Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc. [Archive] - Page 20

sweetlady

07-01-2007, 05:12 PM

;)

Nighttime along the Lochsa River, in a 30-second exposure.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/01/travel/01last600.1a.jpg

Wild Idaho: SLIDE SHOW!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/06/28/travel/20070701_LAST_SLIDESHOW_1.html

July 1, 2007

The Last Wilderness

By TIMOTHY EGAN

CURIOUS it may be, but there is not a single national park in Idaho, a state with more public forest land, more wilderness, more white water than any other in the country outside of the superlative-trumping asterisk of Alaska. It has two dozen sites as part of a national historical park dedicated to the Nez Perce Indians, but nothing on the order of a velvet-roped shank of mega scenery.

So when people decide to go “Out West” for a visit, a phrase that always sounds quaint to a Westerner’s ear, they usually head for the canyon lands of southern Utah, or the fly-fishing streams of Montana or the aged chasms of Arizona. They fashion their trips around Yellowstone, Zion or Grand Canyon — the iconic national parks, all worth a visit of course.

But just as there are good pastrami sandwiches to be had outside of the Carnegie Deli, there is so much to see, float, hike and absorb in what may be the most overlooked part of the West — the Big Empty of north-central Idaho.

I drove once until there was no more road, and then hiked, with two of my brothers, until there was no more trail. Like leprechauns at rainbow’s end, we found a deep pool at the base of a waterfall, hard by a grove of ancient cedars. We caught fish until our arms were tired, and then watched the night sky theatrics. There was river music, white noise for sleep. And I promised never to tell the exact location. This was in the upper reaches of the St. Joe River — that’s all I’m able to say.

But, there are other moments, other waterfalls, other pools of gin-clear trout water in the grip of the Idaho Panhandle. In many parts, the land is as wild today as it was 200 years ago, full of jumpy rivers kicking out of the Bitterroot Mountains and exotic surprises like the Turkish cook who serves lamb tahini deep in the folds of high country. Though much of this area is roadless, there are numerous landing strips for small planes inside the wilderness, and hundreds of trailheads and river put-ins for outbackers on horse or foot, and rafters or kayakers.

On the map, it is bounded roughly by the St. Joe to the north and the Middle Fork of the Salmon to the south. The names suggest wild mood swings, and a chance for some sublime risk-taking. You can camp at Heavens Gate, not far from Hells Canyon, and wonder about the cartographic argument. What, no Purgatory Flats? You can float without directions on the Big Lost River. Or eat a fine meal near Colt Killed Creek, the place where members of the Lewis and Clark expedition nearly starved. (And yes, they had to dine on one of their young transports.)

The crown jewel is the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, at 2.3 million acres the largest single protected wilderness area in the 48 states. River of No Return is what the natives told the American gold-seekers who headed upstream on the Salmon, and their name for the big river, 425 miles of twisty mountain water. But it may have been an inducement as well. Frank Church was the Idaho boy who loved the outdoors, and became that rarest of 20th-century politicians — a liberal Democratic senator from the Gem State.

One of the offbeat little towns in the middle of all this wild country, Orofino, still has a high school mascot, the Maniacs, which is, according to lore, named for residents of the neighboring state mental hospital. Call them crazy and insensitive, and they say, well, our boys played like maniacs long ago and the name stuck. The mental hospital came later. Sure. No problem. Cool T-shirt, though.

This part of Idaho, if known at all, used to have a reputation as a hideout for neo-Nazis and others of the far-right fringe. When it was black helicopter country in the mid-1990s, I sometimes thought the scariest part of any backcountry trip was in town, mixing it up with the locals. O.K., so tell me again how Hillary Clinton put the transmitter in your back molar? But now, the white separatists have been run out of their compound well to the north, and there’s a winery not far from where another extremist had a standoff with the federal government.

It may be safe to say that the wilds of the Idaho Panhandle, like much of the West, are deep into a new chapter — the microbrews and mountain bike phase. It has its hook-and-bullet enthusiasts, yes, and count me among those who get more excited chasing cutthroat trout with a dry fly than listening to Broadway show tunes.

But I no longer hear the soundtrack from “Deliverance” while floating its rivers. Actually, I stumbled upon a camp of fiddlers from Virginia while floating the Middle Fork of the Salmon not long ago; except for the occasional John Denver tune, it made for a wonderful evening.

When you expect nothing is when you find something.

The narrative of this land is built around timber, water and native people. The timber was western white pine, a legendary species that drew lumber barons who bought big tracks of forestland and tried to cut it all. What they couldn’t remove, disease did. Today, big, old-growth white pine forests in Idaho are almost as hard to find as those Democrats who used to vote for Frank Church. But the national forestland, largely a legacy of Teddy Roosevelt, is intact, and it has become one of the West’s biggest playgrounds.

In all there are 11 national forests in Idaho — more than 20 million acres. The peaks are not Matterhorn-craggy or even buff skyscrapers like the sentinels of the Sierra. The North Cascades, in Washington, are a small fraction of the size of Idaho’s mountain acreage, but have more glaciers and jaw-dropping vertical flanks.

What this part of the overlooked West has in abundance is a rich variety of forested river country. The big rivers are the St. Joe, the three forks of the Clearwater, the Lochsa, the Selway, the three forks of the Salmon and a half-dozen or so feeder streams, any one of which would be a national attraction if it were in, say, Texas. These rivers drain an amazing swath of real estate, owned by every American — a public land inheritance unseen by most of its owners.

Rare as it is to find an undammed river in the West, the Idaho Panhandle has a surfeit of free-flowing — indeed anarchic — waterways. The best white water, when the rivers are at full froth, tends to be in the spring through early July, as most of the snow melts.

The Middle Fork of the Salmon is a paradise float, through thick-waisted cedars, firs and pines, and open prairie turns, a Class III or better set of bumps almost every hour, sometimes more. But it’s no beer-swilling joy ride. At times, the river will back up with downed timber, requiring a portage around the new hazards.

On our summer trip a few years ago, midday temperatures were well into the 90s, with only a slight breeze. At night, we had a thunderstorm preceded by near-hurricane force winds. It knocked down trees and an outhouse held by guy wires. Our tent walls were flapping like flags on top of Everest. Overnight, the bears had their way with our coolers, even though we had lashed and secured them. That pesto chicken, apparently, had something over roots and berries.

At the other extreme are the natural showers, courtesy of hot-spring waterfalls along the way. Of course you can soak in deep-pocket boulders — nature’s hot tubs. But there is nothing like standing next to polished basalt under a cascade of 105-degree water at the end of a day.

By car, an easy way to see this wild country is along United States Route 12, which crosses the Panhandle. The road passes by the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, an area bigger than the state of Delaware, and follows or intersects three wondrous rivers: the Lochsa, the Selway and the river formed when those two streams merge — the Middle Fork of the Clearwater.

The three rivers in the Route 12 corridor are designated Wild and Scenic, a federal protection, and they live up to the name. The Lochsa, which means Rough Water in the Nez Perce language, is ferocious and explosive white water, for hard-core rafters. The major stretch has more than 40 significant rapids. By that I mean, bumps with names, bumps that are the focus of many a rafter’s dreams. One night in May over dinner at a river rat hangout, a couple of guides showed me photos from a busy day on the Lochsa. Every frame was solid froth, with a bouncing raft in the middle of it.

The Selway, which meets the Lochsa near the hamlet of Lowell, is a different character. Where the Lochsa is stirred and frenzied, the Selway is more meditative, deeper, moving at a much gentler pace for the most part. It is another one of the places here that reminds me of Alaska, mainly because of the wildlife. While hiking and fishing the Selway, I’ve seen moose, elk, black bears, every manner of raptor, and have come upon tracks of cougars, the most elusive of Rocky Mountain inhabitants.

The Selway has a couple of draws: Selway Falls, reached by a road that is paved for part of the way, and a little resort at the confluence of the three rivers, where Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton stayed, in cabin No. 4, in 1985. Hey, it’s the West: Washington or Jefferson never slept here.

I spent a night in a cabin downriver from the confluence, and was forced inside early by a storm. The morning was glorious, with eagles looking for chinook salmon in the swift Middle Fork of the Clearwater and the thinnest of mists holding to the trees.

A few words about the fishing: in the fall and winter months, this is steelhead country, drawing anglers from around the world trying to catch the most difficult of big trout. In the spring, there’s a brief season for salmon, the big kings, or chinooks, coming into the mountains from a long journey that began at sea.

The best trout fishing, in my experience, is on the St. Joe, reached by Interstate 90 from Missoula or Spokane, and then over the Bitterroots on gravel roads. I shouldn’t give this up; my two fishing brothers are going to kill me for this. But in sections of the St. Joe the trout are so easy to catch you want to give them pointers on dodging the cheap fly. They’re cutthroats, some as big as 18 inches. They don’t fight as much as rainbows, but they’re abundant, and rise on cue to any decently presented dry fly. Trout Unlimited called the St. Joe the best cutthroat trout fishery on the west side of the Rockies.

The Lochsa, Selway and Middle Fork of the Salmon are also great places for trout. My son caught a 17-inch cutthroat once when he wasn’t even fishing — his fly rod was dangling out the side of the raft, unattended, when a fish went for his Elk Hair Caddis.

The Clearwater, perhaps because the young salmon and steelhead take much of the food, is not as good for trout. But it’s the gateway to a land where people have lived for thousands of years. Following the main stem Clearwater and Route 12 west gets to the expansive heart of Nez Perce country. These natives impressed Lewis and Clark more than any other people they met along the way. Not only did the Nez Perce basically save the Virginia Men, as they were sometimes called, from starving, but they impressed them with what may be the finest breed of horse in the West — the appaloosa.

Unlike some tribes left with only a casino or a small reservation, the Nez Perce are not a mere passive presence in this part of the West. Their imprint is big.

There is the history, notably that surrounding Chief Joseph and his epic 1877 running battle that is commemorated at sites along the Nez Perce National Historic Park. And then the culture, through powwows and numerous festivals open to the public in reservation towns like Kooskia, Kamiah and Lapwai throughout the summer months.

For me, the most stirring of the Nez Perce sites is White Bird, along Route 95 south of the reservation. This is the Indian Gettysburg, where one of the few real pitched battles between natives and the American Army was fought. The army was routed at White Bird, while the Nez Perce did not lose a man. But it was bittersweet, as Chief Joseph’s people — about 750 men, women and children — were later chased more than 1,500 miles throughout the Rockies and finally gave up, hungry and cold, just short of the Canadian border.

It does not take much to look down into the canyon from the roadside historic site and imagine the battle unfolding, or to stare into the wilds of the Salmon River country, the mountains snagging wayward clouds, the River of No River at its center, and see why they fought so hard to hold on to this place.

VISITOR INFORMATION

HOW TO GET THERE

It is not easy to get to north-central Idaho, but once you get there, transportation choices are numerous. Airlines, connected through Seattle or Salt Lake City, fly into Lewiston, Idaho, on the western end. Or you can approach from the east, through Missoula, which is also served by several airlines.

A good four-wheel-drive car is helpful, especially on national forest roads. But Route 12, the paved scenic route, can accommodate any vehicle.

If you want to float the Middle Fork of the Salmon, get in line, as permits are limited and are issued well in advance. But guided tours, out of gateway towns like Salmon or Riggins, are plentiful. Allow at least five days, and remember that the river runs through land that is mostly without roads.

There are small landing strips along the Middle Fork, but the planes won’t come unless contacted in advance.

WHERE TO STAY AND EAT

River Dance Lodge (208-765-0841; www.riverdancelodge.com), on Route 12, has new cabins with hot tubs and a chef who serves Turkish meals, among other offerings, on the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. Cabin rates start at about $140.

Just up the road is the place where the Clintons stayed, Three Rivers Resort (208-926-4430; www.threeriversresort.com), with log cabins and motel, pool and Jacuzzi. It’s at the confluence of the Lochsa and the Selway. Motel rates begin at $69, and go up to $145 for the cabins.

In the backcountry of the St. Joe, via horseback or on foot, are rustic cabins and veteran fishing guides at St. Joe Outfitters and Guides (208-245-4002; www.stjoeoutfitters.com). Three nights in the cabins, with food and guiding, are about $1,500 a person.

Idaho is huckleberry country, and perhaps the best cobbler is at the Elk River Café, (208) 826-3398, in the hamlet of Elk River.

TIMOTHY EGAN is a former Seattle correspondent for The New York Times.

(l) (l) Strolling through lupines with the White Bird Battlefield in the background.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/28/travel/01last.5.jpg

(l) (l) (l) Horses of the Nez Perce Appaloosa Horse Club of Lapwai.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/28/travel/01last.7.jpg

On Route 95 between Moscow and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/28/travel/01last.9.jpg

(y) Loved this piece and learned some new things as well.

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-01-2007, 05:22 PM

;)

http://designondeadline.blogspot.com/2007/06/digital-newsstand_14.html

(f)

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:36 PM

:) :) :) :) :)

1. http://www.superdeluxe.com/

2. http://www.comedynet.com/

3. http://www.dailycomedy.com/

4. http://www.thisjustin.com/

(f) (f)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:38 PM

:| :|

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/28/travel/01trans650.1.jpg

July 1, 2007

In Transit

A Flying Apartment to India

By JENNIFER CONLIN

As of Aug. 5, flying to India will not only be easier but more luxurious, too, thanks to Jet Airways, which is about to begin a daily flight between the New York area and Mumbai through Brussels. What’s more, passengers on Jet Airways, India’s largest privately owned airline, will be flying on new Boeing 777s, which have been configured by the airline to offer eight first-class suites that have sliding doors.

Each 26-square-foot suite includes a seat that converts into a seven-foot bed (right), a 23-inch flat-screen monitor, LED lighting, a hanging wardrobe and a credenza for dining or working. Passengers can order Dom Pérignon and Krug.

In premiere class, passengers will have oversize table-and-seat units that convert to beds and have laptop ports. The bar for premiere-class passengers will have a selection of single-malt whiskeys. Even economy class has something new — an ergonomic seat with a 130-degree recline and a foot rest.

All three classes will have a new entertainment system developed for Jet Airways by Panasonic. It has 200 hours of programming, 75 movies — Hollywood and Bollywood — and equipment that allows passengers to create their own play lists from thousands of music selections.

Passengers will depart from Newark at 8:25 p.m. and will arrive in Mumbai at 11:30 p.m. some 18 hours later, with a two-hour layover in Brussels, where passengers must disembark.

Depending on how far in advance you book, a round-trip first-class ticket starts at $10,085, a premiere at $6,150 and economy $850. Information: www.jetairways.com.

:| :| Much too expensive......unless paid for by a client who needed me to be less jet-lagged upon arrival. ;)

<:o) <:o) Happy July 4th!

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:39 PM

(f) (f) (f)

1. http://www.movingimage.us/site/online/

2. http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/

3. http://www.hfmgv.org/explore/default.asp

4. http://www.thetech.org/

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:41 PM

:s

June 30, 2007

Arts, Briefly

Streisand Honored

By PETER EDIDIN

Barbra Streisand received France's highest civilian honor two days after performing her first concert in the country, BBC News reported yesterday. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, with Ms. Streisand, presented her with the Legion of Honor at the Élysée Palace in Paris. "You are the America that we love," Mr. Sarkozy said. Guests at the ceremony included the veteran singer Charles Aznavour and the actor Alain Delon. Ms. Streisand, 65, was accompanied by her husband, James Brolin, and her son, Jason Gould. She sang at Bercy Stadium in Paris on Tuesday before 10,000 fans, including Mr. Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia. Recent honorary recipients of the Legion of Honor include Clint Eastwood and the Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan.

(f) (f)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:42 PM

(f) (f) (f)

July 1, 2007

Women’s Stories, Including Her Own

By JOHN ANDERSON

LIFE, the director Jennifer Fox says, is like a layer cake: nonlinear, potentially messy and occasionally gravity-defying. And so, therefore, is her latest film.

“Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman,” a documentary made for television in six one-hour segments, will open as a two-part film starting Wednesday at Film Forum in New York. The documentary is a delicate construction asking a delicate question: Is there anything in common between Ms. Fox, a liberal, middle-class Manhattanite, and, say, a prostitute in Cambodia?

“Flying” contends that there is.

Ms. Fox has long appeared allergic to the constraints of the 90-minute film — see “An American Love Story” of 1999, which was five hours long — and she also seems intent on reflecting something altogether outside movies. Or even nonfiction. Balzac, perhaps. Or George Eliot. With perhaps a little dash of “Days of Our Lives.”

“I could really see this being a book,” Ms. Fox, 47, said of her latest documentary, which is scheduled for several European television outlets late this summer. “Flying,” made over five years, is part personal memoir, feminist manifesto and diagnosis of the state of Global Woman. It is also an eclectic mix of film languages, including vérité, self-shooting, diaries, narration and what Ms. Fox calls “passing the camera,” in which her subjects shoot one another as well as her.

This highly personal film, produced by Ms. Fox and Claus Ladegaard, is not entirely autobiographical, though it was her life that ignited it. In 2002 this single, peripatetic New Yorker was deeply conflicted about marriage, babies and the affairs she was having with a married South African and a Swiss cinematographer. She decided to take her confusion on the road and began interviewing women around the world about the experiences of being female, wherever they happened to be.

Her subjects include Cambodian women forced into the sex trade, social activists in Russia and Pakistan, filmmaking friends in Berlin and London, and her own family members. While the content is unambiguously female, Ms. Fox believes that the form is as well.

“Honestly, I can’t explore what I want to explore in 90 minutes,” she said over coffee near her TriBeCa loft. “And the older I get, the more the feature form seems almost male — very conclusive, very ‘here it is,’ all summed up. The serial is more like life, with multiple stories, multiple conclusions. It’s a fabric, or a layer cake.” And, she said, the serial is more female.

For Ms. Fox’s subjects, the experience of working with her was overwhelming and transformative.

“Jennifer’s constant probing was exhausting, and when she left, I was very happy to see her go,” said Theresa Meyer, a South African who participated in the film. Once Ms. Fox was gone, though, Ms. Meyer was haunted, she said.

“We had talked about very deep, dark issues,” said Ms. Meyer, a filmmaker who was abused by a girlfriend’s father at age 11. “The issue of my sexual abuse was hard for me to talk about. But it was also quite liberating to do it so matter-of-factly, with the camera. It opened up a lot of wounds, and after she left it was with me constantly. The experience made me examine myself more closely, made me look more at the consequences — how it affected me and particularly how it affected my relationships.”

Men dominate much of the talk in “Flying,” whether the topic is new love, old love, child support or paternal influence. For her part Ms. Fox makes it clear throughout the film that as a girl she wanted a life like her father’s; he was a pilot, among other things, a man with a career and a life outside the home. Her mother, on the other hand, was busy rearing five children.

As she recreates it Ms. Fox’s childhood home echoed with parental argument.

After seeing the film, her father, Dick Fox, said: “I have to say that when I heard some of the words she used to describe what went on in our house, I said, ‘Jeez, that’s pretty rough.’ But I also understand that it’s her film, and her view.

“Words get heated,” he said, reflecting on family life. “There are differences people have about how to raise their children. But it makes you realize how things would have appeared to an 8- or 9-year-old child. I’m not uptight about it, and I’m fascinated by what Jennifer recalls.”

Her mother, Gerry Fox, said, “I was taken with the way she connects what happened in our family to women around the world.”

The elder Foxes have been married 54 years. Their daughter’s romantic life, as she freely admits throughout the documentary, has been more casual and well-populated. The biggest decision she makes in the film — outside of a decision to undergo in vitro fertilization — is whether to pursue the romance with the unnamed South African or one with Patrick Lindenmaier, the Swiss cinematographer with such an open and accepting attitude toward Ms. Fox’s erotic life that the choice seems obvious. That it’s not illuminates the jagged edges of human desire.

Mr. Lindenmaier was, and still is, conflicted about his participation in the film. “I always knew it could wind up on screen,” he said, “although I guess I was little surprised the relationship was such a prominent part of the film.”

Does it make him nervous? “It will make me more nervous,” he said, “when it plays in Switzerland.”

But even the people most intimately involved with “Flying” are surprised by Ms. Fox’s candor. “We shared intimacies in a very typically girl-talk way,” said Caroline Goldie, a Berlin filmmaker whose bout with cancer became a piece of the “Flying” fabric, “although I must be honest, I was a bit more guarded than Jen about what I was prepared to say on camera.”

For the purpose-driven filmmaker, message obliterates self-consciousness. “I’m not interested in George Bush,” Ms. Fox said. “I’m not interested in right or wrong, or film that says, ‘She’s like this because of that.’ I wanted a film that said, ‘She’s like this because her father is like this, because her mother is like this, because she went to a Quaker school, because she lived in a certain period of time in the history of women.’ ”

Should “Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman” be followed by a question mark?

“Absolutely,” Ms. Fox said with a smile. “Or we could call it ‘Confessions of an Imprisoned Woman Trying to be Free.’ ”

(f) (f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:43 PM

(l) (y) (l) (y) (l) (y) (l)

May 14, 2007

Walking and work therapy could save us from becoming reliant on chemicals

David Rose

Alternative therapies for depression /no spamming of other sites/ such as country walks and care farms, where patients are prescribed agricultural work /no spamming of other sites/ are being ignored as Britain becomes ever more reliant on chemical treatments, campaigners say.

Findings from two studies released today suggest that “ecotherapy” /no spamming of other sites/ which includes such simple exercises as outdoor walks /no spamming of other sites/ can improve a person’s poor mental health dramatically. The studies have prompted calls for the approach to become a recognised frontline treatment.

Ecotherapy: The Green Agenda for Mental Health, in which the studies are published, is the first report to look at how “green” exercise affects those suffering from depression.

Researchers from the University of Essex compared the benefits of a 30-minute walk in a country park with a walk in an indoor shopping centre on 20 people affected by depression.

After the country walk, 71 per cent said that they felt less depressed and tense while 90 per cent reported increased self-esteem. After the walk in the shopping centre only 45 per cent felt less depressed and 22 per cent actually felt more depressed. About 50 per cent felt more tense and 44 per cent said that their self-esteem had dropped.

The researchers conducted another study in which they asked 108 people with various mental health problems about their experiences of ecotherapy. Ninety-four per cent said that green activities had benefited their mental health and lifted depression and 90 per cent said that the combination of nature and exercise had the greatest effect.

The mental health charity Mind described ecotherapy as “getting outdoors and getting active in a green environment as a way of boosting mental wellbeing”.

The charity said that if it was prescribed as part of main-stream practice, ecotherapy could potentially help millions of people. It would also be vastly cheaper than antidepressant drugs.

Mind said that Britain lagged behind the rest of Europe in prescribing agricultural work to treat mental distress. The Netherlands had 600 care farms operating as a fully integrated part of the health service, while Britain had only 43, the charity said, and none was dedicated to mental health.

Paul Farmer, Mind’s chief executive, said: “It is a credible, clinically valid treatment option and needs to be prescribed by GPs, especially when for many people access to treatments other than antidepressants is extremely limited.

“We’re not saying that ecotherapy can replace drugs but that the debate needs to be broadened.”

The ecotherapy report will be published today at the start of Mind week, which is dedicated to raising awareness about mental health. This morning Mind will hold a mass kiteflying event in Primrose Hill, North London.

On prescription

—SSRIs include citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine, paroxetine (Seroxat) and sertraline (Lustral). They block the uptake of the mood chemical serotonic into the cell that releases it, prolonging its action

—SNRIs include venlafaxine and duloxetine. They slow the reuptake of serotonin and noradrenaline

—Tricyclics can affect heart and circulatory system

—Monoamine oxidase inhibitors have more serious side-effects, and are prescribed when SSRis and tricyclics have failed

—SSRIs are generally better tolerated than older antidepressants. Anxiolytics may be used alongside antidepressants to help to treat severe agitation

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1785029.ece

(y) (y) Some of knew this all along, didn''t we? ;)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-03-2007, 04:45 PM

:o :o :o

:)

http://www.innerself.com/nyp/naturalhawaii/hiking/kauai_hiking.htm

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Worthy Walks

Hawaii's Kauai has tough trails but forests that speak to the hiker who waits and listens

By Thomas Curwen

LOS ANGELES TIMES

KOKEE STATE PARK, Hawaii - Of course we thought about turning back, but we knew we couldn’t. Never mind that the trail had gone from bad to worse and the afternoon was getting on. We were stubborn - and hopeful.

“What’s it like ahead?” we asked hikers returning to the trail head.

No one could give us the complete picture. Most had given up, discouraged by the slippery clay and the ankle-deep mud that had been with us from the start.

So we kept on, burning our way up the eroded ridgeline, lifting ourselves through a maze of exposed roots, limbo-dancing beneath fallen trees and snaking up sharply etched gullies.

Yet as much as our feet hurt and our legs ached, Pihea Overlook - at 4,284 feet, the highest peak overlooking Kauai’s Na Pali Coast - lured us on.

Let others settle for more scripted entertainments - running a zip line, cruising the coast, sipping mai tais at some seaside resort. My wife, Margie, and I wanted to escape the tourist-industrial complex and get some red dirt in the tread of our shoes, to find a place where the ancient goddess of fire, Pele, was more than a joke for mainlanders - and to hear what the mountains had to say.

By the time we reached the summit, a denuded crown no larger than a pitcher’s mound, we were spent. To the north lay the expansive Kalalau Valley, a complex watershed of steep fluted ridges, red cliffs, waterfalls and jungle extending 4,000 feet below us and running less than a mile and a half away to the blue Pacific. To the south stretched the Alakai wilderness, the source of Kauai’s seven rivers, a forested plateau with deep, eroded and unseen gorges, punctuated by the summits of Kawaikini and Waialeale hidden in their eternal rainstorms.

We had two more hours of daylight. We needed to start back, but first we paused and listened: In the midst of it all - the gusting wind, the muted surf - we heard a deepening silence.

It sounds crazy - the idea that these mountains might have something to say.

But as we looked out from Pihea and watched the wisps of ragged clouds spiral in the valley below, rise up toward the sun, reveal rainbows inside their misty cores, turn silver and spectral and cyclone over the ridge into the interior, we found ourselves suddenly listening more carefully.

Two days earlier, we had left the genteel comforts of Waimea for five days in the mountains, intrigued by the prospect of exploring a corner of the state that still held glimpses of a time 1,500 years ago, before man stepped upon these shores.

The winding two-lane road cut through patches of bamboo, stands of eucalyptus and a scattering of native koa trees. Kokee State Park sits at the top of Waimea Canyon and extends north on a plateau to a ridgeline above the Na Pali Coast.

At 4,000 feet, Kokee is something of an anomaly for the Garden Isle. Here, temperatures in the winter can drop into the 40s, cabins rent for a song, trails go begging for hikers, and its vistas reach out beyond the horizon.

We had made our reservations at the Lodge at Kokee, a collection of housekeeping cabins near the lovely Kanaloahuluhulu Meadow in the center of the park. We had been told that the cabins were rustic, but that didn’t explain the broken window, a crudely patched hole in the floor, peeling paint and a cracked toilet lid.

It was more than we could take, even at $75 a night. We canceled our reservations and thought about cutting our trip short.

We went over to the Kokee Natural History Museum. I had spoken with Marsha Erickson, the director, the week before, and she had offered us a sweet little cottage, just up from the meadow. Closed to the public, it usually is bustling with researchers and volunteers, but this week it was vacant.

Erickson was the one who said that the mountains had voices. That night, rainfall woke me from a sound sleep, and as I pulled the blankets around me, I started to get a sense of what they might be trying to say.

“Here, try this.” David Kuhn handed me the set of headphones. He pointed the microphone, surrounded by a parabolic reflector the size of a trash-can lid, into the forest, and the symphony began.

Leaves in the wind were violins; creaking branches, horns; a bird in close flight, drums. This is what it’s like to be a dog, I thought, and then I tilted my head: a shama, a white-rumped shama, singing in the distance. And then, an apapane, as clear as a bell, its descending inflected trill followed by what sounded like a little burp.

Kuhn smiled. “A very self-satisfied bird,” he said.

We had hiked with Kuhn just beyond the eastern boundary of the park, above the Kawaikoi River, one of the many streams that cuts down into Waimea Canyon. It was an easy trail with a shoulder-wide boardwalk, wooden planks covered with steel mesh for traction.

When we arrived in the middle of the forest, we sat down on the boardwalk, legs dangling off the side, and waited.

“Humans are here on the planet to appreciate nature,” Kuhn said. “No other being has the means, intellectually or physiologically, to see and discern the meaning of nature around us. Native Hawaiians knew this; this is one reason so many of their names for places are animistic.”

A small yellow bird with a black mask hopped through the ohia branches in front of us. It was an amakihi.

“A gift,” Kuhn whispered.

We had met Aunty Aletha, as she is known, at the West Kauai Visitor Center. She has lived on the west side of the island for most of her 77 years.

“It is hard to say how to be in the forest,” she had said. “You have to let go of all your rubbish.... You go up to the mountains with an empty mind.”

On our last day at Kokee, we wanted to hike to Kilohana. At 4,022 feet, this vista point peers down into the Wainiha River Valley and looks out toward Hanalei Bay and Princeville.

Kilohana is a small wooden platform set on an edge of Wainiha Pali. The skies had stayed clear, and seven miles away, Hanalei Bay was a white-and-blue crescent. Past the clutter of Princeville, we saw the Kilauea Point lighthouse.

On the trail back, we were bone-tired but sustained. The green ferns seemed to fluoresce in the understory. The plants shimmered like chrome.

I was overcome by a sense of fragility, the feeling that our time here - in Kokee, on the planet - is limited and lucky.

This is what the mountains said to me.

GETTING THERE: From Los Angeles International Airport, nonstop service to Lihue is available on United and American. Connecting service (change of plane) is offered on Hawaiian and Aloha in Honolulu. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $632.

ABOUT WAIMEA: As the gateway to Polihale State Beach, Waimea Canyon and Kokee State Park, Waimea gives travelers plenty of reasons to pause. The main strip showcases not only the town’s Art Deco movie theater and its eclectic store fronts but also a couple of nice places to eat.

WHERE TO EAT: Ishihara Market, 9894 Kaumualii Highway, Waimea, HI 96796; (808) 338-1751, has a deli counter that’s a delight. Prices from $7. Waimea Brewing Co., 9400 Kaumualii Highway, Waimea, HI 96796; (808) 338-9733, www.waimeabrewing.com , on the grounds of Waimea Plantation Cottages. Beer samplers never tasted better. Main dishes $9 to $30.

TO LEARN MORE: Kokee Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 100 Kekaha, HI 96752; (808) 335-9975, www.kokee.org. Kauai Visitors Bureau, (800) 262-1400, www.kauaidiscovery.com or www.kauai-hawaii.com .

WHERE TO STAY: You can go high-end and plan a day trip out of Poipu. Or you can go midrange, stay in Waimea and be a mere half an hour from the park. Or you can go rustic. Here are three options.

• Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort
1571 Poipu Road, Koloa, HI
(808) 742-1234
www.kauai.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp

We started our trip at this 600-room resort, which gives its guests little reason to step outside the compound. The gardens are beautiful, but our room didn’t measure up; it had a jammed screen door and an overflowing toilet. But the staff was unfailingly kind and courteous. Doubles from $441.

• Waimea Plantation Cottages
9400 Kaumualii Highway, Waimea, HI
(800) 992-4632
www.waimea-plantation.com

The one- to four-bedroom Waimea Plantation Cottages have lovely sash-hung windows, wooden floors, rattan furniture and lanais. Banyan trees form canopies larger than most city blocks over the property’s wide stretches of open lawn. Cottages from $175.

• Lodge at Kokee
3600 Kokee Road, Kokee, HI
(808) 335-6061

We found the rustic experience at the Lodge at Kokee less than wonderful. But the Kikiaola Land Co., the managers, said a handyman was working to repair the cabins. We also checked out the Lehua cabin, the newest, largest and most popular of the 12. If we had to do it again, we would insist on staying there. Cabins about $75.

HIKING: Kokee has 45 miles of trails that can take hikers deep into the park’s rain forests or take them out to the precipitous ridgelines above Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast. All are extremely gratifying and can be tailored for hikers of all levels of conditioning.

• From Pihea Peak to Alakai Swamp and onto Kilohana Lookout
Level: Moderate
Distance: Six miles round-trip

Just before the turnoff to Pihea Peak, the trail drops into the Alakai wilderness. The birding is superb, and an elevated boardwalk keeps you out of the mud.

• From Puu o Kila Lookout to Pihea Peak
Level: Moderate to difficult
Distance: Two miles round-trip

This ridgeline trek provides stunning views of the Kalalau Valley to the north and the Alakai wilderness to the south.

GUIDED TREKS: Birders can contact David Kuhn for information about birding on Kauai at www.soundshawaiian.com. Kauai Nature Tours offers varied guided hikes; (888) 233-8365, www.kauainaturetours.com. The Kokee Natural History Museum offers weekend guided hikes in summer.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173351750208

(ip) (ip) (ip) (ip) (ip)

<:o) <:o) Happy July 4th!! <:o) <:o)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:29 AM

:s :s :s

Business travel is becoming increasingly bare-bones as companies continue to clamp down on spending.

The Downgrading Of Business Travel

By DARREN EVERSON and ANJALI ATHAVALEY

July 3, 2007; Page D1

WSJ

For many professionals, business travel used to come with certain perks -- a posh hotel, a lavish meal, minibar raids and maybe a pay-per-view movie before bed. But, with hotel rates skyrocketing and companies clamping down on spending, business travel is becoming increasingly bare-bones, even a tinge humiliating. These days, it can sometimes resemble college dorm living, involving roommates, cooking your own meals and crashing on a friend's couch.

When Nathan Ayer, a project manager at Linckia LLC, a venture-development firm based in Burlington, Vt., travels to New York for business, he skips a hotel altogether and stays with his girlfriend's family in East Islip, Long Island, making the one-and-a-half-hour commute into Manhattan by train. He does this with the encouragement of his boss, company president Scott Hardy, who often bunks at a friend's apartment in Greenwich Village (where he usually sleeps on a sofa) when he travels to Manhattan for work. "You've got to walk the walk," he says.

While companies long have been slashing costs on air travel, forcing employees to fly coach and take cheaper connecting flights, comfortable hotel stays, until recently, were still usually a given. Now, corporate cost-cutting efforts include everything from pushing employees to share hotel rooms to installing software that guilts travelers into choosing cheaper digs.

The Virginia Community College System says it pays for two nights of lodging for employees who double up in rooms when attending professional-development conferences; those who choose to go solo must pay for one of the nights themselves. At Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical company, a booking tool encourages employees to choose the least expensive hotel by allowing the employer to rank the options, says Paul Lang, Bayer's manager of travel services. If employees don't pick the most affordable choice, they have to choose a reason explaining why from a drop-down box. Honeywell International Inc. has switched to more limited-service hotels such as Courtyard by Marriott and Holiday Inn from full-service Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt hotels in cities employees travel to most often.

Indeed, more companies are banning stays in pricey boutique hotels. This year, more than 76% of employers say they are booking fewer luxury hotels in favor of midclass properties, according to the National Business Travel Association survey of 1,800 corporate travel managers.

This is happening as travel costs rise -- particularly hotel rates, which are up 19.2% in the U.S. since the end of 2004. Spurred by strong demand, average daily rates grew 7.2% last year and are projected to rise another 6% this year, according to Smith Travel Research, making this the fourth straight year of significant growth. In some cities, rates are up even more. Denver rates are up 11.4% this year versus last year, according to Smith Travel, while New York rates are up 10.6%. Midweek rates at the W New York Times Square, for example, start at $399 the last week of July, before taxes.

But the budget moves can instill a bit of hotel shame in some business travelers. Indeed, some flee their low-cost digs first thing in the morning, heading to plusher -- and more conveniently located -- hotels for meals and business meetings. On a trip to Baltimore in October, Heman Bhojwani, managing partner of Earthly Gourmet Distribution LLC, an organic food distributor in Portland, Ore., stayed at an airport hotel (the Four Points by Sheraton BWI Airport, which starts at $190 in late July). But, he scheduled meetings with colleagues at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore (which starts at $359 a night). Breakfast at the Hyatt, which offers crab-cake benedict and smoked salmon, was a clear step up from the Four Points' fare, Mr. Bhojwani says. "It wasn't just scrambled eggs and bacon," he says.

Companies also are trying to manage the cost of traveling abroad, where hotel rates are sometimes even frothier than they are here. London's rates are up 30.3% this year compared with last year in U.S. dollars. Mumbai, India, has seen a 48.8% rise over that same period and Singapore's has climbed 32.9%. Indeed, rates for the entire Asia/Pacific region, according to Smith Travel, are up 13.1%. Trilogy Inc., a technology firm in Austin, Texas, rents an apartment in Bangalore, India, where two or three employees make business trips each month. The company began renting the apartment in 2004 when hotel rates in the city started escalating, says travel manager Sue Nelson.

Other companies are turning to teleconferencing to cut travel costs. GMAC Mortgage, a subsidiary of GMAC Financial Services, has increased its use of teleconferencing to cut down on employee business trips. The company now uses teleconferencing and Web conferencing for 75% of its training. Previously, the company would fly its employees and trainers to one location to do the training face to face, says Terri Lewis, vice president of training for consumer services at GMAC Mortgage.

Perhaps most annoying for employees are new policies requiring travelers to share rooms on some trips. Matt Simmons of London had to bunk with a colleague during a corporate conference in Orlando late last year. Although he had no complaint with his roommate -- they got along okay, and they mostly came and went at different times -- the lack of privacy irked him. "When you get back to your room, you want to crash out, walk around in your shorts, watch the wonders of 150 channels of American TV and not be polite to somebody you don't know," says Mr. Simmons, who worked for a U.S.-based health-care technology firm.

Some companies even want their employees to cook. When Ryan McGovern had to go to Milwaukee for a three-month trip late last year, he booked a room at a Residence Inn and thought he'd gotten a good deal, since the length of his stay meant there would be no occupancy tax. But his employer, AccSys Technology Inc., an ion-linear-accelerator company in Pleasanton, Calif., had a further money-saving idea: Since his hotel room had a kitchen, he could make his own meals -- and thus would receive only two-thirds the normal per diem. "I was like, 'Thanks for nothing,' " he says.

Mr. McGovern left the company in April, saying that the firm's penny-pinching -- when other AccSys employees passed through town, Mr. McGovern says he had to bunk up -- was one factor that led to his departure. AccSys Chief Operating Officer Gerard Goldner says he can't comment on the posture of previous management; he became operating chief on June 1, well after Mr. McGovern's trip occurred.

Travelers used to boutique hotels -- and their 400-thread-count sheets -- can have a tough time adjusting to budget-hotel living. When she travels for work, Jennifer Jones, a marketing and communications manager in Chicago, usually stays at luxury boutique hotels such as Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC's Alexis Hotel in Seattle, where rooms are $389 a night. But for a recent conference, her employer put her up at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, since it was more cost-effective for a group of employees. Her room, she says, "was coffin-sized." There were no drawers to store her clothes, and the décor seemed outdated. "I'm used to having a big fluffy bed, not the same bed that's been there since 1974," she says. Some business travelers, however, take pride in their low-cost hotels. Ellen Pishenin, a regional sales manager in Weston, Mass., for Liberty Mutual Group, often stays at the Holiday Inn Express Midtown-Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where there's no room service and rates run as low as $209. Ms. Pishenin used to stay at the boutique Muse Hotel near Times Square but switched because of the Holiday Inn's rates. "The corporate culture has changed to the degree that there's acknowledgment and respect for people who are expense-conscious."

That particular Holiday Inn Express, which opened a year and a-half ago, has a client list that also includes Marsh & McLennan Cos. "People are looking for a clean room, strong shower and a quick checkout," says Robbie Wilson, New York City manager for Magna Hospitality Group LC, which owns the hotel.

