20 NZAugust TONIGHT 2010 WORLD MOVIES TECH 1 Oil spills Abbott An Egyptian Home network spook Labour by a nose? love story security tips page 2 page 8 page 13 page 17

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THERE’S ONE EASY WAY TO GET THIS SUBSCRIBE TODAY, ONLY $3 PER MONTH DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EVERY WEEK... www.tgifedition.com EDITION ISSN 1172-4153 | Volume 3 | Issue 67 | | 20 August 2010 Study: ADHD linked to sprays on the WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – An American study has the maximum residue limit of 0.2 mg/kg (0.3038, limit where it is considered safe to consume daily. shown children whose mothers were exposed to 0.3219 and 0.3206). NZFSA said it was is working with Horticulture INSIDE organophosphate pesticides while pregnant are more Organophosphate residues were also found were New Zealand to remind growers of their responsi- likely to have attention problems as they grow up. found in nectarines, bananas, bok choi, oranges, bilities around chemical use and residues. Researchers at the University of California Ber- broccoli and cucumber but below the maximum Continue reading keley tested pregnant Mexican-American women living in the Salinas Valley of California for evidence that organophosphate pesticides had actually been absorbed by their bodies, and then followed their children as they grew. Women with more chemical traces of the pes- Find Lucas ticides in their urine while pregnant had children Police kept bike, chippy find secret more likely to have symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), at age five, with WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – The grandmother of His grandmother also saw a chippy packet in the the trend stronger in boys, the researchers found. missing Gisborne boy Lucas Ward found his bike river that she believes she was the same one she had Organophosphates are designed to attack the on a pathway to a river jetty on Tuesday, the day he given Lucas before he went missing, police said at a nervous systems of bugs by affecting message-car- disappeared, police revealed today. press conference. Come back Yankee rying chemicals called neurotransmitters including Continue reading Iraqis nervous as US leaves acetylcholine, which is important to human brain Page 9 development. University of Canterbury toxicology expert Ian Shaw said he was not at all surprised with the study results as pesticides interfered with the develop- ment of the nervous system. “Organophosphorus pesticides are designed to dis- rupt the nervous system – that’s how they kill insects. “The question is, what dose does a pregnant woman need to receive to result in neurological damage to her child?” The problem might only affect woman in agri- cultural communities where their exposure to orga- nophosphates would be greater, especially if they worked on farms during their pregnancy, rather than being exposed to it through food. Grave fright The New Zealand Food Safety Authority Woman’s leg sucked into tomb (NZFSA) conducted a survey of chemical residues Page 2 on food earlier this year, which found three samples of cucumbers with levels of methamidophos above US Navy rescues Iranian sailors MANAMA, BAHRAIN – Eight Iranian sailors Two SH-60 helicopters “were dispatched to and medical care were extended to the rescued sail- engineering assistance and search and rescue,” Rear whose vessel caught fire were rescued by US Navy render assistance” and reached the stricken vessel ors after they landed on the carrier. Admiral Patrick Driscoll, commander of Carrier helicopters in the Arabian Sea, according to a US within about 45 minutes, the Navy said. A search “The assessment by Truman’s medical staff Strike Group 10, said in the statement. military statement late today. Two helicopters from and rescue swimmer dove into the waters near the revealed that the eight were in excellent shape with “There was no hesitation on the part of our aircrew the nuclear-powered carrier USS Harry Truman car- burning boat and discovered eight people in a raft. no significant injuries. The medical department pro- and rescue swimmer to help out our fellow seafarers.” ried out the rescue operation on high seas, after an “The first helicopter recovered four mariners and vided them with food, water and a fresh change of According to the US Navy, the eight mariners F/A-18 jet assigned to the carrier squadron spotted transported them back to Truman. A short time later, clothing,” the statement said. will remain on the carrier, which is conducting mis- a vessel on fire, according to a statement issued by the the remaining four mariners were recovered by the “It is our duty as a professional navy and as sions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Bahrain-based US 5th Fleet Command. second helicopter. The mariners told the aircrew that professional sailors to help those in need of assist- Afghanistan, until arrangements can be made for The vessel in distress was sighted late yesterday all of their personnel on the vessel were accounted for.” ance. We have a longstanding tradition of helping their safe return home. about 80 kilometres from the aircraft carrier. According to the US Navy, basic humanitarian mariners in distress – providing medical assistance, – DPA

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For more information contact H.E. Perry Ltd.phone: 0800 10 33 88 | email: [email protected] | http://www.heperry.co.nz NEW ZEALAND 2 20 August 2010 off No change in ANZAC ties expected By Peter Wilson of NZPA BEAT WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – There will be a flurry of trans-Tasman shuttle diplomacy after tomor- row’s Australian election but the Government is anticipating there will be little, if any, change in the relationship. Labor and Coalition policies in the areas where the two governments interact are almost identical and it is likely to be “business as usual” with the next administration, sources say. Ministers will need to get to know each other. If WOMAN’S LEG SINKS INTO GRAVE Julia Gillard retains power her new cabinet might SKANE, SWEDEN, AUG. 20 (UPI) – Emergency respond- ers were called to a Swedish graveyard when a woman’s not bear much resemblance to the one put together leg sank into soil that had been softened by recent heavy by former prime minister John Howard. rains. And if the Coalition wins, Tony Abbott’s team Witnesses said the woman was leaving flowers at a will be entirely new. family grave about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Bragarps A meeting at prime minister level isn’t immi- church in Skane when her leg sank into the muddy ter- nent, because the next Australian leader will need rain and became stuck, The Local reported Thursday. time to put a cabinet together and work on core Emergency responders were called to free the woman policies before going into bilateral talks with other and she required no medical attention, witnesses said. governments. “I have been working here for 11 years and I have The first opportunity for talks between Prime never seen anything like this,” the Rev. Jonas Kristians- Minister John Key and tomorrow’s winner is son said. Kristiansson said recent rains caused subsidence in expected to be in October at the Asian summit several areas of the graveyard. He said workers plan to meeting, at which Mr Key is likely to attend. repair the grave. New Zealand ministers will be looking for assur- ances that the work on single economic market MAN TICKETED AFTER ‘FAT AND UGLY’ BARB issues will continue at least at the same pace as they ing there should be some control over right of entry binds the two countries together, and which has SAUKVILLE, WIS., AUG. 20 (UPI) – Police in a Wisconsin have over the last few years. The would prefer them which surfaced briefly during the immigration transcended any differences between them. town said they issued a $429 ticket to a man who to move more quickly, but if there is a change of gov- debate. At the moment there is really only one – the ban allegedly told a fellow grocery store customer she was ernment across the Tasman a new set of ministers New Zealand government sources say if Labor or on New Zealand apples, the World Trade Organisa- ugly and fat. will have to get to grips with complex commercial the Coalition were even thinking about changing tion ruling which said it breached international Saukville police said the woman was shopping at the negotiations as well as cross-border regulation and the rules the signals would have reached Wellington, trade law, and Australia’s intention to appeal it. Piggly Wiggly and obtained permission from a clerk to control. and they haven’t. That problem has been around for 90 years and it use the express checkout lane, despite having more than 10 items, Milwaukee’s WTMJ-AM reported Thursday. New Zealand hasn’t really entered the election Successive Australian and New Zealand govern- too is likely to go into the“business as usual” basket. However, another customer expressed displeasure at campaign, apart from a minor politician suggest- ments have maintained the special relationship that – NZPA the woman being allowed to skirt the item limit. The female subject, the complainant, then turned back toward the man (and said) ‘I got permission here. Is there a problem?’ That’s when the person said to her, Midwife guilty, gets $85K bill ‘Yeah, the problem is that you’re ugly and fat,’ officer Barry Effinger said. WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – A Christchurch midwife has Witnesses told the tribunal the midwife brushed the profession, Radio New Zealand reported. Effinger said the man allegedly continued to harass had her registration cancelled and been ordered to pay off their concerns, was cold and uncaring and The midwife has been censured and her registra- the woman until she called police. $85,000 costs after a professional misconduct hearing. treated patients like animals. tion cancelled. She was not fined, but ordered to pay The man, who Effinger said has a history of anger The midwife, who has name suppression, One told of repeatedly ringing the midwife while costs of $85,000. problems, was issued a citation for $429. appeared before a Health Practitioners Discipli- in labour but being told to take Panadol and wait. The tribunal lifted the woman’s name suppres- POLICE CALL ‘MA’ ON SUSPECT’S PHONE nary Tribunal in Christchurch this week on six She gave birth on the laundry floor. sion but her lawyer indicated he would appeal that ATHENS, GA., AUG. 20 (UPI) – Police in Georgia said charges of professional misconduct related to her The tribunal today found the midwife guilty of decision to the High Court. they used a cellphone left behind at the scene of a treatment of five patients between 2005 and 2008. negligence, malpractice and bringing discredit to – NZPA primary school burglary to call the suspect’s mother. Athens-Clarke police said officers responding to an 11:25 p.m. burglar alarm at Howard B. Stroud Elemen- tary School in Athens saw a man drop his cellphone NZ oil disaster worry while fleeing the building, the Athens Banner-Herald reported Thursday. WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – The Labour Party says “An exploratory well poses all the same risks of a Investigators said they called a number in the phone safety and environmental issues must be considered production well and Petrobras already has a permit labelled ma, and the suspect’s mother told them she had kicked her son out of her home because of his stealing when oil exploration permits are granted and the to drill if it wishes,” Dr Graham said. habit. Greens want a moratorium on applications until “If an exploratory well runs into trouble, has Min- Police said the woman told them the man stays with processes are put in place. ister Brownlee ensured that there is a relief well his grandfather in Colbert, Ga., and failed to show up for a The Government did not consider the environ- capability in place to respond, or do we have to wait Monday court appearance on a burglary charge. ment when awarding a petroleum exploration per- six months for a foreign rig to arrive and a further mit for an area off the North Island’s East Cape, an four months for relief drilling while our fisheries POLICE ENCOUNTER MELLOW BEARS AT POT FARM official document shows. and shorelines are destroyed?” VANCOUVER, AUG. 20 (UPI) – Canadian police investigat- The permit, New Zealand’s first over the Rauku- Environmental concerns were raised when the ing a British Columbia marijuana farm said they were mara Basin, went to international Brazilian-based project was announced. greeted by 10 to 15 docile black bears. company Petrobras and covers an area of more than At the time Mr Brownlee said the Government and Police Sgt. Fred Mansveld said officers investigat- 12,000 square kilometres. Petrobras were aware of environmental concerns – ing the marijuana growing operation, which included more than 1,000 plants, encountered 10 to 15 docile Its five-year permit will give the company time to particularly soon after the Gulf of Mexico industrial black bears on the property and found a domesticated do thorough explorations and assess whether there accident and oil spill – but he was comfortable with raccoon and a pot-bellied pig in the two houses on the is potential to mine for oil or gas. the company’s “sensitive” approach to its work and Christina Lake property, the Vancouver Sun reported Documents obtained by Radio New Zealand legislation was being worked on in terms of environ- Thursday. under the Official Information Act show the deci- mental requirements needed to be put in place in Constable Dave Smith said someone had apparently sion to award the permit was made on technical New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone. been giving dog food to the bears to get them to remain and economic grounds and did not consider safety Since then the Government had announced a new on the property. or environmental factors. things go wrong with offshore drilling,” he said. environmental protection agency (EPA). Common behavior of a bear is usually to avoid Petrobras was required to show it would use good “It is madness, when the Government is looking Environment Minister Nick Smith said the EPA humans, Smith said. The ones that are used to people oil field practices. at expanding this activity, not to have stringent would help protect New Zealand’s ocean from catas- are quite wary of you, they don’t just sit there and watch Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee environmental checks in place before these applica- trophes similar to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. you, and these bears were just sitting around, laying around just watching, wandering around. said specific environmental requirements did not tions can be considered.” “The Government is determined to ensure that Police said the man and woman living on the property need to be considered until drilling began. The Green’s energy spokesman, Kennedy Gra- New Zealand’s marine environment is properly will face charges of production and possession of But Labour’s environment spokesman Charles ham, said it was disingenuous for Mr Brownlee to protected as we expand the petroleum exploration marijuana. Chauvel said there was a major issue right now. say he would consider the environment later when and development in the exclusive economic zone,” “We have seen in recent months with the Gulf of he had already issued a permit for Petrobras to drill he said. Mexico disaster the damage that can be done when an exploratory well. – NZPA 20 August 2010 NEW ZEALAND 3 Kiwi dollar stabilises WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – The New Zealand dollar The focus is also turning to this weekend’s Aus- drifted today after falling against the greenback on tralian federal election with polls indicating the Thursday night as fear stalked world markets again. race is neck and neck. By 5pm the NZ dollar was buying US70.45c, Mr Speizer said local currencies would rise if the down from US70.74c at 8am, which was down from Liberal party won, and be stable if Labor won. US71.13c at 5pm yesterday. “It is a negative if it is a hung parliament,” he said. Dealers said the latest economic data from the Against the Australian dollar, the NZ dollar was United States raised new worries that the world’s A79.18c from A79.23c at 8am and A71.13c at 5pm largest economy is nearly stuck. New US claims yesterday. for first-time jobless benefits scaled a nine-month News that Fonterra is holding its forecast was not high last week, while mid-Atlantic factory activity a market mover even though it is a big driver of the contracted, unexpectedly, in August for the first time New Zealand economy. in more than a year. The NZ dollar fell to 0.5502 euro at 5pm from 0.5560 Imre Speizer, senior currency strategist at West- at the same time yesterday, and to 60.06 yen from 61.04. pac, said the currency had largely moved sideways The trade weighted index was 65.95 at 5pm from today after falling overnight in reaction to weak 66.57 yesterday. Finance co fails, sharemarkets. – NZPA try and products were rigorously tested and heavily govt bailout looms regulated, he said. All the research showed that at extremely low WELLINGTON, AUG 20 NZPA – Allied Nationwide missed a payment of debenture maturities due levels the pesticides were not hazardous to people’s Finance (ANF), the finance company owned by yesterday. health. Allied Farmers Ltd, has collapsed after missing pay- ANF said it expected to complete an initial trans- “If the research did find that they were, people ments on debenture maturities yesterday. action today that would result in the payment of would stop using them, or they would be banned,” ANF is covered by the Crown retail deposit guar- debenture maturities now due. Mr Peters said. antee scheme. Treasury said 4500 depositors with Allied Farmers has suspended a planned capital “The pesticide industry takes health and safety $130 million of deposits are affected. raising and ANF has suspended its prospectus while Graeme Peters, the chief executive of Agcarm, incredibly seriously, we don’t just pay lip service to “The Crown stands fully behind its guarantee it sorts out a disputed breach of its trust deed with the body representing the crop protection industry, it. There’s a huge amount of investment in satisfying commitments, and we expect an orderly process NZGT, which gave ANF 14 days, until 5pm today, said the use of organophosphates in New Zealand the regulators and themselves.” of payment to eligible Allied Nationwide Finance to remedy the position. was declining. The Environmental Risk Management Authority depositors,” said Treasury deputy secretary Philip The board and management of ANF did not agree “They are old chemistry and they are gradually said it was actively reassessing the use of organo- Combes. with NZGT’s view and believed that ANF was in being phased out with new chemistry, but having phosphates. The events unfolded during the day but ulti- compliance with the relevant ratio. said that they are still used.” It has already revoked the approvals for methyl mately ANF advised that its directors decided this ANF said that up to yesterday, it had continued The industry acknowledged organophosphates parathion and azinphos methyl and is consulting afternoon to request that its trustee, New Zealand to meet all its financial obligations, including repay- were hazardous and there were strict warnings and on and assessing the future use of others. Guardian Trust (NZGT), appoint receivers. ment of maturing debentures. rules around their use, he said. – NZPA NZGT appointed Kerryn Downey and Andrew But as the capital and funding initiatives under Health was a top priority for the pesticide indus- Back to the front page Grenfell of McGrathNicol. consideration by the Allied group needed third McGrathNicol has been acting as independent party commitments and NZGT approvals, which advisers to NZGT and prepared a report on ANF, had not been received by last night, it did not pay which resulted in the alleged breach of its trust deed the debenture maturities due yesterday, ANF said. ratio earlier this month. Eligible depositors with Allied Nationwide “The board and management of ANF will coop- Finance will be contacted by the Treasury and pro- erate fully with the receiver in the interests of all vided with information about how to claim under stakeholders of the company, including deposit and the terms of the Crown retail deposit guarantee. bond investors, staff, customers and Allied Farmers Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has lowered You’ve already been as shareholder,” the company said in a statement its rating on ANF to D from CC, or to default from to NZX. highly vulnerable, as a result of the company’s collapse. swimming with the dolphins... Allied Farmers shares last traded at just 2.6 cents “ANF’s slower-than-anticipated success in asset Our one-stop connection will each. sales and new capital injection-along with some ANF said it expects an“acceptable outcome” from loan repayment delays-has material weakened its have you in Phuket same day. the receivership on the basis of its current net asset liquidity and cash position,” Standard & Poor’s position and level of shareholder funds. credit analyst Peter Sikora said. Allied Farmers said earlier today that ANF – NZPA

