THE TV FOXY DIARY

Blogging Sucks

2010-03-20T00:45:00.000-04:00

Mother Russia hates Blogging :)

The most common words

2009-01-18T09:54:00.000-05:00

There are thousands and thousands of words in the English language, but which ones are the most commonly used? A user named Valde Optiums wanted to know the ten most popular words. I did what I could to find him an answer.

Ask Oxford features a slew of information on the topic. The site explains that just ten base words “account for a remarkable 25%” of all the words used. These ten words are: the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, and I.

The site goes on to rank the most commonly used nouns, verbs, and adjectives. It’s a pretty interesting list, and one that I found to contain a few surprises. For example, the most commonly used noun isn’t “man,” “day,” or “thing.” It’s “time.” As for the top adjective, I was hoping for “funky,” but the number one spot actually goes to the rather boring but dependable “good.”

So that settles that. But there are other aspects of English that people can obsess over. Take favorite words, for example. I am convinced that everyone, whether they know it or not, has a favorite word. After a bit of soul searching, I’ve decided that mine is “fiasco.” Just saying it brings a smile to my face. I don’t get too many opportunities to say it, although, given the definition, maybe that’s a good thing.

What’s your favorite word? My least favorite is and will always be “lozenge.” What about you? What are some of your favorite words? Do they hold special significance to you or do you just like the way they sound? Drop me a note and let me know.

Thanks for reading,

Birthday cake request for 3-year-old Hitler namesake denied by supermarket

2008-12-18T17:38:00.000-05:00

By The Associated Press

EASTON, Pa. - The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child's full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance.

Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting.

"I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they've been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past," Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J.

"There's a new president and he says it's time for a change; well, then it's time for a change," the 35-year-old continued. "They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did."

Deborah Campbell, 25, said she phoned in her order last week to the ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son's name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.

A store manager at ShopRite referred questions to a corporate spokeswoman who did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday. But spokeswoman Karen Meleta told The Easton Express-Times for Sunday's editions that the store considered Campbell's request inappropriate.

The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said. About 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children who were of mixed race, according to Heath Campbell.

"If we're so racist, then why would I have them come into my home?" he asked.

The Campbells' other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because "no one else in the world would have that name." He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated.

Campbell said his ancestors are German and that he has lived his entire life in Hunterdon County. On Tuesday he wore a pair of black boots he said were worn by a German soldier during the Second World War.

He said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

"Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That's fine, I don't really care," he said. "That's his choice."

Роман Доброхотов vs Дмитрий Медведев

2008-12-13T20:09:00.000-05:00

Наш постсоветский новояз

2008-12-13T00:47:00.000-05:00

Б. Сарнов, С. Гогин. Наш постсоветский новояз. Неспособность расстаться с устоями советской жизни отразилась на языке

В 2002 году писатель Бенедикт Сарнов выпустил книгу «Наш советский новояз. Маленькая энциклопедия реального социализма». Это рассказ о языке, порожденном советской эпохой в разные ее периоды — от рождения до упадка.

«Президиум», «Союз нерушимый», «Враг народа», «Партбилет», «Дружба народов»… За каждым из этих и десятками других понятий — занимательные истории или, наоборот, трагедии людей и целых народов, а также личные воспоминания автора. Новые времена, наступившие с перестройкой и экономическими реформами, породили новый лексический пласт, своего рода «новый русский новояз», который обосновался на страницах газет и журналов. О языке постсоветской эпохи — разговор с Бенедиктом Сарновым.

* * *

— Через девять лет после революции 1917 года вышла книга Селищева «Язык революционной эпохи. Из наблюдений за русским языком последних лет. 1917—1926». В ней уже был огромный запас слов, которые принесла с собой революция. У нас с начала нашей «капиталистической революции» прошло уже больше десяти лет. И я подумал: а можно было бы составить словарь такого же объема? Думаю, нет, и вот почему.

Русская революция 17-го года действительно была грандиозным катаклизмом, она взорвала старую жизнь, перелопатила ее до дна. Розанов писал, что Россия «слиняла в три дня». Хлынул поток новых слов, которые органично вошли в язык: «колхоз», «совхоз», «собес», «партком»… Без них нельзя было обойтись (отделения Пенсионного фонда до сих пор называют «собесами»). Язык отразил всю глубину и мощь этого катаклизма.

То, что происходит сейчас в постсоветском политическом языке, отразило, как мне кажется, принципиально иную коллизию. Это нечто ублюдочное, половинчатое. С одной стороны, мы устраиваем торжественные похороны царской семьи, с другой стороны, Ленин продолжает лежать в Мавзолее. В качестве гимна мы имеем помесь старого советского с «Богом хранимая». Один символ государства — двуглавый орел, другой, армейский, — красный флаг. Эта половинчатость, межеумочность, нежелание и неспособность расстаться с устоями советской жизни — это нашло свое выражение в языке. Возьмем названия постсоветских учреждений: как причудливо у нас это сочетается — префектура и управа! Управа такой-то префектуры. Ну вы решите, куда хотите двигаться!

Поток самых живых слов, вошедших в язык, связан с тем, что реально произошло: с крахом социалистической экономики и возникновением рынка, новых экономических отношений, основанных на деньгах, а не на принуждении. Какие это слова? «Баксы», «грины», «зеленые», «обменник», «челнок», «челночить», «растаможивать», «пирамида», «лохотрон»… Это один слой. Есть небольшой слой, связанный с отторжением старой советской системы: «совок», «коммуняки». Что касается политического жаргона… Советский политический жаргон (за вычетом лицемерной болтовни о свободе) был все-таки более осмысленным, нынешний же — совсем уже нагло фальсифицирует реальность: например, полуфашистская партия называет себя «либерально-демократической». Я считаю, что «правые» много потеряли из-за неточного и непонятного народу названия своей партии. Народ не смог понять, за кого они — за богатых или за такой общественный и экономический строй, при котором и бедные будут жить лучше, чем при сталинско-брежневском социализме.

— В современных СМИ прослеживается тенденция криминализации лексики: «наехать», «замочить», «кинуть», «заказать», «опустить», «крыша»… Причем этот пласт настолько укоренился, что, кажется, по-другому и выразиться уже нельзя (а может, просто лень искать более литературные эквиваленты). Что первично в этом процессе: криминализированное общественное сознание, которое коррумпирует язык прессы, или сам язык криминала, настолько отравивший сознание журналистов, что они уже не способны выражаться по-другому?

— И то, и другое плюс еще желание журналистов пококетничать живой речью: мол, как народ говорит, так и я. Даже Чубайс, человек вполне интеллигентный и умный, и то однажды «лажанулся», сказав про МВФ: «Мы их кинули».

Этот процесс начался давно, в старое советское время. В стране ГУЛАГа одни (огромный процент!) сидели, другие — жили и росли вблизи лагерей, третьи служили «вертухаями». В лагеря попадали сначала высокопробные интеллигенты, потом мальчики и девочки — за колоски, потом военнопленные. Все слои населения прошли через эту мясорубку. Было бы странно, если бы эта зараза не распространилась. У Евтушенко было такое стихотворение: «Интеллигенция поет блатные песни, она поет не песни Красной Пресни». Наум Коржавин отреагировал эпиграммой: «Интеллигенция поет блатные песни, вот результаты песен Красной Пресни».

А сейчас пошел криминальный и полукриминальный бизнес. Приятель моего сына имел небольшое дело, преуспевал, но в конце концов подвернулся случай, он уехал в Германию — «чистокровный» русский, без знания языка, в 40 лет! Я его спрашиваю: как ты решился? А он отвечает: «Чтобы заработать свою тысячу баксов, я должен был ежедневно нарушать Уголовный Кодекс. Я больше не могу!» Отсюда все эти разговоры — даже и в интеллигентных семьях: «На моего сына наехали…». Так что этот пласт постсоветского новояза порожден криминальным характером самой жизни. Я однажды возвращался из Анталии в самолете, набитом «челноками», так в аэропорту на таможне их мордовали как хотели! Отсюда и все эти вошедшие в язык выражения: «отстегивать» и т.п.

— Должен ли журналист, соприкасающийся с этими явлениями, искоренять криминальную лексику из своей речи?

— Мне кажется, он должен показывать свое отношение к этим словам, употреблять их с иронией, дистанцироваться от них с помощью оговорок: писать — не «опустили», а — «как теперь говорят, «опустили». Я совсем не пурист и считаю, кстати, что и ненормативная лексика — это мощная, живая, яркая краска языка. Но я в ужасе от того, что слышу на улице: мат стал повседневной речью, нормой языкового общения и поэтому перестал быть краской вместе со всем, что в ней было яркого и выразительного.

Что касается языка журналистов, то это полное одичание. У журналов и газет нет денег, в результате упраздняется корректура, отдел проверки (в одной солидной газете как-то прочитал, что «Гулливера» написал Даниэль Дефо). Да и высоколобые интеллигенты иногда несут такую чушь. Впрочем… У бывшего министра обороны маршала Устинова была прекрасная петербургская речь, а Горбачев говорил «нАчать», но я все-таки Устинову предпочитаю Горбачева. При все при том хочется, конечно, чтобы наше высокое начальство было поинтеллигентнее.

— А вы заметили, что криминальный жаргон стал чуть ли не официальным языком власти? Взять хотя бы уже классическое «мочить в сортире». Или тот же Путин играет с мальчишкой в шашки, пацан проигрывает, и президент ему говорит: «Сливай воду!» Это по телевидению видит и слышит вся страна. Или он же, обращаясь к предпринимателям-экспортерам: «Пыль замучаетесь глотать!». И народ это воспринимает с энтузиазмом. Почему?

— Путин, конечно, прекрасно понимает лексическое своеобразие этих выражений. Думаю, дома он своим дочерям не скажет: «сливай воду». Да, это популизм! Желание показать близость к народу. Конечно, он нарочно сказал «мочить в сортире». Вот у Ленина, что поразительно, не было имиджа народного героя: маленький, картавенький, и не приспосабливался к народу, говорил непонятные слова «экспроприация» и «буржуазия», а успех был — колоссальный.

— Советская власть, как вы выразились в своей книге, установила языковую доминанту, с помощью которой контролировала общественное сознание. Можно ли в современной прессе и на телевидении найти языковые явления, которые соответствуют политике «вертикализации» власти?

— Политический жаргон, к которому прибегает власть, эту доминанту безусловно отражает. Например, через эвфемизмы: «контртеррористическая операция» вместо «войны»... Это типичное лицемерие власти. Да, она навязывает свои штампы, но при Советской власти была государственная «монополия на речь», а теперь язык «огрызается», причем талантливо: «прихватизация», «дерьмократия»…

— Является ли, по-вашему, термин «вертикаль власти» эвфемизмом, маскирующим понятия «авторитаризм» или «диктатура»?

— Конечно, это эвфемизм, синоним авторитаризма. Практика большевиков показала, что с нацией, с народными традициями, с языком можно сделать что угодно. Авторы «Козьмы Пруткова», забавляясь, придумали «Проект о введении единомыслия в России», им же и в голову не могло прийти, что весь народ, от дворника до академика, будет изучать «смысл философии всей» по одной книге — по «Краткому курсу». Фантазия стала реальностью, но для этого пришлось убить миллионы людей. Все может случиться в такой стране, как наша. «Дурная наследственность»! Хотя… Мы живем в другом мире, «железный занавес» восстановить уже непросто. Каков бы ни был Путин, ему все же хочется в Евросоюз. Все это внушает надежду, что реванш, реставрация советской системы не удастся.

— Советский новояз, как вы выразились, был «словесной оболочкой пустоты»: процветание на словах и пустые прилавки на деле. Не являются ли такие термины, как «удвоение ВВП» или «страхование автогражданской ответственности» такой же «словесной оболочкой пустоты», только в наши дни?

— Это, по сути дела, чисто советской мышление, поэтому и форма выражения похожая. «Удвоение ВВП» — это как «пятилетку в четыре года» или «нынешнее поколение будет жить при коммунизме». Другое дело, что вранья меньше. Почему Лысенко был непотопляем даже после смерти Сталина? Потому что наше сельское хозяйство было в таком состоянии, что спасти его могло только чудо. А он предлагал чудо: сейте квадратно-гнездовым способом — и через год будут полные закрома. «Удвоение» — это, конечно, миф, но нам хотя бы не обещают такую же зарплату, как в Штатах.

— Есть еще один пример «законсервированного» советского мышления. В былые времена если человека не включали в президиум, все делали вывод, что его карьера закончилась. Но и сегодня журналисты следят, кого из бизнесменов Путин не пригласил на встречу: нет человека за столом — значит, «в опале». Что это, традиция аппаратного мышления?

— Когда я говорил, что у нашей страны дурная наследственность, я имел в виду не только СССР. Это тянется еще от Ивана Грозного, от Романовых… Это чисто российское: на кого царь поглядел, с кем поздоровался. В своих записках Смирнова-Россет пишет, что на каком-то балу царь Николай долго разговаривал с Пушкиным, и когда он отошел, к поэту сразу бросились те, кто за минуту до этого были с ним холодны. Известный телефонный разговор Сталина с Пастернаком был унизителен для поэта, но это не имело значения: когда Пастернак с женой пришли в ЦДЛ, к ним бросились официанты, кто-то заплатил за их ужин. А все почему? Сталин сам позвонил Пастернаку! Да, это придворное, холуйское мышление. Аппаратное мышление — лишь разновидность этого холуйства. Когда Ельцину говорили: «Не царское это дело, Борис Николаевич», — тому нравилось.

— Иосиф Бродский говорил (и у вас это в эпиграфе к книге), что падение языка приводит к падению человека. Бродский рассматривал язык как нечто живое, чуть ли не как материальную субстанцию. В этом смысле не кажется ли вам, что употребление криминальной лексики в СМИ может привести к «падению» целого общества? Верите ли вы в материальную силу языка?

— Падение языка во всяком случае свидетельствует о падении человека (а значит, и о падении общества). Но, конечно, оно и способствует этому падению, во многом даже его определяет. Происходит некое взаимодействие, взаимовлияние — одно влияет на другое. Именно это я и имел в виду, поставив к своей книге не один, а два эпиграфа: «Падение человека влечет за собой падение языка» (Ралф. У. Эмерсон), и — «Падение языка влечет за собой падение человека» (Иосиф Бродский).

Новогодние приметы 2009

2008-12-08T12:04:00.000-05:00

Одалживать деньги под Новый год нельзя ни при каких обстоятельствах, чтобы весь следующий год не быть в долгах.

Новорожденные - того, кто родился в новогоднюю ночь, всю жизнь будут преследовать удача.

Француженки, встречая Новый год, обязательно надевают новое белье красного цвета. Они считают, что это отпугнет злых и расчетливых мужчин, а привлечет господ порядочных.

Самая лучшая примета наступающего года - СРАЗУ ПОСЛЕ ПЕРВОГО ВЫПИТОГО БОКАЛА ШАМПАНСКОГО ЗА ВСТРЕЧУ НОВОГО ГОДА, ЕЩЕ ВО ВРЕМЯ БОЯ КУРАНТОВ, ЗАДОБРИТЬ ТОГО ЗВЕРЯ, ГОД КОТОРОГО НАСТУПАЕТ. В нашем случае - это БЫК. Можете помычать и пободаться всей компанией!

Последняя рюмка накануне Нового года принесет удачу тому, кто ее выпьет.

Если в первый день нового года дом не убран, то таким он и останется весь год.

Поломки - постарайтесь ничего не сломать и не разбить в первый день, (это касается не только вещей, но и человеческих отношений). Не забывайте, первый день задает тон всему году.

Если обычно считается, что рассыпанная соль к ссоре, то в новогоднюю ночь опрокинутая солонка — к удаче. А вот разбитая посуда — к неурядицам. Так что лучше ничего не бить. Хотя можно воспользоваться пластиковой посудой — не очень эстетично, зато практично.

Лучший гость, по народным приметам, высокий, темноволосый мужчина. Особенно если он приносит с собой подарок – еловую ветку, монету или хлеб.

К Новому году стараются закончить все свои дела, особенно неприятные, с тем, чтобы они не перешли вместе с человеком в следующий год. Однако спешка и неминуемое при этом ослабление внимания к окружающей обстановке – главный ваш враг в самый канун Нового года. Взгляните на жизнь реально: то чего вы не успеете сделать до 17 часов, пусть перейдет на другой год. А вы отдыхайте и веселитесь!

Если на Новый год надеть что-нибудь новое, то наступающий год будет удачным.

Если к вам случайно попал незнакомый человек (мало ли — ветром занесло или жена выгнала), не гоните его — примите в свою компанию и тогда в новом году будет вам счастье. Говорят, таким образом нас Дед Мороз проверяет на человеколюбие. Если тест прошёл удачно, то ждите приятных изменений в жизни.

Выпустите старый год - в полночь все двери в доме должны быть открыты, что бы старый год мог беспрепятственно выйти и освободить место для Нового года.

В новогоднюю ночь небо звездное — к урожаю ягод и грибов.

Постарайтесь, чтобы в сам праздник у вас в кармане, на столе и в холодильнике не было пусто, тогда и в течение года ваш дом будет полон.

Если в самую новогоднюю ночь с вами что-то случится, то будет повторяться на протяжении всего года.

Облака идут против ветра - к снегопаду.

В Новый год сильный мороз и малый снежок - к урожаю хлеба, а тепла и отсутствия снега на дворе в этот день боялись пуще пожара, так как было это верным признаком грядущего неурожая и голода.

Перед Новым годом нужно простить все обиды. Кто был в ссоре помириться.

В старину на Новый Год было принято опутывать веревками ножки стола, за которым собиралась вся семья. Считалось, что это поможет сохранить всю семью в полном составе в течение следующего года - никто не уйдет из дома, не разобьет семью горе и печаль.

Кто-то накануне Нового года ошибся дверью или номером телефона? Перед тем как попрощаться, обязательно поздравьте его с праздником.

Если первый день в году веселый, то весь год будет таким.

Если в ночь на Новый год странный гость к тебе придет
Кто-то с белой бородой, в красной шапке меховой,
С длинным посохом в руке и с подарками в мешке,
С громким смехом, с добрым взглядом...
Значит больше пить не надо!

Если 1 января торговец отдаст товар первому покупа-телю, сильно уступив в цене, то весь год его ждет удачная торговля.

Работа- чтобы в грядущем году работа спорилась, сделайте что-нибудь полезное. Но не перестарайтесь, так как слишком много работы, выполненной в первый день, приносит много хлопот на весь год. Не затевайте стирку 1 января - вы можете "смыть" хорошие отношения с кем-то из ваших близких или друзей.

В новогодне утро следует особенно тщательно умываться и надевать чистую или новую одежду. Если одеть, что-либо неправильно, то в новом году многое будет неудачным.

Новая одежда - в Новогоднюю ночь наденьте что-нибудь новое - это магнитом притянет новые вещи в ваш гардероб.

Если в Новый год гости, то весь год гости.

Каравай и соль на новогоднем столе - к благополучию.

Многие верят, что, проведя новогоднюю ночь в одиночестве, они так и останутся на целый год одинокими. И потому стремятся непременно отыскать себе компанию, по принципу: на безрыбье и рак рыба! Хотя бы соседа-алкаша Васю, который уже после второй рюмки уткнется носом в салат… Поверьте: избавления от одиночества это не гарантирует, а вот настроение на весь будущий год окажется испорченным!

Если в январе эхо далеко уходит - морозы крепчают.

Того, кто за новогодним столом выпьет последнюю рюмку вина из бутылки, ждет удача.

На новогоднем столе должны быть в изобилии еда и напитки, тогда весь год в семье будет достаток.

Оплата счетов - не забирайте c собой в новый год финансовые проблемы. Постарайтесь оплатить все счета и разобраться с личными долгами до 1 января;

Если в новогоднюю ночь или в первый день Нового года к вам в дом попросится бродячая кошка или собака, это неспроста. Не можете взять ее в дом хотя бы накормите. Тогда вас ждет удача в наступающем году.

Как Новый год встретишь, так новый год и проведешь. Чтобы обеспечить благополучие нового года, ему следует устроить радостную, приветливую встречу.

Если вы первый день Нового года проведете весело, то в году будет много веселья.

Перед Новым годом нельзя выносить сор из избы, иначе целый год не будет домашнего благополучия.

Люди, с которыми вы познакомитесь, или знакомые, ко-торых вы встретите с 1 по 7 января, могут сыграть значительную роль в вашей судьбе.

Если в первый день Нового года торговец отдаст товар первому встречному покупателю очень дешево, то весь год будет удачная торговля.

Как Новый год встретишь, так и весь год проведешь

Еда должна быть обильной, чтобы не голодать в этот год.

Перед Новым годом надо выбросить из дома всю разбитую посуду.

Если в первый день Нового года выполнять тяжелую работу, весь год пройдет без отдыха

У кого в Новый год будет пусто в карманах, тот весь год проведет в нужде.

Запасы- принято считать, что ни в коем случае нельзя встречать новый год с пустыми "закромами". Полки кухонных шкафов должны ломиться от изобилия продуктов, а кошельки распухать от денег (Пусть даже это будут не самые крупные купюры!). Изобилие в Новогоднюю ночь гарантирует вам процветание и богатство в грядущем году;

Девушка опускает прикрепленное на волоске золотое кольцо в пустой стакан: сколько раз кольцо ударится о стенку стакана, столько лет ей ждать замужества.

Если кто-нибудь чихнет за новогодним столом год выдастся счастливым для всех участников застолья.

Поцелуй в полночь - поцелуй близкого человека под бой часов подарит вам не только удовольствие в этот радостный миг, но и сделает вас ближе в следующие двенадцать месяцев. Упустить эту возможность означает, что вас ожидает период прохладных отношений;

Особое внимание следует обратить на события, которые случаются в новогоднюю ночь и в первую неделю до Рождества.

Если первый, кого вы встретите на улице после наступления Нового года, будет мужчиной, то год принесет счастье.

Испеченный самими новогодний крендель защищает весь год от злых духов и несчастий.

Загадать желание под бой курантов.
Это в обязательном порядке. Только кто просто загадывает желание и запивает его шампанским. А кто за последнюю минуту года ухитряется написать это желание на бумажечке, сжечь всё это и пепел бросить в фужер с шампанским, затем этот коктейль выпить. О загаданном нельзя рассказывать — не сбудется. Не стоит переоценивать свои возможности, ведь именно от них зависит сбывание мечт.

В канун Нового года сделайте в доме генеральную уборку. Вместе с мусором и ненужными вещами из дома выносятся болезни, заботы и печали. Первые пять дней нового года пол в доме не подметается.

Шум- шумите как можно сильнее в полночь - вы не только отмечаете наступление Нового года, но и отгоняете злых духов. Покажите, на что вы способны!

Ignatieff secures Liberal leadership

2008-12-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

OTTAWA - Michael Ignatieff has secured the federal Liberal leadership without a fight after his last remaining rival, longtime friend Bob Rae, bowed out.

Rae informed his supporters of his decision during a conference call this morning and is to make it official at a news conference later today. His decision came just hours after the Liberal national executive rejected his plea to find an expedited way of giving all party members a vote for Stephane Dion's replacement.

Rae gave his supporters an advance peek at his statement, in which he said he still believes an open process would have been "a vital and healthy process for the party."

But he vows to accept the party's choice "without rancour or undue disappointment."

"I offer my full and unqualified support to Michael, a friend and colleague of 40 years standing. I call on all my friends and supporters to do the same," Rae will say in the statement.

"There are many who will be deeply disappointed with this decision and indeed troubled with what has happened. But I ask them to recognize that we cannot always control the flow of events and that our own interests and ambitions are much less important than the public interest of the Liberal party and the country."

Rae will appeal to Liberals to pull together to fight Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

"The Liberal party has known too much division in the past and I have no intention of pursuing a course that would hurt the party."

"Лениград"

2008-12-07T00:55:00.000-05:00

http://dustik.mindmix.ru/88-697-blokadnyi-leningrad-ja-tam-byl.zhtml

http://harding1989.livejournal.com/tag/%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC%D1%8B

Pirates fire on US cruise ship in hijack attempt

2008-12-03T12:04:00.000-05:00

NAIROBI, Kenya – The luxury American cruise ship teeming with hundreds of tourists just might have been too much for the Somali pirates to resist.

But the bandits, riding in two skiffs and firing rifle shots at the gleaming ship, were outrun in minutes when the captain of M/S Nautica gunned the engine and sped away in the Gulf of Aden, a spokesman for the company said Tuesday.

Still, the implications had the pirates hijacked the ship add a new dimension to the piracy scourge as NATO foreign ministers groped for solutions at a meeting in Brussels and the United Nations extended an international piracy-fighting mandate for another year.

The potential for massive ransom payments from the families of hundreds of rich tourists on a pleasure cruise may encourage similar attempts, especially following the successful capture in recent weeks of a Ukrainian cargo ship laden with tanks and a Saudi oil tanker.

And the brazen attack also raises questions: What was a cruise ship doing in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden? How many such targets are sailing these seas, and how can they be protected?

Even the pirates' motives were in question: they could simply have been testing the defenses of the massive ship, rather than making a real effort to hijack it.

