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Forest plot for the 56 human observational studies assessing the relationship between 5-HTTLPR, stress, and depression. The boxes indicate the 1-tailed P value for each study, with lower values corresponding to greater stress sensitivity of s allele carriers and higher values, greater stress sensitivity of l allele carriers. The size of the box indicates the relative sample size. The triangle indicates the overall result of our meta-analysis. Purple indicates that the study was included only in the Munafò et al meta-analysis3; cyan, only in the Risch et al meta-analysis4; blue, both in the Munafò et al and the Risch et al meta-analyses; black, both in the Munafò et al and the Risch et al meta-analyses but the validity is questionable. *Participants were selected according to extremes of high and low neuroticism scores.74 Because there is a strong positive correlation between depression and neuroticism, a large portion of variance in depression in such a sample will be explained by neuroticism alone.86 The absence of individuals with intermediate neuroticism scores, for which the gene × environment effect may be strongest, might obscure any gene × environment interaction effect.
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Karg K, Burmeister M, Shedden K, Sen S. The Serotonin Transporter Promoter Variant (5-HTTLPR), Stress, and Depression Meta-analysis Revisited: Evidence of Genetic Moderation. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011;68(5):444–454. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.189
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The principal function of the serotonin transporter is to remove serotonin from the synapse, returning it to the presynaptic neuron where the neurotransmitter can be degraded or rereleased at a later time. A polymorphism in the promoter region of theserotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) has been found to affect the transcription rate of the gene, with the short (s) allele transcriptionally less efficient than the alternate long (l) allele. In 2003, Caspi and colleagues1 used a prospective, longitudinal design to examine the relationship between 5-HTTLPR, stress, and depression in a large birth cohort and found a significant interaction between 5-HTTLPR and both stressful life events (SLEs) and childhood maltreatment in the development of depression. In this cohort, subjects carrying the less functional 5-HTTLPR s allele reported greater sensitivity to stress.
The Caspi et al study has been cited more than 2000 times in the scientific literature and generated a great deal of excitement around the potential of gene × environment interaction studies.2 To date, there have been 55 follow-up studies exploring whether 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between stress and depression, with some studies supporting the association between the 5-HTTLPR s allele and greater stress sensitivity and others not. Two recent meta-analyses have assessed a subset of these studies and concluded that there is no evidence supporting the presence of the interaction.3,4
Since their publication, these meta-analyses have generated substantial debate and intense criticism. Some of the discussion has revived the long-standing debate about whether exploring epidemiological interaction effects, in general, will produce worthwhile results.5,6 The criticism specific to this genetic association, however, has largely revolved around the fact that only a subset of the studies investigating the relationship between 5-HTTLPR, stress, and depression were included in the meta-analyses.7-12 In fact, while 56 primary data studies have assessed whether 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between stress and depression, the Munafò et al3 and Risch et al4 meta-analyses included only 5 and 14 of those studies, respectively.13-51 Further, Uher and McGuffin11 have demonstrated that the larger Risch et al meta-analysis included a significantly greater proportion of negative replication studies than positive replication studies.
There are multiple reasons that the studies included in the meta-analyses were limited. First, the primary study data needed for traditional meta-analysis were often not available, either in the original publications or in follow-up e-mail inquiries to study authors. For instance, Munafò and colleagues reported that 15 studies met criteria for inclusion in their meta-analysis. However, they were only able to obtain the primary study data needed for inclusion for 5 of those studies. There is no evidence that the studies that were able to be included in the meta-analyses were of higher "quality" than those not included.
A second reason why many studies were not included in the Risch et al and Munafò et al meta-analyses is that both meta-analyses focused exclusively on studies that explored an interaction between 5-HTTLPR and SLEs in the development of depression. The original Caspi et al article, however, not only reported an interaction between 5-HTTLPR and SLEs, but also an interaction between 5-HTTLPR and childhood maltreatment stress. Nine studies have attempted to replicate this interaction with childhood maltreatment, but these studies were not included in the meta-analyses.
Some observers have noted that the SLE study design may have limited power to detect genetic moderation effects because they are susceptible to a set of potential biases: (1) impaired recall of stressors by subjects, (2) highly variable stressors between subjects, and (3) the reduced statistical power inherent to tests of statistical interaction.10,48 A newer class of studies has attempted to bypass these potential problems by focusing on specific populations that have experienced a substantial, specific stressor. Eighteen studies have used such a specific stressor design to assess whether 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between stress and depression, but like the childhood maltreatment studies, these studies were excluded from the previous meta-analysis.
In this investigation, rather than focus on a specific class of studies, we sought to perform a meta-analysis on the entire body of work assessing the relationship between 5-HTTLPR, stress, and depression. Unfortunately, the different classes of studies generally used different study designs to explore this question, rendering it very difficult to combine the studies into a single traditional meta-analysis. An approach useful in situations where equivalent raw data are not available across all studies is to combine the studies at the level of significance tests.52 The Liptak-Stouffer z score method is a well-validated method for combining P values across studies and has been used widely across genomics and biostatistics.53-59 Herein, we use the Liptak-Stouffer z score method to combine the results from studies investigating whether the 5-HTTLPR variant moderates the relationship between stress and depression.
Potential studies were identified from previous meta-analyses and review articles and through PubMed at the National Library of Medicine, using the search terms depression or depressed and "serotonin transporter" or 5-HTTLPR and stress or maltreatment.3,4,10 We subsequently checked the reference sections of the identified publications and contacted authors through e-mail to identify additional studies in press or review. We considered all English-language studies published by November 2009 assessing whether 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between stress and depression. Two studies were excluded because their data were part of another larger study included in the analysis.12,60 In total, data from 54 publications met inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis.
To identify study design characteristics that might influence the ability to detect the interaction effect between 5-HTTLPR and life stress, we used 2 different grouping methods set out in a recent review article10 and assessed the presence of the association within each group. First, we stratified studies by the type of stressor studied (childhood maltreatment, specific medical conditions, and SLEs). When publications reported results for multiple types of stressors that matched different groups, we included the study in each relevant group.1,49,61-64 Second, we stratified studies by the method of stress assessment (objective, interview, and self-report questionnaire).
We evaluated the methodological quality of the included studies by applying an 11-item quality checklist, derived from the STREGA (Strengthening the Reporting of Genetic Association Studies) and STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) checklists.65,66 Specifically, the quality criteria were (1) clear statement of objectives and hypothesis, (2) clear eligibility criteria for study participants, (3) clear definition of all variables, (4) replicability of statistical methods, (5) assessment of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, (6) assessment of ethnicity, (7) addressing the problem of mixed ethnicities statistically (if applicable), (8) sufficient descriptive data (age, sex, ethnicity), (9) statement of genotype frequencies, (10) sample in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and (11) consideration of population stratification.
Consistent with current guidelines, we did not weigh studies by quality scores or exclude studies with low-quality studies. Instead, we report the quality data extracted, so that they are available for readers to evaluate (eTable).67,68 Further, to assess whether our results were influenced by studies rated as lower quality through this measure, we repeated our overall meta-analysis with only studies with a quality score higher than the median.69
Two investigators (K.K. and S.S.) independently extracted the relevant P value from each study. There were no cases of disagreement between the 2 investigators. When several P values were provided (because of the use of several depression scales or separate P values for different subsets of samples), we used a weighted mean P value for our analyses. For studies with nonsignificant results that did not provide exact probabilities, a P value of 1 (no association in either direction) was assumed. When an article reported analyses that matched different groups of our study, we incorporated the mean of the P value of each group into the overall analysis.
The Liptak-Stouffer z score method was used to combine studies at the level of significance tests, weighted by study sample size. First, all extracted P values were converted to 1-tailed P values, with P values less than .50 corresponding to greater s allele stress sensitivity and P values more than .50 corresponding to greater l allele stress sensitivity.
Next, these P values were converted to z scores using a standard normal curve such that P values less than .50 were assigned positive z scores and P values more than .50 were assigned negative z scores. Subsequently, these z scores were combined by calculating
where the weighting factor wi corresponds to the individual study sample sizes, k corresponds to the number of total studies, and zi corresponds to the individual study z scores. The outcome of this test, zw, follows a standard normal distribution and the corresponding probability can be obtained from a standard normal distribution table. We used this procedure on the overall sample as well as on each of the individual study subgroups. To assess whether our results were substantially influenced by the presence of any individual study, we conducted a sensitivity analysis by systematically removing each study and recalculating the significance of the result. Further, to compare our method of combining studies at the significance test level with the method of combining studies at the raw data level used in the previous meta-analyses, we performed an analysis with only the studies included in the previous meta-analyses.3,4
To assess the possibility that results of the meta-analysis were affected by publication bias, we calculated the fail-safe N for our overall analysis, the number of unpublished studies that would have to exist to change the outcome of the Liptak-Stouffer test from significant to nonsignificant. Because the commonly used analytic approximation70 method of calculating the fail-safe N has been criticized for inadequate reliability and accuracy, we used a more rigorous, direct computational approach.71 Specifically, we calculated the number of studies with a P value equal to .50 and a sample size of 755 (the average sample size in the studies we analyzed) that we would need to incorporate into the weighted Liptak-Stouffer analysis to obtain a nonsignificant outcome. The ratio between the fail-safe N and the number of studies actually published estimates the potential for publication bias to influence our results. We also considered the effect of false-positive findings due to small sample size by calculating the number of smallest studies that could be deleted before the analysis would reveal a nonsignificant result.