They did not reveal the bike and chippy packet members and volunteers, were out door-knocking earlier, “as we wanted to keep the options open as in that area today. to where Lucas may have gone” rather than focus- Police could widen the search area as time pro- ing solely on the river, Inspector Sam Aberahama gressed, Mr Aberahama said at the press conference. told Radio NZ. The bike and chippy packet findings prompted He was still “open-minded” but after three days the search of the river, he said. of searching an area of river more than 500m wide, “While there has been a focus on the Waimata police divers had not found Lucas and believed he River, we are keeping an open mind as to where was not in that area, he said. Lucas might have wandered off to. “I’m confident that our police divers have done “There are numerous places he could be and the a very, very good job of the area that they have river is only one option we are looking at. searched and I’m confident that they feel he is not “We are asking residents again to check their in there and they are 99 percent sure ... I’m confi- properties inside and out for any likely hiding places dent in them having done the job as well as they which could attract a child. could,” he said. “Lucas is a very inquisitive and curious child The river was not that fast-moving, but “quite and he could have explored any number of places.” calm” particularly at the bottom. Police also want to speak to two kayakers who Police were not discounting the possibility of foul were seen on the Waimata River in the Graham Rd Fly THAI to the world, smooth as silk. play, but there was nothing to indicate that. area on Tuesday afternoon. “We are treating this incident as a missing person A resident of nearby Gardner Place has told investigation. That type of investigation encom- police she saw the two male kayakers on the river

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104022 Investigate Sept10 FP.indd 1 7/30/10 11:12:34 AM 20 August 2010 EDITORIAL 5

Commentary Guns of August? By Arnaud de Borchgrave planning to mass-produce them. The one acquired quickly shoot up from $80 a barrel where it is today At the same time, Iran and Russia announced by Iran was purchased in South Africa and loaded to $400 or $500. they would begin loading before the end of August WASHINGTON – For the first two weeks of August, onto a container ship. The Financial Times said In January 2008, five Iranian speedboats darted Russian-supplied fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power the Internet buzzed with inside knowledge of an the United States was prepared to board it but the in and out of a line of three U.S. warships as they plant. A cacophony of tweets amplified Giraldi’s Israeli airstrike against Iran’s nuclear facilities operation was called off without explanation. entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait, drop- Guns of August scenario. before the end of the month. One of most quoted One Bladerunner was used to set a record for ping white boxes ahead of the vessels, forcing them If Israel has decided to strike against what most warnings came from Philip Giraldi, a polyglot circumnavigating the British Isles in 2005, when to take evasive action. Israelis see as an existential threat, it would pre- former CIA operative who writes for the American it averaged 61.5 mph over 27 hours. The USS Port Royal, a 9,600-ton cruiser, the sumably wait until the U.S. Congress’ return from Conservative and is no friend of Israel. For the past 20 years, Iran’s seagoing Republican 8,300-ton guided missile destroyer USS Hopper and vacation Sept. 10. A resolution (HR 1553) is winding “We spend $100 billion on intelligence annually Guards have been accumulating small, swift boats the 4,100-ton frigate USS Ingraham were prepared its way through Congress that endorses an Israeli and then ignore the best judgments on what is tak- with a view to swarming U.S. warships going in and to blast the Iranian boats out of the water with attack on Iran, which, writes Giraldi, would be going ing place,” Giraldi wrote on his blog recently, “and out of the Hormuz Strait, and to mining the narrow close-range, rapid-fire Phalanx Gatlings but word to war by proxy as the U.S. would almost immedi- might as well use an Ouija board. Not only would waterway used by supertankers that move 40 per- came from the Pentagon to hold their fire. ately be drawn into conflict when Tehran retaliates. we save a lot of money but with an Ouija board Leading neo-conservatives pooh-pooh Iran’s there is always the chance you could arrive at the THE SUICIDE BOAT ATTACK AGAINST THE 8,600- asymmetrical retaliatory capabilities as overblown right decision.” anti-Israeli rhetoric. Reuel Marc Gerecht, a neo- “Five years ago,” Giraldi wrote, “it is hardly TON USS COLE, AT ANCHOR IN ADEN HARBOR con commentator, predicts Iran’s response would a secret that the same people in and around the IN OCTOBER 2000, WHICH KILLED 17 U.S. SAILORS be minimal and recommends Israel attack Iran to administration that brought you Iraq are preparing AND IMMOBILIZED A $1 BILLION WARSHIP FOR TWO rock the system to make the regime lose face and to do the same for Iran.” suffer a military defeat from which its recovery “U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney,” he wrote, “had YEARS OF REPAIRS, DEMONSTRATED VULNERABILITY would be doubtful. tasked the Strategic Command with drawing up a TO SMALL CRAFT LADEN WITH EXPLOSIVES This reporter first began covering Iran in August contingency plan in response to another Sept. 11-type 1953 when the shah fled a revolutionary upheaval terrorist attack on the United States. The plan was for cent of all seaborne traded oil (which is 20 percent The white boxes were designed to simulate mines. (returning 10 days later after a military crackdown a large-scale air assault on Iran (never mind if Iran of all oil traded worldwide). Moving through the There is little doubt one or two U.S. warships could and covert CIA assistance). wasn’t involved) employing both conventional and mile-wide exit channel is also three-quarters of all have been damaged and the United States would There is little doubt that an Israeli attack on Iran tactical nuclear weapons.” More than 450 major stra- of Japan’s oil needs. have found itself involved in a third war in the region. would trigger mayhem up and down the Persian Gulf tegic targets were listed in the plan – evidently leaked Iran also has an endless supply of seagoing sui- The suicide boat attack against the 8,600-ton USS and trigger a third war that would be yet another to Giraldi by appalled senior U.S. Air Force officers. cide volunteers. Hundreds were used to walk across Cole, at anchor in Aden Harbor in October 2000, force multiplier for the U.S. deficit: Federal spending Tehran’s propaganda machine has taken a leaf minefields during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88). which killed 17 U.S. sailors and immobilized a $1 is now at $3.6 trillion; the national debt, $13.4 trillion; out of Bush 43’s lexicon – bring ‘em on. The Pas- Hormuz is the world’s most important choke- billion warship for two years of repairs, demonstrated cost per citizen $43,000; cost per taxpayer $120,000. daran, or Revolutionary Guards, trotted out their point and Iran’s principal naval base, Bandar Abbas, vulnerability to small craft laden with explosives. Check the debt clock online – in real time. latest acquisition – the 51-foot Bladerunner, the is smack in the middle. The Defense Intelligence To demonstrate that fresh international sanctions Gulf and other Arab rulers who wish secretly for world’s fastest warship, capable of 82 mph. Agency knows from a former Iranian naval intel- won’t weaken Iranian resolve, Tehran published a new aerial bombing action against Iran’s nuclear facili- The Iran Times, published in Washington in both ligence officer that there are detailed plans to close law mandating the production of higher-enriched ties will be the first to denounce Israel and its only English and Farsi, reported only two such high-tech the strait to supertankers that move some 17 million uranium and further limiting cooperation with the ally when and if the first Iranian target is hit. speedboats had been built and that Iran was now barrels a day to the rest of the world. Oil would then International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. SUBSCRIBE TO TGIF!

