The Blade seeks gardeners for Weed It & Reap who are as varied as what they grow and who dig in gardens large, small, or with unusual content. In a sentence, tell us what’s unique about you or your garden. Contact Tahree Lane at tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075. Name: Don Stierman, associate professor of geophysics/seismologist at the University of Toledo, living in Old Orchard. Garden specs: 80 square yards (20-by-4 yards), plus flowers here and there, and two wine-grape vines (DeChaunac, a red). I’m also part of the community garden at UT, across from the law school, where my theme is perennial herbs: mint, horseradish, chives, lovage, thyme, and oregano.When did you start gardening?  Born into it. Grandpa was a truck farmer, became known as Dubuque, Iowa’s ‘apple man’ about 1970.  We lived on the 20 acres next door.  I weeded, hoed, and helped harvest in our home gardens and in Grandpa’s commercial operation (a couple of pick-up loads a week at peak production). I learned to be ambidextrous when picking berries, apples, beans, and tomatoes. Mom canned tomatoes, applesauce, pickles, and froze corn, peas, beans, berries, and cherries. I have seven brothers and sisters, and we seldom purchased vegetables from the A&P.  Any one of us can spot the best tomato or biggest apple in the pile at a glance. Two of my brothers  managed the produce sections of supermarkets, two are avid gardeners, and one sells at a farmers’ market. We continue learning from one another.  What do you grow? Tomatoes. I’ve found the varieties I like: Better Boys, Sweet Baby Girls, Park’s Whopper, and about July 1, I plant a Brandywine because they keep well into the fall. You store them by putting the green ones in a cool, dark place in the basement until they ripen. I had a homegrown tomato at Christmas. Five varieties of peppers (Tiburon, a hot poblano-style for chile rellenos; jalapenos; Hungarian wax pepper for pickling; the big Karma bell pepper for all-around use, and a sweet banana that is prolific and early. Every year I plant a different variety of pickling cucumber to make kosher dills, dill (of course), green beans, several varieties (“chef’s blend”) of leaf lettuce,  cabbage, kohlrabi, zucchini, herbs, blackberries, black raspberries, rhubarb, ornamentals, and flowers. By now, spinach, green onions, and endive have germinated outdoors. I started leaf lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli from seed in early March using a heating pad and a fluorescent desk lamp, and will transplant them outdoors as soon as it’s dry enough.  Pepper and tomato plants are growing in the sun room; will transplant those mid-May when the danger of frost has past.Favorite plant: If I could plant only one thing, it would be tomatoes. Give us a gardening tip: Frequent shallow cultivation. I get down on my knees and use the three-pronged hand cultivator to keep the surface loose and kill weeds, trying to get around the whole garden at least once a week. Hours spent gardening: Thirty hours a week in May (weeding, mostly, and transplanting), eight hours a week in July. In August, the blackberries come in, and grapes are at the end of August. Annual expense: $40 for seeds (mail order), $15 fertilizers (I use one tablespoon of bone meal in the bottom of each transplant hole, and off-the-shelf liquid fertilizer), $10 for pest and fungus control, $60 for flats of flowers (from a local greenhouse), $20 in 2010 for Fall Red everbearing raspberry plants, and $20 this year for two Pixwell gooseberry plants from which I’ll make pies.  Each year brings some sort of long-term investment ($20 – $60) in fencing, grub virus, posts, cages, or tools. Challenges: Now that temporary fences (24-inch-tall woven ‘chicken’ wire) keep rabbits from seedling lettuce and cabbages; Japanese beetles are my major pest but they attack mostly roses.  In 2009 a groundhog destroyed cucumbers, beans, and zucchini. After eight weeks of escalating warfare, I got him and he remains in the hole he dug under the blackberry patch. I’m still seen from time to time chasing rabbits. Also, getting autumn vegetables to germinate in the hot summer sun is difficult and not always successful.  I’m proud of my wine (about 12 to 20 bottles a year), thornless blackberries (they love being the ‘rain garden’, a natural low spot where runoff drains), producing enough tomatoes and peppers for our children (four) and grandchildren (nine), growing dahlias and gladiolas that multiply so vigorously I pass overflow bulbs and roots to relatives. Usually my dill pickles bring high praise. I use my grandmother’s recipe and take a couple of jars to my 89-year-old mother in Dubuque. Canning season runs from July 20 to early September.  I make pies from rhubarb and blackberries and taught my oldest granddaughter how to make pies; our family traditions endure. People passing in cars have stopped to photograph my dahlias. Our daughter in Los Angeles is successfully growing tomatoes in patio pots and our oldest son moved his family into a house with a garden, a feature he prefers over a pool.  What I’ve learned gardening: Gardening is a religious experience for me, a practice of the virtues of hope and faith, and there is so much to be thankful for.  Seminarians should be required to tend a few vines and make wine as part of their education.  “Fruit of the vine and work of human hands” takes on real meaning when it is your hands doing the work. The parable about Jesus being the vine, consistently there year after year, and people being the branches producing the fruit is probably best understood when you have to prune your own vines.

3:23 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hey, it’s good to be back with you all. I’ll tell you what.  I want to thank General Colt for accompanying me up here.  I get the honor of introducing the General.

I was back here on February 11th, to welcome home members of the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan -- 155 of you got off that plane in the middle of the night, and the only thing that was more exciting than seeing you getting off is watching your families watch you all get off.  So it’s an honor to be back here so soon.

I know many of you have just gotten home in the past few weeks -- so welcome home.  And I know from experience that your families want more than anything to spend time with you.  And so, every time I show up at a welcome home ceremony, I’m always worried about getting in the way.  Because I remember when my son came back home from Iraq after a year, there were all these ceremonies.  And I kept saying, hell, man, stop, I want to see my kid.  (Laughter.)

So, anyway, I get it.  So let me just say how much gratitude the President and I have, and all Americans do, for you all.  You guys have been in the fight from the beginning.  And the risk you’ve taken, the incredible sacrifices you’ve made, the comrades you’ve lost, the losses you’ve personally endured -- you’ve been in some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world.

I’ve been there a number of times, back up those damn mountains.  I’d get a helicopter to go down 9,800 feet, and all I got on is a vest -- a bulletproof vest and a helmet and I’m out of breath climbing up about 40 clicks -- 40 feet.  And you guys are up there, 60 to 80-pound packs running around.  God, you’re amazing.  You just are amazing.  I’m in awe of the job you do, in awe of the job you do.  (Applause.)

As I said back in February, I want to also thank your families.  They made sacrifices as well, those intangible sacrifices -- those missed births and those missed birthdays, those missed graduations, those missed -- an occasional funeral. Perhaps more than anything else, just being missed, just not having you home.

The famous poet -- there was a famous poet I like to quote, John Milton, who said, “They also serve who only stand and wait.” Your families serve as well.  And the rest of America owes your families a debt of gratitude as well.  (Applause.)  And so, to all the families that are listening, I want to say their service is as real as yours and it’s as appreciated.

To the soldiers here, you are the most capable warriors.  Let me say this without any fear of contradiction, you’re the most capable warriors in the history of the world.  There has never, never, never, never been a fighting force as capable as you are.

It’s my job today and my honor to talk a little bit about the man that I get to work with every day.  We’ve just got to spend time with the assaulters who got bin Laden.  (Applause.)

By the way, I shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to tell you anyway -- the President is going to be mad I’m taking so long -- (laughter) -- but today was “Grandfather’s Day,” so I went by earlier this morning before I came out here to my granddaughter’s little spring play.  And after it’s all over she said, “Pop, come back to my classroom with me.”  I said, “I can’t, honey.”  She said, “Are you going someplace on Air Force Two?”  I said, “Yeah, I am, babe.”  She said, “Where are you going?”  I said, going to -- true story -- I said, “I’m going to Fort Campbell.”  I said, “We’re going to see the guys out there who got Osama bin Laden.” Absolutely true story.  She said, “Pop!” and then she grabbed a little friend of hers and she said,  “My Pop is going out to see the whales.”  (Laughter.)  Not the SEALs, the whales  (Laughter.) Because if they’re that good they got to be big, man.  They got to be big.  (Laughter.)  Well, you guys are the gorillas, I’ll tell you.

I want to tell you, look, I’ve watched -- I’ve been around a while with eight Presidents, so I’ve watched Presidents make some difficult decisions.  They’ve all had to make difficult decisions.  But sitting in every meeting getting ready and planning for this mission and assault, for the mission to get bin Laden, I saw something extraordinary.  I saw a President who was told the odds -- told the odds weren’t but much more than 50/50 that he’d be there and we could do this, but they were considerably less than 100 percent.

And I, along with the all the rest of his national security team and Secretary of Defense, stayed -- everyone else, we sat around there and he asked our advice and we gave him our advice, and we told him told him a little this and that.  And finally, he just looked at all of us and said, I got faith in the -- I got faith in these guys.

He walked off on his own without anybody giving him any guarantees at all and he decided -- because he believed in not only the SEALs, but believes in all of you.  He has absolute total faith in all of you.  And he made that determination, and it was an amazing thing to watch.  But it was because he had the absolute confidence that you were there.

And so he decided, when he got into office, because of the fight you all were in from the beginning, that the number one priority was to get Osama bin Laden.  And he knew the risks, he knew there were significant risks, and more importantly, special operations risks to the people who were risking their lives getting there.  But he didn’t hesitate, nor did your guys.

Bob Gates said something interesting.  I’ve known Bob for a long time.  He said, it was one of the gutsiest decisions I’ve ever seen made and one of the gutsiest raids.  This is going to go down in history, what happened.  This is going to go down in history.

And here to introduce your Commander-in-Chief, the guy that I’m proud to serve with, is one of the country’s leading warriors himself, Deputy Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division, General Jeffrey Colt.  Ladies and gentlemen, General Colt.  (Applause.)

GENERAL COLT:  Thank you, sir.

I can only try to tell you today just how proud of you that this Division and this local community are.  But more importantly, today, you’re going to get to hear from the Commander-in-Chief just how appreciative he is of all of your service and your sacrifices.

Please join me in this great privilege of welcoming the President of the United States, Barack Obama.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Fort Campbell!  (Applause.)  101st Airborne Division—Air Assault, hello!  (Applause.)

General Colt, thank you for that great introduction -- it was great because it was brief.  (Laughter.)  More importantly, thank you for the extraordinary leadership that you’ve shown here at one of the largest Army bases in America.  (Applause.)

And let me just say, I make a lot of decisions; one of the earliest and best decisions I made was choosing one of the finest Vice Presidents in our history -- Joe Biden, right here.  (Applause.)

Chaplain Miller, thank you for the beautiful invocation.

I want to thank General Colt for welcoming me here today, along with your great Command Sergeant Major, Wayne St. Louis.  (Applause.)  The Quartet and 101st Division Band.  (Applause.)  All these troopers behind me —- you look great.  (Applause.)  You noticed they kind of hesitated.  (Laughter.)  

We got a lot of folks in the house.  We’ve got military police and medical personnel.  We’ve got the Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group.  I think we’ve got a few Air Force here.  Ohh -- (laughter.)  Well, we thought we did.  There they go -- okay.  Come on.  (Applause.)  And, of course, the legendary Screaming Eagles.  (Applause.)  And although they’re not in the audience, I want to acknowledge the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment —- the Night Stalkers -— for their extraordinary service.  (Applause.)

Now, I’ve got to say, some of you are starting to look a little familiar -- because last December, when we were at Bagram, I was out there to thank you for your service, especially during the holidays.  And we had a great rally, a big crowd -- it seemed like everybody was there from the 101st.

And since then, I know we’ve had quite a few homecomings.  The Rakkasans.  (Applause.)  Destiny.  (Applause.)  Strike.  (Applause.)  Bastogne.  (Applause.)  And some of the Division Headquarters —- the Gladiators.  (Applause.)  On behalf of a grateful nation —- welcome home.  (Applause.)   

Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with General Campbell, Command Sergeant Major Schroeder, and all of the Screaming Eagles and troops that are still risking their lives in theater.  And I’m so pleased that Ann Campbell and Marla Schroeder, and some of the inspiring military spouses are here.  Where are they at?  Right over there.  (Applause.)  We are grateful to you.  God bless you.  There they are.  Thank you so much.  (Applause.)  This happens to be Military Spouse Appreciation Day.  (Applause.)  And we honor your service as well.

Now, I didn’t come here to make a really long speech.  I know you're hearing that.  (Laughter.)  It’s like, yeah, it’s hot!  (Laughter.)  What I really wanted to do was come down and shake some hands.  I came here for a simple reason —- to say thank you on behalf of America.  This has been an historic week in the life of our nation.  (Applause.)  Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals -— intelligence, military —- over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.  (Applause.)

Yesterday, I traveled to New York City, and, along with some of our 9/11 families, laid a wreath at Ground Zero in memory of their loved ones.  I met with the first responders —- the firefighters, the police officers, the Port Authority officers —- who lost so many of their own when they rushed into those burning towers.  I promised that our nation will never forget those we lost that dark September day.   

And today, here at Fort Campbell, I had the privilege of meeting the extraordinary Special Ops folks who honored that promise.  It was a chance for me to say —- on behalf of all Americans and people around the world —- “Job well done.”  Job well done.  (Applause.)

They’re America’s “quiet professionals” -- because success demands secrecy.  But I will say this.  Like all of you, they could have chosen a life of ease.  But like you, they volunteered.  They chose to serve in a time of war, knowing they could be sent into harm’s way.  They trained for years.  They’re battle-hardened.  They practiced tirelessly for this mission.  And when I gave the order, they were ready.

Now, in recent days, the whole world has learned just how ready they were.  These Americans deserve credit for one of the greatest intelligence military operations in our nation’s history.  But so does every person who wears America’s uniform, the finest military the world has ever known.  (Applause.)  And that includes all of you men and women of 101st.  (Applause.)

You have been on the frontlines of this fight for nearly 10 years.  You were there in those early days, driving the Taliban from power, pushing al Qaeda out of its safe havens.  Over time, as the insurgency grew, you went back for, in some cases, a second time, a third time, a fourth time.

When the decision was made to go into Iraq, you were there, too, making the longest air assault in history, defeating a vicious insurgency, ultimately giving Iraqis the chance to secure their democracy.  And you’ve been at the forefront of our new strategy in Afghanistan.

Sending you -- more of you -- into harm’s way is the toughest decision that I’ve made as Commander-in-Chief.  I don’t make it lightly.  Every time I visit Walter Reed, every time I visit Bethesda, I’m reminded of the wages of war.  But I made that decision because I know that this mission was vital to the security of the nation that we all love.

And I know it hasn’t been easy for you and it hasn’t, certainly, been easy for your families.  Since 9/11, no base has deployed more often, and few bases have sacrificed more than you.  We see it in our heroic wounded warriors, fighting every day to recover, and who deserve the absolute best care in the world.  (Applause.)  We see it in the mental and emotional toll that’s been taken -- in some cases, some good people, good soldiers who’ve taken their own lives.  So we’re going to keep saying to anybody who is hurting out there, don’t give up.  You’re not alone.  Your country needs you.  We’re here for you to keep you strong.

And most of all, we see the price of this war in the 125 soldiers from Fort Campbell who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice during this deployment to Afghanistan.  And every memorial ceremony —- every “Eagle Remembrance” —- is a solemn reminder of the heavy burdens of war, but also the values of loyalty and duty and honor that have defined your lives.

So here’s what each of you must know.  Because of your service, because of your sacrifices, we’re making progress in Afghanistan.  In some of the toughest parts of the country, General Campbell and the 101st are taking insurgents and their leaders off the battlefield and helping Afghans reclaim their communities.

Across Afghanistan, we’ve broken the Taliban’s momentum.  In key regions, we’ve seized the momentum, pushing them out of their strongholds.  We’re building the capacity of Afghans, partnering with communities and police and security forces, which are growing stronger.

And most of all, we’re making progress in our major goal, our central goal in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that is disrupting and dismantling -- and we are going to ultimately defeat al Qaeda.  (Applause.)  We have cut off their head and we will ultimately defeat them.  (Applause.)

Even before this week’s operation, we’ve put al Qaeda’s leadership under more pressure than at any time since 9/11, on both sides of the border.  So the bottom line is this:  Our strategy is working, and there’s no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden.  (Applause.)

But I don’t want to fool you.  This continues to be a very tough fight.  You know that.  But because of this progress, we’re moving into a new phase.  In the coming months, we’ll start transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces. Starting this summer, we’ll begin reducing American forces.  As we transition, we’ll build a long-term partnership with the Afghan people, so that al Qaeda can never again threaten America from that country.

And, as your Commander-in-Chief, I’m confident that we’re going to succeed in this mission.  The reason I’m confident is because in you I see the strength of America’s military -- (applause) -- and because in recent days we’ve all seen the resilience of the American spirit.

Now, this week I received a letter from a girl in New Jersey named Payton Wall.  She wrote to me on Monday after the news that bin Laden had been killed, and she explained how she still remembers that September morning almost 10 years ago.  She was only four years old.  Her father, Glen, was trapped inside the World Trade Center.  And so, in those final, frantic moments, knowing he might not make it, he called home.  And Payton remembers watching her mom sobbing as she spoke to her husband and then passed the phone to Payton.  And in words that were hard to hear but which she’s never forgotten, he said to her, “I love you Payton, and I will always be watching over you.”     

So yesterday, Payton, her mom, and her sister, Avery, joined me at Ground Zero.  And now Payton is 14.  These past 10 years have been tough for her.  In her letter, she said, “Ever since my father died, I lost a part of me that can never be replaced.”  And she describes her childhood as a “little girl struggling to shine through all the darkness in her life.”

But every year, more and more, Payton is shining through.  She’s playing a lot of sports, including lacrosse and track, just like her dad.  She’s doing well in school.  She’s mentoring younger students.  She’s looking ahead to high school in the fall.  And so, yesterday she was with us —- a strong, confident young woman -— honoring her father’s memory, even as she set her sights on the future.

And for her and for all of us, this week has been a reminder of what we’re about as a people.  It’s easy to forget sometimes, especially in times of hardship, times of uncertainty.  We’re coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression; haven’t fully recovered from that.  We’ve made enormous sacrifices in two wars.  But the essence of America -- the values that have defined us for more than 200 years -- they don’t just endure; they are stronger than ever.

We’re still the America that does the hard things, that does the great things.  We’re the nation that always dared to dream.  We’re the nation that’s willing to take risks -- revolutionaries breaking free from an empire; pioneers heading West to settle new frontiers; innovators building railways and laying the highways and putting a man on the surface of the moon.

We are the nation -- and you’re the Division -- that parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day, freeing a continent, liberating concentration camps.  We’re the nation that, all those years ago, sent your Division to a high school in Arkansas so that nine black students could get an education.  That was you.  Because we believed that all men are created equal; that everyone deserves a chance to realize their God-given potential.

We’re the nation that has faced tough times before -- tougher times than these.  But when our Union frayed, when the Depression came, when our harbor was bombed, when our country was attacked on that September day, when disaster strikes like that tornado that just ripped through this region, we do not falter.  We don’t turn back.  We pick ourselves up and we get on with the hard task of keeping our country strong and safe.

See, there’s nothing we can’t do together, 101st, when we remember who we are, at that is the United States of America.  (Applause.)  When we remember that, no problem is too hard and no challenge is too great.

And that is why I am so confident that, with your brave service, America’s greatest days are still to come.  (Applause.)

God bless you.  God bless the 101st.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END
3:47 P.M. CDT

Writing community Helium has raised another $10 million in funding, the company tells us. Third-party publishers post writing assignments on the site, which members then write up in exchange for a fee. Executives aren’t providing details about the funding round, but the startup’s previous backers include RR Donnelley, which invested $4.4 million in the company in September 2009. This funding round brings Helium’s total backing to more than $30 million.

Related

• RR Donnelly Takes Stake In Writing Community Helium; Invests $4.4 Million
• Brill, Crovitz & Co. Sell Journalism Online To RR Donnelly