Our initial search identified 148 publications. Of these studies, we identified 54 studies that included 40 749 subjects meeting criteria for inclusion (Table 1). We found strong evidence that 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between stress and depression, with the s allele associated with an increased risk of developing depression under stress (P = .00002) (Figure). The significance of the result was robust to sensitivity analysis, with the overall P values remaining significant when each study was individually removed from the analysis (1.0 × 10−6 < P < .00016). When we restricted our analysis to those studies with a study "quality" score higher than the median, the P value remained significant (3.2 × 10−10). Further, there was evidence for genetic moderation among both the group of studies that used categorical measures of depression (P = .03; n = 17) and the group of studies that used continuous measures of depression (P = .001; n = 23).
When stratifying our analysis by the type of stressor studied, we found strong evidence for an association between the s allele and increased stress sensitivity in the childhood maltreatment group (P = .00007) and the specific medical condition group (P = .0004) and marginal evidence for an association in the SLEs group (P = .03) (Tables 2, 3, and 4, respectively). The removal of individual studies did not lead to changes in the significance of the outcome in studies of childhood maltreatment (7.4 × 10−6 < P < .00014) or specific medical conditions (.00017 < P < .0068). However, the result among studies of SLEs became nonsignificant after the exclusion of any 1 of several studies1,35,38,40,76 (.013 < P < .062).
When stratifying our analysis by the stress assessment method, we found strong evidence for an association between the s allele and increased stress sensitivity among the objective measure group (P = .000003) and the interview assessment group (P = .0002) and marginal evidence in the self-report questionnaire group (P = .042). The removal of individual studies did not lead to changes in the significance of the outcome in studies assessing stress with objective measures (8.7 × 10−7 < P < .000029) or with interview assessments (4.0 × 10−6 < P < .0014). However, the result among studies assessing stress with self-report questionnaires became nonsignificant after the exclusion of several studies23,25,35,38,40,73,76 (.018 < P < .093).
When we restricted our analysis to the studies included in the 2 previous meta-analyses, we found no evidence of an association between 5-HTTLPR and stress sensitivity (Munafò et al studies, P = .16; Risch et al studies, P = .11).
To make the result of our overall analysis nonsignificant (P = .05), more than 729 unpublished or undiscovered studies with an average sample size (N = 755) and a nonsignificant result (P = .50) would need to exist. This corresponds to a fail-safe ratio of 14 studies not included in this meta-analysis for every included study. Additionally, we found that 45 of the 54 studies with the smallest sample sizes could be deleted before the outcome of the analysis would change to nonsignificant.
We found strong evidence that a serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) moderates the relationship between stress and depression, with the less functional s allele associated with increased stress sensitivity. This quantitative meta-analytic result is consistent with recent qualitative reviews on the same set of studies.10,11 In addition, our results are consistent with a wide range of experimental neuroscience studies that have found increased stress reactivity among 5-HTTLPR s allele carriers.87-89 Evidence from animal studies also supports that functional variation in the serotonin transporter (SERT) gene affects behavioral response to stress. Serotonin transporter knockout mice show increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation in response to both physical and psychological stressors.90,91 Developmentally, SERT knockout mice show impaired cortex-layer 4-barrel pattern formation and altered levels of a broad range of serotonin receptor subtypes, providing potential mechanisms through which SERT function may be affecting behavior.92-94 Further, naturally occurring, low-functioning SERT gene variants in mice and nonhuman primates are associated with changes in central nervous system biochemistry as well as with behaviors linked to stress sensitivity.95,96
While our findings are consistent with this broad set of experimental neuroscience and animal studies, our findings are inconsistent with 2 other meta-analyses that have explored this association. The 2 most likely causes of the conflicting results between our meta-analysis and the previous meta-analyses are (1) the difference in meta-analytic technique used and (2) the different sets of included studies. To distinguish between these 2 possible causes, we applied our meta-analytic technique to the sets of studies used in the previous meta-analyses.4 With these limited sets of studies, our meta-analytic technique produced the same nonsignificant result as the previous meta-analyses, suggesting that the difference in results between
meta-analyses was due to the different set of included studies rather than the different meta-analytic technique.
The results of our secondary meta-analysis, where we stratified studies by stressor type, also support the hypothesis that the difference in results between our meta-analysis and the previous meta-analyses is due to the difference in the primary studies included. Both previous meta-analyses focused exclusively on SLEs and reported no evidence that 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between SLEs and depression. Herein, we were able to include 11 additional SLE studies not included in previous meta-analyses but still found only marginal evidence that 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between SLEs and depression.6 In contrast, we found robust evidence that 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between both childhood maltreatment and specific stressors and depression.
One important variable that may help to account for the different results in the different stressor groups is the variability between studies within each group.86 Within
the childhood maltreatment and specific stressors groups, the designs of the primary studies were generally similar. In contrast, there is marked variation in study design between SLE studies. Some studies asked subjects about SLEs and depressive episodes that occurred decades earlier while others assessed SLEs and depressive episodes soon after they occurred.33,75 Further, SLE studies vary substantially in what they consider a life event. Another potential reason for the difference in stressor subgroup results is the nature of the stressors studied. Most of the specific stressor studies focused on chronic stressors while the SLE studies focused on acute SLEs. Interestingly, 3 studies have explicitly looked at both acute and chronic stressors in their cohorts and all 3 have found that the evidence for moderating effects was stronger for chronic stressors.13,19,48
In addition to the type of stressor studied, the stress assessment method used by investigators emerged as an important variable in our analysis. In particular, we found that the evidence of genetic moderation was stronger among studies that used objective measures or in-person interviews to assess stress than among studies that used self-report questionnaires.
There are limitations to our study, most of which follow from the meta-analytic technique that we used. Because we combined studies at the level of P values, errors or bias present in the statistical tests performed in the primary studies could potentially affect the results of this meta-analysis. We guarded against finding false-positive results due to this potential bias by using an average of reported P values when authors performed separate tests on different sample subgroups or multiple depression measures. Further, when authors performed multiple tests but only reported the significance results for a subset of these tests, we assumed that P = 1 for the unreported tests. The fact that we found a nonsignificant result when we applied our meta-analytic technique to the set of studies included in a previous nonsignificant meta-analysis suggests that statistical bias from primary studies did not unduly affect our results. Another drawback of using this meta-analytic method is that we were unable to estimate the magnitude of the genetic effect and, in particular, how the interaction effect size compares with any genetic main effect.17
Against this background, the present study suggests that there is cumulative and replicable evidence that 5-HTTLPR moderates the relationship between stress and depression. Our findings, particularly the identification of important study characteristics that influence study outcome (stressor type and stress assessment method), can provide guidance for the design of future gene × environment interaction studies. While there is certainly variation between study results, there is hope that a new generation of studies purpose-built for testing this specific hypothesis will improve replicability and shed light on sources of inconsistency. In the meantime, the results of our inclusive analysis of studies in this controversial area underscore the importance of including all relevant studies in meta-analyses and highlight the utility of incorporating environmental exposures in genetic association studies.
Correspondence: Srijan Sen, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 5047 BSRB, 109 Zina Pitcher Place, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (firstname.lastname@example.com).
Submitted for Publication: April 7, 2010; final revision received October 22, 2010; accepted November 1, 2010.
Published Online: January 3, 2011. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.189
Author Contributions: Dr Sen and Ms Karg had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Financial Disclosure: None reported.
Funding/Support: This work was supported by National Institutes of Health KL2 grant number UL1RR024986 and the University of Michigan Depression Center.
Role of the Sponsor: The funding agencies played no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
Additional Contributions: We thank Brady West, MA, Center for Statistical Consultation and Research, University of Michigan, and Randy Blakely, PhD, Center for Molecular Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, for helpful consultation.


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The Drag Safari - Dawn Of The Drags!
In 1954, Hot Rod Editor Wally Parks Sent Four Men On The Road To Train The Nation How To Run A Drag Race. They Were Called The Drag Safari, And This Is Their Story
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"Here's the thing I remember most of all." Bud Evans was doing what he does best: talking. It's no wonder he was elected to be the race announcer all those years ago. He definitely has the gift. Listening to Evans spin his yarn, I feel like the luckiest automotive writer in the business. All those buff-book guys can have their European trips to test Porsches and junk. I am sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by living legends-and I'm loving every second of it.
