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On April 17, 1942 the Jewish community of Gombin, my birthplace in Poland, was savagely wiped out by an act of Nazi brutality. The small number of survivors chose not to return to their hometown, where their ancestors had lived and worked for some five centuries, in an effort to forget the unbearable catastrophe in which their loved ones perished mercilessly. They preferred exile, and so the Shtetl Gombin that I knew is no more.
The Polish Magazine Nasza Ojczyzna (our Fatherland) reported in its September 1964 issue: Gombin is smaller than before the war when it counted six thousand inhabitants. Now there are less than three and a half thousand. The Jews who made up almost half of the population of Gombin were murdered by the Hitlerites. Gone from the streets are the Hassidic Jews with their yarmelkehs (skull caps) and from the fronts of the small stores the bearded tailors and shoemakers. In the small Gombin now there is almost no industry nor commerce.
It is with deep sadness that I write of my life in Jewish Gombin where I grew up and lived, except for some interruptions for studies from 1907 to 1937. My painful awareness of its extinction may best be described by my paraphrasing the words of the Polish Poet Adam Mickiewicz as follows: Gombin, my dear shtetele, you were like health. How much I miss you only he knows who lost you.
The memory of Gombin, of its people and its religious, cultural and social institutions, lives in the minds of the few survivors who are scattered over the face of the earth. When we are gone, Gombin will cease to exist even in memory and this would be its second extinction.
To prevent this tragedy, this book is being published as a memorial to our town in hopes that in years to come it will be read from time to time by people who will tell their children that once upon a time there was a Shtetl Gombin and so keep the memory of this town alive after all, like an eternal flame.
And what kind of a Shtetl was Gombin?
To some it would probably seem to be a Shtetl like many others dispersed throughout Poland. But to me it was something very special. I grew up there and it was there that I had my roots and tasted life in all its variety for the first time. And it was also there that I derived my chief values, aspirations, and drives which have become my guidelines in life and have contributed to my achievements.
Regardless of how far away I was from Gombin and from the family I left behind and no matter what I was doing, I always had a feeling of nostalgia and a desire to visit home. So whether I was attending high school in Warsaw or Medical School in Paris, I always liked to return home for vacations. Now that my Shtetl is no more, my old longing to return there has left me.
Looking back to the early days, I can say it was fun to grow up there. Yet paradoxically, as far back as I can remember, there was also the wish to grow up and leave Gombin and make my way to faraway cities or lands. Everybody in the Shtetl at one time or another dreamed of getting away from it, and those who could not hoped that at least their children would have a chance. It was therefore no coincidence that at the age of twelve I wrote a school composition to the effect that I would like to be an explorer of unknown lands like Christopher Columbus.
Nor was it accidental that shortly after World War I, two young boys of about fifteen, David Meilekh Brzezinski (now Burns, living in New York) and Haim Luzer Ciuk, ran away from Gombin and got as far as Holland before they were apprehended and returned home. How I envied them their courage. The aspiration for traveling was in the very atmosphere of the Shtetl. Few were able to get away, but almost all of those who did emigrate thrived in other lands for it was at home that they acquired their stamina and courage.
Since my father was considered to be a Lamdan (Talmudic scholar) people would turn to him on such occasions to ask his opinion on many fine points of interpretation of the Torah. I was always surprised to hear him quoting from memory extensive Hebrew passages from Talmud in support of his reasoning, and of course that feat made me one of the proudest boys in all Gombin.
The effects of the maggid's teaching did not stop there. After my father came home, he would take down from the shelves of his large library heavy Sforim (Hebrew religious books) and study them, sometime far into the night. I imagine many other learned Jews acted in a like manner.
Fierce was the devotion to learning of the Torah among a number of balebatim (burghers) in the Shtetl.
More often than not the oyrekhs turned \out to be interesting characters and I liked very much when my father, after Friday evening prayers in Shul (synagogue) chose one of the beggars standing in the door as an oyrekh. That was when the meal-times were gayer and livelier than ever. Once the initial bashfulness was past, the oyrekh often grew quite talkative and told exciting tales about his travels to various towns and cities, and frequently discussed religious, political and business matters with sophistication and wisdom one would hardly expect to find in an oyrekh.
I remember after one of them left the house how my father and mother expressed astonishment, how amazed they were that a beggar should be so smart yet unable to achieve for himself a life of dignity. My parents' wonder stuck in my mind for a long time, and it was not until many years later when I became a psychiatrist that I understood the paradox of being intelligent and capable and yet unsuccessful.
Gombin was an isolated shtetl. But in its isolation it was a microcosm where the people experienced, as they do anywhere, a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from joy to intense sorrow.
It is fair to say that the Jewish emotional life in Gombin was fashioned by two forces - Jewish religious fervor and the ever-present hostility of the non-Jews.
During Yom Kippur Eve all the members of the family went through this ritual, father using a rooster, mother a hen and the children cockerels or pullets. Then I felt immensely reassured as to the fate of my whole family.
But most reassuring of all was my parents' love around this time. They loved their children all year long, but when the high holidays came, they showed more warm tenderness and affection than ever, as if they were trying with their love to wash away our sins.
After the sundown feast of Erev Yom Kippur (Yom Kippur Eve) came a most solemn moment which always moved me very deeply. Father dressed in a Kittl (white garment) over his holiday silk Kaftan, and mother dressed in a long black silk gown and a black shawl on her head. They kissed each other and shook hands, wishing each other, Beyt sich oys a good johr! (Pray yourself out a good year!). Then father would bless us children and kiss us. After that mother remained at home with the younger children and a thick Hebrew prayer book with Yiddish translation and legends and parables that she loved to read, while tears poured out of her eyes. By the time the evening was over, the pages were quite damp.
While the women prayed at home on Yom Kippur Eve, the men and older boys set out for the Shul, besmedresh or the Hassidic shtiblekh (little shul). A blanket of quiet covered the town. The stores and shutters were closed and the people (with a sense of gravity and solemnity) went to the houses of worship to face their Creator. On the way when they met they shook hands and wished each other, May you pray yourself out a good year. Besides expressing good wishes, some people asked forgiveness of others for any offenses committed in the past year.
The Shul was filled as at no other holiday. The crowd of worshippers overflowed into the large vestibule. It felt as if the whole town were in the Shul. Every year a few non-Jews, usually members of the town's Polish intelligentsia, came to the vestibule to listen to Kol Nidre, a very sad and moving prayer, sung by the cantor and his choir in front of the Arc of Torah at the Mizrakh (Eastern wall).
This ancient and poignant musical prayer set the tone and opened the Yom Kippur services of unremitting and intense prayers which were interrupted only for the night and then lasted until sundown the next day. The following morning the women and girls came and joined the prayers in the balcony of the Shul.
The chanting, the weeping, the swaying, the fasting, the blessing by the Kohanim (members of the tribe of priests) and the fumes from the hundreds of candles on brass chandeliers suspended from the high ceiling, created a climate of intense religious devotion which culminated with the blowing of the Shofar (ram's horn).
I have no words to describe the effect of the Shofar on me. The sound filled me with a hypnotic sense of awe and a conviction that God Almighty had descended into the Shul to bless us personally and protect each of us from evil. After the services, I felt elated and purified. Outside the Shul, mother and father met and wished each other a good year, and then exchanged this wish with everybody they met on the way home to a delicious dinner.
To me Yom Kippur meant being in communion with God and with people. It also meant loving and being loved. It inspired an exalted sense of the sublime which comes from the feeling of being purged of sin and evil. But above all, the religious intensity of Yom Kippur imparted spiritual strength and elevated the mood which was so indispensable for Jewish survival in the hostile environment of non-Jews.
my sister-in-law Helen (Zayontz) (1917-1942)
Or how can I express my shame and humiliation when a Polish teacher, in order to illustrate the concept of race, called up in front of the class - a short, fat, homely Jewish boy - and compared him side by side with a tall, slender, good-looking gentile boy as two specimens of different races.
These and other painful experiences in Gombin were numerous, but of a relatively minor nature. However, from time to time, there were experiences which were overwhelming in character. One such episode shook me up so deeply that I have never forgotten it and even now when I think about it I am moved to tears.
My father, in a rage, ran out into the street after him and grabbed his arm. They grappled with each other and when my father did not let go, the Cossack pulled out his sword and threatened to thrust it into my father's chest. Meanwhile, soldiers with ugly, cruel and laughing faces gathered around as if it were a circus, urging the Cossack to go ahead and kill the Yevrey (Jew).
My mother, the tears streaming from her eyes, begged the Cossack not to harm my father, and pleaded with my father to let the Cossack go. I watched this ghastly scene from the doorway of our store, dreadfully scared and horrified and crying Totteh! Totteh! (Father! Father!) For a moment the world stood still on the edge of disaster, the image frozen into my mind of the soldiers' fierce, pitiless faces, and my father deathly pale, his life in danger, and my mother in extreme agony before me.
Suddenly and miraculously, a Russian chaplain, tall with flowing hair and dressed in a long Kaftan, appeared on the scene and angrily ordered the Cossack to put away his sword and return the groceries to my father, and then he dispersed the crowd. My joy and gratitude to that chaplain knew no bounds.
Mother and father returned to the store badly shaken. Of course she scolded him for risking his life and he defended himself, insisting that the Cossack had no right to act as he did. As for me, I agreed with mother that life is sacred, but I was also immensely proud of my father and the courage he showed in making his stand.
Since then I have always believed in the sacredness of both life and human dignity and have longed for a world where no human being would have to risk his life to defend his dignity. Although scientific, technological and economic progress is necessary for the achievement of man's goals, the real barometer of progress toward a humane society is the preservation of human dignity.
When a traveler came into town from Kutno or £ód, the highway ran through pastures, wheat, rye and potato fields. On the outskirts of town there were four huge windmills which manufactured flour from local farmer' grain. A similar landscape presented itself when you arrived from Warsaw, only instead of windmills there was at the entrance of town a flour mill, a tall red brick building with modern machinery. The road from P³ock and Gostynin crossed miles of beautiful pine forest, and as you approached the town you could see from afar the tall steeple of the Protestant Church. At this entrance there was a mechanized lumber mill.
