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AUTHOR:
Tony Johnson
TITLE : City of Kingston Souvenir, 1802-2006 printing
Politician and historian Anthony Johnson in 1993 produced his firstof three books that focus on the city of Kingston (Portrait of a City). His second of like character appeared in 2002 (City of Kingston Souvenir). His third was produced in 2006 (City of Kingston Souvenir, 1802-2006: Facing the Twenty-FirstCentury).
www.chinatopsupplier.com
Dispatch printing To Cut 112
Print unit of Columbus newspaper will eliminate hopper feeders,mailers and machinists by November.
-- Graphic Arts Online, 8/16/2008 1:49:00 PM
Dispatch printing Co. has filed with Ohio for work-force reductionsthat will result in elimination of 112 positions--mostly in themailing room. The company is the parent of the Columbus Dispatchand other Ohion newspapers and media, as well as its commercialprint operation. In its filing, the company said job cuts willbegin Nov. 3, subject to results of an arbitration hearing with theTeamsters Union scheduled for August 27. The positions, including38 hopper feeders, 54 journeyperson mailers, 18 machinists and twomanagers, would be eliminated over a two week period.
www.chinatopsupplier.comIf a celebrity isn't publicized, does he really exist? Two newmovies force the question.
"Tropic Thunder" opened Wednesday, and although Ben Stiller, RobertDowney Jr., and Jack Black are the names listed above the title,the performance everyone is talking about - the only performancethat earned applause after a recent screening - was Tom Cruise'sextended cameo as the monstrously porcine studio executive LesGrossman. printing
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" opens today, and while the faces on thescreen are those of the very bankable Scarlett Johansson,Penélope Cruz, and Javier Bardem, many people will beastounded by the fact that it's Woody Allen's most engaging moviein years, better even than his overrated "Match Point." (Granted,my colleague Wesley Morris is less enthusiastic. Everybody's acritic.)
Here's the catch: Judging by the publicity for both films, you'dhave no idea that Cruise is in "Thunder" or that Allen wrote anddirected "Vicky." The former's name and face appear nowhere in thetrailers, poster, or on the promotional website for the $100million comedy-action blockbuster, and while Allen does get acredit for making his movie, it's in teeny-tiny letters at thebottom of the "Vicky" poster and at the end of the trailer. (He'smore of a presence on the film's website, but only after you getpast the homepage.)
www.chinatopsupplier.comAllan Stevo
, an independent candidate for the 10th District U.S. House seat inIllinois, filed legal papers in federal court this week, seeking toprevent the state from printing ballots for the November electionwhile his lawsuit seeking ballot access proceeds, the
Highland Park News
reports. Illinois State Board of Elections found late last monththat Stevo “submitted less than 7,000 signatures on hisnominating petitions, while independent candidates for the 10thDistrict are required to submit at least 10,285 signatures.”Stevo filed suit in U.S. District Court challenging the decision.
www.chinatopsupplier.comReal Estate Investment Trust printing Not everyone has the financial ability to own and rent out multiplehouses for extra income. And even fewer people want to deal withlate night calls from tenants crying about their broken oil burner.Well, thanks to real estate investment trusts, or REITs, you don'thave to deal with the stresses of being a landlord to make moneyoff of the real estate market.
A REIT is any entity that pools money from a group of investors tobuy different kinds of real estate or real-estate-related assets,such as buildings or mortgages on buildings. It uses the incomefrom rent and loan interest to pay out a steady monthly dividend toits investors.
There are three types of REITs. The most common one is an equityREIT, which simply buys buildings and generates revenue from therent it charges. Mortgage REITs loan out money to owners of realestate for mortgages or buy existing mortgages to collect interest,which is then paid out to the REIT's investors. Finally, there arehybrid REITs, which are a combination of mortgage and equity REITs.
REITs can be public or private. Public REITs are bought and soldjust like stocks and are listed on exchanges, while private REITscan only be bought through direct-participation programs. Withprivate REITs, the investors are actually part owners of the realestate rather than just shareholders of the REIT corporation. Theycan't sell shares and they typically have to keep their money tiedup for eight to 12 years. However, there's the benefit of lessvolatility since the market can influence public REITs.
One potential drawback to REITs is how they are taxed. Whilequalifying equity dividends are normally subject to only a maximumof 15%, the dividends from REITs are taxed as regular income, whichcould be much higher -- depending on how much money you make.
www.chinatopsupplier.comThe proud town that is printing its own money The value of sterling may be plummeting as fears grow over thedepth of a possible recession. But in the scenic East Sussex townof Lewes - famous for its bonfire night parties and bewilderingnumber of pubs - a handy alternative is about to become available.
Next month, in the latest sign that localism is a coming force inBritish everyday life, Lewes will launch its own currency. In doingso, it joins a growing list of communities around the worldattempting to protect regional economies and preserve thedistinctive 'feel' of towns and villages.
The Lewes pound will initially be accepted in around 30 locallyowned shops and a first run of 10,000-plus notes is expected. It isthe largest-scale launch of a local currency in the UK since Leweshad its own pound in the 19th century and, in a coup for theorganisers, the town's branch of Barclays bank has agreed to acceptit.
Those pushing the Lewes pound, which by law cannot display theQueen's head but is legal tender, stress their humble ambitions forthe new currency. 'There will always be a need for a nationalcurrency, but it's a question of trying to go back to what can bedone locally,' said Oliver Dudok van Heel, one of the scheme'sarchitects. 'This is not us versus the rest of the world,' addedBeth Ambrose, a sustainability expert, who denied that the Lewespound was a declaration of independence. 'All we want to do isstrengthen what's good in our community.'
According to one analysis, 80 per cent of the money that goes intoa supermarket till leaves the local economy immediately. By backinglocal stores such trends can be reversed, say the scheme'ssupporters. 'We had a beautiful, independent toy shop here once,'van Heel said. 'It's now an estate agent.'
Lewes is not alone in its aspirations. In Totnes, Devon, acomplementary currency has been running for more than a year.Similar schemes have been launched abroad and it is estimated thereare about 9,000 around the world. Across the Atlantic in Berkshire,Massachusetts, some $800,000 worth of local 'Berkshares' areboosting a thriving alternative economy. Switzerland has introduceda localised credit card scheme, while Holland and Germany have hada surge of interest in complementary currencies.
Those backing the new schemes say they are 'big tent' projectswhich try to involve the whole community. Experts agree that theythrive in places where people have become disillusioned withcentral government, suggesting they reflect more than merelyeconomic concerns.
www.chinatopsupplier.comPublisher accused of 'grave robbing' for printing last two novels ...s felt their poor content would sully the reputation of one of thegreatest writers that Scotland has ever produced.
And the decision of Edinburgh University Press to publish bothworks corrected, and in a combined volume led last night toa claim of "literary grave robbing".
Scott penned his final novels in 1831 and 1832 after sufferingthree strokes which had taken a considerable toll on his formidablelinguistic abilities. The marked deterioration of his health ishighlighted in the manuscripts which are riddled with errors andspelling mistakes.
The late John Buchan read both works while researching a biographyof Scott in 1932 and remarked: "It may be hoped that no literaryresurrectionist will ever be guilty of the crime of giving them tothe world."
A century earlier, Scott's publisher Robert Cadell and the author'sson-in-law JG Lockhart had concluded that his final works were sofundamentally flawed, they should never see the light of day.
Paul Scott, who published a book based on Scott's journals, wassurprised to learn their wishes had been overturned.
He felt it would be unfair to judge the writer of classics such asIvanhoe and The Heart Of Midlothian on work that was penned whilehe was considerably incapacitated.
The author said: "Scott's health deteriorated quite markedly andyou can see that from his journal. It starts off as a veryintelligent, very well written and interesting piece of work, butas it gets towards the end of his life, it begins to fall apart.
www.chinatopsupplier.comReader Advocate: We're not in the business of printing rumors was bought and paid for also.
Finally, Edwards could deny the rumors no longer and admitted theaffair, although he denied the baby was his.
You can see how messy this has become. In addition to the admittedaffair,
The Enquirer
has reported that Edwards' former aide and pal Andrew Young hasclaimed the mistress' baby is his. Also there are allegations thatsome prominent Democratic moneybags have supported the mistress andYoung to keep the ruse alive.
Whew! I'm fatigued just relating all that.
The mainstream media jumped onboard when Edwards admitted theaffair (although he insists his wife's cancer was in remissionwhile he was romancing the blonde).
