YEAR IN PICTURES

The Year in Pictures

In this post, featuring images from the last quarter of 2011, we remember a tumultuous year of change across the globe, the capture of Khadafi, the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the passing of Apple icon Steve Jobs, fire, famine, flood and protests. A memorable year, indeed.

FIRE ECLIPSE

Ring of Fire Eclipse

A rare annular eclipse - a ring of sunlight as the new moon, passing between Earth and sun, blocks most, but not all, of the sun's disc. It is striking to see. Differing from a total solar eclipse, the moon in an annular eclipse appears too small to cover the sun completely, leaving a ring of fire effect around the moon. The eclipse cast its shallow path crossing the West from west Texas to Oregon then arcing across the northern Pacific Ocean to Tokyo, Japan. 

AMERICAN FLAG IS RAISED

Hurricane Sandy: Recovery

November 2, 2012

 

Hurricane Sandy battered the mid-Atlantic region with powerful gusts and storm surges that cause epic flooding in the coastal communities of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, knocking down trees and power lines and leaving more than eight million people – including large parts of Manhattan – in the rain-soaked dark. The mammoth storm packed maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. Those powerful winds, driving rain and storm surge are blamed for 98 deaths in the United States (although numbers still vary), including two small boys who were swept out of their mother’s arms. The toll of the storm is staggering, including a rampaging fire that reduced more than 100 houses to ash in Breezy Point, Queens. New Jersey took the brunt, officials estimating that the state suffered many billions of dollars in property damage. Residents began the long, slow process of recovery.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 WITH BEST WISHES

KHUZDAR,BALOCHISTAN

With winter upon us

With winter upon us, we got to thinking about just which cars we’d prefer to take out in extreme winter conditions. Some of them are practical, some are sensible, and others are downright nuts — but they’re all cars we’d love to be in when the white stuff starts falling.
A great winter car should have many attributes: all-wheel drive or 4-wheel drive, an engine in the front and heated seats are a good start (OK, that last one isn’t really a necessity, but it certainly takes off the edge on a cold winter’s day). However, all that technology will not automatically make the car perform well on a slick road. Winter tires are also hugely important and can help many cars perform quite well in snow (and will make the cars on this list perform even better). When you package all this up, you have the recipe for a car that should be able to get you to the mountain and back safely and comfortably.

THE BASIC OF DRAWING OF EBOOK FREE DOWNLOAD

Share The Complete Book of Drawing Techniques.pdf - 21 MB

These courses focus on building fundamental drawing skills. Students will learn basic techniques such as shading, controlling tones, composition and drawing methods. Additionally, we learn how to see with an artists eye and capture what we see on paper. I teach anyone who has the desire to learn the art of drawing. Classes are kept small to ensure individualized attention and instruction. My classes are “skills oriented” and not “project oriented” so my methods are particularly well suited for students who want an arts curriculum that goes beyond crafts. My classes are best for students age 14 to adult; however accommodations may be made for gifted and/or mature students.

facts of serbia

Facts

Name of state: Republic of Serbia

Capital city: Belgrade, population more than 1,600,000

Autonomous regions: Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija

Geographic location: Southeastern and Central Europe, Balkan Peninsula, Western Balkans

Area: 88,509 km²

Climate: moderate continental

Longest river: Danube, Serbian section, 588 km

Highest mountain peak: Đeravica (in the Prokletije range), 2656 m

International dialling code: +381

Official currency: the dinar (RSD)

National Internet domain: .rs

National vehicle code: SRB

Population (excluding Kosovo and Metohija): more than 7,000,000, 83% Serbs

Official language: Serbian

Official script: Cyrillic

Faiths: 85% Eastern Orthodox Christian, 5.5% Roman Catholic Christian, 3.2% Muslim

National holiday: 15^th February – Serbian National Statehood Day

Time zone: central European, CET (GMT + 1 hour)

Electricity: 220 ~ 230V, 50 Hz

Water from public mains: Safe to drink

Free Download Ebook of Microsoft office 2007 in Pdf

https://www.mediafire.com/?zbrxuq0ynyasyc7

Microsoft Word is the world’s leading word processing application. It can be used to work with a wide range of documents like letters, memos, newsletters, forms and now with blogs too with Word 2007. In this article we will explore the new interface of Microsoft Word 2007.

