Psyops: Is Barack Obama a CIA Trained Manchurian Candidate?

In this, the last of a five-part series on how Barack Obama, Jr. is a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, WMR delvesinto the behavior modification, creative leadership, and phenomenological research programs that were at full throttle while Obama was an employee of CIA front Business International Corporation (BIC). In 1984, while Obama was working as an editor at BIC in Manhattan, CIA deputy director for intelligence Robert Gates, who Obama retained as his Secretary of Defense from the Bush administration, renamed the CIA’s Political Psychology Division the PoliticalPsychology Center (PPC) and transferred the group from the Office of Global Issues (OGI) to the Office of Scientific and Weapons Research (OSWR). The CIA’s political psychology program is directly linked to its overall psychological and behavioral science programs. In fact, the CIA continues to send CIA officers for training to the Stanford Institute for Political Psychology program at Stanford University. Stanford and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) figure prominently in the CIA behavioral science and modification programs that enabled Barack Obama to hurdleinto political office. A CIA memorandum from the chief of OSWR/PPC to the Associate Deputy Director for Intelligence, dated 1984, reqiests that a consultant member of the PPC’s Senior Behavioral Science Panel be permitted to publish an unclassified paper prepared by the PPC at the University of Chicago. At the time of Gates’s push for political psychology programs at the CIA, Obama wasworking on the very same psychological-propaganda “journalism” projects at BIC, a CIA front. The paper in question sought to depict Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini as intent on bringing down “‘Western’ supported regimes and to establish in their place one ‘united Islamic Nation’ guided by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini.” The paper suggests Khomeini would accomplish his goals by stirring up the Shi’a populations of “Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iraq” and maintain “the Gulfand the Arab world in a state of crisis.” The CIA’s push for political action on the international and domestic media is seen in a formerly SECRET/SENSITIVE agenda for a meeting on “Political Action,” dated August 5, 1982 and attended by Secretary of State George Schultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Deputy Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, CIA Director William Casey, US Information Agency director Charles Wick, and National Security Adviser William Clark. The CIA’s Project MOCKINGBIRD, developed under the aegis of Cord Meyer, was a Cold War-era program designed to influence the foreign and domestic media and its successor programs governed the CIA’s use of BIC journalists, of which Obama was one, to push propaganda and disinformation at home and abroad. With the approval of the new Political Action doctrine by the Reagan administration, there was a major push to use companies like BIC and other private sector operations to push U.S. propaganda abroad. The cover for the Reagan administration had to be in the private sector for, as the memo states, “Obviously as a government we cannot and should not simply emulate Soviet methods. Nor will our political parties be able in the foreseeable future to play the international role of European parties. But there is much that we can do.” The memo states that there should be a private sector campaign to challenge the Soviets abroad and states that “even the New York Times” supported such an effort. The private sector propaganda effortwas called PROJECT TRUTH and its details are outlined in a formerly Confidential memorandum from Wick to Clark dated April 23, 1982. A major propaganda effort against the Soviets, using U.S. and foreign private – unions, parties, youth, church, business, etc. – and public persons and elements, is described. Particular targets for the initiative included the May 13-16 Bilderberg meeting in Norway, the Fall UN General Assembly meeting, the April 28 Washington meeting of the Conference of Non-GovernmentalOrganizations, and a contrivanceknown as “International Afghanistan Day.” The Reagan national security team was clearly intent, using cut-outs like BIC and others, to increase the U.S. “ability to generate political initiatives andconduct political campaigns, using overt and covert resourcesand combining government and private efforts here and abroad.” The CIA, Business International Corporation, Looking Glass, and nurturing future leadership CIA files indicate the PPC was partially involved with a project called LOOKING GLASS, which involved a group of CIA and top business officials whose missionincluded “cultivating talent” from an early age. WMR has obtained an agenda from the “Conference on Cultivating Talent” held in Greensboro, North Carolina fromJanuary 17-18, 1984, and co-sponsored by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). CCL was founded in 1970 by H. Smith Richardson, founder of the Vick Chemical Company. Among the participants were the CIA’s director of training andeducation, former National Security Agency (NSA) director Admiral Noel Gayler, and WilliamVerity, Jr., the former chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a director at BIC in Manhattan. Gayler also served as Commander of the U.S. PacificCommand in Hawaii from 1972 to 1976, succeeding Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., the father of Obama’s 2008 challenger, Senator John S. McCain III of Arizona. Verity, who was also chairman of Armco steel corporation, latersucceeded Malcolm Baldrige, Jr. as Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan administration. Verity became Commerce Secretary after Baldrige died in a freak rodeo accident in California. During his directorship at BIC, Verity also served on the boards of Eli Lilly and Chase Manhattan Bank, as well as serving as chairman of the board of trustees of Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Most of the CCL participants at the two-day conference were behavioral scientists. In our previous report on Obama and the CIA, WMR revealed that CIA director Richard Helms considered the University of Hawaii, the alma mater of Obama’s mother and father, as one of five top centers for the CIA’s behavioral science researchwork. The others were MIT, Yale,University of Michigan, and UCLA. Speaking at the CCL conference, in addition to Verity, were Billie L. Alban, President of Alban & Williams, Ltd., an international consultancy. Alban was a core faculty member at UCLA and previously served on the staff of the Tavistock Institute in London. Currently, she teaches at Columbia University. Part of Alban’s biography held in CIA archival files, which states her clients included the CIA-linked Bankers Trust, is redacted. Today, CCL’s board of governors includes faculty members from Columbia and Harvard universities. Verity was joined at the conference by two executives of Armco. One cartoon from the conference found in the CIA archives depicts two men with one pointing to a group of people representing the bottom rungs of society and exclaiming,“There is the raw material for a new, dynamic world!” The presence of Verity of BIC at the conference attended by the CIA’schief of education and training raises the specter of BIC’s role insupplying “raw material” from its ranks, individuals like Obama, for the CIA’s “new, dynamic world.” The CIA and Tavistock Also known as the “Freud Hilton,” Tavistock has long been involved in brainwashing techniques and CIA work since its foundation. The institute alsohas links to the Harvard Psychology Clinic, the CIA, and Stanford Research Institute (SRI), a major contractor for CIA psychic warfare activities in the 1970s and 80s. Alban told the 1984 CCL seminar, “talent should be nurtured and developed for tomorrow not today. If one focuses on today’s requirements, by the time talents are nurtured one will find they are the talents required of yesterday. The focus must be visionary and look to the needs of the future.” The Tavistock Institute has long been linked with the CIA’s MK-ULTRA and Projects BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE mind control