MONSANTO_WESTINGHOUSE'S NY TIMES LA TIMES WEEKEND RECAP
Storied Rembrandt to Be Shown during a Getty
By RANDY KENNEDY
An early Rembrandt mural which has not been upon open perspective for some-more than dual decades as great as has a lively rapist past will re-emerge for multiform months, commencement upon Tuesday during a J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Tchotchkes from a '80s
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In light of a find which equipment have been blank from a Reagan library, a commercial operation proposal.
By John Kenney
November 17, 2007
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is unable to find or account for tens of thousands of valuable mementos of Reagan's White House years given a "near universal" certainty breakdown left a artifacts exposed to theft by insiders. ...
-- Los Angeles Times
A loan officer's office. Wells Fargo. Simi Valley.
LO: So what brings we in today?
APP: I'd identical to to open a tiny business. Antiques. Collectibles.
LO: Weird. You're a third chairman this week. So, like, furniture?
APP: Some furniture. Mostly pick things.
LO: Such as?
APP: Plates, lamps, crocheted flags . . .
LO: Bizarre. A masculine yesterday had a same stuff.
APP: Did he have a dive bell from a final Soviet arch submarine to patrol off U.S. waters?
LO: That he did not have.
APP: It's extraordinary what people chuck out.
LO: Tell me about it. My mom as great as we have a gorgeous coffee list which a neighbors were throwing out customarily given there have been dual cracks as great as their dog chewed a ends.
APP: Little bend grease.
LO: Bingo. OK, so antiques . . .
APP: Antiques, yes, yet additionally trinkets.
LO: Trinkets. Great. And a brand brand brand new gimmick is what, exactly?
APP: A brand brand brand new gimmick could be . . . contend . . . a coaster from Air Force One. It could be, ohhh . . . we do not know, a woodcarving of a Constitution signed by a Iran hostages in 1980. It could ! be leath er leather belt buckles.
LO: You're joking? Like, 5 opposite applicants have had leather leather belt buckles. They're not Western-themed, have been they?
APP: They are.
LO: Uh . . .
APP: we feel which I'm not portrayal a transparent picture. Yes, we're about warrant woodcarvings. And yes, we're about cowboy leather leather belt buckles. But we're additionally unequivocally most about a Cold War. Soviet memorabilia. Specifically a period from, say, Jan 1981 to Jan 1989.
LO: The '80s.
APP: You understand, we can tell. we was meditative of job it "That '80s Store."
LO: So was this pick guy. Swear to God. And this a singular woman, final week, longed for to call her place "The Ronald Wilson Reagan Gift Shop."
APP: Coincidence is funny.
LO: Not so most in commercial operation loans. OK, so it's a boutique, then? Like those places upon Melrose. Vintage mittens for $200.
APP: Yes as great as no. High-end junk. Eccentric. Far-out gifts.
LO: Like those stores upon Melrose. With a uncanny clothes. Old stuff.
APP: Exactly. Except we have enchanting stuff.
LO: Besides a leather leather belt buckles as great as a dive bell.
APP: we happen to have stumbled upon a tiny flags which flew upon tip of a White House in a 1980s.
LO: So did a pick folks.
APP: (awkward laugh) And we suspect they're all Pisces too!
LO: we do not understand.
APP: Nothing.
LO: Sounds identical to there competence be a glut of these . . . '80s items.
APP: Not of a hundred pieces of a Berlin Wall, there isn't. I've already had a discuss with a Sundance catalog.
LO: That's interesting.
APP: It's unequivocally interesting. These have been great pieces, lots of graffiti. Also a final tactical arch missile built underneath communism. we see your expression, as great as we can assure we which it's not armed.
LO: Well, that's quite a . . .
APP: Oh, as great as we additionally happen to have come opposite this . ! . . this minute from Mikhail Gorbachev to Ronald Reagan. Do a others have that?
LO: Gorbachev? Letter? No, no Gorbachev which we remember. But a singular masculine had an Idi Amin. The lady had a unequivocally droll a singular from a shah of Iran. That masculine was hilarious.
APP: Huh. Do they have a racy a singular from Margaret Thatcher where she uses a word "honcho," or a singular from Jimmy Carter explaining to Reagan how a presidency works? To be honest, we can envision a whole "Reagan Letters" section. we have which many.
LO: And we "found" these where?
APP: Different places. Library books. A Dunkin' Donuts.
LO: Was he gay, Reagan? I'd listened he was secretly gay. Any truth to that?
APP: Who knows? Anything's possible, right? we saw a note from John Major which could be simply misconstrued. There's a minute from a immature Dick Cheney asking him to be his Valentine.
LO: we kissed a masculine once.
APP: Sorry?
LO: Have we owned a commercial operation before?
APP: No.
LO: Any background in business?
APP: we went to a Harvard Business School.
LO: Wow.
APP: That was a lie.
LO: (laughing) You had me. we swear we had me.
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One Market Remains Sound: Money Is Still There for Best Art
By CAROL VOGEL
Published: Nov 17, 2007
Never thoughts a gyrations upon Wall Street or a subprime debt as great as equity crisis. Theres still plenty of income out there as great as an unquenched appetite for art. At slightest which seems to be a outcome after a two-week round of auctions during Christies, Sothebys as great as Phillips de Pury & Company, with bidders paying record prices for all from a rare Matisse to a red heart cut with a chisel by Jeff Koons.
Those with prolonged knowledge in a art universe can parasite off pick capricious times: a recession in a early 1970s, when prices for any kind of collectible plummeted; a period after Black Monday in a fall of ! 1987, wh en prices of Impressionist paintings leapt to unimaginable heights upon a strength of Japanese shopping power; a Persian Gulf war, when appetites soured, as great as trouble sales predominated; as great as a Nov after 9/11, when a marketplace customarily about limped along.
Despite all a theorizing which a brand brand brand new abounding in Europe, Russia as great as a Middle East would gain upon a weak dollar as great as snap up prized artworks, Americans accomplished up being a widespread buyers.
Everyone was awaiting bumps, yet there werent many, pronounced Allan Schwartzman, a Manhattan art confidant after Sothebys sale of ? la mode art upon Wednesday evening. The amount of income out there is staggering.
So have been a numbers of art dealers as great as advisers conversing a rich. Taking their advice, collectors tended to go for functions which were top-rate, as great as these brought a highest prices. When something had been sensitively shopped around, was overpriced or second-rate, it either did not sell or sole below a estimate.
In a initial week of sales of Impressionist as great as complicated art, for instance, Christies was equates to to lift off a successful night upon Nov. 6 given it had a goods as great as during a right estimates. Its star, Matisses 1937 portrayal LOdalisque, Harmonie Bleue, a richly patterned board depicting Lydia Delectorskaya, a Russian migr as great as a singular of a artists preferred models, brought a record cost of $33.6 million.
Sothebys sale a subsequent night was cursed by mediocrity. Two of a priciest functions had problems. While a overwhelming Gauguin from this artists Tahitian period routinely brings vast prices, Te Poipoi (The Morning), an 1892 portrayal of a lady squatting in a water with her dress hiked up around her waist, unsuccessful to pass muster. The portrayal barely sold. A sole write bidder, a Hong Kong gourmet Joseph Lau, paid for it for $39.2 million, together with Sothebys commission.
At a same sale, a sun-d! appled w ork, The Fields (Wheat Fields), a singular of a final embellished by van Gogh prior to he died in 1890, went unsold. The word upon a travel was which it had been offered to collectors by dual dealers for months prior to it went to auction. It was an costly round for Sothebys, which concurred which it had mislaid $14.6 million in guarantees. (To win consignments, auction houses mostly emanate guarantees to impending sellers, identical to fork out a smallest total even if a work does not sell.)
Popular ambience these days still gravitates toward postwar as great as ? la mode art. Both Sothebys as great as Christies were equates to to post considerable formula over a dual weeks of sales with functions by artists identical to John Chamberlain, Richard Prince, Mr. Koons as great as Lucian Freud selling great beyond their estimates. Still, a tiny functions unsuccessful to sell or drew customarily a singular bidder, as great as mostly a outcome was costly for a auction house. In a feverishness of competition, auction houses had granted guarantees which exceeded estimates, a highly unsure strategy.
As always, rumors have been drifting about who paid for what. Appropriately enough, Laurence Graff, a London jeweler, is suspicion to have paid for Jeff Koonss Diamond (Blue), a staggering cut with a chisel of a solid lazy upon 4 gold prongs which went for $11.8 million. The British artist Damien Hirst scooped up a 1969 self-portrait by Francis Bacon for $33 million; a Los Angeles banker Eli Broad took home Mr. Koonss Hanging Heart for $23.5 million.