User Interface

  

Before getting into the details of the interface of Word 2007, it is necessary to mention that launching Word in Microsoft Windows Vista would seem a little different only because the interface of Windows Vista is different. For more information on Windows Vista you can go through the articles in Windows Vista section.

But the procedure is just the same; click on the Start button (looks different in Windows Vista) on the taskbar, then click on All Programs and find Microsoft Office. When you click on Microsoft Office the folder expands and you will find Microsoft Office Word 2007. Once you launch Word on your machine, you will find that it doesn’t bear a resemblance to any of the previous versions. Though there are some similarities. Let’s begin from the top of the window.

'anti-bucket list'

Cancer survivor Greig Trout draws up 'anti-bucket list'

A police officer who twice fought cancer has compiled an alternative "bucket list" in the hope it will inspire others to beat the disease.

Greig Trout, originally from Dumfries, drew up his 101 Things To Do When You Survive when he got the all-clear for the second time.

He said he wanted to show other survivors what they could do.

Mr Trout said rather than list things to do before you die he wanted to compile things to do when you survived.

He is part of Cancer Research UK's Every Moment Counts campaign which highlights the special moments of those who have encountered the disease.

The former crime scene investigator with the Metropolitan Police said he wanted to travel the world and follow his dreams.

He was first diagnosed with cancer aged seven and had to have a kidney removed.

Since beating cancer again, the 34-year-old, originally from Scotland, has spent three months working with a remote community in Nicaragua, climbed a volcano in Costa Rica and gone nature-watching on the Galapagos Islands.

He is currently in Ecuador.

Mr Trout, who lived in Newcastle and Bristol before moving to London to join the police, said: "After my bowel operation and with chemotherapy looming, the worst-case scenario was death.

"At that point, my thoughts were not of all I had achieved at work as a crime scene examiner or the nice apartment I lived in, they were of the places I had visited and of the experiences I had had.

"I also thought of the places I hadn't seen yet and may never get a chance to."

He said when he got his two-year all-clear he decided the time was right to follow his dreams with the aim of inspiring others.

The idea for the "anti-bucket list" came to him when he was in a hospital waiting room.

"It's exactly that 'every moment counts' feeling," he said.

"As I watched people come and go, I knew some of them were not going to get good news.

"I thought how wonderful it would be if they could come on my trip with me and the idea of '101 things to do when you survive' was born."

'Real battles'

He said most books and travel journals concentrated on bucket lists and "things to do before you die".

"I thought it was about time to inspire others to show them what is waiting for them when they survive," he said.

Mr Trout has since created a website for his challenge which so far has 50 ideas on the list, leaving a further 51 vacancies for other suggestions.

He said: "I knew I wanted to create a website showing a double cancer survivor who has one kidney, a missing piece of bowel and deep vein thrombosis, living a full and happy life."

Mr Trout's ideas have also caught the eye of adventurer Bear Grylls, who said he had been inspired by the mission.

He said: "Greig is truly one brave man and is determined to shine a light and help and inspire those who have faced real battles.

"I admire his courage and resolve so much."

mysteries of the brain

Five mysteries of the brain

For centuries, the brain was a mystery. Only in the last few decades have scientists begun to unravel its secrets. In recent years, using the latest technology and powerful computers further key discoveries have been made.

However, much remains to be understood about how the brain works. Here are five important areas of study attempting to unlock the last secrets of the brain.

How to fix it

When we think, move, speak, dream and even love - it all happens in the grey matter. But our brains are not simply one colour. White matter matters too.

Much of the research into dementia has focused on the tell-tale plaques of beta amyloid and tau protein tangles which occur in the grey matter.

But one British scientist, Dr Atticus Hainsworth says the white matter - and its blood supply - may be equally important.