When I was a little boy I used to love to play in the fields, watching horses pull the plows and beautiful colts running along beside them, and cows grazing on the grass. But more than anything else, in the summertime I liked to walk through the tall rye and wheat with the stalks high above my head. It was thrilling to see the waves created by the breezes along the surface of the rye and wheat fields. The shimmering golden color of the ripe rye and wheat gave me the impression of a sea of gold.
Then as an adolescent I took great pleasure in strolling for hours at a time in the forest of tall thick pine trees, daydreaming about the wide world and my place in it. One of the people I frequently met in the woods was our poetess Reisele Zychlinski who like myself was fascinated and absorbed by the unusual loveliness of nature and the whispering orchestration of the trees..
In the center of this beautiful countryside nestled the shtetl, with its two markets and two dozen cobblestoned streets. On its periphery were dispersed farms with small houses, large stables, and huge barns with thatched roofs. In the middle of the farmyard there was usually an open well.
The Old Market, the center of town, was a rectangular place with two manually operated water pumps, one in the center, the other about two hundred feet to the east. On the southeast corner stood the Catholic Church, a beautiful red brick edifice with two towers. Across the street was the Town Hall, a plain stucco building which housed the administrative offices, the police and the town jail. Adjoining was the firehouse. All around stood two-story brick or stucco houses with store fronts. They replaced the wooden houses which had been burned down by a big fire at the turn of the century. The few wooden houses that survived the fire stood at two opposite corners of the market.
About four blocks to the west was the New Market lived my parents and grandparents. It was a huge, rectangular place, paved with cobblestones, a water pump in the center. At its west end was a huge wooden cross and all around were small farmhouses. In the summer at sunset, it was quite a picture to see the farmers with their horses and cattle returning from the nearby fields. Many Jewish mothers liked to bring her children to the farm to have them drink the fresh warm milk, supposed to have health-giving qualities.
The streets were narrow and lined on both sides with low one-story wooden houses, devoid of beauty or ornament or any modern comfort. There was no running water and until the end of World War I no electricity. Water was brought into the houses from the nearby wells and pumps, and light was furnished by kerosene lamps.
Poor working-class people lived in one room with a brick or tile stove for both cooking and heating in winter. The more affluent could afford a kitchen, a combination dining and living room and one or more bed rooms. In each room there was a high tile oven for heating.
About one block from the Old Market was the Jewish religious complex of the shul, besmedresh, and the mikve (public bath for ritual). The shul was a charming old wooden structure about three or four stories high with tall windows, a copper roof and two copper onion-shaped cupolas. The outside walls were quite weatherbeaten. Inside the walls were covered with natural wood boards with no ornamentation except around the Arc where the Torah Books were kept. There at the Eastern Wall were beautifully carved wood decorations of an ancient design. In the center were carved tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed in Hebrew. The pulpit, the elevated platform with its Arc and decorations, gave the Eastern Wall a most impressive quality.
In the middle of the shul was the bimah, an elevated platform where the Torah was read, the shofar blown, and speeches made. From the high ceiling dozens of brass chandeliers were hung. In the rear was a balcony where the women prayed. In front of the bimah were benches with pulpits for the balebatim (burghers), in the rear the reserved place for the artisans and workers.
At the northern end of town there was a large park and the near-by Protestant Church with its beautiful high steeple. A narrow creek divided the town in half, and two wooden bridges connected both parts. In the spring the water of the creek often came up to the top of the bridges. In winter the water froze and boys and girls skated on the ice in their homemade wooden skates. In the summer the creek usually dried up.
Gombin could not be called a beautiful town. But the synagogue and the two churches towering over the narrow cobblestoned streets, and the two markets with their low small houses, all surrounded by magnificent natural beauty, imparted an aura of charm, the sort of thing that was captured so well by Chagall in his many paintings of small Russian towns.
Gombin was also the commercial and religious center for a peasant population of several thousand people, living within a radius of five to ten miles in an outer belt of villages. A few Jews lived in these villages, but the great majority was non-Jews. I guess about ninety percent of all the non-Jews of Gombin and the surroundings were Catholics and they were referred to as Polish, the rest being Protestants of German origin who were called Germans.
On Sundays and other Christian holidays, the non-Jews came to town in large numbers on foot or in country horsedrawn wagans to attend religious services in the two churches. They were dressed up in their holiday clothes. The men were usually attired in dark, poorly tailored suits with high shiny boots and round caps with gleaming leather visors. The women wore colorful pleated skirts and blouses, homespun kerchiefs on their hair. They would arrive in town to the tolling of the great church bells that could be heard for miles around. After the services they would mill about in the streets. I remember as a child feeling apprehensive on such occasions, because from time to time the Catholics would emerge from church displaying hostile feelings towards the Jews.
Other times when the farmers and the peasants used to come to town were the marketing days on Thursday of every week, and during the two semi-annual fairs held in the spring and fall. They came with wagons laden with grain, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, eggs, butter and fowl for sale. Horses, cattle and pigs were also on sale. The merchants, usually Jews (except when it came to purchasing pigs), met the peasants and bargained with them before a deal was consummated. With money in their pockets, the peasants then went to the stores to purchase food, cloth-shoes and assorted articles for houses and farms.
The stores were well stocked by Jewish merchants. Almost all the grocers, except two or three, were Jewish. Of seven bakeries, five were Jewish. The Jews were shoemakers, tailors, hatters, rope makers, blacksmith, barbers, roofers, metal stove and kettle makers. Haberdashery, dry goods, hardware, leather, book and stationery stores were owned by Jews. The seltzer and oil factories and one of two tanneries were run by Jews. The bicycle repair shop and watch repair shops were Jewish-owned. One out of two physicians and the Felttsher (medical practioner without university training) and the dentists were Jews.
The Jews organized passenger and truck transportation to nearby and distant towns and cities to which they exported grain, butter, eggs, and other farm produce, and imported goods needed by the local population. In a word, the Jews in Gombin were an intelligent, industrious and enterprising people in all avenues of endeavor.
A few Jews also lived in the country as farmers. My paternal grandparents, Abe and Hinda, lived in a village a few miles away when I was a child. But then two of my uncles emigrated to Great Britain shortly before the outbreak of World War I and one uncle was taken into the Russian army, so they moved to Gombin. I especially remember the fun of visiting them in the country, running around in the field, riding on wagons stocked high with hay, and going horseback riding.
During my excursions in the countryside I used to meet peasants who knew me and my parents, and they were quite hospitable, inviting me into their huts and treating me to good peasant homemade dark bread, fresh milk, cheese and fruit.
As for intermarriages, they were most infrequent. In thirty years I recall only two such instances. Two Jewish women converted to Catholicism and their families suffered unbearable anguish equal to the pain caused by the death of a child. Indeed the members of the two families said Kaddish (the prayer of mourning for the death of a close relative) and all relations with the converts were severed.
Individually, some Poles were able to show friendliness toward Jews. But in a group they were often unrecognizably changed because of the tendency to display, overtly or covertly, anti-Semitic attitudes. From the earliest years of my life I often suffered from humiliation and even physical mistreatment brought about by anti-Semitism.
As in all other shtetlekh, anti-Semitism was endemic in Gombin, a constant threat to the physical and spiritual survival of the Jews. To keep afloat in the treacherous sea of hostility, the Jews needed a cultural compass. During the long dark years of political reaction and hopelessness in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century, such a compass was supplied by the conviction that the Jews were God's chosen people, that the Messiah would come and free them from oppression.
For it was during these days that they were in communion with God. Activities in Gombin were spoken of as taking place before or after Sabbath, since Sabbath was a day of complete rest, of praying, learning, and good eating.
From my earliest childhood on I preferred the spirit of the Sabbath to the spirit of the week. During the week, Jew competed with Jew for parnosseh, and this competition frequently led to quarrels and animosity which always filled my heart with sadness. But the spirit of Sabbath and holidays personified friendliness and serenity among Jews.
The devotion to studying the Torah was intense, and the respect for the lamdn Talmud Khochem (wise student) was great. When I was a child, my father spent perhaps more time in besmedresh, along with other students of the Talmud than in his business. According to custom, young married men, students of the Torah, continued to study, while their wives attended to the matter of parnosseh.
The shtetl had a well-organized system of kheyders (religious schools) extending from the elementary level of learning the Hebrew alphabet and reading the prayers and understanding the Bible in Yiddish, to the level of Gomorrah kheyder devoted to the study of the Talmud. I began kheyder at the age of three and spent my whole day until dusk studying. By the time I reached the age of eight, the first public school had been opened in Gombin. The young men and women teachers and the modern classes attracted me and I made up my mind not to go to the kheyder. I shall never forget my father's reaction. One evening, thinking I was asleep, he complained bitterly to my mother that I would grow up to be an amorets (boor v'am haaretz (áåø åòí äàøõ (ignorant boor) and bring shame on the family. My mother tried to assure him that I would grow up to be a good Jew.
I remember how I brooded over my father's prediction, for I certainly did not want to become an amorets and how grateful I was to my mother for having faith in me. Finally, my parents resolved the conflict by allowing me to attend public school in the morning and then having me attend kheyder in the afternoon.
The most religious Jews of all were the Hassidim (members of a religious movement founded by Israel Baal Shem Tov in the seventeenth century). There were two sects in Gombin, followers of the Gerer Rabbi and Alexander Rabbi. Each sect had its own shul where besides the usual praying they danced and sang in great ecstasy. Most of the Jews in the shtetl wore long kaftans and beards. Besides wearing long beards, the Hassidim distinguished themselves by their earlocks and their silk Sabbath kaftans.