Steven A. Cohen, a hedge-fund billionaire, did a bit of shopping too. Bidding by multiform opposite art dealers, he is pronounced to have paid for multiform artworks, in between them Francis Bacons 1969 Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1, for $45.9 million.
The poser is half a fun. It is additionally partial of a problem. As a auction houses go upon giving sellers undisclosed guarantees, as great as a percentage of a fee they assign buyers! , it is formidable to pin down what kind of profits they will ultimately make. Complicating a situation, when Sothebys or Christies is nervous which a work will not do well, it is not surprising for a residence to hit potential buyers as great as indicate special remuneration terms.
Although a comparatively strong formula brought a inundate of service to a auction houses, a fright is still palpable. Had buyers been frightened off by a rocky financial markets, these companies would be confronting losses of millions of dollars as great as warehouses of destroyed art.
There is certain to be some-more caution a subsequent time around. The auction houses competence not be so discerning to indicate sellers such unsure incentives. Collectors fearing which a marketplace has upheld a peak competence be some-more demure to partial with a treasures upon their walls unless they have no choice. The outcome could be a some-more solemn market.
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Pictures imperfect
Amateur quarrel photos snapped by participants have a certain immediacy, yet they lack a punch as great as energy of work accomplished by pros.
November 17, 2007
Readers of this journal were mesmerized this week by staff photographer Luis Sinco's two-part array about Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, a masculine during a behind of his right divided important portrait, "Marlboro Marine." Taken in 2004 during a conflict of Fallouja, a sketch shows a sap Marine staring in to a morning sun. His face is unwashed with mud, a bridge of his nose is bloodied, as great as a cigarette dangles from his lips with a Bogart-style insouciance we frequency see anymore.
Sinco's photograph, which appeared upon a front pages of 160 newspapers as great as was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, is in between a most celebrated photographs from a Iraq quarrel to date. It is also, to my mind, a slightest unchanging with a predominant aesthetic of a images which define this war. And whi! ch compe tence be given we identical to it so much.
Despite all a veteran "shooters" we do their most appropriate to cover a war, most of a movement we see is brought to us by a people we do a fighting. Soldiers record artillery glow with hand-held digital video recorders as great as post a clips upon YouTube. Snapshots taken with cellphones -- a tiny as harmless as tourist photos, others officious gruesome -- abound upon a Internet. In pick words, to demeanour during photographs of a Iraq quarrel is, quite often, to see guerrilla photojournalism.
In fact, it's worth observant which most of a war's most remarkable photographs have come from nonprofessionals who, in true 21st century fashion, customarily happen to carry cameras with them most of a time. While certain recognizable moments -- a toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2003, for e.g. -- were great documented by a pros, there have been pick informed images which demeanour as yet a chairman who took them was some-more interested in carrying a commemoration than producing a historical document. Sure, we recollect a news photos of a dapper, warlike Hussein during his trial. But who can dont consider about a infamous images of a detained Hussein in his underwear, which appeared to have been taken by someone who customarily longed for a tiny unequivocally cool pictures to e-mail home?
Then, of course, there have been a Abu Ghraib photos. They competence permanently remain a most iconic images of a war, as great as a couple of in sold will expected turn signature documents of a 21st century. But what have been we to have of a actuality which a images came out not given a photojournalist was there as great as done a decision -- used his or her trained eye -- to take pictures, yet given a handful of unequivocally uneasy people decided to uncover off?
Historically speaking, a images from Abu Ghraib have been any bit as important as a most important images from a Vietnam War -- for example, Nick Ut's sketch of a exposed lady ! regulati ng down a highway after a napalm conflict upon her encampment in 1972, or Eddie Adams' sketch of Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong restrained in 1968. But they do not demeanour as important. It's not customarily which all has some-more gravitas in black as great as white. It's which a people reception a Abu Ghraib pictures were not we do so as witnesses or communicators or artists (a veteran photojournalist is all 3 during once) yet as gloaters. The outcome is which a tellurian rights debacle is documented in a impression some-more appropriate to spring break beer-chugging contests in Cancun.
As for a lot of a pick footage from Iraq, it as great embodies a mise-en-scene which competence be described as a YouTube New Wave. When we called Sinco to ask given this was, he forked out an a singular some-more square of this equation, which is which a Pentagon is right divided regulating a most tighter open family boat than it did during Vietnam. Between which as great as a dangers to journalists in general in Iraq, a professionals can't regularly get to where a most in effect shots competence be, as great as they aren't reception or transmitting as most pictures as they competence otherwise.
"From colleagues I've talked to, it sounded identical to in Vietnam we could locate a helicopter anywhere in a country," Sinco told me. "It's a totally opposite understanding right divided . . . there's a censorship mechanism in place. [The military] does not wish an a singular some-more shot of a kid great over his passed parents."
As for a Marlboro Marine photo (which stirred a troops to indicate Miller an early discharge, lest this poster boy accomplished up wounded or dead; Miller refused), Sinco suggests which people adore it given a subject's face shows a full spectrum of emotions as great as they can pick as great as select from any of them. "The pro-war crowd saw patriotism," he said. "The antiwar crowd saw a damaged person."
But I'm still prone to consider which most of us, in ! any box of a position upon a war, were drawn to a sketch simply given it looked so opposite from what we're used to observant from Iraq. Unlike a seat-of-the-pants image from a cellphone, it gimlet a hallmarks of a photographer who, even in a feverishness of conflict when he's shooting identical to crazy, knows what he's doing. In a quarrel in which people increasingly appear to feel they do not know what they're doing, that's a absolute message, a absolute illusion. And what is great photography if not that?
Barnum & Bailey & CNN
By Tim Rutten
IF you're a singular of those dutiful souls who felt which a obliged use of citizenship compulsory we to watch Thursday's discuss in between a Democratic possibilities upon CNN, we substantially came divided feeling as if you'd outlayed a integrate of hours locked in a welcome of a time share salesman.
books & authors
Writers nonplus out Mailer's legacy
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The provocative bard isn't as during vast review as pick leaders of New Journalism. But a great review universe says he's a formidable movement to follow.
By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 17, 2007
Norman Mailer, who died final weekend during 84, was incontestably a singular of a titans of American letters: novelist, journalist, essayist, would-be statesman as great as overall provocateur. Whatever a genre, he was a absolute bard -- New Yorker editor David Remnick calls his a "locomotive poetry style" -- who could combine sheer egghead force with great good review finesse. As Peter Kaplan, editor in arch of a New York Observer, put it, Mailer "made nonfiction essay in to an egghead as great as soulful exercise," in a routine transforming American journalism with his "pyrotechnic" impression as great as "massive, cosmic" ideas.
And yet in a past week a great review universe was not customarily anguish him yet additionally grappling with his complicated legacy.
"If there's a required wisdom over ! a final week, it seems to be which his great good review talent was regularly during quarrel with his judgment as great as exhibitionism," Remnick said. "And there is no doubt in my thoughts which a tiny of his domestic judgments, in all early on, were foolish.
"But if we were to decider all great review reputations upon unchanging liberalism, as great as even temper, you'd have a unequivocally tiny canon, wouldn't you? It wouldn't customarily eliminate people identical to Pound as great as Eliot as great as a obvious people who were edging toward fascism, yet even people we know right divided -- we wouldn't wish them to be president of a United States."
Remnick combined which upon tip of a concurred classics such as "The Armies of a Night" as great as "The Executioner's Song," such books as "Harlot's Ghost," a 1,300-page novel desirous by a CIA, have a lot of Mailer's strengths.
Still, for all of his significance to what's great known as New Journalism, Mailer is not as during vast review as a pick lions of a movement, according to Marc Weingarten, bard of "The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, as great as a New Journalism Revolution," as great as he lacks a following those iconic 3 have in between a stream stand of younger writers.
Sexual ruling physique competence have mostly kept this supposed sexist off college celebration of a mass lists, pronounced his crony as great as associate bard Gay Talese. "With feminism so absolute in a academic world, he was not up there with Toni Morrison."
Similarly, pronounced enlightenment censor Lee Siegel, who praises a late work, together with a brand brand new "The Castle in a Forest," as great as a early, Mailer was a intent of envy throughout his life. He was additionally disliked by most associate Jewish writers as great as critics, Siegel said, given he didn't write about Jewish life, as great as didn't effect their gentility. "His personas were customarily strikebreaker Texans or formidable Irish cops, as great ! as which alienated a lot of Jewish critics."
His work was some-more difficult, with fewer surface pleasures, than a pick writers who merged journalistic as great as illusory techniques, Weingarten said. "Hunter was a comedian, in a way, as great as Wolfe was a deconstructor of a specific time in a amicable history. While Mailer was arrange of a dark skeptic of all starting upon in which era, conjunction a cheerleader nor a droll debunker." Thompson's books, he said, became "self-help guides to personal desecration. And Wolfe was some-more fun to read."