Employees -- even prospective employees -- may just have to get used to company cost cutting. Richard Heath of Bethesda, Md., who works for a consulting company (whose name he didn't want revealed), says that when his firm interviewed him in January, it said it would reimburse no more than $500 of the cost of the flight. But he couldn't find a nonstop flight for under $500, he says, because he had just three days to book the trip. So he woke up at 4 a.m. and flew from Columbus, Ohio, through Chicago to Washington for his noon interview, and wound up having to call the company to push back the appointment two hours because of flight delays. "That's the last thing you need before an interview," he says.

:| :| The first time that a client insists that I have to share a hotel room, is the last time I work for that client........;) Geez, what some companies force their employees to do for business travel borders on abusive, IMHO. :s

(o) <yawn>

(S) (S) Pleasant dreams.

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:34 AM

:o :o :o

A spree of violent incidents and a soaring murder rate could have unsettling repercussions for the tourism-dependent economy in the Orlando, Fla., area.

Will Orlando's Crime Surge Take Away Some Disney Magic? Increase in Violence May Dissuade Tourists From Visiting, Spending

By RYAN CHITTUM

June 27, 2007; Page B6

WSJ

Could the land of the Magic Kingdom and one of the top tourist destinations in the U.S. be getting a reputation for crime?

In recent months, a spree of violent incidents has shaken Orlando, Fla. Two weeks ago, two Connecticut tourists said they were kidnapped from a Downtown Disney parking lot, robbed and beaten. (The couple declined to press charges.) Several days before that, three bandits shot two sheriff's deputies outside a police convention at the Caribe Royal Resort. In May, a German tourist was raped and robbed in her room in the Howard Johnson on International Drive, the main tourist drag that is seemingly so safe that families often let kids roam unsupervised.

These alleged crimes could have unsettling repercussions for the tourism-dependent economy of Orlando, where nearly 20% of all jobs are related to the 50 million visitors a year who come to the area. Murders soared 123% last year to a high of 49 from 2005. While the number of murders is much lower than in most big cities, the per-capita number is high because Orlando has 221,000 residents.

A spokeswoman for Walt Disney Co. declined to comment, as did the general managers of the Caribe Royale Resort and the Howard Johnson.

Orlando was recently named one of the top-25 most-dangerous cities in the country by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kan., research and publishing firm that has been compiling the list from Federal Bureau of Investigation crime data for 13 years. The list ranks cities by measuring their crime rates in six categories, including murder, rape and robbery, against the national average. St. Louis was No. 1 and Orlando was No. 25.

Orange County has the highest per-capita crime rate of any county in the state, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"This needs to be kept in perspective," said Danielle Courtenay, spokeswoman for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We have 49 million visitors who come here, and the vast majority who come here have wonderful experiences."

Much of the crime that put Orlando on the Morgan Quitno list is concentrated in a few poor neighborhoods in city limits, but the perception that crime is spreading could depress tourism in the region. Many tourists don't know that most of the tourist destinations such as Disney World are located outside the city.

"The perception is that Orlando is one area and everyone is kind of mushed together," said Harris Rosen, president and chief operating officer of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, the largest independent hotel owner in Orlando. "The number of criminal events against tourists is minuscule. However, the crime in Orlando is going up."

In a recent Chamber of Commerce study, the top worry among Orlando citizens was violent crime. "Five or 10 years ago, you wouldn't see it in the top 10," said Jim Kitchens, president of Kitchens Group, an Orlando public-opinion research firm that has done surveys and focus groups on the subject.

Now, the Justice Department is sending Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and FBI special task forces into Orlando after requests from the local FBI office and the acting U.S. attorney. "I don't think there's any doubt that one of the concerns is that a high crime, especially violent-crime, rate will have a negative impact on tourism and adversely impact the economy," said acting U.S. Attorney Jim Klindt of the Middle District of Florida. In addition, the local police department is launching a program that will put more desk officers out on patrol.

All this comes at a time when construction of hotels, time shares and condo hotels is soaring in the area. Demand is driven in large part by the trend toward so-called vacation ownership, where consumers either own their hotel rooms or own the right to use them for a specified time. Orlando is also dependent on business travelers. It is the second-biggest convention market, behind Las Vegas, by number of visitors.

So far, there is little evidence that tourism has suffered because of the crime, and no tourist has been killed. Ms. Courtenay of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said visits were up this spring and hoteliers expect a strong summer.

Expectations could change with a single high-profile crime or a series of crimes against tourists, says Abe Pizam, dean of the Rosen School of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Tourism got hit severely when Orlando and Miami experienced a rash of crimes against visitors in the early 1990s. Visits from foreign tourists tumbled 25% from 1992 to 1994 and have never fully recovered, according to data from the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

What is driving the sudden surge in murders and violent crimes isn't yet known. Jay Corzine, who runs UCF's sociology department and studies crime in the area, says two of last year's murders were gang-related, but the Parramore neighborhood and others seeing the spike have long had drug problems. "There's been a change in what we would call street culture," he says. "Where it exists in the Orlando area, it has become more violent and, in some cases, more lethal."

It has also gotten younger. About two-thirds of murder suspects are under 25, Mr. Corzine says, and many have lengthy criminal records and have been in and out of jail.

Sgt. Barbara Jones, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Police Department, says most of the crimes affecting tourists are burglaries. "People come here, the weather's beautiful, they have a great time going to Disney, and then they go to their room and leave the door open," she says. "It's all about being in that holiday vacation mode."

:s Florida and Texas (top two among several extremely humid states, IMHO) are places I am relectant to visit again for any reason. After reading this article, I believe that I will skip a conference in this city. :| It is WAY too crowded with families anyway. Give me WIDE open skies anytime, preferably those with very low humidity. ;)

<:o) <:o) Happy July 4th! <:o) <:o)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:36 AM

(f) (f) (f)

Public green spaces are proliferating in U.S. cities on a scale not seen the 19th century. However, prime urban real estate is now much more scarce, and it's challenging to satisfy everyone's notion of what a park should be.

Hudson River Park, New York; 550 acres; Opened 2003 Construction, partly on top of old piers, is continuing along Manhattan's West Side. It's the largest open-space development in New York since Central Park, with green spaces, trails for bikers and Rollerbladers, and free wireless Internet.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AJ562_jp1_PA_20070628233835.jpg

Gold Medal Park, Minneapolis; 7.5 acres; Opened 2007 Built on a set of old parking lots, site aims to foster quiet activities like picnics and strolls rather than sports. It was financed by a $5 million donation from former United Health Care chief executive William McGuire.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AJ564A_jp3_P_20070628233718.jpg

BeltLine, Atlanta; Over 1,200 acres; Opening unknown The initiative, which awaits funding, would double Atlanta's park acreage. It calls for converting this former quarry into the city's largest park.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AJ567_jp6_PA_20070628233455.jpg

Millennium Park, Chicago; 24.5 acres; Opened 2004 Some have criticized the park for naming prominent areas -- including the Frank Gehry-designed BP Bridge, pictured here -- after corporate sponsors.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AJ563_jp2_PA_20070628233754.jpg

Great Park of Orange County, Orange County, Calif.; 1,347 acres; Opening 2009 (projected) Plans for the $1.1 billion project, on a former military base, include a 2.5-mile man-made canyon and a massive wildlife corridor. Most visitors will need to drive there, since it's far from residential neighborhoods.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AJ565_jp4_PA_20070628233348.jpg

Discovery Green, Houston; 12 acres; Opening 2008 The park -- located between the city's two recently built sports venues, the Toyota Center and Minute Maid Field -- is expected to cost $93 million.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AJ566_jp5_PA_20070628233639.jpg

The Focus-Grouped Park

Cities are building new parks at a rate not seen for 100 years. Jon Weinbach on the increasingly heated debate about what to put in them.

By JON WEINBACH

June 29, 2007; Page W1

WSJ

There's a new status symbol for American cities and it's not a soaring office tower or retro stadium. To many civic leaders, nothing says progressiveness and prosperity like an elaborate urban park.

On a scale not seen since the "City Beautiful" movement of the late 19th century, public green spaces are proliferating. In Irvine, Calif., work has begun on a $1.1 billion recreational area that will be 60% larger than New York's Central Park. Private donors in Houston financed the bulk of a $93 million downtown greensward, while the mayor of Louisville, Ky., wants to ring the city's borders with 100 miles of trails. In all, 29 of the nation's biggest cities have added nearly 14,000 acres of new parkland in two years -- the equivalent of about 11,000 football fields.

But even grass and trees can be complicated. Citizens and planners across the country are getting tied up in a larger debate about what a park should be -- one that often pits people who believe in peace and quiet and the soulful contemplation of nature against those who prefer zip lines, Frisbee golf and hang-gliding.

In the Twin Cities, some residents don't agree with the decision to build a public sports field with artificial turf. Park builders in Dallas are trying to find room in one new project for a backgammon area. And an effort to rehabilitate Manhattan's Washington Square Park has been met by three lawsuits so far -- including an attempt by preservationists to keep the city from moving the central fountain about 15 feet to the east. "You'd think we were proposing to build a nuclear waste dump," says Adrian Benepe, the city's commissioner of parks and recreation.

At a public meeting earlier this month in Louisville, about 150 people came to weigh in on Floyd's Fork Greenway, a 27-mile stretch of parks, bike paths and canoe launches to be built along a scenic creek. After the presentation, residents furiously scribbled suggestions on project maps that hung around the room. Among them: "A nature trail can't run along a highway!"; "Leave an area large enough for a hot air balloon launch"; and from one particularly agitated person, "Many people were not notified of this meeting." Ralph Stanton, a goateed tile contractor in his mid-50s, was concerned that the park plans didn't include a trail wide enough to accommodate all three of his horses. "Kentucky is the home of the Derby, but we've got to go to Indiana to ride," said Mr. Stanton, clutching his cowboy hat. "They ought to get the horse people more involved."

Symbols of Democracy

For decades, local and federal governments had cut back on park budgets as funding needs grew for education, health care and safety. That marked a change from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when urban parks were held up as symbols of democracy, public health and progressive social planning -- and received generous government support. There was another surge of park building during the "Great Society" era of President Lyndon Johnson, but as more city residents fled for the suburbs, many urban parks were not properly maintained -- and green spaces deteriorated or disappeared.

Federal money is still hard to come by. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that provides grants for state and national parks, will receive about $28 million this fiscal year, down nearly 80% from 2002. Another initiative, the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program, has not been funded in five years.

A number of factors are spurring the current parks boom, from research about the health benefits of green space to interest from private donors and corporate sponsors. Developers who once fought with conservationists are now pushing the idea, after discovering that successful parks -- such as Manhattan's Bryant Park and Atlanta's Piedmont Park -- can dramatically increase property values.

City leaders are also using parks as a marketing tool. In an effort to draw young professionals and graying suburbanites, a number of cities including Denver, Philadelphia and San Diego have gentrified their downtowns recently. But politicians are finding that most of the new residents grew up with access to running trails, sports fields and the like -- and expect to have the same access in the city.

The largest increases in park space over the last two years took place in sprawling municipalities like Houston and Jacksonville, Fla., but even densely packed older cities such as Cleveland (with 187 new acres) and Philadelphia (22 acres) are finding ways to create new open space, often on former military bases or industrial sites. Seattle's nine-acre Olympic Sculpture Park, opened earlier this year, was built on a former oil-transfer site. Other cities have focused on building parks on reclaimed brownfields -- industrial or commercial sites tainted by pollution -- especially near valuable waterfront or downtown real estate. Pittsburgh, the long-time hub of the U.S. steel industry, redeveloped a 283-acre slag dump along the Monongahela River a few years ago, converting it into a residential complex and 200 acres of green space.

New York is in the midst of "the biggest period of park construction and redevelopment since the 1930s," says Mr. Benepe, the parks commissioner. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who sat on the boards of two local park foundations before taking office, recently increased the parks department's operating annual budget to about $355 million -- double the total in 2000. The city's most ambitious projects are building a park on top of an abandoned elevated railway line in Manhattan and converting the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island to a 2,315-acre recreation area.

As cities increasingly rely on corporate donors, real-estate developers and private, not-for-profit entities for park funding, they're facing some criticism. When Chicago's Millennium Park, opened in 2004, named prominent areas after corporate sponsors such as SBC, Boeing and British Petroleum, some traditionalists cried foul. Several cities have recently devised guidelines for sponsorship and naming rights -- in Denver, a company has to contribute 50% of all capital costs to get its name or logo on a new park.

But in most cases, the arguments revolve around one issue: the purpose of a park. In Chico, Calif., work on the city's new master plan for Bidwell Park has been hamstrung by a fight between preservationists and disc golfers who have been using a remote part of the park to play the Frisbee-inspired sport. Environmental advocates say the golfers are damaging trees and compacting the soil. At a meeting earlier this month, two golfers said their course should not be treated any differently than bike or hiking trails.

Planners for downtown Houston's 12-acre, $93 million Discovery Green park, which is set to open next year, wanted to create a "critical mass of activities" to generate buzz in a long-forgotten area of town, says Philip Myrick, vice president of Project for Public Space, a New York nonprofit that helped conceive the park's programs. Throughout 2005, the group conducted about a dozen small meetings with different "stakeholders" -- ranging from Hispanic community leaders to downtown employees to elementary-school students -- and held workshops for anyone interested in contributing ideas. The Hispanic community wanted open space for events, while the students proposed adding a "zip line" ride, a pulley suspended from a cable wire that allows thrill seekers to fly through the air.

The final park plans included a dog area, a jogging trail, a puppet theater and a "birthday veranda" for parties -- but no zip line.

Bocce Ball and Dogs

"Just having a baseball diamond, a grove of trees and a couple soccer fields is really the old model," says landscape architect James Burnett, whose firm is designing a $80 million park in downtown Dallas that will cover a sunken eight-lane freeway. The current plans for the site, tentatively called Woodall Rodgers Park, include a bocce ball court, a backgammon area, spaces for leashed and unleashed dogs and a botanical garden. "The program list can get very long," he says. "The discussion is always heated."

In some ways, the skirmishes over space mirror previous controversies over park land. After Central Park opened in the 1800s, New York City commissioners were overwhelmed by public requests for boat rides and more activities, even though landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted imagined the park as "purely passive space," says Witold Rybczynski, a professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania and author of a 1999 biography of Mr. Olmsted.

But now that prime urban real estate is much more scarce and expensive, "it's much more challenging to satisfy everyone's notion of what a park should be," he says. As a result, many of the new projects share a theme-park quality, with neatly organized areas catering to different groups. "You want to please as many people as possible, but we've become so different," he says.

Few parks today match the cost or scope of the Great Park of Orange County in Southern California, on the site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The decision to build the park came after years of battles over the fate of the base, which closed eight years ago. In 1994, county voters narrowly approved a plan to convert the base into an airport, but opponents stalled the effort until 2002, when voters approved a measure overturning the airport plan in favor of a park.

The Navy handled the sale of the base, dividing it into four parcels. In 2005, Lennar Corp., the nation's second-largest home builder, bought all four lots for about $650 million. In order to build on the site, Lennar had to turn over a chunk of the land to the public for park development, contribute $200 million toward the creation of the park, and spend another $201 million on infrastructure. For its part, Lennar plans to create a sprawling, 3,400-unit residential development around the park, as well as a 750-acre "Lifelong Learning" area that's slated to include a college campus and senior housing.

The park won't begin to open until 2009, though its first attraction, a balloon ride that will take riders 500 feet in the air, is scheduled to debut on July 14. (The balloon will be orange, naturally.) Last March, the park's designers announced a projected cost of about $1.1 billion -- not including the funds needed to construct a planned set of museums or a botanical garden.

No to Advertising

To generate revenue, the park is exploring sponsorship, naming rights and sublease options, as well as charging fees for parking and certain events and activities, like evening softball games. However, earlier this month the park's board of directors voted not to put advertising on the new balloon ride, despite estimates that it could bring in as much as $250,000. (Visitors may be charged for parking though.)

Like most park projects, this one has youth sports organizations and enthusiasts of every stripe angling for prime turf. Last year, the board asked for suggestions how to develop the park's 165-acre sports area -- and got an avalanche of proposals. The list includes a "casting pond" to teach aspiring fly fishermen, a research center to study children's exercise habits, and a "California Sports Hall of Fame" honoring local athletes. Mike Meier, a 56-year-old hang-gliding manufacturer from Orange, Calif., concedes his request for hang-gliding space probably won't get top priority. Nonetheless, he spent "about 30 or 40 hours" putting together a 12-page proposal, which included sketches of a bowl-shaped hill where beginner-level pilots could learn how to take off. "It wasn't a Madison Avenue-like production," he says. "I'm not holding my breath."

In contrast to most urban green spaces, which are centered around pedestrian access, few people will be able to walk to the Great Park -- aside from residents in Lennar's new homes. (The site is in a remote area a few miles northeast of Interstate 5, far from anything resembling a neighborhood.) There are plans to create a light-rail service that will connect an enlarged train station in Irvine with stops at the park and a nearby shopping center, but even Roy Cooper, the park's operations director, admits that transportation is a major obstacle. "If we provide alternative, convenient transportation, we might have a shot at getting people out of their cars -- but this is Orange County," he says.

(f) (f) (f)

Aut disce aut discede.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:38 AM

:)

TRAVEL WATCH

Offering an Oasis Between China, Canada

By JONATHAN CHENG

July 4, 2007

WSJ

New routes opening up between Canada and China are expanding the menu of options available to trans-Pacific travelers. Long-haul discount carrier Oasis Hong Kong Airlines last week started running six nonstop flights a week to Vancouver, linking Hong Kong with one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia.

Oasis's arrival in the market could put pressure on competitors to drive down prices for consumers, as it did when Oasis started running nonstops from Hong Kong to London's Gatwick airport in October. The airline's economy-class fares start at HK$1,990 ($255) one-way -- though that doesn't include taxes and fuel surcharges.

A spokesman for Oasis says ticket prices, in general, will be "highly competitive," with prices better than the cost of rivals' one- or two-stop services. Business-class fares, meanwhile, will be "comparable" to economy fares for other airlines, Oasis says, provided tickets are booked well in advance.

Vietnam Airport Expands

Vietnam's Da Nang International Airport is being refitted to accommodate a boom in tourists and business travelers.

The expansion will increase the airport's capacity to four million passengers a year, from one million now. The $103 million plan will include a new terminal and extended runways.

The renovation is needed to handle a wave of new hotel and resort developments on nearby China Beach, the kilometers-long stretch of sand that U.S. troops flocked to on R 'n' R breaks during the Vietnam War.

The airport handles domestic flights as well as flights to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Siem Reap in Cambodia.

More Direct Flights

Emirates Airlines is ramping up the number of direct flights from Dubai to Beijing, to twice-daily flights. The airline is trying to take advantage of a recent government agreement that could see a surge of mainland Chinese tourists coming to Dubai.

French Dinner for Two

Peninsula Hotels is rolling out luxury perks for summer guests who book a room or suite at any of the chain's world-wide locations for a minimum two-night stay. In Hong Kong, suite guests can choose between a free Rolls-Royce round-trip airport transfer, a set dinner for two at its French restaurant and an 80-minute holistic body massage. In Bangkok, room guests can choose between an airport transfer, dinner for two and a free room upgrade. Book a suite at the Peninsula Hong Kong, New York or Bangkok and the hotel will also throw in your second night's stay, free. Offers run until Sept. 15.

Don't Forget to Exercise

Passengers on long flights should exercise their legs and resist taking sleeping pills to reduce the risk of potentially fatal blood clots, the World Health Organization said. Although the danger of developing deep-vein thrombosis -- normally as a clot in the calves -- is small, it increases if people are immobile for long periods in cramped conditions. The WHO said the risk of developing clots during travel longer than four hours was 1 in 6,000.

Changing to Heathrow

British Airways is moving its daily Dallas-Forth Worth-London flight to Heathrow from Gatwick Airport, starting March 30. This is the first major international flight change announcement since the European Union and the U.S. signed the new "Open Skies" agreement April 30. British Airways' commercial director Robert Boyle said he believes the change will benefit the oil and gas industry, "as business travelers will be able to transfer with greater ease at Heathrow between Texas and destinations such as Lagos, Luanda and the Middle East."

(y) (y)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:42 AM

:o :o :o

Q U O T E D

"Look, Woz is a nice enough guy. He didn't need to wait in line. That's the big misimpression. We gave him an iPhone early last week. Two of them, in fact. Then he shows up at the store as if we didn't. He's looking for attention, OK? And he likes to play the martyr. Frankly, I think Woz should go do some work. Start a company or something. He's too young to be just hanging out doing nothing and dining out on his glory days. Also, just remember: Woz didn't want to quit his job at HP to start Apple. Are you aware of that? I had to twist his arm, the big dope. His dad told him he should stay at HP and that I was a scumbag. Dumbass Woz. He'd still be at HP, or probably he'd have been laid off by now, if I hadn't saved him. He'd be living in some ranch house in Mountain View, driving a (crappy) car, complaining about the house prices in the Bay Area."

-- Mystery blogger Fake Steve Jobs takes a swipe at the real Steve Wozniak

http://news.com.com/2008-1041_3-6194642.html

:s :s

;)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:45 AM

:| :| :| :| :|

The Cadaver Calculator estimates what your body would sell for on the research market:

http://mingle2.com/cadaver-calculator

:| A wee bit macabre, don't you think?

;)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:47 AM

:) :)

http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2007/07/02/liveblogging-the-continental-congress-july-2-1776/

:D "Right wing nut house", indeed!

<:o) <:o) Happy July 4th. <:o) <:o)

Sweetlady & Wyatt The Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:50 AM

;)

Extreme Sailing: The Biggest Boat in the World

David A. Kaplan

06.26.07 | 2:00 AM

Wired Magazine

Tom Perkins had done it all. He'd made a fortune, conquered Silicon Valley, even been Danielle Steel's fifth husband for a time. His venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was an early backer of Genentech, Netscape, and Google. But when he turned 70 a few years ago, Perkins decided to do something even grander and a bit crazier: He would build the biggest, riskiest, fastest, most technologically advanced, single-hulled sailing mega yacht in the world. The 289-foot Maltese Falcon, launched in spring 2006, is that engineering dream come to life.

There's no official definition of a megayacht, but every one agrees they're longer than 250 feet and tend to be triumphs of excess, with opulent staterooms, stainless steel and leather galore, plasma TVs — even their own speedboats and jet skis. To accommodate these toys, all mega yachts used to be powerboats, for the simple reason that sailboats must be reasonably svelte. But Perkins insisted on sail power — and refused to compromise on speed or lavish appointments. The solution was to go long, since (other things being equal) the longer the hull, the faster a sailboat can go. The result is the perfect blend of ego and utility, a $130 million wonder that represents the most daring advance in sailing technology in 150 years.

If the 1,367-ton Falcon were anchored in New York Harbor, its masts would nearly reach the tablet in the arm of the Statue of Liberty. The exterior has teak decks, a varnished cap rail, and exquisitely finished surfaces — all attributes of a classic ship — yet the overall look is sleek, metallic, and ultramodern, almost foreboding. When Darth Vader builds his own intergalactic yacht, it will look like this.

Under sail, the square-rigged Falcon evokes the magnificent clipper ships that raced across the oceans in the late 19th century. But Perkins' creation is more New Old Thing than mere tribute to the past. The heart of the boat's technology is a novel rigging system called the DynaRig, designed by Dutch naval architect Gerald Dijkstra and based on a half-century-old German concept. The genius — and risk — of the DynaRig is its use of freestanding masts that rotate to adjust sail trim and tack the boat. There are practically no external ropes or wires, no traditional rigging of any sort to brace the spars or control the nearly 26,000 square feet of sail. The 15 sails deploy at the push of a button, rolling out from inside each hollow mast along recessed tracks on stationary horizontal yardarms. When Dijkstra's drawings first came in, the CEO of Perini Navi, the Italian company that built the ship, muttered, "Whatever that is, it's not going to sail." Fellow mega yacht owner and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch looked at them and asked Perkins, "Is it going to look so frightening that people won't go on the boat?"

Murdoch isn't easily intimidated. But three towering 192-foot masts — unsupported by the usual fore and aft stays and shrouds on the sides — would scare the Top-Siders off even Columbus or Magellan. Each mast is secured to the hull by two huge steel bearings. The three assemblies — mast, bearings, motors, and fittings — each weigh well over 30 tons. That's a lot of material twisting and bending overhead in a gale. The key is carbon fiber. It's exceptionally strong and light, and it doesn't fatigue like metal, allowing the mast walls to be remarkably thin. Near the deck, where they're subject to the greatest loads, the walls measure just 5 inches thick. Toward the top, they taper to half an inch — no thicker than sturdy cardboard.

To measure the stress on the masts, a fiber-optic network is embedded in the layers of carbon-fiber laminate. These 0.01-inch-diameter cables contain sensors that relay real-time data about the structural health of the masts to a graphic display on the bridge. If the forces on them become too severe — masts can snap, and on a vessel this size, the results might be catastrophic — Perkins can dump wind out of the sails or reduce sail area.

Dozens of microprocessors, connected by 131,000 feet of hidden cable and wire, automate the operation, allowing Perkins and his crew to control the boat nearly effortlessly. Seventy-five sealed motors, 60 for unfurling and 15 for furling, are used to manage the sails. They are synchronized by computer, but the skipper still needs to implement each step: Perkins insisted that electronics not govern the whole process. The vessel would not be sailed by computer. "No way Bill Gates is controlling my boat," he likes to crack. "I don't ever want to have to press Control-Alt-Delete to restart, to make my boat go."

David A. Kaplan (david.kaplan@newsweek.com), a senior editor at Newsweek, is the author of Mine's Bigger: Tom Perkins and the Making of the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built (July 2007), from which this article is adapted.

http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/15-07/ff_boat

8-|(h)8-|(h)8-|(h)8-|(h)

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 01:55 AM

:o :o

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/06/laughing-bullets.html

(y) Definitely interesting learning how tax dollars are being invested. :| :|

(S) (S) |-) |-)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 12:46 PM

(k) (l) (k) (l)

http://www.planetout.com/images/slides/slideshows/ultimatelesbian.jpg

Ultimate lesbian casting call: The finals!

by Jenny Stewart, Entertainment editor

A few weeks ago, we ran a unique poll asking you to vote for the actress you would most like to see play a lesbian role. The interesting part was that we had you vote for the actresses according to their age group, so the winners of each age group could all then compete against each other in the ultimate lesbian casting call.

Not only did more than 10,000 of you cast votes, but the results were surprising, to say the least. (You can see the full results by clicking here.)

We thought Julie Christie or Charlotte Rampling were shoe-ins in the 60s age group, but comic genius Diane Keaton took that category in a landslide, pulling in 46 percent of the vote. In fact, Christie and Rampling came in dead last. Way to go, Diane!

We predicted Sigourney Weaver to whip everyone's ass in the 50's age group, but Michelle Pfieffer nabbed the most votes, with Angelica Huston coming in last.

Predictably, Jodie Foster ruled the 40s age group, with super-hot Diane Lane coming in second place. Last place went to Laura Linney, who got a mere 9 percent of the vote.

Kate Winslet and Ashley Judd were literally neck-to-neck in the 30s age group, but Kate won in a last-minute flurry of voting. Drew Barrymore missed placing second by a hair, losing to Judd by just 19 votes.

Another upset was seeing Scarlett Johansson get creamed by Natalie Portman. Portman took in a whopping 45 percent of the vote, with second place going to Jessica Biel. Marilyn Manson's new girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood, should probably never try out for a lesbian role: Only 5 percent of you voted for her.

So now it's time for the finals! In a first-of-its kind face-off, you can now participate in determining the winner a poll that knows no age group -- the Ultimate Lesbian Casting Call! Will Diane Keaton triumph over Natalie Portman? Will Kate Winslet trounce Jodie Foster? We don't know, but we're dying to find out.

Which actress would you most like to see play a lesbian role?

Jodie Foster 29%

Diane Keaton 15%

Michelle Pfeiffer 10%

Natalie Portman 23%

Kate Winslet 23%

(f) (f) I chose Jodie, but it was a difficult choice. Keaton wasn't even considered although I might have chosen her based on her role in the 1987 film, "Baby Boom". ;)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 12:49 PM

(k) (k) (k) (k)

Nibble on that dark chocolate -- your heart will be grateful

Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters

Published: Wednesday, July 04, 2007

CHICAGO -- A nibble a day of dark chocolate helped lower blood pressure without packing on the pounds, German researchers said Tuesday.

Prior studies have shown foods rich in cocoa, such as like dark chocolate, offer heart benefits, but researchers have worried the added sugar, fat and calories would cancel out any good the chocolate might do.

Now it seems just a 30-calorie bite of dark chocolate -- equivalent to 6.8 grams or a quarter ounce -- can lower blood pressure without weight gain or other negative side effects.

"Regular intake of small amounts of dark chocolate can help to lower blood pressure," said Dr. Dirk Taubert of University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dark chocolate contains polyphenols -- a group of chemical substances that are believed to carry health benefits.

Taubert and colleagues studied 44 adults aged 56 to 73 with hypertension but no other health problems between January 2005 and December 2006.

Participants were randomly selected to receive a single, 30-calorie square of dark chocolate containing 30 mg of polyphenols or a 30-calorie square of white chocolate that had no polyphenols.

After 18 weeks, the dark chocolate group experienced a 3 point drop in systolic blood pressure -- the top reading -- and a 2 point drop in diastolic blood pressure -- the bottom reading -- without changes in body weight, cholesterol or blood sugar.

"At first glance, this reduction may seem very low, but on a population basis, that means if everyone would experience this blood pressure reduction, the risk of cardiovascular death would be reduced by about 5 percent," Taubert said in a telephone interview.

"Chocolate may be helpful for reducing blood pressure and therefore, the risk of heart attack and stroke," he said.

Taubert said the researchers weren't fussy about the chocolate they used in the study. "It was the cheapest in the supermarket," he said.

The chocolate contained 50- per-cent cocoa, but he said a dark chocolate with 40- to 60- per-cent cocoa content would suffice. I think it makes no difference."

Still, he cautions people to take it easy.

"One has to look at the whole picture," he said. "Dark chocolate may help as an addition to other lifestyle changes . . . like more sports or changing dietary habits, more fruit and vegetables and less fat and sugar intake."

High blood pressure (also called hypertension) is common, according to the Heart and Stroke foundation. In Canada, roughly 22 per cent of adults have high blood pressure.

However, only about half of people with high blood pressure know that they have it, and blood pressure is controlled in just one out of every eight people who have high blood pressure, says the foundation.

More than 65 million U.S. adults -- about one in three -- have high blood pressure, above levels of 140/90, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Another 59 million have prehypertension -- blood pressure of 120/80 or above.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6ad823d4-ba5f-4e9e-898a-0bd04676eed0

:D Yummy.....my favorite. :) But not for health reasons.

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:14 PM

(l) (l) (l)

July 4, 2007

Home Away

Assembling a Log Cabin

By AMY GUNDERSON

When Pete Gusmano bought a 10-acre lot alongside Lake Huron in the eastern Michigan town of Lexington, he decided that a log home was right for a lakeside retreat.

Mr. Gusmano chose Barna Log Homes (www.barnahomes.com) to supply the building materials for the house. Most log homes come as kits, packages that include all the structural materials for the walls, roof and sometimes flooring. Then Mr. Gusmano modified one of the company’s existing floor plans, enlisted his brother to act as a general contractor and waited for the delivery day, when three truckloads of nine-inch white pine logs would arrive at the lot to be pieced together into a four-bedroom, 3,600-square-foot house for about $125,000.

The building process was “pretty much like Lincoln Logs,” Mr. Gusmano joked, referring to the toy log cabins. It took just a couple of months with a small crew to get the house erected, though the kitchen and bathrooms took much longer to complete and weren’t included in the cost of the kit.

“You get that up-north feeling,” he said. “Plus, it makes it more of an experience to go to the lake and stay in a log home.” The end result, he said, was a home that felt far removed from urban life.

Log homes, by design, signal a rustic quality and an element of hand craftsmanship, while the aesthetic seems to tap directly into the second-home ethos: comfort and relaxation.

Getting Started

After finding a company to build a cabin retreat (there are more than 400 log-home companies in the United States, according to the Log Homes Council, a trade group that is part of the National Association of Home Builders), a property owner should pick a species of wood, and the size and shape of the logs — which differs from company to company.

“A lot of that is aesthetics,” said Rob Cantrell, the owner of Stone Mill Log Homes, a log-home company based in Knoxville, Tenn., that manufactures 70 to 80 log homes a year. “Each company has its own point of difference in the type of wood, the profile of the log and how they join the logs. We use links of timber up to 40 feet. Other companies’ systems might be only 14 feet.”

Home buyers should also consider the cost of shipping. If a potential builder has land in Colorado and picks a log-home company based in Maine, the budget will be significantly affected by the added cost of transporting the kit across the country.

Types of Wood

Stone Mill Log Homes sells homes that use western hemlock logs grown in British Columbia and Washington state, but other companies offer pine, oak, red cedar, cypress and even reclaimed wood. According to the Log Homes Council, most companies produce milled logs, or logs shaped on a machine. Those logs typically have a smooth surface. Another alternative is hand-peeled or hand-hewn logs, which have been shaped by an individual craftsman. The result is a more rustic, textured log.

Picking a Kit

Companies also differ on what the final kit includes. Most kits include the basics, like the walls and the roof, and leave the final finishes, like hardwood floors, a back deck or granite kitchen counters, to the owners. Other companies may put buyers in touch with suppliers for windows, bathroom fixtures or fireplaces.

The Budget

The kit will represent only a portion of the final cost of the house, since it doesn’t include labor or any of the interior finishes, the foundation, the plumbing, the electrical and heating systems, the kitchen and (often) the flooring.

While costs can vary, log home manufacturers estimate that the kit makes up just one third of the final price of the house. “If you are buying a $150,000 kit you are going to end up spending $450,000 on the house,” said Rich Horn, the director of sales for Northeastern Log Homes in Kenduskeag, Me.

Doug Sidell, a developer who built a four-bedroom log home in Indian River, Mich., knows firsthand that a well-built log home is far from a bargain. The walls of his house are made up of old-growth red pine logs as large as 32 inches in diameter.

“I choose those because it looked cool,” he said. The interior of his home is finished with northern white cedar and oak floors. “You don’t build a house like this to save money,” he said.

(l) (l) (l)

(f) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:15 PM

:o

Who rules in Paris? The hands. Look inside the Paris workshops at Dior, Chanel and Christian Lacroix, where haute couture clothing is made.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/03/fashion/20070703_COUTURE_WORKSHOPS_FEATURE_1.html

(f) (f)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:17 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/12/31/travel/20061231_LONDON_SLIDESHOW_1.html

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:19 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

4 July 2007 11:14

Europe's greatest train journeys

Airports are an ordeal /no spamming of other sites/ even without this week's security alert. Now a pan-European project aims to relaunch the golden age of rail. There's never been a better time to let the train take the strain.

By John Lichfield

Published: 04 July 2007

The Independent (UK)

Railways created the world we know. Before railways, there were no seaside resorts, no suburbs, no standard time. Now Europe's railways are trying to change the way we travel in a world that has been reshaped /no spamming of other sites/ and threatens to be asphyxiated /no spamming of other sites/ by car and air travel.

Seven high-speed railway operators, including the partly British Eurostar, have joined forces to make inter-city rail travel across Europe simpler and cheaper. On one level, this could be dismissed as just a marketing exercise.

There will be one internet site /no spamming of other sites/ www.Railteam.eu /no spamming of other sites/ for booking through-journeys. There will be five big "hubs" (these are what we used to call "junctions") at Lille, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. There will be better connections between all the high-speed services.

Railteam's aim is to copy and compete with the alliances between international airlines, and to make cross-European rail travel a genuine, comfortable, and ecologically friendly alternative to the plane.

On paper, trains boast many selling points. Not only are they estimated to be responsible for four times less carbon emissions per passenger mile than aircraft, but they can be caught without enduring the terminal misery (made worse by recent terrorist attacks) of many European airports during summertime.

That said, objections can also be raised. Cut-price airlines are usually cheaper than trains, and sometimes much cheaper. The European high-speed network is taking shape (except in Britain) but it remains disjointed.

Even the new generations of even faster high-speed trains /no spamming of other sites/ reaching up to 250mph /no spamming of other sites/ will never be able to beat an aircraft for time on journeys such as London to Berlin.

Nonetheless, this week's announcement may come to be seen as an important milepost in the history of travel. The railway /no spamming of other sites/ so often mocked, so often dismissed as an "old technology", and so often associated in Britain with overcrowded, late, or cancelled commuter services /no spamming of other sites/ is reinventing itself for a more thoughtful and more eco-conscious age.

Almost 200 years after their invention in northern England, railways (if they are well run) are still the pleasantest and safest way to travel. In 27 years, the French Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) system has carried more than a billion passengers. There has not been one serious injury.

In the early days of railways in Britain, in the 1830s and 1840s, it was often impossible to book through-journeys with the different railway companies. It was the Railway Clearing Act of June 1850 which made that possible /no spamming of other sites/ even mandatory. A national rail system was born.

The creation of Railteam, after two years of difficult negotiations, will mark the similar birth of a true pan-European high-speed rail network. Cut-price return fares of around £69 will be offered on journeys such as London to Frankfurt (taking five hours, with one change) or London to Amsterdam (eventually taking only three hours).

Through-journey railway booking across European borders has been available, in theory, since the 19th century. However, many of the new high-speed services have not been included until now.

Journeys should be bookable on the Railteam network between any two stations in the seven countries involved /no spamming of other sites/ providing that part of the journey is by high-speed train.

There will also be a new service called HOP, allowing passengers who miss one connection to "hop" on to the next train without extra charge.

With the opening last month of the new high-speed line from Paris to eastern France, there are now 3,000 miles of fast tracks in Europe. When the Channel Tunnel link is completed through to St Pancras in November, Britain will have just 80 of them.

Despite several government and independent studies, and despite the overcrowding of Britain's motorways, airports and old railways, there are no plans to build new lines to, say, the north of England and Scotland. What a pity. Britain invented railways. Their reinvention for the 21st century threatens to shunt us into an 80 mile-long siding.

By 2010, with new stretches of line due to open in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, Europe will have almost 4,000 miles of high-speed lines. Further stretches in France, Spain, Germany and Austria will bring the network to nearly 5,000 miles by 2020.

Soon after that, it is hoped, it will be possible to travel by high-speed train from Paris, Brussels or London to Munich, Vienna, Turin and Madrid.

It would be a pity /no spamming of other sites/ and a great mistake /no spamming of other sites/ if a concentration on new lines led us to neglect the old ones.

The old European railway network, mostly built in the 19th century, still works well and contains many treasures (as we explain below). Europe has the densest and most complete railway system in the world. Only India and Japan can begin to challenge it.

In theory, Railteam will help the two rail systems, new and old, to work together, and better sell themselves to the traveller.

The reinvention of the railway should therefore also be a process of rediscovery (and, where necessary, renewal). From freight to local services, railways still have much to offer us apart from a whirlwind romantic weekends in Paris. If it does nothing else, the new rail network should help Europeans to rekindle their love affair with railways. It is time to join the second railway age.

The Glacier Express (St Moritz to Zermatt)

Almost every line in Switzerland /no spamming of other sites/ a country that still truly appreciates railways /no spamming of other sites/ is worth a ride. The main line along Lake Geneva to Lausanne and through the Swiss vineyards of the upper Rhône valley is a delight.

Perhaps the most spectacular Swiss rail journey of all (others may disagree) is the Glacier Express, which bills itself as the slowest express train in the world. Twice a day, the bright red train takes seven and a half hours to travel about 100 miles from St Moritz to Zermatt (a place you cannot reach by road).

In that time, you cross 291 bridges and pass through 91 tunnels and over several mountain passes. There are stunning views of the Matterhorn in in the last stretch. You have a glittering white landscape in winter; carpets of flowers in spring and early summer.

Inverness to Wick

Many of the Highland lines in Scotland deserve a mention. Some people adore the route to Fort William and Mallaig in the West Highlands (where there are steam trains for tourists and enthusiasts in the summer), and there is also a wonderfully scenic line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, which ends only a rowing boat's ride from the Isle of Skye.

