TGIF Edition 31 Jul 09

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ISSN 1172-4153 | Volume 2 | Issue 42 |

| 31 July 2009

NZers warned of measles threat Wellington, July 31 – New Zealand could be facing a measles epidemic, with about a quarter of children under the age of five at risk of catching the disease, immunisation experts say.

Notified cases of measles rose to 93 in July, up from seven in June.

Total notified cases this year stand at 133 – more than seven times higher than the total number of cases last year.

Auckland University’s immunisation advisory centre is warning further cases are likely as the disease spreads north from the South Island.

Researcher Nikki Turner said New Zealand potentially faced a serious measles outbreak.

“We could be seeing the beginning of an epidemic.”

New Zealand’s measles immunisation rate is among the lowest in the developed world, with 15-20 percent of children not vaccinated before beginning primary school, Dr Turner said.

About 70,000 children under the age of five were at risk of catching the disease as a result, she said.

Measles is highly infectious, with one case able to infect a further 12-18 people. It can lead to hospitalisation, pneumonia and death.

Parents should be aware of the symptoms of measles and ensure children are immunised against the disease, Dr Turner said.

“The only way of preventing measles is by having high immunisation rates.”

New Zealand’s most recent measles epidemic was in 1991. There were seven deaths from a total of 7000 cases.

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EDITION

Dunedin

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INSIDE

KRAKATOA BLOWS

Another big bang?

Page 8

WHITE LIBERALS

Move over Jetsons…

Forget Alan Gibbs carboat the Aquada, flying cars will be zooming around our skies as early as next year, thanks to a British company which is selling them on pre order for just NZ$150,000 (£60,000). The Skyjet is essentially a dune buggy with a ram-air (self-inflating) Paramania Reflex wing, as used by paragliders.

Power is provided by a Yamaha R1 motorcycle engine that, in car mode, gets the Skyjet from 0-100km/h in 4.2 seconds and on to a theoretical top speed of 230km/h. The vehicle’s take-off speed is 60km/h. Once airborne, it can reach a top speed of 160km/h, has a range of 320 km providing you adhere to a cruising speed of 130km/h and it can reach a max altitude of 15,000ft, providing you have breathing apparatus and really warm clothing to survive temperatures of 20 below. If anything bad goes wrong, an emergency ballistic reserve parachute can be deployed. Anyone with a spare NZ$25,000 (£10,000) can reserve a Skycar now from the Parajet Automotive Web site. PHOTO: WENN

The new racism Page 6

BARACK’S BEER Humble pie Page 9

Global warming promoters hide data

By Ian Wishart

The UK Met Office unit tasked with monitoring global warming is refusing to release its computer data for peer review, in case skeptics find mistakes in the data.

The stunning revelation that climate change data is not being properly peer reviewed came in a UK Met Office refusal this week to supply information under

the UK’s Freedom of Information legislation.

“We have 25 or so years invested in the work.Why should I make the data available to you,when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”,Met Office Hadley Centre spokesman Phil Jones told Australian climatologistWarwick Hughes,and Canadian researcher Steve McIntyre of the Climate Audit website.

McIntyre, a statistician, was instrumental in dis-

proving the infamous ‘hockey stick’ graph used by Al Gore and the United Nations to promote global warming fears.McIntyre’s work led to a US congressional investigation that found global warming data had been misrepresented and shoddily researched.

The Canadian academic suspects temperature data collected by the UK Met Office is faulty,but the Met has so far refused to allow its data to be peer reviewed.

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The scandal, says McIntyre, is that taxpayers own the UK government data, but despite trumpeting that global warming is based on“peer reviewed science”, it appears only“friendly”peers are permitted to see the raw data, meaning the public can’t trust the integrity of the global warming claims.

The scandal has become major news on blogsites around the world this week.

NEW ZEALAND

off BEAT Japanese couple rejects free trip to Italy ROME, July 31 (UPI) – A Japanese man says he does not want to cost Italian taxpayers money by accepting a free trip to make up for an astronomical bill at a Rome restaurant.

Yasuyuki Yamada told the Italian news agency ANSA he and his fiancee enjoyed their trip to Italy, except for their experience at Il Passetto. He said he would love to return some time, paying his own way.

The restaurant charged the couple 700 euros (almost NZ$1,700) for dinner. After they complained to police, Il Passetto managers said Yamada and his fiancee had chosen expensive dishes like lobster and oysters.

The restaurant had already been the subject of another complaint from a Japanese couple who said they were charged 352 euros for a meal, including a shared main course. After Yamada’s complaint, health inspectors forced Il Passetto to close, although it is expected to reopen soon.

Yamada thanked Tourist Minister Michela Vittoria Brambilla for offering him a free trip but said he would not accept. He said swindlers exist all over the world.

Asahi Shimbun reports the number of Japanese tourists to Italy has dropped by more than 50 percent in a decade, with inflated restaurant prices a major complaint.

The old mouse in the Pepsi trick ORLAND BEACH, Fla., July 31 (UPI) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is testing a Diet Pepsi can that a Florida couple claims contained the remains of a dead rodent.

Fred Denegri, 55, and his wife, Amy, of Orlando Beach, said they poured out the can after Fred determined that it tasted wrong and discovered what they said appeared to be a dead mouse inside the can, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported.

The FDA said the can has been retrieved for testing.

“We take all complaints seriously and are moving quickly to investigate it,” spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said.

Pepsi officials said Wednesday the can came from the plant in Orlando but company investigators were unable to find anything amiss with quality controls and soda sampling.

“It is virtually impossible for this type of thing to happen in a production environment,” said Pepsi spokesman Jeff Dahncke, “We run about 1,250 cans per minute on these production lines. Their speed, along with the rigorous quality control systems we have in place throughout our manufacturing process, give us great confidence in the quality and safety of our products.”

Britons warned of unusual foreign laws LONDON, July 31 (UPI) – A British travel agency has released a list of foreign laws of which British travelers may not be aware, including a Florida law against singing in a swimsuit.

Online travel agency Sunshine.co.uk said its new traveler’s guide is aimed at keeping Britons out of trouble in places such as Milan, Italy, where a law states people must smile at all times unless at a funeral or hospital, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The guide says a law on the books in Switzerland prohibits flushing the toilet after 10 p.m. and a Hong Kong law states the wife of a cheating husband can legally kill her spouse with her bare hands.

Aside from the more serious rules, such as showing affection to a non-marital partner in public or walking around in swimwear in Dubai, there are many outdated rules around the world that people should be aware of, a spokesman for Sunshine.co.uk said.

Chris Brown, managing director of the Web site, conceded that many of the laws included in the guide are likely not enforced.

“All jokes aside, we are very committed to reassuring our customers about the rules and regulations of their chosen destinations and we welcome the inquiries from Brits predominantly visiting locations like Dubai, Turkey and Egypt,” Brown said.

31 July 2009

In the latest outbreak in Christchurch, a large number of those affected had already been immunized against the measles, leading to questions about the efficacy of the vaccine. Some parents have reacted by taking their children to unofficial “measles parties”to ensure exposure and a subsequent build up of natural immunity.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

By Rachel Gleeson Incubation period: 8-21 Days Infectious Period: From four days before the appearance of the rash and for five to ten days after it disappears. The period of communicability (when the affected child can infect others) ranges from four days before the onset of the rash and up to five days after its appearance. Children can safely mix with others from five days after the appearance of the rash and when accompanying symptoms (see below) are alleviated.

Cause: A virus (also known as Rubeola) that is only active amongst humans. During the onset of the disease and early stages of eruption, the virus is found in the mucous membranes of the mouth, respiratory tract, conjunctiva (inner corners of the eye) and bloodstream. The measles virus is transferred by sneezing and coughing (both characteristic preceding symptoms) by means of the droplets contaminating and carried in the air.

Description & Symptoms: Measles is an acute infectious disease characterised by generalised fever and eruptions.

Children are highly susceptible to infection, with the highest incidence occurring in those under five years but rarely contracted in infants less than six months. The blotchy rash with raised pinky-red spots, starts behind the ears and spreads down the body. The disease can incubate for a number of weeks before symptoms develop into a full-blown rash. Preceding symptoms include a fever, cough, sore/irritated eyes, and uncharacteristic behaviours including clinginess for up to three weeks after contact with a carrier. Liquid, green diarrhoea is often present in smaller infants. If these symptoms are present but the rash yet to appear, look inside your child’s mouth for small spots like granules of sand, surrounded by redness.

These spots, called Koplik spots will confirm measles before the characteristic rash appears over the following 24-48 hours.

This is a shedding of the cells of the inner cheeks, inner surface of the lips and on the gums. The eye symptoms are usually quite marked, with an inflamed, streaming, watery appearance, often accompanied by photophobia (intolerance of light). It is common for the fever to increase gradually over a period of three days, with the rash appearing on the fourth day when the fever will reach its peak quite rapidly. The rash itself consists of small roundish red/pink spots, which are slightly raised above the level of the surrounding skin and usually contain a tiny papule in the centre. When close together, the spots can blend, giving them a more irregular appearance. The skin maintains its normal colour between the lesions. While the height of the disease is on the second or third day (when the accompanying

fever, eye, cough, nasal and swelling symptoms are at their worst), the outbreak of the rash reaches its peak around the fourth day, covering the entire body. The eruption of the rash followed by a flaking of the skin, leaving a dusky appearance to the underlying layers, occurring from the face and ears down – the same order as the rash appears. An attack of measles does not ensure lifelong immunity, however subsequent attacks of measles are rare.

Effects: • Pregnant women should try to avoid exposure and infection as it may result in miscarriage or premature labour.

• Be cautious about suppressing fevers as most complications arise from doing this – the disease needs to “burn itself out” as naturally as possible. These complications include ear infections, respiratory problems, pneumonia and rarely encephalitis – swelling of the brain. Careful attention, care and management of fever will reduce the likelihood of such manifestations.

• The most common effects in children are bronchitis; ear infection, laryngitis, pneumonia and encephalitis. It is believed that these conditions, including asthma are bought on if the preceding symptoms and subsequent eruptions are suppressed by medications. It is rare for complications to arise if the disease is allowed to run its natural course and eruptions are abundant.

• Infection of malnourished and immune compromised children, who can suffer further weight loss and in sever forms, protein-calorie malnutrition.

For further information including details on treatment, read Rachel Gleeson’s full report here.

Back to the front page

Angels’ claim to halo rejected Wellington, July 31 – A proposed gang patch bylaw was unanimously passed through a Wanganui District Council sub-committee meeting today and a group opposing it copped criticism from the city’s mayor.

The council is expected to pass the final stage of the bylaw on August 31, with the law coming into force on September 1.

Under the bylaw, people wearing a gang patch in Wanganui could be fined $2000 and the patch confiscated.

The subcommittee, comprising Mayor Michael Laws and councillors Randhir Dahya and Rana Waitai, considered 14 submissions today, including

some from the Hells Angels, who claim they are not a gang.

Hells Angels members and their lawyer Steve Rollo have argued they should be excluded from the bylaw because they were a club.

Wanganui Hells Angels president Wayne Tweeddale read a statement to the subcommittee, saying the gang patch ban was a “crazy idea”, but he refused to answer questions.

Sub-committee chairman Mr Laws said individual Hells Angels submittors had either not turned up, or refused to answer the committee’s questions, which was disappointing.

“Their basic thesis was that the Hells Angels motorcycle club isn’t a criminal gang but they blew a big opportunity today to explain their reasoning and the way they operate.

“I wanted to ask the members as to their criminal associations and convictions but that now is obviously a moot point.”

Parliament and New Zealand police had determined the Hells Angels were a gang, Mr Laws said.

“Our bylaw simply demarcates the boundaries where gang patches, gang colours and gang insignia will be banned.”

– NZPA

Green party calls for end to perks Wellington, July 31 – The Green Party has renewed its call for travel allowances for former MPs to be cut.

Details of MPs’expense claims were released yesterday for the first time, a response to the uproar in Britain over parliamentary extravagance and intended to show that in New Zealand a more rigorous regime applies.

They are to continue to be released every quarter.

ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas, who took his wife on an overseas holiday, put 90 percent of the air fares on taxpayers.

He told reporters he gained that entitlement as a former MP in the 1980s and saw no conflict with his

party’s strong line against wasting taxpayers’money.

“I was spending time with my son and grandchildren,”he explained before he started to lose patience with questions about whether it was a good idea during a recession.

“Listen my friend, this is a right that Helen Clark has,Jim Bolger,it’s something I would have been able to do whether I was an MP or not,”said Sir Roger.

He topped the chart for backbench list MPs with claims totalling $62,663 which included $44,411 for air travel and $11,083 on the roads.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said her party did not support the allowance.

Prime Minister John Key said while he did not

claim his travel expenses it was a matter for the business committee to change.

Present and former MPs elected before 1999 receive a 60 percent discount on travel after nine years of service, after 12 years they get 75 percent and after 15 they get 90 percent off.