And in all as a nation's gender ruling physique altered in a '60s as great as '70s, he became harder for group as great as women to identical to given of a machismo during vast interpreted as misogyny. Though he was a owners of a pick press -- Mailer helped settle a Village Voice in 1955 -- he was not mostly claimed by a subculture which went in a unequivocally opposite citation than he did.
"His propensity toward violence, a actuality which he stabbed his mom Adele, a Jack Henry Abbott stuff" -- in which Mailer lobbied for a recover of a restrained who killed a waiter prior to prolonged after his recover -- "left a bad ambience in people's mouth," pronounced Weingarten. "That's given they embraced Didion a approach they couldn't welcome Mailer."
It's a shame, he said, given notwithstanding uneven brand brand new novels -- "The final decade has been a mislaid decade for him" -- Mailer's most appropriate nonfiction work can review with anyone's. (Weingarten is fond of Mailer's essay about Los Angeles, as when he described a city, in a square about a 1960 Democratic National Convention, as seeking identical to it "was built by air wave sets giving orders to men.")
" 'The Armies of a Night' to me was a most appropriate hearing of a counterculture I've review -- anything which was wrong as great as right about it. How a counterculture had alienated a civil rights movement. By creation himself a flawed character, with self-doubt as great a! s his ow n divided loyalties, he done himself a conduit for all these questions. It's some-more insightful than a books of Thompson as great as Wolfe."
Influence upon writers
Remnick thinks Mailer continues to be "a vast influence" upon writers.
"As a immature reader," Remnick said, "excited by a universe for a initial time as a teen as great as as someone who had it in thoughts to be a publishing house as great as writer, Mailer's work, quite his nonfiction, as great as his self-advertisements, were thrilling to me: The reception of ads, a regulating for mayor, a essays assessing a pick talents in a room as he put it . . . a insistence upon being during executive events, from domestic conventions to a heavyweight fight."
Novelist Marianne Wiggins pronounced she had feminist problems with Mailer, yet which she dignified his insistence upon being "larger than life, pugnacious, politically vigorous" as great as combined which right divided "no a singular upon a American landscape" is we do what he did.
"We applaud anemic, discreet writers in a time which needs some-more Mailers," pronounced Wiggins, bard of "The Shadow Catcher." "Bless his misogynist, much-missed, drastic bones."
Talese, who praised Mailer's endless oddity as great as a graciousness which was frequency remarked on, pronounced his change in journalism is negligible.
"I do not consider he had any change during all," he said. "What he had was a full of illness disregard for journalism. He once compared journalism to a goat: Every day we had to feed a goat, as great as a goat would eat anything. It would eat tin cans, we can chuck junk, all kinds of things in to a mouth of a goat. That's unequivocally a Mailer approach of seeking during things."
Maybe tellingly, a great Mailer feat of a final decade, pronounced Weingarten, is 1998's "The Time of Our Time," a career-spanning doorstop of an anthology which shows a writer's incredible operation as great as energy -- as great as not prolonged ago went out of ! print.
Novel's declining power
Mailer infrequently wrote about a approach a great review novel, as great as a great review novelist, moved offstage during a march of his career. It wasn't which a American novel had declined from a postwar heights "so most as which a people we knew seemed to care most reduction about novels," he wrote in "The Spooky Art." "One hardly listened one's friends articulate about a great brand brand brand new novel anymore."
This marginalization creates it formidable to find a identical figure.
Ed Park, a owners of a Believer, saw a parallel in William T. Vollman, who shares Mailer's far-reaching operation of interests. Weingarten nominated Christopher Hitchens, given of his provocative opinions as great as integrity.
Several others forked to Dave Eggers, whose essay includes memoir, novel as great as biography, as great as who runs a publish- ing lodge industry around McSweeney's as great as a coast-to-coast tutorial bid 826 Valencia.
But Eggers is a subcultural figure who seems gentle upon a indie-alternative edge: Despite his furious following, it's formidable to suspect him regulating for mayor of San Francisco as Mailer once did for New York.
Or, say, head-butting Jonathan Franzen upon national television, as Mailer did to Gore Vidal.
Nobody, pronounced Siegel, would have a guts to do which now. "I found which positively thrilling. I'd adore to see someone be himself as most as Mailer was." With a singular gesture he cut by all a bubbly beverage passive-aggressiveness of a great review culture.
"Speaking as an editor, we do not consider immature novelists lack ambition; demeanour during Michael Chabon," pronounced Remnick. "But they're not prone to do this pick thing. They do not rotate their crops in quite a same way, do not in all see it as their great review commercial operation to go to war, to immerse themselves in a domestic campaign. we consider that's as great bad."
Can a great review figure be so executive again?
Vi dal, who discussed a great review writer's detriment of prestige with Mailer, doubted any a singular would be review in 50 years given cinema as great as pop enlightenment have prisoner people's attention.
But he pronounced he'd miss Mailer's clarity of fun. "He had radical notions about everything. And either they were scold or not was not important: They were refreshing as great as life-enhancing as great as great for others to hear." Vidal called "Barbary Shore" in between his a a singular preferred of Mailer's novels.
Talese pronounced Mailer was some-more permitted as great as far-reaching trimming than a generation of writers who came after. "Don DeLillo would give an talk to a Paris Review. Mailer would give an talk to Hustler, as great as a Paris Review. Mailer would have a lot to contend to anybody. He suspicion a bard should have in his collection of friends a operation of classes. He would know cops, he could know prizefighters, he would know secretaries of state."
"What we loved about Mailer was his fearlessness, his bravery," pronounced Weingarten, adding which a writer's belly-flops came from which same courage. "Where do we see which now? There's a timorousness. we do not consider we'll see a likes of Mailer again."
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The customarily downside to a brand brand brand new toys? Kids competence essentially wish to grow up to be stone stars, with all a container which entails. The arch executive of Toys R Us, Gerald L. Storch, is unperturbed. What could be some-more rational than music? he said.
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MERRY MARKDOWNS What is bad for retailers a formidable economy is great for discount hunters, in stores as great as online.
After a weakest fall shopping deteriorate in a decade, retail analysts envision a lapse of low desperation discounts this holiday. The worse a stores performance, a steeper a markdowns.
Here have been a bondage with weak sales so far: Macys, Nordstrom, Ab! ercrombi e & Fitch, Chicos, Ann Taylor, as great as Limited, a owners of Express as great as Victorias Secret.
In a annulment from years past, reliable cost slashers identical to Gap as great as Aropostale have cut their orders, expecting a slowdown, so discounts will be sparse.
But dont kid yourself, pronounced John D. Morris, an researcher during Wachovia Securities, it is still starting to be a some-more promotional Yuletide season. Mr. Morris, who keeps a regulating total upon discounts, says markdowns have been already up some-more than 7 percent this authorised authorised holiday deteriorate over final year, as great as rising fast.
The vast online bonus this deteriorate is giveaway shipping, with no conditions, for most Web sites a Monday after Thanksgiving, great known as Cyber Monday, given consumers lapse to work from a weekend of mall browsing as great as buy online.
This year, an estimated twenty-five percent of Web retailers will indicate giveaway shipping, no matter how tiny a order, upon Nov. 26. Among them have been Joann.com, a Web site of Jo-Ann Fabrics as great as Crafts; HSN.com, a home shopping network Web site; as great as Giftcertificates.com, a site which sells benefaction cards from hundreds of stores.
Most retailers provide giveaway shipping for orders $50 or higher. Doesnt it appear which stores remove income upon $10 online orders, shipped from New York to California?
The array of sales it generates some-more than offsets a cost of giveaway shipping, pronounced Laura Thorpe, a e-commerce physical education physical education instructor for selling during Bealls, a dialect store charity no-condition giveaway shipping subsequent Monday upon a Web site, www.Bealls.com
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Adding Math to List of Security Threats
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By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: Nov 17, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. sixteen One of a worlds most prominent cryptographers released a notice upon Friday about a suppositious incident in which a math blunder in a during vast used computing thinly slice places a certainty of a global electronic custom complement during risk.
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Adi Shamir, a cryptographer as great as highbrow in Israel.
Adi Shamir, a highbrow during a Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, circulated a research note about a complaint to a tiny organisation of colleagues. He wrote which a augmenting complexity of complicated microprocessor chips is roughly certain to lead to undetected errors.
Historically, a risk has been demonstrated in incidents identical to a find of an obscure multiplication bug in Intels Pentium microprocessor in 1994 and, some-more recently, in a multiplication bug in Microsofts Excel spreadsheet program, he wrote.
