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Let's Take a Look at some Hot New Releases.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Hardcover – 8 Sep 2016
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. In Homo Deus, he examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between.
Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century – from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.
War is obsolete
You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict
Famine is disappearing
You are at more risk of obesity than starvation
Death is just a technical problem
Equality is out – but immortality is in
What does our future hold?
Nutshell by Ian McEwan – Hardcover 1st September
Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home – a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse – but not with John. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb.
Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world's master storytellers.
Lean in 15 – The Sustain Plan: 15 minute meals and workouts to get you lean for life by Joe Wicks Paperback – 17 Nov 2016
Bestselling author Joe Wicks, aka The Body Coach, has inspired thousands to transform their bodies by shifting unwanted fat and building lean muscle. In Lean in 15 – The Sustain Plan he reveals how to SUSTAIN incredible results while still seeing progress week on week.
Fully illustrated and with a hundred quick-to-prepare meals and four workouts, the plan is perfect for busy people who don't have time to spend hours in the kitchen or gym. Joe gives advice on how to combine his tasty, nutritious recipes with a brand new training programme to make you leaner, fitter and healthier than ever before.
It's time to make Lean in 15 part of your lifestyle forever.
New For Kindle
Destination Chile (The Lonely Hearts Travel Club, Book 3)by Katy Colins September 22nd
'Katy writes with humour and heart. The Lonely Hearts Travel Club is like Bridget Jones goes backpacking.' – Holly Martin, author of The White Cliff Bay series
Welcome to Paradise
Next on her bucket list Georgia Green is heading to Chile, but this time she's not going alone…
The new favourite series for fans of Bridget Jones's Diary, the Shopaholic series and Eat, Pray, Love.
Join Georgia Green for a romantic trip into the sunset…
What reviewers are saying about The Lonely Hearts Travel Club
'I cannot recommend this book enough. It is beautifully written with a brilliant plot and fantastic characters. READ IT!!' – Blabbering About Books
'I loved this book.' – For the Love of Books
'It is a really enthralling page turner and a brilliant start to a new series. I can't wait to read the sequels, 'Destination India' and 'Destination Chile'!' – Splashes into Books
Pharaoh by Wilber Smith due out September 22nd
The Worldwide Number One Bestseller Wilbur Smith returns to Ancient Egypt in a captivating new novel that will transport you to extraordinary times.
Pharaoh Tamose lies mortally wounded. The ancient city of Luxor is surrounded, All seems lost.
Taita prepares for the enemy's final, fatal push. The ex-slave, now general of Tamose's armies, is never more ingenious than when all hope is dashed. And this is Egypt's most desperate hour.
With the timely arrival of an old ally, the tide is turned and the Egyptian army feasts upon its retreating foe. But upon his victorious return to Luxor, Taita is seized and branded a traitor. Tamose is dead and a poisonous new era has begun. The new Pharaoh has risen.
Pharaoh Utteric is young, weak and cruel, and threatened by Taita's influence within the palace – especially his friendship with Utteric's younger and worthier brother, Ramases. With Taita's imprisonment, Ramases is forced to make a choice: help Taita escape and forsake his brother, or remain silent and condone Utteric's tyranny. To a good man like Ramases, there is no choice. Taita must be set free, Utteric must be stopped and Egypt must be reclaimed.
From the glittering temples of Luxor to the Citadel of Sparta, PHARAOH is an intense and powerful novel magnificently transporting you to a time of threat, blood and glory. Master storyteller, Wilbur Smith, is at the very peak of his powers.
Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com(no kindle edition for US yet, hardback due out October)
Chasing The Dream: A Sports Thriller by J.D Dudycha September 13th
One is driven from failure to success. The other is willing to let his friends die to chase his dream.
Brothers Drake and Cade Flint are baseball players. It is in their blood. From an early age, Drake has had superior talent and secures himself a place in professional baseball at the age of eighteen. But after three long years in the minors and a recent fastball gone awry, he is beginning to question his ability and even his love for the game. Will anything be able to help him refocus and recapture his place in the sport he loves?
Cade Flint, on the other hand, has a belief in himself that's unparalleled. The brash teenager can do no wrong—at least in his own mind. That is, until he finds himself in a precarious position with an intriguing young woman, who turns out to be more of a stalker than your average fan. She forces Cade to take action, leading to the untimely death of a teammate and to his life spiraling out of control. Will it ultimately lead to his own demise?
Can these brothers make it out on top? Or will chasing their dreams cost them more than it's worth?
New releases from people we know
The Dead City by Dylan J Morgan due out September 4th
Nuclear war devastated the planet of Hemera and shattered its main city, Magna. A century later, its sister planet, Erebus, despatched a team of soldiers to the city to rescue Hemera's president and restore that world to its former glory. What the reconnaissance team found however was a violent mutated population—all they discovered there was death. Now, four weeks after the final mayday call from her decimated soldiers, Erebus has sent a larger force to Hemera's surface. Colonel Paden is coming with them, but his desires go way beyond the rescue of the surviving recon team. A mountain of jewels and gold is rumoured to lie buried beneath the presidential palace, and Paden is here to claim the wealth he believes is due to him.
Dropped into an unforgiving world, Ryan and the other soldiers of Erebus Superior Armed Forces soon discover everything is not as they thought. Magna's population is more deadly than they could ever have imagined, their Colonel more corrupt than they'd ever known. Seeking refuge in the president's underground bunker, the combatants are forced to sacrifice everything just to stay alive.
Bandit clans control Hemera's dead lands and they've surrounded Magna in an effort to claim the fortune that belongs to their planet. Mutants control the city streets, but all they want is the taste of human flesh. Trapped inside the dead city, Ryan must fight against a mutated population—against the greed, betrayal, and hatred of those who stand at his side—in a desperate battle for survival.
Murder & Mayhem by Carol J Hedges due out early September
There's a serial killer at large in the fictional town of Lyndford in south Lincolnshire, and five people fear that he might be someone close to them. One of them is right….
Juliet wonders where her controlling, violent husband goes at night, and when a TV crime expert lists the characteristics of your average multiple murderer, she realises they could be describing the man she's been married to for twenty-four years.
Steve has been friends with Dan since childhood, but a new friend has brought out the worst in him. Is 'the worst' more terrifying that Steve dares to imagine?
Tamsin is in love with her colleague on the local newspaper. When Jake rejects her, she begins to look at him with new eyes.
Maisie loathes her mother's new boyfriend. Her best friend teases her that Gary is the Lyndford Strangler, but could her joke have hit the nail on the head?
Dorothy loves her son, Orlando, more than life itself ~ which makes her suspicions about his secret life so heart-breaking that she fears for her sanity.


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String of suspicious fires continues to worry residents
When vacant buildings here started falling victim to suspicious fires a few years ago, April Irving wondered if the house across the street from her would be next.
Her speculation ended June 8, 2007, when the vacant house was heavily damaged by a suspected arson fire. At the time, it was latest in a string of suspicious fires that started around 2006.
"The fires definitely concern me," Irving said. "It wasn't so much that that I was worried they were going to burn a house with people in it. I was more about who was going around and doing this.
"Why would they go around and randomly set these houses on fire? It's kind of strange."
Authorities in Jacksonville say that during the past two years or so about 10 vacant structures and several Dumpsters have been set on fire. The latest occurred March 11 and March 12, when five Dumpsters and an abandoned apartment building on East Douglas Street were set on fire.
Lt. Tim Shea, public information officer for the Jacksonville Police Department, said authorities believe the fires are linked.
"Several of the house fires were similar in nature, and a lot of the Dumpster fires were similar, so, hopefully, it's just the work of one or two people at the most," Shea said.
Most of the fires have been in the central and eastern sections of the city, where there are a number of vacant houses.
The most recent fire, for instance, occurred in an apartment building that previously was damaged by a smaller fire.
Jennifer Patty lives across the street from the apartment building. She saw teenagers going in and out of the building before the most recent fire.
"It was just sitting there with the doors open and everything, just inviting trouble. It scared me because I have four children," Patty said.
Yellow tape surrounds the burned-out building now, but Patty said children still go in and out of the building.
Patty said many of the buildings that have burned looked like they needed some work.
"I don't know. I thought that maybe someone is setting the fires deliberately to push along the need to redo Jacksonville," Patty said.
No residents have been injured in the fires. Jacksonville Fire Chief Rick Kluge said a few firefighters suffered smoke inhalation battling the blazes, and at least one firefighter sustained a shoulder injury.
In most instances, firefighters have determined fairly quickly that the burning buildings were vacant, Kluge said.
"You can kind of tell when you look. There are no utilities such as gas or electric hooked up. That's a good clue," Kluge said. "When you go inside, you find that there isn't any furniture."
Not all of the recent suspicious fires in Jacksonville appear to be linked.
On March 14, there was a suspected arson at the Crisis Center in Jacksonville, which houses a women and children's center. Police said someone piled trash next to the crisis center and set the refuse on fire. An employee noticed the blaze and called authorities.
The fire damaged some of the siding, but no one was injured. There were four children inside the building when the fire occurred.
"It doesn't look like the fire at the Crisis Center is connected to the other fires. It doesn't have the same pattern," Shea said.
