starting Saturday, visitors will be able to see for themselves, spread across the floor, where so many Legos were heading: an ambitious installation by the Chinese activist-artist Ai Weiwei, featuring 176 portraits of prisoners of conscience and political exiles around the world — from the South African leader Nelson Mandela and the Tibetan pop singer Lolo to the American whistle-blower Edward Snowden — composed of 1.2 million Lego pieces. The work is part of an exhibition running through April 26 called “@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz,” organized by For-Site, a San Francisco producer of public art, in the prison hospital, A Block cells, dining hall and that former laundry building.

“Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World” is on loan from theRobert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in Washington, of which Ms. Kennedy is president. The exhibition is derived from Ms. Kennedy’s 2000 book of the same title, a collaboration with the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams, who died in 2004.
The show describes the achievements of an international cast of human rights defenders and the often grim situations that propelled them.

Twelve men and nine women, whose work is as diverse as studying the racial elements in perceptions of crime and translating contemporary Arab poetry, have been named the 2014 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation. The fellowships, based on achievement and potential, come with a stipend of $625,000 over five years and are among the most prestigious prizes for artists, scholars and professionals.

The Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University is pleased to announce fellowships of up to $2500 to students, faculty, and independent scholars to conduct research based on our collections. We have a number of collections potentially of interest to scholars of Vietnam, a few of which are listed here: http://www.hoover.org/library-archives/collections/southeast-asia

Available to international students, faculty, and independent scholars, this support provides reimbursement of up to $2,500 for airfare and hotel costs to conduct research at the Library & Archives

Application deadline: November 1, 2014
Award notification: by December 19, 2014
Term of residency: 10 days, anytime between January 5 and December 18, 2015
Fellowship Application Form: http://www.hoover.org/library-archives/fellowships

Tony Auth, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who for more than 40 years drew sharp and often darkly comic lines of attack across the spectrum of American life, finding absurdities in all corners of it, died on Sunday in Philadelphia. He was 72.

Polly Bergen, an actress, singer and businesswoman who won an Emmy in 1957 for her portrayal of the alcoholic torch singer Helen Morgan and was nominated for another 50 years later for her role on the television show “Desperate Housewives,” died on Saturday at her home in Southbury, Conn. She was 84.

Nicolae Corneanu, an Orthodox bishop who in 1999 acknowledged collaborating with the Securitate, Romania’s feared secret police, confirming suspicions that senior clerics had been closely tied to the regime of theCommunist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, died on Sunday at his home in Bucharest, Romania. He was 90.
In an interview with the Italian Catholic magazine Il Regno, published in April 1999, Bishop Corneanu said that he had been recruited as an informer in 1948 when he was arrested by the Communists. He said he had signed papers that led, in 1981, to the excommunication of five dissident priests who had accused church leaders of prostituting the church to the demands of Communist rulers. He also informed on priests visiting Communist Romania.

The death of Grant Evans at the age of 66 is a notable loss for Australian scholarship on Southeast Asia and a sad event for his many friends. As one of a few academic specialists on Lao society and history anywhere in the world, his death at such an early age leaves a gap that will not be easily filled. And the fact that he will no longer be present to welcome visitors to Vientiane robs us of a host who was always generous in sharing knowledge and wise advice as well as a drink and a meal in his house beside the Mekong River.

Col. Bernard F. Fisher, who received the first Medal of Honor awarded to an aviator during the Vietnam War for a daring rescue of another pilot in the face of enemy fire on an airstrip, died on Aug. 16 in Boise, Idaho. He was 87.
Colonel Fisher held the rank of major on March 10, 1966, when, despite the warnings of fellow pilots and radio controllers, he landed on an embattled airstrip where another flier had crashed, taxied under heavy fire to find him, and got his comrade and himself out alive.

Nhà văn, nhà báo, nhà giáo Nguyễn Xuân Hoàng vừa qua đời hôm thứ Bảy vừa rồi tại thành phố San Jose, bang California, hưởng thọ 74 tuổi.
Ông sinh ngày mùng 7 tháng Bảy năm 1940 tại Nha Trang, tốt nghiệp Sư Phạm, Ban Triết, tại Ðại Học Sư Phạm Ðà Lạt, năm 1961. Sau đó ông giảng dạy bộ môn này tại các trung học Ngô Quyền (Biên Hòa) và Petrus Ký (Sài Gòn). Trong thời gian từ 1972 đến 1974, ông đảm nhiệm vị trí Thư Ký Tòa Soạn tạp chí Văn tại Sài Gòn.
Ông sang Hoa Kỳ định cư từ năm 1985. Năm 1986, ông làm Tổng Thư Ký nhật báo Người Việt tại Quận Cam, California và đảm nhiệm vị trí này trong hơn 10 năm. Từ năm 1998 đến 2005, ông chuyển về định cư tại San José và đảm nhiệm vai trò Tổng Thư Ký cho ấn bản Việt Mercury, thuộc San Jose Mercury News. Sau đó ông cùng gia đình chủ trương tuần báo Việt Tribune, phục vụ cộng đồng Việt Nam tại vùng San José.
Nguyễn Xuân Hoàng là nhà văn nổi tiếng từ rất sớm và có sức viết mạnh. Từ trước 1975, ông đã nổi tiếng với các tác phẩm như “Khu Rừng Hực Lửa”, “Kẻ Tà Đạo”, sau ngày định cư ở Hoa Kỳ ông thành công với những quyển truyện và tạp ghi khác, trong đó có “Người Đi Trên Mây” được viết hồi 1987 và “Căn Nhà Ngói Đỏ” ông viết hồi 1989.