Sunday's attack on the M/S Nautica comes several weeks after a NATO mission served mainly to underscore the impotence of the world community: A handful of Western ships can do little to prevent attacks in a vast sea, and without the right to board hijacked vessels, they can only watch as the booty is towed to port.

"It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape," said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.

Some of the world's leading cruise companies said Tuesday they are considering changing their itineraries to avoid going near the coast of Somalia following news of the weekend attack.

Cunard's public relations manager Eric Flounders said the company has two liners, the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, scheduled to go through the Gulf of Aden sometime in March but that the company "will obviously consider changing the itinerary" should the situation not improve.

And P&O Cruises' PR Michele Andjel said the company is considering whether to reroute the Arcadia, which is due around the Gulf of Aden sometime in January.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Bahrain-based spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said 21,000 ships cross the Gulf of Aden every year, but he did not have a figure for how many cruise liners are included in that figure.

"We are not advising ships to go a different way, but we do advise to go through the international corridor within the Gulf of Aden," Christensen said, referring to a security corridor, patrolled by the international coalition.

The Nautica is not the first pleasure boat to be attacked.

The luxury yacht Le Ponant was attacked earlier this year, and pirates opened fire in 2005 on the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the Somali coast. The faster cruise ship managed to escape, and used a long-range acoustic device — which blasts a painful wave of sound — to distract the pirates.

The Nautica escaped by outrunning the pirates, speeding up as two small pirate skiffs tried to close in, said Tim Rubacky, spokesman for Oceania Cruises, Inc., which owns the Nautica. He said one of the skiffs made it within 300 yards (275 meters) and fired eight rifle shots at the vessel before trailing off.

"When the pirates were sighted, the captain went on the public address system and asked passengers to remain in the interior spaces of the ship and wait until he gave further instructions," he said. "Within five minutes, it was over."

He noted that the ship, which communicates with international coalition forces, will return through the Gulf of Aden. Asked why the ship will re-enter pirate-infested waters, Rubacky said: "We believe this was an isolated incident."

"M/S Nautica is well-equipped to deal with these situations and the crew is well-trained," he said, but he would not comment on the specifics of their training.

Rubacky refused to comment on whether there are weapons or other material aboard the ship that could help the ship's security in a hijacking.

The Nautica was on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore, with stops at ports in Italy, Egypt, Oman, Dubai, India, Malaysia and Thailand, according to Oceania's Web site. Such an itinerary requires the ship to travel through the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden.

The liner arrived in the southern Oman port city of Salalah on Monday morning, and the passengers toured the city before leaving for the capital, Muscat, that evening, an official of the Oman Tourism Ministry said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday focused on demands for NATO to act amid growing alarm over the pirate attacks, which have continued unabated despite NATO's naval mission over the past six weeks.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council extended for another year its authorization for countries to enter Somalia's territorial waters, with advance notice, and use "all necessary means" to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, and pirates have taken advantage of the country's lawlessness to launch attacks on foreign shipping from the Somali coast.

In two if the most daring attacks, pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks in September, and on Nov. 15, a Saudi oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of crude oil.

On Tuesday, a Somali pirate spokesman said his group will release the Ukrainian ship within the next two days.

Sugule Ali told The Associated Press by satellite phone on Tuesday a ransom agreement had been reached, but would not say how much. The pirates had originally asked for $20 million when they hijacked the MV Faina.

"Once we receive this payment, we will also make sure that all our colleagues on ship reach land safely, then the release will take place," Ali said.

___

Associated Press writers Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya, Pan Pylas in London, Carley Petesch in New York, John Heilprin at the United Nations, Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Saeed al-Nahdy in Muscat, Oman, contributed to this report.

Winter weather forecast looks as unstable as markets, says Environment Canada

2008-12-02T12:03:00.000-05:00

By Gregory Bonnell, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The instability plaguing financial markets seems to have spilled over into the environment, making the winter forecast from Environment Canada a crapshoot of sorts, one of this country's top weather gurus said Monday.

And with the markets and federal political scene on a wild ride, senior climatologist David Phillips said Canadians are, for the first time in his career, more preoccupied with Ottawa and Bay Street than what's falling out of the sky.

"I mean, my gosh, it seems to be politics right now or at least the economy, and weather's taken the back seat," he said. "In this country, I never, ever thought I'd see that."

While the three-month forecast released Monday predicts colder than normal temperatures through February for large swaths of the country and less snow than last year, Phillips warns that prognostication is susceptible to wild, market-like gyrations.

"Quite frankly, I've seen this forecast over the last month and it's all over the place, like the economy," Phillips said.

"It's hard to figure out. There's no certainty, there doesn't seem to be a stable pattern."

The forecast calls for colder than usual temperatures for northern Ontario, a "good chunk" of the eastern Prairies and British Columbia.

Southern and central Ontario, most of Alberta and southern Saskatchewan will see "near normal conditions."

Quebec, starting in the Eastern Townships, and most of Atlantic Canada will experience "warmer than normal" weather.

That's the prediction, but the indicators Environment Canada climatologists usually look to, like ocean temperatures, are "up and down."

This year there is no El Nino or La Nina - ocean-atmosphere phenomena in the Pacific Ocean that influence global weather patterns.

"In terms of how the oceans go, so goes our seasonal weather, and it just seems to me that there is no Pacific influence," he said.

"Quite frankly, I'm reduced to saying whether the winter's going to come from Siberia or Sarasota, we don't know. It could come from both. It's just a real mixed bag."

Like hedge funds speculating on the futures market, climatologists still have to take a stab at what's to come.

When it comes to snow, Phillips admits that's a hard one to nail down, but he predicts less of the white stuff for parts of Canada hardest hit last year by record snowfalls.

"Of course for most eastern Canadians the issue is: are we going to see as much snow as last year?" Phillips said.

"There's just no way we're going to see as much snow as last year, even though we're calling for precipitation in December, January and February as being wetter than normal."

Ugandan men warned of 'booby trap'

2008-11-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

KAMPALA (AFP) – Uganda's police warned male bar-goers to keep their noses clean after a probe found a gang of robbers had been using women with chloroform smeared on their chests to knock their victims unconscious.

"They apply this chemical to their chest. We have found victims in an unconscious state," Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) spokesman Fred Enanga told AFP.

"You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him," he said. "And the victim doesn't remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing."

Enanga, who explained that several types of heavy sedatives had been used, said he first came across the practice last year when an apprehended thief named Juliana Mukasa made a clean breast of the matter.

"She is a very dangerous lady," the official said.

While early investigations suggest that the gang may consist of dozens of members, the source of the sedatives remains unknown.

"We don't know exactly how they get these materials," Enanga added. "That is something that our investigations must crack."

He called on men, particularly travelling businessmen who tend to carry a lot of cash, to take caution.

"It's a serious situation and people have to be aware."

Surging shoppers kill New York Wal-Mart employee

2008-11-28T22:34:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Wal-Mart employee in New York state's Long Island died on Friday when a throng of shoppers surged into the store and physically broke down the doors, a police spokesman said.

The 34-year-old man was at the entrance of the Valley Stream Walmart store when it opened at 5 a.m. local time and was knocked to the ground, the police report said.

The exact cause of death was still to be determined by a medical examiner.

Four shoppers, including a 28-year-old pregnant woman, were also taken to local hospitals for injuries sustained in the incident, police said.

The Friday after America's Thanksgiving holiday is known as Black Friday and marks what is traditionally the busiest retail day of the year, kicking off the Christmas shopping season.

U.S. stores across the country opened in the early hours of Friday to offer discounts to consumers hit by a contracting economy. Hundreds of shoppers waited on line before dawn at some locations to secure deals on holiday gifts.

Representatives at Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Michele Gershberg; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Sandra Maler)

2 dead after shots fired in a Toys 'R' Us store in Southern California

2008-11-28T20:15:00.000-05:00

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Two people have died in a shooting incident at a Toys "R" Us store in Southern California on the busiest U.S. shopping day of the year.

Police in Palm Desert, Calif., say it is still unclear if the shooting was connection with the so-called "Black Friday" shopping frenzy.

They say they received calls of shots being fired around 11:35 a.m.

Immediately after the shooting, about 20 people rushed into the World Gym across the street from Toys "R" Us.

The gym's assistant manager, Glenn Splain, tells The Associated Press that many of them were shaking and crying.

Splain said one witness though the incident began as a fight over a toy that got louder and louder before shots were fired.

Sarah Pacia of Cathedral City told The Desert Sun newspaper she was in the store with her two boys, ages four and six, looking at colouring books when she heard a commotion in the next aisle.

She thought it was people rushing to get a sale item. Then she heard three or four shots.

She said she froze, and store employees calmly escorted her out of the store.

"This is Toys "R" Us. There are kids shopping in there," Pacia said. Her son Jayden, 4, was clinging to her leg. He told her he didn't want to die, she said.

Toys "R" Us officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Palm Desert is about 200 kilometres east of Los Angeles.

50 самых ожидаемых фильмов 2009

2008-11-24T23:32:00.000-05:00

Журналисты из "The Times" подготовили список из пятидесяти самых ожидаемых фильмов будущего года. Конечно, всё достаточно субъективно, но размер бюджета, кастинг актеров, думаю, позволяют картинам "померяться мускулами"

Самой ожидаемой картиной, по версии британцев, станет "Гарри Поттер и Принц-полукровка", также в тройке полнометражка "Star Trek" и остросюжетник "Враги общества
"
Интересно будет вернуться к этому списку в конце 2009-го года и посмотреть, в скольких случаях результат оправдал ожидания. Список фильмов под катом..

50 "Розовая пантера 2" (Pink Panther 2)

Продолжению знаменитой комедии пророчат успех в первую очередь благодаря звездному составу. В фильме снялись Стив Марин и Жан Рено. Премьера картины запланирована на февраль 2009 года.

49 "Пятница 13" (Friday the 13th)

Одиннадцатое возвращение маньяка, убивающего всех, кто имел неосторожность вернутся на территорию лагеря "Хрустальное озеро". Как и прежде героям придется очень постараться, чтобы не стать очередными жертвами Джейсона Вурхиза. Премьера парадоксально намечена на 14 февраля 2009 года.

48 "Рыжая Соня" (Red Sonja)

Ремейк приключенческого фэнтези-боевика по мотивам одноимённого комикса, снятого в 1985 году. Могущественная колдунья королева Гедрен похищает древний магический талисман, способный уничтожить весь мир. Легендарный герой Калидор и отважная воительница Рыжая Соня оправляются в далекий, полный опасностей поход к Хаблаку - столице королевы Гедрен, чтобы сразиться с силами зла и спасти Землю от разрушения.

47 "Ночь в музее 2" (Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian)

Продолжение успешного фильма 2006 года. На этот раз большинство экспонатов Музея Естественной истории будут отправлены в Смитсонианский архив в Вашингтоне. Следом за ними на место прибудет охранник Ларри, сердце которого окажется разбитым исторической личностью в исполнении Эми Адамс.

46 "Форсаж 4" (Fast & Furious)

Четвертый фильм о стрит-рейсинге расскажет предысторию всех предыдущих серий. В картине сыграют Пол Уокер и Вин Дизель. Грабя конвои, роя подкопы и пересекая границы, они найдут идеальный способ общения.

45 "Охотник за шпионами" (Spy Hunter)

Экранизация компьютерной игры, по сюжету которой некая могущественная корпорация хочет завладеть секретными разработками спецслужб. Под прикрытием отряда боевиков специалисты проникают на один из тайных объектов правительства. И теперь единственная надежда властей – одинокий агент, бывший пилот истребителя.

44 "Девять" (Nine)

Фильм, снятый по мотивам знаменитого "8 с половиной" Федерико Феллини рассказывает историю известного режиссера Гвидо Контини, который должен закончить свой новый фильм. Но помимо этой проблемы есть и другая — еголичная жизнь, поскольку он состоит непростых отношениях с женой, любовницей, музой, агентом и еще с матерью. В фильме снялись Николь Кидман, Софи Лорен, Пенелопа Крус и другие.

43 "Знание" (Knowing )

Во время раскопок на территории школы, где учится сын преподавателя Теда Майлса (Николас Кейдж), находят таинственную капсулу времени. Поразительные предсказания, находящиеся в капсуле, действительно сбылись, и это заставляет учителя поверить в то, что к концу недели мир погибнет.

42 "Они" (Them)

Экранизация романа Джона Ронсона об американском военном подразделении, сформированном из людей с паранормальными способностями.

41 "Ниндзя-убийца" (Ninja Assassin)

Фильм, который рассказывает историю молодого ниндзя, отворачивающегося от взрастившего его приюта, и развязывает конфронтацию с приятелем из собственного клана.

40 "Предложение" (The Proposal)

Главная героиня фильма — ответственная начальница, которой грозит перевод в Канаду. Ради того, чтобы избежать ссылки в край озер, героиня готова на все — даже фиктивно выскочить замуж за своего молодого ассистента. В главной роли - Сандра Баллок.

39 "Планета 51" (Planet 51)

Очередной опыт компьютерной анимации, повествующий об астронавте, который попал на обитаемую планету, до ужаса боящуюся инопланетного нашествия. Название мультфильма намекает на секретную американскую военную базу по имени Area 51, где якобы хранятся обломки упавшего НЛО.

38 "Посылка" (The Box)

Фильм рассказывает истрию молодой семьи, испытывающей финансовые затруднения. Неожиданно супруги становятся счастливыми обладателями коробочки с кнопкой. Им объясняют что, если нажать на кнопку, они немедленно получат 200 тыс. долларов. Однако при каждом нажатии будет умирать совершенно незнакомый им человек.

37 "Другой мир 3: Восстание ликанов" (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans)

История, прослеживающая происхождение вековой кровной мести, между аристократическими вампирами, известными как "торговцы смертью" и их рабами. Молодой ликан по имени Люциан начинает борьбу за свободу ликанов.

36 "Создание из черной лагуны" (Creature from the Black Lagoon)

Ремейк классического фильма 1954 года. Научная экспедиция отправляется в дебри Амазонки на поиски древних окаменелостей и сталкивается с обитателем Черной Лагуны — доисторической рептилией.

35 "Бросок кобры" (G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra)

Базирующееся в Европе высокотехнологичное международное военное подразделение, известное как G.I.J.O.E., бросает вызов зловещей корпорации, руководимой знаменитым оружейным бароном.

34 "Фанаты" (Fanboys)

Пятеро фанатов "Звёздных войн" отправляются на ранчо Скайуокера, чтобы посмотреть "Призрачную угрозу" раньше всего мира. Премьера запланирована на начало 2009 года.

33 "Чернильное сердце" (Inkheart)

Мо Фолкхарта, обладающего даром оживлять книжных персонажей, похищает банда зловещего правителя. Дочь героя вместе с подаренными друзьями голосом отца отправляется на выручку пленнику.

32 "Суррогаты" (The Surrogates)

Экранизация одноимённого графического романа Роберта Вендитти и Бретта Вельделя. В мире будущего люди живут в индивидуальных изолированных пространствах, общаясь друг с другом через роботов. В ролях – Брюс Уиллис.

31 "Интернэшнл" (The International)

Решительно настроенный агент Интерпола пытается бороться со всемогущим банкиром, через которого отмывают деньги все самые ужасные преступные и террористические группировки мира. Постепенно он оказывается лицом к лицу с правоохранительной системой, элементом которой является и он сам.

30 "Человек-волк" (The Wolf Man)

Ремейк одноименного фильма 1941 года о вернувшемся на свою родину человеке, укушенном оборотнем. В ролях Энтони Хопкинс и Бенисио Дель Торо.

29 "Мститель" (The Spirit)

Дэнни Кольту, детективу в маске, известному всему городу как "Дух", предстоит сразиться с психопатом-ученым по кличке Осьминог, убивающем каждого, кто увидит его лицо, и планирующем стереть с лица земли все крупнейшие города. В ролях Сэмюэл Л. Джексон, Скарлетт Йоханссон, Ева Мендес.

28 "Идеальный побег" (A Perfect Getaway)

В картине рассказывается о двух домовладельцах на Гавайях, которые столкнулись с двумя одержимыми мыслями об убийствах путешественниками.

27 "Птицы" (The Birds) Ремейк легендарного фильма Альфреда Хичкока 1963 года.

26 "С.Дарко" (S. Darko)

Продолжение ленты "Донни Дарко" 2001 года. Действие разворачивается спустя семь лет после событий первого фильма, вокруг выросшей восемнадцатилетней Саманты Дарко и ее лучшего друга Кори. Отправившихся в путешествие до Лос-Анджелеса подростков начинает посещать странное видение.

25 "Ханна Монтана: Кино" (Hannah Montana)

Полнометражная версия известного американского сериала о подростаках. Релиз намечен на май 2009 года.

24 "Дориан Грэй" (Dorian Gray)

В основе картины классическое произведение Оскара Уайльда "Портрет Дориана Грея". Дориан Грей — двадцатилетний юноша, являющийся обладателем невероятно красивой внешности. В один из дней художник Бэзил Холлуорд пишет портрет молодого и прекрасного Дориана Грея. Юный красавец, любуясь своим изображением, не может избавиться от мысли, что портрет будет всегда обладать тем, чего он неизбежно лишится, – молодости. Однако происходит обратное.

23 "Шерлок Холмс" (Sherlock Holmes)

Очередная экранизация легендарного произведения Артура Конан Дойла, выполненная британским режиссером Гаем Ричи. Знаменитого сыщика сыграет Роберт Дауни-младший, а роль его друга доктора Ватсона досталась Джуду Лоу.

22 "Ледниковый период 3: Эра динозавров" (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs)

Долгожданное продолжение двух предыдущих серий о доисторическом периоде.

21 "Ноттингем" (Nottingham)

Новая версия истории известного противника Робина Гуда шерифа Ноттингемского. В главной роли Рассел Кроу.

20 "Война невест" (Bride Wars)

Конец дружбе двух подруг кладут их свадьбы, намеченные на один и тот же день.Девушки начинают отчаянную конкуренцию за место проведения торжества, гостей и предоставляемые услуги, не желая ни в чем уступать сопернице

19 2012

В ходе исследований ученый неожиданно открывает "врата" в параллельный мир и устанавливает контакт со своим "двойником", чтобы предотвратить предсказанный древними индейцами апокалипсис.

18 "Загадочное дело Бенджамина Баттона" (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Пятидесятилетний мужчина вдруг резко начинает молодеть. Вскоре, он влюбляется в тридцатилетнюю женщину. Но как смогут продолжиться их отношения, если он с каждым годом молодеет, а она стареет?

17 "Милые кости" (The Lovely Bones)

Фильм рассказывает о переживаниях четырнадцатилетней девушки, изнасилованной и убитой маньяком-соседом. Наблюдая за жизнью домочадцев с небес, героиня мечтает о простых подростковых радостях и жаждет поимки душегуба.

16 "Имажинариум доктора Парнаса" (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus)

Доктор Парнас — человек, способный управлять видениями других людей. Путешествуя по миру вместе со своей труппой, он дает возможность зрителям шоу через волшебное зеркало выйти за пределы реальности, эту способность Парнас получил от самого дьявола. Роль скончавшегося актера Хита Леджера доиграют Джуд Лоу, Джонни Депп и Колин Фаррел.

15 "Каролина в стране кошмаров" (Coraline)

Семейный мультфильм о любознательной девочке, которая решила исследовать все в новом доме и, конечно, открыла ту дверь, которая всегда оставалась запертой.

14 "Они сошли с небес" (They Came from Upstairs)

Несколько подростков приезжают на каникулы в загородный дом и, к своему ужасу и удивлению, обнаруживают на верхнем этаже группу инопланетян. Ребята, защищая свой дом, вступают с ними в бой.

13 "Трансформеры 2: Месть падших" (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)

Битва за Землю закончилась, но битва за вселенную только начинается. После возвращения на Кибертрон, Старскрим решает вернуться на Землю с подкреплением. Скорпонок похищает тело поверженного Мегатрона у армии США и возвращает его к жизни при помощи своей собственной Искры. Теперь главный Десептикон жаждет мести, а Старскрим со своим войском устремляется к Земле.

12 "Опасные пассажиры" (The Taking of Pelham 123 )

Вооруженные террористы захватывают поезд в Нью-Йоркском метро и требуют выкуп за пассажиров. Но даже если все их требования будут выполнены, у заложников немного шансов остаться в живых.

11 "Осведомитель" (The Informant)

Фильм Стивена Содерберга является экранизацией книги репортера New York Times Курта Эйченвальда, в которой автор рассказывает о крупном нарушении антимонопольного законодательства. В главной роли Мэтт Дэймон.

10 "Бесславные ублюдки" (Inglourious Basterds )

Новый фильм Квентина Тарантино, главную роль в котором сыграет Брэд Питт. "Бесславные ублюдки" рассказывает историю группы солдат, транспортируемых в тюрьму за различные проступки. Когда немецкая бомбардировка уничтожает конвой, заключенные бегут, надеясь укрыться в нейтральной Швейцарии. Но по пути их нанимает французское Сопротивление, чтобы те пробрались в тыл врага и выкрали боеголовку.

9 "Терминатор-4: Будущее начинается" (Terminator Salvation)

Фильм, главные роли в котором сыграли Кристиан Бейл, Сэм Вортингтон, Антон Ельчин и Мун Бладгуд, выйдет на экраны кинотеатров 22 мая 2009 года. Детали нового фильма пока являются тайной, однако некоторые данные о сюжете в прессу все же просочились. Лидер восстания человечества против машин Джон Коннор в свои 30 лет поведет вперед остаток людей на неравную борьбу против машин.

8 "Монстры против пришельцев" (Monsters vs. Aliens)

Когда метеорит из открытого космоса попадает в Сьюзан Мёрфи в день ее свадьбы, и превращает молодую калифорнийскую девушку в гигантского монстра, ее забирают на секретную правительственную базу, где она встречает сброд из монстров, которые там сидят уже много лет. Однако их заключению приходит скорый конец, когда загадочный робот-инопланетянин приземляется на Землю и начинает аттаковать страну.

7 "Аватар" (Avatar)

Фильм Джеймса Кэмерона о далёком будущем, когда группа землян во главе с Джейком Салли, ветераном войны с парализованными ногами, отправляется в экспедицию к планете Пандора, населяемой расой Нави.Джейк влюбляется в одну из местных жительниц, что приводит к конфликту между землянами и обитателями Пандоры.

6 "Ангелы и Демоны" (Angels & Demons)

Триллер о таинственном ордене Иллюминатов, прославившихся в Средние века яростной борьбой с официальной церковью. Приглашённый из Гарварда специалист по символике и его напарница начинают собственное расследование совершенного убийства.

5 "Люди Икс. Начало. Росомаха" (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

Предыстория "Людей Икс", рассказывающая о военном прошлом Логана и обстоятельствах, при которых он стал обладателем адамантового скелета.

4 "Хранители" (Watchmen)

Фильм рассказывает об обществе, где есть самые настоящие супергерои. Точнее, где они БЫЛИ, так как их деятельность теперь строго запрещена. Теперь они живут как простые смертные, хотя прежние годы регулярно дают о себе знать. Основной сюжет крутится вокруг бывшего супергероя по имени Роршах, который пытается расследовать убийство своего товарища.

3 "Звездный путь" (Star Trek)

Дейстиве фильма начинается сразу после того, как заканчиваются события, описанные в сериале. Действие разворачивается во вселенной Звёздного Пути.

2 "Враги общества" (Public Enemies)

Дейстиве картины происходит в 1930-ые годы. Некий Джон Диллинджер создает банду, которая занимается организацией ограблений, убийств и побегов из тюрьмы. Тогда по приказу правительства агент ФБР Мелвин Первис открывает сезон охоты на легендарного гангстера Джона Диллинджера.

1 "Гарри Поттер и Принц-полукровка" (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

Засунув голову в Омут памяти, Гарри Поттер узнает, каким было детство Лорда Волдеморта, чтобы лучше узнать и понять своего противника. Режиссером картины стал Дэвид Йейтс, снявший ленту "Гарри Поттер и Орден Феникса". Премьера "Принца-полукровки" состоится 17 июля 2009 года

Бонд или не Бонд? Не Бонд…

2008-11-24T23:06:00.001-05:00

B начале фильма «Квант милосердия» Джеймс Бонд, не дожидаясь, пока на него наведут пистолет, первым выстреливает в киноэкран. Звучит традиционная песня и …. На этот классическая бондиана заканчивается. Бонд скорее мертв, чем жив. Не смотря на жизнеутверждающие кассовые сборы, можно забыть о классической бондиане – от неё не осталось ровным счетом ничего, что отличало её от других фильмов подобного плана, что давало столько поводов для пародий и столько поводов для обсуждения.

Умолчу о том, что Крейг сам по себе является отходной молитвой по бондиане. Чего же мы лишились?

1. «Бонд. Джеймс Бонд». Одна из самых известных кинофраз теперь не является обязательной к произношению. Ломать устои, так ломать по полной. В новом фильме Крейг НИ РАЗУ не произнес культовую фразу.

2. Подруги Бонда. Добавить одну хорошую подружку, одну плохую. Главное, не перемешивать их с Бондом одновременно. Женщины всегда были такой важной составляющей этой эпопеи, как водка и мартини в фирменном коктейле Бонда. Красивые, они никогда не могли устоять перед хитрым прищуром Бондовских глаз. А он, в свою очередь, не мог устоять перед их очарованием. Хорошая подруга Бонда всегда была прелестно правильной (за исключением моментов соблазнения Бондом), плохая же – чертовски привлекательной в своих кознях.