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? The Legend Of The Mighty Soap Trailer When I was a kid I watched HBO relentlessly. Whenever there wasn't reairings of Fraggle Rock, Braingames, Heartbeeps, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome there were lots of short films that played between movies. The actual "program" was called Short Take (anyone remember Recorded Live [1]? Still creeps me out.) and even though I only have a vague recollection of them there was one really odd film about a talking, shrunken head. It was strange even by my 10 year-old standards as the thing somehow was hanging out with a couple of kids, for whatever effed up reason, stuffed it into a soccer ball and was kicked around a field to the sounds of something equating to macabre whimpering. This trailer reminds me of that moment. To that end, there is no other, correct, response to have after watching this trailer other than realizing you need to see this film. It's probably the strangest thing you'll see today but it's worth it. While I couldn’t tell you what the hell is happening I can say with some certainty that the style is a little Tim and Eric with a dash of bizarro, netherworld action. Director Andrew Bond has made something that even those at a Freudian institute would be hard pressed to explain without breaking out into fits of frustration. There is a narrative here, though. From what I can deduce by watching,  I can't understand the vocal track because they're not speaking American, the visuals really are reminiscent of those brainiacs behind the Old Spice commercials (Again, Tim and Eric for those who didn't know) but it's a perfectly apropos comparison. Those ads worked for P&G in the number of units that were moved because of how well the public received them; they were irreverent, funny, creative, but had a purpose. This trailer has a purpose because it's not just content with being strange. It wants to express itself as a story that is pitting the unwashed masses who want to be clean against a bile shooting monster. Sometimes an explanation is too much. It's best to leave the oddness be. [Twitch [2]] The National Parks Project Trailer Moving out beyond the usual nature photographers who simply stick a camera out into a field and expect to capture nature in all its splendor, this project seems like it's something a little more unique. The opening of this trailer is representative of why it's such an evocative piece of marketing material simply because of its plain, white, snow swept mountain ranges. It's not just  a canvas that is waiting for you to give it some kind of meaning. There are no words, no guide about what we're seeing as you focus on the hills that look like ribs jutting up from the ground. This something more than what it appears to be and you can sense it. All the unwashed hippies in the audience ought to be crying at this point at the beauty of it all. Smash cut, we're now on the shore of some lush wilderness. We get close to a tree as the jangling of a guitar slips in and envelopes you in some nature photography that is certainly unlike anything I've ever seen on the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I can't exactly put my finger on it but this is a different kind of nature documentary. It seems hipper in a way, with a modern sensibility. And that seems to be the case when the narrator drops in. Literally, a voice of God simply lays it out simply and effectively about why we're here, what we're looking at. That's it about Canadian parks is one thing but when the information scrolls by and tells us that it and it is going to utilize 13 filmmakers and 39 musicians to essentially guide us through this walk through nature my curiosity is even more piqued. What strikes me as I watch this is that it's like something we would expect to come from authors if this was the 19th centuries; writers who looked at nature not as a utilitarian source of power but of an entity endowed with an inherent beauty, as something to be celebrated. This is the 21st answer to Henry David Thoreau or Emerson and it simply looks like it's a movie where you hunker down and let it wash over you. The Elephant In The Living Room Trailer This obviously goes beyond people who own some ferrets. Director Michael Webber has done something genuinely novel here while also creating a trailer that is both ambitious and tense. What grabs you immediately is that even before we know this is a story about people who keep really dangerous pets we get the 911 call and the police officer who fields them. We're not really sure what this is all about, it sounds a little goofy honestly and it does appear to be humorous, but that smile is turned upside down once we hear from this cop who looks deadly serious about his role in playing the part of exotic pet wrangler. He's not so much afraid as he is worried about the possibilities of what could happen. We get quotes from /Film's own David Chen and Michael Moore (always good company to be in) and it's about as an explosive, riveting opening as you're going to get for a documentary all this year. I, honestly, loved how well it pulls you in with not only the kudos, its editing, its pacing, and the ability to emotionally tug at you that all the rest is gravy. Gravy being the one thing that sustains the goodness of this thing because it is flat out enthralling. We get crazies of all kinds and that's just glorious. There's some guy who looks like the wizened, slouchy brother of Captain Lou Albano who is *really* into his lion, some dude who wants to talk about the dangers of legislating controls on the ownership of these beasts, and opinions that straddle the grey lines in-between. I love that we get a shot of some jamoke who is casually and nonchalantly hanging out with his mountain lion in his living room as the scene we get directly following this is of a police officer pumping his shotgun as he slowly walks into some tall scrub. This film shot up to the top of my most wanted list of documentaries based on the strength of the trailer as not only does it make clear what the story is about it smartly stays out of the way for the thoughts that come out of it. The people are allowed to get their opinions out without judgement and without guidance from the filmmakers about how we should think about this. It's refreshing and exciting. Tracker Trailer I honestly wish Australia could have been a good film. To that point, I would have loved to have had a compelling story to go along with the lush landscapes and places we were taken in that movie. Alas, what we got was painfully unwatchable pap that went nowhere quite fast and labored like a sick dog all the way to the end. It's interesting, then, that director Ian Sharp, who hasn't directed anything of note since 2002's blockbuster Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War, might be able to bring some of what Australia could have been to the screen. And, yes, I realize that New Zealand is a wholly independent continent but it's a pretty close facsimile. The trailer is quite precise as it establishes what is happening in the film and that it seems to focus on the relationship between Ray Winstone and Temuera Morrison. It's that focus on the duality of these men that really appeals to me. The first half of the trailer sets up things solidly with not only establishing the persona non grata status of Winstone but explains why Morrison is on the run from Johnny Law. Instead of a good guy/bad guy demarcation there is a whole lot of gray to for both parties as the manhunt is on. As the trailer goes into its back nine, the physical landscape provides a great postcard for anyone looking to be ensconced in a world that seems to be punctuated with sound stage set-ups. The "out in the open" quality of key moments in this story are not only well presented here but have really been appealing to me as of late after seeing how the Coen's used physical landscape in True Grit. There could be some meat on this script if it can be more than just a movie about inequality and Winstone's journey to be accepted in a culture that seems to not want him around. From the looks of it there are some exciting set pieces and interesting directorial choices. It's been a while since I've caught Winstone in something reaching the epic proportions of The Departed and while I didn't get it with 44 Inch Chest there is the distinct possibility this could be something close. Bloodrape Trailer The last time I checked in [3] with this film, I was pretty much blown away by its ferocity. Well, Tucker Bennett, Taeer Maymon, and Zach Shipko are back to melt whatever was left of your face off in a trailer I simply love for reasons that I cannot justify in any coherent, factual way. By all accounts I should be annoyed by the construction of it. The sound is just pounding through the speakers, the visuals are more methed up than a junkie who just found a c-note in the street, there is no direction to it whatsoever, or any clear vision of what they're trying to "sell", but it's the rawness of it all that's so alluring. There isn't any way to talk about this trailer in a manner that breaks down the core components of what makes this a trailer worth mentioning only because you can't watch this and not feel this is either one of the most fascinating things you'll see all week (make note: I'm not saying great, I'm just stating "fascinating") or something that you are completely repulsed by. I happen to fall in the former camp as this isn't just a slapdash trailer that's put together with some snot and invisible tape, you genuinely have a focused piece of performance art that not only is giving you bits of this film's content but it's got an independent style that eschews most everything you would consider necessary to get you interested in a film you've never heard of. I have no doubt some of you will think this is the most obnoxious, attention whore-ing piece of trash you've come across but I would counter that the minds behind this have a clear voice and don't care about anyone else thinks. That indifference isn't punk so much as it is having a vision of what you want and just shoving it out there for everyone to see. From the vampire orgy, the feasting that's being done on humans with blood that seems more pink than red, the music that is damn near bleeding through your speakers, the editing that seems unable to focus on anything for more than mere milliseconds, and the last fifteen seconds that is out to melt what's left of your cerebral cortex with its distorted volume and disjointed narrative that offers no help in deciphering what in the hell is going here, it's all wonderful. I embrace the work for what it is and respect the insane vibe of it all. Elephant White Trailer Um. Ok. While everyone is in white hot anticipation for Kevin Bacon in X-Men: First Class maybe seeing Bacon plying his trade at trying out a British accent would be of interest. I'm not sure what's worse, his attempt or the premise of this film. Chocolate, Ong-bak, The Protector, all films that director Prachya Pinkaew ought to be really proud of but this is just amazing in its average-ness. It's not enough to say we've seen this before in films like Taken or Man on Fire because that would be generous to those films. This is a wholesale, played out, construction that starts off so modestly that you wonder whether this was conceived with the idea of this movie never making it to a large screen; instead, this direct-to-DVD film would probably best be deployed as freebies to those buying a Previously Viewed film at a closing Blockbuster. That, or Antonio Sabato Jr.'s latest. The trailer just doesn't inspire to be anything, really. Of course it possesses the rudimentary elements to be classified as a story, some guy is on the hunt for a girl who may have been kidnapped and is in the sex trade, but as the story is unraveled all we get is gold and red lit scenes where people are acting like this is an action blockbuster that's much too hot to be contained but it's clunkier than an AMC Pacer. There's some pretty bad choreographed fighting, uninspiring heaps of strained dialogue from both Bacon and Djimon, and pathetic running-through-crowded-streets moments that don't even manage to top the gold standard set by Bloodsport. Oh, and there's elephants. A few times. For whatever that's worth to you. For me, it just means disappointment. Operation Belvis Bash Trailer Never before has a trailer felt like having to watch Shoah without ever getting up to pee than this did. I think this will make a lot more sense if I simply let the press release I received on Monday morning set things up: George Bush’s backyard was the backdrop for what turned out to be an unexpected ending to an exciting evening for actor/singer Corey Feldman.  Feldman’s latest film, Operation Belvis Bash premiered on May 1, in Houston,TX, and is the story of a special military operation whose goal is to assassinate Osama Bin Laden.  Just a few minutes after seeing what audiences thought was a purely fictional assassination of the world’s most hated terrorist, they exited the theater to learn that it had happened in real life. “It’s absolutely unbelievable,” commented Feldman.  “I was in New York on September 11, 2001, with Michael Jackson, and then, nearly ten years later, I walk out of the premiere of my latest film, which I had postponed to be able to attend Corey Haim’s Decisions premiere and memorial, to learn that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by a special operation, just like in the film we’d just screened. The timing is simply unbelievable, and whether life imitates art, or art imitates life, now is a time for all Americans to express their gratitude to the brave men and women who serve our country and helped make this happen.” What's here, though, is awful. I watched this with the kind of fascination that a baby gives to someone speaking to them: I don't know what's going on, I don't believe what I'm seeing, and I can't understand why anyone pumped dollar one into a story that seems to be thinner than a stick of gum. Apart from the Soup Nazi, the Iron Sheik, Daniel Baldwin, that guy from the Twisted Sister video, and Corey Feldman in a role that is too bizarre for even me to describe, I am unsure of who anyone is or what it is I'm supposed to be buying into as this film's premise. It's uneven, choppy, and doesn't sell me at all on what a lot of people sunk their time and money into in order to make this. I was amazed by the press release and I'm even more amazed by this trailer. Note bene: If you have any suggestions of trailers to possibly be included in this column, even have a trailer of your own to pitch, please let me know by sending me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com In case you missed them, here are the other trailers we covered at /Film this week: Intruders Trailer [4] - Bravo. In fifty seconds this teaser is able to actually tease a story, not give anything away, while managing to give a sense of the time and place we're in. Page One: Inside The New York Times Trailer [5] - I am such a fan of movies like this and this trailer infuses just enough drama and excitement to get any layperson charged up about wanting to see a documentary about a newspaper. The Ledge Trailer [6] - This plays a little weak. The premise isn't novel so much as it is overwhelmingly silly. I just couldn't shake the feeling this isn't a very entertaining film as it is overacted. Buck Trailer [7] - Living in the southwest I am bombarded by horses and horse related issues on a daily basis but I've never really cared about these beasts until I saw this trailer. I found myself riveted by the premise and who we'll be following on this journey. Hell On Wheels Trailer [8] - I'm unmoved one way or the other by this trailer. The show seems interesting but the attempts at giving me some money shots or reasons to tune in just aren't there. Green Lantern Trailer #2 [9] - This trailer seems to take the best parts of the teaser and the first trailer and, bravo, this actually works for me. Martha Marcy May Marlene Trailer [10] - This trailer got under my psyche and did not relent. It's such a great mix of mysteriousness and evil that I can't help but wonder how soon I can see it. Colombiana Trailer [11] - I would apologize for liking this but I'm in a sweet tooth mood right now and this looks like just what I need: by the numbers, fun, hollow, escapism. The Trip Trailer [12] - We've all heard this musical cue before but it works for me. The tempo is great and so is the trailer. I'm enthralled with the idea of seeing Coogan just be himself again. For my money, it doesn't get much better. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Qeee8D2Ro [2] http://twitchfilm.com/news/2011/04/if-you-are-dirty-the-legend-of-the-mighty-soap-will-clean-you.php [3] http://www.slashfilm.com/this-week-in-trailers-trigger-night-of-the-demons-bloodrape-idiots-and-angels-picture-me/ [4] http://www.slashfilm.com/intruders-teaser-trailer-clive-owen-has-a-demon-problem/ [5] http://www.slashfilm.com/page-one-inside-the-new-york-times-trailer/ [6] http://www.slashfilm.com/ledge-trailer-charlie-hunnam-problems/ [7] http://www.slashfilm.com/buck-trailer-life-reallife-horse-human-whisperer/ [8] http://www.slashfilm.com/hell-wheels-trailer-amc-western/ [9] http://www.slashfilm.com/green-lantern-trailer-2/ [10] http://www.slashfilm.com/martha-marcy-may-marlene-trailer/ [11] http://www.slashfilm.com/columbiana-trailer/ [12] http://www.slashfilm.com/the-trip-trailer/

FREE CONCERTS ACROSS THE FIVE BOROUGHS

SummerStage is now offering shows at 18 parks across the five boroughs of New York, completely free of charge. Take a look at the full schedule below.

Mainstage, Central Park
Tuesday, June 07: Night at The Caravanserai Tales of Wonder featuring: Yo-Yo Ma, The Silk Road Ensemble, Silkroad Connect Students and Friends (concert)
Saturday, June 11: Blue Note Jazz Festival: Medeski Martin & Wood / Josh Roseman & The King Froopy Allstars / Jim Black's AlasNoAxis (concert)
Friday, June 17: Istanbulive III: Sounds of Civilizations Zulfu Livaneli / maNga and special guests (concert)
Sunday, June 19: 9th Cine Fest Petrobras Brasil NY: Mart'nália (concert); Screening: "ELZA" (film)
Tuesday, June 21: Fête De La Musique: Ben L'Oncle Soul (concert); Screening: "Gainsbourg and His Girls" (film)
Wednesday, June 22: Reggie Watts / Natasha Leggero (word)
Saturday, June 25: Lee Fields & The Expressions / Fitz & The Tantrums / Andreya Triana / Rich Medina (concert)
Sunday, June 26: Hugh Masekela / Freshlyground / Somi (concert)
Tuesday, June 28: The Moth, hosted by Andy Borowitz, with stories by Pam Grier, and other special guests (word)
Wednesday, June 29: Comedy Central Park starring Jim Gaffigan with special guest John Pinette (comedy)
Saturday, July 02: "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" Roy Ayers and The Jazz Mafia Symphony plus special guests (concert)
Sunday, July 03: RAM / Group Doueh / Baloji / GlobeSonic Sound System (concert)
Wednesday, July 06: Jarabe de Palo / Ely Guerra / Novalima / Mr. Pauer (concert)
Saturday, July 09: ChocQuibTown / Rita Indiana / Ursula 1000 / Que Bajo?! (concert)
Monday, July 11: The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (concert)
Friday, July 15: Armitage Gone! Dance and special musical guest Vijay Iyer with Dance Grand Moultrie (dance)
Saturday, July 16: Armitage Gone! Dance and special musical guest Vijay Iyer with Dance Grand Moultrie (dance)
Sunday, July 17: Pink Martini (concert)
Saturday, July 23: Keigwin + Company with Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn (dance)
Sunday, July 24: Marcelo D2 / Pitty / DJ Nuts (concert)
Wednesday, July 27: Wanda Jackson / Imelda May (concert)
Saturday, July 30: Forces of Nature Dance Theatre with Cecilia Marta Dance Company (dance)
Sunday, July 31: Yemen Blues / Watcha Clan / Shabate / Awesome Tapes from Africa (concert)
Saturday, August 06: Shelebration! A Tribute to the Works of Shel Silverstein, produced by Hal Willner (concert, poetry)
Sunday, August 07: Friendly Fires / The Naked And Famous / Cults (concert)
Wednesday, August 10: Joe Bataan / Johnny Colón / DJ Turmix (concert); Screening: "We Like It Like That - The Story of Latin Boogaloo" (film)
Saturday, August 13: Henry Santos (concert)
Sunday, August 14: Gospel Explosion featuring Donald Lawrence and special guests, hosted By Hezekiah Walker (concert)
Wednesday, August 17: Sangre By Mando Alvardo Directed by Jerry Ruiz (theater)
Saturday, August 20: Tiken Jah Fakoly / Meta and the Cornerstones / Los Rakas (concert)
Sunday, August 21: Rakim, EPMD and Funkmaster Flex (concert)
Sunday, August 28: Jagged Edge / Avant / Melanie Fiona (concert)

Betsy Head Memorial Playground
Tuesday, June 07: "Salute to Hip-Hop" featuring EPMD / Funkmaster Flex (concert)
Wednesday, June 08: Special Ed (concert)
Thursday, June 09: B.T. Express / Rhythm Revue with Felix Hernandez (concert)

Herbert Von King Park
Friday, June 10: Passion of Tap (dance)
Saturday, June 11: Shlank Squad, Elite Force and Ladies of Hip-Hop with MAWU (dance)
Tuesday, June 14: Tye Tribett (concert)
Wednesday, June 15: Nice and Smooth and The Awesome 2 (concert)
Thursday, June 16: Jon B / Olivia (concert)
Friday, June 17: Indomitable: James Brown Featuring Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber and Brandon Victor Dixon (theater)
Saturday, June 18: "Indomitable: James Brown" featuring Burnt Sugar / The Arkestra Chamber / Brandon Victor Dixon (theater)

Red Hook Park
Tuesday, June 21: Talib Kweli (concert)
Wednesday, June 22: Ozomatli (concert)
Thursday, June 23: We Are Scientists / Milagres (concert)
Friday, June 24: Reggie Watts / DJ Stormin' Norman (concert)
Saturday, June 25: Dance Grand Moultrie with Malcolm Low/ Formal Structure Inc. (dance)

Soundview Park
Tuesday, June 28: "Salute to Hip-Hop" featuring Funkmaster Flex and special guests (concert)
Wednesday, June 29: Larry Harlow and Latin Legends Band (concert)
Thursday, June 30: Hector Tricoche / Chris Alfinez (concert)

St. Mary's Park
Friday, July 01: Pasión y Arte with On Tap (dance)
Saturday, July 02: OPUS Dance Theater with Dance IQUAIL! (dance)
Tuesday, July 05: Lavoe All Stars Cantando Renzo Padilla / 8 y Más (concert)
Wednesday, July 06: Tony Vega (concert)
Thursday, July 07: Ray Sepulveda / Chris Alfinez (concert)
Friday, July 08: "Sangre" By Mando Alvardo, Directed by Jerry Ruiz, Adapted from Blood Wedding By Federico García Lorca (theater)
Saturday, July 09: "Sangre" By Mando Alvardo, Directed by Jerry Ruiz, Adapted from Blood Wedding By Federico García Lorca (theater)

Crotona Park
Tuesday, July 12: Slick Rick / DJ Brucie B (concert)
Wednesday, July 13: Xcstacy (concert)
Friday, July 15: "Sangre" By Mando Alvardo, Directed by Jerry Ruiz, Adapted from Blood Wedding By Federico García Lorca (theater)
Saturday, July 16: "Sangre" By Mando Alvardo, Directed by Jerry Ruiz, Adapted from Blood Wedding By Federico García Lorca (theater)
Sunday, July 17: The Manhattans / Rhythm Revue with Felix Hernandez (concert)
Tuesday, July 19: The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (concert)

Brooklyn Bridge Park
Wednesday, July 13: The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (concert)

Queensbridge Park
Tuesday, July 19: Kool Moe Dee (concert)
Wednesday, July 20: Harold Melvin's Blue Notes / Rhythm Revue with Felix Hernandez (concert)
Thursday, July 21: "Salute to Hip-Hop" featuring Funkmaster Flex and special guests (concert)
Friday, July 22: Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn / Waheed Works (dance)

Clove Lakes Park
Thursday, July 21: The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (concert)

Springfield Park
Tuesday, July 26: Queens Donell Jones / Olivia (concert)
Wednesday, July 27: Hezekiah Walker (concert)
Thursday, July 28: Chrisette Michele (concert)
Friday, July 29: "Tunde's Trumpet" By Chisa Hutchinson, Directed By Kristin Horton (musical theater)
Saturday, July 30: "Tunde's Trumpet" By Chisa Hutchinson, Directed By Kristin Horton (musical theater)

Socrates Sculpture Park
Tuesday, July 26: The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (concert)

Jackie Robinson Park
Thursday, July 28: The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (concert)

Tappen Park
Tuesday, August 02: Sugarhill Gang (concert)
Wednesday, August 03: The Budos Band (concert)
Thursday, August 04: Andy Cooney (concert)

Marcus Garvey Park
Friday, August 05: "Henry V" By William Shakespeare (theater)
Saturday, August 06: "Henry V" By William Shakespeare (theater)
Sunday, August 07: "Tunde's Trumpet" By Chisa Hutchinson, Directed By Kristin Horton (musical theater)
Monday, August 08: "Tunde's Trumpet" By Chisa Hutchinson, Directed By Kristin Horton (musical theater)
Tuesday, August 09: "Salute to Hip-Hop" featuring Rob Base / Funkmaster Flex (concert)
Wednesday, August 10: Vashawn Mitchell (concert)
Thursday, August 11: Ryan Leslie (concert)
Friday, August 12: Forces of Nature Dance Theatre / THE DASH Ensemble (dance)
Saturday, August 13: Cecilia Marta Dance Company with Francine E. Ott / The Walk (dance)
Saturday, August 27: The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival featuring Toots Thielemans / James Carter / Tia Fuller / Cecile McLorin Salvant (concert)

Highbridge Park
Tuesday, August 16: Bachata Heightz (concert)
Wednesday, August 17: Henry Santos (concert)
Thursday, August 18: Andy Andy (concert)

East River Park
Friday, August 19: dre.dance / WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company (dance)
Saturday, August 20: Step Afrika! / Border Crossing Collective
Tuesday, August 23: Tito Rojas (concert)
Wednesday, August 24: The Cold Crush Brothers (concert)
Thursday, August 25: Wavves (concert)
Saturday, August 27: "Henry V" By William Shakespeare (theater)
Sunday, August 28: "Henry V" By William Shakespeare (theater)
Monday, August 29: "Henry V" By William Shakespeare (theater)
Tuesday, August 30: "Oedipus Rex" By Sophocles (theater)
Wednesday, August 31: "Seven Against Thebes" By Aeschylus (theater)
Thursday, September 1: "Oedipus Rex" (theater)
Friday, September 2: "Seven Against Thebes" By Aeschylus (theater)

Tompkins Square Park
Sunday, August 28: The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival featuring Archie Shepp Quartet / Madeleine Peyroux / Ali Jackson / The Gerald Clayton Trio (concert)

Celebrities are falling over themselves to go on holiday with you – yes, you! So why not join David Bellamy for a spot of turtle-hunting, or discuss writing techniques with Steven Berkoff in Cuba

Find turtles with David Bellamy

The beardy botanist will be your new holiday buddy on a cruise around the coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. On one day he will lead an excursion to Costa Rica's Playas del Coco, where many species of marine turtle nest, and on others he will give lectures on board the ship. Guests will spend two nights in a five-star hotel in Costa Rica before boarding a tall ship to explore the beaches, cloud forests and wildlife of the Pacific coast.

• From £2,239pp for 10 nights with Star Clippers (0845 200 6145, starclippers.co.uk) including flights from London, guided tours and watersports. Departing on 8 December 2011

Learn to write with Steven Berkoff or Arthur Smith

He's acted in A Clockwork Orange, Beverly Hills Cop and Rambo, directed Joan Collins, written several plays and books, and now his next project is ... you! Yes, Steven Berkoff will be on hand to get your creative juices flowing on a 10-night writing break in Cuba with alternative holiday operator Skyros.com. After a daily yoga session, you'll put pen to paper under Berkoff's guidance, inspired by excursions into Havana from your hotel, the Habana Libre, talks on Cuban history and culture. Skyros has previously run writing trips by such literary luminaries as Hanif Kureishi, Margaret Drabble and Hilary Mantel, and other teachers this year include philosopher and writer Robert Rowland Smith and comedian Arthur Smith, at the company's usual base on the Greek island of Skyros.

• £1,095pp for 10 nights in Cuba in a five-star twin room (01983 865566, skyros.com), including breakfast and two evening meals, but excluding flights. Starts 20 November. Writing holidays on Skyros start at £745pp for 10 days

Get fit with Sally Gunnell

Sally Gunnell is leading a family fitness retreat near La Clusaz in the French Alps this summer. After training with the Olympian, who is passionate about getting kids off their bums, your youngsters won't necessarily become hurdling champions too, but they should have a new enthusiasm for sport and exercise – after trying mountain biking, kayaking, zip-wiring and more. The holiday includes children's entertainment, a nanny for under-fours, plus a fitness assessment, one-on-one sessions and a massage for adults. The same company is also offering fitness breaks with runner Liz Yelling, decathlete Dean Macey and swimmer Karen Pickering.

• From £850pp for adults and £600 for children with Adventures in the Alps (0845 519 3101, adventuresinthealps.com), including full board in a luxury chalet with spa facilities, but excluding flights. Sally Gunnell's fitness retreat takes place from 20-26 August

Learn history from Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa

On a 16-day cruise around the Baltic aboard the National Geographic Explorer, you meet the former president of Poland and Nobel laureate Lech Walesa in Gdansk and attend a presentation by Mikhail Gorbachev in St Petersburg, to learn about eastern Europe and Russia past and present. There'll be extra tuition from on-board historians, naturalists and a National Geographic photographer. You also take trips to the Hermitage Museum, the old towns of Lübeck, Riga and Tallinn, and explore the Stockholm archipelago by kayak or on a nature walk. Embarking at Copenhagen, you travel on the Explorer, a state-of-the-art, ice-class expedition ship, and spend one night at St Petersburg's five-star Grand Hotel Europe. Warning: hobnobbing with makers of history does not come cheap.

• From around £7,300pp (based on two sharing) with National Geographic Expeditions (nationalgeographicexpeditions.com) including full board, but excluding flights. Departures in August and September 2011 (waiting list) and 2012

Party with Brotherhood of Man and Bobby Davro

Once upon a time you might have rifled through the Thomson Holidays brochure trying to decide between the hotel with the swim-up bar, the one with a sauna, or the resort with free access to pedalos. This year, though, you'll be racked with indecision over whether you'd most like to spend your hols being entertained by Eurovision 1976-winners Brotherhood of Man, comedian Bobby Davro, or experiencing an audience with Sue Holderness (who played Marlene, wife of Boycie in Only Fools and Horses), to "find out more about Sue's life, loves and what makes her feel lovely jubbly". All these encounters and more are available from the Thomson Gold list of "stars on tour" holidays, in various locations, including the Algarve, Ibiza and Majorca.

• Book through Thomson Holidays ( thomson.co.uk/editorial/gold/thomson-gold.html). Prices vary, but a week at the Panorama Hotel in Ibiza for the Brotherhood of Man show in October costs £420pp based on two sharing, including flights

Cook with Fergus Henderson

Want to make pies with the Hairy Bikers, skewer a prawn with Mark Hix or griddle offal with Fergus Henderson? Head to Temple Guiting, a manor house in the Cotswolds where all these rent-a-chefs can be hired to teach you and your friends how to cook well on a bespoke course for your private group. The owner, cookery writer Sophie Conran, can also arrange wine tasting with Oz Clarke or a make-up course with Ruby Hammer, one half of beauty brand Ruby and Millie.

• From £2,200 to hire the house (sleeps up to 10) for two nights with Mr and Mrs Smith (0845 034 0700, mrandmrssmith.com). Includes breakfast; courses extra, from £100pp

Stroll around Stockholm with Kate Adie

Kate Adie may have thought she had it tough reporting from all those war zones, but after five days leading a group of British tourists around Sweden she may change her mind. The former BBC correspondent has a degree in Scandinavian studies and has lived in Sweden, so there is a reason for she is accompanying this trip to the Swedish capital, which takes in the sights of Gamla Stan (the old town), a night at the opera in Drottningholm Palace, the island of Djurgarden, and cruises around Stockholm's waterways. Hopefully the only conflict she'll witness on this assignment will be of the dumplings vs gravadlax variety, but if she turns up at the airport in a flak jacket you might want to turn around and go straight home.

• £1,590pp based on two sharing, with Ace Cultural Tours (01223 835055, aceculturaltours.co.uk), including flights, accommodation in a four-star hotel, breakfast and three dinners, excursions and admissions. Runs 2-6 August

Gee-up with Richard Dunwoody

Former jockey Richard Dunwoody now leads riding holidays for an adventure travel company. Don't worry – you don't have to drop to seven stone in weight to take part. These are horeseback treks, and the next is a two-week trip to Mongolia in June. Starting (on foot) in the city of Ulaanbaatar, the group heads north towards the Siberian Taiga, camping under the stars with nomads and riding up to 56km a day across mountain passes and vast steppes, cooling off in the lakes and rivers of the remote Darkhad Valley. Dunwoody will even introduce you to a local shaman (though asking him who the next Grand National winner will be is a no-no).

