year from the improper use of drugs. Law enforcement officials estimate that as much as one half of all "street crime" -- robberies, muggings, burglaries -- are committed by drug addicts to support their expensive and debilitating habits. In simple dollar terms, drug abuse costs us up to $17 billion a year.
But these statistics -- ominous as they are -- reflect only a part of the tragic toll which drug abuse exacts. For every young person who dies of a drug overdose, there are thousands who do not die but who are merely going through the motions of living. They sit in classrooms without learning. They grow increasingly isolated from family and friends. At a time when they should be preparing for the future, they are "copping out" on the present.
The problem, moreover, is not limited to youth or to the disadvantaged. It extends to citizens of all ages and all walks of life -- from the housewife to the college professor. The cumulative effect is to diminish the quality and vitality of our community life; to weaken the fabric of our Nation.
When this problem exploded into the national consciousness in the late 1960's, the response of the Federal Government was swift and vigorous. Federal spending on a comprehensive program to control drug abuse grew from less than $100 million in 1969 to over three-quarters of a billion in 1974; specialized agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse were created; and international diplomatic efforts to mobilize the assistance of foreign governments in a world-wide attack on drug trafficking were intensified.
With the help of State and local governments, community groups and our international allies in the battle against narcotics, we were able to make impressive progress in combatting the drug menace. So much so that by mid-1973 many were convinced that we had "turned the corner" on the drug abuse problem.
Unfortunately, while we had won an important victory, we had not won the war on drugs. By 1975, it was clear that drug use was increasing, that the gains of prior years were being lost, that in human terms, narcotics had become a national tragedy. Today, drug abuse constitutes a clear and present threat to the health and future of our Nation.
The time has come to launch a new and more aggressive campaign to reverse the trend of increasing drug abuse in America. And this time we must be prepared to stick with the task for as long as necessary.
Because of my deep concern about this problem and my personal commitment to do something about it, last year I directed the Domestic Council to undertake a thorough review and assessment of the adequacy of the Federal drug program. That review, which culminated in the publication of the White Paper on Drug Abuse, has helped tremendously to refocus and revitalize the Federal effort. We have made substantial progress in implementing the many sound recommendations contained in the White Paper, but more needs to be done.
And more will be done. The first need for stronger action is against the criminal drug trafficker. These merchants of death, who profit from the misery and suffering of others, deserve the full measure of national revulsion. They should be the principal focus of our law enforcement activities -- at the Federal, State and local level. In this regard, I am pleased to note that arrests by Federal law enforcement officers of major drug traffickers are up substantially over previous years. However, the progress we have made in improving our ability to apprehend these traffickers will be lost unless major changes are made in the way our criminal justice system deals with drug traffickers after arrest.
Justice Department statistics show that one out of every four persons convicted of trafficking in heroin received no prison sentence at all. One out of every three received a sentence of less than three years. And since convicted traffickers are eligible for parole upon the completion of one-third of their sentence, even those who received longer sentences rarely served more than a few years.
I believe this is wrong. It is wrong for the criminals who profit by selling drugs, it is wrong for the victims of drugs, and it is wrong for our system of justice. Laws which permit traffickers to go free to prey again on society should be changed. These criminals must know with certainty that, if convicted, they will go to jail for a substantial period of time. Only then will the risk of apprehension be a deterrent rather than just another cost of doing business.
Accordingly, I will submit to the Congress this week legislation which will require mandatory minimum prison sentences for persons convicted of trafficking in heroin and similar narcotic drugs. Sentences under this legislation would be at least three years for a first offense and at least six years for subsequent offenses or for selling to a minor.
I want to emphasize that the purpose of this proposal is not to impose vindictive punishment but to protect society from those who prey upon it and to deter others who might be tempted to sell drugs. Considering the terrible human toll that drug addiction takes and the extent to which it contributes to more and more crime, it is a matter of high priority that Congress make our laws more effective in curbing drug traffic.
Another serious problem with current Federal law is that even the most notorious drug traffickers are usually released on bail soon after arrest. The bail is often small and the profits from drug trafficking are large, so raising and then forfeiting the bail is just another cost of doing business. A 1974 Justice Department study shows that 48 percent -- nearly one out of two -- of a sample of individuals arrested for trafficking in narcotics were implicated in post-arrest drug trafficking while out on bail. Other studies show that approximately one-fourth of all bail-jumpers in drug cases are aliens who were caught smuggling drugs into the country. These offenders simply flee to their homelands upon posting bail. There, they serve as walking advertisements for international traffickers attempting to recruit other couriers.