A subtle math blunder would have it probable for an assailant to break a insurance afforded to a tiny electronic messages by a renouned technique great known as open pass cryptography.
Using this approach, a summary can be scrambled regulating a publicly great known array as great as afterwards unscrambled with a secret, secretly reason number.
The record creates it probable for dual people who have never met to exchange report securely, as great as it is a basement for all kinds of electronic transactions.
Mr. Shamir wrote which if an intelligence organization detected a math blunder in a during vast used chip, afterwards certainty program upon a Personal Computer with which thinly slice could be trivially damaged with a singular chosen message.
Executing a conflict would require customarily reason of a math smirch as great as a ability to send a poisoned encrypted summary to a stable computer, he wrote. It would afterwards be ! probable to compute a worth of a tip pass used by a targeted system.
With this approach, millions of PCs can be attacked simultaneously, though carrying to manipulate a operating environment of any a singular of them individually, Mr. Shamir wrote.
The research note is significant, cryptographers said, in partial given of Mr. Shamirs role in designing a RSA open pass algorithm, program which is during vast used to strengthen e-commerce transactions from hackers.
The conspicuous thing about this note is which Adi Shamir is observant which RSA is potentially vulnerable, pronounced Jean-Jacques Quisquater, a highbrow as great as cryptographic researcher during a Universit Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.
Mr. Shamir is a S in RSA; he, Ronald Rivest as great as Leonard Adleman grown it in 1977.
Because a expect workings of microprocessor chips have been stable by laws ruling trade secrets, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine which they have been correctly designed, Mr. Shamir wrote.
Even if we pretence which Intel had schooled a lesson as great as meticulously accurate a correctness of a multipliers, he said, there have been most not as vast manufacturers of microprocessors who competence be reduction clever with their design.
The category of complaint which Mr. Shamir described has been deeply explored by cryptography experts, pronounced Paul Kocher, who is president of Cryptography Research, a consulting as great as pattern organisation in San Francisco. However, he combined which it illustrated how tiny flaws could subvert even a strongest security.
An Intel orator remarkable which a smirch was a theoretical a singular as great as something which compulsory a lot of contingencies.
We conclude these as great as we demeanour during everything, pronounced George Alfs, an Intel spokesman.
In e-mail association after he sent a note, Mr. Shamir pronounced he had no justification which any a singular is regulating an conflict identical to a a singu! lar he d escribed.
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NBC Acquires Quarterlife; Internet Series Will Run First Online
With Mustache, Without Arrow
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By CHARLES McGRATH
Published: Nov 17, 2007
BOSTON In person, Steve Martin, right divided 62, is distant from a furious as great as crazy masculine if he ever unequivocally was one. His hair is snow white. Though still youthful, his famously mobile face is mostly in repose. Hes a lot identical to your tax accountant, customarily a tiny shyer.
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Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Steve Martin (in shawl as great as sunglasses), right divided behind in New York, has published a discourse of his stand-up years.
Related
First Chapter: Born Standing Up (November 16, 2007)
'Born Standing Up,' by Steve Martin: Even When Youre a Star, Comedy Isnt Always Pretty (November 15, 2007)
From Born Standing Up
In a 1970s sauce for comedic success meant balloons.
Lately, however, he has been sporting a mustache which we would hatred to see upon your accountant: a tiny pair of sleazy Gallic brackets surveying his lip as great as a slit underneath his nose. This is partial of his get-up for his role as Inspector Clouseau in Pink Panther Deux, a sequel to his 2006 remake of a classic Peter Sellers film. Its growing upon me, Mr. Martin pronounced of a mustache final month. In both senses.
For most of a autumn, Mr. Martin was living in Boston a brand brand brand new Toronto of a film industry where Pink Panther Deux was being filmed. He as great as Wally, his yellow Labrador retriever, shared a trailer equipped with a flat-screen television, a gas fireplace as great as a integrate of industrial-size dog dishes.
Mr. Ma rtin is additionally edition dual books this fall: The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z! (Flying Dolphin Press), illustrated by Roz Chast, which is customarily what a title suggests, as great as Born Standing Up: A Comics Life (Scribner), a discourse of his years as a stand-up comedian.Reviewing a second book for The New York Times, Janet Maslin called it a lean, incisive work which was smart, serious, intense as great as confessional though being maudlin.
Mr. Martin discussed a discourse upon set upon a brand brand new Friday when a book called for Clouseau to wed his colleague Nicole (played, as in a initial film, by Emily Mortimer) during a ceremony conducted by John Cleese as Chief Inspector Dreyfus. His marriage uniform consisted of red-striped trousers as great as a tunic with epaulets a size of scrub brushes, which kept removing knocked off as Mr. Martin walked by a trailer door.
Im not used to ones this big, he apologized to a habit assistant, who sewed them behind on.
Mr. Martins career as a stand-up stand up comic lasted rounded off eighteen years, from a early 1960s when he was performing sketches during a Bird Cage Theater during Knotts Berry Farm in California, to 1981, when he was a most successful comic in America. He had such a following that, wearing a ridicule arrow by his temples, he could, as great as did, lead audiences out of a theater as great as ask them to pick him up as great as pass him over their heads. He done so most income that, as he used to say, he could equates to a gasoline-powered turtleneck sweater. In a foreword to Born Standing Up, he notes, In a clarity this book is not an autobiography yet a biography, given we am essay about someone we used to know.
He says right divided which which partial of his reason up seems partial of an a singular some-more era, roughly ancient history. Recently he came opposite a sketch of a sign outward a Bird Cage, which he had with him in a trailer: It says, Worlds Greatest Entertaiment.
Loo! k during that, he said, indicating to a blank n. we dont consider any a singular ever noticed.
The book came about, Mr. Martin said, given he felt a urge to write something, as great as following his dual best-selling novellas, Shopgirl as great as The Pleasure of My Company, he had during a moment run out of characters as great as ideas. Its a aged adage: write what we know, he said. we satisfied which we had had this unique experience, as great as afterwards we happened to see a uncover Jersey Boys, which reminded me which a a years prior to we have it which have been interesting. And afterwards it all seemed passable to me. we regularly identical to to begin with an ending, as great as we had one: it was when we give up stand-up.
Mr. Martin, who says he is neurotically punctual about turning up during a set, had to break off so he could conduct over to a Sret for his wedding. He crossed a parking lot, entered a room as great as done his approach by castoff scenery (bushes, walls, a hulk backdrop of a Eiffel Tower) to a Chief Inspectors Office, already packaged with dignitaries, together with a pope.
A makeup assistant dabbed powder upon Mr. Martins front as great as fussed with his hair; an a singular some-more neat his mustache with a tiny comb, as great as afterwards Mr. Martin took his place during a front of a room. A bell rang, a cameras rolled, as great as as Ms. Mortimer, in a strapless gown, walked toward him up a aisle, a tiny smirk crept over Mr. Martins face, as great as he gave a tremble of wish as great as pomposity. He half-turned to whisper something to Mr. Cleese, as great as his voice came out in which famously fractured French accent, with gargling rs, as great as vowels so ripe they lingered in a air identical to tiny zeppelins.
I unequivocally identical to a collegiality of movies, Mr. Martin said, behind in his trailer, as great as vocalization unaccented English again. He insisted which he didnt miss stand-up. Its really, unequivocally hard, he said. The solitude,! a trave ling, a clarity which any night youre being judged.
The appeal of writing, he added, was which we feel identical to we can get to a indicate where we know we did a most appropriate we can. we unequivocally adore a clarity of being final in writing, a clarity of removing it right in a approach which customarily we can know about. In comedy, if theyre not laughing, theres no doubt.
In a book Mr. Martin describes a career which seems some-more accidental than ordained, a story reduction of an irrepressible, Mel Brooksian arrange of funnyman than of a shy, introspective immature masculine seeking to find a place for himself. He grew up, in a not terribly happy family, in Orange County, Calif. For most of his childhood, he as great as his father, a unsuccessful actor, barely spoke. Like a lot of sensitive, gifted boys Johnny Carson as great as Woody Allen, for e.g. he drifted in to magic.
His early acts were a hodgepodge a tiny juggling, a tiny magic, a tiny fill up tricks, a tiny banjo-playing as great as to a great border his impression remained eclectic, with a crucial further of irony; a movement became in a tiny ways a parody of an act, with no punch lines, as great as audiences found it even funnier.
It was a great discovery, Mr. Martin said. There we was creation fun of what we was doing, as great as yet we was still removing to do it.
The customarily relic Mr. Martin keeps from those days is his banjo, which he taught himself to play as a teen from a Pete Seeger instruction book, practicing alone in his automobile with windows rolled up even upon prohibited summer nights. Waiting for a hit upon a trailer door, as great as a justice sequence to enclose his epaulets as great as wed again, he picked up a banjo as great as played a bluegrass strain he had been learning. When we play music, a identical to an swap form of living, he said.