3. Мисс Манипенни. Легкий служебный роман всегда идет на пользу. Даже Бонду. Что то было в этом мимолетном появлении милой, скромной секретарши, тайно влюбленной в Бонда…

4. Достижения технического прогресса. Бонд был бы не Бонд без разработок Кью. Его галстук всегда мог превратиться в элегантный парашют, машина последней марки становилась невидимкой, а жевательная всегда содержала минимум сахара, но максимум тротила. Даже на фоне современного развития техники все это сладостно изучалось, в мечтах большая часть разработок мы примеряли на себя.

5. Противники Бонда. Их помыслы редко отличались логикой самосохранения – если разрушать, то весь мир и разом. Но они всегда были харизматичны, демоничны и обаятельны. Даже если злодей хотел взорвать весь мир, на него можно было смотреть только заворожено и даже вре-менами желать ему удачи если не в «темном деле» уничтожения планеты, то хотя бы в процессе свертывания Бондовской шеи. Противники Бонда были по-настоящему опасны и тем ценнее была победа над ними. Последние два фильма смогли предложить только невнятную жертву пластической хирургии да мажора, играющего на повышении цен на водные ресурсы. Им не хочется сопереживать, им не хочется пожелать немного удачи. (В конце концов, все мы в душе немного плохие девочки и мальчики).

6. Дух Бонда. Бонд всегда был истинным британцем – элегантным, воспитанным, в меру чопорным. Бонд никогда не был человеком из реальной жизни, но был эталоном мечты. Грязь и копоть не липла к его элегантному пиджаку. Одной рукой он стрелял в противника, другой прижимал к себе очередную красотку. И при это, подлец этакий, ухмылялся так, что в душе все переворачивалось.
Сейчас эта сказка ушла, остался классический американский мордобой, имеющий примерно такое отношение к бондиане, как Валуев к балету.
К сожалению, Крейг с компанией еще неоднократно порадует продюсеров кассовыми сборами. Вот только потом будет сдута пыль с дисков со старыми сериями и снова на экране телевизора элегантный Бонд закажет свой любимый коктейль «водка-мартини» и подмигнет красотке. Очередной злодей в это время будет вершить свои гнусные делишки, а Кью придумывать новые гаджеты…

Опубликовано с мобильного портала m.lj.ru

From Canadian Prospective: Presidency in Russia

2008-11-23T19:47:00.001-05:00

CBC News

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin exiting the Dumas. (Associated Press)

In Canada, this kind of change takes years, high-volume political fights, federal-provincial conferences and referendums. Even then, it can be a near thing.

In Russia, all it takes is a few weeks of talk and a few votes and, there you are, the constitution is amended — the presidential term is extended from four to six years. No fuss, no bother.

Well, a little fuss. A small knot of opposition supporters, led by former chess champion Gary Kasparov, demonstrated in the street as the lower house of the Russian parliament supported the plan by an overwhelming margin on first reading. The demonstrators called the proposed change a further hollowing out of Russia's paper-thin democracy.

By mid-December, the amendment will likely be entrenched in constitutional law, which raises the question: why the rush, why now?

Live and die by the barrel

On the campaign trail in the spring of 2008: Putin and his chosen presidential successor, Dmitry Medvedev. (Associated Press)

It was only a few months ago, in May in fact, that outgoing president Vladimir Putin watched as his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, took over.

Putin was obliged to step down, or rather sideways. He became prime minister. The Russian constitution, borrowing from the American model, limits presidents to two terms.

Since then, of course, things have changed. When Putin stepped sideways the price of oil, Russia's major export, was climbing. Russia was sitting on more than $600 billion in currency reserves.

Its leadership talked of making the country an energy superpower. It snarled at Russia's near neighbours. In the summer, the Kremlin directed a short, sharp war against Georgia, which left that small country prostrate and half-occupied by Russian troops. The Russian public loved it all.

Then came the credit crunch.

A big dose of credit fever

The economic contagion started in the U.S. and spread to Europe. When it hit Russia, it hit especially hard as it coincided with a sharp drop in the price of oil.

One of the reasons it hit hard was that Russian businesses and Russian banks, awash in oil revenues, had borrowed huge sums of money abroad in the boom years because money was cheaper there. But now money was scarce and Western banks wanted their loans back.

The Russian ruble started to weaken. The government spent $100 billion trying to prop it up. It still dropped 10 per cent in a month.

The Russian stock market lost 70 per cent of its value. Panic trading was so intense, the exchange was forced to close on half a dozen occasions.

Gazprom

Edward Lucas is a journalist at The Economist, an expert on Russia and its neighbours, and the author of The New Cold War, an analysis of the Russian political and economic system.

He says the massive borrowing abroad was strange, particularly on the part of Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled energy giant.

"It's always been baffling to me why the Russian natural resources industry, with their colossal resources, should have to borrow abroad. If any company in the world should be able to finance research, exploration and development, it should have been Russian oil and gas companies.

"Next year, Gazprom has to roll over $120 billion in corporate debt. We don't quite know where that money was spent. Certain critics of the regime have identified $60 billion that was looted from Gazprom by the regime in past years. I wouldn't want to be a Western investor holding those debts because I wonder if they're going to get paid."

The credit crunch hit just as president Medvedev was intending to embark on election-inspired "national projects" — to build new roads, new hospitals and new schools. These have now been put aside. That money is now going to bail out banks.

A diminishing pie

"It's very bad news for the Russian economy," Lucas says. "The system only worked when it was lubricated by vast amounts of money and the cake was getting bigger every year.

"That way, people could tolerate the extraordinary corruption and, at least with high living standards, make up for the lamentable shortcomings of public service and infrastructure.

"What's happening now is that people are looking round and saying, 'hang on, where did all that money go?' We've got severe problems with the economy, inflation's going up, the supply chain is breaking down in some places, people aren't able to ship goods around the country, there've been runs on banks, it's all very bad.

"Then they say, 'well, you guys were in charge, didn't you do anything? Where are the new highways, the new hospitals, the new railways, the new universities, the new anything.' It's looking pretty bleak."

The next czar?

It could be bleaker, as it was a decade ago for example. Then the ruble crashed, banks closed and Russia effectively went bankrupt.

People took it out on their government. The sitting prime minister was dumped. The man who replaced him was Vladmir Putin. He quickly launched a war in Chechnya. It was a distraction and a highway to personal popularity. Eight months later he was elected president.

Now Putin is the prime minister again and he doesn't like it. He's too exposed. Lucas and other analysts inside Russia and beyond, believe the constitutional amendment will provide him with a quick path back to the president's chair.

"Medvedev will say he wants more time with his family. Putin will come back in a matter of months, saying, I've decided things are so difficult I really need to take the helm again," Lucas says.

"Then he can start sacking ministers, blaming people, acting like a czar. Of course in Russian history we see that even when czars ran things really badly, people said, 'oh, the czar's all right, it's just his advisers, the courtiers.'

"That's a historical lesson that's not been lost on the current regime."

The other historical lesson is that constitutions in Russia are just pieces of paper. In a little over 70 years the leaders of the former Soviet Union managed to write four of them.

Imperial Russia did without a written one until 1906, just 11 years before the czarist structure collapsed in war and revolution.

The 1906 version did contain a resounding clause: "The supreme autocratic power is vested in the czar of all the Russias. It is God's command that his authority should be obeyed not only through fear but for conscience' sake."

Perhaps the new czar of all the Russias is preparing to offer that as his next constitutional amendment.

Will 3D Be The Next Big Moneymaker For Hollywood?

2008-11-20T03:03:00.000-05:00

The simple act of going to the movies has become like a plot from a super hero film. Time after time, the enemies of the cinema have come after the supporters of the big screen, only to be defeated for a while.

It happened when TV first hit, with many predicting the end of theatres.

It continued when surround sound systems came to your home, prompting major improvements in audio in film palaces.

And the naysayers kept calling for doom and gloom when big screen HDTVs and DVDs arrived, only to have bigger screens and digital images introduced at your neighbourhood cineplex.

While all the changes have had an effect on the bottom line of theatres - and the days of 25 cent admission and 50 cent popcorn have faded into history - the technology of the present is once again causing those in charge of the business to look for a new saviour.

And they think they may have found one in an old and once discarded friend: 3D.

Some of the biggest movie companies in the world are betting heavily that a way of experiencing a picture you can't get at home will literally add an extra dimension to watching a flick.

Dreamworks, 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney all believe that the effect that died out in the 1950s in mostly cheesy flicks will make a big comeback in theatres thanks to modern technology and vast improvements in projection.

While you'll still need the glasses to see it, Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg predicts the old stigma of wearing the special lenses will be gone and that they'll become part of the fashion statement of your night out.

The evidence that 3D will be the next big thing is everywhere. Disney has no less than 17 films in the works over the next three years using the technique. And Dreamworks has a big 3D animated film coming out next year called 'Monsters Vs. Aliens.'

But how many will be able to see it the way it was meant to be viewed is another question. Only 1,400 of the estimated 30,000 screens in the U.S. can show 3D now. And there are only 700 around the world, including just a handful in Canada.

Disney may use its considerable financial clout to help theatre owners pay for the necessary conversion to digital and three dimensional, a process expected to cost billions of dollars. There's no word on whether ticket prices might have to rise to pay for it all.

The change comes at a time when the economy is bad and theatre owners are reluctant to spend money on upgrades.

But movies have always resisted hard times. They thrived as an escape during the Great Depression and in days when the market meltdown is itself a movie villain, it could happen again.

In fact, Katzenberg predicts this is just the beginning and you may soon be watching holographic films at your local cinema. He likens the progression to the music industry, which went from scratchy records to 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and onto MP3s, and calls flat screens the equivalent of vinyl.

So get set for a Hollywood sequel where not even movie makers know how it all ends. For those counting the profits at least, it's a suspense-filled plot they hope has a happy ending.

Сладкое слово "Депрессия"

2008-11-19T21:03:00.001-05:00

Текст: Ксения Рождественская

То, что происходит с миром сейчас, не римейк Великой Депрессии 30-х, а ее сиквел. Что происходило с киноиндустрией в 30-е и как голливудским студиям удалось выжить?

Плохая новость: Великая Депрессия, начавшаяся в 1929 году, длилась до конца тридцатых годов, и пика достигла в 1933 — то есть, если считать, что у нас сейчас римейк Великой Депрессии, нам предстоят еще четыре года финансовой дыры. Хорошая новость: Великая Американская Депрессия привела к Золотому веку Голливуда, а то, что происходит с миром сейчас, — не римейк 30-х, а скорее сиквел. Но герой остался тот же: киноиндустрия, и злодей тот же: финансовый кризис. Как добро победило злодея в прошлой серии?

На пике Великой Депрессии, в 1933, без работы остались 25% населения Америки. При этом кинозалы были — ну, не то чтобы переполнены, но народ в кино ходил много и с удовольствием. Великая Депрессия удачно совпала с изобретением звукового кинематографа и появлением цветного кино, и в кинотеатрах можно было сбежать от реальности. Кроме того, в фильмах начала Депрессии часто появлялись сильные герои, решающие все свои проблемы. Самыми популярными были комедии и мюзиклы (потому что весело), фильмы про гангстеров (потому, что герои этих фильмов богатели быстро и сравнительно просто), фильмы про падших женщин (им богатство тоже доставалось без проблем) и, конечно, фильмы про монстров, от Кинг-Конга до Дракулы. Чудовище Франкенштейн, пожалуй, может стать лицом Великой Депрессии: худой, кое-как слепленный из кусочков, не очень счастливый и безработный. К 1933 году фильмы становились все более злыми, а мюзиклы всем порядком поднадоели.

Историк Роберт Склар не зря делит голливудские тридцатые на "Золотой век брожения" и "Золотой век порядка": в начале 30-х братья Маркс высмеивали что могли, Мэй Уэст издевалась над моралью, а гангстерские фильмы с их идеализацией преступников приводили к настоящим бойкотам — со стороны как католиков, так и протестантов. Век порядка начался с цензуры: были приняты новые правила, по которым в кино запрещалось все, что "стимулирует низшие инстинкты". Народу нужны были добрые сказки, а не гроздья гнева.

Президент Франклин Рузвельт говорил: "Во время Депрессии, когда дух народа падает ниже, чем когда-либо, это прекрасно, что всего за 15 центов американец может пойти в кино, посмотреть на улыбающегося младенца и забыть о своих проблемах".

15 центов тогда стоила пачка сигарет, билет в кино обходился все-таки чуть дороже: к 1933 году цены на билеты упали с 30 до 20 центов. Киноиндустрия вообще оказалась в тяжелой ситуации: в 20-е годы было построено множество шикарных кинотеатров, их надо было переоборудовать для проката звуковых фильмов, и к 1933 году все студии были вынуждены влезть в долги, а некоторые оказались на грани банкротства. Общий долг студий составил более $400 миллионов.

К началу Депрессии сферы влияния рынка были поделены следующим образом: основной контроль был у Большой Пятерки (RKO, Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., MGM), существовали и три более мелкие студии — Columbia, Universal, United Artists. У этих последних не было сетей кинотеатров, поэтому по ним Депрессия ударила не так сильно, они просто перешли на производство малобюджетной продукции. В Большой Пятерке меньше всего пострадала MGM, до сих пор гордящаяся, что прошла сквозь Депрессию вообще без потерь (хотя за год с 1930 по 1931 доходы MGM упали с $15 миллионов до $4,3 миллиона). RKO и Paramount оказались на грани банкротства, Warner Bros. пришлось распродать четверть своих активов, Fox смог выжить, лишь объединившись с 20th Century Pictures.

К 1933 количество кинозрителей сократилось на 40%, студиям пришлось сократить расходы на производство, урезать зарплаты и закрыть примерно треть кинотеатров в стране. Студии предложили актерам вполовину сократить гонорары. Чтобы как-то пережить Депрессию, кинотеатры снизили цены на билеты с 30 центов до 20, предлагали бесплатную еду и даже разыгрывали денежные призы. Некоторые кинотеатры начали показывать сдвоенные сеансы.

Бокс-офис сократился с $720 миллионов в 1929 году до $480 миллионов к 1933-му. В 1929 общая прибыль компаний составляла $54,5 миллиона, а в 1932 у компаний было $55,7 миллиона убытков. В 1933 году убытки составили уже $4,9 миллионов, а в 1934 компании, наконец-то, получили прибыль в $9 миллионов. Но рекорд 1929 года был превзойден лишь в 1943, когда компании получили $60,6 миллионов прибыли.

В общем, все выжили. Герой поднялся с колен и дал злодею по морде. А это позволяет сегодняшним киножурналистам отзываться о новом кризисе с нескрываемым ехидством: ну и пусть некоторые проекты заморозят, зато поп-корн будет стоить дешевле, мюзиклы станут ярче, и кто-нибудь наверняка переснимет "Франкенштейна".

Глобальные меры Медведева

2008-11-17T10:37:00.002-05:00

Глава российского государства объяснил мировым лидерам свое видение выхода из кризиса и поведал о тайнах собственной политической кухни.

Президент Дмитрий Медведев предложил мировому сообществу на саммите в Вашингтоне набор средств, направленных на стабилизацию мировой финансовой системы. Инициативы российского руководителя получили адекватную реакцию лидеров ведущих государств мира: в числе прочих они вошли в итоговое коммюнике саммита. Глава России сделал несколько важных заявлений, касающихся и внутренней политики страны. Медведев объяснил, зачем в стране правится Конституция и почему он обратился с Посланием к парламенту на следующий день после выборов в США.

С корабля – на ужин

Дмитрий Медведев прилетел на саммит «двадцатки» прямо с саммита Россия–Евросоюз в Ницце. С военной авиабазы «Эндрюс», где приземлился борт главы государства, кортеж российского лидера отправился в Белый дом – на званый ужин уходящего президента США Джорджа Буша. По замечаниям американских журналистов, угощение обошлось в баснословную сумму: на эти деньги, шутили они, можно было бы погасить последствия финансового кризиса. Помимо глав 20 государств (вернее, 21 – в последний момент было решено пригласить для участия в саммите и премьер-министра Испании Хосе Луиса Родригеса Сапатеро (который до этого в списке не значился и был весьма расстроен этим обстоятельством), на ужин были приглашены руководители Международного валютного фонда (МВФ) и Всемирного банка. Представители мировых финансовых институтов за ужином пригласили российского президента присоединиться к Форуму финансовой стабильности, куда уже входят ведущие экономики мира. Форум был недавно создан – чтобы в постоянном режиме координировать меры преодоления последствий мирового финансового кризиса.

Хмурое утро субботы в Вашингтоне началось для российского лидера с двусторонних встреч. Первым делом он пообщался со своей коллегой – федеральным канцлером Германии Ангелой Меркель в гостинице «Сент Риджерс», где остановились лидеры «двадцатки». Затем глава государства переместился в Национальный архитектурный музей – там должно было пройти рабочее заседание глав государств и правительств «группы двадцатки». Каждый лидер «двадцатки» удостоился личного приветствия Джорджа Буша.

Выступая перед представителями ведущих стран мира, Медведев подчеркнул: прежние закономерности в финансовой системе не способны регулировать мировую экономику. «Это глобальный кризис ХХI века. На мой взгляд, он говорит о исчерпанности ряда принципов послевоенного экономического мироустройства. Мы наблюдаем неадекватность многих созданных в то время международных структур и систем (включая структуры безопасности), поэтому сейчас нужны не менее мощные, чем десятилетия назад, идеи.

Нам придется перестраивать всю международную финансовую архитектуру, делать ее открытой и справедливой, эффективной и легитимной. И, повышая роль существующих, надо создать новые коллективные структуры глобальной координации и регулирования», – заявил российский лидер. Медведев также предложил создать комиссию из международных экспертов для координации усилий стран «двадцатки» в процессе урегулирования последствий кризиса.

Выступления других лидеров были выдержаны в риторике, схожей со стилистикой речи российского президента. В частности, фактически всеми было отмечено: необходимо срочно принять меры для предотвращения рецессии. Вместе с тем участники заседания договорились: в конце марта они соберутся на новый саммит, чтобы оценить итоги выполнения нынешней программы немедленных действий. Он пройдет в Японии или Великобритании. План действий должен быть реализован до 31 марта – решили лидеры «двадцатки».

После обеда в резиденции посла России в США состоялась беседа российского лидера с премьер-министром Великобритании Гордоном Брауном. Там же Медведев переговорил с председателем КНР Ху Цзиньтао.

Подробности дискуссии, развернувшейся на пленарном заседании, Медведев рассказал на встрече с членами Совета по международным отношениям. Это одна из самых влиятельных непартийных общественных организаций в США. Медведев стал первым главой государства за всю историю Советского Союза и новой России, участвовавшим в заседании клуба. Модератором дискуссии выступила экс-госсекретарь Мадлен Олбрайт. Общение проходило в режиме вопросов и ответов. Медведев отвечал на вопросы американской элиты полтора часа. Кстати: столько же длилось его выступление с Посланием к представителям элиты российской.

На правах ведущей целый блок вопросов задала Олбрайт. «Почему вы решили продлить срок полномочий?» – спросила она. «Это нормально для власти – стараться укрепить свои возможности», – пошутил президент. И добавил: «Но я руководствовался другими соображениями». «Наша Конституция в целом удачная, современная, содержащая тот набор прав и свобод, которые являются актуальными. Это Конституция президентской республики, а Россия может существовать только как президентская республика. Россия слишком большая и сложная, состоящая из многих субъектов Федерации, многоконфессиональная страна. Но это не значит, что Конституция идеальна, и смысл изменений связан с тем, чтобы создать стабильность на определенный переходный период. Я считаю, что в ближайшие 30–40–50 лет России необходима стабильная политическая система: сильный парламент и сильный президент», – объяснил Медведев свои побуждения. «Может, через 30–40 лет мы сможем вернуться к другим срокам, но это будет уже не моя проблема», – улыбнулся Медведев.

Лекарство от кризиса доверия

Отвечая на вопрос о российско-американских отношениях, глава государства отметил: «В последнее время возник кризис доверия. И в российско-американских отношениях нет доверия, которое необходимо. Именно поэтому мы связываем надежды с приходом новой администрации. Мы можем изменить стратегически контекст российско-американских отношений».

Касаясь темы безопасности, Медведев пообещал: «Мы не будем действовать, отвечая на европейскую ПРО первыми. Мы будем действовать в порядке ответных шагов, и то, если программа будет реализована в неприемлемом для нас варианте. Лучше иметь глобальную противоракетную оборону, чем иметь фрагменты ПРО, которые только раздражают».

Отвечая на вопрос о возможности вступления России в НАТО, президент заметил, что момент, когда Североатлантический альянс мог пригласить Россию к участию в этой организации, был упущен, но это не означает, что Россия не хочет выстраивать диалог с НАТО. Кроме этого президент рассказал, каким ему видится новый институт. России хотелось бы иметь площадку, где она могла бы обсуждать самые разнообразные проблемы. ОБСЕ, заметил президент, «не совсем для этого годится, за последнее время она не действовала эффективно. Хотелось бы, чтобы была организация, которая объединяет не только все государства в Европе, но и НАТО, и Евросоюз, СНГ, ОДКБ. И, если такой форум мы получим, он может быть позитивен. Он не должен заменить существующие институты, но создать возможность для России и других организаций откровенно высказывать свою позицию. Возможно, если бы мы имели организацию, мы могли бы избежать те трудности, которые возникли в августе в Южной Осетии».

Секреты президентской кухни

Напоследок Медведева спросили: почему он выступил с Посланием Федеральному собранию 5 ноября, когда весь мир обсуждал победу на выборах Барака Обамы? Медведев решил быть откровенным: «Я раскрою вам нашу внутреннюю кухню: я два раза переносил срок Послания, потому что не был доволен текстом, в итоге взял его в свои руки и начал все это править. Я с глубоким уважением отношусь к США, но я абсолютно не помнил о том событии, которое должно было состояться в этот день».

Российский лидер в Вашингтоне всячески старался подчеркнуть, что к принятию решений по стабилизации мировой финансовой системы и выстраиванию новой финансовой архитектуры на полноправной основе должны быть привлечены молодые экономики мира. Он ясно дал понять, что у России есть вполне определенные амбиции: не только отчасти вмешиваться в этот процесс, но и играть в нем существенную роль. В частности, президент Медведев на саммите «двадцатки» в Вашингтоне предложил упорядочить национальные валюты и международные механизмы регулирования, повысить прозрачность публичных компаний, усилить надзорные требования, усовершенствовать работу рейтинговых и аудиторских компаний и систему бухгалтерского учета, а также создать систему быстрого оповещения и принятия антикризисных решений в мире. Инициативы Медведева в числе прочих предложений попали в итоговое коммюнике саммита в Вашингтоне.

Саркози: «Мы думаем одинаково»

Днем ранее российский лидер обсудил инициативы, обнародованные в Вашингтоне, с европейскими лидерами на саммите Россия–ЕС в Ницце. Президент Франции Николя Саркози признался, что тезисы Медведева фактически совпадают с предложениями лидеров Евросоюза. «Приятно, что мы думаем одинаково», – сказал он.

Впрочем, тема мирового финансового кризиса на саммите не была основной. Европейских лидеров больше волновало намерение Медведева разместить противоракетный комплекс «Искандер» в Калининграде для подавления американской ПРО в Польше и Чехии. В том случае, конечно, если администрация США приступит к реализации этих планов в ближайшее время. «Надо сделать все, чтобы избежать развертывания ракет до тех пор, пока не будут заложены основы безопасности в Европе и заключен договор о глобальной безопасности в Европе. Медведев сказал, что сделает все возможное для этого», – выразил надежду Саркози. Широкое обсуждение вопросов европейской безопасности французский президент предложил продолжить на саммите ОБСЕ, который ориентировочно состоится летом следующего года.

Глава Российского государства спорить не стал, но уточнил, что к участию в саммите неплохо было бы привлечь не только США (которые входят в ОБСЕ), но и НАТО, чтобы наконец согласовать свод правил глобального договора о европейской безопасности с учетом российских предложений. При этом он объяснил, что высказанное им намерение было лишь реакцией на решение США разместить комплексы противоракетной обороны в Польше и Чехии. «Мы все должны воздерживаться от шагов, влияющих на безопасность», – предупредил он.

Еще одним важным итогом саммита стало решение о возобновлении переговоров по новому соглашению о партнерстве и сотрудничестве между ЕС и Россией. Предыдущий договор с Евросоюзом был заключен в 1997 году сроком на 10 лет. Немудрено, что он устарел и нуждается в серьезном обновлении. Однако проведению переговоров о заключении нового договора на протяжении 17 месяцев препятствовали страны – участницы ЕС: Литва и Польша. Начало процессу было положено на саммите в Ханты-Мансийске в июне этого года. Впрочем, переговорный процесс, едва начавшись, затормозился сразу после того, как Россия признала независимость Южной Осетии и Абхазии после военной операции Грузии против Южной Осетии. «Мы не были согласны с таким решением России. Но оно стало реакцией на ситуацию в зоне грузино-осетинского конфликта. Однако я считаю, что разногласия не должны мешать процессу переговоров», – заверил Саркози.