Arguably the most spectacular, however, is the most northerly railway line in Britain, the route from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. In the last 30 or 40 miles, the line turns sharply inland to country that can't be reached by car and barely on foot.

Close your eyes and it feels as if the train is gliding over heather. Where else in Britain do you have a chance of seeing wild deer from a train? You cover about 120 miles in two and a half hours.

Oslo to Bergen

There's no such thing as the "wrong kind of snow" on this line: just keeping the track open in winter is a daily engineering miracle.

The journey, "over the roof" of Norway, is always listed among the top 10 railway trips in the world, let alone Europe. It takes seven hours to complete, which is hardly high-speed for an inter-city train. But the link is vital to Norway's economy: driving in the wintertime is often impossible; even air travel can be hazardous.

In any case, the scenery is so spectacular that seven hours will seem too short. Network Rail officials should be made to travel on this train every winter. Trains and snow can co-exist.

Carlisle to Leeds

This was the last completely new main railway line to be built in Britain before the Channel Tunnel Link began in 1994. It took 6,000 men with spades six years to lay the 72 miles of track through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Yorkshire fells and dales. Even when it opened in 1875, this was regarded as a phenomenally long time, so what would the builders of the so-called "Settle and Carlisle" have made of the endless delays in rebuilding the West Coast Main Line in the highly mechanised early 21st century?

The line was almost shut down in the 1970s when its most spectacular and emblematic structure, the 104ft-high Ribblehead viaduct, needed radical repairs. The route was reprieved and survives as one of the great railway experiences of Britain /no spamming of other sites/ and Europe.

Efforts have been made in recent years to promote the line as a tourist destination in its own right. Special steam trains often run in the summer. Otherwise there is a regular diesel train service between Leeds and Carlisle operated by Northern Rail.

Marseilles to Nice

Here, the high-speed train makes its way along the Riviera on the same route /no spamming of other sites/ and at the same speeds /no spamming of other sites/ used by steam trains in the last century. Somehow, from the train you don't see how much destruction has been wreaked along this beautiful stretch of coast. From a car /no spamming of other sites/ or a plane /no spamming of other sites/ you can see that the Côte d'Azur is now a kind of Gallic Florida, with blocks of flats and villas spreading deep into the hills. On the train, you can sit back and enjoy the apparently unspoiled scenery and pretend that you are Hercules Poirot on his way to solve a mystery in Monte Carlo.

Helsinki to Moscow

This is not a train to take for the scenery. It tends to be trees. And wheat. And more trees. In any case, the train /no spamming of other sites/ the "Tolstoy" /no spamming of other sites/ travels overnight. This is a journey to take for the atmosphere of Russian railways, changed since Anna Karenina passed this way but not that much changed. Tea is still brought to your seat, although no longer served from an old-fashioned Samovar.

You can pretend you are James Bond as the Russian border guards thrust forms into your face at 2am. They may have woken you from a deep slumber but at least that gives you a chance to see the train winched laboriously from one track (on the Finnish gauge) on to another (on the Russian gauge). You leave Helsinki just before 6pm and arrive in Moscow (sometimes) just before nine.

Sofia to Belgrade

The old Orient Express (Paris to Istanbul) no longer exists. There is a luxury train for tourists which uses the name but goes only to Vienna. To recapture the spirit of the Stamboul Train /no spamming of other sites/ immortalised by Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and Alfred Hitchcock /no spamming of other sites/ you can travel part of the original route on the Balkan Express, which connects Budapest and Istanbul in 27 hours. According to the train's website, "the comfort on board has nothing of a dream". You are, however, guaranteed plenty of Balkan atmosphere. The site goes on: "Travelling in second-class is very interesting for those who want to meet people. Trying to smuggle cigarettes, whisky, or God knows what, is the main occupation of the passengers." Beats the 8.07am from Colchester.

Lyon to Marseilles

Most of Europe's new high-speed rail network is, frankly, dull as it runs through the flat, congested plains of northern Europe. The one great exception is the extraordinary high-speed TGV line opened in 2000 that runs down the Rhône valley and over the hills of Provence to Marseilles.

The highlights of the line, south of Valence, are a beautiful switchback ride along the shoulder of the Alpine foothills; serial crossings of the river Rhône, culminating in a breathtaking double sloping viaduct south of Avignon; and then the whirlwind ride through the Provençal hills to Aix and Marseilles. And all this in about 40 minutes.

There are no shortage of trains on this line. They shoot along at 320kph (200mph) every five to 10 minutes. Couldn't they just slow down a bit to let us enjoy the view?

Krakow to Prague

Restaurant cars /no spamming of other sites/ such a big part of the romance of trains /no spamming of other sites/ are now extinct or disgusting in Western Europe. But they still thrive in the East, often in old carriages with brass fittings that could have been on the Train Bleu in 1923. Such a train is the slow connection between Krakow and Prague, two of the most beautiful cities in Europe, both of which miraculously survived the destruction of the Second World War.

There is an overnight train, but travellers in the know prefer the day version with its tatty old carriages and its cheap, atmospheric restaurant car. The countryside is also marvellous. The trip takes eight hours. One for lovers of life on the slow track.

Catania to Rome

It is a little-known fact that you can travel from London to Malta by train. There are a couple of ferry journeys thrown in but you could, for instance, take the Eurostar to Paris, the sleeping-car train from Paris to Rome and then the train south from Rome, which is ferried across to Catania in Sicily. Then you go on to Palermo and take another boat to Malta. The most romantic part of this odyssey is the train from Roma to Catania (about eight hours).

There used to be genuine train ferries on the Channel, which took the carriages aboard, but they disappeared long before the arrival of the Channel Tunnel and the Eurostar. The Catania crossing is now one of the last places in Europe than you can have the train-on-a-ship experience. It also gives you a taste of the wonders of Italian railways, which manage to be at once unusually regimented for Italy and utterly unpredictable. All that and a lovely journey through the villages and vineyards of southern Italy.

Prague to Budapest, via Bratislava

There is an Eastern Europe beyond Prague's Charles Bridge and its lairy stag do's. Take the train from Prague to Budapest, where you can leave the throng of easyJet travellers behind and experience some of Europe's undiscovered regions. From frozen lakes and wolf-inhabited forests to heavily industrial cityscapes, the views from this train are spectacular /no spamming of other sites/ and you still get the feeling you're the first person to see them. It's spectacular at any time of year, too: winter in the Danube valley means serious snow, while summer reveals lakeside dachas of a forgotten bourgeoisie. The day trains are a bit mustier than the sleepers, but the wooden carriages and red leather seats retain a certain Soviet charm. Trains leave from both of Prague's railway stations three times a day, and the eight-hour journey costs around £35. Many choose to extend their trip with a stopover in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava. Kate Proctor

The Snow Train, Paris to Bourg St Maurice

The Snow Train is a British middle-class institution. In ski season, hordes of salopette-toting hoorays travel from London to the Gare du Nord on Eurostar, before setting off on the night train for the mountains.

But Snow Trainers aren't sensible /no spamming of other sites/ they're British. If they're not half-cut by the time they reach Paris, a bottle of vin ordinaire at the station cafeteria ensures they're drunk by the time they reach the carriage. Once on board, the Brit follows a simple modus operandi. Find six-bed cabin. Locate tiny bed. Place suitcase on bed. Apologise in advance to five-person French family with misfortune of sharing cabin. Follow ears to The Disco Carriage.

The Disco Carriage is a travelling experience like no other. To the sound of Europop and 1980s classics, the assorted revellers quaff Kronenbourg as an inch of booze and unidentifiable effluent swims around their ankles. Generally, there are two or three good hours to enjoy before the first British teenager submits to nausea. After that, the stench quickly becomes unbearable. At this point, it is wise to return to one's couchette, where the French family will only be too happy to see you again.

http://travel.independent.co.uk/news_and_advice/article2734679.ece

(l) (l)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:20 PM

(f)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/06/29/fashion/20070701_PULSE_SLIDESHOW_1.html

Carving a True Likeness If portraiture is of the mode and cameos are having a moment, combining the two in an intimate, wearable portrait of yourself or a loved one is a true luxury. Amedeo Scognamiglio, 34, whose family has dealt in fine Italian shell cameos since 1857, decided six months ago to celebrate the diminutive 3-D portrait at Amedeo by M+M Scognamiglio, a boutique devoted to the art (958 Lexington Avenue in New York, 212-737-4100 or www.cameos.com). “Nothing is more exclusive than to have a cameo carved with your own features,” Mr. Scognamiglio said. Or maybe those of your spouse, children, mother or all of the above. He carves the very personal mementos himself; also among his commissions in conch are cats, horses and a dog named Rolex. “We will not forget Rolex,” he said. From $5,000.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/29/fashion/01puls.2.jpg

(f)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:22 PM

:o :o :o

FIRST THINGS FIRST Tom Faulkner, 31, outfits his fighter for a wrestling match.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/01/fashion/01vide600.1.jpg

VIRTUAL CLOSET The character-creation mode of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground includes a Nixon jacket, an Adio shoe and pants by Quiksilver.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/01/fashion/01vide650.2.jpg

July 1, 2007

Hey, Man, Let’s Play Video Game Dress-Up

By CHRISTOPHER HEALY

AFTER a long shift at the television station where he works as master control operator, Tom Faulkner of Clarksville, Ind., can often be found at his Xbox 360, engaged in his favorite wrestling game, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw. It will be an hour or two, though, before Mr. Faulkner, a 31-year-old father of two, plays a match — if he decides to do so at all.

Flicking the thumb stick of his controller, he quickly bypasses the built-in roster of World Wrestling Entertainment professionals and heads straight for his favorite feature of the game, the “Create-A-Superstar” mode, where Mr. Faulkner excels as a virtual fashion designer.

Will Mr. Faulkner attire his brawler in a classic spandex unitard or a Brooks Brothers-style button-down shirt and blazer? If he opts for one of the menu’s 20 styles of tights, which of the 45 patterns will he choose? And which if any of the 346 graphical add-ons — from Gothic crosses to butterflies — will he use to adorn his wrestler’s costume? And what kinds of tops, socks, shoes, gloves, hats, jackets and jewelry should his grappler wear? Should Mr. Faulkner design a separate outfit for him to don backstage?

While men like Mr. Faulkner are more likely to be found reading Electronic Gaming Monthly than the latest issue of Men’s Vogue, customizable fashion is playing an increasingly large role in the video games they play. Female-friendly games like the Sims and online virtual worlds like Second Life are already well known for offering an almost infinite wardrobe from which users can choose their characters’ couture.

But playing dress-up in a digital world is not just for the girls. Testosterone-heavy male-targeted games now feature costuming elements, allowing young men to express themselves through clothing in a way no traditional male pastime has allowed before.

“I could spend a couple of days making a character,” Mr. Faulkner said. “But when I get somebody looking exactly like I want them to, yeah, I’m proud of it.”

In action-oriented video games like SmackDown or the Tony Hawk skateboarding series, players typically choose clothing for their on-screen alter egos based on their personal preferences.

“I’ve got to spend hours looking at this guy,” says Nic Campbell, 23, of Asheville, N.C., who favors medieval sword-and-sorcery games like Elder Scrolls III. “Of course, I’m going to make sure his outfit is aesthetically pleasing.”

Other games make a snazzy wardrobe essential to a player’s success. In Def Jam: Icon, a hip-hop-theme fighting game, aspiring rap stars go shopping between bare-knuckle street brawls; their new outfits increase their “style points,” giving them more prestige and allowing them to earn more money.

Even Rockstar Games’ controversial Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas encourages sartorial experimentation: Money earned from illicit activities can be spent on clothes, and characters react differently to the protagonist depending upon how well he’s dressed.

And when a game is over, a well-costumed character can live forever on the Internet. At CAWs.ws, a Web site based in Manchester, England, more than 27,000 registered members come to upload pictures of their personally designed wrestlers. They also receive feedback from other members that ranges from encouraging (“Killer Khan looks pretty nice. Love the necklace”) to downright catty (“I don’t care for how the underwear covers the design on the inner thigh of the tights”).

“It’s a very artistic hobby,” said Tom Brunton, 22, an owner and administrator of the Web site, whose title acronym stands for Create-a-Wrestler. “When you’ve spent so long creating something, you want to show it to everyone you can.”

Several of Mr. Faulkner’s characters can be found on CAWs.ws, including his favorite, a wrestler named the Chupacabra. In his own day-to-day wardrobe, Mr. Faulkner never veers far from jeans and T-shirts. “I’m a very laid-back dresser,” he said. “I’m basically that fat bald guy everyone sees at the mall.” But the Chupacabra isn’t afraid to don a glossy alligator-skin vest and a mask with green dreadlocks.

Game publishers quickly realized these wardrobe features were a hit with fans. “We constantly incorporate player feedback,” said Dan Ryan, an associate game designer at THQ, the publisher of SmackDown. “Fans have wish lists of specific items, like a certain pair of sunglasses they’d like to see in the game.”

By rewarding attention to the smallest details of a character’s appearance, these games encourage players to give far more thought to clothing than they ordinarily might. “Games are the training ground where you can experiment with different looks, and then import those looks into the real world,” said Katherine Isbister, the author of “Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach” (Morgan Kaufmann, 2006). “Guys are often not sure how to make decisions regarding clothing. By making dressing part of a competition, that makes it understandable to them.”

Many real-world brands are appearing in video games. In Def Jam: Icon, a player who’s earned enough cash can outfit his character in a pair of distressed Phat Farm jeans, a baby-blue Ecko T-shirt, Air Jordan high-tops, and a yellow Puma running jacket.

“In order to authentically recreate the hip-hop world, we need the brands that real hip-hop stars wear,” said Justin Olivares, a product manager at EA Games, the publisher of Def Jam: Icon. “Companies are calling and asking to be in the game. It’s great for them — in our game, if you’re wearing the best clothes, you get bonus points.”

Sometimes the virtual mention is free and sometimes the clothing company pays for it. Other times a deal is cross-promotional, trading placement of say, jeans, for a link on the jeans maker’s Web site. It can take over a year to develop a game, so apparel companies often provide garments that have yet to hit stores.

“It’s like looking through a catalog,” said Kudo Tsunoda, an executive producer of Def Jam: Icon. “You see some piece of clothing in the game, and you say: ‘Wow, I didn’t even know that was available. Where can I go find it?’ ”

Already clothing designers are learning how to use product placement in video games to sell real-world items. Last year, Vans designed a virtual shoe for the skating game Tony Hawk’s Project 8, available only to players who discovered a secret code. When an actual version of the shoe was a sales success, Vans created another sneaker for a sequel to the game.

“This is a whole new challenge for apparel markets,” said John Mincarelli, a fashion marketing professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “When children start making those kind of choices in a game, it’s going to translate to their purchasing power in stores. The brands that are in the coolest video games will survive.”

Game designers say it’s only a matter of time before players are able to instantly buy the clothing they’re putting their avatars in. “I deck my character out in this outfit and — boom — I press a button and those clothes are delivered to my house,” Mr. Tsunoda said. “The technology is there to do it. We’re all just waiting to see which smart company’s going to grab the opportunity.”

For Mr. Faulkner, who stopped dressing extravagantly in the 1990s when he gave up drumming in a rock band, costuming his character is the next best creative outlet.

“I don’t know if I use character creation as a substitution for that,” Mr. Faulkner said. “But I’ll tell you one thing: If I was still in the band today, I’d be dressing up as the characters I’ve made for the games.”

^o) ^o)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:24 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

George III or George W?

Ian Williams

Guardian Unlimited

July 4, 2007 9:30 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/07/george_iii_or_george_w.html

English-speaking countries share a common political ancestry in 18th century Britain. But the United States has stayed fossilised in that historical moment over two centuries ago, while most others have moved on.

The purpose of politics at that time was to seize control of a government's treasury and use it to distribute cash and jobs to the victor's friends. Think Halliburton and those hosts of Bob Jones University graduates swarming through the White House and the Iraq occupation administration. Think of the atavistic attachment to the death penalty, undiminished since the time of Tyburn Hill.

Even as the Founding Fathers complained about the overbearing demeanour of King George, they enshrined in the constitution a presidency with all, and perhaps even more, of the powers and perks of an 18th century British monarchy. George W has abused his own power and his own subjects far more consistently and effectively than Farmer George III ever did.

Just compare the rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence with the behaviour of George W. It refers to a "decent respect to the opinions of mankind", a respect that his biggest American supporters legitimately cheer because of its complete absence in his diplomacy.

"That all men are created equal" and have "certain unalienable Rights .. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" - it is difficult to reconcile that with stripping non-citizens of their civil rights after 9/11. Indeed, one could hardly say that José Padilla was freely granted such rights even as a US citizen.

But then that is covered more freely in the list of gripes the Founding Fathers had against Farmer George, "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury", or "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences," both of which Rancher George has made a specialty. The colonists' whinge that "he has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power", gets a little too close to the bone as well.

George III also "made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries," which in spirit, if not in letter, Rancher George has certainly been emulating that with federal attorneys.

Although less true of George W, his followers are certainly "endeavouring to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither."

In a constitutional monarchy, the presence of the intellectually challenged on the throne matters not one jot, since it has been stripped of power by generations of reform and was the result of random royal rogerings rather than the purchase of elections that produced the national symbol. I mean, the British royals can ride horses, but as one correspondent suggested to me, did you ever see a picture of absentee ace pilot Rancher George on a horse?

But a US president is not only the national figurehead. He, or maybe even she, is the brains of the operation. The president is commander in chief - even if he went Awol back during Vietnam. He appoints ambassadors, even if what he knows about diplomacy could be gleaned from a reading of My Pet Goat. He appoints an unelected cabinet, and swings the supreme court appointments.

And as if these powers are not enough, George W is encroaching. His invocation of the "presidential prerogative," derived from the powers of the Hanoverian monarchy would have had the 18th century British parliament rising in rebellion. (Sadly I am not so sure about the 21st century version.) Even George III never thought of signing statements in which the head of state decides which parts of laws passed by the legislature, he would implement.

There is too much water under the bridge to rejoin the United Kingdom and, frankly, there would not be much popular enthusiasm there for the idea. Certainly no one would want the ugly glottal stops of Blair's expediently acquired Estuary English as the official language any more than the swallowed vowels of Buckingham Palace.

But there are alternatives. Early on the morning that that John Kerry conceded the 2004 election, I was punditting on CNN. Confronted with a map showing how the states had voted, it just came out: "Look at the map, it's time to secede from the Union. Join Canada! Get free healthcare, reduce the murder rate - and get out of Iraq - all in one move."

Liberal Canadian bilingualism could expand to allow the use of "-ize," and the skip the "u" from "honour," and allow you not to say "oot and aboot," if it offends your linguistic sensibilities.

Americans would also get a constitutional monarchy at one remove, that they do not have to pay for, and unlimited royal gossip that is slightly more upmarket than Paris Hilton's escapades but occasionally every bit as salacious. They would also get a charter of human rights that is taken seriously - as opposed to a constitution that the supreme court reinterprets in Rancher George's favour.

How can you go wrong? Think of the alternative - imagine Hillary as elected queen combining Victoria's lack of amusement with Thatcher's forbearance.

(y) Definitely would NOT see this in AMERICAN media! Bravo!!

(f)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity. (w) (w)

(f) Sweetlady the Grrl Propeller-Head & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:26 PM

:| (y) :| (y) :|

4 July 2007 11:21

Spaniards find smashing new way to relieve stress

By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid

Published: 04 July 2007

The Independent

With a Tarzan-like holler, Pablo Varela swung his jackhammer with a sickening clunk into the wall of a neat hotel bedroom. An avalanche of plaster fell to the floor to join a sea of broken mirror-glass crunching beneath his boots.

Under his hard hat, goggles and face mask, he was grinning broadly, his eyes sparkling. "I'm exhausted, but very relaxed. I've never done anything like this before. I recommend it to anyone," he said, before laying into a marble bathroom.

Mr Varela, 30, a teacher "with difficult pupils", was among 40 volunteers who joined in a light-hearted orgy of destruction at a Madrid yesterday, organised by a hotel chain that wanted to refurbish an ageing building - and alleviate stress.

"We put together our need to demolish our rooms with a government report that Madrileños suffer high stress levels, and invented the idea of 'roomolition'. We advertised for volunteers and received 1,000 applicants," said Enrique Tellecha, a manager of NH Hotels.

He flinched as an exploding television sent people backing out of a room. "I'm surprised how enthusiastically people have thrown themselves into this," he said. "Just shows how stressed they are."

Sixty applicants chosen by psychologists crowded into the lobby for a three-tiered test to produce 40 finalists deemed stressed enough to trash a room. The first test was to whack a life-size puppet of a leering boss, cigar clamped in its jaws, and shout out the thing that most stressed them.

Felix Gonzalez, a taxi driver, prompted bitter laughter when he accompanied his punch with a heartfelt cry of "M30!" - Madrid's ring road.

"Contestants" then had their pulse, blood pressure and heartbeat measured by a nurse, before answering a questionnaire on what was most stressful in their life.

Waiting to be tested, Angel Gutierrez, 33, spoke calmly enough, but his knee juddered incessantly as he described his job as a strategic consultant for major banks. "I take two or three planes a week. I try to make time for my 15-month-old son, and I do competitive swimming and train late in the evening. I'm always running to the next thing and arriving late."

Was this a satisfying life? "Oh yes. We live in an accelerated city, everything's at speed. My wife understands. But when we have another child I'll have to cut down the flights."

Sergio Quintana, 31, glanced repeatedly at his two phones and his motorcycle keys. "I work all hours, at a discotheque at night and as events manager and site location manager for big shops in the day. I sleep five hours a night. I have chronic intestinal problems and am always on the go, physically and mentally. I bike everywhere to get around quicker."

So why does he keep it up? "To pay the mortgage, travel and live well. But it'll be nice to enjoy a moment of liberation."

As rubble and curses flew, hard-hatted professionals hovered to proffer advice. "Hit shelves from below," called one, and a wardrobe collapsed in a crashing heap of planks.

For Carlos Garcia, 32, breathless and covered in dust, the destructive euphoria was already fading. He peeled off his white overall and checked his watch. "I work in a savings bank and I should be there now," he said. "Must rush."

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2733263.ece

;) ;) 's..........How do YOU spell relief?

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:30 PM

:s :s

July 1, 2007

Tread Lightly, Fly Directly

To reduce your carbon footprint in ways more substantial than buying an expensive hybrid car or jetting to an eco-spa, here are a few suggestions from among 77 offered by “The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook” by David de Rothschild, the official companion book to the Live Earth concerts.

1. Whenever possible, replace meat with soy or other vegetable protein in your diet. It takes eight times as much energy to produce a pound of meat as it does a pound of tofu.

2. Replace your light bulbs. Compact fluorescent bulbs use 75 percent less energy and last 10 times as long as incandescent bulbs. To save even more, turn off the lights when you leave the room.

3. Sub-size it. Houses between 1,500 and 2,000 square feet consume about 40 percent less energy than McMansions over 4,000 square feet.

4. Downsize your car. Every extra 100 pounds a car weighs requires 2 percent more fuel to move it.

5. Fly direct. Takeoffs and landings are where the most fuel is burned. Takeoffs alone can burn 25 percent of the energy used on a short trip. For trips shorter than 600 miles, consider taking the train.

6. Pull the plug. Appliances like televisions and VCRs still suck power when turned off. An estimated 95 percent of the energy consumed by cellphone chargers comes when they are left plugged in.

7. Skip the bottled water. For every one million bottles of water that are manufactured and shipped to consumers, 18.2 tons of carbon dioxide emissions are pumped into the air.

8. Vote.

:| :| Number 7 was shocking.......I knew it was bad but not THAT bad. I never drink from the tap and have bottled H2O for both Wyatt the Boxer as well as myself. (y)

(ip) Have a relaxing holiday,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:32 PM

:| :| :| :|

Cheney

Has he gone too far?

6/29/2007

The Week

Dick Cheney has his own special way of dealing with the rules that apply to everyone else, said USA Today in an editorial. “He just ignores them.” In just the latest example of a long series of “arrogant” decisions, Cheney is refusing to obey President Bush’s Executive Order 12958, which compels White House personnel to regularly inform the National Archives about material they’ve classified. Newly released documents show that Cheney’s office is claiming that he’s not an “entity within the executive branch” and so is not governed by Bush’s order. Since the vice president also serves as president of the Senate, Cheney argues, he belongs to neither the executive branch nor the legislative—and thus is not bound by the rules of either.

Even for our famously secretive vice president, said Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, this is a breathtaking, “new level of gall.” Not only is he saying he’s above the law, but that he functions on “his own dark planet—a separate entity from the White House.” The man is beyond parody, said Aziz Huq in The Nation. To keep the public from knowing what he’s doing behind the scenes, Cheney has made “extravagantly petty claims of secrecy.” Claiming executive privilege, he’s refused to let Congress or the public know what energy-industry and Christian right figures he’s met with in shaping the administration’s policies. Then, when the federal Information Security Oversight Office tried to get him to obey Executive Order 12958, he tried to abolish that agency. “If it weren’t so frightening, the irony would be delicious.”

There’s a method to Cheney’s madness, said Barton Gellman and Jo Becker in The Washington Post. By remaining completely behind the scenes while exerting enormous influence over President Bush, Cheney has made himself the most powerful vice president in history. It was Cheney who decided that the Geneva Conventions should not apply to captured terrorists, instituted interrogation tactics that many consider torture, and insisted that the administration could monitor phone calls and e-mails without warrants. Yet for all the policy that flows across his desk, “almost nothing flows out.” Cheney won’t reveal the size, much less the names, of his staff. Cheney also stamps everyday documents Treated As: Top Secret/SCI and locks most of his paperwork in “man-size Mosler safes.”

Cheney is probably the only politician in Washington who doesn’t give a damn what people think of him, said Jonah Goldberg in National Review Online. Unlike most people, “I love that.” He doesn’t pander to the press or the public; he simply does what he thinks is right. But as one of the few Cheney fans left, even I think he’s gone overboard. His argument that he’s not part of the executive branch is “goofy on its face,” and only makes a wounded White House look even worse. Cheney may not care that “millions of Americans think he’s a comic-book villain,” but his unpopularity is now dragging the entire administration down.

Many other Republicans have come to the same conclusion, said Sally Quinn, also in The Washington Post. They see Cheney as so “toxic” that they are whispering about begging Bush to replace him with a more palatable No. 2—someone like Fred Thompson. It’ll never happen, said Michael Currie Schaffer in The New Republic. First of all, Bush would never cut him loose. Second, the beauty of Cheney’s extravagant refusal to abide by any rules is that, on one level at least, it works. Cheney’s crazy, everybody says. So what else is new? After a few days or weeks, the furor dies down, and Cheney goes on making his own rules—unembarrassed and unrepentant.

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/news/articles/news.aspx?ArticleID=2163

8o| The problem with Bush getting rid of Cheney is that, let's see, that would
make *Bush* President!!! :o

;)

<:o) <:o) Happy July 4th,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 06:34 PM

8-| (h) 8-| (h) 8-| (h)

http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/

(y) (y)

:D

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 10:42 PM

:) :)

Posted : Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:31:02 GMT

This is Wednesday, July 4, the 185th day of 2007 with 180 to follow.

This is Independence Day in the United States.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include author Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1804; songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susannah," "Beautiful Dreamer") in 1826; circus operator James Bailey (Barnum and Bailey) in 1847; Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States, in 1872; innovative cartoonist Rube Goldberg in 1883; Louis B. Mayer, film mogul and co-founder of MGM, in 1885; actor/politician George Murphy in 1902; conductor Mitch Miller in 1911 (age 96); Ann Landers, advice columnist, in 1918; her twin, also an advice columnist, Abigail Van Buren in 1918 (age 89); former hotel executive Leona Helmsley in 1920 (age 87); actress Eva Marie Saint in 1924 (age 83); playwright Neil Simon in 1927 (age 80); actress Gina Lollobrigida in 1927 (age 80); Al Davis, Oakland Raiders owner, in 1929 (age 78); New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in 1930 (age 77); TV reporter Geraldo Rivera in 1943 (age 64); and tennis player Pam Shriver in 1962 (age 45).

On this date in history:

In 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming U.S. independence from Britain.

In 1826, in one of history's notable coincidences, former U.S. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

In 1863, Union troops defeated Confederate forces in a battle at Vicksburg, Miss.

In 1895, the poem "America the Beautiful," by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, was published.

In 1914, director D.W. Griffith began filming his controversial film "Birth of a Nation," which introduced important new filmmaking techniques and influenced many other directors.

In 1986, more than 250 sailing ships and the United States' biggest fireworks display honored the Statue of Liberty in its 100th birthday year.

In 1994, French forces in Rwanda established a security zone for refugees.

In 1995, the British Parliament reconfirmed John Majors as prime minister.

In 1997, NASA's Pathfinder landed on Mars to become the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the planet in more than two decades.

Also in 1997, Mexico's top drug lord died in a Mexico City hospital following plastic surgery to change his appearance.

In 1999, top-seeded Pete Sampras won his sixth Wimbledon men's singles title, defeating fellow American Andre Agassi.

In 2002, with the nation on alert for a possible terrorist attack, a gunman killed two people at the Los Angeles International Airport near a ticket counter of El Al, the Israeli airline, before he was killed by a guard.

In 2003, with the lack of international markets after a lone case of mad cow disease, Canadian beef prices in grocery stores fell to as low as 75 cents a pound.

Also in 2003, three attackers killed 50 people and injured dozens of others when they opened fire at a Shiite mosque in Quetta, Pakistan.

In 2005, NASA's "Deep Impact" spacecraft wound up an 85 million-mile journey by intentionally slamming into the Tempel 1 comet to learn more about comets and other aspects of the solar system.

In 2006, North Korea test launched seven ballistic missiles in what it called "routine military exercises," kicking up a firestorm of anger amidst its neighbors and the United States. One missile, the only long-range one tested, reportedly was capable of hitting the western United States.

Also in 2006, the first U.S. space shuttle flight in almost a year began when the Discovery was launched from the space center at Cape Canaveral.

A thought for the day: U.S. President Calvin Coolidge reportedly said, "If you don't say anything, you won't be called upon to repeat it."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/79221.html

(y) (y)

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 10:57 PM

:o

She's here ... The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk has arrived in Sydney Harbour accompanied by four other US navy ships and will remain in dock until Tuesday.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5554586,00.jpg

Exciting ... crowds of onlookers watch the USS Kitty Hawk from North Head as it steams into Sydney.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5554426,00.jpg

(y) (p) Impressive: She's here ... the USS Kitty Hawk cruises into Sydney Harbour.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5554435,00.jpg

Protection ... a Sea Hawk helicopter passes in front of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier as it stands off the coast before steaming into Sydney Harbour.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5554455,00.jpg

Huge ... The US aircraft carrier dwarfs Fort Dennison.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5554518,00.jpg

Drop anchors ... The Kitty Hawk docks at Garden Island.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5554508,00.jpg

Hello Kitty, The Yanks are here:

http://www.video.news.com.au/newsinteractive/videopage/videoplayer/?channel=National+News&clipid=1094_126478&bitrate=300&format=wmp

Sydneysiders say hello Kitty

July 05, 2007 11:13am

THE US Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk has arrived in Sydney Harbour.

The super carrier, accompanied by four other US navy ships, will berth at the Garden Island naval base and remain in Sydney until Tuesday.

The ships had been part of the joint Australian-US military exercise Talisman Sabre in Queensland.

Anti-war protesters were waiting to greet the ships as they arrived.

Meanwhile, acting NSW Premier John Watkins has extended a warm welcome to the Kitty Hawk's 5000 "cashed-up'' sailors.

"We hope they have a great stay while they are here until next Tuesday,'' Mr Watkins told reporters.

The Kitty Hawk is no stranger to Sydney, having berthed here before in 2005 and 2001.

Its familiarity has done little to dampen the enthusiasm for its arrival with talkback radio callers charting its course into the harbour.

Sydneysiders wanting to catch a glimpse of the mighty craft have been urged to catch public transport to the harbour.

Sydney's CBD traffic was chaotic when thousands of people flocked into the city to see the Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mary II as they were docked in Sydney in February.

In a bid to avoid a repeat of those scenes, extensive clearway and no-parking provisions have been put in place around the Woolloomooloo area.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22021831-2,00.html

:| :| What is this huge aircraft carrier *really* doing down there at this particular time and on the heels of terrorist attacks in the UK? One of the terrorist medical doctors was picked up in Australia.

:o It's not like American media will provide any information.

(y) (y) Thank goodness for International news web sites! We'd all be mushrooms depending on b.s. on broadcast television...... ;)

(o) And now back to the irreverent, sometimes off in the weeds and hopefully funny programming.:)

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 11:03 PM

(h) (h) (h) (h) (h)

Boeing gears up for the launch of its first new jet in 13 years - the dreamy 787 Dreamliner.

(l) (p) : http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5551073,00.jpg

(ap) Several feature articles:

http://www.news.com.au/travel/feature/0,,5013209,00.html

(y) Oh yea, baby! Boeing rocks and I am SO pleased that they're finally pulling ahead of their competition in Europe. (y) EeeHaa!!!! (ap) (ap) (ap)

(f)

Aut disce aut discede.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-04-2007, 11:14 PM

:s :s

It will be a marathon of live music, watched by two billion people. But exactly how much enthusiasm is there for Live Earth?

Live Earth's toughest test: global yawning

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 05/07/2007

Telegraph, UK

It will be a 24-hour live music marathon, watched by two billion people. But, after Live 8, Glastonbury and the Diana show, how much enthusiasm is there for Saturday's Live Earth events? Our writers sent these reports about the eight cities hosting concerts:

LONDON

Venue: Wembley Stadium

Capacity: 90,000

The buzz: Last weekend's failed terrorist attacks and the accession of Prime Minister Brown have pushed Live Earth fairly low down on the media agenda in the run-up to the concert. But the week's other leading news story - severe flooding in the UK - has also heightened public awareness of the possible consequences of climate change.

We like to think of ourselves as a fairly green nation, but the results of a Mori poll published earlier in the week revealed an alarming percentage of the population to be still "in denial" over the issue of global warming, with 56 per cent of those polled believing experts are still divided over whether or not human activity is heating the planet, and 32 per cent believing there's nothing we can do about it.

"These are the people we're trying to reach," says Live Earth publicist Bernard Doherty. "We're not aiming to preach to the converted. We want to reach those people who're still driving their kids 200 yards to school in a 4x4. We want young Madonna fans to be asking: 'Dad, why do you leave the TV on standby?' "

The line-up for Live Earth is spectacular. Although Bob Geldof and Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy have expressed valid doubts about the impact of a bunch of globetrotting rock stars on climate change, the excitement is building.

The world's biggest female star, Madonna (right), has been hugely influential in encouraging other artists to perform, and there'll also be girly pop from Corinne Bailey Rae and the Pussy Cat Dolls.

We'll get classic heavy metal from Metallica, energising hip hop from the Beastie Boys, '80s nostalgia from Duran Duran and Genesis, current indie from Razorlight, Keane, Snow Patrol and Kasabian, and drivetime singalong ballads from James Blunt, David Gray and Damien Rice. Plus, it now looks likely that Paul McCartney will appear as an 11th-hour headliner.

Is anyone going?: Organisers say demand for the £55 tickets was so high they "could have sold out twice over" the day seats went on sale. The release of an additional 4,000 sightline seats sold out in five minutes.

Local favourite: Madonna's performance is attracting the most attention, but the event could be Glaswegian indie-rocker Paolo Nutini's big international break.

SHANGHAI

Venue: Oriental Pearl TV Tower

Capacity: 3,000

The buzz: While the environment is recognised as one of China's big issues, China's international face is even more important and as a result most attention in the Chinese press has focused on the quality of Shangai's line-up.

While New York has Kanye West, and Britain the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shanghai's international headliner is Sarah Brightman (right). Chinese music is tame by Western standards, but not that tame.

Will the concert make a difference? The establishment wants to show it is concerned about the environment, but most Chinese worry about their filthy air, undrinkable water, and poisoned earth more than greenhouses gases, even though they now emit more than any other country.

In any case, they regard these problems as the government's, rather than their own, and the government is as likely to listen to Sarah Brightman as it does to environmental activists.

Is anyone going?: With a capacity of just 3,000, organisers are aiming low in the unpredictable world of Chinese live music. Half the tickets have been sold to corporate sponsors.

Local favourite: The headline act is Eason Chan, a Canto-pop singer, who is one of Hong Kong's most reliable stars. The local favourites, though, are 12 Girls Band, an artificially constructed but hugely popular line-up of Chinese beauties who play traditional instruments.

HAMBURG

Venue: HSH Nordbank Arena.

Capacity: 45,000

The buzz: Even for environmentally aware Germans, the prospect of paying £30 to watch a line-up of local lightweights at Live Earth has proved distinctly unenticing. Germans are well used to poring over rubbish, performing a complex triage to decide what to recycle and what to discard, and it seems that, after applying the expert eye, Hamburg had been marked for the latter fate.

The event will be headlined by rapper Snoop Dogg, but the rest of the acts - until the late addition of Shakira (pictured) and Enrique Iglesias - are hardly global stars.

So organisers now face a tense wait to see if the country led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who put environmental issues top of the bill at the recent G8 summit, will leave swathes of empty seats at Live Earth.

While Germany's double-headed presidency of the EU and the G8 doesn't sound like competition for a rock concert, tens of thousands of young German campaigners turned the G8 summit into something resembling a politically-charged pop festival.

For many potential Live Earth-goers, screaming at George W Bush easily trumped singing along with Katie Melua.

Is anyone going? Ticket sales are reported to be poor. Only 20,000 were sold a week before.

Local favourite: German alternative rock/pop group Silbermond may bring a little domestic credibility to the bill, but local favourite will no doubt be Lotto King Karl - a Hamburg-born rocker who formed his band after winning Germany's biggest post-war lottery payout in 1995.

TOKYO

Venue: Makuhari Messe

Capacity: 10,000

The buzz: The Tokyo leg of the Live Earth concerts threatens to be something of a sideshow. One problem is the venue: the Makuhari Messe is a rather soulless convention centre over an hour from Tokyo.

Another problem is the line-up. Apart from R&B sensation Rihanna, acts such as Rize and the oddly-named Abingdon Boys School enjoy a solid local following but are hardly comparable to the stars of the Fuji Rock Festival three weeks later (Iggy Pop, Beastie Boys, the Cure).

Tickets sales for Tokyo have yet to reach the 10,000 mark and media interest has so far been muted.

Japan has a special attachment to the Kyoto Protocol, one of the most important international agreements ever signed on Japanese soil. The country also has a good record on energy efficiency, dating back to the oil shock when Japan began to work on dramatically reducing its dependence on imported oil.

In recent years, Tokyo has launched new initiatives such as "Cool Biz", a campaign that encourages businessmen to abandon their jackets and ties in summer, thus lowering the demands on workplace air conditioners. Japanese companies such as Toyota have led the way on eco-cars.

But action on global warming has tended to come from the top down. The concerts may encourage ordinary Japanese to take a stronger personal interest in the global environment.

Is anyone going?: Sales of tickets (at £40 each) have not been impressive, considering more than 30 million live in the Tokyo area.

Local favourite: Singer Kumi Koda, 24, latest star of the "J-Pop" phenomenon.
Colin Joyce

KYOTO

Name of venue: To-ji Temple

Capacity: 3,000

The buzz: Japan's Live Earth organizers can boast one major coup. Kyoto will see the reunion after a 14-year hiatus of Yellow Magic Orchestra, an act which has a cult status and mystique in Japan similar to Kraftwerk in Europe.

The two-hour evening concert, to be held in the grounds of the historic To-ji Buddhist temple, also has symbolic importance. It was in Kyoto a decade ago that leaders of industrialised nations agreed to binding targets to cut carbon emissions, a deal clinched when Al Gore, then US vice-president, flew in to give talks a final push.

Is anyone going? Tickets, priced between 30 pounds and 60 pounds, are sold out.