On my left is Bud Coons, former sergeant in the Pomona Police Department, and in 1954, the field director of the National Hot Rod Association. He was the crewchief for the NHRA's Drag Safaris from 1954 to 1956. Five decades later, he easily falls back into that role, leading the group in this informal oral history.
On my right is Wally Parks, the founder of the NHRA (while also the editor of this magazine), whose idea it was to send the Safari on the road to preach the gospel of quarter-mile speed and safety.
Across from me is Evans, an "old, old lakes racer" and former announcer at the Colton, California, dragstrip. He claims he went on the Safaris for the free meals.
Next to Evans is long-time HOT ROD lensman Eric "Rick" Rickman, who chronicled the Safari adventures in the magazine through the lens of his military-surplus Speed Graphic and twin-lens Rolleiflex. It was Rickman, not Evans, who got the great food on Safari, since he was the only one with a Petersen Publishing expense account. The then-new NHRA had to be a lot more careful with its bucks.
The other original member of the Drag Safari, Chic Cannon, couldn't be with us for this interview. He is an inveterate RV'er and was motoring his way around Oregon when we gathered the rest of the group at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. I'd catch up with him a week or so later via cell phone.
Evans describes the routine: "We pull into town. The local car club knows we're coming. They know who we are. We go to a Socony Mobil filling station, and while we're there, cars start stopping. And we're sitting in the wagon waiting to fuel up, and all of a sudden there are six or eight cars there." He had to explain to the guy at the station what was going on. "You see," says Evans, "those people really hadn't seen a drag race before."
It's a hard concept to get your mind around-a world without drag racing. Yet that's exactly why Parks sent this crew on the road. "The NHRA started with the formation of car clubs," Parks explained. "We in Southern California were lucky. We had the dry lakes and Bonneville to run on. We heard of other clubs forming in other parts of the country, and we wanted to instruct them on how to run a meet safely. To insist on safety."
So Coons sold his Studebaker and bought a '54 Dodge two-door station wagon. To it they hitched a travel trailer that held everything they needed to stage a "first-class Regional Championship Drag Meet," as Rickman wrote in his first Safari article: early Chrondek timing equipment, a P.A. system, field telephones, a one-cylinder generator, and miles of stainless-steel wire to bring all the electronic equipment to life. The Safari had but one sponsor-Mobil Oil-which graciously supplied the fuel for the wagon.
In 1954, the Drag Safari made 10 stops on its inaugural coast-to-coast journey. On that first trip, Coons, Cannon, and Rickman were the only Safari members to make the entire loop. Other racers and NHRA members would join them in different cities, stay with the Safari a week or two, and then head home. Parks, too, would meet up with the Safari at certain venues. "I just joined them, didn't travel with them," says Parks. Was that because of your NHRA and magazine editing duties? I asked. "No, we just couldn't afford an extra guy!"
Fortunes improved for the Safari in 1955. Evans joined the group as the fourth permanent traveling member, and Coons' personal two-door wagon was replaced by a four-door '55 Plymouth wagon. That was also the longest Safari of the three, with 17 races in as many cities and towns. In 1956, the Safari caravan grew to include a Plymouth Fury in addition to the wagon and trailer, and the Safari staff was up to six, though the number of races it visited dropped to nine.
Race WeekendTraveling around the country on Safari was "rigorous," admitted Cannon. But for a bunch of 20-year-old guys it wasn't bad.
"We were all single, which helped," he says. "Having a married man in the group just wouldn't work out. There were a few who would join us, but they would leave because they didn't want to be away from their family and be on the road all that time." The shorter Safaris would go for six to eight weeks; the '55 tour stretched to 18.
Typically the Safari crew would roll into town on a Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how far away the previous race had been. The first order of business was to meet with the local city officials and law enforcement agencies to explain the NHRA's program and answer any questions the local agencies might have. Parks told us their Mobil sponsors were instrumental in setting up those meetings, "so we were accepted far more easily. We went to quite a few places where the police departments were instrumental in getting the premises where we would run the race." Coons' status as a former police officer helped lend credibility to the Safari's efforts. Coons also served as the Safari's PR man, often doing radio or even television interviews with local media. "We did everything we could to get publicity," he says.
The next task was to meet with the local car club that was going to help put on the meet. "Really, all the manpower came from the clubs," Coons explained. The Safari crew would walk club members through the steps of setting up and running a drag race and then assign each club member a job, from stringing wire for the timing lights to weighing the cars (on borrowed scales the first year), to writing car numbers and classes on the doors.
One of the club's jobs was to round up an ambulance for the event. Sometimes it was an actual ambulance, sometimes it was a station wagon with the seats folded down and a bunch of blankets inside. The race couldn't go on without one, a fact Rickman experienced firsthand at one meet. He lost his footing trying to shoot from the timing tower and tumbled off the two-story structure, breaking his wrist. Even though he had an obvious compound fracture, the other Safari team members didn't want to use the ambulance to take him to the hospital, as it would halt the event. Rick endured the pain through an hour and a half of racing before he got his ride to the emergency room.
The day before an event, Safari members would go out to the race site with the club and start preparations: hanging signs, setting up fences, building the tower, and so on. Early on race morning, Coons and his crew would string all the wire for the timing equipment and PA system.
Cannon, whose background was in engineering and car building, was in charge of registration and tech inspection. "I'd oversee the inspection and train the club guys so we could standardize the classes throughout the country," he says. "Back then there were no standardized classes. Our classes, which were based on body style and a ratio of cubic inches to weight, were close to what the SCTA had been using. But Pappy [Hart] in Santa Ana would have different classes, and so would other tracks. It was Wally's idea to standardize the classes so you could have standardized, nationwide events."
When Evans joined the team, he would often join Cannon at registration to update his index cards. He had worked out a system in which he'd write down pertinent information about a race car-where it was from, how fast it was at the last meet, and so on-on cards to help him provide color from the tower.
"Kids followed us around from meet to meet," explained Coons. "We'd see guys 700, 800, even 900 miles away at the next meet."
Once the timing equipment was set up, Coons or Rickman would drive a car down the track to test the system. According to Coons, "If it timed, we'd call start." The race went on for two days. "And then we'd be abandoned. We had to go back and roll all that damn wire up, and it would be dark by the time we got out of there."
"I remember I told Bud that he was never going to have to worry about food out there," says Parks, "because these clubs were going to be so happy to see you that they were going to feed you and treat you well-but nobody did!"
The Tale of the TapeOnce the track equipment was put away, Coons says the Safari crew took time to debrief. "We'd run the meet again over cold drinks-"
"Beer," interjects Evans.
"-And try to solve the problems that we had. And believe me, there were problems."
The group would describe the meet in detail into a reel-to-reel tape recorder. That tape, and Rickman's film, would then be shipped back to Parks in Los Angeles. Because the NHRA could only afford two reels of tape, Parks would have to relay one reel back to the Safari while he was transcribing the other, using the recorded information to help him write the story about the race and identify the cars in Rick's photos. It also gave him invaluable information about how the NHRA's rules and policies were working out.
"These guys were the eyes and ears of what we were trying to portray out to the troops in the field," Parks says. He would sift through the information from the meet and from what Cannon uncovered through tech inspections to look for potential problems that could be dealt with through new NHRA regulations. "It wasn't hard to find fault because it was all new," says Parks. Once new regulations were drawn, they'd be printed in HOT ROD and in the NHRA's newsletter. "Back then we didn't have the long-lead deadlines that you do now, so we could get the information printed and out in the field quickly."
Sometimes not quickly enough. "Because guys were blowing their engines and stuff was coming back at them, we came up with a hood requirement while we were on the road," says Coons. "Well, it got in the magazine just before we got to the race in [Linden] New Jersey. So when we started doing inspections there were no hoods, and guys were turned down because there were no hoods. Well, Chic was the inspector, and he told them, 'Go find a sign or something.' Pretty soon every beer sign and Coca Cola sign for 5 miles from that track was fit on the top of those things."
Racers are nothing if not creative, both in the ways they meet regulations and how they try to get around them. Coons remembers one such regulation that came down after a meet in Redding, California, in 1955. There, a racer flipped his car and narrowly avoided serious injury. He was especially lucky since the Safari crew learned after the accident that "he had constructed that thing out of exhaust pipe. Including the rollbar."
So a new rule was handed down that called for a hole to be drilled into the rollbar so tech inspectors could measure its thickness. But soon after, some racers figured out how to snake a washer up through that hole, "hit it with a torch, and the washer'd be fixed to the inside of the tubing," says Evans, picking up the story. "So when we mic'd it, it was legal stuff."