The Salt Lake Tribune
printed a Cal Thomas column this week in which the conservativecolumnist said the Edwards mess was like " 'Momma Mia' without themusic."
Thomas insists that Democrats get a pass in the sexual dalliancedepartment while Republicans - such as Larry Craig, Mark Foley,etc., are held to a higher standard.
www.chinatopsupplier.comcombo tv box Maybe I don't have the eyesight of Superman, but I think Netflixstreams are better than ok. I have a cable modem, and I send theNetflix stream to a 720p panasonic plasma via a DVI to HDMI cable.When watching native HD content like 'The Office', I have a hardtime seeing any loss between Netflix and the over the air HDsignal. It definitely is as good or better than watching theupscaled dvds. I think that is pretty impressive for a streamingwith practically no buffering.
I have to agree with previous comment that the selection is not thebest for movies. But it is good for catching up on previous seasonsof popular TV shows.
Anyone that is already a Neflix subscriber with a newer TV owes itto themselves to get on Monoprice and buy a DVI to HDMI cable. Theselection may not be great, but if you are already paying for ityou might as well watch it to its full potential.
blacketj913
combo tv box This September a new Blu-ray player will hit the market from LGthat makes cunning use of the Ethernet port. The BD300 will becapable of streaming Netflix movies. Blu-ray Profile 2.0 certainlyhas its advantages.
If you’re one of those choosey chaps for whom playing backBlu-ray discs and up-converting standard definition DVDs to 1080psimply isn’t enough... LG has your number. It’s the modelnumber BD300 to be precise. LG is the Korean electronics firmthat’s been planning set-top-box streamers for use with Netflix,the sort that might compete with Apple TV. But few would haveexpected to see the Netflix streamer combined with a Blu-rayplayer.
Netflix subscribers will be able to take advantage of its 12,000title library of streaming video entertainment without the need foran extra box. At an anticipated price point below $500, LG’s newBlu-ray player will be an affordable way to get the format’scomplete profile into your home theater. The BD300 will include BDLive, BonusView features and LG’s own SimpLink technology thatcombines on-screen menus of other LG products.
Netflix is looking like a company on the move. It’s alreadypromoting its streaming movie titles through both Xbox Live and Roku. We’ve been looking for an LG set-top-box announcement, butcombining it with a Blu-ray player makes sense. The LG press release is of course a bit light on details for the Blu-ray player. Forinstance it doesn’t mention audio-video codecs with which theplayer will be compatible. We’ll look for more details asSeptember arrives.
LG already gave us the first Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player, nowit’s giving us the first Netflix/Blu-ray combo player. Unexpectedinnovations are a good thing.combo tv box PORTLAND, Ore. - In February, the government will require everytelevision station to flip from an analog to a digital signal.
Last week, KATU-TV turned off its analog signal for 10 seconds tohelp you test your TV system to see if you are ready.
Since then, we've received a lot of e-mails from our viewers whostill have questions, so we've put together some answers here foryou.
Make Sure Your Antenna Is Correctly Tuned In
One person told us she hooked up the converter box and got all ofthe digital channels except for channel 2's digital signal.
According to Alan Batdorf, Chief Engineer at KATU-TV, the problemcould have been her antenna. You have to adjust it to find thesweet spot and unlike an analog signal, you won't see static thatclears as you get closer to the right spot. The picture is eitherthere or not there, so you have to be precise.
"This is going to sound crazy but if you take your antenna androtate it five degrees one way or the other and then try it again,99 percent of the time that solves their problem," Batdorfexplained.
And you may have to adjust it again if it rains or if somethingbumps your antenna. And then try manually entering the channel onthe tuner. Sometimes the arrow up/down buttons will skip channelsthat were previously not coming in.
If that's not the problem, you may be looking at the wrong channel.
"Somebody says 'hey, I have a digital TV set and I lost yoursignal.' Well, we found out they were watching channel 2 and not2-1. 2-1 is our digital signal," said Batdorf.
Some of you were not able to see any channels after hooking up theconverter box. It may be the type of antenna you are using. Youneed to make sure it's a UHF/VHF combination antenna and not just aVHF. The combo antenna can be purchased at an electronics storefor around $40.combo tv box A Fool's Utopia 08.07.08: Fall TV Preview Part III: ABC
This week in one man's utopia we look at the fall schedule of ABC.Also up for discussion are my views on The Dark Knight, Disney'suse of the Muppets, McDonald's $1 million dollar giveaway,bemoaning the mainstreaming of Anna Farris and three reasonseveryone should watch Weird Science. Even Anna Farris.
Now we are on to ABC. Last year, ABC got a pre-emptive strike (muchlike NBC last week) because of the inane setup of their website.This year, they have up the ante for ridiculous asshatedness.Because of the utter retardedness of the network, I can't even workin my beloved baseball analogies. Why? Because the idiots only have2 new shows set up for the fall. I guess ABC is so happy with totalmediocrity that they need to stay exactly the same. Welcome toirrelevance, ABC you know it well. You want new shows? Talk tome.
I must leave you now.
Next week, we look at FOX and what they have in store for us in theupcoming months. That's always interesting. Oh, and I would sototally get x-ray vision. I live in a college town for crying outloud!For everything that was Sin the air at Macworld Expo, therewere pre-show rumors that didn’t pan out, products that didn’treceive enough attention, and announcements ripe forsecond-guessing. Here’s a recap of what didn’t show its face atExpo, what happened instead, and whether any of it will make adifference in the long run. combo tv box
Not In the Air: Jay-Z? Hoax! Despite the pre-Macworld rumors that rapper Jay-Z would be tapped to spearhead an Apple musiclabel, nothing of the sort happened. Randy Newman was the onlymusician to perform live at the keynote, and he’s pretty much theopposite of Jay-Z. One reason for Jay-Z’s absence may have been alast-minute beef with Steve Jobs over Jay-Z’s cameo appearance inBill Gates’s CES farewell video. But that reason’s completely made up?just like the wholeSJay-Z left Def Jam for Apple rumor.In the Air Instead: NAS
Looks like NAS took this round against Jay-Z. Unfortunately, rap-beef aficionados, that’s NAS as in Snetwork-attached storage, notSIllmatic. Apple’s new Time Capsule, a wireless-N router with a built-in 500GB or 1TB hard drive, isaimed to ease back-up and storage in conjunction with Mac OS XLeopard’s Time Machine application. Could this be the reason for Jay-Z’s absence? Maybe he heardNAS would be at Macworld and steered clear of the Moscone Center.July 31 (Bloomberg) -- If cable TV is unfulfilling or the videostore too inconvenient, the answer might be a video-on- demandset-top box, a device that plays movies straight to your televisionat the push of button. Several new and improved devices havefinally arrived.
Bottom Line
The device that should work best for you will depend on your movieand TV viewing habits. If you're already a Netflix subscriber, theRoku device will be nice add-on. You might consider waiting untilNetflix adds HD content or expands its on- demand selection.
If you occasionally watch flicks and want perks like streamingiTunes music, then the Apple TV is for you. The Vudu box andwireless kit combo feels like an interim solution and costs morethan the competition. Vudu's per-movie price, starting at 99 cents,is lower than Apple's.
(combo tv box Grace Aquino is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are herown.)
To contact the writer of this column: Grace Aquino at aquinograce@gmail.com
Last Updated: July 31, 2008 00:01 EDTAll four boxes work by connecting rabbit ears or another externalantenna to the back of the box and then connecting the box to yourtelevision with either RCA cables (yellow, red, white) or a coaxialcable (combo tv box). Each comes with a remote.
Although the switch won't happen until Feb. 17, 2009, hooking up aconverter box to your analog TV now may give you betterover-the-air reception, more channel choices and some other neatfeatures, like an on-screen program guide. And the boxes may be inlimited supply the closer we get.
I tested the boxes with a 10-year-old Panasonic TV/VCR combo andwith both an inexpensive RadioShack VHF/UHF indoor TV antenna and amore expensive RCA flat multi-directional antenna. There wasn't aton of difference in the reception I got on the boxes, and usingthe RCA cables generally provided a slightly clearer picture thanusing a coaxial cable.