Former prime ministers also get annuity payments of about $40,000 a year and surviving spouses can get about $20,000.

An independent review of parliamentary spending on MPs in 2007,carried out by businessman John Goulter, suggested scrapping the air fare subsidies for retired MPs, among other recommendations.

– NZPA

NEW ZEALAND

31 July 2009

NZ shares rally on offshore news Wellington, July 31 – The New Zealand sharemarket re-ignited today after global stocks rallied.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 22.203 points, or 0.742 percent, at 3016.203.Turnover was worth $126.48 million. There were 67 rises and 20 falls among the 115 stocks traded.

Some of the cyclical stocks were stars today.

Fletcher Building rose 15c to 718 and Mainfreight rose 17c to 455.Tourism Holdings rose 2c to 51 and Hallenstein Glassons rose 15c to 275.

“I think investors are reading between the lines on some of these announcements,”said Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

Mainfreight told shareholders at its annual meeting on Thursday that volumes had been affected by the economic downturn.

“Though it is difficult trading for them they are doing everything possible to keep their expenses down and they are probably one company that can ride through a downturn pretty comfortably,”he said.

Ryman Healthcare, which held its annual meeting today, rose 6c to 175.

“It was all extremely positive and it is a company that just keeps on ticking over very nicely.The market has taken a bit of heart from what these companies are saying,”he said.

Briscoes rose 10c to 118 after the retailer reported a 3.7 percent rise in second quarter sales compared to a year earlier.

Comvita rose 3c to 90 on the day it held its annual meeting.

Telecom eased 6c to 278 and NZ Refining eased 15c to 710.

SkyTV eased 3c to 432.APN rose 29c to 234.

Infratil rose 1c to 180 and SkyCity rose 1c to 329.

Lion Nathan rose 9c to 1480 even though the Law Commission yesterday releasedAlcohol in Our Lives,an issues paper on reforming New Zealand’s liquor laws.

Air NZ rose 1c at 110 on a day in which Tourism New Zealand launched a“Great Kiwi Invite”cam-

paign to boost international visitor numbers.

Contact Energy was unchanged at 630.

The Warehouse was up 9c to 399, NZ Oil & Gas added 4c to 162, Freightways was unchanged at 311.

Dual-listed bank ANZ gained 160c to 2360, while Westpac gained 75c to 2740.

The positive day came as Japan’s Nikkei average rose 1.8 percent to hit a 10-month high on Friday, and after European equities closed at their highest in nearly nine months and Britain’s top share index ended close to a seven-month high.

In the US, stocks rose as solid corporate profit reports and a drop in the number of Americans on jobless benefits gave investors reasons to buy equities following the S&P 500’s two days of losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.9 percent to close at 9154.46, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.2 percent to 986.75, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8 percent to 1984.30.

– NZPA

More booze in poor suburbs

By Kent Atkinson of NZPA

Wellington, July 31 – The level of access New Zealanders have to alcohol outlets varies dramatically – depending on whether they live in poor or affluent neighbourhoods.

Research published today in the international journal Health and Place shows that people who live in poor “lower decile”neighbourhoods are exposed to a greater density of alcohol than people in relatively wealthy areas.

“Those of us who reside in deprived urban areas live closer to pubs, bars, clubs and off-licences than do those residing in more affluent areas,”said principal investigator Kypros Kypri, of Otago University’s injury prevention research unit (IPRU).

Dr Kypri called for liquor licensing authorities and councils to consider the probable public health risk posed by permitting increasing numbers of alcohol outlets, and in particular, bars and offlicence outlets, in more deprived areas.

The research is in line with moves by the Law Commission reviewing the Sale of Liquor Act to make liquor licences harder to get.

Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer said this week it was time to“curb the harm”alcohol causes.

He has proposed a new Sale of Liquor Act,reducing hours in which alcohol can be purchased and expanding criteria under which liquor licences can be declined.

After considering the contribution of excessive use of alcohol to law and order problems, serious

health and injury, and other social harms, the commission has given the public three months to make submissions on its proposals.

Dr Kypri, who is also a senior research fellow at Newcastle University’s school of medicine and public health, compared different parts of New Zealand to find a relationship between the income levels of the neighbourhood,the density of alcohol outlets,and the distance people had to travel to the outlets.

The average travel distance was 50 percent greater in the least deprived compared to the most deprived areas. The research also checked out differences according to the outlet type – bar and pubs, restaurants, clubs, and off-licences.

The association between local deprivation and alcohol outlets in urban areas was strongest for bars and pubs, amounting to an average decrease in travel distance of 112m for each “deprivation decile”for those types of licence outlets.

Other research overseas shows an association between outlet type – bottle stores, restaurants, bars – and harms, with an increased density of bars being strongly associated with greater rates of assault.

In contrast, higher densities of restaurants are associated with more drink-driving.

The Otago researchers said unhealthy use of alcohol was increasing in many countries and remained a leading contributor to the global burden of disease, accounting for 3.2 percent of all deaths and 4 percent of disability-adjusted life years in 2000.

Worried about your family’s health this winter?

Worldwide Authorities are concerned about the overuse of antibiotics, development of resistant strains of bugs and the appropriateness of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals for children.

– NZPA

Kiwi continues to fly last week that the currency has risen much earlier compared to other economic upswings.

The recovery by the NZ dollar today also came as the US currency slid against major currencies as global stocks and commodities rebounded on optimism about an economic recovery worldwide.

Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar troughed on Thursday night at a four-week low around A78.80c and by 5pm had recovered to A79.23c, which compared to A79.44c yesterday.

ANZ said that despite the Reserve Bank’s messages the NZ dollar remained coupled with wider global sentiment and risk appetites.

“With Wall Street up strongly overnight on better economic data and further positive earnings surprises ... and commodities rebounding strongly after yesterday’s tumble, the kiwi naturally found some buying interest.”

The NZ dollar was buying 0.4647 euro at the local close from 0.4623 yesterday and was up to 62.62 yen from 61.67.The trade weighted index was 61.42 at 5pm from 61.01 yesterday.

– NZPA

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Wellington, July 31 – The New Zealand dollar rose today in defiance of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s latest attempt to talk it down.

The NZ dollar fell as low as US64.75c yesterday when the Reserve Bank said it would reassess policy settings if the economic recovery was put at risk.The central bank held its official cash rate unchanged at 2.5 percent.

The NZ dollar recovered to US65.68c at 5pm from US64.95c at the same time yesterday.

The Australian dollar was also strong today. It rose to US82.93c from US81.76c at the same time yesterday.

“I think yesterday’s short market has been squeezed here this afternoon,”said ANZ Institutional Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley.

He said a stronger Australian dollar and stronger euro were also features of the session.

There was no follow-through selling of the NZ dollar overnight.

The central bank and others have noted that the NZ dollar’s strength could choke off the recovery by reducing returns to exporters.AMP Capital said

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If your pharmacy does not have Kaloba in stock, please tell them the pharma-code for ordering is 2251264

EDITORIAL

31 July 2009

Editorial

Family Matters

Climate of fear The climate debate got messier this week, with revelations that an Emissions Trading Scheme will cost up to $3000 each for every man, woman, and child in your household, every year, just to hit a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions.

In the classic“soften them up”PR pitch, National has painted that annual bill - $15,000 a year for a household of five – as a worst case scenario that they don’t intend to follow.“Relax guys, we’ll only hit you for a 15% reduction”, Climate Change Minister Nick Smith has effectively said.

Even so, that 15% reduction will still sting you for $1400 each, for every member of your household, every year.And National wants you to think that’s the good news.“Be thankful we’re not whacking you for $3 grand!”Just wait until stage two of the ETS kicks in requiring cuts of 50% down the track. Once the scheme is in place, there’s no escape.

In reality, when I published Air Con in May, I conservatively estimated the ETS cost at $3,000 a household. It’s turned out to be about double that for just the initial phase.

The government’s proposed scheme will effectively force you to spend as much money as if you’d bought 50 copies of Air Con for every member of your household every year for the rest of your life.

When you look at it like that, $35 worth of preventative medicine in a book is a small price to pay if it gives you the weapons you need to spike the government’s guns on climate change policy.

Let’s face it, for $7,000 a year in a household with mum, dad and three kids, you’d be expecting the science to be utterly settled, right? Think again.

All that Greenland ice melt they told you was ‘unprecedented’– according to a paper this month in the Journal of Climate, Greenland was even hot-

ter and melting even faster in the 1920s and 30s, and it had nothing to do with CO2 – it was just a natural cycle.

Climate Change minister Nick Smith has been telling anyone who’ll listen that they shouldn’t read Air Con, and referring them to a Royal Society of NZ leaflet allegedly ‘debunking’the data in Air Con. The gullible will fall for that, but smart people have already realized the Royal Society document was written in 2005 and based on the UN IPCC’s 2001 research, which is now eight years out of date. Air Con contains studies published as recently as April 2009.

The really bad news for Smith, and others trying to peddle the global warming con, is that last week Air Con became the #1 bestselling climate book on Amazon.com.

Speaking of which, if you’ve read Air Con and you feel like writing a review, post one at Amazon. com.This is an extremely important issue, that will SUBSCRIBE TO TGIF! affect your pocket.

Walker’s World

Lame duck Labour

By Martin Walker

LONDON – Already a lame duck administration, the British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is barely even limping this week after a humiliating defeat in a by-election in Norwich and more grim economic news.

Expecting to record just a 0.3 percent decline in gross domestic product in the second quarter, the British economy shrank by almost a full percentage point, and the government budget deficit is getting even worse.The latest figures show that government revenues were 8.2 percent lower in June than in the same period 12 months ago, while social security benefits increased by 9.7 percent.

The Norwich by-election saw a Labour majority of 5,500 votes overthrown with the Conservatives winning the seat by more than 7,000 votes. But the results were not entirely comforting for David Cameron, the conservative leader who seems increasingly assured of becoming prime minister in next year’s general election.

Chloe Smith, the winning Conservative who at 27 becomes the youngest member of Parliament, scored fewer votes than her predecessor in the last general election. But the Labour vote collapsed, from 21,000 to 6,200, an extraordinary decline that points to the demoralization of Labour supporters during the deep recession.

For many commentators, however, the most startling feature of the Norwich vote was the weakness of all three of the country’s traditional parties and the surge in support for new minor parties. The Conservatives took 39 percent of the vote, Labour won 18 percent and the Liberal-democrats won 14 percent. But between them the new insurgent parties of the Greens, the anti-immigrant British Nationalists, the anti-European U.K. Independence Party, Honesty in Politics and others won 28 percent of the vote.

This is most unusual in British politics and reflects the anger of many voters at this year’s longrunning scandal over the way many members of Parliament abused their official expense accounts.

The Norwich by-election was forced by the resignation of the incumbent, who was accused of letting his student daughter live rent-free in the London accommodation that he occupied with his MP’s housing allowance.

That was one of the most minor complaints; other MPs used their various allowances to pay supermarket and video rental bills, or to buy houses while in fact staying with relatives, and in one bizarre case to have the moat cleaned at his private castle.The longrunning scandal, which began when an anonymous CD containing all the MPs’expenses claims arrived at a London newspaper office, has severely undermined public faith in politics, politicians and the

institution of what likes to call itself the Mother of Parliaments.

So the Conservatives are also worried that their longed-for victory next year could be shrouded or even denied by a massive protest vote for the new parties. Indeed, most commentators suspect that next year’s election could result in a hung Parliament, with the Conservatives as the largest single party but without sufficient seats to govern alone and thus requiring a coalition partner.

Much will depend on the degree to which traditional Labour Party supporters will grit their teeth and vote for their party and for the unpopular Brown. Their loyalty was tested by the unpopular decision by Prime Minister Tony Blair to join U.S. President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and is being tested again now by the Afghan war, which has already seen more British soldiers killed than the six years in Iraq.

And now Labour voters have been given yet another reason to question their party’s leadership and to withhold their support. Last week a former Labour government minister,Alan Milburn, published a sobering official report that said that the last 12 years of Labour government had seen a widening gap between rich and poor and a decline in social mobility, and that children from the poorer

social groups now have less chance of getting into the elite universities and the top professions than children born in 1958.

Social equality and the erosion of inherited wealth and privilege has long been the Labour Party’s core principle. But the Milburn report showed that the 7 percent of the population who go to private schools not only still dominate the commanding heights of British society, but their dominance is increasing.They produce 75 percent of Britain’s judges, 70 percent of finance directors, 45 percent of top civil servants and 32 percent of MPs. It is uncomfortable to be told such truths, commented The Guardian newspaper. Behind its modern veneer, British society is determined by who you know, and who your parents are.

– UPI

By Bruce Logan – Writer/Educationalist -Law was flawed from the beginning The so-called ‘debate’ about the so-called ‘smacking’ law has become tiresome. But we have discovered a few things, notably that research on the vice or virtue of smacking is not definitive. Most parents do not want to make it illegal while most alleged experts (certainly those referred to in the New Zealand media) do.