and brain-washing operations, conducted by the CIA’s top scientist for such matters, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb. Much of the records about MK-ULTRA and other CIA programs was destroyed on the order of Helms in 1972. BLUEBIRD documents describe what the CIA was trying to accomplish with behavioral modification in the early 1950s: “Can we ‘alter’ a person’s personality? Can we devise a system for making unwilling subjects into willing agents and then transfer that control to untrained agency agents in the field by use of codes or identifying signs?” In other words, the movie “The Manchurian Candidate,” was not purely a fictional account withinthe CIA’s research and scientific community. Considering Obama’s penchant for homosexual encounters in Chicago and Washington, DC, the question of a continuation of Gottlieb’s OPERATION MIDNIGHT CLIMAX continues to the present day. A sub-program of MK-ULTRA, MIDNIGHT EXPRESSemployed prostitutes in the San Francisco Bay Area and New YorkCity to lure targeted individuals into CIA safehouses where they would then be plied with drugs like LSD. They would then be tested for their susceptibility to sexual blackmail. The program was “officially” halted in 1966, but the continuing use of prostitutes by the CIA for blackmail purposes has been verified to WMR by workers in the sex industry. Twelve pages in the CIA’s director for training and education’s January 25, 1984, report to the deputy director foradministration remain classifiedto this day , but in a hand written note on the CIA transmittal sheet, he states “I think you will find Tab B to bevery interesting.” The deputy director for administration replies, also in a handwritten note, “I did — though I don’t [subscribe]? to call the community on Tab C.” Tab B is the training and education director’s comments to the CCL. The talking points include: “- Pleased to be invited to participate and to exchange ideas on the cultivating and nurturing of talent. - Our recent visibility has been both an asset and a liability in this regard. More people know of the CIA and its activities than when I joined (tell the labor union story), and this attracts some good people. By the same token, it brings out the weird ones. - We have an exceptional screening process involving security investigation, testing, (assessment – OSS-CCL) psychological screening, medicalreview, interviewing, polygraph,etc. (and a long processing time!) [Ed. note: it cannot be determined if this reference is to the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA or the CIA's Special Security Office. CCL, however, appears to indicate a past and on-going relationship between the CIA and the Center for Creative Leadership.] - So, the pepole who come to us are, for the most part, exceptionally talented, thoroughly screened, and represent a real challenge for us to stretch, nurture and retain. - Eventually reach the point where at least some people are identified early on as having high potential for senior agency-wide positions and are consciously developed toward that end. CIA university recruitment the year Obama graduated from Columbia A September 11, 1984 memo to Dan Carlin, the assistant directorof the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) from the CIA’s executive assistant/executive director to director William Casey points out the academia sources for thepast year’s CIA undergraduate recruits. Two recruits came fromColumbia University. Obama graduated from Columbia in 1983 after reportedly studying under Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former National Security Adviser to President Carter. The chairman of the PFIAB at the time of the stepped-up CIA college recruiting campaign wasAnne Armstrong, the Ford administration’s ambassador to London from 1976 to 1977 and a major backer of George H.W. and George W. Bush. A one-time board member of Halliburton, Armstrong was a mentor for KarlRove when she served as co-chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1971 to 1973. By way of comparison, one undergraduate was recruited from Harvard, one from Occidental College (where Obama attended before transferring to Columbia), one from Claremont Men’s College, one from Pepperdine. Topping the list are five each from Georgetown and Dartmouth. Graduate recruits include one from Harvard Law, where Obamaattended law school after his “community service” work in Chicago; three from the University of Michigan (one of Helms’s favored behavioral science research campuses), and,trumpeting other graduate schools, American University in Washington, with five new recruits. CIA archival records also indicate an on-going relationship between Obama’s former college, Occidental, and the CIA in 1983. A MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour transcript shows a guest, Lawrence Caldwell of Occidental, as havingbeen a scholar in residence at the CIA’s Office of Soviet Analysis for two years. Behavioral science, the CIA, and SRI A formerly Secret NOFORN [not releasable to foreign nationals] proposal for the CIA, dated December 31, 1992 , and prepared for the CIA by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) describes in great detail the agency’s behavioral science programs, which included anomalous cognition (AC) and anomalous perturbation (AP). ACis defined as “the awareness of information that is considered otherwise shielded from all known sensory channels” and AP is “the perturbation of physical matter under conditions of complete physical and sensorial isolation.” The document states that research into both field began in1973 with the CIA engaged in such research and was followed by U.S. military service and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) research with SRI through fiscal year 1990. The document also states “beginning in 1986, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) [Fort Detrick, Maryland] initiated the first coordinated long-term examination of AC and AP phenomenon.” SAIC proposed to conduct various research projects for theCIA are similar to some of the “enhanced interrogation” techniques used on detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, and other CIA “black sites” in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The experiments, conducted by SRI since 1974, included exposing individuals to flashing light or no light to discover how their central nervous systems reacted to the visual stimuli. Experimentsubjects were fitted with EEGs (electroencephalogram) monitors to measure their reaction to the flashing light stimuli. Part of the SAIC proposal remains redacted. A sub-contractor to SAIC was theLucidity Institute of Napa, California, founded in 1987 by Dr. Stephen LaBerge for the conduct of ”research on lucid dreams and to help people learn to use them to enhance their lives. Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that one is dreaming and allows people to consciously guide the direction of their dreams.” Ironically, one of this summer’s blockbuster movies, “Inception,” dealt with the subject of invading people’s dreams to steal secrets. Leonardo DeCaprio plays a secretive agent named Dorn Cobb who is an “extractor” agent operating in the para-psychological dream invasion program. What may be fiction in Hollywood was far from it in the CIA research with SAIC, SRI, and the Lucidity Institute. One of the methods used by the SRI and SAIC program to determine “the differences between effective and ineffective liars” was called the Q-Sort technique. The technique was used to separate “highly talented” individuals in test “clusters.” The paragraph on the intelligence applications of anomalous cognition is 90 percent redacted from the SAIC proposal as are at least three reference works cited in the document. Academic institutions involved in the project included, in addition to SRI, Stanford University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, and UCLA (one of Helms’s favorite CIA behavioral science research centers). The CIA-SAIC-SRI project principals had either worked at or attended the Biofeedfack Institute of San Francisco; SAIC; Yale (another of Helms’s favored research centers); Columbia University; Harvard; Bellevue Hospital in New York; the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; the Stanford