The white colour results from fatty sheaths around the axons - which are extensions of the nerve cell bodies and help the cells to communicate.

He is using banks of donated brains, in Oxford and Sheffield, to analyse white matter for potential triggers such as leaking blood vessels.

"Some of the cases had an MRI or CT scan and that information can help give more clues about whether there was disease in the white matter - and what its basis might be," says Dr Hainsworth.

If leaking blood vessels in white matter do play a key role in the development of dementia then it may offer up a another potential route for new drug therapies.

How to make us all geniuses

For years caffeine was used to enhance alertness. But popping a pill to get straight-A's may soon become the norm.

At Cambridge University neuroscientist Barbara Sahakian is investigating cognitive enhancers - drugs which make us smarter.

She studies how they can improve the performance of surgeons or pilots and asks if they could even be used to make us more entrepreneurial.

But she warns that there is no long-term safety information on these drugs and as a society we need to talk about their use.

She says the scientific and ethical challenges created by drugs which affect the production of brain chemicals like dopamine and noradrenaline - which induce pleasurable or "fight or flight" responses - need to be debated in order to decide whether drug-tests become routine before taking an exam.

Dr Sahakian adds: "I frequently talk to students about cognitive-enhancing drugs and a lot of students take them for studying and exams.

"But other students feel angry about this, they feel those students are cheating."

How can we harness our unconscious?

People need to be on top of their game when mastering skills like playing a musical instrument or detecting a bomb.

But research suggests that our unconscious can be harnessed to help us excel.

Repeatedly playing a tricky piece of music obviously helps develop a familiarity with the bits that are most difficult.

But cellist Tania Lisboa, who's also a researcher in the Centre for Performance Science at London's Royal College of Music, says it also helps to send the trickier parts of a piece from her conscious to the unconscious part of her brain.

After hours of practice, a fluent musician's brain stores how to play the piece in an area at the back of the brain called the cerebellum - literally "the little brain".

Neuroscientist Prof Anil Seth, of Sussex University, says: "It has more brain cells than the rest of the brain put together.

"It helps to promote fluid movements.. So the conscious effort of learning how to bow a cello is moved from the cortical areas which are involved when it's new or difficult over to the cerebellum, which is very good at producing unconscious fluent behaviour on demand."

Music and defence may not appear to have much in common, but the unconscious can also help detect potential threats, whether it's a suspicious person in a crowd or the presence of an improvised explosive device.

The unconscious brain is really good at spotting patterns - a skill which Paul Sajda at Colombia University in New York exploits - right at the boundary of the conscious/sub-conscious.

"I can flash 10 images a second and if one of those images has something out of the ordinary..that will essentially cause me to re-orient my brain to that image - but I'm not exactly aware of what that is."

Brain activity is monitored whilst the analyst looks at images so that researchers can later see which images triggered reactions.

What dreams are for

It's just 60 years since scientists in Chicago first noted the tell-tale "rapid eye movement" or REM sleep which we now associate with dreaming.

But our fascination with dreams dates back at least 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia when people believed that the soul moved out of a sleeping body to visit the places they dreamed of.

REM sleep - which occurs every 90 minutes or so - begins with signals from the base of the brain which eventually reach the cerebral cortex - the outer layer of the brain which is responsible for learning and thought.

These nerve impulses are also directed to the spinal cord, inducing temporary paralysis of the limbs.

Prof Robert Stickgold, from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for Sleep and Cognition in Boston, believes that dreams are vital for processing memory associations.

He has asked the subjects of some of his sleep studies to play Tetris - and then noted their descriptions of how they floated amongst geometric shapes in their dreams.

He's an admirer of Japanese scanning research where the scientists could "read" the dreams of subjects as they had MRI scans.

But he says it's hard to get people to sleep in a noisy, expensive scanner.

And the future? "I would like to see research which reveals the rules for dream construction - and how it relates to the larger concept of memory processing during sleep."

One even more elusive goal: how to dream just happy dreams and ditch the bad ones, especially nightmares.

Can we cure unreachable pain?