A tiny after he remarked: Every right divided as great as afterwards we suspect we get a tiny nostalgic for a stand-up days. They w! ere so redolent, we guess we could say. we can still smell those hot, hazed clubs, a cigarettes, which horrible nightclub wine. It was years prior to we schooled there was such a thing as great wine.
----------------------------------------------------------OP-ED COLUMNIST
Hillary Fries a Waffle
By GAIL COLLINS
When a time to take upon a Republicans, we would cite a Democratic candidate who knows how to change a theme as great as stack a deck.
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Shake, Rattle as great as Roll
By MAUREEN DOWD
With so most during stake, Hillary Clinton used her voice, gawk as great as physique language to such punishing effect which Barack Obama looked as if he had been brought to heel.
Clinton's discuss 'success'
By Don Frederick as great as Andrew Malcolm
Also: What a polls measure, as great as don't; Gore Watch: Is it a end?; Rudy goes up; as great as Arnold brings a heat.
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Channeling Dick Cheney
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
In enchanting Iran, Barack Obamas benefaction for overdo would be some-more in effect with a Dick Cheney hire over his shoulder, sensitively pounding a ball bat in to his palm.
Beware of pitches for unsettled property
By David Lazarus
As a sub-prime debt mess continues reception a fee upon home buyers as great as financial institutions, thousands of unsettled properties have been conflict a marketplace during bargain-basement prices. Savvy buyers can pick them up bad as great as resell them for a tidy profit.
Test-driving hands-free texting services
By David Colker
Britney does it.
BOOKS
'The Looking Glass Wars' takes Alice, er Alyss, to a dark side
Brian Flora / Automatic Pictures Inc.
Of march a plant reason up is otherworldly too. Consider a revisit to "Valley of Mushrooms" by artist Brian Flora.
Hollywood writer Frank Beddor reimagines Lewis Carroll as great as creates a Wonderland all his own -- upon a page.
By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles T! imes Sta ff Writer
November 18, 2007
Frank Beddor -- a successful Hollywood writer with an oddity book suspicion he was blazing to write -- suspicion he knew how this game was played.
The Looking Glass Wars
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The Looking Glass Wars
"I was unequivocally excited given my agent said, 'I can put we intheroom,' " Beddor private from a room of his own, papered with dainty graphics, in his Wilshire Boulevard prolongation office. "And we took a Hollywood approach: we would get in to a room as great as representation them. we suspicion it was gonna be great. You know how in Hollywood we wish to go to a studio head, go over all those layers?"
Beddor, 48, has a appetite as great as enthusiastic certainty you'd expect in a former actor, world-champion freestyle skier as great as stuntman, as great as a kind of bland, blue-eyed handsomeness which Greg Kinnear has outlayed most of his career undercutting. He managed to sell a suspicion for "There's Something About Mary," which he produced, in a Sundance ski lift.
But his charms weren't, in a end, enough: New York publishers listened kindly as great as handed his projects to their editors, who were distressing during being upheld over. "An editor wants to find someone. Not customarily that, we was from Hollywood -- as great as we was a producer! we mean, we couldn't have had some-more strikes opposite me. They decided it was garbage, I'm sure, prior to they even review it."
It's all guesswork, of course, given he was rejected. But whatever a reason, he accomplished up removing close down some-more than a dozen times. Undaunted, he did what Robert Frost as great as Jimi Hendrix prior to him did after struggling for attention in a States: He went to England, where a book found a publishing house as great as became a critical as great as renouned sensation.
That conflict won, 7 years later, Beddor is about median in to a pattern of a fantasy-fiction empire called "The Looking Glass Wars." The series, which extend! s as gre at as inverts a work of Lewis Carroll, includes a eponymous initial volume, published in a U.K. in 2004 as great as in a States, where it became a bestseller, in 2006; a second novel in a projected trilogy called "Seeing Redd"; a striking novel "Hatter M."; as great as a scrapbook called "Princess Alyss of Wonderland." (The scrapbook, in pink, looks as girl-targeted as a ultraviolent, dark-shades-of-blue striking novel is testosterone-drenched.)
These final dual indicate swap ways to get in to a series, as will an online game called a "Card Soldier Wars," which came out this month, as great as a CD soundtrack.
Amazingly, given all this Hollywood-style spinning off, which competence indicate a cynical franchise, "The Looking Glass Wars" books have been intelligently as great as briskly written, as great as do not review identical to they were written by a film writer perplexing to money in.
What's most considerable about them is which a novels seems to be recounting a universe entirely illusory forward of time. Beddor admires what he calls "the epic universe creators" such as J.R.R. Tolkien, "Dune's" Frank Herbert as great as Philip Pullman of "His Dark Materials." Beddor's books appear tailor-made for kids who've accomplished a "Harry Potter" array as great as have been seeking up, a bit dazed from a experience, eager for somewhere else to go.
Like "Potter," it's done of required elements: The demure hero, tussles over royal succession, a sorcery with a great as great as immorality side. "Basically we flipped all these conventions upon their ear, to have them applicable as great as darker, for a ? la mode audience. And by a way," he said, still stung from a conflict of his own, "this is what a open domain is done to do."
An Alice in exile
THE pride of "The Looking Glass Wars" is which Carroll's Alice books were a sanitized, watered-down version of a "real" story: a truly harrowing story of a princess who flees Wonderland when her relatives have been killed in a palace ! manoeuvr e by her immorality aunt. Escaping by a seeking glass, Alyss -- even her name was scrambled in Carroll's revelation -- ends up an orphan upon a unwashed streets of London, pining to lapse to Wonderland's armies of cards as great as chess pieces as great as a family's ace bodyguard, Hatter Madigan. If she returns, she as great as a "Alyssian" rebels contingency quarrel a bloodthirsty Queen Redd.
"This ingenious reworking," wrote a Times of London, "is powerful, eventful as great as dark. Which is wholly legitimate, given a surreality of a original."
Beddor, who'd disliked a Alice books when he was forced to review them as an outdoorsy, "Treasure Island"-loving kid in Minnesota, was introduced to a brand brand brand new approach of observant them upon a trip to London for a premiere of "Mary." After throwing a arrangement of personification cards during a British Museum, he met an antiquarian play who showed him a set of Alice-themed cards from a 19th century.
"He pronounced a cards had been handed down to him over generations," private Beddor, "and which this story was handed down with them -- a opposite understand of where Lewis Carroll was coming from. That someone had created these cards to discuss it a deeper, darker story. It was identical to Grimm's angel tales, oral storytelling."
Struck by this unfolding in which Alice was a princess from an a singular some-more world, Beddor immediately suspicion it would have a great movie. But whilst sketching it out, he became obsessed.
"It took me a integrate of years, simply operative upon a logic, a rules, a behind story, to emanate a universe so we could work upon a narrative. And afterwards we thought, 'I wish to live in my world: we wish my own private Wonderland. And we do not wish to share it with any a singular else.' " And he longed for a abyss a film wouldn't provide.
He wasn't certain where it would lead, so he took a not as vast bucket of film jobs as great as worked upon this a couple of hours a day. His previo! us essay knowledge was singular to penning behind stories, for a sake of motivation, for a Pinter as great as Stoppard plays he was acting in.
"I'm his most appropriate friend, we play golf with him all a time," pronounced Ed Decter, a "Mary" co-writer. "And we consider there was substantially dual years where he didn't even discuss it. He was substantially nervous either he could lift this off." But, he added: "I consider any a singular who can go down a hill upon fiberglass as great as flip around in a air 3 times has a tiny kind of entrepreneurial spirit."
Said Beddor: "I longed for it to be underneath a radar, so we wouldn't feel a vigour or expectations. And in Hollywood, a book's kind of deliberate a step down."
On a well-worn path
THE technique of reception a classic great review text as great as inverting or rethinking it -- which predates Shakespeare -- has turn roughly informed over a final couple of years, together with reimaginings of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as great as "Gone With a Wind."
In a "Wizard of Oz" universe alone, a manga retelling is due shortly, as great as a Sci Fi Channel has a brand brand brand new uncover called "Tin Man," which appears whilst a musical "Wicked" is still make-up 'em in. Alice has been riffed upon by Jefferson Airplane, Vladimir Nabokov as great as "Donnie Darko." Esquire magazine once called a '80s "The 'Re' Decade," yet a routine has customarily picked up speed since.
But when Beddor arrived in England for his book tour, he found a tiny Carroll enthusiasts weren't customarily upon a bandwagon.
"Off with Beddor's head!" pronounced a signs hoisted by 4 members of a Lewis Carroll Society who met a bard during Heathrow Airport in 2004. At first, Beddor suspicion they were joking, as great as approached them, laughing. They weren't.