News Backgrounder US billionaire sued by kids By Robert Faturechi day’s testimony, Bren rarely appeared fazed. ever was in.” Bren denied they ever cohabitated. some of those assets, saying they belonged to his Los Angeles Times “Did you ever tell Jennifer you loved her,” asked The payments that are being sought from Bren businesses, not him personally. attorney Hillel Chodos, who represents Gold and are deserved, attorneys for his children say, given Gold said Bren broke his agreement to maintain LOS ANGELES – Billionaire Donald L. Bren walked her adult children. the $3 million to $5 million a month they contend a fatherly relationship with the children, particu- into a Los Angeles courtroom today wearing a suit “No, sir,” Bren replied. he was spending during the years he would have larly after she told him she no longer wanted to be and sneakers. His footwear may have been comfort- “Are you sure?” Chodos asked. been paying formal child support. Bren’s attorneys intimate after more than a decade together. able, but the occasion certainly wasn’t: A lawyer rep- “I’m sure,” Bren said. disputed that amount. She acknowledged under questioning from Bren’s resenting two of his children peppered the intensely Bren has an estimated net worth of $12 billion Gold has said that Bren enjoyed a luxurious life- attorney that she received about $3 million in child private Irvine Co. chairman with questions about and is 16th in Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 style, including a fleet of five jets with two full-time support from Bren from 1988 to 2002. But she said his wealth and personal life. richest Americans. Still, he leads a private life, rarely pilots, a 240-foot yacht with crew, a speedboat, lavish she thought she and the kids deserved more consid- Bren’s own attorneys made the case that he’s granting interviews or giving public speeches. homes in Los Angeles and Orange County, a ranch ering Bren’s wealth. The money was virtually the been a somewhat absentee father in raising the two His daughter and son looked on as the real estate in Idaho and a large staff of servants. only income the family had then, she said. now-adult children: no parent teacher meetings, no magnate recounted how he met their mother in “It costs a lot of money to keep all of these things Gold’s time on the stand, which was contentious school events, no sleepovers at his house, not even a 1984. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, going,” Gold has recalled Bren saying in a conversa- under cross-examination, seemed to take a toll on hospital visit when they were born. and several weeks later Gold sent him a note asking tion about his spending. her. The former model could be seen in the hallway His children – Christie Bren, 22, and David Bren, him to get a drink, Bren said. In testimony Thursday, Bren sought to downplay during breaks being comforted by her children. 18 – are seeking retroactive child support in the They had been seeing each other infrequently amount of $400,000 a month each. They contend for a few years when Gold told him she was preg- that out-of-court payments Bren made to their nant with their first child, he said. Because of mother when they were youngsters were well below their “unconventional relationship” and the risk what would have been awarded in a family court. his wealth posed for kidnappings and extortion But Bren’s attorneys say that he made four sepa- attempts, they agreed to have the baby discreetly, rate agreements with former girlfriend Jennifer he said. McKay Gold and stuck to each, providing gener- Gold left Los Angeles for Aspen, Colo., where she ously for the children. spent the final months of her first pregnancy and Bren, 78, described his relationship with Gold gave birth, Bren said. as a loveless, infrequent romance – that was never Towards the end of their relationship, Bren said, meant to lead to marriage or children. He said he meetings between the two became rare. Bren said was shocked when he learned Gold became preg- visits to the children were also infrequent, though nant the first time, and was even more stunned the he did send them toys and pay for their educations. second time around. Gold described their relationship differently, say- “I felt betrayed in that she promised me that she ing she and Bren saw each other multiple times a was protected,” he said of Gold. “And obviously she week for years, and socialized with other couples. wasn’t.” Trips together on chartered planes were common, Gold, who also testified, told another story. She she said, adding that Bren liked to regularly take said Bren knew she was not using contraception weekend ski getaways. – and described in detail Bren’s preference not to She said the two lived together for a significant either. period in Los Angeles, regularly attending restau- Despite the personal nature of much of Thurs- rants that were “the hippest, nicest – Spago, what- ANALYSIS 6 20 August 2010

Walker’s World The long housing slump By Martin Walker The BIS is the international central bank for 53 older people in the population is going to jump from Either all these new costs are paid by a shrink- of the world’s biggest national and regional central 13 percent to 20 percent. There are already more ing number of younger people of working age, or PARIS – House prices could decline by 30 percent banks. In its own mission statement it fosters inter- people over the age of 60 than children under 15. by some wondrous breakthrough in productivity to 50 percent in most developed countries over the national monetary and financial cooperation and By the time the youngest baby boomers turn 65 or the old folk pay for themselves through their next 40 years, a persuasive new study by the Bank serves as a bank for central banks. It carries great in 2029, every fifth American will be 65 or older. The savings and their assets. of International Settlements says. weight and its surveys are to be taken seriously. percentage of 85-year-olds will grow even faster. The BIS survey found that the demographics The reason is the economics of an aging society, Its survey of prospects for the global housing 2029 is not far away, the time when one of this year’s of younger populations had helped boost house in which a higher proportion of older people live market, titled Aging and Asset Prices, written by newborn babies will be going to college. prices and asset prices in the last 10-20 years but longer and thus have more non-working years of Elod Takats, one of its in-house economists, rep- This isn’t simply an American problem. In fact, that this tailwind was turning into a headwind for retirement in which they must live on their assets, resents the growing new field of studies into the thanks to relatively high birth rates and immigra- asset prices. like housing. ominous implications of the rise in human longevity. tion the United States is getting off lightly. Take The young save for old age by buying assets, while But there will be more and more older people or The number of older people (age 65 and over) in Britain, for example, where in 1980 a 65-year-old the old sell assets to finance retirement. This asset their estates trying to sell their houses into a market the United States will double over the next 30 years, Englishman had a 1-in-1,000 chance of living to transfer can happen directly or through institutions of fewer younger people, so prices are likely to drop. from 40 million to 80 million, and the percentage of be 100 years old. Just 30 years later, this figure has such as pension funds. In this setting, the change increased to 1-in-100. And China is going to have in the relative size of asset buyers (the young) and one-third of its population over the age of 60 by sellers (the old), have consequences for asset prices, the 2030s. the survey says. At one level, all this is wonderful news. It means In particular, the asset purchases of a large work- longer and even richer lives, more time to achieve ing-age generation, such as the baby boomers in the things and to enjoy life. But there is a darker side. United States, drives asset prices up. Conversely, if How does a society finance this swollen popula- the economy is aging, i.e., the subsequent young tion of the elderly when they need pensions and generation is relatively smaller, then asset prices healthcare? decline. In the last 30 years, during the active years A 2004 Medicare survey spells this out in grim of the baby boomer generation, asset prices have detail. The health costs of the average American increased massively, it goes on. ages 65 to 74 were $10,778 a year, of which half Asset prices propelled by the boomers’ savings was paid by Medicare. The costs for those ages 75 will be under pressure when this large generation to 84 were $16,228 a year, of which half was paid retires and starts to sell its assets to the relatively by Medicare. For those over the age of 85, the costs smaller subsequent generation. were $25,291 a year, of which 60 percent was paid The biggest problem, the BIS paper notes, may by Medicare and Medicaid. For the rest, old people not be the impact of lower house prices but the much had to spend their assets. higher burden of spending on health and pensions Those cost figures have already risen by an aver- on governments already overburdened with debt. age 45 percent in the last six years, and the Medi- It may not be quite so bad. A detailed new study care share is set to increase by a further 60 percent by Risk Management Solutions suggests that the because of the new subsidies for medicines. And recent surge in longevity may be only temporary, the dramatic rise in the number of elderly suffer- based on medical advances and people stopping ing from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, set to smoking and reducing their risk of heart disease. more than triple from 3 million today to 11 million We shall see. But even if the problem is less acute, in 2050, will increase the costs – already running at it will still be chronic. more than $120 billion a year. – UPI London’s Arabian nightmare By Anna Tomforde past the shop windows of Gucci, Prada and Armani well into the early hours, with Arabic music blaring LONDON – When night falls, the fashionable streets from loudspeakers. of Knightsbridge echo to the roar of luxury sports The unlicensed rickshaws, at times riding three cars and the blare of Arabic music, making residents abreast, pose a problem for cars and London buses feel more like “being in Dubai” than in one of Lon- trying to squeeze by, and force pedestrians to“duck don’s most upmarket residential districts. and dive,” according to the campaign group. This summer, wealthy Middle Eastern visitors “One day there will be a fatality, there is an acci- who fly in their Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghi- dent waiting to happen,” Karen Morgan Thomas, ni’s in private jets for ear- splitting races along bou- co-founder of the citizens’ campaign group, told dpa. tique-lined streets and leafy squares, have aroused “They are not drunk but they are bored,” says the anger of residents and attracted the attention Morgan Thomas of the rickshaw passengers, who of the police. are often girls flirting with men in long Arabic robes “It’s like having the starting grid to Le Mans right strolling down Sloane Street, one of London’s most outside your bedroom window,” said Bruce Beringer, exclusive shopping streets. co-founder of a residents’ campaign group to stop “Walking down Sloane Street at night is like being the noise from sleep-depriving supercars. in Dubai or Marrakesh,” she observed. “Rolls Royces don’t make a noise, but supercars Top hotels in the district had changed their work- do,” Beringer said in an interview with the German ing hours for chambermaids to accommodate the Press Agency dpa. visitors’ late sleeping habits, said Morgan Thomas. “We are not racist. Visitors from the Gulf States Pickpockets and beggars had also flocked to the are very welcome and London has always been a area. According to Morgan Thomas, some of the city that welcomes foreigners,” he said. European beggars donned Arabic dress to attract “But this area is fast becoming an unpleasant sympathy. She had herself seen an“Arab kid” giving place to live,” he added. Weeks of noise and sleep- a beggar a 50-pound (100-dollar) note. less nights from revving car engines had driven Support for the residents’ campaign has mush- residents to despair. Locally, the races have become roomed. known as “cruising parties.” Meanwhile, talks are under way with the local In early August, police arrested two Arab men after council and the police about the stricter enforce- “We want to see it stopped. The problem is that owners of Harrods, the luxury department store a supercar spun out of control, crashing into four ment of anti-noise environment legislation, speed they come from very close societies where the men nearby that attracts a large amount of Middle East- parked vehicles in a usually quiet residential square. limit-and parking fine rules. An increased police and women are not allowed to mix. So when they ern customers. The two men, from the United Arab Emirates, presence in the area is under discussion. come to London in the summer, they go wild. It “They have been very helpful,” said Morgan Tho- are due to appear in court in October, charged with Hisham Alireza, a Saudi Arabian construction is a sort of courting ritual,” Alireza told the Daily mas. “Harrods’ wants to be a good neighbour. But dangerous driving and driving without insurance. company owner who lives in the district, said he Telegraph. they have no ability to impose rules outside their The problem faced by residents is made worse by was “appalled and embarrassed” by the behaviour The campaign group has also been in talks with front door.” rickshaws, which transport Middle Eastern visitors of the young men in their fast cars. representatives of the Qatari royal family, the new – DPA for for only only for on Sept 27 for for 27 Sept on Arthur Allan Thomas Allan Arthur Arthur Allan Thomas Allan Arthur Arthur Allan Thomas Allan Arthur SPECIAL OFFER SPECIAL open breaks Wishart Ian ultimate Zealand’s New murders the - case cold Jeanette and Harvey of 40 Pukekawa at Crewe ago. years new gripping this In does only not book, fresh uncover Wishart Allan Arthur but leads, year 40 a breaks Thomas full his tell to silence time. rst fi the for story, UNMISSABLE 24) Sept on out sent be will (book , or fax 09 4204770; offer for a limited time limited a for offer 4204770; 09 fax or , PLEASE NOTE, THESE PRICES ARE ONLY VALID FOR BOOKS PRE- BOOKS FOR VALID ONLY ARE PRICES THESE NOTE, PLEASE INCREASE GST 1 OCTOBER THE BEFORE ORDERED just $39.90 delivered, saving $5 saving delivered, $39.90 just delivered $105 only $78 delivered $78 Extra shipping charges of $12 per book apply to overseas orders overseas to apply book per $12 of charges shipping Extra Yes, send me one copy of of copy one me send Yes, of copies 2 me send please Yes, of copies three me send please Yes,

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WORLD 8 20 August 2010 Abbott by a nose? update By Sid Astbury in 60 seconds SYDNEY (DPA) – The ruling Labor Party has lost its lead over Tony Abbott’s conservatives with just hours to go before Australians vote in parliamentary elections. With the rivals tied 50-50 in an opinion poll pub- lished Friday in The Australian newspaper, Prime Minister Julia Gillard is staring down the barrel of defeat just 58 days after supplanting Kevin Rudd in a sensational intra-party coup. “I’ll be devastated if we wake up on Sunday and Mr Abbott is prime minister,” said Gillard, who top- pled Rudd because opinion polling showed he could not win a second term for Labor. The conservatives, who lost office to Rudd in 2007, U.S.: IRAN AT LEAST A YEAR FROM NUKE BOMB need to win 17 seats from Labor to gain the 76 seats WASHINGTON, AUG. 20 (UPI) – Iran is at least a year away from developing a working nuclear weapon, U.S. that would give them a majority in the 150-member officials say. House of Representatives. They also believe U.N. inspectors would see indica- “We’ve had a bit of momentum over the last few tions that Iran is approaching the point of having enough days,” Abbott said of the poll showing Labor’s 52 enriched uranium for a bomb, The New York Times to 48 per cent had evaporated in the final week of reported Friday. That would give the United States or Israel campaigning. several weeks for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Haydn Lane, chief executive of internet betting Officials refer to the preparation of weapons-grade company Sportsbet, said Labor was still the favour- enriched uranium as breakout and the period for devel- ite but “from a betting perspective, the momentum opment of a bomb as dash time. is clearly with the (conservative) coalition.” “We think that they have roughly a year dash time,” Most political analysts have the first female prime Gary Samore, an adviser to President Barack Obama on nuclear issues, said. “A year is a very long period of time.” minister hanging onto power, but with her authority Israeli leaders have suggested they might launch a diminished by a tiny majority in Parliament. pre-emptive strike but the administration believes the In ideology, there is little difference between recent assessment of Iranian capabilities has deterred the two parties, with near-identical policies on for- them, the newspaper said. eign affairs, climate change and the importance of The Iranian government says its nuclear program is a returning the government budget to surplus. peaceful one aimed only at energy production. Gearing In campaigning, the advantage that accrued up for weapons production would require the country to to Labor from Australia being the only advanced force out international inspectors and declare its inten- country not to slip into recession during the global tions openly, the Times said. financial crisis has been counterbalanced by dis- quiet at the dumping of Rudd so close to an election. MID-EAST PEACE DEAL IN ONE YEAR? WASHINGTON, AUG. 20 (UPI) – Israel and the Palestin- – DPA ian Authority have agreed to resume direct talks, setting a one-year time limit, officials said Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce the agreement Friday, The New York Times reported. The negotiations would be the first in 20 Bad jobs figures hit US months. Officials close to the discussions said President Barack Obama plans to invite Israeli Prime Minister PRESIDENT BARACK Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President OBAMA REFERRED Mahmoud Abbas to Washington next month. While the Obama administration has not confirmed TO THE LATEST INCREASE any agreement for talks, there were hints of movement IN JOBLESS CLAIMS AS today. “We think we are very, very close to a decision by the HE PRESSED LAWMAKERS parties to enter into direct negotiations,” Philip J. Crowley, TO PASS A JOBS BILL the State Department spokesman, said at a press brief- ing. “We think we’re well positioned to get there.” THAT WOULD GIVE SMALL Whether negotiations will have any result is another question, the newspaper said. The Palestinians want a BUSINESSES TAX RELIEF AND state based on Israel’s 1967 borders, with East Jerusa- AID WITH LOANS lem as its capital.