Hypnosis Research Laboratory; Carnegie-Mellon University; MIT (another one of Helms’s favored behavioral science centers); the World Bank; the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; University of Minnesota; the Brain ResearchInstitute; the Behavioral Research Foundation of St. Kitts,West Indies; the Tavistock Institute in London; the A.K. RiceInstitute of Rainier, Washington, an off-shoot of the Tavistock Institute; Sleep Disorders Clinic, Provo, Utah; Neurology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; Tibetan government-in-exile, Dharamsala, India; U.S. Veterans Administration; University of Wisconsin-Madison; US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC; and perhaps, most interestingly, the University of Hawaii (also designated by Helms as one of the CIA’s favored behavioral science research centers and where two of the principals involved in the SAIC-CIA project had an affiliation). The research director for the CIA-SAIC program was Dr. EdwinC. May, an internationally-recognized parapsychology expert who is the executive director for the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory of the Laboratories for Fundamental Research in Palo Alto, California. May was a lead researcher for the CIA’s STARGATE remote viewing and ESP project until it was closed down in 1995. WMR has previously reported that the program moved from the CIA to the National Security Agency and involved research carried out with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia, south of Charlottesville The Monroe Institute was also heavily involved in the STARGATE program. The current research is also linked to the Parapsychology Foundation of New York City. Other members of the team included a retired Army Major General who now specializes in human bionics a radio astrophysicist; an expert who maintains that sexual orientation may be influenced by experiences in childhood; a counselor for survivors of the People’s Temple cult of ReverendJim Jones (itself linked to a CIA MK-ULTRA behavioral modification and mind control operation); a current specialist with the Farsight Institute of Atlanta, a remote viewing research center; a neuro-linguistic programming expert; a toxicology specialist; a principal of the Pentagon’s PANDORA project on the use of electro-magnetic weapons to roboticize human beings; an expert in the imaging and computer mapping of the human brain; an inventor of the cochlear implant; an expert on the mass popular opposition of Okinawans to the U.S. military presence on the island; a future warfare expert for the Pentagon and member of the National Security Agency Scientific Advisory Board and Defense Intelligence Agency Scientific Advisory Committee; a former Army Undersecretary for acquisition; a Defense Intelligence Agency psi-tech officer who worked on electro-magnetic weaponry for battlefield psychological purposes – PROJECT SLEEPING BEAUTY – who worked with another Army Intelligence psi-tech officer who was partially the inspiration for the movie “Men Who Stare At Goats;” a specialist on the brainwashing techniques, including sleep deprivation, by the North Koreans on American prisoners of war and the Church of Scientology who was an expert witness on the brainwashing techniques of the Symbionese Liberation Army on heiress Patty Hearst; and, lastly, a University of Hawaii-linked specialist on the psychological effects of prison and prison brutality on prisoners who later defended, as an expert witness, one of the prison guards at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. The presence of a Jonestown de-programmer on the CIA-SAIC team in noteworthy. On August 31, 2007, WMR reported: “During the time of the Jonestown massacre, the People’s Temple’s ship, the ‘Cudjoe,’ was en route to Trinidad with members of the Temple on board. Temple members soon set up operations in Trinidad and Grenada, where [Prime Minister Eric] Gairy, a CIA client, who, in a1977 speech before the UN General Assembly, called for the UN to establish an Agency for Psychic Research into Unidentified Flying Objects and the Bermuda Triangle, was in charge. According to the Oakland Tribune , the St. George’s University Medical School in Grenada had on its staff one Dr. Peter Bourne, the son of the university’s vice chancellor Sir Geoffrey Bourne. Peter Bourne is a graduate of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), where he studied the psychological effectsof stress on those in combat. He also served one year in Vietnam as the head of the Army’s psychiatric research team. Bourne later became an Assistant UN Secretary General and an adviser to then-Congressman Bill Richardson. It was under the guise of rescuing American medical students at the university, that the Reagan administration launched a 1983 invasion to overthrow Bernard Coard, who had ousted and executed Bishop in a coup. Both Bournes said the medical students were never in any danger. [Some believe that author Robert Ludlum got the idea for CIA mind-controlled assassins in his novel "The Bourne Identity" and its sequels from Geoffrey Bourne's work.] The Jonestown connection to the U.S. war in Southeast Asia does not end there. The U.S. ambassador to Guyana at the time of the Jonestown massacrewas John Burke, who served with his Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Dwyer, were allegedly working for the CIA in Bangkok during the Vietnam war. Dwyer was wounded in the Port Kaituma shootings where [Representative Leo] Ryan and the others were killed. On Sept. 27, 1980, Jack Anderson reported that Dwyer was a CIA agent and a friend of Jones. Anderson reported that on one of the tapes made during the mass suicide Jones was heard saying, ‘Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him.’ Dwyer reportedly left Guyana for Grenada after the massacre. The US Consular Officer at the embassy in Georgetown, Guyana was Richard McCoy, who allegedly liaised with Jim Jones and was aU.S. Air Force intelligence official. Another alleged CIA employee, operating under StateDepartment cover, was Dan Webber, who also visited the Jonestown the day after the massacre. Joe Holsinger, Ryan’s assistant and friend, later said that he believed that Jonestown was a massive mind control experiment and that the CIA andmilitary intelligence was involved in the program.” The nexus of Obama’s almae matres: Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard, as well as that of his parents, the University of Hawaii, in the CIA’s mind control, behavioral modification, and mass hypnosis projects is deeply troubling. The fact that Obama has failed to provide a full accounting of his past academic and professional employment history, coupled with the presence of a major CIA presence within his and his parents’, grandparents’, and step-father’s backgrounds opensup the real possibility that Obama was, to use the CIA’s own term, “nurtured,” for a higher calling. Obama told the nation that his would be the most open and transparent in recent recent history. However, Obama’s biography and those ofhis parents and guardians are full of more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. It is well past time for the President to make good on that promise and fully release his past academic, passport, employment, and overseas travel records. After eight brutal years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the nation was ready forany change. Unfortunately, the CIA, through LOOKING GLASS, MK-ULTRA, ARTICHOKE, PANDORA, and other behavioral science programs were ready to answer the call. The CIA answered the call with Obama and most of us bought him and his “Hope and Change” propaganda fecundity “nurtured” by CIA programs going back some sixty years. Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. He has written for several renowned papers andblogs. Madsen is a regular contributor on Russia Today. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. Madsen hastaken on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on their television shows. He has been invited to testifty as a witness before the US House of Representatives, theUN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National SecurityAgency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/09/the-story-of-obama-all-in-the-company-part-v/