Untouched by conventional treatments like painkilling drugs, surgeons are now testing their theory that deep brain stimulation could provide relief.

It is a brain surgery technique which involves electrodes being inserted to reach targets deep inside the brain.

The target areas are stimulated via the electrodes which are connected to a battery-powered pacemaker surgically placed under the patient's collar bone.

One of the pioneers of this technique is Prof Tipu Aziz at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Deep brain stimulation has been used in the past for Parkinson's disease and depression, and is now being trialled on obsessive compulsive disorder patients as well as those in chronic pain.

One of his patients, Clive, has suffered from terrible pain for nearly a decade after an operation to remove a disc in his neck.

"Sometimes I thought that if I had an axe, I'd chop my own arm off, if I thought it would get rid of the pain."

The doctors explained to him that his brain was getting signals from his arm to his brain confused and that the electrodes could help.

In Clive's case this was an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate.

A week after his surgery he was one of the fortunate 70% of patients for whom the deep brain stimulation provides relief.

"It's great to be out of that pain now. Since having the implant I can sit down for longer, I am able to walk further, everything is an improvement."

Prof Aziz is treating medical conditions. But he is aware of ethical dilemmas which could arise if the technique was applied to other areas.

"Putting electrodes in targets to improve memory.

"Or you could put electrodes into people to make them indifferent to danger and create the perfect soldier."

Baby steps

Baby steps to saving lives

Each year, one in 10 babies around the world will be born prematurely and over a million of those will die. But could measuring the size of a baby's feet help save lives?

In the final weeks of pregnancy, the idea of going into early labour might not seem like such a bad thing.

But giving birth prematurely - officially classed as before 37 weeks gestation - can lead to long-term health effects.

Depending on quite how early the baby is born, infants can either be completely unaffected or left with permanent disability and learning difficulties.

The issue of prematurity is particularly pronounced in South Asian and Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for over 80% of the deaths caused by pre-term birth complications.

In rural Tanzania, for example, about one in every 30 premature babies won't make it past four weeks.

However, most of those lives could be saved with simple advice for mothers.

And that advice, says an international group of researchers, could start with just a footprint.

Sizing up

Most mothers in high-income countries will give birth surrounded by medical equipment or with the support of a highly-skilled midwife.

This means that any problems, such as a low birth-weight or the mother's waters breaking early, can be dealt with immediately.

In contrast, around 40% of women giving birth in low-income countries will do so without the help of a trained medical professional.

And due to inaccurate dating of pregnancy, many of those women will have no way of telling if their baby is too early or too small.

However, measuring the baby's footprint could be used as a simple proxy for birth weight.

"There's this grey area when the baby is between around 2.4kg (5lbs 5oz) and 2.1kg (4lbs 10oz) when the baby is more vulnerable to infection and other issues," says Dr Joanna Schellenberg of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"But when a baby is born at home, there is no way of weighing them," she told the BBC.

To help solve the problem, Schellenberg and her colleagues at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania have implemented a strategy called Mtunze Mtoto Mchanga - which means "protect the newborn baby".

It includes using a picture of two footprints on a piece of laminated card and a local volunteer placing the baby's foot against the images.

If the baby has feet smaller than the smallest foot, around 67mm, then the mother is advised to take the baby to hospital immediately. If it measures in between the big and the small image, then the mother is told about the extra care she needs to provide to increase the baby's chances of survival.

Although the card is fairly accurate for five days after birth, it should be used it to identify small babies in their first two days of life, which is when they're most at risk of dying without specialist care.

Mariam Ulaya is one of the volunteers at Namayakata shuleni village and visits the women before and after the birth.

"If I've measured the child's footprint and seen that the child is smaller than usual, then I instruct them to carry the child skin-to-skin so that the child can share and feel the mother's warmth," says Ulaya.

"I also carry a small doll with me called Opendo. I use the doll to illustrate the proper way to breastfeed the child."

'It has helped my child to survive'

Such advice may seem simple but can really be the difference between life and death.