Authorities also don't think a November fire at Jacksonville Packaging Industries was connected to the series of unexplained fires.
The packaging facility fire destroyed the building, causing about $1 million in damage. The Illinois State Fire Marshal's office is investigating the blaze as an apparent arson.
Jacksonville police also are investigating the fires at vacant buildings and hope they can catch the person or people setting the fires before someone gets hurt.
"Hopefully, we'll put an end to this nonsense before too long," Shea said.
John Reynolds can be reached at (217) 788-1524.
Pattern involves vacant buildings
Here is a list of recent fires at unoccupied homes and buildings in Jacksonville:
-- March 12: vacant apartment building at 336 E. Douglas St.
-- Jan. 15: metal building at 1125 W. Walnut St. that was used for storage
-- June 8, 2007: unoccupied house at 828 E. Lafayette St.
-- May 5, 2007: unoccupied house at 517 Sherman St.
-- March 15, 2007: unoccupied home at 917 N. Diamond St.
-- March 10, 2007: unoccupied house at 610 W. State St.

subset: commoncrawl


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Researchers work with students to create space experiments
Just before Commander Chris Hadfield blasted off in December 2012 for a five-month mission on the International Space Station, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) invited young Canadian students to design their own science experiment for him to do while on board.
When the challenge went out, only one high school in Newfoundland and Labrador answered the call. Of the 100 submissions from across Canada, Bishops College entered three ideas, two of which made the top ten, as selected by a national panel of scientists, engineers and an astronaut.
"The contest came up and I was notified of it by the CSA," said Professor Paul Sylvester, a planetary geochemist with the Department of Earth Sciences at Memorial University. "I got in touch with my contact Darla O'Reilly, a teacher who was working with Let's Talk Science in St. John's. She forwarded the information out to other science teachers in the province."
When Bishops College came forward, Professor Sylvester and his postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Kate Souders partnered with Renate Pohl and Trevor Morris, both International Space University Alumni; Let's Talk Science; the Johnson GEO CENTRE and the Eastern School District to help organize video planning sessions for the students.
"We had two days with the students at the Johnson Geo Centre," said Dr. Souders. "The students did most of the work themselves, coming up with the question, then designing the experiment and planning what they were going to do in the two minute video that was part of the submission. The second day was filming and then editing."
The winning Canadian submission asked Cmdr. Hadfield to wring out a sponge in space. That experiment was performed live on board the station. But the first Bishop's team, made up of Stephen Squires, Mark Hewitt, Amanda Ricketts, Kirsten Gillis, David Grainger and Lesley Turpin wanted to know if it was possible to juggle in space. Their entry can be found on the LTS website at: http://www.explorecuriocity.org/Content.aspx?ContentID=2162.
The second team of Andrew Mouland, Josh Lehr, Natalie Griffin, Holly Burford and Sarah Windsor challenged Cmdr. Hadfield to skip rope in space. That video can be viewed here: http://www.explorecuriocity.org/Content.aspx?ContentID=2161.
For their efforts, the students received mission memorabilia and an autographed photo of Cmdr. Hadfield.
"Projects like this are a great way to get students interested in science, technology, engineering and math, because otherwise they never get beyond the phobia that these fields are hard," said Professor Sylvester. "You have to inspire young people to get them to go into studies of these areas."


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If for nothing else, the Winnipeg Jets choosing the name "Jets" helped make the setting of today's press conference to reveal the Jets new sweaters far more dramatic. With a fighter jet providing the backdrop and a C-130 Hercules providing the stage for Jets players Andrew Ladd, Eric Fehr, Mark Stuart, and Nik Antropov to walk out from, the Jets revealed what they'll be wearing on the ice this season.
After months of speculation with a host of counterfeit jerseys already being sold on the Internet, the Jets' new sweaters are simple. Their home blue sweater is a nice, clean looking sweater with the Jets logo big and bold on the front with their secondary logo on the shoulders. The light blue and white stripes on the sleeves help the whole look jump out a bit and the numbers are easy to read.
The road white sweater is a bit more curious. It has the same logo on the front and the secondary logo is again on the shoulders. While it too has the same stripes going around the elbows, the white sweater has a shoulder yoke that goes down the full length of the sleeve and the elbow stripes wrap around that making the elbow region of the sweater a car accident of stripes and colors.
All told, these sweaters are nice, but underwhelming. With all the build up and the waiting that went into this, coming up with something that's a bit plain and simple comes off almost as boring but these are good sweaters and a good look all told.
For more photos up close and personal, check them out here at the Jets' website.
What do you think of them? Let us know in the comments and in our poll.


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'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
This blogger was tired and so was her mouse!
The blogs of the year had been posted each week,
With the goal that 52 would end as the peak.
Yes, a goal had been hung, like a stocking with care,
A blog a week for a year, and she was quite nearly there!
"I'll continue on," she thought; but while all snug in her bed,
Visions of junior mints and a blog break danced in head!
Last January she came, dressed in pink from her head to her foot,
Her mind was from her cancer was all tarnished with soot!
When she started to write, old thoughts served to remind,
Of the icky days of old, but Oh! The gifts she would find!
When out of the blogosphere there arose such a clatter,
It seemed what she said, to lots made the matter!
So onto her laptop each week she flew open the sash,
And her WordPress publish button, she nervously mashed.
She said not a word, but went straight to her work,
Writing about PTSD, grief (and some really big jerks!)
For after five years, she had a head full of ideas and hair,
And the scars and the lessons of cancer to share.
The keys of the keyboard; Oh! how they danced!
As the emotions of the big C trampled and pranced!
She wrote and she wrote of feelings both wise and quite fearful,
And a few posts about her wee ones, which made her quite tearful!
This new little blogger so lively and quick,
Knew in a moment, she was no longer sick!
Finding mirrors and perspectives alike in the blogosphere,
And humor, frustrations and commonly held fears.
And then in a twinkling she saw on her screen,
The comments of the bloggesses so sweet and serene.
New friends o'er the world were nestled all snug in their beds,
While Blue Geckos and Underbellies danced in their heads!
She made more friends than imagined (and all she quite fancies,)
Like Wendy, Katie, Marie and both of the Nancys.
Philippa, and Beth, and Brenda and again,
We mustn't forget Jan, Terri, AnneMarie and Renn!
They giggled about chemo and "twang arm" and more,
And shared the experience of fear to your core.
They talked about thigh cancer and things lost and found,
And they shared cancerversarys, and how klunkers abound!
They shared their frustrations at finding a cure,
And found peace in numbers, of that I am sure!
They found new friends in the most extraordinary of places,
Like Yangon and Ireland, and lots with no voices or faces!
They talked about bedazzled bald heads and daisy dressed ports,
and they found in each other, a worldwide cohort!
They held virtual hands as "Captain Anxiety" danced in their heads,
And celebrated after those quite harrowing rechecks, the finding of NED!
But after working her goal of a year full of blogs,
She needed a break to refresh, from unleashing the clogs.
Yes her little chemo brain-brain needed a rest,
And she needed to cuddle her wee ones, in their little Who-nest.
And what to her wondering eyes should appear,
As she hit publish on this Christmas morning so dear?
As she glanced out from her laptop, while wishing for snow,
She looked back and saw, "Hurray! It's your 52nd blog!" in the glow!
More rapid than Komen, all year the bloggers they'd came,
And she knew in her heart they'd continue the same!
So she rode out of sight shouting, "Carry on Y'all,
And blog away, blog away, blog away all!"
"On Philippa and Wendy, Annemarie and Renn
On Katie and Nancy, Beth, Terri and then,
Do you recall, the most famous blogger of all?
Marie the red-headed blogger; she led the blog ball!
For a month (maybe two) she'll be gone but return,
With new blogs on life's other travails, and fresh ideas to burn!
But for now laying a finger on her laptop to close,
A break from her blog, was the path that she chose.
As she hit "publish" today with a quiet Christmas morn' tap,
She found her goal in her stocking, and settled for a long winter's nap.
And she exclaimed with such love as she drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to y'all, and to all a good-night!"
Back soon,
When all the noise is gone there is only God. ~Author Unknown
I am on a tear these last weeks because quite frankly I am tired of hearing about "that guy." Read the rest of this entry »


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About eMoviePoster.com's Thursday Auctions #438
This set of Thursday auctions runs from 12/3 to 12/10)
ATTENTION! The details shown below apply SOLELY to the 445 unbacked standard size posters, window cards, pressbooks, campaign books, and more in Part III of our December Major Auction we are auctioning from 12/3 to 12/10, and may well NOT apply to our other sets of weekly auctions. If you are looking for details about any of our other sets of weekly auctions, please check our Info Archive.
This auction has ended. View the Auction History Results.
New to our auctions? There are important differences between our auctions and others. Do you have questions about any aspect of them? First, visit our Questions and Answers page, and if you don't find your answer there, e-mail us.
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What distinguishes OUR major auctions from other major auctions? Only the lack of any reserves or buyers premiums, honest condition grading, and unenhanced super-sized images! You will find an amazing "supermarket" selection of great posters from all years, genres, and countries!