Placing the equipment near the window, each box tuned between 30and 36 digital channels, including the networks, several channelsfrom local PBS affiliate WMFE, Spanish channels, educationalchannels and religious channels. The one exception was the twochannels from local
NBCContents:
1 Jethro Tull Today: A peek at their backstage rider
2 Lindsey Yung’s Hot Turtle Love
3 When Scott Wilson Was Glam
4 - Iggy Pop Bassist Goes 3-D
5 The Tell-Tale Hearts: Gone For Good, Or ???
6 Remember Puddletown Tom?
7 - The Monroes: The Inside Story Of A Local One Hit Wonder
8 - The Brain Police: San Diego’s Psychedelic ?0s Cops
9 - San Diego's First Rock Stars: Rosie and the Originals
10 - John Lennon Loves Rosie, guest blog by Bart Mendoza
11 - That ?0s Club: Straighta Head Sound
12 - Do-It-Yourself-TV: A History Of Local Public Access MusicShows
JETHRO TULL TODAY
When Jethro Tull play Harrah’s Rincon Casino tonight, caterersmust provide vegetarians in the band and crew with meatless pasta(combo tv box) and moussaka; SFast food is not asuitable alternative.
Dressing room requirements include 17 bottles of Beck’s beer(Snot Dark or Lite), a bottle each of California Chardonnay andSauvignon Blanc, plus and bottle and a HALF of Cabernet Sauvignonred wine (SJacob’s Creek or similar).Windmills, churches, factories and schools will all throw opentheir doors to Wearsiders for a free history event next month.
The annual Heritage Open Days (HOD) programme, which runs fromSeptember 11 to 14, opens up buildings to the public, some of whichare usually closed.
The Stadium of Light, a Grade II-listed Ryhope Pigeon Cree and theNissan plant will be among the sites available to visit during theevent.
And a talk by Alice in Sunderland author Bryan Talbot, plus toursof Hylton Castle and the Sunderland Empire are among the otherattractions on offer.
Mel Speding, the portfolio holder for culture and leisure atSunderland Council, said: "There is an exciting programme thisyear, with many new attractions, venues and events joining thepopular list.
"As always, HODs provides a unique opportunity for residents todelve into the city's eventful past and explore architecture,history and culture."
A leaflet featuring the 60-plus HOD events in Sunderland has justbeen published, which is available from libraries and touristinformation centres.
The brochure sets out the times and dates for each opening, andprovides contact information on several events which need to bebooked in advance.
"Sunderland has its own unique heritage and HODs gives people theopportunity to visit unique attractions, as well as take part inactivities such as guided walks, vintage bus tours and much more,"said Coun Speding.
"But HODs would not take place without the continuing effort put inby volunteers, who continually offer their valued time throughoutthe year."
Open days, walks and tours are also planned across the North Eastas part of HODs with details contained in the same leaflet asSunderland.
More than 44,000 visits were made to local sites last year theequivalent of 1,100 an hour and even more attractions have beenadded this year.
"Heritage Open Days celebrate our architecture and culture byoffering free access to places usually closed to the public," saida HOD spokesman.
"This is your once-a-year chance to discover hidden architecturaltreasures and enjoy a wide range of activities bringing localhistory to life.
"But it is not just about old buildings. Could Sunderland's Nissancar plant one day be as important to our heritage as the world'sfirst train factory at the Stephenson Works? This is your chance tofind out."
Read more in today's EchoLast week, the city began enforcing a new rule to crack down onbusinesses that distribute fliers, littering stoops and vestibules.
But the restaurant industry, a target of the new law, is seeminglynot worried. Many restaurateurs who do a lot of delivery businesssay the law wont affect them because they stopped dropping leaflets years ago.
In the first week of enforcement, however, the SanitationDepartment reports that no such complaints have come in, accordingto a spokeswoman.
Restaurants and other businesses that hand out leaflets risk finesof $250 and $1,000 for repeat violations.
Chuck Hunt, executive director of the New York City RestaurantAssociation, says that local restaurants are increasingly relyingon the Web for advertising. In a sign of the times, he adds, thepopular on-line food ordering site, seamlessweb.com, recentlybecame an association member.
The association has received no calls or emails from membersworried about the Lawn Litter Law, Mr. Hunt says.
Does the city need a lawn litter law? Click
here
and tell us what you think.Why More People Choose Kubota Than Any Other Mini Excavators
PRESS INFORMATION
REF:
KUB 297 (D)
DATE:
12th August 2008
EMBARGO:
For Immediate Release
WHY MORE PEOPLE CHOOSE KUBOTA THAN ANY OTHER MINI EXCAVATORS
A useful 'Investment Information Pack' has been put together by
Kubota
to highlight the benefits of buying or hiring its market leadingmini excavators.
The comprehensive pack includes an introductory brochure, 'Why ItPays To Invest In Kubota', and a complete product range leaflet together with information about Kubota's unique key-based'ANTI-THEFT' system - the first and still the only completesecurity system of its kind fitted as standard equipment by a miniexcavator manufacturer.
There's also a leaflet highlighting some typical customer commentsabout owning and operating Kubota minis, as well as a list ofofficial authorised Kubota Construction Equipment dealersthroughout the UK and Ireland.
Kubota is the UK, European and world leader in mini excavators andits machines have a legendary reputation for quality, performance,reliability, versatility and excellent residual values, coupledwith outstanding dealer support, making them the idealcost-effective tool for many different applications and end-users,from civil engineering to landscaping and plant hire companies toowner operators.
With the widest range of minis available from a singlemanufacturer, Kubota offers 19 base models spanning the weightrange from 850kg up to 8 tonnes and including the largest selectionof highly versatile zero tail swing machines from 1 to 5 tonnes;providing customers with unbeatable choice and outstanding valuefor money - even more vital considerations in the current economicclimate.AK47 councillor was behind leaflet attack on Labour
Aug 9 2008
THE SNP councillor suspended after firing an AK47 rifle on a familyholiday in Pakistan was behind an inflammatory leaflet attack onLabour at the last Scottish elections.
Controversial Jahangir Hanif circulated the leaflet to mosques inwhich he claimed American soldiers had raped Iraqi women.
The flyer, which he claimed had been approved by party chiefs,showed George Bush and Tony Blair under the heading, "The twoweapons of mass destruction".
In the leaflet he said: "The American soldiers have raped women.You have to tell people to think about that.
"Labour took us into an illegal war and we are telling people tolook at their conscience before they vote." The leaflet, in Urdu,was put out by Hanif when when he successfully stood for GlasgowCity Council in 2007.
But Muslims reacted with fury, claiming the flyer ruthlesslyexploited injured children and victims of rape.
The SNP had said the leaflet reflected anger felt by Muslims overthe war in Iraq.
Hanif was this week suspended by the SNP after he took five of hissix children, including his five-year-old daughter, to learn how tofire the assault rifle in mountains in Peshawar in 2005.
Last month, we revealed the millionaire rented out a flat in aGlasgow street dubbed "Ground Zero".The central city neighbourhood around the SalisburyStreet-Gracefield Avenue area has recently received"Wanted" leaflets from police with a picture of portlyBritish actor Robbie Coltrane.
In the leaflet, police said there was a thief active in the area,but "because of the Children and Young Persons Act 1989 policecannot show you a picture of the 16-year-old burglar operating inyour neighbourhood".
"Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar," the leaflet said,"but imagine him aged 16 with lank, greasy hair and you havethe picture."
The leaflet said the boy lived locally, travelled by bicycle andburgled houses in the area.
"He will break windows to gain entry and ransack the property,targeting electronic items, cash and jewellery," it said.
Coltrane, who achieved fame with the TV series Cracker and laterplayed the school caretaker Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, couldnot be reached for comment last night.
The leaflets may be an ingenious way around the law but they havebaffled some residents.
One resident, who declined to be named, said she did not knowwhether the leaflets were real or a joke.
"An older lady by herself can do without this," she said.He's cracked big cases as television crimefighter Eddie 'Fitz'Fitzgerald, but Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane was unaware of hisstarring role in Christchurch police's hunt for a burglar.
Coltrane's portly image has been used as a comparison with a16-year-old burglar sought by police in an innovative warning forresidents in an inner-city neighbourhood.
And now media outlets throughout the world, including CNN, BBC andthe Times, have seized upon the story of the popular actor from theTV series Cracker, and as the character Hagrid in the Harry Potterfilms.
A police leaflet features a picture of Coltrane, with the word"Wanted" in bold above, and the words "Active Burglar in thisNeighborhood (sic)" below. It goes on to explain in smaller print:"Because of the Children and Young Persons Act 1989, police cannotshow you a picture of the 16-year-old burglar operating in yourneighbourhood.
"Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar but imagine him aged 16 withlank, greasy hair and you have the picture."
Coltrane, believed to be working in the United States, has so farexpressed no opinion publicly on the unauthorised use of his image.His agent has also declined to comment.
Christchurch police downplayed the issue as a "one-off" tactic.They have heard nothing from Coltrane or his representatives.
Sergeant Phil Dean said: "The pamphlets are an initiative topresent a crime prevention message to identify an increased risk toa particular, identified and small community."
Resident Kate Tapley, a fan of Coltrane's acting in Cracker,praised police after the leaflet turned up in her letterbox. Herhome had been burgled twice and vehicles broken into. Legal expertUrsula Cheer said Coltrane could potentially take legal action overthe leaflet, by claiming he had been defamed.It started dropping through 360,000 letterboxes across the citylast week, providing information about and promoting the efforts ofBirmingham City Council’s recycling operations.
Included in it are details of what, where and when to recycle and aphotograph of the Birmingham skyline.
Another photograph bears the legend ‘Thank YouBirmingham’ above an image of a city skyline. This particularimage however is not of Birmingham, UK, but Birmingham, Alabama, inthe USA.
Despite the gaffe, council officials have insisted the pamphlet - asecond print run of the
Recycle: Your Questions Answered
- will not be recalled, pulped or reprinted.
The mistake was spotted by Jon Cooper when the leaflet wasdelivered to his Kings Norton home. The 37-year-old, who works fora Midland packaging firm, said: “I emailed the council lastweek, after the leaflet came through my door, to draw attention totheir mistake.
“I work in the packaging industry and we have to check allour printed materials thoroughly, because if we don’t spot amistake you can be sure Sainsbury’s or Tesco will, which iswhy I can’t believe nobody at the council noticed this beforethe leaflets were sent out.
“I’m a regular visitor to the States, so when I sawthat image on the back of it I instantly knew that it was a UScity, not Birmingham in the West Midlands, so I 'Googled' it andfound it was an image of Birmingham, Alabama.”
Mr Cooper added: “I would have thought the city council wouldbe a bit more bothered about the image that they put out of thisBirmingham, especially if it’s going into hundreds ofthousands of homes.
“I am sure this was a simple mistake by whoever was asked tofind a picture of the city, but who is checking this stuff?”
A city council spokesman claimed there was "no point tinkering withit” and described the offending photo as “a genericskyline picture”.
He added: “The picture on the leaflet is meant tosymbolically represent an urban area. Since its first publicationlast year, the leaflet has been well-received by residents, and isthe most requested document to be produced by the Fleet and WasteManagement Department.
“Feedback from households has been very positive – the leaflet has achieved its aim of informing citizens about therecycling options, both doorstep and other, that are available tothem.
“On a total production run of 720,000 copies, the council hasreceived just one query about the use of a generic skylinepicture.”
This is not the first time Birmingham’s distinctive skyline -with iconic buildings like the Rotunda, Beetham Tower and the BTTower - has been mistaken for its American namesake.
Last January, West Midlands’ Conservative MEPs made the samemistake on their website. On that occasion they were swift toreplace the image - within 24 hours - to one of Selfridges’distinctive discs and the spire of St Martin’s in the BullRing.
Eagle-eyed Labour MP Tom Watson (Lab West Bromwich East) hadspotted their mistake and offered to take his Conservative rivalson a sight-seeing tour of the city to ensure they were familiarwith its landmarks.
Like its Midland namesake, Birmingham, Alabama, is an city built onindustry and manufacturing but has a significantly smallerpopulation of about 230,000, compared with the million-plusresidents who live here.
Marketing Birmingham, the agency charged with promoting the citynationally and overseas, declined to comment on the council’scase of mistaken identity.
COUNTY chiefs were criticised today for spending about 20,000 oftaxpayers' cash on a leaflet promoting a single unitary authorityfor Suffolk.
Suffolk County Council has used the money to send leaflets to everyhousehold in the county, some 340,000 homes, in a bid to drum upsupport for a single council.
But some have criticised the decision, claiming the move is a wasteof money.
The county council leaflet, which claims a single unitary authoritywould cut costs, bears a boast that it cost 1p to produce - theequivalent of 3,400 for 340,000 copies.
The Evening Star discovered that the leaflets also cost around 5peach to distribute - around 17,000 in total.
In comparison, Ipswich Borough Council spent 289 on 5,000promotional leaflets regarding the unitary proposals, dropping themoff in public buildings around the area to negate distributioncosts.
Liz Harsant, leader of Ipswich Borough Council, said the countycouncil is wasting money.
SI don't think it's necessary and it's unfair on the council taxpayer, she said.
SThe money could be much better used.
SYou can leave the leaflets in libraries and various places andpeople can pick them up if they are interested.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk County Council said: SEach leaflet costs the taxpayer just 1p to produce - and is a small example ofhow efficient a single council for Suffolk would be, an entirelyappropriate use of resources to meet the Boundary Committee'srequest.
SThe information leaflet gives a summary of the facts and theissues at stake as we see them, and encourages people to respond tothe consultation, whatever their views.
SThis is a unique chance for local residents to influence whatsort of council they will have for many years.
The move to drum up support for a single council has beencriticised for being at odds with proposals currently beingconsidered by the Boundary Committee, the organisation overseeingthe shake-up.
The committee wants to abolish the county council and Suffolk'sseven districts and replace them with two unitaries -Ipswich-Felixstowe and Suffolk rural - with Lowestoft beingabsorbed into a single unitary for Norfolk.
What shape would you like Suffolk to take? Write to Your Letters,Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-maileveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.ukRound Up Some More DVDs, Starring Clint Eastwood, Later This Year
This morning, CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment haveannounced the latest release of Clint Eastwood's classic westernseries Rawhide - The 3rd Season, Volume 2 on DVD. This set will be available on December 9th, rustling up approximately 13 hours of action and adventure thatis presented in the original full screen video and with Englishmono audio. Besides Clint and co-stars Eric Fleming and ShebWooley, you'll also spot guests such as William Schallert, JohnCassavetes, Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord, Elisha Cook Jr., Claude Akins and Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy! Stay tuned for further details, and box art, justas soon as the studio makes them available.Researchers at UC Berkeley have invented a light-deflectingtechnique that could one day render objects invisible.
The breakthrough, reported by two teams of scientists in thelaboratory of UC Berkeley Professor Xiang Zhang, in the near termcould spawn such products as DVDs capable of storing manyhigh-definition movies on a single optical disk, andmicroscope-like instruments with incredible resolution.
Guy Bartal, research manager of the Zhang lab, said the scientistsused techniques from two disciplines - nanotechnology, the art ofmaking incredibly small structures, and materials science, whichseeks to understand the properties of complex molecules.
The work at Berkeley is the latest development in the 40-yearscientific quest to make light, and other electromagnetic waves,jump through hoops and bend to human will.
In essence, the Berkeley scientists created two unimaginably tinymazes using nanotechnology that, by virtue of the materials used,exert subtle electromagnetic effects that confuse light waves intodeveloping the physics equivalent of a split personality.
"The energy moves forward, but the wave that carries the lightmoves backward," Bartal said.
The Berkeley work is part of an emerging field called metamaterialscience - the deliberate creation of structures designed to playsubtle tricks on all sorts of light waves.
One way to understand metamaterial science is to recall whathappens when one puts a stick into water. To the eye, the stickseems to bend upward as the water refracts light.
What the Berkeley scientists did was create a metamaterial thatcould perform a trick beyond the power of water - their structuresrefracted the light in reverse so that the stick, so to speak,would seem to pop out of the water.
All this goes back four decades to the work of Russian physicistVictor Veselago, who theorized that the proper materials, organizedjust so, could create an electromagnetic "mirror" to induce whatscientists call negative refraction - that is, make light waves doan about-face.
But until the advent of nanotechnology, scientists couldn't buildstructures tiny enough to play tricks on light. And even now,scientists are just starting to understand the subtle pushes andpulls that different materials can exert on waves whizzing by atthe speed of light.
Among the developments that led up to the work at Berkeley werelate '90s experiments by physicist John Pendry at Imperial College,London, and a 2001 paper by Rodger Walser, a professor at theUniversity of Texas at Austin who coined the term metamaterials.