• £2,795pp with Wild Frontiers (020-7736 3968, wildfrontiers.co.uk), excluding flights, departing 12 June

Strut your stuff with the Strictly stars

We can't promise a thumbs-up from Brucie, or a spin with Felicity Kendal, but some of the stars of Strictly Come Dancing, including Ian Waite and Camilla Dallerup or Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova, teach short-break courses for Warner Leisure Hotels in June and July. Guests learn steps, watch a dance demonstration and take part in a competition judged by Craig Revel Horwood. All together now: keeeep dancing!

• From £389pp for three nights (0800 138 2633, warnerleisurehotels.co.uk) at Cricket St Thomas Hotel, Somerset (3 June), and Holme Lacy House Hotel, Herefordshire (1 July). If you prefer to go further afield, Saga (0800 096 0084, travel.saga.co.uk) offers Come Dancing holidays in Malta, with seven nights from £669pp

Challenge Jeremy Bates to a game of tennis

Lessons at your local tennis club not doing the trick? If you really want to ace your opponents, sign up for tuition with Jeremy Bates, the former British number one. On a week's course on the Caribbean island of Antigua, Jeremy will take morning coaching clinics, after which you're welcome to practise on the floodlit courts. Or you could use the spa and gym in your luxury hotel, Carlisle Bay, which is set between mangroves and the white sand beach. There is a competition and prize-giving dinner at the end of the week to spur you on.

• From £2,675pp for seven nights with Seasons (01244 202 000, seasons.co.uk), including flights, half-board accommodation and five days of coaching. Departures on 10 July and 13 November

Get gardening tips from Christine Walkden

Green-fingered fans of TV presenter and gardener Christine Walkden can attend two garden tours that she is leading in the UK. Sharing her knowledge of gardening techniques, soil and climate, the gardening expert for BBC's The One Show and former presenter of Gardener's World is hosting a seven-night trip around Somerset and north Devon in June will take in gardens such as Marwood Hill, Heddon Hall and Hestercombe. The second is a four-night tour to the Cotswolds in October, taking in the gardens of Bourton House, Hidcote Manor and Sudeley Castle.

• £849pp for the seven-night tour and £499pp for four nights with HF Holidays (0845 470 7558, hfholidays.co.uk), including full board at a country house hotel, transport, garden visits and evening activities

Cashback offer open to those who switch main current account. But are you in the black or red?

Santander this week extended its £100 cashback incentive to UK consumers who switch their main current account to its Zero, Reward and Premium accounts or new Preferred Current Account.

The offer, previously available online only, is available in branch and by phone for "a limited time only", which is likely to mean until September if its previous summer current account marketing promotions are anything to go by.

It is open to new customers who can credit their account with a minimum of £1,000 each month. But it's not available if you hold any Santander UK, Alliance & Leicester, cahoot or Cater Allen current account, or to those switching to Santander's Everyday account.

But apart from the £100 lure, is it any good, given the bank's dismal record on customer service? If things go right, the deal looks attractive, with the account paying a fixed in-credit rate of 5% AER on balances up to £2,500. However this reverts to just 1% after 12 months, and there is no interest on balances over £2,500.

The Preferred Current Account vies with the Halifax Reward Current Account at the top of data provider Moneyfacts' best-buy tables. It also comes with a free arranged overdraft matching, in most cases, its previous overdraft up to £5,000 for the first 12 months, with no interest or daily fee. But after 12 months this reverts to an arranged overdraft fee of 50p per day, capped at 10 days during each monthly statement period.

The £100 deal applies to both the basic Santander accounts and its packaged accounts, which give travel insurance and breakdown cover. But at a cost of up to £240 a year, packaged accounts rarely make financial sense.

Moneyfacts says that switching is relatively simple and worth doing if it can save you money. "The only thing you need to do is to let your employer, or any party that pays in to your account – like your pension provider – know your new bank details," Moneyfacts says. "It's also wise to keep your old account open for a couple of months afterwards just in case something does go awry and be sure payments go in and out as expected."

Best for those who stay in the black If you generally keep your current account balance in credit and rarely, if ever, dip into the red then, all things being equal, you'll be looking for the best in-credit rates.

As mentioned above, Santander's Preferred and Halifax's Reward accounts top the best-buy tables. Both require a £1,000 minimum monthly deposit but the way they reward in-credit balances is different. While Santander pays the fixed 5% on balances up to £2,500 for the first 12 months, Halifax credits a net cash payment after tax of £5 to the account each month you pay in £1,000 or more. This is the equivalent of a credit interest rate on that £1,000 of 7.5% for lower-rate taxpayers. But the payment is given irrespective of balance, so the £1,000 does not need to stay in the account. Halifax has put no time limit on this and, though the bank has the right to change it at any time, it has been in place for two years.

Given the potential to earn up to £125 interest in a year (5% of a continuous £2,500 balance) plus a £100 cashback, Santander's offering looks the better deal for those who can afford to maintain a high balance. The Halifax, on the other hand, looks to offer a better long-term reward for those who stay in credit throughout the month, but not by much.

Also worth considering if you can keep a continual high balance and do not go overdrawn, is Lloyds TSB's Classic with Vantage account. Provided you pay in a minimum of £1,000 a month and stay in credit, you earn tiered variable interest on your balance up to £7,000. AER rates are: 0.1% on £1-£1,000; 2% on £1,000+; 3% on £3,000+; and 4% on £5,000-£7,000. From 27 June, they will change to: 1.5% on £1+; 2% on £1,000+ and 3% on £3,000-£5,000. Interest is calculated daily and paid monthly.

Best for those who go in to the red Look for the cheapest overdrafts. High in the best-buy tables from both Moneyfacts and comparison website moneysupermarket.com is the Co-operative Bank, whose Current and Current Plus accounts both charge 15.9% based on an overdraft limit of £500. The difference with Current Plus, which requires a minimum monthly deposit of at least £800, is that you get an automatic fee-free "buffer" of £200.

Also doing well is Norwich & Peterborough Building Society's Gold Classic Current Account which, based on an overdraft limit of £500, charges 17.9% plus £5 a month fee. Nationwide's FlexAccount has an authorised overdraft rate of 18.9% but is offering zero interest on authorised overdrafts for the first three months after switching.

As the hit musical Dirty Dancing prepares to go on tour, our reporter joins young hopefuls at open auditions, and asks how a low-budget film became 'a cultural event that lasted decades'

You could probably argue that Flashdance is the better film, but it is Dirty Dancing that captured our collective heart. They call it "Star Wars for girls". It's not much on paper: a family goes on holiday, and its late-teenage daughters fall in love, one with a good'un – Patrick Swayze on career-defining form – and one with a bad sort. Steamy dancing occurs, that's the main thing. When the stage version opened in 2006, it had the highest pre-sell in West End history. Now, they're holding open auditions in the regions, for the national tour.

At 7.15 on Thursday morning, there is a snake of girls standing outside a dance studio in Edinburgh, standing in first position from muscle memory, wearing so much makeup that they look like those street performers in the festival who think it's entertaining to pretend to be a statue. I always thought the point of open auditions was just to drum up publicity for the show, but the Dirty Dancing tour has no need of publicity. It's already taken £8.5m in sales, when booking's only been open three weeks, and the show doesn't start until September. It sounds like a lot of money.

Guy Chapman is the most modest marketing man I've ever met, not just in theatre, but in any field. "Well, I come from opera. Everything sounds like a lot of money." Really, though, how does it compare to other musicals? "It is in a different league. Twenty-five per cent of people buying a ticket have never booked with that theatre before – so it's not people who go to Mamma Mia! or Sound of Music. It's the Take That/Kylie crossover, it's basically the pop audience. The theatre crowd are a bit more savvy, and they know they don't have to book straight away. The pop crowd will book the first day booking opens."

The Take That reference hits this demographic squarely on its head: women born between 1970 and 1980 are obsessed with this film. I have a theory about this. I stole it off a friend who is into Freudian psychoanalysis: the whole theme, the eponymous dirty dancing, is sublimated sexual energy, that much is obvious. That memorable moment when Swayze finally manages to heave, sorry, lift Jennifer Grey off the ground (to recap, they've tried the lift before, for a competition, and not pulled it off … after much ill-fortune, his holiday camp-dancing career seems to be over, and she's been relegated back to childhood … ) is a metaphor for losing your virginity. And it's clearly a female-crafted metaphor, proceeding not with a clear narrative urgency, as straight as a die to the irreducible explosion, but rather, with mis-starts and damp squibs and dance routines that don't go right because both people weren't doing the right thing at the right time and didn't have the right feelings for each other.

But that's just background: the edge comes from the fact that the metaphor is more embarrassing than the simple sexual awakening it's trying to sublimate. The audience is bound together by the shame of having enjoyed something so heavy-handed, and the more bonded you are, the more you enjoy it; the more embarrassed you are about enjoying it, the more bonded you are, until it has become more than a film, it's a cultural event that has lasted decades. There is one moment like this every generation: the swing scene in Sons and Lovers, and almost any scene with a horse in it in International Velvet. Sex substitution is a much darker art than actually writing a sex scene.

Having said all that, I am still surprised to see such a lot of girls queuing up to audition. When this film was released in 1987, almost none of these people were born. If we take as given that they wouldn't have been allowed to watch it before they were 10 (it has "adult themes"; even now the producers aren't encouraging schools to book), the film would have been 15 years old by the time a lot of them saw it. Was it really still iconic by the turn of the century?

"It was absolutely iconic," Adiza Shardow tells me. "I grew up watching this film". Alice Wilkins and Amy Harrison both say the lift is iconic. Their friend Leeanne Dobbie says the watermelon scene is iconic. They all say the watermelon scene is iconic, apart from the one who thinks it's a pineapple, while 21-year-old Adelle Burn distilled something else about Dirty Dancing, a subdivision within the sexuality umbrella: "It's on a par with Chicago, but that's raunchy sexy. This is more feel-good sexy". Elizabeth Pick, also 21, refines it further: "It's not your average dance routine, where everything's spot-on and perfect. It's quite grimy."

"Grimy, like, dirty?"

"No, grimy, like messy."

She is here with Kayleigh LeMay, Rebecca Clarke and Gemma Cutler, all 21, all from the Liverpool Theatre School and College. They all, variously, say they fancied Swayze, which is quite moving, given his premature death in 2009 from pancreatic cancer. It dawns on me that they're all convinced I have some kind of sway with the production, even though I keep telling them I don't. They think this is some kind of pre-audition, where someone tests your passion for the work before you're allowed to dance it, like in Miss World when they test your personality. But let's assume that they're telling the truth.

Apparently, at the Cardiff auditions a bloke turned up in a suit and danced in his socks, but most people here seem semi-professional, or at the least, ex-stage school. It's quite Darwinian, and incredibly hard. Two minutes in, the good ones are already at the front because the crap ones already don't know which way they're facing. I thought it would be like picking a horse in the Grand National, the differences would be minor, a couple of unlucky ones would fall over, and sooner or later, someone would end up winning. It's a bit more human than that. Dancing suggestively, besides being technically difficult, is challenging in some other, elemental way. That's why "dance like there's no one watching" is a well-known phrase. That's why you have to be drunk.

But this film hasn't just lasted because of the dancing. It was political for its time – and set against our neutered, advert-whipped Hollywood, it looks almost radical. Chapman says: "It's not like in Verdi, where the political reference is there, but no one ever thinks about it. This is explicit, if you listen." Since the abortion is what everybody talks about, that is not a bad place to start. Unwanted pregnancies are the main staple of teen drama, and you can tell a lot about a film from the way they're dealt with. In a straight feel-good event, such as Grease, they will vanish of their own accord; in something modern, such as One Tree Hill or Dawson's Creek, abortion won't even be on the table, there will just be a bittersweet adoption or an incredibly photogenic single parenthood. In Dirty Dancing, not only does Penny get pregnant, but she can't afford to get rid of it (who talks about the economics of reproductive health in films now?); she has to borrow cash from the heroine's father (class issues abound – if you can't tell a posh American from a regular one, just remember their doctors are incredibly well paid); she nearly dies getting a backstreet operation (again raising the politics of access to healthcare); even the unpleasant relationship that created the pregnancy feels like it's more about class than a gender point about how men are bastards. "Some people count, some people don't," says Max Cantor, whose film career was truncated by his death from a heroin overdose in 1991.

When they originally screen-tested the film, however, 39% of people didn't realise abortion was the subplot. History doesn't relate whether this is because they didn't notice it at all, or that they thought it was the main plot. That famous line about putting "Baby in the corner" ends with Swayze saying: "Somebody who taught me about the kind of person I want to be: Miss Frances Houseman", which refers us obliquely back to Baby's namesake, Frances Perkins, the first woman in the US cabinet. You'd almost have it as the Thinking Teen's teen movie, if it wasn't for all that ridiculous grinding.

Back at the auditions, I am amazed how stoic these girls are: they spend two hours cha-cha-chaing urgently in front of a huge mirror, trying to remember to look as if they're enjoying themselves without staring directly at anybody, trying to remember not to grin, trying not to give in to the humiliation of getting a high kick wrong, or just not high enough. Then they're handed back their CVs and invited breezily to leave, and they back out smiling graciously, as though leaving a tea party.

By the time they get further along, though – having been pulled out of the fray for a singing audition, and then failed that – emotions are a bit closer to the surface. All four of the Liverpool dancers (they were my favourites) got through the first round, and all four were turned down at the second. Someone told Kayleigh that she was perfect, but she looked too young. She took it on the chin, but looked distraught. "They know who they want. It's nobody's fault, it's just like interviewing for a job and not knowing one particular thing about a computer." I think the truth is that she didn't look, erm, dirty enough. But I didn't know whether or not that helped, so I didn't say it.

Other musicals that matter

Cabaret

Nobody needs a musical to tell them the Holocaust was bad, nor even that reasonable people might be bisexual. But one is so used to Weimar Germany as an impossibly distant place, and suddenly you have a VIP pass to its throbbing epicentre. And: Liza Minnelli (pictured). OK, it's still a musical. You can't watch this instead of reading Primo Levi.

Hair

There are political messages here, but they're so buried in hippie claptrap that this is a better example, not of a musical with a message, but of the power of a soundtrack. Would the Vietnam peace movement have been so popular without this album?

Rent

It seemed at the time that this was the fastest trajectory of disease-to-stage in epidemiological history, but now that I check, it was devised in 1994, by which time HIV had been known about for more than a decade. Still, if you look at La Boheme, upon which its plot is based, that was first performed in 1896. TB was identified in the 1020s. Things are definitely speeding up.

Footloose

Not such a political moment, but it has something of the Dirty Dancing about it: a plot in which the dance is almost a character in its own right. Kevin Bacon is a teen in a town where dance is banned. I know! Imagine!

• Wenger warns Wilshere could miss matches for seniors
• 'It should not be Jack Wilshere's decision,' says manager

Arsène Wenger will urge Fabio Capello to intervene in the debate over Jack Wilshere's participation in the forthcoming European Under-21 Championship, warning that if the midfielder takes part in the tournament he could miss important matches for Arsenal and the senior England team next season.

Wenger has repeatedly warned that Wilshere, 19, risks suffering burnout if he plays in next month's tournament in Denmark, but the Under-21s manager, Stuart Pearce, included the player in the 40-man provisional squad this week.

Wenger says that Wilshere is already feeling the strain of his first full season at senior level and taking part in the tournament will delay his recuperation, meaning he could miss the senior England friendly against Holland on 10 August and the European Championship qualifier in Bulgaria on 2 September. Capello has been reluctant to get involved in the debate, seemingly preferring to leave the decision to Pearce, but Wenger says the Italian would be well advised to veto the player's call-up for the Under-21s.

"I have spoken to Stuart Pearce and I think he will speak to Fabio Capello and I will too," said Wenger. "Indirectly it is his issue because he will lose a player at the start of the season, as I will. He continues to play at the moment but we know from our stats that he has hit the wall a little bit.

"Using him after such a long season can make Jack not available in August or maybe until the beginning of September. No matter what happens I will have to give him at least four weeks' holiday after the tournament – they finish at the end of June and he will not come back until the end of July and then he needs three to four weeks at least to prepare the season. That means he will not be able to play in August."

Wilshere is eager to play in the tournament but Wenger suggested the FA is being irresponsible in allowing the teenager to influence the decision. "It should not be Jack Wilshere's decision. Only the FA can master this decision and they have to react in a responsible way. You cannot ask JW does he want to play because do you really think he will say no? I don't think that's realistic. I would ask the FA to consider the consequences of a boy who is 19 and who has already played around 50 games and then has to play a tournament on the back of that."

Meanwhile, Kenny Dalglish also challenged Pearce's assertion that he needs Andy Carroll, with England set to call up the £35m striker for this summer. The Liverpool manager argues that player development rather than trophies should be the main thrust of youth football. "Winning tournaments is all very well and good but, if you don't get any players to come through, I don't think it is successful," he said.

Germany's recent success at youth level is regularly cited as one of the reason why England should field as strong a team as possible in youth tournament. However, Wenger says that citing the likes of Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller, who were Under 21 champions with Germany before starring for the senior team in the last World Cup, is fallacious. "I hear many times a comparison with the German players but I find this completely inaccurate," he said.

"First of all the German players had not played the number of games that Wilshere has played this season when they went to the tournament. Secondly, in Germany there is a massive winter break until February that allows everybody to rest well before the World Cup. You cannot compare the two situations."

Lady GaGa has recalled the 10 agonising hours she spent waiting to contact her mother after the World Trade Center came crashing down on September 11, 2001.

Speaking publicly about the tragedy for...

Krishna Bharat is the founder and head of Google News and a Distinguished Research Scientist at Google (NSDQ: GOOG). He can also be followed on Twitter at @krishnabharat.

Google News was born in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. An unprecedented act of terrorism on U.S. soil, by a foreign militant group led by Osama Bin Laden, changed the course of history. People around the world were trying to comprehend what had just happened, and its implications to public safety, foreign policy, financial markets, and their own lives. Much of that exploration happened online.

At Google we realized that our ability to display links to the freshest and most relevant news was limited by a fundamental problem: fresh news lacked hyperlinks. Google’s ranking depended on links from other authors on the web. Fresh news, by definition, was too fresh to accumulate such links. A new importance signal was needed.

I realized that if Google could compute how many news sources were covering the underlying story at a given point in time, we could then estimate how important the story was. Thus, “Storyrank” was invented. This insight led to a ranking that combined the editorial wisdom of many editors on the web in real time. In addition to making search better it led to Google News - a display of stories in the news ranked automatically by an algorithm. This also allowed us to group news articles by story, thus providing visual structure and giving users access to diverse perspectives from around the world in one place.

After 10 years Mr. Bin Laden is in the news again.

Continue reading on the Google News blog.

Posted by Krishna Bharat, Founder and Head - Google News

Google News was born in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. An unprecedented act of terrorism on U.S. soil, by a foreign militant group led by Osama Bin Laden, changed the course of history. People around the world were trying to comprehend what had just happened, and its implications to public safety, foreign policy, financial markets, and their own lives. Much of that exploration happened online.

At Google we realized that our ability to display links to the freshest and most relevant news was limited by a fundamental problem: fresh news lacked hyperlinks. Google’s ranking depended on links from other authors on the web. Fresh news, by definition, was too fresh to accumulate such links. A new importance signal was needed.

I realized that if Google could compute how many news sources were covering the underlying story at a given point in time, we could then estimate how important the story was. Thus, “Storyrank” was invented. This insight led to a ranking that combined the editorial wisdom of many editors on the web in real time. In addition to making search better it led to Google News - a display of stories in the news ranked automatically by an algorithm. This also allowed us to group news articles by story, thus providing visual structure and giving users access to diverse perspectives from around the world in one place.

After 10 years Mr. Bin Laden is in the news again. The story of the killing of Bin Laden has taken the online world by storm. This time, relevant coverage from around the world is just a click away, in an automatically compiled Google News cluster with more than 80,000 sources.

We have certainly come a long way in the last decade. Indeed, Google News now has over 70 editions in over 30 languages, and sends over 1 billion clicks a month to news publishers worldwide. Additionally, 1 out of 6 web searches on Google includes a set of news results, which are computed with the help of Storyrank. This helps bring coverage of the most important news story matching the query to the top of the ranking.

In the last 10 years there has been a lot of learning, iteration, and innovation in our team. And most importantly, we have acquired a loyal audience of news enthusiasts, who appreciate diversity and the ability to access multiple points of view on a story. To our users we would like to say “Thank You!”

We wanted to share with you some of the news coverage of the death of Bin Laden. Here is a sample of 100 links to news articles from representative sources worldwide:


For those you who enjoy digging into data, here is a much larger list of over 150,000 links to news articles mentioning Osama Bin Laden over the last 5 days (May 1-5, 2011).

One of the many lessons I learned from 9/11 is that the world is highly connected. We live in a global society crisscrossed by virtual and physical dependencies, where knowledge is power and ignorance has consequences. This is a world where knowing what is happening to people in other parts of world, and understanding their circumstances and beliefs, matters more than ever -- because their actions will ultimately affect our lives. Tools such as Google News, which bring order to information and make search smarter can help us cope with the complexity of news and understand the big picture.

Further, as the wave of revolutions in North Africa demonstrates, online information does not merely reflect world events -- it can even cause them. These are indeed exciting times for those of us who work in the news space and get to witness the impact of journalism on society first hand!

ACCLAIMED GROUP SET FOR MULTIPLE TOUR DATES IN NORTH AMERICA

Black Dub, the new quartet helmed by producer and guitarist Daniel Lanois, has announced a full tour of North America. Kicking off in Anaheim on May 27 and concluding at the University of Illinois in Champaign on September 8, the tour will deliver Black Dub's rich, vibrant sound to eager fans across the world this summer.

Black Dub is rounded out by Trixie Whitley (daughter of the late Chris Whitley) on vocals, Brian Blade on drums and Daryl Johnson on bass.

Check out the JamBase interview with Daniel Lanois about this new project!

BLACK DUB TOUR DATES
May 27 Anaheim, CA House Of Blues
May 28 Los Angeles, CA Music Box
May 29 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
May 31 San Diego, CA House Of Blues
June 9 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
June 10 Chicago, IL Park West
June 9 - 12 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo Festival
June 14 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
June 15 New York, NY Webster Hall, NY
June 17 Pittsburgh, PA Diesel
June 18 Philadelphia, PA TLA
June 19 Westhampton Beach, NY WBPAC
July 3 Ottawa, Canada Ottawa Jazz Festival
July 4 Montreal, Canada Montreal Jazz Festival
July 5 Toronto, Canada Opera House
July 8 Chicago, IL DMB Caravan Festival
August 27 Dundas, Ontario Harvest Picnic
September 8 Champaign, IL University of Illinois

Black Dub Tour Dates :: Black Dub News

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Haven’t caught all of the Appletell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!

• TimeCommand iPhone, iPad alarm clock music system giveaway
  “Time waits for nobody. Time keeps flowing like a river to the sea. (My girl wants to) party all the time. There have been plenty of songs written about time, and we think it’s time you woke to some of those songs at the time of your setting. And so,…” MORE »
• May 2, 2011, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch new releases
  “New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for May 2, 2011: New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps Mobile app developer Precision Apps has introduced Route Master 1.0, their new…” MORE »
• Mac Appidemic: Anomaly Warzone Earth
  ” I’ve never been a huge fan of tower defense games. I’ve enjoyed a few of them, yet, but I don’t get all excited when a new game comes out, and I don’t pull one up when I sit…” MORE »
• May 5, 2011, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch new releases
  “New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for May 5, 2011: New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps JamKit is a community-driven drumming game and rhythm training tool. Players refine…” MORE »
• May 3, 2011, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch new releases
  “New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for May 3, 2011: New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps VOX Clock, a new alarm clock app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod…” MORE »
• First browser-based app store coming to iOS
  “In the near future, those with jailbroken iDevices will no longer have to solely rely on Cydia to purchase, download and install all of their favorite unofficial third-party applications. Lima, a new browser-based unofficial app store by the Infini…” MORE »
• May 4, 2011, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch new releases
  “New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for May 4, 2011: New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps Christian Kienle has introduced Store News for iOS 1.0, his free application,…” MORE »
• iVisor AG for iPad 2 review
  “Provides: iPad 2 screen protection Developer: Moshi Minimum Requirements: Any iPad 2 Price: $30.00 Availability: Now Back in September of last year, Jake Gaecke reviewed Moshi’s iVisor AG for…” MORE »
• iOS 4.3.3 on its way to address location tracking
  ” After all of the controversy Apple has faced over the discovery of what the company has called a “bug” in iOS in which users’ locations are tracked and stored, Apple has now stated they are developing a fix for this in…” MORE »
• Fancy a Rolls-Royce? There are free apps for that
  ” I’ll never be well-heeled enough to own a Rolls-Royce. Even if I was, I can’t imagine ever spending that sort of money on a car. But I do love British cars. I’ve owned 17 assorted Austin Cambridges and Morris Oxfords,…” MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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The Catalytic Development Funding Corp. of Northern Kentucky likely will start funding projects by the end of this year with the help of funding from PNC. That’s the word from Jeanne Schroer, executive director of the fund. She’s been trying to raise a total of $10 million to launch the fund since September 2008. It’s been a tricky time to raise millions of dollars, to say the least. But Downtown Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank just committed to invest $2 million, the fund’s biggest pledge to...