BILL MILLIN, D-DAY PIPER, DIES AT 88 LONDON, AUG. 20 (UPI) – Bill Millin, who walked economist at Moody’s Analytics, referring to today- Sword Beach braving gunfire and playing the bagpipes 0’s jobless data. “One can safely say that today’s for British troops on D-Day, has died. He was 88. report suggests we’re going to see very weak August Millin died Tuesday, The Daily Telegraph reported. The employment numbers.” cause of death was not reported. In July, the economy lost a net 131,000 jobs amid During World War II, Millin served as piper to Simon large layoffs of census employees and tepid hiring Fraser, the commando officer Lord Lovat, chief of Clan in the private sector. Fraser, who believed the War Office ban on personal By Don Lee age sliding 1.4 percent to close at 10,271. Some economists said the August job numbers, pipers did not apply to him, the newspaper said. Tribune Washington Bureau President Barack Obama, facing increasing pres- to be reported on the Friday before Labor Day, will During the Normandy invasion, Millin began playing sure on the economy, referred to the latest increase probably be even worse. More than 125,000 addi- soon after his landing craft left the Solent. Cheers came WASHINGTON – The U.S. job market, barely tread- in jobless claims as he pressed lawmakers to pass a tional census workers have been let go since the from other vessels when his music was broadcast over a PA system. ing water this year, is showing worrisome signs of jobs bill that would give small businesses tax relief July jobs data were tallied. Millin played traditional airs as soldiers fell. German weakening. and aid with loans. “I would say it’s a very slow trickle when it comes prisoners later told him he was not shot because they The Labor Department said today that new appli- “They need help. And if we want this economy to a pickup in jobs,” said Deborah Russell, director thought he was crazy. cations for unemployment benefits unexpectedly to create more jobs more quickly, we need to help of workforce issues at the AARP, which has held 32 “I shall never forget hearing the skirl of Bill Millin’s rose to 500,000 last week, the highest level in nine them,” he said before departing for an extended fam- job fairs in 19 states since March. pipes,” a soldier, Tom Duncan, told an interviewer. “It is months. It marked the third consecutive week of ily vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. Kim Megonigal, chairman of Irvine, Calif.-based hard to describe the impact it had.” rising new jobless claims and added to other recent Analysts said the jump in first-time unemploy- Kimco Staffing Services, said that after growing in After the war, Millin toured for several years with a reports suggesting that layoffs are ticking higher ment claims reflected, in part, increasing layoffs of the first half of the year his business has been flat theatrical troupe and then trained as a nurse. A native of even as new hiring remains sluggish. workers on state and local government payrolls. Some the last two months. Glasgow, he moved to Devon in the 1960s. The data, along with a separate report showing pointed to special factors such as a larger-than-usual “I think there’s just too much uncertainty out In 1995, he played the pipes at Lovat’s funeral. a falloff in manufacturing activity in August, rein- number of military service discharges and the dis- there. Nobody’s doing anything,” he said. Millin was depicted in the movie The Longest Day. A statue is to be erected next year on Sword Beach. forced concerns over the staying power of the eco- missal of many temporary U.S. census workers. Megonigal’s experience reflects the general trend nomic recovery, unsettling investors. Stocks closed No matter how the numbers are sliced,“it’s noth- of the broader economy, which has shown decelerat- sharply lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Aver- ing to celebrate,” said Sophia Koropeckyj, a labor ing growth since late spring. 20 August 2010 WORLD 9 Double-minded Iraqis want Yanks to stay politicians are inflaming the situation, there is a cement Iraq’s fledgling democracy have instead battle between them, and I am 100 percent certain triggered a deeply destabilizing political stand- it will be reflected in the streets.” off between ethnic-tinged factions who received U.S. combat operations in Iraq won’t officially roughly similar numbers of votes and now cannot end until Aug. 31, the deadline set by President agree on who should be in charge. Barack Obama for the reduction of the force to “Some people think it’s a run-out. An irresponsi- 50,000 troops involved in what the military calls ble withdrawal,” said Kurdish legislator Mahmoud “stability operations.” Othman, echoing Obama’s pledge to bring about But with the departure to Kuwait of the last com- a “responsible withdrawal” of U.S. troops. “This is bat brigade this week, the formal battle mission is about what’s going on in America, not about what’s now essentially over. In the coming days, 2,000 more going on on the ground.” troops from units scattered around the country will On the ground, there has been no dramatic dete- depart, bringing the number remaining down to the rioration in security, at least not yet. But many Ira- 50,000 promised by the president. qis are concerned about the recent uptick in the The U.S. military stresses that it is still a sizeable number of shootings and assassinations across number of troops, and that they will be equipped Baghdad and in the still troubled provinces. with considerable firepower. Fighter jets and attack A rash of targeted attacks against judges, traf- helicopters will remain, as will about 4,500 Special fic police, senior civil servants and members of the Forces members who will continue to carry out coun- Iraqi security forces has stirred fears that insur- terterrorism missions alongside Iraqi counterparts. gents are more ubiquitous than had been thought. A By Liz Sly that the American invaders whom they once feared The soldiers staying behind have been rebranded suicide bombing in Baghdad against army recruits Los Angeles Times would stay forever are in fact going home – at a from combat troops into six Advise and Assist Bri- on Tuesday, in which 63 people died, called into ques- time when their country is in the throes of a deep gades, which will focus on advising and mentor- tion the Iraqi security forces’ ability to take care BAGHDAD – Iraqis danced in the streets when political crisis that many think could turn increas- ing Iraqi security forces until the December 2011 of its own, let alone the safety of ordinary citizens. U.S. troops withdrew from their cities a little over ingly violent. deadline for the departure of all U.S. forces under “I’m surprised they’re going because the situa- a year ago. After the last American combat brigade “I’m not happy at all. I’m worried. They’re leav- the terms of a 2008 security agreement between tion is really uncertain, really tense,” Mohammed trundled across the border into Kuwait early today, ing really early,” said Wissam Sabah, a carpet seller Iraq and the U.S. Khalid, 22, whose toy shop is lined with blond- reversing a journey that began more than seven in one of Baghdad’s shopping districts. “We don’t But many Iraqis worry that the time is wrong haired dolls dressed in pink and a fearsome array years ago, there was no rejoicing. have a government and we don’t know what is going for a drawdown whose date was a result of Obama’s of plastic rifles, pistols and automatic weapons. Instead, a mood of deep apprehension tinged with to happen next. Maybe we will go back to civil war. campaign promise to bring troops home. Parlia- “The Americans should stay until the Iraqi army bitterness is taking hold as Iraqis digest the reality “The situation is getting worse every day. The mentary elections in March that were supposed to can control Iraq,” he said. Babies die in SA health strike By Robyn Dixon “They broke down the main gate into the hos- POLICE FIRED TEAR GAS in Alrode, a suburb southeast of Johannesburg, were Los Angeles Times pital,” she said later in an interview, referring to later moved to private hospitals. the demonstrators. “They got into the hospital and AND RUBBER BULLETS Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at pro- JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Public health made their way through the wards. I thought if they AT PROTESTERS BLOCKING testers blocking hospital entrances, amid reports care patients went without treatment. Babies died. realized I was a nurse, I’d be attacked. that patients and ambulances had been prevented Schools could not operate. Police fired rubber bul- “Staff were hiding in the bathrooms. I sat there HOSPITAL ENTRANCES, AMID from entering. lets and water cannons at demonstrators trying to and I froze. All I kept thinking was ‘I’ve got to get REPORTS THAT PATIENTS AND South Africa’s renegotiation of labor contracts block roads. out of here,’ “ said the student, who tweeted under usually begins with a public sector wage campaign South Africa’s national civil service strike dis- the name AndyWandy and refused to give her name, AMBULANCES HAD BEEN and resulting wage increase, which feeds private rupted lives throughout the country for a second fearing reprisals. PREVENTED FROM ENTERING sector wage demands and fuels inflation. The proc- day today as 1 million workers including medical After several hours, the few remaining nurses ess can fray relations between the ruling African personnel, teachers and clerks refused to allow rou- told students it was no longer safe for them to stay National Congress and its union allies. tine services while they demanded higher wages. at the hospital. wage offer and $97 housing allowance, raising fears Government spokesman Themba Maseko said Although a union representative denied protest- The student who tweeted said she put on a stetho- the strike may drag on for weeks. after a Cabinet meeting Thursday that the govern- ers kept patients out of health care facilities, some scope, hoping to pass herself off as a doctor in case A Gauteng government health official, Qedani ment could not afford the union demand, which hospital workers described frightening experiences. she was stopped, and left the hospital via a back Mahlangu, said two premature babies were found would cost nearly $700 million and was well above At one large public hospital in Johannesburg, a entrance, avoiding the protesters. dead Wednesday night – part of a group of 23 in the 4.5 percent inflation rate. young student nurse said she had hidden behind a “I am just shocked it came to such violence,” she one neonatal ward being cared for only by security Dumisani Dakile, a spokesman for the Council curtain as a crowd of protesters took over the facil- said. “It was so unnecessary.” guards because nurses had walked off the job. of South African Trade Unions, denied protesters ity. She was afraid to move so she tweeted, pouring Public sector unions are demanding an 8.6 per- “The babies were cold and had not eaten for the had intimidated people or prevented anyone enter- out her fears to an audience of strangers that grew cent rise and a $138 monthly housing allowance. But whole day,” Mahlangu told The Star newspaper. The ing hospitals. He accused police of overreacting to larger by the second. the government insists it won’t better its 7 percent babies in the neonatal ward at Natalspruit Hospital peaceful picketing. Lost boys found, Peter Pan link By Andrew Blankstein and Kate Linthicum biggest challenge is determining whether a crime According to Gloria Gomez, the manager at the may be linked to illegal abortions. Los Angeles Times was committed. Detectives with the juvenile divi- Glen-Donald, the trunk had been sitting in storage, A team of coroner’s investigators, including a sion’s abused child section are hoping medical tests unclaimed, for decades. Tuesday night Gomez and pathologist and an anthropologist, will use DNA, LOS ANGELES – Who was Jean M. Barrie, the can determine whether the babies were stillborn, building resident Yeming Xing broke the lock with toxicology and other tests to determine how the woman whose steamer trunk stored for decades in aborted or subjected to trauma. a screwdriver to see what was inside. babies died, while detectives try to piece together the basement of an L.A. apartment building con- But they are also considering other leads, They found books, postcards, a beautiful crystal the life of the woman who kept their bodies tucked tained the mummified remains of two babies? including the possibility that the trunk may have bowl and two leather doctor’s satchels. Inside each carefully among her possessions. That’s the question investigators were mulling this belonged to a different woman – also named Jean satchel was the body of a baby. afternoon, two days after the babies – wrapped in M. Barrie – who was a well-known storyteller and Each was swaddled in a blanket newspapers from the 1930s – were discovered when performer at the time. and wrapped in a faded L.A. the basement was being cleared out. As the coroner This Jean Barrie apparently lived in the Midwest Times newspaper. began an autopsy on the bodies, detectives were left to and on the East Coast and was a relative James M. Xing, who discovered the first sift through a crime scene that is also a time capsule. Barrie, the author of the children’s book Peter Pan. body, said Wednesday that it Inside the trunk police found a fox wrap, a flapper Several clues point in her direction. There was a appeared to be a fetus. dress, a pearl-beaded purse and rolled-up stack of copy of Peter Pan found inside the trunk Tuesday “It looked like a baby, but it blank medical records. along with a membership certificate for the Peter didn’t have any shape to it,” she said. The medical record, the detectives said, point them Pan Woodland Club, a Big Bear resort. A geneticist at the University of in the direction of woman named Jean M. Barrie, who But it’s unclear whether Barrie ever lived in Los Southern California, Xing said she lived in the area and may have worked as a nurse. She Angeles. An ad in the 1918 edition of Lyceum Maga- believes the baby had been miscar- was born in San Francisco in 1916, and the trunk zine shows a stern-faced Barrie in a decorative lace ried or had possibly been aborted. contained a postcard from her brother Thomas. and velvet dress. The ad hails her as a “Reader of John Medford, the building Los Angeles Police Department sources said the Plays and Miscellaneous Programs.” manager, also thinks the bodies