What makes the Berkeley contributions notable is that two separateteams inside the Zhang lab made parallel breakthroughs usingslightly different recipes - and got their work vetted by theworld's two top journals.
One group, led by Berkeley graduate student Jason Valentine,alternated layers of silver and non-magnetic magnesium fluoride ina fishnet pattern that reversed near-infrared light.
A second team, led by graduate student Jie Yao, created ametamaterial that made red light waves bounce backward - atechnical first but, by the admission of the Berkeley scientists,only a baby step toward a cloak of invisibility.
E-mail Tom Abate at
tabate@sfchronicle.comRoxio Launches Online Storytelling Platform
Copyright 2008 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved
2008-08-11
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Roxio(R), adivision of Sonic Solutions(R) , the leader in digital mediasoftware, today launched Roxio Online with PhotoShow(R), a new Webservice that enables families to quickly and simply turn theirpersonal photos and video clips into engaging multimedia slideshowsthat can be shared privately with close friends and family. Whetherit is photos or footage shot during a recent vacation, collegegraduation or other important family event, Roxio Online makes iteasy and fun to turn these personal memories into an expressivemultimedia slideshow complete with rich special effects andtransitions, creative animations and captions, and a professionalsoundtrack. Families and others can begin to create unique personalstories that can be shared and enjoyed on PCs, DVDs, TVs,handhelds, and popular social media sites, all through a freesubscription available at: .
"There is nothing more gratifying than being able to share the joysof our lives with the ones closest to us," said Matt DiMaria,general manager of the Roxio division of Sonic Solutions. "Withbusy schedules and physical distances, photos and videos play anintegral part in how we communicate in today's digital world. RoxioOnline brings families together by not only making it easier thanever to create unique stories to instantly share with relativesacross the globe but also by providing a complete storytellingplatform that appeals to any memory keeper."
Consumers can test-drive the service and create PhotoShowpresentations for free, and then subscribe to the premium service,which unlocks a host of additional creation and sharingcapabilities. Premium subscribers are able to select from over 150one-click themes that suit any occasion, enhance their story withover 500 animated graphics, add a commentary with more than 40different title and caption treatments, and then pick the perfectaccompanying soundtrack from more than 400 licensed professionalmusic tracks. To see a visual demonstration of Roxio Online inaction visit: , or to read about the experience of Dave Habiger,Sonic CEO and president, with PhotoShow go to: .
Bringing authors and viewers together, Roxio Online users cancreate a free web page with channels dedicated to specific eventsor occasions and share shows with family and friends by embeddingfinal productions in popular sites like MySpace and Facebook orpersonal blogs such as Blogger. Users can also add a PhotoShowchannel to their MSN, Yahoo, or Google pages or to their iTunesPodcast library. Roxio Online is also the only service that allowsusers to broadcast shows directly to cable TV, where they appear asa video-on-demand offering. Modern day digital storytellers canalso turn their favorite PhotoShow stories into professionallycreated keepsake DVDs to enjoy and share for years to come.
Pricing and Availability
The Roxio Online premium service is priced at $39.99 a year andavailable now at .
About Roxio
Roxio, Sonic's consumer products group, develops a range ofaward-winning digital media creation, management, preservation,sharing, and enjoyment applications for home and business usersunder the Roxio brand. Roxio products offer the perfect blend ofease and power, enabling consumers to achieve professional resultsfrom their photo, video, and music projects with minimal effort.Roxio's flagship applications, Easy Media Creator(R) for the PC andToast(R) for the Apple Macintosh, are the best-selling products intheir respective categories in North American retail.
Roxio's parent company, Sonic Solutions , enables the creation,management, and enjoyment of digital media content through itsHollywood to Home(TM) products, services, and technologies. Sonic'sproducts range from the advanced authoring systems used to produceHollywood DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles to the award-winningRoxio-branded photo, video, music, and digital-media managementapplications and services. Sonic's patented technologies andAuthorScript(R) media engine are relied upon by leading technologyfirms to define rich media experiences on a wide array of consumerelectronics, mobile devices, set-top players, retail kiosks, andPCs. Always an innovator, Sonic has taken a leading role in helpingprofessional and consumer markets make the successful transition tothe new high-definition media formats and, through the Qflix(TM)platform, Sonic is defining new models for the digital distributionof Hollywood entertainment. Sonic Solutions is headquartered inMarin County, California.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that arebased upon current expectations, including the launch,distribution, and market acceptance of Roxio Online service. Actualresults could differ materially from those projected in the forwardlooking statements as a result of various risks and uncertainties,including those discussed in Sonic Solutions' annual and quarterlyreports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Thispress release should be read in conjunction with Sonic Solutions'most recent annual report on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and other reportson file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which containa more detailed discussion of the Company's business includingrisks and uncertainties that may affect future results. SonicSolutions does not undertake to update any forward-lookingstatements.
Sonic, the Sonic logo, Sonic Solutions, Roxio, the Roxio logo,PhotoShow, Roxio Online, Easy Media Creator, Toast, Hollywood toHome, AuthorScript and Qflix are trademarks or registeredtrademarks owned by Sonic Solutions in the United States and/orother countries. All other company or product names are trademarksof their respective owners and, in some cases, are used by SonicSolutions under license. Specifications, pricing and deliveryschedules are subject to change without notice.No Objections Here! CBS/Paramount Announces Season 3, Vol. 2 DVDs
Order is back in the court! This morning, CBS DVD and ParamountHome Entertainment have announced an upcoming DVD release ofRaymond Burr as the legendary TV lawyer in Perry Mason - The 3rd Season, Volume 2. This releases is in session on December 2nd, featuring episodes from the second half of the show's thirdseason on the air. While the studio didn't provide details on theincluded episodes, we know that the guest stars during that timeincluded the likes of Ruta Lee, Louise Fletcher, Bert Convy, LesTremayne, Edward Platt, Denver Pyle and Hayden Rorke. Video will befull frame, and audio will be English mono, preserving the originalTV presentation of these episodes. Stay tuned and we'll update youfurther with any further details that turn up in discovery, pluscover art, just as soon as we get that in!Armstrong is an Ann Arbor native who started at goalie forMichigan’s water polo team for four years. In 2005, upon graduatingfrom U-M, she decided to leave the sport behind. She startedworking as a marketing assistant for Golden West, a publishingcompany.
It’s hard to say exactly when Armstrong realized she made amistake. But as a general rule, when you train for triathlons inyour free time, you probably havent left the athletic life behind.
In the spring of 2006, Armstrong decided to give the national teamone shot. Just one. She trained for a few months and went totryouts.
I was just kind of throwing my name in the hat, she said. Ifthey didn’t take me after that, I would have been done.
The first tryout led to a second. The second led to an offer tostay with the team for the summer. Pretty soon she was on thetraveling squad, and late Monday afternoon in Beijjing, she foundherself on the other side of the world, starting in goal againstChina.
Armstrong and the U.S. beat the hosts, 12-11. The Americans are oneof the favorites for a medal, and China is not, so this was alittle more tension than they wanted. But maybe it was just whatthey needed. They got the nervousness out of the way and canconcentrate on water polo, which is a combination of basketball,swimming, soccer and beating up your brother.
This is one of the most grueling Olympic sports. The team’s otherAnn Arbor native, Alison Gregorka, spent much of her time Mondaytrying to either survive or start an international incident.
At least, that’s how it looked.
In reality, Gregorka was just performing her duties, battling withthe Chinese in front of each net. In the NBA this kind of tusslingwould trigger a brawl. In water polo it’s called water polo.
Gregorka called it a nice opening game for us.
Sometimes at the Olympics you watch a sport for the first time andwonder if it’s even a sport. Luge is probably the most obviousexample. (If the Chinese start taking the Winter Olympics asseriously as they take the Summer Games, and look for prodigies inevery sport, how would they find young lugers? Would they examinethe bone structure in the butt?)
Water polo is different. For many of us, just treading water for 26minutes would be exhausting. So watching the American Natalie Goldaplay for that long and still score four goals as the Chinesevirtually wrestle her, I was impressed.
This is a sport where everybody plays hard, because if you coast,you drown. Gregorka and Armstrong have been playing water polotogether since they were teenagers. They were high school rivals(Gregorka graduated from Ann Arbor Pioneer and Armstrong attendedAnn Arbor Huron) but played for the same club team.