Today's guest post is by NO RULES regular Susan Cushman, director of the 2011 Memphis Creative Nonfiction Workshop.

Last month, I wrote about how to plan the budget, faculty, venue, housing, meals, and social events for a writing workshop—specifically for the 2011 Memphis Creative Nonfiction Workshop. Today’s post is about what comes next: scheduling, marketing and promotion.

SCHEDULE
Setting the schedule is a bit like putting together a puzzle—you have to find just the right shape and space for each piece, and the picture isn’t complete until all the pieces are included.

Deciding how much time is needed for each event—craft talks, manuscript critique sessions, panels, meals—is something you learn from experience. And it’s helpful to always remember that things take longer than you think they will.

But arranging the lunches on site (in a room next to the workshop room) saves valuable minutes, and overlapping where you can (pulling participants out of the workshop for 10-15 minutes each for their pitch session with a literary agent) also gives you the most value for the allotted time.

In the end, our schedule ended up with 10 hours of manuscript critique sessions, 7 hours of craft talks/presentations, 1½ hours of panel discussion, and up to 5 hours of pitch sessions, depending upon how many people sign up for those.

You can see the complete schedule here.


MARKETING & PROMOTION
With a large conference, you can count on some extra money for advertising, but with a small workshop the budget is tight. If you spend more than you take in, you put yourself at personal risk.

After considering the options available for paid advertising, I chose to only place one ad, in an online creative nonfiction newsletter that reaches 9,000 active subscribers each month and has an average click-through rate of  28%. The ad cost $75 and will run in May, four months before the workshop.

The rest of the promotion only cost some time and thoughtful "product placement."

Social Networks. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter are great places to promote events. I have a personal blog, and I post monthly here at No Rules and also at the Southern Authors’ blog, A Good Blog is Hard to Find.

You can create an event page on Facebook, and link back and forth between all of these avenues each time you post more information. Keep your readers interested by posting new information at least once a week on the workshop site. This can be in the form of promoting faculty readings at bookstores, linking to interesting posts about various aspects of creative nonfiction (or whatever your workshop’s genre) to start a discussion, and even citing good resources for emerging writers to tap into before the workshop.

And don’t forget the oldest social network—e-mail. If you have access to e-mail lists from neighboring workshops and conferences, send out a group e-mail announcing the workshop to those participants.

Local Media. Press releases are free. So are event listings in community and arts calendars in many city and neighborhood newspapers. Send this information out as many months in advance as the papers will allow, and then follow up with a reminder—just a couple of sentences—a month before the workshop.

How far should you reach? Since this is a small workshop and not a conference, I’m limiting my reach to Memphis, and about 5 surrounding states.

Bookstores and Coffee Shops. Create posters and fliers and take them (or mail them if you can’t get to all of them) to area bookstores and coffee shops, where lots of emerging writers hang out. If you can coordinate your effort with an event—like a book signing by one of your faculty members—all the better.

When I learned that one of our speakers was coming to a bookstore in Memphis in March, I called and asked if I could hand out fliers for the workshop at his signing. Look for ways like this to connect the dots in your marketing and promotional efforts.

A note about libraries: our public library won’t allow notifications to be posted unless the event is free, which is too bad, since I’m not going to make any money off the event. Be sure and check to see if you might be allowed to post information in the libraries near you.

So there you have it. I’m having a great time planning this workshop. If you’d like to organize a writing workshop in your area and have any questions, feel free to contact me. I’d love to hear from you.

And, if you have organized a writing workshop and have more tips and suggestions to share, please leave a comment. Check back in September or October to find out how successful the workshop was!


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You can read Susan's blog here, and follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Gretchen Pahia has been named Senior Account Executive, Public Relations, at RIESTER. Pahia has more than 12 years media and public relations experience, winning several awards for her news producing and writing skills. She has proven success bringing her clients outstanding media coverage and results in local, regional and national media outlets. She also brings experience in identifying creative and strategic solutions for clients.

For the past 18 months, Gretchen had been a publicist with the Phoenix PR firm, Orca Communications. Prior to moving to the PR side of media , she spent 10 years producing newscasts for various networks. Gretchen worked in a few media markets including Las Vegas, NV, Portland, OR and Phoenix. Gretchen is an Emmy-nominated producer, and Women’s in Communications award winner for her coverage of the one-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

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AAPL Up With Markets 
Employers added 200K jobs for the third straight month, contributing to the biggest corporate hiring spree in 5 years. Markets are responding well, reversing a week-long slide. Shares of AAPL are up over 2 points, in line with the rest of tech. Upcoming catalysts include the WWDC starting June 6; iPad 2 supply stabilization; the iPhone 5 launch this summer / fall; smartphone push into China and emerging markets; iTunes and other cloud initiatives; the continued evolution and adoption of Apple TV; and new platforms such as video, books / publishing and social (Ping). Shares of Apple trade at 11x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (incl. long-term marketable securities).

The Lower Price-Point iPhone Is Coming, It's Just A Matter Of When (Barron's)
Oppenheimer & Co analyst Ittai Kidron took over coverage of Apple with an Outperform rating and a $450 price-target, saying stock is a “core holding in any technology or growth portfolio.” He believes the rumored lower price-point iPhone, is more a question of when, not if, following the footsteps of the iPod which worked its way into lower price tiers. Kidron predicts 73 million iPhones to be shipped this fiscal year ending in September, and 28.5 million iPads.

Apple Anticipated To Take 75% Mobile App Market Share This Year (Boy Genius Report)
According to the latest projections by iSuppli, Apple's App Store may very well claim a much bigger share of the mobile app download market than anyone previously anticipated. Estimates for the Apple App Store this year call for revenue of $2.91 billion, up 63.4% from $1.78 billion year-over-year. Total industry app revenues rose to $2.1 billion last year and is estimated to increase to $3.8 billion in 2011. Meaning Apple will account for approximately three-quarters share of the market.

Apple Moves to Number Two Worldwide Smartphone Manufacturer (GigaOM)
Apple replaced RIM as the second largest worldwide smartphone vendor during the first quarter of 2011, according to IDC. Apple is led only by Nokia, and followed by RIM, Samsung and HTC which round out the top five. Apple’s shipments grew 114% from the previous year, jumping from 8.7 million to 18.7 million handsets. The company now trails world industry leader Nokia by only 5.5 million shipped units. Read more at Business Insider.

News Corp. Might Be Losing Money On The Daily, But Apple Isn't (Electronista)
News Corp’s digital publication, The Daily, which premiered on the iPad in February, hasn’t had too impressive a first quarter. Even though the app was downloaded over 800K times, the publication made a loss of around $10 million. The Daily was the first iOS app to support Apple’s recently introduced in app subscription policy, and can be subscribed to for $0.99 a week. While the iPad may not save the publishing industry, that's still a cool $240K that Apple pocketed for providing the distribution vehicle.

Tablets Now Eating Into Other Devices (Nielsen)
A survey from Nielsen shows tablets cutting into not only desktop and laptop usage, but stealing time from e-readers and dedicated gaming machines as well. The computing load is clearly shifting away from more traditional machines, presenting a significant challenge to hardware makers. The study also shows Apple growing its U.S. tablet share rather than decline amid more than two hundred tablets swarming the market, with 82% of tablet owners buying an iPad.

Is Apple Compromising On Publisher Terms? (Venture Beat)
Hearst, one of the major U.S. magazine and newspaper publishers, will begin implementing iTunes subscriptions in three of its iPad apps starting with the July issues. A Hearst representative is quoted as saying, “Our deal is fundamentally different from any other deal Apple has done with a publisher.” Does that mean a deviation from Apple’s subscription plan (which has been criticized for requiring publishers to give Apple 30%)? Maybe Apple is showing some flexibility.

What's Up Apple's Sleeve Hiring The Inventor Of LucasFilm THX Sound System? (GigaOM)
The big buzz around Silicon Valley is that "sound legend" and venerable cinematic audio innovator Tomlinson Holman has been hired by Apple to help dramatically improve the company's audio-related efforts. Does this mean Apple may be looking into the possibility of creating its own, Apple-branded sound systems? That would be great, because according to Business Insider what they offer right now is marginal.

For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• "The Daily" Lost $10 Million In Its First Quarter
• Dear iPad Owners: Please Take Our Usage Survey!
• Guess Which Huge Smartphone Maker Grew A Crazy 350% Last Year

Unmanned US strike aircraft killed 13 "militants" in an attack today in an area of Pakistan's tribal agency of North Waziristan that is known to shelter al Qaeda's top leaders. The strike is the first in two weeks, and the first since US commandos penetrated deep into Pakistan to kill al Qaeda's top leader Osama bin Laden.

Reports from the region indicate that several of the remotely operated Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired eight missiles at a vehicle and a compound in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan. Initial reports indicated eight "militants" were killed, but Dawn later reported that 13 were killed.

"We are trying to ascertain the identities of the militants killed in the strike, but initial reports indicate that there are both local and foreign militants who had been killed in the missile attack," a local Pakistani intelligence official told AFP. Pakistani officials use the term "foreign militants" to describe Arab and other al Qaeda fighters.

The nature of the strike, with eight missiles fired, indicates that a senior al Qaeda or Taliban commander was targeted.

Datta Khel is a known al Qaeda hub

The Datta Khel area is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Bahadar provides shelter to top al Qaeda leaders as well as terrorists from numerous Pakistani and Central Asian terror groups.

Datta Khel is a known hub of Taliban, Haqqani Network, and al Qaeda activity. While Bahadar administers the region, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and allied Central Asian jihadi groups are also based in the area. The Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda's Shadow Army, is known to have a command center in Datta Khel.

Datta Khel serves as a command and control center for al Qaeda's top leaders, and some of them have been targeted and killed there. A strike in Datta Khel on Dec. 17, 2009, targeted Sheikh Saeed al Saudi, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law and a member of al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or executive council. Al Saudi is thought to have survived the strike, but Abdullah Said al Libi, the commander of the Shadow Army, and Zuhaib al Zahibi, a general in the Shadow Army, were both killed in the attack.

But the most significant attack in Datta Khel took place on May 21, 2010, and resulted in the death of Mustafa Abu Yazid, a longtime al Qaeda leader and close confidant of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri.

Yazid served as the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the wider Khorasan, a region that encompasses portions of Pakistan, Iran, and several Central Asian states. More importantly, Yazid was al Qaeda's top financier, which put him in charge of the terror group's purse strings. He served on al Qaeda's Shura Majlis, or top decision-making council. Yazid also was closely allied with the Taliban and advocated the program of embedding small al Qaeda teams with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, a practice well-established in the country now.

Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on Bahadar or the Haqqani Network, the other major Taliban group based there. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Yet Bahadar, the Haqqanis, and other Taliban groups openly carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

The Predator strikes, by the numbers

Today's strike is just the first in May in Pakistan, and the first since US Navy SEALs and CIA operatives raided Osama bin Laden's safehouse in Abbottabad, far from Pakistan's tribal areas, on the early morning of May 2.

The strike today is also the third in North Waziristan since the deadly March 17 strike in Datta Khel that killed more than 30 people, including 10 Taliban fighters and a senior lieutenant loyal to North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar. Pakistani officials, including General Pervaz Kayani, the top military commander, denounced that strike and claimed that everyone killed was a civilian attending a jirga, or council, to resolve a local mining dispute. But the Taliban were reported to have mediated the jirga.

During the month of March, the US carried out seven Predator strikes inside Pakistan's tribal areas. Five of the seven strikes in March hit targets in North Waziristan, and the other two took place in South Waziristan. During the month of April, the US launched only two strikes, one in North Waziristan, and the other in South Waziristan.

The pace of the strikes tapered off in February 2011, which proved to be the slowest month for Predator strikes, with three, since November 2009. The recent slowdown in attacks has occurred after the pace of the strikes picked up from the beginning of September 2010 until the third week in January 2011. September's record number of 21 strikes was followed by 16 strikes in October, 14 in November, 12 in December, and 9 in January. The previous monthly high was 11 strikes in January 2010, after the Taliban and al Qaeda executed a successful suicide attack at Combat Outpost Chapman that targeted CIA personnel who were active in gathering intelligence for the Predator campaign in Pakistan. The suicide bombing at COP Chapman killed seven CIA officials and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

The US carried out 117 attacks inside Pakistan in 2010, more than double the number of strikes that occurred in 2009. By late August 2010, the US had exceeded 2009's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram. In 2008, the US carried out a total of 36 strikes inside Pakistan. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2011.]

In 2010 the strikes were concentrated almost exclusively in North Waziristan, where the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pakistani and Central and South Asian terror groups are based. All but 13 of the 117 strikes took place North Waziristan. Of the 13 strikes occurring outside of North Waziristan in 2010, seven were executed in South Waziristan, five were in Khyber, and one was in Kurram. That trend is holding true this year, with 17 of 21 strikes in 2011 taking place in North Waziristan.

Since Sept. 1, 2010, the US has conducted 82 strikes in Pakistan's tribal agencies. The bulk of those attacks have aimed at the terror groups in North Waziristan, with 70 strikes in the tribal agency. Many of the strikes have targeted cells run by the Islamic Jihad Group, which have been plotting to conduct Mumbai-styled terror assaults in Europe. A Sept. 8 strike killed an IJG commander known as Qureshi, who specialized in training Germans to conduct attacks in their home country.

The US campaign in northwestern Pakistan has targeted top al Qaeda leaders, al Qaeda's external operations network, and Taliban leaders and fighters who threaten both the Afghan and Pakistani states as well as support al Qaeda's external operations. The campaign has been largely successful in focusing on terrorist targets and avoiding civilian casualties, as recently affirmed by the Pakistani military.

For a list of al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in the US air campaign in Pakistan, see LWJ Special Report, Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2011.

Ahead of next week's conference in Turkey on the world's least developed countries, some leading participants outline plans and targets to reduce poverty

Halving the number of least developed countries – the world's 48 poorest states – in the next 10 years is a realistic goal, according to a top UN official, despite a marked lack of progress in the last decade.

Cheick Sidi Diarra, a UN special representative for LDCs, outlined the ambition ahead of next week's UN conference on LDCs in Istanbul, Turkey. Bringing together about 50 heads of state or prime ministers and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.

"It's not unrealistic because several LDCs have made strong progress in terms of economic growth and social inclusion," Diarra said, "for example Equatorial Guinea, Vanuatu, Angola, Tuvalu, Samoa and some others have been making strides, which make us believe they will be graduating during the next decade."

It's brave talk considering the meagre advances so far. Since the establishment of the category in 1971, only three countries have "graduated" from the list: Botswana in 1994, Cape Verde in 2007 and Maldives in January this year. Diarra said next week's conference – which takes place every 10 years – will assess the progress made by LDCs and development partners under the last action plan set out in Brussels in 2001.

The Turkish president, Abdullah Gül, warned that a situation in which 900 million people lived in poverty, with most of them living on $1.25 a day, was not sustainable.

"It is an alarming situation, in moral and political terms," said Gül. "During previous times, communications were not so well-developed – but now everyone is aware of the amount of wealth in other countries and that makes the situation unsustainable. We want this meeting to give warning signals and we would like to see measures taken."

Gül said Turkey was keen to introduce mechanisms at the conference to ensure that decisions and commitments would be followed up – unlike in the past three LDC conferences.

"When I talk about follow-up, I mean not just from donor countries but also from LDCs," he said, "as their leadership capacity and institutions are not well established enough to realise their commitments."

The UK is also emphasising the importance of following up previous commitments, and wants all parties – donors, LDCs and others – to reconfirm their commitment to meet the millennium development goals of eradicating extreme poverty, last made at the MDG summit in September last year.

Stephen O'Brien, the UK international development minister for Africa, said the conference must not miss the chance to give much-needed impetus to the stalled Doha trade negotiations. The so-called Doha development round that began in 2001 was supposed to bring benefits to the developing world but has stalled as key players – the US, the EU, China, Brazil and India – have refused to make concessions.

"We cannot miss the chance to progress the Doha agreement to bring free and fair market access to the developing world and boost growth in the world economies," said O'Brien. "If the entire G20 extended duty and quota-free access to their markets and goods, this would increase the amount of bilateral trade and lift an estimated 3 million people out of poverty at very little cost to these nations."

Whether the goal of halving the number of LDCs is realistic or not, aid groups believe it is important for the conference to set out ambitious targets to shake people out of their complacency, codify good practices, and mobilise political will.

Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam, New Zealand, who will attend the conference as part of the NGO community, called for immediate steps from rich countries that would help LDCs. Echoing O'Brien, Coates said a good first step would be to allow duty free access for LDC exports, which account for only 1% of world trade.

Coates also argues for further debt cancellation. There was some debt cancellation in 2009, but new debts have also been taken on, particularly in response to the global financial crisis.

The UN said as of late last year, 20 least developed countries were in a situation of "debt distress". The financial crisis, it said, has caused the debt burden to rise. In arguing for a predictable source of finance, Coates said a tax on financial transactions – the so-called Tobin tax – was gaining real political traction.

For Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director at the World Bank, who will be attending the conference as an observer, it was important that the meeting should focus on helping LDCs grow at a robust rate.

"The issue is whether they are performing economically," she said "We need to focus on the sources of growth. Those that have been conflict-affected, the question is how do we help them deal with post-conflict. Those countries that are stable, the question is how do we help them grow."

Okonjo-Iweala said African countries – which make up 33 of the 48 LDCs – should use agriculture to create employment.

"Fifty percent of arable land is on the African continent," she said. "They have the potential to provide food for themselves and can go beyond that, modernise their agriculture and adding value. Instead of just exporting the raw material, process the food and add value to it on the continent. Instead of simply exporting the mangoes and pineapples, turn them into fruit juices.

"Mali is a good example with mangoes and has doubled its exports of mangoes. Ethiopia is trying to do that with coffee and Rwanda is moving along the same lines. We should concentrate on specific steps these countries should take and what concrete steps developed countries should take."

There are 48 least developed countries

Africa: 33 countries.

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauretania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Asia and the Pacific: 14 countries

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, Kiribati, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Nepal, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Yemen.

Latin America and the Caribbean: 1 country

Haiti

Characteristics of LDCs

Average income of less than $475 (£288) a person a year. Weak human resources as measured by nutrition, infant mortality, secondary school environment and adult literacy. High economic vulnerability as measured by factors such as population size, remoteness, share of agriculture, and homelessness due to natural disasters. A country "graduates" from LDC status if the figure hits $900.

Main challenges facing LDCs

High levels of poverty: more than half the 800 million people in the LDCs live on less than a dollar a day. Women in LDCs have a one in 16 chance of dying in childbirth, compared to one in 3,500 in North America.

Food insecurity: More than 300 million Africans are food insecure.

Economic vulnerability: LDCs are highly dependent on external sources of funding, including official development assistance, workers' remittances and foreign direct investment. This overly exposes them to external shocks such as the global financial crisis.

Environmental vulnerability: While they contribute least to climate change, LDCs are among the groups of countries most affected by it. Many LDCs are also small islands whose very survival is threatened by rising sea levels.

Source: UN

The Catalytic Development Funding Corp. of Northern Kentucky likely will start funding projects by the end of this year. That’s the word from Jeanne Schroer, executive director of the fund. She’s been trying to raise a total of $10 million to launch the fund since September 2008. It’s been a tricky time to raise millions of dollars, to say the least. But PNC Bank just committed to invest $2 million, the fund’s biggest pledge to date. That brings Schroer’s total raised to $6.5 million. And she’s confident she’ll reach the $10 million goal by the end of 2011, she...

The sight of Tottenham may revive fading memories for Blackpool, whose last win was against the same opposition at Bloomfield Road in February. That and the urgency of their fight for survival could give them a mental edge over Spurs, who have been on an iffy run themselves and may be ambivalent about the prospect of qualifying for the Europa League. The scoreless draw with Stoke last week suggests Blackpool may finally be sorting out their defensive problems but it is still difficult to envisage them returning from White Hart Lane with more than a draw. Paul Doyle

Venue White Hart Lane, Saturday 5.30pm

Tickets Sold out

Last season n/a

Referee Lee Probert

This season's matches 23 Y57, R5, 2.70 cards per game

Odds Tottenham 1-3 Blackpool 10-1 Draw 5-1

Tottenham

Subs from Cudicini, Pletikosa, Kaboul, Pavlyuchenko, Crouch, Bassong, Rose, Kranjcar, Jenas

Doubtful Corluka (hamstring)

Injured Assou-Ekotto (hamstring, 10 May), Huddlestone (ankle, 14 May), Palacios (knee, 22 May), Hutton (knee, Aug), King (groin, Aug), Woodgate (calf, unknown)

Suspended None

Form guide LDDWDD

Disciplinary record Y46 R2

Leading scorer Van der Vaart 12

Blackpool

Subs from Kingson, Rachubka, Reid, Clarke, Martin, Ormerod, Grandin, Sylvestre, Cathcart, Phillips, Beattie, Kornilenko, Sbai, Puncheon

Doubtful None

Injured Basham (broken leg, Aug), Carney (shoulder, Aug)

Suspended None

Form guide DDLLLD

Disciplinary record Y42 R2

Leading scorer Campbell 11

Match pointers

• Blackpool scored three goals from just four shots on target when these sides met at Bloomfield Road in February

• Tottenham's last home league victory over Blackpool come over 40 years ago in September 1970

• Blackpool players have made 16 clearances off the goalline this season, the most in the Premier League

• Tottenham have hit more penalties (three) and direct free-kicks (15) off target than any other side in the division

• Blackpool have the best tackling success rate (76%) in the top flight in 2010-11

Why don’t long only investors hedge their gains, especially in extreme environments like these?

It’s a rhetorical question, really. The answers are more or less known (not their cup of tea etc).

But from a practical, pragmatic standpoint, it still seems odd. Most any investor will buy home insurance and car insurance — and in fact would feel quite exposed without either.

And yet, as far as market exposure goes for a sizable retirement portfolio — with a possible value many multiples of the house and car combined — no insurance and no thought of it. Go figure.

Below is an example of recent commentary from the Mercenary Live Feed. It’s a sneak peek at our “thesis notes” on a Long-Dated volatility trade — the type of position with minimal implementation costs that could nicely hedge a portfolio. (Or provide an opportunity for attractive speculative gain with 100% limited risk.)

If you like what you see — and would like to see the details of the actual structured options position — note the free trial link at the end of this post.

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Thesis Notes: Long-Dated Volatility Trade 7:47 am – May 4, 2011

Notes on long-dated volatility trade, expressed through a “set and forget” structured options position of 4 to 6 months duration (below the jump).

Markets are currently in an extreme state. Spurred on by record corporate profit margins, easy money from the Federal Reserve, and a sense of euphoric invincibility, investors have pushed markets to dangerous heights.

John Hussman has an excellent recap of current conditions in his weekly commentary, Extreme Conditions and Typical Outcomes.

The following is Hussman’s answer to the question, “When conditions were as statistically extreme in the past as they are today, what was the result?”

The foregoing set of conditions isn’t observed often, but the historical instances satisfying these criteria in post-war data are instructive. Here an exhaustive list of them:

August 1972, November-December 1972: The S&P 500 quickly retreated about 5% from its August peak, then advanced again into to its bull market peak near year-end (about 6% above the August peak). The Dow then toppled -12.3% over the next 50 trading days, and collapsed to half its value over the following 22 months.

August 1987: The market advanced about 6% from its initial signal into late August. The S&P 500 then lost a third of its value within 8 weeks.

June 1997: The only mixed outcome, during the strongest segment of the late 1990′s tech bubble. The S&P 500 advanced another 10% over the following 8 weeks, surrendered 4%, followed with a strong advance for several months, surrendered it during the 1998 Asian crisis, and then reasserted the bubble advance. Over a 5-year period, the overvaluation ultimately took its toll, as the the S&P 500 would eventually trade 10% below its June 1997 level by the end of the 2000-2002 bear market. Still, the emergence of the internet, booming capital spending, strong economic growth and job creation, rapidly falling inflation, and dot-com enthusiasm evidently combined to overwhelm the negative short- and intermediate-term implications of this signal.

July 1999: The S&P 500 advanced by 3% over the next two weeks, then declined by about 12% through mid-October, and after a recovery to the March 2000 bull market high, the S&P 500 fell far below its July 1999 level by 2002.

March 2000: The peak of the bubble – the S&P 500 lost 11% over the following three weeks, recovered much of that initial loss by September, and then lost half its value by October 2002.

May/June 2007, July 2007: The S&P 500 gained 1% from the late-May/early-June signal to the July signal, then lost about 10% through August 2007, recovered to a marginal new high of 1565.15 by October (about 1% beyond the August peak), and then lost well over half of its value into the March 2009 low.

February 2011, April 2011: A cluster of signals in the 2-week period between February 8-22 immediately followed by a decline of about 7% over the next 3 weeks. As of Friday, the market has recovered to a marginal new high about 1.5% above the February peak.