Being in the tower above the action, Evans could spot potential trouble before those on the ground could. "I was seeing stuff up there that you wouldn't believe," Evans says. "I couldn't tell what was happening in the pits or what was happening in the line getting ready to come up, but boy, when they ran, if they weren't straight arrow I was screaming bloody murder. Because as the meet progresses and they go faster and faster-dump the can to it, you know-if he's not good in the beginning, he's going to be worse as he gets going." That's how the association came up with a 22-degree caster spec for the front wheels. "Twenty-two degrees was unheard of," Coons says, "because you couldn't back the car up. But at least when it was going down the strip it would be straight."
"Strip" in this case was a very subjective term. Back in the early '50s there were very few dedicated drag-race tracks, especially in the Midwestern and eastern cities visited by the Safari. Typically the races would be run on abandoned or unused airstrips. But not always. The dirt-road track in Pennellville, New York, turned into a mud hole thanks to hurricane-driven rain, but it dried enough to run the meet.
And then there was the meet in Livonia, Michigan, near Detroit. "GM had just built a brand-new transmission plant, and they allowed us to use its service road," says Coons. Added Parks, "But it was paved for a quarter mile, and then it ran off into the dirt." This wasn't too much of an issue for most of the racers, except one-a guy named Art Arfons. "The Green Monster showed up, and that thing burned rubber clear off the pavement," remembered Coons, laughing. "It ended up with the dust and dirt flying up at the other end."
The CarsSafari members didn't see many purpose-built drag cars in the first year or so of their travels. "But in the end we saw more and more and more," says Evans.
"We could always tell when we were in an area where guys had been discharged out of the service and were old hot rodders from California," Coons recalled. "God, we ran into some wild machines, really wild. Then we'd get to another town that would be mostly stockers, some dual manifolds, street roadsters, very few injected jobs or stripped chassis, stuff like that."
Chic Cannon agrees. The fastest cars usually belonged to "an ex-Californian, or a sharp easterner, someone who was a gear-head from year one. Or they belonged to guys who read HOT ROD and dreamed of being in California."
Even though the Safari members watched literally thousands of cars go down those makeshift strips, a few stood out in their memories. Recalled Evans, "There was this kid from Pennsylvania with a black A/Altered coupe. I looked back through the timing sheets and saw he won at one meet at 98 mph, at the next event he turned 114, next event he was just a few mph faster than his competition. Bud said, 'I don't know where this guy gets all his speed.' I went over and looked in the back of his pickup truck, and under this canvas he had all these 1-gallon cans. About 30 1-gallon cans with different things written on them. I asked him, 'Where does your dad work?' Turns out he worked for Socony-Mobil. He's the one who invented our fuel tester. And so for the kid, speed was nothing; 90 mph, 120 mph, 112 mph-he just won every time.He didn't want to go too fast, he just wanted to win."
And then there was a '34 Ford coupe that Evans watched in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, "that just blew everybody away.I thought, it can't be a stocker. I think he's got another engine in the back. It's all silver back there. So when he came back into the pits, I got down from the stand and went over to look at it. In the back of that thing, coming out from underneath the '34 trunk, is a tank, straight down behind the seats, all heliarc-welded stainless steel. I asked him what he had in the tank. 'Nothing, now,' he said. I asked what it was for. He says 'It's for white lightning. I run white lightning.' And I thought, Jesus, he's telling everybody that's a stock engine?"
The Safari Comes to an End-or Does It?The 1956 Safety Safari was the last of the original coast-to-coast instructional trips. I asked Parks if the Safaris stopped because the NHRA felt its work was finished. Not at all, he replied. Drag racing was getting a real foothold in the country, but at the same time so were concerns, ironically, about its safety. Mobil stopped supporting the Safari after 1956 because certain corporate heads were worried about the company's affiliation with such a potentially dangerous sport.
And yet, statistics compiled at the time painted a completely different picture. According to a report published by the NHRA before the start of the 1956 Safari, drag racing had achieved "...a mark of distinction for safety that is without parallel among mass participation sports." In a spot-check of 434 drag events sanctioned by the NHRA in 1955, more than 35,000 cars and 2,700 motorcycles had competed, watched by more than a half-million spectators. Given that level of participation, "there were less than six claims for property damage and fewer than that many claims for participant injuries, none of these being of major nature," says the report.
The statistical record of the NHRA's continued emphasis on safety is one way to measure the successful groundwork laid by the original Safety Safaris. On a more personal level, Chic Cannon told us this story:
When Cannon went back to the Indy Nationals during the NHRA's 50th anniversary year, Don Garlits made a point of seeking him out and thanking him for not letting his car pass tech in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1955. Apparently the rollbar in Big Daddy's roadster wasn't up to spec, and Cannon refused him entry. He also then spent some time explaining to the young racer how to build it properly. Garlits took his car back to Ocala, nearly 100 miles away, refabbed the bar, and was back for Sunday's event. "I remembered him as just a guy in a roadster," Cannon says. But Garlits knew the value of what Cannon had taught him that day.
Today's SafariThe Safety Safari name resurfaced in the NHRA in the '70s when, according to former NHRA Competition Director Steve Gibbs, a consistent source of emergency equipment and staff to operate it became crucial.
"Until then we got the stuff locally, and it worked OK with just the handful of national events we had," Gibbs explained. "But it became evident that we had to take our own stuff around. You've got to have the tools to do the job." So in a move reminiscent of the original Safari, Gibbs got a Dodge pickup and a travel trailer and filled it with tools. The first piece of equipment was one of the then-new Jaws of Life rescue tools, donated by Hurst's Dick Otte.
"That trailer was immediately overloaded," recalled Gibbs. "We tried to use it as an office and transportation. But we kept getting more and more stuff-extinguishers, firesuits, and such. The Safety Safari has grown ever since, from one truck and trailer to a couple of GMC pickups and a bigger trailer, to the 18-wheeler and all the trucks and trailers we have now."
Gibbs' initial goal for the Safari was quick response in case of an accident, but the Safari's role also grew into track preparation and maintenance, and now emergency services is a separate division.
There is definite value in having a core group of Safari workers, Gibbs says. "It can be really comforting to the drivers to see a familiar face and to know the guy will take care of it the right way. If you get upside down, and you know that the guy taking you out will be the same guy, that improves your confidence level."
One of those familiar faces was original Safety Safari member Chic Cannon, who came back in the mid '80s after a successful career in irrigation. "I wanted to get back to my first love-hot rodding-so I got back in touch with Wally and told him I wanted back on the Safety Safari." Cannon worked on the team "as a dragstrip janitor, mostly" until 1996.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–April 19, 2012 – 2:27 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Have a seat. Have a seat. It is my pleasure to welcome the Alabama Crimson Tide back to the White House — (applause) — and congratulate them on winning their 14th National Championship — their second in three years. Roll Tide. (Applause.)
I told Coach he's making this a habit. (Laughter.) I'm also happy to see the best team in D.C. high school football in the house. (Applause.) Congratulations to the other Crimson Tide — Dunbar High School — on their city championship. (Applause.) Might have some recruits out here, Coach.
Now, we've got a lot of proud 'Bama fans here today. It is good to see Mayor Maddox of Tuscaloosa again. Mayor Bell of Birmingham is here, as well as members of Congress, including several Alabama alums. I also want to recognize Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore and Interim University President Dr. Judy Bonner for their support of the best team in college football. (Applause.)
Now, obviously this is a team that knows something about adversity. It was one year ago next week that an F4 tornado carved a path right through the town of Tuscaloosa. I traveled down there two days later to see the devastation with the Mayor and the Governor. And I've got to tell you, I'd never seen anything like it.
And I remember something the Mayor said that day. He said that when something like that happens, folks tend to forget all their petty differences. Things like politics, religion, race -– when we're confronted with a tragedy of such magnitude, all that just fades away. We're reminded that all we have is each other. And if you need proof of that, just look how the Auburn community stepped up during that time of need.
The storm took the lives of 248 people, including six students. And it touched this team personally. Long snapper Carson Tinker's girlfriend lost her life in the storm. And a few weeks later, there was fresh grief — for Aaron Douglas, an offensive lineman who passed away. So this became a team in every sense of the word. They remembered Aaron and those lost in the storm not just with their hearts, but on their helmets — with a houndstooth ribbon and the number 77.
And then they took to the field. They steamrolled opponent after opponent. They racked up an 8-0 record going into the rivalry game against LSU. Folks called it the "Game of the Century." The top two teams in the country — #1 versus #2; primetime national television. And it delivered. It was a defensive slugfest that wouldn't be settled until overtime. In the end, one team had to lose. And 'Bama gave up its only loss of the season.
Fortunately, they got a rematch. In the National Championship game, the Tide not only beat the Tigers; they shut them out — the first in BCS championship game history. (Applause.) LSU earned just five first downs, crossed the midfield line only once, and were held to less than 100 yards.
And it wasn't just the defense that played lights out. Kicker Jeremy Shelley nailed a bowl-record five field goals. Heisman Trophy finalist Trent Richardson rushed for the only touchdown of the game in his usual fashion — like a boulder rolling downhill. Offensive lineman Barrett Jones summed it up pretty well when he said, "We felt like we were capable of dominating, and we did that."