Медведев заметил, что накануне встречался с российскими и европейскими предпринимателями, и они настоятельно попросили российского лидера и его европейских коллег ускорить работу над новым договором.

Французский президент заверил, что со стороны Евросоюза для заключения договора будет сделано все необходимое. При этом он выразил готовность оказать всемерную поддержку России для вступления во Всемирную торговую организацию (ВТО). «Россия должна как можно скорее вступить в ВТО!» – вынес вердикт Саркози.

Канны: вступать или не вступать?

Проблему затянувшегося вступления России в ВТО Медведев обсуждал на юбилейном, десятом, круглом столе российских и европейских промышленников 13 ноября во французских Каннах. «Сама организация (ВТО. – «НГ») не совсем приспособлена к вступлению новых членов, – посетовал президент. – Вступать или не вступать? Моя позиция: хватит переговоров, и надо уже решать, надо вступать, но не на унизительных для России условиях!» С российской стороны в этой организации председательствует глава «Роснано» Анатолий Чубайс, который поддержал российского лидера: «Хватит переговоров! Мы вступаем уже 14 лет! Не обновили, еще, конечно, рекорд Китая, который вступал 17 лет». «Это не тот рекорд, к которому надо стремиться», – отреагировал Медведев. «Какие остались проблемы президентского уровня? Да их просто нет», – возмутился Чубайс.

Помимо обсуждения темы ВТО президент рассказал предпринимателям о том, как государство будет взаимодействовать с частным сектором во время кризиса. Модель, предложенная Медведевым, довольно проста: государство будет выкупать доли предприятий, нуждающихся в государственной поддержке, но только на время. «Но от купленных пакетов надо будет впоследствии избавиться в ходе приватизации, так как до этого они принадлежали частным компаниям», – объяснил президент. Одновременно Медведев пообещал, что еще до конца года внесет в Госдуму законопроекты, направленные на создание в России мирового финансового центра на базе российского рубля.

Выдержки из Декларации саммита «группы двадцати» 15 ноября 2008 года

Мы, руководители стран – участниц «группы двадцати»... исполнены решимости наращивать свое сотрудничество и работать сообща в целях возобновления глобального роста и проведения реформ, в которых нуждаются мировые финансовые системы...

Принятые меры и меры, которые предстоит принять

В предшествующий период нами были приняты решительные и значительные меры по стимулированию наших экономик, обеспечению ликвидности, укреплению капитала финансовых организаций, защите сбережений и вкладов, устранению изъянов в сфере регулирования, «размораживанию» кредитных рынков...

В свете ухудшающегося состояния мировой экономики мы пришли к согласию о необходимости более широкой стратегии реагирования, основанной на более тесном макроэкономическом сотрудничестве, для возобновления роста, недопущения расползания негативных явлений и для оказания поддержки странам с развивающейся рыночной экономикой и развивающимся странам. В качестве первоочередных шагов для решения этих задач, равно как и для нейтрализации более долгосрочных вызовов, мы будем:

– продолжать действовать энергично и принимать любые необходимые дальнейшие меры для стабилизации финансовой системы;

– признавать важность поддерживающей денежно-кредитной политики с учетом национальных условий;

– применять, насколько это необходимо, меры в области налогообложения с целью быстрого стимулирования внутреннего спроса;

– способствовать в нынешних трудных финансовых условиях получению странами с развивающейся рыночной экономикой и развивающимися странами доступа к финансовым средствам...

Общие принципы реформирования финансовых рынков

Мы заявляем о своей приверженности проведению политики, соответствующей следующим общим принципам проведения реформ:

– Повышение транспарентности и подотчетности.

– Укрепление качественного регулирования.

– Обеспечение согласованности финансовых рынков.

– Укрепление международного сотрудничества в регулировании и разрешении кризисов.

– Реформирование международных финансовых организаций...

Поручения министрам и экспертам

В свете роли «группы двадцати» в реформировании финансовой системы мы встретимся вновь в период до 30 апреля 2009 года для рассмотрения хода реализации согласованных сегодня принципов и решений.

Приверженность открытой глобальной экономике

Мы признаем, что эти реформы окажутся успешными только в том случае, если они будут опираться на приверженность принципам свободы рынков, включая верховенство закона, уважение частной собственности, открытость торговли и инвестиций, рыночную конкуренцию, а также наличие эффективных и действенно регулируемых финансовых систем.

Мы подчеркиваем принципиальную важность отказа от протекционизма и от замыкания в себе в периоды финансовой нестабильности.

Идиомы

2008-11-17T00:25:00.000-05:00

Первый блин common

Маслом cash не испортишь

Come in в чужой огород

Наш последний и решительный boy

Береги chest с молоду

Walk в овечьей шкуре

Чем дальше в less, тем больше drove

I was и ныне там

Не плюй в колодец - пригодится на pizza

Семь bed - один ответ

Не лыком shit.

Melee, Емеля, твоя неделя.

Пауки-наркоманы!

2008-11-16T12:08:00.000-05:00

Canada mulls selling CN Tower to balance books

2008-11-15T12:59:00.000-05:00

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Canada could slap a For Sale sign on Toronto's needle-like CN Tower and other national assets as a way to ease pressure on the federal budget in the midst of the financial crisis, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday.

Flaherty mentioned the landmark, until recently billed as the world's tallest free-standing structure, as one property that could be auctioned off so that Ottawa can remain in the black.

When asked by reporters if the building was on the block, he quipped: "Do you want to buy it?"

He declined to name a price.

Asset sales are one way of cutting a deficit or helping to generate a small surplus, he said.

"If that review shows that there are some assets that should be sold, then we'll go ahead."

Canada has routinely posted annual budget surpluses since the 1990s, the only G7 industrialized nation to do so, but Flaherty has warned that the country could dip into the red as the world grapples with the financial meltdown.

Many Canadians would be surprised to learn that the government owns the CN Tower and numerous other assets on their behalf, Flaherty said.

The 553 meter (1,814 foot) tower, easily the dominant feature on the Toronto skyline, was the tallest structure until last year, when it was surpassed by the Burj Dubai.

Ottawa owns a variety of landmark properties across the country through Canada Lands Co., as well as other assets, including mortgage insurer Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp and an interest in the Hibernia oil project off the Newfoundland coast.

Flaherty ruled out selling national television and radio network Canadian Broadcasting Corp, which accounts for about C$1 billion ($820 million) of the federal budget every year.

($=$1.21 Canadian)

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones and Richard Valdmanis; editing by Rob Wilson)

100 лучших киноцитат по версии журнала Timeout

2008-11-15T02:05:00.000-05:00

1. I’ll be back
«Терминатор», 1984

2. Люблю запах напалма поутру
«Апокалипсис сегодня», 1979

3. Я сделаю ему предложение, от которого он не сможет отказаться
«Крестный отец», 1972

4. Муля, не нервируй меня!
«Подкидыш», 1939

5. Распространите среди жильцов нашего ЖЭКа. А если не будут брать — отключим газ!
«Бриллиантовая рука», 1968

6. Я думаю, это начало прекрасной дружбы
«Касабланка», 1942

7. У каждого свои недостатки
«В джазе только девушки», 1959

8. Алчность — это хорошо
«Уолл-стрит», 1989

9. У меня на ужин был старый приятель. Я съел его печень с бобами и бокалом кьянти
«Молчание ягнят», 1991

10. Моя прелесть!
«Властелин колец», 2001-2003

11. Пристегните ремни, будет бурная ночка
«Все о Еве», 1950

12. Я подумаю об этом завтра
«Унесенные ветром», 1939

13. Выбирай жизнь. Выбирай будущее. Выбирай карьеру. Выбирай семью. Я выбрал что-то другое
«На игле», 1996

14. Элементарно, Ватсон
«Шерлок Холмс и доктор Ватсон»,1979- 1983

15. — Людк, а Людк, глянь-к, какая сучка крашена! — Ну почему крашеная, это мой натуральный цвет!
«Любовь и голуби», 1984

16. Тебя посодют, а ты не воруй
17. Жениться надо было на сироте
18. Ну почему он жулик? Человек умеет жить!
Все три — «Берегись автомобиля!», 1966

19. — Как вам сапоги?
- Очень вызывающие, я бы такие не надела.
- Значит, хорошие сапоги, надо брать
«Служебный роман», 1977

20. — Вы думаете, я легкомысленная?
- Поживем — увидим
«Ирония судьбы…», 1975

21. Не учи меня жить, лучше помоги материально
«Москва слезам не верит», 1979

22. Самосовершенствование — онанизм. Саморазрушение — вот что действительно важно
«Бойцовский клуб», 1999

23. Суши. Именно так меня называла жена. Холодный, как рыба
«Бегущий по лезвию», 1982

24. Меня зовут Бонд. Джеймс Бонд
Любой фильм бондианы от «Доктора Но» (1962) до «Казино Рояль» (2006)

25. Ты меня заводишь, детка
«Остин Пауэрс», 1997

26. — Говорят, что ты портвейн с водкой мешаешь. — Ну и что? Говорил, а он «коктейль», «коктейль»… Хиппи волосатый
«Осенний марафон», 1979

27. Вы хотите арестовать меня за курение?
«Основной инстинкт», 1992

28. Стреляешь так же плохо, как и готовишь
«Мистер и миссис Смит», 2005

29. Да пребудет с тобой сила
«Звездные войны», 1977-2005

30. Хороший ты мужик, Андрей Егорыч, но не орел
«Простая история», 1960

31. Господин назначил меня любимой женой!
«Белое солнце пустыни», 1969

32. Смотрите на меня, я дрочу в душе — это будет высшая точка моего дня. Дальше все будет только хуже
«Красота по-американски», 1999

33. Сейчас 90-е, нельзя просто так двинуть человеку в табло. Нужно перед этим сказать что-нибудь крутое
«Последний бойскаут», 1991

34. Живому все хорошо
«Формула любви», 1984

35. Не брат ты мне, гнида черножопая
«Брат», 1997

36. Я тебе скажу одну вещь, только ты не обижайся
«Мимино», 1977

37. А Туристу втереть мазь от геморроя и передать, чтобы хомячков не присылал больше, я их в детстве отлюбил
«Мама не горюй!», 1997

38. Я был нетрезв, мое поведение недостойно советского офицера!
«Асса», 1987

39. Курю дурь, гоняю шары, последние 15 лет карьера не на взлете
«Большой Лебовски», 1998

40. Жить захочешь — не так раскорячишься
«Особенности национальной охоты», 1995

41. Я требую продолжения банкета!
«Иван Васильевич меняет профессию», 1973

42. — Колесо заклеил? — Ага, всю ночь клеил. Сейчас хозяин клея придет
«Бумер», 2003

43. Вы на распятие? Хорошо. Выходите через дверь налево, становитесь в очередь, берите один (и только один!) крест. Следующий!
«Житие Брайана», 1979

44. — Мясо вполне пригодно для пищи.
- Да оно само за борт лезет
«Броненосец "Потемкин», 1925

45. Украл, выпил — в тюрьму. Украл, выпил — в тюрьму. Романтика…
«Джентльмены удачи», 1971

46. Когда ты платишь за мужчину, ты не обязан смеяться его шуткам
«Путешествие Салливана», 1941

47. И как один умрем в борьбе за это. И где «это»?
«Черная роза - эмблема печали, красная роза - эмблема любви», 1989

48. Я никогда не хотела замуж, я мечтала только развестись
«Любовь и смерть», 1975

49. Мальчиков у нас действительно дефицит, но не до такой же степени
«Курьер», 1986

50. Ну, где у нас тут бьется сексуальный пульс этой общаги?
«Маленькая Вера», 1988
51. Народ для разврата собрался
«Калина красная», 1973

52. Никогда не угадаешь, сколько мозгов у человека, пока не начнешь собирать их с ковра
«Время бешеных псов», 1996

53. Я пью что хочу, когда хочу, где хочу и с кем хочу. Такая уж я девушка
«Голубой георгин», 1946

54. Сейчас модно все оплевывать. Но, думаю, отплюемся
«Дом под звездным небом», 1991

55. Ложки нет
«Матрица», 1999

56. Мы строили, строили и наконец построили. Ура!
«Чебурашка и крокодил Гена», 1969

57. Бабы называют эту штуку сексофон
«Такси-блюз», 1990

58. Только не залезай на испытательный полигон института физики!
«Человек-паук-3», 2007

59. Мало того что дура, так еще готовить не умеешь
«Игла», 1988

60. Тот, кто сказал, что оранжевый — новый розовый, серьезно болен
«Блондинка в законе», 2003

61. — Дэниел, то, что ты сейчас сделал, незаконно в нескольких странах. — Именно поэтому я счастлив, что живу в Британии
«Дневник Бриджит Джонс», 2004

62. — Какую зарплату хотите получать?
- Три миллиона долларов наличными
«Не грози Южному централу, попивая сок у себя в квартале», 1995

63. В Голливуде у женщин три возраста: «крошка», окружной прокурор и чокнутая мисс Дэйзи
«Клуб первых жен», 1996

64. Если у общества нет цветовой дифференциации штанов, значит, у него нет цели
«Кин-дза-дза», 1968

65. Страна — говно, никто не работает
«В движении», 2002

66. Русское кино в жопе. Только Федя Бондарчук крутой
«Изображая жертву», 2006

67. — Их сослали в ад? — Хуже. В Висконсин
«Догма», 1999

68. Ох уж эти женщины! И жить с ними невозможно, и пристрелить жалко
«Правдивая ложь», 1995

69. А ты знаешь, что делают с такими мягкими, лысыми и толстенькими республиканцами в тюрьме, Эрнст?
«Смерть ей к лицу», 1992

70. — Ты же сказала, что никогда не изменяла мужу. — Я сказала, что никогда не изменяла ему в Париже
«Эмманюэль», 1974

71. — Это так плохо, что уже хорошо.
- Нет, это так плохо, что уже снова плохо
«Мир призраков», 2001

72. Не надо недооценивать мастурбацию. Это секс с кем-то, кого я люблю
«Энни Холл», 1977

73. Это как с водопроводчиком. Если работа сделана нормально, никто его не замечает. Если же он обо…рался, то все в дерьме
«Хвост виляет собакой», 1997

74. Приготовьте завтрак и хорошо поешьте. Сегодня мы ужинаем в аду!
«300 спартанцев», 2006

75. Я перенесла два инфаркта, и мне пришлось сделать аборт, потому что я принимала героин во время беременности. В остальном у меня все хорошо
«Амели», 2001

76. Любой идиот может ввести закадровый голос, чтобы объяснить мысли героя
«Адаптация», 2002

77. Лишнее упоминание о евреях всегда полезно — отвлекает народ от крамолы
«Великий диктатор», 1940

78. При всех их недостатках банки лучше поездов. Они стоят на месте, и деньги в них есть всегда
«Бутч Кэссиди и Сандэнс Кид», 1969

79. — Какие музыкальные стили у вас в ходу? — Оба. Кантри и вестерн
«Братья Блюз», 1980

80. — Будете что-нибудь декларировать, сэр? — Да. В Англию — ни ногой
«Большой куш», 2000

81. В индустрии грузоперевозок главное — сохранять беспристрастность
«Догвилль», 2003

82. Вперед, обезьяны! Вы что, собираетесь жить вечно?
«Звездный десант», 1997

83. Я никогда еще не пил шампанское до завтрака. За завтраком случалось. Но никогда до
«Завтрак у Тиффани», 1961

Bond. James Bond.

2008-11-11T04:24:00.002-05:00

ВОТ ОНА, РУССКАЯ ДЕМОКРАТИЯ...

2008-11-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

Это перепечатка из MIGnews.com от 07.11 16:57
http://mignews.com/news/photo/071108_163839_23742.html

Недавно журнал Esquire провел впечатляющую фотосессию, в ходе которой представители российской интеллигенции представили изречения известных людей, отражающие сегодняшнее состояние свободы и демократии в России, а также их собственное отношение к нынешней власти. Ниже несколько фотографий из этой подборки.

The Art of Politics

2008-11-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

1830 год. Париж. Революционные волнения. Старенький князь Талейран, который умудрился служить всем — Бурбонам, революции, якобинцам, директории, Бонапарту, вновь Бурбонам — один из самых влиятельных людей в стране. Первый министр, министр иностранных дел. Кабинет и приемная полны народу: все ждут, чью сторону примет Талейран. Князь отличался великолепным чутьем: безошибочно угадывал, когда точно и на чью сторону надо перебежать. Но всесильный министр ничего не говорил. Просто задумчиво сидел и что-то рисовал в блокноте.
Вдруг Париж сотрясает взрыв арсенала. Князь в волнении приблизился к окну: по улице с криками бежали солдаты. Талейран воздел одну руку к небесам, другую приложил к сердцу и прочувственно воскликнул: «Ура! Наконец-то! Наши побеждают!»
Адъютант не выдержал и спросил: «Ваша Светлость! А наши — это, пардон, кто?» Талейран шепотом прошипел: «Молчи! Завтра мы об этом узнаем из газет!»

Red on Women Drives Men Wild

2008-10-30T11:03:00.000-04:00

Red may be the color of love for a reason: It makes men feel more amorous towards women, a new study reports.

From ancient rituals to those red paper lace hearts on Valentines, red has been tied to carnal passions and romance in many cultures over the course of history.

In five psychological experiments, University of Rochester psychologists tested how different colors affected men's attitudes towards women.

In one experiment, test subjects were shown a picture of a woman that was framed by either a red or white border and asked to answer a series of questions, such as: "How pretty do you think this person is?" Other experiments contrasted red with gray, green or blue (keeping saturation and brightness levels the same between the different hues).

In the final study, the shirt of the woman in the photo was digitally colored red or blue. In this experiment, men were questioned not only about their attraction to the woman, but about how they would plan a hypothetical date with her. For example, one question asked: "Imagine that you are going on a date with this person and have $100 in your wallet. How much would you be willing to spend on your date?"

In all the experiments, women shown framed by or wearing red were rated significantly more attractive and sexually desirable by men than the exact same women shown with other colors.

When wearing red, women were also more likely to be treated to a more expensive outing.

"It's fascinating to find that something as ubiquitous as color can be having an effect on our behavior without our awareness," said study team member Andrew Elliot.

The study, detailed in the Oct. 28 online edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is said to be the first to scientifically document the effects of color on behavior in relationships.

Elliot and his co-author Daniela Niesta said the effect could be due to societal conditioning, though they attribute it to deeper biological roots because nonhuman male primates, such as baboons and chimpanzees, are known to be attracted to females displaying red.

The red effect applied only to males and only to their perceptions of attractiveness; it did not change their ratings of the pictured women in terms of likability, intelligence or kindness.

Other research suggests that the effect of color depends on the context. In a previous study, Elliot and his colleagues showed that seeing red in competitive situations, such as sporting events, leads to worse performance. Another recent study suggests that referees favor red-clad competitors because of a subconscious bias for the color.

Toronto Halloween Party Guide 2008

2008-10-30T00:12:00.000-04:00

Why is it that we as adults still find it hugely entertaining to dress up in cheesy costumes, go out in public, and act like we are 10 years old? Honestly, I don't know and I don't care - it's just a great excuse to party, worship evil forces, and have fun.

This year Halloween is on a Friday, which can only mean that pretty much every bar/club is throwing a Halloween themed party. Here are a few suggestions of events I think are worth checking out.

Remember, going to these festivities without a costume is not cool. Everyone is going through the shame together, so you have no excuse! Plus, you can also see it as an investment opportunity, as most of these parties are hosting costume competitions with prizes that go from free candy to $500 cash.

The Halloween House Party
What:The (Funny Name Here) House Party
Where: Your Friend's House (haha, always better that your own home)
Why: I personally enjoy Halloween house parties the best, even if they're just to start the night off. You're surrounded by people that you know and feel comfortable with, and it's easier to engage in witty conversations about your bad costumes and poke fun at each other. It also means that you can reap the benefits of eating more delicious Halloween candy, cupcakes and bizarre food that might resemble human organs.

The Halloween Gallery Rock Show
What: BusySnapper Halloween Bash
Where: Whippersnapper Gallery, 587A College Street
Why: The guys from Busy Bodies and Whippersnapper are teaming up for a great Halloween bash. Parties at Whippersnapper are always fun and the music line up is great. Perfect evening for the Indie Rocker.
Who:
yip yip from Orlando Florida
Ten Kens of Toronto
Tonka and Puma
plus more musical guests TBA

$5 Advance or with costume
$7 if you come without a costume, you idiot.

The Halloween Hipster Party
What: Cobrasnake Death Disco Dance Party
Where: Wrongbar, 1279 Queen Street West
Why: Mark The Cobrasnake (the famous party photographer) seems to be a regular in Toronto's nightlife lately. If you want to be immortalized in your worst costume while you dance to some good electro and b-more sounds, this might be for you.
Who:
Pase Rock
Nasty Nav
Rory Them Finest
Vaneska

10PM $15 Advance tickets at Rotate This, Play De Record and Wantickets: http://www.wantickets.com

The Haunted Boat Halloween Party
What: Santa Cruz - HA-llowe'en
Where: CAPTAIN JOHN'S Seafood Ship, 1 Queen's Quay West (at Yonge St.)
Why: Santa Cruz events are always a blast! They're always doing something fun and special for whatever occasion. Come on! Capitan John's boat!? Best chance to swing it with the the old pirate ghosts that roam in that place. Ideal for the artsy types.
Who:
DJs Ray Gillespie, Jeremy Stewart, TCB, Rob Benvie.
With Guests:
Staring Therapy, Secret Dance, Aurora de Pena, Rose Bianchini,
Make-Out Booths, The Future and Emily Dickinson Fortunes with Damian Rogers,
Ouija Boards, Advice Booth with Amanda Burt, Adam Harris, Tattoo Parlour with Sarah Bolen, and much more.
New non-messaging, messaging system. Everyone who comes in gets five taking-care-of-business cards.

10pm $10 Advance tickets at www.santacruzforever.com

The Halloween Club Party
What: Get Er Done Tour Kick Off Halloween at Randomland
Where: CIRCA
Why: With a showcase of some of Toronto's best, CIRCA will be a great place to get wild and have a surreal over the top Halloween experience. Good for people who like to spend the holiday going hard at Randomland with a lot of random people.
Who:
Thunderheist - www.myspace.com/thunderheist
Auto Erotique (VND/LSM) www.myspace.com/vndlsm
MANSION www.myspace.com/mansiondj
BARBI www.myspace.com/djbarbi

$15 advance tix can be purchased at the following location
ROTATE THIS, PLAY DE RECORD, SOUNDSCAPES and WANTICKETS: http://www.wantickets.com

The Techno Halloween Party
What: How to Avoid a ZOMBIE Attack! (...we dance!)
Where: Secret meeting location downtown Toronto TO BE ANNOUNCED closer to the date.
Join Break and Enter Newsletter or facebook group to keep informed.
Why: The Salem Loft Halloween Parties were classics. Now, all the experience from those years is being transferred to the new Break and Enter events. Fun guaranteed! Recommended for those techno lovers, old school ravers and dirty hippies.
Who:
Jimmy Edgar -DJ set (Warp Records)
Maetrik - Live & DJ (Treibstoff, Iron Box Music)
Live anti-zombie demonstrations by:
Eric Downer (Thoughtless Music)
Intrepid Traveller - LIVE (breakandenter, recombinant.ca)
evolve (breakandenter)
Special zombie proof environment provided by:
Wustenarchitekten
Francis WAX
breakandenter

Doors open at 10pm, party until late
Tickets on sale at Moog Audio / Slinky Music
Limited advance tickets $20, more after.

The Other Techno Halloween Party
What: Grindhouse Halloween
Where: The Opera House, 735 Queen St. East
The Basement, 659 Queen St West
Why: In case the Break and Enter party sells-out, or just because they have an extraordinary line-up too, this party will go long and steady. For those who like to go from Dusk till Dawn.
Who:
Alexi Delano (Plus8/Truesoul/Harthouse/Audiomatique/Sweden)
Tony Rohr -LIVE -(Drumcode/Cocoon/Weave/HiddenAgenda/NYC)
Dietrich Schoenmann (HiddenAgenda/Addon/ToraToraTora/NYC)
Jamie Kidd (Metalogic/Platform/Xanuradio)
Hali (Box of Kittens)

Official Afterparty@The Basement 5am-10am
Terence Kissner (Afe Society/Platform)
Jamie Kidd vs. Hali (Platform/Box of Kittens)
Mike Gibbs (Box of Kittens)

Time:
Main Event Opera House 10:30pm-4:30am
Official Afterparty @ The Basement 4:30pm-10:am

Cost:
Tickets $23 Advance only at Moog Audio
Door $25 Before 12pm

Visit www.xanuradio.com / www.platforment.com for more info.

The Halloween Retro Dance Party
What: PARADISE
Where: THE OSSINGTON, 61 Ossington
Why: If you know the Gang of Two you know they play some of the best retro sounds. For this party they are encouraging people to wear costumes that reflect the time period of the music they play like Disco, New York Downtown circa 1977 - 84 or some Old School Hip Hop attire. If you wished you were born in NY, this might be for you.
Who:
with dj's
Rod Skimmins, Andy Capp, Pooyan and Todd

FREE

The Halloween Fun Dance Party
What: Flogging a Dead Horse>>Halloween Thing>>
Where: The Augusta House, 152 Augusta Ave
Why: Lost Cats parties are probably the most fun dance parties. The music they play is so eclectic that it becomes pure fun. I'm sure being Halloween, they will take that extra step to keep the crowd joyful. For those who can let go and dance/sing to the most cheesy tracks of them all.
Who:
Pat C + CTV NEWS AT NOON
with special guests Anthony G. + Hard Dough from Room Party
Special installation by The Black Light Association of Canada.