Unfortunately the major issue has been unexplored: we have cast our understanding of relationships between a parent and child within a human rights framework.

This recent quote from a Christchurch academic is normative; “Anti-smacking legislation is not about parents.

It is about children and their future. We need to step away from the rights of parents and focus on the rights of children to grow up in a home free of physical discipline.”

The central argument is that somehow or other we must find a balance between the rights of children and the rights of parents. From start to finish the problem is presented as a legal issue.

But in essence, the problem is not at any point about the law. The law has never been in the business – except under some absolutist regimes and those in the process of becoming absolutist – of trying to make people good.

It is about preventing, punishing or making amends; not about loving.

The problem with human rights legislation is that it has become absolutist. Human rights have become the guide to personal behaviour and morality.

In 1948 the United Nations’ representatives did not adopt a universal declaration as some kind of absolute; rather, they expressed a set of moral convictions which were held in common and from which human rights might be formulated. Unfortunately, certainly as the debate around the discipline of children has been discussed in New Zealand, we have entered a reductionist world where human rights are supreme. The moral convictions that gave rise to post World War Two rights theory have been replaced by human rights doctrine – fluid ideas forged on the anvil of contemporary ideologies and hammered out in the realm of political debate and in the media. As a result, today’s children and young people will probably know a great deal more about their rights and they will about the 10 Commandments or the commands of Christ to love one another.

So, instead of an understanding of rights based on moral convictions and responsibilities, we end up with the state and its laws as a substitute.

Our present attempt to apply human rights law to family dynamics is destructive because what is essentially an exercise in moral responsibility is turned into one of legal rights. The dynamic between a parent and child is not one about balancing the rights of the parent against the child or the child against the parent. In fact, it is not about ‘balancing rights’ at all.

The relationship between a parent and child is not the same kind of relationship as that between citizens. It is not and never has been a relationship between equals. Human rights legislation might be very helpful in causing good working relationships between citizens, but it has little value deciding how a parent should treat his or her child.

When used little and lightly, physical correction is not ‘violence’ any more than when a surgeon performs an operation: both behaviours will cause pain and discomfort, but the means is in harmony the ends. Neither is a violation either, because it is what parents and doctors do in their respective spheres of influence and responsibility. Equating parental correction with ‘violence’ is seldom challenged, but it should be, because within the context of the parent-child relationship no responsible parent would desire to inflict severe or lasting pain.

It is intriguing – and revealing – that all the do-gooder government agencies, bleating NGO’s and liberal academics supporting the recent law change, emotively and incorrectly correlate parenting which includes the occasional smack for correction with violence. Note too, the trumpedup language which includes words like ‘whacking’, ‘beating’ and ‘abuse’; all intended to create a particular mindset of parents hell-bent on turning their offspring into the next generation of violent and hardened criminals.

By insisting that the dynamic between a parent and child is one of balancing rights is to undermine the order of things. It is an attempt to make the law do something it cannot possibly do.

ANALYSIS

31 July 2009

“Big Brother” is a white supremacist

By Peter Curson

World Population Day (July 11) has come and gone and among other things it has brought forth a rash of soul searching about the ‘big picture’ of population growth, climate change, unrestrained consumption and resource depletion. We are now incessantly being told that more people means less for everyone, less for cattle herders in Africa, less land for farmers throughout the developing world, less energy and food for poor nations, and more conflict and uncertainty.There are now 6.9 billion of us and more on the way. By 2050 there may well be more than 9 billion people in the world.To ensure that environmental harm is kept to a minimum we need to reduce individual consumption rates. Or so we are told.

It is as if someone has reignited the old Malthusian debate of the 1970s and 80’s. More people are bad, something has to be done about it, and population control is the way to go. Interestingly, Malthusians have also assumed a new guise. Family planning and birth control in the developing world has become the catch-cry of a new generation of security experts, particularly in the US. A new security agenda has emerged in which the field of Security Demographics has become the war-wagon of neo-Malthusians who stridently claim that the Western model of small families, birth control, low fertility and middle aged-elderly populations is the only way to deliver stable government and social and economic security.

Population growth and rapidly increasing urbanisation in the developing world are seen as creating large numbers of poor, unemployed and discontented young males – all prone to radicalism and ready recruits for terrorist networks. Implicit in this is the view, strongly put by US demographic think tanks like Population Action International, the Population Institute and the Worldwatch Institute, is that there are ‘favourable’and ‘unfavourable’

age structures and that nations in the early and middle stages of the demographic transition are significantly more vulnerable to civil conflict than are those with low fertility and relatively mature aged populations.

So there we have it. High fertility, rapid population growth and a youth bulge are all indicators of insecurity and conflict whereas ageing nations are more likely to be peaceful and democratic. In reality the link is based on squeaky logic which simply states that because population growth and civil unrest and terrorism happen to coincide they must, therefore, be linked. But the answer put forward is population control, restricted fertility and emulation of the Western model.

All this reminds me of what Keith Buchanan said almost 40 years ago when he referred to the efforts of ‘The White North’to impose population solutions on the rest of the world by arguing that rapid population growth was a cancer that would erode a nation’s chance of development and security, and that birth control and family planning was the solution to all the ills facing world society.

The traditional Malthusian argument that population would always outstrip food production was I thought laid to rest some decades ago. But come back Paul Erlich and the population doom-mongers. ‘People pollution’ is back on the agenda, the ‘population bomb’ now has another connotation, and like 40 years ago the response smacks of neocolonialism, particularly when it is tied to threats or aid. Population growth is the problem, because it creates vast numbers of hungry, footloose and dangerous ‘Third Worlders’.We know best, and the answer is to impose the Western experience, and if you want investment and aid you had better adopt a family planning strategy.

There is a great irony here. On the one hand developed nations are strongly committed to the

nations in the early and middle stages of the demographic transition are significantly more vulnerable to civil conflict than are those with low fertility and relatively mature aged populations belief that all women have the right (at least in their own countries) to determine their own fertility performance. On the other, they are often the first to insist that family planning and birth control programs should be actively promoted and formalised throughout the developing world. Surely it is a basic human right that choices about fertility and child bearing are voluntary and not imposed by governments or international agencies?

As Frank Furedi has recently argued, we now have a new security agenda where the emphasis has shifted from the geopolitical domain to the

demographic and environmental domains. In all of this there is also more than a hint of environmental determinism, which links increasing population, environmental degradation, climate change and declining natural resources and sees them all as major threats to world security. In such an environment it seems that nearly everyone is prepared to jump on the bandwagon of insecurity and ‘the war on terror’.

Peter Curson is Professor in Population & Security, at the Centre for International Security Studies, Faculty of Economics & Business, the University of Sydney. He is also a TGIF Edition subscribe

Islamist violence sparked in Nigeria Their campaign in the swampy Niger Delta has slashed Nigeria’s oil production from 2.6 million barrels a day in 2006 to 1.7 million bpd

By UPI special correspondents

LAGOS, Nigeria – Islamic guerillas in Nigeria, calling themselves the Taliban, have launched a series of attacks against security forces in recent days, raising the spectre of a jihadist-inspired sectarian war in Africa’s most populous country and leading oil producer.

More than 100 people have been killed in gun battles that erupted Sunday and Monday in the northern Nigerian cities of Potiskum, Maidguri, Wudil and Bauchi.

The militants, apparently followers of a preacher – killed this week by police – who opposes Westernstyle education,went on a rampage during which they torched churches,schools,police and customs facilities and other government buildings in four states.

The violence inflamed sectarian tensions between Muslims and Christians that have flared periodically for years and killed more than 10,000 people since 2000. Muslims dominate Nigeria’s north, Christians are the majority in the south, although large Christian minorities have settled in the north’s main towns and cities.

The Nigerian military is waging a major offensive against tribal militants in the south, the country’s main oil-producing center. Those militants have been attacking oil facilities since 2004 in an escalating campaign of violence.

They want a bigger share of Nigeria’s immense oil wealth.Their campaign in the swampy Niger Delta has slashed Nigeria’s oil production from 2.6 million barrels a day in 2006 to 1.7 million bpd.

The country has also been plagued by a crime wave. Federal authorities in Abuja, the capital, said this month that more than 500 people have been kidnapped so far this year, a 70 percent increase over 2008, as militants and criminals expand their

operations to political and religious figures.Western intelligence services believe that Islamic extremists are making a determined effort to penetrate West Africa, an emerging world-class oil giant.

But it is far from clear whether the latest eruption of Muslim violence was linked to al-Qaida or its affiliates. Earlier bloodletting often appeared to be rooted more in domestic sectarian rivalries than Osama bin Laden’s global jihad.

But Nigeria, with the largest Muslim population in Africa after Egypt, has witnessed mounting Islamic militancy and growing anti-Western hostility in recent years that makes it fertile ground for extremist recruiters. Radical Arab Islamic preachers and bin Laden’s agents have sought to fan the flames of sectarian rivalries.

In February 2004, bin Laden listed Nigeria as one of six countries that needed to be liberated from U.S. enslavement and called on Nigerian Muslims to overthrow the country’s apostate regime.

The United States is deploying small groups of Special Forces throughout the impoverished Sahel region states of Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger north and northwest of Nigeria to counter infiltration by Islamic Salafist militants moving south from Algeria.

Ensuring that Nigeria’s oilfields, which could account for as much as 25 percent of U.S. oil imports within a few years, are secure will be a key mission for U.S. forces.

Nigeria has periodically teetered dangerously close to major upheaval that would threaten its

fragile unity. Its 130 million people are divided about equally between Hausa-speaking Muslims in the north and Christians of the Igbo andYoruba tribes in the south.

Religious and political rivalries, not just in the north but across the country, have been steadily worsening since the end of 15 years of often brutal military rule in 1999.

Ironically, the advent of democracy meant that military repression was lifted, releasing deep-rooted frustrations and anger among Nigeria’s religious and ethnics groups.

Religious riots in the northern city of Kaduna in 2000 triggered communal violence across the country in which more than 3,000 people perished, the worst bloodletting since Nigeria’s civil war in the 1960s in which 1 million people perished.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an exgeneral, declared a state of emergency in central Plateau state in May 2004 after months of ferocious sectarian fighting in which hundreds perished.

He said the violence has become a near mutual genocide that constitutes a grave threat to the security and unity of Nigeria.

Only last November, more than 700 people were slaughtered in Jos, capital of Plateau state, when a political feud over a local election degenerated into fierce clashes between Muslims and Christians.

WORLD

update

31 July 2009

Krakatoa getting set to blow again

in 60 seconds MICKEY MOUSE OUTFIT SUFFERS PROFIT DIP Los Angeles (dpa) – Third quarter profits fell 26 per cent at Disney, as the global recession hit the world’s largest media company at its theme parks, television stations and film studio.

The Los Angeles-based company said Thursday that it earned 954 million dollars compared to 1.28 billion dollars in the year-ago period. Sales declined 7 per cent to 8.6 billion dollars from 9.2 billion dollars in the same period last year. The company’s television sector saw income slide 8 per cent while parks and resorts saw a 9 per cent drop in revenue and movie studio revenue fell 12 per cent as Disney’s film studio registered a loss of 12 million dollars compared to a 97 million dollar profit last year.

CHINESE HACKERS CRACK WINDOWS 7 ALREADY San Francisco (dpa) – Chinese hackers have cracked the activation codes for Windows 7, less than a month after Microsoft released the first copies of the new operating system to computer makers, technology news site CNET reported Thursday.

The pirated version even tricks the computer and Microsoft’s servers into believing it is a genuine copy, allowing it to avoid Microsoft’s validation safeguards.

The report said that the copied software was hacked via a disc stolen from Chinese computer maker Lenovo, but that the pirated version would work just as well on Dell and HP computers too.

Microsoft acknowledged the report of the Windows 7 breach and strongly advised users to avoid downloading the software from unauthorized sources.

“Downloading Windows 7 from peer-to-peer websites exposes users to increased risks – such as viruses, Trojans, and other malware and malicious code – that usually accompany counterfeit software,” the company said in a statement.

“These risks can seriously harm or permanently destroy data and often expose users to identity theft and other criminal schemes.”

TRIAL OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI POSTPONED Yangon (dpa) – A Myanmar court this afternoon postponed until August 11 its verdict on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and three others charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest, officials said.

“The judges said they needed more time to review the laws,” said a government official who attended the trial at a special court set up in Insein Prison. The session lasted only 10 minutes.

Foreign diplomats, including representatives from the US, British and German embassies, attended the trial which was expected to issue a guilty verdict on Suu Kyi, 64.

She stands accused of breaking the terms of her house detention by allowing US national John William Yettaw to swim to her home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay, albeit uninvited, in her compound until the night of May 5.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house detention, faces a minimum of three years in jail and a maximum of five if found guilty.

OBAMA’S GLOBALISM AWARDS Washington (dpa) – President Barack Obama on Thursday said he would award the highest US civilian honour to 16 people around the world hailing from all walks of life and disciplines.