So this team didn't just shatter records. I hear the championship trophy also took a bit of a spill — (laughter) — earlier this week.
So this was a fun season to watch, but it was also a deeply meaningful season for the Tide. And what's even more impressive is that these young men showed that success isn't about the individual — it's about the ability to work as a team. That's why senior linebacker Courtney Upshaw handed his defensive MVP award to his teammates, saying the whole defense deserved it.
That's why Coach became the first to win three BCS national championships, but he gave credit to his players' hard work and persistence. They played as a team because of what they had endured as a team. And so each victory was about more than getting to the title game — it was about the lives of these players and coaches that they'd carried with them and what they meant to each other.
Each of them found different ways to honor these memories. Coach Saban started a program called "13 for 30" that aims to rebuild 13 houses for families who lost theirs in the tornado. Strength coach Scott Cochran pitched in with players almost every Saturday helping families recover and rebuild. Courtney Upshaw raised $20,000 in relief funds for the impacted families. And Barrett Jones lugged a chainsaw around Tuscaloosa to remove tornado debris from homes and yards. So the Tide showed us what it takes to win as a team, but they also showed what it means to be a part of a larger community: to look out for one another, to help. And that makes them pretty special.
So I just want to say to all these outstanding men and all the staff, Coach and the entire Crimson Tide community, congratulations on an extraordinary season, and best of luck next season. Who knows, I may see you again.
Thank you. (Applause.)
COACH SABAN: On behalf of the entire Crimson Tide Nation, we would like to make Mr. President Obama here a part of our team, for not only the support and opportunity that he's given our team to be here today and to congratulate and honor them, but also the support that you offered and your leadership offered our community in a very difficult time last year with the tragedy of our tornado.
It takes a lot of teamwork. It takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of perseverance, certainly a lot of positive energy and attitude to be successful, and a lot of people with a lot of discipline and responsibility to be accountable to do what they're supposed to do — probably some of the things that our country tries to do, as well.
And we just want our President to be a part of our team, and would like to present you — Barrett Jones will present you a game jersey.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, that's a nice-looking jersey right there. (Laughter and applause.)
COACH SABAN: From the 2011 national champs. (Applause.) We would also like to give you a helmet over here. We certainly don't want to be responsible for any head injuries that the President might have. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I was mentioning yesterday, I'm probably going to need a helmet between now and November. What do you think, Shelby? (Laughter.) Huh? All right.
COACH SABAN: Well, good. Well, we really —
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much.
COACH SABAN: We really appreciate the opportunity, and thank you for your time to honor our team. Thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: Coach, I appreciate you.
Source: whitehouse.gov


text:
On January 27, 1945 Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by soldiers of the First Ukrainian Front, the 322nd Rifle Division of the 60th Army, under the command of Marshal Ivan S. Konev. Soviet troops had been pushing westward in pursuit of the retreating Nazis in what was called the Vistula-Oder Offensive.
When the Soviets reached Auschwitz the Nazi Germans had already evacuated the camp. Tens of thousands of Jewish inmates were forced by their captors on a death march towards Loslau and Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia. Thousands of prisoners died along the way. Those who survived were deported to concentration camps in Germany and Austria. Only 7,500 Jewish inmates remained in Auschwitz, most of them children. Huge piles of cadavers were scattered everywhere - the remains of Jewish prisoners - men, women and children who had been murdered, or who perished of starvation and disease. These and the piles of human ashes and bone, remnants of the gas chambers were all testament to Hitler's Final Solution.
The vast network of Nazi concentration camps and death camps established throughout Europe were managed like efficient "killing factories". By the end of the war a total of about 6 million Jews had been killed by the Nazis.; half of them were Polish Jews and the remainder were Jews who had been deported from all parts of Europe - one million of them were children. Least known is the fact that Hitler also planned to eliminate ethnic Poles, and by the end of the war about 5 million Polish citizens had perished. Though many other peoples had been killed by the Nazis, the Jews and the Poles were the ones singled out for annihilation.
On November 1, 2005 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 60/7 designating January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The following is an excerpt:
Reaffirming that the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice,
1. Resolves that the United Nations will designate 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust;
2. Urges Member States to develop educational programmes that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide, and in this context commends the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research;
3. Rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part;
4. Commends those States which have actively engaged in preserving those sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labour camps and prisons during the Holocaust;
5. Condemns without reserve all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach on the subject of the "Holocaust and the United Nations" as well as measures to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide; to report to the General Assembly on the establishment of this programme within six months from the date of the adoption of the present resolution; and to report thereafter on the implementation of the programme at its sixty-third session.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is more than a day of commemoration and memorials. It serves as a perennial reminder to every nation and citizen thereof that we are
obligated under the principals of natural law to respect one another irregardless of nationality, race, color, or creed.
The following are only excerpts of speeches made on November 1, 2005 by a few of the selected members of delegations who attended the 42nd plenary meeting of the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly. They speak about the importance of observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the urgency of educating the world about the horrors of the past - so that they do not repeat in the future. These are not words to be taken lightly.
Speaker: Liu Zhongzin
(Spoke in Chinese)
"Allow me to express, on behalf of the Chinese Government and people, our profound condolences in connection with the 6 million Jewish and other victims of the Holocaust and our sincere sympathy to all the bereaved families and the survivors of the Holocaust.
"Sixty years ago, military aggressors also inflicted untold misery on Asia. Casualties in China alone reached 35 million, of which more than 300,000 died during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Like the Jewish people, the people of Asia will never forget that chapter in our history.
"Our purpose in emphasizing such an indelible memory is not to perpetuate hatred but to use history as a mirror and to look into the future. The bitter lessons of the Second World War and the tragedy of the Nazi camps have taught us that the basic values of freedom, democracy, equality, justice and peace cannot be denied.
Speaker: Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein
"Sixty years on, we live at a time when it is still difficult for the vast majority of Member States to examine their own national histories to their very limits, particularly their modern histories. And while we should continue to feel great pride in what good we find in them, we must also begin to reckon with what in our national memory is distasteful or perhaps even criminal or terrible. It is therefore extraordinary and encouraging how a few European States have started to follow the example set by Germany many years ago, in beginning a process of recovering memory and in beginning a painful and critical, although ultimately liberating self-examination where their part in the Holocaust is concerned.
"The concentration of evil found within the historical experience that is the Holocaust does, however, bring the point home for all peoples everywhere, Jewish and otherwise. And the principal lesson drawn by 100 members of the General Assembly is that if we are ever to make genocide and the like truly unthinkable in the future, not only must we squarely confront the philosophies of negation within our own socieities, where and whenever they occur, but, if we are to give true meaning to the phrase "Never again", we must also collectively support the existence of the world's only permanent judicial body designed to end impunity for the gravest of crimes - and that body is, of course, the International Criminal Court.......
Speaker: Mr. Skinner-Klée
(Spoke in Spanish)
"We are gathered here today in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust, innocent human beings who were the victims of ethnic and racial hatred and political and social intolerance. The Shoah is the greatest horror suffered by humanity in the twentieth century: the execrable extermination of more than a third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities who died unjustly and cruelly, murdered only because they were different, only because they were not understood or tolerated.
"Thus, the constructive and peaceful co-existence of peoples depends on mutual respect and mutual
understanding. Unless there is a genuine dialogue among nations and among civilizations, ignorance will persist and the human family will continue to be threatened or once again become its own victim.
"Guatemala knows only too well the horror caused by intolerance. Guatemalans have suffered in their own flesh the maelstrom of violence that afflicted our country merely because some people professed contrary views, held different beliefs or belonged to a different ethnic or social group.
Speaker: Mr. Shin Kak-Soo
"Let me begin by joining other delegations in expressing our deepest sympathy in connection with the millions of victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War who were murdered because of their ethnic origins, religious faith or political beliefs, and in condemning in the strongest possible terms the horrific, inhuman crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime.
"It goes without saying that such a horrendous tragedy should never be allowed to recur. To our dismay, however, we cannot deny that even today we are witnessing genocide and many crimes against humanity, from Srebrenica to Kigali to Darfur. Those recent acts of genocides and crimes against humanity, still fresh in our memory, compel the international community to redouble its efforts to put in place a reliable and effective security system that deters such heinous crimes and promotes mutual understanding and tolerance among people of all ethnicities, races, cultures and nations.
"As a country that suffered greatly from atrocities committed during the Second World War, the Republic of Korea has decided to become a sponser of the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance. We believe that proclaiming 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is a good way to ensure that the Holocaust's dreadful lessons are not forgotten. We cannot allow the memory of these crimes to fade with the passage of time.
"We also believe strongly that any attempt to deny the Holocaust as a historical reality, in full or in part, must be rejected. It takes courage to tell the truth about the past when that truth is painful or even shameful.