NO COVER BEFORE 11:30

The Pride Halloween Party
What: Vazoween
Where: Lee's Palace
Why: Vazaleen parties are more than well known in this town, they are legendary. Now, add some Halloween excuse to bring it back and take the madness even further and you get one of your Halloween's best bets. If you like it different, come have some fun!
Who:
NO BRA (a new meaning to gender confusion)
Will Munro and the Skeleton Crew
Make You Do the Monster Mash
Go Go Cock Wolf and Co Co la Creme
Haunting visuals mixed by Roxanne

10pm tickets will be available at door
advance tickets will be available at
rotate this queen st. w for 10$
cover is 10$ with costume
and more without!

The Halloween Theme Party
What: Thriller Nights
Where: Canadian Corps Legion Hall, 201 Niagara St.
Why: Because Halloween just wouldn't be the same without Jacko Wacko's talent - seriously!
Celebrating all things creepy and Michael Jackson (aren't they one and the same?), THRILLER NIGHTS Halloween dance party is back at an all-new venue this year!
Who:
Feat. the YO! Jamz DJ Crew
MJ Visuals

$3.50 drinks all night!

Limited advance tickets $7 on sale now at Rotate This, Soundscapes

The Hip Hop Halloween Party
What: Good Music Party: Halloween Edition
Where: Parkdale Drink, 1292 Queen St. West
Why: One of Toronto's favourite Dj Nana has been throwing the Good Music Parties playing awesome hip hop styles! But never before has he seen you shake your booty wearing your mom's clothes (or has he?).
Who:
Music by Dj NaNa - www.myspace.com/deejaynana
FREE

Haunted Halloween Attractions in Toronto

2008-10-29T00:14:00.000-04:00

Out of the hundreds of things that happen every year around Halloween in Toronto, my favourite attractions have been, and always will be, haunted houses. No two are ever the same, and they never fail to entertain. Even though I absolutely hate it when people jump out at me, the anticipation is always the worst and I end up laughing at myself. Or swearing under my breath. It varies.

After working at a haunted house last year, I've become slightly infatuated with the whole idea, and think they're far too underrated. This year there's quite a few major haunts I plan to check out over the next month.

Nightmare On Queen St 2 (Oct 24-26, and Oct 19-Nov1)
For the second year in a row, Nightmare on Queen St 2 is created by Playdead Cult and Darkside. They're well-known for doing things a little differently at the mansion. Not only are there the usual haunt monsters, but I'll also be able to get up-close and personal with blood and gore courtesy of some of the best SPFX artists in the city. I was a part of this last year, and if past experience has anything to say, it's going to be awesome. Admission is $10. All Ages.

The Haunted Adventure (Oct weekends, Fri-Sun except the 12th)
The Haunted Adventure at Magic Hill Farm in Stouffville has been tried tested and true for 18 years as one of the original haunts around. These tend to be the creepiest, since it's a forest and an actual old stone barn rather than a set up building. I grew up going to farm haunts, and they're very effective. Trust me. And who doesn't love a haunted hay ride? Just don't let Cavendish get ya. Admission is $14-$38 depending on how many attractions you want to see, kids cost less as usual. Parking is free.

Screemers (Oct 17-Nov1)
Screemers is the behemoth haunt in Toronto. Boasting six main attractions this year along with a mini-carnival fondly known as "The Field of Screams", Screemers has been running solid for 15 years at Exhibition Place. Features include "The Black Hole", "The Asylum", and apparently a chainsaw in there somewhere. I'm too scared to go to this thanks to my friends warning me about certain things, so I'll just...uh...wait here, you guys tell me how it is. Admission is $28.50. Ages 10 and up.

Canada's Wonderland (Oct 1-Nov1, Fri-Sun)
Canada's Wonderland is also becoming a major stop, raking up over 10,000 visitors last year. They claim it's never the same as previous years, so stay on your toes and don't be "that guy" who isn't scared because they "totally remember it from last year" (side note: those guys always get scared, haha). Features ten mazes and a live show. Admission is $24-$42 depending on if you want a meal deal. No, you can't get in for free with a Season Pass, as convenient as that would be.

Casa Loma's Haunted Mansion (Oct 29-30)
Haunted Mansion at Casa Loma is an option for the tamer crowd, and those with kids. The castle features a Spooky Attic, Dragon's Den, Magic Mirror, and Ghouls and Goblins around every corner. There are also a few live shows to see at various points throughout the day, such as "Magic Mike" the magician and "Frankenstein" presented by the Men in Tights. Admission is $12 for adults, $7.50 for seniors/youths, and kids are $6.76. "Frankenstein" is $2 for adults, $1 for kids. Get all that?

Name-Brand

2008-10-19T21:59:00.000-04:00

http://www.artlebedev.ru/kovodstvo/sections/152/

QE2 sails into Manhattan as she makes her final visit to new York

2008-10-19T11:10:00.000-04:00

The way British history was on the move in New York harbor, one might think the empire itself was staging a comeback - if only for a day.

Two Cunard ocean liners docked in Manhattan and Brooklyn as the soon-to-be-retired Queen Elizabeth 2 steamed through the Verrazano Narrows for the 1,420th and last time in a 41-year career.

Farewell: The Queen Elizabeth 2 moves past the Empire State Building down the Hudson Riverafter its final visit to New York today

The ceremonial departure of the QE2 was underway as its sister ship, the Queen Mary 2, which was also in town - docked overnight at its regular berth at the Brooklyn cruise port.

The two Cunarders, with their trademark red-and-black funnels, rendez-voused at the Statue of Liberty - the cruise-ship version of the big clock at Grand Central Terminal.

After four decades of sailing the world's oceans the QE2 will be converted into a five-star hotel in Dubai

It would be the 806th Atlantic crossing for the QE2, which in four decades logged nearly 6 million miles at sea.

Next month, the 70,000-ton liner, seriously outmoded by newer and bigger cruise ships, goes into retirement as a floating "luxury hotel, retail and entertainment destination" in Dubai, the fast-growing resort centre in the Persian Gulf.

After playing a duet with their horns that echoed across the harbor, they set sail together for the Sceptered Isle and points beyond.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 escorted by the Queen Mary 2 as they sail out of New York harbor

In this second career it follows in the wake of the first Queen Mary, which was similarly retired in 1967 and converted into a waterside hotel at Long Beach, Calif.

The QM2, at 151,000 tons more than twice the size of the dowager QE2, along with the one-year-old Queen Victoria and yet another Queen Elizabeth now destined for completion in 2010, will sail on.

Majestic: The Queen Mary 2 sails near the Statue of Liberty

Waving the flag for Britain: A woman waves her Union Jack umbrella as the QE 2 sails past

Причина кризиса 2008 года - за много-много лет до него...

2008-10-15T20:17:00.000-04:00

Repost:
Юрий Аммосов, Солярный Миф (ammosov) wrote,
@ 2008-10-15 01:14:00

Понятно, что в основе нынешнего кризиса неограниченная кредитная экспансия. Ипотечники в США понабрали субпраймов. Фонды прямых инвестиций выкупали компании за десятки миллиардов в кредит под залог этих же компаний. Хедж-фонды арбитрировали все, что движется с таким плечом, которое раньше только в форексных салонах было. Даже правительство США устроило войнушку в свое удовольствие в госдолг немыслимых доселе размеров. То же и у нас: олигархи в кредит скупали компании, инвестбанки - акции, граждане - жилье и машины. Словом, всему виной дешевый кредит. Как его не стало, все сжалось, и пошел "эффект музыкальных стульев".

Но откуда взялся дешевый кредит? Кто виноват? А виноват Гринспен, это он ставку с 2000 по 2003 опустил в ноль.

Но зачем Гринспен это сделал? А он боролся с рецессией, которую вызвали падение Энрона и прочих компаний, которые мукхлевали все 1990-е с отчетностью.

А зачем же компании мухлевали? А им советы директоров и акционеры говорили - посмотрите, как интернет-компании прут вовсе без прибыли и продаж! Прибыль каждый квартал больше давай, свои акции покупай давай, курс накручивай давай! И едва интернет-компании обвалились...

Почему ж интернет-компании поперли? А это оттого, что вся экономика стагнировала, и такого случая ради ставки срезали, в венчурные фонды деньги пришли... Как ставки выросли - тут интернет-компании и посыпались, а за ними и энроны покатились под гору, 9-11 только все докончил.

А почему ж ставки в начале 1990-х были низкие? Это так с рецессией боролись. Была противная долгая рецессия, ничего не помогало.

Откуда ж рецессия? А фондовый рынок обвалился, да еще до кучи все компании финансировались через джанк-бонды, на которые рейдеры компании перехватывали, бонды им Майкл Милкен делал, а деньги на те джанк-бонды давали ссудно-сберегательные ассоциации, которые почти не регулировались, вот они и воротили что хотели. И в целом на рынке был бум инвестиций.

Кто ж такие бонды и ссудно-сберегательные ассоциации нагородил? Неужели Милкен? Нет, он только ситуацией воспользовался. А дерегулировал экономику Рональд Рейган. Да еще Пол Волкер помог - ставки сперва взинтил до неба, а потом опустил, деньги и хлынули рекой.

Что ж Рейган и Волкер с ума спятили? Ничего подобного - они с жесточайшей стагфляцией боролись. А случилась эта стагфляция из-за того, что арабы ввели нефтяное эмбарго и цены на нефть подняли до небес (по тем временам).

Зачем же арабы это эмбарго сделали? Они таким образом боролись с Израилем, который им задницу надрал в 1967 и 1973 годах.

Получается, Израиль всю эту кашу заварил? Да нет, тогда уж виноваты англичане, которые еще в 1916 году пообещали израильтян переселить в Палестину, где израильтяне не жили почти два тысячелетия, а полтора на их месте жили арабы. Как спорам не быть, когда на одной территории два соседа.

Таким образом, все бы обошлось, живи евреи в Израиле безвылазно... Но ведь они ж не сами из Израиля ушли. А их выгнал древнеримский император Адриан в 132 году. Потому что евреи устроили восстание Бар-Кохбы, и с того восстания и начались два тысячелетия диаспоры.

Что ж евреи с Адрианом не поладили? А дело в том, что Адриан Иерусалим переименовал в свою честь и на руинах второго храма поставил статую своего малолетнего любовника Антиноя, которому велел поклоняться как богу. Лучше религиозные чувства иудеям он отдавить бы не смог.

Почему ж Адриан такую поразительную вещь учудил? Дело в том, что у него настроение было отвратительное. В том самом году они с Антиноем в Египет поехали - и Антиной утонул в Ниле. Адриан его обожествил, велел по всей империи ему статуи поставить, даже созвездие Орла в его честь переименовал. Он на иудеях сорвал злость по полной!

Итак, мы нашли причину кризиса. Антиной! Вот так, весь мир рушится - и все из-за одного ПИДОРАСА!

Чтоб ему пусто было! Не мог аккуратнее купаться!

Defeat means Dion's days numbered, Liberals say

2008-10-15T10:43:00.001-04:00

OTTAWA - Many senior Grits are privately predicting Liberal Leader Stephane Dion will be forced to quit within the next few weeks if he doesn't voluntarily resign first.

And they expect the next leadership contest to be held in Vancouver, most likely in May.

With Dion at the helm for his first election, the Liberals appeared headed Tuesday to their second worst defeat in history, bleeding votes to the Conservatives on their right and the NDP and Greens on their left.

"This is an epic disaster," said one senior Liberal as the dismal results poured in.

"Everybody's up except us. They're just picking at our bones."

There's no question Dion must go, the Liberal said.

"Absolutely - and fast."

Publicly, there were few words of praise for Dion.

Toronto MP Jim Karygiannis won re-election easily but credited the strength of his local organization.

"Certainly the leadership of the party did not do anything to help," he said in an interview.

Dion asserted during the dying days of the campaign that he would "never quit." And in his concession speech late Tuesday, Dion gave no hint that he's thinking about stepping aside.

"I love my country more than ever. Canadians asked me to be the opposition leader and I accept this responsibility with honour," he said.

But Liberals privately point to some hard realities that Dion will have to face if he's tempted to try to hang on.

-He will have to survive an automatic vote of confidence in his leadership at the party's next convention, which has been booked for May in Vancouver. All party members can pass judgment on his leadership, making the outcome much harder to control.

- Dion does not have enough loyal support within the party to win the 50 per cent plus one he'd need to technically win the confidence vote, much less the 70-per-cent range he'd need to carry on as leader.

-He was the first choice of fewer than 18 per cent of party rank and file during the 2006 contest.

-He has even less core support within his fractious caucus. Only a handful of Liberal MPs and senators backed Dion's leadership bid; Ignatieff scooped up the lion's share.

Dion has already suffered through two years of whisper campaigns and leaks from caucus, but many senior Liberals predict those machinations will erupt into an open revolt if Dion doesn't quickly resign.

If not, senior Grits argue Dion needs to recognize the party simply can't afford a protracted soap opera over his tenuous grip on the leadership.

Refusing to go voluntarily would also force the cash-strapped party to stage one costly convention to settle Dion's fate and a second to choose a successor.

Dion does have his defenders, however, who contend he deserves another shot at the brass ring.

"He does deserve a second chance and he should stay around now," said Garth Turner, who lost his bid for re-election in Ontario's Halton riding.

Most contenders from the 2006 contest, including Dion and Ignatieff, are still trying to pay off their debts, drawing off donations that might otherwise go to the party's depleted coffers, Dion supporters note. Plunging into a new contest would only exacerbate the party's money woes.

Moreover, they point out that the party is still riven by factions from the last contest and has never entirely healed the wounds left by a decade of leadership feuding between Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

Leaders who've lost an election have often learned from that experience and come back to win the next one, they note, citing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who lost in 1999 but redeemed himself four years later.

Liberal strategist Rob Silver said Tuesday's results reflect problems that won't be readily solved by simply getting rid of the leader.

"Of the top 10 problems facing the Liberal party going forward, who the leader is is not in the top five," Silver said.

"A leadership race right now only benefits one person: (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper."

If Dion does step aside, Liberal insiders predict the scheduled May policy convention in Vancouver will become a leadership convention.

If there is a leadership contest, most Liberals expect it will turn into a head-to-head rematch between Ignatieff and Rae, one-time university roommates.

During the day Tuesday, Ignatieff phoned Liberal candidates to wish them luck, prompting some Grits to remark that the leadership contest had begun before the first ballot had been counted.

After the results came in, both Ignatieff and Rae were careful to profess loyalty to Dion.

Ignatieff, who has served as Dion's deputy, said the party has suffered a "serious defeat" but that Dion can't be held solely responsible.

"When a party suffers a defeat, you go back to basics, you look at everything - platform, organization, money, and leadership in the wider sense of the word," he told reporters in his Toronto riding.

"I'm part of the leadership of this party. I can't walk around claiming I had no responsibility. I have to take my responsibility like everybody else. To make Mr. Dion the scapegoat here seems to me a little easy. We've got to look honestly at why our message didn't work with Canadians and honestly address it."

For his part, Rae said: "Mr. Dion is my leader and that's the only place I want to be right now."

Both Rae and Ignatieff are in their early sixties and some Liberals who are looking for a new generation of leadership are touting young bucks like New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc and Justin Trudeau, the son of late Liberal icon Pierre Trudeau, as possible contenders.

Montreal MP Denis Coderre might also be tempted to jump into the ring. Gerard Kennedy, the kingmaker who secured the leadership for Dion, might also be tempted to take a second shot at the top job, having finally secured a seat in the Commons.

Dion ran a disorganized campaign with an unpopular plan to impose a carbon tax - offset by income tax cuts - as his signature policy plank. The so-called Green Shift proved a tough sell and presented Dion's opponents with a juicy target.

Dion's halting English and professorial demeanour didn't help him communicate his complicated plan.

Liberal insiders say Dion also drove his campaign team to distraction, attempting to micro-manage minute details and ignoring advice.

ELECTIONS CANADA: OCTOBER 14, 2008

2008-10-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

Wed Oct 15, 3:06 AM

By Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper's Conservatives won a muscular minority mandate Tuesday night as Canadian voters entrusted the prime minister with the levers of government in tough economic times - but not a blank cheque.

The outcome saw the Liberals sink to their lowest level of popular support since the election of 1867 - and surely means a third change of leadership in five years for what was long dubbed Canada's natural governing party.

Aided by vote-splitting in Canada's most populous province, the Tories climbed to within a dozen seats of a majority. They did it without significantly boosting their share of the popular vote.

The Conservatives won 143 seats, up from 124 in the last election, while the Liberals were down to 76 from 103. The NDP was up by eight seats to 37, and the Bloc Quebecois shed one seat to 50. Two Independents also won.

In terms of vote share, the Conservatives got 38 per cent, the Liberals 26, the NDP 18, the Bloc 10, and the Greens 7.

Voter turnout was just 59 per cent, the lowest in federal election history.

"Our new caucus is broad and representative of Canada - in fact, it is the most representative of all the parties," Harper told cheering partisans in Calgary.

"At the same time, it's scope is not as wide as it should be. So regardless of how you voted, know that we will form an inclusive and responsive government that protects the interests of all Canadians in all communities of this country."

The prime minister said it "is the time for us all to put aside political differences and partisan considerations and to work co-operatively," but also vowed to push ahead with his party platform - modest as it may be.

But if Harper is expecting an easy ride in 2009, the economy may dictate otherwise.

How long before Canadians return to the polls - this was the third election in four years - could well rest upon the Conservative minority's ability to avoid a deficit next year in the face of slumping revenues and increasing social costs.

Harper said late in the campaign that a second minority would automatically give him a stronger mandate than his first, but NDP Leader Jack Layton weighed in with a warning late Tuesday.

"Canadians have elected a minority parliament," the NDP leader told his followers in Toronto.

"No party has a mandate to implement an agenda without agreement from the other parties."

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion sounded a more conciliatory note.

"We Liberals will do our part, responsibly, to make sure that this Parliament works," he said in his defeat speech.

"It is clear that our economy, indeed the global economic crisis, is the most important issue facing our country at this time."

It was a cup-half-empty kind of night for many.

Layton, who audaciously campaigned as a prime-minister-in-waiting, was denied the major breakthrough he sought. New Democrats remain the fourth-place party in the Commons.

In Calgary, when the national television networks declared Harper's minority victory shortly after the polls closed across most of the country, Conservative partisans awaiting the prime minister appeared in shock.

There wasn't a clap, cheer or groan from the several hundred gathered at the Telus Centre.

Re-elected Tory MP Jason Kenney put the best face on a result the Conservatives had hoped would be better when they breached their own fixed-date election law to force the autumn vote a year ahead of schedule.

"Every other incumbent government in the Western world is in serious political trouble with the economic situation," explained Kenney.

"Ours is probably the only one that could be re-elected - let alone with an increased mandate."

But the big losers were the Liberals and Dion, dropping more than two dozen seats from 2006. Dion, if he fails to survive the post mortem, will become just the second Liberal leader since Confederation not to serve as prime minister.

It is Canada's third consecutive minority government - something that hasn't occurred since 1965.

Ontario, which has so beguiled and befuddled Harper as a national leader, proved to be fertile turf this time around while his hopes of a majority were dashed by Quebec.

The Liberal vote sagged badly in Central Canada, once the Grit bread basket that had provided repeated majorities. Vote-splitting in Ontario, with ballots bleeding to the Greens and NDP, was particularly devastating to Liberals in the 905 belt ringing Toronto.

The Bloc shed just a couple of seats in Quebec, winning the province for the sixth consecutive election and leaving the Tories and Liberals treading water.

The Conservatives made a breakthrough of sorts in Quebec in the 2006 election, winning 10 of the province's 75 seats. In pursuit of a majority government, Harper courted Quebec voters assiduously throughout his first two-and-a-half year minority. He gave the province a seat on a UN cultural organization, offered up hundreds of millions of dollars in no-strings federal transfers to solve the so-called fiscal imbalance, and - most significantly - formally recognized the "Quebecois nation" in Parliament.

But those efforts did not pay electoral dividends. Stung by Conservative cuts to cultural grants and disconcerted by the government's hang-'em-high youth criminal justice reforms, Quebecers refused to add to the Tory seat count.

That setback was almost overshadowed by the Ontario results, where actual voting behaviour belied public opinion polling that had much of the province competitive for the Liberals.

Conservatives took 50 of Ontario's 106 seats, up from the 40 they won in 2006. The Liberals were down to 39 from 54 in the last election.

Grit fortunes were even more dismal west of Ontario. In Alberta, the NDP was taking more of the popular vote than the Grits, while the Green party was at eight per cent - just three points back of the Liberals.

Dion's first, best chance to make a statement on election night ended with slim Conservative gains in the Maritimes and evidence of a strong NDP attack on the Grit flank.

The Liberals, as expected, won the most seats in Atlantic Canada but did not make up any new ground and, in fact, lost a bit of turf to the Tories and the NDP.

In Nova Scotia, Green party Leader Elizabeth May's ambitious bid to dethrone cabinet minister Peter MacKay quickly turned to dust as the long-time Tory pulled away almost from the start.

"We ran an exuberant, a joyful and a positive campaign," said the Green party leader.

"And if the kids five years up could have voted, I would have won by a landslide."

Liberal candidates almost doubled the vote counts of their principal NDP competitors in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the Conservatives were shut out - losing three seats.

Danny Williams, Newfoundland's Progressive Conservative premier, mounted a noisy, nasty "Anything But Conservative" campaign against his federal counterparts.

The Liberals won six of the province's seven seats and New Democrats took one.

But it was by no means a Liberal red Atlantic tide. Tory fortunes were on the rise in New Brunswick and the NDP led the popular vote in Nova Scotia.

Liberals won 17 seats in Atlantic Canada, the Conservatives claimed 10, the New Democrats four and there was one Independent, former Tory Bill Casey elected in Nova Scotia.

After 37 days of negative and often bitter campaigning, Canadians heading out to exercise their franchise were greeted Tuesday with some good news.

The gloom on Bay Street was replaced with an 890-point leap as Canadian markets followed their resurgent U.S. counterparts after the Thanksgiving Day holiday. The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 9.8 per cent after plummeting 16 per cent last week.

The loonie also clawed back 1.4 cents on Tuesday to close at more than 86 cents US, after tumbling almost eight cents in the last week of campaigning.

But this remained an election in which a global credit crisis and looming recession reared like a B-movie Godzilla in mid-campaign, smashing the best-laid plans of all the contenders.

The new Canadian government will spend at least the next year grappling with the economic fall-out, a time when shrinking government revenues and heavy demand for social programs - including employment insurance claims - could force hard decisions to avoid running a federal deficit.

Harper ignored his own fixed-date election law to drop the writ on Sept. 7. That was more than a year ahead of the October 2009 date envisioned in Conservative legislation that passed the Commons with little dissent.

In sending Canadians to the polls before his government could be defeated in the House, Harper claimed the minority Parliament had become dysfunctional and that he required a fresh mandate to navigate the troubled economic waters ahead.

Russian 'Koltchak' tops global boxoffice

2008-10-13T22:59:00.002-04:00

Revolution-era drama opens in Russia, Ukraine

By Frank Segers

Oct 12, 2008, 06:25 PM ET

A Russian-made historical drama about a Revolution-era naval hero with romantic entanglements emerged as the weekend’s surprise No.1 international boxoffice winner as ”Koltchak” (Admiral), which opened in just two markets -- Russia and the Ukraine -- grossed an estimated $12.8 million from about 1,500 screens.

“Admiral” stars Konstantin Khabensky as the admiral and polar explorer who led the elite “white forces” of the anti-Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. The drama directed by Andrei Kravchuk was produced by Russian Channel 1/Solyaris, and acquired and released by 20th Century Fox. It depicts the title character’s war experiences as well as his love affair with a close friend’s wife.

Warner’s “Body of Lies,” directed by Ridley Scott and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, opened in Australia and New Zealand as well as five Asian markets (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) for an estimated $3.2 million take from a total of 656 screens. The CIA thriller was No. 1 in Australia, Crowe’s home country, with an estimated $1.5 million from 292 screens.

Finishing a close No. 2 on the weekend overall was DreamWorks/Paramount’s thriller “Eagle Eye,” which premiered in 10 new territories, registering $11.2 million from 3,113 screens in a total of 41 markets for an international total so far of $30 million.

“Mamma Mia!,” which had led the international boxoffice for the last five frames, settled for third place with $8 million from 4,100 dates in 48 markets, pushing its overseas cume at $390.5 million. Distributor Universal predicts the smash-hit musical with Meryl Streep will surpass the $400 million mark overseas by the coming weekend.

Pixar/Disney’s “WALL-E” finished fourth with $5.8 million from 3,109 screens in 33 territories for an international cume of $238.6 million (domestic total is $221 million). A strong Germany showing -- where it was No. 1 for the fourth consecutive weekend with $2.3 million from 680 screens for a cume of $16.6 million -- powered the weekend’s total number. Disney expects “WALL-E” to surpass the $239.1 million overseas gross mark of "Toy Story 2” (1999) by Monday.