The recipients of the Medal of Freedom include South Africa’s anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, physicist Stephen Hawking, micro-banking founder Mohammed Yunus, US Senator Edward Kennedy, tennis star Billie Jean King, actor Sidney Poitier and long-time US civil rights leader Reverend Joseph Lowery.

Also on the list are Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland and Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice in the United States.

More than 20,000 people have been awarded the Medal of Freedom since it was created by former president Harry Truman in 1945. Obama will formally hand out the awards at a ceremony on August 12.

Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected politician in the United States, and former Republican congressman and vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp will be honoured posthumously. Other recipients include US health-care advocates, an American- Indian tribal chief and Hispanic actress Chita Rivera.

“Their tremendous accomplishments span fields from science to sports, from fine arts to foreign affairs. Yet they share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change,” Obama said.

Jakarta – The offspring of the Krakatoa volcano in the Indonesian Strait of Sunda has increased its activity and prompted authorities to raise its alert status to keep visitors away, volcanologists said Thursday.

Tremors from Anak Krakatau have been on the rise since early this month,and it spewed volcanic debris as

far as 700 metres from its crater, experts said.

Surono, head of Indonesia’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, said Anak Krakatau on Tuesday produced up to 230 tremors and spewed black smoke up to 1,000 metres into the air.

Surono, who like many Indonesians goes by only

one name,said volcanologists onWednesday raised the volcano’s alert status and declared it a no-go zone.

“Residents, fishermen and tourists have been warned to stay 2 kilometres away from Anak Krakatau,”he said in a statement.

Anak Krakatau, or“Child of Krakatoa,”is located in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands. An eruption in June 1994 killed one US tourist and injured three Britons and two Indonesians.

Krakatoa exploded in August 1883 in one of the world’s greatest recorded eruptions. The sound of the blast was heard in Australia, 3,500 kilometres away.The volcano generated a 36-metre tidal wave that crashed onto nearby islands, and 36,000 people were killed by the water and ash.

Indonesia has the highest density of volcanos in the world with about 500 along the 4,800-kilometre archipelago. Nearly 130 are active, and 65 are listed as dangerous.

There has been a sharp increase in volcanic activity across the Indonesian archipelago since the monster earthquake and Tsunami in 2004 shifted the tectonic plates.

– DPA

Boeing Dreamliner has major structural fault by composite-plastic stringers.

The stringers on the fuselage side mate at the wing join, fitting The structural flaw that has grounded Boeing’s Fuselage 787 Dreamliner requires an expensive and SEATTLE – The wing damage that grounded Boe- with those on the wing side. time-consuming fix. ing’s new composite 787 Dreamliner occurred under Because the wings are designed less stress than previously reported – and is more to transfer the loads into the extensive. fuselage box, the damage that Wing An engineer familiar with the details said the occurred in the test was mirrored in Top wing sk damage happened when the stress on the wings on either side of the join.

Wing box was well below the load the wings must bear to be Though a single fix, once federally certified to carry passengers. designed and tested, will work on In addition, information obtained independently both sides of the join, mechanics Wing box Top stringers and confirmed by a second engineer familiar with performing the necessary modiTitanium Stress point Rib the problem shows the damage occurred on both fications inside the airplanes wing-body s !S THE WING FLEXES THE join fixture UPPER WING SKIN STRINGERS ARE sides of the wing-body join – that is, on the outer already built will have to duplicompressed wing as well as inside the fuselage. cate the work inside the wing and s .EAR JOINT WITH FUSELAGE A Bottom stringers HIGH STRESS LOAD AT END OF EACH The structural flaw in the Boeing design was found in inside the fuselage. stringer causes a delamination May during a ground test that bent the wings upward.

According to the engineers, OF THE PLASTIC COMPOSITE WING g skin m win material Stresses at the ends of the long rods that stiffen the Boeing is focusing on a solution Botto upper wing skin panels caused the fibrous layers of the that will require mechanics to Additional fastener bolts Proposed fix Wing skin composite plastic material to delaminate. create a U-shaped cutout in the s 4O REDUCE STRESS A The damage at the end of each of the 17 long end of each upper wing-skin U-shaped cutout is made IN END OF STRINGERS stiffening rods, called stringers, on each wing’s upper stringer.

Rib s &ASTENERS ARE ALSO ADDED skin happened just beyond the aircraft’s“limit load,” This would have the effect of U-shaped BETWEEN SKIN AND STRINGER cutout in Titanium which is the maximum load the wing is expected to transferring part of the excess Source: Seattle Times reporting stringers fastener © 2009 MCT bear in service. load into the titanium fitting Graphic: Seattle Times Last week,The Seattle Times mistakenly reported at the wing-body join instead of that the damage occurred later in the test, just into the wing skin. schedule for first flight and delivery will be ready beyond “ultimate load.”That is defined as 50 perThe mechanics must then fasten the reshaped within the next two months. cent higher than the in-service limit load and is the stringer ends with newly designed parts to the titaEstimates by the two engineers of the minimum Federal Aviation Administration’s test target. The nium fitting. time needed to fix the problem suggest the plane is tearing at the end points of the stringers well before The goal is to reduce the stress-point loads enough now unlikely to fly until next year. the wing reached ultimate load means the problem to prevent future delamination.

Until the new production timetable is announced, is worse than suggested in last week’s story.

The delamination of the composite-plastic mate- Wall Street analysts are unable to calculate the preBecause the wing test actually fell short of the rial isn’t likely to lead to catastrophic failure of the cise additional cost of this latest delay. ultimate load target, the plane could have flown only airplane, but it would require constant monitoring Analyst Joe Campbell, of Barclays Capital, this under restrictions that would have severely limited and potentially costly repairs by the airlines. week downgraded Boeing’s stock. He cited an the usefulness of a test flight.

Any tear would have to be promptly fixed to pre- increased risk that the company will book a large It also helps explain why Boeing canceled the vent it from spreading. accounting loss this year to cover the extra expense first flight planned for the end of June.

The way the stringers terminate and mate at the of the repeated delays.

The fact that there is corresponding damage on join, the focus of the problem, is Boeing’s responsiIn a note to clients, Campbell estimated the total the fuselage side of the wing join adds to the com- bility and not that of its Japanese partners. Boeing cost overrun of the Dreamliner program so far – plexity of any fix and the time and cost involved in will have to pay for the cost overruns. extra startup and engineering costs, penalties owed implementing it.

Engineers will have to validate Boeing’s chosen to customers for delivery delays and contractual The wings of the 787 are made by Mitsubishi solution in tests before they modify the wings and obligations to suppliers for engineering changes Heavy Industries in Japan. center wing boxes already built.

– as“in the vicinity of $11 billion.”

Inside the fuselage, on the other side of where Company spokeswoman Yvonne Leach said 10 Because 850 Dreamliners have already been each wing joins the jet’s body, there is a structure Dreamliners have been completed, including two ordered, Campbell still believes the jet can be“highly called the “center wing box,”made by Fuji Heavy ground-test airplanes.About 30 more are in various profitable”over two decades of full production.

Industries, also in Japan. stages of production.

But with that level of cost overrun, Campbell said, This center box is constructed much like the outer The Dreamliner is already two years late.

“Boeing is highly likely to lose large sums of money wing, with composite-plastic skin panels stiffened CEO Jim McNerney said last week that a new on the first 400 to 600 aircraft.”

By Dominic Gates The Seattle Times

Wing trouble

WORLD

31 July 2009

Humble pie on White House lawn Washington – Barack Obama met with an African-American Harvard professor and the white policeman who arrested him for a round of tension-cooling beers on the White House lawn, hoping to repent for his first racial controversy as US president.

In what has been dubbed the “beer summit,” Obama held a private meeting on the muggy Thursday evening near the White House Rose Garden with Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr and Sergeant James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Police Department.

Obama, who inflamed tensions last week with his own comments blaming police for arresting Gates in his own home,tried to play down the gathering’s significance beforehand,saying that it was not a“summit”but just“three folks having a drink at the end of the day.”

News cameras had telephoto lenses fixed on the round white table starting an hour before the meeting,a sign of how the event dominated US airwaves for days, down to what beers each man would be drinking.

Ever the politician, Obama in shirtsleeves had a Bud Light, the top-selling beer in the US. Gates chose Jamaican beer Red Stripe and Crowley picked Blue Moon, a Belgian-style wheat ale.

According to brief video footage, the two visitors wore dark jackets and ties, and appeared to be engaged in energetic discussion.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who had joined the three drinking something non-alcoholic, munched on snacks and largely listened.

Asked afterwards what Obama had contributed to the discussion, Crowley quipped:“The beer.”

President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and Cambridge, Massachusetts police Sergeant James Crowley, second from the right, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, July 30, 2009./PSG

“He contributed in a small part, but he really wanted to bring two people together to solve an issue,”Crowley told reporters.

Crowley indicated that he and Gates were “two gentlemen who agreed to disagree on a particular subject”and were intent on moving“the whole country beyond”the dispute over Gates’ arrest. He said the discussion was “cordial and productive.”

Gates was arrested July 16 at his home. Returning from a trip to China, the professor and his taxi driver forced open his front door, which had become stuck. Crowley appeared on the scene after a neighbour called the police, suspecting a break-in.

Though Gates showed identification, a verbal confrontation with Crowley ensued and Gates was ultimately arrested for “disorderly conduct.”The

charges were later dropped.

Obama, the country’s first African-American president, catapulted the incident into a national spectacle a week later. He declared at a press conference July 22 that the Cambridge police “acted stupidly”in arresting Gates, a prominent historian who is a long-time friend of Obama.

Police unions demanded an apology, and Obama once again appeared before the cameras two days later. He said he could have “calibrated”his words differently but stopped short of an apology. He accepted Crowley’s suggestion of a round of beers together with Gates to ease the tensions.

Crowley said that “no one apologized” during the meeting. He said all agreed to “move forward” and that he and Gates intended to continue their dialogue, probably over “koolaid or ice tea” so as not to send a wrong message about beer drinking.

A lone protestor in front of the White House condemned the event for sending a wrong image about alcohol.

Gates left without speaking to the press.

The two men and their families toured the White House before the meeting.When they encountered each other on the tours, they introduced themselves and continued on as a group, Crowley said.

In a statement afterwards, Obama said that Gates and Crowley had“spent some time together listening to one another” before he joined them,“which is a testament to them.”

“I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart,” Obama said.

The arrest and Obama’s comments have sparked an ongoing debate about racial profiling by police in the United States. Obama has said it shows that racism“still haunts us.”

Since announcing his historic candidacy for president in 2007, Obama had been careful to avoid making his race an issue, effectively campaigning as a post-racial president.

Controversy did spill over in early 2008 over the perceived anti- white and anti-American remarks of his Chicago pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

– DPA

Taliban kidnap children Israel fires shot in PR war for suicide missions

By Saeed Shah

MINGORA, Pakistan – As normalcy returns to Pakistan’s scenic Swat valley after a major army operation to oust Taliban extremists, local parents are coming forward with a chilling revelation:The Pakistani Taliban abducted around 100 children to be trained as suicide bombers.

According to the Pakistani army, the children, who often were forcibly taken from their homes, have been brought in by their families or arrested by security forces.The army paraded a half-dozen boys, who appeared to be between 13 and 16 years old, in front of the local media on Sunday. One unnamed boy, crying, pleaded:“You should feel for us as you do for your own children.”

“We’re finding a lot of children who have been trained, brainwashed, told even that if your parents get in the way, you must finish them,”said Brig.Tahir Hameed, the operational commander for the Mingora area, speaking at army headquarters in the city, which the Taliban besieged for a month.

Videos that were being sold in Mingora when the Taliban were in control showed many teenage boys being trained for suicide attacks. The videos would climax by showing them embrace their adult tutors before climbing into vehicles, which were then filmed driving into their targets – often military checkpoints – and detonating, all to a sound track of hypnotic jihadist songs.

The army is setting up a rehabilitation center for the children and is planning to provide a course for them at a fort in the region.

Lt.Col.Aktar Abbas said the length of the rehabilitation course would vary for each child,depending on “how far that boy has gone.”The army will fund the residential program and provide accommodations, educational facilities and psychologists, he said.

“They (the children) have been through great trauma.They were picked up from their homes by the Taliban,”said Abbas.“Some found their way back to their parents, some were found and arrested during the operation.”

Other residents of Swat, just 100 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad,are finding the way home choked with traffic.Old cars,brightly colored buses and trucks form long lines daily to get into the city.

They are loaded with people and their possessions – beds, electric fans and tents tied on the roofs with rope – with women and children often perched precariously on top. It’s a bittersweet homecoming for many residents, who find their homes and shops looted, and especially for laborers, who are uncertain they can find employment again.

People in the Swat valley are daring to play music again, but many remain concerned that the Taliban will make a comeback.The headless body of a police officer, discovered Tuesday in an area where government security forces are present, confirmed that the militants remain a threat.