"....Facing up to the truth of history and learning its lessons is not a choice but an obligation. In this regard, we strongly support the draft resolution's recommendation to develop educational programmes that will teach the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations. It is the collective obligation of humanity to promote education and tolerance so that there will never again be a similar tragedy.
Speaker: Mr. Dapkiunas
(Spoke in Russian)
"The draft resolution to be adopted today is a testament to terrible grief and pain. For the people of my country, Belarus, such pain is not an alien experience; it is our pain as well. The flames of blind racial hatred and ethnic exclusion did not only claim countless victims in Belarus. The brutality of the Nazi regime and the incinerating flames of the Holocaust are seared into the soul of the people of Belarus.
"Why, 60 years after the end of the Second World War, are we still returning to this topic - not as a distant and tragic chapter of our history, but as a page in our collective life that has not yet been turned? Why do many millions of poeple throughout the world continue to experience the daily, direct and obvious threat and unbearable suffering that result from ideas of racial superiority and ethnic enmity?
" As long as we live in a world divided into "us and them", as long as we feel that the bitter lessons of history must be learned by others and not by us, as long as we do not do everything in our power to understand and welcome those who do not resemble us, the echoes of the Holocaust will continue to resound in our hearts.....
Speaker: Mr. Kuchinsky
"The Holocaust is a permanently painful subject not only for the Jewish people but for the world community as a whole. We remember the enormous suffering of those who perished in the death camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau and many other horrific sites, where, in the name of a perverse and inhuman ideology, millions of human beings were deliberately and cruelly exterminated. Jews and gypsies, men and women, children and the elderly - the sons and daughters of different nations, including hundreds of thousands from Ukraine, became the innocent victims of a ruthless political system that caused immense losses to humankind.
"Many thought that the horrors of the Second World War - the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations that took place during the Holocaust - could never happen again. And yet they have - in Cambodia, Srebrenica, Rwanda, and most recently, in Darfur.
"In that respect, we are deeply convinced that the history of the Holocaust must be learned and extensively explained so that a similar tragedy never happens again.
"As we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, Ukraine cannot but recall the terrible damage which intolerance, violence and aggression caused in the past.....one of the most tragic chapters in Ukraine's history, the Great Famine of 1932-33 - in Ukrainian, Holodomor, which means "death by famine". Deliberately aimed at the very core of the Ukrainian nation, the cruel campaign of terror by hunger carried out by the totalitarian Soviet regime led to the deaths of seven to 10 million innocent men, women and children.
"Ukraine will continue to do its utmost to bring the truth about Holodomor and the Holocaust to the world at large. We believe that it is high time that the international community recognized that crime as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation.
Speaker: Mr. Sardenberg
"The Jewish Holocaust is the paradigmatic case of genocide, a crime that until that time lacked a definition and did not allow for legal recourse. None of the Hague Conventions mentioned genocide, nor could the massacres that had taken place be properly judged or their perpetrators punished owing to the lack of a legal definition of genocide.
"Of particular historical resonance in our part of the world are the crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of the America during the colonial period and during the period when slavery was practised. It remains profoundly shocking to the conscience of mankind that those crimes could have reached such inconceivable proportions.
"The fight against the crime of genocide will only be complete when Member States adhere to and implement human rights instruments in both the domestic and the international spheres.
Speaker: Mr. Mayoral
(Spoke in Spanish)
"Collective remembrance is indispenable in world overwhelmed by the need to solve new problems and at a time when young people may think that the Holocaust was an event of history that occurred under specific political circumstances and for reasons that no longer exist. They are wrong. Faced with that possible reaction, we must realize that no country in the world can consider itself immune from a future wave of violence fuelled by intolerance, economics, religious fundamentalism, political intolerance or racial conflict, or even a combination of any of them.
"We are in a crucial moment of history when we are all called upon to make further efforts of generosity in order to face up to new challenges and threats to a future of peace based upon the respect for all persons and peoples. My country believes that task must be carried out within the collective framework of the United Nations. If we want to avoid repeating the cycle of history and avoid another Holocaust and genocide such as occurred in the last century, we must keep alive the memory of what happened, by giving the United Nations powerful tools to effectively protect human rights in all circumstances and at all times.
Speaker: Mr. Pfanzelter
"For Austria, this day is a reminder of the dark sides of our past. We feel the agony of knowing that our country lost so many of its Jewish citizens to the Holocaust. At the same time we feel the pain of realizing that far too many Austrians took part in the genocide, a crime of colossal proportions.
"Simon Wisenthal, who passed away a few weeks ago, helped us to come to terms with our past when he said, "For your benefit, learn from our tragedy". He showed us that education and information are powerful tools for preventing the tragic repetition of history.
"Today, we should all remember Simon Wiesenthal's speech to the General Assembly 10 years ago (see A/50/PV.66). He called upon the international community to warn younger generations against prejudices, especially the prejudice of racial hatred, which has led to immeasurable human suffering. Austria is conscious of its responsibility and is taking a broad spectrum of measures to fight anti-Semitism, xenophobia and other forms racism and intolerance at all levels.
"We have successfully initiated national programmes aimed at teaching our young people about the lessons of history. The young generation, representing our future, must be taught that no country and no society can achieve any degree of progress or development without respect for human rights and the dignity of each human being. That is the lesson that the memory of Auschwitz hands down from generation to generation.
Speaker: Archbishop Miglore
"Remembering is a duty and a common responsibility. That is especially true in the case of the Holocaust. So, my delegation welcomes the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance and congratulates all those that sponsored it.
"For 60 years, we have had the horror of this kind of crime before us, and yet, history has repeated itself. An international convention against that crime has not prevented the kind of thinking that leads to genocide, the violence that sparks genocide, the injsutices that make it possible or the interests that allow a genocide to be sustained over time. The twentieth century witnessed genocides, atrocities, mass killings and ethnic cleansings which, deplorably, were not confined to just one continent. As we stand before the Holocaust, it is only right that we remember and pledge to make the best collective efforts to ensure that, having now named this crime, the world's nations will recognize it for what it is and prevent it in the future.
"After the Shoah, the first step towards prevention was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Many more steps forward are needed. In every country, the memory of the Holocaust must be preserved as a commitment to spare future generations such horror.
Speaker: Mrs. Nunez de Odreman
(Spoke in Spanish)
"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has participated in the adoption by consensus of resolution 60/7 and is in full agreement with the States that sponsored the resolution and endorsed the memorandum of explanation accompanying the draft resolution, which affirmed that the Holocaust constituted a systematic and barbaric attempt to annihilate an entire people in a manner and of a magnitude that has no comparison in the history of humankind.
"We must also recall other Holocaust that took place during that terrible and barbarous conflict and those which came to light at that conflict's end, all equally attributable to founding States of the Unitd Nations that were part of the coalition that defeated the Nazi Fascism exclusively at the military level around the year 1945.
"We are referring to the annihilation of the defenceless population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were victims of a deliberate, devastating destruction by the use of nuclear weapons, without any justification, and to the silent, low-intensity daily annihilation of peoples of the world, whose adults and children are condemned to misery, hunger, ignorance and repression with no escape or hope, as a result of the exploitation and the barbarous, systematic neglect to which they have been submitted during centuries by colonialist and imperialist States and elites that were also the principal actors of the aforementioned war. The annihilation continues today, at the start of the twenty-first century, giving rise to a popular insurgency that seeks to restore justice.
"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela also shares the concern and sense of urgency with regard to establishing educational programmes to eradicate from the face of the Earth, genocide as a political act to exterminate groups of human beings or entire peoples on the unspeakable pretext of hatred, racism and the fundamentalist, obsessive and messianic blindness that characterizes religious intolerance. We call upon those States that, together with us, supported the resolution to ensure that the educational programmes proposed therein are designed, in a balanced and well-thought out manner, to put an end to holocausts and to raise global awareness of the perversion and crime against humanity that is genocide - including the genocide of the Jewish people, which deserves universal repudiation.
Speaker: Mr. Abdelaziz
"We fully share and understand the feelings of the sponsors with regard to the need for Holocaust remembrance. We have no objection to designating 27 January as a day of remembrance in connection with the Holocaust because of our firm belief that the victims of genocide, regardless of their religion or ethnic background, should not be forgotten.
"On the other hand, the resolution fails to address the responsibilities of the society in which the Holocaust was perpetrated and its socio-political and racist causes. Furthermore, we should ask ourselves why we should restrict the resolution on the Holocaust forgetting similar crimes of genocide against Christians and Muslims in Rwanda, and against Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srebrenica, Sanski Most, Kosovo, and elsewhere.
"We are firm in our belief that the established mechanism, in accordance with the resolution, should apply to the victims of genocide as a whole, worldwide, without discrimination on the basis of religious or ethnic background. We trust that the sponsors will consider our strong reservations and reflect on how to put things back into the right perspective. We reserve the right to do so ourselves.