Details About These Thursday Items
About the condition
If a poster is in less than very good condition, should you not bid on it? Of course not, as long as you are accepting of the defects the poster has! The item that is graded "very good", but has as many minor defects as is allowed under the "very good" definition is only in SLIGHTLY better condition than the best of the "good to very good" items. So please take the time to look at the larger images of items that interest you, and see if the defects are the sort that you can "live with", or are willing to restore. Some of these items are EXTREMELY rare, and it may be years before you see them offered again!
U.S. Shipping Details
(Part III of our December Major Auction). The items being
auctioned ship in a variety of ways, and you should refer to each individual auction page or the
chart above to know how it will be
shipped. After winning and depending on what you win, you may need to
request a shipping quote through our
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DON'T BID ON OUR ITEMS UNLESS YOU WILL PAY THE COST OF SHIPPING AS STATED ON THE INDIVIDUAL AUCTION PAGES (or using the chart above).
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Non-U.S. buyers must pay the actual cost of shipping their order (you can choose whatever method you prefer, but know that the U.S. Post Office has eliminated Surface Mail, so we can only send via Express or Airmail), plus $3, for both the best packaging materials you have ever seen and a separate printed invoice mailed to you. All non-U.S. buyers must tell us if they want the package sent insured or uninsured at the time they pay for their order.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please bear these
approximate shipping cost in mind BEFORE you place a bid (if
you live outside the U.S.). The vast majority of our customers want a very
securely packed tube, and will pay the extra shipping cost involved (and of
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us to pack less securely, as that would likely result in a damaged order.
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In addition to our current auctions, we offer many other non-auction items. Please note that the items in this week's auction will be sent in either flat packages or rolled in tubes, so you can add any item that can also be sent in either flat packages or rolled in tubes for little or no additional shipping costs (NOTE: if we can add it to your package without raising the cost of shipping, then we will do so with no added shipping charge, but if it raises the cost OR if it requires additional packages, then you will need to pay the difference). We have noted below whether items ship rolled, flat, or both.


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On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board. The following article originally ran in December 2011, months after AF447's black box recordings surfaced and spurred new revelations. On the 11th anniversary of the crash, we're looking back at the mysterious tragedy and republishing the article in full.
For more than two years, the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the mid-Atlantic in the early hours of June 1, 2009, remained one of aviation's great mysteries. How could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish?
With the wreckage and flight-data recorders lost beneath 2 miles of ocean, experts were forced to speculate using the only data available: a cryptic set of communications beamed automatically from the aircraft to the airline's maintenance center in France. As Popular Mechanics found in our cover story about the crash, published in December 2009, the data implied that the plane had fallen afoul of a technical problem—the icing up of air-speed sensors—which in conjunction with severe weather led to a complex "error chain" that ended in a crash and the loss of 228 lives.
More From Popular Mechanics
The matter might have rested there, were it not for the remarkable recovery of AF447's black boxes in April 2011. Upon the analysis of their contents, the French accident investigation authority, the BEA, released a report in July 2011 that to a large extent verified the initial suppositions. An even fuller picture emerged with the publication of a book in French entitled Erreurs de Pilotage (volume 5), by pilot and aviation writer Jean-Pierre Otelli, which includes the full transcript of the pilots' conversation.
We now understand that, indeed, AF447 passed into clouds associated with a large system of thunderstorms, its speed sensors became iced over, and the autopilot disengaged. In the ensuing confusion, the pilots lost control of the airplane because they reacted incorrectly to the loss of instrumentation and then seemed unable to comprehend the nature of the problems they had caused. Neither weather nor malfunction doomed AF447, nor a complex chain of error, but a simple but persistent mistake on the part of one of the pilots.
Human judgments, of course, are never made in a vacuum. Pilots are part of a complex system that can either increase or reduce the probability that they will make a mistake. After this accident, the million-dollar question is whether training, instrumentation, and cockpit procedures can be modified all around the world so that no one will ever make this mistake again—or whether the inclusion of the human element will always entail the possibility of a catastrophic outcome.
After all, the men who crashed AF447 were three highly trained pilots flying for one of the most prestigious fleets in the world. If they could fly a perfectly good plane into the ocean, then what airline could plausibly say, "Our pilots would never do that"?
Here is a synopsis of what occurred during the course of the doomed airliner's final few minutes.
At 1h 36m, the flight enters the outer extremities of a tropical storm system. Unlike other planes' crews flying through the region, AF447's flight crew has not changed the route to avoid the worst of the storms. The outside temperature is much warmer than forecast, preventing the still fuel-heavy aircraft from flying higher to avoid the effects of the weather. Instead, it ploughs into a layer of clouds.
At 1h51m, the cockpit becomes illuminated by a strange electrical phenomenon. The co-pilot in the right-hand seat, an inexperienced 32-year-old named Pierre-Cédric Bonin, asks, "What's that?" The captain, Marc Dubois, a veteran with more than 11,000 hours of flight time, tells him it is St. Elmo's fire, a phenomenon often found with thunderstorms at these latitudes.
At approximately 2 am, the other co-pilot, David Robert, returns to the cockpit after a rest break. At 37, Robert is both older and more experienced than Bonin, with more than double his colleague's total flight hours. The head pilot gets up and gives him the left-hand seat. Despite the gap in seniority and experience, the captain leaves Bonin in charge of the controls.
At 2:02 am, the captain leaves the flight deck to take a nap. Within 15 minutes, everyone aboard the plane will be dead.
02:03:44 (Bonin) La convergence inter tropicale… voilà, là on est dedans, entre 'Salpu' et 'Tasil.' Et puis, voilà, on est en plein dedans…
The inter-tropical convergence... look, we're in it, between 'Salpu' and 'Tasil.' And then, look, we're right in it...
The intertropical convergence, or ITC, is an area of consistently severe weather near the equator. As is often the case, it has spawned a string of very large thunderstorms, some of which stretch into the stratosphere. Unlike some of the other planes's crews flying in the region this evening, the crew of AF447 has not studied the pattern of storms and requested a divergence around the area of most intense activity. (Salpu and Tasil are two air-traffic-position reporting points.)
02:05:55 (Robert) Oui, on va les appeler derrière... pour leur dire quand même parce que...
Yes, let's call them in the back, to let them know...
Robert pushes the call button.
02:05:59 (flight attendant, heard on the intercom) Oui? Marilyn.
Yes? Marilyn.
02:06:04 (Bonin) Oui, Marilyn, c'est Pierre devant... Dis-moi, dans deux minutes, on devrait attaquer une zone où ça devrait bouger un peu plus que maintenant. Il faudrait vous méfier là.
Yes, Marilyn, it's Pierre up front... Listen, in 2 minutes, we're going to be getting into an area where things are going to be moving around a little bit more than now. You'll want to take care.
02:06:13 (flight attendant) D'accord, on s'assoit alors?
Okay, we should sit down then?
02:06:15 (Bonin) Bon, je pense que ce serait pas mal… tu préviens les copains!
Well, I think that's not a bad idea. Give your friends a heads-up.
02:06:18 (flight attendant) Ouais, OK, j'appelle les autres derrière. Merci beaucoup.
Yeah, okay, I'll tell the others in the back. Thanks a lot.
02:06:19 (Bonin) Mais je te rappelle dès qu'on est sorti de là.
I'll call you back as soon as we're out of it.
02:06:20 (flight attendant) OK.
The two copilots discuss the unusually elevated external temperature, which has prevented them from climbing to their desired altitude, and express happiness that they are flying an Airbus 330, which has better performance at altitude than an Airbus 340.
02:06:50 (Bonin) Va pour les anti-ice. C'est toujours ça de pris.
Let's go for the anti-icing system. It's better than nothing.
Because they are flying through clouds, the pilots turn on the anti-icing system to try to keep ice off the flight surfaces; ice reduces the plane's aerodynamic efficiency, weighs it down, and in extreme cases, can cause it to crash.
02:07:00 (Bonin) On est apparemment à la limite de la couche, ça devrait aller.
We seem to be at the end of the cloud layer, it might be okay.
In the meantime Robert has been examining the radar system and has found that it has not been set up in the correct mode. Changing the settings, he scrutinizes the radar map and realizes that they are headed directly toward an area of intense activity.
02:08:03 (Robert) Tu peux éventuellement le tirer un peu à gauche.
You can possibly pull it a little to the left.
02:08:05 (Bonin) Excuse-moi?
Sorry, what?
02:08:07 (Robert) Tu peux éventuellement prendre un peu à gauche. On est d'accord qu'on est en manuel, hein?
You can possibly pull it a little to the left. We're agreed that we're in manual, yeah?
Bonin wordlessly banks the plane to the left. Suddenly, a strange aroma, like an electrical transformer, floods the cockpit, and the temperature suddenly increases. At first, the younger pilot thinks that something is wrong with the air-conditioning system, but Robert assures him that the effect is from the severe weather in the vicinity. Bonin seems ill at ease. Then the sound of slipstream suddenly becomes louder.
This, presumably, is due to the accumulation of ice crystals on the exterior of the fuselage. Bonin announces that he is going to reduce the speed of the aircraft, and asks Robert if he should turn on a feature that will prevent the jet engines from flaming out in the event of severe icing.