Some 2 million people fled Swat and the adjacent districts of Buner and Dir at the start of May, as the army took on the Taliban in a U.S.-backed offensive.

The government started a vast return program on July 13. By Monday, 81,901 families – some 575,000 individuals – had returned.

Jerusalem – Israel released a detailed paper today on its winter offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and argued that it had“both a right and an obligation to take military action”in order to end the Islamist organization’s rocket and mortar fire aimed at Israeli civilians.

The 160-page document, entitled “The Operation in Gaza – Factual and Legal Aspects,”says that “under international law, Israel was entitled to take military action to stop the thousands of deliberate rocket and mortar attacks that had killed or wounded Israeli civilians and that threatened and terrorised hundreds of thousands more.”

According to the document, Hamas and other Gazan militant groups fired some 12,000 missiles and mortars at Israel between 2000 and 2008 and by late 2008 Hamas had rockets which could reach some of Israel’s largest cities, targeting one million civilians.

Israel was widely criticised for what was seen as its disproportionate response to the Hamas missiles, but the document released Thursday maintains that the offensive“was proportional to the threat posed

by Hamas,”since“international law ‘does not require a defender to limit itself to actions that merely repel an attack; a state may use force in self-defence to remove a continuing threat to future security’.”

Palestinian human rights organizations say more than 1,400 Gaza residents, the majority civilians, were killed in the Israeli offensive. Israel puts the Palestinian death toll at 1,166, and says most of the dead were militants.

Israel says that many of the civilian deaths in the offensive were the result of Hamas gunmen launching attacks from densely-populated civilian areas and using civilians as human shields.

The Israeli document also revealed that military

investigative teams are currently probing around 100 complaints, including 13 criminal investigations opened so far, and outlines the preliminary findings of some of the investigations.

The investigations include incidents where UN and international facilities were fired upon or damaged, incidents involving shooting at medical facilities, buildings, vehicles, and crews, cases where many civilians were harmed, the use of munitions containing white phosphorous and the destruction of private property and infrastructure by army ground forces.

– DPA

WORLD

10

31 July 2009

Lawmakers plan to shine a light on ‘dark markets’

By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – The chairmen of two congressional committees today unveiled guiding principles for complex legislation to begin regulating the so-called dark markets that played a major role in last year’s near-meltdown in global finance.

Their legislation would create rules and reporting requirements for an opaque area of finance called over-the-counter derivatives or swaps.

These are trillions of dollars in bets made in the form of private contracts between two parties, and not on any regulated exchange.These bets are placed on everything from movements in the value of currencies to the price of oil to the possibility of debt defaults.

Many companies use swaps to hedge against risks.

However,the lack of any meaningful transparency in these dark markets or requirements to hold money in reserve to cover these bets, led to September’s collapse of insurer American International Group, which was rescued by the Federal Reserve.

Billions in taxpayer dollars were subsequently spent to settle AIG’s swaps in an attempt to calm the panic.The lack of transparency in this enormous market was a big factor in the credit crisis, because banks were afraid to lend, as they were unsure of who was exposed to how many bets.

Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told reporters today that they seek to reverse an era of virtually no regulation.

“Barney and I want to err on the side of too much regulation rather than too little, given what we’ve been through,”Peterson said.

Their two panels will take up the legislation in September.

Their legislation would mandate that the bets be settled on an approved clearinghouse. Traders would be encouraged to do business on an exchange or electronic-trading platform, which would bring

the lack of any meaningful transparency in these dark markets or requirements to hold money in reserve to cover these bets, led to September’s collapse of insurer American International Group these products in line with most other financial instruments.

Issuers of complex swaps would have to set aside more cash in reserve and certain percentages per bet – called capital and margin requirements – to ensure that they remain solvent if credit gets tight, and to ensure that they can pay off losing bets.

Lawmakers have talked to regulators in London, Canada and Europe in hopes of creating regulations that would apply at home or abroad.

Here are some answers to questions about what’s being fixed.

Q: How would this legislation address rampant speculation?

A: In the area of credit-default swaps, which are

like insurance policies against the possibility of a default or rating downgrade on a corporate bond, the buyer of a swap would have to own the referenced bond or security.

Right now, many buyers of swaps have no underlying stake in a company but essentially bet against them through what are termed“naked swaps.”Some large U.S. corporations last year found it difficult to renegotiate debt because holders of swaps wouldn’t play ball, hoping for a big payday if they could hasten a debt default.

Q: How would it bring more transparency?

A: The bill seeks to enhance oversight and reporting.Anyone taking a short position in credit-default swaps, betting in favor of a default, would have to

share that confidentially with a regulator. This would apply to the big Wall Street firms that are the swap dealers, investment advisers who manage more than $100 million in assets and other players considered“major market participants.”

Q: Would the legislation do anything about oil speculators?

A: Yes. Requirements for much more reporting on swaps would give regulators a much better sense of how much betting is taking place in dark markets on shifts in the price of oil. Currently, big Wall Street companies enter bets with private investors on what will happen to oil prices, and they hedge these bets in the regulated, open futures market where contracts for future delivery of oil are traded.They also enjoy special exceptions that exempt them from exchange limits on how many contracts they can own.

Armed with this information, regulators would finally get a complete look at the across-the-board investment stakes that big Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have in oil contracts. If their aggregate investment in oil and natural gas is as large as many analysts think, regulators would be empowered to limit the number of contracts these giants can hold – called position limits.

Q: Why does that matter to oil prices?

A: Some analysts think that big financial companies push up the price of oil through large combined holdings in regulated, dark and overseas markets.

These companies also invest with or on behalf of large pension funds and endowments that are seeking to diversify their assets and invest some in an index of commodities such as oil, natural gas and wheat.This, too, may be driving up prices.

“Basically, in my opinion they are gambling . . . they might as well go to Las Vegas,”Peterson said.

Q: Why not just limit how much speculation can take place?

A: Rather than try to impose a fixed number on speculative investment, lawmakers hope the limits imposed on big traders will have the same effect, discouraging excessive speculation while still allowing for healthy speculation.

Advocate in milk scandal arrested Beijing – A prominent Chinese human rights activist and director of a legal advocacy centre, who gained prominence helping victims of last years’ poison-milk scandal, has been detained by police, as authorities continue to tighten control over the country’s legal community.

Xu Zhiyong, a legal scholar and co-founder of a volunteer legal service, Gongmeng, was escorted from his Beijing home at around 5am Wednesday by one uniformed and five plainclothes police, a statement posted on the group’s website today said.

“We have lost all contact with him since Tues-

day night, and he must be in big trouble,” lawyer and Gongmeng co-founder,Teng Biao, was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Human rights groups urged the Beijing goverment to disclose Xu’s whereabouts.

Xu’s detention comes only weeks after Gonmeng’s legal research branch was fined 1.42 million yuan (207,850 dollars) for tax evasion, and shut down on the grounds that it was not properly registered.

“The bureau has no legal right to order a closure.

The research centre has always been a division of the company that is registered with the authori-

ties. There is no legal proof to show our group has not been registered properly,”Xu told reporters at the time.

Gongmeng investigated a number sensitive cases, including the scandal over melamine-contaminated milk which killed at least six babies and sickened hundreds of thousands in China last year.

Xu, 36, was one of several lawyers who championed the overturning of China’s custody and repatriation system after the death of a student in a detention centre in 2003.

More recently he has been researching China’s petitioners – those seeking redress for a variety of

problems from illegal land seizures to pollutionrelated illness.

China’s legal community has come under increased pressure from authorities this year as the country undergoes a number of sensitive anniversaries. According to rights groups, more than 50 lawyers were recently barred from renewing the licence which allows them to practice.

Others have been quietly removed from key posts, including outspoken Beijing University law professor He Weifang, who was sent away from the capital to a remote western university earlier in the year.

– DPA

Triumph of flash over substance Sydney – The big names of Australian swimming who have seen their records tumble at the World Championships in Rome put their losses down to polyurethane suits.

Ian Thorpe’s long-standing 400-metre freestyle record has already gone and Grant Hackett’s 8year-old mark for the 1,500 metres is likely to be erased this Sunday.

Kieren Perkins, who owned the 1,500 before Hackett came along, would happily pulled on an Arena X-Glide to improve his performance.

All the same, he reckons it’s time to ditch the buoyancy vests.

“Did that world record get broken because of the athlete or because of the suit? Did that gold medal get won because of technology or because of human endeavour?”Perkins asked.“Commercial imperative has overtaken the desire and need for individuals to do their very best to perform.”

Thorpe – and for good reason – has refused to condemn the new costumes. He was an early-adopter of the full-body suit and his records were set in them.

But Thorpe could argue – as others have done – that polyurethane provides a quantum leap on what was available in his time. Consider this: in Rome it’s sometimes not just the winner who’s touching ahead for the world record but the runner-up as well.

“I have to say that I’ve found all the talk about the new hi-tech suits making everyone swim faster ridiculous,” veteran Libby Trickett said last year, adding that “it’s disrespectful to say the only reason world records are being broken is because of the suit.”

David Urquhart, president of Swimming Australia, is considering banning the poly suits ahead of world body FINA’s deadline so that national trials in March are free of them.

Some are happy about the appliance of science in the pool.

Aerospace engineer Lachlan Thompson, a lecturer at Melbourne’s RMIT university, argues that you have to be a very good swimmer before you put on the hi-tech suit.

“The bottom line is these swimsuits aren’t fast unless you’ve got a fast swimmer in them,”he said.

“It makes a tiny difference, yes.

But in the end if the rules stay consistent over a period of time, the playing field will level out. If the regulations stayed the same, gradually everybody would have these suits and the price would come down quite rapidly.”

FINA has ruled a move from polyurethane to

textiles and restrictions on coverage.

Polyurethane suits have something that textiles don’t: a layer of foam containing tiny gas bubbles that gives the swimmer buoyancy.

“It actually lifts you out of the water – only a tiny amount – but a minuscule amount is an enormous amount when it comes to reducing your resistance in travelling through the water,”Thompson explained.

“Your resistance when you’re trying to swim through the water is over 700 times greater in the water than it would be in air, so if you can actually lift more the person up to travel through the air, you’re reducing their resistance as they travel through the water.”

The polyurethane also keeps swimmers warm.

That might not make a difference to the sprinters but for the 1,500 metres there’s a significant advantage in retaining the optimum body temperature.

– DPA

SPORT

31 July 2009

11

Paint it black

By Daniel Gilhooly of NZPA

Durban, July 31 – A week of introspection in the Durban heat is nearly over.

The All Blacks know their two-week visit to South Africa will be a success and they can render last weekend’s forgettable outing in Bloemfontein exactly that if they return to the rugby winner’s circle here on Sunday morning (NZT).

Playing the third of three successive tests is something that always makes coach Graham Henry wary but even he must admit the cards are more in his favour than seven days earlier at altitude.

The All Blacks remain underdogs against a Springboks side who are stronger than when crowned world champions nearly two years ago.

But sprouts of hope have emerged in this seaside city that lessons have been learned from a sobering 28-19 loss which has thrown the team’s brains trust into overdrive.

“Come Monday, we looked at the game and knew we hadn’t played as well as we could have,”captain Richie McCaw told NZPA. “Now whoever you’re playing for, that’s bloody disappointing. But here (All Blacks), you expect everyone to perform.”

A third of the way into their 15-game season, McCaw’s men haven’t gone close to a performance of authority.

There is a belief that if both teams play to their best, New Zealand have the measure of a South African team who are most adept at squeezing – admittedly pretty hard – for errors and pouncing.

The vice was turned via their lineout and driving work in the first half at Bloemfontein and the visitors popped, to trail by 14 points. A fightback followed but the All Blacks’limited preparation told in the final 10 minutes.

“We made vital mistakes all the way through that never allowed us to really put pressure on the Boks,”McCaw said.

“When you throw lineouts and penalties into it, they were the things that started to cost us and we just didn’t get a roll-on or put any pressure on.

“There was perhaps a period just before they scored their late try when we really started to get going.”

While the word “mistakes”dotted McCaw’s first test review, the All Blacks are determined to throw off the shackles and attack.

They could do worse than harness the fearless attitude of Owen Franks, the 21-year-old prop making his first start.

Hooker Andrew Hore – whose lineout throwing will come under the microscope – said the way the forwards responded to their early mauling gave a reason to be confident.

“I suppose the pride takes a bit of a hammering

New Zealand have won six of their eight tests in South Africa at sea level in the professional era and have snatched three of their last four in Durban – at the ground where their first ever match in South Africa was actually a 17-0 defeat but the good thing is that we got better as the game went on and started fixing things.We’re learning on our feet,”he said.

The man at the other end of the chain, fullback Mils Muliaina, shares the same sentiment.

Cracks in the Springboks defence could not be exploited because of the All Blacks’shortcomings.

New Zealand have won six of their eight tests in South Africa at sea level in the professional era and have snatched three of their last four in Durban – at the ground where their first ever match in South

Africa was actually a 17-0 defeat.