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www.mistralsoftware.co.nz 20 August 2010 SPORT 11 Taranaki continue winning ways WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – Taranaki continued an Taranaki, who led 24-7 at halftime, worked overtime tion in the first half only to find themselves heav- guish any danger but the ball slipped from their grasp, impressive start to the national provincial rugby on defence to make up for the shortcomings in the ily in arrears at the interval after Taranaki scored leaving Hayward the simple chore of pouncing on it championship by beating Bay of Plenty 24-15 at possession stakes, particularly in the third quarter as three tries, the first to flanker Scott Waldrom, who over the line as Taranaki stretched out to a 17-0 lead. New Plymouth tonight. they soaked up continuous pressure from the visitors. stretched full length in the tackle after charging The visitors hit back 11min later when a roll- Bay of Plenty had a mountain of possession in Bay of Plenty lacked a game-breaker and for all on to a pass from Brett Goodin after the halfback ing maul from a lineout saw skipper Colin Bourke their favour but Taranaki defended stoutly while their honest toil they rarely threatened to break skirted around a ruck near the 22. emerge with a try before Taranaki again extended their slick backline showed clinical finishing touches down a determined Taranaki defensive screen until They only had to wait nine more minutes for their their advantage thanks to the classy intervention to make the most of their opportunities. the 71st minute when Phil Burleigh cut through a second, with second five-eighth Jayden Hayward of fullback Kurt Baker. It marked Taranaki’s third successive win fol- gap in the midfield before drawing the last defender touching down in the 20th minute after Bay of Baker burst through a hole before chipping ahead, lowing a first round loss at home to Northland and and leaving replacement wing Ben Smith with an Plenty wing Lelia Masaga dropped the ball in mid- chasing, regathering and offloading in the tackle for meant they will remain near the top of the standings unimpeded run to the line. field and Taranaki wing David Smith toed ahead. Smith to pick up the spoils 6min before halftime. after the fourth round is completed this weekend. Bay of Plenty had plenty of ball and field posi- Bay of Plenty had the numbers in defence to extin- – NZPA Netball coach narrows wishlist By Cathy Walshe of NZPA “What happens when you get put under pres- Francis makes no apology for her plain speaking sure is you get quite insular and everything narrows “You can’t butter up anybody, why should you?” NAPIER, AUG 20 – Better communication and a down. So what you have to do is keep trying to look she said after training today at Napier’s Pettigrew quicker assessment of options top New Zealand broader, look beyond, look at your second and third Green Arena. netball coach Ruth Aitken’s wishlist ahead of the phase and not get hooked on the movement that’s “This is not under-16 or under-21, this is the second test against Jamaica here tomorrow night. right in front of you. creme de la creme of netball. While happy to take the 23-goal first test win “It’s certainly a work in progress, but I hope it’ll “We select you to do a job, and you’re playing way in Christchurch on Wednesday, Aitken is aware the be better this week. I don’t think we’ll miraculously below your standard. I’m a frank coach -- I’ll go out scratchy, patchy nature of that win leaves plenty fix it, it’s going to be ongoing.” there and I’ll let you know if you’re not playing well. of room for improvement as the defence of their That response under pressure looked distinctly “If you’re playing well, then I’ll pat you on the Commonwealth Games title in New Delhi looms rusty in Christchurch, and the Silver Ferns strug- back and say well done.” ever closer. gled for fluency before edging out to a narrow 11-10 Video analysis and blackboard work had high- Aitken has made it clear she wants players who lead after 15 minutes, and a slightly healthier 29-21 lighted where Jamaica need to improve, Francis think quickly and creatively on court, adjusting to halftime lead. “The performance we had then isn’t the one we’ll said. changes in play and personnel, a quality conspicu- A changed second-half line-up saw them take the have tomorrow, and it’s not the one we’ll have by the “We’re seeing where we’ve let ourselves down ous by its absence in the first test. final 30 minutes 29-14, and Aitken is again looking time we get to the Commonwealth Games. It was badly, and we think we can compete better, espe- A heavy training load, as the Silver Ferns aim to to give both combinations a run tomorrow night, a starting point.” cially in our attacking area. peak for the Games in October, and first-up nerves especially as she has goal shoot Daneka Wipiiti Jamaican coach Connie Francis’ disappointment “We need to be strong, be decisive and let the ball didn’t make for an attractive game on Wednesday, back on the bench after a quick recovery from the in her team’s performance was clear, after they lost go ... our through-court play has been our major let- although by the final quarter there were occasional strained calf which saw her miss the first test. all three tests against Australia this month then down so far. We’re just not carrying the ball through glimpses of New Zealand’s A game. “It’s good to get all the shooting and defensive went missing in action after a promising opening as we ought to.” But it is how her team respond under pressure combinations together,” she said. 15 minutes in Christchurch. Francis has had to make do without two pivotal that most interests Aitken, and she is looking for a “We want to try those two different line-ups we She has put captain and midcourter Nadine players in defender Althea Byfield and captain and distinct improvement in that area tomorrow. have, so we’ll keep rotating those.” Bryan on notice after a sub-par effort in Christch- goal attack Simone Forbes, and although there is “We tend not to play from a dot-to-dot sort of Aitken said her team seemed to struggle with the urch while lanky shooter Romelda Aiken has also something of a makeshift look about the Jamaican style,” she told NZPA today. different physical nature and timing of the Jamai- drawn Francis’ ire as she has struggled to readjust line-up, she has no intention of using that as an “It’s actually about players being aware and cans, and described the first test as both a reality to the Jamaican style after a trans-Tasman league excuse. responding to others on court. check and a starting point. season with Queensland Firebirds. – NZPA Thomas among the PanPac medals Thomas, who turns 20 on Sunday, finished in a tie THOMAS, WHO TURNS for third place with two others, with half a second covering the field in a race won by Australian triple 20 ON SUNDAY, Commonwealth Games champion Sophie Edington. FINISHED IN A TIE FOR Thomas, of Gisborne, clocked a time of 28.44 sec- onds, a fingertip off her own national record. THIRD PLACE WITH TWO “I was trying to go in to get a PB and hopefully OTHERS, WITH HALF A medal but in the end I did not have to do a PB to SECOND COVERING THE get one,” Thomas said. “The 50 is my favourite so I just wanted to go FIELD IN A RACE WON out and have fun. BY AUSTRALIAN TRIPLE “I was happy with my start but I would have liked to have kept my stroke rate up at the end but COMMONWEALTH GAMES it dropped a little bit although it was pretty good. CHAMPION SOPHIE EDINGTON “It is a really good confidence boost for the Com- monwealth Games so I am excited for that now. I definitely believe I can be a real threat at New Delhi.” New Zealand enjoyed a good finals session, with back slightly on the breaststroke and held off any Southland’s Natalie Wiegersma fifth in the A final challenges for her fifth placing in 4min 41.93sec, of the 400m individual medley while the women’s close to her best. 4x200m freestyle team set a new national record American Elizabeth Beisel won in 4min 34.69sec when going under the eight minute mark for the ahead of Australia’s Samantha Hamill, with Wieg- first time to also finish fifth. ersma ranked second best of the Commonwealth As well, Daniel Bell was third in the B final of swimmers at the meet, a boost for her upcoming the 50m backstroke in 25.52sec while Gareth Kean, chances in New Delhi. a long distance specialist, was sixth in a personal The women’s 4x200m relay team took more than Sophie Edington (AUS) reacts after winning the women’s 50m backstroke in 27.83 in the 2010 Pan Pacific swimming champi- best 25.94sec. 2sec off the national record set by the team on the onships at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center. / IMAGE OF SPORT Hayley Palmer was eighth in the A final of the way to a bronze medal at the 2006 Melbourne Com- 100m freestyle in a solid 56.04sec while Glenn Sny- monwealth Games. WELLINGTON, AUG 20 – Emily Thomas broke a ships since Trent Bray won a bronze at Fukuoka, ders produced an excellent performance close to his Lauren Boyle, Tash Hind, Amaka Gessler and New Zealand medal drought stretching back for Japan, in 1997. best with a 1min 00.74sec effort to finish second in Melissa Ingram clocked 7min 59.80sec for fifth than a decade when she won a bronze medal in the The event, rated behind only the Olympics and the B final of the 100m breaststroke. place behind the United States, Australia and 50m backstroke at the Pan Pacific swimming cham- world championships, features the swimming pow- Wiegersma, 19, challenged the leaders through Canada, which sets up an intriguing battle ahead pionships in California today. erhouses of Australia and the United States as well her powerful butterfly and backstroke disciplines at the Commonwealth Games. It is New Zealand’s first medal at the champion- as Japan and Canada among other nations. and turned in third place at the 200m mark. She fell – NZPA Gourmet5528Inv.indd 1 20/07/10 4:43 PM 20 August 2010 WEEKEND 13

TV & Film

The Expendables 0Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren 0Director: Sylvester Stallone 0Length: 103 minutes 0Rating: R (for strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language)

A cartoonish symphony of muscles, bullets, tattoos and cigars, The Expendables is so determinedly old-school that its brisk action and bracing explosions take place not in the real world but on a mythical South American island named Vilena. If it does nothing else, it will make you nostalgic for a time when its more august actors, including Bruce Willis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in tiny cameos, were at least age-appropriate for their roles. With its roster of action stars listed on posters like a high-powered team of urologists – “Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture, Austin, Crews and Rourke – The Expendables is also a place where lines like “friends don’t let friends die alone” and “don’t talk to me, cock- Cairo Time maker, who has something of an obsession with affairs HINTS OF THEIR OTHER roach” can find a happy home. 0Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Siddig, of the heart. Which might be a drawback except that The Expendables, in case you couldn’t guess, are Elena Anaya, Tom McCamus she keeps improving with time. Juliette and Tareq LIVES SURFACE DURING not urologists but top-of-the-line mercenaries whose 0Director: Ruba Nadda discover each other in many of the ways typical of JULIETTE’S SWING THROUGH motto is “if the money’s right, we don’t care what the 0Length: 89 minutes these types of fairy-tale romances – strolling through job is.” Barney Ross (Stallone) is first among equals, 0Rating: PG (for mild thematic moments) local bazaars, chess matches in the coffee house, long CAIRO’S DIPLOMATIC SCENE, followed by Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang candlelit dinners – moments that carry the chance AND TAREQ’S CHANCE (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road for hands to brush, looks to linger or an out-of-control (mixed martial artist Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar Cairo Time stars Patricia Clarkson in a lovely and lan- cart to force them into each other’s arms. But more ENCOUNTER WITH AN OLD (Terry Crews). Names, like the rest of the film, not to guid flirtation with a foreign land, an exotic man and often than not the embrace doesn’t come; instead LOVE, WHICH SERVES TO GIVE be taken seriously. the possibility that, long after the future seems set in temptation is left to hang heavy in the air. A SENSE OF THE INDIVIDUALS The gang is introduced by co-writers Stallone and stone, it might not be quite so predictable after all. Hints of their other lives surface during Juli- David Callaham in a flashback involving the expeditious Canadian writer-director Ruba Nadda’s new ette’s swing through Cairo’s diplomatic scene, and THEY WERE AS WELL AS THE rescue of a group of hostages from Somali pirates. The film feeds off the cool beauty of Clarkson and the Tareq’s chance encounter with an old love, which COUPLE THEY MIGHT BECOME Expendables turn out to have a penchant for bickering dry heat of Alexander Siddig as strangers thrown serves to give a sense of the individuals they were with one another, however, and Gunner Jensen has to together by circumstance. Also in play are the as well as the couple they might become. Friction, be let go for attempting to murder a prisoner. There is romantic notions that so often accompany travel, when it surfaces, becomes critical, since dangerous Thankfully, Nadda lets much of the insight and such a thing as standards. primarily those daydreams of chucking the life you moments have a way of crystallizing feelings, and understanding come from watching Clarkson and Back home, the gang finds themselves restive in have for the life you imagine you might have if only, neither wants to contemplate the implications of Siddig watch each other. Ultimately the film rises civilian life. Lee Christmas, a whiz with a knife, is espe- if only, if only ... . the betrayal of a husband, of a friend. on the heat of Juliette and Tareq, made irresistible cially irked that his girlfriend Lacy (Charisma Carpenter), Clarkson is Juliette, a sophisticate headed to Cairo The dialogue is spare, a good thing since it is here by Clarkson and Siddig, and making Cairo Time inexplicably peeved at his disappearing for months at a for a vacation with her husband, Mark (Tom McCa- that nuance suddenly and regrettably occasionally well worth the trip. time with zero explanation, has taken up with someone mus), a top U.N. official who’s been unexpectedly slips away with moments that strain credibility and Watch the trailer who’s an even bigger lout than he is. dispatched to a Gaza hotspot. Tareq (Siddig) is the a few lines likely to make you cringe. – Betsy Sharkey So no one is unhappy when, in a scene that for no longtime Egyptian friend he’s enlisted to meet her clear reason involves Schwarzenegger as yet another flight and keep watch over her until he can break away. mercenary named Trench Mauser, the team gets offered The story opens with their awkward airport a new job by the shadowy Mr. Church (Willis). meeting, the polite but strained conversation of the Movie picks The job means going down to that fictitious island newly and not so happily acquainted. But Nadda is and taking on not only the evil general who runs it (David in no rush, slowly warming her comely pair under Outstanding Zayas) but also his nefarious American enabler (Eric Rob- the desert sun and the affection they both have New erts) and his brutal right-hand man Paine (Steve Austin). Worthy effort Ineptly diguised as members of the Global Wildlife for Mark. Though we’re left to mostly imagine the review absent husband, there is an easiness and intimacy to So-so Conservancy, Barney and Lee go down on a recon Juliette’s phone conversations with him that suggest and find the island too hot for them to handle. The A bomb Local critic Chicago Tribune Los Angeles TimesMiami Herald Philadelphia InquirerMinneapolis Star Tribune a happy marriage. And when Tareq offers to take Seattle Times only bright spot is their local contact, the sultry Sandra her to see the pyramids, she demurs – those she and Despicable Me (Giselle Itie), a woman with an agenda of her own. When Mark have vowed to see together. Barney is forced to abandon Sandra in a tight spot, he With Mark delayed again and again, Juliette is Eat Pray Love vows to return. at loose ends. Her rising frustration is soon over- For the Expendables would have you understand that taken by the enticement of Cairo, and she sets out Expendables they are not just behemoths with biceps as big as the Ritz, they have hearts and souls and, yes, tarnished ide- to explore it all – the city, her unexpected solitude Inception and the handsome Tareq with his mysteries and sub- als. Their attitude is expressed by Mickey Rourke as Tool, stantial charms. Nadda is content to let us luxuriate The Other Guys a tattoo artist and retired Expendable who smokes a in the unfolding complications and connections long-stemmed pipe and bemoans a woman whose sui- between them, giving veteran director of photog- Ramona and Beezus cide he walked away from years ago in Bosnia. Friends raphy Luc Montpellier (who shot Nadda’s last cut may not let friends die alone, but bogus philosophizing Salt at love, 2005’s Sabah) time to capture the beauty of is apparently business as usual. the place and this mismatched set. Step Up 3D Watch the trailer The attraction of opposites and the inherent dif- – By Kenneth Turan © 2010 MCT ficulties that follow are favorite topics for the film- REVIEWS 14 20 August 2010