My maternal grandfather, Yoyne Ryster, a tall, slender man with a long beard and earlocks, was a Hassid, and he inspired in me an intense desire to emulate him. As I watched him during his silent prayers, eyes closed, swaying to and fro and twisting his body rhythmically to right and left, while exclaiming ecstatically from time to time the Hebrew word, Adenoy Elohim Echad! (God of the Universe) Shmay Isroel! (Harken onto Israel), I was convinced that my grandfather was in direct communication with God and it filled my childish heart with a sense of deep admiration and reverence for him.
Izia (November 1941 - April 1942)
The other person who inspired great reverence in me was Rov (Rabbi) Zlotnik, head of the congregation. He was a distinguished-looking man with a beautiful pale face and a long beard, tall and thin in stature. By his appearance and comportment he conveyed a sense of holiness and dignity. I remember him as a fascinating orator, and during his droshes (sermons) from the pulpit I had the distinct impression of Moses talking from the mountain to his people. A few years after World War I he left Gombin to become a national leader of the Mizrachi (religious Zionist party).
During this period of profound religiosity, the Jewish community was united, and such occasions as a marriage or funeral brought almost all the people together for celebration and dancing in the streets, or for the expression of sadness and grief. I remember always being moved to tears during a funeral, as I watched the men sighing deeply and the women weeping and lamenting loudly.
This was also a period of medieval superstition. It was alleged that at the turn of the century an epidemic had broken out in Gombin and many people died. To stem the scourge, so the story went, two town idiots were married off on the cemetery, and many people believed in the efficacy of this act, the epidemic having supposedly abated after that.
At the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, under the leadership of Theodor Herzl, it was decided that the aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a publicly secured and legally assured home in Palestine. Soon afterward, the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund) was organized to purchase land in Palestine and further the mass colonization of Jews. At about the same time, Ahad-Ha-Am, the philosopher of cultural Zionism, maintained that Palestine had to be restored as a Hebrew spiritual center for the harassed Jewish people.
The Bund, a Jewish Socialist Party, founded in Russia also in 1897, opposed Zionism and Hebrew culture from its inception. It considered Zionism a dangerous utopian philosophy because it diverted the Jewish masses in the countries where they lived from struggling together with the non-Jewish people for Socialism which alone could create genuine conditions for Jewish emancipation and a Jewish cultural autonomy. The Bund exerted great influence in promoting cultural works in the Yiddish language among the Jewish workers and lower middle class.
These two ideologies had the effect of completely revolutionizing Jewish life in Gombin. Many young people broke away from the religious restrictions and traditions of education, dress and daily habits. Yeshiva bocherim (Talmud students) left the besmedresh, shaved off their beards and earlocks, gave up their traditional clothing for western type dress and took to reading secular books. Many joined the Bund or Zionist movement and became intensely involved in questions of social, political and national purpose. There were other smaller groups, such as Poale Zion (Labor Zionism) and Jewish communists. But the two main parties were the Bund and the Zionist party. They opened libraries with thousands of books in Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish. People read avidly and debated with vigor and deep feeling, especially around the time of elections.
The Bundists and Zionists opened up kindergartens in Yiddish and Hebrew respectively. Each party offered youth organizations, sports clubs, theater groups and glee clubs. Speakers came from Warsaw and discussed political, social and literary themes. Many Jewish women became emancipated from the subjugated role assigned them by religious tradition. A new four-year gymnasium (corresponding to the American junior high school) was opened, and many Jewish boys and girls enrolled in it. Among them was our present president of the N. Y. Gombin organization, Jack Zicklin. Some of them continued their secondary education in other cities, such as Gostynin, P³ock, and Warsaw.
For the first time in the history of Gombin, a number of young people studied at universities. The late Abram Finkelstein studied at the University Of Frankfurt School Of Medicine in Germany, Natan Gyps, the late Lea Frenkel, the late Israel Wolfowicz and I studied at the University of Paris Medical School in France. Joseph Tadelis finished Medical School in Warsaw. My late brother Stan studied at the University Of Warsaw Law School. The studies abroad were mainly due to the practice of Numerus clausus, a restriction of the number of Jews to be admitted to universities and professions.
The religious Jews felt threatened by the extreme changes and innovations in the traditional life, and made every effort to oppose and combat the new wave. However, the process of change made deep inroads into many families. My own family underwent a radical change, starting with my father. He became an apicoyres (freethinker), changed to western clothes and trimmed his beard. My mother took off her wig and let her beautiful black hair grow, and dressed modishly.
It was about this time that my parents built the first movie and legitimate theater in the shtetl. When movies were shown for the first time on Friday evening, Hassidic Jews threw picket lines around it to protest the profanation of the Sabbath and threatened my parents with kheyrem (excommunication). My father replaced his studies of the Talmud with reading secular books. Now, during his long walks with me, he talked to me not about the Bible and the prophets but about Darwinism and Spinoza. I was pleased with the changes at home.
in Warsaw Ghetto, murdered by the Gestapo in 1942
I myself joined the Maccabi sports organization where I played soccer, and the Hashomer Hatzair (Young Watchman) in hopes of getting to Palestine to a Kibbutz (an agricultural settlement). But then in my mid-adolescence, Socialism caught my fancy and I joined the Bundist Youth Organization, remaining a member until I left Poland in 1927 to study in France.
Now, in retrospect, I ask myself how I stand in relation to those ideals of my youth. I believed then that Zionism was Utopian in nature. However, the tragic aftermath of Nazism and the vicissitudes of postwar international developments have contributed to the fruition of the Zionist half-century struggle for the establishment of the Jewish National State of Israel. About two and a half million battered Jews have founded a home there and a purpose in life. My sympathy is with them.
As for my Bundist dream of a social order of equality and social justice for all, without oppression and discrimination, it is rather an incentive to pursue this ideal without respite: He only earns his freedom and existence, wrote Goethe who daily conquers them anew.
and Sarah Greenbaum, who perished in 1942
The last time I visited Gombin was in the summer of 1937. There for the first time I met the late Sam Rafel who had not only come to Gombin to see his family but also to make a financial contribution from the New York Gombiner Society to the mutual savings and loan association. The shtetl was pulsating with life. The cultural, political and religious activities were carried on with vigor, as if there was no end in sight. Everywhere I was greeted with warmth and affection as if I were a son and a brother to all. The young men, women and children looked healthy and beautiful with a zest for life.
As a young physician, I was invited to give a lecture on Planned Parenthood which attracted a throng of people. They filled the theater to capacity, with many having to stand outside and listen through the open doors. I remember the intelligent faces and the knowledge-thirsty eyes looking at me as I was speaking. Little did my audience and I knew then that four and a half years later, on April 17, 1942, all my compatriots who came to listen to Planned Parenthood would be faced with planned destruction by Nazis.
As these reminiscences come to a close, I must add that they called forth in me the most poignant emotions. But the constant feeling that I experienced throughout my writing was one of ardent love and affection for the memory of all my landsmen who lost their lives. Especially do I cherish the memory of my beloved father Yankev Leib, 59, my beloved mother, Hena (Ryster) 57, my beloved brother Stan, 32, his wife, my beloved sister-in-law Helen (Zayontz) 25, their son, my beloved nephew Izia, seven months old, and all my lost beloved uncles, aunts and cousins.
* Henry Greenbaum, M.D. - Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry of New York Medical College and New York University School of Medicine.
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text:
Broadway's Patti Murin Brings 'Literally Patti Murin' to 54 Below 8/11
Who: Patti Murin, whom you may know from her critically acclaimed performance in Broadway's Lysistrata Jones, her live tweets during The Bachelorette, as the only Glinda that Hawaii has ever seen, or for her capability to play characters that are literally half her age.
What: Don't let that ingénue face fool you - this girl's got steel pipes and the mouth of a sailor. One of Broadway's most appealing leading ladies, Patti Murin has starred in Wicked, Lysistrata Jones, Xanadu, Love's Labour's Lost, Emma, and, most recently, Fly By Night. Now she is bringing her signature vocal sound and sharp comedic timing to 54 Below. For her solo show debut, Patti will forgo the safety of standards to perform songs (almost) exclusively from the new musicals in which she has originated a role. It will literally be one of the best nights of your (her) life.
Where: 54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club (254 West 54th Street)
When: Monday, August 11th at 7 PM. Don't be late 'cause then Tony Yazbeck will have to start his show late. And 'cause waiting makes her nervous.
Why: This is getting a little personal. But if you come to the show, Patti might just spill some secrets during her witty banter between songs!
Who Else: Patti will be joined by Michael Holland (Godspell, You're Gonna Hate This, Horizon), who serves as music director, arranger, and pianist/guitarist/therapist extraordinaire. On bass is Dan "The Man, Literally" Fabricatore, and on drums is DJ Jazzy Jeff Roberts. Special guest star is Broadway's Jason Tam, who is currently starring in If/Then and will probably be embarrassed if Patti were to profess her undying (platonic, she has a boyfriend) love for him in this press release. Oops.
How: Go to http://54below.com/august/ and buy tickets online, or by calling (646) 476-3551. Cover charge ranges from $25-50, with a $25 food and beverage minimum. Seriously, do it now. Like, literally.
54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, is the new performance venue in the grand tradition of New York City nightlife. A few blocks from the heart of Times Square and just below the legendary Studio 54, 54 BELOW is a classically designed state-of-the art nightclub in the theatre district that hosts audiences with warmth and style. The venue provides a food and beverage menu from early evening through the wee hours of the morning that is worthy of the world-class entertainment on the stage. In their description of 54 BELOW, The New York Times writes "the club has the intimacy of a large living room with unimpeded views and impeccable sound; there is not a bad seat. Its sultry after-hours ambience is enhanced by brocade-patterned wall panels planted with orange-shaded lanterns. And the atmosphere is warmer and sexier than in Manhattan's other major supper clubs." Located at 254 West 54th Street, 54 BELOW features up to three shows nightly with cover charges ranging from $15-$95.
Want to get a sneak peek at Patti's unique brand of humor, check out her recent recap of "The Bachelorette" Season Finale for BroadwayWorld TV.