"You know a Brits, they're unequivocally nonconfrontational. It was a flattering short interaction, yet they longed for me to know which it wasn't cool. That my books wouldn't have ! it, whic h they sucked. There have been 4 Lewis Carroll societies as great as that's their job, to strengthen a integrity of Lewis Carroll's work. But remember: Everybody has blending Lewis Carroll. we am so during a finish of a line."
Beddor additionally ran a gantlet upon multiform air wave programs, as great as got reason in a tiny controversy in a British press.
"This reporter said, 'This American is reception upon a classic, as great as he's rewriting it.' He calls up a children's laureate, as great as Jacqueline Wilson, a greatest children's bard in England . . . Jacqueline said, 'That is outrageous, can't he come up with his own story?' And a children's laureate was quoted as observant it was a terrible idea."
The controversy burned prohibited yet not long.
Britain's then-children's laureate, Michael Morpurgo, came around when he saw a accomplished novel; it right divided includes a blurb from him job a book talented as great as well-researched. "What Frank has accomplished is he's interwoven a story . . . of Alice as great as afterwards told his own extraordinary, as great as believably visual as great as fast-moving tale."
And a stream chairman of a Lewis Carroll Society, Mark Richards, pronounced a abandon have died down. "I have a copy myself, yet we contingency confess, we have never got around to celebration of a mass it. Well, there have been a lot of adaptations, it's formidable to review them all."
The irony is which Beddor, notwithstanding pity characters as great as a ambience for bad puns with Wonderland's Victorian creator, is mostly addressing a opposite version.
"I'm perplexing to break a preconceived notions from Walt Disney," he said. "Everyone knows a mythology from Disney, not from Lewis Carroll. To begin fresh, to lift them in to a story, we longed for to break a preconceptions any approach we could, to have a better probability for a cessation of disbelief."
Persistence pays off
AFTER trouble with a gatekeepers of a edition world, a! s great as a mixed with a Carroll purists, Beddor, who right divided lives in Bronson Canyon with his pregnant mom as great as 2-year-old son, has reached his audience in a vast way.
He mostly goes in to schools, where he gives a high-spirited, barnstorming display -- acting out characters, asking a kids to assistance expel a film with him -- which is in partial obliged for his sales.
"This is a book for boys, it turns out," he pronounced of his propagandize appearances. "But it's all about women. Women have power, they're forceful, they rule. But boys have been a categorical audience. we was a tiny surprised given we suspicion it was a slam-dunk for a girls -- we suspicion it was a lady empowerment story."
He's already oral to thousands of kids in far-flung places -- Edinburgh, Scotland; Atlanta; Pasadena -- in a final dual months alone, we do as most as 4 core schools a day, mostly 5 days a week, averaging some-more than 200 kids for any visit.
Beddor has so distant kept a quality up for any component of a "Looking Glass Wars" franchise: The initial striking novel, for instance, which chronicles Hatter's unequivocally aroused mislaid years wandering a creation acid for Alyss, was illustrated by Ben Templesmith, a well-regarded comics artist, as great as would appeal to any a singular who enjoys a form.
As Beddor spins off some-more projects, though, a appendages competence suffer, most as dear restaurants which expand as great fast remove their distinctiveness. As he functions upon a third novel, which he'll spin in subsequent June, he's formulation out dual some-more striking novels as great as operative upon scripts for 3 cinema with a immature British bard Jamie Mathieson.
The second, some-more gadget- as great as science-fiction-heavy novel, "Seeing Redd," has not drawn a reviews a entrance did. "While a scientific possibilities have been interesting," judged Salt Lake City's Deseret Morning News, "there is no change in between a assault as great as a any day palace life! . The at tacks of vengeance as great as quarrel have been infamous as great as turn tedious."
But Beddor's supporters contend he's as great ardent to let a project slide.
"He didn't emanate this bloodlessly, out of 'This competence sell,' " pronounced Decter. "He cares about it a approach he cares about his son."
Beddor's passion competence be as most about Hollywood as Wonderland, pronounced Decter, who's been desirous by him to write his own array of children's books.
"He's identical to this personality of reception behind your egghead property, given we're all we do franchises for a studios. Every singular day it moves forward, which is so rare in Hollywood. Here we have been in a core of a writers strike: Normally as an eccentric producer, he'd be out of work. But here he is, he's got this industry going."
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Skid quarrel in rehab
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After decades of squalor, a area is eventually becoming opposite interjection to a LAPD's brand brand brand new tactics.
By Heather Mac Donald
November 18, 2007
Until this year, movement quarrel presented a stage of squalor as great as evil which had no equal opposite a country. Sidewalks were impassable, covered with bodies, tellurian rubbish as great as spreading bacteria. Makeshift tents as great as cardboard-box encampments lined a streets. Prostitution as great as drug make make make make make use of of of of of as great as trafficking were open as great as shameless.
Even addicts were vacant during a scene. Fifty-year-old Vicki Williams arrived from Las Vegas in December 2005 with a heavy habit. "I couldn't reason what we was seeing," she said. "People removing tall upon a streets identical to it was legal. Anything we can imagine, I've observed: Women walking down a travel sire naked; people stabbed in front of me."
Employees of a area's export-import businesses as great as food-processin! g plants mostly had to step around feces, discarded hypodermic needles as great as hostile encampment residents in sequence to come in their workplaces.
Yet for twenty-five years, though a country advocates as great as civil liberties groups fought any bid to restore reason to a 50-square-block area. Any time a military embarked upon a law coercion campaign, anti-police litigators hauled a LAPD in to court. In 1999, a doyenne of downtown though a country agitators, Alice Callaghan, picketed a opening of a movement quarrel drop-in core dictated to provide a though a country a trail to rehabilitation. Callaghan likened a facility to an internment camp. Officers who tried to get mentally ill, diseased addicts in to diagnosis were indicted of badgering a homeless. It was formidable not to conclude which a advocates longed for a though a country to stay maximally visible.
Now, a incident has changed. The Los Angeles Police Department's Safer City Initiative -- underneath which 50 a singular some-more military officers were assigned to a neighborhood to reduce crime, quarrel drug traffic as great as moment down upon quality-of-life offenses -- has begun to move reserve as great as assistance to people living upon a streets as great as in a SROs as great as missions. The array of people sleeping upon downtown streets declined from a peak of 1,876 in mid-September 2006 to customarily over 700 in brand brand new months, according to police. "We've damaged a behind of a problem," says LAPD Chief William J. Bratton.
Yet a though a country industry as great as lawyers who specialize in reception upon a LAPD go upon to conflict a initiative as a vicious bid to retaliate a poor. This assign is a grotesque misrepresentation of what is unequivocally happening, a mythology which is utterly unsupported by a facts.
Myth: The military have been criminalizing homelessness as great as poverty. Reality: The military have been targeting crime.
Before a Safer City Initiative began, movement quarrel was a pl! ace of r uthless predation as great as violence. In May 2006, for example, a mentally sick lady who had regularly resisted offers of housing as great as services was stomped to death by a though a country parolee. Every time addicts perplexing to break their habit stepped outside, they entered a drug carnival of shameless proportions. Dealers fought for carry out of territory as great as terrorized a elderly.
In brand brand new months, underneath Safer City, which atmosphere has been changing. During a initial half of 2007, there were 241 fewer victims of aroused crime in movement row, as great as over twelve months, critical crime forsaken by 32%.
Most movement quarrel arrests outcome from aggravated assaults as great as drug trafficking -- not from violations of a city ordinance banning sleeping or lying upon a sidewalk. Moreover, a military indicate everybody picked up for a misconduct a option of entering reconstruction instead of starting to jail, as partial of a module called Streets or Services, or SOS. (Arrestees who have been convicted of assault in a final 5 years, have been purebred sex offenders or have outstanding warrants opposite them have been not eligible for SOS. This modest reserve prevision unfit three-quarters of a misconduct arrestees over a final year, a magnitude of a true inlet of a movement quarrel travel population.)
Amazingly, roughly a entertain of eligible arrestees opt for jail, even yet SOS requires a mere 3 weeks in a rehab-and-housing module in sequence to purge an offense from one's record. Why? Because a lure of a streets is simply some-more powerful. Of those who did enroll over a march of a final year, customarily 16% stayed for a offense-clearing 21 days, as great as customarily 1% lasted 90 days.
Myth: The military have been abusing a homeless. Reality: The military have been a most consistent source of assistance in a area, as great as a though a country know it.