Guilt that haunted an Arabian knight

Today we watch the Arab world steering itself as if out of a long coma towards self-rule. It is 90 years since that process began - inspired, guided, fought for, and finally betrayed, as he himself thought, by T. E. Lawrence ‘Of Arabia’. He had encouraged the revolt of the Arabs against Turkish rule, with the promise that the more they fought and captured the greater would be the unified Arab state that victory would create. Yet he knew that Britain and France intended to keep their hands on Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq), if not as colonies, at least as zones of influence. No fully independent Arab state was likely to be allowed to flourish. Some see this as the tragedy of Lawrence’s life for which he felt eternally guilty. On the other hand, despite Lloyd George and President Clemenceau of France striking such a deal, Lawrence succeeded under Churchill at the Colonial Office in creating the kingdoms of Iraq and Transjordan, on whose thrones were placed the Arab brothers hetrusted, Faisal and Abdullah. In Jordan Abdullah’s heirs reign still. Iraq assassinated its king and substituted dictators, notably Saddam Hussein. Arab self government in a democratic sense has yet to begin. Lawrence foresaw this. In 1927 he wrote of Iraq in a letter to Bernard Shaw’s wife, Charlotte: ‘Well, someday they will be fit for self government but whether seven or 70 or 700 years hence, God knows.’ This letter, strangely, is not quoted in this admirable, up-to-date, balanced study of Lawrence. Michael Korda is well aware of all the biographies and controversies that have gone before. No hero has been more intensively psycho-analysed afterdeath than Lawrence. The verdicts always come out differently on so enigmatic and contradicted a character. People who remember the David Lean film see him towering over the desert like Peter O’Toole. But Lawrence was 5ft 5in. When photographed in uniform against giant generals like Allenby, there is something pixie-ish about his riveting little figure. And such was his self-confidence and intellectual superiority that it was nearly always he who called the shots. But of course the Arab robes, the gold-banded head dress and curved dagger (obtained from Mecca) helped enormously to create the legend. He wanted very much to be a hero and from youth had hardened himself to withstand feats of physical endurance, pain, hunger, sleepless persistence, until he became a compact little powerhouse. Sex was something he either lacked entirely or thoroughly repressed. Attempts to show he was homosexual are contradicted by all those who were in a position to know, not least his fellow airmen, or soldiers in the Tank Corps, who stayed at his Dorset cottage, Clouds Hill. He loved a ‘donkey-boy’, Dahoum, whom he made his protégé during his happy pre-war archaeological digs at Carcemish. Their relationship was on an innocent, fatherly basis. He educated this clever youngster and even brought himhome on leave to Oxford with another Arab friend. They caused a sensation in their robes. Dahoum means darkness. His real name, Salem Ahmed, is believed to be the ‘S.A.’ to whomLawrence’s epic Seven Pillars Of Wisdom is dedicated. The dedicatory poem suggests that he fought his Arab campaign for the sake of Dahoum (or perhaps all Arabs like him). But when he reached Damascus he discovered that the boy had recently died. This may well be why he immediately asked Allenby to send him home, leaving the scene without savouring his triumph. T E Lawrence on his Brough motorcycle
Lawrence hated to be touched. He avoided shaking hands. This made all the more traumatic his experience at Deraa, the Turkish stronghold which he was reconnoitring disguised as an Arab. He was seized by a sentry and taken to the Turkish Bey for the Bey’s sexual enjoyment. Before that he underwent savage whipping and rape by the Bey’s soldiers. It is one of the most vivid passages in Seven Pillars, almost pornographic in its carefully observed detail. Lawrence was not recognised and was allowed to escape, severely damaged not only physically but spiritually. He could not forgive himself for allowing himself to be raped. ‘To earn five minutes’ respite from a pain which drove me madI gave away my bodily integrity,’he confessed to Mrs Shaw (herself a total abstainer from sex) some seven years later. He never forgave himself, nor recovered from it. He admitted that ‘A delicious warmth, probably sexual, was swelling through me’ and this appalled him most of all. Lowell Thomas, an American documentary maker sent to make a propaganda war film for American consumption, had spent a few days filming with Lawrence and his Bedouin in the desert. Later he turned this into a theatrical show - a stirring lecture illustrated with film and slides called With Lawrence In Arabia. A smash hit in New York, it was brought to London’s Royal Opera House in 1919. The Western Front had been a disaster in human terms. People longed for a story of successful heroism andThomas gave it to them in the form of Lawrence. Over two million went to see it, from the King and Queen downwards. After that Lawrence became a media celebrity on a then-unprecedented scale. He complained to friends in his letters of the ‘vulgarity’ with which Thomas had hammed up his story. It also made private life impossible for him because of constant Press pursuit. Korda finds a similarity between Lawrence and Princess Diana in their love-hate relationship with publicity. Lawrence himself went to see the show not once but at least five times. And he did not in the least mind that fame brought him the friendship of the great and famous, Bernard Shaw and his wife, E. M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, even Noel Coward among them. Yet when George V at a private audience tried to give Lawrence his decorations, the CB and DSO, Lawrence gave them back, explaining that he couldn’t accept honours for fraud - the false hopes that he had fed to theArabs. Pride and self-loathing were curiously close companionsin his make-up. At 33, he had to find something new to live for and decided to join the RAF, under an assumed name. It took all the mighty influence of his friend, the Chief of the Air Staff Sir Hugh Trenchard, to get ‘AC Ross’ enlisted. I find this part of his life as fascinating as the previous half. Michael Korda makes it so with details new to me and chunks from Lawrence’s many fascinating letters. It was a chequered career. When his real identity was outed in the Press, the RAF discharged him. After an unhappy interlude in the Tank Corps he begged to be readmitted as an airman. It took the pressure of Bernard Shaw on the prime minster, Baldwin, to override the air minister’s refusal to have him back. By now his assumed name was Shaw - in honour of the playwright. He spent his later years working happily on improving the engines of air-sea rescue launches that were still in use during the Battle of Britain. He made many friends in the ranks as well as in grand countryhouses, like Lady Astor, whom hevisited on his powerful Brough motor cycle. A ton-up biker, he said it would probably end in tragedy and it duly did when he was 46 on a narrow Dorset lane. He had just very reluctantly been retired from his beloved RAF and wrote to Lady Astor: ‘There is something broken in the works... my will I think.’ He left not only his legend as a warrior but a lasting memorial as a writer. Seven Pillars Of Wisdom contains some of the finest battle descriptions anywhere, even if it tries a bit too hard at times to be a Homeric epic. Typically, he wanted it publishedin only a limited edition, to evade public scrutiny. When a best-selling condensation of it appeared in order to pay the costs he refused to take any personal profit. What a brilliant, obstinate, lovable, maddening contrary, mixed-up genius of a man! Even over 700 pages he never bores you for a moment. via http://dailymail.co.uk/

Lawrence of Arabia: A Classic That is Very Modern Day. Why?

The Middle East is midst of significant change. From the rebel uprising in Tunisia, to the revolution in Egypt, to the recentchaos in the streets of Libya. The part of the world is in a great deal of flux. And for those who are film buffs, there is one film that comes to mind during thesetremendously tenuous times  – the classic film Lawrence of Arabia. Why? The epic tale starred Peter O’Toole and was released in 1962. It tells the story of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence who was known for his liaison role duringthe Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turkish rule that was happening during 1916 to 1918. This film is our pop culture touchstone to revolutions in Arab Nations, and in it’s essence is very modern even though it took place almost one hundred years ago. Via http://cdn.babble.com/

Geraldine Ferraro Passes Away Due To Multiple Myeloma.

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) is reacting to the loss of Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011), a Member of the MMRF Honorary Board of Directors and a dear friend. Ferraro passed away today from complications of multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. “Geraldine Ferraro was a true trailblazer, an inspiration to many, an incredible advocate for cancer research, and a very dear friend. She will be sadly missed, never far from our hearts, and fondly remembered for her incredible legacy and the extraordinary woman who she was. We pray that her family finds comfort and peace during this sorrowful time,” said Kathy Giusti , Founder and CEO of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and a patient with multiple myeloma. Ferraro is survived by her spouse John Zaccaro and her children Donna , 48, John Jr., 46 and Laura , 44. Via http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2011/03/26/multiple-myeloma-research-foundation-reacts-to-loss-of-geraldine-ferraro/

Multiple Myeloma Genome Sequenced, Reveals New Therapeutic Targets

The mammothundertaking of sequencing the entire genomic multiple myeloma from tissue samples taken from 38 patients has shed light on the molecular mechanisms involved in this disease. It has also revealed some surprising potential therapeutic targets for which there are drugs already available that can be tested. The study, published in the March 24 issue of Nature , unveiled many different pathways involved in the disease, some of which were unknown previously. "A project of this scale would have been unimaginable a few years ago," said study coauthor Todd Golub, MD, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. He emphasized the importance of sequencing the genome from many different patients, instead of just 1 patient, to obtain a complete picture, because some mutations are not found in everypatient. The project has been "very informative," Dr. Golub noted."We can now see with greater clarity and greater precision howmolecular pathways are involved," he said, joking that the study has transformed what was previously a "transistor radio view" of the disease to a"high-definition television view." Dr. Golub was one of the speakers at a press briefing organized by the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), which funded the projectto the tune of $12 million. MMRF spearheaded the project by organizing the collection of tissue samples and liaising between the various clinical sitesand basic research laboratories that were involved. Surprising Discovery One of the surprising discoverieswas that BRAF mutations are involved in multiple myeloma, but only in about 4% of patients."No one had been thinking of BRAF as a driver or a therapeutic target in multiple myeloma, but this suggests a new hypothesis, and it would be reasonable now to test BRAF inhibitors," Dr. Golub said. Such compounds are already available — in fact, a BRAF inhibitor has shown significant clinical activity in melanoma, he added. This compound, PLX0432 (developed by Plexxikon/Roche), showed, in an early clinical trial in patients with melanoma and BRAF mutation, responses in "a remarkable 81% of patients," and was hailed as a "major breakthrough" when these results were published last year ( N Engl J Med . 2010:363:809-819),as reported previously by Medscape Medical News . Via http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/739650