subset: commoncrawl


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In one study, 746 adults with PI, aged 18 to 80, took melatonin or a placebo two hours before bedtime. While the placebo group did not improve at any time, after three weeks, those 55 or older who took melatonin fell asleep more quickly, and over the next six months, the melatonin group slept better.
After treatment, there were no withdrawal or tolerance symptoms, and no rebound insomnia. Researchers said melatonin is effective for PI in the short- and long-term.


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Mr Man wrote:Hi Ven. Dhammanando
The perspective I was thinking of was as a practice for monastics as part of a wider code of practice and way of training - not that lay people should be obliged to partake in sexual activity though.
I personally think the benefits of celibacy may be overstated and in some instances may be inappropriate (for the non monastic). Sensual pleasures are wide and varied. Some appear gross and some more subtle. Giving up the activity of sex is not synonymous with giving up sensual pleasures, It is just giving up one particular activity.
I do not regard the whole doctrine of kamma and rebirth as a superstition. I regard them as things to be investigated, considered and known. What I regard as superstition is that by performing (or not performing) a particular act one will be reborn in heaven. I'm not sure if this is your belief or not.
I do not agree that celibacy is intrinsically beneficial.
daverupa wrote:I think the cultural trappings gave an emphasis to the benefits of the practice, whereas earlier exegetical treatments emphasized the utter danger of sensual pleasures generally, sex being simply one among them.
The simile of bait-hook-escape describes benefits in a way that doesn't require reference to heavenly realms, while at the same time being in agreement with the general attitude of dispassion and the rejection of enmeshment with sensuality. The cultural motivation of heaven may no longer be appropriate for some, but the bait-hook-escape approach remains valid.
beeblebrox wrote:Do you think the Buddha bait anyone like that?
beeblebrox wrote:Hi Dave,
When a person is in sensual heaven, do you think it's easier or more difficult to stay with one's practice? If it's more difficult, then why is it called a heaven? If the Buddha called it heaven, then is that a lie?
daverupa wrote:I'm not really sure what you're asking, but I've been looking at these three questions for a while now.
What I think you're aiming for is that you're wondering if the Buddha, in offering this nymph-gambit, wasn't perhaps opening the door for that man to enter into an even more difficult practice situation. Indeed, you seem to assume that if it is called 'heaven' and yet things aren't easier there, it must not be heaven at all, and if this is the case, the Buddha saying it's a heaven of any kind is simply wrong.
beeblebrox wrote: Venerable Dhammanando seems to be saying that since the practice of celibacy will lead one to heaven, that must mean it's a good thing. I wanted to challenge that assumption. The way I understand it myself, I think celibacy only leads to that kind of appearance... no more, no less.
"Now there are these five cords of sensual pleasure, student. What are the five? Forms cognizable by the eye that are wished for, desired, agreeable, and likeable, connected with sensual desire and provocative of lust. Sounds cognizable by the ear...Odours cognizable by the nose...Flavours cognizable by the tongue...Tangibles cognizable by the body that are wished for, desired, agreeable, and likeable, connected with sensual desire and provocative of lust. These are the five cords of sensual pleasure.
The brahmin Pokkharasati is tied to these five cords of sensual pleasure, infatuated with them and utterly committed to them; he enjoys them without seeing the danger in them or understanding the escape from them. That he could know or see or realise a superhuman state, a distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones - this is impossible." - MN99 Bhikkhu Bodhi translation
"One should not pursue sensual pleasure (KÂMA-SUKHA), which is low vulgar, coarse, ignoble and unbeneficial; and one should not pursue self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble and unbeneficial. So it was said. And with reference to what was this said? The pursuit of the enjoyment of one whose pleasure is linked to sensual desire - low, vulgar, coarse, ignoble and unbeneficial - is a state beset by suffering, vexation, despair and fever, and it is the wrong way. Disengage from the pursuit of the enjoyment of one whose pleasure is linked to sensual desire - low, vulgar, coarse, ignoble and unbeneficial - is a state without suffering, vexation despair and fever, and it is the right way. The pursuit of self-mortification… is the wrong way. Disengagement from the pursuit of self-mortification… is the right way… The Middle Way discovered by the Tathàgata avoids both these extremes… it leads… to Nibbàna."
(Ven Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Buddha's words in The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, p.1080f)
"In the same way, Magandiya, sensual pleasures in the past were painful to the touch, very hot & scorching; sensual pleasures in the future will be painful to the touch, very hot & scorching; sensual pleasures at present are painful to the touch, very hot & scorching; but when beings are not free from passion for sensual pleasures — devoured by sensual craving, burning with sensual fever — their faculties are impaired, which is why, even though sensual pleasures are actually painful to the touch, they have the skewed perception of 'pleasant.' MN75
faraway wrote:Dhammanando wrote:SarathW wrote:I do not consider simple observation of celibacy constitute a virtue.
I'm not sure what you mean by simple observance of celibacy. In the suttas it's stated that practising the brahmacariyā is a condition for rebirth in the sensual heavens, even where the person who practises it does so very miserably. This seems to imply that there is something intrinsically good in deliberately undertaken abstention from sex.
Presumably the principle would not apply to someone who abstained solely out of physical incapacity (which would be the proper analogy for your blind man).
Could you show me the sutta where it's stated explicitly that practising the brahmacariyā is a condition for rebirth in the sensual heavens, even where the person who practises it does so very miserably?
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Rangers recall RHP Martinez from Double-A; designate RHP Noesi for assignment
Oakland, Calif. -- The Texas Rangers announced today that the club has recalled right-handed pitcher Nick Martinez (#22) from Double-A Frisco. To make room on the active roster for Martinez, the club has designated right-handed pitcher Hector Noesi for assignment.
Martinez, 23, is the scheduled starter for tonight's game in Oakland. He made major league debut in the Rangers' 5-4 loss on April 5 at Tampa Bay (6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R-ER) and was optioned to Frisco the next day. He had no record and a 1.86 ERA (2 ER/9.2 IP) in 2 starts in the Texas League, including taking a no decision in Frisco's 3-2 win over Corpus Christi on Thursday (4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R-ER, 98 pitches/60 strikes).
Noesi has made 3 appearances for the Rangers since being acquired in an April 12 trade with Seattle. He allowed 7 runs in his last outing on Sunday vs. Chicago-AL. The Rangers have 10 days to trade, release, or outright Noesi to the minor leagues.
With today's moves, the Rangers now have 39 players on the club's 40-man roster.


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Former City Councilmember Juanita E. Watkins passed on Sunday, January 20 after a long illness.
Watkins grew up in Brooklyn, was an excellent student and the first from her family to go to college. She attended the State University of New York at New Paltz, and attended Teachers College at Columbia University where she earned her master's degree. Upon graduation, she became an elementary school teacher. After several years, she moved on to the field of educational publishing at McGraw Hill.
Watkins also served as a Commissioner on the NYC Civil Service Commission. During her political career, she served in many functions including: delegate and member to the Democratic National Convention, Queens County Democratic District Leader and Queens County Committee Chair.
She became the first woman of color to represent a City Council district, and after her first term of office, she went on to win two subsequent elections and served three terms in the City Council representing the 31st Council District.
While on the Council, often at the detriment of her own health, Watkins was a champion for small business, education, women's rights, the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised.
Watkins is pre-deceased by her mother and best friend Floretta Watkins, and is survived by her beloved niece and goddaughters.
Also saddened by her loss are members of her City Council staff and her extended political family in the Assembly and Senate.


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Bold New Insurance Plan Launches
Health Coverage Now Available for Americans without Insurance Due to Pre-Existing Conditions Such as Lupus
Washington, D.C. — With persistence from organizations such as the Lupus Research Institute (LRI) National Coalition and others, people who couldn't get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition such as lupus now have an option to secure coverage, announced U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Beginning July 1st, the "Affordable Care Act Program" provides temporary coverage for U.S. citizens (or legal residents) who have been uninsured for at least six months and couldn't get coverage because of a health condition. Either the state or HHS itself will run the actual insurance plans, called "Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans (PCIP).
"For too long, Americans with pre-existing conditions have been locked out of our health insurance market," said Secretary Sebelius in an HHS statement.
"What a game-changing moment this is for the 1.5 million Americans with lupus, so many of whom were denied health insurance because of their pre-existing condition," said LRI President Margaret G. Dowd. "The LRI National Coalition of state and local lupus groups, along with other allies, has worked with intelligence and determination in the nation's capital to get this injustice reversed."
How the Plan Works
The program will be in effect until 2014, when insurers will be banned from discriminating against Americans with pre-existing health conditions altogether—and more affordable private insurance options will be made available through new competitive "exchanges."
The PCIP, which doesn't base eligibility on income and doesn't charge higher premiums because of a health problem, covers primary and specialty care, hospital care, prescription drugs, and more.
As with the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the PCIP for adults gives states flexibility in running their individual program—as long as basic requirements are met.
For more information on applying for PCIP, visit the consumer website, www.HealthCare.gov, a new information tool that enables users to compare affordable public and private health care coverage options.
It's a tool to "help consumers take control of their health care and make the choices that are right for them, by putting the power of information at their fingertips," said Secretary Sebelius.
The 29 states (plus D.C.) that will operate their own plans:
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Maine
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Utah
- Vermont
- Washington State
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
The 21 states for which HHS will run their plan:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Dakota
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- Wyoming