This, too, is wrong. Therefore, in addition to asking Congress to establish mandatory minimum sentences, I shall submit to Congress legislation that would enable judges to deny bail if a defendant arrested for trafficking heroin or dangerous drugs is found (1) to have previously been convicted of a drug felony; (2) to be presently free on parole; (3) to be a non-resident alien; (4) to have been arrested in possession of a false passport; or (5) to be a fugitive or previously convicted of having been a fugitive.
Next, the Federal government must act to take the easy profits out of drug selling.
We know that tremendous amounts of money are illegally taken out of the country each day, either to purchase drugs or to transfer profits made by selling drugs to safe and secret bank accounts abroad. To prevent this money from being smuggled out of the country, I will ask Congress to grant to the U.S. Customs Service the authority to search persons suspected of smuggling monev out of the country as Customs now has the authority to search for contraband entering the country.
I shall ask Congress to pass legislation requiring the forfeiture of cash or other personal property found in the possession of a narcotics violator -- where it is determined that it was used or was intended for use in connection with an illegal drug transaction.
I shall ask Congress to change provisions of the law which allow the seizure of vehicles, boats and aircraft used to smuggle drugs. At present, these may be seized by administrative action only if the value of the property is less than $2,500; otherwise action by a Federal judge is necessary.
This $2,500 limitation is out of date and must be changed. Therefore, I shall ask Congress to raise to $10,000 the ceiling for administrative forfeitures. This will not only make law enforcement against traffickers more swift and more effective but it will also help to relieve court congestion.
I shall ask Congress to tighten the provisions of the law relating to small privately owned boats reporting to Customs after their arrival. At present, the masters of these vessels have 24 hours to report their arrival to Customs -- and that is ample time to unload contraband. I shall ask Congress to pass legislation requiring such vessels to report to Customs immediately upon their arrival.
I call on Congress also to ratify an existing treaty for the international control of synthetic drugs.
Over the past fifty years the major nations of the world have worked out treaty arrangements for the international control of drugs with a natural base, such as opiates and cocaine. But no similar arrangements exist for the control of synthetic drugs -- such as barbiturates, amphetamines and tranquilizers; and the abuse of these synthetic drugs is a growing problem which is now almost as serious as the abuse of heroin in the United States.
Five years ago the United States played a major role in the preparation of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a treaty to deal with international traffic in synthetic drugs. But the Senate has not yet ratified this treaty, and Congress has not yet passed the enabling legislation.
The delay in U.S. ratification of the Convention has been an embarrassment to us. Moreover, it has made it extremely difficult for us to urge other countries to tighten controls on natural-based narcotic substances, when we appear unwilling to extend international controls to amphetamines, barbiturates and other psychotropic drugs which are produced here in the United States.
So far, I have emphasized the need for additional legisslation and Congressional action.
But there are Executive actions which I can take and I am today doing so. The Federal program to control drug abuse is as diverse as any in government, involving some seven Cabinet departments and seventeen agencies. It is vitally important that the efforts of these departments and agencies be integrated into an effective overall program but that responsibility for specific program management rest with the appropriate departments and agencies.
Accordingly, I am today establishing two new Cabinet committees -- one for drug law enforcement and the other for drug abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
The Cabinet Committee for Drug Law Enforcement will consist of the Attorney General as chairman and the Secretaries of the Treasury and Transportation. The Cabinet Committee on Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation will consist of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare as chairman, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Labor and the Administrator of the Veterans Administration. I charge the Attorney General and the Secretary of HEW, as chairmen of these committees, with responsibility for oversight and coordination at all Federal activities within their respective areas.
In carrying out his responsibilities as Chairman of the new Cabinet Committee on Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation, the Secretary of HEW should give particular attention to developing expanded vocational rehabilitation opportunities for drug addicts. Experience has shown that treatment alone is not enough. Unless something is done to alter the fundamental conditions which led the individual to seek escape through drug use, a relapse is likely. A job, with the dignity and self-esteem it brings, is essential to help the individual re-enter the mainstream of American life. Further, the Secretary of HEW and the Attorney General will work together to develop plans for improving the coordination between the drug abuse treatment system and the criminal justice system.
I am directing the Secretary of the Treasury to work with the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Administrator of the Drug Abuse Enforcement Administration, to develop a tax enforcement program aimed at high-level drug traffickers. We know that many of the biggest drug dealers do not pay income taxes on the enormous profits they make on this criminal activity. I am confident that a responsible program can be designed which will promote effective enforcement of the tax laws against these individuals who are currently violating these laws with impunity.
