Multi-stakeholder approaches to ethical trade: towards a reorganisation of UK retailers' global supply chains?

As a result of consumer campaigns and media exposure of poorworking conditions at sites of export production, retailersare under heightened pressure to organise their global supplychains more responsibly. This paper critically evaluates thework of the UK's Ethical Trading Initiative in responding tothis pressure, both strategically and in practice. It is arguedthat for ethical trading strategy to make a more significantdifference to the organisation of global supply chains, attentionneeds to be paid to the terms of trade between retailers andsuppliers, as well as to issues of worker welfare at sites ofproduction.     

The woman of Pritschoena: an example of the German neolithic neurosurgery in Saxony-Anhalt

We present an outstanding example of successful prehistoric double trephination dating between 2700 and 2200 BC, most likely to the Corded Ware culture, at the end of the Neolithic Age. The particularity of this case is the presence of a double trephination, one frontal over the sinus sagittal superior and one parietal right. There is evidence that the patient survived months to years after the operations. The purpose of the procedure is not known. The case confirms the astonishing degree of technical skills reached in Saxony-Anhalt over 4500 years ago without anesthetic, antiseptic, or technologic aids.     

The Origin of Folk-Culture

The legend of Sir Richard ‘Bloody’ Baker, concerning events alleged to have occurred in the parish of Cranbrook, Kent in the sixteenth century, was first recorded in 1850. This legend bears such strong similarities to the English folktale of Mister Fox that it has been suggested it was deliberately fabricated by a Victorian faux antiquary. There are, however, many other oral traditions current in Cranbrook about Bloody Baker which do seem to be authentic folklore, while certain details incongruous in the recorded narrative appear to be survivals from an earlier version. These considerations make it probable that the legend is an organic local variant on the Mister Fox motif, notwithstanding the lateness of its first record.