NEW YORK

Name of venue: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Capacity: 80,242

The buzz: The concert has provoked considerable interest in the US media. The line-up isimpressive, and considerably better than the US Live 8 bill in 2005. The re-formed Police, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi and Kanye West join a raft of younger, hipper acts, and there may be a guest appearance from the popular Al Gore.

There is scepticism as to whether a rock concert can hope to advance the greening of the planet, but the global warming message is currently fashionable in the US, championed by Hollywood stars such as Leonardo di Caprio.

Ordinary Americans are belatedly waking up to the green debate as rapidly rising petrol prices force everyone in the world's most energy-consuming country to think about conservation. And this is the country that invented the modern culture of celebrity worship, so in many ways the idea of people following the lead of a bunch of rock stars is not so far-fetched.

Meanwhile, concert goers will have a direct reminder of America's polluting ways: the stadium, home of the New York Giants football team, sits in the petrochemical corridor of the New Jersey Turnpike. Hundreds of thousands who don\u0092t make it are certain to watch on TV.

MTV's coverage of Live 8 drew complaints of continual interruptions to the music from inane presenters, but it should be better this time. The centrepiece of heavy TV coverage will be a three-hour prime time show on NBC.

Is anyone going? Tickets range in price from $55 to $350. It is not sold out.

Local favourite: Taking Back Sunday, an indie band from Long Island, New York are perfectly suited for Live Earth. Famous for their commitment to sustainable touring, which includes tree planting and carbon offsetting programmes as well as telling fans how they can fight global warming. They sound like a hoot.

RIO DE JANEIRO

Venue: Copacabana Beach.

Capacity: Unlimited.

The buzz: Promotion was hampered by squabbles over the bill, which was secured only four weeks ago. Some sponsors demanded top, international acts rather than "just" Brazilian artists, who they felt couldn't draw a large enough audience. The line-up duly features big US stars Lenny Kravitz (below), Macy Gray and rapper Pharrell Williams.

Cable channel Multi Show TV will get three million viewers for its 24-hour coverage of the event; the remaining 174 million Brazilians will be able to catch a one-hour highlights package on Sunday.

Recycling is almost non-existent in Brazil, and there is little awareness of saving water or energy. Many don't even know what global warming is, although there is increased awareness about the threat of climate change since Al Gore visited Brazil in May to launch Live Earth.

Many are intrigued by this new, "green" concert and are asking what's the difference between a normal show and a "green" one. There is an elite group of educated Brazilians who are eco-aware, but the general consensus is that, unless there is a sustained campaign to inform and educate the masses, the Live Earth concert will be just another excuse for Brazilians to party.

Is anyone going? It's the only concert that's completely free: 500,000 to 600,000 people are expected.

Local favourite: Jorge Ben Jor is a national institution in Brazil. Mas Que Nada, his first hit, recorded in 1963, has since been covered all around the world.

SYDNEY

Venue: Aussie Stadium

Capacity: 40,000

The buzz: Sydney will kick off the 24-hour music marathon with a concert at the city's recently refurbished rugby stadium.

The event has had a perilously low media profile here, but the Australian organisers have an ace up their sleeves in the form of their headline act, Crowded House.

The hugely popular New Zealand band have got form playing outdoors in Sydney:their "farewell concert" in 1996 on the steps of the opera house drew a crowd of 250,000, one of the biggest in Australian history. Now re-formed after the suicide of their drummer, they have the catchy choruses that are key to working a stadium, not least the climate-related crowd-pleaser Weather With You.

Is anyone going? No ticket sales figures available.

Local favourite: Actress Toni Collette has re-invented herself since her Muriel's Wedding days and will be fronting her band, the Finish.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/07/05/nosplit/bmearth105.xml

(y) (y) This time I am delighted to observe on broadcast TV! I wouldn't attend such a hugely crowded event in person for love or money. ;)

(f)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-05-2007, 08:58 AM

:D (ap) :D (ap)

Michelle BernsteinMichelle Bernstein is Delta Airlines’ supervising chef for its Business Elite menus.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/04/dining/Bernstein.jpg

July 4, 2007, 1:16 pm

Mile-High Flubs

By Frank Bruni

NYTimes

I recently took a trip to Moscow — strange city, but that’s beside the point — and because I was on neither my own dime nor the newspaper’s, I had myself a comfy seat in First Class.

Actually, Business Class. Or, rather, both: the plane belonged to Delta, which conflates First and Business into one section called Business Elite. And that’s where I was, an elite passenger, entitled to more legroom, a super-adjustable chair and supposedly tastier food.

Obviously, it’s the last of those entitlements that this post addresses.

Yes, yes, yes, it’s been said a million times before: the food on planes, even in the front of planes, is dreadful, with the exception of the warm nuts, which you demolish greedily, though they’re really nothing special — they’re totemic, is what they are — and you could replicate them at home with a standard supermarket mix and a microwave.

My purpose here is the observation that of all the dreadful food in the world, perhaps no dreadful food is presented with more preposterous fanfare, more exaggerated claims and more disingenuous pride than the dreadful food in the sky.

I saved the Business Elite menu from the return flight. On its first page it actually presents a letter from the airline’s supervising chef, Michelle Bernstein, in which she lays out her biography, credentials and joy of cooking.

“Though most of my mentors and training have been classically French, my palate is still somewhat Latin and very much American,” she writes at one point, later adding: “I focus on freshness and seasonal foods.”

That may be so, but by the time those foods are stored for transport into an airplane, then heated in the kinds of mechanisms an airplane “kitchen” accommodates, they’re not going to taste fresh and they’re not going to taste seasonal. They’ll be lucky to taste like Stouffer’s.

My favorite pretension of the Business Elite menu is its assertion, through a system of symbolic icons, that you can choose “ideal performance meals” so precisely calibrated they will permit you to sleep when you want to and wake with the exact amount of energy you need, as if they were drug and vitamin combinations on the cutting edge of pharmaceutical time-release technology.

According to the icons on my menu, I would sleep well and rise and shine exuberantly if I consumed a mesclun salad with pine nuts and sour cream dressing, followed by mushroom ravioli, followed by fruit.

If, however, I had a roasted chicken soup with orzo, followed by seared turbot in a lobster dill sauce, followed by a mixture of cheeses, I would be able to work my little heart out for the nine or so hours of the flight and fall into a dreamy sleep upon, or shortly after, my arrival in the Big Apple.

I don’t doubt that the different protein-to-carbohydrate ratios of these meals — their different effects on blood sugar — might influence wakefulness. But let’s be real: this is airplane food we’re talking about, not Marilyn Monroe’s medicine cabinet.

It’s not served in generous enough measure to do much of anything to you, and you’re not likely to want to finish it all, anyway.

I had the turbot: fishy, rubbery. And I washed down the bit of it I consumed with too much wine for its putatively energy-boosting properties to kick in. I slept and slept and then, following my arrival, slept some more. Something about Moscow turned me into a travel narcoleptic.

About the wine selection: this was the second time in two years I’d had the good fortune — and I indeed recognize it as very good fortune — to find myself in the Business Elite section of an international flight on Delta, and this was the second time many of the French, Italian and Californian wines described in rhapsodic detail in the menu weren’t onboard.

My previous Business Elite experience had been a round trip to Europe (I used miles), and although the plane was traveling between the United States and Italy, wines from neither of those countries were among the selection on the trip over and, I’m pretty sure, on the trip back.

Instead, if memory serves me, Argentina, Chile and Australia held down the fort, though the menu doesn’t set you up to expect that. It sets you up to expect a French Laundry above the clouds, an El Bulli at 15,000 feet.

No one’s going to be duped. So why do airlines even try?

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/mile-high-flubs/

(y) (y)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:19 AM

:o :o :o

There are some topics men do not dwell on.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42471000/jpg/_42471728_shoes_jupiter_416.jpg

Friday, 6 July 2007, 13:08 GMT 14:08 UK

BBC News

What women talk about

Researchers in the US have laid waste to the long-held belief that women talk more than men.

But the survey did find that female subjects get through an average of 16,215 words a day, compared with their male counterparts' 15,669, a difference of 546.

Here are the first 46 in a tongue-in-cheek look at the words women might be saying that men are not. Use the form at the bottom of this page to help flesh out some of the remaining 500. We'll present the best ones on Monday.

Book club: A female dominated affair, perhaps because women read more fiction, or perhaps because men aren't very good at talking about it

Accessorize: If men were ever to use this word it would only be in the context of cars

Body image

Empowering: Men never use this word, perhaps because for the 200,000 years humans have been on the planet, men have had all the power

Burlesque: Something involving strip-tease that can apparently involve the above

Size zero

Home birth

Pilates: Men in the UK, particularly, seem to have no interest in building up their core strength

Pomegranate: Men seem ill-equipped to understand the significance and full range of superfoods

Cellulite

Absolutely beautiful: The words women often use to describe friends who are not

Conventionally attractive: Preceded by "well I suppose she is...", a phrase women often use to describe those who actually are

Jesse Metcalfe: A walking Athena poster, see above

Footless tights: Strange idea, strangely popular (y) :)

Breastfeeding

Emotional intelligence: Something that men usually do not possess, instead preferring the kind of intelligence that involves dates of battles

Kitten heels: Or indeed heels of any other kind

What are you thinking?: The classic female condition check

Feminism: If even veteran feminists can't agree on what this means then it's probably best avoided by men

Afghanistan: A place where the debate is rather starker

Agony aunt: When men seek answers to life-changing problems in magazines, it tends to be under the headline "plasma or LCD?"

Airbrushing: The process by which magazine picture editors oppress women in an underhand way

Flexible working

Handbagging: As in new Commons leader Harriet Harman's request to Theresa May not to savage her every Thursday

Beefeater: The first female one made her debut this year

Babies

Superwoman

Ms: Extraordinarily, the battle continues for women to be allowed to avoid definition by their marital status

Middleton: As in Kate. Style icon or harassed paparazzo target?

Concealer (y) :)

Why: As in "why do you never call?"

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6277306.stm

:| I related to only a couple of topics! Okay, the handbag one too. ;)

:o What a fluff piece of journalism, eh? Inaccurate as well, IMHO.

:)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w)

(f) Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:24 AM

:)

Liberalism

Back in the mainstream?

6/29/2007

It’s a mantra repeated so often that “nobody bothers to question it anymore,” said Leonard Pitts in The Miami Herald. “Liberalism is spent,” and America is fundamentally a conservative country. But as so often is the case with conventional wisdom, it’s just not true. The proof can be found in a new report by the activist groups Media Matters for America and the Campaign for America’s Future, which analyzes dozens of polls from nonpartisan organizations such as Gallup and the Pew Research Center. On every critical issue, America leans to the left. “Abortion? Sixty-two percent of us oppose overturning Roe v. Wade. Stem cells? Sixty-one percent of us support using them for research.” Gun control? Sixty percent want more of it. The word “liberal” may have been successfully demonized, but the views that label represents remain highly popular—more popular, in fact, all the time.

The evidence of the leftward shift is piling up, said Rick Perlstein in The Nation. A major new study of political attitudes by the Pew Research Center has found America to be basically blue. Sixty-nine percent of Americans think Washington should take care of those who can’t help themselves. “Two-thirds want the government to guarantee health insurance for all citizens.” Gay rights, working moms, interracial marriage—all of which were radical notions a generation ago—are now not even controversial. Even the percentage of people who identify themselves as Republicans dropped from 29 percent in 2005 to 25 percent last year. Thanks to the Iraq war and the partisan excesses of the Bush administration, “the conservative era” is over, said E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. The political center has moved to the left.

It’s not quite that simple, said Gregory Rodriguez in the Los Angeles Times. For 40 years, the country has seesawed between political extremes. In the ’60s, the country swung far to the left, as women and racial minorities finally gained a measure of equality. But the promiscuity, drugs, and other self-indulgences of that era gave rise to a counterrevolution—the religious and social conservatism of the 1980s. Now, after being whipsawed in both directions, most Americans are cobbling together “an ideologically impure compromise” between right and left. Their “core values” are largely traditional: “God, Mom, and apple pie.” But on issues of race, sex, and personal choice, the mainstream is liberal and tolerant. So if you’re looking for the heart and mind of America, ignore the extremes. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in the muddled middle.

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/news/articles/news.aspx?ArticleID=2165

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:27 AM

:| :| :| :| :|

Kill and tell: victim's family win right to publish OJ's version of a night of murder

· Court rules controversial book can be published

· Goldman family, not former actor, to benefit

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

Wednesday July 4, 2007

The Guardian

If I Did It, Here's How It Happened had always seemed a rather unwieldy title for the story of one of the most notorious murders in modern American history. Confessions of a Double Murderer, however, is a different matter.

OJ Simpson's controversial account of how he would have killed his wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman is finally to be published, following a court order issued last month. But the proposed publication will not benefit Simpson, his family or any of those involved in the original, aborted project.

Instead the rights to the book have been acquired by Goldman's family from a court-appointed trustee.

"Ron Goldman LLC will own Simpson's name, likeness, signature and story and will hawk it to satisfy this terrible judgment. Justice has arrived in Miami," the family's lawyer, David Cook, told the Associated Press.

"The contract and the rights are going to be circulated among every major publisher, literary agent, movie and TV producer and entertainment lawyer in the United States," Mr Cook added.

A bankruptcy court last month awarded the Goldman family ownership of the copyright to the manuscript to prevent Simpson profiting from its sale. Goldman's family argued that any proceeds from the book should go towards a $33.5m (£16.5m) court award against the former actor and American football star. The award was granted by a jury which found he was responsible for both killings in a civil case brought after his acquittal for the 1994 murders. Simpson has avoided paying the award by declaring bankruptcy.

Disputed

But an attorney for Simpson disputed the extent to which the Goldmans can exploit his image. "The bankruptcy trustee does not have the right to sell Simpson's name, likeness, image and the like," attorney Yale Galanter said.

In court hearings last month bankruptcy judge Jay Cristol ruled that Simpson stood to gain from publication of the book. The judge ruled that a company set up by Simpson's daughter to oversee publication of the book was designed to channel money to him. Simpson had always insisted that any profits from the publication of the book would go to his children.

News of the book ignited a media firestorm at the end of last year that led to the demise of the imprint that was to publish it and a crisis that rocked Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Regan Books, which was reported to have agreed to pay Simpson $800,000 for the book, was part of the HarperCollins publishing group which in turn is owned by News Corp. Publication of the book was to have been preceded by a TV interview conducted by the imprint's head Judith Regan and broadcast on the Fox News cable channel in the US, which is also owned by News Corp.

But in the wake of an outcry over the sensationalist content of the book and the possibility that Simpson would profit from its publication, both book and interview were cancelled by Mr Murdoch. Regan was dismissed from the imprint and it was shut down after she allegedly made anti-Semitic comments.

In a deposition given in the bankruptcy case last month, Simpson's oldest daughter Arnelle shed light on the background to the project. She said the book had been her idea, conceived with a friend called Raffles Van Exel, who was a vocal supporter of Michael Jackson during his trial. Simpson convinced her father to take part in the project and set up a company, Lorraine Brooke Associates, to sell the rights.

"This company was an effort to begin to do something for herself, not to fund Mr Simpson's legal fees," an attorney for Arnelle Simpson told ABC News. "Even though HarperCollins cancelled the publishing deal with LBA, plenty of other publishing companies are interested in buying those rights." However shortly before a court-ordered sale of the rights to the book in April, LBA filed for bankruptcy.

In last month's ruling, Judge Cristol said that LBA was set up "to perpetuate fraud". He ruled that there was a money trail showing that $630,000 (£315,000) paid by HarperCollins to LBA was then transferred to Simpson, who used it to pay tax and other expenses.

In exchange for the rights to the book, the Goldman family must pay the bankruptcy trustee 10% of the first $4m in gross proceeds plus a proportion of all profits.

One chapter of the unpublished book deals with the Simpson's version of the killings. Titled The Night in Question it describes how Brown-Simpson fell outside her home, hitting her head. As Simpson and Goldman confront each other, Simpson writes: "Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2117747,00.html

:o Why aren't stories such as this one in the American media? Seems to me that most Americans are fed daily news in a similar way to the Russians back during the Cold War. But then, I may be overstating it a bit. :)

(f) Have a lovely Friday and weekend.

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:29 AM

:s :s

The Supreme Court Wields Its Influence

6/29/2007

It’s such a reassuring notion. Imagine a Supreme Court in which the justices do not make their decisions based on partisan biases, personal whims, or constitutional “penumbras” and “emanations” perceived by the justices alone. “The Constitution means what it says,” says Justice Antonin Scalia. “You figure out what it was understood to mean when it was adopted and that’s the end of it.” In practice, this philosophy of “originalism” or “strict constructionism” sometimes proves more vexing than it sounds: Did the Framers understand the right to bear arms to mean that every citizen could own a musket, or were they also guaranteeing the right to wield semiautomatics with 50-round clips? How about machine guns? Bazookas? When the Framers said Congress could not infringe on the freedom of speech, did they really mean “speech,” as in words, or does speaking freely include the right to hand a 6-inch-thick pile of $100 bills to senators who do your bidding?

Being human, you and I might succumb to the temptation to answer these questions to suit our own desired ends, and then reason backward to create a constitutional justification. (That’s how justices get “penumbras” and “emanations.”) But not Scalia and the originalists. They know what the Framers intended. In its rulings thus far, the new Supreme Court has sided with religious groups, corporations, developers, the current president, and white males, and against students, women, blacks, and atheists. Now, this is a wholly legitimate change of direction: The Constitution empowers presidents to appoint judges who share their political prejudices. Pretending that the court’s rulings—or for that matter, the rulings of any previous group of justices—represent anything but a raw exercise in power, however, is transparently silly.

William Falk
Editor/no spamming of other sites/in/no spamming of other sites/Chief
The Week Magazine

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/editor/letter.aspx?ArticleID=2172

(y) (y) (y)

(f)

Aut disce aut discede.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:31 AM

8-|

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/innovation/2007/0611/index.html

^o)^o)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:32 AM

(l) (l) (l)

British Museum

Frommer's Review

Set in scholarly Bloomsbury, this immense museum grew out of a private collection of manuscripts purchased in 1753 with the proceeds of a lottery. It grew and grew, fed by legacies, discoveries, and purchases, until it became one of the most comprehensive collections of art and artifacts in the world. It's impossible to take in this museum in a day.

The overall storehouse splits basically into the national collections of antiquities; prints and drawings; coins, medals, and banknotes; and ethnography. Even on a cursory first visit, be sure to see the Asian collections (the finest assembly of Islamic pottery outside the Islamic world), the Chinese porcelain, the Indian sculpture, and the prehistoric and Romano-British collections. Special treasures you might want to seek out on your first visit include the Rosetta Stone, in the Egyptian Room, whose discovery led to the deciphering of hieroglyphics; the Elgin Marbles, a series of pediments, metopes, and friezes from the Parthenon in Athens, in the Duveen Gallery; and the legendary Black Obelisk, dating from around 860 B.C., in the Nimrud Gallery. Other treasures include the contents of Egyptian royal tombs (including mummies); fabulous arrays of 2,000-year-old jewelry, cosmetics, weapons, furniture, and tools; Babylonian astronomical instruments; and winged lion statues (in the Assyrian Transept) that guarded Ashurnasirpal's palace at Nimrud. The exhibits change throughout the year, so if your heart is set on seeing a specific treasure, call to make sure it's on display.

The museum's inner courtyard is now canopied by a lightweight, transparent roof, transforming the area into a covered square that houses a Centre for Education, exhibition space, bookshops, and restaurants. The center of the Great Court features the Round Reading Room, which is famous as the place where Karl Marx hung out while writing Das Kapital.

Insider's tip: If you're a first-time visitor, you will, of course, want to concentrate on some of the fabled treasures previewed above. But what we do is duck into the British Museum several times on our visits to London, even if we have only an hour or two, to see the less heralded but equally fascinating exhibits. We recommend wandering rooms 33 and 34, and 91 to 94, to take in the glory of the Orient, covering Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The Chinese collection is particularly strong. Sculpture from India is as fine as anything at the Victoria and Albert. The ethnography collection is increasingly beefed up, especially the Mexican Gallery in room 33C, which traces that country's art from the 2nd millennium B.C. to the 16th century A.D. A gallery for the North American collection is also open nearby. Another section of the museum is devoted to the Sainsbury African Galleries, one of the finest collections of African art and artifacts in the world, featuring changing displays selected from more than 200,000 objects. Finally, the museum has opened a new Money Gallery in room 68, tracing the story of money. You'll learn that around 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, money was grain, and that printed money came into being in the 10th century in China.

Timesaver--With 2 1/2 miles (4km) of galleries, the British Museum is overwhelming. To get a handle on it, we recommend taking a 1 1/2-hour overview tour for £8 ($15), £5 ($9.50) for seniors, students and children under 16. Daily at 10:30am, 1pm, or 3pm. Afterward, you can return to the galleries that most interest you. If you have limited time to spend on the museum, concentrate on the Greek and Roman rooms (nos. 1-15), which hold the golden hoard of booty both bought and stolen from the Empire's once far-flung colonies.

Location Great Russell St., WC1

Phone 020/7323-8299; 020/7636-1555 for recorded information

Web Site www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

Price Free admission

(l) (l) I LOVE this place!

(f)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:34 AM

:)

Game: Ricochet Lost Worlds — Windows

Breaking down the walls

Ricochet Lost Worlds is one of the most addictive, action-packed breakout games ever made. There's a whole slew of innovative power-ups, a new Ring Game and a level editor where you can make your own levels and create an unbeatable combination. Now, go break some bricks!

http://www.alivegames.com/ricochet_lost_worlds/

(f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:36 AM

:D :D

Note-it Express — Mac

Musical note to self...

Note-it Express allows you to easily and efficiently create an iPod note without having to go through the hassle of using a text editor. Cut out the middleman, add your notes, get your iPod...go.

http://corybohon.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/note-it-express-10/

(y) (y)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:39 AM

(h)(h)(h)

Visual Dictionary

Words, words, words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much is a picture of a word worth? Let the philosophers debate while you peruse the many street signs, shop signs, traffic directions, and other word-photos this site spells out.

Picture a hyperlink:

http://www.thevisualdictionary.net/

(y) (y)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.(w) (w)

(f) Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:40 AM

(f) (f) (f)

Yellowstone Park

A national treasure

America’s first national park, Yellowstone, is as magnificent today as when you were a kid. Never been? Then you owe it to yourself—this site provides quick links to lodging, guided tours, park history, and anything else needed for a great summer trip.

"Old Faithful" jokes never get old:

http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/

(y) (y)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:43 AM

:s :s

CatCam

Paws and POV

Along with contemplating the infinite universe, most of us have at some point wondered where the heck the cat wanders off to all day (or week). An industrious German fellow created a wearable “CatCam” to find out. The resulting photos capture an almost sublime feline reality

No litter-box views, we promise :

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/index.htm

:) For those who have & love cats, this must be a great web site. I am seriously allergic to cats and have always loved big dogs. (l) (&) (l)

(f) (f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:46 AM

Fruits & Veggies

Nature's candy

We all know we should eat more of the green and leafy stuff, but how do you go about it when the only snack you can make is Pringles? This site provides know-how on shopping for and preparing healthful meals using the stuff of mother earth.

Does ketchup count?

http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/

;) ;)

Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?

Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face? ;)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:50 AM

:)

History of the Button

Hmm, what's this one do?

No shirt buttons here—leave that to grandma. This site revels in the push-button as America’s ever-evolving icon of instant gratification. Find out who invented the first TV remote in 1956—the “Space Commander 200”—with photos and more!

Push "frappe"—it's smooth!

http://www.historyofthebutton.com/

Keyboard keys jump the shark

July 2nd, 2007

Lately, it seems like there has been a rash of products elevating ordinary keyboard keys to pop culture status. They’ve become an ironic take on our digital life. They take an ordinary thing we use everyday out of their normal context. They’re jumping the shark.

The first up is the weirdest. These are actual rings that you can wear and push. They have bonafide keyboard action. Would you want to impress your friends with your Ctrl ring?

http://www.historyofthebutton.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/brass_knuckles.jpg

8-|(h)8-|(h)8-|(h)8-|(h) Very Cool Rings! But where I would wear them is another thing. ;)

(f)

Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!

Let's all wear mood rings!

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 10:53 AM

:o

Disapproving Rabbits

Rolling down the aisle

Maybe it’s been a while since you read “Watership Down.” Maybe you don’t believe subtle disdain can be expressed by a floppy-eared, fuzzy quasi-rodent. Take a good long look, my friend.

But the label said faux fur!

http://www.birdchick.com/adventures/rabbit/

(y) (y)

Ventis secundis, tene cursum.

Go with the flow.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 11:05 AM

...........there's nothing that a takeover of AT&T wouldn't fix.

:|

There were a few quibbles here and a couple niggles there, but overall, the first reviews of the iPhone glowed like a 3.5-inch touch screen in a dark room, keeping Apple's masterful launch sequence right on track. Here's a sampling, and if you follow all the links, you can wallow in iPhone details to your heart's content.

Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal

Blurb-worthy quote: "a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer"

Biggest caveat: The AT&T network

Miscellaneous: Mossberg got Steve Jobs to answer some iPhone questions by e-mail, and we learn that the phrase "We don't talk about future products" is Apple's equivalent of the Fifth Amendment.

David Pogue, New York Times

Blurb-worthy quote: "the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years"

Biggest caveat: The AT&T network ("You almost ache for a dial-up modem.")

Miscellaneous: Pogue also put together an entertaining video on the challenges of testing the iPhone in secrecy.

Steven Levy, Newsweek

Blurb-worthy quote: "a significant leap ... a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach"

Biggest caveat: The AT&T network

Miscellaneous: Levy will be holding a live chat about all things iPhone at noon EDT Friday on the MSNBC site.

Edward C. Baig, USA Today:

Blurb-worthy quote: "a prodigy - a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an Internet experience unlike any before it"

Biggest caveat: The AT&T network

Miscellaneous: Baig also produced a video, though it's not nearly as much fun as Pogue's.

Gizmodo has put together a matrix comparing the reviews on key points and Engadget's summary covers most of the quibbles (some of which may be deal-breakers depending on what you need in a mobile communication gadget). Oh, and the Satanic implications may put some people off.

All in all, the iPhone looks to have cleared this hurdle with room to spare. Now on to Friday's retail launch madness.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_6239163?nclick_check=1

http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20070626/jobs-qa/

:D :D David Pogue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcRfAaIb2Ro&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblog%2Ewired%2Ecom%2Fgadgets%2F2 007%2F06%2Fvideo%2Ddavid%2Dpog%2Ehtml

(y)

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/wisdom-of-the-in_crowd/opinions-side+by+side-in-our-iphone-review-matrix-272727.php

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/iphone-facts-from-the-first-reviews/

IMHO, Wired Magazine has always been wacked:

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2007/06/alttext_0627

:) I learned the hard way a few times back in the 1980s, never, never, never buy the first production run of any product. Wait until the bugs are worked out. However, being a bleeding-edge early adopter of applied technologies makes it difficult at times. Thank goodness that as a freelance writer, I have received countless Beta hardware and software on PC and Mac platforms, to use, review and write about! (y) (y) I'm grateful.

;) I'm still not buying one of these iPhones......as I sit here wearing an "iWait" t-shirt.

(f) (f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 11:08 AM

:D :D

Q U O T E D

"I think it's a problem with Vista."

-- 21-year-old South Korean student Ji-hyeon Jeong, a finalist in Microsoft's student software programming competition, explains a glitch while showing her demo to Bill Gates.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_6241065

(y) (y) The LOVE when things like this happen to Billy. Talk about a sucker-punch to Microsoft's arrogance. I LOVE it!

;)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 11:10 AM

:s :s :s

:)

http://www.mizpee.com/web/index.html

;) What next?

Ventis secundis, tene cursum.

Go with the flow. ;) ;)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-06-2007, 11:12 AM

:)

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?nodeId=0624E7246A2471&tid=11WTRS14P10

(y) Definitely didn't expect this one, based on the subject line..... ;)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:07 PM

:s :s

Posted 07/05/2007 @ 6:11pm

Weird Religion, Anglican Edition

According to two senior Church of England bishops, recent terrible floods in the UK are expressions of God's wrath at excess consumption -- or possibly excess gayfriendliness. "We have a responsibility in this and God is exposing us to the truth of what we have done," the Rt. Rev .James Jones, bishop of Liverpool, told The Telegraph .

"We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage that we have caused." said the Rt. Rev. Graham Dow, bishop of Carlisle. "The sexual orientation regulations [which give greater rights to gays] are part of a general scene of permissiveness. We are in a situation where we are liable for God's judgment, which is intended to call us to repentance." According to the Telegraph, Dow " expressed his sympathy for those who have been hit by the weather, but said that the problem with ‘environmental judgment is that it is indiscriminate.'"

Now just hold on a minute here. God left thousands of innocent Britons homeless-- to say nothing of other recent flood victims from Texas to Pakistan -- to make a point about something those people had nothing to do with? A point no one, except a handful of clergymen, seemed to get? If God is powerful enough to cause floods, why isn't he powerful enough to target his smitings to, say, the annual meeting of Exxon shareholders or Friends of the Incandescent Light Bulb? Surely God is aware that environmental catastrophes hit the most vulnerable hardest. The CEOs and superconsumers in their 4000-square-foot mansions have insurance, to say nothing of Hummers in which to make a quick escape to their condo in the city.

As for the gay thing, if a human being somehow managed to flood whole neighborhoods, destroying the lives of multitudes, and when asked why replied that he was furious, just furious, at growing tolerance for homosexuality, we would think he was insane. And he would be.

So maybe God exists, but is clinically mad. That would explain just about everything.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing?pid=211023

:| :| :| Talk about blatant idiocy. 8o|

:)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:09 PM

:o

The same artists who united to free Tibet, save the family farm, rock the vote, rebuild New Orleans, and, yes, end world poverty are all here. Good at raising money, but Earth-changing results?

Posted 07/07/2007 @ 09:20am

Live from Live Earth

Thaddeus Kromelis

Good morning from New York. I am just about to meet up with Max Fraser to head over to New Jersey. The Nation was kind enough to give us access to the Notion this Saturday so that we might post a couple entries live from Giants Stadium, the North American venue for "Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis," the latest global concert-for-a-cause. (Lucky us, with ticket being sold through legitimate vendors for $83 to $348, no small commitment, they were also kind enough to obtain us two press passes, and with those, hopefully access to some of the event's performers for an interview or two.) We should be at the stadium by early afternoon.

If you haven't heard, Live Earth is a 24-hour event on 7/7/07 that will bring together over 100 musical acts to perform a series of nine eco-friendly concerts on seven continents (yes, seven -- apparently Nunatak, the house band at the Rothera Research Station on Antarctica, will slip on their fingerless gloves to play a set outdoors). The shows kicked off in Sydney, Australia last night and have been rolling westward through Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Washington D.C. (originally cancelled, then added again yesterday morning) and New York all night (China and Australia are on air as I write, watch them here). According to event planners, the music broadcast will entail total media saturation -- TV, radio, web and wireless channels simultaneously -- in hopes of reaching upwards of two billion people, prodding them to take up the good fight against global warming.

Kevin Wall, founder of Save Our Selves (SOS), the establishment behind Live Earth, paired up with eco-crusader-cum-rock-star, ex-V.P. Al Gore, to organize the charitable music event. They promote the all-day concert as the kickoff to a broader, more ambitious multi-year campaign aimed at getting people to affect change locally and globally -- from personal actions one can take to reduce their own carbon footprint, to demanding that their government join an international treaty in two years that promises to cut global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries. Wall's last worldwide production was Live 8, a "global call to action against poverty" in summer 2005.

Ambitious? Certainly. Commendable? Absolutely. Predictable? Maybe. The same group of artists that united to free Tibet, save the family farm, rock the vote, rebuild New Orleans, and, yes, end world poverty will be well represented here. Good at raising money, but Earth-changing results?

As one would imagine, producers are going out of their way to tout the eco-sensitivity of the Live Earth concerts. Biodiesel has been trucked in to power buses running from the press tent to the stadium. Concertgoers asked to carpool or take public transportation. Carbon offsets purchased to atone for flying talent to concert locations. Electricity will be from renewable sources or renewable credits. All this is in keeping with a set of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Event Guidelines established for Live Earth.

Predictably, an event this large is not without its critics despite the noble intentions. Bob Geldof, the man who gave us Live Aid, probably ranks as the most notable and vociferous. Geldof recently told a Dutch newspaper, "But why is [Gore] actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody's known about that problem for years. We are all fucking conscious of global warming...I would only organize this if I could get on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations. They haven't got those guarantees. So it's just an enormous pop concert." A bit harsh, but not wholly off point.

In the end Wall and Gore have saddled up with a pop music industry that has recently been the target of grumblings for implausibly fostering a less eco-friendly market place despite shifting into the digital-music era. Reuters recently reported music fans continue to purchase the same amount of compact discs, opting now for recordable CDs to store their own playlists over professionally produced CDs. And when they do buy music the old-fashioned way, a majority of discs are still sold in plastic jewel cases and shrink-wrap rather than recycled-paper sleeves. MP3-player continue to sell at an extraordinary clip. These devices contain heavy metals and harmful chemicals, and are often quickly rendered obsolete. This to say nothing of the carbon footprints of major summer tours (and as the Nation reported, lets not put too much faith in carbon offsets just yet). So, real change?

In a July 1st NY Times Op-Ed, Al Gore wrote, "WE - the human species - have arrived at a moment of decision. It is unprecedented and even laughable for us to imagine that we could actually make a conscious choice as a species, but that is nevertheless the challenge before us." Laughable or not, this is exactly what Live Earth aims to do, the unprecedented /no spamming of other sites/ save us and the world, while greening the music industry. And it's clear the unprecedented is what needs to happen to solve greenhouse gases. Max and I hope Live Earth can deliver, and will post a couple reports from the NYC concert venue to let you know how it's going.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=211595

^o) Reminds me of an "all-encompassing" bumper sticker I saw a few times while I was living in the Bay area. ;)

(f)

Ventis secundis, tene cursum.

Go with the flow.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:12 PM

:)

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070702/digby

Digby Speaks: The Netroots Revolution

by DIGBY

[posted online on June 20, 2007] The NATION

Editor's Note: The pseudonymous blogger known as Digby has been passionately writing about politics on Hullabaloo since 2002. On June 19, when she accepted the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award on behalf of the progressive blogosphere at the Take Back America Conference in Washington, DC, Digby remained an enigma, choosing not to reveal her name as she delivered these remarks about the evolution of the netroots into a political force. Watch the video here.

Those of you who know my blog, know that it is nearly impossible draw me from my secure bunker in the People's Republic of Santa Monica. But when I was approached by my friend Rick Perlstein about accepting this award on behalf of the progressive blogosphere, I knew that it was an honor I could not refuse, not for myself, although I'm grateful, but for my fellow bloggers.

We are proud to be a part of the great progressive liberal tradition of Paul Wellstone and are grateful for your kind acknowledgment. Thank you. As there has been a lot said recently about the netroots and our influence on the Democratic party, this is especially rewarding.

And let's just say we seem to have ruffled some feathers.

We've been called everything from witless to "some guy named Vinnie in a bathrobe and an efficiency apartment" to "blogofascists." Some critics dismiss us as useless elites--the Metropolitan Opera crowd--or a "noisy Upper West Side cocktail party for the college-graduate class." Still others take us to task for our "vitriolic, unhinged tone."

The other day Tim Russert agreed "absolutely" with his gracious host, concerned centrist Sean Hannity, that the Democratic party was being unduly influenced by bloggers who were dragging the party kicking and screaming to the left.

Then there is the criticism that we are fascists or Stalinists demanding that everyone march in lockstep to the edicts of our leadership--generally assumed to be Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos--who apparently directs us with secret signals deeply embedded in the code of the Daily Kos web site while we carry on an elaborate ruse of spirited political debate and disagreement in public.

We are, in short, something of an enigma.

I like to call this phenomenon--irrational fear of hippies which has, in my view, become--irrational fear of political passion. Of all the criticisms I just mentioned, that is one we are all willing to accept.

We are passionate about politics, and in this era of Republican corruption, excess and failure, that passion sometimes manifests itself as anger. But how can you not be angry? So many institutions have failed us in the last decade that being vitriolic seems the only sane response.

And as for the idea that we are modern Stalinists: Does that makes any sense at all? We can't even agree on what to call ourselves.

The netroots consist of a very lively and disparate group of citizens who are political observers, activists, readers and entrepreneurs communicating and organizing via the Internet.

We have opera-loving liberals from Georgia... Nascar-loving progressives from Chicago... and Grateful Dead-loving Democrats from... Florida. We are from everywhere, and our common tribal signifiers aren't social status or professional authority or region.

Our tribe finds each other in remote places and big cities alike on the Internet--through our politics. Period. In the blogosphere, nobody cares if you are a 70-year-old Chinese immigrant or a 22-year-old Harvard student or a stay-at-home dad.

If you have something to say you can say it--and if it touches a chord, people will return time and again to read what you've written and discuss the issues of the day with others who are reading the same things.

Al Gore, a man who knows something about the Internet, wrote in his book, The Assault on Reason:

"The Internet is perhaps the greatest source of hope for reestablishing an open communications environment in which the conversation of democracy can flourish... It is the most interactive medium in history... with the greatest potential for connecting individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge."

So... the netroots is... a revolution. A revolutionary participatory democracy. And, in this way, the left is more effective than the right. Whether by temperament or philosophy, we are simply better suited to the free-form, constantly changing nature of these new political communities.

Each of us finds their niche. I'm a blogger pundit, a role for which I am eminently qualified, since, exactly like pundits on television and in newspapers, I have opinions, I write them down, and a lot of people read them.

(Yes, that's all there is to it. Sorry Mr. Broder.).

Bloggers Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers are organizers of this nascent movement. They traffic in ideas that affect our ability to keep doing what we do, from net-neutrality to finding a much-needed funding base for bloggers and activists.

With vastly different approaches, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo and Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake, are creating a new form of journalism. Talking Points is modeled on the more traditional form and Firedoglake is mixing reporting, opinion and direct political advocacy.

Daily Kos is a virtual community that operates like a small town, offering full-stop political shopping for its progressive inhabitants.

Crooks and Liars catalogs the juiciest morsels of political TV. Move-On moves millions to action. Media Matters monitors and calls out the right wing noise machine.

And there are literally thousands of other blogs out there doing all that and more--writing back and forth with their readers, linking and arguing and organizing. This is a 24/7 worldwide political discussion and strategy session.

All of us who blog in the progressive blogosphere, have a common goal. It's the same goal of virtually everyone in this room tonight. We want to begin a new era of progressive politics and take back America.

We may argue about tactics and strategy or the extent to which we are partisans vs ideologues--and believe me, we do. But there is no disagreement among us that the modern conservative movement Of Newt and Grover and Karl and Rush has proven to be a dangerous cultural and political cancer on the body politic.

You will not find anyone amongst us who believes that the Bush administration's executive power grab and flagrant partisan use of the federal government is anything less than an assault on the constitution. We stand together against the dissolution of habeas corpus and the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. We all agree that Islamic terrorism is a threat, but one which we cannot meet with military power alone.

And yes, a vast majority of us were against this mindless invasion of Iraq from the beginning or at least saw the writing on the wall long before Peggy Noonan discovered that George W. Bush wasn't the second coming of Winston Churchill. Sadly, we agree that the mainstream media is part of the problem. Democracy suffers when not being held accountable by a vigorous press.

During the last decade there have been three catalyzing events that drove people like me to the Internet to research, investigate and write about assaults on democracy itself.

•In 1998 the political media lost all perspective and aggressively helped the Republicans pursue a partisan witch hunt against a democratically elected president --- against the will of the people.

•The coverage of the presidential election of 2000 was legendary for its bias and sophomoric personality journalism. The press actually joined the Republicans in telling the majority, who had voted for Al Gore. to "get over it." I never got over it.

•And the almost gleeful support for the invasion of Iraq, a journalistic failure of epic proportions.

If you hadn't been sufficiently aroused from your complacency by then, you never would be. The blogosphere was the natural place for many of us to turn when the institutions we counted upon seemed to be daring us to believe them or believe our own eyes.