No matter how hard we fight the problem of drug abuse at home, we cannot make really significant progress without the continued cooperation of foreign governments. This is because most dangerous narcotics are produced in foreign countries. Thus, our capability to deal with supplies of drugs available in the United States depends largely on the interest and capability of foreign governments in controlling the production and shipment of illicit drugs.
Many countries still see drug abuse as primarily an American problem and are unaware of the extent to which the problem is truly global in scope. Poorer nations find it difficult to justify the allocation of scarce resources to deal with drug abuse in the face of many other pressing needs. Also, some opium producing countries lack effective control over, or access to, growing areas within their boundaries and, thus, their efforts in drug control programs are made more difficult.
Still, we have been reasonably successful in enlisting the cooperation of foreign governments. We must now intensify diplomatic efforts at all levels in order to encourage the greatest possible commitment from other governments to this international problem. We must continue to provide technical and equipment assistance through cooperative enforcement efforts with U S. agents stationed overseas, all aimed at strengthening drug control organizations within foreign countries. And we must continue to participate in building institutions and a system of international treaties which can provide a legal framework for an international response to this international problem.
I have spoken personally to Presidents Echeverria of Mexico and Lopez-Michelsen of Colombia and with Prime Minister Demirel of Turkey in an effort to strengthen cooperation among all nations involved in the fight against illicit drug traffic. I intend to continue to urge foreign leaders to increase their efforts in this area. Attorney General Levi has recently discussed drug control problems with the Attorney General of Mexico and Secretary of State Kissinger has discussed narcotic control efforts with senior officials in Latin America on his recent trip there. I have asked both of them, as well as our Ambassador to the United Nations, William Scranton, to continue to expand these important discussions.
The reactions of the governments which we have approached have been positive -- there is a genuine and healthy air of mutual concern and cooperation between our countries and I am confident that our joint efforts will bring about a real reduction in drug trafficking into the United States.
One recent example of the new awareness and commitment of foreign governments to this struggle deserves special mention. President Echeverria has written to inform me of his intention to set up a cabinet level commission to coordinate all law enforcement and drug treatment programs within Mexico and to suggest that his commission might periodically exchange information and ideas with a counterpart here. This proposal, which was the result of discussions between President Echeverria and concerned Members of the United States Congress, stands as a clear signal that the Mexican government recognizes the need to build a coordinated response to the problem of drug abuse. I believe the periodic exchange of views on this matter between our two nations would be helpful. Accordingly, I am assigning responsibility for liaison with the Mexican Commission to the Cabinet Committee on International Narcotic Control and I am directing the Secretary of State, as Chairman of the CCINC to immediately form an executive committee to meet with its Mexican counterpart to discuss ways in which our government can collaborate more effectively. We shall of course consult with concerned Members of Congress as these efforts are carried on.
Drug abuse is a national problem. Our national well-being is at stake. The Federal Government -- the Congress, the Executive Branch and the judicial Branch -- State and local governments, and the private sector must work together in a new and far more aggressive attack against drugs.
I pledge that the Federal Government will maintain the high priority which it has given this problem. We will strengthen our law enforcement efforts and improve our treatment and rehabilitation programs. With Congress' help, we will close loopholes in our laws which permit traffickers to prey on our young; and we shall expect the courts to do their part.
All of this will be of little use, however, unless the American people rally and fight the scourge of drug abuse within their own communities and their own families. We cannot provide all the answers to young people in search of themselves, but we can provide a loving and a caring home; we can provide good counsel; and we can provide good communities in which to live. We can show through our own example that life in the United States is still very meaningful and very satisfying and very worthwhile.
Americans have always stood united and strong against all enemies. Drug abuse is an enemy we can control but there must be a personal and a national dedication and commitment to the goal.
If we try, we can be successful in the long run. I am convinced we can -- and that we will.
The White House,
April 27, 1976
Return to the Selected Gerald R. Ford Presidential Speeches Page
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URL: http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/760368.htm
Last Updated: March 29, 2002


text:
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< Basic Variables | Variables | Edit Variables >
The following actions are available only if you set
(see Custom Markup Using the Markup() function for custom wiki syntax; migration to PHP 5.5 ).
To see more than what
?action=ruleset gives you, apply the Cookbook:MarkupRulesetDebugging recipe: it can also show the pattern and the replacement strings.
See also:
Is it possible for someone with admin privileges to always have access to debugging tools, without letting everyone else access them?
You can easily & automatically allow debugging for anyone with admin privileges (meanwhile leaving it off for everyone else) by including this line in
< Basic Variables | Variables | Edit Variables >
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text:
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