Armstrong even has found a way to put that English degree to work.She is writing an Olympics blog for the New York Times. Sherecently blogged that Gregorka lent her some DVDs of ArrestedDevelopment. I asked Gregorka if she has gotten her DVDs back.
She was taken aback.
How did you know about that?
I explained that Armstrong is a journalist now, which means youcan’t trust her.
Having done my part to ensure team unity, I let Armstrong andGregorka get some rest. They might just bring gold back to AnnArbor, and from what I saw Monday, nobody in these Olympics willwork harder for it.BANGALORE: For DVD pirates, the show ended on a sad note. In ajoint operation, a crack police team on Sunday seized Rs 5 croreworth of DVDs after raiding 10 shops and three wholesale dealers onSP road and in surrounding areas, considered the mecca of videocassettes. Fourteen persons have been arrested.
Heaps of movie, music and several games DVDs were seized by thepolice.
Deepak, Kamlesh, Shahid, Basheer, Nazim, Nazeer, Idris, Nawaz,Nadeem and Salim Pasha are among the arrested. For long, the filmindustry has been battling the piracy monster.
DCP (Central) G Ramesh told The Times of India that 2.5 lakhpirated DVDs were confiscated in Sunday's swoop and hinted at toughmeasures to rein in illegal DVD circulation.For DVD fans, August is a cruel month.
The big summer movies won't start arriving on DVD until September.The same goes for all the special collector's editions and fancybox sets the studios roll out in time for the holiday shoppingseason.
So for now, all we have to do is endure more heat and humidity andfantasize about upcoming releases.
Well, don't worry. A lot of nice DVDs hit shelves this year, andAugust is a good time to catch up on one or two you might havemissed.
To help you along, I've put together a list of the best DVDs I'veseen so far in 2008.
• "Zodiac: Director's Cut" (Paramount) - The year got off to agreat start with this January release, a two-disc presentation ofDavid Fincher's terrifying and exquisitely crafted film about thesearch for the Zodiac killer in 1970s San Francisco. The setincluded loads of behind-the-scenes material and a commentary withcrime novelist James Ellroy.
• "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" (New Line) - Thisdocumentary about competing masters of the 1980s video game "DonkeyKong" was one of the funniest and most dramatic movies of 2007, andthis year it got a great DVD release complete with commentaries,additional interviews and a side-by-side comparison of the twoplayers' "Donkey Kong" styles.
• "Across the Universe" (Sony) - Some thought Julie Taymor'sromantic musical, whose story unfolds via songs by the Beatles, wasa disaster. I thought it rocked. The two-disc DVD plunges you deepinto Taymor's brilliant, beautiful ode to love and rebellion androck 'n' roll. Once you're in this world, you'll hate to leave.
• "The Mist" (Genius Products) - Director Frank Darabontevokes the best aspects of low-budget, 1950s creature-features inhis adaptation of Stephen King's short story, then sucker-punchesthe audience with a devastating, pitch-black ending. The two-discDVD package boasts a Darabont commentary and featurettes that coverjust about every aspect of the making of the film. The real treat,though, is a second presentation of the entire movie in black andwhite, which is how Darabont originally wanted to make it. I can'tthink if a better use of the DVD format.
• "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax) - "DivingBell" tells the true story of a French magazine editor who writes abest-selling memoir after being paralyzed from head to toe by astroke. Only his left eye can move, and he learns to "write," andinteract with the world, by blinking. Director Julian Schnabel'sfilm is a visual marvel, with images both horrifying andheartbreakingly beautiful. It's one of the best movies I've seen.The DVD does justice to Schnabel's innovative visual style andsound design, while offering solid bonus features.
• "Mad Men: Season One" (Lionsgate) - Two things set this DVDset apart: First, "Mad Men" is one of the coolest shows ever, andsecond, the four discs included here come loaded with extramaterial, a rarity for a TV show DVD. The show revolves around themen and women who work in a Manhattan advertising agency in 1960.The DVD offers commentaries on all 13 episodes, featurettes aboutthe show's music and costumes and a look at the state ofadvertising in the 1960s. Even the packaging is cool; the discscome in a container that looks like a Zippo lighter.
• "High and Low" (The Criterion Collection) - Criterionmaintains its standard of excellence with this superb two-disc setof Akira Kurosawa's 1963 thriller based on a pulpy American crimenovel. The movie is a gem, full of great acting (led by thelegendary Toshiro Mifune) and Kurosawa's brilliant visualstorytelling. The DVD comes with an excellent commentary and aweekend's worth of intelligent, though-provoking supplements.
I hope that list will keep you busy until the next crop ofblockbuster DVD releases starts coming out. My regular reviews willreturn next week. Happy movie-watching!Few things work better for getting consumers to adopt a new formatthan making it convenient. Hitachi's follow-up to its DZ-BD7HABlu-ray camcorder does just that. Along with being able to recordvideos and stills in full HD (1,920x1,080) to a 8cm BD/DVD drive(that according to Hitachi is 20-percent quieter), you can capture"up to 4 hours 20 minutes of 1,920x1,080 video or 8 hours 40minutes of 1,440x1,080 video onto the built-in 30 GB HDD." There'salso an integrated SDHC slot that'll let you record video andstills to flash media, too.
While having access to three recording options is handy, what'sequally convenient is a single-button dub from the hard drive orSDHC cards to the BD drive--either in high def for Blu-ray Discs orit will transcode HD video to standard-definition DVDs. There arebuilt-in editing tools as well for cutting up your content beforeit hits a disc.
Look for the DZ-BD10HA ($999) in September 2008.A Thousand Splendid Suns, the second novel by Kite Runner authorKhaled Hosseini, shared joint first place with Mrs Hague's book.
Sebastian Faulk's highly-publicised James Bond novel, Devil MayCare, was ranked joint third.
The most popular author among Labour MPs was Ian Rankin, whileWilliam Hague was the favourite for Tories.
Hague topped the list last year with his biography of Wilberforce.
The shadow foreign secretary's earlier book, on William Pitt TheYounger, also appeared in this year's top 10.
"It seems that the Hagues are everyone's favourite flightcompanions this summer," said a spokesman for Waterstones.
"William Hague's books on the other Williams - Pitt and Wilberforce- have dominated our annual MPs Summer Reading survey, and thismirrors the sales we see in our stores. Hague is now one of ourbestselling historians."
But Tory leader David Cameron may have less reason to celebrate.
Only one of the 37 tomes he recommended to his party earlier thissummer appeared in the top 10 - and that was Ffion Hague's book.
Malcolm Ryan is putting together a most interesting list of game design-related books — except these are the ones that are flyingunder the radar as it were. Ryan describes these 'secret books' as"books that are not explicitly written about games, but which anygame designer who reads them just knows that they are really about games." As part of this, Ryan will bereviewing a book a week on a variety of narrative and game-relatedtopics (even if the connection isn't immediately apparent). In the'secret book' category, he's got two examples: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud and A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander.
There's not much yet, but if Ryan can stick to the book-a-weekpremise, I think there will be a nice and very accessiblecollection of reviews and thoughts on a wide variety of books. It'sone of those things I've added to my feeds and just hope it doesn'tpeter out.
The Secret books of Game DesignAll across America last weekend, thousands of teenage girls linedup outside bookstores dressed as vampires or werewolves. Some ofthe shops provided red make-up so the girls could apply vampirebite-marks to their necks. Others offered “plasmapunch”, a strawberry-coloured drink. Not since the heyday ofHarry Potter have so many books been sold at after-midnight launchparties.
For the US publishing industry, struggling to fill the blockbustervoid left by JK Rowling’s hero, a new kind of wizardry hasarrived. It is all the work of Stephenie Meyer, a 34-year-oldhousewife from Arizona who has suddenly become the fastest-sellingauthor in the world.
On its first day in print last Saturday, Meyer’s new book,Breaking Dawn, sold 1.3m copies in the US alone. Her Britishpublisher – Little, Brown – is already into its fifthreprint; on the day the book was released, Borders bookshop inOxford Street, London, sold 400 copies in the first 20 minutes.
The plot is closer to Jane Eyre than Drac-ula, with a heavy dose ofRomeo and Juliet. And the series is carried along by an elasticsexual tension that one critic has characterised as “theerotics of abstinence”. It is to Meyer’s significantcredit that even though her characters never have sex, her booksare still quite sexy.