Music

US musician Brian Wilson performs during a stop of his ‘Greatest Hits’ tourf in Munich, Germany. / Felix Hoerhager Brian Wilson reimagines Gershwin Los Angeles Times cross-generational collaborations,“The Like in I Love For Brian Wilson Band member Bennett, who say he worked harder on this than I’ve ever seen him You” and“Nothing But Love,” that bookend the album. wrote lyrics for the new songs on Wilson’s previous work on anything. He put in days that would be hard LOS ANGELES – As Brian Wilson remembers it, The project is an outgrowth of a two-album deal album,“That Lucky Old Sun,” it was a surprise getting for someone half his age. He worked his tail off.” the head Beach Boy was still a beach toddler the Wilson entered into last year with Disney Pearl, a the call to work on the Gershwin project: “This was Disney Records executives also are working first time he heard George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Walt Disney Records imprint. The Gershwin project too big to expect little me to be given a shot. I thought theirs in hopes that the Gershwin-Wilson pair- Blue,” a piece of music that would have a profound was Wilson’s idea – with some heavy encourage- they’d call Van Dyke (Parks, Wilson’s lyric writer for ing will create enough public interest “that this effect on the rest of his life. ment from Disney bigwigs. The follow-up project ‘Smile’) or Jimmy Webb to fill such big shoes.” will become one of those two or three albums that “I was 2 years old,” Wilson, 68, said recently while will feature his interpretations of children’s songs Along with the two new songs, Wilson and his break through the clutter, like a Susan Boyle or a seated on the couch in the living room at his Beverly from the Disney canon. band “Brianize” a dozen Gershwin standards, jour- Josh Groban,” Disney vice president of marketing Hills home, his voice carrying the enthusiasm of a “The notion of him doing his thing – he calls it neying from a relatively traditional Great American Rob Souriall said after a listening session recently discovery made last week.“My mother played it for ‘Brianizing’ – with Gershwin, seems like an amaz- Songbook take on “Love Is Here to Stay” to a ‘50s in West Hollywood for about 100 journalists, radio, me, and she said I turned my head like this (cocking ing opportunity,” David Agnew, president of Walt R&B/doo-wop rendition of “I’ve Got a Crush on retail and other music-industry types plus a couple his head to the left) toward the speaker, and she Disney Records, said when the announcement was You” and a souped-up Beach Boys-style run through Gershwin grand-nieces. knew I liked it. made last fall. “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” The marketers’ challenge: convincing listeners that “So every couple of weeks she would take me Although the album is Wilson’s way of sharing The centerpiece is a four-song medley from“Porgy “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin” offers something to my grandmother’s house, and my grandmother his affection for the Gershwins’ legacy, for pop afi- and Bess,” including an instrumental version of“I Got that hasn’t been heard before in the countless record- had (a recording of) ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’” he said. cionados it offers up a meeting of distinct voices in Plenty O’ Nuttin’” full of banjos and harmonica float- ings of George and Ira’s music over nearly a century. “We would go there and my mom would play it for American music from strikingly different eras and ing over big-beat rock rhythms, and Wilson’s version “The best compliment I’ve had so far,” Mertens me. I just couldn’t believe it – it’s such a beautiful locales: the Gershwins inextricably linked with the piece. I loved it.” bustling New York metropolis of the 1920s and ‘30s, He still does. Those closest to the composer, Wilson with sunny Southern California in the ‘60s. GEORGE GERSHWIN’S BLENDING OF THE STRUCTURAL arranger and vocal wizard behind the Beach Boys’ George Gershwin’s blending of the structural sophis- SOPHISTICATION AND INSTRUMENTAL RANGE OF signature hits, including “Good Vibrations,” “Califor- tication and instrumental range of symphonic music SYMPHONIC MUSIC WITH POP-SONG ACCESSIBILITY nia Girls” and“Surfer Girl,” say that when he sits down with pop-song accessibility can be seen as a precursor at a piano before rehearsing or performing, the song to Wilson’s expansion of ‘60s pop music through the use CAN BE SEEN AS A PRECURSOR TO WILSON’S he typically plays to warm up is “Rhapsody in Blue.” of orchestral and choral arrangements. EXPANSION OF ‘60S POP MUSIC THROUGH THE USE That 1924 composition catapulted Gershwin, The culmination of those ideas were 1966’s “Pet already one of Tin Pan Alley’s most successful Sounds” album and the long-shelved“Smile” album OF ORCHESTRAL AND CHORAL ARRANGEMENTS songwriters of the Jazz Age, to a peak of musical that Wilson belatedly completed in 2004. accomplishment for the way the nearly 18-minute “While they may have composed in different of Bess’ showcase number, “I Loves You Porgy.” said, “was from a friend who was listening to ‘They work married vernacular music and a classically eras, I think it’s an absolutely natural marriage,” The Wilson touch extends throughout the album Can’t Take That Away From Me.’ He said ‘Wow, it informed level of compositional expansiveness. said Todd Gershwin, George and Ira’s great nephew with instrumental interludes he crafted with Brian sounds like Brian wrote it.’ I know some other It’s also the first music heard on “Brian Wilson and a trustee of their estate. The estate authorized Wilson Band conductor Paul Mertens, with each contemporary artists have covered the American Reimagines Gershwin,” an album arriving Tuesday. Wilson to pick from among 104 fragments that have song segueing into the next as he had done on “Pet songbook in a very lazy way. I think this record is He doesn’t simply sing a dozen of the iconic songs been sitting in limbo for more than 70 years. Sounds,” and even more extensively on “Smile.” different in that regard.... written by George and his lyricist brother, Ira, but “There were 30 to 45 seconds’ worth of chords,” “We spent days recording vocals,” said Mertens, “It seems to me like the care and the detail on the also includes two new numbers created out of song Wilson said.“Just music – no lyrics. We listened to all another member of the band that has backed Wilson record are evident – it doesn’t sound like it was just fragments left unfinished by George when he died 104 of them and we finally concluded that we liked for most of the last decade. “I would start fading tossed off,” Mertens said.“Music fans will appreciate of a brain tumor at age 38 in 1937. these particular two. We wrote around the (exist- around the sixth or seventh hour, and he was still that. The last thing we want is for people to go, ‘Who Wilson and his present-day lyric writer, Scott Ben- ing) theme. We’d get a couple of chord changes and working and saying, ‘I want to do one more.’ That’s wants to hear another Gershwin song?’” nett, turned those fragments into newly completed borrow from that.” not always been my experience with Brian. I would Surfer Girl 20 August 2010 REVIEWS 15