Ranking No. 1 in the U.K. – and taking the fifth spot overall -- is Sony’s “The House Bunny,” which debuted in the world’s biggest overseas market for Hollywood studio features at an estimated $1.7 million from 252 screens.

The comedy with Anna Faris as a former Playboy model teaching nerdy sorority girls to be more attractive also opened in Spain (where it ranked No. 5 in the market), Germany, France (ranking No. 14 in Paris and suburbs) and Brazil, and lured $5 million on the weekend overall from 1,585 dates in 25 markets. International cume so far stands at $8.6 million.

In France, Woody Allen’s comedy, “Vicky Christina Barcelona” opened via Warner’s at No. 1 in Paris and suburbs, with an estimated $2 million from an undisclosed number of locations in the market overall. Premiering in second place was “Righteous Kill,” the crime drama co-starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, which garnered an estimated $1.5 million.

Local language holdovers held well, led by director Laurence Cantet’s “Entre le murs” (The Class). The Palme d’or winner at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival ranked No. 3 with an estimated $1.3 million from about 500 screens – a 45% drop from its second weekend -- for a market cume of $7.5 million. “The Class” opened less robustly in Italy, finishing out of the top ten in the market.

Finishing fourth in France was director Olivier Van Hoofstad’s “Go Fast,” an action vehicle about drug-running from Spain to North Africa. The Europacorp release claimed $1.1 million in its second weekend at 286 screens, down 58% from its opening round, for a market total of $3.6 million.

No. 5 in Paris and suburbs was Gaumont’s “Cliente” (Client) with Nathalie Baye as a middle-aged woman paying for sex. Second weekend came in at an estimated $915,000 from 367 screens, down 51% from its opening round. “Client’s” market cume stands at $2.9 million.

Universal released “Burn After Reading” in Spain for a muscular $2.7 million from 318 locations, the best tally of any of the Coen brothers’ titles to play the market. The espionage-related spoof also opened in Israel, Singapore and Denmark, and looks to have grossed an estimated $4 million on the weekend overall.

Fox opened in Germany its German-language acquisition, “Krabat,” a period fantasy set in the 17th century about a boy learning the black arts. The title finished No. 3 in the market with $2.2 million from 359 locations.

Other weekend tallies, plus international cumes, include: Fox’s “Mirrors,” $4.4 million from 1,700 screens, cume $25 million; Universal’s “Wanted,” $3.8 million from 1,536 dates, cume $193.9 million; DreamWorks/Paramount’s “Tropic Thunder,” $3.2 million from 1,687 spots, cume $54.3 million; Disney’s “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” $3 million from 935 screens, cume $10.3 million; Miramax/Disney’s “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,” $2.1 million from 435 locations in Spain and the U.K., cume $14.7 million; Fox’s “Taken,” $2 million from 800 screens, cume $33 million; Paramount’s “How To Lose Friends and Alienate People,” $1.4 million from 447 sites in the U.K., $4.6 million from the single market; Sony’s “Lakeview Terrace,” $550,000 from 192 screens in France, cume $1.8 million from the single market.

Other international cumes: Warner’s “The Dark Knight,” $463.1 million; Sony’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” $99.4 million; Warner’s “Nights in the Rodanthe,” $6.9 million; Sony’s “Hancock,” $395.6 million; Warner’s “Get Smart,” $98.1 million; DreamWorks/Paramount’s “Kung Fu Panda,” $413.6 million; Fox’s “Babylon A.D.,” $16.3 million; Warner’s “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” $32.1 million; Universal’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” $65.5 million; and Universal’s “Wild Child,” $15.4 million.

2008-10-12T22:09:00.001-04:00

Человек-паук никого не боится.
Кроме человека-тапка...

Hilarious!

2008-10-12T13:34:00.001-04:00

Если утром вы встали с левой ноги - это хорошо, если с правой - ещё лучше, а если не встали совсем то хорошо было вчера!

Если не можешь разгрызть гранит науки - попробуй его пососать!

Единственный плюс в жизни физика - это крест на его могиле!

Вскрытие установило, что череп студента был проломлен изнутри...

Всякое разумное дело имеет своё завершение, и только ерундой можно заниматься бесконечно.

Мышь - это животное, путь которого усеян упавшими в обморок женщинами.

Когда я ем, я глух и нем, хитер и быстр, и дьявольски умен...

Скромность красит человека......в серый цвет

Не так страшна смерть,как то,что жизнь была растрачена на глупости.

Неудобство истины в том,что она одна,а нас много.

На всех не угодишь

2008-10-11T21:43:00.000-04:00

Шел по дороге старик и вел на поводу осла, на котором сидел мальчик. Люди, которые шли навстречу стали возмущаться:
- Посмотрите, мальчик едет верхом, а старенький дедушка идет пешком!
Поменялись местами мальчик и старик. Идут дальше по дороге.
- Посмотрите,безобразие, старик едет, а маленький мальчик идет пешком!
Сели старик и мальчик вдвоем на осла, едут дальше.
- Посмотрите, бедное животное, взгромоздились вдвоем на осла, как не стыдно!
Слезли старик и мальчик с осла, идут дальше пешком.
- Посмотрите, вот дураки, у них осел есть, а они идут пешком!
...

Russia's Vladimir Putin gets tiger cub for his birthday

2008-10-10T23:18:00.000-04:00

MOSCOW - There's no doubt what Vladimir Putin's favourite birthday present is this year - a rare Ussuri tiger cub.

State television showed the Russian prime minister tenderly petting the two-month-old female cub on Friday at his residence outside Moscow. The cub, weighing only about 10 kilograms, was curled up in a wicker basket with a tiger-print cushion.

Putin said a good home will be found for the tiger, presumably in a zoo or wildlife preserve. He hasn't decided what to call her, but is leaning toward Mashenka or Milashka.

Putin refused to say who gave him the cub for his 56th birthday, which was Tuesday.

He called Russian journalists to his country home late Thursday without telling them why. Past midnight, after asking them "not to make noise, make a clatter or squeal," Putin ushered the curious journalists into the room where the tiger cub was waiting.

As president and now prime minister, Putin is known for his tough talk and macho image. But children and animals seem to bring out a softer side.

His dog, a Labrador Retriever named Koni, is often with him, even during meetings with world leaders. He told journalists that Koni has not yet met the tiger cub.

In August, Putin had occasion to pet a full-grown female Ussuri tiger after shooting her with a tranquilizer gun. He was visiting a wildlife preserve in Russia's Far East and shot the five-year-old tiger as part of a program to track the rare cats, also known as the Siberian, Amur or Manchurian tiger.

Once the tiger was asleep, Putin placed a collar with a GPS tracking system around her neck. Television footage showed him patting her cheek like a pet.

Fewer than 400 Ussuri tigers are believed to survive in the wild, most of them in Russia and some in China. They are the largest tiger species, weighing up to 270 kilograms.

VIRTUAL MIND

2008-10-10T21:49:00.000-04:00

http://www.prikols.com.ru/virtualmind.shtml

Audi A4 Launch Event - Oct 8 (Vaughan)

2008-10-07T12:26:00.002-04:00

Olympic Themed CP Spirit Train Coming to Canadian Cities

2008-10-07T12:22:00.001-04:00

To get Canadians revved up for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic games, Canadian Pacific has come up with the CP Spirit Train, which will roll into communities in Canada and spread Olympic spirit and excitement with musical performances, a Canadian Olympic Wall of Fame, the chance to meet Olympians and Paralympians, Aboriginal Celebrations and plenty of other activities. Admission is free for everyone. You can head to cpspirittrain.com for specific event details and locations. Meanwhile, here are the stops the Spirit Train will be making across Canada:

Saskatoon - October 2
Winnipeg - October 4
Thunder Bay - October 8
Sudbury - October 11
Mississauga - October 13
Smiths Falls - Octover 16
Montreal - October 18

http://cpspirittrain.com/

Девочка с персиками

2008-10-06T23:30:00.000-04:00

The instant mood-boost

2008-10-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

Can exercise really boost your mood? Vanquish your stress? Improve your sleep? Make your brain bigger? We asked Brian Christie, a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria, to break down the science behind why exercise is good for our mental health.

Exercise makes us happy

Serotonin is a chemical in our brains that regulates our mood, appetite and libido, makes us less sensitive to pain and regulates our sleep cycles. When we exercise, our brains use serotonin more efficiently, which boosts our mood and alleviates depression. We sleep better, have more energy and generally feel happier. Another neurotransmitter that’s activated by exercise is acetycholine, a chemical that’s robbed from the brain by Alzheimer’s disease, which is one reason why exercising regularly may delay the onset of that disease.
Rigorous exercise, the kind that gets your heart rate up, floods the brain with endorphins, the “feel-good” chemical. Walking isn’t enough to activate this hormone, but running is, which is where the term “runner’s high” comes from. (Alternating between jogging and walking can help you ease into running.)

Exercise lowers our stress levels

This may seem like a contradiction, but when we first start exercising, our brains experience a rush of stress hormones, called glucocorticoids. So why is that good for our stress levels? Because, in the long run, exercise trains our brains to better deal with stress. In studies, animals who exercise are less anxious in stressful situations, are more likely to find a solution to a problem, such as a maze, and are less likely to lose track of the goal.

Exercise makes us smarter

Walking three hours a week for only three months makes so many new neurons that you can measure the difference in brain size. That’s because exercise increases our levels of neurotrophins, chemicals that promote the creation of new brain cells. Exercising regularly also enhances our memory and ability to learn new tasks, whereas stress impairs neurogenesis and can impede your ability to learn. Anyone that has been through a divorce or lost a loved one can tell you how hard it is to remember or learn new things during a stressful period. It’s believed that a combination of reduced neurogenesis, cell loss and changes in remaining cells can disrupt the thought processes. Of course, this takes time to happen, so usually it’s only prolonged stress that has major effects on the brain. Luckily, regular exercise can combat these negative effects, boost your brain power and make you feel happier to boot.

Televisualist: Chuck, Plow, And Mosque's Back Now

2008-10-01T15:18:00.000-04:00

Monday

Chuck returns, with a storyline wherein Chuck's career as a secret agent ends and he is free to go back to his normal life as a megastore retail clerk. (PSSST GUYS I BET BEFORE THE EPISODE ENDS HE RESUMES HIS CAREER AS A SECRET AGENT! SPOILERZ!) Televisualist is glad to see Chuck return, though, since Adam Baldwin is funny and deserves a regular paycheque, and the show is light, simple fun. (City, 8 p.m.)

Monday night's theme looks to be "return of the awesome shows," since alongside Chuck we also get Life, the fantastic crime drama with Damian Lewis in it, which is like a weird transcendental crime version of House, except that Damian Lewis' fake American accent is a lot better than Hugh Laurie's fake American accent. In all seriousness, though, the first mini-season of Life was damn good television and well worth tracking down if you like good cop shows. (Global, 10 p.m.)

Tuesday

"Canada Votes: Extreme Debate." This is not the actual for-real debate, but a ninety-minute thing Newsworld is airing, wherein the political leaders of our fair country will try to convince undecided Canadians to vote for them. Televisualist wishes to announce we are unreasonably proud of not having made a joke about Mountain Dew. (7:30 p.m., repeats at 10)

CFMT airs one of the greatest of all King of the Hill episodes tonight, namely the one where Peggy gets tricked into producing "smoosh" videos for an erotic foot fetish site. Other cartoon shows like Family Guy or South Park might have gone all out with it, but King of the Hill's relatively restrained sense of humour makes the story seem believable, and you really root for Hank to kick the guy's ass. (10:30 p.m.)

The Simpsons rerun of the week: "Mr. Plow." Enough said. "COME BACK, DIAPER!" (Comedy Network, 9 p.m.)

Wednesday

If you speak French, or have a French friend who can translate for you, or maybe you do not speak French, but are sexually aroused when people speak French... look, it's a perfectly normal thing, you don't have to be ashamed of it. Nobody is going to point and laugh at you. We promise. Televisualist knows a girl who can only achieve orgasm when she listens to people speaking German, and she's perfectly nice if you don't mind having Das Boot on in the background every time you want to get busy. Sorry, where were we? Right, French. So the French language debate for the federal election is tonight! Granted, we're not sure who would get aroused listening to Jack Layton speaking French. Well, other than Olivia Chow, anyway. (CBC Newsworld, 8 p.m.)

Little Mosque on the Prairie returns, something that we genuinely appreciate, seeing as how it got genuinely funny over the second season and now stands as the spiritual successor, more or less, to Corner Gas. Rayyan and Amaar's romantic subplot got pushed forward a bit (thanks to a comic subplot involving an arranged marriage), and the episode about the world's first Islamic curling team was goddamned hilarious. We remain hopeful that season three will continue to be funny, in its low-key, occasionally too-polite way. (CBC, 8 p.m.)

Lipstick Jungle returns. We are not sure why exactly it is doing this. (NBC, 10 p.m.)

Thursday

It is debate night! The most powerful politicians in the country (and Elizabeth May) debate the issues! It is your duty as a citizen to watch this! (Canadian networks, 9 p.m.)

Of course, you're not actually going to watch it, because as luck would have it, the Americans have scheduled their vice-presidential debate for tonight as well, at the very same time even, and come on: we all want to see if Sarah Palin accidentally sets her podium on fire. (American networks, 9 p.m.)

Alternately, you could ignore politics altogether and watch a very special episode of Hole In The Wall, where a team of contestants from Flavor of Love compete against a team of contestants from Rock of Love. Again: girls who wanted to have sex with Flava Flav will compete against the girls who wanted to fuck the guy from Poison by playing retarded human Tetris. Why, yes, this is the worst thing television has ever done. Why do you ask? (A-Channel, 8 p.m.)

Friday

The Ex List debuts. This is a "high concept" show, wherein the concept that is high is thus: a woman finds out from a psychic that if she doesn't marry her destined-to-be husband within the year, she will be single forever. Also, the person she is destined to be with is one of her exes! So she must go back through all the guys she has dated, and... did anybody think to themselves, while they were coming up with this show, "How do we make the story last beyond a single season?" (Global, 9 p.m.)

Sanctuary, a sci-horror show about monster hunters, debuts with a two-hour pilot. A friend of mine recently commented, quite astutely, that Lost changed everything because now audiences expect a television show to know exactly where their show is going right from the pilot, and that in turn audiences are now much less willing to forgive a show that stumbles a bit out of the gate. This bodes poorly for Sanctuary's odds, because there's obviously a lot of there there in this show, but the pilot is, charitably speaking, a bit awkward. But it doesn't suck, and Christopher Heyerdahl is really quite good as the mysterious villain person. So maybe sci-fi fans will give it a chance. Crazier things have happened. I mean, people thought Bionic Woman was good. (TMN, 9 p.m.)

September 29, 2008

2008-09-29T15:23:00.000-04:00

By David Topping

The Best of Word On The Street

2008-09-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

Photo by Jen Cooper.

Once a year, on the last Sunday of September, Queen's Park is transformed into a haven for lovers of the written word. Not only is Word On The Street a great chance to find both book and magazine publishers offering deep discounts and freebies, but readers also get a chance to meet their favourite scribes in person. With more than 250 exhibits, about 250 of Canada's top authors, poets, storytellers, and presenters, and close to 200 readings, performances, and workshops, Toronto's edition of Word On The Street can be a daunting day to navigate. That's why Torontoist has put together a handy list of highlights so you can use your time wisely on September 28 to catch the best of the best and, of course, a deal or two.

Launch Pop-up Map

The Bestseller's Stage, located on the east side of Queen's Park, is exactly what it sounds like. Here you'll catch inspiring A-list writers like Andrew Pyper (11:45 a.m.) and Austin Clarke (2 p.m.) reading from their latest releases. The author signing tents throughout the park also mean you can grab some face time with the person that penned the book on your bedside table. If you're looking for something a little different than the top ten, head on over to the Comic and Graphic Novels Tent a few tents over to take in Ray Fawkes and Cameron Stewart discussing their fabulous futuristic girl-rock graphic novel The Apocalipstix (1:30 p.m.), or hang out with indie-hero Jim Munroe and celebrated cartoonist Ramón Pérez for "10 Tips to Get Your Writing Out There."

Lovers of a literary look at Toronto will want to spend a bulk of their day at the Diaspora Dialogues Tent in the centre of the park. The organization, which strives to support the creation and presentation of new fiction, poetry, and drama about our city, has managed to schedule what is perhaps the most interesting roster of the day. Noteworthy writers each take on a T.O. neighbourhood for description and discussion. The day starts with Katherine Govier and others tackling The Annex and Downtown (11 a.m.), writers such as Ken Babstock take on "The Far East" at 2 p.m., and the day ends with "Aren't We Awful?" a fantastic Toronto Noir showcase featuring indie stars RM Vaughan, Emily Schultz, Heather Birrell, Sean Dixon, and Nathaniel G. Moore.

If queer is what you're there for, head next door to the Proud Voices Tent to check out the always entertaining R.M. Vaughan reading from his latest poetry release, Troubled (12:30 p.m.), or catch Derek McCormack reading from his already well-received brand new novella The Show That Smells (4:30 p.m.) There's also a little something for grown-ups at the Ideaspace Young Adult Marquee. At 1 p.m. you can watch Mariko Tamaki make an appearance with her critically acclaimed graphic novel Skim, while YA author and self-proclaimed saucy tart Kristyn Dunnion appears with Big Big Sky at 1:30 p.m.

If that weren't enough, there are plenty of musical acts to enjoy throughout the day at the Eye Weekly Music Stage, hosted by writer Brian Joseph Davis. You can start off with a little Forest City Lovers at 11:45 a.m. and end the perfect day right with Ohbijou at 5:15 p.m.

Don't forget the all-day deals. There will be slashed prices and freebies with purchase at the Broken Pencil Magazine table, and toonie back issues for sale at both Taddle Creek and Shameless Magazine. Coach House Books will be offering most of their stock tax-free and for 25% off, while both House of Anansi and Groundwood Books are offering backlist titles for a mere $5 or $10. Like many publishers, Anansi’s going green this year, forgoing plastic bags and encouraging book buyers to visit the Groundwood Books booth to receive a free tote with purchase. If you don't plan to take advantage of the freebie, make sure you bring your own to cart around all of your finds.

Toronto's Word On The Street runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Queen's Park on September 28. Check out their website for a comprehensive events listing, author bios, contests, and more.

Bloor-yorkville Celebrates Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

2008-09-23T20:23:00.000-04:00

When: Saturday, October 4, 2008 6:52 pm to sunrise
Where: Throughout Bloor-Yorkville a free all night contemporary art event

For one sleepless night experience local Independent Projects and shop for Midnight Madness.

One night only. All night long.

From sunset at 6:52 pm on Saturday, October 4, to sunrise at 7:14 am on Sunday, October 5, 2008, Bloor-Yorkville will be bustling with activity, as thousands experience a full night of contemporary art and performance. Bloor-Yorkville BIA is proud to be an Arts Patron for Zone A.

Thousands of people will be attending this all-night gallery crawl and street celebration. From sunset to sunrise on October 4th Bloor-Yorkville will be part of the excitement where our zone will host 12 exhibitions in galleries and museums and unexpected places.

FREE PARKING – MANULIFE CENTRE
6 pm (Sat. Oct. 4th) to 6 am (Sun. Oct. 5th)
Manulife Centre Underground Parking is conveniently located in the heart of Bloor-Yorkville with easy access off Charles Street , 1 block south of Bloor.

For more information please visit: www.bloor-yorkville.com

MIDNIGHT MADNESS:

6:52 pm – Midnight
One night only in Bloor-Yorkville.
A unique shopping & dining experience.

In addition to extended subway hours, over 37 Bloor-Yorkville shops, galleries, salons, restaurants, coffee shops and bars will be open for Nuit Blanche Midnight Madness from 6:52 pm to Midnight.

See details on participating locations with special promotions and entertainment: http://www.bloor-yorkville.com/nuit_...anche0808.html

Bloor-Yorkville will become an artist playground for a series of exhilarating art experiences including the following:
INDEPENDENT PROJECTS: BLOOR – YORKVILLE

NB POST
Village of Yorkville Park ( Cumberland St. & Bellair St .)
416-928-3553 x 24
Laura Pacione
Installation, Performance Art

At NB Post, efficient chaos is our business. Step into the NB Post Office and select a completely unique postcard. Write a message, drop it in the mailbox and NB Post will do the rest!

Wearing the official NB Post uniform, postal workers will travel all over Zone A in search of recipients. The mail will arrive on time, all night long! NB Post prides itself on being an equal opportunity mail service; everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy of letter mail!

To facilitate this equal-opportunity mandate, NB Post will pre-address all of its postcards for delivery to YOU in Zone A. Enthusiastic postal workers will proudly announce the arrival of the mail: “YOU Sir…yes, YOU! There’s mail here for YOU! Young lady, here’s your mail! Let me check the address… Oh yes, Zone A… It’s addressed to YOU.”

SUPPORTED BY:

Laura Pacione, NB Postcard
Photo: Alistar Scott

Church of the Redeemer
162 Bloor St. West
416.922.4948

Special musical performances.
Music Concert
www.theredeemer.ca

Drabinsky Gallery
122 Scollard St.
416.324.5766

Contemporary Art
Selected American and International Artists.
Visual Art
www.drabinskygallery.com

Drabinsky Gallery, Exterior

Gallery Gevik
12 Hazelton Ave.
416.968.0901

Harold Town Exhibition: Paintings and Works on Paper
Featuring an insightful presentation of the art & life of Harold Town by guest speaker, author Iris Nowell 9-10 pm.
Visual Art, Guest Speaker
www.gevik.com

Harold Town, Toy Horse
# 229, 1979
Photo: Gallery Gevik

Gardiner Museum
111 Queen’s Park
416.586.8080

Z’otz Collective at Mexican Days of the Dead: Food for Thought
Nahum Flores , Erik Jerezano, Ilyana Martinez
Installation, Sculpture, Visual Art, Performance Art, Video Installation, Multimedia Installation

Z’otz Collective will collaborate all night to create a multimedia drawing, “The Elephant’s Notes and Other Clay Encounters” in the Gardiner Museum lobby.
www.gardinermuseum.com

Z’otz Collective,
The Loot 2008
Photo: Z’otz Collective

Hollander York Gallery
110 Yorkville Ave.
416.923.9275

Dusk ‘til Dawn: Painting to the Beat
Lynda Schneider-Granatstein, Elka Nowicka, Douglas Edwards, Valerie Butters

Gallery artists & the city’s musicians will keep the mood lively and the night young as paintings emerge on canvasses to the beat of live jazz.
www.hollanderyorkgallery.com

Leif Ostlund, Gallery artist painting at Hollander York Gallery – Nuit Blanche 200
Photo: Meiling Kim

Japan Foundation
131 Bloor St. West, 2nd Floor , The Colonnade
416.966.1600 x 229

Flight over Landscapes
Akira Kurosaki, Kyoko Sakamoto, Wayne Crothers, Rebecca Salter, Keisuke Ohno, Miki Kuroki, Ralph Kiggell, Keizo Sato, Moya Blight, Elizabeth Forrest, Hiroaki Matsu, Mamoru Oshii
Visual Art, Video Installation

A contemporary woodblock exhibition featuring 10 artists presented with a special DVD screening of “Tokyo Scanner” by Hiroaki Matsu and Mamoru Oshii.
www.jftor.org

Tokyo Scanner DVD Screening – Japan Foundation

Kinsman Robinson
108 Cumberland St.
416.964.2374

Norval Morrisseau – Transcending One
Visual Art

By interpreting Ojibwa legends, Morrisseau depicts all levels of human existence. Viewers might experience a spiritual awakening by taking in the sheer size, complexity, symbolism and “healing” colours in these magnificent artworks.
www.kinsmanrobinson.com

Norval Morrisseau,
Shaman Appears Before All Creatures, 1991

Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park
416.586.5524

The 2008 Sobey Art Award Exhibition
Tim Lee, Daniel Barrow, Terence Koh, Raphaeelle de Groot, Mario Doucette
Installation

The Institute of Contemporary Culture at the ROM hosts an exhibition of major recent works by five award winning finalists.
www.sobeyartaward.ca/winners

C5 Restaurant Lounge, atop the world-renowned Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, will be open for fine dining a la carte. Also open for your enjoyment is the Chen Court Cocktail Bar on Level One.

Mario Doucette, 1755 (Curling III), 2008

Royal Ontario Museum & Royal Conservatory of Music
Bloor St. West at Avenue Road
416.586.8000

Dance Royal 2008
Dr. Draw and diverse musical and dance performers
Performance Art, Light Installation, Music Concert

Violinist & artist Dr. Draw leads a spectacular 2-hour dance event, mashing musical genres from classical to rock, in front of the ROM from 9-11 pm.

Dr. Draw Performs at Bloor St. West at Avenue Road

Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge Street
416-393-7131

Circus of Dreams
Group Exhibition
Installation, Performance Art

A light installation transforms the Toronto Reference Library's dramatic atrium into a nighttime forest space, featuring a waterfall fashioned from fabric. Participate in dreamy storytelling, led by the Rosedale Heights Improv Team. Inside the TD Gallery, discover the history of the Big Top - with posters, prints, rare books and other items from the library's Special Collections.