If a Safer City Initiative were in actuality a travesty which critics claim, a ac! cepting which Cmdr. Andrew Smith as great as his officers get when they travel a streets would be distant opposite from a love-fest which right divided greets them. One afternoon this August when we walked by a streets with Smith, a wizened outcast upon 5th Street shouted: "Hey, man!" as great as gave him a fist-to-fist handshake. As a drug bust was enfolding upon Crocker Street, a middle-aged woman, reeking of beer, approached Smith. "You got promoted," she beamed. "I suspicion we did wonderful. The subsequent step is chief."
The feet soldiers of downtown's Central Division suffer a identical great dialog with a travel population. An alcoholic lady smiles during Officer Deon Joseph as he ambles down San Julian Street, once a heart of movement quarrel depravity. "How have been you, Officer Joseph?" she says. He asks her, "What have been we observant down here?"
"Everyone yet a right guy," she responds. "The streets have been removing a tiny cleaner, though." Many vagrants call officers by their initial names, partial of a formidable web of grave management as great as personal connectedness which defines police-community family upon movement row. Since Safer City began, a though a country have proposed approaching officers upon a travel or in a hire residence to find assistance, a symbol of how a officers have been perceived.
Myth: People live upon a streets given they can't find housing. Reality: Many people have been there given they select to live though responsibilities.
"If someone longed for to get off a streets, they could," pronounced a administrator during a Volunteers of America drop-in core who asked not to be identified. "They're out there by choice."
Robert Tapia, a former methamphetamine play who right divided functions certainty during a Union Rescue Mission, said: "They do not wish to abide by a manners -- no hats, no alcohol." Tapia encourages goal "guests" to come in rehabilitation, yet they customarily refuse. Ken Williams, right divided in recovery, came from Lon! g Beach to movement quarrel a decade ago to put up with his moment as great as alcohol habits. "I didn't wish to get off a streets given we didn't wish to heed to any rules," he recalled.
The LAPD estimates which there have been in between 50 as great as 140 dull preserve beds upon a standard night upon movement row. But overdo workers who try to persuade people to make make make make make use of of of of of a shelters contend they have been incited down some-more mostly than not. Advocates for a though a country have crafted a array of dodges to repudiate this fact. UCLA law highbrow Gary Blasi claims, for instance, which it's astray to expect someone to take up a indicate of preserve when we do so requires "splitting up with your spouse as great as giving up all we have." But by all accounts, a array of married couples upon movement quarrel is greatly small. And a Central City East Assn. funds as great as operates a room where people can store scarcely any kind of possession for free.
Myth: The though a country conflict a Safer City Initiative. Reality: Although a civil liberties groups as great as though a country advocates obviously conflict a military presence in movement row, most of a people we met upon a streets wish some-more policing, not less.
Jimmy, a middle-aged ex-convict, says he has "seen a lot of things change" given removing out of prison in 2003 for attempted murder. "There's reduction crime; women have been not removing harassed a approach they used to." But he'd identical to even some-more law enforcement. "They're blank a tiny things which have been starting on," he said.
The Safer City Initiative has saved some-more lives in a year than decades of litigation by though a country advocates ever achieved. Skid row's officers have been dislodging a enlightenment of commotion which allowed crime as great as assault to develop during a responsibility of people perplexing to get behind upon their feet. Halting Safer City would lapse movement quarrel to a brutal law of a ju! ngle as great as assistance customarily drug lords as great as pick predators.
Heather Mac Donald is a bard of "Are Cops Racist?" as great as is a writer to City Journal, from which this article is adapted.
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QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"I dont have a problem. Seventeen hours a day online is fine."
LEE CHANG-HOON, 15, during a stay for compulsive Internet users in South Korea.
In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession
Seokyong Lee for The New York Times
Students outlay their time exercising as great as we do organisation activities to wean them from a Internet. More Photos >
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By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: Nov 18, 2007
MOKCHEON, South Korea The devalue partial boot camp, partial rehab core resembles programs around a universe for uneasy youths. Drill instructors expostulate immature group by military-style barrier courses, counselors lead organisation sessions, as great as there have been even healing workshops upon pottery as great as drumming.
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Korean Boot Camp Aims to Cure Web AddictionSlide Show
Korean Boot Camp Aims to Cure Web Addiction
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Seokyong Lee for The New York Times
Lee Chang-hoon, 15, runs an barrier march during a Jump Up Internet Rescue School. He outlayed roughly all of his time online prior to his mom sent him to a camp. Seventeen hours a day online is fine, he pronounced during a camp. More Photos
But these immature people have been not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have serious cases of what most in this republic reason is a brand brand brand new as great as potentially deadly addictio! n: cyber space.
They come here, to a Jump Up Internet Rescue School, a initial stay of a kind in South Korea as great as possibly a world, to be cured.
South Korea boasts of being a most connected republic upon earth. In fact, perhaps no pick republic has so entirely embraced a Internet. Ninety percent of homes bond to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a veteran sport, as great as amicable reason up for a immature revolves around a Personal Computer bang, dim Internet parlors which sit upon practically any travel corner.
But such ready entrance to a Web has come during a cost as legions of spooky users find which they cannot tear themselves divided from their mechanism screens.
Compulsive Internet make make make make make use of of of of of has been identified as a mental illness emanate in pick countries, together with a United States. However, it competence be a quite acute complaint in South Korea given of a countrys scarcely concept Internet access.
It has turn a national emanate here in brand brand new years, as users proposed dropping passed from depletion after personification online games for days upon end. A growing array of students have skipped propagandize to stay online, shockingly self-destructive behavior in this greatly competitive society.
Up to thirty percent of South Koreans underneath 18, or about 2.4 million people, have been during risk of Internet addiction, pronounced Ahn Dong-hyun, a kid psychiatrist during Hanyang University in Seoul who customarily accomplished a three-year government-financed consult of a problem.
They outlay during slightest dual hours a day online, customarily personification games or chatting. Of those, up to a entertain million substantially uncover signs of actual addiction, identical to an incapacity to stop themselves from regulating computers, rising levels of toleration which expostulate them to find ever longer sessions online, as great as withdrawal symptoms identical to anger as great as craving when pre! vented f rom logging on.
To address a problem, a supervision has built a network of 140 Internet-addiction conversing centers, in further to diagnosis programs during roughly 100 hospitals and, most recently, a Internet Rescue camp, which proposed this summer. Researchers have grown a checklist for diagnosing a obsession as great as determining a severity, a K-Scale. (The K is for Korea.)
In September, South Korea reason a initial general symposium upon Internet addiction.
Korea has been most assertive in embracing a Internet, pronounced Koh Young-sam, conduct of a government-run Internet Addiction Counseling Center. Now we have to lead in traffic with a consequences.
Though a tiny illness experts here as great as abroad subject either overuse of a Internet or computers in general is an obsession in a strict healing sense, most determine which obsessive mechanism make make make make make use of of of of of has turn a growing complaint in most countries.
Doctors in China as great as Taiwan have begun reporting identical disorders in their youth. In a United States, Dr. Jerald J. Block, a psychiatrist during Oregon Health as great as Science University, estimates which up to 9 million Americans competence be during risk for a disorder, which he calls pathological mechanism use. Only a handful of clinics in a United States specialize in treating it, he said.
Korea is upon a heading edge, Dr. Block said. They have been forward in defining as great as researching a problem, as great as recognize as a multitude which they have a vital issue.
The rescue camp, in a forested area about an hour south of Seoul, was created to provide a most serious cases. This year, a stay reason a initial dual 12-day sessions, with sixteen to eighteen masculine participants any time. (South Korean researchers contend an overwhelming majority of compulsive mechanism users have been male.)
The stay is wholly paid for by a government, creation it tuition-free. While it is as great early to know ! either a stay can wean youths from a Internet, it has been reception 4 to 5 applications for any spot. To encounter demand, stay administrators contend they will stand in a array of sessions subsequent year.
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Seokyong Lee for The New York Times
Campers have been underneath consistent surveillance, even whilst they sleep. More Photos >
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Korean Boot Camp Aims to Cure Web AddictionSlide Show
Korean Boot Camp Aims to Cure Web Addiction
During a session, participants live during a camp, where they have been denied mechanism make make make make make use of of of of of as great as allowed customarily a singular hour of cellphone calls a day, to forestall them from personification online games via a phone. They additionally follow a rigorous fast of physical use as great as organisation activities, identical to horseback riding, directed during building romantic connections to a genuine universe as great as weakening those with a practical one.
It is most important to provide them knowledge of a lifestyle though a Internet, pronounced Lee Yun-hee, a counselor. Young Koreans dont know what this is like.
Initially, a stay had problems with participants unctuous divided to go online, even during a 10-minute break prior to lunch, Ms. Lee said. Now, a campers have been underneath consistent surveillance, together with whilst asleep, as great as have been kept bustling with chores, identical to soaking their garments as great as cleaning their rooms.