That result in 1928 remains the heaviest loss to their great rivals and some pundits here are tipping it can be eclipsed by the Springboks.They claim an All Blacks side struggling with confidence don’t have the weaponry to handle the sheer efficiency of the hosts.

First five-eighth Morne Steyn’s likely contribution was summed up by opposite Stephen Donald.

“He’s probably the world’s best goalkicker. He is the world’s best drop kicker.”

And there is the John Smit factor.

Tributes have flowed all week for the popular South African front rower who is set to become world rugby’s most capped captain.

“John is destined to be a hero and a legend in his own time,”coach Peter de Villiers said.

“While our focus is on beating New Zealand, we will not water down the fact that we have the leading captain in the world.

“He is a brilliant ambassador for his country.We are lucky to have him and when he retires one day his absence will be conspicuous.”

After a sweltering buildup, rain and a sharp dip in temperatures are forecast for the test which is again expected to be played in front of empty seats.

About 15 percent of the ground was unsold last weekend, with a similar percentage expected again here.

Tiger Woods and Bob Seger team up at pro-am

By Carlos Monarrez Detroit Free Press

GRAND BLANC, Michigan – Last year it was Kid Rock. This year it was old-time rock. Really old-time.

As the featured pro-am celebrity attraction in this year’s Buick Open, Michigan rock-music legend Bob Seger said he felt every one of his 64 years yesterday while playing – and walking – 18 holes with Tiger Woods.

“Wow!” Seger said afterward. “Oh, I haven’t walked a golf course in 30 years. I’m a cart guy. I’ve never done that, ever.”

Woods made his first appearance at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club since 2006, dressed in his usually natty attire.

Seger? Different story.

The classic rocker looked the part, sporting a beard, glasses, two golf gloves, a white visor, an untucked blue shirt, black cargo pants, white socks and brown shoes. All while puffing on a cigarette – and having a blast the whole time.

Seger did a little hop on the second hole when he made a 6-footer for par, advanced the ball with regularity and made a couple of putts from at least 30 feet.

“He played great,”Woods said.“I was surprised how well he played and how well he putted. He made a lot of putts.”

Seger chatted with fans, signed autographs at every hole and even had a little self-deprecating

humor.When he launched a drive straight down the seventh fairway,Woods said,“Nice shot there, Bob.” “Nice and straight,”Seger said.“At least it didn’t hurt anybody.”

And, of course, there were the fans.And the puns off Seger’s song titles.

Seger would pop up a drive and one fan would yell,“Against the wind!”

A bad bogey? “Turn the page, Bob!” A putt that finished way past the hole?“Roll me away!”

But the ultimate invocation came on the par-five 16th hole. From one of the homes along the left side of the fairway, someone blasted a stereo with “Old Time Rock and Roll.”

Woods took notice as he contemplated his approach shot from the fairway.

“And I already had in mind if I would have hit the driver off the fairway, if I would have hit a bad driver, I would have blamed it on him,”Woods said.

“But I hit a good one, so he got the credit.”

Even though he didn’t seem it, Seger said he was nervous all day playing with Woods. Seger’s wife, Nita, followed the group, and even though attending a golf tournament was familiar, playing with the world’s best golfer was a precious treat for Seger.

“I mean, I’m a golf fan,”he said.“My wife and I go to tournaments all the time.We play together all the time, my wife and I. So it’s just a really interesting golf nirvana right there. Eight feet away watching the best, maybe, who ever was. He is the best who ever was, probably.”

Bob Seger’s drive goes against the wind on the famous final green with Tiger Woods./MCT

F1 team licks its wounds Munich – There is speculation that Sauber team could continue in some guise despite the decision by BMW to pull out of Formula One at the end of the season.

Team founder Peter Sauber admitted that the BMW-Sauber team will struggle to maintain a presence in F1 following BMW’s move Wednesday but Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug pointed to the creation of Brawn GP following Honda’s withdrawal late last year.

“It would be fantastic. I don’t have any information but Brawn GP managed it after Honda pulled out,”Haug told German Press Agency dpa today.

Former Ferrari technical director and Honda team boss Ross Brawn took over the former Honda

team at the start of the season and after 10 races the team heads the constructors’standings while Jenson Button leads in the battle for the drivers’ title.

No decision has yet been made about what will happen to the BMW– Sauber team’s headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland or its 420 employees, a spokesperson for the German carmaker told dpa.

“We are looking at several possibilities for Hinwil.

BMW won’t be delivering any Formula One motors,” was all the company would say.

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) has already made clear that it will stand behind any attempt to save Sauber with general secretary Simone Perillo announcing that FOTA was ready to give “every

necessary support”to the Swiss-based team.

Sauber, who formed Sauber in 1993 but is now a minority 20 per-cent shareholder after the German carmaker took control in June 2005,has said he hopes to find a solution that enables the team to continue in Hinwil but admits he is facing an uphill task.

“The position we are in now makes it very difficult,”admitted the 65-year-old.

BMW took over the team in 2005 and debuted in the Formula One a year later. In 63 races to date, BMW-Sauber so far has celebrated only one victory, by Polish driver Robert Kubica in Montreal, Canada, in June 2008.

– DPA

021616643 info@identit.co.nz

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WEEKEND

31 July 2009

13

TV & Film

Shrink

0Cast: Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts, Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston, Jesse Plemons, Robert Loggia, Robin Williams 0Director: Jonas Pate 0Length: 104 minutes 0Rated: R (for vulgar language, drug use, adult themes)

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Movie picks

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Like every war before it, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has generated its share of movies. But The Hurt Locker is the first of them that can properly be called a masterpiece.

Working from a screenplay by Mark Boal (who based the movie on his experiences as an embedded journalist with U.S. troops), director Kathryn Bigelow accomplishes two seemingly obvious but formidably difficult things: She crafts a taut and harrowing movie in which the suspense level rarely dips below excruciating, and she delivers an exceptionally detailed, first-hand account of the day-today existence of U.S. soldiers, the way Platoon did for Vietnam or Saving Private Ryan did for World War II.

The Hurt Locker is good enough to stand alongside those two hallowed classics, although it might initially seem too small and specific to merit such comparisons. Platoon and Ryan were designed to be broad summations of their respective wars, writ large, with the benefit of years of hindsight and reflection.

The Hurt Locker, which was shot on grainy 16mm film with handheld cameras and often looks not much different from a report you might see on CNN, is more urgent and of the moment.The movie does not concern itself with grand, sweeping statements or panoramic views of the Iraq conflict – does not concern itself with anything, really, beyond its three protagonists, soldiers with one of the most dangerous jobs the Army has to offer.

They are the members of Delta Company, a bomb-defusing squad led by Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner), who dons protective gear that makes him look like a visiting alien and figures out, patiently and curiously, how to disarm (or safely detonate) explosive devices meant to kill Americans.

He is backed by Sgt. J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), who look out for sniper fire and approaching ene-

nea

0Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, David Morse, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce 0Director: Kathryn Bigelow 0Length: 130 minutes 0Rated: R (forvulgar language, considerable violence, heavy gore, adult themes)

Min

The Hurt Locker

Bruno G-Force Harry Potter The Hurt Locker Ice Age Orphan Transformers The Ugly Truth © 2009 MCT

mies while James dismantles the bombs.

Sanborn, who is counting the days until he gets to go home, and Eldridge, who still displays the jangled nerves and eager earnestness of a rookie, are far different soldiers from James, who takes to his job with a recklessness many would interpret as suicidal and who performs it with surgical precision.

The plot, such as it is, details the ups and downs of the bond among the soldiers as they carry out their tour of duty in 2004 Baghdad. But the movie is mainly comprised of one large set piece after another, each presenting a new challenge for the combined skills of the unit:A booby-trapped car; a bomb hidden in a pile of trash; a man with explosives strapped to his waist, begging for someone to help remove them before they go off.

Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days, Near Dark), an expert at large-scale kinetic filmmaking and the exploration of the psyches of men under duress, has never had a script so tailor-made to her strengths.

Every one of the big sequences in The Hurt Locker – and some of them stretch for more than 15 minutes – is a sensational, nerve-racking exercise in suspense and action.

Bigelow knows exactly where to place her cameras and how to edit her shots so the viewer always understands where the threat to the characters is coming from and where they stand in relation to each other. Her style is the antithesis of the sugary rush the incomprehensible eye candy in Transformers delivers.The spatiality is so clearly defined that some sequences – such as the one in which the soldiers are pinned down by snipers on both sides of a sand dune, and Sanborn’s gun jams because the ammo casing is coated with sticky blood – build up an almost intolerable level of anxiety.

That is the point of The Hurt Locker, which eschews spoken commentary on the politics of the Iraq war in favor of acts and deeds of insane heroism and bravery.The movie opens with journalist Chris Hedges’statement that“War is a drug,”and The Hurt Locker makes you “feel”how some soldiers, like the bomb dismantler James, become addicted while others remain repulsed.This is not just a great war film – it’s a great action movie, period.

The fact that the subject matter happens to be grave and timely is a bonus. That Bigelow, previously relegated primarily to fantasy and sci-fi genres, achieves her greatest triumph with her most realistic film is a happy coincidence.

Watch the trailer

– By Rene Rodriguez

Remember when Kevin Spacey was awesome? Distant seem the days when Spacey could steal a movie from Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman with just a few minutes of screen time (Seven), or could hoodwink the audience for the duration of a movie via a canny performance (The Usual Suspects), or could turn a boss-from-hell into a simultaneously magnetic and repellant monster (Swimming With Sharks).

American Beauty has not aged well, but Spacey’s portrayal of a disaffected man who rediscovers his zeal for life remains an engaging and caustic piece of acting. That was then. Now, there’s Shrink, which Spacey produced and stars in, and is of a piece with K-Pax and Pay it Forward and Beyond the Sea and most of the other pictures the actor has made in the last decade – vanity projects that pass off bathos and phony sentimentality as profundity and emotion.

Spacey stars as Dr. Henry Carter, an L.A. shrink-to-the-stars who has developed a ferocious pot habit as a way of suppressing his grief over his wife’s suicide. When he’s not high as a kite – and even when he is – Carter goes through the motions of trying to help his patients, who include an emotionally distant teen (Keke Palmer) obsessed with movies; an agent (Dallas Roberts) with a panic-anxiety disorder, and a famous actress (Saffron Burrows) with a philandering husband.

What all these people really suffer from, however, is a terminal case of the self-pity blues. The more Shrink tries to get you invested in the emotional turmoil of its characters, the more you want to reach into the screen and shake them and tell them to get over themselves. About the only likable character is Carter’s pot dealer, played by Jesse Plemons, who has the right idea when the doctor starts going all existentialangsty on him. “I just sell smoke, man,” the kid says with a shrug. “It’s not that serious.”

Director Jonas Pate (a veteran of TV’s Friday Night Lights and Chuck) keeps the camera bobbing just a hair in every shot, presumably aiming for the jittery urgency of The Shield.

Instead, the trick just makes you want to find him a tripod.

Pate also cast Gore Vidal and an unbilled Robin Williams in small supporting roles because, yeah, that’s not distracting and definitely won’t take you out of the movie. There is even a scene in which a brooding character stares pensively at her own reflection and then smashes the mirror, which makes you want to call a permanent moratorium on scenes in which characters stare pensively at themselves in a mirror and then smash it.

Shrink was written by Thomas Moffett, whose idea of storytelling is to keep his characters sad and troubled until the scene in which suddenly they’re not, and the syrupy music on the soundtrack swells. This is a movie for people who thought Crash was wise and profound, most of whom probably live in L.A. and know everything they know about life from watching movies.

I wish at least Spacey would start aiming a little higher than this kind of self-congratulatory, warm-and-fuzzy pablum. What happened to the smart, menacing, savvy actor who brought so much crackling energy and verve to every role – to the guy who made poetry out of the phrase ‘Go to lunch!’ in Glengary Glen Ross?

Watch the trailer – By Rene Rodriguez

REVIEWS

14

31 July 2009

Music

One of Paris’ better albums was jerked from retail stores because the cover – a beach scene with entwined couples – was too suggestive.

Life always has a few bad breaks, but Paris’ were so numerous that there had to be self-sabotage going on

One night in Paris

The sad, violent, obscure saga of jazz singer Jackie Paris

By David Patrick Stearns The Philadelphia Inquirer

Stumbling upon a talent as imposing, magnetic, and seemingly unflawed as that of Jackie Paris prompts both exhilaration and unease.

A jazz singer whose career spanned the 1940s through the ‘70s, Paris seems to have been everywhere and nowhere – singing with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker,recording highly acclaimed albums, but constantly missing the career boat,often by a hair.

He remained so obscure that he appeared,literally,to die before his time: One notable jazz dictionary says he died in 1977, though in fact he last performed in 2004, just before dying of cancer at 79.

Here’s where the uneasiness begins:What heinous tale could lie behind his being so marginal for so long? Why would any music dictionary mistakenly kill him? An oversight? Or revenge?