So not including the cluster of signals we’ve observed in recent months, we’ve seen 6 clusters of instances in post-war data (we’re taking the 1997, 1999 and 2000 cases as separate events since they were more than a few months apart). Four of them closely preceded the four worst market losses in post-war data, one was quickly followed by a 12% market decline, and one was a false signal over the short- and intermediate-term, yet the S&P 500 was still trading at a lower level 5 years later.

The bottom line: Extreme market conditions, of the type that exist now, have the tendency to resolve with sharp, violent declines. Complacency is a killer, especially when danger signs are mounting.

At the same time, it is hard to fight a bullish tide. The tricky nature of such conditions is as follows:

• A relentless rise and a sense that markets can “do no wrong.”

• Dip after dip resolving to the upside, as fresh buys support the market.

• A general exhaustion of patience and resolve on the part of bears.

• A jarring, violent shock that comes out of nowhere — catching the majority of market participants completely by surprise.
  

It is possible to identify market conditions when this scenario is present. But it is hard to capture gains from such a scenario with standard swing trading methodologies. That is because of the binary nature of the shift — from rising trend, like the rising face of the cliff, to a sudden violent drop in a very tight space of time.

For the above reasons, we like the idea of a long-dated volatility trade, put on in the form of a structured options position. Here is what that means:

• A trade constructed with options where maximum risk is 100% defined. (Total risk is 100% known at the time of putting on the trade.)

• A trade that is “set and forget” over an extended time period — say, four to six months time.

• A trade that will book large gains if the markets experience any type of severe shock: From a new “flash crash,” to a new top down disruption event, to an ’87 or ’94 or 2000 style crash and so on.

• A trade that cannot be stopped out, with risk limits impervious to, say, a continued rise in risk assets before the high volatility event occurs.

• A trade that is low cost to put on (in terms of margin) and does not require heavy investment in option time premium.

• A trade that does not need a “crash” to break even — but instead can do well (or at least not lose money) if the market declines modestly rather than crashing.

The advantage of a position like the above?  The ability to sleep at night knowing any “crash” out of the blue will represent a captured opportunity — if the markets open with a bloodbath on a random Monday morning, the play is in place.

We are currently working on different combos for structured options positions — a combination of puts and calls — that are “set and forget” and meet the trade criteria as described above. As of now we are looking at two positions, both designed to take advantage of a major market dislocation / massive volatility spike, in the following instruments over the next 4 to 6 months:

• SPY (S&P 500 ETF)
• UUP (ProShares Dollar Bullish ETF)

More details on trade construction and execution shortly forthcoming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again, the above commentary is a ‘sneak peek’ at the type of analysis made available to members, in real time, via the Mercenary Live Feed.

If you would like to see the actual details of the structured options position — which we implemented earlier this week at a net credit, with limited risk — you can do so by taking a free test drive and experiencing the Live Feed for yourself.

Read more posts on Mercenary Trader »

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Join the conversation about this story »

In the face of a withering recession that has depressed the legal profession since 2008, large law firms are taking business development more seriously. Rather than seek out booths or speaking gigs at large legal conferences, "BigLaw" firms are sending one key partner to attend intimate, invitation-only networking events corporate general counsel, like the Consero Corporate Counsel Forum.

The forum in Palm Springs, CA, on May 15-17, will have only 45 chief legal officers and GCs in attendance, to hear programs like "Managing a Global Legal Department to Support Corporate Growth" and "Navigating High-Risk, High-Stakes Litigation."

Among them will be only 10 lawyers in private practice who have paid in excess of $20,000 for the privilege to attend the 2 1/2 day event, dine at five networking meals, have one-on-one meetings with GCs who elect to meet with them, and get profiles of the GCs so the lawyer can follow up. The May event is bringing lawyers from WilmerHale, Baker & McKenzie, Paul Hastings, Fish & Richardson, McDermott and Squire Sanders.

In terms of legal marketing, the lawyers can moderate a panel, but do not get a speaking gig. Each GC was personally invited by Consero. The law firms contacted the Bethesda, MD, law conference company to purchase admission.

Consero is the invention of CEO Paul Mandell, who previously practiced law at Arnold & Porter and Sullivan & Cromwell. He was frustrated with the ABA annual mega-meeting and its thousands of attendees and massive exhibit hall, and with the Association of Corporate Counsel meeting where firms buy expensive booths and put highly-paid partners on the exhibit floor. "We think that's a broken model," he said. "We've done away with the gauntlet of booths."

"We set up meetings between in-house counsel and relevant law firm partners based on mutual interest," he said. "Because it's invitation-only, we can profile the in-house counsel to learn what their priorities and challenges are, and we match them with law partners."

So if you've got the money, honey, there are upcoming forums on IP in July in Utah, technology in September in San Diego, litigation in November in Austin, and another Corporate Counsel Forum in December in Naples.

 

Dårlig nyheter for London-turistene. De Olympiske leker pleier som regel å påvirke hotellprisene, og det er lite som tyder på at sommer-OL i London 2012 vil være et unntak. For selv om du ikke har planer om å være i London under OL, altså i perioden 28. juli til 12. august, vil Visa-kortet sannsynligvis kjenne det godt likevel. Spår kraftig prisøkning Det sies nemlig at enkelte London-hotell vil ha en kraftig prisøkning på opphold fra 1. juni og 30. september 2012, ifølge smh.com.au Og dersom du har planer om å oppleve OL i London, gjør du også lurt i å booke billetter før september i år. Enkelte av hotellene vil dessuten kreve at du betaler oppholdet innen 31. januar 2012. Rekordlavt pund - det er nå du bør reise Se månedsgjennomsnittet hos Norges Bank. 70.000 sentrale hotellrom Heldigvis er det en del hotell å velge mellom i London. Det finnes cirka 70.000 hotellrom i tre, fire og fem-stjerners-klassen, og alle ligger med 10 kilometers radius innenfor sentrale London. Men 60 prosent av disse ho...

Ulster's impairment charge represents 80% of the charge in Royal Bank of Scotland's non-core division

Royal Bank of Scotland's potential losses in Ireland had reached £7.3bn by the end of March 2011 as the continued deterioration in the economy forced the bailed out bank to hike its impairment charge to £1.2bn in the first quarter.

The troubles in the Ulster Bank arm – some of which is in the bank's "core" operation and some in the "non-core" which is earmarked for disposal – are being felt across the rest of the group.

Ulster is 10% of the group's total gross customer loans or 9% of the gross customer loans in the core division. But the impairment charge represents 80% of the charge in the non-core division - some £839m out of the £1bn - and 40% of the impairment charge in the core division - some £361m out of £872m. The group's total impairment charge is £1.9bn - some £1.2bn is related to Ireland.

The scale of the potential losses in Ireland for RBS, bailed out by the UK taxpayer in October 2008, was revealed the day after Lloyds Banking Group, also bailed out during the banking crisis, demonstrated the hit it was facing in the once-booming Irish economy.

The losses Lloyds face are largely caused by HBOS, the bank it rescued in September 2008. It admitted that its impairment charges have now reached £4.8bn after an unexpected additional £500m provision caused by its expectation that commercial property prices would fall another 10%.

RBS's exposure is greater, however. RBS has £52bn loan book compared with the £27bn Lloyds loan portfolio.

RBS stressed that Ulster was helping its customers in "this difficult environment" by granting forbearance on loans.

"These policies were reviewed at the end of 2010 given the structural problem that exists in Ireland with the scale and duration of customers in financial difficulty. There were 9,200 customer accounts in a forbearance arrangement at 31 March 2011. This represents 5.5% (by volume) of the Ulster Bank," the bank said.

The bulk of the impairment charges, however, are not in mortgages – where the charge is £233m – with the majority against the commercial real estate developments that RBS backed before the credit crunch.

RBS finance director Bruce van Saun said conditions "remain quite difficult" in Ireland but that "we believe that we may at the high-water mark for impairments".

Ulster Bank's losses were £377m, a deterioration of £106m on the previous quarter.

From an 11-goal thriller in 1954 to the Peacock triptych of 1994, here are a few iconic memories from United v Chelsea games

1) Chelsea 5-6 Manchester United (October 1954)

Since taking over as Chelsea manager in 1952, Ted Drake had desperately tried to instill a winning mentality into a club yet to bother the engravers. The small things first. With the club a hardy perennial of the music-hall comics, the nickname the Pensioners had to go. In its stead came the monicker the Blues. And out went the club crest, a cartoon of a grinning septuagenarian, to be replaced first by a Rangers-style CFC logo, then the rampant lion still in use today.

Drake then turned his attention to the relegation-haunted team, which he soon turned into a hard-battling mid-table side, built around defenders Peter Sillett (brother of Coventry's FA Cup winning boss John) and future England

manager Ron Greenwood, and the striker Roy Bentley. By the time the 1954-55 season came round, fans hoped for another comfortable finish, after a few hairy seasons in the early 50s, but nothing more.

The favourites for the title were reigning champions Wolverhampton Wanderers and Matt Busby's upcoming Manchester United side. Few would have guessed Chelsea would eventually prevail when the latter visited Stamford Bridge in October. United handed Chelsea an awful thrashing, goals from Dennis Viollet (three), Tommy Taylor (two) and Jackie Blanchflower putting the away side 6-3 up, before Seamus O'Connell scored twice late on to complete his hat-trick and put an unjustified gloss on the scoreline for Chelsea. "With a roar of Hampden proportions urging them on, Chelsea strained every nerve to share the points," reported the Guardian, "but somehow a rather shaky United defence held out to give their brilliant attack the reward they had so thoroughly earned". United went top of the table as a result.

It was one of the first displays of the Busby Babes' budding excellence, yet their emergence wasn't the story that day. Chelsea's hat-trick hero O'Connell, making his debut, was one of two amateurs on the home side's team. By trade, he was a cattle farmer. One of Chelsea's other goals was scored by Jim Lewis, another debutant, who in his day job travelled the country hawking Thermos flasks.

Chelsea lost their next two games – completing a run of four defeats on the spin – to end October in 12th place, Wolves having taken over from United at the top. But then form flew out of the window. Chelsea only lost four more games all season as they stormed up the table and, beating Wolves twice en route, shocked the nation to win the title. Their last defeat of the season was at Old Trafford – but by then, the title had been won.

The Busby Babes would have to wait to make their mark on English football's roll of honour. Chelsea, meanwhile, could finally tell the engraver to get his burin out.

2) Manchester United 4-0 Chelsea (March 1965)

Tommy Docherty's side had gone the first 10 games of the season unbeaten, and topped the table amid much talk of Chelsea landing their second league title. But it was not to be. United had youthful talent of their own – specifically an 18-year-old George Best – and on his team's visit to Stamford Bridge, he would make the first telling impact of his career, scoring one and making one for Denis Law as, in the words of our very own Albert Barham, the Doc's "ebullient young team were toppled gracefully by the sophisticated maturity of Manchester United".

Chelsea – and Eddie McCreadie – hadn't learned their lesson come March. They were still league leaders, but Best served notice that the title was United's. After three minutes, he "induced an attack of vertigo on McCreadie and drove the ball over Peter Bonetti's head from a narrow angle 20 yards out, a brilliant effort". Best went on to set up two more. "Roget's Thesaurus itself stands in danger of being denuded of adequate adjectives with which to describe this United side," wrote Eric Todd in the Guardian. "United can make fools of everyone, except themselves."

United went on to take the title on goal average from Leeds United. Chelsea ended up in third, five points back, wondering what could have been were it not for Best taking a wrecking ball to their momentum not once, but twice.

3) Manchester United 0-4 Chelsea (August 1968)

United were newly crowned champions of Europe – finally – and the world appeared to be their oyster. But of course they wouldn't pick up another trophy until winning the Second Division championship in 1975. This was the first sign that a mild complacency had set in at Old Trafford. "Chelsea surely will never gain two points so easily again," reported the Guardian, "and at the same time it is difficult to visualise United being so abysmally poor."

The visitors employed a power game – Ron Harris, Eddie McCreadie and David Webb crunching in with hard tackles, winning almost every ball, and shipping it forward quickly. Tommy Baldwin put Chelsea in front within 40 seconds. Bobby Tambling snaffled a ridiculous clearance by Tony Dunne to make it 2-0 on 13 minutes. Baldwin made it three seven minutes before half time. United made a few "desultory raids" which were easily mopped up, before Alan Birchenall made it four.

The man from the Guardian bemoaned United's "fragile" defending, but stopped short of offering a solution. "For people to tell Sir Matt Busby what he should do in United's hour of extremity is, to put it in somewhat plebian language, tantamount to telling your grandmother how to suck eggs." Perhaps someone should have had a word, though. They had already been beaten at West Bromwich Albion. A week later United lost 5-4 at Sheffield Wednesday. By the middle of October, they had been beaten at Burnley and Liverpool, and lost at home to Southampton. They were four points off the bottom in 16th place.

United would recover. They ended the season in ninth place – they lost the return fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge 3-2, in a match described by John Arlott as "of splendid flair by the standards of any age or area" – and were unlucky not to make their second European Cup final. But Busby had announced his retirement in January 1969, and the downward trend had been set.

4) Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea (January 1971)

A League Cup meeting on New Year's Day, instantly forgettable were it not for one of football's greatest-ever juxtapositions of beauty and the beast. Ron Harris had many qualities, but subtlety was not one of them.

Here he is hoving into view from way out, belabouring George Best's ankles with a proper old-school reducer. It's a textbook piece of uberviolence – a vicious sliding tackle perfectly timed and executed, as graceful as brutality can ever get – but it was all for naught. Best ignored Chopper's galoot-isms, somehow retained his balance – despite being kicked almost horizontal in mid air – and continued his run.

Beauty and the beast. As the willowy long-haired Best sashays round the keeper and calmly slots home, as androgynous as you like, Harris, bloated with testosterone, picks himself heavily off the turf.

5) Manchester United 1-2 Chelsea (April 1986)

For such a domineering football club, United's home league record against Chelsea is nothing short of appalling. In the modern Premier League era, United have won six, drawn seven and lost five against the Blues. Now your super soaraway Joy of Six doesn't usually make the distinction between the top division pre and post 1992, but this time we make an exception because Chelsea's good record at Old Trafford is seen as something of a modern phenomenon. But look at what happened between the two clubs there before the Premier League, all the way back a quarter of a century to the 1966-67 season: United wins: one. Draws: eight. Chelsea wins: eight.

Fans of both clubs are disqualified, but hats off to any neutral who'd have called that. Perhaps the most painful for United of those eight defeats – and remember we've already mentioned the 4-0 in 1968 – was Chelsea's 2-1 win in April 1986. Both clubs were in the title race, though they were struggling to keep hold of Everton and Liverpool's coat tails. Neither team were in good nick. Depression was setting in with United, who had let their early-season lead slip and their form totally dissolve, while Chelsea were frittering away the games they had in hand on the leaders, having just been skittled 4-0 at home by West Ham, and 6-0 at QPR.

This was make or break for both clubs. With the early emphasis on break. In the opening exchanges, Mike Duxbury nearly broke Colin Pates' leg, then Doug Rougvie dispatched Mark Hughes into the stands, before flattening his old Aberdeen colleague Gordon Strachan. After a goalless first half, Kerry Dixon beat a high offside trap to score his first goal for four months. United equalized through a Jesper Olsen penalty, Rougvie this time sending Hughes crashing to the floor in the area, but Dixon had the last laugh in the dying moments to knock United out of the title race. Chelsea would subsequently win only one of their last seven games, but for a moment the future looked bright.

6. Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United (September 1993); Manchester United 0-1 Chelsea (March 1994); Manchester United 4-0 Chelsea (May 1994)

The Peacock triptych. In the first league fixture between the teams in the 1993-94 season, Chelsea became the first team to beat Manchester United since they had become champions, Gavin Peacock's goal consigning them to their first defeat since early March, a 17-game stretch. In the return fixture, Peacock would scupper an even longer unbeaten record of United's, 34 games this time, Glenn Hoddle having infused his side with positivity. "We have this strong feeling we can win the FA Cup," said Peacock after the win at Old Trafford as Chelsea looked to land their first meaningful trophy since the 1971 Cup Winners' Cup.

But Chelsea would have to wait another three seasons, as United won their first double. In the final, Peacock produced, according to David Lacey in the Guardian, "the best piece of individual skill in the game". He chested down a dreadful Gary Pallister clearance, and sent a lob whipping over a stranded Peter Schmeichel. Unfortunately for the striker, and for Chelsea, the ball twanged off the crossbar. In the second half, two penalties awarded by David Elleray – one a no-brainer after Eddie Newton's idiotic lunge on Denis Irwin, the other a no-brainer of a different sort, the referee punishing Frank Sinclair for coming together with Andrei Kanchelskis outside the area – did for Chelsea, who ended up on the wrong side of an undeserved 4-0 thrashing.

Thanks to Rob Smyth

More women die in childbirth in Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world. Global attention since 9/11 has led to more desperately needed midwives – will that change as troops pull out?

Roya, a midwife in Guldara, north of Kabul, is on the frontline of what may no longer be a war zone, but is still a killing field for women. Afghanistan has the highest proportion of women who die in childbirth of any country in the world.

"It is very common that women give birth at home and either the mother or the child dies," Roya says. "Mothers at home mostly deliver in a sitting position, which can cause the baby's body to end up in the wrong position during delivery. Because the mother doesn't have enough milk in the first three days after delivery, they give butter to the child. Often when they deliver the baby, they don't cut the umbilical cord properly with a clean instrument, which means it gets infected and the child dies."

According to figures from the Institute of Health Metrics in Seattle published last year, 1,575 women died for every 100,000 births in Afghanistan in 2008 – the equivalent figure for the UK is eight. Unicef says 52 babies out of every 1,000 die within two weeks of birth and 134 before their first birthday. A third of the deaths are caused by obstructed labour, in which years of heavy toil, having too many children too young, and possibly vitamin D deficiency as a result of purdah (which forces women to stay indoors), may all play a part.

The vast majority of women – around 87% – deliver with no skilled help, partly because of the paucity of health centres and midwives, partly because of the harsh terrain, and partly because male honour still demands women stay in their homes.

Just before 9/11, Brigid McConville of the White Ribbon Alliance for safe motherhood visited Kandahar province to see how women gave birth there. She visited a compound full of women, girls and babies who, from the age of 11, were not permitted to leave without a male family member as escort. "Giving birth was within that compound, with a neighbour or relative to help," she says. "They gave birth on a cloth over a dung heap, which absorbs the blood. The source of water was the stream running down the hillside behind. The toilets were also on that hillside. Women could only go there under cover of darkness. The stream was polluted. No wonder so many babies die."

The hunt for Osama bin Laden, which recently came to a bloody end, brought soldiers but also unprecedented aid to Afghanistan. The country's tragic record on childbirth triggered international support for a government initiative to train new midwives in remote rural areas. World Health Organisation estimates suggest Afghanistan needs 4,546 midwives to cover 90% of pregnancies – although USAid says it needs 8,000. In 2002, it had just 467.

Save the Children, which runs a college in Jawzjan province, says 2,400 midwives have been trained since the government launched these 18-month community courses and there are 31 schools instead of the six that existed in the cities before 2002. Linda Doull, Merlin's director of health and policy, talks of the sheer physical difficulty in Afghanistan's mountainous regions of accessing any sort of healthcare. "Some women travel three days by donkey over mountain ridges," she says. The need is to get care closer to them. "We choose women to train as midwives from the remote rural villages so that they go back there," she says.

Lima, 25, has delivered more than 600 live babies at the Uruzgan provincial hospital since qualifying in 2007. Women travel many miles, she says, and sometimes are robbed or punished for making the trip by people she calls "militants". "One of the sad cases happened last month," she says. "I received a woman who had delivered at home. When she came to the hospital she was bleeding and had lost a lot of blood. My colleague and I couldn't save her and she died. She left eight children behind her."

According to Save the Children, which published a major report, Missing Midwives, this year, there are just 13 midwives in Uruzgan province where 12,000 women deliver every year and 300 die. Afghanistan has now trained between half and a third of the midwives it needs – although there are still major issues around getting pregnant women to the clinics where they are based. But the worry now is that, as the pull-out of troops accelerates, the funding for training will dry up.

It appears to be happening already. A midwifery college in Kunar, in the heart of the mountainous, violent northeast of the country bordering Pakistan's tribal areas, has just closed. It was being funded by Gavi, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations, but once one tranche of students had graduated, the money stopped and no other donors have come forward.

Those in the field say they are aware of a "rethink" towards funding. USAid, which has supported training, is looking at how best the money should be used. Funding for one of the Merlin schools, in Kunduz, ended in April because the midwife quota set for that region has been fulfilled. It is supposed to start again in two years.

It's a sensitive issue. Nobody wants to criticise donors over decisions concerning Afghanistan, but Unicef's deputy country representative, Gopal Sharma, says the job of training midwives is far from done. "There is a big gap in funding which needs to be filled."

Provision is dire in Afghanistan, but no country has enough midwives, according to campaigners such as the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, which estimates that at least 350,000 more are needed worldwide. In some countries they have been trained but the government-run health service cannot afford to employ them. Some blame the International Monetary Fund for its past edicts on public-sector employment. Some just point to the poverty of developing countries and the low priority of health in the government budget.

The dreadful conditions in Afghanistan are a far cry from hygienic NHS labour wards, although the UK is just 23rd in the global league table. Yet Professor Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, argues that even the UK is 4,500 midwives short. Current numbers failed to anticipate the rising birth-rate of the past 10 years, nor the increasing complexities of cases, as older women and those with other health problems such as obesity go into labour – nor the need for post-birth care over breastfeeding and the risk of infection, for example.

Campaigners say more midwives are critical if the world is to get anywhere near to meeting the two most failing UN millennium development goals of reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters and child deaths by two-thirds. Every day, 1,000 women and 2,000 babies die of infections and other complications of childbirth, according to childbirth campaigners. Trained midwives can identify potential problems in pregnancy and attempt to ensure women give birth in clinics where they have a chance. But one in three women (35%) still gives birth alone or with only friends or relatives on hand.

At the UN summit on the development goals in New York last September, government, private and charitable donors pledged $40bn (£23bn) to improve maternal and child health. "Now we have to make sure the promises are kept," says McConville, "and money goes on training midwives."

Back in March, I speculated about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's programming and leadership options for 2011-12, given James Levine's resignation from the position of music director there. The press releases related to the season just landed in my in-box, and here's the story: it's a season of guest conductors.

They'll be led by (in order) Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sean Newhouse (BSO Assistant Conductor), Juanjo Mena, Kurt Masur, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos (two weeks), Myung-Wun Chung, Ludovic Morlot (two weeks), Jiri Belohlavek, Andris Nelsons, David Zinman, Riccardo Chailly (two weeks), Charles Dutoit, Jaap van Zweden, Stephane Deneve, Kurt Masur (again), Christoph Eschenbach, Juraj Valcuha, Leonidis Kavakos (yes, he is playing and conducting), Christoph von Dohnanyi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Bernard Haitink (3 weeks).

Whew!

That is quite a line-up, running the gamut from the up and coming (Newhouse, Morlot, Nelsons, van Zweden) to towering figures like Haitink, Chailly, and Dohnanyi. Plenty of tasty programming as well. I'm seriously curious whether the BSO had two schedules planned, one with and one without Levine, or if they had to scramble mightily to figure out who was available when and get them under contract.

Of local interest: Ludovic Morlot, the incoming music director of the Seattle Symphony, is taking the West Coast tour dates, which include two programs in S.F. He'll be leading the already-announced program - another big whew, because I really really want to hear the Carter Flute Concerto.

In any event, the season is a good one, and if I lived in Boston, I'd just get a ticket to everything. Well, almost everything, anyway.

Much of the press release is after the cut.

Here's my blogroll for the week. Starting with the economics blogs (blog) this week because I missed them out last time round. 

And before we get into it, I came across this government website just before advocating foreign investment in New Zealand. Why invest in New Zealand? Because it has no capital gains tax.

Perhaps that's why National doesn't want to change things...

Deregulation over the past two decades has created an open, globally competitive economy which operates on free market principles. The economy is well geared for long term international competitiveness, with other key benefits for business and investors in New Zealand that include:

• No restrictions on inflow and outflow of capital
• No capital gains tax
• Research and development is 100% tax deductible
• Tax incentives for activities including motion picture and petroleum exploration
• Raw materials may be imported tariff-free.

Economics blogs

1. Why is youth unemployment so high? Because the youth minimum wage was scrapped. Economist Eric Crampton at Offsetting Behaviour takes a look at how much lower the 27.5% unemployment rate for 15-19 year-olds might be if the minimum youth wage hadn't been scrapped. He thinks it's safe to attribute five to eight percentage points of youth unemployment to the abolition of the youth minimum wage. He has a model for his argument too.

And so it's time to update the estimate of how many kids aged 15-19 are currently unemployed because Labour, at the behest of the Greens, eliminated the differential lower youth minimum wage. And let's not forget that National, who opposed the abolition when Labour was doing it, decided that they liked pricing kids out of the labour market when they had a chance to change things. 