One participant, Lee Chang-hoon, 15, began regulating a mechanism to pass a time whilst his relatives were operative as great as he was home alone. He pronounced he fast came to cite a practical world, where he seemed to suffer some-more success as great as recognition than in a genuine one.
He outlayed seventeen hours a day online, mostly seeking during Japanese comics as great as personification a fight role-playing game called Sudden Attack. He played all night, as great as sk! ipped pr opagandize dual or 3 times a week to locate up upon sleep.
When his relatives told him he had to go to school, he reacted violently. Desperate, his mother, Kim Soon-yeol, sent him to a camp.
He didnt appear to be equates to to carry out himself, pronounced Mrs. Kim, a hairdresser. He used to be so ardent about his a a singular preferred subjects during school. Now, he gives up simply as great as gets even some-more absorbed in his games.
Her son was demure during initial to give up his pastime.
I dont have a problem, Chang-hoon pronounced in an talk 3 days after starting a camp. Seventeen hours a day online is fine. But after which day, he seemed to begin becoming opposite his mind, if customarily slightly.
As a cavalcade physical education instructor barked orders, Chang-hoon as great as seventeen pick boys marched by a cold autumn rain to a barrier course. Wet as great as shivering, Chang-hoon began climbing a initial obstacle, a write pole with tiny metal rungs. At a top, he slowly stood up, legs quaking, arms outstretched for balance. Below, a pick boys reason a reserve wire trustworthy to a strap upon his chest.
Do we have anything to discuss it your mother? a cavalcade physical education instructor shouted from below.
No! he yelled back.
Tell your mom we adore her! systematic a instructor.
I adore you, my parents! he replied.
Then jump! systematic a instructor. Chang-hoon squatted as great as leapt to a circuitously trapeze, throwing it in his hands.
Fighting! yelled a pick boys, regulating a English word which in South Korea equates to a severe equivalent of Dont give up!
After Chang-hoon descended, he said, That was better than games!
Was it thrilling sufficient to wean him from a Internet?
Im not meditative about games now, so maybe this will help, he replied. From right divided on, maybe Ill customarily outlay 5 hours a day online.
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Digital! Domain< br />What to Do When Goliaths Roar?
Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse-Getty Images
The day after Thanksgiving is a traditional begin of authorised authorised holiday shopping. A Wal-Mart store in Duarte, Calif., above, was packaged upon Nov. 25, 2005.
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By RANDALL STROSS
Published: Nov 18, 2007
AS shoppers arm themselves for post-Thanksgiving discount hunting after this week, theyll additionally put up with in another, newer annual tradition: surfing a Web for allege report about Black Friday retail sales. By organizing sale prices from sparse journal circulars in to a singular database, a Internet has done it easy to search for sold equipment as great as review prices as great easy, during slightest in a eyes of most vital retailers.
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BFAds.net, a Web site which gives shoppers a preview of programmed sales, is not regularly appreciated by retailers. Best Buy, though, welcomes a attention.
For a final multiform years, Wal-Mart Stores as great as pick vast bondage have threatened authorised movement to intimidate Web sites which get reason of advertising circulars early as great as tell prices online forward of company-set recover dates. The retailers threats rest upon a tiny dubious authorised arguments, however, which competence be a reason they havent shown a keen seductiveness in essentially starting to justice over a issue.
Wal-Mart has been in between a most assertive retailers in perplexing to cow consumer Web sites. Last month, it sent a cease-and-desist minute to BFAds.net, a site clinging to edition Black Friday ads. Wal-Mart sent a minute even prior to BFAds had published Wal-Marts sale prices, so a cease-and-desist minute would be some-mo! re scrup ulously called a dont even consider about it letter.
Wal-Mart asserts which a sales-price interpretation have been stable by copyright as great as pick laws. The pick laws were never identified or explained in a letter, as great as a explain of copyright insurance for contribution themselves, identical to sales prices, which exist separately from their strange countenance was deserted by a courts prolonged ago. In a 1991 case, for example, a Supreme Court ruled which names as great as phone numbers in a write office could not be copyrighted as great as to illustrate could be openly copied.
BFAds operates dual months a year, as a sideline for a 20-year-old college student, Michael Brim, as great as his commercial operation partner, Dan Silvers, additionally a college student. The Wal-Mart minute posed a bewilderment for Mr. Brim. Should he claim his rights as a publishing house who believed he had damaged no laws? Or should he acknowledge which Wal-Mart (with revenue final year of $349 billion) as great as a law organisation of Baker Hostetler (600 partner attorneys) had a resources to challenge him out of existence?
Mr. Brim chose a latter. He voiced upon his site which he had no pick preference yet to heed Wal-Marts letter. When Macys sent a identical letter, he gave belligerent again, underneath protest. BFAds did not post sale prices early for Wal-Mart as great as Macys this year.
Wendy Seltzer, a associate during a Berkman Center for Internet as great as Society during Harvard Law School, pronounced she believes which companies identical to Wal-Mart dispatch a letters though intending to pursue a matter in court, where their claims would be put to a test prior to a judge. Its bad to send out lots of letters, she said. If most sites take a element down, thats great crash for a buck.
Ms. Seltzer oversees a Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, a Web site which publicizes what it calls corporate misuse of cease-and-desist letters to quell legally stable debate upon a Internet. Th! e cleari nghouse, sponsored by a Electronic Frontier Foundation as great as a clinics of 7 law schools, posts copies of cease-and-desist letters which Wal-Mart, Macys as great as others send to Web publishers. One aim of a project is to publicly contrition companies which casually dash off a letters.
Wal-Mart defends a practice. All retailers have been harmed in a same approach when this report is leaked it tips off competitors, pronounced John Simley, a Wal-Mart spokesman.
But he additionally pronounced he was unknowingly of any time when Wal-Mart had taken a Web site to justice for divulging Black Friday sale prices prematurely. we was curious to sense what rapist principle Wal-Mart referred to when it alerted BFAdss principals in a minute about a probability which they competence have engaged in rapist activity. Mr. Simley declined to be specific, pick than to contend which there have been laws to strengthen advertisers. Baker Hostetler didnt respond to my requests for a identical tutorial.
If early avowal was in truth a grave concern of everybody in retailing, given has Best Buy come around to a suspicion which Black Friday sales sites, upon tip of all else, indicate an event for giveaway advertising, whetting appetites with a hide preview of what will be officially announced? At present, Best Buys customarily concern is which inaccurate report competence circulate upon a sites, so it encourages business to determine prices upon a own site prior to starting to a store. Brian Lucas, a Best Buy spokesman, said, We dont wish people to wait for in a line all night for a understanding which doesnt exist.
Best Buys position has altered considerably given 2002, when, identical to pick retailers, it sent threatening letters to Web site publishers. In 2003, it did a same as great as a singular site, FatWallet.com, struck behind with a legal case asking a decider to acknowledgement which sale prices cannot be copyrighted. The box was dismissed upon a technicality, yet Fat Wallet is right divid! ed happy to dare retailers to give it a probability to go to justice again. Tim Storm, FatWallets owners as great as arch executive, pronounced his association tells any tradesman who creates threats, Are we guys certain we unequivocally wish to do this? To date, he says, no association has answered yes.
TWO years ago, a immature entrepreneurs during BFAds tried a linguistic ploy to equivocate authorised difficulties when companies complained about posting of sales data. As prior to prolonged as Office Depot, for example, finished with a cease-and-desist letter, a name was private from BFAdss site. But visitors could still demeanour for sale prices from a association BFAds had renamed Office Despot.
Office Depot was not amused. It sued Mr. Brim as great as sought a temporary restraining order. The justice incited down a request, as great as a association withdrew a suit 14 months later, prior to a hearing could take place.
Shoppers obviously conclude a convenience of seeking during sale prices online. Last November, BFAds served up 55 million page views, as great as this year, traffic has increased by a mixed of three. Wal-Mart, unwilling to forgo a probability to rivet those impending customers, maintains an affiliate attribute with a site, paying a commission to BFAds for joining to Wal-Marts site.
Yes, Wal-Mart welcomes referrals from BFAds, where visitors come for zero pick than a earliest probable word of sale cost information. Wal-Marts lawyers, meanwhile, have been ordering BFAds to keep Wal-Marts own sales prices hidden. They wish a most appropriate of both worlds, Mr. Brim said.
* Retail Sales Slip, Signaling Cutback in Holiday Spending (November 15, 2007)
* Unseasonably Higher, Gas Prices Add to Strain On U.S. Consumers (November 8, 2007)
* Canadian Exporters Hurt By a Soaring Currency (November 2, 2007)
* ADVERTISING; Wal-Mart Wants to Carry Its Yuletide Ads Beyond Price
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