And that coming-together set the table for the seminal candidacy of Howard Dean and all that has come since.

As it turned out we didn't just raise money for progressive Democrats, although many of my fellow bloggers raised a whole big pile of it from our readers all over the country. We began to push back the prevailing manufactured narratives produced in bulk by various Republican PR shops and distributed to their taking heads in radio and television.

We talked back to the media, and yes, to our own party, Some of whom understood that while we were opinionated thorns in their side, we were also opinion makers read by influentials in the everyday world of water coolers and dinner tables.

We were a part of the base that could move other parts of the base and a counter to the prevailing political stories and narratives of the day--and they knew we could potentially help create a new modern political movement.

And so, here we are, the famously vituperative, angry bloggers, standing before you today politely accepting this award as proud, full-fledged inheritors of the great American liberal and progressive political traditions.

On behalf of all of my fellow bloggers and netroots activists, and especially on behalf of our dear friend Steve Gilliard, a fighting liberal of both the old and the new schools, I thank you again for inviting us to your party.

Our party rages on 24/7 all over the blogosphere and we'd love it if all of you would stop by frequently.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070702/digby

8-|8-|8-| Progressives, unite!

;)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:14 PM

:s :s :s

Posted 07/06/2007 @ 3:25pm

Women's Rights are Human Rights, Iranian Edition

Via Feministing comes awful news from Iran. For participating in a banned rally for women's rights in June,2006, twenty-four year old Delaram Ali has been sentenced to 34 months in prison and ten lashes. The demonstrators--around 100 women and a number of men -- were peacefully protesting flagrantly biassed Sharia-based laws, including those governing divorce, inheritance and the courts, in which a woman's testimony is worth half of a man's. Police violently attacked the rally and arrested 70 demonstrators; Ali is the seventh to be convicted. Her lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, offers a defiantly hopeful interpretation of this cruel and unjust verdict: "The women's movement is expanding and this worries the government."

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing?bid=25&pid=211361

http://jadi.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2007/7/2/3067270.html

http://we-change.org/english/spip.php?article108

:| :| UNBELIEVEABLE!!!! Sharia Law sux, BIG TIME. :'( :'(

Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?

Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:15 PM

:)

Summer jewelry has a different feel than its counterparts from other seasons: it’s a little lighter and wittier, a bit less expensive yet a bit more expansive.

SLIDE SHOW!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/06/fashion/20070708_PULSE_SLIDESHOW_1.html

(f) (f)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:17 PM

:D :D

To travel along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, the 50-mile or so road across Glacier National Park in northern Montana, is to see the West as it was.

The road passes Lake McDonald on the western side of the park.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/sun-600.jpg

SLIDE SHOW! Behind the Wheel in Big Sky Country:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/06/travel/escapes/20070706_SUN_SLIDESHOW_1.html

OMG!! Waterfalls are everywhere along the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana, especially early in the season. Bird Woman Falls is particularly striking.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/cascade-650.jpg

MY DREAM TO SHARE: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/2peopledeck-650.jpg

This and a cup of bean: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/pie-650.jpg

July 6, 2007

Into the Big Sky

By JIM ROBBINS

NYTimes

IT is not until after you brave the steep, narrow road, negotiate its hairpin curves, and blink hard while passing its sharp drop-offs, that you begin to understand. At the top, as indigo mountain peaks meet a sea of blue sky, it dawns on you: so this is why they call it the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

The two-lane road, running 50 or so miles across Glacier National Park in northern Montana, slices through some of the most spectacular physical relief and expansive views in the Northern Rockies.

Traveling Going-to-the-Sun is also a trip back in time, to a period when the West had its full complement of wildlife. It is all still here, from grizzlies to wolverines, wolves and moose, which often show themselves along the road.

“Hikers on the road saw a grizzly bear, bald eagle and a wolf,” said Amy Vanderbilt, a park spokeswoman. “All in one day.”

Some things are different this year, though, for those traveling to northwestern Montana to navigate “the Sun.” This summer begins the first year of a $170 million, 10-year reconstruction of the road, the largest and most thorough rebuilding since it was officially opened in 1933.

“We've got a major construction project going on, but the road is open for business” said Mick Holm, the park's superintendent. “It's a chance to experience history, the reconstruction of an engineering marvel.”

Travelers will still be allowed to bike and drive their own vehicles on the mountain-ringed, vertigo-inducing road, though they should expect several construction delays that officials say should total no longer than 30 minutes for those doing the whole length. Or visitors can take a new shuttle service, a series of small buses that depart every 15 minutes from a just-finished transportation center at West Glacier, or every 30 minutes from the east side visitor center at St. Mary. The buses will run during the life of the reconstruction.

Traveling the road has never been easy. This year's opening was postponed in mid-June because of a torrential rainstorm that washed away a huge section. The road opened July 1, its latest opening since 1943. Some years, snowstorms can slow travel and even close the road in July and August.

This serpentine highway was named after nearby Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, which in turn was named after the journey of a Blackfoot Indian god who, according to legend, came to earth to help his people and returned home by climbing up the mountain and disappearing into the sun.

From the west side of the park a trip over Going-to-the-Sun Highway begins at Apgar, a small village just inside the park. Even back in the late 1800s, homesteaders at Apgar realized there was money to be made hauling tourists by wagon into the rugged scenery.

Glacier National Park was designated in 1910, and by the 1920s, as auto travel evolved, people were clamoring for motorized access. Construction on the road began in 1925, and it was a daunting task for the equipment of the time. Using horses, steam-powered shovels and tons of dynamite and black powder, workers began carving away the steep mountainsides to create a narrow dirt road. The road was opened in October 1932, with an opening ceremony on July 11, 1933.

Rebuilding the 18-to-22-foot-wide roadway is especially painstaking because the job is not just putting down a new road but rebuilding the old one, which is a National Historic Landmark, to exacting historic standards. There are huge stonework arches and stone guard railings, for example, built by Russian stonemasons, that have to be replicated. Two new quarries had to be opened to provide matching rock.

These days the road is battered and patched. But when it's finished it should provide a smooth trip through Montana's rugged cordillera. It also provides something more — access to deep wilderness.

Glacier is a hiker's park, and many of Glacier's trails, from short ambles to long backpack trips, begin and end on the Going to the Sun. Trail of the Cedars, a boardwalk through the cool dark of towering old-growth forests of cedar, hemlock and cottonwood trees, is more an easy stroll than an arduous mountain hike — a great trip for beginners.

Grizzly bears are thick in Glacier, and it's possible to run into one just about anywhere. Many hikers carry small cans of bear repellent made from capsicum, the active ingredient in hot peppers, which is a last line of defense should a bear be surprised and act aggressively. The repellent is available at stores in the park.

The going gets steep after a last flat spot called the Loop, and the astonishing view of the sprawling valley below opens. A silvery oxbow stream cuts through the carpet of green meadows and forest. At different times of the year the valley is studded with tall, white beargrass that looks like a light bulb on a stick, the brilliant red of fireweed or other wildflowers.

Open areas have been created by avalanches that have wiped out trees and created habitat for edible plants. That's why grizzly bears prowl the open areas. They can often be seen from the road far below, hunched over, their silver-tipped fur flashing as they dig furiously for ground squirrels or glacier lilies.

GOING-TO-the-Sun is opened every year only after the danger of avalanches has passed. But even without avalanches, and with numerous stout guardrails, the trip can be nerve-wracking. The drop-off is steep, and it can cause palm sweat or a slightly pounding pulse.

People do occasionally take a spill, with varying results. In 2000, a bicyclist on a fast full-moon descent took a fatal fall over the side. That same year, a motorcyclist crashed, but survived. In 1991, a van with seven people tumbled over and everyone survived.

Each year before the road is open to vehicles, hikers and snowshoers and later bicyclists can travel there without worrying about cars. When the road is open to auto traffic, bicyclists are banned from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“The view is worth the serious pain,” said Lisa Taylor of Kansas City, Mo., just after riding up. “There's nothing like this in Kansas City.” Then she hopped on her bike and headed down.

In addition to the new shuttle buses, long red 17-passenger antique buses with black fenders and canvas roll-back tops, called jammers, ply this road, and are almost as much of a relic as the road itself. The vehicles were built in the 1930s and are still making the trip.

Waterfalls are everywhere along the Sun Road, especially early in the season, plunging out of the sweeping snowfields and glaciers. The long, narrow ribbon that is Bird Woman Falls is especially striking. The Weeping Wall is a stretch of road of 100 yards or so where volumes of water seep out of the rocks and splash onto the asphalt.

At Logan Pass, where Going to the Sun peaks out at 6,446 feet, there is a visitor center, a parking lot that never seems to have enough spaces and a million-dollar view of mountain peaks. A three-mile hike to Hidden Lake is a way to get a sense of mountain terrain above the timberline and is home to mountain goats and bighorn sheep. There is no food at the pass, but there are restrooms and, when its snowing and cold, a fire burning in a big stone fireplace.

The east side drive down has a pullout for a view of one of the park's shrinking glaciers, at the Jackson Glacier overlook. Farther on, St. Mary Lake is a stunning Caribbean blue lake at the bottom of the road, surrounded by soaring peaks.

The road empties out at St. Mary, a small village on Blackfoot Indian tribal land. While the west side of Glacier is a rain forest, the east is in a rain shadow, dry and windy and more austere, though no less amazing in its beauty.

It is also firm, flat ground where many people have stopped to take stock of their first trip over the Sun.

“It's a balance,” said Mark O'Keefe, who has driven the red jammers and worked in the park for years. “A balance of enjoying the scenery combined with the fear of sailing into the abyss. Add occasional Arctic weather and wildlife in the road and it's a unique American experience: controlled panic with a view to die for.”

VISITOR INFORMATION

MANY visitors reach Glacier National Park (www.nps.gov/glac) by flying into the Glacier International Airport near Kalispell, Mont., and renting a car for the 25-mile drive.

Amtrak's Empire Builder is also an option, with access on either side of the park, at East or West Glacier.

The Swiss-style Belton Chalet (406-888-5000; www.beltonchalet.com), near West Glacier, is across from the train depot. Built in 1910, it was recently refurbished; rooms are $135 to $160. Glacier Park Lodge (406-892-2525; www.glacierparkinc.com/glacierparklodge.htm) is on the other side of the park at East Glacier. It has huge Douglas fir pillars and a fireplace; rooms are $140 to $199.

Transportation on the new shuttle system is included in the price of admission to Glacier, which is $25 a vehicle for a seven-day pass.

Several tours on Red Buses, also called jammers, which leave from various lodges in the park, ride on Going-to-the-Sun. They are $30 to $75, half price for those 12 and younger. (406-892-2525; www.glacierparkinc.com/transportationRedBusTours.htm).

The trip's end is best savored over pie and coffee at the Park Cafe, in St. Mary (406-732-4482; www.parkcafe.us).

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:19 PM

(y) (y) (y) (y)

Nobody has asked the obvious question: “What sacrifices have you and your friends made, Mr. President?” (y) (y)

July 6, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Sacrifice Is for Suckers

By PAUL KRUGMAN

On this Fourth of July, President Bush compared the Iraq war to the Revolutionary War, and called for “more patience, more courage and more sacrifice.” Unfortunately, it seems that nobody asked the obvious question: “What sacrifices have you and your friends made, Mr. President?”

On second thought, there would be no point in asking that question. In Mr. Bush’s world, only the little people make sacrifices.

You see, the Iraq war, although Mr. Bush insists that it’s part of a Global War on Terror™, a fight to the death between good and evil, isn’t like America’s other great wars — wars in which the wealthy shared the financial burden through higher taxes and many members of the elite fought for their country.

This time around, Mr. Bush celebrated Mission Accomplished by cutting tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while handing out huge no-bid contracts to politically connected corporations. And in the four years since, as the insurgency Mr. Bush initially taunted with the cry of “Bring them on” has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and left thousands more grievously wounded, the children of the elite — especially the Republican elite — have been conspicuously absent from the battlefield.

The Bushies, it seems, like starting fights, but they don’t believe in paying any of the cost of those fights or bearing any of the risks. Above all, they don’t believe that they or their friends should face any personal or professional penalties for trivial sins like distorting intelligence to get America into an unnecessary war, or totally botching that war’s execution.

The Web site Think Progress has a summary of what happened to the men behind the war after we didn’t find W.M.D., and weren’t welcomed as liberators: “The architects of war: Where are they now?” To read that summary is to be awed by the comprehensiveness and generosity of the neocon welfare system. Even Paul Wolfowitz, who managed the rare feat of messing up not one but two high-level jobs, has found refuge at the American Enterprise Institute.

Which brings us to the case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr.

The hysteria of the neocons over the prospect that Mr. Libby might actually do time for committing perjury was a sight to behold. In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal titled “Fallen Soldier,” Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins University cited the soldier’s creed: “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” He went on to declare that “Scooter Libby was a soldier in your — our — war in Iraq.”

Ah, yes. Shuffling papers in an air-conditioned Washington office is exactly like putting your life on the line in Anbar or Baghdad. Spending 30 months in a minimum-security prison, with a comfortable think-tank job waiting at the other end, is exactly like having half your face or both your legs blown off by an I.E.D.

What lay behind the hysteria, of course, was the prospect that for the very first time one of the people who tricked America into war, then endangered national security yet again in the effort to cover their tracks, might pay some price. But Mr. Ajami needn’t have worried.

Back when the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity began, Mr. Bush insisted that if anyone in his administration had violated the law, “that person will be taken care of.” Now we know what he meant. Mr. Bush hasn’t challenged the verdict in the Libby case, and other people convicted of similar offenses have spent substantial periods of time in prison. But Mr. Libby goes free.

Oh, and don’t fret about the fact that Mr. Libby still had to pay a fine. Does anyone doubt that his friends will find a way to pick up the tab?

Mr. Bush says that Mr. Libby’s punishment remains “harsh” because his reputation is “forever damaged.” Meanwhile, Mr. Bush employs, as a deputy national security adviser, none other than Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair. Mr. Abrams was one of six Iran-contra defendants pardoned by Mr. Bush’s father, who was himself a subject of the special prosecutor’s investigation of the scandal.

In other words, obstruction of justice when it gets too close to home is a family tradition. And being a loyal Bushie means never having to say you’re sorry.

(y) (y) (y)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:21 PM

:| :| :| :| :|

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070716/engelhardt

Iraq, By the Numbers

by TOM ENGELHARDT

[posted online on July 2, 2007] The NATION

Sometimes, numbers can strip human beings of just about everything that makes us what we are. Numbers can silence pain, erase love, obliterate emotion, and blur individuality. But sometimes numbers can also tell a necessary story in ways nothing else can.

This January, President Bush announced his "surge" plan for Iraq, which he called his "new way forward." It was, when you think about it, all about numbers. Since then, 28,500 new American troops have surged into that country, mostly in and around Baghdad; and, according to the Washington Post, there has also been a hidden surge of private armed contractors--hired guns, if you will--who free up troops by taking over many mundane military positions from guarding convoys to guarding envoys. In the meantime, other telltale numbers in Iraq have surged as well.

Now, Americans are theoretically waiting for the commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, to report to Congress in September on the "progress" of the President's surge strategy. But there really is no reason to wait for September. An interim report--"Iraq by the numbers"--can be prepared now (as it could have been prepared last month, or last year). The trajectory of horror in Iraq has long been clear; the fact that the US military is a motor driving the Iraqi cataclysm has been no less clear for years now. So here is my own early version of the "September Report."

A caveat about numbers: In the bloody chaos that is Iraq, as tens of thousands die or are wounded, as millions uproot themselves or are uprooted, and as the influence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's national government remains largely confined to the four-square-mile fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, numbers, even as they pour out of that hemorrhaging land, are eternally up for grabs. There is no way most of them can be accurate. They are, at best, a set of approximate notations in a nightmare that is beyond measurement.

Here, nonetheless, is an attempt to tell a little of the Iraqi story by those numbers:

Iraq is now widely considered # 1--when it comes to being the ideal jihadist training ground on the planet. "If Afghanistan was a Pandora's box which when opened created problems in many countries, Iraq is a much bigger box, and what's inside much more dangerous," comments Mohammed al-Masri, a researcher at Amman's Centre for Strategic Studies. CIA analysts predicted just this in a May 2005 report leaked to the press. ("A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.")

Iraq is # 2: It now ranks as the world's second most unstable country, ahead of war-ravaged or poverty-stricken nations like Somalia, Zimbabwe, the Congo, and North Korea, according to the 2007 Failed States Index, issued recently by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine. (Afghanistan, the site of our other little war, ranked eigthth.) Last year and the year before, Iraq held fourth place on the list. Next year, it could surge to number one.

Number of American troops in Iraq, June 2007: Approximately 156,000.

Number of American troops in Iraq, May 1, 2003, the day President Bush declared "major combat operations" in that country "ended": Approximately 130,000.

Number of Sunni insurgents in Iraq, May 2007: At least 100,000, according to Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar on his most recent visit to the country.

American military dead in the surge months, February 1-June 26, 2007: 481.

American military dead, February-June 2006: 292.

Number of contractors killed in the first three months of 2007: At least 146, a significant surge over previous years. (Contractor deaths sometimes go unreported and so these figures are likely to be incomplete.)

Number of American troops Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and other Pentagon civilian strategists were convinced would be stationed in Iraq in August 2003, four months after Baghdad fell:): 30,000 to 40,000, according to Washington Post reporter Tom Ricks in his bestselling book, Fiasco.

Number of armed "private contractors" now in Iraq: At least 20,000-30,000, according to the Washington Post. (Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestseller Blackwater, puts the figure for all private contractors in Iraq at 126,000.)

Percentage of US deaths from roadside bombs: (IEDs): 70.9 percent in May 2007; 35 percent in February 2007 as the surge was beginning.

Percentage of registered US supply convoys (guarded by private contractors) attacked: 14.7 percent in 2007 (through May 10); 9.1 percent in 2006; 5.4 percent in 2005.

Percentage of Baghdad not controlled by US (and Iraqi) security forces more than four months into the surge: 60 percent, according to the US military.

Number of attacks on the Green Zone, the fortified heart of Baghdad where the new $600 million American embassy is rising and the Iraqi government largely resides: More than eighty between March and the beginning of June, 2007, according to a UN report. (These attacks, by mortar or rocket, from "pacified" Red-Zone Baghdad, are on the rise and now occur nearly daily.)

Size of US embassy staff in Baghdad: More than 1,000 Americans and 4,000 third-country nationals.

Staff US Ambassador Ryan Crocker considers appropriate to the "diplomatic" job: The ambassador recently sent "an urgent plea" to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for more personnel. "The people here are heroic," he wrote. "I need more people, and that's the thing, not that the people who are here shouldn't be here or couldn't do it." According to the Washington Post, the Baghdad embassy, previously assigned fifteen political officers, now will get eleven more; the economic staff will go from nine to twenty-one.

US air strikes in Iraq during the surge months: Air Force planes are dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago, according to the Associated Press. "Close support missions" are up 30 percent to forty percent. And this surge of air power seems, from recent news reports, still to be on the rise.

Number of years Gen. Petraeus, commander of the surge operation, predicts that the US will be engaged in Iraq counterinsurgency operations: Nine to ten years.

Number of years American troops might have to remain garrisoned at US bases in Iraq: Fifty-four, according to the "Korea model" now being considered for that country.

Number of years before the Iraqi security forces are capable of taking charge: "A couple of years," according to US Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Assistance Group.

Amount of "reconstruction" money invested in the CIA's key asset in the new Iraq, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service: $3 billion, according to Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar.

Number of Iraqis who have fled their country since 2003: Estimated to be between 2 millionand 2.2 million, or nearly one in ten Iraqis. According to independent reporter Dahr Jamail, at least 50,000 more refugees are fleeing the country every month.

Number of Iraqi refugees who have been accepted by the United States: Fewer than 500. (Under international and congressional pressure, the Bush administration has finally agreed to admit another 7,000 Iraqis by year's end.)

Number of Iraqis who are now internal refugees in Iraq since 2003: At least 1.9 million, according to the UN.

Percentage of refugees, internal and external, under the age of twelve: 55 percent, according to the President of the Red Crescent Society.

Percentage of Baghdadi children age three to ten, exposed to a major traumatic event in the last two years: 47 percent, according to a World Health Organization survey of 600 children. 14 percent showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In another study of 1,090 adolescents in Mosul, that figure reached 30 percent.

Number of Iraqi doctors who have fled the country since 2003: An estimated 12,000 of the country's 34,000 registered doctors since 2003, according to the Iraqi Medical Association. The Association reports that another 2,000 doctors have been slain in those years.

Number of Iraqi refugees created since January 2007: An estimated 250,000.

Percentage of Iraqis now living on less than $1 a day: 54 percent, according to the UN.

Percentage of Iraqis who do not have regular access to clean water: 70 percent, according to the World Health Organization. (80 percent "lack effective sanitation.")

Rate of chronic child malnutrition: 21 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

Number of Iraqis held in American prisons in their own country: 17,000 by March 2007, almost 20,000 by May 2007 and surging.

Average number of Iraqis who died violently each day in 2006: 100 -- and this is undoubtedly an underestimate, since not all deaths are reported.

Number of Iraqis who have died violently since January 2007: 15,000 -- again, certainly an undercount.

Percentage of seriously wounded who don't survive, based on the above calculation: Nearly 70 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

Number of university professors who have been killed since 2003: More than 200, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education.

Percentage of Americans who approve of the President's actions in Iraq: 23 percent, according to the latest post-surge Newsweek poll. The President's overall approval rating stood at 26 percent in this poll, just three points above those of only one president, Richard Nixon at his Watergate worst, and Bush's polling figures are threatening to head into that territory. In the latest, now two-week old NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 10 percent of Americans think the "surge" has made things better in Iraq, 54 percent worse.

The question is: What word best describes the situation these Iraqi numbers hint at? The answer would probably be: No such word exists. "Genocide" has been beaten into the ground and doesn't apply. "Civil war," which shifts all blame to the Iraqis (withdrawing Americans from a country its troops have not yet begun to leave), doesn't faintly cover the matter.

If anything catches the carnage and mayhem that was once the nation of Iraq, it might be a comment by the head of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, in 2004. He warned: "The gates of hell are open in Iraq." At the very least, the "gates of hell" should now officially be considered miles behind us on the half-destroyed, well-mined highway of Iraqi life. Who knows what IEDs lie ahead? We are, after all, in the underworld.

:'( :'(

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

Sweetlady the Grrl Propeller-Head & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:24 PM

(y) (y)

Congressional hearings about head injuries in the NFL raise questions about the consequences for old-timers and present-day players.

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070716/southpaw

southpaw by Dave Zirin

High Impact: What Football Owes Its Players

[posted online on June 27, 2007]

There is an old expression about NFL players: When you sign a pro football contract, you sign away your right to be middle-aged.

Many NFL players seem to drift overnight from being robust young men in their 20s and 30s to appearing staggered and elderly once they hit their 40s.

This isn't about superficial appearance, of arthritic knuckles or the altered gait that comes with age. It's about the long-term effects of brain injury and concussions. As William C. Rhoden wrote in the New York Times, "The legion of retired players has become a haunting presence for the National Football League and especially for the N.F.L. Players Association, which keeps one foot in and one foot out of the retired players' lives."

The health consequences of high-impact sports is not just an issue for old timers. Increasing numbers of present-day players are reckoning with the short- and long-term consequences of concussions and cranial trauma. This is partly because there is far more research and awareness about concussive injury. But the game is changing: Players today are bigger, stronger and faster than even ten years ago. In 1989, fewer than ten players weighed more than 300 pounds. Now there are more than 450. Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor weighs 235 pounds and runs forty yards in less than 4.5 seconds. His job as safety is to do more than protect his defensive backs: It's to find people with the ball and with his scary combination of speed and power, remove their senses from their body. So the issue of possible trauma is not just for players who retired long ago.

This hit home when retired Philadelphia Eagles safety Andre Waters committed suicide in 2006 at the age of 44. The coroner's report revealed that Waters had the brain tissue of an 85-year-old man in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Waters's horror story is only one of many. And the tragedy of the walking wounded was on full display this week in the halls of Congress, where a hearing was held regarding the condition of NFL vets.

Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, set the tone early on, observing that the NFL was a "billion-dollar industry and yet the players who built the league are too often left to fend for themselves."

Central to the hearing was former Chicago Bears Head Coach Mike Ditka, who said, "I just think that to go back and pick up these people and take care of them is not that big a problem. It's right versus wrong, period.''

But it's not so simple. A group of NFL vets have seized upon this atmosphere in recent weeks to reframe the debate from what the game owes these players to what the NFL Players Association--the union--is not doing for those retired with injuries. Led by Hall of Famers Ditka and Joe DeLamielleure, their push has been for the removal of NFLPA President Gene Upshaw. A movement that should be advocating for the rights of retired players is beginning to look like a move to discredit and weaken the union, while the owners kick back and allow the carnage to proceed.

Let's start with Ditka. It's hard to take him seriously as an advocate for labor rights, when you recall he crossed the picket line in the 1987 strike. For all Iron Mike's "man of the people" posturing, he has the labor credentials of Sam Walton.

"It is the old divide-and-conquer move and, bluntly put, Ditka and his buddies are company men who never supported the union and were scabs when we struck," former NFL West Coast head--and former player--Dave Meggyesy told me.

Former Bears safety Dave Duerson, who played under Ditka for seven seasons, could hardly stifle his laughter upon hearing that Ditka was now deeply concerned for players' rights.

"Mike was not one who gave a damn about the players or their injuries when he was coaching," Duerson said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "He was very disrespectful of guys who got hurt and now he's trying to champion for a couple of guys. The fact of the matter is he's way off base and he's late in the game."

This is why it is difficult to stomach Ditka when, playing for the cameras, he brings up the issue of players damaged by the game. At one presser earlier this year he told the unbearable story of Mike Webster, the Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers who suffered from mental illness widely attributed to head injuries. Webster died homeless in 2002.

"I can't tell you today if Mike Webster would've been alive today," Ditka said. "I don't know. But I do know he wouldn't have been a damn street person. I know his family wouldn't have had to sue to get his benefits. It's not right. It's just not."

But Duerson, despite his consistent criticism of Ditka, believes more needs to be done for retired players, and they are going to have to organize to get it.

"I tell retired players, 'Come into their meeting 200 strong, you'll get whatever you want,' " Duerson said. "That's the only way these current players are going to come to realize, 'That's our brotherhood and we're very soon going to be there.' "

The union's track record on retired players under Upshaw is far better than one may think based on the coverage. As NFLPA President Troy Vincent pointed out to me, the last collective bargaining agreement saw pensions for players who retired before 1982 increased 25 percent. After 1982, they went up 10 percent.

DeLamielleure says that nothing has changed "in twenty years," but for people disabled by the game has seen annual benefits rise from $48,000 to $224,000. For non-football injuries, the rates have gone from $9000 per year in 1982 to $134,000 by 2000.

Upshaw "has done an excellent job," NFL player Mike Minter said to ESPN "You've got a lot of older guys who are hurting and it seems like we're not taking care of them. But where we started, when the man took the job, to where we are today, it's unbelievable. For anybody to say that this guy is not doing a great job, doesn't know."

In other words, the union's efforts are stronger than Ditka and DeLamielleure would have us believe. It raises the question posed by Meggyesy, about who benefits from attacking the union. The anti-union posture was on full display from DeLamielleure this past week. Upshaw told the press that he wanted to "wring his neck," an idiotic and impolitic thing to say.

But DeLamielleure's response conveys a great deal more. "At first, I was angry...but then reality sets in," said. "My wife was petrified. We grew up in Detroit. You know what unions are. You hear about it. She goes, 'Hey, this guy is a head of a union, a powerful union, [and] when he makes a threat like that, you'd better take it serious.' "

Yes, Tank Johnson and Sage Rosenfels are going to show up outside DeLamielleure's house for a good old-fashioned Detroit union beat down. Upshaw's "threat" made him look foolish. DeLamielleure's response--and partnership with Iron Mike, make him look like someone who would rather take down the union than fight for the rights of retired players.

Instead of current and former players fighting over finite revenue, maybe the owners should kick in. In February, before he turned his attention completely to Upshaw, Ditka told a story about trying to raise money for Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, the charity to aid infirm players. As the AP reported, "he sent letters to the 32 NFL owners asking for the same donation some time ago, he said he received one check for $5,000 and another for $10,000. He said he sent those checks back." But this has not been the target of Ditka's new crusade. It's hard to see how a divided union will help achieve goals for any players, past or present.

:o :o One would think these players would have more sense than to play after head trauma - but then they're all in it for the $$.

^o)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:26 PM

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f)

As Mexico celebrates the centenary of Frida Kahlo’s birth, the largest retrospective ever of her work attempts to look beyond what Mexicans call Fridamania.

The largest retrospective ever of Frida Kahlo’s work appears at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and commemorates the 100th anniversary of her birth.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/07/arts/07.frida.span.jpg

SLIDE SHOW!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/06/arts/20070707_KAHLO_SLIDESHOW_1.html

July 7, 2007

Beyond the Myth, Art Endures

By ELISABETH MALKIN

MEXICO CITY, July 6 — Frida Kahlo spun her own life into a myth. She was so good at it that her art almost got lost along the way.

Her persona, fashioned over almost three decades of self-portraits, fused physical suffering and emotional isolation. Her frank depiction of a woman’s psychic pain made her a feminist icon. She became a Chicana heroine and an unintended purveyor of Mexican kitsch. She is an emblem of confessional painting at a time when nothing is intimate anymore.

But this year, as Mexico celebrates the centenary of her birth, the largest retrospective ever of her work attempts to look beyond what Mexicans call Fridamania. The result is a rich view of her art and her life, one that broadens the perspective on her career beyond the narrow, cultish view that has at times threatened to obscure her work. For the majority who know Kahlo’s painting only from the movie version of her life or the unmistakable power of her face on a T-shirt, the exhibition that opened here last month at the Palacio de Bellas Artes may come as a surprise.

“She was completely instinctual,” said Salomon Grimberg, one of the show’s five curators. “She put into art things nobody had dared to put into art before. She was able to access her internal reality and shape it in such a way that it grabs the viewer.”

“Her work is so flashy and so immediate that most people don’t stop to look at her work as a painter,” he added. “They just get caught up in the image. Finally, after 30 years, the work is being reappraised.”

Among the 354 pieces on display are some of Kahlo’s most famous self-portraits, but through lesser-known self-portraits, still lifes, portraits, drawings and watercolors, she emerges as an artist who gathered multiple influences into her own language.

Her first self-portrait, in a velvet dress, was painted at 19 for a faithless boyfriend and already shows the unflinching gaze that marked the later paintings. But here she is graceful, almost ethereal, quite different from the confrontational presence she was to become.

A tender portrait of her husband, the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, reveals an unexpected naturalism. Portraits of children show Kahlo working in different styles: a detailed painterliness with her baby niece, splashes of color for what appears to be a servant girl.

There is great humor in a frankly sexual still life entitled “The Bride Who Is Frightened to See Life Open” for which Kahlo posed a doll in a white dress at the edge of a table of fruit, the papaya and watermelon sliced open.

Among the least-known works are her drawings and watercolors. A delicate 1930 drawing of a young woman, Ady Weber, shows a draftsmanship that few have attributed to Kahlo. There is a watercolor of Central Park and later fantastic drawings from the 1940s.

The show, which runs through Aug. 19, also includes many photographic portraits of Kahlo, along with photos of her family and the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán, where she was born and died, and where her home, the Casa Azul, now houses the Museo Frida Kahlo. Some of her letters are on display, and so too is memorabilia recalling the Mexican Revolution of her childhood and the communism she embraced as an adult. The whole gives a juxtaposition of her intensely domestic existence — a house full of plants, pets, famous writers and painters — and the peculiarly violent history of her times.

“We wanted to present an integral Frida through all her mediums of expression,” said Roxana Velásquez Martínez del Campo, the director of the Bellas Artes museum and another of the show’s curators. “Frida is a woman in constant expression.”

But the drama of her tumultuous emotional life and her physical pain made her work uneven, Ms. Velásquez said: “On occasion she is a great painter.”

During her lifetime, Kahlo won only limited acclaim, dwarfed by Rivera’s heroic reputation. She exhibited in New York and Paris, but the only solo show of her work in Mexico took place in 1953, a year before she died. Her reputation here too has grown, tinged with pride at the attention she has brought to Mexico.

In addition to the show at Bellas Artes, an exhibition of newly cataloged drawings, photographs, letters, pre-Hispanic codices and her famous Mexican dresses is on display at the museum in Coyoacán. They are some of the 22,000 items that were tucked away in trunks, wardrobes and bathrooms in the house and sealed until after the death of a Rivera patron.

Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907, to a Mexican mother and a German immigrant father who was a well-known architectural and portrait photographer.

She contracted polio as a child, which left her with a withered leg. At 18, a tram accident injured her spine and pelvis and confined her to a plaster cast for months, then convalescence for three years. One of the surprises discovered in the trunks at her house is a photograph of a model of the accident, using a crude doll and a toy bus on a straw mat.

The rest of her life was marked by enormous physical pain and repeated operations. She married Rivera in 1929 and the pair left for the United States the following year, where he had commissions to paint murals in San Francisco, Detroit and New York. In America, Kahlo found early collectors, including the actor Edward G. Robinson. Rivera encouraged and shaped his wife’s painting. He was also constantly unfaithful, having affairs with, among others, Kahlo’s sister. Kahlo responded by having affairs with both women and men, including Leon Trotsky. She would say that she had suffered two accidents, the tram and Diego — and that he was the worse.

“She created a body of work which is imbued with a sense of abandonment,” said Mr. Grimberg, who compiled the catalogue raisonné of her work. “She shaped and reshaped her life over and over again so she would not be abandoned, she would not be rejected.”

Her painting repeatedly refers to the pain of her attachment to Rivera. Among the most famous of those exhibited here is “The Two Fridas,” from 1939, about the time the couple briefly divorced. On the left, Frida is dressed as a bride, her heart open and a cut artery dripping blood onto the dress. On the right, the everyday Frida is strong, her heart is healthy and she holds a cameo of Rivera as a child, a symbol that her union with him is far deeper than that of a marriage.

As Kahlo grew older, her health deteriorated rapidly and she became increasingly addicted to painkillers. The photographs of her in her final years reveal her utter exhaustion. But even then, she was clearly intensely aware of her image. “The collection of photos that were taken of her is another of her masterpieces,” said Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, a photography specialist who has cataloged the photos found at her house.

Kahlo died at 47 after her leg was amputated below the knee. Tucked away in the retrospective is an anonymous newspaper photograph of her state funeral. Rivera is there, his sadness evident. The funeral took place in Bellas Artes — the same place the crowds are trooping through to revisit her work now.

Among the events celebrating Frida Kahlo is a retrospective at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City that continues through Aug. 19, and an exhibition at Museo Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán that runs to Sept. 30.

(f) (f) (f)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:27 PM

:)

The Pousada Solar da Rede, in Mesão Frio, is an 18th-century manor house by the Douro River.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/08/travel/08pous600.1.jpg

July 8, 2007

Portugal’s Hidden ‘Dream Places’

By SARAH WILDMAN

WE were driving south on Route 101 — a two-lane highway that slices diagonally through Portugal — in search of a tiny town called Mesão Frio and the Pousada Solar da Rede, an 18th-century manor house set above the Douro River. I had two maps spread out beside me, and a Spain-Portugal Michelin atlas open to the northern half of Portugal. How hard could it be to find the Douro? And where were we exactly? Lost somewhere, apparently in a nature preserve.

“Don't take the high-speed road,” a confident receptionist at the Pousada de Amares, where we'd stayed the night before, had assured us. “Route 101 is faster.” But one map showed Mesão Frio to the east, and the other to the west. “Just pick a direction!” urged my exasperated traveling companion as we hit what seemed to be our 40th unlabeled roundabout.

And then, suddenly, the pousada appeared — a mansion, Baroque and huge — after switchbacks and turns, looming high above the green Douro (finally!) about two hours upriver from Porto. It was an impressive sight: winged granite dragons guarding the path to the front door and a terraced, formal labyrinthine garden jutting out over a vineyard; bushes carved in circles and squares, flowers blooming everywhere; and the lovely Douro meandering like a Hudson River School painting, hazy in the near distance.

Akin to the state-owned Spanish paradores, the 65-year-old network of Portuguese pousadas (once entirely state-run, but now managed by the Pestana hotel group) range from 18th-century manor houses, like the one we'd been looking for, to former convents, monasteries, castles and palaces, as well as more modern buildings tucked into nature preserves and mountain ranges. They are almost all a challenge to get to — during our four-day trip in May, everyone my partner, Ian, and I spoke to had gotten lost at least once on the narrow roads that wrap around lush mountainsides where auto-routes inexplicably change names.

But any irritation over maps that don't coincide and towns that don't exist melts upon arrival. These buildings are magnificent: the ones we visited were as, if not more, beautifully turned out, we thought, than their Spanish counterparts.

Later that night, comfortably fed and checked in, we were finally able to laugh about our “one-hour” trip to Mesão Frio, which took nearly triple the time promised by Google Maps. We even recounted the story to our new friends and fellow guests, Claudia Dannhorn and Bruno Brawand, as we sat on embroidered damask chairs beneath a big crystal chandelier. Claudia sprinted back to her room and came back with a portable Global Positioning System. “You have to have one,” she said. “In Portugal there are no signs anywhere.” She pulled her legs underneath her, struggling to get comfortable — a real feat on chairs designed for ballerina-straight 18th-century postures.

This had been the formal family sitting room for a noble wine-estate family; their bewigged images adorn the traditional blue-tiled walls of the dining room. As with other manor houses in this region, these wealthy estate owners were producers of Douro wines — whites, reds and Ports — with 62 acres of family vineyards, along with orange and lemon trees.

The next morning we saw the grape vines and the fruit trees clinging to the sheer mountainside, spilling down to the meandering Douro itself. But that night it was stormy and dark, and the room was bright. Casual it is not. The chairs and love seats are the kind only Marie Antoinette might have found comfy: intricately carved, carefully embroidered. Just sitting in such a room — with its original 18th-century tiles on the walls and gilt French mirrors, straight-backed chairs and period silks everywhere — we felt as though we'd stepped over the red-velvet rope and were chilling out at Versailles. On a stand, a crumbling text in Portuguese provided the history of this family estate turned pousada.

In a gorgeously photographed coffee table book on the pousadas called “Moradas de Sonho” (which was translated as “Dream Places”), the pousadas are explained as the “preservation of [Portugal's] architectural and natural heritage, living architecture and the riches of Portuguese cooking.”

Solar da Rede's dining room — where local specialties like cabbage soup and roasted duck with a caramelized cherry reduction are served alongside such recent innovations as vegetarian crepes — was impressive, with Portuguese tiles and period chandeliers. In an environment of relaxed luxury, pousadas provide a glimpse of Portuguese history and landscapes, well off the traditional traveler's path.

Claudia and Bruno are just the type of visitor that Portugal hopes to entice as guests. The couple (she's German, he's Swiss) own and run the Hotel Berghaus Bort in the Swiss Alps town of Grindelwald, and they work without a day's rest, they told us, from November until May. Then, instead of sleeping, they travel for three weeks. One year it was Thailand. This year they were hopping from one pousada to the next, in large part because so many of their employees are Portuguese, and they wanted to get a taste of the country. Claudia and Bruno's journey began at the 12th-century Castelo de Óbidos, the first pousada converted from a historic building. They'd slept in the tower. And then they'd moved on to the medieval city of Guimarães, the entire downtown of which is a Unesco World Heritage site.

IF you drive in any direction from Guimarães — to the northern and eastern borders with Spain, or out to the Atlantic coast — the countryside is rich in pousadas: mostly convents and monasteries, each reflecting the austerity and isolation of this region in the Middle Ages. Many had fallen into terrible disrepair before adoption and rehabilitation by the pousada system. But the state of ruin, rather than complicating the restorations, allowed architects license for artistry, turning these buildings into places of the imagination as much as history.