The woman who has successfully combined the most conservativesocial values with the most bloodthirsty literary genre turns outto be a cheerful, confident, fast-talking type who doesn’tseem insecure at all. She’s a roundish, bouncy figure whodisguises her weight well in smart black pants and tailored shirt.
She remains unsure where her very unMormonlike dream came from, butshe attributes her broader interest in stories to the books read toher by her father. “Dad would read to us at night, then stopin the middle of an exciting scene and put the book away,”she said. “So I would have to sneak into his cupboard duringthe day to read ahead. I always had this sense that reading was anexciting thing, and I loved big, fat books I went from Gone withthe Wind to Little Women to Pride and Prejudice because they werethe biggest books my parents had, and they were stories thatweren’t going to end too fast.”
Meyer insists that she does not consciously intend her novels to beMormon propaganda, promoting the virtues of sexual abstinence andspiritual purity; but she acknowledges that her writing is shapedby the values she learnt from her family and the church. “Idon’t think my books are going to be really graphic or dark,because of who I am,” she said. “There’s alwaysgoing to be a lot of light in my stories.”
The first Twilight film will open in America on December 12,starring Robert Pattin-son as Edward. Meanwhile, Pancho Meyer hasgiven up his job to manage her finances full-time, her sons nowhave a nanny and Meyer misses them terribly when she’s on theroad. She has no intention of moving from Arizona, where she lovesthe desert space and sunshine.
Meyer is also bursting with new ideas. Indeed, the success of theTwilight series appears to have unleashed a torrent of creativeenergy – all those stories she once told herself are nowpossible future novels. She claims that she has already written 15outlines for new books – more vampire stories, yes, but also books about aliens, ghosts and mermaids.
“Now I’ve found out that people actually like mystories, it’s definitely not a problem coming up with ideasabout what to write next,” Meyer said.
She works best, she added, when the house is wrapped in silence,her children are asleep and her husband has gone to bed. Like thevampires she creates, she really comes alive after midnight.There are few places more fitting to measure baseline girl valuesthan Girl Scout Camp Lakamaga, an hour's drive from the Twin Citiesnear Forest Lake, and just off, we kid you not, Mayberry Trail.
Here, the rec center's shelves are stacked with games includingTwister, Yahtzee and Scrabble; a to-do list reminds girls to"Pick up rocks and sticks," and "Sweep thelodge."
Five scouts, ages 10 to 13, sit in the airy dining room politelyanswering questions about the sturm und drang of modern girlhood,when they'd probably rather be outside playing soccer. A quickaccounting:
• All five have access to a home computer, including one witha laptop she must use under a parent's purview.
• Four own an American Girl doll.
• Three have read at least some of the "LittleHouse" books.
• Three own iPods.
• Two have a Nintendo DS video-game system.
• Only one has heard of the "Daring" book.
• Not a one sends or receives communication by that strangedinosaur known as snail mail.
• They watch "That '70s Show," and "HannahMontana," crush on R&B's Chris Brown and "High SchoolMusical" star Zac Efron, and dish on Miley.
"Did you know she lip-syncs?" one says.
"Not anymore," says another.
Ask these articulate girls how it's going and, frankly, you won'tknow (DS systems aside) what generation you're in. Chores andsiblings are still annoying. Pressures to fit in at school arestill suffocating.
Deseray Schell, 13, will be an eighth-grader in September atOsceola Middle School in Wisconsin. Her favorite part of the"Little House" phenomenon, she said, is how the girlsdressed. Deseray owns a floor-length white skirt. "When I wearit, my mom calls me Laura," she said.
Would she wear it to school?
"No!!!"
The other girls laugh at her missile-quick response. "It's nothow they dress at school," Deseray said.
Cassie Dervie, 10, of North Branch, read one of the "LittleHouse" books last year, then researched the series on theInternet. She's now a big fan of the TV show, in reruns on theHallmark Channel, in a curious-observer sort of way.
Associated Press - August 10, 2008 5:15 PM ET
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - Most people want to get rid of their oldphone books, but a Las Cruces woman has been indicted for fraud forallegedly keeping more than 100,000 directories.
Fifty-5-year-old Debra Gottrell is accused of storing the books inthree Las Cruces storage units during a 4-year period instead ofdelivering them as she was hired to do.
Court records show she was indicted July 31st by a Dona Ana Countygrand jury on a charge of fraud.
A telephone listing for Gottrell was unavailable. There is noexplanation of why she allegedly took the phone books.
The stash of directories was discovered when a worker at 1 of thestorage units contacted Gottrell's employer, Directory Plus.
Directory Plus owner Hugh Riddle says his company lost an estimated$500,000 from the lost directories.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Thismaterial may not be published, broadcast, rewritten orredistributed.books As the director of the Peabody Institute, Jeffrey Sharkey is theleader of undergraduate and graduate students in the Peabody Conservatory and Preparatory at the music school at the Johns Hopkins University. Sharkey has been the director for two years, and is an acclaimedpianist and composer as well.
Sharkey's music will be featured in a concert at the PeabodyConservatory on Sept. 24 with Jonathan Carney, violinist andconcertmaster for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
"A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth
It's a panoramic novel of India just before independence. Itcaptures so many facets of Indian life; a life I knew nothingabout. The author is not only an author, but a poet as wellVampires, books and a lot of screaming girls
By Pam Pastor
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Last updated 18:03:00 08/08/2008
MANILA, Philippines The young wizard didn’t receive this muchprotection.
For days after the release of Breaking Dawn, online forumsdevoted to the Twilight saga were shut down, to make sure thebook’s secrets wouldn’t be spilled by speed readers. Shoutboxeswere disabled as well and comments on websites and author StephenieMeyer’s MySpace page needed to be approved before being posted forthe world to see.
Yes, Twilight fans hate spoilers.
Internet police
Weeks before the book was released, Stephenie posted a message tofans on her official website. I want to ask you guys for a favor.If someone, somewhere, somehow, gets a copy early, I’m asking youto please not post any spoilers on the Internet. And if you seesomething, please don’t spread it around.
Stephenie said that the fourth book is to be experienced in acertain way and she didn’t want that to be ruined by spoilers.
Fans helped by acting like her Internet police, reporting copyrightviolations they’ve spotted. Twilight fans have proven theirloyalty once again just like they did during the release of thethird book Eclipse.
Fiercely protective
The readers of Twilight are fiercely protective and not just whenit comes to spoilers.
When people logged into Yahoo! Answers to ask where they candownload Twilight’s audio books for free, they were met withdisgust.
Redunicorn said, If you downloaded the Twilight audio book forfree, that would be stealing from the author, publisher, and theactor that read the story. Don’t be a book pirate.
Chelsea Jacob wrote, That’s stealing. And duh, nothing’s freetoday, hun.
Fans in the country and all over the world had been waiting todevour the continuation of the vampire-werewolf-human saga. Breaking Dawn hit Philippine book shelves last Monday, Aug. 4.Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street kept its doors open on Sundaynight for eager fans who wanted to be among the first to grab acopy when midnight struck.
Pre-launch party
On Monday, while a lot of Twilighters were stuck in school, Momslined up in bookstores buying copies for their kids.
Two days before the release date, a pre-launch party was held atPowerbooks Greenbelt. There, creative Twilight followers had thechance to showcase their Bella, Jacob and Edward-inspired fan artand photos. A trivia contest was held and fifth grader VeronicaYgoa from Victory Christian School bagged the top prize, winningThe Twilight saga special boxed set and gift cards and a giftpack from Powerbooks. Psychology student Elisha Roque from San BedaCollege and high school sophomore Maxine Arcenas from AssumptionCollege won second and third place, respectively.
The event (and the girls who kept screaming in the bookstore everytime Edward’s name was mentioned) was a testament to Twilightmania and just how big the saga’s following is. Breaking Dawn wasone of the year’s most anticipated books and now that it’s finallyout, no one is happier than author Stephenie Meyer. I can’t waitto finally be able to discuss everything that happens in BreakingDawn with you, she told fans on her website.
Breaking Dawn may be out but the fun is far from over. AlthoughStephenie says she may decide to explore the stories of other Twilight characters years from now, Twilighters don’t have towait that long for other doses of vampire and werewolf goodness.The movie version of Twilight will be released in December andStephenie is working on Midnight Sun, a retelling of Twilight’sevents from Edward’s perspective. We know girls will be screamingfor that one.ALBANY, N.Y. -- It's been a fixture on kitchen counters,refrigerator tops and junk drawers for decades.