Outside on Yonge Street , thrill to the magic of fire dancers and stilt walkers from SwizzleStick Theatre (outdoors activities open from 7 pm to 1 am).
www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/nuitblanche

Toronto Reference Library, Circus of Dreams

Yay! - Yorkville at Yonge
Yorkville Avenue - Yonge St. to Bay St .

Shadow and Light Show & Outdoor Film Projection

Come see the shadow & light shows by Theatre Peace puppeteer, Guy Doucette in the windows above: 1 Yorkville Ave. , Historic Yorkville Library and Lovecraft for passers by to enjoy. A family film will be projected on a giant screen above 1 Yorkville Ave , 8:30 pm – midnight.

Shadow & Light Show along Yorkville Avenue (Yonge to Bay)

For full Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Guide details visit: www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca
“Park after Dark from dusk until dawn”

The Toronto News Media Map and Advertising

2008-09-23T12:16:00.001-04:00

Torstar, CTVglobemedia, Canwest, Rogers, Quebecor, and CBC are the big ones, but independents like Now and other web dailies (such as the one you're reading right now) are also vying for your eyes.

If you're getting the lion's share of your news from any given area on the map above, and not branching out and getting news from other sources, can you be sure that you're not missing out on equally valuable but different perspectives?

News media in Toronto is following trends similar to those around the world - large corporations buy up smaller companies, and they also diversify by purchasing other forms of media and entertainment properties (such as magazines, television stations, telecommunications, and even pro sports facilities). Needless to say, this has profound implications - including the increase in popularity of cross-property advertising.

It's expected that Rogers will use dedicated ad space to advertise its mobile phone, Internet, and TV services on the web pages of its subsidiary news organizations such as 680news and CityNews (much like blogTO promotes its Urban Maps in dedicated ad space on blogto.com).

But should it also be expected and accepted that those sames news organizations sell products and services through actual news articles?

Advertising masquerading as Toronto news isn't new, but it's sometimes so blatantly obvious and deceitful that it often makes me wonder how much we're willing to take, and how far this concept can be pushed.

Should Rogers be carefully and creatively crafting news bits to help sell over-priced football tickets, and appeal to our desires for a raise at work during tough economic times by hawking its magazines on CityNews.ca?

Should Canwest use arguably skewed news items in the National Post and Canada.com to advertise viral marketing ploys for TV shows on their entertainment TV networks?

Should CTVGlobeMedia allow advertisements for real estate listings to be slyly incorporated into the Ontario news RSS feed and posted as news articles in the Arts section of the Globe and Mail?

Does the fact that everyone's doing it make it more acceptable?

One thing is for sure - as the the news media landscape in Toronto continues to experience conglomeration, widening political slant, and a shift from print to clickable text online, it's becoming more and more important to understand who is who.

In the very least, it's my hope that the map above helps Torontonians better understand where their news comes from and help they better make decisions about what sources they rely on.

Emmy telecast bombs in ratings and reviews

2008-09-22T21:52:00.000-04:00

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The 60th annual Primetime Emmys show, roundly panned by critics as perhaps the worst ever, laid a big, fat ratings egg as well, with early figures pointing to the smallest audience in the awards' history.

According to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research, ABC's three-hour Sunday telecast, featuring major wins for "Mad Men" and "30 Rock," averaged 12.2 million viewers, falling just below the historic low of 12.3 million posted by the 1990 ceremony aired on Fox.

Final national ratings for Sunday's broadcasts are due Tuesday.

By comparison, 13 million viewers tuned in for last year's ceremony and its farewell send-off of "The Sopranos," which ranked as the second-lowest Emmys audience on the books.

Sunday's telecast no doubt suffered from the fact that the shows and stars getting most of the attention, including best drama "Mad Men," comedy champion "30 Rock" and winning actors from shows like "Damages" and "Breaking Bad," represent programs that draw relatively few viewers themselves.

The Emmy telecast on ABC also collided in the eastern half of the country with NBC's highly rated Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys' 27-16 defeat of the Green Bay Packers.

And many New York viewers were likely siphoned off by an ESPN telecast of the last baseball game by the New York Yankees at historic Yankee Stadium.

Still, ABC's cause was not helped by an Emmy presentation that critics largely derided as a flop, especially an oddly ad-libbed opening monologue shared by five reality-show hosts who served as the evening's collective emcees.

In an apparent homage to their unscripted TV genre, Howie Mandell ("Deal or No Deal"), Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol") Jeff Probst ("Survivor"), Tom Bergeron ("Dancing with the Stars") and Heidi Klum ("Project Runway") took to the stage for about five minutes to joke about how they literally had nothing prepared to say.

Probst, Seacrest and Mandell then left the stage to Bergeron and Klum, who were joined by William Shatner for a gag that involved ripping off Klum's clothes.

The whole bit was panned by reviewers and other performers. Emmy winner Jeremy Piven, co-star of HBO's "Entourage," called the opening confusing and a "celebration of nothingness."

The ceremony then lurched into overdrive by mid-show with many presenters and winners forced to rush through their appearances to make up for lost time.

"It was hideously awful from start to harried finish, dragged down by five amateurish reality anchors who would have been unwelcome as guests, let alone hosts," USA Today wrote.

ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Co. and fellow networks doubt hoped for a more auspicious official kickoff to prime-time TV's premiere week, seen by industry executives as a kind of reboot for television after last season was cut short by the Hollywood writers strike.

Reuters/Nielsen

Lesotho mine yields one of world's largest diamonds

2008-09-21T21:55:00.000-04:00

Miners in the southern African kingdom of Lesotho have found one of the world's largest diamonds, a near-flawless white gem weighing nearly 500 carats, mining group Gem Diamonds said on Sunday.

The diamond was discovered in the Letseng Mine on September 8, the company said in a statement. It has been analyzed by experts in Antwerp and found to weigh 478 carats, with very few inclusions and of outstanding color and clarity.

"It has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D color round polished diamonds in history," the company said.

Letseng is one of the most productive mines in history -- four of the world's 20 largest rough diamonds have been found at the mine, including the three largest found this century.

Before it is cut into gems it is hard to value the diamond, but a spokesman for Gem Diamonds said a similar weight stone with lesser-quality color and clarity had recently sold for $12 million (around 5.5 million pounds).

"Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best color and clarity," Clifford Elphick, the chief executive of Gem Diamonds, said in a statement.

The minister for natural resources in Lesotho, an impoverished mountain kingdom in eastern South Africa, praised the productivity of the mine, one of the highest in the world at more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet).

"Once again Letseng has proved its ability to produce extraordinary diamonds and continues to place Lesotho at the forefront of diamond producing countries," Monyane Moleleki said in a statement.

Letseng is 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent owned by the government of Lesotho.

The world's largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905. It weighed more than 3,100 carats before it was cut into more than one hundred separate gems, many of which are part of the British crown jewels.

(Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Mariam Karouny)

World's shortest man, leggiest woman meet in London's famed Trafalgar Square

2008-09-17T12:47:00.001-04:00

By Nancy Zuckerbrod, The Associated Press

LONDON - Trafalgar Square routinely serves as a stage for mimes, jugglers and other acts, but the tourist attraction drew an exceptionally curious crowd Tuesday when the shortest man who can walk met the woman with the longest legs.

He Pingping, of China, stands precisely two feet 5.37 inches tall. The 20-year-old was born with a type of dwarfism.

He called Svetlana Pankratova's legs "very beautiful."

The two met, with He standing at Pankratova's knees, to publicize the release of "Guinness World Records 2009." This year's version of the popular book is due out Wednesday.

Pankratova, who is Russian but lives in Spain, has legs that are nearly 52 inches or 132 centimetres long. Her upper body has nearly typical proportions, giving her a giraffe-like appearance.

Dressed in a bright-blue mini-dress and low-heeled pumps, Pankratova, 36, said she liked her legs, though they can complicate things. "It's hard to find clothes, especially pants," she said.

She isn't the tallest woman on record. Sandy Allen, of Shelbyville, Ind., who died recently, held that title, according to the book. And He is the smallest man who is mobile, the books says.

The latest edition of the book lists pop star Britney Spears as the most-searched person on the Internet and the television show "Lost" as the most-downloaded show of all time.

The book has been around for half a century. About 3.5 million copies are sold each year, according to editor-in-chief Craig Glenday.

On the Net:

Guinness World Records:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/

25 Most Controversial Album Covers

2008-09-15T15:08:00.000-04:00

by Rob O'Connor in List Of The Day

You can't judge a book by its cover? Sure you can! Really lame folk music always comes with an album cover that perfectly reflects the corniness within. Generic metal bands always manage some endless variation of an unreadable logo matched with bloody, "scary" imagery that isn't shocking to a junior high schooler. Metallica are banking on plain ugly!

Throughout rock history, controversy has helped sell records. And the easiest way to drum up controversy is by putting something on the album cover that you know is going to cause people to complain. It's cheaper and more prevalent than making an incendiary video that potentially no one will ever see. Or paying for advertising.

What's amazing is how few controversial album covers there have been, considering how many millions of albums have been released. The most controversial ones are often by bands that no one--besides a band's loyal cult following--has ever heard of. Therefore, the mainstream just ignores it. As long as it's not in MY backyard, it doesn't matter, seems to be the prevailing logic.

But once the kids start bringing home Appetite For Destruction in large quantities throughout suburbia, watch out!

A lot of these "controversial" album covers seem pretty harmless these days. But to think that including a toilet on your album cover was once deemed offensive is pretty quaint when you consider how often we're treated to herpes commercials on TV today. Not to mention all those promos for "soft rock" and "power ballads" collections that have done more to destroy the "moral fabric" of our country than a thousand middle-fingers airbrushed to oblivion.

That said, we here Yahoo! did apply a standard. There were a few album covers--the Scorpions' Virgin Killer and a band called Mayhem--that we deemed too offensive for our beloved audience. It's a tricky decision. But one where he had to decide that even we didn't want to have to look at it.

25) Lovesexy--Prince: Not everyone wants to look at a naked Prince. Some people would rather look at a paper bag.

24) Street Survivors--Lynyrd Skynyrd: Not so much controversial as bad karma, since the flames surrounding the band only served to remind everyone that they soon lost several members to a plane crash.

23) Achtung Baby--U2: Adam Clayton posed naked on the back cover and they eventually put an X over the "offending" spot. I'm all for artistic expression, but why do so many people want us to see them naked?

22) Nevermind--Nirvana: Personally, I don't think it's the little kid's genitalia that's offensive, so much as the kid's clamoring for the almighty dollar. What are parents teaching their kids? You want to negotiate these things. You want points. You want a percentage! Not just some stupid dollar.

21) Hefty Fine--Bloodhound Gang: Talk about a Man in a Box. From the looks of it, the model wasn't paid enough to do this. He doesn't look very happy. Do you think this improved his dating life? Could it? This guy's really out there somewhere, probably selling shoes. Did he do this to pay for an operation for his sister? To help bail his parents out of debt? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. There must be some unusual beholders out there.

20) Love It To Death--Alice Cooper: What is it about the middle finger that causes so much trouble when it's extended? I just see it as another way of people saying hello. Isn't that what they're saying?

19) Moby Grape--Moby Grape: Moby Grape never became the huge success expected of them. When your marketing plan includes releasing five singles all at once so radio programmers don't know what to push and everyone's hearing something different, you've got a problem not even the folks at Sterling Cooper can fix. Don Stevenson, one of the Grape's four members who wasn't Skip Spence, was giving the middle finger from his washboard on initial pressings of the album. The record company sensibly airbrushed it out of subsequent printings, as America's moral status hung in the balance.

18) If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears--The Mamas And The Papas: Not only did the foursome pose in a bathtub but they had the nerve to leave the toilet in the shot for "realism." Was the bowl empty? Who knows? The record company quickly put a little sign over it letting us know what hits the album had in store for us. In a rare moment of honest advertising, the songs listed were actually hits and not some manager's wishful thinking.

17) Beggar's Banquet--The Rolling Stones: This album's release was held up because the Rolling Stones wanted an old toilet on the cover and the record company said no. The Stones were always courting controversy. It was their gestalt. Yet the record company had its limits and eventually won out with a white cover with just the name of the band and the album title made to look like a bland wedding invitation. Of course, by the time CD reissues were happening two decades later, the original album cover was then allowed and whatever "cutting edge" properties the cover possessed had been effectively blunted by years of people coming up with album covers considered to be much worse.

16) The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking--Roger Waters: Once the other guys in Pink Floyd finally got tired of being Roger Waters' back-up group, Waters was sent packing to go solo and try out his tuneless wonders on a crack band of session musicians. Always big on "concept," Waters put together an album about, I guess, hitchhiking. As one of six people who enjoyed The Final Cut, I must admit I never quite grasped (i.e. listened to) this Hitchhiking saga. I tried. But like trying to eat cardboard, it wouldn't go down. The original cover, however, did include an illustration of a woman's bare butt, which soon had a black box over it--to save civilization (natch).

15) Dark Side Of The Spoon--Ministry: It wasn't the allusion to heroin in the title or the presence of a naked obese person on the cover, but the dunce cap that encouraged retailers to refuse this Ministry album. Some took it not as a dunce cap, but as a Klan hat. I guess you could infer that the kid writing on the blackboard was naked because his robe was in the wash, but I still think it's a dunce cap.

14) Waking And Dreaming--Orleans: OK, so what is the guy in the middle looking down at? And is he smiling? The guy he's apparently looking at seems to be pretty impressed with himself. Supposedly, they all have jeans on below the crop. But this album turned me against group showers for life.

13) Tin Machine II--Tin Machine: Sure, the frontal nudity may have offended people who don't like looking at such things, but most David Bowie fans were more annoyed by the stiff, robotic, uninspired music contained within. The cover was, arguably, the highlight.

12) Country Life--Roxy Music: Rock musicians live such a charmed life that they often forget that the rest of society is trying to pretend these rock stars aren't as lucky as they are. Sex, drugs and rock n' roll really do beat working for a living. Unless you're a masochist. And naked girls seem to be one of the perks of the rock life. So, of course, the band would want you to see this instead of some boring old grass. I don't think people were really so much offended as just plain jealous.

11) Lovedrive--Scorpions: Nothing worse than getting your gum stuck on your date's breast. That's a pretty awkward moment. It's as if the Scorpions were auditioning for the part of Spinal Tap.

10) Your Turn To Fall--Jandek: Most Jandek albums are a moral affront to photographers everywhere. I could've chosen one of the blurry covers, but there is something so much more offensive, uncomfortable and controversial about the obvious sexual tension involved with this white desk. Don't stare at this one too long or else risk going blind.

9) Diamond Dogs--David Bowie: Dogs love their private parts. Just watch them expose them. Just watch them clean them. Just watch them use them. But when a person decides to become a canine, he must bear adult responsibility for his actions. And, therefore, David Bowie was forced to sacrifice his artistic ideals to appease the canine-sensitive members of his audience and cover up his doggie parts.

8) Ritual De Lo Habitual--Jane's Addiction: Two covers for this one. One with the first amendment, the other with nude artwork by Perry Farrell. By this point in time, bands kinda knew when they were screwing themselves, so what better way to have it both ways than to offer people options? If retailers don't want to see frontal nudity, then they can read a bunch of legalese. Oddly, the music inside still sounds the same.

7) Electric Ladyland--Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Hendrix liked women. He named his recording studio Electric Lady and his third studio album Electric Ladyland. To honor the album's title, someone (not Hendrix, who reportedly did not like the cover) put naked women on the cover of the British pressing. You can't put naked women on the cover of an album that is mostly going to be bought by impressionable young men. They might get the right idea. And then they might dodge the draft and do drugs and use the cardboard gatefold sleeve for unpure purposes. It's a slippery slope, this morality.

6) Amorica--The Black Crowes: Pubic Hair is a touchy subject. Like children, it should be seen and not heard, or rather it should be waxed and not seen. In any case, get out your airbrushes kids or your copy of photoshop, there's a job that needs to be done. It is true that some people--like me--should never wear a bikini. Some of us respect that.

5) Back To The S**t--Millie Jackson: "Muffle That Fart," one of the album's illustrious tracks, was once an option on a jukebox in a local diner. It got me to part with a few quarters. How could it not?

4) Appetite For Destruction--Guns n' Roses: It's a bit shocking, I know, to think that a wholesome, fun-lovin' group such as L.A.'s Guns n' Roses would choose album art that some might find offensive. The artist Robert Williams was already well-known in art circles and as long as Guns n' Roses were some struggling young glam metal band, no one really cared what they put on their album covers. But once it was apparent that G n' R would likely become a major cultural force destined to take over the minds and wallets of young America, if music retailers would stock the album, it was time to remove the raped and battered woman from the album's cover before the rest of society became infected like TB.

3) Yesterday And Today--The Beatles: The Beatles were pretty tame by today's standards. But they had such an effective hold on the youth of the day and were so central to the culture that anything they did brought heavy scrutiny. So to appear in butcher smocks with bloody meat and decapitated baby dolls on an album cover was likely to cause a few people to be "not pleased" with them. Being the Beatles, they were, of course, smiling and looking like it was all one big joke. Which, of course, it was. But this was 1966 and people were still wearing suits to attend baseball games, you think they were going to put up with this?

2) Unfinished Music, Vol. One: Two Virgins--John Lennon And Yoko Ono: I suppose they had to figure out some way to interest people into listening to these experiments in sound and if it took standing naked on the album cover then that was what it was going to take. Obscene? Well, it's not the most attractive cover photo I've seen. In these days where every pimple is airbrushed, the honesty and integrity of the cover shot is to be respected. But when I reach for a Lennon album, this isn't the one that comes to mind.

1) Blind Faith--Blind Faith: This is still a touchy subject because we're talking about kids and the age of consent, and if you've noticed a lot of old school rockers, who used to sing about having relations with underage girls now move their ages upwards of 18 and 19, instead of 15, 16. Then, you're probably not surprised to hear that a lot of people didn't think the idea of putting a barely pubescent girl with her top off was a good idea for an album cover even if the album did include Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton. They might've been a super group, but they still had to use some common sense.

TIFF '08: More days, more contenders, please

2008-09-14T00:19:00.000-04:00

While some of criticism is unfair, a discernable amount of energy was missing this year

Peter Howell

Maybe it was all the fault of Che Guevara.

The T-shirt icon is the subject of Steven Soderbergh's interminable Che, which screened at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, and some of Guevara's revolutionary fire must have scorched grumpy TIFF attendees.

Toronto Sun headlines damned the fest for being "elitist" and "a farce," accusations that are both wrong and contradictory.

New York critic Rex Reed wrote that TIFF's love of fine film "has been replaced by gridlock and greed." He would know, coming from Manhattan.

Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells blogged about numerous Toronto turn-offs, even getting steamed over the "please flush" sign he saw in a restaurant washroom.

Chicago critic Roger Ebert seemed as high on TIFF as ever. But his sunny disposition was rewarded with a whack to the head from another scribe, Lou Lumenick of the New York Post, after Ebert asked Lumenick to stop blocking his view at a screening.

If critics can't control themselves at the movies, what hope is there for improving decorum amongst regular stiffs?

It did seem like a difficult year at TIFF '08, with the damp weather and the poor economy also serving to reduce enthusiasm and trim parties. Regular moviegoers I spoke with made similar complaints.

Some of the carping is unfair. TIFF organizers this year released thousands more tickets to the general public and they turned Dundas Square into a free outdoor theatre and music club.

But a discernable amount of energy was missing from the fest this year. Many of the films that drew attention and praise – The Wrestler, The Hurt Locker and Slumdog Millionaire among them – arrived with laurels already bestowed at the Venice and Telluride festivals. I can't think of a single world premiere that really mattered at TIFF this year. The fest seemed like a giant second-run theatre.

Urban sprawl spread TIFF far, wide and thin. As the fest heads south towards its new Bell Lightbox facility (planned to open in 2010), it sadly feels like the lights of Yorkville are being slowly turned off.

Favoured festival hangouts seemed far less bustling, the ROM is no longer being used for screenings and critics expended much shoe leather sprinting to the new AMC Yonge and Dundas for screenings and to the Fairmont Royal York hotel for interviews.

TIFF is still a superb event, but it's clearly a festival in transition.

When organizers meet for their annual post mortem, I hope they spend some serious time discussing how to embrace change without abandoning tradition.

I'd like to offer a few suggestions:

Stop letting other festivals steal Toronto's thunder. Venice is bumping into TIFF's time next year. New York is getting Clint Eastwood's Changeling and the Palme d'Or winner The Class. London has locked in Olive Stone's W., Frost/Nixon and the new James Bond film. We have to cease being so Canadian and demand more world preems and Oscar contenders;
Consider reinstating the Perspective Canada program. There were many fine Canuck films this year, especially the Quebec entries Lost Song, La Mémoire des anges and C'est pas moi, je le jure!, but they were lost in the general hubbub. Canada needs a solid TIFF showcase, and I realize I'm reversing an earlier opinion to the contrary;
Make TIFF a true 10-day festival instead of a five-day one. Push the stars and studios to move beyond the opening weekend. The front-loading of TIFF, always a problem, seemed all the more unwieldy this year for some reason.

Here's to a good TIFF '08!

And here's to a great TIFF '09!

As Che would say: "Viva la Revolución!"

Disney shoots first Russian film

2008-09-12T12:57:00.000-04:00

Book of Masters' based on local fairy tales

MOSCOW — The Russian office of Walt Disney has begun lensing its first local production, a children’s adventure based on some of Russia’s most famous fairy tales and characters.

Written and directed by Vadim Sokolovsky, the company’s head of production and acquisitions in Russia, “Kniga Masterov” (The Book of Masters) is being production in association with Moscow’s Three-T Studio, the company founded by director Nikita Mikhalkov.

Location shooting on the film — which Russia media reports suggest is being made on a budget of around $7 million — began early September outside Minsk with studio filming scheduled later at Moscow’s Mosfilm Studios.

Drawing on stories “adapted from Russian fairy tales we all know from childhood,” the movie is aimed at family audiences with a release date set for autumn 2009, Marina Zhigalov-Ozkan, Disney’s Russia head and general producer of the film said Monday.

Leonid Vereshchagin, general director of Three-T, said the studio was pleased to be working with Disney on its first film in Russia.

“We are extremely encouraged that Disney, known throughout the world for its film versions of immortal stories, aims to revive the feature-film fairy-tale genre in Russia,” Vereshchagin added.

Sokolovsky, who is known for such television projects as “An Occasional Fellow-Traveler,” “The Ticket to the Harem” and “Ambulance 2”, was last year nominated for Russia’s Golden Eagle National Cinematography Award for his TV series “The Ticket to the Harem.”

An experienced television drama director, Sokolovksy had also gained experience working with major Hollywood studios.

Jason Reed, general manager of Walt Disney Studios Intl. Production, said, “The credit goes to our team in Russia. Because of Marina Zhigalova-Ozkan’s strong leadership and the hard work of her team, our first Russian language production fully delivers on the goals of our mission internationally.

We are working with a legendary cast, a great director, one of the premier production companies in the world, and — perhaps most importantly — we have a wonderful story that will be a strong addition to the Disney tradition.”

Oasis' Noel Gallagher assaulted on stage in Toronto--2008-9-7

2008-09-08T12:50:00.001-04:00

VFest: When Push Comes To Shove For Oasis

2008-09-08T12:44:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been in a situation where one person’s actions ruin something for everyone? Well, the thousands of VFest attendees who gathered to watch headliners Oasis perform on Sunday can now tell you a thing or two about that.

The guilty party that ruined the show and caused VFest to end on a sour note was a fan, or at least that’s the story for now. This rogue fan, for whatever reason, decided to rush the stage during the band’s performance of “Morning Glory” and attack Noel Gallagher. From what was seen, it’s probably safe to say that the attacker meant to take down both brothers, but Oasis security wasn’t about to let that happen.

To say that Noel was attacked probably isn’t the most accurate description. To say that he was shoved, hard, is more fitting. Who shoves a rockstar mid performance? Furthermore, who in their right mind would think that trying to take on a Gallagher is a bright idea? Did this fan have a desire to get his face re-arranged?

After about 15-20 minutes, Oasis returned to the stage to finish out the set. This may have surprised most fans since Oasis isn’t always associated with putting their feelings aside, but they decided that the show must go on.

Wonder what their mood will be pre-show in London tonight?

Deadly Ike smashes Cuba; Is US Gulf Coast next?

2008-09-07T12:52:00.000-04:00

Deadly Hurricane Ike roared across Cuba on Monday, blowing homes to rubble and sending waves crashing over apartment buildings. Some 900,000 Cubans evacuated, and forecasters said it could hit Louisiana or Texas later this week.

Ike, which raked the Bahamas and worsened floods in Haiti that have killed 321 people, made landfall on Cuba as a fearsome Category-3 hurricane, then weakened to a still-potent Category-2 on Monday as it ran along the length of the island.

There were no immediate reports of deaths in Cuba, despite storm-whipped waves that crashed into five-story apartment buildings, hurling heavy spray over their rooftops, and winds that uprooted trees and toppled utility poles.