Geraldine Ferraro succumbs to multiple myeloma at age 75

Geraldine A. Ferraro , the first woman to run on a major party national ticket, has died, her family said Saturday. She was 75 years old. She passed away at Massachusetts General Hospital due to complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer she had dealt with for 12 years. A 1960 graduate of Fordham LawSchool, Ferraro was elected to the U.S. House of Representativesin 1978. She was subsequently named as the vice presidential candidate to Walter Mondale's 1984 ticket. In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Ferraro said, "The daughter of an immigrant from Italy has been chosen to run for vice president in the new land my father came to love." Following the Mondale-Ferraro ticket loss to Reagan-Bush 41% to 59% of the popular vote, Ferraro had two failed runs for the U.S. Senate. She was always marred slightly by rumors of tiesto organized crime, which she contended was an ethnic slur due to her being Italian-American. Ferraro went on to support Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 presidential election, but did say when Sarah Palin was put on the McCain ticket that"every time a woman runs, women win." Ferraro is survived by her spouseJohn Zaccaro and her children Donna, 48, John Jr., 46 and Laura,44. Via http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2011/03/geraldine-ferraro-succumbs-to-multiple-myeloma-at-age-75.html

Blues: Two-thirds of hysterectomies may be unnecessary

Michigan today announced a newstatewide program to reduce unnecessary hysterectomies. Blues research estimating that asmany as two-thirds of the conventional procedures may be unnecessary in the state. The program encourages some 750 obstetrician/gynecologists working with the insurer’s Physician Group Incentive Program, a network of 18 doctorgroups state-wide, to share information about how to communicate with patients about less invasive options. Dr. David Share, a Blues vice president, said there is too muchvariation in hysterectomy rates, providing a chance for doctors todo more to educate women.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color Adds Flash, Email, App Store [VIDEO]

Barnes & Noble will open up a new chapter in the development of its Nook Color next month with a firmware update that includes Adobe Flash playback support and email plus an App Store , features displayed exclusively on a Home Shopping Network segment this morning. The segment, recorded by a fan and posted on YouTube, outlines those additions. (See grab below.) In a press release , Barnes& Noble acknowledged adding email, but didn’t mention Flash. Though the Nook was introducedas a pure play e-reader, the new functionality puts it more in the direction of a tablet, a market dominated by Apple’s iPad and iPad 2, which don’t support Flash. Other Android-based tablets are beginning to support the platform though, including Samsung’s redesigned 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab , which is due in June, and Motorola’s Xoom, which will get full Flash support “in a matter of weeks,” according to a recent report . On HSN, the updated Nook was listed at $299 with $11.95 for shipping and handling. On the segment, the device boasts a$504 retail value and a normally listed price of $379.95 on HSN. HSN plans to offer other sneak peeks at 5 PM and 9 PM today. The upgrade comes after Barnes& Noble offered a “minor” tweakin January that added better Wi-Fi connectivity, improved performance and the ability to pinch and zoom the text. via http://mashable.com/2011/03/26/nook-color-flash/

Dzeko crowns Bosnia fightback in 2-1 win over Romania

A late goal by Edin Dzeko gave Bosnia a 2-1 home win over Romania on Saturday and boosted the Balkan country's hopes of reaching their first major tournament as an independent nation. The result left the Bosnians in a good position to clinch at least aplay-off berth in Group D, havingcollected seven points from four matches after Dzeko headed home an 83rd-minute winner in front of a capacity 15,000 crowdon a bumpy pitch. Their quest, however, could be derailed by a squabble in the Bosnian Football Federation (NFSBiH), which has been given an April 1 deadline by UEFA to replace its three-man rotating presidential system with one in line with FIFA and UEFA standards. A Congress the NFSBiH has scheduled for Tuesday is the body's last chance to adhere to UEFA's instructions and avoid suspension from international competition for the Balkan country's national team and clubs. The Bosnians seemed unbothered by the prospect thatthey might be playing their last match in the Euro 2012 qualifiers and created several good chances in the first half, but it was the visitors who scored against the run of play. Having survived a fierce onslaught at their end, Romania took the lead with a goal of superb individual quality when striker Ciprian Marica chested a deflected cross and gave Bosnia keeper Kenan Hasagic no chancewith an acrobatic volley. Adrian Mutu missed a sitter to double Romania's lead shortly after the break and they were punished several minutes later when Vedad Ibisevic glanced a teasing Zvjezdan Misimovic cross into the far corner. Manchester City striker Dzeko, who is yet to score a Premier League goal for his club, then sent the passionate home crowdinto raptures as he ghosted into the goal-kick area box and headed a rebound into the empty net. Bosnia are due to play their nextmatch away to Romania on June3.

Touchscreens may do double duty as solar panels

French company Wysips is working on a new technology which would cause smartphone touchscreens to do double duty as solar panels to recharge phones. The concept is quite interesting as it involves laying an ultra thin transparent photovoltaic film layer on top of the cellphone display screen. The film would capture energy not only from the sun, but any nearby light source. Projected recharge times would be about six hours from direct sunlight and a few hours longer from leaching energy from indoor lights. Wysips is already at work on the second generation of the technology,which looks to provide 30 minutes of talk time after just an hour in the sun.On the whole, I’m not really a fan of mobile solar charging options, The main problem with a solar charger is that the sun moves constantly, and my experience has been that you have to move the charger every few minutes to keep it in the sun, and thetrickle charge means you’re spendingall day charging your phone. But I just this kind of out of the box thinking. With more people getting mobile phones and tablets, the drain on power grids is increasing. So, adding the ability for the phone to independently charge from the sunlight means they can help pull their own weight, and you wouldn’t have to bring along a separate charger or move it around.And the ability to charge in indoor light is a real plus. The phone would be constantly charging as light falls on the screen, meaning it would be topping off it’s energy as the phone just sits inactive. And word is that Wysips is working with cellphone manufacturers and mobile display companies to incorporate the new technology into future designs, so wemay see it sooner, rather than later. Imagine this in tablets, laptops, even laid in the hoods and tops of cars. It’s certainly a splendid development if itpays off. Via http://cdn.androidcommunity.com

'Barefoot Contessa' taking heat forrepeatedly rejecting 'Make-A-Wish' cancer patient

Someone might be in the market for a new PR team. "Barefoot Contessa" Ina Garten has a new nickname -- "Heartless Contessa" -- in the wake of news that she repeatedly refused to meet with a 6-year-old boy named Enzo who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. According to the reports: The boy, who would watch Garten from his sick bed, told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to meet the Food Network celebrity. When told that her schedule was too busy, Enzo opted to wait. When the request was made once more, Garten's representatives replied witha "definite no," according to the online blog that the family kept about the boy's illness . Cue the controversy. "She is a pretty famous cook, but I doubt she is so busy that she can't cook one meal with this kid" read just one of the many comments posted on the story over on CafeMom , and The Stir launched a letter-writing campaign . "Ina Garten -- Heartless Contessa" screamed one headline. "The Barefoot Contessa shatters a little boy's dreams," read another. via http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.m/dailydish/2011/03/barefoot-contessa-ina-garten-rejecting-make-a-wish-cancer-patient-enzo.html