The model expects, given the current adult unemployment rate, that the youth unemployment rate would be 19.3% if the youth unemployment outcomes were no worse (relative to adult outcomes) than in the worst quarter from 1986 to 2008. As the actual youth unemployment rate is 27.5%, the rate is 8.2 percentage points higher than would have been expected under the prior trend. That translates to 12,350 kids who don't have work who we would have expected to be in work had the prior relationship between youth and adult unemployment rates continued. 

Crampton says he’s less confident about this quarter's figures because of the February earthquake.

If the earthquake differentially affected firms employing youths (compared with those employing adults), the residual for this quarter will be picking up that effect. It's not implausible that kids employed in retail were hit harder than folks whose jobs shifted location. 

But it seems fairly safe to attribute five to eight points of youth unemployment to forcing employers to pay sixteen year olds as much as older workers. Hit the "minimum wage" tag for further background and responses to counterarguments.

From the left

2. What's next, a Keymobile? Can't help putting these comments in from Gordon Campbell at Scoop on the PM's protection squad budget blowout. Pic HT @lyndonhood

Can we assume that if the health system needs to treat more people it too, will be allowed to blow out its costs?

Isn’t that [operating within a budget] what doctors and nurses have to do almost every day of the week? Consistently, they are forced to balance the quality of care against the need to defend the health budget. Such decisions of course, affect only the lives of ordinary people though – and not the very important people who qualify for diplomatic protection squad care and protection. Just one more sign that this government believes some lives are more important than others.

3. Brash may expose the cracks between National's centre and right. Tim Watkin at Pundit wonders if Don Brash really is the saviour of the right wing or if he will produce more trouble than it's worth for Key.

Most of all, Brash will be ruthless on urging more immediate cuts to the deficit (although that may be something National will be happy to respond to). In other words, he won't be worried about frightening the horses, otherwise known as the centre votes Key has worked so hard to tie down. Brash gives Labour something to kick against, giving them hope, and will force National to issue and repeat a bunch of denials that otherwise would have been taken as read.

One of the biggest worries for National's strategists will be whether they will be forced to choose between ACT and the Maori Party. Ask yourself, how can the Maori Party, even with Tariana Turia at her most pragmatic, say it will go into a coalition arrangement with the man who delivered the Orewa speech, questioning whether Maori can even call themselves Maori these days?

Key made efforts to keep Rodney Hide in charge of ACT when the Heather Roy challenge came. He has dominated the centre and right of New Zealand politics for so long. But this he could not control. Brash and his backers, some of whom I've spoken to this week, dismiss Key as a "smile and wave man" who doesn't adhere to true National principles. Closer to the truth is simply that Key has created a National party that's true to the legacy of Sir Keith Holyoake, rather than that of Ruth Richardson.

But Brash and his backers will not stay on message as Hide did, and may even expose cracks between National's centre and right-wing. It will be a test of party discipline that Key hasn't had to face before.

4. Brownlee's campervan disaster. Against the Current takes to Eathquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker over the caravan park set up for temporary accommodation, while Japanese authorities are building temporary housing.

These campervans were placed in the middle of a field (Canterbury Agricultural Park) and the Government expected people to put up with living in these campervans during the harsh months of winter. 

But Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee also demanded that folk, already under considerable financial pressure, to pay market rents for the 'privilege' of living in cramped accommodation in a field that would quickly turn to mud once the wet weather set in. 

The whole project was ludicrous and, not surprisingly, the camper van 'village' has crashed and burned. Only one person wanted to live in a crappy camper van - but only put up with it for a few days.

Despite Christchurch's urgent need for temporary homes, Sideshow Bob has kept his mouth shut about this latest Brownlee blunder. Bob is the Government's little lapdog and he won't say or do anything that risks embarrassing his mate Gerry. Expect Sideshow to be suitably rewarded for his loyalty in the New Years Honours list. 

But another housing disaster is unfolding as we speak.

The Government's intention is to build just 2.500 modular homes but they won't be all be available until September at the earliest. 

In stark contrast Japan started building temporary home two weeks after its quake. 

Three hundred portable homes are supposed to go up this month. Although some parks have been earmarked for homes it is expected that most of them will go on people's own damaged properties - who will have to pay the installation costs. 

It took Gerry Brownlee over two months to announce the contractors for Christchurch's modular homes. 

5. CCC pay rises while Cantabrians tough it out. Against the Current is also angry about a pay rise for Christchurch City Councillors.

Times are tough for too many people in quake hit Christchurch but the elected 'representatives' of the good people of this fair city are doing just fine, thank you very much. 

Christchurch's city councillors are in line to receive a $2000 wage increase which would take their basic salary to nearly $89,000.

The increase would come at a time when many of the Council's powers have been transferred to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA). 

But we're talking basic council salaries here. There are also the 'add ons' that many councillors receive.

Four councillors in particular are rolling around in a big vat of cash while the queues at the local food banks continue to grow longer. 

Councillors Barry Corbett, Sue Wells, Philip Carter and Mayor Sideshow Bob are also merrily double dipping. They receive another $35,000 as directors of Christchurch City Holdings (CCHL).

From the right

6. Youth unemployment a disaster because of Labour policies. David Farrar at Kiwiblog thinks National should pledge to lower the youth minimum wage.

It is a crisis, but one created by Labour (and not changed by National). Labour made it illegal for a teenager to accept a job for less than the adult minimum wage. They abolished the lower minimum wage for youth.

A 16 year old generally has no skills, no experience and lives at home. They would love to be able to earn a bit of money for say $10/hour. But Labour has priced them off the market. If an employer has a choice of an experienced 25 year old or a novice 16 year old, of course they will not choose the 16 year old.

The fact that teenage unemployment levels are increasing, while the overall unemployment level is falling, shows that getting rid of the youth minimum wage was a disaster for our teenagers. They deserve the chance to gain employment, and National should pledge to reintroduce a lower minimum wage for youth.

7. John Banks standing for ACT and promoting fiscal responsibility is a joke. Peter Cresswell at Not PC thinks getting rid of Hide was good, but bringing in the former Auckland City Mayor would be terrible. He has some good points.

What would have been a clinical coup producing a party representing accountability and financial rectitude has been poisoned at birth by Don Brash’s bizarre insistence that Minister-of-Rhyming-Slang John Banks be given the post of Act’s anchor in Epsom.

Which will see the man who campaigned on stopping rate rises and who then raised them every year of his reign—the man who left Auckland ratepayers $887 million in debt when he left office—carrying the flag for financial responsibility.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a joke.

8. The rich might start paying more tax...but you don't have to raise the top rate for them to do so. Roger Kerr finds an interesting chart from the US:

 

In a recent article Is ‘Tax the Rich’ Good Policy? (ODT 25 April 2011), I made the point that those in the top income brackets in New Zealand are already taxed relatively heavily by international standards.

I also noted that because cuts to high tax rates encourage economic growth and reduce tax avoidance, they may actually produce more government revenue.

And I quoted President John F Kennedy who said, when cutting US tax rates in the 1960s, “It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.”

This chart from Mark Perry’s blog Carpe Diem illustrates these points.

Video

9. Very funny on John Key's Kiwi accent.

10. Make your own billboard. Good fun from Labour.

9/11 made their moms widows and took their dads from them. Now, 10 years later, they're (a bit more) grown up -- and wait until you see how they all resemble their fathers.

Read More...
More on September 11

Cheetahs vs Lions Super 15 Rugby

The Super 15 is the largest rugby union football club championship in the southern hemisphere, consisting of provincial teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Lions vs Cheetahs

Match scheduled:
06-05-2011 from 17:10 until 19:10
Super 15 Rugby

Cheetahs team:

15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Philip Burger, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Corné Uys, 11 Coenie Oosthuizen, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Davon Raubenheimer, 7 Ashley Johnson, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Francois Uys, 3 WP Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (capt), 1 Riaan Smit.

Substitutes: 16 Ryno Barnes, 17 Lourens Adriaanse, 18 Waltie Vermeulen, 19 Kabamba Floors, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Naas Olivier, 22 Hennie Daniller.

Venue:

Coca-Cola (Ellis) Park Stadium

Ellis Park Stadium is a rugby union stadium in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It hosted the Rugby World Cup final in 1995, which was won by the country’s national team, the Springboks. The large stadium was the country’s most modern when it was upgraded in 1982 to accommodate almost 60,000 people. Today, the stadium hosts both football and rugby, and is also used as a venue for other large events, such as open-air concerts. It has become synonymous with rugby as the only time when rugby was not played at Ellis Park was during 1980 and 1981 when the stadium was under construction during an upgrade.

The stadium was named after Mr JD Ellis who made the initial area for the stadium available.

League, provincial, and international games have all been played at the stadium, and it has seen such teams as Brazil, Manchester United and Arsenal play. Ellis Park Stadium is the centrepiece of a sporting sector in the south-east of Johannesburg, where it neighbours Johannesburg Stadium (athletics), Standard Bank Stadium (tennis), and an Olympic-class swimming pool.

Ellis Park Stadium is home to the following teams:

Orlando Pirates, Premier Soccer League)
Lions (Cats until September 2006), Golden Lions, Currie Cup domestic rugby competition
Cricket matches were held at the stadium in the past. It hosted six Test matches between 1948 and 1954, but it has not been used for first-class cricket since New Wanderers Stadium opened in 1956 and is now used only for rugby and soccer.

Watch Lions vs Cheetahs Rugby Live 6 may 2011

History
In 1889 when after a long and hard fought battle the Transvaal Rugby Football Union (now the Golden Lions Rugby Union) was formed and established a domain. The first games were played at the Wanderers Club’s stadium whose grounds were situated where Johannesburg Park station is today. Rows between the different rugby clubs as well as the Wanderers Club’s claim of the field for the use of cricket games, forced the TRFU to look for an alternative.

An area with a quarry and garbage dumps in Doornfontein was identified in 1927 as the possible alternative. The TRFU negotiated with the Johannesburg City Council’s, Mr JD Ellis, (after whom Ellis Park was named) for the availability of these grounds and 13 acres was made available. On 10 October 1927 the final rental agreement was signed. A quote of £600 was accepted for the grass and with a loan from the city council to the amount of £5 000, the building of the new stadium could commence. The stadium was built in eight months and in June 1928 the first test was played against the All Blacks. Thus was born Ellis Park which became internationally renowned and synonymous with rugby. Crowds of between 38 000 and a record crowd of 100 000 against the British Lions (in 1955) attended the matches.

Ellis Park played the host for cricket matches after an agreement was reached between TRFU and Cricket|Union. From 1947 when the cricket pitch was laid until 1956, Ellis Park was host to various cricket matches with the final games played in the 1953/54 series against New Zealand. Cricket then moved to its new venue where the current Wanderers still is today.

On 28 April 1969 the TRFU formed a stadium committee to investigate the possibilities of a new stadium since the one in use did not meet all the modern requirements. Only fifteen years later, after the game between Transvaal and the World Team on 31 March 1979, the old Ellis Park was demolished. Games were played at the Wanderers while the stadium was being rebuilt.

A new TRFU management was elected in 1984 with Dr Louis Luyt as Chairman and Prof Joe Poolman as his deputy. The decision was taken to place Ellis Park Stadium under the management of a trust. In 1987 after the Ellis Park Stadium was listed on the stock exchange and due to sound financial management by Dr Luyt, Ellis Park could announce that the debt to the amount of R53 million was fully paid and a further 86 suites could be erected.

In 1995 rugby fever hit the country with South Africa’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup, the biggest event on the rugby calendar. Ellis Park was the venue for the World Cup Final which was played on 24 June 1995. In this spectacular final, New Zealand and South Africa ran onto the field at 14:45 in front of 62 000 spectators and millions of spectators in front of their TVs. South Africa won this game 15-12 in extra time.

In 2005 Ellis Park Stadium made history by becoming the first black owned stadium in South Africa. The Golden Lions Rugby Football Union passed the management of the Ellis Park Precinct to a company with 51% black ownership. Interza Lesego, Orlando Pirates F.C. and Ellis Park Stadium (Pty) Ltd make up the new management of the Ellis Park Precinct.
Future
Ellis Park Stadium will host one of the semi-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, for which its capacity will be upgraded by another 10,000 to create a total of 70,000 seats. New upper tiers will be added behind each of the goals, to the north and south of the stadium.

Source – Wikipedia

Lions vs Cheetahs Rugby Live 6 may 2011

Here's my Top 10 links from around the Internet at 1 pm  in association with NZ Mint.

I'll pop the extras into the comment stream. See all previous Top 10s here.

I welcome your additions in the comments below or via email to bernard.hickey@interest.co.nz.

Clarke and Dawe is a cracker today.

1. Why food prices are rising - Some people blame speculators for higher food prices. But there are some fundamentals driving this.

Peak oil output, population growth and China's industrialisation are all factors.

But there's also a problem with sliding productivity growth in terms of output growth per hectare of crops such as wheat, soy and rice.

This, in theory is good news for New Zealand's farmers, who are less reliant on grain output.

Thank goodness for grass, although we're not increasing output much there either.

But I have given up on toast as a food after reading this. Meat and dairy for me.

Here US resource economist Michael Roberts at his blog GreenGreenGrains picks out some stats from a recent FAO report.

The chart below tells the story too.

Recent data from FAO shows a pretty rapid slowdown in productivity growth.  The price spike in 2008 occurred in a particularly bad year in which yields declined on a worldwide basis for three of the four largest food commodities.  In 2009 all four of the majors saw yield declines, something that hasn't happened since 1974. 

2010 couldn't have been much better and was probably worse, given how bad things were in the U.S, the world's largest producer and exporter.

One question came up about planted area diluting yields through expansion onto marginal lands.  There might be some of that.  But I think it's mainly a combination of weather and slowing technological progress in breeding.  Cutbacks on basic science research do have consequences.  And so does climate change, even if it hasn't affected the US, yet.

2. Britain's biggest slump since Lehman -  Philip Aldrick reports at the Telegraph that Britain's economy has just suffered its biggest loss of momentum since the Lehman Bros crisis of 2008.

Together with weak PMIs on manufacturing and construction earlier this week, the services sector survey indicated "the largest loss of growth momentum seen since just after the collapse of Lehmans" in September 2008, said Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist. He added that the PMI data signalled that GDP was expanding at a quarterly rate of just 0.4pc.

The weak PMI data has forced economists to push back their expectations of a rate rise to the end of the year. Many are now expecting them to be left unchanged until early next year, and the market is factoring in just one rate rise in 2011 - in December. Just two months ago, the markets believed there was a nine-in-10 chance that rates would have been lifted on Thursday.

3. The lobbyists are earning their money - Reuters reports Goldman Sachs is working hard to water down the Volcker Rule, which was designed to seperate the commercial banks from the investment banks and stop the Too Big To Fail banks from using their government guarantees to gamble and make big bonuses for bankers while offloading the risk to taxpayers.

High return on investment from lobbyists these days.

The Volcker rule was one of the main topics on the agenda when Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein met recently with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro. Wall Street chiefs do not often lobby top regulators directly, but this issue is unusually important to Goldman.

"They're totally freaked out about Volcker," said a Goldman lobbyist who declined to speak on the record for fear of losing the contract. "People are working on that a lot, with agency staff, with lawmakers, you name it."

Indeed, lobbying disclosures show Goldman representatives have been working both sides of the political aisle and meeting with top officials in the White House and regulatory agencies.

4. 'Just sell the gold' - As the countdown starts to America defaulting on its debt from August 2 if its debt ceiling isn't raised by Congress, some are wondering what the US government could do to avoid default.

Felix Salmon from Reuters has a suggestion:

Among the resources to be exhausted is a whopping US$400 billion in gold reserves — that’s the current value of the government’s store of 261 million ounces of gold. Selling at these prices seems like quite a good idea to me: I can’t think of any particularly good reason why the government should be storing $3,500 of gold for every household in the country.

5. Not so fast - PW at The Economist decodes the ECB's statement overnight, which seemed to trigger such global financial volatility.

Working that out is an exercise in deciphering various code words used by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the ECB. "Vigilance" signals an early move, "strong vigilance"—used in March—makes it all but certain the ensuing month. Describing the current stance of monetary policy as "very accommodative" suggests that a rate increase may be on its way before too long. Instead Mr Trichet chose to describe policy merely as "accommodative".

What this suggests is that a follow-up rise in June is now unlikely and that one in July may be less certain than previously anticipated. There are two reasons why the ECB might wish to raise rates only gradually: the strength of the euro and the troubles of peripheral economies like Greece, Ireland and Portugal whose sovereign-debt woes have required bail-outs.

6. The Credit Impulse - Australian economist Steve Keen comments on this week's slump in Australian house prices.

The fact that the Credit Impulse leads changes in house prices also gives some indication of where future prices are likely to go. The mortgage Credit Impulse shown below is for the acceleration in mortgage debt over a year: the change in the change in mortgage debt compared to the previous year.

With the mortgage credit impulse still headed south, and leading falls in house prices by 3-6 months, that implies that there are at least two more quarters of negative house price movements coming up.

7. The population impulse - The New York Times reports on a UN report out this week forecasting the global population will hit 10 billion by 2100 from 7 billion now.

Previous assumptions were that the world's population would stabilise around 2050. African growth is the difference.

Oil and food price picks anyone?

Growth in Africa remains so high that the population there could more than triple in this century, rising from today’s one billion to 3.6 billion, the report said — a sobering forecast for a continent already struggling to provide food and water for its people.

The new report comes just ahead of a demographic milestone, with the world population expected to pass 7 billion in late October, only a dozen years after it surpassed 6 billion. Demographers called the new projections a reminder that a problem that helped define global politics in the 20th century, the population explosion, is far from solved in the 21st.

“Every billion more people makes life more difficult for everybody — it’s as simple as that,” said John Bongaarts, a demographer at the Population Council, a research group in New York. “Is it the end of the world? No. Can we feed 10 billion people? Probably. But we obviously would be better off with a smaller population.”

8. Pay attention to the headline - Economist Heleen Mees writes at VoxEu that headline inflation is more important than many central bankers think.

For much of the 20th century, core inflation has been both less volatile and more persistent than the inflation rate of non-core goods. However, the integration of China and India in the global market added more than 2.3 billion consumers and producers to the global economy. They entered as suppliers of core goods and services and as demanders of non-core commodities. The result has been a major, persistent, and continuing increase in the relative price of non-core goods to core goods.

Even if the current spike in headline inflation proves to be transitory, past experience suggests that it may well lead to a permanent increase in real hourly wages. Unless monetary policymakers in the US favour feverish boom-and-bust cycles with prolonged periods of high unemployment, they had better start paying close attention to headline inflation, like their counterparts at the ECB do.

9. Clarke and Dawe - Oliver Beerthanks discusses the death of Osama bin Laden. Experts is his favourite author. Funny as hell.

10. Totally irrelevant video of electric race bikes on the Isle of Mann. Ewan Macgregor narrates.

We all need to get ready for peak oil in our own way. HT Lance Wiggs via twitter.

I grew up in a (Manchester) Guardian household where the paper's values were always highly regarded. I can recall reading about the Suez Crisis in 1956 at the age of 10 – though I always gave more attention to Eric Todd's match reports on Manchester United and City. Typecast as a typical Guardian reader, I was delighted when I had a letter published in the launch issue of the Berliner format (12 September 2005). So I was pleased to see the front page of that issue reproduced in your survey of significant moments in the Guardian's history (The Guardian at 190, 5 May). Happy birthday, and long may you flourish as the embodiment of your founders' admirable and still relevant ideals (Archive, 5 May).

Giles Oakley

London

• Your centre page spread is fascinating. There must be some among your elderly readers who, like me, were readers of the News Chronicle until its demise in 1961. I switched to the Daily Herald, which was soon taken over by the Sun. I read that the Guardian had started publishing in London and ordered it. The first day I received it, in autumn 1961, the Education page advertised a job to which I was appointed, leading to a happy and rewarding career lasting 19 years. I have enjoyed your newspaper for my 30 years of retirement. My deepest gratitude.

Martin Sheldon

Oxford

• I was delighted to see you remember your radical origins in the Peterloo massacre of 1819. The official Peterloo death toll is now 15. As you say, others died from their injuries later, leading to a probable total of 18. Well over 600 more people were injured. The campaign for a proper memorial to the democrats of Peterloo in Manchester city centre continues; for the last few years, crowds have gathered on the anniversary to honour the dead and read out their names.

Harriet Monkhouse

Peterloo Memorial Campaign

By Donna Deedy, special to ProPublica with Michael Grabell, ProPublica

In the late 1990s, U.S. policymakers approved a plan to turn plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for commercial reactors. The first-of-its kind plant, now being built in South Carolina, was intended to reduce the Cold War stockpile and the threat of nuclear material theft while supplying the country’s energy needs.

More than a decade later, the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant is running into mounting troubles, including long delays, soaring costs and the lack of utilities committed to use the new fuel in their reactors.

But there’s another aspect of the story that has received little attention. Two of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safety reviewers for the project say the NRC has taken shortcuts on safety to avoid delaying the construction. Work on the facility was allowed to begin, they say, before some of the most essential questions were fully answered. They have been particularly concerned about the danger of chemical explosions, the adequacy of the ventilation and radioactive waste disposal systems and the way the plutonium will be tracked as it is processed.

Alex Murray, the lead chemical process engineer on the NRC review team, has said in public documents that he was removed from the project in 2007, after he repeatedly warned that safety plans to prevent a chemical explosion risk specific to this type of plant were inadequate and could lead to a significant release of radioactive material.

After Murray was reassigned, the NRC hired Dan Tedder, a chemical engineering professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology who had participated in technical reviews for the Department of Energy since 1979. Tedder said he resigned less than a year later because he believed that the plant’s chemical engineering plans were incomplete and felt that his concerns were brushed aside.

“I really don’t feel that the NRC is doing the thorough type of analyses that I believe are appropriate,” he said. “Their primary focus is staying on schedule and not doing anything to delay the applicant, rather than identifying dominant risks and safety issues.”

The NRC said the reviewers’ objections were considered and all outstanding issues resolved as part of the safety evaluation, which was finalized in December. Studying dissenting opinions is a built-in part of the licensing review and there was no pressure to speed up the process, the agency said.

“We wouldn’t allow or license a facility or a fuel if we didn’t think it was safe,” said NRC spokesman David McIntyre.

The MOX plant is the first new construction authorized by the NRC since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. It is located at the federal Savannah River Site, an old bomb-making complex near Aiken, S.C. Originally estimated at $1.4 billion, it is now expected to cost taxpayers nearly $5 billion. It won’t begin producing fuel until 2016 at the earliest, about a decade behind schedule.

The idea of using weapons-grade plutonium to fuel nuclear power plants surfaced after the end of the Cold War when the United States and Russia each agreed to dispose of 34 metric tons of plutonium, the core material of some atomic bombs.

Lawmakers, the nuclear industry and some scientists pushed the United States to follow a technique being used in Europe – the reprocessing of spent fuel to make MOX. France and Belgium have successfully operated MOX manufacturing plants since the 1970s using plutonium from commercial reactor waste. But the U.S. MOX plant will be the first to mass-produce fuel using weapons-grade plutonium.

The NRC and some experts say operations can be adjusted to accommodate the different characteristics of the weapons-grade material. But others note that there has been a history of accidents in the United States when similar methods were used to process plutonium for military purposes.

At Savannah River, workers in a separate facility will extract plutonium from the weapons’ cores. The plutonium will then be transferred to the MOX plant where it will be purified, chemically processed, blended with uranium and turned into pellets. The pellets will be loaded into fuel rods for commercial reactors.

The plant is being built and will be operated by Shaw Areva MOX Services, a partnership of the Shaw Group, a large engineering firm based in Louisiana, and Areva, a company primarily owned by the French government that has worldwide interests in all phases of the nuclear industry.

In a blog post last month, Areva Inc. CEO Jacques Besnainou criticized the news media for sensationalizing the dangers of MOX, saying the fuel is safe and has been rigorously tested. He said the company values transparency and encouraged readers to “learn the facts of this issue.”

But Areva declined to answer ProPublica’s questions about the plant, as did Shaw and a spokesman for their partnership. Instead, they referred questions to the U.S. Department of Energy, which declined requests to interview officials in charge of the program. A department spokesman sent a statement saying the DOE will review “all aspects of the safety of nuclear technology” in light of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant and that the MOX facility will comply with all requirements before going into operation.

The NRC set up a two-step licensing process for the Savannah River MOX plant. Construction would be authorized after it was determined that Shaw Areva’s design and safety plans provided reasonable protection against natural disasters and catastrophic accidents. The NRC would then verify that the plant was properly built before issuing an operating license.

But the NRC was under pressure from some lawmakers and the industry to streamline the regulatory process. It decided to defer some of the safety decisions until the operating phase. Both Murray and Tedder were troubled by that approach.

The MOX plant’s licensing process has also been criticized by a judge for the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which settles disputes for the NRC. In a 2008 hearing involving a separate but related matter, Judge Michael Farrar, the panel’s chairman, questioned whether “the constant pressure … to ‘do it faster’ ” could have a “substantive impact” on the NRC’s review and its safety culture.