Perhaps the best example of this is Santa Maria do Bouro, a monastery turned pousada just outside Amares, about 22 miles north of Guimarães. There I ran into J. Kasmin, a London-based retired art dealer, at the Pousada de Amares. Mr. Kasmin and his friend Peter Brock walked to the pousada, literally, at the end of a walking tour with On Foot Holidays— seven days of hiking in the Portuguese countryside. For the two, the effect of seeing the pousada through the mist was similar to that of the pilgrims who visited this monastery in the 14th century — that is, until the latter-day pilgrims stepped inside and found ancient walls transformed by modern art and design.

In the late 1980s Santa Maria do Bouro, a half-destroyed 12th-century monastery, was handed over to the Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. He spent eight years on the restoration; the pousada was inaugurated in 1997.

The architect noted as he worked, “I am not restoring a monastery; I am building a pousada from the stones of a monastery.” The internal courtyard was left nearly a ruin, with trees growing from the rock and arches leading nowhere, visible through giant nonreflective glass windows along every corridor. Yet the rooms, once monks' cells, are modern and sleek, with all-white marble bathrooms. In the hallways, an oxidized iron ceiling hides air-conditioning and modern plumbing. Big windows have a view of a chapel attached to the monastery, seamlessly blending the old and new.

Downstairs, the restaurant walls are made entirely from ancient stones, stacked up to a ceiling three stories high. The original monastery ovens, giant and blackened, are set in back. Yet the tables are modern, with light wood chairs and cutlery so delicate and sensual it looks more like what you'd find at Georg Jensen than in a medieval dining room. The chef prepares local specialties like grilled octopus with “punched” potatoes (roasted and then squashed flat) and adds such innovations as vegetarian dishes and cilantro-infused rice.

Outside the restaurant, the view through five stone doorways to a closed antique green-painted wood door has caused many a diner to stop in wonder. Public sitting areas marry ancient and modern, with chestnut-colored leather chairs set against the 12th-century stones, and a huge fireplace near the bar. Large canvases of modern art feel at home in the space.

Outside the walls, it is a hike of two and a half miles to another medieval church; you can take a packed lunch from the kitchen. Most people head out by car, pointing their G.P.S. devices to the historic city of Guimarães, about 45 minutes away. The shell of the castle of Countess Mumadona Dias, considered to have been the most powerful woman in Portugal in the 10th century, is about a five-minute walk above the center of Guimarães. Today it is a playground for any child or adult who has ever liked stories about knights or princesses. It's exactly how you would imagine a castle should be, with a moat, a tower and parapets. Next door is the far better preserved 15th-century palace of the Dukes of Bragança, now a museum.

Guimarães's two pousadas are intertwined with the same kind of history. Downtown the Pousada Nossa Senhora da Oliveira faces the 14th-century church of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira and 15th-century nobles' homes on a medieval piazza, in the heart of the historic center. Wandering the streets here is as much a part of the charm as the pousada itself — 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century painted tiles adorn the walls; heavy wood beams serve as supports for the ancient buildings.

Set apart, a bit above the city, the other pousada — Santa Marinha — sits on a hillside. The grounds are magnificent, with a small stream ending in a tiny waterfall, well-maintained gardens and a large covered patio graced with 300-year-old tilework and a flowing stone fountain.

The day I visited, Inger Baehr, a retired Norwegian teacher, was sitting inside by windows overlooking the city, reading about the history of the pousada. Some years ago she and her husband reserved a room at this pousada as a respite after a conference in Lisbon. But they got lost, and arrived at 11 p.m. They were nevertheless so impressed they vowed to return to fully experience it. “We came back in January,” she said. “And now we're here with my 91-year-old mother, my brother and sister and their spouses.”

THE transition from Guimarães to the Solar da Rede pousada in Mesão Frio is dramatic, especially if you miss the high-speed autoroute and take the smaller national park road, as we did. The scenery is lush and verdant, hilly and vertiginous — you emerge from forest into vistas of endless grape vines and fruit-bearing trees. But nothing is more remarkable than the sheer geographic differences Portugal offers in such relatively short distances.

Leaving the Douro Valley after Solar da Rede, we headed toward the São Jacinto Nature Reserve on the Atlantic coast. On an isthmus less than an hour's drive south of Porto, the region resembles what the North Fork of Long Island must have looked like at the beginning of the last century. Farmland as far as the eye can see. Tractors. Oxen. (Oxen!) For every five tractors, a horse-drawn cart. From the bridge toward the small coastal town of Torreira and the nature reserve — a birder's paradise — the water is calm and blue; colorful moliceiro boats with upturned prows and sterns bobble in bunches near more modern motor boats; bicyclists in packs cruise the flat terrain.

After the monasteries and manor houses, we had a choice: another palace of some sort, or one of the “new” pousadas, built for their relation to nature rather than history. We opted for the latter: the Pousada de Torreira-Murtosa. Opened in 1967, it has the feel of a lovely summer house: cherry floors, faintly nautical décor, smart cream-and-maroon-mottled couches and sisal flooring. The building is airy — faintly reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright if you're being generous, or something designed by Mike Brady, the architect father from the Brady Bunch if you're being cheeky.

Nothing is meant to detract from the sea. Downstairs the wall is glass, the floor is slate. In the restaurant, overlooking a lagoon, the pousada offers local fish and seafood — cod, sardines, skate, octopus — with cracked olives. Since it's isolated in the nature preserve, there are no noisy neighbors, no sounds of motorboats, only water, fishermen in the distance and dunes nearby to climb on. We didn't even get lost on the way.

“Here you can recharge your batteries,” said the hotel manager, happy to try out an American idiomatic phrase. It would have been funny if it weren't so true.

VISITOR INFORMATION

GETTING THERE

In June, flights from Newark to Lisbon on Continental were running around $1,100 for July and August. From Lisbon, you must rent a car, as the pousadas are not accessible without one. Europcar has been offering a few specials for American citizens (from $202 for four days with unlimited mileage); Hertz has a similar price online. If you own a portable Global Positioning System device, this would be a good time to buy the European map system.

THE POUSADAS

On the central pousada Web site, www.pousadas.pt, descriptions are provided for each pousada; a map of the country, dotted with pousadas, gives a vague sense of the distances between them.

The Pestana hotel group, which manages the pousadas, recommends “routes” — like the “Port Wine Route,” “Lisbon and Route of the Castles,” the “Rice Route” and the “Cod Fishing Route” — but these names mean very little without a basic idea of Portuguese geography. You can combine pousada stays with visits to Porto, Lisbon or the Algarve by visiting the inns, which date from the 12th to the 20th centuries, along the way to your destinations.

The most economical way to visit the pousadas is to get a pousada “passport,” which costs 360 euros (about $485, at $1.35 to the euro) for a double room for four nights with a 35-euro supplement for Saturday evenings. There are rules for the passport — some pousadas won't take them during August, others charge a small additional fee — but for 11 months of the year, especially for midweek travel, the passport offers a significant savings over regular rates, which average 185 euros a night. Various other packages can be found at www.pousadasofportugal.com/passport.html.

Oddly, the central pousadas Web site and telephone number (351-21-844-20-01) were less forthcoming on discounts than the reception desks at the pousadas themselves. But check the site for “special offers” that vary from pousada to pousada.

Skipping the recommended “routes,” we tried the far north first, staying at the Pousada Santa Maria do Bouro (351-253-371-970), designed by Eduardo Souto Moura and opened in 1997, and then dipped down to Guimarães to check out the Pousada Nossa Senhora da Oliveira (351-253-514-157) in town and the Pousada Santa Marinha (351-253-511-249) above the town. We next drove down to the Douro River and spent the night at the Pousada Solar da Rede in Mesão Frio (351-254-890-130). For our last stop we tried a “new” pousada, the 40-year-old Pousada de Torreira-Murtosa (351-234-860-180), on the Ria Aveiro, across a wide seawater inlet from the town of Aveiro and set in a nature preserve. These hotels don't have street addresses. Instead the Web site provides a link to the Michelin-online map guide. I printed each of these, but still found myself lost all the time.

DINING

The regional cuisine is reflected on the menus, and with the pousadas passport we had two 20 percent discount coupons for dinner. Perhaps our best dining experience was at the Pousada de Torreira-Murtosa, on the water, with its fresh fish and ceviche starters. Off the pousada route, around the corner from the Pousada Nossa Senhora da Oliveira, in Guimarães, we found Val-Donas (Rua de Val Donas 4; 351-253-511-411; www.valdonas.com), a lovely modernist space with whitewashed walls and black-and-white photographs. The menu is local — fish, cabbage soup — but reasonable. Dinner for two with wine comes to about 45 euros.

WINERIES

Near the Pousada Solar da Rede, in the Douro Valley, you can visit small wineries like Quinta de la Rosa (Pinhão; 351-254-732-254; www.quintadelarosa.com), which is also a small bed-and-breakfast; Quinta Nova (Pinhão; 351-254-730-430); and the larger Caves Sandeman (Largo Miguel Bombarda 3, Vila Nova de Gaia; 351-223-740-500; www.sandeman.com).

(f) (f)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:28 PM

:)

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/enzinna

The Revolution Will Be You-Tubed

by WES ENZINNA

[posted online on March 21, 2007] The NATION

With top-ranked titles like Dancing Hamster Man, The Shining: Trailer Mash Up and Monsters Are Waiting--Ha-Ha, you'd think YouTube is all spoofs and stupid pet tricks. But things can get serious fast at the video-sharing website. Consider Give Peace a Chance--Tacoma Police Riot, a raw and dramatic documentary of recent clashes between police and antiwar activists in Washington State. Viewed by more than 100,000 people to date, this and other protest videos from Tacoma are proof that YouTube is good for more than pranks and soft porn. Peace activists are leveraging the site to reach new audiences and counter bias of their actions in mainstream media.

The video, shot March 9, begins peacefully enough, panning over protesters clustered near the Tacoma waterfront, singing the John Lennon anthem the title evokes. But soon, clouds of pepper spray and tear gas and the sound of gunshots fill the air, as police fire rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. As panicked protesters begin to flee, an angry voice off-camera repeatedly screams at the police, "What the f*** are you doing? What the f*** are you doing?" A second, more explosive video posted on YouTubeshows another clash, with police firing more rubber bullets and an angry crowd chanting, "Shame on you! Shame on you!"

The two-week protest, which began March 2, was organized by the Tacoma Port Militarization Resistance--a coalition of groups including local chapters of Students for a Democratic Society and the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace--aimed to stop the shipment of around 300 Stryker combat armored vehicles destined for Iraq, as part of President Bush's troops buildup. When the shipment left port March 13, protesters staged a final action, then called it quits. In all, thirty-seven people were arrested.

This was not the first time antiwar groups in the Northwest have employed this tactic, but it was the first time YouTube was part of the scenario. In May 2006, hundreds of protesters gathered in nearby Olympia, Washington, and more than thirty were arrested--while attempting to stop a previous shipment of Stryker vehicles from leaving the city's port. The protests drew national media attention. And while activists failed to halt the shipment, they were encouraged enough to stage a similar action in Tacoma.

Filming under the YouTube pseudonym "Acumensch" was Joe La Sac, a student at the University of Puget Sound and a Tacoma SDS member. "It was frightening when the police attacked us," La Sac says. "But the drama actually started a couple days earlier," on March 6.

That day, La Sac went down to the Tacoma port with his XL2 Digital Camcorder. "I didn't go to protest--there was nobody there, I was alone," recalls La Sac. "I just wanted to film the Strykers."

While La Sac was filming the Strykers, eight police officers appeared and questioned him. When he explained he was filming for an independent news organization, an officer told him to leave the premises. But before La Sac could leave, he was handcuffed and detained by the officers.

During the encounter, La Sac's camera continued recording, and when La Sac was released from police custody, the first thing he did was edit the footage, add opinionated comments about police harassment and censorship, and post it on YouTube with the title Film Is Not a Crime." "The whole thing took me less than two hours to edit and post," says La Sac. "I didn't think it would get that much exposure."

But it did. Film Is Not a Crime was up for barely twenty-four hours before La Sac was contacted by Seattle's King 5 TV, which broadcast an interview, which is also posted on YouTube. The Tacoma News Tribune ran a news story on the young videographer and the alleged police harassment. La Sac says other television stations contacted him for interviews as well, but he had agreed to do an exclusive interview with King 5, which aired his footage repeatedly throughout the weekend.

By the end of the week, the number of YouTube videos posted by various participants had multiplied, even including an impromptu interview with a Tacoma policeman. In turn, much of this footage was picked up and broadcast by local stations, reaching TV viewers as far away as Northern California, Oregon and Idaho.

"YouTube helped us spread our message about the war, and why we're opposed to it," says TJ Johnson, an Olympia City councilman and antiwar activist who was arrested at the Port of Tacoma March 9. "We're getting people watching and hearing about our struggle who wouldn't have otherwise."

But not everyone who viewed the YouTube videos was sympathetic. Conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin wrote on March 10 that "members of the anti-military mob shouted condescendingly at our volunteer soldiers...the same ilk that purport to care so much about the troops not having enough armor and protection stood and jeered at those deploying to bring more protection to their fellow soldiers in Iraq."

Patrick Edelbacher, a member of Tacoma SDS, disagrees with Malkin's interpretation. "The Strykers are being shipped for soldiers who aren't in Iraq yet--the soldiers from the 4th Brigade are being forced to skip final training to go to Iraq as part of Bush's 'surge' and are being sent ahead of schedule," he said. "But while viewpoints [like Malkin's] get a lot of airtime, ours doesn't. This is where YouTube comes in."

There's nothing inherently progressive about YouTube, which was recently purchased by Google for $1.76 billion. But the wide distribution of La Sac's video is evidence of the potential for new technology to be an agent of change--as Ani DiFranco sings, "[Every] tool is a weapon if you hold it right."

:o :o :o

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.(w) (w) (w)

Sweetlady the Grrl Propeller-Head & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:30 PM

:)

We don't need to buy a network to get our message out--just creatively use an array of low-cost tools from the Internet to iPods, cellphones and whatever comes next.

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/greenwald

Brave New Media

by ROBERT GREENWALD

[from the July 3, 2006 issue]

A new media era is here. The head of NBC says he is selling to sponsors "on the air, online and on-the-go." "Cross platform" is the term of the day. For progressives and independents, the old hurdles of distribution--erected by the powerful media conglomerates--are giving way to new opportunities. We don't need a billion dollars to buy a network. We don't need hundreds of millions to take over this or that media entity. We have at our disposal a rapidly proliferating array of tools available at low cost to get our messages out--from the Internet to iPods to cellphones and whatever comes next.

At Brave New Films we have committed ourselves to using the new distribution methods to reach untapped audiences. Wal-Mart spends more than $4 million a day on ads. Brave New Films spent relative pennies on our satirical ad promoting Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price; and it was a viral hit, becoming the number-two trailer on iFilm. We used our online expertise (developed in short order over the past four films) and our amazing 150 organizational partners (recruited by our in-house organizer in advance) to solicit and publicize screenings of the DVD in schools, churches, homes, union halls, pizza parlors--any place there was a TV set and a DVD player. We reached 700,000 people in one week with the Wal-Mart film. Likewise, through similar methods, our film Outfoxed hit number one on Amazon with zero money spent on traditional ads. Was it easy? No. Can progressives use this model and continue to reach our audience? Absolutely.

Jim Gilliam of Brave New Films has developed a software program, available at BraveNewTheaters.com, that anyone can use to host a screening--a political or indie filmmaker, a politician wanting to show a film--anyone who wants to recruit participants for a screening. And it is free!

We also need to put time, energy and resources into how we tell stories. The form, the length, the size of the image, will affect whether or not our stories are heard. We all need to begin experimenting and figuring out how to tell a story for the cellphone. One thing I know: It's not the same as telling a story for a full-length DVD or theatrical screening.

With our next film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, we will use all the latest techniques to reach different audiences, to tell the story in film, in viral pieces, for iPods and for cellphones. It's a new-media era, for sure. And those who are quickest, smartest and most creative--not those who have the most money or own the most media outlets--are the ones who are going to get their messages out.

(y) (y)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:32 PM

;)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/08/fashion/08libr190.3.jpg

July 8, 2007

A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

By KARA JESELLA

NYTimes

ON a Sunday night last month at Daddy’s, a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, more than a dozen people in their 20s and 30s gathered at a professional soiree, drinking frozen margaritas and nibbling store-bought cookies. With their thrift-store inspired clothes and abundant tattoos, they looked as if they could be filmmakers, Web designers, coffee shop purveyors or artists.

When talk turned to a dance party the group had recently given at a nearby restaurant, their profession became clearer.

“Did you try the special drinks?” Sarah Gentile, 29, asked Jennifer Yao, 31, referring to the colorfully named cocktails.

“I got the Joy of Sex,” Ms. Yao replied. “I thought for sure it was French Women Don’t Get Fat.”

Ms. Yao could be forgiven for being confused: the drink was numbered and the guests had to guess the name. “613.96 C,” said Ms. Yao, cryptically, then apologized: “Sorry if I talk in Dewey.”

That would be the Dewey Decimal System. The groups’ members were librarians. Or, in some cases, guybrarians.

“He hates being called that,” said Sarah Murphy, one of the evening’s organizers and a founder of the Desk Set, a social group for librarians and library students.

Ms. Murphy was speaking of Jeff Buckley, a reference librarian at a law firm, who had a tattoo of the logo from the Federal Depository Library Program peeking out of his black T-shirt sleeve.

Librarians? Aren’t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons — the ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.”

When the cult film “Party Girl” appeared in 1995, with Parker Posey as a night life impresario who finds happiness in the stacks, the idea that a librarian could be cool was a joke.

Now, there is a public librarian who writes dispatches for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, a favored magazine of the young literati. “Unshelved,” a comic about librarians — yes, there is a comic about librarians — features a hipster librarian character. And, in real life, there are an increasing number of librarians who are notable not just for their pink-streaked hair but also for their passion for pop culture, activism and technology.

“We’re not the typical librarians anymore,” said Rick Block, an adjunct professor at the Long Island University Palmer School and at the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, both graduate schools for librarians, in New York City.

“When I was in library school in the early ’80s, the students weren’t as interesting,” Mr. Block said.

Since then, however, library organizations have been trying to recruit a more diverse group of students and to mentor younger members of the profession.

“I think we’re getting more progressive and hipper,” said Carrie Ansell, a 28-year-old law librarian in Washington.

In the last few years, articles have decried the graying of the profession, noting a large percentage of librarians that would soon be retiring and a seemingly insurmountable demand for replacements. But worries about a mass exodus appear to have been unfounded.

Michele Besant, the librarian at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the Association of Library and Information Science statistics show a steady increase in library information science enrollments over the last 10 years. Further, at hers and other schools there is a trend for students to be entering masters programs at a younger age.

The myth prevails that librarians are becoming obsolete. “There’s Google, no one needs us,” Ms. Gentile said, mockingly, over a drink at Daddy’s.

Still, these are high-tech times. Why are people getting into this profession when libraries seem as retro as the granny glasses so many of the members of the Desk Set wear?

“Because it’s cool,” said Ms. Gentile, who works at the Brooklyn Museum.

Ms. Murphy, 29, thinks so, too. An actress who had long considered library school, Ms. Murphy finally decided to sign up after meeting several librarians — in bars.

“People I, going in, would never have expected were from the library field,” she said. “Smart, well-read, interesting, funny people, who seemed to be happy with their jobs.”

Maria Falgoust, 31, is also a founder of Desk Set, which took its name from the 1957 Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy romantic comedy. A student who works part time at the library at Saint Ann’s School, she was inspired to become a librarian by a friend, a public librarian who works with teenagers and goes to rock shows regularly.

Since matriculating to Palmer, Ms. Falgoust has met plenty of other like-minded librarians at places such as Brooklyn Label, a restaurant, and at Punk Rope, an exercise class. “They’re everywhere you go,” she said.

Especially in Greenpoint, where Ms. Murphy and Ms. Falgoust live about 10 blocks from each other and where there are, Ms. Falgoust said, about 13 other librarians in the neighborhood.

How did such a nerdy profession become cool — aside from the fact that a certain amount of nerdiness is now cool? Many young librarians and library professors said that the work is no longer just about books but also about organizing and connecting people with information, including music and movies.

And though many librarians say that they, like nurses or priests, are called to the profession, they also say the job is stable, intellectually stimulating and can have reasonable hours — perfect for creative types who want to pursue their passions outside of work and don’t want to finance their pursuits by waiting tables. (The median salary for librarians was about $51,000 in 2006, according to the American Library Association-Allied Professional Organization.)

“I wanted to do something different, something maybe more meaningful,” said Carrie Klein, 36, who used to be a publicist for a record label and for bands such as Radiohead and the Foo Fighters, but is now starting a new job in the library at Entertainment Weekly.

Michelle Campbell, 26, a librarian in Washington, said that librarianship is a haven for left-wing social engagement, which is particularly appealing to the young librarians she knows. “Especially those of us who graduated around the same time as the Patriot Act,” Ms. Campbell said. “We see what happens when information is restricted.”

Ms. Campbell added that she became a librarian because it “combined a geeky intellectualism” with information technology skills and social activism.

Jessamyn West, 38, an editor of “Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out” a book that promotes social responsibility in librarianship, and the librarian behind the Web site librarian.net (its tagline is “putting the rarin’ back in librarian since 1999”) agreed that many new librarians are attracted to what they call the “Library 2.0” phenomenon. “It’s become a techie profession,” she said.

In a typical day, Ms. West might send instant and e-mail messages to patrons, many of who do their research online rather than in the library. She might also check Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites, post to her various blogs and keep current through MetaFilter and RSS feeds. Some librarians also create Wikis or podcasts.

At the American Librarian Association’s annual conference last month in Washington, there were display tables of graphic novels, manga and comic books. In addition to a panel called “No Shushing Required,” there were sessions on social networking and zines and one called “Future Friends: Marketing Reference and User Services to Generation X.”

On a Saturday, after a day of panels, a group of librarians relaxed and danced at Selam Restaurant. Sarah Mercure nursed a blueberry vodka and cranberry juice and talked about deciding on her career after hearing a librarian who curated a zine collection speak. Pete Welsch, a D.J., spun records and talked about how his interest in social activism, film and music led him to library school.

But some librarians have found the job can be at odds with their outside cultural interests.

“I went to see a band a few weeks ago with old co-workers and turned to one and said ‘Is it just me or is this really, really loud?’ ” said Ms. Klein, the former publicist. Her friend, she said, “laughed and said, ‘You have librarian ears now.’ ”

;) 's

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:34 PM

:| :s :| :s :|

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/early

Broadband Redlining Targets Rural America

by STEVE EARLY

[posted online on May 14, 2007] The NATION

Northern New England is just emerging from its annual "mud season"--long the bane of back-road drivers throughout the region. Nevertheless, residents of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire are now worried about getting stuck in a different way. That's because their local phone company, the corporate giant Verizon, wants to ditch them as customers.

Labor and consumer activists, joined by some public officials, are organizing against this move, in a high-stakes regulatory and political battle with consequences for the future of telecommunications in all of rural America.

Verizon's proposed $2.7 billion transfer of local access lines to FairPoint Communications--a small, largely nonunion North Carolina firm--is part of a nationwide trend toward rural telecom redlining. Everywhere it can, Verizon is trying to abandon "low-value" landline customers and is focusing instead on building its wireless customer base and investing billions of dollars in a new "FIOS" service. FIOS provides voice, video and high-speed broadband connections on a single fiber-optic cable network, now being extended directly to homes and businesses in big cities and affluent suburbs.

While "high-value" customers in these areas move into the fast lane of the information superhighway, the contested sale to FairPoint would leave northern New Englanders far behind. Residential customers--not to mention schools, businesses, hospitals and emergency responders--will still be dependent on "dirt-road dial-up" for their Internet access or, at best, will move into the slow lane of digital subscriber line (DSL) service, a technology that some regard as outdated and prohibitively expensive for rural economic development.

"FairPoint, a highly leveraged company, will have great difficulty meeting the big dividend and debt commitments it has made as part of this purchase, while simultaneously investing enough to maintain current facilities, improve service quality and expand broadband availability," argues Kenneth Peres, research economist for the Communications Workers of America (CWA). As Peres points out in the union's April 27 petition to the Federal Communications Commission opposing the sale, "FairPoint plans to expend less capital on network infrastructure than was previously spent by Verizon"--a $120 billion company with $6.2 billion in net income last year and thus far deeper pockets.

So if "small is not beautiful" in this case--and bigger would be better (if state and federal policy-makers compelled Verizon to continue as the incumbent carrier and make its broadband build-out more universal)--how did little FairPoint, worth only $630 million, become Verizon's buyer of choice?

According to union consultant Randy Barber, the answer to that question lies in an obscure IRS loophole called a Reverse Morris Trust. As Barber explains, "a parent corporation can spin off a subsidiary into an unrelated company, tax free, if the shareholders of the parent end up controlling more than 50 percent of the voting rights and economic value of the merged company." So the Verizon-FairPoint deal has been structured as just this type of "tax-driven transaction"; if approved, it will yield $600 million in tax savings for Verizon.

But here's the hitch--and the downside for other federal taxpayers and adversely affected consumers (since, in northern New England, they are one and the same). Verizon's tax avoidance is possible only if pieces of its old copper-wire network are chopped up and sold to a "tiny partner" rather than a more financially stable and secure buyer, which, in this case, would have been a larger operator of rural telephone exchanges like Embarq, Windstream, Citizens or Century Tel.

Grassroots resistance to this self-serving corporate scam is growing, despite Verizon's costly push to get utility regulators in all three states to rubber-stamp the deal by next January. Vermont's Bernie Sanders weighed in as a vocal critic last fall, during his successful campaign for the US Senate. Since then, other federal office holders, state legislators and consumer advocates have also joined the fray. (In Maine, a Public Utilities Commission hearing examiner just recommended a $32 million annual reduction in Verizon's rates--a future revenue loss that threatens to become a deal-breaker for FairPoint if the full commission agrees. Meanwhile, in Vermont, an influential Republican state Senator, Vince Illuzzi, has attached an amendment to pending telecom legislation that would make the "proposed sale null and void," according to Vermont Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien.)

Public hearings held in Vermont and New Hampshire this month are giving many rate-payers an opportunity to vent against the sale--just as hundreds of telephone workers did when they rallied in Portland, Maine, on a freezing Saturday morning in early March. Another big "Stop the Sale" event is scheduled for May 19 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire--and this time, contestants in the state's presidential primary are being invited to appear and take a stand on the issue as well.

Already, former Senator John Edwards has come closest to embracing the "high-speed broadband for all" policy agenda that's being promoted by CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as an alternative to local-access line sales, which threaten to make rural America roadkill on the information superhighway. CWA has launched a website, SpeedMatters.org, which publicizes telecom reform initiatives around the country and invites users to take a "speed test"--so they can check their own connections against world standards for high-speed access.

Using creative online networking, aggressive legal intervention in state regulatory proceedings, alliances with nonlabor groups and a legislative push for a broadband build-out that would benefit all Americans, telephone unionists hope to thwart the Verizon strategy, which amounts to "dump the lines, dump the customers," according to CWA president Larry Cohen.

In Virginia, Cohen notes, Verizon just lost a bid to eliminate all state regulatory oversight over the sale of local telephone lines--thanks to union lobbying and a gubernatorial veto. In northern New England, where the tradition of pro-consumer regulation is much stronger, state governments need to go even further--and veto any sale.

^o) ^o) ^o)

Aut disce aut discede.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:38 PM

:| :| :| :| :|

The world's most industrialized countries started the climate crisis, but China might well finish the job.

posted April 19, 2007 (May 7, 2007 issue)

China vs. Earth

Elizabeth Economy

The message is clear: Shanghai under water, Tibetan glaciers disappearing, crop yields in precipitous decline, epidemics flaring. These are just some of the dire consequences that Chinese scientists predict for their country this century if current climate change is not addressed. Yet China's leaders pay about as much attention to the issue as does George W. Bush. In fact, a report issued last year by the Climate Action Network-Europe ranks China fifty-fourth out of fifty-six countries for its climate change response, just behind the United States and ahead only of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Beijing knows the costs of inaction: A recent major official study on climate change predicts up to a 37 percent decline in China's wheat, rice and corn yields in the second half of the century. Precipitation may decline by as much as 30 percent in three of China's seven major river regions: the Huai, Liao and Hai. The Yellow and Yangtze rivers, which support the richest agricultural regions of the country and derive much of their water from Tibetan glaciers, will initially experience floods and then drought as the glaciers melt.

Moreover, a one-meter rise in sea level will submerge an area the size of Portugal along China's eastern seaboard--home to more than half the country's population and 60 percent of its economic output. Already climate change-related extreme weather is taking its toll: In 2006 such disasters cost China more than $25 billion in damage. Finally, a study by Shanghai-based researcher Wen Jiahong suggests that the lethal H5N1 virus will spread as climate change shifts the habitats and migratory patterns of birds.

Yet China's leaders show little inclination to move aggressively to forestall such calamities. As a result of China's reliance on coal to fuel its economy, its emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide have tripled over the past thirty years and are now second only to those of the United States. In late 2006 the International Energy Agency predicted that China would surpass the United States as the largest contributor of CO2 by 2009, a full decade earlier than anticipated. China already uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined and is the world's second-largest consumer of oil after the United States. (India, which lags well behind China in its overall consumption of coal, is nonetheless on track to become a major CO2 contributor over the next ten years and is already the fifth-largest contributor of greenhouse gases globally.)

China's development strategy suggests that little will change in the foreseeable future. With plans on the books to urbanize half the Chinese population by 2020, energy consumption will soar. City residents in China use 250 percent more power than their rural counterparts. And China's love affair with the private car is set to rival that of the United States. A conservative estimate by the Asian Development Bank predicts that the number of cars in China could increase by fifteen times present levels over the next thirty years, more than tripling CO2 emissions.

If China's development trajectory continues as planned, its increase in greenhouse gas emissions will likely exceed that of all industrialized countries combined over the next twenty-five years, surpassing by five times the reduction in such emissions that the Kyoto Protocol sought. In short, it's a nightmarishly bad picture.

It would be unfair, however, to characterize China as doing nothing to address climate change. The leadership's worries about both energy security and domestic air pollution--five of the world's ten most polluted cities are in China--are propelling them to set bold targets for reshaping their energy mix and enhancing energy efficiency.

The Chinese government has called for renewable energy to provide 10 percent of the nation's power by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020. Key state-owned enterprises and provincial governors must make 20 percent reductions in their energy intensity (that is, energy consumed per unit of GDP) over the next three years. On that front there is a lot of room for improvement: China's buildings consume 250 percent more energy than buildings in other countries with comparable climates. Beijing has responded with a raft of tough new building codes for energy efficiency. Much like the United States, cities and provinces are now taking matters into their own hands. Shenzhen, for example, has passed a regulation that solar power be used to supply hot water in all new residential buildings under twelve stories.

Already there is some success. With the assistance of the US-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), China built its first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building. Fittingly, the building houses the Ministry of Science and Technology, in Beijing. Ten stories tall, it uses 70 percent less energy than similar buildings and saves 10,000 tons of water annually through rainwater collection. NRDC energy expert Robert Watson, one of the chief architects of the project, claims that if every new nonresidential building in China matched this one, the electricity savings would equal the amount of energy provided by the Three Gorges Dam.

But China is littered with well-intended demonstration projects that go nowhere. If these new regulations are to have an impact, Beijing's tough rhetoric must be matched by real enforcement, a task that has proved elusive in the past. In 2002 the Chinese government pledged to cut sulfur dioxide 10 percent by 2005. (SO2 is not a greenhouse gas but is a noxious byproduct of coal power that causes acid rain and urban smog; getting rid of it is a good idea.) But SO2 emissions have increased 27 percent. From all accounts, few if any of the coal-fired power plants that China is bringing online almost every week embrace state-of-the-art clean technology. Moreover, Beijing has already missed its first-year target for the 2006-10 plan to increase the energy efficiency of industry.

Why can't this supposed command economy impose solutions if its leadership sees a problem? There are several reasons behind China's consistent failure to meet environmental goals.

First, the central government in Beijing actually has little on-the-ground enforcement capability in the provinces. Local environmental protection officials report to and are beholden to local government officials, not to the State Environmental Protection Administration in Beijing. One of the West's great misconceptions is that what Beijing says goes. In fact, local officials are often in cahoots with factory managers and allow industry to pollute well above legal limits--either because the officials have a financial stake in the enterprise or because they are afraid that closing a factory, or making it more expensive to operate, will diminish local employment and lead to social unrest, which is now a very serious problem all across China.

In other cases, local officials want to do the right thing but are too weak in the face of powerful enterprise managers.

At root, however, China's lax environmental enforcement results from Beijing's failure to create a system of green-oriented incentives and penalties. Pricing of natural resources, pollution levies and promotion incentives for officials should all be geared toward environmental protection. Instead, growth at all costs is the guiding logic. Moreover, China's leaders are afraid to unleash civil society, in the form of the media, the legal system and NGOs, to help hold local officials accountable for wrongdoing. Already there are tens of thousands of mass demonstrations over environmental pollution every year. Officials fear that opposition demands will escalate out of control, unleashing a far more powerful push for broader political reform. So the government relies on its old methods, limiting transparency, accountability and free expression.

On the international stage, China faces pressure and incentives to become more environmentally responsible. Beijing's interest in promoting energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy resources--as well as a desire to be perceived as a constructive global actor--drove China's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. And China has become an active player in the Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), tapping into opportunities for technology transfer and international investment. China already has some seventy CDM projects under way--well over half of which supply foreign investment and/or technology for renewable energy projects. According to an Asian Development Bank expert, China could generate an annual revenue stream of more than $2 billion by participating in externally funded CDM projects.

But without more substantial commitment to meet real targets for radical emissions reductions, China's greenhouse contributions will overwhelm its best efforts.

If there is a meaningful Chinese discussion about tackling climate change, it takes place largely behind closed doors, well out of sight of foreigners. Perhaps recent natural disasters will motivate Chinese leaders: Over just the past year China has suffered floods in the east that have affected more than 10 million people, while drought this spring left 13 million people and 12 million farm animals without enough drinking water.

The Communist Party's argument over the past fifteen years has been: Since China came late to the industrialization game, the core economies, with their significantly greater historical greenhouse gas contributions, must pay for a global transformation away from fossil fuels. Now it is China's turn to develop, so deal with it.

"Development is the first urgent task," said Qin Dahe, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "It's a firm principle and, moreover, we need good and fast development. Only then will we be able to step by step solve the problem" of climate change. Chinese officials are also quick to point out that on a per capita basis, China's greenhouse gas emissions are dwarfed by those of the developed countries: Per capita discharge is only 61 percent of the world's average and 21 percent of that of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

A more subtle indication of how China's leaders understand the global climate change regime is revealed by the regulatory framework China has established for the Kyoto-related CDM projects. In essence, Beijing places a higher priority on projects that contribute to the development of the economy and transfer technology to China than on projects that make reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

When growth and green can be accomplished together, the Chinese government embraces environmentalism. For example, it actively discriminates in favor of CDM proposals that transfer technology and advance the country's capacity in renewables, energy efficiency and methane recovery. But reforestation projects or projects that propose to reduce emissions of HFC-23--a greenhouse gas with global warming potential more than 11,000 times that of CO2--are discouraged because they do not involve enough capital or provide technology transfer. Working within these confines, the Kyoto-related CDM framework offers important ways for OECD countries to nudge China away from fossil fuels.

Paradoxically, another reason climate change is not a bigger issue in China has to do with local pollution. Anyone who has visited an inland Chinese city knows how terrifyingly bad the air is. Chinese media are replete with horrifying statistics: An estimated 400,000 people die prematurely from respiratory diseases related to air pollution each year; one-quarter of China's land is desert, and the desert is advancing at the rate of 1,900 square miles per year, producing tens of thousands of environmental migrants; and in China's north and west, severe and growing water scarcity is impinging on economic growth, limiting agricultural and industrial output. As a result even the burgeoning environmental nongovernmental sector in China discusses climate change only as an afterthought. Strangely, few outside the scientific community make the connection that climate change may be exacerbating and exacerbated by these "domestic" problems.

The world's most industrialized countries started the climate crisis, but China might well finish the job. Not having China on board for a more stringent post-Kyoto accord is simply not an option.

In late April the Chinese government is expected to release a national plan on global climate change. From all accounts, the document will reinforce the government's commitment to energy efficiency and renewables while also setting forth prevention policies for natural disasters. What it will not do, unsurprisingly, is embrace any targets or timetables for greenhouse gas emission reductions. For that to happen, two things are necessary. First, the United States, preferably with Australia and India in tow, must agree to aggressive emission reductions, perhaps along the lines currently pursued by California. Without a strong US commitment, the international community has no credibility in pressuring the Chinese.

Second, OECD countries will have to be far more generous and comprehensive in compensating China in its struggle to enforce tougher energy efficiency and renewable standards. That can be done with both financial incentives and technology transfers. What finally brought the Chinese on board with Kyoto and previous international environmental agreements was the attraction of getting paid to do the right thing. If the United States joins the fight against climate change--and if the price is right--there is every reason to believe that China can commit to doing the right thing again.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070507/economy

:| :s :| :s And COUNTLESS PRODUCTS that Americans buy come from China......only one of the reasons I never, never shop at Wal-Mart and other "big box" stores.

(f) (f)

Aut disce aut discede.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:41 PM

:s :s

There is an astounding reluctance to criticize or properly discipline police officers, no matter how egregious their conduct.

July 7, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

A Girl’s Fear and Loathing

By BOB HERBERT

NYTimes

In a column earlier this week I wrote about a cop who grotesquely abused his power by invading a high school classroom in the Bronx because a girl had uttered a curse word in a hallway. Not only did the cop handcuff and arrest the girl in a room filled with stunned students and a helpless teacher, but he arrested the school’s principal, who had attempted to reason with the officer.

The principal was suspended from his job immediately after the arrest in February 2005, but was reinstated when the charges — bogus from the very beginning — were eventually dropped. Still, the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, defended the police officer’s action, telling reporters at the time, “The principal was simply wrong.”

As I continued to look into this case, it became clear that police officials were trying to withhold important information about the officer, Juan Gonzalez. In response to a question, a spokesman for Commissioner Kelly said that Officer Gonzalez, now 29, had been placed on modified duty and that his gun and shield had been taken away.

But why? Despite repeated requests, the department would not say.

Then I found out through other sources that Officer Gonzalez had gotten into trouble for stalking, kissing and otherwise harassing a 17-year-old girl at another high school in the Bronx. The girl, extremely upset over the unwanted advances, notified school authorities and they notified the Police Department.

The Police Department confirmed this yesterday.

The encounter with the girl occurred in September 2005 outside Truman High School. The girl, questioned at a hearing by a lawyer representing the city, said she had just left the school and was on her way to a bus stop when Officer Gonzalez, in uniform, walked up to her.

He let her know that he had been watching her, and he followed her as she tried to walk away. He asked to see her school program, which lists, among other things, a student’s classes and schedule. She handed it to him.

According to the girl, the officer said, “It doesn’t have what I’m looking for.”

She said that when she asked what he was looking for, he replied, “Your address.”

The girl said Officer Gonzalez began touching her as they were passing another school. “He started touching my hair,” she said, “and pulling it all towards one side to touch my neck.” She backed up against a wall, she said, and the officer leaned over her, pressing his arms against the wall.

“I wasn’t looking at him,” the girl said. “I was turning my face away, and he touched my face and put my face to look directly towards, at him. He said, ‘Why can’t I look at him?’ And he touched my waist and pulled me closer to him, and he kissed me on my cheeks.”

The girl said, “I tried to push him away, but I couldn’t. So I had to duck under his arms.”

Officer Gonzalez followed her as she resumed walking toward the bus stop. He suggested they go out on a date. The girl said she told the officer, “I don’t think so.”

Then, she said, he told her what a powerful man he was, how he had kicked down doors and even arrested a high school principal.