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Jim Court is the driving force behind Stockport Community Cycling Club – formed in
1999 to cater for 7-16 year olds and novice adult riders. The Club switched emphasis in 2005 to a more family orientated structure with leisurely, non-competitive rides for people of all ages.
Ridership has increased (over 160 have ridden with the club) as people have enjoyed rides ranging from 8 to 30 miles. The club has recently expanded activities to offer local summer weekday evening rides and longer Sunday rides in addition to the traditional fortnightly Saturday rides. 2007 even saw a weekend away in the Lake District. Membership is free on a "drop-in/drop-out" basis.
Jim organises the rides, arranges transport to distant locations, goes on route fact-finding missions and takes care of all administrative duties (insurance, promotion etc). Jim has brought many people back to cycling over the years through his enthusiasm, organisational skills and love of cycling.
The club website (run by Jim) can be viewed at:


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Don't miss out on a lower price on this hotel
Get an overview of this hotelContemporary New York City hotel near Times Square
Collecting Nectar Points
Special Offer: Book by 2 August 2017 and collect double Nectar points!
Simply enter your Nectar card number when you check out. Your points will be credited 35 days after you return from your trip.
*Terms and conditions apply.
Popular property highlights
Broadway beckons
The fun and excitement of Times Square, "The Crossroads of the World," is a half-block from this Midtown hotel; dozens of big-name Broadway theaters are within 3 blocks.
Complimentary Wi-Fi
Wireless Internet access is available throughout the Hotel Mela. A fitness center, open 24 hours a day, includes a plasma TV and complimentary energy drinks. The hotel welcomes small pets.
LCD TVs
Rooms at this New York hotel feature 32-inch LCD TVs and clocks/CD players. Beds are dressed with 350-thread-count cotton linens and soft duvets. Bathrooms include Pure bath toiletries and waffle-weave robes.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!Opens in a new window
Hotel Mela Times Square
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
This Midtown New York hotel is in the heart of the Broadway Theater District and a half-block from the dazzle and excitement of Times Square. Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, the Top of the Rock observation deck, and Grand Central Terminal are among the many popular destinations within four blocks. Major subway stops are within two blocks of Hotel Mela.
Relatively small by New York standards, Hotel Mela offers friendly, personalized service in a contemporary setting. In addition to wireless Internet access throughout guestrooms and public areas, amenities include a concierge desk, business services, a 24-hour fitness center, and a bistro serving French fare.
Valet parking is available in a secure garage.
- 24-hour front desk
- ATM/banking
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- 24-hour fitness facilities
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Elevator/lift
- Express check-in
- Express check-out
- WiFi (surcharge)
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Luggage storage
- Restaurant
- Total number of rooms - 232
- Laundry facilities
- Concierge services
- Bar/lounge
- Business center
- One meeting room
- Multilingual staff
- Number of floors - 16
- Valet parking (surcharge)
- Porter/bellhop
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Year Built 1933
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Smoke-free property
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Laundry facilities
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
Available in all rooms: Wireless internet access ( USD 0 per night )
Available in some public areas: Wireless internet access ( USD 0 per night )
Self parking (surcharge), Valet parking (surcharge)
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Bathrobes
- Turndown service
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Shower/tub combination
- In-room safe (laptop compatible)
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Designer toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Daily housekeeping
- Iron/ironing board
- Coffee/tea maker
- WiFi (surcharge)
- Premium bedding
- Premium TV channels
- Room service (limited hours)
- Egyptian-cotton sheets
- Free cribs/infant beds
Where to Eat
Saju - French bistro.
There are many dining options within the surrounding area.
Nearby restaurants:
DB Bistro Moderne
Sushi Zen
Trattoria Trecolori
John's Pizzeria
Lattanzi Ristorante
Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse
Nearby Things to Do
The hotel's 24-hour fitness center, located on the second floor, includes cardio machines, free weights, resistance equipment, a plasma TV, and complimentary energy drinks.
Central Park, 0.75 mile from this Midtown hotel, encompasses 843 acres of meadows, woods, cliffs, ravines, gardens, paths, and lakes in an emerald setting. Popular walking and running routes include Central Park Drive (closed to traffic during scheduled hours) and the path around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. The Loeb Boathouse, on a picturesque lake, offers rowboat and bicycle rentals. With the famous Christmas tree sparkling above it, the Rink at Rockefeller Plaza—5 blocks from the hotel—is a special treat during the winter holidays.
The recreational activities listed below are available at Hotel Mela or nearby; fees may apply.
If you have requests for specific accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
- Accessible bathroom
- Roll-in shower
- In-room accessibility
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Minimum check-in age is 21
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Kids stay free! Up to 2 children 16 years old and younger stay free when using existing bedding.
- Rollaway/extra beds are not available.
- Free cribs (infant beds)!
- Pets allowed for an extra charge of USD 150.00 per pet, per stay, plus a deposit of USD 150 per stay
- Up to 40 lb
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
- Deposit: USD 50.00 per night
- Resort fee: USD 32.66 per accommodation, per night
- Fitness center access
- Internet access
- Phone calls
- Faxes
- Additional inclusions
Optional extras
- Breakfast fee: between USD 16 and USD 25 per person (approximately)
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 0 per night (rates may vary)
- Fee for wireless Internet in public areas: USD 0 per night (rates may vary)
- Self parking fee: USD 45.00 per night
- Valet parking fee: USD 55.00 per night
- Pet deposit: USD 150 per stay
- Pet fee: USD 150.00 per pet, per stay
Hotel Name
- Hotel Mela
- Hotel Mela New York
- Mela Hotel
- Mela New York
- Mela Hotel New York City
- Hotel Mela Times Square
- Mela Times Square
We should mention
Up to 2 children 16 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding.


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The word "racing" is not literally defined with the word "passing," but the number of passes on the track often defines a race for fans.
Tony Stewart knows that despite his mini-rant over a question Sunday about a boring Brickyard 400. But he has also learned not to bite the hand that feeds him when he's about to cash in on $874,000 in winnings after his drivers finished first, fourth and 30th in the race.
MORE: Stewart OK after multiple flips | Indy chatter
He also knows his driver won Sunday at Indianapolis, and he was for damn sure not going to let "Newman wins race his boss said was boring" be a headline the next day.
Stewart owns a race team. That race team needs sponsorship for 2014. It's hard to sell sponsorship if the owner says the racing stinks.
So Stewart has a vested interest in what he says.
To take his "it's racing, not passing" comment at face value would be much like taking Kyle Petty's remark that Danica Patrick is "not a racecar driver" quote and reading too much into it without at least some of the context.
So here's some of the Stewart rant:
"Racing is about figuring out how to take the package you're allowed and make it better than what everybody else has and do a better job with it.
I've seen races that were won over a lap, I've seen 20‑second leads here. For some reason in the last 10 years, everybody is on this kick that you have to be passing all the time. It's racing, not passing. We're racing." If passing didn't matter, then NASCAR wouldn't include lead changes on its race report and the number of passes under different conditions wouldn't be part of its weekly stat packages.
If passing didn't matter, tracks wouldn't spend big dollars promoting the number of passes for the lead. If passing didn't matter, NASCAR wouldn't spend hours and days and weeks and months and years trying to figure out how to make the cars more racy.
Their challenge comes because NASCAR competes on many tracks made either with both Indy cars and stock cars in mind (those pesky 1.5-milers that sprouted up after the last two decades) and those, like Indy, designed primarily for open-wheel cars.
With tire construction tricky because NASCAR wants them to last but the racing is better if the tires wear some, there are races when tire strategy doesn't come into play. A driver can push as hard as possible without worries of blowing a tire and ending up in the wall.
So that means that the aerodynamics of the cars become a top priority. And most drivers will tell you that, under that scenario, out front in clean air is the place to be.
As Denny Hamlin aptly put it Wednesday night on Twitter as he watched drivers pass on dirt in the truck race at Eldora Speedway: "100mph sliding or 200 mph stuck?.. Nuff said"
Eldora. Where the trucks went painfully slow but still put on a good show. Maybe NASCAR can learn a thing or two from that.
The key to the Eldora success was the track preparation, which gave the drivers several options for lanes. It was designed to create more passing.
After that race at Eldora, Stewart, in talking about the race, gushed over the amount of passing.
"Guys were passing, Kyle Larson showed people how to pass at Eldora for sure, Ryan Newman made his charge—there were numerous drivers that were coming from different spots and making ground. … They put on a heck of a race," he said Wednesday.
He later added: "It was amazing to watch, it's just a fun race to watch—guys all the way through the field raced the daylights out of each other and that was pretty remarkable."
It is hard to see drivers race the daylights out of each other at Indianapolis. They just get too separated. They might be racing as hard and as fast as they can, but it is a lot more fun to see them battle for position.
Most fans understand that not every race is going to be a great one and that some will be better than others.
But NASCAR isn't like most sports. It only visits the same city at most twice a season. It has only 36 events—fewer than most major sports leagues have in a week. It can't afford to have many races that don't peg the fun meter. If 30 percent of the baseball games were decided by more than three runs, there would be a problem. If many NFL games didn't go down to the final quarter, it would have a problem.
Teams that lose by blowouts have trouble drawing attendance. NASCAR has it worse. Because NASCAR doesn't have hometown teams and its drivers lose some of their connection to their hometowns once they start racing on a national level, it is the racing that has to set it apart.
It has to be exciting and fans have to believe their driver has a chance to race their way to the front.
At Indianapolis, only two drivers improved their starting spots by at least 10 positions by the finish. Only seven improved their starting spots by at least five positions.
Just two weeks earlier at New Hampshire, nine drivers improved their spots by at least 10 positions. Earlier this year at both Kentucky and at Bristol, it was 10. At all three of those venues, 15 drivers improved their starting spots by at least five spots.
Those races featured passing throughout the field. That should be the goal every week.
NASCAR isn't going to always hit on it. But saying that's just the way racing is won't solve much. There is nothing wrong with wanting the best and striving to field cars in conditions where passing is routine.
And to NASCAR's credit, it hasn't pushed the issue aside in recent months. It changed the weight on the cars and took off the roof cameras in hopes of creating more passing. They're working on it.
Tony Stewart knows that. He probably has suggested to them how to make the cars more racy. If not, he should. Or maybe he should wait until after this weekend at Pocono, where this lack-of-passing discussion could rear its ugly head once again.