"I have never seen anything like it in my life. So much force is terrifying," said Olga Alvarez, 70, huddling in her living room in Camaguey with her husband and teenage grandson. "We barely slept last night. It was just `boom, boom, boom.'"

Forecasters said Ike could make a direct hit on Havana, where decaying, historic buildings are especially vulnerable, before regaining force in the Gulf of Mexico and slamming into the United States somewhere along the Gulf coast.

As the hurricane's eye passed just south of Camaguey, falling utility poles crushed cars parked along narrow streets and the roaring wind blew apart some older buildings of stone and brick, leaving behind only piles of rubble.

A tree smashed the box office of an old-fashioned movie theater downtown and toppled street signs shattered the picture windows of department stores.

Families huddled inside their homes, watching from behind the iron gates of doorways as diagonal sheets of stinging rain fed rising flood waters. A huge piece of plastic roofing spun like a top in the wind above a traffic intersection.

Sporadic reports from six of the eight eastern provinces affected indicated that at least 900,000 people had evacuated, and former President Fidel Castro released a statement calling on Cubans to heed security measures to ensure no one dies. Cuba historically has successfully carried off massive evacuations before hurricanes, sparing countless lives.

"It's a huge evacuation," said Mirtha Perez, a 65-year-old retiree taking refuge with about 1,000 others in a Camaguey art school built on stilts. "We are waiting and asking God to protect us and that nothing happens to us."

State television said officials had taken measures to protect thousands of European and Canadian tourists at vulnerable seaside resort hotels. More than 9,000 foreigners were pulled from the Varadero resort, east of Havana.

A few street signs were topped at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southeast Cuba and power went out temporarily in some residential areas, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Lamb said. But the military said cells containing the detainees — about 255 men suspected of links to the Taliban and al-Qaida — are hurricane-proof, and no injuries were reported.

By late morning, Ike still had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (160 kph) about 45 miles (75 kilometers) west-southwest of Camaguey. Forecasters said it would likely move out slightly into the Caribbean, picking up strength over warm water, before making Cuban landfall again.

Ike was expected to hit Havana, 290 miles (465 kilometers) away, early Tuesday. Morning skies were only cloudy in the capital of 2 million people, but officials closed schools and seaside avenues and prepared for evacuations.

"My home is strong and it won't fall, and I'm not afraid of the wind," said Yusenia Aguilar, who lives with her two young children on Havana's western outskirts. "But the water rises a lot in this area."

Florida canceled an evacuation order from its Keys on Monday as Ike moved further south, but urged tourists to stay away until Wednesday. After passing into the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said Ike could hit land over the weekend near the Texas-Louisiana border, possibly not far from Houston.

Ike first slammed into the Turks and Caicos and the southernmost Bahamas islands as a mighty Category 4 hurricane that peeled off roofs and knocked down buildings. Officials began to assess the damage on Monday.

"It looks like Beirut," said Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick as his small plane landed at a Grand Turk airport where a collapsed hangar had crushed the aircraft inside.

Some people cried and hugged Misick. At one home, women called out: "No food! No food!"

Mary James, a longtime resident of Grand Turk, said up to 90 percent of the island "is just a disaster."

"I slept in the toilet, me and my family. That's how we survived," James told The Associated Press.

In flooded Haiti, Ike made an already grim situation abysmal.

At least 61 people died as Ike's winds and rain swept the impoverished Caribbean nation Sunday. Officials also found three more bodies from a previous storm, raising Haiti's death toll from four tropical storms in less than a month to 321. A Dominican man was crushed by a falling tree.

Haiti's coastal town of Cabaret was particularly hard hit — 21 victims were stacked in a mud-caked pile in a funeral home there, including two pregnant women, one with a dead girl still in her arms. Mayor Thomas Joseph Will said two more victims were found Monday.

Off Mexico, Tropical Storm Lowell was moving northwest parallel to the Pacific coast with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was 280 miles (455 kilometers) south-southwest of the tip of the Baja California Peninsula, which could be threatened late in the week.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos; Mike Melia in Nassau, Bahamas; Jonathan Katz in Gonaives, Haiti; Alexandra Olson in Cabaret, Haiti; Anita Snow and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana, Cuba; and David McFadden in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

Top 10 Main Election Issues

2008-09-06T13:56:00.001-04:00

It shouldn't surprise you that Liberal leader Stephane Dion calls this 'the most important vote in Canadian history.' Every leader of every party has at some point in past elections used the same phrase. But there's little doubt that there's a definite difference between the candidates this time around that we don't often get to see.

Here's a look at some of the issues that may loom large this go-round.

1) The economy

You've heard that old canard that when the U.S. sneezes, Canada catches a cold. Well, our neighbour to the south is full of sniffles these days, and Ontario workers have that achy feeling. With the auto industry in turmoil and jobs disappearing from this province, this could be the biggest single issue in Ontario.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion has already taken a page from Ronald Reagan's handbook, essentially asking 'are you better off now than you were two years ago?' The way you answer that question may well define who gets your check mark or your "X" on October 14^th.

2) Taxes

It's become the number one quiver in the Conservative arsenal: offer always over-taxed voters cuts in the amount of levies they have to pay to the federal government. Expect the Tories to hammer away at the issue and remind you they chopped the GST as they promised. And don't be surprised to hear them tell you that Stephane Dion is primarily campaigning on the Green Shift plan - a program few really understand but which opponents will paint as a tax you can't afford.

3) The environment

It's always an issue, but rarely has it ever been as prominent as it is this time. Stephane Dion has made it the centerpiece of his platform and both the NDP and Green Party will be harping on it, too. Except them all to remind you that the Conservatives failed to live up to Canada's commitments to the Kyoto Protocol, which we signed under the Grits in April 1998 but Stephen Harper deemed impossible to carry out.

4) Leadership

A big issue with many. One recent poll seemed to suggest that most Canadians asked didn't really seem very impressed with any of the party leaders, with the NDP's Jack Layton coming out on top of Stephen Harper over who would be the best leader. All three of the major party bosses may be vulnerable on this issue and voters could well be casting a ballot more against than in favour of a specific candidate.

5) Gas prices

They're the highest they've ever been and they could play a role in the vote. Many drivers are already openly wondering why the Conservatives refused to at least temporarily lower taxes on gas as the prices climbed ever higher. While things have improved slightly, they're far from cheap and with hurricanes, tensions in the Middle East and OPEC countries threatening to cut supply, they could go back up again at any time.

The Conservatives and some financial experts have long claimed that cutting gas taxes wouldn't significantly alter the price, but that may not be something many constituents will either believe or want to hear. And those who make their living on the road may make this a major issue.

But with world markets having most of the say, the other parties don't really have an answer for this problem either, a vulnerability for all of them.

6) Health care

This one seems to have taken a back seat to the others, and it's not the high priority it has been in past elections. But it's not out of sight or out of mind - there are still thousands and thousands of Canadians who don't have a family doctor in this country and don't know where to find one. And the waiting list at hospitals and for tests is still too long.

7) Afghanistan

With the death of the 97^th Canadian overseas and our soldiers scheduled to remain there until 2011, there could be growing pressure brought to bear over this issue. The NDP is already on record as opposing our involvement. And with each death, some of the questions surrounding our presence get a little louder.

8) Crime

The Conservative crime bill passed in the House of Commons, and is supposed to allow police and the legal system to crack down harder on law breakers. Some argue it's too tough, others that it's not harsh enough. Those in the big cities, where violent crimes are more likely to take place on a regular basis, may see this as an issue to grill all the parties on as the campaign wears on.

9) The Toronto Factor

As local and provincial politicians agitate for more support from the federal government for Canada's once proud economic engine, voters here may bluntly demand to know: what's in it for us? The Conservatives have a reputation for ignoring Toronto and the city has fallen into the red, having a tough time maintaining vital services like infrastructure.

If the Harper government hopes to have even a shot at a majority, it will have to convince those in the 416 that they matter - and this time, they may have to prove it before the big vote.

10) Nationalism

For the first time in a long time, the spectre of Quebec separation isn't a huge issue. The 'we're leaving' noises that often emanate from La Belle Province have been ramped down in recent years, as the downturn in the economy takes its toll everywhere. The Conservatives are gaining in that province, although not enough to beat the Bloc.

But it's the status of the once impregnable Liberals there that may well tell the final tale of this election. And while Stephane Dion is better known in Quebec than in the rest of Canada, that doesn't mean he's well liked.

Just like the Ontario and Toronto factors, the outcome may well rest with how many Tories and how many Liberals find a seat in this game of political musical chairs in our neighbour to the east.

TTC Launches Next Train Arrival Subway Signs

2008-09-05T16:18:00.001-04:00

It's kind of ironic that I'm stuck waiting for my Queen streetcar en route to the official TTC launch of thier Next Train Arrival signs. And sure enough, two streetcars arrive back-to-back after a 20-minute-plus wait.

The new program, which launched yesterday afternoon at Dundas subway station, alerts commuters when the next subway train will arrive at the station via the Onestop Toronto Network.

In its current incarnation, this service is rather limited in usefulness, such as during rush hour, when trains run about every two minutes. But it can alert commuters to possible delays, which would be a lot better than having to wait and wait, not knowing what's going on, only to eventually hear a muffled announcement over the intercom.

"Now you'll know another train is arriving shortly so you don't feel compelled to get on a packed train," says TTC chair Adam Giambrone (pictured above). "They will also show when the following train will arrive.

"This system uses the block signal system for subways and GPS for buses and streetcars. Eventually, we'll have LED screens on poles or built into all-new shelters that will show the expected time and physical location of the next vehicle."

I found it odd that the screen showed that the next train was "in the station" when it pulled in, instead of already letting us know when the following one is scheduled to arrive.

"These systems will improve as the algorythm corrects itself over time," says Giambrone.

Next Train Arrival signs will be installed in all 69 subway and rapid transit stations by the end of 2009.

Tech-savvy TTC commuters will be pleased to know that the TTC is set to launch email alerts over the next couple of months too. "We've also got a trip planner to be launched next June and an e-commerce initiative in the first quarter of 2009," says Giambrone. So you will soon be able to buy your TTC Metropass online, as well. "All these things help customers get where they want to go without delay," says Giambrone.

This is great, but way overdue. We've had MyTTC.ca create a trip planner of their own in the absence of one that should really be an essential service provided by the TTC. Better late than never, I guess.

You may be wondering why the TTC is spending its already-strapped budget dollars on this venture. Giambrone says it costs less than $5,000 per station and the screens are paid for by advertisers. "This is part of an $8 million budget that was pre-approved at the last commission meeting," says Giambrone.

Soon we will get fancy LED screens on bus and streetcar shelters, letting us know when the next vehicle will arrive. This way, if I'm waiting for that streetcar on Queen Street, at least I'll be able to make a more informed decision whether to wait it out, walk or hop in a cab.

Metrolinx Transit Plan Unveiled

2008-09-04T00:29:00.000-04:00

Details of a massive plan for the future of public transit in the GTA have finally been unveiled to the media. A report surfaced today pegging the required budget at $55 billion. Now that is if all the recommendations in the plan were to actually go ahead (unlikely). Expect this to blow up into a huge issue around who should be responsible for funding it. Timely, given the talk about an impending federal election.

Back in July we reported that Metrolinx had again delayed this same plan after it was originally scheduled to come out in the spring. This is the organization otherwise known as the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority, and this highly anticipated "master plan" is the culmination of a lot of hoopla over the benefits of making transit plans for the whole region rather than each municipality acting independently.

I said it then and I'll say it again: my fingers are crossed that Metrolinx is given the necessary authority and political support to actually pull off a long overdue investment strategy for the region.

There are certainly some ambitious projects reported to be included:

- Express GO Transit rail service from downtown Toronto to Hamilton, Oshawa, Brampton, Richmond Hill and Mississauga, running every 15 minutes, all day, in both directions;

- Express rail service every 15 minutes to Pearson Airport from Union Station;

- A subway or subway-like "Metro" line along Eglinton Avenue;

- A "Downtown Core" east-west subway line;

- Thousands of kilometres of longer and wider roads, including the extension of Highway 407 east to Clarington, as well as extensions to the 404, 427 and 410;

- Local rapid-transit bus or light-rail services along major routes in Hamilton, Halton, Peel, York and Durham Regions;

- $500-million for "active transportation," such as bike lanes;

- Northward extensions of TTC light-rail lines planned for Jane Street and Don Mills north to Highway 7 in York Region;

- GO Transit commuter rail service expansions or improvements including routes to Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo, Bowmanville and Aurora.

It reads like an answer to the question "if money was no issue what would you do to improve transit in the GTA?" My initial thoughts are that I hope the group spent at least some of their time prioritizing investments and generally joining us in the world of budgets where transit proposals rarely see the light of day. To be fair though and put things in perspective, the plan is for a 25 year period, so it's not like they're suggesting this all be done overnight. We'll have to wait for the actual document to be made available for a closer look.

For more information about Metrolinx and to see the actual report when it is released, you can visit the Metrolinx Regional Transportation Plan page.

Global warming's toasty water connection to Gustav

2008-08-30T19:31:00.000-04:00

Global warming has probably made Hurricane Gustav a bit stronger and wetter, some top scientists said Sunday, but the specific connection between climate change and stronger hurricanes remains an issue of debate.

The Atlantic is seeing an increase in storms rated among the strongest. In the past four years, Hurricanes Gustav and Katrina, and six other storms have reached Category 4 or higher with sustained winds of at least 131 mph, according to research at Georgia Tech.

Six scientists contacted by The Associated Press on Sunday said this shows some effect of global warming, but they differ on the size of the effect.

"We are just seeing a lot more Categories 4 and 5 globally than we have ever seen," said Judith Curry, chairman of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Georgia Tech. "The years 2004, 2005 and 2007 are quite high. We're just seeing more and more."

Measurements of the energy pumped into the air from the warm waters — essentially fuel for hurricanes — has increased dramatically since the mid 1990s, mostly in the strongest of hurricanes, according to a soon-to-be published paper in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems by Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

But the same scientists also caution it is impossible to blame global warming for any single weather event and that some form of Gustav (and other hurricanes) would have likely still formed and turned deadly without man-made climate change.

Yet the fingerprint of global warming on the strongest storms is becoming clearer with new research, scientists said. And that includes Gustav, which reached Category 4 status Saturday before weakening.

"The strongest storms are expected to be stronger," said Gabriel Vecchi, a research oceanographer for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in Princeton, N.J. "And since Gustav is a very strong storm, you'd expect Gustav to have had an effect from human-induced global warming."

But how much of an effect is where it gets tricky. Vecchi said he can't tell how much, which makes him uncomfortable as a scientist. Trenberth calculated, in an earlier journal article, that major storms like Katrina and Gustav probably have increased their rainfall by about 6 to 8 percent because of global warming.

Warmer water makes the surface air warmer, which means it could contain more moisture. That means more hot moist air rises up the hurricane, serving as both fuel for the storm and extra rainfall coming back down, said Peter Webster, professor of atmospheric sciences at Georgia Tech.

For the past several years, scientists have traded papers and jibes about the effect global warming has already had — if any — on hurricanes. Some scientists, such as Christopher Landsea at the National Hurricane Center, have faulted the quality of storm numbers and the length of time used for historical study used by Curry, Webster and others to connect to hurricanes to global warming.

"Yes, climate change is impacting hurricanes," Landsea said. But the effect on storm intensity now is "very small," something that can't be noticed in a storm so big, he said.

Hugh Willoughby, a former government hurricane research director and now professor of meteorology at Florida International University in Miami, is not quite as convinced. However, he said a consensus seems to be forming on a global warming effect on just the strongest of hurricanes. But he said he thought Webster and others are exaggerating the effects.

Hurricane activity cycles — where about every 25 years a lot of storms form followed by another quarter-century of fewer hurricanes — plays a bigger role than global warming, Willoughby said.

"We have a real effect due to climate change," Willoughby said. "But the dominant effect in my mind is just bad luck."

Plus, Willoughby said Gustav probably has little or no climate change effect to it because it looks just like similar storms from decades and even centuries ago.

Curry thinks it's more than cyclical. The number of strongest storms now is far more than it was in the 1940s and 1950s, the last flurry of hurricane activity, she said.

And it's only getting worse, Curry said. From 1975 to 1990, about 17 percent of all hurricanes around the world were Category 4 and 5. From 1990 to 2004, that jumped to 35 percent. And from 2003 through last year it was up to 41 percent — not including this year's Gustav.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Cupid's arrow hits Olympic archers

2008-08-27T12:33:00.000-04:00

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's top male and female archers capped gold medal performances at the Beijing Olympics by announcing wedding plans just as the games ended, an archery official said on Tuesday.

Park Sung-hyun, 25, who led the women's team to a gold medal and won an individual silver in Beijing, is to marry Park Kyung-mo, 33, who had similar success at the Games.

"The exact date hasn't been decided yet but, yes, they are dating each other and planning to get married," said an official from the Korea Archery Association.

The two, known for their cool composure in competition, struck up a relationship while training for the Olympics.

They surprised team mates and coaches by announcing at a Beijing restaurant that they were engaged, local media reported people close to the two archers as saying.

South Korean archers have dominated the sport at the Olympics for years. The two Parks have won a total of five Olympic gold medals and two silvers from Beijing and the 2004 Games in Athens.

Groom-to-be Park Kyung-mo was quoted by the association as telling reporters: "Now that it's known to everyone, I hope people will welcome the news. Please give as much attention to archery as you give to us."

(Reporting by Kim Junghyun; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing

by Paul Tait)

Ruby the passion of gemstones

2008-08-26T12:34:00.000-04:00

Posted by Markus Don Gabriel

These Rubys are of “Tajik origin”

Ruby has been considered one of the most valuable gemstones on Earth. It has everything a precious stone should have: magnificent colour, excellent hardness and outstanding brilliance. In addition to that, it is an extremely rare gemstone, especially in its finer qualities.

The Sanskrit word for ruby is ’ratnaraj’, which means something like ’king of the gemstones’. And it was a royal welcome indeed which used to be prepared for it. Whenever a particularly beautiful ruby crystal was found, the ruler sent high dignitaries out to meet the precious gemstone and welcome it in appropriate style.

Two magical elements are associated with the symbolism of this colour: fire and blood, implying warmth and life for mankind. So ruby-red is not just any old colour, no, it is absolutely undiluted, hot, passionate, powerful colour. Like no other gemstone, the ruby is the perfect way to express powerful feelings. Instead of symbolising a calm, controlled affection, a ring set with a precious ruby bears witness to that passionate, unbridled love that people can feel for each other.

In 1970 a Russian historian Mira Bubnova found evidence that the Kul I Lal mine had been operated as early as the 7th century. Apparently it was discovered after an earthquake, when locals found some pink stones. The Kul I Lal mines became famous as they are thought to have produced two of the most famous “rubies” in the world: The Black Prince Ruby and the Timur Ruby, both currently part of the British Royal Jewels.

Global warming time bomb trapped in Arctic soil: study

2008-08-25T17:06:00.000-04:00

Climate change could release unexpectedly huge stores of carbon dioxide from Arctic soils, which would in turn fuel a vicious circle of global warming, a new study warned Sunday.

And according to one commentary on the research, current models of climate change have not taken this extra source of greenhouse gas into account.

Scientists have long known that organic carbon trapped inside a blanket of frozen permafrost covering one fifth of the world's land mass would, if thawed, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

But until now they simply did not have a good idea of how much carbon is actually locked inside this Arctic freezer.

To find out, a team of American researchers led by Chien-Lu Ping of the University of Alaska Fairbanks examined a wide range of landscapes across North America.

They took soil samples from 117 sites, each to a depth of at least one metre, in order to provide a full assessment of the region's so-called "carbon pool."

Previous estimates of the Arctic carbon pool relied heavily on a relative handful of measurements conducted outside of the Arctic, and only to a depth of 40 centimetres (15.5 inches).

The study, published in the British journal Nature Geoscience, found that the stock of organic carbon "is considerably higher than previously thought" -- 60 percent more than the previously estimated.

This is roughly equivalent of one sixth of the entire carbon content in the atmosphere.

And that is just for North America. The size and mix of landscapes in the northern reaches of Europe and Russia are about the same, and probably contain a comparable amount of carbon-dioxide producing matter currently held in check only by the cold, the study said.

And the danger of a thaw is real, note climate scientists.

The Nobel Prize-winning UN panel of climate change scientists project temperature increases by century's end of up to six degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Arctic region, which is more sensitive to global warming than any other part of the planet.

Commenting on the research, Christian Beer of the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany, pointed out that the climate change models upon which future projections are based, do not include the potential impact of the gases trapped frozen Arctic soils.

"Releasing even a portion of this carbon into the atmosphere, in the form of methane or carbon dioxide, would have an significant impact on Earth's climate," he noted in his commentary, also published in Nature Geoscience.

Methane, another greenhouse gas, is less abundant than carbon dioxide but several times more potent as a driver of global warming.

Pressure mounts for 2010 organizers with close of Beijing Games

2008-08-25T17:04:00.000-04:00

By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press

BEIJING - The only part of Vancouver's 2010 Olympics that is physically bigger than the Beijing Games is one of the mascots.

Step aside little Fuwa, it's Quatchi's turn now. With the close of the Summer Olympics, Vancouver organizers can finally begin taking their Games to the rest of the world. The pressure is on.

"People expect, regardless of whether we're smaller or not, they'll expect us to do something profoundly positive as well and leave our mark," said John Furlong, the chief executive officer of Vancouver's Olympic organizing committee.

With less than 18 months to go and almost all of the venues ready to open, Vancouver planners are now shifting their attention to all the small details that go into hosting an Olympics.

"There are a lot of pieces that need to pulled together still before we can get to a seamless operation of the Games," said Paul Henderson, director of Olympic and Paralympic operations for the city of Vancouver.

"Of course, they are all in play, but there's still lots of work to do."

Among other things, details have still not been finalized on how the thousands of spectators, reporters and athletes will be moved around the venues and host cities for the Games.

A final security budget - initially low-balled at $175 million - has yet to be released.

The public will get its first true glimpses of how Vancouver will manifest its Olympic spirit when the decorative banners and flags to be used around the city and at venues during the Games are released in September.

Next will come the first phase of ticket sales, via lottery, which begins Oct. 3.

"We don't expect our challenge will be selling the tickets," said Dave Cobb, the vice-president of marketing for the Olympic committee.

"But we're not going to assume we can do things the way they've done before and expect our seats to be full."

To combat the chronic empty-seat problem caused by unused tickets that sprouts up each Olympics, Vancouver will launch a comprehensive, high-tech strategy.

Organizers are going to create an official resale market for tickets and cut down the number of seats available for the groups who most often don't show up at events - sponsors, media and other Olympic officials.

Making sure each seat is full is part of Vancouver's drive to have more spirited Games than those in Beijing. Higher value will also be placed on in-game entertainment at the venues and on public celebrations.

"We are for sure wanting to turn the city into a place where everybody wants to go at night to come face to face with the events," Furlong said.

"The fact is not every citizen is going to go (to the competitions), not every citizen can afford to go, but they can all be part of the event and be downtown."

On the sports side of the Games, the drive to own the podium in 2010 continues.

With all venues set to be fully operational this winter, Canadian athletes will have home-field advantage for training - and the money to back it up.

Athletes in Beijing complained that a lack of funding capped Canada's medal haul at 18. But the Canadian Olympic Committee says the money for 2010 is just fine.

"When we came up with the Own The Podium plan in partnership with everyone else who was involved, particularly the sport organizations, we basically went to them and said 'What do you think you could do and how much money to you need to achieve it?,"' said Chris Rudge, chief executive officer of the COC.

"They said 'We think we can be No. 1 and we need $110 million.' We got the 110, so it would be somewhat hypocritical to say it's not enough when they gave us what we asked for."

Another challenge ahead for planners in the next few months is assuaging concerns the Olympics will wreak havoc with the daily lives of people in the two host cities of Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

Furlong said he hopes measures needed to prepare the cities for the Games will be seen as "volunteering" by businesses and residents to help put on the Olympics.

"We may for example ask businesses to consider opening their businesses earlier in the morning and shutting down later," he said.

"I think we're going to get a high degree of co-operation because it's been our experience that everybody wants to help, everybody wants to be on the team."

For another segment of Vancouver's population, there also remain concerns the Games will eliminate its day-to-day existence.

Where Beijing used edicts and brute strength to create a city virtually free of vice for the Games, city and provincial officials in B.C. are spending millions in their rush to clean up Vancouver's streets of the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted.

There's a strong belief in that community that people there will be shipped out of town or jailed arbitrarily to keep their faces out of the media coverage of the Olympics.

But B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has vowed that isn't going to happen.

He says investments in housing and health are helping address the root problems in the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada's biggest ghettos, and it will look different by 2010.

"I see this as an area of possibilities, where we think about historic neighbourhoods and what they provided to the city, what they provided to the province, " he said.

"And if we look at those things, and work on them as an integrated way, I think you will see significant improvements by 2010."

Though Olympic planners are chock full of spirit and enthusiasm for the Games, they recognize that not everyone feels the same way and protests are inevitable.

But if they do their jobs right, Furlong said, protest will be eliminated.

"The goal of the organizing committee is to try and earn the respect of the public, to build our credibility with the public to try and include everybody so when we get to the Games people will feel like the project deserves the support we would like it to have."