Just then, an alarm sounds for 2.2 seconds, indicating that the autopilot is disconnecting. The cause is the fact that the plane's pitot tubes, externally mounted sensors that determine air speed, have iced over, so the human pilots will now have to fly the plane by hand.
Note, however, that the plane has suffered no mechanical malfunction. Aside from the loss of airspeed indication, everything is working fine. Otelli reports that many airline pilots (and, indeed, he himself) subsequently flew a simulation of the flight from this point and were able to do so without any trouble. But neither Bonin nor Roberts has ever received training in how to deal with an unreliable airspeed indicator at cruise altitude, or in flying the airplane by hand under such conditions.
02:10:06 (Bonin) J'ai les commandes.
I have the controls.
02:10:07 (Robert) D'accord.
Perhaps spooked by everything that has unfolded over the past few minutes—the turbulence, the strange electrical phenomena, his colleague's failure to route around the potentially dangerous storm—Bonin reacts irrationally. He pulls back on the side stick to put the airplane into a steep climb, despite having recently discussed the fact that the plane could not safely ascend due to the unusually high external temperature.
Bonin's behavior is difficult for professional aviators to understand. "If he's going straight and level and he's got no airspeed, I don't know why he'd pull back," says Chris Nutter, an airline pilot and flight instructor. "The logical thing to do would be to cross-check"—that is, compare the pilot's airspeed indicator with the co-pilot's and with other instrument readings, such as groundspeed, altitude, engine settings, and rate of climb. In such a situation, "we go through an iterative assessment and evaluation process," Nutter explains, before engaging in any manipulation of the controls. "Apparently that didn't happen."
Almost as soon as Bonin pulls up into a climb, the plane's computer reacts. A warning chime alerts the cockpit to the fact that they are leaving their programmed altitude. Then the stall warning sounds. This is a synthesized human voice that repeatedly calls out, "Stall!" in English, followed by a loud and intentionally annoying sound called a "cricket."
A stall is a potentially dangerous situation that can result from flying too slowly. At a critical speed, a wing suddenly becomes much less effective at generating lift, and a plane can plunge precipitously. All pilots are trained to push the controls forward when they're at risk of a stall so the plane will dive and gain speed.
The Airbus's stall alarm is designed to be impossible to ignore. Yet for the duration of the flight, none of the pilots will mention it, or acknowledge the possibility that the plane has indeed stalled—even though the word "Stall!" will blare through the cockpit 75 times. Throughout, Bonin will keep pulling back on the stick, the exact opposite of what he must do to recover from the stall.
02:10:07 (Robert) Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça?
What's this?
02:10:15 (Bonin) On n'a pas une bonne… On n'a pas une bonne annonce de vitesse.
There's no good... there's no good speed indication.
02:10:16 (Robert) On a perdu les, les, les vitesses alors?
We've lost the, the, the speeds, then?
The plane is soon climbing at a blistering rate of 7000 feet per minute. While it is gaining altitude, it is losing speed, until it is crawling along at only 93 knots, a speed more typical of a small Cessna than an airliner. Robert notices Bonin's error and tries to correct him.
02:10:27 (Robert) Faites attention à ta vitesse. Faites attention à ta vitesse.
Pay attention to your speed. Pay attention to your speed.
He is probably referring to the plane's vertical speed. They are still climbing.
02:10:28 (Bonin) OK, OK, je redescends.
Okay, okay, I'm descending.
02:10:30 (Robert) Tu stabilises...
02:10:31 (Bonin) Ouais.
02:10:31 (Robert) Tu redescends... On est en train de monter selon lui… Selon lui, tu montes, donc tu redescends.
Descend... It says we're going up... It says we're going up, so descend.
02:10:35 (Bonin) D'accord.
Thanks to the effects of the anti-icing system, one of the pitot tubes begins to work again. The cockpit displays once again show valid speed information.
02:10:36 (Robert) Redescends!
02:10:37 (Bonin) C'est parti, on redescend.
Here we go, we're descending.
02:10:38 (Robert) Doucement!
Bonin eases the back pressure on the stick, and the plane gains speed as its climb becomes more shallow. It accelerates to 223 knots. The stall warning falls silent. For a moment, the co-pilots are in control of the airplane.
02:10:41(Bonin) On est en… ouais, on est en "climb."
We're... yeah, we're in a climb.
Yet, still, Bonin does not lower the nose. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Robert pushes a button to summon the captain.
02:10:49 (Robert) Putain, il est où... euh?
Damn it, where is he?
The plane has climbed to 2512 feet above its initial altitude, and though it is still ascending at a dangerously high rate, it is flying within its acceptable envelope. But for reasons unknown, Bonin once again increases his back pressure on the stick, raising the nose of the plane and bleeding off speed. Again, the stall alarm begins to sound.
Still, the pilots continue to ignore it, and the reason may be that they believe it is impossible for them to stall the airplane. It's not an entirely unreasonable idea: The Airbus is a fly-by-wire plane; the control inputs are not fed directly to the control surfaces, but to a computer, which then in turn commands actuators that move the ailerons, rudder, elevator, and flaps.
The vast majority of the time, the computer operates within what's known as normal law, which means that the computer will not enact any control movements that would cause the plane to leave its flight envelope. The flight control computer under normal law will not allow an aircraft to stall, aviation experts say.
But once the computer lost its airspeed data, it disconnected the autopilot and switched from normal law to "alternate law," a regime with far fewer restrictions on what a pilot can do. In alternate law, pilots can stall an airplane.
It's quite possible that Bonin had never flown an airplane in alternate law, or understood its lack of restrictions. Therefore, Bonin may have assumed that the stall warning was spurious because he didn't realize that the plane could remove its own restrictions against stalling and, indeed, had done so.
02:10:55 (Robert) Putain!
Damn it!
Another of the pitot tubes begins to function once more. The cockpit's avionics are now all functioning normally. The flight crew has all the information that they need to fly safely, and all the systems are fully functional. The problems that occur from this point forward are entirely due to human error.
02:11:03 (Bonin) Je suis en TOGA, hein?
I'm in TOGA, huh?
Bonin's statement here offers a crucial window onto his reasoning. TOGA is an acronym for Take Off, Go Around. When a plane is taking off or aborting a landing—"going around"—it must gain both speed and altitude as efficiently as possible. At this critical phase of flight, pilots are trained to increase engine speed to the TOGA level and raise the nose to a certain pitch angle.
Clearly, here Bonin is trying to achieve the same effect: He wants to increase speed and to climb away from danger. But he is not at sea level; he is in the far thinner air of 37,500 feet. The engines generate less thrust here, and the wings generate less lift. Raising the nose to a certain angle of pitch does not result in the same angle of climb, but far less. Indeed, it can—and will—result in a descent.
While Bonin's behavior is irrational, it is not inexplicable. Intense psychological stress tends to shut down the part of the brain responsible for innovative, creative thought. Instead, we tend to revert to the familiar and the well-rehearsed.
Though pilots are required to practice hand-flying their aircraft during all phases of flight as part of recurrent training, in their daily routine they do most of their hand-flying at low altitude—while taking off, landing, and maneuvering. It's not surprising, then, that amid the frightening disorientation of the thunderstorm, Bonin reverted to flying the plane as if it had been close to the ground, even though this response was totally ill-suited to the situation.
02:11:06 (Robert) Putain, il vient ou il vient pas?
Damn it, is he coming or not?
The plane now reaches its maximum altitude. With engines at full power, the nose pitched upward at an angle of 18 degrees, it moves horizontally for an instant and then begins to sink back toward the ocean.
02:11:21 (Robert) On a pourtant les moteurs! Qu'est-ce qui se passe bordel? Je ne comprends pas ce que se passe.
We still have the engines! What the hell is happening? I don't understand what's happening.
Unlike the control yokes of a Boeing jetliner, the side sticks on an Airbus are "asynchronous"—that is, they move independently. "If the person in the right seat is pulling back on the joystick, the person in the left seat doesn't feel it," says Dr. David Esser, a professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "Their stick doesn't move just because the other one does, unlike the old-fashioned mechanical systems like you find in small planes, where if you turn one, the [other] one turns the same way." Robert has no idea that, despite their conversation about descending, Bonin has continued to pull back on the side stick.
The men are utterly failing to engage in an important process known as crew resource management, or CRM. They are failing, essentially, to cooperate. It is not clear to either one of them who is responsible for what, and who is doing what. This is a natural result of having two co-pilots flying the plane.
"When you have a captain and a first officer in the cockpit, it's clear who's in charge," Nutter explains. "The captain has command authority. He's legally responsible for the safety of the flight. When you put two first officers up front, it changes things. You don't have the sort of traditional discipline imposed on the flight deck when you have a captain."
The vertical speed toward the ocean accelerates. If Bonin were to let go of the controls, the nose would fall and the plane would regain forward speed. But because he is holding the stick all the way back, the nose remains high and the plane has barely enough forward speed for the controls to be effective. As turbulence continues to buffet the plane, it is nearly impossible to keep the wings level.
02:11:32 (Bonin) Putain, j'ai plus le contrôle de l'avion, là! J'ai plus le contrôle de l'avion!
Damn it, I don't have control of the plane, I don't have control of the plane at all!