NOOK App for Android updated, new features for tablets

Barnes & Noble have updated the NOOK for Android app. Not the actual NOOKcolor but the Nook app in the Android Market . Not to be confused with the actual NOOK device. Nook for Android has been updated to v2.5 and along with it came some much welcomed changes, read below to find out more. For those interested in the NOOKcolor. Read this to see the NOOKcolor Receive Android 3.0 Honeycomb . Changes in v2.5 include: - A new library “Grid View” to seemore of your book covers on onescreen. (Mostly Benefits larger 7″+ screens) - A progress meter when downloading books and other things. - A new menu option in the shop to view or add books to your wish list. Go ahead and update in the Android Market, the update is live now. I did want to point out the NOOKcolor is an odd situation because it is now an extremely popular device because of it having root access, the Android Market, and custom ROM’s like Honeycomb 3.0 I posted above. That and many developers are working on it. It will still be getting updates as anofficial E-Reader from Barnes & Noble, as well as updates from the great dev community at XDA Forums . So enjoy it. Via http://androidcommunity.com/nook-app-for-android-updated-new-features-for-tablets-20110224/

Ramsey: We paid price for poor start

Wales captain Aaron Ramsey admitted that his side had been unable to recover from an awful startin their Euro 2012 qualifier against England, which Gary Speed's side eventually lost 2-0 . PA Photos John Terry and Aaron Ramsey: Two captains and the opposite ends of the spectrum. • Capello: Rooney mistake costly • Adams: Capello rediscovers Midas touch • Euro 2012 photo gallery An early Frank Lampard penalty, after a foul by James Collins on Ashley Young , and a strike from Darren Bent decided the game within the opening 15 minutes. Wales improved after the break but rarely threatened to pull a goal back as England dominated. "We gave away two early goals and never recovered, we had a slow start.It left us too big a mountain to climb," said Ramsey, who led his country for the first time. "We showed glimpses of what we are capable of doing, but the pitch was quite dry and we could not get enough pace in our attacks but that's no excuse, we had a slow start and it cost us.'' But the Arsenal man believes that there is plenty for Wales to take forward, particularly from their improved second-half display. "It was a great occasion (to lead the side for the first time) although the result has put a downer on it, but we will bounce back from this. This is a stepping stone and we will continue to progress and hopefully we can become a successful side.'' New Wales boss Gary Speed urged his country's supporters to stand by the team and managed to dig out some positives from the performance. "I hope the fans stick with the side,'' he said. "We didn't give them too much to shout about today. The way things went in the first five minutes, it was very difficult against a top-quality team. But we are not always going to play England. "Hopefully the fans can see that and when they come back next time they can shout us on again.'' Speed is aware that he is on a fairly steep learning curve, but he felt there were enough battling qualitieson show to be reasonably optimistic about the future. "We are not going to qualify from this group,'' he said. "Even if we had won this game we probably wouldn'thave qualified. But by the time the World Cup campaign starts in August 2012, we want to be in a place then when we can compete in a qualifying group." Meanwhile, England manager Fabio Capello was pleased to see his switch to a 4-3-3 formation work. "We played really well, we passed the ball quickly and created chances to score goals with no chances for Wales,'' he said. "The goals that we scored were really nice and in every moment we were focused on the game which was important. "I decided after watching games Wales have played for Scott Parker and two midfielders. I decided for a new position for Wayne Rooney and Ashley Young. "When we are defending they stay wide, when we have the ball Wayne comes in and it was a problem for Wales. "This formation is really good because some players like Ashley Young are improving a lot.'' England midfielder Frank Lampard, who was rumoured to be for the axe before Capello switched to a three man midfield, said: "We did the damage early on and made what could have been a very difficult game quite a comfortable game. "It was a bit more difficult in the second half, they had a bit of a go, but from being 2-0 up it was always going to be us that won it. "These games are big derbies, some of us played in one a few years back. "It was a tough day all round and theonly way to make that more comfortable was to start well and take the momentum out of them. "We certainly did that. We pressed hard, won the ball back and dominated that first half. That's whatwon it for us. "Everyone expected us to come here and roll over Wales but it was a derby, with that atmosphere, everyone here knows it's not easy. We did a very professional job.'' Via http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/898980/aaron-ramsey:-we-paid-price-for-poor-start?cc=4716

Pioneer, Leader, and MMRF Honorary Board Member Succumbs to Multiple Myeloma

NORWALK, Conn.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) is deeply saddened by the loss of Geraldine Ferraro (1935-2011), a Member of the MMRF Honorary Board of Directors and a dear friend. Ferraro passed away this morning from complications following a long and courageous battle with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. “Geraldine Ferraro was a true trailblazer, an inspiration to many, an incredible advocate for cancer research, and a very dear friend. She will be sadly missed, never far from our hearts, and fondly remembered for her incredible legacy and the extraordinary woman who she was. We pray that her family finds comfortand peace during this sorrowful time,” said Kathy Giusti, Founder and CEO of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and a patient with multiple myeloma. In addition to serving on the MMRF’s Honorary Board of Directors, Ferraro was actively involved in the Foundation’s work to bring new treatments to patients. In 2002, she passionately testified before Congress for the critical need for increased research funding, and a year later, a bill was signed authorizing $250 million for blood cancer research. Congress then appropriated $5 million to the Geraldine Ferraro Blood Cancer Education Program in 2003 and renewed funding in 2006, enabling the MMRF to provide high-quality educational programs to underserved populations. About Multiple Myeloma Multiple myeloma is an incurable blood cancer. The five-year relative survival rate for multiple myeloma is approximately 38 percent, one of thelowest of all cancers. In 2010, more than 20,000 adults in the United States will be diagnosed with multiple myeloma and nearly 11,000 people are predicted to die from the disease. About the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) was established in 1998 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization by twin sisters Karen Andrews and Kathy Giusti, soon after Kathy's diagnosis with multiple myeloma. The mission of the MMRF isto relentlessly pursue innovative means that accelerate the development of next-generation multiple myeloma treatments to extend the lives of patients and lead to a cure. As the world's number-one private funder of multiple myeloma research, the MMRF has raised over$160 million since its inception to fund more than 130 laboratories worldwide. An outstanding 89% of funds raised go toward research and related programming. The MMRF has supported 70 new compounds and approaches in clinical trials and pre-clinical studies and has facilitated 30 clinical trials through its sister organization, the MMRC. For more information about the MMRF, visit www.themmrf.org .

