Far from intimidating the Palestinians by bombing Gaza and mobilizing troops, the Israelis made Hamas look heroic in its resistance.

Moreover, Sheikh Hasina has gained political power at the polls in an Islamic country, which is no mean feat for a woman.

To come back from near destitution and bloody tyranny in one generation is a great feat, and China should be saluted for it.

It may have a population of less than one million, but it has a proud, heroic history and a rich culture built up over centuries of diverse ethnic and colonial influences.

Or, at a minimum, I heard in his voice the realization that shooting a man with a woman and child in the car is villainously terrible, and not at all heroic.

For a conference that is supposedly addressing sustainability, it is worth lamenting the absence of a heroic effort to agree on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Accord.

This year, despite a massive budget crisis, the UK government has heroically honored its aid commitments, showing that other countries could have done so if they had tried.

Sometimes, focusing on what's heroic, beautiful and dignified, regardless of the context, can help magnify these intangibles three ways, in the protagonist of the story, in the audience, and also in the storyteller.

She is shot and killed by Lord Lucien at the end of the childhood section of the game, and though she had heroic blood, like the player's character, she is not one of the three, although the hero is the Fourth.

Moreover, because maximizing shareholder value is a poor incentive for workers and middle managers, companies boards have increasingly centralized power around chief executives, thereby encouraging a heroic form of leadership that is detached from the rest of the enterprise.

To come back from near destitution and bloody tyranny in one generation is a great feat, and China should be saluted for it. But China s success story is also the most serious challenge that liberal democracy has faced since fascism in the 1930 s.

Under a flat line export scenario, with no rise in US exports, and if everything else remains the same (always a heroic assumption), overall real GDP growth would converge on that 1.4 bogey.