Filmmaker Raymond De Felitta got to the bottom of the sad, violent, but musically riveting saga in a documentary titled Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris that has made the rounds of film festivals since 2006 and recently arrived on DVD, appropriately subtitled,“The greatest voice you never heard.”

Explanations are neither typical nor simple:None of the usual 1950s career-killers – drugs, alcohol and homosexuality – is responsible for such a lack of visibility that Paris can’t even be called a cult figure, so few and dispersed are his admirers.

De Felitta discovered him in 1991 while listening to a Los Angeles radio station and had the same astonished reaction I had when I walked into Academy Records in New York somewhere around 2003 and first heard that distinctive, soft-sandpaper voice on the sound system. De Felitta discovered that Paris was held in high esteem by the great-

est of the great – Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, etc.

The Paris CD at Academy, a Japanese import, had the original album notes, but gave no information after 1953 – the year he was Down Beat magazine’s best new male singer of the year, though the disc (issued by Time Records, a label I’ve never heard of) was in stereo and thus had to have been made well after that. One of Academy’s staff had tracked him down by phone (supposedly in his native New Jersey, though he was said to live in Manhattan) and could only report,“He sounded nervous.”

Talent of that density was bound to be. Though I’ve since downloaded Paris from Amazon.com and found one of his LPs sold on the sidewalks of New York, my favorite of his discs remains what I heard that first day,“Jackie Paris Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin,”one of an estimated 10 or so solo albums.

Reactions have been extreme: One enthralled neighbor listened to Paris outside my apartment door.A friend was so turned off by Paris that he punched the eject button on the car stereo.

Earlier Paris discs, such as “Skylark,”sound like the work of somebody perhaps too hungry for a hit, too eager to please, and all too willing to reveal only the most commercial fractions of himself, emphasizing his upper range, which was boyish, bordering on androgynous. The “Ira Gershwin”disc, in contrast, swings hard, but not typically:Amid the usual saxophones, there are also cellos. Songs include several lesser-known numbers from the Broadway show “Lady in the Dark.”

Paris’ distinctiveness is not easily summed up.

Most of his contemporaries were part song stylist and part jazz singer, tending more toward one than the other. Paris, however, had the stylish elegance of Tony Bennett and the emotional insights of Judy Garland, but also the harmonic imagination of a seasoned jazz singer – perhaps not to the dizzying

degree of Sarah Vaughan, but close. Unlike many, he wasn’t soulful one minute, breezily improvising the next; he fused the two qualities that are so often mutually exclusive. Everything is rooted in the emotional conviction at his core.

In the film, Paris admirers also talk about his “subtle wickedness” and the sense of “knowledge” in the voice.The filmmaker describes Paris – whom he met only 12 weeks before his death – as weary of such praise,“as if being unique is a tired substitute for being popular.”

But even in the film’s concert portions, the 79year-old Paris is remarkably intact. In interviews, he vividly recounts the jazz icons he sang with – along with indiscretions such as slapping a powerful club owner because the audience was too tiny. He was from a tight Italian family, married twice, but never had children (or so he said); we see a reunion with one ex-wife, singer Anne-Marie Moss.

Sprinkled throughout are his numerous nearmisses. Recording contracts and even film possibilities – the square-jawed singer photographed just fine – strangely ended as they were about to begin.

Tours with jazz greats that should have yielded recordings, but went undocumented. An extravagantly favorable letter of recommendation from comedian Lenny Bruce, written in the years before his drug and legal problems, was never mailed. One of Paris’better albums was jerked from retail stores because the cover – a beach scene with entwined couples – was too suggestive. Life always has a few bad breaks, but Paris’were so numerous that there had to be self-sabotage going on.

Slowly, the darkness within begins to emerge.

Though he was the favorite son in his family, the dynamics became complicated and stormy when his younger brother devolved into a life of heroin addiction.Also, the family favor in which he stood seemed

to have fed a galloping egotism that he expressed in increasingly inappropriate ways. Besides being autocratic, he was known to turn to his band in midperformance and yell at them to “Burn!”– though doing so was too distracting to successfully raise the performance’s temperature.

From the beginning, he was surrounded by attractive, interesting women. But woe to any man who even casually lighted the cigarette of one of them.

One wife reports that after such an incident, the raging Paris tried for days to track the man down, to avenge what he considered a grievous slight.

One of the few visual records of Paris performances is from daytime TV – The Mike Douglas Show – often a haven for stars who had behaved badly in the industry’s higher echelons.There’s an account of a hugely successful week at New York’s Tavern on the Green, but Paris was never re-engaged, apparently because his backstage behavior was such a turnoff.

Saddest of all is the family he claimed he never had. Paris, as it turns out, had a wife before the two others, and a son. De Felitta tracked them down and found them in an obscure mobile home park. Neither has done much in life, and Paris cut off virtually all contact after the woman left him, unable to take the jealousy and drama. Looking at these human husks, one is tempted to assume that the egomaniacal singer sucked the life out of them and left them forever empty – and for the sake of a career that not only didn’t happen, but that also was scuttled in ways large and small by the man who so badly craved it. It’s difficult viewing.

Squaring that with the exuberant Paris seen and heard singing becomes a case history in a compartmentalized artistic personality: Both sides are true.

The problem with Paris is that they couldn’t coexist. One was always destroying the other.

Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris

REVIEWS

31 July 2009

NEW CD RELEASES Daughtry

0Leave This Town 0RCA Chris Daughtry, the bar-band rocker from Roanoke Rapids, N.C., sounds like Ed Kowalczyk, lead singer for the band Live.

Daughtry brought the noise (well, not that much noise) to “American Idol,” losing in the finals. But with songcraft and crunch, his band’s album Daughtry became the mega-platinum sensation of 2006. Daughtry – guy and group – put big, slogging rock back into the Top Ten. Hooray. Now, follow it up, punk.

“Leave This Town”avoids the sophomore slump.

Daughtry is mainstream stuff, hardly a nouvelle rocker whose every bleat tops the Pitchfork charts.

Yet hipsters and hockey pucks alike are missing a pulse if this album’s opening salvo of quixotically melodic tunes doesn’t curl their toes.

“You Don’t Belong”and the soaring bridge to“No Surprise”alone are worth the price of admission into Daughtry’s new house. Screechers such as “Supernatural”allow the burly baritone singer range and punch. But it’s the slower tracks that cut the deepest and show Daughtry’s character.The country fiddle of “Tennessee Line,” with Vince Gill; the slow-tobuild-then-burst“September”; the ghostly acoustic “Call Your Name”– all solidly soulful.

Books

An amorous tale of love in repressive, post-revolution Iran Censoring an Iranian Love Story

0Shahriar Mandanipour 0Knopf (295 pages, US$25 via Amazon)

In his first novel to be translated into English, Shahriar ûMandanipour sets out to write the story of young lovers struggling to consummate their prenuptial passion under the eyes of the Iranian morals police.They hang out nervously in Internet cafes, dark movie houses and on the jammed and smoggy streets of modern-day Tehran.

The clandestine courtship comes at a time when university students protest, and vigilantes watch out for transgressing neighbors.A war with U.S. troops and suicide bombers rages in next-door Iraq.

Telling amorous tales in post-Islamic-revolution Iran is tricky, if not downright dangerous, but a fictional writer named Shahriar Mandanipour is up to the task.“I am an Iranian writer tired of writing dark and bitter stories, stories populated by ghosts and dead narrators with predictable endings of death and destruction,”writes the alter ego of the real-life Mandanipour, a Harvard visiting scholar and former writing fellow at Brown.

But with love in his sights, the narrator must sub– A.D. Amorosi ject his writing to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance,where a Dostoevsky-inspired man named The Golden Silvers Porfiry Petrovich scrutinizes novels and short stories 0True Romance – especially those of the impassioned persuasion – for 0XL erotic material,real or imagined.Heavily underlined pages don’t reach much of an audience.

“In the love story I want to write,I will not run into A keys/bass/drums trio from any difficulties as long as in the opening sentences North London, the Golden Sil- I depict the beauty of spring flowers, the fragrant vers make wistful, swooning pop breeze,and the brilliant sun in the blue sky,”he writes. marked by barbershop harmonies When diverging from pastoral scenes,he draws a line and singer/songwriter Gwilym through overt references to flirting, natural body Gold’s fixation on magic and functions,shapely body parts and sexual experience myth. Despite the lack of guitar, these songs alter- – all of which remain legible to the reader. Profannately recall early Blur and Super Furry Animals, ity and anti-regime and bibulous commentary get Bowie at his most streamlined, and a less smarmy the strike-through, too. The censor is the narrator’s Pulp.This full-length debut isn’t perfect:The mid- nemesis as much as he is also his muse. dle few tracks are dull compared with the album’s The lovers in this meta-love story are Sara and strong start and finish, though “Shakes”does have Dara, their pseudonymous names more fiction (Iraits moments.The high point and onetime U.K. single nian writers are“the most postmodern in the world,” “Arrows of Eros”is buried in penultimate position, the narrator notes). its squiggly faux-disco lit up with a horn section.

They meet in a library. Sara is a student of IraLargely enjoyable, “True Romance” closes with nian literature at Tehran University, and Dara is “Fade To Black,”a sweet entry featuring just Gold’s a cinephile and one-time political prisoner who rubbery voice and gentle piano. paints houses and “wants to think not of the seven – Doug Wallen thousand nymphs who could be waiting for him in heaven but of his one nymph here on earth”(the narSean Jones rator doesn’t say if this passage ultimately sneaks 0The Search Within past the gatekeepers).A wealthy suitor named Sin0Mack Avenue bad adds narrative tension.

As he tells his censor-wary story, the matchmaking narrator employs symbol, metaphor and plenty Trumpeter Sean Jones, who’s all of heartache – obvious nods to Barthes and Borges of 31, often sounds like a commit- that of course don’t go unnoticed by the narrator. ted hard bopper. Raised in Warren, American pop culture references – Danielle Steele, Ohio,Jones is now a jazz professor at Steve McQueen, John Wayne, Linkin Park, Titanic Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and Vertigo – combined with a reverie-like prose and he can play as if in a time bub- summon Murakami. Hypothetical narratives and ble,attacking his originals with laserlike precision. abrupt digressions lend humour and irony to what’s But his work with a sextet and some guests, supposed to be a melancholy affair. More than midincluding Gregoire Maret on harmonica, is also way through the novel, the narrator admits to killsurprisingly cool and clinical. It fills the space but ing off a central protagonist; it’s an accident. rarely draws a wow.

Unable to publish his fiction from 1992 until 1997 Pianist Orrin Evans, Philly’s own, offers some because of censorship, Mandanipour the real-life needed outside-the-box counterpart to Jones’ tech- novelist lets loose. One might say censorship isn’t nical juggernaut.Still,the prevailing vibe here is very entirely oppressive. It’s creative solipsism. smooth and occasionally overproduced. The set is And as much as humor dominates the book, it effective, but an emotional response is more elusive. quietly gets at something else – the omnipotence That’s odd,because a lot of pieces are in place for a of tyranny. In the novel, censors scrub literature, good session.Frank Foster,the legendary Count Basie magazines, movies of anything that may invoke sideman, wrote one tune,“Sean Jones Comes Down,” love or lust. The idea of an Iranian love story is a and it finds the leader spreading verve and fire. sad oxymoron.

–Karl Stark

15

– By Trenton Daniel

The highs and lows of Lena Horne Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne

Books for the aspiring job seeker

High unemployment continues. I suspect, in fact, that it’s far worse than official statistics indicate.

0James Gavin How many people, for whatever reason, neglect to 0Atria Books (598 pages, US$27) apply for benefits or participate in other programs used to compile the data?

In the 1940s, the press bestowed several condescendRegardless, it’s always worthwhile to keep jobing sobriquets on Lena Horne:“sepian songstress,” seeking skills sharp. Clarifying and defining career “beauteous bronze,”“Chocolate Cream Chanteuse.” goals, strategies and tactics are useful ways to mainShe was introduced to nightclub audiences as tain forward motion. Several recent books offer “Miss Lena Horne.”At the age of 34 in 1952, Horne advice and support in this never-ending quest. referred to herself as a“dried-up old broad,”a term she’d use for the next five decades before retreating The Job-Hunter’s Survival Guide from public life in 2000.

0Richard N. Bolles A victim of racism, an idolized singer, a performer 0Ten Speed Press (112 pages) who swung violently between self-abnegation and towering self-regard: all describe Lena Horne, Bolles’ What Color Is Your Parachute? has sold brought to vivid life by James Gavin, a biographer millions of copies and he has updated it countless who is gimlet–, not moon-eyed. times to accommodate the shifting job market, the Gavin, the author of Deep in a Dream: The Long economy and new technologies, among other things.