No plain Jane: The uncommon writings of Jane Austen

MANILA, Philippines — How did Jane Austen get to be muse and mistress of the romance genre? Susannah Carson delves into this question with a collection of essays from Austen scholars, bestselling authors, language professors, and key personalities of the written word, to name a few in her new book: A TruthUniversally Acknowledged: 33 Writers On Why We Read Jane Austen. In this interview, Students and Campuses Bulletin discusses the steady upward climb and popular appreciation of this early 19th century England writer whose tales of romance and courtship have enraptured generations of readers and writers all over the world. STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLETIN (SCB) : What gave you the idea to write A Truth Universally Acknowledged? SUSANNAH CARSON (SC) : I was home from Yale during the holidays, reading through a stack of scholarly articles with the TV on in the background. A commercial for one of the latest spin-off Austen movies came on. For some reason, it seemed especially fluffy, and the thought popped into existence: wouldn’t it benice if all these people who love Jane Austen had access to some of the great classical essays? Then, instead of reading and watching all these austenesque stories to get their fix, they could go back to the originals and really, really, really enjoy them. SCB: How did you first come to know Austen? SC: I was in my early teens when I first read Jane Austen. My grandmother liked to read old-fashioned historical romances, such as those by Victoria Holt and Georgette Heyer. I should confess that I read these modern adaptations first in my eagerness to read “grown-up” novels. When I discovered that these were modelledon the novels of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, I read them all in quick succession and haven’t stoppedre-reading them since. SCB: What is your favorite Austen novel? SC: I like them all at different times and in different moods. I look to Pride and Prejudice for sparkle, Persuasion for soul, Mansfield Park for depth, Emma for joy, Sense and Sensibility for subtlety, and Northanger Abbey for silliness. Recently, I’ve been enjoying Emma again, but I’m going to re-read Sense and Sensibility in honor of the 100th anniversary of its publication. SCB: Who is your favorite Austen hero? SC: I’ve never thought about that! Each hero is the perfect hero for his novel, so it’s difficult—and rather unfair—to take each of them out their novels, stand them up side by side, and see how they measure up against each other. It’s hard to resist the traditional drawof Mr. Darcy, if for no other reason than because our modern notion of heroism is derived from him. But his initial reserve imbues him with a certain coolness he cannot quiet shake off at the end of the novel. Since Mr. Knightley isn’t as essential to the plot of Emma (which, as the title suggests, is about the flaws and maturation of its heroine) as Mr. Darcy is to the plot of Pride and Prejudice (which, again as the title suggests, is about the flaws and maturation of both its heroine and hero), Mr. Knightley can be portrayed as less flawed and as more endowed with the warmth and kindness one would like in a reallife hero. SCB: What was the most fascinating thing you learned about Jane Austen during the course of writing your book? SC: Like many, I’m fascinated by the “creaking door,” as recounted by Austen’s nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, in his 1870 Memoirs of Jane Austen: “She was careful that her occupation should not be suspected by servants, or visitors, or any persons beyond her own family party. She wrote upon small sheets of paper which could easily be put away, or covered with a piece of blotting paper. There was, between the front door and the offices, a swing door which creaked when it was opened; but she objected to having this little inconvenience remedied, because it gave her notice when anyone was coming.” About Jane Austen SCB: Jane Austen has a huge following both in the movies and literature. What can you say about this? SC: Austen is perhaps even more popular today than she ever was! The previously-published essays in the collection date from throughout the twentieth century, illustrating that Austen has always been popularwith both workhorse scholars and general readers. But then there was a sort of surge, and one can only list as many possible circumstances as possible to explain it: • Feminism and the promotion of canonical women authors • The technical advances which allowed films to get closer to capturing something of the novels • The flourishing of fun trade paperbacks in glossy covers (for both the originals and the adaptations) • The appearance of a certain subgenre of chick lit that evolved from and continues to evoke Austen (also for both the originals and the adaptations) • The great takeover of technology in modern life, which inspires a nostalgic appreciation of candlelit evenings, letters, picnics, and perhaps especially balls with live orchestras • The breakdown of the traditional marriage and the proliferation of new options, which inspires a similarly nostalgic appreciation of classic tales of love and longing • The broadening scope of the world-as-we-know-it, which inspiresyet another form of nostalgia—this time for the smaller circles circumscribed by Austen’s “three or four families in a country village.” • The rise of the book club scene, which allows readers to come together for fun, community, and culture There are lots of possible reasons, but I think the reason behind all these reasons is that Austen gives us a feeling of belonging — a feeling we’re all yearning for, and a feeling that seems like it’s becoming (for whatever reasons) increasingly difficult to find. Whether we belong to an academic community or a book club, we’re already part of a welcoming, friendlyreadership that extends through time and across all sorts of ages, personalities, languages, and cultures. (There has been an edition of A Truth in China, and Jane Austen has a great fan club in Brazil—I wonder what it’s like to read her in the Philippines?) Harold Bloom writes in How to Read and Why that “imaginative literatureis otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness.” For me, the experience of reading Austen is at once personal— just me and a good book — but also communal in all sorts of ways. There’s the relationship with the characters, the relationship with the imagined author, and buzzing behind the book there are all the relationships with the other readers out there. I won’t get to meet most ofthem, but one of the rewards of putting together this book is that I get to know lots and lots of other janeites. Reading Jane Austen has shown me that reading isn’t an activity distinct from real life, but that it’s an experience capable of infusing all of life. SCB: What do you think would Jane make of all this Hollywood attention? SC: I think she would be amused, flattered, and only occasionally indignant. Personally, I think the films help our imaginations run even wilder. If we imagine, for a moment, what the world would be like without the film adaptations, then we see a world in which Austen doesn’t matter quite as much. The films are not only excellent introductions to those who balk at classics and perceived “chick lit”; they also provide the battleground for fierce literary debates amongst long-standing devotees. Which Emma best captures the heroine’s officiousness, charm, and self-importance? Which Pride and Prejudice gets the right balance of romance and practicality? Should Mansfield Park depart from the book in order to appeal to modern viewers? Answering these questions about the movies helps us to get at what we really think about the books. Which Darcy is the most swoonworthy? The question is not assilly as it sounds, since our perceptionof Darcy as more stand-offishly aristocratic or as more broodingly romantic determines whether we read the entire novel as the product of the late regime of the eighteenth century or as a forerunner of the impending post-French-Revolutionary era of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. SCB: Jane herself has been turned into a fictional character. How do youfeel about taking real figures and imputing behaviour, emotions and language to them? SC: I tend to be a bit impatient with dramatic accounts of Jane Austen’s life — simply because we really know so little about it and any attempt to construct a narrative is destined to reveal more about those who want to construct it than about Austen herself. The BBC Jane Austen Regrets seems to acknowledge this difficulty and still give us a taste of the biographical personage. For a Vampire spoof, Michael Thomas Ford’s Jane Bites Back and the newly-released Jane Goes Batty are fun send-ups of traditional biographical fictions. SCB: Austen, like the Brontes, has achieved a kind of literary fame that is bestowed on very few writers. Is the Austen industry good for Austen'snovels as novels? SC: There is, as your question presumes, a sort of distortion which occurs when an author’s works are made to bear the weight of so much cultural expectation and attention. We end up reading them less as they are and more as we want — or even need — them to be. In other words, we make them do a sort of cultural work that they were never intended to do. In Austen’s case, that work has to do with romance, love, and general escapism. On the other hand, the novels wouldn’t be asked to do that work if certain elements weren’t already compatible, if they didn’t lend themselves to it, if, in short, Austen’s novels weren’t already in some way about romance, love, and general escapism. In the end, no matter how we interpret them on film and in our own imaginations, the texts of Austen’s novels will remain intact, ready for new generations of readersto discover the same traditional joys as well as their own new delights. Via http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/311458/no-plain-jane-the-uncommon-writings-jane-austen