This week, even as I continued asking questions about Officer Gonzalez’s status, the Police Department gave him back his gun and his badge and put him back on patrol.

It was a wildly irresponsible decision. Parents across the city should be warned about this officer.

Over the past several weeks I have heard one credible story after another of police officers ruthlessly harassing, and frequently arresting, youngsters who have done nothing wrong. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly seem to be in denial about this problem, which is widespread. There is an astounding reluctance to criticize or properly discipline police officers, no matter how egregious their conduct.

The big losers are the good kids who are treated like criminals by bullies and predators masquerading as New York’s finest. Other losers are the many cops who routinely take their crime-fighting mission seriously, but are undermined by these lowlifes in blue.

Jonathan Moore, a civil rights lawyer who represents the girl harassed by Officer Gonzalez, said his client had agreed, with “some hesitation,” to my request to tell her story in a column. She is still afraid, he said, that Officer Gonzalez will “track her down and cause her harm.”

:'( :'( :'(

({)(}) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:44 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Travelers to Europe who ignore Brussels, home of the European Union, twice-fried French fries and the Surrealist painter René Magritte, do so at their peril.

July 8, 2007

36 Hours in Brussels

By DAN BILEFSKY

SNOOTY travelers could be forgiven for overlooking Brussels, a European capital whose iconic monument is a 17th-century bronze statue of a little boy urinating into a fountain. But travelers who ignore Brussels, home of the European Union, twice-fried French fries and the Surrealist painter René Magritte, do so at their peril. For one thing, there is the food — a veritable galaxy of Michelin stars. Then there is the beer: more than 600 varieties, including ales brewed by monks. Add to that a thriving design scene, and the city — once dismissed as a provincial and humorless wasteland — is finally making cultural waves. Just join the crowds in front of the Manneken-Pis, the pixyish statue, and you'll get the idea. Locals delight in dressing up the young boy as Elvis or, sometimes, in a giant condom.

Friday

5 p.m.

1) BEERS ON THE GRAND' PLACE

For centuries, tourists have reportedly fainted when confronted with the sheer beauty of Florence. This won't happen in Brussels. The city does not have the Uffizi Gallery or Michelangelo's “David.” But it does have the Grand' Place, a truly marvelous square in the city's center. Brave the hordes of tourists (and the kitschy lace shops and overpriced seafood joints nearby) to drink a Trappist beer at Le Roy d'Espagne (Grand' Place 1; 32-2-513-0807, www.roydespagne.be), an atmospheric bar in one of the Grand' Place's grandest guild houses. Expect pigs' bladders hanging from the ceiling and harried waiters in long white aprons that match their long faces. Grab a seat on the outdoor terrace so you can gawk at the Baroque square.

8 p.m.

2) RABBIT STEW

Brussels is a foodies' paradise, and you'll struggle to eat a bad meal. A standout among the hundreds of traditional Belgian brasseries is Les Brassins (36, rue Keyenveld; 32-2-512 6999; www.lesbrassins.com), a lively place that serves 50 different brews and Belgian classics like lapin à la Kriek (rabbit stewed in flavored beer) and stoemp (a winter stew with potatoes, carrots, onion sauce and sausages) for under 15 euros ($20, at $1.35 to the euro). The restaurant is at the end of a hard-to-find back street in Ixelles, a neighborhood popular with expatriates. After your meal, wander up the street and find the plaque marking the birthplace of Audrey Hepburn.

Midnight

3) JAZZY BARS

In a city full of alluring bars, the granddaddy of cool may be the L'Archiduc (6, rue Antoine Dansaert; 32-2-512-0652; www.archiduc.net), in the downtown area near the stock exchange. Ring the doorbell, go through a steel bubble swinging door and marvel at the Art Deco room, furnished with high ceilings and an undulating bar. Nazis were rumored to have frequented the bar during the German occupation; today, the clientele consists mainly of goateed beatniks and media types. L'Archiduc is particularly popular with jazz fans — Miles Davis once jammed there — and impromptu jam sessions often take place on weekends. A warning: the service can be nonchalant, verging on nonexistent.

SATURDAY

10 a.m.

4) BREAK FOR NOUVEAU

If the institutional modernism of the European Union's sprawling offices leaves you cold, escape can be found in the city's Art Nouveau, the flowery architectural style popular at the beginning of the 20th century. One of the genre's finest practitioners, and a father of Belgian Art Nouveau, was Victor Horta. Visit his home and studio, which have been turned into the Musée Horta (25, rue Américaine, St.-Gilles; 32-2-543-0490; www.hortamuseum.be; hours are 2 to 5:30 p.m., but earlier tours can be arranged by e-mail at least a week in advance). The exterior is typically Belgian: understated. The interior hides lots of astonishing details, including a grand stairwell made of marble and wrought iron that undulates into the expressive shapes of an abstract painting. Natural light pours down from a stained-glass canopy onto the floral mirrors, Tiffany lamps, mosaic floors and carved banister. The effect is dreamlike — until the hordes of tourists bring you back to earth.

Noon

5) MOULES FRITES, ANYONE?

For lunch (from July 17, when it reopens), head to the 80-year-old Aux Armes de Bruxelles (13, rue des Bouchers; 32-2-511-5550; www.armebrux.be), near the Grand' Place, which has some of the freshest buckets of mussels, complete with French fries and mayonnaise. Real Bruxellois eat the first mussel with their fingers, and use the empty shell as a utensil for scooping up the rest. Don't forget to mop up the mussel soup with a hunk of crusty bread. If you want a spot away from the tourists, moules frites aficionados swear by Au Vieux Bruxelles (35, rue St.-Boniface; 32-2-503-3111; www.auvieuxbruxelles.com) in the heart of a lively Congolese neighborhood, which serves delectable mussels made with beer, curry and blue cheese, for about 20 euros.

2 p.m.

6) SHOPPING À LA BELGE

Bargain hunters throughout Europe flock to the Place du Jeu de Balle for a flea market in Brussels' oldest quarter, the working-class but quickly gentrifying Marolles. The market has everything from African masks and retro cinema chairs to fake reproductions of old Belgian masters like Bruegel. The surrounding streets — Rue Blaes and Rue Haute — are peppered with a quirky mix of antique furniture shops, galleries and cafes. For more froufrou surroundings, walk five minutes north to the Sablon, an upscale district frequented by bourgeois grannies whose outfits match their French poodles. The district's jewel is the Place du Petit Sablon, a small and picturesque park framed by an imposing Gothic church, with railings by the Art Nouveau master Paul Hankar, as well as statues of famous Belgians you've never heard of.

6 p.m.

7) SWEET BREAK

Get a chocolate boost at Pierre Marcolini (1, rue des Minimes; 32-2-514-1206; www.marcolini.be), one of the best places to buy chocolate in a city that takes the cocoa bean very seriously. An assortment of 33 chocolates, including truffles and dark chocolate, costs 16.50 euros.

9 p.m.

8) ROYAL CUISINE

Some restaurants in Brussels leave you feeling giddy, if not a bit ecstatic. Museum Brasserie (3, place Royale; 32-2-508-3590; www.museumfood.be), a new place from the Flemish chef Peter Goossens, is among them. (His other restaurant, Hof van Cleve, has three Michelin stars.) Set in a Victor Horta building that's part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, the minimalist interior is dominated by immense black chandeliers and attracts Flemish hipsters and matrons alike. The kitchen specializes in updated Belgian classics like eel in green sauce, veal kidneys with Ghent mustard and spit-roasted cockerel — all accompanied by perfect frites (Mr. Goossens started his culinary career peddling fries). The wine cellar, encased in sleek glass, offers a nice mix of French and New World varieties, including a delightful Flemish chardonnay with hints of seaweed. For dessert, order the waffles from Liège, a town in Belgium, which manage to be baroque without being too sweet. Dinner for two, not including wine, runs about 70 euros.

Midnight

9) BOHEMIAN BROTHEL

For good times, stumble over to Goupil le Fol (22, rue de la Violette; 32-2-511-1396), an eccentric, three-story bar housed in a former brothel that looks like a cross between an opium den and a 1970s porno set. The walls are covered with old paintings of nudes and lurid landscapes, as well as vinyl LPs. Sink into one of the couches, order one of the owner's favorite fruit wines and party into the wee hours, with an Edith Piaf song blaring from a nearby jukebox. Those with less bohemian instincts should stay downstairs, as the clientele gets more and more risqué the higher you climb.

Sunday

11 a.m.

10) A FAMILIAR BRUNCH SPOT

You can find this bakery chain in Manhattan or Paris, but the original Le Pain Quotidien is in Brussels and remains one of the better brunch spots in a town that's not great at doing brunch. The flagship bakery is on the Grand Sablon (11, rue des Sablons; 32-2-513-5154; www.lepainquotidien.com) with large pine tables crammed with jams, chocolates and bread. The wait can be irksome, but the farmers' bread is hot from the oven, coffee is served in large bowls and the cheese tartines are always fresh. Plus, on those rare Brussels days when the sun is out, the retractable roof lets in a slice of heaven. Breakfast for two, about 40 euros.

1 p.m.

11) PICNIC AT A CHATEAU

For pastoral escape, stroll the grounds of the Château de la Hulpe (111, chaussée de Bruxelles; 32-2-653-6404; www.chateaudelahulpe.wallonie.be), an enchanting French-style castle built in 1842 that overlooks 561 acres of woods and ponds on the border of Brussels' Forêt de Soignes. The castle is not generally open to the public, but the grounds — adorned with rhododendrons and azaleas — are more than worth the 25-minute train ride. And the farmhouse of the main castle houses the Fondation Folon (6A, drève de la Ramée, La Hulpe; 322-653-3456; www.fondationfolon.be), which shows the work of the prolific Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon.

VISITOR INFORMATION

SN Brussels Airlines and American Airlines have daily flights from Kennedy Airport in New York to Brussels Airport, while Continental Airlines flies from Newark. A recent Web search for early August showed round-trip fares starting at $1,037.

The best way to get into central Brussels is on the 30-minute Brussels Airport Express to Central Station. It runs every 15 minutes and costs 3 euros, or $4.05 at $1.35 to the euro.

Brussels hotels are expensive, thanks to the constant influx of Armani-clad diplomats. One bargain — starting at 95 euros for a double — is the Baroque Hotel Mozart (23, rue du Marché aux Fromages; 32-2-502-6661; www.hotel-mozart.be), which has 50 comfortable, compact rooms.

If you packed Armani, try the Jolly Hotel du Grand Sablon (2/4 rue Bodenbroek, 800-221-2626, www.jollyhotels.com/eng), a luxurious hotel on a chic square within walking distance of the Royal Palace, the Grand' Place and the main museums. Summer specials start at 99 euros.

(l) (l)

:o What's up with the last paragraph starting with "If you packed Armani..."?? A wee bit snooty, don't you think? I never had a probelm getting into the places mentioned and I was not wearing Armani..... ;)

(f)

(k) 's,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:46 PM

:| :| Better yet, would you vote for this guy? Not me! He's WAY, WAY too conservative.

PUBLIC DEBATE Fred D. Thompson, 64, and his wife, Jeri Kehn Thompson, 40.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/08/fashion/08fred190.1.jpg

July 8, 2007

Will Her Face Determine His Fortune?

By SUSAN SAULNY

AS the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public has been called on to ponder several questions: Is America ready for a woman to be president? What about a black man? A Mormon?

Now, with the possible candidacy of Fred D. Thompson, the grandfatherly actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee, whose second wife is almost a quarter-century his junior, comes a less palatable inquiry that is spurring debate in Internet chat rooms, on cable television and on talk radio: Is America ready for a president with a trophy wife?

The question may seem sexist, even crass, but serious people — as well as Mr. Thompson’s supporters — have been wrestling with the public reaction to Jeri Kehn Thompson, whose youthfulness, permanent tan and bleached blond hair present a contrast to the 64-year-old man who hopes to win the hearts of the conservative core of the Republican party. Will the so-called values voters accept this union?

Mr. Thompson, who needs the support of early primary voters, is expected to formally announce his candidacy any day now. Meanwhile, much of the brouhaha around Mrs. Thompson, 40, is being stirred by photos of her in form-fitting gowns circulating on the Internet.

“You have a situation where a candidate happens to have an attractive wife, therefore it’s open season for smutty thoughts and lowbrow humor, and no concern for the fact that this is a wife and mother, a professional woman?” said Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department official who is a consultant and the chief media adviser to the Thompson campaign. “One picture on the Internet and all of a sudden she’s reduced to being a bimbo?”

On a morning cable news show last month, Joe Scarborough, the commentator and former Republican congressman from Florida, compared Mrs. Thompson to a stripper. The comment came after a segment on the use of stripper poles in exercise routines, but it still stung. It is hard to imagine a man, however handsome, suffering similar insult.

THE term “trophy wife” was coined by Fortune magazine in 1989 and immediately entered the language. Although it often has a pejorative spin, the term originally meant the second (or third) wife of a corporate titan, who was younger, beautiful and — equally important — accomplished in her own right, which describes Mrs. Thompson.

She is a former Senate aide and a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. And she is not a home wrecker. Mr. Thompson had been divorced from his first wife for almost two decades before he remarried in 2002.

But so far it is her youth and appearance that have trumped her résumé. It is unclear how that reality will play out with voters.

“It’s unprecedented so it’s almost unpredictable,” said Susan J. Carroll, a professor of political science at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. “I think it depends a lot on how the campaign deals with it, and how she and Thompson deal with it.”

So far, they have not dealt with it, which is perhaps fueling the fire of speculation. Both Thompsons declined requests for interviews about their marriage. The details of Mrs. Thompson’s résumé have not been officially distributed. And unlike other potential presidential spouses like Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama, Mrs. Thompson lets her husband do most of the political talking. In public appearances recently, her most dramatic statements have been sartorial, like gold-lamé wedge sandals on a campaign stop, or a plunging neckline for a Washington dinner.

She will not be able to avoid the spotlight once her husband declares his candidacy. Will she be a help or a hindrance?

Frank Luntz, the consultant who helped write the language of the Contract With America, a manifesto of conservative principles that helped the Republicans win the House of Representatives in 1994, falls into the “no consequence” contingent.

“The spouse of the candidate matters in less than 1 out of 100 votes,” Mr. Luntz said. “It’s not relevant. It will have no impact whatsoever.”

Her style could, of course, help him. The Thompsons’ young daughter and infant son also help humanize the candidate as a family man. (Mr. Thompson has adult children from a previous marriage.)

On the Web site Footballguystalk.com, Mr. Thompson not only won votes thanks to his wife, but one anonymous poster said, “I think he’s my new idol!”

Mr. Thompson’s supporters, on their Web site draftthompson08.blogspot.com, put it this way: “It couldn’t hurt diplomatic relations to have a smart, pretty blonde as first lady.”

But that comment was quickly attacked. One writer described the May-December marriage as “gross,” while others said Mrs. Thompson was an outright liability.

Political analysts said there is very little evidence to suggest that candidates’ spouses affect their electoral outcomes. But one political scientist, Karen O’Connor, the director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University, said Mr. Thompson may lose with one key group whose support he needs: Republican women.

“I think women have an innate ‘ick’ reaction when they see a wife so much younger and vital than her husband,” Professor O’Connor said.

Wes Thornburg, a Republican financier in Chicago who has not yet committed himself to a candidate, said that Mr. Thompson has an issue that could be the envy of every campaign.

“If I were in his camp, I would love for this to be the main criticism from the press or opposition because it’s so easy to defend,” Mr. Thornburg said. “He’ll come back and say, ‘It’s not that unusual and the key is we have a great marriage.’ The determinate issues will be defense, taxes and his ability to communicate.”

It is too early to know what kind of role Mrs. Thompson would play in a Thompson administration. Or, for that matter, what role any other first lady or first gentleman would play.

“In all likelihood we’re going to have something quite different as a presidential spouse this time,” Professor Carroll said, “whoever wins.”

|-) |-) I'd put this article in the silly category. ;)

(o) Time for making some iced tea! Yea, yes, THAT would cool me off perfectly.

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:50 PM

(l) (l) (l)

This is summer: it is a time to read and for me at least, despite what many may think, reading is play.

July 7, 2007

Op-Ed Contributor

Shelf Life

By ALICE SEBOLD

San Francisco

AS summer nears I begin to search my bookshelves for companions. Much like other people return again and again to the same small towns or sandy beaches, I return to the same novelists and with ever greater frequency to the same novels.

My summer friends are expansive and equal to any beach-to-bar evening among the living. The old reliables — Henry James, Edith Wharton, Anthony Trollope — have been with me for a decade or more. Five summers ago they welcomed George Eliot and always they make room for relative newcomers at the table. This past summer, in between rereadings of “The Ambassadors” and “The Age of Innocence,” Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “The Unconsoled” stepped in.

Reading has made my least favorite season not only one I can now tolerate but one I have begun to look forward to. By actively hating summer for years, I unintentionally built my own protective structure from the elements of sun, sand and fun. Every summer, a very dear friend has her birthday party on the beach. Her e-mail message to me always says “I know you won’t come but...” before giving me the location and date.

Another close friend has given up trying to lure me into climbing a mountain in 100-degree heat. I think she is insane for doing this and she thinks I’m “all about coffee and museums.” How I’ve ended up with such well-adjusted friends is obvious — the others like me are inside their houses or under shady trees or finding the coolest, darkest place for three months to read books and shield their faces.

I grew up in a house of readers but I was actually not one of them.

My father, a professor of Romance languages, sat about the house with small precious volumes from overseas. They were bound in leather and had ribbons sewn into their bindings that our jealous bassets would reach out to paw.

My mother read poetry and mysteries. Anne Sexton and Agatha Christie were stacked on her bedside table.

And my sister read Ray Bradbury and the Bible and in high school went on a C. S. Lewis binge. She sat on a spring-shot sofa in her bedroom that had once been downstairs in the living room, and pored over textbooks for the coming school year.

In our house the difference between summer and all the other seasons was simple. In their bedrooms or my father’s office, the three readers wore shorts instead of slacks. They drank iced tea instead of hot tea. Sleeves were rolled up and if I interrupted, tempers were short.

An undiagnosed case of dyslexia defined me as the non-reader of the family. Stupid was how I felt. In summer I built Barbie a highway out of cardboard and construction paper and ran her over and over again with my Hot Wheels and Matchboxes in a home-grown version of “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.” I made a secretive, sweaty universe of the space beneath my ancient rope bed, only to find the dust ruffles, my stage curtains, parted by the snout of an equally bored and lonely basset.

Now, in a way that seemed impossible when I was a child, I read maniacally. And I read everything my family did: poetry, mysteries, ancient leather books with ribbons swinging — with two cats, not bassets, pawing them — and old textbooks from the 1800s.

If the phone rings between June and September, I am often jolted out of my make-believe world. I am with Henry James’s Isabel Archer or the ever more poignant Strether, returning over and over again to the cruel fates they can do nothing to change. I’m with Celia and Dorothea, trying on their mother’s jewels and feeling, each time I return to Eliot’s amazing “Middlemarch,” more and more pity for Mr. Casaubon, whom I initially took to be nothing but a mean and bitter prig.

In between the bounty of these larger tomes, when I have an evening to myself because my more social spouse has gone to a party or dinner with friends, I have summer flings — J. L. Carr, Susan Minot, Françoise Sagan, Elfriede Jelinek — and discover previously unknown gems like Julian Greene’s novel “The Other Sleep” or Jane Gardam’s delightfully titled “Old Filth.”

This is summer: it is a time to read and for me at least, despite what many may think, reading is play. It is comfort, company, a way to buffer oneself from the pain and isolation of the everyday. It is the peace I find by visiting my closest friends. I have given up thinking I’m deranged for discovering them between the covers of a book.

Was it really any odder when I hid under my bed or talked aloud to myself or to my basset hounds about people who didn’t exist? Any more bizarre to hang brunette Barbie from the doorknob in an imagined passion play involving Ken and my stuffed Scottie dog? I think not.

I’ve reached an age where I can admit to and even take a strange sort of joy in what some might see as my limits. I had an allergic reaction to Johnson’s Baby Oil the first time I smeared it on my skin and went out into the back yard at 13. The feeling of sand on oil, like the feeling of newspaper when I crumble it in my hand, or the smell of brass on my fingers after using a stairwell or turning a doorknob, unsettles me. My husband sarcastically calls me “his delicate flower,” but I am also the one who attends to an animal’s corpse found under an overpass or empties the occasional sick person’s bedpan.

To me, it is simple. There is our world — the world of mundane annoyances, of heat and grit, and of hideous realities, and there is that other world I visit each summer. My real world. The world of fiction.

Alice Sebold is the author of “The Lovely Bones” and the forthcoming novel “The Almost Noon.”

:) I think I was the only one in my home (growing up) who read six books every two weeks, since that was the number of books the local library allowed me to take out at one time. I'm STILL an avid reader - about three to four books each week, on average. Books are most certainly a passion. (l) (l) The only challenge is having more books than shelf space.

(f)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-07-2007, 04:54 PM

:D

Q U O T E D

"I took a chance that the prerelease hype would create a supply-demand imbalance, but obviously that scenario didn't play out this time. I pity the poor goobers that camped for these things."

-- Jim Fazio of Fort Collins, Colo., who found himself among the entrepreneurial hopefuls disappointed by the iPhone resale market

IPhone Futures Prove to Be a Bad Investment:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/technology/06iphone.html?ex=1341374400&en=db56b8d2207314f1&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

;) As I sit here wearing a virtual "iWait" T-shirt.

(k) 's,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:26 PM

(f) (f) (f)

http://thephoenix.com/theBest/providence/#start

(y) (y)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:27 PM

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

http://www.tnt.tv/series/savinggrace/

http://www.tnt.tv/series/savinggrace/gallery/

http://www.tnt.tv/series/savinggrace/about/

http://i.tnt.tv/v5cache/TNT/images/originals/savinggrace/sg1_669x366.jpg

Academy Award®-winning actress Holly Hunter (The Piano) takes on the role of a cynical police detective facing a personal crisis of divine proportions in the provocative new drama series SAVING GRACE, premiering this July on TNT.

In her television series debut, Hunter stars as Grace Hanadarko, a tormented, fast-living Oklahoma City police detective who, despite being at the top of her field, takes self-destruction to new heights. After seeing tremendous tragedy in her life, both professionally and personally, Grace lives life hard and fast. She drinks too much, sleeps with the wrong men and defies authority. Grace has a tender side with her 22 nieces and nephews, but that is a side that most of the world doesn’t get to see. It all catches up with her one night when, as she’s driving too fast after too many drinks, she hits a man who is walking along the road. In an uncharacteristic moment, Grace asks for help, and she gets it /no spamming of other sites/ in the form an unconventional angel named Earl (Leon Rippy, Deadwood). Earl tells Grace that she is in trouble and running out of chances, but he wants to help lead her back to the right path. The journey, for both of them, will not be an easy one.

Creator Nancy Miller says of Hunter, “Holly can break your heart and make you laugh in the same moment. She’s astonishing. Grace is a complex character, deeply troubled but searching for the good, with a heart full of love and pain, and a surprising tenderness when you least expect it.”

In addition to Rippy, the cast also includes Kenneth Johnson (The Shield) as Grace’s partner; Gregory Norman Cruz (Criminal Minds) as detective Bobby Stillwater; Bailey Chase (Las Vegas) as detective Butch Ada; Bokeem Woodbine (The Big Hit) as a death row inmate who figures into Grace’s struggle and Laura San Giacomo (Just Shoot Me) as the criminalist who, despite having strong religious beliefs, is the only one in Grace’s life who does not judge her.

Downloads: http://www.tnt.tv/series/savinggrace/features/

http://www.tnt.tv/series/savinggrace/games/

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Ventis secundis, tene cursum.

Go with the flow.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:29 PM

(l) (l) (l)

An overnight trail ride through a Northern California sanctuary for wild horses.

A group of visitors at the Wild Horse Sanctuary stops at a watering hole to give their mounts, and themselves, a break.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/wildhorses-600.jpg

The evening barbecue.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/grill-650.jpg

Where: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/travel/escapes/0706-esc-webADVENTURERmap.gif

July 6, 2007

Adventurer

Hot Dusty Days, Long Rides and Mustangs

By BILL BECHER

MUSTANG. The word conjures up images of the Old West — a wild horse running free on the range in a big blue-sky world, a renegade. I watch as a tall mustang stallion escorts his six mares. He pulls his ears back in warning, and the other wild horses nearby scatter out of the way. The stallion stops and grazes while keeping a careful eye on his harem.

Once two million mustangs roamed the West, descendants of horses that escaped from or were released by early Spanish missionaries and explorers and later European settlers. Now it’s estimated that fewer than 50,000 wild horses live in remote areas of California, Nevada and other Western states.

For horse lovers, or anyone who wants to observe mustangs in a natural environment, the Wild Horse Sanctuary in Northern California offers two-day and three-day trail rides to see the horses on the organization’s 5,000-acre preserve near Lassen Volcanic National Park. This little-visited corner of California bears the scars of its violent geological past. Fields are littered with volcanic rock from previous eruptions. Lassen Peak, formed by a volcano, is visible from the sanctuary.

Dianne Nelson was bottle-feeding a month-old abandoned kitten when I met her on the porch of her ranch house at the sanctuary, in Shingletown, Calif. Mrs. Nelson is a co-founder of the sanctuary. And although caring for unwanted animals is her life, she stumbled into it by happenstance.

In 1974 she was helping her first husband round up mustangs under a government contract. When the Forest Service couldn’t find homes for 12 older stallions that Mrs. Nelson helped capture, they were destroyed. “I heard the shots,” she said, “and you don’t forget that.”

The following year, 80 healthy mares and stallions were to be put down. “When a horse is 20 years old and blind in one eye you can rationalize destroying it, but when they are 2- and 3-year-old, beautiful, healthy animals, that’s more than you can stomach,” she said. “That’s when we said we’d take them all.”

Now nearly 300 unwanted wild horses and a score of burros run free on the preserve. Although a few horses were born in the sanctuary, most were removed from public lands by the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management because the animal populations exceeded their habitats’ ability to support them.

Many captured wild horses are adopted by the public for a small fee and taken away to be trained as saddle or pack animals, but under a 2004 federal law (the Burns Amendment) wild horses more than 10 years of age or offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least three times can be sold for any purpose, including slaughter.

The Wild Horse Sanctuary is a nonprofit group supported principally by donors, but income from the trail rides supplies a third of the budget. I joined nine other guests with varying riding experience on a midweek trip last fall.

Mike Hoffman, the only paid employee at the sanctuary, and two volunteers helped us get mounted. Mr. Hoffman was dressed in a Western shirt with round marks in the pockets, most likely from cans of snuff; jeans with full-length leather chaps; boots with spurs; and a black hat that looked like it had seen a lot of bad weather.

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Hoffman said to the greenhorns. “You’ll all be walking like cowboys and cowgirls when we’re done.”

He introduced me to Murphy, a 7-year-old quarter horse that waited patiently in the corral. To get Murphy in gear I gave him a gentle prod with my heels, and he obediently started walking, off on a long, hot and dusty 14-mile ride to our campsite. “When you think you’re there, you’re not,” Mr. Hoffman said.

At the feeding grounds along the way we encountered scores of wild horses eating some of the 300 tons of feed and supplements that the sanctuary supplies during the nine months out of the year when natural grasses don’t yield enough food. The horses matched the colors of the countryside — blacks and browns and tans.

Wild horses are social animals. They were grouped in bands — half a dozen or so mares watched over by a dominant stallion, and other bands of bachelor horses. Several weeks-old foals tottered on skinny legs. Most of the males have been gelded, but some, part of a university horse-contraceptive study, have not. We were told to avoid the stallions because they are protective of their mares.

After watching the wild horses feed we continued up a narrow trail through the chaparral, watching for overhanging branches. We followed trails made by the wild horses, and they didn’t worry about clearance for a rider.

Our horses picked their way through rocky dry creek beds, nose to tail in a line. When Murphy fell behind he speeded up to a trot and I had to hang on — it was like sitting on a sack of moving bowling balls. Brown volcanic rocks littered the landscape where scrub oak, juniper and pinyon pine grow. The scarlet branches of the manzanita were twisted like driftwood sculptures.

We stopped at a spring to water the horses and give them a rest on the long climb. It was hot, and Mr. Hoffman offered to splash water down the backs of our shirts to help us stay cool. I accepted, and then dipped my cap in the clear spring water. Cold drinks came out of saddlebags packed with ice.

After four and a half hours of dusty riding we reached the wooden plank buildings of the camp. There were five small cabins, a small corral for the dude horses and, thankfully, flush toilets and a hot shower. Our luggage had already arrived via pickup truck. I eased myself down off Murphy and was surprised I could still walk, though a bit bowlegged.

We rested until Mrs. Nelson rang the traditional triangle to summon us to dinner — chicken and steak barbecued over an open fire, accompanied by salad with balsamic vinaigrette, cowboy beans, corn on the cob and camp rolls. There was also ranch dressing for the cowboys.

The next morning I saw a mare and a foal grazing in the field near the coral. “Are those wild horses?” I asked Mr. Hoffman.

“Yup,” he said in a patient cowboy drawl. “The horses outside the fence are wild. The horses inside the fence are tame.”

One of the volunteers dumped a hay bale for the wild horses, and we watched them graze as we ate breakfast and sipped cowboy coffee poured from a chipped blue enamel pot that sat on the fire.

The ride out was easier, and Murphy seemed happier to be going downhill. We stopped again for drinking water and a wetdown. More wild horses were at the feeding ground, and I watched the interplay between stallions, mares and geldings. One foal, only a few weeks old, scampered in search of her mother.

At the end of the ride I fed Murphy an apple and thanked him for the ride. But I think he’d rather be a mustang.

VISITOR INFORMATION

CALIFORNIA The Wild Horse Sanctuary in Shingletown is about a three-hour drive from Sacramento or four and a half hours from San Francisco.

Two- and three-day rides cost $325 and $425 and operate from May through July and September through mid-October. Custom rides can be arranged for groups. Riders must weigh less than 205 pounds and be in good physical shape. Special permission is required for riders under 14 years old. Novice riders are welcome. Trips include breakfast, bag lunch and barbecue dinner. Information at www.wildhorsesanctuary.org or call (530) 335-2241.

SOUTH DAKOTA More than 500 wild horses occupy the 11,000 acres of the nonprofit Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary near Hot Spring, founded by the rancher and author Dayton O. Hyde in 1988.

Visitors can view mustangs and their descendants on two-hour or three-hour bus tours or take a six-hour guided excursion in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Costs range from $50 for adults for the two-hour bus tour to $750 for a three-person six-hour trip.

Reservations are required and the sanctuary is open year-round. More information is at www.wildmustangs.com or call (800) 252-6652.

(l) (l)

(ip) Whew! Day 2 of a four-day heat wave........:| (ip)

;) "I've got to get out of here, if it's the last thing I ever do!" (w)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:33 PM

:o

River shacks are “representative of what I would consider the magic of ‘old time South Carolina.’ ” GOV. MARK SANFORD

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/07/us/08land.600.jpg

River Shacks of South Carolina SLIDE SHOW:

http://select.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/08/us/20070708_LAND_SLIDESHOW_1.html

July 8, 2007

This Land

A Quiet Escape on the Rivers, and an Endangered Species

By DAN BARRY

ON the LITTLE PEE DEE RIVER, S.C.

The boat moves through the murky river waters while swallow-tailed kites stir the evening sky and a little blue heron poses beside the cypress-lined shore, as if for Audubon. But these natural wonders only distract from the expedition’s purpose, which is to seek out a specific endangered species.

Shhh. There’s one now.

“River shack!” Chris Crolley, the boat captain, says, his tone a mix of awe and disgust. “There you go.”

His vessel gently sidles up to the specimen: a kind of raft made of planks and 55-gallon drums, some plastic, some rusting metal, and featuring two padlocked tool sheds made of plywood. The few homey touches include a foot-tall plastic picket fence, a small grill, a couple of buckets that might serve as toilets, and a ceramic frog or two. Keeping it moored is a long pole bolted to an ancient cypress.

Mr. Crolley and others on his bobbing boat examine the unoccupied structure the way a clutch of botanists might study an unusual plant. They marvel at both the cheap construction — “This is on the lower end of nice,” someone says — and the audacity of its appearance here on the scenic, public Little Pee Dee River, a few miles from the small town of Hemingway.

But this particular shack defies easy classification because it has not one but two sheds. Mr. Crolley, 36, so familiar with these waters that he is sometimes called Aquaman, pauses in thought before looking up from under his floppy hat and giving name to the subspecies before him. “Duplex,” he says triumphantly.

For who knows how long, people have plopped these river shacks into watery coves and curves along the South Carolina coast. They permanently anchor their shacks miles from the nearest landing and use them to fish, hunt or just get off the grid for a while. Some contraptions are so modest that to call them shacks is too kind, while others are so well appointed that they all but cry out for granite countertops and potpourri.

It all sounds so innocent, so idyllic — so American, in a Huck Finn kind of way. That is, until you consider that the river shack owners are essentially laying claim to public property without paying license fees, taxes or, in some cases, even respect. A few people use the river as their personal toilet; others abandon their shacks, leaving the structures to rot amid the natural splendor.

But environmentalists who see these shacks as an affront to the concept of resource management recently succeeded in lobbying for their extinction. This spring the state passed a law requiring owners to seek permits for the structures — recent surveys counted at least 170 on several rivers and Lake Marion — with the stipulation that in five years all shacks must be removed from the water.

The law has angered people like John Hilton, 21, a college student who has spent years building and refining a river shack on Lake Marion with a few friends. “There’s 90 55-gallon drums floating it,” he says. “It has a tin roof, screened-in porches, and is made with treated lumber.”

True, he says, he and his friends do not own land or water rights. And true, their river shack is analogous to some buddies plunking down a Home Depot shed on a public beach and calling it their own. “But I don’t see it fair to bring that concern up after all these years of them being legal,” he says.

The issue even posed a dilemma for Gov. Mark Sanford, who ultimately decided to allow the river shack bill to pass into law without his signature. While he supports land preservation, he explained in a letter to legislators, he wonders about increasing gentrification, and “the idea that someone could tie a bunch of 55-gallon drums together and stake out a house on the waterway is representative of what I would consider the magic of ‘old time South Carolina.’ ”

But Patrick Moore, a lawyer working for the Coastal Conservation League, which led the legislative fight against river shacks, sees no dilemma. “The idea that these shacks are some sort of entitlement of our natural heritage is, frankly, an insult to that very heritage,” he says.

Mr. Moore, 28, peers from under his own floppy hat as he sits in the back of Mr. Crolley’s 18-foot boat, now churning north in search of more specimens. Mr. Crolley is a naturalist whose company, Coastal Expeditions, explores and celebrates the South Carolina coast. He tends to call out the scientific classification for every animal and tree he sees, and, like Mr. Moore, he detests river shacks.

They come upon a cluster of river shacks with no one home, a kind of hamlet, really. Here is a cute white cottage on the water — literally. And here is a structure that appears to be the Versailles of river shacks, with electric lights, an air conditioner, a stainless steel grill large enough to cook a whole pig, a —

“Is that a satellite dish?” Mr. Crolley asks, incredulous. “Yes it is.”

The boat moves on, its passengers struggling with mixed feelings of outrage and envy. Soon an abandoned river shack appears on the horizon, and then another, and then another, victims of the swampy environment and neglect. All that is left of one are some Styrofoam pontoons, looking like faux ice floes. Another is flipped upside down, its only visitor the river, streaming through two broken windows.

No human comment is necessary. A flock of white ibises glides past. A jumping fish makes a splash. And a river in old time South Carolina carries on.

(y) Nice article, although wold horses, love and $ couldn't drag me to live in the U.S. South. :o It is like breathing jello with its extreme humidity.

(y) I think the Governor's quote was right on, IMHO. Leave folks who have these river shacks as primary residences or as "second" homes alone. (y)

(f)

Mon est vivere sed valere vita est.

(Life is not being alive but being well...life is more than just being alive.)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:35 PM

:)

A look at Edgewater, the Hudson River Valley home of Richard Hampton Jenrette.

SLIDE SHOW:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/05/travel/escapes/20070706_AWAY_SLIDESHOW_1.html

A favorite dream of mine is to have one of these:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/05/travel/Away1_Books.jpg

The back is WAY nicer than the front.........

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/05/travel/Away1_Back.jpg

(f) (f)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:37 PM

:| :| :|

;)

Dr. Norman Doidge shares a home in Toronto with a rare transposable Heintzman piano.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/07/06/fashion/08poss190.2.jpg

July 8, 2007

Possessed

A Pointy-Headed Piano

By DAVID COLMAN

LOOK! Up inside your skull! It’s a clock! It’s a car! It’s a moving picture camera-and-projector-in-one! It’s ... never mind.

In the nearly four centuries since Descartes wrested authority over the mind and body from the religious realm, the brain has been compared to any number of fantastic machines to shed light on this elusive organ.

When Dr. Norman Doidge set out to write his new book, “The Brain That Changes Itself” (Viking), chronicling the work of a handful of scientists, doctors and patients who are challenging the mechanical model of the brain in favor of a more organic, renewable and malleable paradigm called neuroplasticity, he fought the urge to stoop to metaphor to explain himself. No protean chameleons, regenerating phoenixes or springy birch saplings.

But Dr. Doidge, who lives in Toronto, does suggest one image: a hill of new-fallen snow. There are several paths down the hill that a skier may take. But once tracks have been made, odds are that the next time you go down, you’ll use the same ones. Before you know it, you’ve thinking like Vail.

Luckily for this mental resort, even Vail melts and makes way for new trails — recreation and re-creation all in one.

As it happens, Dr. Doidge has something, a mechanical something, that could be pressed into brain-metaphor service. Not much for skiing, he has long tinkered with poetry and music, and he vividly remembers the day some 30 years ago when, still a medical student, he saw a piano at a Toronto music store that completely unmoored his ideas of what a piano could be and do.

“The first thing I thought was how beautiful it was,” he recalled. “Then, when I discovered what it was, I was in awe.” What it was was a transposable piano: with a flick of a lever, its keyboard slides left or right, two or three keys in either direction. This eliminates the need to play the entirely different configuration that switching to another key usually requires.

“For years I thought how great it would be if there was a transposable piano,” he said, “just like there’s the capo on a guitar that allows you to do the same thing.”

The piano, made in 1895 by the Heintzman & Company, was a favorite of Irving Berlin. One more happy surprise: at $2,000, it was affordable. “I didn’t have time to perfect things in every key, and this piano allowed me to cheat,” he said.

Mechanical as it is, the piano makes a neat illustration of how the brain can adapt when faced with more than time constraints. Presented with a very wrong key — brain damage from a stroke, a learning disability or emotional trauma — the brain, as Dr. Doidge’s book shows, has a remarkable ability to transpose to a new one; that is, to shift a variety of functions to a healthier mode or node or both.

“We think of these things as fixed, or hard-wired,” he said, “but they’re not.”

Dr. Doidge’s brain may have adapted to a transposable keyboard, but the ability to adapt, to lay down new tracks, is not the same as having an endless facility to do so. After all, the goal of the adaptive brain is to create a structure that facilitates repetitive actions and thoughts. He would have a hard time learning all the different fingering to play even a familiar song in another key. “I would really have to travel with it if I were going to play anywhere,” he said.

Even so, the idea that we are not born, and fated to live, in a key that feels a little off is very liberating.

(y) (y)

Carpe Diem,

SL & WTB (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:37 PM

:)

"We went along very slowly and the sound of the paddle in the water was the only sound that broke the silence."

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/07/08/travel/20070708_WHY_slideshow_1.html

(f) (f)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:40 PM

(l) (l) (l)

Procrastinators can still find space at popular park lodges this summer, if they’re willing to be flexible.

July 8, 2007

Practical Traveler | Lodging at National Parks

Canyons and Geysers Are Still Within Reach

By MICHELLE HIGGINS

IT is not too late to find a room at a national park this season. While swarms of camera-toting tourists and caravans of RVs fill up popular park lodges each summer, the number of people visiting the parks has been on a slow decline for the last several years — down about 5 percent to 273 million visitors last year, from the peak in 1999. Procrastinators can still find space if they're willing to be flexible.