02:11:37 (Robert) Commandes à gauche!
Left seat taking control!
At last, the more senior of the pilots (and the one who seems to have a somewhat better grasp of the situation) now takes control of the airplane. Unfortunately, he, too, seems unaware of the fact that the plane is now stalled, and pulls back on the stick as well. Although the plane's nose is pitched up, it is descending at a 40-degree angle. The stall warning continues to sound. At any rate, Bonin soon after takes back the controls.
A minute and a half after the crisis began, the captain returns to the cockpit. The stall warning continues to blare.
02:11:43 (Captain) Eh… Qu'est-ce que vous foutez?
What the hell are you doing?
02:11:45 (Bonin) On perd le contrôle de l'avion, là!
We've lost control of the plane!
02:11:47 (Robert) On a totalement perdu le contrôle de l'avion... On comprend rien... On a tout tenté...
We've totally lost control of the plane. We don't understand at all... We've tried everything.
By now the plane has returned to its initial altitude but is falling fast. With its nose pitched 15 degrees up, and a forward speed of 100 knots, it is descending at a rate of 10,000 feet per minute, at an angle of 41.5 degrees. It will maintain this attitude with little variation all the way to the sea. Though the pitot tubes are now fully functional, the forward airspeed is so low—below 60 knots—that the angle-of-attack inputs are no longer accepted as valid, and the stall-warning horn temporarily stops. This may give the pilots the impression that their situation is improving, when in fact it signals just the reverse.
Another of the revelations of Otelli's transcript is that the captain of the flight makes no attempt to physically take control of the airplane. Had Dubois done so, he almost certainly would have understood, as a pilot with many hours flying light airplanes, the insanity of pulling back on the controls while stalled. But instead, he takes a seat behind the other two pilots.
This, experts say, is not so hard to understand. "They were probably experiencing some pretty wild gyrations," Esser says. "In a condition like that, he might not necessarily want to make the situation worse by having one of the crew members actually disengage and stand up. He was probably in a better position to observe and give his commands from the seat behind."
But from his seat, Dubois is unable to infer from the instrument displays in front of him why the plane is behaving as it is. The critical missing piece of information: the fact that someone has been holding the controls all the way back for virtually the entire time. No one has told Dubois, and he hasn't thought to ask.
02:12:14 (Robert) Qu'est-ce que tu en penses? Qu'est-ce que tu en penses? Qu'est-ce qu'il faut faire?
What do you think? What do you think? What should we do?
02:12:15 (Captain) Alors, là, je ne sais pas!
Well, I don't know!
As the stall warning continues to blare, the three pilots discuss the situation with no hint of understanding the nature of their problem. No one mentions the word "stall." As the plane is buffeted by turbulence, the captain urges Bonin to level the wings—advice that does nothing to address their main problem. The men briefly discuss, incredibly, whether they are in fact climbing or descending, before agreeing that they are indeed descending. As the plane approaches 10,000 feet, Robert tries to take back the controls, and pushes forward on the stick, but the plane is in "dual input" mode, and so the system averages his inputs with those of Bonin, who continues to pull back. The nose remains high.
02:13:40 (Robert) Remonte... remonte... remonte... remonte...
Climb... climb... climb... climb...
02:13:40 (Bonin) Mais je suis à fond à cabrer depuis tout à l'heure!
But I've had the stick back the whole time!
At last, Bonin tells the others the crucial fact whose import he has so grievously failed to understand himself.
02:13:42 (Captain) Non, non, non... Ne remonte pas... non, non.
No, no, no... Don't climb... no, no.
02:13:43 (Robert) Alors descends... Alors, donne-moi les commandes... À moi les commandes!
Descend, then... Give me the controls... Give me the controls!
Bonin yields the controls, and Robert finally puts the nose down. The plane begins to regain speed. But it is still descending at a precipitous angle. As they near 2000 feet, the aircraft's sensors detect the fast-approaching surface and trigger a new alarm. There is no time left to build up speed by pushing the plane's nose forward into a dive. At any rate, without warning his colleagues, Bonin once again takes back the controls and pulls his side stick all the way back.
02:14:23 (Robert) Putain, on va taper... C'est pas vrai!
Damn it, we're going to crash... This can't be happening!
02:14:25 (Bonin) Mais qu'est-ce que se passe?
But what's happening?
02:14:27 (Captain) 10 degrès d'assiette...
Ten degrees of pitch...
Exactly 1.4 seconds later, the cockpit voice recorder stops.
Today, the Air France 447 transcripts yield information that may ensure that no airline pilot will ever again make the same mistakes. From now on, every airline pilot will no doubt think immediately of AF447 the instant a stall-warning alarm sounds at cruise altitude. Airlines around the world will change their training programs to enforce habits that might have saved the doomed airliner: paying closer attention to the weather and to what the planes around you are doing; explicitly clarifying who's in charge when two co-pilots are alone in the cockpit; understanding the parameters of alternate law; and practicing hand-flying the airplane during all phases of flight.
But the crash raises the disturbing possibility that aviation may well long be plagued by a subtler menace, one that ironically springs from the never-ending quest to make flying safer. Over the decades, airliners have been built with increasingly automated flight-control functions. These have the potential to remove a great deal of uncertainty and danger from aviation. But they also remove important information from the attention of the flight crew.
While the airplane's avionics track crucial parameters such as location, speed, and heading, the human beings can pay attention to something else. But when trouble suddenly springs up and the computer decides that it can no longer cope—on a dark night, perhaps, in turbulence, far from land—the humans might find themselves with a very incomplete notion of what's going on. They'll wonder: What instruments are reliable, and which can't be trusted? What's the most pressing threat? What's going on? Unfortunately, the vast majority of pilots will have little experience in finding the answers.
Jeff Wise is a New York-based science journalist specializing in aviation and psychology. He is the author of The Plane That Wasn't There: Why We Haven't Found MH370.


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A unique European Research Area (ERA) initiative providing access to a complete range of information and support services for European and non-European researchers wishing to pursue research careers in Europe. It offers access to the job market; assists researchers in advancing their careers in another European country and supports research organisations in their search for outstanding research talent. EURAXESS is a truly pan-European initiative, supported by 40 participating countries across Europe. The EURAXESS portal is composed of four main sections devoted to four specific initiatives for researchers:
EURAXESS Jobs is a stress-free recruitment tool where no charges apply.
Researchers can find a wealth of constantly updated information on job vacancies, funding opportunities and fellowships throughout Europe. Posting their CV will allow recruiters to find them.
Companies or research institutes can post vacancies free of charge and search for the CVs of international top-notch researchers.
Users can also directly access the national EURAXESS portals of the partner countries which contain information on research job and funding opportunities, as well as on personalised services in each country.
EURAXESS Services is a network of more than five hundred Service Centres located in 40 European countries.
These Centres help researchers and their family to plan and organise their move to a foreign country. This free personalised assistance helps researchers tackle issues such as accommodation, visa and work permits, language lessons, schools for their children, social security and medical care.
A team of well-informed staff is at their service.
EURAXESS Rights provides all information regarding the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, which aim at setting out rules and obligations of researchers, their employers and funders, as well as transparent and fair recruitment procedures through the Human Resources Strategy. Besides, information about Entry conditions as well as social security and pensions.
The Charter sets out the rights and duties of researchers, as well as research- and funding.
The Code aims at ensuring equal treatment of all researchers in Europe and increases transparency in their recruitment.
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EURAXESS Links is established in four ASEAN countries (i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand), Brazil, China, India, Japan and North-America.
Click Here to Visit EURAXESS Website


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NEW YORK — The Nobel Prize won by Francis Crick in 1962 for his discovery of DNA was sold Thursday at auction for more than $2 million.
Heritage Auctions did not identify the buyer of the medal, which went for far above the pre-sale estimate of $500,000.
On Wednesday, a letter Crick wrote to his son describing the discovery sold at Christie's for $6 million. It was a record for a letter, eclipsing a record price for an Abraham Lincoln letter that went for $3.4 million in 2008.
Crick was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins. He spent the latter decades of his career doing brain research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla. He died in 2004 at age 88.
The medal was among 11 artifacts Crick's heirs offered at the Heritage auction.
Crick's granddaughter Kindra said the family decided to sell the medal and other items because they had been in storage for 50 years, first locked up in a room of her grandfather's La Jolla, Calif., home and later in a safe deposit box.
They chose to sell them now because it "coincides with the 60th anniversary of the historic discovery and 50 years since he received the award," she said.
Twenty percent of the proceeds from the Heritage Auctions sale will go to the new Francis Crick Institute in London, a medical research institute slated to open in 2015. Half the proceeds from the Christie's sale will benefit the Salk Institute, the granddaughter said.
Crick's son Michael, who was in New York to attend the auctions with his daughter, told The Associated Press that the family hoped the winning bids went to someone who "will give people the opportunity to look at them and that they will be an inspiration for future scientists."
The 1962 medal is struck in 23-karat gold. One side features the Genius of Medicine holding an open book in her lap, collecting water pouring out of a rock to quench the thirst of a sick girl beside her. It was offered together with his Nobel diploma, a handsome two-page vellum document that contains an original hand-colored picture of a long-haired youth in a blue tunic holding the Rod of Asclepius.
Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said it is only the second time that a Nobel medal has been offered at a public auction. The first was Niels Bohr's 1922 Nobel in Physics that sold in November for about $50,000, said Sandra Palomino, director of its historical manuscripts.
The late William Faulkner's 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature is heading for auction at Sotheby's in June.
Other items in the Heritage sale include Crick's endorsed Nobel Prize check in the amount of 85,739,88 Swedish krona, dated Dec. 10, 1962, and a white lab coat complete with stains and wear.
Michael Crick said he has made "really good copies" of the letter that was sold Wednesday at Christie's.
In the March 19, 1953, handwritten letter to his then-12-year-old son, Francis Crick describes his discovery of the structure of DNA as something "beautiful." The note tells his son how he and James Watson found the copying mechanism "by which life comes from life." It includes a simple sketch of DNA's double helix structure, which Crick concedes he can't draw very well.
The seven-page letter, written to his son in boarding school, concludes: "Read this carefully so that you will understand it. When you come home we will show you the model. Lots of love, Daddy."
Heritage Auctions: http://www.ha.com
Christie's: http://www.christies.com


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A few days ago, a fellow blogger asked her readers to share daily practices that served them well. By my own admission, I struggle with consistency and organization. I'll get into a routine and not before long, I will be on to something else, tossing what originally worked, not because I want to, but because I haven't stuck with it long enough to remember what worked in the first place! Blame it on my three darlings, who have an uncanny ability to make my thoughts vaporize before I can get them out of my head and on to paper. Nonetheless, when asked this question about daily practices, I didn't have to think too long or hard before I could rattle off a list of things. I don't do these things every single day, but I manage to do them on most days, and from week to week. Together, they've become an integral part of my life and are rudimentary to my being, as they ensure that I thrive as a wife and mother, and any other roles in which I am required to be effective. In order, I listed the following:
- I love.
- I eat.
- I find and create the JOY within.
- I post motivational words on Facebook, or quip about an observation that left an indelible mark on me.
- I write.
- I drink coffee.
- I kiss and tell my husband and children that I love them…again…and again…I didn't hear those words much as a child (making up for 'lost' time?).
- I crochet orders for my business, HomeSpun Handmades.
- I workout – 3-5x a week. It's MY Prozac. (This usually includes some form of cardio, and most definitely jumping rope and dancing, spinning, or teaching fitness, all while listening to some bangin' beats!)
- I dance…like no one's watching! Seriously.
Though I'm pleased that I can do these things on a regular enough basis, I'm not so pleased about what I conveniently left out – those practices that I find myself guilty of not doing on a regular enough basis. Undoubtedly, their incorporation would also serve me well. I think that if I am to engage you in conversation about authentic relationships, and owning up to our own truths, I should at least be transparent and allow you to touch and feel me in my wholeness – in my abilities as well as my limitations, in my convictions as well as my fears, and in my shortcomings as well as my successes. I want you to get a glimpse of my fullness as I believe that it is what makes me uniquely designed for this ministry of writing, of inspiring, of relating, of creating.
Therefore, in an effort to present myself whole, balanced, flawed, and human, I've put together a list of those practices in which I know I come up short. (Warning: This list is by no means exhaustive.)
- Pray – I would like to pray more…more actively…more fervently…more meditatively…without ceasing.
- Intently study the Bible and the Quran, as well as other spiritual books and principles of thought on the subject of God, his centrality, his universality.
- Read. Allow me to qualify. I read, but I find that I don't complete enough books. On my nightstand is my nook, as well as a few other books that I go in and out of, all of which require completion. On my windowseat is more of the same, including Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much Is True", Walter Mosley's "This Year You Write Your Novel", my leather-bound journal, and a black hard plastic spiral bound notebook in which I also keep my writing. I am often reading more than one book at a time, for different reasons. For instance, I'm currently reading "The Crafts Business Answer Book" by Barbara Brabec, and "Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story", by Sue Monk Kidd, and Ann Kidd Taylor. (I kid you not! 😮 Aside: One of my personal literary goals is to penetrate, explore, and ultimately demystify the mother-daughter mystique through my own experience, while referring to the vast knowledge already written on the subject.) I imagine that the abundance of books, and simultaneous reading of a few, is typical and necessary for burgeoning authors. Let's hope that I'm right!
- Be a master administrator. I'd like to be more consistent in managing the administrative end of my home-based business. Admittedly, it's so much easier and rewarding for me to create the products than it is for me to track expenses, enter sales, and build an online presence. Though I quietly acknowledge the importance of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into any business, for-profit or non-profit, I despise the minutia that goes along with it. The devil is in the details, I know.
- Give myself enough quiet time. Ummmm…Namaste. In the hurriedness of my day and managing my household and all that comes along with it, the desire to devour my to-do list whole, not burn daylight, and meet deadlines (many of which are self-imposed), leaves me with little unadulterated, unfiltered quiet time to do absolutely nothing. This is a guilty pleasure in which I need more indulgence, as I'm certain that it will afford me clarity in many areas of my life, but I sometimes tend to override it when it's within view because somewhere down the line, I've been trained to "get it done".
Whew! Glad I got that all out there! Don't judge me! LOL! 😮 Are there some areas in your own life where you feel you come up short? Better said, are there practices that you'd like engage in more regularly, that you know without a doubt, would make you more effective? Please don't tell me that this is a one-woman show. Do tell!


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Q&A Friday #104: A Short Evaluation Of Each Of The GOP's Potential 2012 Contenders
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Of the existing GOP field – if you discount the polls and take a good, long, honest look at the field – which candidate seems to be the most viable for 2012? My own opinion (though not necessarily who I'd really like to see): Mitch Daniels or Tim Pawlenty. — Scott
You've been pretty quiet about Republican POTUS candidates. Without asking you to qualify the entire field of candidates, I'll just ask your thoughts on my current favorite, Tim Pawlenty. — Eric Neill
Sarah Palin. Should she or shouldn't she? — Eric Neill
What happens to the conservative movement if Obama is re-elected in 2012? — Anne Grosvenor
First off, presidential electability is a slippery subject. Take Obama and Hillary: Who seemed to be the more electable candidate at this point in the 2008 cycle? Think back to 1976: Republicans decided that Gerald Ford was more electable than Ronald Reagan. How's that decision looking today?
At this early point in the campaign cycle, when we don't know who's running and have very little polling data to work with, it's really hard to say who the most viable candidate would be. I can tell you this though: Governors make much better candidates than members of Congress. That's because they haven't been tainted by DC and they haven't voted on the unpopular issues of the day.
So, here's a very a quick rundown on some of the more likely candidates.
Sharron Angle: She's already proven she can't win a big election and people aren't going to give her a second chance on a higher level.
Michele Bachmann: My instinct is that she's too controversial to win, but Bachmann is conservative, she has charisma, and I have to admit that I wouldn't dismiss her as a candidate. Would she be a longshot? Sure. But, just maybe? Sure.
John Bolton: He'd have a lot of credibility on foreign policy issues, but he's a little on the feisty side for a presidential candidate and not a lot is known about his domestic views.
Haley Barbour: He's a competent conservative who could conceivably be the best guy in the field, but the fact that he's from Mississippi and isn't as careful as he should be in dealing with race issues could doom him. If he can get past that issue, he could be a strong candidate.
Herman Cain: He has phenomenal charisma and a stellar business career, but he's never been elected to office and his time as a talk radio show host will probably produce some damaging quotes.
Mitch Daniels: He's a fiscal conservative from an important state, Indiana, but his "truce on social issues" comments were world class dumb. Not only did he give social conservatives a reason to deeply distrust him, he insured that he's going to be constantly asked about social issues at every opportunity, which is a topic he has no interest in talking about. Making a blunder that big right out of the box suggests that he may be very gaffe prone.
Jim DeMint: He's conservative and the base loves him. On the other hand, he doesn't have top notch charisma and senators generally don't make great candidates. If he does throw his hat in the ring, he would be a strong candidate.
Newt Gingrich: He's an extremely smart guy, but his popularity with the base has slipped in recent years and he has a tremendous amount of baggage.
Rudy Giuliani: He has charisma, a national profile, and a reputation as a leader. But, he got absolutely no traction in 2008 and it would be a bit of a surprise if he did better this time around.
Mike Huckabee: He has tremendous charisma, but has a rep as a big government conservative that has made him unpopular with much of the base.
Jon Huntsman, Jr.: He's a squish who worked for Obama. Chance of winning? He has about as good a chance of winning the Democratic nomination in 2012 as he does of winning the GOP nomination.
Sarah Palin: She has incredible charisma and inspires wild enthusiasm, but the key question is going to be whether the Left's non-stop smear campaign has damaged her too much to be electable in 2012. If I were her and I absolutely had to make a decision today about whether to run, given the fact that she's young for a politician and is making a tremendous impact doing what she's doing, I'd advise her to wait another cycle before she gets in. That's not because I think she definitely couldn't win in 2012; it's because I think she would probably be in a much stronger position in 2016 or even potentially, 2020.