But today, the Yellow Pages is a bit too ubiquitous for some, withthe number of phone books published annually in the U.S.outnumbering the population by 2-to-1.
Although the $17 billion-a-year industry is showing remarkableresilience as other advertising-driven businesses suffer, it hasbecome a familiar target in state legislatures, where lawmakershave tried -- unsuccessfully, so far -- to place limits on thedistribution of phone books.
The Yellow Pages Association, an industry trade group, calls 2008the industry's "most challenging year to date with regard toefforts at the state level to restrict directory publishers'ability to freely deliver phone books." Recent legislation thatwould empower residents to opt out of receiving phone books hasfailed or stalled in at least seven states.
The association has paid outside lobbyists about $50,000 so farthis year to defend it in communities across the country. Two mainpoints the group tries to get across are that phone books helppromote local businesses and that they are made almost entirelyfrom wood scraps collected at saw mills and recycled paper.
In Albany, City Councilman Joseph Igoe is trying to build supportfor a law that would limit the distribution of phone books andrequire publishers to make it easy for people to halt delivery.Igoe said the issue came to his attention when he campaigneddoor-to-door last spring and saw phone books wrapped in plasticlittering sidewalks, driveways and lawns.
If Igoe succeeds in passing legislation, it will be noteworthy.Proposals have been floated -- without success -- by legislaturesin Alaska, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolinaand Washington.
Some residents in Seattle and other communities in King County,Wash., receive phone books from as many as four differentpublishers, said Tom Watson, a waste-prevention specialist for theregion. "There hasn't been a good way to opt out," he said.
Phone book publishers acknowledge that many households andbusinesses receive more phone directories than they need. But theycall it a sign of competition in a healthy business and argue thatthe marketplace, not the government, should determine the number ofphone books distributed.
"The ones that get used will remain, and the ones that don't willgo away," said Joe Walsh, president and chief executive ofYellowBook USA Inc., the nation's largest independent directorypublisher with a circulation of about 128 million phone books in 48states.
For years, phone companies dominated the directory business andpublished the only phone book available in many markets. Federalrules enacted in the late 1990s required phone companies to providelistings to independent publishers at a reasonable cost and ignitedan explosion of competition.
Why?
"Because there's money in those yellow pages," said David Goddard,senior analyst of the yellow-pages group for Simba Information, aStamford, Conn., media-research company.
Last year, directory publishers logged roughly $16.8 billion inrevenue. That figure is on pace to rise to $17.2 billion this year,and $17.6 billion in 2009, according to Simba's projections.
The growth is being driven by independent publishers, Goddard said.
YellowBook, for example, logged $406.1 million in revenue duringthe three months that ended in June, up 9.3 percent from the sameperiod last year. During the same period, Idearc -- Verizon'sformer yellow-pages business, which it spun off in 2006 -- reportedrevenue that fell 5.1 percent to $1.5 billion.
And while other advertising-driven businesses -- particularlynewspapers and magazines -- have been struggling as their readersand advertisers migrate to the Internet, the old-fashioned printedcopy remains king in the directory business.
A use study conducted by statistical research firm KnowledgeNetworks/SRI estimates that Americans referred to print yellowpages advertisements 13.4 billion times last year, compared with3.8 billion online listings.
"They really have to focus on print," Goddard said, noting thatonline ads make up less than 9 percent of yellow pages' revenue."The Internet is the sexy new technology out there, but it isn'twhere most of their money is coming from. It's coming from themom-and-pop stores that want to be in that yellow-pages book."
Some say the excess phone books are creating a costly environmentalproblem for local governments. Others call them a neighborhoodnuisance.
Igoe, the Albany city councilman, said he has heard many complaintsfrom residents, including one from a man who said he wrecked hissnowblower when he hit a bunch of phone books buried under the snowon the sidewalk.DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) is showing some growth muscle and touting new features that helpit compete with the cable guys. Is that enough to inspire along-term investment? Maybe not.
The satellite TV service provider reported $0.40 of earnings pershare on $4.81 billion in second-quarter revenue. That's an 8%year-over-year improvement in earnings, and a 16% jump in sales.I'd prefer profits that grew faster than sales; this reportcontrasts poorly to satellite rival
Dish Network's(Nasdaq: DISH) report earlier this week, which saw earnings leap 48% on a mere5.6% revenue uptick.
Meanwhile, cable giant Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), presented matching 11% gains in sales and earnings per share. Asfellow Fool David Lee Smith points out, Comcast is a model of consistency.
DirecTV credited its new on-demand service for some of its salesgrowth, along with attractive digital video recorder packages and amarket-leading high-definition channel lineup.
I'll grant DirecTV the HD content lead for now, but staying aheadof the pack in that race is an expensive effort. There aresatellite launches to pay for, and customer set-top boxes that needupgrades in order to read some of the new MPEG-4 content. As for the other two churn-busting advantages, well,everyone and his grandma can sell you a DVR these days, and theon-demand service actually only works if you're paying the cableguys or the phone company for a high-speed Internet connection. Itseems to me that Comcast, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), and AT&T(NYSE: T) win a little bit every time DirecTV signs up another double-playcustomer. And there will never be a true triple play here, unlessthe company buys Sprint(NYSE: S). Somehow, I doubt that'll happen.
So bravo to DirecTV for signing up 129,000 new subscribers at churnrates that would make
TiVo(Nasdaq: TIVO) or Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) smile. I think there's a time limit on the company's growth ride,so long-term investors need not bother.
Further Foolishness:Mel's Been Wrong BeforeTiVo-a-Go-GoSteal These Stocks!The battle for 1080p dominance of physical media verses video ondemand (VOD) is joined.? Satellite television provider DISHNetwork announced that it would begin beaming 1080p goodness fromspace in short order.
BetaNews: Dish first to deliver 1080p HD television programming
CNN Money: DISH Network(R) Unveils Biggest High Definition Upgradein TV History
A press release dated Thursday July 31, 2008 indicates that inAugust DISH will roll out 1080p television service to HD-DVR subscribers making for an industry first.? Currently all HDbroadcasting is limited to either 720p or 1080i resolutions.?Typically, 720p is preferred for content with a preponderance offast motion such as sports and other action oriented content, while1080i is preferred with most other material for improved detailwhen smoothness of motion is not an issue.
The 1080p video resolution upgrade will take the form of a firmwareupdate that will activate the ability for DISH"s MPEG-4 HD-DVR sto receive and output broadcasts at the higher resolution.? DISHalso announced that it would be making the
DISH on Demand VOD service available to subscribers at 1080p.
To coincide with the service improvement launch, DISH will make I Am Legend available at the Blu-ray quality resolution with Dolby Digital 5.1Surround audio available through the DISH on Demand VOD service.?Sources are mixed as to whether this would be a free or discountedoffering to current subscribers.
DISH is claiming that proprietary technology used in the new TurboHD and the launch of the Echo XI satellite will allow them toincrease data transmission to accommodate the 1080p signal.?TurboHD uses encoding called 8PSK-Turbo that DISH says willincrease data transmission and frame rates.? Hopefully this meansthat they won"t have to get all comcastic and compress the crap out of the signal to make bandwidth limitsor it will blow the whole Blu-ray video quality bit.
Next up would be lossless audio to make the offering complete as atrue Blu-ray competitor, Lions Gate aside, but at least lossy Dolby5.1 is an improvement over other broadcaster VOD offerings, whichare typically overly compressed, lossy two channel stereo at best.
Other announced service changes and improvements from DISH includethe addition of new HD channels and the first all HD programmingpackage since DISH acquired Voom in 2005.
As of Friday August 1, 2008, DISH will add 17 new HD channels toits current lineup which totals 114 HD channels, 100 of which willbe nationally available.? DISH also plans to match rivalDIRECTV"s plans to have 150 HD channels available by the end of2008.
The all-HD packages using TurboHD will be available in threeservice tiers, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.? Twenty five bucks getone 40 all-HD channels and it goes from there.? DISH also saysthat current subscribers can add HD programming for as little asten bucks.
Now we get to see how long it takes other broadcasters to scrambleto put 1080p on the air.? Apparently, DIRECTV has mumbled something about later this year without being too specific and Comcast,well, they"re Comcast; I am sure they will find a way to squeeze1080p into the same bandwidth that 720p/1080i currently fits allwhile adding HD channels just to keep up