A search for rooms at various parks around the country in the last week of June turned up a range of options. Xanterra.com, an online reservation site for several national parks, showed openings on the second and third weekends in July at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, where rooms start at $115 a night at Bryce Canyon Lodge. At Yellowstone, the second-to-last weekend in August was available at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Cabins, where rooms range from $106 to $500 a night. At Mesa Verde in Colorado, the Far View, the only lodge in the park, is even having a sale. It has slashed rates from $118 to $49 a night for each Thursday through July and August.

Some accommodations, like Lewis Mountain Cabins and Skyland Resort in Shenandoah National Park, had limited availability on the weekends but still had spots open Sunday through Thursday. Others had plenty of empty rooms, but they were scattered sporadically throughout the summer.

For example, both the Maswik and Yavapai Lodges, near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, with rooms starting at $78 and $98 a night, were still showing availability on many nights for the rest of the summer. But finding accommodations for a multiple-night stay can be tricky. For instance, Maswik, half a mile from the canyon rim, was showing as many as 40 rooms available on Thursday, Aug. 2. But only a couple of rooms were open for the nights on either side of that date.

Don't expect to get into the most coveted accommodations at the most popular parks. All the lodges overlooking the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, including El Tovar and Bright Angel, have been sold out for months. But in general, you're most likely to find availability the last week of August and first week of September.

That's when families are getting ready for school and just before retiree travel picks up after Labor Day, said Kevin Dillman, director of central reservations at Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which operates accommodations at six national parks. Zion Lodge, for instance, the only lodge in Zion National Park in Utah, had several rooms available Aug. 26, 29 and 31, ranging in price from $151 for a motel-style room to $161 for a cabin.

In Yellowstone, you can generally find space at Grant Village or Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins the last week in August. “We will not sell out at Grant Village on the Wednesday and Thursday, for sure,” said Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Yellowstone at Xanterra Parks and Resorts. “That's a fairly safe bet.”

If you're willing to stay outside the park, your options quickly broaden. Aysgarth Station Bed and Breakfast in Bar Harbor, Me., within seven miles of three different entrances to Acadia National Park, had at least one room available nearly every week this summer. Prices range from $115 to $135 a night. Yosemite Big Creek Inn, a B&B just two miles from the South Gate of Yosemite National Park, had a couple of weeks available in August. (Rates start at $159 a night.) So did the Paradise Gateway Bed and Breakfast, 20 miles from the North Entrance to Yellowstone, with rates starting at $85 a night. To find other bed-and-breakfasts located near parks, check www.bnbfinder.com/parks/.

Choice Hotels offers a guide to hotels near parks at its Web site, www.choicehotels.com (under “point of interest,” type the name of the park you want to visit). At the end of June, the Econo Lodge Inn and Suites in Kalispell, Mont., near Glacier National Park, with rooms starting at $119 a night, was half empty for the rest of the summer. The Comfort Inn Yellowstone North in Gardiner, Mont., with rooms from $149 a night, was packed until July 7 but was about 80 percent full for the remainder of the summer. One tip for this hotel: Call two weeks before you want to stay to check for cancellations. That's when travel agents who have reserved blocks of rooms cancel their unsold inventory.

The four hotels operated by Aramark Harrison Lodging near the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska were 85 percent full about eight months before the start of the summer season. But at the beginning and the end of August “there is plenty of room” and rates are as low as $90 a night, said Brian Murphy, national director of marketing at Aramark, which manages accommodations in, or just outside, five national parks.

Visitors to the Grand Canyon can stay at the Railway Hotel in the ponderosa pine forest of Williams, Ariz., and take its train straight to the South Rim of the Canyon — a trip of 65 miles that takes 2 hours and 15 minutes. The hotel, which was only about 50 percent full for July and August, is offering a Railway Getaway that includes a one-night stay at the hotel, breakfast and dinner at a restaurant adjacent to the depot, and round-trip coach-class train travel. The price is $159 per adult, double occupancy.

If you're determined to stay at an in-park lodge, keep calling. “At the popular parks, people make reservations a long way out as a contingency,” said Mr. Murphy at Aramark. “There can be a lot of churn within those parks, so keep checking Internet sites or call centers because someone is bound to cancel.”

Travelers might also get in at the last minute by booking with tour operators, which tend to buy rooms in bulk months in advance. At the end of June, Globus, for example, still had spots available in August for its $1,800 10-day America's National Parks trip, with two nights in Yellowstone. There was also a little space left in July and August on its $1,639 eight-day Canyon Country Adventure, which includes one night's lodging on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

And if all else fails, you can try just showing up. “People move, they check out early, plans change,” said Mr. Hoeninghausen, who heads up sales for Yellowstone lodging, “You could walk in today and potentially get a room at the Old Faithful Inn.”

Bottom line: “We hardly ever start the day sold out,” he said, “but we usually end the day sold out.”

(ap) (au) October through April is the BEST time, IMHO. Considerably less crowded and the temps are usually comfortable, depending on location. Who takes a vacation during the Summer when everyone else is taking theirs?? :| :|

;)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:42 PM

:o :o

Silencing free speech.

http://thephoenix.com/secure/uploadedImages/The_Phoenix/News/News_Stories/COV_eagle3.jpg

The 10th Annual Muzzle Awards

Silencing free speech

By DAN KENNEDY

July 6, 2007 8:59:09 AM

Mitt Romney will say or do anything if he thinks it will help him become president. We made that observation this past year at this time, and since then the former Massachusetts governor has only accelerated his assault on freedom of speech and civil liberties.

In 2006, Romney led the pack of honorees for his excessive zeal in pursuing terrorists, calling for the wiretapping of mosques and the monitoring of foreign students .

Now he’s back, for refusing (when he was still governor) to provide security — even though it had been requested by the State Department — for a speech by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami at Harvard University. And that wasn’t all, as you will learn.

Romney epitomizes how the Muzzle Awards have morphed since their debut in 1998. In that more innocent time, shutting down a community radio station and removing newspaper boxes from an urban neighborhood was about as bad as it got.

Such stifling acts still take place, of course, and they still matter. But the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, ushered in an era of unprecedented repression. Nationally, the crackdown has been led by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, with their contempt for constitutional protections such as habeas corpus and their embrace of secret detention and torture.

Nor has Congress provided much of a check. In April, the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for revealing that Bush had used — and abused — presidential signing statements to ignore hundreds of bills passed by Congress, including a mandate to report on how the FBI was using its expanded police powers, and a law allowing accused terrorists to see the evidence against them.

This police-state mentality has permeated New England, as well. For instance, Muzzles this year go not only to Romney but to the Maine Department of Corrections, which has allegedly covered up its abuse of prisoners by ignoring federal consent decrees requiring prison officials to allow inmates to communicate with reporters; and to Rhode Island governor Donald Carcieri, for apparently backing a proposal that would allow law-enforcement officials to inspect private records without having to go to the bother of obtaining a court warrant.

Traditionally, the US Supreme Court has been a great defender of the First Amendment. But Bush has succeeded in remaking the high court in his image, and three decisions handed down in late June were something of a mixed bag. To its credit, the court overturned a so-called campaign-finance-reform law that had restricted the right of corporations, labor unions, and other organizations to buy television commercials that could influence elections. Unfortunately, the justices also ruled that an Alaska high-school principal acted within her rights when she suspended a student who had unfurled a BONG HITS 4 JESUS banner, and threw out a lawsuit that had challenged the Bush administration for spending taxpayer funds on religious programs (this week Harvey Silverglate delves further into that case: see “Alito: Hypocrisy in High Places.").

The Muzzle Awards were inspired by noted civil-liberties lawyer and Phoenix contributor Harvey Silverglate, and are named after similar awards given by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Freedom of Expression. They were compiled by tracking freedom-of-expression stories in New England since July 4, 2006, and are based on reporting by various news organizations — including the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Providence Journal, the Portland Press Herald, and the Associated Press, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other local and national sources — and, of course, the Phoenix newspapers in Boston, Providence, and Portland.

Mitt Romney

His grandstanding nearly nixes Iranian leader’s speech

In September, the State Department asked then/no spamming of other sites/Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to provide security for former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, who was speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Never mind that state-police protection is customary for visiting foreign leaders. Never mind that Khatami, regarded as a well-meaning though ineffective reformer, is a useful counterpoint to his Holocaust-denying, nuke-seeking successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Indeed, Khatami is now in trouble with Ahmadinejad and his theocratic overlord, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for shaking a woman’s hand in public.) Never mind that Romney had an opportunity to showcase his own respect for freedom of speech.

“State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel,” the grandstanding Romney said. And when he was criticized, he responded, “It’s a ‘blame America,’ it’s a ‘hate America’ attitude on the part of some liberals that I think many people find very offensive, myself included.” Good thing the Boston Police Department stepped in, or Khatami would have had to cancel his speech. This offered precisely the kind of lesson in American hypocrisy that Khatami’s enemies in Iran would have loved to exploit.

Nor was that an isolated incident. Even though George W. Bush’s popularity has slipped to Nixon-like levels, Romney seems to think that following in Bush’s cowboy-boot prints is the surest path to the nomination.

In October, he announced that the MBTA would begin random searches of passengers for explosives — a dubious measure seemingly designed more to heighten the public’s fears than to provide any real measure of safety.

When the Republican presidential candidates were asked at a May debate what should be done about the human-rights hellhole in Guantánamo, Romney replied, “Some people have said we ought to close Guantánamo. My view is we ought to double Guantánamo.”

And late in June, a Romney aide was accused of stopping and attempting to intimidate New York Times reporter (and Phoenix alumnus) Mark Leibovich, who was driving behind Romney’s SUV in New Hampshire. The Romney campaign’s first instinct was to deny that it had happened, but the incident is now being investigated.

So now, along with former governor Paul Cellucci, Romney becomes just the second person to win three Muzzle Awards. By entering our Hall of Shame, he becomes ineligible for further consideration. (Of course, if he succeeds in his bid for the White House, there’s little doubt that he’ll earn a place of dishonor alongside Bush and Dick Cheney.)

Maine Department of Corrections

Policy of silencing prisoners violates federal court order

For the past year and a half, freelance reporter Lance Tapley has been writing a series of articles for the Portland Phoenix on abusive conditions in the Maine prison system. Among other things, Tapley’s work led to the attempted silencing of his principal source: Deane Brown, a convicted burglar, was locked up in a maximum-security, solitary-confinement Supermax unit at the Maine State Prison in Warren, where he had virtually no access to the outside world. When even that move proved ineffective at muzzling Brown, prison officials this past November moved him to Maryland, where he remains to this day.

That alone might have been enough to earn the Maine Department of Corrections a Muzzle Award. But it turns out that the prison system’s actions were not only censorious — they may also have violated federal consent decrees. Recently, Tapley discovered that, in the early 1970s, a federal judge in Portland ordered state corrections officials to permit reporters to interview prisoners, to allow prisoners to write to reporters, and to grant prisoners a hearing before transferring them to another facility.

Those federal orders are apparently still in force. Yet even after Tapley informed state officials about his discovery, they continued to stonewall his requests for access. The state’s attorney general, Steven Rowe, refused to say whether he believed the order was still binding.

As Tapley himself acknowledges, prisoners are not necessarily the most credible sources of information regarding what goes on behind penitentiary walls. But that doesn’t mean prison officials have a right to cover up allegations of abuse by denying inmates the ability to speak out about the conditions under which they are being held.

According to Neville Woodruff, a retired lawyer who worked on the lawsuits that led to the three consent decrees, those orders remain in force — and the Department of Corrections, by not following them, may be in contempt of federal court.

Adds Maine Civil Liberties Union legal director Zachary Heiden: “Thirty-five years ago, the state of Maine agreed that prisoners have rights. Those rights still protect inmates and protect reporters concerned about the operation of our public prisons.”

Donald Carcieri

Rhode Island Governor backs no-warrant investigations

Earlier this year, a remarkable bill was filed in the Rhode Island General Assembly. Supported by the state-police superintendent, Colonel Brendan Doherty, it would allow the state attorney general, as well as state and local police, to examine anyone’s private Internet, phone, bank, and credit-card records without first seeking a court warrant.

It’s a piece of legislation that Rhode Island officials are treating like a bad check. Governor Donald Carcieri’s spokesman says Carcieri won’t support it unless he can be assured that privacy rights would be sufficiently protected. The bill’s sponsor, State Representative Richard Singleton, a Cumberland Republican, says he’s not too thrilled with the legislation, but agreed to file it on behalf of — yes — Carcieri.

A Providence Journal editorial got it exactly right in observing that “ultimately, the governor is responsible for this bad legislation” — especially given its close resemblance to a proposal he supported in 2006.

“It amounts to a wholesale invasion of Rhode Islanders’ privacy,” says Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU. It’s certainly not as though playing by the rules leads to unnecessary delays. According to one estimate, it takes all of 20 or 30 minutes to obtain a court warrant.

Carcieri is a two-time offender. In 2004, he won a Muzzle Award for filing a homeland-security bill that would have brought back World War I/no spamming of other sites/style laws by making it illegal to advocate anarchy, to call for the overthrow of the government, or to display any alternative to the American flag with the intention of making a protest or other symbolic statement. Carcieri backed off, but not before blaming his staff and claiming he had not read the legislation — just as he tried to pass off the responsibility for his latest repressive measure on Doherty, his own appointee.

Fortunately, the House Judiciary Committee recommended in March that the Carcieri/Doherty/Singleton bill be referred for further study. That is invariably a euphemism for killing a measure. And it’s hard to think of a bill that is more deserving of being killed than this misbegotten abridgement of the right to go about one’s business in private.

Jerry McDermott

Boston city councilor aims at Chávez, hits Citgo sign

If there’s an iconic piece of pop kitsch that defines the Boston skyline, it’s surely the giant Citgo sign in Kenmore Square. Lovingly restored in 2005, its burned-out neon tubes replaced with bright LEDs, the 60-by-60-foot sign can been seen from several miles away and is as much a part of the Fenway Park experience as David Ortiz walk-offs and steamed hot dogs in damp, squishy buns.

But the sign came under fire in September after Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez took the podium at the United Nations and issued an offensive — and, let’s be honest, hilarious — attack on President Bush. “The devil came here yesterday,” Chávez said. “And it smells of sulfur still today.”

It turned out that Citgo, based in Houston, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company. Enter Boston city councilor Jerry McDermott, who introduced a resolution demanding that the Citgo sign be taken down in retaliation for Chávez’s words. “Given the hatred of the United States displayed by dictator Hugo Chávez,” said McDermott, “it would be more fitting to see an American flag when you drive through Kenmore Square.”

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, including that of Mayor Tom Menino, who rightly called the sign a “landmark.” But given McDermott’s predilection for heavy-handed governmental authority (he also spoke out against supposedly objectionable material on Boston’s local-access cable channel, and called for voters to produce photo IDs at the polls), the best news to come out of his office all year was his announcement that he will not seek re-election to his Allston-Brighton seat this fall.

Tufts University

Politically correct students become their own censors

Let’s concede, for the sake of argument, that a parody published in a conservative student magazine at Tufts University, the Primary Source, was an example of flat-out racism. At the very least, the anti-affirmative-action exercise — a mock Christmas carol titled “O Come All Ye Black Folk” — was racially insensitive.

Does it matter? Should it matter? After all, the First Amendment was not written to protect laudatory reports about church picnics. Rather, its most important purpose is to protect unpopular speech, even speech that is vile and hateful.

Yes, “O Come All Ye Black Folk” was offensive. (An excerpt: “O come all ye black folk, boisterous yet desirable. . . . No matter what your grades are, F’s, D’s, or G’s/Give them privileged status/We will welcome all/O come let us accept them . . .”) Still, it’s reprehensible that a student-faculty disciplinary panel would find that the editors of the Primary Source had engaged in “harassment” and “creating a hostile learning environment” as a consequence of publishing that and other articles deemed to be objectionable.

As a private institution, Tufts is not constitutionally obligated to grant full First Amendment protection to its students, faculty, and staff. But as a university, it should be devoted to the highest possible level of free speech in keeping with its academic mission. Unfortunately Tufts, like too many colleges and universities, has adopted a speech code aimed more at coddling delicate sensibilities than at encouraging open, robust debate.

Nor was Tufts the only Greater Boston university to trample on speech during the past year. At Brandeis University, the student government came down on Gravity, a campus humor publication, for running a fake ad with a slavery theme.

As Harvey Silverglate and Jan Wolfe wrote in these pages recently, what’s especially disturbing about these two instances of campus censorship is that they were largely engineered by students, who “are now enabling their own repression.” Rather than learning how to think about unpopular ideas, these students would rather punish those who promulgate them — thus turning the purpose of a college education on its head.

Newt Gingrich

Ex/no spamming of other sites/US House Speaker attacks free speech at First Amendment dinner

God bless Newt Gingrich. It’s hardly a surprise that the former House Speaker would publicly trash the First Amendment. But because he traveled all the way to New England to do it, the Georgia Republican has made it into our winner’s circle. That he chose to deliver his ill-considered remarks at a dinner honoring — believe it or not — the First Amendment is just an additional reminder of how much we miss him, and why we desperately hope he enters the Republican presidential race later this year.

Here’s what Gingrich said last November during a speech at the Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Awards dinner, in Manchester, New Hampshire, at which he conjured up the image of a nuclear attack: “My view is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that we use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us, to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.”

And far from trying to take it back, Gingrich proudly reproduced on his own Web site a story from the Manchester Union Leader reporting his remarks — right down to the headline, GINGRICH RAISES ALARM AT EVENT HONORING THOSE WHO STAND UP FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. (The Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, which sponsored the dinner, is principal owner of the Union Leader.)

Keith Olbermann, on his MSNBC program, Countdown, reacted thusly: “If you’re going to destroy freedom of speech, bub, you’ve already lost all the cities. To paraphrase Pastor Martin Niemöller’s poem about Germany in the ’30s and ’40s: First they came for the Fourth Amendment, then they came for habeas corpus, then they came for free speech, and there was no one allowed to speak up.”

But the last word goes to Olbermann’s guest, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who said, “I mean, it’s bizarre it would occur in a First Amendment speech. God knows what he’d say at a Mother’s Day speech.”

John Nazarian

Rhode Island College leader removes pro-choice signs

What was Rhode Island College president John Nazarian thinking?

In December 2005, the Women’s Studies Organization at the college posted several signs in support of reproductive freedom — including, most notably, KEEP YOUR ROSARIES OFF OUR OVARIES. A priest reportedly noticed the signs while traveling to Nazarian’s home to celebrate mass, and mentioned them during the service. Nazarian responded by ordering that the signs be taken down, claiming that the women had not followed the proper approval process.

This past December, the Rhode Island ACLU filed suit in federal court, claiming the women’s First Amendment rights had been abridged. Now, of course, it’s true that people can’t go around putting up signs anywhere they please. But according to the ACLU, the place where the Women’s Studies Organization had posted its signs — the entrance to the campus — has been the scene of numerous temporary signs, including some put up by the college itself.

Rhode Island College is a public, taxpayer-funded institution, which makes Nazarian’s act of censorship that much worse. “A public university can’t abridge anyone’s free-speech rights, including [those of] students,” says Jennifer Azevedo, a volunteer lawyer with the ACLU.

The mystery is why Nazarian believed he needed to do anything. A demonstration of pro-choice sentiment at a college in the liberal Northeast is hardly the stuff of controversy. In fact, it’s difficult to believe that even the priest who mentioned it to Nazarian was offended, no matter how strongly he may have disagreed with the message. If Nazarian had just waited a few days, the signs would have been gone and forgotten.

Instead, he reacted with a blatant act of censorship — and, according to the ACLU, compounded it by attempting to assert at one point that the students had no First Amendment claims against him because he’s not a government employee.

“College is a place for the free expression of ideas,” says Nichole Aguiar, president of the Women’s Studies Organization. “[Rhode Island College] has denied our organization those rights and we have decided to take action to ensure that RIC is a better place for all students.”

Marblehead selectmen

Iron-fisted control over painting lacks spirit of ’76

For a prime example of what happens when local officials are given the opportunity to control what others publish, consider the town of Marblehead. Hanging in Abbot Hall is The Spirit of ’76, Archibald Willard’s well-known depiction of two drummers and a fife player on a Revolutionary War/no spamming of other sites/era battlefield, which he painted for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. The copyright expired decades ago. Willard also painted several other versions.

But the Marblehead rendition is considered definitive, and the town selectmen have in their possession a high-quality slide. That slide is essential for anyone who wishes to republish the painting, since The Spirit of ’76 is shielded by a sheet of glass, and if you try to photograph it, the reflection will render it unusable.

You may not be surprised to learn that the selectmen are extraordinarily protective of the slide and, well, selective about whom they will allow to borrow it. If you’ve got a nonprofit use in mind, or if you’re a textbook publisher, the selectmen might take pity on you and let you use it — usually for a $100 fee. If not? Well, forget it.

The selectmen’s policy has led to some truly bizarre decisions. Several years ago, they allowed Bob Jones University to borrow the slide for a textbook despite the university’s history of racial discrimination and anti-Catholic bigotry. Not that they shouldn’t have. But this past spring the selectmen turned down local historian Pam Peterson because the booklet in which she wanted to include it, Marblehead Myths and Legends, might (gasp!) make a little money.

For the same reason, the selectmen in May rejected a request from American History magazine. Selectman William Woodfin, noting that the magazine sells for $4.95, darkly intoned, “Someone appears to be making a profit.” He added: “I don’t want teasers put over the front of Marblehead’s copy of The Spirit. . . like Cosmopolitan magazine.”

Both local papers have poked fun at the selectmen, with the Marblehead Reporter urging them to “get a life” and the Salem News editorializing that the selectmen must “enjoy the sight of an unenlightened few groveling before them.” No matter. The selectmen have the slide and, thus, the power that goes with it.

Maine election officials

Anti-free-speech ruling croaks legislative candidate

It’s bad enough that well-meaning reformers have succeeded in regulating political speech through so-called campaign-finance-reform measures that restrict how candidates, political parties, and outside organizations raise and spend money.

But consider the plight of Cape Elizabeth resident Michael Mowles, a Republican candidate for the state legislature in 2004 and again in 2006. During the primary campaign in 2006, he distributed a flier that recycled endorsements he had received from the state’s Republican US senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, two years earlier in the general election. Not wanting to mislead anyone, he stuck an “October 2004” attribution next to each of those endorsements.

That wasn’t good enough for Mowles’s primary opponent (and former aide), Jennifer Duddy. Believing that prospective voters might think Snowe and Collins had endorsed one Republican over another, Duddy filed a complaint with the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. And the commission, after examining Mowles’s entirely accurate campaign literature, ruled against him, fining him a token $1 and publicizing its findings just before the primary election. Duddy won. Mowles lost.

Mowles sued, arguing that the commission’s unwarranted meddling had cost him the Republican nomination.

“The government doesn’t have the right to control political speech,” says Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Mowles. “Mr. Mowles was making use of comments already in the public sphere. It’s up to the people, not his opponent and not the government, to decide whether or not that’s appropriate.”

Mowles’s case was heard this past March in Cumberland County Superior Court, which ruled against him. Next stop, according to his lawyer, David Lourie: the Maine Supreme Court. Let’s hope the justices stand up for the right of candidates to campaign and of voters to vote, free from interference on the part of those who claim they love democracy so much that they need to smother it.

Jose Duarte

Boston English headmaster accused of squelching protest

It is with some trepidation that we wade into the murky waters of a civil lawsuit. Jeffrey Herman claims he was let go as a substitute teacher at Boston English High School because he had spoken out at a city-council hearing against the school system’s $1.2 million Junior ROTC program. English High School headmaster Jose Duarte, in a response filed by school-department lawyers, counters that he put Herman on a “do not call” list because of Herman’s “poor performance and inappropriate behavior as a substitute teacher.”

But regardless of who’s telling the truth, the issue raised by Herman is a crucial one and worth calling attention to. Certainly the ACLU of Massachusetts thinks so, as it is representing Herman in court. And there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest that he may have a case: according to the ACLU, Duarte is “a former military man who has ‘Reveille’ played over the school loudspeaker in the mornings.”

Says Herman: “I testified to city councilors that taxpayer dollars would be better spent on teaching kids how to stop the violence that is plaguing our city. Apparently headmaster Duarte couldn’t tolerate my expressing that point of view.” (Editor's note: After the print edition of the Phoenix went to press, the city agreed to pay Herman a $15,000 settlement, but did not admit to any wrongdoing on Duarte's part.)

If the First Amendment means anything, surely it ought to protect a public schoolteacher who speaks against the military recruiters who seek to enlist vulnerable high-school students, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds and see few other opportunities in life.

If Duarte acted out of a desire to silence Herman, then he couldn’t have offered a worse example to the young people he leads. Perhaps the school song ought to be changed from “Reveille” to “Taps.”

http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid42926.aspx

On the Web:

Dan Kennedy's Media Nation: http://medianation.blogspot.com/

|-) |-) |-) Must be the oppressive heat this afternoon........:)

Aut disce aut discede.

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:45 PM

;)

The rise of webcomics and four artists leading the way

http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid42358.aspx

^o)^o) Sometimes it seems as if there is a generational gap difference in perception. But then of course, there is always the very distinct possibility of being wrong as well. Or generational dyslexia?

8-) Huh? Say what?

;)

(f) Stay cool.

Carpe Diem,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-08-2007, 03:49 PM

<:o) <:o) <:o)

Game: Plasma Pong — Mac

New spin on an old game

Plasma Pong is a variation of the classic Pong, utilizing real-time fluid dynamics to bring a brave new look and feel to the game. You can inject plasma fluid into the game environment, create a vacuum from your paddle, and blast shockwaves into the playing area. All these abilities can have a strange, unpredictable, and even beautiful effect on the ball, making Plasma Pong a unique and exciting game.

http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19521

(y) (y)

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-09-2007, 10:51 AM

;)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/2007/jul/09/art?picture=330161248

In the 19th century, the northern coast of France was flooded with holidaymakers as the wealthy and fashionable urban classes decamped to the seaside from Paris. A new exhibition at the Royal Academy explores the origins and development of this trend through the beach scenes of the impressionists, notably Boudin, Manet and Monet, who were all drawn to the coast. From the 1880s these artists were turning their backs on depictions of people and instead focusing on capturing the effects of the light and the spray. Catch a piece of summer as we head to Normandy ...

Shadows on the Sea - The Cliffs at Pourville by Claude Monet, 1882. Oil on canvas, 57 x 80cm

http://image.guim.co.uk/Guardian/arts/gallery/2007/jul/09/art/2-6175.jpg

Ah, those lovely blues and purples!

The Beach at Trouville by Claude Monet, 1870. Oil on canvas 53.5 x 65 cm Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.

http://image.guim.co.uk/Guardian/arts/gallery/2007/jul/09/art/5-6565.jpg

The Regatta at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet, 1867. Oil on canvas, 75.2 x 101.6cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of William Church Osborn, 1951

http://image.guim.co.uk/Guardian/arts/gallery/2007/jul/09/art/3-6900.jpg

Art

How Monet and co reaped the fruits de mer

Monet, Courbet and Boudin's scenes of the early tides of coastal tourism bring a refreshing look to their movement

Tim Adams

Sunday July 8, 2007

The Observer

Impressionists by the Sea

Royal Academy, London, until 30 Sept

Is it possible to look at Monet, the master of the mug tree and the mousemat, in a new light? That is one principal question asked by yet another Impressionist show at the Royal Academy. The answer, oddly, is yes. Impressionists by the Sea is a quietly provocative look at the origins of the movement on the Normandy coast. It reveals the plein-air painters as one product of the small social revolution begun by the opening up of the railways. The artists who came here - Courbet, Whistler, Manet, Renoir, as well as Monet - were in the vanguard of a new tourist trade, propagandists for the novel idea that life was a beach.

This transformation of the coast is seen most clearly in the life of Eugene Boudin who had grown up in the fishing village of Honfleur. Boudin's father had been a sailor, and he too had worked at sea before he saw a different future arriving by steam train from Paris. Boudin opened an art shop and began painting to exploit the excitement of the new resorts that welcomed the capital's society under big skies. When he exhibited at the Salon, one critic observed: 'Spending the summer by the sea is a wholly new craze... M. Boudin is the first to have captured and preserved for us this piquant aspect of modern life, and he has done it artistically, without being distracted by small details.'

Visitors to the beach have long wanted to take the light and the life of vacation back home with them, and Boudin began supplying that market in earnest. A representative painting shows the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, and her somewhat windswept entourage at Trouville in 1863. The beach, Boudin's painting suggests, is a great leveller. As the Empress's group bustles along the sand in crinoline and silk, fussing with parasols, none of their fellow holidaymakers gives them a second glance, preferring to take in sun and sea.

Boudin had been persuaded to paint outdoors by his Dutch friend Johan Barthold Jongkind, who had come to stay and work here a decade earlier. Jongkind's paintings of the 1850s show a very different society to the one that arrived by train. His pair of pictures at Fecamp and Etretat detail hard working lives of fishing families, the grind of nets and bait. The tension between these competing visions of the coastline, as a place of work and play, an unspoken class war, is the argument that runs through much of the work collected here.

Courbet felt the pull of both impulses. His letters home suggested that by the early 1860s things in Trouville could hardly have been more congenial for the aspiring artist. 'The Casino has given me a splendid apartment overlooking the sea and I paint portraits of the prettiest women...' he explained, breathlessly. 'I have already painted the portrait of the Comtesse Karoly of Hungary. More than 400 ladies came to see it and some 10 of the most beautiful of them would like their own painted. They [will] pay me 1,500 francs apiece...'

Despite this lucrative and engaging stream of clients, Courbet was drawn to the wilder aspects of the place; in the winter of 1865 and 1866 he stayed in Normandy with his protege Whistler and the pair of them swam in the wild cold sea in the mornings and painted it in the afternoons; a total immersion which yielded Courbet's extraordinary and ominous 'The Waterspout', a Rothko of greys, and Whistler's equally liquid 'Sea and Rain', the two looming highlights of this collection.

Twenty years later, Monet attempted something of the same with Etretat, Rainy Weather, but by then the more genteel aspects of the coastal resorts had generally held sway over the brooding mass of ocean, and his heart did not seem quite in it. Monet had learned much of what he knew of the dappling optimism of light from Boudin. When he honeymooned with his wife Camille at Trouville in 1870 his snapshot paintings of her beside the sea are little eyebright odes to joy, a mood which persists in some of his picture postcard painting of the region in subsequent years: sunsets on the shingle at Pourville, inviting primrose paths down to sporty seas dotted with yachts. The summer exhibition may be on in the galleries next door, but rarely has the season looked as freshly made as it appears here.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2121236,00.html

(f) (f)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-09-2007, 10:53 AM

:) (y) :) (y)

The British countryside is incredibly precious. What better way to protect it than to make the whole lot a national park?

:o

Peak experience: the view from Combs Edge in Derbyshire

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peaks.jpg

This green and pleasant land

Bill Bryson

July 9, 2007 11:00 AM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bill_bryson/2007/07/this_green_and_pleasant_land.html

Something I have often wondered is why you don't make the whole of England a national park. In what way, after all, are the Yorkshire Dales superior to the Durham Dales? Why is the New Forest worthy of exalted status but glorious Dorset not?

It's preposterous really to say that some parts are better or more important than others. It's all lovely. And there's not much of it. Of all the surface area of the Earth, only a tiny fragment - 0.0174069%, or so I gather - can call itself Great Britain. So it's rare and dangerously finite and every bit of it should be cherished.

The miracle, in my view, is that on the whole it is. For all the pressures on rural England, and all that could be made better, the countryside remains one of this country's supreme achievements. I know of no landscape anywhere that is more universally appreciated, more visited and walked across and gazed upon, more artfully worked, more lovely to behold, more comfortable to be in, than the countryside of England. The landscape almost everywhere is eminently accessible. People feel a closeness to it, an affinity, that I don't think they experience elsewhere.

If you suggested to people in Iowa, where I come from, that you spend a day walking across farmland, they would think you were mad. Here walking in the country is the most natural thing in the world - so natural that it is dangerously easy to take it for granted.

Because the countryside is so generally fine and looks so deceptively timeless, it's easy to think of it as somehow fixed and immutable and safely permanent. In fact, it is none of these things, of course - though it is very ancient, even more ancient than people often realise.

You hardly need me to tell you how lucky you are to have what you have in this country. Being surrounded by such a sumptuous diversity of history and beauty is a delight and a privilege, of course, but it is also a great danger. When you have such an abundance of great things, it is easy to think of it as essentially inexhaustible and to persuade yourself that it can be nibbled away at without serious loss. I hate it when people think like that.

To me, the mathematics of the British landscape are wonderfully simple and compelling. Britain has about 60 million acres of land and about 60 million people. That's one acre for each of us. Every time you give up 10 acres of greenfield site to build a superstore, in effect 10 people lose their acres. To enjoy the countryside, they must go and use other people's acres. By developing countryside, you force more and more people to share less and less space. Trying to limit the growth of development in the countryside isn't nimbyism; it's common sense.

In the meantime there are three matters that I hope and intend to pursue. The first is litter and fly-tipping. You are probably aware that this is something of an obsession of mine, and I am finding to my gratification that it is something many others feel strongly about too.

Second, pylons and overhead wires generally. To me, marching ranks of pylons are way too common in the countryside, and inexcusably alien and ugly.

Too often when you go into the country, you end up feeling as if you have wandered onto a set from War of the Worlds. In 1986, when electricity companies were being privatised, the Economist magazine calculated that if all the generating companies were required to devote one half of 1% of their turnover to burying overhead cables, we would be able to bury 1,000 miles of them every year. There are 8,000 miles of high voltage power lines in this country, so they would all be buried now.

At a minimum, there should be a presumption against pylons within sight of World Heritage sites, national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty. But really they should just be taken away.

Finally, number three, trees, forests, woodland. You can never have too many trees. The UK has less forest cover than almost any country in Europe. France has 28%, Germany 32%, Italy 34%, Sweden almost 70%. Britain has 12% - the fourth lowest amount in Europe. Even Cyprus has more. What's more, there are no specific targets for woodland creation in England. Well, I think there ought to be.

And while we are talking meaningfully about planting things, I think we should be pushing forcefully for restoration and renewal of hedgerows. I am really worried about hedgerows. They define the English landscape and everywhere they are quietly fading away. Eventually, you end up with no hedgerows at all and this is the fate that I fear is awaiting very large swaths of the countryside.

This is an edited version of a longer piece published in the newspaper today and here online. Bill Bryson is president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bill_bryson/2007/07/this_green_and_pleasant_land.html

(f) (f)

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat. (w) (w)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

sweetlady

07-09-2007, 10:54 AM

:)

The 0.0174069% of Earth we call home is glorious. The trick is keeping it that way

The best-selling American travel and science writer Bill Bryson, takes over today as president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. In this exclusive extract from his inaugural speech, he explains how the British countryside is under threat

Monday July 9, 2007

The Guardian

Something I have often wondered is why you don't make the whole of England a National Park. In what way, after all, are the Yorkshire Dales superior to the Durham Dales? Why is the New Forest worthy of exalted status but glorious Dorset not?

It's preposterous really to say that some parts are better or more important than others. It's all lovely. And there's not much of it. Of all the surface area of the Earth, only a tiny fragment - 0.0174069%, or so I gather - can call itself Great Britain. So it's rare and dangerously finite and every bit of it should be cherished.

The miracle, in my view, is that on the whole it is. For all the pressures on rural England, and all that could be made better, the countryside remains one of this country's supreme achievements. I know of no landscape anywhere that is more universally appreciated, more visited and walked across and gazed upon, more artfully worked, more lovely to behold, more comfortable to be in, than the countryside of England. The landscape almost everywhere is eminently accessible. People feel a closeness to it, an affinity, that I don't think they experience elsewhere.

If you suggested to people in Iowa, where I come from, that you spend a day walking across farmland, they would think you were mad. Here walking in the country is the most natural thing in the world - so natural that it is dangerously easy to take it for granted.

Because the countryside is so generally fine and looks so deceptively timeless, it's easy to think of it as somehow fixed and immutable and safely permanent. In fact, it is none of these things, of course - though it is very ancient, even more ancient than people often realise.

Not far from where I live in East Anglia there is a hedge, called Judith's Hedge, which looks like any other. But in fact Judith's Hedge is very venerable indeed. It was planted by a niece of William the Conqueror in the second half of the 11th century. So it is older than Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, York Minster - older than most of the buildings in Great Britain.

Even closer to home for me -indeed just beyond my bedroom window - is a handsome church tower that was built at about the same time. It has been standing there, adding a little touch of nobility and grandeur to the landscape, for 900 years. I find that a literally fantastic statement. If this church were in Iowa, people would travel hundreds of miles to see it. Of course, you'd have a job explaining to them how it got there, but you take my point. It would be a venerated relic. And here it is just an anonymous country church, treasured by a few aging parishioners and one overweight American, and otherwise almost entirely unnoticed because it is just one of 659 ancient parish churches in Norfolk alone.

Altogether there are 20,000 ancient parish churches in Britain. There are more listed churches than there are petrol stations. Isn't that an amazing fact? If you decided to visit one every day, it would take you 54 years to see them all.

Wherever you turn in Britain you are confronted with wondrous and interesting things - 19,000 scheduled ancient monuments, 600,000 recorded archaeological sites, 100,000 miles of public footpaths, 250,000 miles of hedgerows, 73,000 war memorials, 6,500 listed bridges, 14 National Parks, a hundred or so Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, over 4,000 sites of Special Scientific Interest. You can't move 10 feet in this country without bumping up against some striking reminder of a long and productive past.

And it is almost entirely man-made - or human-made, I should perhaps say. That's really quite interesting. Where I come from, when the landscape is stunning it's because nature made it that way. In Britain when it's stunning, it is, more often than not, because people made it that way. Of Britain's 27 World Heritage sites, only four are natural formations. The rest are monuments and landscapes built by humans. All that posterity asks of us is that we look after what has been created for us already.

You hardly need me to tell you how lucky you are to have what you have in this country. Being surrounded by such a sumptuous diversity of history and beauty is a delight and a privilege, of course, but it is also a great danger. When you have such an abundance of great things, it is easy to think of it as essentially inexhaustible and to persuade yourself that it can be nibbled away at without serious loss. I hate it when people think like that.

To me, the mathematics of the British landscape are wonderfully simple and compelling. Britain has about 60 million acres of land and about 60 million people. That's one acre for each of us. Every time you give up 10 acres of greenfield site to build a superstore, in effect 10 people lose their acres. To enjoy the countryside they must go and use other people's acres. By developing countryside you force more and more people to share less and less space. Trying to limit the growth of development in the countryside isn't nimbyism, it's common sense.

In the meantime there are three matters that I hope and intend to pursue. The first is litter and fly-tipping. You are probably aware that this is something of an obsession of mine, and I am finding to my gratification that it is something many others feel strongly about too.

Second, pylons and overhead wires generally. To me, marching ranks of pylons are way too common in the countryside, and inexcusably alien and ugly.

Too often when you go into the country you end up feeling as if you have wandered onto a set from War of the Worlds. In 1986, when electricity companies were being privatised, the Economist magazine calculated that if all the generating companies were required to devote one half of 1% of their turnover to burying overhead cables, we would be able to bury 1,000 miles of them every year. There are 8,000 miles of high voltage power lines in this country, so they would all be buried now.

At a minimum there should be a presumption against pylons within sight of World Heritage sites, national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty. But really they should just be taken away.

Finally, number three, trees, forests, woodland. You can never have too many trees. The UK has less forest cover than almost any country in Europe. France has 28%, Germany 32%, Italy 34%, Sweden almost 70%. Britain has 12% - the fourth lowest amount in Europe. Even Cyprus has more. What's more, there are no specific targets for woodland creation in England. Well, I think there ought to be.

And while we are talking meaningfully about planting things, I think we should be pushing forcefully for restoration and renewal of hedgerows. I am really worried about hedgerows. They defin