Night of Chet Baker and Intimate Nights:The Golden He said that he came up with the idea for this book Age of New York Cabaret, begins his study of Horne, in February and here it is today: an amazing feat who turned 92 last month, with memories of the leg- in the publishing industry where a year or three is end when he interviewed her on assignment in April more typical.

1994:“Who was the real Lena Horne? Even in her Bolles’ short, sharp tome offers triage to those 70s she seemed confused. As for all she’d achieved, job seekers who may be either flummoxed with the none of it seemed to bring much comfort.” economy or paralyzed by indecisiveness or lack of a Refreshingly, Gavin forgoes armchair psychol- clear path. There’s nothing radically new here, but ogy about Horne’s past – her beloved, gambling his folksy, familiar style and presentation are an father left when she was a toddler; her mother, a effective tonic for jittery nerves and chronic brain frustrated actress, was pathologically envious of her freeze. It’s pretty ballsy for an author to produce daughter’s career – when discussing the “tangled something that might cannibalize sales of his other web of victimhood” Horne often spun for herself. books, but this disruptive act of creative destruction Certainly, Horne had much to be enraged about. She is actually a brilliant stroke by Bolles and could endured hateful Jim Crow laws while traveling as a provide just the gentle push needed by many. singer; MGM, the studio for which she made“Cabin in the Sky”(1943), had no idea what to do with her, Get The Job You Want, Even When offering one of her dream roles, the biracial Julie No One’s Hiring: Take Charge of in “Show Boat,” to Horne’s lily-white, non-singing Your Career, Find a Job You Love pal Ava Gardner. and Earn What You Deserve Yet sometimes, Horne simply manufactured 0Ford R. Myer injustices.The left-leaning performer would claim 0Wiley, 202 pages that the blacklist had kept her off television for seven years, even though “by the mid-’50s Horne Myers has put together an excellent compendium of had done a considerable amount of TV.”And while the basics of the subject: what to do and how to do Horne, who attended a civil-rights rally with Medgar it with examples, clear explanations and more. He Evers in Jackson, Miss., and who called“The Autobi- incorporates a lot of old-school ideas with modern ography of Malcolm X”her “Bible,”hoped that she methods. For example, make sure you have a good, was“allied with the larger black struggle,”she“still solid traditional resume but also post your profile measured almost everything in terms of her private on LinkedIn.com. I also like his instructions – in hurts and frustrations.” the form of a “tool kit”– which offers step-by-step That hurt, frustration and rage were channeled help to those who crave a bit of structure amid the into what Gavin deems Horne’s true metier: her chaos of the unemployment jungle. nightclub act, where “her diction was sharp as a scalpel.”The chilly ferocity of Horne’s performances Blueprint Your Future: Creating seems to have been fueled by hate. She called night- Powerful Personal and Career clubs “toilets”and said of her adoring audiences,“I Results through Alignment just didn’t like them, really.”

0Susan Bosscawen Sometimes, the disgust was self-directed: during 0Butterfly (69 pages) rehearsals for the 1957 musical Jamaica, a reporter found Horne in her dressing room, crying,“I hate Bosscawen’s little gem cuts through the virtual field myself!”When Mike Douglas praised Horne for her of bovine droppings with a really incisive collecbeauty on his talk show in 1968, the singer shot tion of self-assessments to help readers figure out back,“I’m like that portrait of Dorian Gray.You what to do with the rest of their lives. She smartly know how lovely it was outside? You should see eschews feel-good pop psychology and new age what’s goin’ on in here!” mumbo jumbo in favor of direct action. But conGavin illuminates both the outside and inside siderable thought and informed decision-making of his legendary subject, capturing the awe he felt are demanded from the reader; this is no passive when first meeting Horne without being blinded experience, and so it consequently may not be for by it. everyone. But if you need to gain a clearer idea of – By Melissa Anderson your choices as move on to the next chapter in your career, this is an excellent place to begin the job.

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SCIENCE & TECH 17

31 July 2009

Thanks to Microsoft’s Anytime Upgrade system, all editions of Windows 7 will be distributed on the same DVD. Upgrading from one edition to another can be done online, and a new key will allow users to upgrade their existing version of Windows 7 by using their original DVD.

Windows 7: The Verdict Washington – It’s official:Windows 7 is headed your way. With the recent announcement that the long-awaited successor to Windows Vista has reached the “release to manufacturing” (RTM) stage, Microsoft has signaled that its programmers have put the final touches on Windows 7, deeming it ready for shrink wrap and for the official launch later this year. Luckily, that gives computer users a bit of time to consider whether to evaluate this new operating system and to determine whether their current computer can run it. Here’s what you need to know.

Windows 7 editions Like Windows Vista,Window 7 will be offered in several versions, or“editions,”with each geared toward a specific audience or a specific class of computer.

A Windows 7 Starter Edition is for those with less powerful hardware and who do not ask much of their PCs.This edition will not include the Aero interface, which gives Windows 7 its three-dimensional, polished look and feel, and it will not be available in a 64-bit version.

Windows 7 Home Premium will be aimed at the home market, which Microsoft believes focuses primarily on ease of use and less on office connectivity.

As such, it will include Aero,Windows Media Centre, and touch screen controls, but it will not include any

features designed to make connecting to corporate networks easy.

Windows 7 Professional is aimed at sophisticated home and small business users. Included are all of the features of lesser editions as well as remote desktop functionality for connecting to other PCs remotely. Optional file-system level encryption will help keep prying eyes from sensitive data, and a Windows XP Mode will be available to ensure that any application compatible with XP will run under Windows 7.

Windows 7 Enterprise adds to the features of Professional by offering BitLocker Drive Encryption – which helps corporations protect data by ensuring that removable media, such as USB drives, can be password protected and encrypted. Unix application support is also provided. Corporations will generally purchase this edition with volume licenses.

Windows 7 Ultimate contains most of the features of other versions, including Enterprise, but will be available to home users.

There will also be “E” and “N” versions of Windows 7.The “E”version is for Europe and will ship without a browser – a result of a settlement with EU regulators. The “N” version, likewise, will ship without Windows Media Player – again a result of EU regulations.

Hardware requirements The official hardware requirements for Windows 7 from Microsoft include a processor running at 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, 1 gigabyte (GB) of system memory (RAM), a graphics card that supports DirectX 9, and 16 – 20 GB of free hard drive space.

Microsoft’s official hardware requirements have always left users dissatisfied, however, and that will be no different with Windows 7.

To do any kind of serious multitasking, you’ll want to make sure your computer has at least 2 GB of RAM and a processor running at 2.3 GHz or better. Because Windows 7 is graphics intensive, a graphics card upgrade may be in order for those with machines older than two or three years. And with hard drive space, more is always better, especially if your computer is light on memory, since Windows 7 will use your hard drive to swap out portions of running applications if physical memory runs low.

It should be noted that one of Microsoft’s goals in Windows 7 was to make the operating system faster and more efficient than Windows Vista. Judging from pre-release versions and from beta tester feedback, the company has largely succeeded, but don’t expect it to run faster than Windows XP. Upgrade considerations If you have a computer currently running Windows Vista, the switch to Windows 7 should be filled primarily with pleasant surprises.

Windows 7, in fact, is remarkable during installation in that it typically finds drivers automatically for a wide range of PC components that previously required a hunt for third-party drivers.

Install Windows 7 from scratch, and chances are good that you’ll end up with a functioning system for which you need no additional drivers.

Will you be able to upgrade an existing Windows XP or Windows Vista installation with Windows 7?

It depends.Windows XP users will have no direct upgrade path to Windows 7, which means that if you’re running Windows XP, you’ll need to do a clean installation of Windows 7. That’s for the best anyway, since leaving an old operating system on your computer and upgrading it with a newer version typically results in a computer that runs slower and contains more unneeded files than one that was

reformatted and provided with a fresh installation of the new operating system.

If you currently run Windows Vista, you do have some upgrade options. If you run Vista Home Premium, you’ll be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium.Vista Business users can upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. And Windows Vista Ultimate owners can upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate.Again, though, a clean installation of Windows 7 will be your best bet to ensure maximum performance and minimum hard drive clutter.

Software compatibility Vista bombed in the area of backward compatibility, and that was one of the main reasons why it was a relative flop in the market.

Microsoft got serious about changing that situation with Windows 7, and the result was not only a plethora of compatibility-related bug fixes but also the inclusion of the XP Compatibility Mode, available in more advanced editions of the operating system.

With Compatibility Mode, Microsoft takes advantage of the virtualisation capabilities of today’s cutting-edge processors.

Essentially, Compatibility Mode creates within Windows 7 a separate virtual machine running Windows XP, so any application that runs fine on Windows XP will run without issue on Windows 7 using Compatibility Mode. This should ensure the widest availability of applications for Windows 7.

Most current applications will not need XP Compatibility Mode to run in Windows 7, however.And some applications – most notably older antivirus or disk utilities – still will not run under Windows 7, even with Compatibility Mode.

Pricing There are two levels of pricing for Windows 7: upgrade and full version. Upgrade pricing requires that a previous Windows version be available or installed. Upgrade pricing for Windows 7 Home Premium is estimated at US$119, for Windows 7 Professional at US$199, and for Windows 7 Ultimate at US$219. Full version pricing for Home Premium is estimated at US$199,Windows 7 Professional at $299, and Windows 7 Ultimate at $319.

Availability The official launch date for Windows 7 is October 22.

That’s the day on which the new operating system should be available on store shelves in many parts of the world. Expect to be able to order Windows 7-equipped computer systems from vendors before that date, however.

– DPA

iPods may help Asperger’s kids navigate life

By Maura Lerner Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

MINNEAPOLIS – Sue Pederson knows that the teenage boys in her treatment program have trouble making conversation. They may not know what to talk about; or once they get started, when to shut up.

That’s one of the striking features of people with Asperger’s syndrome:They struggle with the social skills that come so naturally to others.

But about a year ago, Pederson, a psychologist, and her colleagues at the Fraser Child & Family Center in Minneapolis found a new way to reach these students – right through their headphones.

They’re using iPods, which play music and videos, to teach them how to fit in.

It may have started out as a form of entertainment, but Pederson says this kind of technology is turning into an unexpected boon for children and teenagers with special needs. The devices, it turns out, can be crammed with the kind of information they need to get through the day. While it’s still experimental, she said,“I think it’s going to spread like wildfire.”

With Asperger’s, a form of autism, people lack the inner voice that tells them what is, or is not, appropriate behaviour. At Fraser, Pederson’s staff came

up with the idea of programming iPods to act as an electronic substitute for that missing voice.

In this case, the staff helped students create a series of short videos and slide shows on how to behave in different social settings. Some are barely 30 seconds long: How to carry on a conversation (“Let the other person talk AND change the topic ...“); how to respect other people’s boundaries, and think before they speak (“Use your filter!”)

In the world of special education, these scripts are known as “social stories,” used to teach basic social skills.“It’s a mental checklist for things to think about when you’re interacting with other people,” explained Mandy Henderson, who works with Fraser’s Asperger’s program.

As part of the Fraser project, the students can transfer the videos onto their iPods, and replay them over and over, to drive the lessons home.

Jack O’Riley said it’s just what his 15-year-old son P.J. needed.“This really hit the mark,”he said.

Like many kids with Asperger’s, P.J. is baffled by the normal rhythms of social interaction: in conversation, he may blurt out too much information, or say nothing at all, his father says.

At the same time, P.J. is easily distracted and has a hard time staying on task, another common trait of Asperger’s. For years, O’Riley posted laminated

signs around the house to remind his son how to get through the day – take a shower, brush his teeth, get ready for school.

Now, with the videos developed at Fraser,“we can plug this stuff into his little ‘extended memory,’“ O’Riley said. P.J. is building a library of videos on his iPhone, so they’ll be at his fingertips.“He can pull up a topic on his ‘to do list’ and find everything he needs to know,”his father said.

Sixteen-year-old Myles Lund, another student in the Fraser program, said he’s learned to use the iPod to help control his emotions by playing his favourite music.“It helps take my mind off of it,”he said. At the same time, Myles, who says he rarely initiates a conversation, agrees the videos can help in social situations.“I just pull out my iPod and go through a list of things to talk about.”

The staffers at Fraser came up with the idea after they noticed how students with Asperger’s would use iPods as a calming device, to block out noise or other distractions.“We just started thinking, how else can we use this technology?” Pederson said. They got a $7,500 private grant to buy the iPods and other equipment, and started experimenting.

They’re not alone.

Jim Ball, an adviser to the Autism Society of America, said similar projects are popping up

around the US. Some people are designing adaptations for smart phones, Palm Pilots and other devices to fill the same need, he said.

“This is just another way of prompting kids when they’re in situations when they don’t know what to do,” said Ball, who works with autistic children in New Jersey.“The technology gives them the ability to be independent.”

Ball noted the devices could work especially well with Asperger’s kids, because they’re often far more comfortable with electronic gadgets than they are with people.

“It’s a machine; they don’t have to react to it, they don’t have to understand it,” Ball said.“They just need to know how to work it.And they do.”

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