“In my judgment, this proceeding has exposed matters that might indicate that that culture is being undermined,” he wrote at one point in the case.

As far back as 2000, the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents the nuclear industry, had submitted comments saying the rules for the MOX plant safety review were “overly prescriptive.” Steven Kerekes, an institute spokesman, said in a phone interview that the industry was only encouraging the NRC to make its requirements more flexible.

Murray, the son of a prominent nuclear scientist, has worked at the NRC since 1997 and has a background in nuclear fuel reprocessing. He has been particularly concerned about the possibility of “red oil” explosions, an inherent risk in nuclear reprocessing. Red oil forms during chemical processes when an organic solution comes into contact with nitric acid. At high temperatures and concentrations, it can lead to runaway reactions and explosions.

Red oil incidents happened at the Savannah River bomb site and at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington in 1953 and again at Savannah River in 1975. One of the most serious accidents occurred in 1993 at a plant in Tomsk, Russia. A red oil explosion destroyed the building’s walls and sent a radioactive plume into the surrounding communities.

The NRC referred Murray’s concerns to a panel of agency staff and the federally funded Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, which both confirmed in 2007 that the MOX plant’s red oil safety strategies were inadequate. But they added that the matter could be deferred until the operating license review, and the NRC allowed construction to continue.

Murray has said in memos and e-mails to management that he felt his safety concerns were dismissed. After raising them, he noted that he was removed from the MOX project and reassigned against his will to other NRC projects. He was also appointed to an NRC task force charged with reviewing the agency’s safety culture.

“This redirection, isolation and ostracism have given the impression to some staff members that if one raises significant issues, there seems to be a potential for negative consequences,” Murray said in a September 2010 letter to NRC commissioners.

McIntyre of the NRC disputed that. “There has been no retaliation against anyone for raising safety issues,” he said.

Several years after Murray raised his concerns, Shaw Areva modified its red oil safety strategy. An independent analysis of the new plans by Brookhaven National Laboratory concluded in 2009 that red oil explosions would be “highly unlikely.” However, the Brookhaven study didn’t assess what might happen in the event of internal fires and outside events, such as earthquakes or power outages, which led to the crisis in Japan.

While the Savannah River Site is on a fault line, it’s not on the edge of a tectonic plate, as Japan is. Japan has suffered 10 earthquakes of 7.0 or greater magnitude in the past decade, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The last major earthquake to strike South Carolina occurred in 1886 in Charleston, about 110 miles east of the site, and was estimated to measure 7.3 on the Richter scale.

Vinod Mubayi, a nuclear physicist and one of the authors of the Brookhaven study, said in an interview that a red oil explosion would be unlikely even in the event of an earthquake or blackout. The plant has back-up generators and multiple layers of safeguards.

“I think they’ve taken a lot of precautions in making sure that the lessons have been learned” from previous accidents at other processing facilities, he said.

After Murray was reassigned in 2007, the NRC hired Tedder as a senior technical reviewer. A former researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tedder had expertise in plutonium chemistry and fuel reprocessing.

The first step in safely designing any chemical project, Tedder said, is establishing the quantity, rate and flow of material as it is being processed. Those calculations determine the size of equipment and serve as the basis for the plant’s configuration. The figures also are used for tracking plutonium. But Tedder said Shaw Areva hadn’t fully developed that formula when construction began. He said he was told it would cost too much money.

The NRC said that information has since been provided and that it meets regulatory requirements.

Three local groups that oppose the plant have also challenged Shaw Areva’s tracking plans for plutonium, and judges for the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board have agreed to hear their complaints.

In September 2008, Tedder’s allegations turned up in tce, a British trade journal for chemical engineers. The article quoted him as saying that he was shocked when he began work and discovered that basic design information was incomplete.

“The NRC didn’t want me to criticize the applicant and refused to forward my questions or request more information,” he told tce. “They harassed me about my reports and wanted me to water them down.”

The trade journal article led to an investigation by the NRC inspector general, who found no indication that agency management had “ignored” Tedder’s concerns. The report said a chemical engineering review team found that some of Tedder’s concerns weren’t relevant to the NRC’s safety evaluation. Other issues he raised were sent to other reviewers for analysis. The inspector general made no recommendations for corrective actions.

Tedder told ProPublica that when he met with the inspectors at a Starbucks near his home, they told him they would be investigating only whether the NRC was following its procedures, not the merit of his concerns.

The NRC’s jurisdiction, he noted, is narrow. The agency regulates hazardous chemicals produced from radioactive materials. But it does not identify and protect against all chemical hazards.

For instance, the chemical mixing and storage building that adjoins the MOX plant is regulated by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The NRC says it’s responsible for any event that could affect the MOX plant, but safety reviewers said that dual setup could leave workers vulnerable if an accident occurred.

He said it’s also unclear how all the radioactive waste from the plant will be tracked and stored. Waste issues fall under the jurisdiction of the Energy Department, which is building a new plant where liquid waste will be treated, mixed into cement and packed into 55-gallon drums. But it has not been decided yet where the waste will ultimately be disposed of.

Although the plant’s operating license is still pending, the NRC finalized its safety assessment in December. Shaw Areva said it had spent $80 million developing safety analyses. The NRC said it had held 70 meetings, conducted 100 in-office reviews and submitted more than 600 questions to Shaw Areva for revised or more detailed safety strategies. The plant, both say, will operate safely.

Tedder and Murray are less confident.

“We need congressional hearings on this,” Tedder said. “The NRC review of MOX is not comprehensive. As a professional engineer, I find this position unacceptable and inconsistent with accepted engineering practices.”

World opinion seems to be divided on the propriety of America's sometimes-raucous celebration in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death. Hopefully, though, we can all agree that Americans -- by virtue of long-standing national tradition -- should at least be indulged a few attempts to make a quick buck off of the affair.

Book publishers have been especially eager to track down authors who can write knowledgably and efficiently - read: quickly! - on the subject of Al Qaeda. As one publishing executive told the Wall Street Journal, "If it's not going to be great, it's got to be as fast as possible."

A number of authors have been happy to oblige. Former Newsweek Jon Meacham has already begun editing an e-book essay collection called Beyond Bin Laden for Random House. Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War and The Osama bin Laden I Know, has been signed by Crown to write a book tentatively titled The Manhunt, covering Washington's search for the fugitive terrorist. The Free Press has also said that it is hoping to publish a digital work by Bergen.

Following Hollywood's standard playbook, Penguin Press announced Wednesday that it had signed New Yorker correspondent Steve Coll to write, in essence, a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, which covered America's vexed relations with radical Islam from the 1980s through September 11. The new book will discuss the last ten years of that relationship.

Finally, there are those publishers who already have a perfect book in the works, but somehow failed to predict months back that a potential assassination in early May would provide the opportunity for marketing synergy. Sales strategies have been scrambled, as relatively unknown authors prepare to bask in the full media spotlight. The Black Banner, a narrative account of the war on terror written by Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent who served on the front lines against Al Qaeda, is certain to be marketed heavily when it's published in September by Norton.

Then there's St. Martin's Press, which had originally scheduled a May 24 release for a book by retired Navy SEALs Howard Wasdin and Stephen Templin on the subject of the military's secretive Team Six. When that unit succeeded in its secret mission to kill bin Laden on May 1, the publishing house immediately pushed to get the book in stores as quickly as possible. The release date has now been moved to May 10. "Sometimes you get lucky with current events," Mark Resnick, executive editor at St. Martin's, told the New York Observer.

Shonna Brown has been named Interim Commissioner of the America East Conference. Brown joined America East as Associate Commissioner for women’s basketball/administration in September 2010. Prior to joining the America East, she spent three years at the NCAA as Assistant Director of Championships. Libby Harmon has been hired as Enforcement Intern at the NCAA. Harmon was previously a graduate assistant in Compliance at the University of Kansas and will graduate from the university's School of Law this month. Suzette McQueen has accepted a position at Davidson College as the Associate Director of the Davidson Athletic Foundation. She previously spent  10 years at Adelphi University, serving as Assistant Athletics Director for External Relations/Senior Woman Administrator. Judy Sweet has been named one of seven inductees to the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2011. Sweet, a 1969 honors graduate of UW, is a pioneer among women in college athletics. She was a member of the badminton team in the late 1960s prior to the legislation of Title IX and returned to the campus for the 30th anniversary of women's athletics in 2005, where she received her letter award. A member of the state of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, she went on to work for the NCAA from 2001 until her retirement in 2006. Congratulations to each of you! Thank you for being an inspiration. Have a member announcement or shout out? Email it to Megan at mriggs@nacwaa.org to include in an upcoming Weekly Update and blog post!

• On September 10, 2001, Michael Jackson played a concert in New York City and his two good pals, Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando, sat in the audience. On September 11th, NYC was attacked by terrorists and friends of the now-deceased stars claim the threesome hopped in a car and started driving cross-country. Claims Vanity Fair magazine, "Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway." Praise be, this has all been explained for our amusement via Taiwanese animation. [Vanity Fair]
• The upcoming TV lineup is packed with shows starring ladies! Yesss! I'm setting my DVR to record half of these shows right now. [Vulture]
• Oksana Grigorieva has dropped her domestic violence claim against Mel Gibson, apparently as an "olive branch." Ugh, I don't understand these people. [TMZ]
• How much do celebs earn for appearing on "Dancing With The Stars"? The results will shock you. Now we know how Bristol Palin could afford all that plastic surgery. [PopEater]

Colombia Pictures has released the teaser trailer for Zoe Saldana's upcoming movie "Colombiana." The movie is directed by Olivier Megaton and written by Luc Besson. Michael Vartan also co-stars in the movie."Colombiana" is set to hit theaters on September 2011.Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think.The film centers on Cataleya Restrepo who at age 10 sees the brutal murder of her parents by a Colombian drug lord Don Luis. Cataleya manages to escape the bullets of the assassin and reach Chicago, where her uncle lives Emilio, also a gangster. Emilio is doing its best to remove Cataleya from the criminal life, but she is determined to become a professional killer. At 25, Cataleya has become a real killer operating on behalf of his uncle, Emilio. But her sole desire is to find Don Luis to avenge the death of her parents. Source: Yahoo! Movies

The Japanese (of course) offer a lesson in trust to U.S. brands and their failing, faux eco-friendly marketing: Let consumers visit your home, meet your family.

Take a stroll through the aisles in a supermarket this week. In the time it takes you to count to hundred you'll likely be bombarded with as many brands claiming eco-friendliness.

Companies are piling on the new trend, selling everything from eco friendly baby powder to shaving cream to batteries. And consumers are noticing these brands among the 300,000 new products hitting the shelves worldwide every year. But behind the flashy labels and TV commercials guaranteed to show windmills, solar panels, and endless green fields lies a rotten truth.

TerraChoice, a market research company revealed the results of a study of 1,018 products randomly tested to see if they lived up to their eco-friendly claims. The results were startling. Of all the products surveyed, all but one failed to support their green boasts. The offenses ranged from products that advertised themselves as nontoxic but, frighteningly, just replaced old toxins with new ones that were still banned years ago to, more commonly, products that claimed so-called green status that could never be substantiated.

But the list of lies and techniques aimed at seducing the consumer seemed never-ending. There were hidden trade-offs--one aspect of the product was promoted as environmentally friendly while the negative ingredients' impacts were obscured. There were irrelevant claims--ones that were technically but unimportant for the planet. There were lesser-of-two-evils claims that were narrowly true but ignored larger environmental problems--the supermarket equivalents to “green SUVs.”

All of these falsehoods and obfuscations take a toll on consumers--and it can be seen in Japan, home to vibrant innovation, where residents' trust was put to the ultimate test during a food scare in late 2007/early 2008. Japanese people tend to trust a lot (perhaps explaining why there was no widespread looting in the days after the recent earthquake). It is one of those societies where you still can leave your umbrella unlocked in the entrance to the supermarket--and it will actually be there when you return. But the tradition of trust was put to the ultimate test when dumplings, a classic Chinese dish produced in China, packed, frozen and imported to Japan, suddenly caused the death of seven Japanese and sickened thousands of others. It was the first time in Japan's history anyone had faced such widespread or fatal food poisoning. It created shock waves throughout the country. The sales of dumplings dropped to zero, and the effect trickled into almost every other category of frozen food. Consumers were in despair, unsure of what to trust.

And then something unusual happened.

I noticed this when taking a stroll through a Japanese supermarket. As I passed by shelf after shelf, cartoon drawings of people--like the ones you might see in the Wall Street Journal, appeared on brands. The sugar had one, the fresh salad, the fish--even the dumplings. Next to the head was a name of a person, his title, age, and home address. The title stated: "I’m responsible for this product." Was it a joke--had Japan once again come up with another cartoon craze, or was this the next big marketing trick? Anywhere else in the world, maybe. Anywhere else, there would at least be a small disclaimer on the back of the product explaining the ruse. Here was a QR code next to every face. It took me to a site where the actual person I’d seen as a cartoon appeared as a real person--in video. He explained how he handpicked the particular product I was holding in my hand. I saw the production line, the transportation, and just in case I still suspected something dodgy about him, I could click on a link to learn more about him and his family

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like this (although it was the first time I'd seen it done with humans). About two years ago, I ordered a luxury version of Kobe beef, a grade even higher than the already fashionable and highly tender Japanese meat. The chef placed a seven-page report about the meat next to my plate in the restaurant. At first it seemed silly, but as the cow's entire history unfolded, along with a detailed list of all the food it had eaten throughout its years of life, the entire history of its family, a description of the farmers family (with pictures of course) and--okay here it comes--a nose print of the cow, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The dumpling bios grew out of the same trend.

Trust-earning just jumped to another level. People have become so skeptical about fake promises and longwinded explanations that promises on labels have become the equivalent of waving in a darkroom--pointless--and brands are struggling to survive. So real people have now entered the arena--people we can quickly come to rely on, people who are prepared to put their name on the block--and the names and histories of their entire family, too--to convince consumers of their earnestness.

As companies desperately search for ways to promote their products in smarter ways--or as being eco-friendly--a steady increase of cynicism grows on the consumer side. It has not yet hit the tipping point, and the local ombudsman, The Advertising Standards Authorities and in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fight an uphill battle to guard the flood of claims made by everyone. In the U.S., governments even are holding hearings to define the difference between genuine environmental claims and empty greenwashing.

Where does it all end? You'd hope the good brands may indeed secure some credit for their hard work--and the liars get punished. In the real world, this could be wishful thinking. Instead the scenario is likely to begin where my journey ended in Japan, with yet another layer of communication, which may, at first, even convince the most cynical consumers. But over time, this trust, too, begins to fade.

Come to think of it, who knows if that farmer I saw exists at all--he looked convincing, and so did his mother, but didn’t I see him in another ad the other day for chewing gum? There are 120 million people in Japan. I probably mixed him up.

Martin Lindstrom is a 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine’s “World's 100 Most Influential People” and author of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best–seller. His latest book, Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, will be released in September. A frequent advisor to heads of numerous Fortune 100 companies, Lindstrom has also authored 5 best sellers translated into 30 languages. More at martinlindstrom.com.

Read more by Martin Lindstrom: The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World

[Front page image: Flickr user richardwitt74]

 

THIS SUMMER'S TRAVELING ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL;
APPROXIMATELY 20 SHOWS SET FOR OUTDOOR AMPHITHEATERS IN NORTH AMERICA

DJ Shadow

The 2011 Identity Festival is the first-ever touring electronic-only music festival to visit major outdoor amphitheatres throughout North America in August and September and give fans the full electronic music experience. Now it can be revealed when and in which cities the traveling extravaganza will make its stops this summer.

It all sets off August 11 in Chicago and for the following five weeks Identity will further galvanize the electronic music explosion with approximately 20 shows in such cities as Detroit, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Charlotte, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Houston and Dallas. Look for information about venues and which artists will be appearing at specific dates to become available on May 12.

Identity will be highlighted by the highest caliber of electronic music artists today who'll be performing on multiple stages starting in the afternoon and into the night. Check out the lineup, along with the complete list of dates below.

LINEUP
Kaskade
Pretty Lights
Rusko
Avicii
Steve Aoki
Disco Biscuits
DJ Shadow
Skrillex
Pete Tong
Chuckie
Booka Shade
Modeselektor
The Crystal Method
Holy Ghost!
Nero
Datsik
Erol Alkan
Chad Hugo (N.E.R.D.)
Aeroplane
LA Riots
Doorly
Nervo
White Shadow
Jessie And The Toy Boys
The Eye

TOUR DATES
Thursday, August 11 Chicago
Friday, August 12 Detroit
Saturday, August 13 Pittsburgh
Sunday, August 14 New Jersey
Tuesday, August 16 Charlotte
Thursday, August 18 Washington DC
Friday, August 19 Philadelphia
Saturday, August 20 Boston
Sunday, August 21 New York
Tuesday, August 23 Atlanta
Wednesday, August 24 Tampa
Thursday, August 25 Miami
Saturday, August 27 Houston
Sunday, August 28 Dallas
Tuesday, August 30 Albuquerque
Friday, September 2 San Diego
Saturday, September 3 San Francisco
Sunday, September 4 Orange County, CA
Monday, September 5 Las Vegas
Saturday, September 10 Seattle

Steve Reich is a major influence on today's musicians, artists and film-makers. As the Barbican pays tribute, we ask some of them why – and the man himself talks about his heroes

David Lang Composer, Bang on a Can All-Stars

I worked in a record store when I was in high school. The first Columbia recording of [Reich's] It's Gonna Rain and Violin Phase was in the cheap section. I didn't know who the composer was and it had a funny cover, so I decided to buy it. Like all 16-year-olds I thought I knew everything about the world. But It's Gonna Rain – a piece of two tape loops gradually running out of phase – really knocked me out because nothing I knew about how music was made, about how composers worked, about what you do with melody and harmony prepared me for it. It was the first piece I'd heard where the idea generated the sound. I associate Reich forever with opening my eyes.

Anna Clyne Composer

What has really inspired me is Reich's sense of form and development from rhythmic and harmonic cells, and his use of electronics and speech melodies, particularly on Different Trains. He has a very organic relationship between the electronics and the instruments. Sometimes it's easy to throw everything into the pot when you are writing a piece. But just to start with a simple idea and really develop it as far as you can is a real challenge, and he's a master of that. It feels like Reich is on a constant journey. He's turning 75 and he has committed his whole life to music. To a young composer that's such an inspiration.

Bryce Dessner Composer, guitarist (the National, Clogs)

For musicians of my generation, Reich helped open up contemporary classical music. He breathes a lot of fresh air into the room. I'm struck by the number of people I meet who share a love of his music. His electric guitar piece Electric Counterpoint has been influential to what I bring into the National. We don't really feature loud rock guitar solos, the work is more textural, with interlocking guitar parts that use simple canonic devices, which are common in Reich's music. Clapping Music [written for two performers] is such a simple, beautiful idea. The drummer of the National plays it every night as his warmup backstage. He's figured out how to play it with two hands – that's an interesting trickle-down!

David Harrington Violinist and artistic director, Kronos Quartet

In the case of Different Trains and also WTC 9/11 – both pieces commissioned by Kronos – Reich has brought new issues into the realm of what a concert can be. To so boldly and personally make a piece of music that deals with the Holocaust on one hand and on the other, 11 September 2001 is just an incredible contribution. If you look at the work written for Kronos after Different Trains it's possible to detail the influence of that piece in a very big way. All of a sudden [we] became a totally amplified group and it was possible to access all sorts of new sounds.

Lee Ranaldo Composer, guitarist and vocalist, Sonic Youth

I started to listen to Reich's music in the mid-70s. It was a very interesting time in New York – you had rock music coming out of punk and going into no wave and new wave, with musicians stripping things down into a basic, almost proto-rock'n'roll. But almost simultaneously you had all this other interesting modern music that included Reich, Philip Glass, La Monte Young and Terry Riley. For a brief period it felt like the musics were close. I worked with Glenn Branca, who was writing for electric guitar. On the one hand, he was lumped in with people like DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, on the other, compared with Reich and Young.

Rock'n'roll is made of small gestures recombined in various ways, and that's really the crossover point where people from rock'n'roll dig Reich's music. In the early days he was influenced by African drumming and Balinese gamelan, and I oftentimes approach guitar playing with an idea of it being a percussion instrument, like something from a gamelan orchestra.

Max Richter Composer, keyboard player

The first thing that influenced me is the idea of being both composer and performer of your own work. When Reich originally put a band together it was probably the only way to get [his music] out there, because it was a new language. But there is something liberating about it. It was a little bit rock'n'roll. Now loads of composers have their own bands; I have musicians that I always play with.

I used to be in [contemporary ensemble] Piano Circus and we probably played a couple of hundred performances of Reich pieces such as Six Pianos and Piano Phase. It just seeped into me and became part of my musical universe. My work has a different grammar to Reich's, but I am also interested in rigour, a piece having integrity in the way things happen within it. But I like those things to be secret rather than on the outside. With Reich it's like an exoskeleton – I like my skeleton to be inside.

Hauschka, aka Volker Bertelmann, composer and pianist

I got a lot from techno and electronic musicians. Composers such as Reich or Alvin Lucier were mentioned in those circles, but they weren't a direct influence. That came later, even in the last few years. A key experience was hearing a lecture by Lucier in 2007 about Reich and Cage and Meredith Monk, and suddenly I was playing in concerts where Reich's compositions were performed as well. I realised there are similarities in our music. Mine involves layers of repetitive patterns that I wouldn't say are stylistically close, but they do share elements with Reich's music. If you are interested in repetitive music, there are connections that you can draw to these minimalists. On my recent US tour, I played with a string quartet who also performed Reich pieces.

I met Reich not long ago. I invited him to a festival in Düsseldorf. It felt like a connection had built up – the circle was closing.

Owen Pallett Composer, vocalist, violinist, keyboard player

I first heard Clapping Music when I was 10. Later, I learned Violin Phase and performed it with some guitar effects pedals. At school I heard New York Counterpoint and Music for 18 Musicians. Only recently did I hear The Desert Music and Different Trains. My reaction to every work of Reich's has been immediate comprehension. His music is beautiful to listen to, for sure, but the real triumph is the fact that he's able to represent the political or cultural content so transparently. To my mind that is why his work is unassailable.

But Steve Reich's influence [on my music]? Little, or none: not directly, at any rate. I derive most of my inspiration from musicians whose ideas are not fully formed, dialogues I feel I can follow up on. Reich's music is complete: nothing can be added to it.

'Coltrane got there before the composers did' – Steve Reich talks about his influences

At 14 years old, I heard Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and that was the moment I decided that I had to be a composer. It was like the world had gone from black and white into Technicolor. Hearing JS Bach at the same age was a revelation, specifically his Cantata No 4, Christ lag in Todes Banden. It's great to hear a singer doubled, especially with a woodwind instrument – it affects the timbre of their voice and gives them a different sound.

From Bartók's piano pieces, Mikrokosmos, and studying his Fourth and Fifth String Quartets, I learned a lot about canons, or rounds. Phasing is nothing but a variation of a canon, and I still use close canons between identical instruments in pieces you hear today such as the Double Sextet.

When I was at Cornell University in the 1950s I first heard music by Pérotin and was struck by how beautiful it was. The idea of long, augmented tones and faster patterns going over them that are fixed in rhythmic form made a strong impression, and inspired my 1970 piece Four Organs.

I must have heard John Coltrane play 50 or 60 times when I was a student. Back in 1962 and 63 Coltrane was playing what they called modal jazz – basically a lot of notes with very few harmonies. So you have melodic variety, timbral variety and rhythmic complexity, and that makes up for the static nature of the harmony. I don't think we would have "minimal" music if it wasn't for John Coltrane. He got there before the composers did.

In the summer of 1970 I went to Ghana to study African drumming. This gave me a structural insight into how to make ambiguous rhythms – ie where's the downbeat? If you're going to write repetitive music it had better not be – "oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa" for half an hour, otherwise people are going to get out of there in a hurry! Balinese gamelan music, which I studied in California in the early 70s, taught me about playing interlocking patterns on similar instruments that are set up facing each other – so the players can really hear each other.

The last thing I must mention is Hebrew chant, where short motives are strung together to form longer melodies. You can hear the influence of this in the initial flute melody of Eight Lines.

Both Brian Eno and David Bowie came to hear my music in the 70s – Bowie was there for the German premiere of Music for 18 Musicians – and then he wrote Weeping Wall [on Low, 1977]. There's been a Reich: Remixed album and to meet people who are 20, 30, 40 years younger than you and have found something interesting in your music, in a completely different part of the musical universe, is very encouraging. Life doesn't always work out the way you want it to, but it's very nice when it does.

US president remembers victims of Osama bin Laden at the site of 2001 World Trade Centre terrorist attacks

Barack Obama spoke no words as he laid a red, white and blue wreath at the centre of Ground Zero. But then he didn't need to: the location and the identity of the individuals gathered round him spoke for him.