"We further trust that the General Assembly will attach the same importance to financing other activities in similar resolutions in full. In that context, we reserve the right to assist in the implementation of such resolutions all together, so as to ensure equal treatment for all victims of genocide, including the victims of the Holocaust.
Speaker: Ms. Ismael
"My delegation joined the consensus on the resolution on Holocaust remembrance. We condemn the Holocaust, as it constituted a systematic and barbarous attempt to annihilate an entire people in a manner and on a scale that have no parallel in human history. Yet its lessons are universal, and my delegation feels that we should draw on them. There are other events that are no less tragic which would benefit from the lessons learned from the Holocaust.
"In this connection, my delegation would have preferred operative paragraph 2 of the resolution to be broader in scope so as to include inculcating in future generations the lessons not only of the Holocaust, but also other acts of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Speaker: Mr. Anshor
"I am pleased to explain my delegation's position with regard to the resolution that has just been adopted. My delegation went along with its adoption on the basis of a number of understandings.
"First, we recognize that the Holocaust represents a dark episode in human civilization, whose lessons must never be forgottten if we are to save future generations from similar atrocities. However, the Holocaust is not the only human tragedy that provides such lessons. There are numerous others that send an equally strong message and warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice. Human history, whether classical or contemporary, registers a long list of human tragedies. Therefore, we would have preferred it if the sponsors, in formalizing and institutionalizing Holocaust remembrance and education within the United Nations system through the resolution, ahd given equal attention to other human tragedies.
Speaker: Mr. Ozawa
"My delegation wishes to exercise its right reply in connection with the statement made by the representative of China regarding atrocities during the Second World War in Asia. Mistakes made in our past history must be remembered. We must learn from them and resolve never to allow them to happen again. Only by learning from the past can humanity make progress in the future.
"On the occasion of the recent Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia, Prime Minister Koizumi stated,
"In the past Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. Japan squarely faces those facts of history in a spirit of humility. And with a feeling of deep remorse and hearfelt apology always engraved in mind, Japan has resolutely and consistently maintained since the end of the Second World War never to turn into a military power but to be an economic power and its principle of resolving all matters by peaceful means without recourse to the use of force.
"Japan once again states its resolve to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world, in the future as well, prizing the relationship of trust it enjoys with the nations of the world."
These are very sobering words amidst a world hell-bent on destroying each other in the name of national or cultural self-preservation. While it is of utmost importance to remember the Holocaust, we must also acknowledge the horrendous genocides that have been perpetrated against other peoples since the end of World War II.
But I must add a word of caution here. The term "Holocaust" must never be appropriated to describe any other genocide. "The Holocaust" uniquely refers to the tragedy of the Jewish people, just as the word "Shoah" cannnot be used to categorize other genocides. The delegate from the Ukraine, Mr. Kuchinsky addressed this issue though indirectly, by mentioning the terrible genocide suffered by the Ukrainian people in the Great Famine of 1932-33. He did not refer to it as "the Holocaust", but rather the "Holodomor".
I strongly support this Resolution and do not approve of any attempt to alter the content of its assertions. I do however strongly recommend that the United Nations consider the idea of adopting (many) subsequent resolutions that address each genocide separately. This strategy can only serve to magnify the urgency which is needed to deal with our global conflicts. Because, when we are faced with an overwhelming plethora of United Nations resolutions on genocides, it will force us to look at the enormity of our evils - so that we can no longer bear to let it continue.
If the word "Holocaust" falls into misuse, it will become a kind of repository for the history of all the genocides of the world - past, present and (God forbid) the future. This will serve only to blur our collective vision of the past and dilute our understanding of the historic details.
I conclude this blog post with the words of Elie Wiesel: (he was a Holocaust survivor, and became a renowned author, professor, and is a Nobel Laureate.)
"Not every victim was a Jew,
but every Jew was a victim"
Please donate funds to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Poland so that they may preserve it as an historical site. Teams of highly qualified specialists in landmark preservation work tirelessly to preserve all the artifacts and structures on the site. Click on the following link to visit their website, and please donate generously. Thank you.
The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme (Remembrance and Beyond)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on the Holocaust Remembrance
(A/RES/60/7, 1 November 2005)
Resolution 60/7 Official Record (Document) (12 pages)
United Nations General Assembly 60th Session, 42nd plenary meeting November 1, 2005
The Simon Wiesenthal Center
Jagiellonian University Centre for Holocaust Studies (Warsaw, Poland)
http://www.holocaust.uj.edu.pl/ (in Polish)
http://www.holocaust.uj.edu.pl/index.php?lang=en (in English)
Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research
The Nizkor Project (counters Holocaust Denials)
Genocides in History (Wikipedia)
Video of Raphael Lemkin (regarding Armenian Genocide, etc)
Video of President Obama concerning Armenian genocide
Voices of the Holocaust - tape recordings made in 1946 of Holocaust survivors' testimonies.
USC Holocaust & Genocide Studies (Database)
BBC Archive
Personal accounts of persecution and genocide by the Nazi Regime WWII Holocaust
USHMM Holocaust Survivor Testimonies
Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team (H.E.A.R.T.)
"Their Denial and Our Silence Mock International Holocaust Memorial Day"
by Rabbi Abraham Cooper Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance (The Huffington Post.com)
"Auschwitz Liberator honoured by Poland' Walter Ruby / Daily News Writer March 6 2005
"Polish Jewish Museum to open in April 2013" (The Associated Press)
USC Shoah Foundation Institute
(founded by Steven Spielberg)


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Homeowners Reap Remodeling Benefits Whether Selling or Staying!
A Press Release Published by: The National Association of REALTORS – December 9, 2015
Homeowners preparing to sell often make improvements, both big and small, to their homes that can help yield positive results and garner top dollar from buyers. According to a new report from the National Association of Realtors®, remodeling projects can also bring major benefits to homeowners who choose to remain in their homes.
"Realtors® know that certain home upgrades and remodels can be beneficial to get more buyer eyes on a property, potentially bring in more offers or gain more equity from a home," said NAR President Tom Salomone, broker-owner of Real Estate II Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida. "But remodeling projects are just as valuable to homeowners who simply want to get more joy out of their dwellings. Regardless of the situation, Realtors® know what remodeling projects bring the biggest bang for the buck and what projects are most likely to improve a homeowner's impression of their current place."
According to NAR's 2015 Remodeling Impact Report, which uncovers the reasons homeowners choose a remodel and the increased happiness certain projects bring once completed, 64 percent have experienced increased enjoyment in their home after completing a remodeling project. Additionally, 75 percent of respondents said they felt a major sense of accomplishment when thinking of their completed project. Fifty-four percent of respondents felt happy about the changes to their home, and 40 percent felt satisfied. As for their reasons to complete a remodeling project, 38 percent of homeowners said they wanted to upgrade worn-out surfaces, finishes and materials; 17 percent wanted to add features and improve livability; and 13 percent believed it was time for a change.
Realtors® named kitchen upgrades, complete kitchen renovations, bathroom renovations and new wood flooring as the interior projects that most appeal to potential buyers. Similarly, Realtors® also ranked projects based on expected value at resale (without accounting for project price); the projects that ranked the highest in this category were complete kitchen renovations, kitchen upgrades, bathroom renovations and the addition of a bathroom.
When looking at the interior projects that yield the biggest financial results upon resale, Realtors® ranked hardwood flooring refinishes (100 percent of project cost recovered upon resale), insulation upgrades (95 percent recovered), new wood flooring (91 percent recovered), and converting a basement to a living area (69 percent recovered) as projects to consider.
Exterior projects are also important for both sellers and homeowners looking to increase satisfaction with their current home. Realtors® said new roofing, new vinyl windows, new garage doors and new vinyl siding are most appealing to potential buyers and are highly valued upon resale (both considering project price and disregarding project price). Upon resale, Realtors® said new roofing would recover 105 percent of its project cost, a new garage door would recover 87 percent, new vinyl siding would recover 83 percent, and new vinyl windows would bring back 80 percent of their cost. As for exterior projects that bring the most happiness for those not necessarily intending to sell, homeowners said new fiber-cement siding, new fiberglass or steel front doors, new roofing, and new garage doors brought the most satisfaction.
The 2015 Remodeling Impact Report, the first of its kind from NAR that examines personal satisfaction from remodeling projects, surveyed Realtors®, consumers who have completed their own remodeling projects, and members of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.
"Remodeling projects can greatly improve both the value of and satisfaction with one's home, which are great things no matter the reason for a project," said Judy Mozen, president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. "This report highlights the best projects to consider in either situation and showcases just how much of a difference a good and professional remodel can make in real numbers."
Salomone said the report not only assists homeowners who are preparing to sell in choosing the best projects to attract buyers, but it also helps those looking to get more personal satisfaction out of their homes. "Realtors® know that remodeling projects aren't just done to get more money for a home once it's time to sell – a home is your sanctuary, the place you raise your family and where you make lifelong memories, which is why the report can also help consumers decide which projects could enhance their current quality of life and happiness," he said.