Ron Paul: He has a small, extremely dedicated groups of fans, but he doesn't have a wide enough base to have a chance to capture the nomination and he's not capable of broadening his support enough to get the job done.
Tim Pawlenty: He's generally conservative and from a key state, Minnesota, but he hasn't shown much charisma or done a lot to distinguish himself. The real question is: How does Tim Pawlenty break out of the pack?
Mitt Romney: Despite the fact that he's very well organized and a great fundraiser, I wasn't a Romney fan in 2008 and there's even less to like about him now because of the failure of Mittcare and the fact that he's once again shifting his position from the "true conservative" in the race to a safe pick for the establishment. Romney doesn't deliver any northern states and he runs very weak in the South; so he's a really poor candidate all the way around.
Rick Santorum: Lost as a senator in Pennsylvania. Doesn't have a reputation as a fiscal conservative. Comes across as a little too preachy on social issues.
Joe Scarborough: Ha, ha, ha — no.
John Thune: He's conservative, but a Senator, not very charismatic, and he's gotten dinged by some people in the base for being too "establishment."
Donald Trump: See the entry for Joe Scarborough.
Now, what happens to the conservative movement if Obama wins? Well, what happened to the liberal movement when Bush won a second term? They got angrier, they got more fired up, and they kept pushing onward. The same thing would happen with conservatives — and incidentally, historically, sitting Presidents usually do get a second term. There are, of course, exceptions and Obama could very well be one of them, but the odds generally favor re-election.
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The recent Israeli offensive in Gaza, which media channels reported as a 'war', was in fact another episode in Israel's enforcement of its 'effective control' over the Gaza Strip, as a long-standing Occupying Power of the territory – a position firmly maintained by the international community. In time of belligerent occupation, such attacks have the purpose of enforcing its control and restoring order. Even when directed against organised acts of resistance mounted by the occupied population, the occupier must account for its inherent control over the territory by using the least harmful means to achieve a military advantage.
If Israel's position vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip is assumed – namely, that it is no longer an Occupying Power in the Gaza Strip since its 'disengagement' in 2005 – each and every instance of an Israeli land incursion into Gaza (such as the killing of the 13-year-old boy on the 8 November 2012 that triggered the recent escalation) and any single attack on the territory should be examined under the definition of an act of aggression (elaborated in the General Assembly Resolution 3314); surely an undesirable outcome for Israel.
Shifting legal narratives on Gaza
A group of international figures recently held that Israel's official justification for the use of disproportionate force under the 'right to self-defence' during its recent operation is unlawful, as states cannot invoke self-defence for acts that defend an unlawful situation, which they are responsible for creating in the first place. Israel cannot invoke this right – an international norm normally applicable in time of peace – in the on-going international armed conflict with the Gaza district of Palestine, continuing its belligerent occupation while systematically violating international humanitarian law and imposing an unlawful siege on Palestine's Gaza district, which amounts to collective punishment. Having created a situation that only instigates violence through its own defaults as an occupier, and which has resulted in the emergence of resistance, Israel is prevented from invoking the right to violently repress it, as opposed to reasserting control of the territory and undertaking other means to quell resistance that are less harmful to the civilian population.
The same statement also calls on states to impose an arms embargo on Israel, in order to fulfil their obligations not to recognize or assist in violations of international law. Public Interest Lawyers and Al-Haq brought a suit on these grounds in the UK courts for judicial review of the UK's arms sales to Israel after 'Operation Cast Lead', which was denied in 2010 on grounds of judicial deference to UK foreign policy. While the EU and its member states have long asserted a foreign policy interest and a legal obligation to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law and respect human rights – enshrined in EU law through the Treaty of Lisbon – the EU and its member states are only just beginning to review all areas of EU-Israel engagement in line with these obligations.
Israel's legitimacy battles
These legal nuances were missing from the barrage of statements issued by Israel's official military political and military outlets during its recent operation in the Gaza Strip – labelled, in Hebrew, with the biblical phrase, 'Pillar of Cloud.' Footage taken by drones and fighter planes, constant updates on social media sites were all geared towards enhancing Israel's international legitimacy and crafting a narrative of self-defense against 'terrorism'. In an interesting contrast to this narrative, Israel's legal strategy since its operation 'Cast Lead' in 2008/9 has actually hinged on exploiting the 'grey areas' of the law, including the proportionality debate on targeting military objectives and the soldier's right to life, in order to justify its use of greater force against potential threats.
Human rights groups are currently examining physical evidence and collecting testimonies to ascertain the legality of the recent attacks under international humanitarian law, the law on the conduct of hostilities. Once the evidence is in, it will likely be arrayed against Israel's version of events, sometimes supported by foreign former military officers, claiming the presence of militants and the inevitability of civilian deaths. Israel would not be the first to claim that an accidental civilian death is not a violation, based on necro-economic calculations of the 'least of all possible evils'. Its position has extensively relied on the necessity of self-defence (jus ad bellum) under the 'means-end test' to justify violations of the laws of the conduct of hostilities (jus in bello), often turning these core tenets of international humanitarian law on its head as a result.
Since Palestine submitted a declaration in January 2009 to the International Criminal Court (ICC) under Article 12(3) of the Court's Statute, asking it to exercise jurisdiction over international crimes committed in Palestine since 1 July 2002, Israel has been fully aware of the looming threat presented by the ICC. So much so that in September 2012, the Israeli Turkel Commission, tasked with the appraisal of the 'Maritime Incident of 30 March 2011' – the Israeli navy's attacks on the Mavi Marmara flotilla – and its aftermath, published a legal opinion it had commissioned from a German international law professor, Dr. Claus Kress, on the ICC principle of complementarity, assessing possible deficiencies in national justice mechanisms that should be complemented by the ICC. While it did not discuss the specific application of the principle to the case of Israel, the opinion presents a detailed account of existing practice, while pre-emptively assuming that Israel would not be susceptible to the Court's jurisdiction.
In a recent article, Sharon Weill and I examine Israel's institutional practice of investigating and prosecuting international crimes, in light of its follow up to the report of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the "Goldstone report"). The analysis concludes that neither states nor the Court can rely on comity – an underlying presumption of mutual-recognition between states in international cooperation – to recognise Israel's application of international criminal law principles either procedurally or substantively, since its practice has resulted in shielding the high echelons and initiating a small number of low-level prosecutions for mostly minor offenses. A similar conclusion was reached by the Human Rights Council on 25 March 2011, when it called upon the General Assembly to transfer the Gaza Conflict fact-finding mission's report to the ICC.
Palestine's UN bid and the ICC
Yesterday, 29 November 2012, the Palestinians obtained 'non-member state observer' status in the General Assembly, in parallel to the pending application for full UN membership submitted in September 2011, which was shelved by the Security Council in late 2011. Although Palestine has overwhelmingly been accepted as a state, with the official recognition of some 132 states, membership in UNESCO and relations with other international organisations, yesterday's resolution is a symbolic 'rubber stamp' that politically reaffirms Palestine's existing status as a state. The resolution was voted for by 138 states (with 9 against and 41 abstentions), including some EU states that have yet to bilaterally recognise Palestine as a state. Some – including Human Rights Watch, who does not refer to the declaration in its call for Palestine's ratification of the ICC Statute – seem to believe that the resolution was a precondition for Palestine to be able to ratify ICC Statute – a proposition that is neither correct nor relevant to the path Palestine has chosen to trigger the Court's jurisdiction.
The resolution provides 'fresh evidence' for the Prosecutor whose dubious decision from April of this year groundlessly held that it is the UN and the ICC Assembly of State Parties to determine whether Palestine is a state in the context of its consideration of Palestine's Article 12(3) declaration, seeking to trigger the Court's jurisdiction as a non-state party to the Court's Rome Statute. This decision was clearly geared towards avoiding a serious examination of Palestine's case and removing it from the Court's docket, while making legal and factual mistakes in deferring the matter to other international organs, as has been discussed by Professor William Schabas, Michael Kearney and Chantal Meloni, amongst others.
Importantly, this path is distinct from a prospective ratification of the Statute by Palestine, not only because it grants the Court retroactive jurisdiction over Palestinian territory from 1 July 2002, otherwise only applicable from the moment of ratification, but also because the decision-making power to accept such a declaration is in the hands of the Court, including the Prosecutor, as opposed to the UN Secretary-General. Palestine was eligible to ratify the Statute as of November 2011, by virtue of its UNESCO membership, as per the Summary of the Practice of the Secretary-General as Depositary of Multilateral Treaties, which considers 'all states' to be entities who are members of a UN specialised agency.
A suicidal international response
The UN bid and its prospects for the exercise of the ICC's jurisdiction in Palestine have become the focal point of Israel's efforts to contend with the proper application of international law. These efforts recently manifested in Israel's twists and turns before the US administration to amend yesterday's General Assembly resolution; although to no avail. Amid discussions on the EU's position, the British government distinguished itself by conditioning its support on Palestinian assurances not to turn to the ICC under the pretext that doing so would jeopardise the 'peace process'. This proposition and its intended result are however misleading. Strictly legally speaking, a state's right to join international treaties and organisations cannot be neutered, either through political agreements, nor General Assembly resolutions, at least not in accordance with international law.