Earth Hour proponents are in the dark

Excuse me for not participating in Earth Day again this year. While others make a virtue of sitting in the dark, I will be at the rink watching the Saskatoon Blades light it up against the Prince Albert Raiders. Blessedly, there will be no hour of darkness tonight at the rink. Fans would lustily boo Earth Hour if it was imposed during a playoff hockey game, and properly so. There are only three activities I can think of that are better in the dark and one ofthem is not hockey. Players wouldn't like it any better than the fans. They couldn't find the puck. They couldn't see the boards or the nets or each other. They would be reduced to using their sticks as white canes. Tap...tap...tap... "Booo!" Officiating also would be problematic. Even when the lights are on, the referee routinely misses half the infractions committed by thevisiting team. With the lights off, the poor ref would have to call the game based entirely on sound. THWACK! "Hey ref, aren't you going to call that? . . . Ref? . . . Ref? . . . " Linesmen would have problems, too. They can't be expected to hear if a player was offside. They would have to use night-vision goggles, which would seem to violate the spirit if not the letter of Earth Hour. The idea is to turn off all "non-essential" lightsand appliances. Goal judges likewise would be helpless if they're not allowed duringEarth Hour to turn on the red goal light. What are they supposed to do ifsomeone scores? Light a candle? He shoots. He scores. Has anyone got a match? Away from the rink, lots of people will be lighting candles during Earth Hour. This even though candles are a highly inefficient substitute for electric lighting. That's why our great-grandparents enthusiastically abandoned candles as soon as electrical lighting became available. They would think Earth Hour is stupidand backward. They would be right. It takes about 60 candles, incidentally, to generate as much light as a 60-watt light bulb. It takes only one candle, however, to set the drapes on fire. That's another reason why our great-grandparents couldn't switch fast enough to electrical lighting. Via http://www.thestarphoenix.com/travel/Earth+Hour+proponents+dark/4508868/story.html

Mega Millions Winning Numbers: “LOST” Lotto Numbers Played Again?

What are the Mega Millions Winning Numbers from last night’s drawing? Did anyone win the $312 million dollar jackpot? And just out of curiosity, did anyone play the “LOST” numbers that won last time? In case you don’t remember, back in January, the Mega Millions winning numbers pulled were 4, 8, 15, 25 and 47, with 42 as the Mega Ball number. The jackpot then was $355 million dollars, but people were buzzing more about the numbers than the money. The winning numbers were eerily similar to winning lottery numbers on the hit TV show, LOST. OnLOST, Hurley won the big bucks with the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. Those numbers were seen as a curse by the characters on the show. I wouldn’t be surprised if die-hard LOST fans played those numbers again in last night’s Mega Millions drawing, but they did not get pulled this time. The new Mega Millions Winning Numbers are 22, 24, 31, 52 and 54, with the Mega Ball as 4.

Kirstie Alley, Kendra Wilkinson make 'Dancing' debuts

Ex-'Karate Kid' scores big on 'DWTS'

(PEOPLE.com) -- The first night of every season of "Dancing with the Stars" is like pulling back a big curtain on a game show that will either reveal something you can't take your eyes off of -- or something you wish you hadn't seen.
Monday night's season 12 premiere was a little of both. With only three weeks to prepare for their ballroom debuts, here are how the dancers fared:
Starting with a bang
"The Karate Kid" Ralph Macchio immediately became the dancer to beat, earning a night-best 24 points and loads of crowd love. Women and girls screamed so loudly after his foxtrot that the judges could barely be heard. "What an amazing surprise!" said Carrie Ann Inaba. "It shocked me that you had such elegance." Len Goodman declared his performance "the best foxtrot tonight."
Cheers, not jeers
Kirstie Alley lived up to her hype with an amazing cha cha that brought down the house and garnered an impressive 23 points. Bruno Tonioli declared her cha cha "the best of the night" and said he can't wait for what's next. "I feel like we're just scratching the surface," he said.
Promising signs
Proving how talented this season's slate is, Disney star Chelsea Kane delivered a strong 21-point performance. "That was one-and-a-half minutes of pure afterglow," gushed Tonioli of her foxtrot. Right up with her, also with 21 points, was NFL player Hines Ward, whose technique matched his charm. "You are exuberant and your smile lights up the whole stage," Inaba said of Ward's cha cha.
PEOPLE.com: Chelsea Kane is ready for 'Public Shakedown' on 'DWTS'
Girl next-door appeal
Kendra Wilkinson charmed the audience, but what her cha cha had in high energy it lacked in points. Tonioli commended her "full-frontal attack" but criticized her legwork.
PEOPLE.com: Kendra Wilkinson puts husband on diaper duty to dance
Needs improvement -- now!
Mike Catherwood and Wendy Williams may have the gift of the gab, but lacked the moves. "You looked like you were constipated," Tonioli told Catherwood, who finished with the night's lowest score of just 13 points. Williams was down there with him with a 14 for her stiff cha cha.
Next Monday, all 11 contestants return to the ballroom for a new dance. Fan votes from the first two weeks will be combined with the judges' scores to determine who will be eliminated on the season's first live results show, March 29 on ABC.

See the original article at PEOPLE.com.

Watch Australian Grand Prix F1 Practice Live Streaming Free Online

Mark Webber will be looking forward to his home grand prix

Watch Friday practice from Melbourne as the excitement builds to the opening race of the 2011 Formula 1 season following the cancellation of the Bahrain GP. Follo all the action via a live stream.

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Podcast series from the BBC featuring interviews, reaction and reports from each race day weekend. Free download.

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Webber eager for Australian Grand Prix Red Bull Driver Mark Webber tells CNN’s Don Riddell he is looking forward to the 2011 Formula One Australian Grand Prix.    (More)

Formula 1 teams set pace for British ... VIDEO: March 27th sees the start of the 2011 Formula One racing season. One of last year’s newcomers, Lotus Cars, is hoping to improve upon last season's 10TH - place finish, but with a team only a…    (More)

New tyres, new strategy in Formula One Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner and Formula One drivers Mark Webber and Jenson Button on racing with Pirelli tyres.    (More)

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Formula 1 teams set pace for British ... Formula 1 teams set pace for British ...    (More)

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China Watch Blog has learnt that when VIP tickets went on sale for 3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy – the world’s first three-dimensional soft-core porn movie in Hong Kong – fans queued overnight to make sure they got one.
A large group – all of them men – lined up last weekend outside the offices of China 3-D Digital Entertainment on Morrison Hill Road,  Causeway Bay, on Hong Kong Island, so as to be the first to get their hands on pre-sale VIP tickets when they went on offer at 11am the next morning.

Scene frm 3-D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy

The Sunday Morning Post reported that a VIP ticket guaranteed a place at the front of the cinema for the best seats in the house and a perfect view of all action. The pre-sale VIP tickets cost HK$100. The local production’s initial run in Hong Kong is scheduled for April 14 to 25.  Cinemas across the city will screen it.
Box office returns will determine how long the film will run in cinemas after that. The price of standard tickets will vary from cinema to cinema.
As well as getting their VIP tickets, the first 50 lucky ticket buyers were also treated to a kiss from one of the film’s busty stars, Vonnie Lui Hoi-yan from Hong Kong, who was making a special guest appearance at the ticket sale.
The film’s Japanese star, Saori Hara, was also there to dispense some kisses as well.
The 3-D sex movie was based loosely on a piece of classical Chinese erotic literature, the Carnal Prayer Mat,  written by Li Yu in the 17th century, which stars the two Japanese adult-film stars, Hara and Yukiko Suo, mainland actress Leni Lan and Lui from Hong Kong.
And to keep the goodies of the movie under wraps, film director Christopher Sun Lap-key, did not reveal too many details of the show, but he did promise orgies, swinging and same very graphic sex scenes.
The HK$25 million period drama will not make it to mainland China because of its sexual content, but you can bet on it that many, many mainland men will come to Hong Kong to watch it.
Some might even get addicted to it, and come back for repeat performances.


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