NEW CD RELEASES Books

Dr. John is to “discuss alternatives to this dangerous trend.” 0Tribal Johnson certainly does that in this latest vol- 0429 Records ume, though, unfortunately, as is so often the case, he turns out to be a better diagnostician than a prescriber of remedy. Part of the problem has to Last time we heard from Dr. do with the fact that we too often – and not just in John, on 2008’s “City That this book – seem mired in antique categories. The Care Forgot,” one of New Orle- United States’ mistakes abroad since World War II ans’ foremost musical ambas- have been legion, but it’s simply too pat to describe sadors was mighty angry what’s occurred as“imperialism” in either the classic about what had happened to economic or Marxist senses of that word. It’s a much his beloved hometown in the wake of Katrina. With more complicated and mixed record of stunning “Tribal,” the Good Doctor seems intent on offer- successes (like facilitating the reconstruction of ing a healing tonic. He sets a different tone right Europe, Japan and South Korea) as well as failures. from the start with “Feel Good Music,” declaring Johnson, for his part, is clear on the fact that he in his froggy hipster patois that he’s “gonna let regarded the Soviet Union as a menace and its implo- the good times roll” and promising, “I’m gonna sion as a wholly salutary event. One of the provocative make you move.” clean. The grandparents are clean. And the habits – and convincing – pillars of his critique is that suc- He certainly follows through. He and his terrific Beyond the glitter they lost are what they crave from us.”) cessive administrations in Washington have bungled combo, augmented by horns and strings, deliver There is plenty of humor to be found in such cul- what could have been a great, generally beneficial a sinuously funky set that’s downright irresist- My Hollywood tural misunderstandings, but Simpson also reveals demobilization from the staggeringly wasteful war ible, from the humorous lover’s lament of “When 0Mona Simpson the casual prejudices that define the tricky relation- footing into which the long confrontation with Soviet I’m Right (I’m Wrong)” to the old Night Tripper 0Knopf (384 pages. $26.95) ship between employers and employees. “You can Communism forced us. There’s a strong case to be hoodoo of “Jinky Jinx.” In numbers such as “Big have her as long as you want,” Paul tells a friend made for that point, but it isn’t helped by using the Gap” and “Only in Amerika,” he does slip in some The Hollywood so devastatingly rendered in Mona begging for Lola’s help and expertise, dismissing her imperialist fallacy that makes everything that hap- pointed messages. And “What’s Wit Dat” is, of all Simpson’s new novel is a different universe from as if she were indentured. Lola may be practical, but pens in the world a reaction to something the United things, a rant against processed foods (“If you’re the world-famous wellspring of movie magic. Its she is not immune to insult:“This permission pushes States has done or neglected to do. eatin’ white bread, you’re walkin’ with the dead”). dramas and comedies play out far behind the me down from the head.” It’s true that the CIA has a history of dismal As usual, though, the Doctor makes his medicine scenes, and the roles are filled almost exclusively Children grow; alliances form and break. Marriages intelligence and operational failures and has spent go down very easy. by women and children. Men seem only to accept crumble. Claire wrestles with the ongoing problem of a mind-boggling amount of money. It’s also undeni- – Nick Cristiano walk-on parts, though their subtle influence is her unstable mother. Lola discovers she can’t bear to able that nearly every president since the agency’s always present. There are important deals to be take a better-paying job because she’d have to leave founding has been unable to resist the temptation to Wavves made, contracts to be honored. William. “So Lola is romantic after all,” she muses misuse it. Still, to jump from there to a flat declara- 0King of the Beach But if you are Simpson’s protagonists, you dream wryly. “I am the one who gave up the big bucks for tion that the CIA ought to be abolished leaves unan- 0Fat Possum of testing these limits imposed by gender, age, family, love.” Yes, love peeks out sometimes in My Hollywood swered the obvious question of how the U.S. could race, money, culture and social status, elements that in the most unexpected places. It’s what keeps our survive without some sort of intelligence capacity. seek to shape us, whether we want them to or not. worlds – Claire’s, Lola’s, yours, mine – turning. Johnson, for example, blames 9/11 on CIA failures; Fun in the sun rarely has The author of four novels – the last, “Off Keck – By Connie Ogle why wouldn’t a future without any intelligence been as dramatically dire as Road,” was published 10 years ago – Simpson has capability turn into a series of 9/11s? it is in the hands of laptop- long probed the ties of family, particularly the bonds Dismantling the Empire repeatedly is undercut by pop maven Nathan Williams, between mothers and daughters, starting with“Any - This Empire is built similarly simplistic assertions. To argue, for example, the squeaky wheel that where But Here,” her debut. In the alternately satiric that Osama bin Laden plotted his attacks on the makes Wavves churn in noisy and poignant My Hollywood, she continues her ruth- on shaky ground U.S. to“get even” for American intervention in Iraq psychedelic fashion. Previous albums were rich in less examination as she dissects – and finds wanting just doesn’t wash. The Wahhabi strain of Salafism to downbeat melodies, lo-fi production, forlorn lyrics, – the dynamics of modern marriage and parenthood. The Empire: America’s Last Best Hope which Bin Laden and his allies adhere has been on and dreamy falsettos only a sad, sandbox-bound Simpson’s premise is that contemporary life places 0Chalmers Johnson a collision course with modernism – of which the Brian Wilson would love. Now, Williams has color- an unfair burden on working mothers, and her Hol- 0Metropolitan Books (214 pages, $25) United States is the leading exemplar – for decades. fully brightened his sound and songcraft with major lywood could be almost any upper-middle-class sub- It’s true that Bin Laden was horrified by the Saudi keys and bigger beats. While “Mickey Mouse” radi- urb. Two women form the backbone of her story. The There’s an unexplored flip side to the Cassandra royal family’s decision to allow U.S. troops into the ates the grandeur of the girl-group ‘60s, the hum- anxious Claire, a composer and wife of busy sitcom myth: As you’ll recall, she was the Trojan princess kingdom as part of the effort to dislodge Saddam worthy“Convertible Balloon” could have been used writer Paul, is utterly uncharmed by the daily grind to whom the gods granted the gift of prophecy. Hussein from Kuwait, but that was a true war of to sell Cokes and smiles during that same period. of parenting her son William. To be fair, William – a Then, because they were – in the fashion of dei- necessity for the West. The alternative was to let Still it’s the harshened mellow of sped-up Beach puncher, a biter – is what my grandmother would ties – perverse, they guaranteed that no one ever most of the world’s petroleum slip under the con- Boys-buoyant anthems with torn-down lyrics that have called “a handful and then some.” But Claire would believe her visions, which drove her mad. So, trol of a semi-delusional dictator of demonstrated makes Wavves a gray and gold treat. When Williams may have been chronically unhappy anyway. She one presumes, some of what she forecast from then homicidal impulse. It’s also historically crude to call yelps “misery won’t you comfort me in my time of longs only for time to write music in solitude and on was true and some was a bit unhinged. Homer Saudi Arabia the first nation “founded on Jihad.” The need” during “Post Acid,” it’s this generation’s ver- can’t understand how she missed the “great open never gets to the question of how even those who House of Saud has a long alliance with the Wahhabi sion of “Surf’s up.” secret – the bargain” that other women seem to know were sympathetically inclined were supposed to clergy, going back to the movement’s founder, but as – A.D. Amorosi instinctively.“Together they would make a family. The tell the difference. soon as Ibn Saud gained control of most of the Ara- women would raise children; the men would go out Chalmers Johnson, now 79 and professor emeri- bian Peninsula, he turned his guns on the Ikhwan, Tim Warfield into the world and provide money. Why did that con- tus at UC San Diego, was for many years one of our the most fanatic of his religious troops. 0A Sentimental Journey tract do so little for me?” most distinguished scholars on China and Japan In fact, Bin Laden is part of a generation that 0Criss Cross The other half of My Hollywood belongs to Lola, – head of UC Berkeley’s important Center for Chi- grew up believing in the Sauds’ moral laxity and Claire’s Filipina nanny, who takes over William’s nese Studies and co-founder of the Japan Policy whose real antecedents are in the group of Salafists care five days a week (on weekends, she works for a Research Institute, where he still serves as president. who seized Mecca’s Grand Mosque in 1979. Deal- Tenor saxophonist Tim Warf- different family). “Lana Turner they discovered at For some years, he was a consultant on China and ing with Saudi Arabia is hellishly complex because ield keeps alive the old spirit the Schraft’s counter, me on a bench for the Wilshire Maoism to the Central Intelligence Agency. More the House of Saud thinks it can both cultivate and while lacing it with new bus,” she tells us. While Claire toils over her music recently, he has turned his focus as an eloquent pub- control religious extremism as a way of maintaining things to say. Here, on his sixth for love – the few performances of her work around lic intellectual to his dismay over U.S. foreign policy power. The implications of that are far more difficult recording as a leader on Criss the country pay little once child care and plane fare during the post-Cold War period and, particularly, to than those that flow from a regime “based” on jihad. Cross, the York, Pa., native, who are factored in – Lola believes she is more practical. the dangerous consequences of American interven- Several times in this book, Johnson asserts – teaches at Messiah College and Temple University, “Me, I work for money,” she says, explaining that she tions in the Islamic world. apparently based mainly on a French newspaper plays a big horn and leaves some earthy tracks. only left her husband and almost-grown children Blowback, the first in a trilogy on the latter topic, interview – that President Jimmy Carter and his The songs are especially old school and come to make money to pay for her kids’ college tuitions. appeared immediately before the terrorist attacks national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski set flecked with wisdom. Billie Holiday’s “My Man” There’s a delightful, ironic upstairs/downstairs on 9/11, which gave his arguments a special urgency out to lure the Soviet Union into invading Afghani- starts in fine funereal form before morphing into a tone to much of My Hollywood, with each side clue- and a Cassandra-like credibility. His new book, stan and succeeded as part of a plot to create Mos- gentle swing, while the title track swerves in some less about the other. The wealthy mothers fret over Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope, cow’s Vietnam. To anyone who knows anything of bluesy ways. preschools and hide secret cameras in teddy bears attempts to do the same, retracing a good bit of that those two and their record, that’s simply preposter- Warfield assembles his regular group _ trumpeter to spy on the nannies. The nannies compare notes trilogy’s familiar ground. It is itself part of the pub- ous – though it’s equally easy to believe Brzezinski Terell Stafford, organist Pat Bianchi, and drummer (and paychecks) and gather intelligence on their lisher’s ongoing “American Empire Project,” which now would like to cultivate the impression it is true. Byron Landham, who helped on Warfield’s “One For employers through what Lola calls “The Book of takes it as a given that “in an era of unprecedented Dismantling the Empire is meant to be provoca- Shirley,” a tribute to organist Shirley Scott. Judging Ruth,” a long record in which generations of nannies military strength, leaders of the United States, the tive, but it seems too often like a prophet straining by this stand-up work, her lineage is in good hands. have written advice on“How to Work for the White.” global hyperpower, have increasingly embraced to be heard. – Karl Stark (“Americans, they are very dirty. They used to be imperial ambitions.” One of the project’s purposes – By Tim Rutten HEALTH 16 20 August 2010 Beware stem cell ‘cures,’ doctors say “Stem Cells for Dummies.”“It’s a wonderful myth. It happens sometimes, but it’s just not that common.” With stem cells right now, he said, “other than some diseases of the blood, some diseases of the skin and one or two others, there really is nothing else proven to work to a reasonable degree of certainty.” (First-rate stem cell research is going on in parts of Europe, in Japan, and even in China, where those doing strong science end up tarred by shoddy opera- tors in their own country, Loring said. When Vanessa Alvarez’s sight dwindled to a thick gray fog, she and her mother, Jessica Figueroa, hadn’t heard about the International Society for Stem Cell Research, which has offered a patient handbook since 2008. Instead, Figueroa, a telephone company project manager, gradually developed her own set of guide- lines as she began researching possible treatments for her daughter. “I remember hearing stem cells may be the end- all, may be the answer,” Figueroa said. She found videos of people talking about how their children’s vision problems were being treated with stem cells in China, but she could never track down long-term results for those people. Figueroa asked her daughter’s doctor about what she had seen, and she recalls him saying, “Please, By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg bling arthritis that stem cells can do nothing for them BOGUS CURES ARE please do not be fooled. ... Please don’t go there. McClatchy Newspapers right now. Not in America, and not anywhere else. Please don’t spend $50,000.” The family was told She warns anyone who asks, “If a clinic is asking NEARLY AS OLD AS that although there may be some limited improve- SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – Last September, Vanessa you to pay a lot of money, just really think carefully HUMAN DISEASE, BUT THEY ment, there is currently no way to repair the nerve Alvarez had what she thought was a sinus headache she about what are their motives.” damage that Alvarez, now 27, has suffered. couldn’t shake. Then her vision went blurry in one eye. Those who do legitimate research have become HAVE FOUND ESPECIALLY Within days, the young Elk Grove, Calif., woman increasingly worried about unregulated or even FERTILE GROUND IN STEM WARNING SIGNS was nearly blind from a condition that put pressure fraudulent clinics. CELL MEDICINE – NEW, Here are the red flags of problem clinics: on her optic nerve. She and her mother began a quest In July, a journal for kidney specialists described 1. A clinic relies on patient testimonials. familiar to anyone who has ever heard the dark slam unusual masses that grew in the kidney of a woman COMPLEX AND PERHAPS People often want to believe they have been helped, of the word “incurable.” given stem cell injections in Thailand. The injections DAZZLINGLY PROMISING IN and sometimes the placebo effect is very strong. Rig- How to go from zero to expert? How to tell the did not lessen her disease, and her kidney had to be orous research is more convincing than anecdotes. difference between bold research and brazen scams? removed after it developed tangled growths of bone THE LONG RUN 2. The same cells treat many diseases. Each Should they go to China? Could stem cells help? marrow stem cells and blood cells. condition has its own distinct biology, and it is better Bogus cures are nearly as old as human disease, “The world is full of clinics and pseudo practi- to look for a specialist in your disease. but they have found especially fertile ground in stem tioners who would offer ‘treatments’ for conditions that demand payment for experimental treatments; 3. Claims of zero risk. “That doesn’t even happen cell medicine – new, complex and perhaps dazzlingly that cannot be treated,” said Larry Goldstein, direc- clinics that don’t publish their results in scholarly with aspirin,” said UC San Diego’s Larry Goldstein. promising in the long run. tor of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and journals; clinics that claim the same program can 4. High cost. Generally, people do not pay to par- At the University of California Davis Institute for a board member of the International Society for treat widely varied diseases; and clinics that claim ticipate in clinical trials, in which a treatment is still Regenerative Cures,“we’re averaging two calls a day Stem Cell Research. things rarely or never go wrong. being evaluated for safety and effectiveness. from desperate patients,” said Director Jan Nolte. “We are now starting to see reports of people coming The society’s website is also taking names of clin- 5. Lack of details. The source of the stem cells, On their own behalf, she said, the callers are usually back in worse shape than they went,” Goldstein said. ics around the world that the public would like it the type of stem cells and the full description of care, stoic. When they’re calling for a child or spouse, they The international stem cell group created a web- to evaluate, and later this year it will begin posting called a treatment protocol, are not clearly explained. sometimes cry. site in June that offers tips on how to spot a dubious information on how well patient safety is regulated 6. Lack of oversight. Clinics in countries without “It breaks my heart,” Nolte said. medical facility, and gives detailed advice on what at each of them. strong regulatory supervision may not have anyone All too often, Nolte must tell those with cancer, questions people should ask. “Everybody loves to believe in the maverick in protecting patients’ rights. those losing their sight, those struggling with disa- Among the red flags, Goldstein said, are clinics the wilderness,” said Goldstein, who is the author of Source: International Society for Stem Cell Research Study: Surgery in dire Healthy Living Ginger’s sister conditions can be safe A shrub related to ginger, tumeric is best known for its use By Shari Roan and Medecins Sans Frontieres, in Johannesburg, in curries and mustards; it also Los Angeles Times South Africa. That’s not all that’s needed, added the authors of has many medicinal uses. LOS ANGELES – Scores of people received treat- a commentary accompanying the study. Although ment, even surgery, at hastily assembled field clin- about 230 million surgical procedures are performed Healthy spice from the East ics after the massive earthquake in Haiti this year. worldwide each year, only about 4 percent of them • Tumeric has long been used Health professionals had no choice but to offer the take place in impoverished countries. Yet, those in Ayurvedic (Indian) and Chinese best care they could in terrible conditions, but a new countries are the most likely to need surgical care. medicine as an anti-inflammatory study shows that surgery can be safely performed The authors of the opinion, from the State Univer- and to treat digestive and liver in areas with minimal resources and little or no sity of New York Downstate Medical Center, pointed problems, skin diseases, wounds sophisticated technology. out that many individual doctors volunteer their • Curcumin in tumeric stimulates The humanitarian organization Medecins Sans time to perform surgery in poor countries. Yet, they the gallbladder to produce bile, Frontieres reported on almost 20,000 surgical pro- say, surgical societies have done little to promote which may aid digestion cedures completed in resource-limited areas from an organized and sustained system providing free 2001 to 2008. The death rate was only 0.2 percent, surgical care to the poor. • Its ability to reduce inflammation showing that surgery can be accomplished safely “Even more deplorable is the lack of concern on may relieve arthritis pain with a set of minimum standards and protocols to the part of industry,” the authors said. For example, • Available as a powder and in capsules, guide health professionals. American companies that make surgical equipment teas and liquid extracts; can be made into More effort is needed to provide government, non- have not contributed to Operation Giving Back, a paste for use on the skin government and missionary groups with quality- a volunteer program overseen by the American improvement programs to assist in surgical care in College of Surgeons, they said. The only corporate Source: University of Maryland Medical Center, National Center remote areas around the world, said the authors of benefactor of the program is Pfizer, a pharmaceuti- for Complementary and Alternative Medicine © 2010 MCT Graphic: Pat Carr the study, from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions cal company. 20 August 2010 SCIENCE/TECH 17 Free website offers array of photo-editing tools By Craig Crossman on over, I began by clicking on the “Upload Photo” computer’s hard drive. Other McClatchy-Tribune News Service button. A dialog box appeared on my computer, and options let you save the photo I selected one of the photos I had on my computer’s to Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, There’s an abundance of applications you can buy hard drive. Picnik.com uploaded the image to the email it or send it directly to to edit your photos. At the top of the heap is Adobe’s Picnik website and I was presented with an editing your computer’s printer. Photoshop, which weighs in as the $600 gorilla. screen that displayed my photo. If you want even more fea- When it comes to photographs, you can pretty A series of tabs above the image let me select tures, Picnik Premium offers much do it all with Photoshop. Adobe even makes from a variety of features. The “Edit” tab offers added effects such as“Beauty a scaled down version called Elements for around actions such as rotate, crop, resize, exposure, colors, Tools,” which gets rid of facial $99. It uses the same Photoshop “engine” but is sharpen and red-eye. All of these abilities are fairly blemishes; additional fonts; more consumer-friendly in that you don’t have to self-explanatory, but picnik.com let me easily layers and more. Check the be a photo-manipulative expert to productively use experiment without the worry of corrupting my picnik.com website for fur- it. Adobe makes versions for both Macintosh and original photo, which remained safely stored on my ther details and charges. And Windows. computer. by the way, picnik.com truly But if you don’t have the time to learn or the Clicking on the “Exposure” button, for example, epitomizes the concept of the money to spend on these or any of the other fine brought up two sliders: one for brightness and the original photo safely on your computer. Remember Internet being platform-independent as all of this photo-manipulative products out there, check out other for contrast. As with everything on picnik. that everything you are doing on picnik.com is with works on computers running Windows, Macintosh a website that lets you do a variety of those photo- com, sliding either of them instantly reflects the a copy you uploaded to the website. and, yes, even Linux. enhancing manipulations. changes to the image. An auto-fix feature lets picnik. The “Creative Tools” tab offers additional spe- In the meantime, if you have digital photos on Yes, it’s a website and not a product you buy or a com do the adjustments for you. In fact there’s an cial effects like converting the photo to black and your computer, picnik.com is a really cool way to service to which you have to subscribe. In fact, it’s auto-fix for colors as well as a master auto-fix that white. Others are sepia, boost, soften, border, tint enhance them without having to buy any more soft- completely free, so now is certainly a good time to does a really good job of making your original photo and many more. I found myself have quite a time ware. Or if you’re away from your computer and find check out picnik.com. look its very best. playing around with all of them. yourself using one with no photo editing software, Picnik.com uses a web browser such as Firefox With every adjustment is an “Undo” and “Redo” The last tab is “Save & Share.” This lets you you’re ready to go as long as you have an Internet or Internet Explorer to do its thing. You just log button as well. In no way, shape or form are you take your adjusted photo, define its size and file connection. onto the Picnik website and begin. When I surfed burning any bridges. Besides, you still have your type (jpeg, TIFF, etc.) and save it back onto your www.picnik.com