Michael Kearney has stated: 'Premising recognition of statehood on a condition that you absent your new state from rights or responsibility under international law is to make a mockery not just of the process of statehood, but of the very notion of human rights.' Those who maintain this stance forget that the ICC is the only remaining international justice mechanism left to redress the accountability gap in the Palestinian-Israeli context – particularly since universal jurisdiction laws have been ceded to prosecutorial politics, partly due to the very Palestinian efforts that sought to gain access to international justice.
The reaction of EU states to the symbolic General Assembly vote is a strong indication of the fact that it is high time for states to ensure the proper application of international law to the question of Palestine, which has long remained on the periphery of international law. While some have warned of the political dangers of the ICC wading into the Palestinian-Israeli context, and the likelihood of Palestinian violations being first in line – most probably together with Israel's war crime of transferring, directly or indirectly, its civilians into occupied territory – Israel's narrative is becoming increasingly unconvincing. Any further obstacles to Palestine's access to international justice can only result in a suicidal move for both the integrity of the international legal order and the legal orders of individual states.
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A month ago, when the Occupy movement was beginning to gain traction, Matt Stoller penned an influential response to criticism about the movement's lack of a clear, concise message. The critics, he wrote, had failed to notice the religious nature of what was going on in Zuccotti Park. He explained: "What these people are doing is building, for lack of a better word, a church of dissent. It's not a march, though marches are spinning off of the campground. It's not even a protest, really. It is a group of people, gathered together, to create a public space seeking meaning in their culture. They are asserting, together, to each other and to themselves, 'we matter'."
The idea of a "church of dissent" did not only interest me – it positively attracted me. So I was there on October 7, when Atlanta's own occupation began in downtown's Woodruff Park, which the group renamed Troy Davis park in honor of a quite-possibly-innocent man Georgia had executed weeks before. Since then, I have not camped – family commitments prevented it – but I have helped in the small ways I could, donating camping equipment, spending an afternoon with the media committee, and using my Twitter stream (@bbrazil) to defend the group. I have also attended multiple marches, visited in the evenings, and observed when police broke up the camp in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Just as importantly, I have also experienced what Nathan Schneider recently called a "secret extremity and transcendence" – a sense that justice was, finally, on the march again and that I was part of it. So if the Occupy movement is a church of dissent, I have worshiped at its altar. I believe that growing economic injustice is the greatest issue of our time, and I believe that the Occupy movement is the first mass movement to confront the issue head on. It gives me hope, and I continue support it.
At the same time, I worry that Stoller's "Church of Dissent" risks becoming the Sect of the Politically Radical. I am referring to a sociological distinction between church and sect that found its most influential articulation in Ernst Troeltsch's The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches, first published in 1912. Drawing on his colleague Max Weber, Troeltsch argued that churches' engagements with the world depended on how they were organized: as churches, as sects, or as loose collections of religious individualists, or "mystics." At it relates to Occupy Wall Street, Troeltsch's "church" has several salient features. Most importantly, though, it is broadly inclusive – a true big tent. By church, in fact, Troeltsch primarily meant European state churches, which included everyone living in their territories. The Occupy movement makes a similar claim via income percentiles. To be part of the bottom 99 percent, the rhetoric suggets, is to hold a claim to membership in the Occupy movement. Troeltsch, however, also saw that a functioning church entailed something that some Occupiers resist: compromise. For the medieval church and the state churches that grew from it, the compromise entailed an alliance with power in the name of an objective religious truth. Occupiers, for their part, reject traditional notions of power in their consensus decision making process. At some point, however, demands for reform are demands for the deployment of state power. Likewise, if demands for economic justice don't entail claims to absolute truth, they do entail – and should entail – a normative ethical vision.
On at least two levels, then, the "church of dissent" faces the need for compromise: with the workings of power, and with the need to maintain the "big tent" required to legitimately claim it. But, as Troeltsch knew, compromise sits uneasily with true believers and – I would add – with idealists. Historically, it tends to generate the sects, smaller groups that recoil against the defilement of compromise and form narrower communities of the committed, pure, and pious. They do not make claims on state power, seeking only tolerance for their own islands of purity. They favor principle over pragmatism, and purity over change. It's not a perfect analogy, but my experiences at Occupy Atlanta suggest a group caught between an impulse to be a sect of the politically pure and the need to become a bigger church of dissent. And I believe the issue, at this point, has less to do with substance than with tone, style, and aesthetics. A couple of examples will show what I mean.
On the first night of the occupation, a crowd of 400-500 people from all walks of life came downtown to get a look at a movement many were thinking of joining. Toward the end of the evening, I talked with a middle-aged white woman from a nearby suburb. She was furious with exactly the same corporate power and economic inequality that motivated the protest. Still, she was also flummoxed by the slow, consensus process of the governing General Assembly and it's "human microphone" — the practice in which a crowd amplifies a speaker by repeating her clipped, half-phrases. Although I explained the process and its rationale, this woman told me in a later e-mail that she still found the process alienating. "Unfortunately I did feel like an outsider," she wrote, "I don't feel confident they're going to draw people that fall into my demographic but time will tell. Hopefully I'm wrong. I wish everyone the best!" This woman was an ally who, based on the visual and aural aesthetics of the process, decided she wasn't welcome.
Of course, you can't make everyone happy, and middle-class decorum will never sit easily with protest, much less with civil disobedience. Still, some of the exclusion is as needless as it is unintentional. On the night the police broke up the Atlanta camp, a friend tried to stop "F*@K the police" catcalls by chanting "Cops are the 99 percent." A handful of other protesters overwhelmed his voice with a counter-chant of "Cops are class traitors." Such language is not just inflammatory; it is the language of the sect. And it has almost no constituency among the 99 percent they – we – claim to represent. More famously, the decision that effectively prevented civil rights hero and congressional representative John Lewis from speaking also involved a question of purity – this time, of violating the consensus process to allow Lewis to, effectively, jump to the front of the line. To have allowed Lewis to speak immediately would have violated the pure, egalitarian, participatory democracy of the process, but effectively preventing him from speaking (he had to leave) alienated some supporters and opened the group to spurious, false, and opportunistic claims of racism.
In part, the radical flavor of the Atlanta camp simply reflects the realities of who can camp — students and single activists. I stress that I am grateful to these idealists – they have faced arrest, worsening weather, and a lack of sleep in resistance to injustices that affect all of us. At the same time, it is not surprising that the core Occupiers are somewhat more radical than the thousands of us that support from afar. I share other Occupier's anger – about pervasive economic injustice, about corporate domination of our wobbling democracy, about the unjust execution of Troy Davis, and more. But I also wish that my allies would remember that their words, their style, and their tone can very effectively exclude people. Although occupiers cannot cater to middle class tastes, they should also remember that the non-radical middle classes are part of the 99 percent. Let me put this more bluntly: Fighting for justice doesn't mean you have to be an asshole every chance you get. I think they're beginning to get this in Atlanta. A push to include more African Americans has born fruit, and the Occupiers are working at outreach. It's the right move. Martin Luther King, for example, engaged not only in physical nonviolence (as do the Occupiers) but in a verbal and emotional non-violence. Rather than hate his oppressors, he viewed them as brothers and sisters in a Beloved Community he was trying to build. Without compromising on justice, he understood that confronting injustice is more effective when your own dignity appears unimpeachable. At the same time, King famously excoriated moderates who refused to get involved in the fight for justice.
So let me close by turning the lens around on the academics and other sympathizers who read this site. If you don't like what the "Church of Dissent" looks like now, there is only one way to help: join it. The presence of our bodies and our voices broadens and grows a movement that is, in my view, overwhelmingly positive. It is easy to critique a culture and protest subculture from afar. It is harder – and better – to try to build a new movement, and a new culture, that remembers its ideals even as it eventually faces the necessity of compromise. The 'Church of Dissent: is what the 99 percent make it.


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Genealogy of the UK
County Antrim
County Antrim Genealogy
"Antrim, a county of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, 46 Irish miles long, and 27 broad; bounded on the E and N by the sea, W by Londonderry and Lough Neagh, and S by Down.
from The New London Gazetteer 1826
Genuki - County Antrim
Genuki is the largest collection of research information
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Co. Londonderry, Co. Down
Co. Antrim GenWeb
maintained by volunteers in an effort to help researchers
find local resources and reference information
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Genealogy Record Sources
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Griffiths Valuation 1848 -1864 - County Antrim
This valuation can be used as an excellent census substitute for the years after the Great Famine as censuses prior to 1901 were destroyed
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County Antrim Query Forum
post your queries and get answers about your surnames here
800 Million Name Database
UK and Ireland Database Collection
search 800 million UK/Irish records and over 60 individual databases, including
Irish Flax Growers List 1796, Irish Wills, Irish Independant Newspaper Obits
Irish Records Extraction Database
records of births, marriages, deaths, burials, cemeteries, wills, immigration, census from 1600-1874
Land Owners in Ireland 1876
Land Owners - County Antrim
The names of every land owner in Ireland 1876 who had at least one acre of land.
Genealogy Links.net - County Antrim
links to cemetery transcriptions here
Census-Online.com - County Antrim
FreeCen - County Antrim
1841-1891 Census transcriptions by volunteers
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