A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) says that of the 15 million premature births globally each year, more than 80% will occur between 32 and 37 weeks' gestation.

Most of these babies will survive if given extra warmth through skin-to-skin contact and very regular breastfeeding to help fight off infection.

In fact, the report states that an estimated 75% of deaths in preterm infants can be prevented in this way - without the cost and emotional upset of intensive care.

Salima Ahmad is 25 and has three children who live with her in Namahyakata dinduma village, Tanzania. Her youngest son, Alhaji, was born prematurely.

"I was a little bit shocked because many premature babies end up dying but I was also happy because I had a live baby," says Salima.

Although Alhaji was born at the local hospital, Salima was given advice and support by volunteers from Mtunze Mtoto Mchanga about how to care for him once she got home.

"Carrying skin-to-skin was good but difficult in the beginning. But when the volunteer was visiting me and encouraging me, I could see myself managing it slowly. It is good, it has helped my child to survive," she says.

Salima also feels that understanding more about premature birth helps mothers like herself to deal with it properly.

"It helps a lot for the mother not to be surprised when having a premature birth. It is useful to know in advance as you get good knowledge on how to handle the premature. Myself, I do thank the volunteer who talked about it when I was pregnant and she even taught me how to carry skin to skin."

The project is still underway and it will take another six months before it's clear whether measuring feet has the ability to save thousands of lives.

However, it is already having a positive effect on the way mothers in the area are preparing for childbirth.

"When I had my first child, she was small and was not breastfeeding well and I did not know where to get help," says Rukia Twarib, who is currently pregnant with her second child.

"Now I have information, if the situation ever happens again, I know can go to the health centre to get help."

Advice from volunteers like Miriam also appears to be contributing to the increase in women now choosing to deliver at a health centre rather than at home.

Dr Isa Lipupu works at the nearby Nangururwe health centre.

"In the last two years, we had about 20 deliveries at the health centre. But this time we have already delivered more than 40 babies. This is about 60-80% of all the mothers that were pregnant," he says.

If the strategy proves successful, then there are already plans to roll out the footprint scheme to the rest of Tanzania, giving more health volunteers the ability to quickly spot at-risk babies.

"Right now many people are aware of the work I do. All the families have been very welcoming and have accepted me and this programme," says Mariam Ulaya.

"I have seen a lot of changes in the area. I can see that there are more mothers visiting the clinic and giving birth there - much more than they used to do - and so I am grateful for that."

Scientists

Scientists 'print' new eye cells

Scientists say they have been able to successfully print new eye cells that could be used to treat sight loss.

The proof-of-principle work in the journal Biofabrication was carried out using animal cells.

The Cambridge University team says it paves the way for grow-your-own therapies for people with damage to the light-sensitive layer of tissue at back of the eye - the retina.

More tests are needed before human trials can begin.

At the moment the results are preliminary and show that an inkjet printer can be used to print two types of cells from the retina of adult rats―ganglion cells and glial cells.

These are the cells that transmit information from the eye to certain parts of the brain, and provide support and protection for neurons.

The printed cells remained healthy and retained their ability to survive and grow in culture.

Retinal repair

Co-authors of the study Prof Keith Martin and Dr Barbara Lorber, from the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair at the University of Cambridge, said: "The loss of nerve cells in the retina is a feature of many blinding eye diseases. The retina is an exquisitely organised structure where the precise arrangement of cells in relation to one another is critical for effective visual function.

"Our study has shown, for the first time, that cells derived from the mature central nervous system, the eye, can be printed using a piezoelectric inkjet printer. Although our results are preliminary and much more work is still required, the aim is to develop this technology for use in retinal repair in the future."

They now plan to attempt to print other types of retinal cells, including the light-sensitive photoreceptors - rods and cones.

Scientists have already been able to reverse blindness in mice using stem cell transplants.

And there is promising work into electronic retina implants implants in patients.

Clara Eaglen, of the RNIB, said: "Clearly it's still at a very early stage and further research is needed to develop this technology for use in repairing the retina in humans.