Science Matters What your saliva can tell A new experimental system allows a dentist to swab a suspicious spot in the mouth and in 10 minutes determine whether it is cancerous.

1 Dentist takes small sample of cells, saliva from suspected cancerous tumor

2 Sample is placed in well 5 on disposable test card 1

Make a home Wi-Fi 3 Card is inserted in desktop test machine network hard to crack 4 Machine tests for 4 By Steve Alexander encryption is enough to give you an acceptable epidermal growth factor Star Tribune (Minneapolis) margin of safety. receptor (EGFR), which is Don’t use older Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) higher in cancer cells than In a recent column, I suggested that a consumer encryption, which has been broken into many times, in healthy mouth cells worried about Internet banking over a home Wi-Fi Juncker said. You’re probably safe if you use Wi-Fi network could use a wired Internet connection that Protected Access (WPA) encryption. An improved 3 would be safer. But several readers asked whether encryption, WPA 2, is even safer. 5 In 10 minutes, machine using wireless encryption (automatic coding) was But you’ve also got to be smart about how you use reports EGFR level a better solution. encryption. Experts recommend using passwords “I totally agree that a wired connection is always longer than a few letters or numbers, because the more secure than a wireless one, but shouldn’t a longer the password is, the more work it is for a 2 home user be encouraged to go the extra step and hacker to break it. Don’t use passwords that are enable (wireless) encryption?” asked Rick Erickson, real words or hackers can run a “dictionary attack” Oral PC and network administrator of Fidelity Bank in that will eventually guess your password. (According Edina, Minn. to news reports, hackers using multiple computers cancer Richard Milberg of Easton, Pa., agreed. But Phil can run a dictionary attack in 20 minutes or less.) cell Pollock of Chaska and Karyn Gaffaney of Roseville, Consumers also should know that even the best Minn., wondered if the encryption they’re using is encryption software won’t prevent them from New ‘lab-on-a-chip’ Sample from patient strong enough to protect their home networks. being tricked, Juncker said. A consumer can still The answer falls into a technological gray area. fall victim to a“man-in-the-middle attack,” in which Portable machines that test Encryption is good protection, but it’s not perfect, a hacker with a PC impersonates your Wi-Fi hotspot for chemical markers said Rob Juncker, vice president of technology and tries to convince your PC to connect with him indicating HIV, heart attack Card (chip) operations at security firm Shavlik Technologies instead of with your wireless router. and several different cancers with tiny channels in Roseville. Even some of the best encryption meth- To avoid being tricked by a man-in-the-middle Researchers working ods available to consumers have been cracked by attack, pay attention to small details, Juncker said. to make tests experts. Does the website name in your browser really say it’s accurate, economical Optical But encryption protects not by making it impos- your bank’s website, even if the screen looks right? Chemical reaction detector sible to breach your home network, but by making Does the Web address say “https,” which denotes a Source: Martin Thornhill of University of Sheffield, John McDevitt from Rice University, it so much work that hackers will look for easier secure website for financial transactions? If not, Lab Now, MCT Photo Service Graphic: Helen Lee McComas © 2010 MCT targets, Juncker said. The question is how much beware. GENUINE LONG RANGE PHONE

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Steven Keng and Diane Keng, brother and sister as well as co-founders of Myweboo.com, work on their social aggregator site out of the garage at home in Cupertino, California. Their web-based serv- ice helps users organize their social networking accounts and shared files. /Jim Gensheimer/San Jose Mercury News/MCT) New browsers aim to corral social-network explosion By Mike Swift out to Flickr, Facebook or Google’s Picasa. Flock’s and the E: drive on your PC, you click between Face- already includes some display advertising, and Keng San Jose Mercury News new browser, meanwhile, offers a great one-click way book or MySpace in the Internet “cloud.” is bubbling with other ideas to monetize the service. to post Facebook or Twitter links back to content Like Flock, MyWeboo has an interface that She is also enlisting a corps of interns across the It just got to be too much – the 255 Facebook you’ve posted online – a useful service for journalists emphasizes simplicity, and there is a nice little country to evangelize for MyWeboo on campuses friends, the four e-mail accounts, the Flickr and or other content creators. bonus – one of the MyWeboo “drives” is 1 gigabyte such as San Jose State University. Picasa photo albums, the LinkedIn updates, the One of the few Silicon Valley social startups with of free storage, one way that MyWeboo has elements At this point, the Keng siblings still live with daily tech blogs I follow and the Twitter feed that a name that actually makes sense, Flock calls itself of a cloud service like Google Documents. Besides their mother in Cupertino. Diane Keng takes the never stops disgorging rumors and tips. “the originator of the Social Web Browser.” It has two allowing you to share pictures or other content to a day shift, often working from a nearby Starbucks, So much information was pouring in about friends, browsers: one based on Mozilla’s Firefox and intended large circle of friends via Facebook or Twitter, you while her brother, who prefers to write code at night, relatives and sources that I was feeling swept down- for more specialized users, and a new version, launched can also use e-mail services like Yahoo, Gmail or works the wee hours. stream in a river of status updates. Trying to check in June, that is based on Google’s Chrome browser and “We like what we do,” Diane Keng said, “because in at all those online services – and remembering all intended for a mass audience, said Shawn Hardin, our parents don’t force us to do what we do.” those passwords – became overwhelming. For a while I Flock’s CEO. Both browsers are among the 20 most WHILE FLOCK IS A The serial entrepreneur considers herself a child just stopped visiting Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. popular desktop apps available on Facebook. BROWSER, MYWEBOO of Silicon Valley. She turned down admission offers So it was with the relief of a rescued castaway Flock’s new browser has a clean, uncluttered at the University of Southern California and New that, at a recent Internet trade show, I stumbled interface with a minimum of buttons and tabs. IS BEST THOUGHT OF AS A York University to protect the cohesiveness of the across the booth of 18-year-old Diane Keng, a recent And because it is built on Chrome’s open-source WINDOWS FILE MANAGER MyWeboo team as she starts college. graduate of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, software, it can run any software extension avail- “Diane is a problem-solver,” said her high school Calif., who is already on her third business startup. able for Chrome, including features that allow the FOR THE SOCIAL WEB. BUT business teacher, Carl Schmidt, who is thinking Her website, MyWeboo.com has brought order to browser to automatically translate a Web page into INSTEAD OF NAVIGATING about using MyWeboo to distribute his course my online social life, along with a new Web browser English from other languages, or preview Adobe BETWEEN THE C: DRIVE materials.“She loves to see the problem – hopefully service offered by a Menlo Park, Calif., company PDF documents without having to download them. before somebody else does. It’s a different way of called Flock. “It’s hard sometimes to do less, in order to do AND THE E: DRIVE ON YOUR looking at the world. She’ll not only see a problem; “The whole idea is that now you have control of more,” Hardin said of the simplified design for the PC, YOU CLICK BETWEEN she’ll see an opportunity.” your digital life,” said Keng, the marketing director of new browser. “That was a big focus – to keep the MyWeboo, which she co-founded this spring with her power but still to keep it really simple.” FACEBOOK OR MYSPACE IN TAMING YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKS 26-year-old brother Steven, a former engineer at AOL Flock pulls your Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds THE INTERNET “CLOUD” Flock makes two“social web browsers,” one based on who is the CEO.“We don’t just bring things together; into a single bar that scrolls down the right side of Mozilla’s Firefox and one based on Google’s Chrome we also push it back out to the social networks.” the page. When you see something interesting, you browser, that are built to aggregate and share con- You could think of either Flock or MyWeboo as just click and the browser takes you right there. You Hotmail to share with a selected group. tent among social networks like Facebook, Twitter, the hub of a wheel whose spokes radiate out to your can create your own custom groups to share content, “We kept it simple,” Keng said of the design. “We YouTube and Flickr. It can be downloaded at http:// accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, or, by clicking on a bubble icon at the top of a page, took a lot of things out.” www.flock.com or through Facebook. Blogger or Flickr. Both allow you to channel content instantly share a Web page with all your Twitter MyWeboo, like Flock, is still a beta service that is MyWeboo, at www.myweboo.com, is a website that from multiple services into a single coherent stream. followers and Facebook friends. An upgrade will constantly going through changes and refinements. offers some of the features of a cloud applications But even more useful, Flock and MyWeboo are easy soon allow users to incorporate LinkedIn; a Mac Keng, who will be a freshman studying computer suite like Google Documents, but it also allows users ways to share your content back out to the world. version will soon be ready. engineering at Santa Clara University in the fall, to import and share content among a wide range of For example, you could upload the photos of the While Flock is a browser, MyWeboo is best says the service has about 16,000 users. While Flock online social networks. Users must open an account, rattlesnake that almost bit you in the high Sierra thought of as a Windows file manager for the social has a revenue-sharing deal with Google that makes and then enable a connection between MyWeboo to MyWeboo.com, and then parcel those pictures Web. But instead of navigating between the C: drive it the browser’s default search engine, MyWeboo and services like Facebook and Twitter.