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who are the champions now??
well, Aussies are the champions nowadays and i hope u r watching cricket nowadays ,,,because aussies are playing with england nowadays and ashes series is not far also ,,,,,,,,,,,,,
szhua wrote:In China , The table tennis is the most popular sport. but I just watch not play. I like football the most, and i play it everyweek.
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Moderator: Mahavihara moderator
Ok, I'll try but I have no idea if this is correct form or if it is what you are after. If not let the Anatta challenge stand, otherwise I suggest "nibbana" might be interesting next. So, off the cuff:Jechbi wrote:Next up (hope there's a taker out there):
AlaskanDhamma wrote:Ajahn, it was a good try.
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From OpenWetWare
Polymersome protocols
Triblock polymersome
For the synthesis of the triblock polymersome we followed the protocol described in Corinne Nardin et.al [1]. In brief, the following steps were carried out:
- 5ml pear shaped flask was washed with pure ethanol and dried at 120°C for 1h.
- 1 mg polymer was dissolved in 1mL ethanol.
- Solution was evaporated at 40°C (water bath temperature), 40 rpm (rotation speed at an angle as high as possible, ~ 60°-70°) and a pressure of 150 mbar in rotary evaporator.
- After complete evaporation of ethanol, pressure was reduced using rotary pump vacuum (~10-2 mbar) for 30 min.
- Later 1mL PBS (pH 7.4) was added and stirred overnight at 300rpm.
- In order to remove residual lamellar material and to define particle size less than 200nm, samples were extruded using ultra-filtration equipment (Avanti Polar miniExtruder) with Nucleopore membrane (0.2µm pore size).
Diblock polymersome
For the synthesis of the diblock polymersome, we followed as described in Mohamed A. Yassin, et.al [2], in brief, the following steps were carried out.
- Millipore water was used for solution preparation.
- 1mg Polymer was dissolved in HCl (pH 2) with the help of magnetic stirrer at 700rpm.
- Later the pH of solution was reduced from 2 to 8, by adding NaOH drop wise at very slow rate. The pH of the solution should be checked very carefully.
DNA origami protocols
Preparation of staple mixtures and folding buffers
The 5 types of staples: core (118 staples), edge (39 staples), no hang (12 staples), helper (12 staples) and anchor (12 staples) were ordered in Biomers, already purified by reverse-phase cartridge.
- 194 staple sample tubes were dissolved with MilliQ water according to information provided by the company. (ensured that the concentration is 100 µM, but need Nanodrop to see if the concentration is right).
- Five mixtures of staple types were made: for each type, 5µL of each sample were added and mixed well by vortexing.
- Dilutions of core, edge, no hang, anchor and helper staples to the final concentration of 500, 2000, 4000, 4000 µM respectively were made by adding appropriate amount of MilliQ water.
- Folding buffers containing different concentrations of Magnesium Chloride were prepared: 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180 and 200 mM from 1M magnesium chloride stock in 10X TE buffer (50mM Tris, 10mM EDTA).
Folding reaction
The mixture of scaffolds, staples and folding buffer (FB) are prepared in a total volume of 100 µl.
|Concentration (nM)
|Volume (µl)
|Final concentration (nM)
|Milli Q H2O
For the incorporation of the hydrophobically modified oligos, a final concentration of 400 nm was used, and their incorporation was tried during the thermal annealing ramp, and once it was already assembled.
The mixture was subjected to a thermal annealing ramp, following the schedule adapted from "A logic gated nanorobot for targeted transport of molecular payloads" by Douglas et al. Science 2012:
- 80°C to 61°C at 2 min/°C
- 60°C to 24°C at 60 min/°C
Amicon ultra 0,5 mL filters of 100 KDa cut-off were used, from Millipore.
- Filter was placed to the special eppendorf and the sample was transferred (100 µL).
- Another 200 µL of folding buffer 1x were added.
- Centrifugation 10' 6000 rpm at table centrifuge.
- 300 µL folding buffer 1X were added and centrifugation again 10' 6000 rpm.
- The lower eppendorf was discarded, and the filter was placed to a new one, but this time the filter inverted.
- Centrifugation 7' 7000 rpm.
- Transference to a new tube.
Short electrophoresis
Gel preparation
- An agarose 1% solution was prepared with TAE 1X buffer.
- The solution was heated up until boiling and let cool down until 55ºC
- A magnesium chloride solution was added to reach a concentration of 12mM.
Sample loading
Samples were mixed with the orange G-based loading dye in a ratio 1:5.
Gel running and staining
Gels were runned for 1h 30' at 60V, and then stained with Ethidium bromide for 20' for further UV visualization.
5' Palmitate and arachidic acid modification
To attach the hydrophobic modifications to the oligonucleotides, those were ordered with a 5' amino group that reacts with the carboxylic group present in the molecule that contains the hydrophobic groups. This is an N-acylation reaction, and its general mechanism is depicted in the following figure. The reaction is not spontaneous, and so the activators HATU and HOAt are required.
Oligonucleotides still attached to the CPG beads were ordered from Biomers, with the 5'-amino-C6-modifier and the Monomethoxytrityl (MMT) group still on. The nucleotide sequence was the following: 5'-CGCGGATGGCGATGCGCGCAC-3'.
The amino-C6-modifier confers the amino group necessary for the attachment of the hydrophobic modifications.
The MMT group was then removed and the Fmoc-L-dap(Palmitate)-OH molecule (Cas nº 724785-41-5) was introduced, carrying the palmitic acid, and the carboxylic group that will react with the amino group present in the oligonucleotide. With a similar reaction, the amino group from this molecule was deprotected from the Fmoc molecule, and the arachidic acid (Cas nº 506309) was introduced in this position.
The steps were the following:
- Weighing of reagents and dissolving in DMF.
- HATU 6.8 mg in 40µl DMF.
- HOAT 2.18 mg in 20µl DMF.
- Fmoc-L-DAP(Palm)-OH 12.3 mg in 100µl DMF.
- Let dissolve in Ultrasonic bath for 5'
- First mix HATU + HOAT, then add Fmoc-L-dap(Palm)-OH. Incubate 1h RT under agitation (meanwhile steps 4-6)
- Wash beads with 1mL Deblock (dissolved in DCM) to remove MMT group. Trityl is yellowish, repeat until solution is clear.
- Wash beads 3x with DCM.
- Let beads dry, if necessary using vacuum centrifuge.
- After the 1h reaction, add the mixture to the beads + 60µl TEA 1M. Let react for 5h or ON at 30ºC.
- Wash beads with DMF until the solution appears clear.
- Wash 3x with DCM, let dry or vacuum dry.
- Weighing of reagents to couple arachidic acid:
- HATU 6.8 mg in 40µl DMF.
- HOAT 2.18 mg in 20µl DMF.
- Arachidic acid 6.25 mg in 100µl DMF.
- Let dissolve in Ultrasonic bath for 5'.
- First mix HATU + HOAT, then add arachidic acid. Incubate 1h RT under agitation (meanwhile steps 13-14)
- Wash the beads 3x with diperidine for the Fmoc decouping.
- Wash 3x with DCM, let dry or vacuum dry.
- Add reagent mixture + 60µl TEA.
- Let react ON at 30ºC under agitation.
- Wash beads 3x with DMF, 3x with DCM and let dry or vacuum dry.
Protocol provided by Francesco Reddavide, currently working in Yixin Zhang's lab, B-CUBE, Dresden.
3' Cholesterol modification
For cholesterol modification, the oligonucleotides were synthesized on a solid support where cholesterol was previously attached. The sequence was the following: 5'-CGCGGATGGCGATA-3'.
In this case it is shorter for the modification to be slightly separated from the walls of the channel. To release the oligos from the beads and also remove the protective groups from the bases ammonia was added and DNA was let dissolve while beads precipitate. Then ammonia was evaporated in vacuum and the modified oligos were solubilized with water. The modified oligo was purified by HPLC and its purity was analyzed my mass spectrometry.
Protocol provided by Francesco Reddavide, currently working in Yixin Zhang's lab, B-CUBE, Dresden.
Long electrophoresis
Gel preparation
- An agarose 1% gel was prepared in a TBE 0.5X solution.
- The solution was heated up until boiling and let cool down until 55ºC.
- A magnesium chloride 1M solution was added to reach a concentration of 12mM.
Sample preparation
- The samples were diluted with folding buffer with a concentration of 12mM MgCl2 and 100ng of DNA were loaded in each well.
- Samples were mixed with an orange G-based loading dye in a ration 1:5.
Gel running and stainingGel was runned with a running buffer consisting of TBE 0,5X with 12mM MgCl2, at 70V during 4 hours. The electrophoresis cell was maintained surrounded by ice for the system not to heat up, and the buffer was changed and the electrodes cleaned after 2h. The gel was then stained with Ethidium bromide during 20' for the further visualization under UV light.
Protocol provided by Alexander Ohmann, currently working in Stefan Diez's lab, in B-CUBE, Dresden.
Internal reaction protocols
Conjugation of TAMRA to collagenase
The TAMRA amine-reactive fluorescent dye (5-(and-6)-carboxytetramethylrhodamine, succinimidyl ester (5(6)-TAMRA, SE)) from Invitrogen was conjugated to the Collagenase from Clostridium hystoliticum from Sigma, Type V.
The labelling protocol was the following:
- 10 mg of enzyme are dissolved in 1 ml of 0.1M sodium bicarbonate buffer, pH 8.3.
- 5 mg of dye are dissolved in 500 µl of DMSO. The dye should be dissolved immediately before the reaction. The solution is protected from light.
- While vortexing the protein solution, 100 µl of the TAMRA solution is added slowly. This corresponds to 1 mg of dye into 10 mg of protein. TAMRA NHS ester is amine-reactive dye and reacts with non-protonated aliphatic amine groups, including the amine terminus of proteins and the є-amino group of lysines.
- The reaction is incubated for 1h at room temperature with continuous stirring and protected from light.
- Separating the conjugate from the unreacted dye is performed using Sephadex G-25 size exclusion column. The first excluded fraction which corresponds to the first fluorescent band to elute is the conjugate.
- The protein concentration is determined after collecting the fractions. The protein-dye conjugate is diluted 100 times. The absorbance of the diluted sample is measure at 280 nm and at 555 (the excitation maximum).
CF is the correction factor used to correct for the contribution of the dye to the absorbance at 280nm.
The protein concentration is calculated assuming that 1.7 Aprotein units = 1mg/ml. This value is different for each protein and it was experimentally determined for collagenase.
The degree of labeling is calculated using this formula:
D.O.L. = (Amax x MW)/([protein])x Edye
MW = molecular weight of the protein, Edye= excitation coefficient of the dye at its absorbance maximum, [protein] = protein concentration in mg/ml.
Nanoreactor protocols
Release profile assay
The release profile assay was performed using cellulose dialysis membrane of MWCO 5000 Da and 300 KDa for biological entities less than 500 Da and Enzymes respectively. Procedure:
- The beaker was filled with dialysis solution (Milli-Q water or Buffer solution).
- Dialysis tube was cut as per the volume of sample and dialysis tube width.
- The tube was washed in Milli-Q water and pre-incubated in Milli-Q water for 20 min.
- After pre-incubation, the tube was closed on 1 end with magnetic clamp such that atleast 10 mm tubing overlaps.
- Then through the other end, sample was filled inside the tube and air was removed carefully before closing the tube with clamp as before.
- Dialysis tube was placed in prepared beaker and stirred at low speed (300 rpm).
- Dialysis solution was replaced in beaker after every 2 hours.
- After each hour, samples were analysed using Beckman Coulter – UV 800 Spectrophotometer for Doxorubicin, enzyme, Tamra dye, fluorescein dye at 480, 280, 555 and 490 nm respectively. After dialysis, the sample was removed carefully after drying the tube with kimwipe.
Incorporation and encapsulation of biological entities
Incorporation of DNA channel (15nM conc.) and Encapsulation of enzymes (20% of polymer conc.) was carried out by adding during each polymersome preparation in following ways.
- PMOXA-PDMS-PMOXA: DNA channel or Enzyme was added to PBS buffer in laststep along with 5µl MgCl2 solution (1 M).
- (PEG-b-P(DEAEMA-stat-BMA)): Polymersome solution pH was brought to 5 and DNA channel (15nM conc.) or Enzyme was added along with 5µl MgCl2 solution (1 M).Further, solution pH was reduced further to 8.
Enzymatic assay with nanoreactors
The final reaction assay with nanoreactors were performed using the tri-block and di-block polymersomes without channels as a negative control and the polymersomes with channels with different hydrophobic modifications. The reaction assay was performed for lower and higher concentration of the polymersomes - 22 µg/ml and 100 µg/ml respectively. The reaction mixtures were incubated for the same time and samples were taken for 3h, 6h, 8h 30 min, 24 h and 48h. These samples were checked with UPLC for the presence of reaction products.
Imaging and analysis
Cryo-TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope)
- For frozen hydrated specimen preparation, 2µl of sample was deposited on a holey carbon support film attached to a copper grid.
- The liquid film was thinned by blotting for 0.5 sec and frozen rapidly in liquid ethane.
- After rapid freezing, the sample was loaded to a Gatan cryo transfer holder keeping temperature below -130°C in order to prevent ice crystallization.
- TEM inspection was done in ZEISS LIBRA 120, energy filtered images were recorded under low dose electron irradiation conditions.
- Samples were kept below -130°C during the inspection.
Cryo-SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)
- Samples were rapidly frozen in liquified ethane according to standard procedure.
- Frozen samples were fractured at approximately -130°C in a cryo preparation chamber and transferred to the cooling stage inside a ZEISS Ultra after coating with 3nm Carbon layer.
AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy)
Sample preparation
A negatively charged mica substrate was used to absorb the DNA origami samples.
- The substrate was cleaned with isopropanol and a scotch tape to remove the impurities.
- The mica layer was rinsed with MilliQ H2O, and immediately dried with a nitrogen gun.
- 2 µl of the DNA origami sample at a concentration of about 0,5 nM were placed on the substrate and incubated for 2-5'.
- The substrate was washed with Milli Q H2O to get rid of the salts.
Device characteristics
AFM Probe Type: Tap150AI-G, from BudgedSensors. Rotated tip shape, height of 15-19 µm and radius of < 10 nm.
TEM (Transmission Electron microscopy)
Grid preparation
Grids were prepared by Susanne Kretschmar, working in the EM facility in CRTD.
- Plasma cleaning to hydrophilize the surface.
- Grids were placed on a glass slide wrapped in parafilm, and freshly glow discharged for 60s at 240V.
Sample preparation and staining
A DNA origami sample concentration of approx. 5 mM was prepared.
- 5 µl of the samples were place on the grid and incubated for 2'. The excess liquid was dried with a filter paper.
- A dilution of uranyl acetate 2% in H2O was centrifugued at 14500g during 3' to precipitate the big granules.
- A drop of this solution was placed on the samples and incubated for 20'', then it was removed with a filter paper.
- A water drop was placed to clean the excess and removed with a filter paper.
- The grid was allowed to air-dry before imaging.
The microscope used was Morgagni 268 at 80kV
CLSM (Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy)
The confocal images were taken using Zeiss LSM 780/FCS confocal microscope. The samples were pipetted into a PCR tube cap and then placed with inversion on a coverslip. The coverslips were mounted on the microscope and images were taken, keeping the pinhole equal to 1 AU. The laser power and the gain were adjusted in a way that best images could be obtained.
DLS (Dynamic Light Scattering)
Particle size analysis of aqueous solutions of polymerosomes was performed by dynamic light scattering using a Malvern Zetasizer Nano. Data analysis is based on non negative least squares (NNLS) method.
HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography)
The reverse phase columns were kept at a temperature of 50ºC throughout the purification. The aqueous phase used was TEAA 100mM and the organic phase was acetonitrile. A gradient of the organic phase was used from 10% to 100% acetonitrile in a time interval of 20 minutes. In the case of the palmitate-arachidic acid modification, this wasn't sufficient for the product to elute so a gradient with methanol.
UPLC (Ultrahigh Pressure Liquid Chromatography)
The detection of reaction products were performed with ACQUITY Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography system, using BEH C18 columns. The detection limit of this system is 10 uM. The retention time for the substrate and the reaction products were obtained, after elution with water.For the cases when UPLC measuremnts were performed with nanoreactors, filtration of the samples were performed with 0,22 um filters in order to remove the polymersomes from the solution.
Mass spectrometry
Samples were analyzed with an electrospray mass spectrometry device with a quadrupole detection system coupled to a UPLC (ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography) purification system.
Here you can download the protocols as pdf.