"The key to this research, once the technology has moved on, will be how much useful vision is restored.

"Even a small bit of sight can make a real difference, for some people it could be the difference between leaving the house on their own or not.

"It could help boost people's confidence and in turn their independence."

Prof Jim Bainbridge of London's Moorfields Eye Hospital said: "The finding that eye cells can survive the printing process suggests the exciting possibility that this technique could be used in the future to create organised tissues for regeneration of the eye and restoration of sight.

"Blindness is commonly caused by degeneration of nerve cells in the eye. In recent years there has been substantial progress towards the development of new treatments involving cell transplantation."

US healthcare

US healthcare insurance deadline extended a day

A deadline for Americans to sign up for health insurance to receive coverage by 1 January under "Obamacare" has been extended by a day to Christmas Eve.

The Obama administration announced the grace period amid high demand and concerns about technical issues.

Healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace website, has been plagued by glitches since its 1 October rollout.

In a symbolic move, President Barack Obama signed up for insurance through Washington DC's marketplace website.

Mr Obama already receives heath insurance through the military in his role as commander-in-chief, but enrolled in a show of support, signing up for a less-expensive "bronze" plan, according to the White House.

'Sign up today'

Despite the deadline extension, federal officials urged those seeking insurance not to delay.

"You should not wait until tomorrow," said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge of the federal website.

"If you are aiming to get coverage January 1, you should try to sign up today."

Ms Bataille said the extension had been offered to help those from different time zones and to deal with any technical problems that might result from a last-minute rush of applicants.

The deadline had already been delayed a week after the initial botched rollout of the website.

Two states have extended the deadline for coverage in the new year even further, to 27 December in Maryland and 31 December in Minnesota.

While the website has been upgraded over the course of the past two months, the site has still experienced downtime in the past few weeks.

The site is part of a larger 2010 healthcare law that seeks to cover millions of uninsured Americans.

While Americans may still enrol in private insurance plans through the website after Tuesday, they will not be guaranteed coverage at the start of the new year.

A more important deadline for the Obama administration is 31 March, when enrolment in the programme ends for the year.

Those who do not have coverage through their employer, government-run health programmes or through the federal or state-run websites by then will have to pay a tax penalty.

Mr Obama said on Friday that more than one million people had enrolled in private insurance through federal and state-run websites since 1 October.

Previously White House estimates called for 3.3 million Americans to enrol by the end of 2013, and about 7 million by the end of March 2014.

Eating nuts

Eating nuts during pregnancy 'may curb allergies'

Children are less likely to have a nut allergy if their mother ate nuts while pregnant, a study has concluded.

The work, published in JAMA Pediatrics, looked at the health and diets of more than 8,000 children and their mothers.

The US researchers believe that early exposure in the womb creates natural tolerance to certain foods.

But the findings conflict with other studies that have shown either no effect or a possible risk from nut consumption.

Experts say this makes it difficult to offer firm advice to mothers-to-be, with the exception of women who are themselves allergic to nuts and should therefore always avoid eating them.

Conflicting evidence

The study authors, led by Dr Lindsay Frazier of the Dana-Faber Children's Cancer in Boston, concluded children were a third less likely to have a nut allergy if their mothers had eating nuts during pregnancy.

This included tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, pecans, brazils, hazelnuts and macadamias as well as peanuts.

The authors say this suggests that nut consumption may protect against future allergies.

But there are other factors that may also explain this difference.

For example, the women who ate nuts were also more likely to have healthier diets containing plenty of fruit and vegetables.

Dr Adam Fox, consultant children's allergist at Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Foundation Trust, said the findings were interesting but inconclusive.

"To make things even more complicated, there is also strong evidence to suggest that nut allergy doesn't develop until after birth and that it is exposure of the infant's skin to nut protein that is most important in the development of allergy.

"With such differing results from different studies, it is currently impossible to offer advice about exactly what mothers should do regarding nut consumption during pregnancy but current international guidance is that there is no need to either avoid nuts, nor to actively eat them."