The National Association of Realtors®, "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
The National Association of the Remodeling Industry is the medium for business development, a platform for advocacy and the principal source for industry intelligence. NARI connects homeowners with its professional members and provides tips and tricks so that the consumer has a positive remodeling experience.
For the Article (including infographic)… Visit REALTOR.com at: http://www.realtor.org/news-releases/2015/12/homeowners-reap-remodeling-benefits-whether-selling-or-staying-say-realtors
Homeowners Reap Remodeling Benefits Whether Selling or Staying!
Visit Christopher Tenggren's Blog again soon at: http://HomesInTheFoxValley.com/blog
Christopher Tenggren


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Revised October 2007
It is the Ohio Lottery's (hereinafter "Lottery") policy to provide convenient, prompt and open access to all public records maintained by the Lottery in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section 149.43 (Public Records Act) and the Ohio Attorney General's Model Public Records Policy. The Lottery is dedicated to responding to all public records requests in a timely and efficient manner, and this policy applies to all of the Lottery's public records regardless of who created the records, how they are distributed, or how they are maintained, unless otherwise exempt. All exemptions to openness are to be construed in their narrowest sense and any denial of public records in response to a valid request must be accompanied by an explanation, including legal authority, as outlined in the Ohio Revised Code. If the request is in writing, the explanation must also be in writing.
1. Public Record – Unless otherwise exempt, a public record is any "record" kept by a public office, which:
2. E-mail as a Public Record – Documents in electronic format are records as defined by the Public Records Act when their content relates to the business of the office, or are used to conduct public business. E-mail is to be treated in the same fashion as records in other formats and should follow the same retention schedule.
1. Maintenance of Records
2. Request for Public Records
3. Response to Requests
4. Denial of Public Records Request – Any denial of a public records request must include an explanation and supporting legal authority. If a record is partially exempt, the exempt portions are to be redacted and the remainder released. Each redaction must be accompanied by an explanation and supporting legal authority.
5. Review of Request – A review of all public records requests is necessary to prevent the disclosure of personal information, confidential information, and other exempt information which may include, but is not limited to:
EFFECTIVE October 15, 2007


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"The Clue in My Blessing," Liahona, Apr. 2011, 55
From the Mission Field
The Clue in My Blessing
I served in the Texas Houston South Mission as a Spanish-speaking elder. One day my companion and I were knocking on doors, trying to find somebody to teach. We came to a house with a huge hole in the worn, wooden porch.
An older woman answered the door and invited us in. I'm not sure if she really knew who we were and what we were doing, but she was very polite. We began teaching her the first lesson, and things seemed to be going fine. Soon it was my turn to teach about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. I watched as the woman's facial expressions seemed to show growing confusion. It was obvious she was not really following what I was trying to explain to her.
After asking a few questions about what we had gone over so far and about how much of it she was understanding, I felt myself becoming frustrated that she wasn't getting the concept of the First Vision. It had been a long day, and the last thing a missionary wants is for somebody not to understand what he so badly wants people to know is true.
In the split second I felt my emotions starting to slip toward anger, a small passage from my patriarchal blessing came to my mind. It was a section about my future family that advised me to teach my future children the concepts of the gospel. As that paragraph went through my head, I knew the Spirit was telling me to teach this humble woman in the same way I would teach a child.
I began teaching her with a more simple and loving approach. I imagined my own children sitting around the living room looking up at me, their father, as I taught them about the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was amazing to see the change on her face. Her eyebrows soon lifted, and her eyes began to shine. Her confused look became one of interest and wonder. As I related the story of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith, tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks. The Spirit filled the room, and my frustration turned into great joy.
I will never forget this experience. Now I can't wait to teach the same principles to my children someday and feel that great joy again.


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New Hampshire's largest newspaper, the Union Leader, is breaking with a 100-year tradition of backing the Republican presidential nominee.
The Granite State paper has endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.
In an editorial published online Wednesday, publisher Joseph W. McQuaid wrote that rather than picking between the "lesser of two evils," the Union Leader has chosen to endorse Johnson and Weld.
"In today's dark times, they are a bright light of hope and reason," McQuaid wrote.
Of Trump, who is headed to New Hampshire Thursday, the paper denounced his candidacy, calling the businessman a "liar, a bully, a buffoon. He denigrates any individual or group that displeases him."
Though his most blistering attacks were reserved Trump, McQuaid hardly spared Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, calling her "a selfish, self-centered, sanctimonious prig."
The Union Leader is the latest conservative-leaning newspaper to break from tradition and refuse to endorse the Republican nominee.
U.S. & World
The Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle have both announced their endorsement of the democratic ticket, backing Clinton and Kaine, while North Carolina's Winston-Salem Journal and Virginia's Richmond Times-Dispatch have recommended Johnson.


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As you know, losing weight is one of my obsessions. And in pursuit of that, going around organic food stores in search of interesting things to eat and replace routine things with, my pastime.
That's how I came across amaranth seed (or rajgeera as it's known in Hindi) a year or two ago. The leaf (thotakura, in Telugu) is popular, I regularly use it with dal or by itself to make a stir-fry. It looked like tiny globules of dry yeast, stuffed into plastic packs with cooking instructions typed on white paper. I took a pack home, and quite liked it. I learnt this was the same grain that the rajgeera chikki (brittle) or laddu was made with. There's also popped amaranth sold in these organic stores - the suggested use is as breakfast cereal, but I'm coming around to realising microwaved idlis, eggs and fruit are my kind of breakfast. (I'm the kind who buys idli batter off a shelf but today, there were reports in the newspapers that 55 per cent of the readymade batter brands, including four well-known ones, were contaminated with fecal matter, so I won't be buying it for a while, I'm sure.)
Back to amaranth, though! The pack suggested it could be eaten with dal and curds/yoghurt, just like rice. I don't remember what I did with the majority of the pack, but I do remember how good the curds mixed with the cooked seed tasted, and that's what I made today, with my second pack of amaranth.
I have a small problem, though - this current pack has some mud/stones in it, and I don't quite know how to rinse this teensy-weensy grain efficiently - in a way that the mud/stones are weeded out, but it's not too bad. Maybe I just got a badly done batch - as long as I don't find out it's fecally contaminated, I'll be fine.
Quite the wonder food it seems to be, with no gluten, high levels of iron and amino acids not often found in grains:
"Amaranth seed is high in protein (15-18%) and contains respectable amounts of lysine and methionine, two essential amino acids that are not frequently found in grains. It is high in fiber and contains calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamins A and C.Read more here.
The fiber content of amaranth is three times that of wheat and its iron content, five times more than wheat. It contains two times more calcium than milk. Using amaranth in combination with wheat, corn or brown rice results in a complete protein as high in food value as fish, red meat or poultry."
There's a lot of information about amaranth seed on the Internet, it sounds good and healthy though I have only done a little bit of reading about it, and I may eat it more often to give my meals more variety - and, of course, hopefully consume fewer calories or a better class of calories in the process. Here's a curd preparation with it - tastes like the traditional curd rice in my South Indian home, with the seed giving it the touch of the exotic!
But persevere.
Temper a spoon of hot oil with a little bit of mustard seed, cumin, red and green chilli, chopped and broken up, and some curry leaves.
Garnish with coriander.
Somewhere along the way, I forgot I knew that amaranth was also a colour. Did you know?
I'm sending this off to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted this week by Janet of Taste Space, administered by Haalo and created by Kalyn.
Weekend Herb Blogging Amaranth/Rajgira/RajgeeraCurds/Yoghurt Gluten-free Humour Vegetarian


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Image source.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Spider Prey
Posted by Rot at 4:53 PM
Labels: headless, old school, skeleton, spider, spider web
5 comments:
- girl6 said...
look, what that pesky spider, done did, chewing up skulls like they were dinner mints..tsk
- June 26, 2013 at 8:42 PM
- girl6 said...
on 2nd thought, i guess, i do have some Spider Love in me, When their fake like this, i SWoooooooooon.
- June 27, 2013 at 11:26 AM
- Rot said...
- June 27, 2013 at 11:33 AM
- girl6 said...
Oh & i have a ?
will Kathy's Primitives let me order qtys of 1..
maybe i should just call em?.
- June 27, 2013 at 5:11 PM
- Rot said...
You can definitely buy just one item.
I bought from them for years and it was always a qty of one.
But I'd definitely call them. Super nice people manning the phones there.
- June 27, 2013 at 6:09 PM
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Four-Year Findings from Chaffey College's Opening Doors Program
This program included a "College Success" course and offered enhanced counseling. A change from optional to required services led to increased program participation, and the new program decreased the percentage on academic probation after the two program semesters. Nevertheless, after four years, the program had no discernible effect on academic outcomes.


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