text:
Sailing Warhol Canvas Tote Bag
Product Color:
Product information
Why get a Canvas Tote Bag Sailing Warhol? Are you one of those that can't leave home without 50 "essential items" that just won't fit into your pockets? Plenty of room for all your necessities and more. Or simply let it speak your mind! Due to its sturdy fabric it also makes a great shopping bag, which lasts and saves the environment.
This Sailing Warhol product includes a full side and bottom gusset and extra long handles for easy carrying. Sailing Canvas Tote Bag made of sturdy 100% Cotton. Measurements: 15" x 18" x 6".
Sku: BL0BR0000015460202020483TRFU00000


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SAN FRANCISCO PowerReviews announced that it has appointed former Walmart.com executive Cathy Halligan as SVP sales and marketing.
Most recently, Halligan served as Walmart's VP market development for global e-commerce. Prior to her global role, she spent 3 years at Walmart.com, where she held executive-level positions including chief marketing officer and VP product management and multi-channel integration.
"Cathy's extensive background in retail, understanding of world class and emerging brands, and depth of her leadership make her uniquely qualified to further accelerate the PowerReviews marketing and sales efforts," said Pehr Luedtke, CEO of PowerReviews. "Her perspectives and understanding of the social commerce landscape will help strengthen our commitment to building industry-defining innovations that help retailers and brands grow their businesses."


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HIGHWORTH Town boss John Fisher thought his side beat themselves as two mistakes cost them a place in the final of Bluefin Challenge Cup.
Playing Hellenic Premier title chasers and form side Ardley United, Highworth produced one of their best recent dispays as they went down 2-1 in Oxfordshire.
The first half had seen Fisher's side hold the hosts to a blank scoresheet but looking to push on in the second half the Worthians conceded two goals in a minute which ultimately proved fatal to their cup hopes.
The first came from Callum Convey's tame looping header from the edge of the box which inexplicably evaded keeper Kurtis Sharkey. A minute later Ardley doubled their advantage, Highworth coughing up the ball cheaply in their own half leaving Jon Gardner through on Sharkey to score.
TJ Bohane's late penalty gave Highworth hope but they could not create the clear chance they needed to force extra-time.
"I couldn't fault our boys at all, it was as good as we've defended all season," Fisher told the Adver.
"At half-time we said keep going, two minutes into the second half, two mistakes and they've gone 2-0 up. I've said it a lot, sides don't usually beat us we beat ourselves.
"They hit the ball forward more to feet in second half, scored two goals in minute, I felt sorry the defence as they did really well.
"With about five to go Bradley Clark has gone in the box, gone past the lad and he took him out. TJ put it away, you'd put your money on TJ on penalties that's for sure. It made for a frantic five minutes, but there were no clear cut chances."
Asked how his players reacted after the game Fisher said: "They were annoyed as they knew two mistakes has cost us. You get beat sometimes but we beat ourselves from two bad mistakes, such is life, it's done and dusted now."
Tonight, Highworth travel to Reading Town for their final match of the campaign.


