Born June 25, 1896, he was an 18-year-old soldier in the Black Watch regiment when British and German troops cautiously emerged from the trenches that Christmas Day in 1914. The enemies swapped cigarettes and tunic buttons, sang carols and even played soccer amid the mud, barbed wire and shell holes of no man's land.

"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence," Mr. Anderson told The Observer last year.

"All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machine-gun fire and distant German voices," said Mr. Anderson, who was billeted in a French farmhouse behind the front lines.

"But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see," he said. "We shouted 'Merry Christmas,' even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war."

This reminds me of one of the best history classes I took and a book we were required to read. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Last Man From 'Christmas Truce' of 1914, Dies

Leave it to Ted Koppel to quit "Nightline" in the same wry, superior way he began it 25 years ago. His choice for a valedictory broadcast is not a video scrapbook crammed with slow-motion clips and misty testimonials from world leaders. Nor is it a foreboding look forward at what network news will be like without him.

The show is a tribute to Mr. Schwartz's indomitable spirit, but the broadcast also serves as a veiled showcase for Mr. Koppel's proud, contrarian personality. He built his career on being different - professorial, not telegenic; cerebral, not entertaining; coolly amusing, not genial or avuncular. "A Tuesday With Morrie" tonight is Koppel's last chance on ABC to épater les bourgeois.

When Mr. Cooper asked Mr. Koppel why he was leaving ABC News, Mr. Koppel gave a dry smile and replied, "Why not?"

With Little Fanfare, an Anchor Says Goodbye

William H. Luers, the current president of the United Nations Association of the United States, offered a dark assessment of the current clash. "I think that there is a morning-after effect that's resulted in polarization between the U.S. on the one hand and the Group of 77 on the other," he said. "This is a time for diplomacy, and we don't have the diplomatic capacity to do it."

This is a scary but possibly true statement

U.S. Press for Reform Prompts Talk of Showdown at the U.N.

On a July evening in the Capitol, Vice President Dick Cheney summoned three Republican senators to his ornate office just off the Senate chamber. The Republicans - John W. Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - were making trouble for the Bush administration, and Mr. Cheney let them know it.

The three were pushing for regulations on the treatment of American military prisoners, including a contentious ban on "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The vice president wanted the provision pulled from a huge military spending bill. The senators would not budge.

"We agreed to disagree," Mr. Graham said in an interview last week.

That private session was an early hint of a Republican feud that spilled into the open last week, as Senate Republicans openly challenged President Bush on American military policy in Iraq and the war on terrorism. In the center of the fray, pushing Congress to reassert itself, were those same three Republicans.

In the Senate, a Chorus of Three Defies the Line

The intent of this blog is to create a single location where a designer of any kind can come and discover creative inspiration. Please post comments here to build to the depth of information of this site.

This page was put together by a guy from Atlanta.

Design Inspiration

PYONGYANG, North Korea — While watching child gymnasts tumbling in unison across the field of Kim Il Sung Stadium in a performance heralding the miracle of the North Korean economy, Hwang Seon felt a sharp cramp in her abdomen.

Within minutes, the 32-year-old South Korean tourist was whisked by ambulance across town to Pyongyang's maternity hospital. There, doctors delivered a 7-pound, 6-ounce girl who has become an instant celebrity and rare source of optimism in this often-forlorn North Korean capital.

The baby is the first born in the North as a South Korean citizen.

...............

Hwang Seon, the baby's mother and a former student radical, served 34 months in South Korean prisons largely because she made an unauthorized trip to North Korea in 1998.

"The last time I came back [to South Korea] from North Korea, the National Intelligence Service was waiting for me to arrest me," Hwang recalled. "This time, I held my baby in my arms and was welcomed back with flowers."

Hwang's husband was not able to meet his wife and new daughter upon their arrival home. He is in hiding, wanted by South Korean authorities on charges of pro-North Korean activities.

'Unification Baby'

My choices were many. To get advice on how to narrow the field I phoned Sushi Ran's owner, Yoshi Tome, who is also the president of the Northern California Japanese Restaurant Association.

"I heard you are the top expert in California," I said just to be cordial and not because I was hoping to get a table faster the next time I go to Sushi Ran.

"When buying nigori sake, what should a shopper look for?" I asked.

"Be very careful to ask first about how it is stored," he said. "In Japan a good sake brewery puts a date on the bottles. Ask if it is kept refrigerated. It tends to sour very quickly."

For Sake's Sweet Sake

WASHINGTON — With no fanfare, the Supreme Court this summer granted a last-minute reprieve to a man who had spent the last 17 years on death row in Pennsylvania. Convicted of stabbing a tavern owner to death and setting him on fire, Ronald Rompilla had run out of appeals when the high court stepped in.

By the narrowest of margins — 5 to 4 — the court vacated the death penalty and returned the case for resentencing. It marked the third time since 2000 that a loose coalition of liberal and swing-vote justices has struck down death-penalty cases because of poor work by defense lawyers.

Of broader importance, the court in the Rompilla case overturned a lower ruling written by U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. — the same man who appears likely to replace one of those swing voters on the Supreme Court early next year.

Alito and the Death Penalty

Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of "preemptive war," an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes.
Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top U.S. leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world. These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained.
Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of "You are either with us or against us!" has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.

Jimmy Carter expresses himself far more eloquently here then in recent interviews, and far more eloquently then Gore and Dean have in recent speaches. Reminds me a bit of Steve Wozniak's commentary at Hope. One of the things the left needs to have is a clearer voice.

This isn't the real America - Los Angeles Times

Feathers fly and teddies soar as you converge on Dundas Square for a giant urban pillow fight! Swing and whack as you evade pillow-wielding assailants. Join us for this London-style silliness: bring a soft pillow to the middle of the square at 2 PM and wait for the signal. Pillow fight!

Disclaimer: As with all things, participating in a pillow fight is risky. By bringing a pillow, you accept that despite our best efforts, you may get hurt.

This is great. Makes you think..."Why don't more places do things like this?"

Giant Urban Pillow Fight