Nelson Mandela

Biography Of Nelson Mandela

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July 18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.

His father died when he was 12 years old (1930) and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. Hearing the elder’s stories of his ancestor’s valour during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.

He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom to give all school children “Christian” names.

He completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where he matriculated.

Nelson Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.

He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

On his return to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni the King was furious and said if he didn’t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to Johannesburg instead, arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, who introduced him to Lazar Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of attorneys, Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky.

Meanwhile he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. By his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but also did not complete that degree.

In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.

Nelson Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the ANC Youth League.

In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s cousin Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had two sons, Madiba Thembekile ‘Thembi’ and Makgatho and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. They effectively separated in 1955 and divorced in 1958.

Nelson Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its work, in 1949 the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action.

In 1952 he was chosen at the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. This campaign of civil disobedience against six unjust laws was a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months hard labour, suspended for two years.

A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Nelson Mandela to practice law, and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo.

At the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted person he was only permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.

Nelson Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mr Mandela were acquitted on 29 March 1961.

On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest against the pass laws held at Sharpeville. This led to the country’s first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress on 8 April. Nelson Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained during the state of emergency.

During the trial on 14 June 1958 Nelson Mandela married a social worker, Winnie Madikizela. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.

Days before the end of the Treason Trial Nelson Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a non-racial national convention, and to warn that should he not agree there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic. As soon as he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial Nelson Mandela went underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March. In the face of massive mobilisation of state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation).

On 11 January 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Nelson Mandela secretly left South Africa. He travelled around Africa and visited England to gain support for the armed struggle. He received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal where he briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.

He was charged with leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment which he began serving in the Pretoria Local Prison. On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria on 12 June. Within a month police raided a secret hide-out in Rivonia used by ANC and Communist Party activists, and several of his comrades were arrested.

On 9 October 1963 Nelson Mandela joined ten others on trial for sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. While facing the death penalty his words to the court at the end of his famous ‘Speech from the Dock’ on 20 April 1964 became immortalised:

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

On 11 June 1964 Nelson Mandela and seven other accused: Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni were convicted and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment. Denis Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison because he was white, while the others went to Robben Island.

Nelson Mandela’s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son Thembi in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

On 31 March 1982 Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in October. When he returned to the prison in November 1985 after prostate surgery Nelson Mandela was held alone. Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee visited him in hospital. Later Nelson Mandela initiated talks about an ultimate meeting between the apartheid government and the ANC.

On 12 August 1988 he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After more than three months in two hospitals he was transferred on 7 December 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl where he spent his last 14 months of imprisonment. He was released from its gates on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four months after the release of his remaining Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.

Nelson Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life.

On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated South Africa’s first democratically elected President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel, his third wife.

True to his promise Nelson Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

In April 2007 his grandson Mandla Mandela became head of the Mvezo Traditional Council at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.

Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived; to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

Santa Hurts Christmas

How Santa Hurts Christmas

Yes, it’s true, but Mr. Claus is just about the worst thing to happen to Christianity. We make kids believe in a fat man who hands out gifts unfairly and makes out with mom, and then ask them to believe in Jesus. Right.
Santa is a fixture in a fixture in holiday calendars, at malls, and on lawns across suburbia. But who is Santa really, and does he embody “the spirit of the Holiday” of consumer Christmas?

Most modern American beliefs about Santa come from Dutch settlers in New York and reach us by way of department store marketing and Thomas Nast cartoons. But, as many people know, the modern Santa Claus evolved out of St. Nicholas. In much the same way homo sapiens evolved out of sea sludge.

Nicholas lived in southwestern Turkey in the fourth century and, according to legend, performed a number of miracles involving sailors and children. He was from a wealthy family and, in a prefiguration of modern stockings, would occasionally toss gold through the windows of less fortunate neighbors to help them through hard times. In one particularly gruesome miracle story, he resurrected three children who had been murdered by a butcher for their meat. The miraculous feat earned him the status of patron saint of children and put him on course to becoming the bearded fat man in the red suit.