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Hey, we have a thread for every other thing, How about what we've eaten?
Breakfast-......not much on breakfast. I had 3 glasses of Ice Water
Lunch- Grilled Chicken Breast, Mashed Potates, Corn, and other grilled vegetables. There was this really good cream of mushroom gravy with it.
Supper- Attempted to eat a family sized can of soup all by myself, but could only eat about a fourth of it.
Snack-Chocolate chip Granola Bar.


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The state has launched an appeal against a Supreme Court Justice's finding that Lloyd Rayney was not guilty of the murder of his wife.
Ending what had been dubbed "the trial of a decade'" former Northern Territory Supreme Court Chief Justice Brian Martin earlier this month found Mr Rayney - a former WA prosecutor - not guilty of the high profile murder of his wife Corryn Rayney, a Supreme Court registrar.
Mrs Rayney was found buried in a shallow Kings Park grave in August 2007, sparking a mystery that would enthrall Perth's legal fraternity for more than half a decade.
With the 21-day window for an appeal against the judge-only decision due to expire within hours the NSW Department of Public Prosecutions - responsible for the prosecution against the Perth lawyer - filed an 11th hour appeal.
The state on Thursday put forward three draft grounds on which it has sought leave to appeal Mr Rayney's acquittal, the Supreme Court of WA has confirmed.
The first ground claims Justice Martin made an error in law by failing to apply a case law principle concerning looking at circumstantial evidence as a whole, rather than in pieces.
The state has also criticised Justice Martin's finding that, even though Mrs Rayney was attacked at or in the area of her Como home, that fact alone did not establish Mr Rayney's guilt.
"The nature of the circumstantial case was that no fact alone established guilt," the draft grounds of appeal reads.
The state also claims the discovery of a dinner party place tag with Mr Rayney's name on it near his wife's grave should have been assessed together with the fact Mrs Rayney was attacked at her home.
This makes up the final draft ground of appeal.
Mr Rayney's lawyer Laura Willox (nee Timpano) said the prosecution's decision to appeal had come as a surprise, although the draft grounds of appeal had not "troubled" the defence team.
"Appeals against acquittals are rarely made," she said.
"We are not troubled by the grounds of appeal.
"Whether the prosecution will even be given leave to appeal is a matter for the courts."
Australian Lawyers Alliance WA president Tom Percy QC said the legal community was widely "shocked" that an appeal had been lodged.
"The general consensus in the legal community at the moment is one of shock and surprise," he said.
"Whilst we always knew it was a possibility I don't think that anyone thought that it was a realistic possibility.
"The judgement to me seemed one which was very sound in law and one which was very comprehensive in fact.
"It seemed to be, and with great respect to the judge, it was entirely correct."
Mr Percy said there was nothing to be made of how late the appeal was filed.
Although the senior Perth barrister has not been involved in the Rayney case, he said the grounds of appeal appeared to centre on both issues of fact and law "in the way that the judge dealt with the issue of circumstantial evidence."
The prosecution's application for leave to appeal would likely now be assessed by a Court of Appeal justice and, if that justice is satisfied the grounds had some merit, it would then go on to the full appeals bench of three justices for hearing.
"Whether or not there will have to be an independent judge brought in to hear the application for leave is a matter that will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court," Mr Percy said.
And the prospect of a retrial would still be "a long way off," he said.
"I wouldn't have thought the thing was likely to be resolved short of about 12 months," he said.
Mr Percy said a defamation case launched by Mr Rayney against the WA Government, which was put on hold pending the outcome of the murder trial, would likely be stalled again by the appeal.
Mr Rayney's ability to practise as a lawyer also remains up in the air after Justice Martin found that the barrister had engaged in "discreditable conduct" by lying to a magistrate, swearing a false affidavit and arranging a phone tap to monitor his wife's calls.
Both the Legal Practice Board and Barristers' Board were reviewing Mr Rayney's privilege to practise law before the appeal was announced.
The WA Bar Association, of which Mr Rayney is a member, could strip him of his membership but it cannot prevent him from practising as a barrister.
The Rayney murder trial cost taxpayers more than $2 million, running for more than three months and attracting unprecedented public attention.
Handing down his verdict this month, Justice Martin was highly critical of police conduct and the prosecution case against Mr Rayney
- with AAP


text: On a steepy sloping, south facing hillside, densely covered with oaks, the five volumes that make up the house, rest on the terrain like the five fingers of a hand spread out amongst the trees. With the aim of altering the site as little as possible, these volumes are positioned on the paths that originally ran through the woodland. Each of these structures derives its proportions and materials from the requirements of the program. The structure of exposed concrete, the limestone surfaces, the facades of marble, steel and glass, the floors of stone and wood and the presence of water endow the five volumes with textures and reflections which engage in an organic dialogue with the landscape.


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Fire investigation continues
September 20, 2012
Artist E. Peter Darvas suffered severe burns to his face and hands after trying to extinguish the Sept. 18 fire that destroyed his house on Pioneer Trail, according to longtime friend Robert Schimmel.
The internationally renowned watercolor painter who lived at 3120 Pioneer Trail was transported to the hospital on Tuesday after trying to put out the flames with a garden hose, Lake Valley Fire Protection District Chief Gareth Harris said.
The adjacent house, 3568 April Drive, was also gutted by the fire that started a few minutes before 6 p.m and engulfed the front of 3120 Pioneer Trail within about three minutes according to an eye witness. Harris said the second house had been vacated a few weeks earlier and operated as a long-term rental, but he did not know who managed the property.
When Lynn Woodward, a member of the Tahoe Art League, read the email Schimmel sent out to the art community after his Wednesday visit to Barton Hospital where Darvas was transported the night of the fire, it was the first information she'd received regarding the condition of her friend Darvas.
Schimmel's email asked friends and Tahoe Art League members to refrain from calling Darvas in the hospital since he is still suffering from damage to his throat and eyes and can't communicate well.
"He virtually couldn't open his eyes. He got pretty singed, but it's all healable," Schimmel said.
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"He was trying to scramble to get his things out. But that house and studio had been his life and he had hundreds of pieces of work in there. He said he was in one room when the fire started and then he came into another when he smelled smoke, and it was like, 'What do I do?'" Schimmel said.
Schimmel said he doesn't know where Darvas will stay now that his home on Pioneer Trail is destroyed, but the art community is there to help him.
"He's very active and he's a very good artist. We'll support him, but we don't know what to do at this point," Woodward said.
Tahoe Art League President Juanita Brock said the league is starting a collection for Darvas to help him resupply the studio that was decimated on Tuesday. There will be a bin at the art center, located at 3062 Lake Tahoe Blvd., where people can donate art supplies. Paints and brushes are especially welcome, Brock said. In addition to all his supplies, Brock is confident that some paintings were also lost, but said she doesn't know the full extent of the damage.
The painter had won an appeal in January before the South Lake Tahoe City Council filed after the city had confiscated debris found in his yard. The two parties had grappled with abatement issues.
The council approved the appeal with a 3-1 vote on the grounds that Darvas didn't receive proper notification of the abatement proceedings. Mayor Claire Fortier, the only dissenting voter, said she doesn't buy it.
"I felt that Mr. Darvas was in violation of our city code. He had a backyard full of stuff, which he failed to remove," Fortier said Wednesday morning.
"It was a nuisance to his neighbors, it was also a health hazard and a safety hazard," she said.
Since January, Darvas has filed a claim against the city for the cost of his confiscated property. Fortier said she didn't know the amount and wasn't sure Darvas had ever specified it.
The cause and origin of the fire are still under investigation, Harris said. He estimated the total damage to both structures at about $800,000.
According to a South Lake Tahoe Fire Department press release, more than 80 firefighters and 26 law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies responded to the scene that night and were able to contain the fire less than an hour after it started.


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To register to vote in the State of Alabama you must:
- Be a citizen of the United States.
- Reside in Alabama and your county at the time of registration.
- Be 18 years old by Election Day.
- Have not been convicted of a felony (or have had your civil and political rights restored).
- Have not been declared "mentally incompetent" by a court.
Must register to vote at least 10 days before an election. Can select party affiliation at the polls.
Can register to vote in person or obtain a mail-in application from:
- Driver's licensing office
- County and select municipal public libraries
- Department of Human Resources
- WIC Program, Department of Public Health
- Medicaid Agency
- Department of Rehabilitation Services
- Public 4-year universities
- Select private 4-year universities
- Armed Forces Recruiting Stations
- Board of Registrars located at the county seat in county of residence
You can also obtain an online voter registration application.
Absentee Voting:
To obtain an absentee ballot, write or visit the local Absentee Election Manager (usually the Circuit Clerk) requesting an absentee ballot with the following information:
- Name and residential address (or other such information in order to verify voter registration)
- Election for which the ballot is requested
- Reason for absence from polls on Election Day
- Party choice, if the election is a party primary
- Address to which the ballot should be mailed
- Voter signature (If a mark is made in place of a signature, it must be witnessed)
An absentee ballot application is also available.
The absentee ballot application must be returned to the Absentee Election Manager by the voter in person or by mail. The absentee ballot applications must be turned in no later than the fifth calendar day before the election.
An absentee ballot returned by mail must be postmarked no later than the day prior to the election. If hand-delivered, the ballot must be in the office of the Absentee Election Manager by the close of business (but no later than 5 p.m.) on the day prior to the election.
For more election and voter information you can contact the Alabama Secretary of State's Office