As solid as the earth seems, all eras, all life and all matter must come to an end. Even the earth will one day be engulfed by the sun when it inflates into a red giant. Last week we saw the end of the neo-con era. This week, the Amsterdam City Council announced that the Anne Frank Chestnut tree will have to be cut down due to a fungal infection. As Anne Frank wrote in her diary on Wednesday, February 23rd, 1944 (the 597th day of her imprisonment in the Annex, and the 3rd year, 9th month and 9th day of the German occupation of Holland):