The location was in the shade cast by the Survivor Tree, an oak that was recently planted at the World Trade Centre for a second time. The first time was in the 1970s, but the tree was later engulfed in rubble on 11 September 2001.

Remarkably, it was found alive though badly damaged, then nursed back to health and finally replanted at its old home last December. It now stands 9 metres (30ft) tall.

Close to the oak stood Payton Wall. She was four years old when her father, Glen Wall, died in the Twin Towers. Now 14, she wrote a letter to the president describing how she coped with that loss. By happenstance, Obama read the letter on Monday, the morning after he had orchestrated the killing of the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden.

A tree. A child. On the back of one man's killing, the almost 3,000 lives that he took were remembered in their company.

It happened under the same cloudless New York sky that had famously been a feature of 9/11 itself. On that day, almost 10 years ago, the beauty of the crystal clear blue sky seemed to mock the terrible events that were to unfold beneath it.

But on this occasion, with the knowledge that 9/11's architect had been confined to a watery grave, the beauty of the day seemed more in tune with events. Before laying the wreath, Obama walked through the memorial plaza that is now taking shape at the heart of Ground Zero. He saw the two giant footprints of the Twin Towers that form the physical and aesthetic heart of the site, which will become reflective pools and the largest manmade waterfalls in America. In the past week the first of the 2,976 names of those who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania have appeared, etched in bronze plates that have just been set out along the pools' edges.

In time, when the memorial area is complete, the sound of falling water and rustling leaves of the Survivor Tree and some 400 other oaks will suffuse the space that once was filled with 1.8m tonnes of rubble and molten steel beneath a mushroom cloud of dust.

Before arriving at Ground Zero, Obama paid homage to the 343 New York firefighters who lost their lives when the two towers collapsed. He visited the Pride of Midtown, a firehouse in Manhattan which lost an entire shift – 15 men – on that day, leaving 28 children fatherless.

He told the surviving rescue workers that he hoped the killing of Bin Laden had brought them some comfort. "Obviously you can't bring back the friends you lost," he said. "But what happened on Sunday sent a message around the world that when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.

"Our commitment to make sure that justice was done was something that transcends politics. It doesn't matter which administration it was, who was in charge, we were going to make sure that the perpetrators received justice. That's some comfort, I hope."

Later, he visited a police precinct in lower Manhattan, along with New York's 9/11 mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Obama told the officers gathered to greet him: "We did what we said we were going to do."

This being Ground Zero, wherever Obama went he was followed like a faithful dog by the record of history. In particular, he was shadowed by the memory of a previous president's visit to the same place.

Not far from the spot where Obama laid his wreath, that president stood in 2001 on top of a crushed fire truck, his arms around a firefighter, speaking through a megaphone. "Can you hear me?" one of the rescue workers shouted out to him, just four days after the towers came down.

"I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who brought those buildings down will hear all of us soon."

He was right. Twenty three days after he made those off-the-cuff comments, George Bush began the war in Afghanistan. He didn't know then, he couldn't know then, that it would take America another nine years and seven months to be heard by the main culprit.

After Bush spoke, rescue workers at the site broke out into a chorus of "USA! USA!" It was the same chorus that was heard on Sunday night all round the perimeter of Ground zero when news came through of Bin Laden's death.

Thomas Von Essen was the commissioner of the New York fire department in 2001 when the tragedy happened, and recalled spending that day with Bush. "You could see from his face when he saw the mountain of rubble that it had a profound impact on him," he said. "I'm not a fan of politicians, they are so insincere, but I saw his face I knew he really understood what people had been through."

Von Essen said that he was glad that Obama had repeated the presidential visit nearly a decade later. But there was an aspect to the proceedings he was not so happy about.

"It was courageous of the president to authorise the raid on Bin Laden and I'm glad it worked out; it could easily have gone wrong. But this is now the political side – getting the pictures and taking the credit. I'm a little tired of all that."

TJ, a cement mason from Brooklyn who was one of the first people to start clearing the site after the Twin Towers collapsed, remembers helping to pull the fire truck on which Bush stood out of the rubble. He had no qualms about the commemoration.

"Obama's paying his respects just like he should. I don't think it's political. He's coming here to pay respects to the dead – it's what it is, no more no less."

Just outside the security fence around Ground Zero, bouquets of roses had been placed on the side of the road alongside a makeshift altar consisting of an empty bottle of Johnnie Walker blue label, some well-worn military boots and the badge of the 4th Infantry Division from the Iraq war. "Today let us pray for peace," someone had written.

Amid the crowd, a hawker was selling badges. They were stamped with the date 1 May 2011, and the words "Mission accomplished".

I think the outcome of battle between Google Inc., Apple Inc. and others to develop the definitive web TV platform has already been determined. Google sees the big picture, as evidenced by its development of YouTube as the cornerstone of the internet TV era. For those competing with Google in the web TV arena, the war was lost before it even began. When Google purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion, its biggest acquisition by far in its then eight-year-old history, it cornered the market for online video sharing. That deal looms larger than ever today as Apple and a host of smaller companies develop what ultimately will prove to be alternative internet TV systems.

The alternative web TV platforms all have two key features: a video application and the ability to stream YouTube videos. Virtually all of the discussion about the emerging convergence of the internet and television centers around the reluctance of the major networks to allow access to their content. There is another important issue, however. YouTube has developed alternative content, and, in the process, a new internet television network paradigm. Netflix and YouTube are the innovations that will define web TV in its early development.

After designing the Google TV platform, the operation was transferred to YouTube. In recent weeks, Google has been talking to Madison Avenue agencies about advertising deals for its new network.

YouTube gets about two billion views a day. It has about 10,000 content partners who share revenue with the site. "Hundreds" of those partners make six figures per year, according to Tom Pickett, online sales and operations director at YouTube, and attract what Google calls "TV-size audiences."

The online video ad market grew nearly 50 percent to $1.5 billion in 2010, according to eMarketer. By comparison, traditional TV networks garner between $60 to $83 billion in ad revenue, depending on varying estimates.

Today's king and queen of pop, teen sensation Justin Bieber and the eclectic Lady Gaga, are viewed by a much larger audience than the most popular MTV performers of yesteryear. As they battled to see who would be the first entertainer to top one billion views on YouTube, Bieber was recently collecting 3.7 million hits a day, Lady G 1.8 million. Michael Jackson and Britney Spears are distant runners-up, each with about 600 million total views.

On October 25, Gaga announced that she had reached the coveted one billion views, the first performer ever to do so. Gaga's Bad Romance is the second most viewed YouTube video of all time.

Bieber was the second entertainer to reach one billion views, doing so on November 3. His top hit, Baby, is the most watched YouTube video of all time.

"No one comes close to Gaga and Bieber in terms of compiling this sort of statistic in this short of time," says David Burch of TubeMogul, which monitors internet video traffic.

Bieber owes his stardom to YouTube. Bieber was discovered and signed by rhythm and blues star Usher, who was impressed with amateur YouTube clips of the teenager singing.

Eight of the top 10 most viewed YouTube videos of all time are music videos.

Europe is also an important market for YouTube music videos. Since September, 2009, Google has signed royalty agreements with music copyright collection groups in seven European nations representing more than half of the continent's online music market, reports the New York Times.

The deals are key for Google because they allow the search engine to generate ad revenue from popular overseas music videos.

Many American cable TV programs draw under 100,000 viewers. YouTube stars average 250,000 views per video. "On any given day or night, the top 10 YouTubers will have more views than any cable channel," says Walter Sabo, a former ABC radio executive who now runs the internet talent agency HitViews.

According to TubeMogul, 15 independent YouTube vloggers make more than $100,000 a years from banner ads. Two make more than $200,000. One of YouTube's biggest stars, Shane Dawson, is the top ad revenue generator, collecting an estimated $295,000 a year. YouTube videos can bring as much as $20,000 a clip from brands such as Mattel Inc., Lancome, McDonald's Corporation, Kraft Foods Inc., General Electric Co. and others.

Justine Ezarik has developed a fledgling video advertising operation. Last month, a three-minute Barbie clip was seen by 460,000 viewers and collected some 2,000 comments in only a week.

Earlier this year, Lancome choose 22-year-old YouTube star Michelle Phan, who films cosmetic tutorials from her bedroom, to be their spokesperson. Phan is the most successful of a group of women creating makeup videos. TubeMogul estimates that, as a group, the women average about 1.2 million views per day. In the video that first brought her a lot of attention, Phan demonstrated how to recreate Lady Gaga's look. Fourteen million people have watched the clip this year. Phan has also done a video commercial for Colgate that has gotten 2.5 million clicks since it was first aired in May.

Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, known on Youtube as Smoosh, have a very large audience, averaging 1.4 million views a day. Their popularity attracted Kraft and GE. Smoosh as done commericals for both.

YouTube celebrity Michael Buckley, who has attracted attention from the ABC, Fox and Nickelodeon networks, has collected 4.6 million hits on branded videos.

Thirty-two-year-old YouTube comedians Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, known professionally as Rhett & Link, have done work for McDonald's, Cadillac, Alka Seltzer and the Food Network. "No YouTube celebrity, other than Michelle Phan, has more branded views in 2010," says TubeMogul.

Barry Bazzell is a Benzinga contributor who focuses on Bay Area technology stocks. He blogs about tech companies and startups at Silicon Valley Blog.

For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

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En Route New York, New York   

10:27 A.M. EDT

MR. CARNEY:  Good morning.  I don't have any announcements, so let’s get started.

Q    What does the President want to do today?  What does he want to see?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, the President believes it’s appropriate and fitting to travel to New York this week, in the wake of the successful mission to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, in order to recognize the terrible loss that New York suffered on 9/11, and to acknowledge the burden that the families of the victims, the loved ones of the victims, have been carrying with them since 9/11, almost 10 years, and in an effort to perhaps help New Yorkers and Americans everywhere to achieve a sense of closure with the death of Osama bin Laden.

Q    Can you talk about tomorrow’s troop rally in Kentucky and sort of the tone that the President is looking to strike there versus today?

MR. CARNEY:  What the President almost always says when he’s asked about the toughest decisions he has to make is that it’s sending men and women into battle, into harm’s way.  And the successful mission against Osama bin Laden is a monumental achievement, but the fact remains that we're still at war, that we have 100,000 combat personnel in Afghanistan, we have troops in a support-and-assist role in Iraq, and we have U.S. military men and women in other places around the globe and, in some cases, in difficult situations.

So it’s important to acknowledge that, and for Americans to remember that despite the elimination of bin Laden, we're still extremely dependent upon and grateful to our military men and women for what they do.

Q    Will there be a status update on the efforts in Afghanistan or any sort of policy discussion?

MR. CARNEY:  I don't expect the President to make any policy announcements about Afghanistan or AfPak, as we say.  As I've said, and others, that the President’s policy remains unchanged. In many ways, while the mission against bin Laden was a singular event, it was part of a general intensification of our focus on the AfPak region, on the need to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda, which was the primary goal of the President’s policy in the AfPak region, and it was reflective of a general success that we've been having in taking out al Qaeda members and terrorists in the region.

Q    Jay, you used the term, “closure,” there in your first answer.  Does the President think that coming to New York, meeting with first responders, going to Ground Zero, can add to a sense of closure for New Yorkers that they wouldn't have if he simply made his statements from the White House?

MR. CARNEY:  I think that it’s important for the President of the United States, given the traumatic events that New York suffered on September 11, 2001, to return in the wake of the successful mission against bin Laden.  He will be back for the 10-year anniversary.  And this is a significant event this week, and he looks forward to meeting privately with family members, meeting with first responders, in what is a bitter-sweet moment in many ways.

Q    Can you talk about the latest revision to the Sunday narrative that in fact it was not a 40-minute firefight, as White House officials had initially said?

MR. CARNEY:  I don't have any updates on the narrative.  As I said yesterday, we've been extremely forthcoming in trying to provide as many facts as we could to you as we’d gotten them.  The nature of the mission, the nature of what happened Sunday, combined with the effort to get that information quickly resulted in the need to clarify some facts, which I think, honestly, is to our credit that when we discovered that clarification was needed we did put them out.  But the --

Q    But the White House has not clarified this point on the record.

MR. CARNEY:  Again, as I said yesterday, the Defense Department can take questions about -- you have about further details on the mission or clarifications.  We're still in a process of gathering all the facts of that operation.  And the broader point here is that a group of extraordinary U.S. personnel flew into a foreign country at the dead of night and executed a mission and achieved a goal -- executed a mission flawlessly and achieved a goal that had eluded the United States of America for almost 10 years.

Q    Can I ask you about the family members?  If any expressed a desire to see the picture of Osama bin Laden, would you be willing to provide it, and have you brought a picture today in case of that eventuality?

MR. CARNEY:  I'm not aware that anybody brought any pictures and I don't have any updates on that.

Q    Well, on the picture, yesterday in his interview that you shared with us, the President used the phrase, “spike the football,” in discussing his decision not to release the photos. Does the President believe that Americans who want to see the pictures are looking to do a victory dance?

MR. CARNEY:  No, but he believes that there is ample precedent or evidence in the past of pictures like this being used in a way that is not helpful to national security interests of the United States; that is not reflective of who the American people are, as the President said, that we don't trot out photos as trophies.  And since we established beyond any doubt the identity of Osama bin Laden, the fact that he was killed, there is no need to release those photos.  And on balance, as I said, there are certainly arguments for -- and reasonable arguments to be made for release, but on balance, the President feels very strongly that the cons outweigh the pros.

Q    Any updates to the schedule at this point?

MR. CARNEY:  We will provide you updates as we move along throughout the day.  If there are changes to the schedule that you already have we’ll provide you that information as we go along.

Q    Any updates to the search for a Commerce Secretary?

MR. CARNEY:  I do not.

Q    There were reports today about -- on the budget talks, that Republicans were kind of seemingly downsizing some of their ambitions on what they were going to seek from these talks that are beginning today.  Do you have any indication of Republicans backing away from Medicare demands or any reaction to some of the stories that were out there today?

MR. CARNEY:  I read those stories.  All I would say is that the necessity to set aside maximalist positions is paramount if you’re trying to reach common ground and find a consensus around some achievable goal.  So we welcome any efforts, indications, that parties to these negotiations are searching for common ground, and look forward to these talks getting underway and to having them produce a result.

Q    Can you describe how the Vice President has prepared for the talks?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, having worked for him, I know he likes to dive deep and I’m sure he spent a lot of -- in terms of the issues, I’m sure he spent a lot of time with a lot of paper and with his Chief of Staff, Bruce Reed, and with the economic team, just mastering the facts of the situation.  That’s how he approaches these things.  So -- but beyond that, I don’t have any updates.

Q    Thanks.

END
10:37 A.M. EDT

New reports link a fourth death to an outbreak of E. coli O111 in Japan.  E. coli O111 is one of a number of pathogenic strains of the E. coli bacteria.  The most notorious of such strains is E. coli O157:H7.  E. coli O111 and other shiga-toxin producing strains of E. coli, however, are more than capable of causing serious illness, including hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and death.

Alarmingly, non-O157:H7 strains of E. coli are not currently considered adulterants by the USDA.   Marler Clark has been waiting for more than a year and a half for a response to its petition to the USDA to regulate six of the most common non-O157:H7 strains.   

Here in the U.S. E. coli O111 was the culprit in a very large restaurant based outbreak in Oklahoma in 2008.   Here is a summary of one of the hundreds of persons sickened in that outbreak, Shiloh Johnson, one of those petitioning the USDA for change:

Shiloh Johnson developed bloody diarrhea, and was hospitalized on August 22, 2008.  Once admitted, Shiloh’s stool sample was tested and subsequently cultured positive for E. coli O111. Immediately after the start of the hospitalization, she began to suffer from hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Her kidneys failed and her red blood cell and platelet counts plummeted. With a complete loss of kidney function, she required dialysis to survive. She was placed on continuous renal replacement therapy.

Forty-eight hours into the dialysis treatment, disaster struck. Shiloh developed a significant pericardial effusion (fluid around the heart) with tamponade (stoppage of blood flow caused by fluid). She went into cardiorespiratory arrest. She was endotrachoeally intubated and the pericardial fluid was drained. She was given a round of epinephrine, and the arrest was reversed. Shiloh remained on a ventilator through September 12. Soon, the area around her lungs also became inundated with fluid, necessitating the placement of chest tubes.

Throughout this time, Shiloh experienced full renal failure. She received dialysis treatment around the clock. On September 10, her doctors placed a periotoneal catheter and switched her to peritoneal dialysis. The dialysis continued through September 27. She was finally discharged on October 3. By this point, her medical bills amounted to $450,000.

USDA, it's time to make a change.

10 startups will get up to $25k USD for for a period of 3 months come next September from SeedStartup, a Dubai based incubator that plans on graduating 40 startups from Dubai, burning $1 million over a 12 month period. Dubai is mostly known for it’s position in the region as a major trade and logistics [...]

In 2010, 57.4 million Chinese traveled out of China to see the world and to spend money on outbound tourism.For 2015, the China National Tourism Administration CNTA forecasts that 100 million travelers spending US$100 billion will turn China into the worldwide No. 1 international tourism source market.

In 2010, the number of domestic tourists reached 2.1 billion, an increase of 10.6% against the previous year; domestic tourism income reached RMB 1.26 trillion, marking an increase of 23.5%; the number of inbound tourist reached 134 million, marking an increase of 5.8%; the number of inbound overnight tourists reached 55.66 million, marking an increase of 9.4%; tourism foreign exchange earnings reached USD 45.8 billion, marking an increase of 15.5%; the number of outbound tourists reached 57.39 million, marking an increase of 20.4%; total income of the national tourism industry reached RMB 1.57 trillion, marking an increase of 21.7%.

By 2015, the domestic tourism population should reach 3.3 billion, the number of inbound overnight tourists should reach 66.3 million, the number of outbound overnight tourists should reach 83.75 million, and the total income from tourism should reach RMB 2.3 trillion. Annual increase of the number of direct employment in the tourism industry should reach 700 thousand while the total number of direct employment directly in the tourism industry should reach15.25 million by 2015.

Top International Destinations for Chinese Tourists

Australia is the top destination in the world for Chinese travelers with two surveys putting it as the favored destination for tourists and immigrants from China. Singapore took second place and Canada third. In fourth place was Japan, then the United States, South Korea and New Zealand.

Actual tourist destination counts
In 2010, 22.7 million Chinese visitors tripped through Hong Kong – a rise of 26.3 percent, year on year. Hong Kong has long been the most popular overseas destination for Chinese tourists and a report released by the Nielsen Company says they spend more than any other group of tourists when they come to town too – around HK$12,000 (1,100 euros) per head, per visit.

1.64 million Chinese nationals visited Taiwan for pleasure in 2010, representing a whopping 67.8 percent year on year increase.

In 2008, over 10 million tourists visited Singapore, with 20 percent of them on business. Chinese tourists numbered 1.08 million, or 10 percent of the total, with over 25 percent on business. (assuming 40% increases then Chinese tourist in 2010 to Singapore was probably about 1.5 million) Koh expected the business travel could increase up to 30 percent before 2015, with the number of Chinese visitors rising to 3 million.

2.5 million chinese tourists visited Western Europe in 2010, up from 2 million in 2009. Mainland Chinese spent $23.4 billion last year on high-end handbags and suitcases, shoes, watches, jewelry, clothes, cosmetics and perfumes, according to Bain & Co., and more than half of that was purchased overseas.

Chinese tourists visiting Japan in 2010 jumped 40 percent to a record 1.4 million. Japan had 8.61 million foreign tourists in 2010 which was up 26.8 percent from a year earlier.

The number of Chinese tourists entering the United States in 2010 was 810,738

60 million international visitors came to the United States in 2010 and spent $134 billion dollars.

During the year ending March 2010, Australia received 360,000 visitors from China, generating $2.3 billion in economic value.

Chinese tourist spending

On average, Chinese tourists spent 107 percent more year-on-year on tax-refunded shopping abroad in 2010, reaching a 130 per cent spike in September compared with the same month in 2009, Manelik Sfez, vice-president of global marketing at Switzerland-based Global Blue, a tax-refund and shopping services provider, explained this week to Asia One News.

According to Global Blue (http://www.global-blue.com), Chinese travelers last year on average spent 744 euros on tax-free shopping transactions, which doubled the Russians 368 euros.

American tourists meanwhile spent 554 euros on each trip to Europe and Japanese tourists forked out 521 euros.

According to Global Blue, Chinese tourists spend the most on fashion, jewelry and watches – their preference is to hit the big department stores, where they have more options.

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Terrorist could easily attack coal mines and coal plants and trigger accidents that kill hundreds. It would just take lighting a match to the coal dust. Their problem would be that no one would be able tell the difference between the terrorist attack from business as usual.

Coal can have accidents and standard operation effects that are far more deadly than the equivalent effect of 100 mSv. 100 milli-sieverts has a 40 year risk increase of 1 in 1000 of cancer. 2 weeks of life expectancy impact. Coal and oil air pollution - without accidents take out 2 years from everyone's life expectancy.

Terrorist scenarios related to nuclear material are so shocking and worrisome because they are usually no deaths from that source. Coal and oil killing hundreds, wrecking towns, rivers, or large areas of land can happen multiple times in one year. A dirty bomb that killed a dozen people and made a hundred people sick and had an expensive cleanup... well that would be new. It would not be worse than what actually went on with coal or oil in that year and probably in that same week, but it would be new and a confirmation of fears. It is like the movie series Saw. It is not how many people are killed, it is that they are killed in a scary way.



List of coal mine accidents and pollution events

1. April 26, 1942: Benxihu Colliery disaster in Benxi, Liaoning, China.
1,549 workers died, in the worst coal mine accident ever in the world.

2. March 10, 1906: Courrières mine disaster in Courrières, France. 1,099 workers died, including children, in the worst mine accident ever in Europe.

3. November 9, 1963 Omuta, Japan. An explosion in a coal mine killed 447.

4. October 14, 1913 Senghenydd, Wales, Uk
The worst of the Welsh coal mining diasters killed 438 men and boys

5. January 1, 1960 Coalbrook, South Africa. 437 casualties.

6. June 6, 1972 Wankie, Rhodesia. A coal mine explosion kills 427.

7. May 28, 1965 Dhanbad, India. 375 miners die in a coal mine fire.

8. December 27, 1975 Chasnala, India. A coal mine explosion, followed by flooding kills 372.

9. December 12, 1866 Barnsley, England, UK. 361 casualties.

10. December 6, 1907 Monongah, West Virginia

361 casualties. The worst mining disaster in US history is said to have provided the origins of the first Father’s Day celebration. A woman named Grace Clayton asked her church to hold a Sunday memorial for the fathers lost in the mine. The commemoration was held in a church in Fairmont, West Virginia.


There are also atmospheric inversions like the London Fog (killed 14,000 in 1952) which continue to happen on a smaller scale.

There was also the London Killer fog of 1956 that killed over 1000 people

1948, October 30–31, Donora, PA: 20 died, 600 hospitalized, thousands more stricken. Lawsuits were not settled until 1951.
1953, November, New York: Smog kills between 170 and 260 people.
1954, October, Los Angeles: heavy smog shuts down schools and industry for most of the month.
1963, New York: blamed for 200 deaths
1966, New York: blamed for 169 deaths

160 deaths – Smog (London, December 12–15, 1991) (Car exhaust related)

When a latter-day smog enveloped London in 1991 the number of deaths shot up by 10 per cent, according to an unpublished report for the Department of Health. The figures suggest that the smog killed about 160 people. The episode presents the first direct evidence of deaths from air pollution in Britain for more than 30 years and has forced the government to order a review of its air quality guidelines.

The 1991 and other events show that pollution events are not just related to the history of before 1970.

For oil : December 2005, schools and public offices had to close in Tehran, Iran and 1600 people were taken to hospital, in a severe smog blamed largely on unfiltered car exhaust

Air pollution and daily mortality in London: 1987-92

Changing pollution levels have be linked to changes in daily mortality.

Ozone levels (same day) were associated with a significant increase in all cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality; the effects were greater in the warm season (April to September) and were independent of the effects of other pollutants. In the warm season an increase of the eight hour ozone concentration from the 10th to the 90th centile of the seasonal range (7-36 ppb) was associated with an increase of 3.5% (95% confidence interval 1.7 to 5.3), 3.6% (1.04 to 6.1), and 5.4% (0.4 to 10.7) in all cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality respectively. Black smoke concentrations on the previous day were significantly associated with all cause mortality, and this effect was also greater in the warm season and was independent of the effects of other pollutants. For black smoke an increase from the 10th to 90th centile in the warm season (7-19 µg/m3) was associated with an increase of 2.5% (0.9 to 4.1) in all cause mortality. Significant but smaller and less consistent effects were also observed for nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.

Air pollution Events are happening in China and India now but are mostly unreported

From 1992 to 2002, surface coal mining in Appalachia damaged more than 380,000 acres of forest and 1,000 miles of streams. Six times more coal is mined around the world than in the United States.

So coal (and oil) pollution can get you immediately in the hundreds to thousands and can you kill you slowly in the millions

Worst case and expected business as usual cases.

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