An all-around great guy, no doubt, but a far cry from the stories we tell our children today. After all, southwestern Turkey isn’t the kind of place you find too many reindeer-pulled sleds.

Okay, the historical “Santa” is quite different from the hirsute character on the Hallmark cards. In our hearts we all knew that. But, even as a magical holiday fiction, is the concept good for anyone?

The point of the Santa Claus myth is to compel children to play nice, finish their greens, and go to bed early. Like the Politburo and Edward Cullen from Twilight, he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. This isn’t just a Draconian hangover from Victorian parenting. The enterprising folks at Elf on the Shelf have produced a stuffed toy that serves as Santa’s eyes and ears in your home. That should knock the snark out of the precocious six-year old who wonders exactly how Santa knows all.

The pay-off of North Pole espionage is supposed to be that good children get presents while bad children get coal in their stockings. If good old-fashioned fear of God or, shucks, actual parenting fail, there’s the threat of fossil fuels (value rising by the day) instead of gifts to deter misconduct.

Except it doesn’t work. Any five-year-old can see that rich naughty children are pulling down more than their fair share of the gifts. That’s if less affluent families can afford the luxury of purchasing gifts from a figment of the cultural imagination. When petulant rich kids get more presents than poorer angelic ones, it sends mixed messages. The historical St. Nicholas is said to have given money anonymously to poor children. The commercial Santa brings laptops to rich kids. What’s the lesson we’re teaching our children? Life’s not fair? The rules are different for rich people? Better learn the harsh realities of life early.

Then there’s the disservice Santa does to religion. Even if Ole’ St. Nick didn’t spend so much time cultivating endorsements and trawling malls selling photo ops, it’s not clear that he would be beneficial for the religion to which he is attached. For children, Christmas is the undisputed high point in the religious calendar. Between the daily dose of advent calendar chocolate, opportunities for budding thespians to cut their teeth treading the boards in a nativity play, and, of course, the presents, Christmas has it all. In many ways Santa Claus shares top billing with the baby Jesus. And that’s if you’re going to church.

Then one day comes the truth. After spending years deceiving our children about the jolly man who brings presents, can we really say “Gee you got us, but that part about the Virgin giving birth to a child? Now that’s the real deal”? We’re hardly building trust here. We’re catfishing our children. Do Christians really want to bring religion into the rouse?

We can’t even stick to the script, either. We’re actively trying to jeopardize the “kind old man” story. Christmas music has its fair share of clangers (who hasn’t raised an eyebrow to the date-rape lyrics of “Baby it’s Cold Outside”?) But “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” takes the fruit cake. A small child catches her mother in flagrante with “Santa” and is wracked with guilt about her cuckolded father. It’s an account of childhood trauma therapeutically set to music. Sure, as adults we know that Santa is really Daddy engaged in some adventurous Christmas-time role-play, but the shocked child sure doesn’t. That’s Christmas magic right there.

We invented a trusted magical figure, turned him into a home wrecker, and pump those lyrics into the backseat all December long. Cui bono? Child psychiatrists?

Last week a vicar in the UK was forced to apologize for telling children that Santa wasn’t real and for, instead, regaling them with stories of the Christian Saint. In his apology he said he was worried he may have spoiled Christmas for the kids. But if telling the truth about Santa seems to be taking all the joy out of Christmas, think of it as an opportunity to take a leaf out of the book of the real St. Nick. According to tradition Nicholas attended the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. During the proceedings a priest named Arius, subsequently declared a heretic for his views of Jesus, stood up in order to be better heard. Enraged by what Arius was saying, Nicholas grabbed Arius by the beard and punched him in the face.

If that’s not taking a principled stand for truth I don’t know what is. (Not that I’m suggesting that the War on Christmas get violent.)

Santa Claus is depicted as many things: the morbidly obese ruddy face of Coca-Cola (there’s truth in advertising after all), an above-the-law industrialist with scant regard for elvish workers rights or producing counterfeit goods, and history’s most generous home invader. The truth is he’s not real, he’s not fair, and you shouldn’t leave him alone with your Mom.