text:
- Bronx Banter - http://www.bronxbanterblog.com -
Million Dollar Movie
Posted By Matt Blankman On September 30, 2010 @ 9:33 am In Arts and Culture,Bronx Banter,Directors,Million Dollar Movie,Obituaries | Comments Disabled
Wednesday was a sad day for cinephiles — Arthur Penn [2], the visionary director of Bonnie and Clyde [3], passed away at 88. As well as being one of the great American filmmakers of the 60s and 70s, Penn also knew tremendous success directing for the stage, as well as television. Dave Kehr has a fairly comprehensive and thoughtful obituary in the New York Times [4]. Roger Ebert also weighs in with a warm tribute [5]. From Kehr's piece, here's a quote from Paul Schrader that nicely states what the fuss is all about:
"Arthur Penn brought the sensibility of '60s European art films to American movies," the writer-director Paul Schrader [6] said. "He paved the way for the new generation of American directors who came out of film schools."
Penn was not simply a stylist, but a director who got the best out of his actors: think of Gene Hackman in the brilliant, underrated neo-noir Night Moves [7], or Jack Nicholson, wonderfully underplaying to Marlon Brando's outlandish dandy of a gunslinger in The Missouri Breaks [8]. (Heck, he even got something out of Arlo Guthrie in Alice's Restaurant [9].)
However, Penn will no doubt best be remembered for Bonnie and Clyde, a film usually attached to words like "seminal," "revolutionary" and "watershed." It not only indelibly altered Hollywood movies, but movie criticism as well. The vastly different reactions of old guard critics like the Times' Bosley Crowther (who loathed it) to those of "young turks" like Ebert and Pauline Kael (in her first piece for The New Yorker) marked a new attitude in American film criticism to match the new films and younger audiences filling late 60s theaters. It's also worth noting that it's success essentially saved Warren Beatty's career and launched Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder as movie stars. Looking back 40 plus years later, it's easy to appreciate what a vivid and vital movie Bonnie and Clyde remains, if decades of copycats have taken away the shock that 1967 audiences felt.
It will be interesting to read more comments on Penn's life and work as they roll in from his collaborators and directors he inspired (I'm especially curious to hear from Beatty and Martin Scorsese). Now that 3D and CGI have too often become a substitute for substance in the cinema, it's sad to see another master go.
Article printed from Bronx Banter: http://www.bronxbanterblog.com
URL to article: http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2010/09/30/million-dollar-movie-64/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://bronxbanter.arneson.name/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Arthur_Penn_Bonnie_Clyde_1967_1_Web-20080602-123325-medium.jpg
[2] Arthur Penn: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0671957/
[3] Bonnie and Clyde: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061418/
[4] New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html?hpw
[5] a warm tribute: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100929/PEOPLE/100929986
[6] Paul Schrader: http://movies.nytimes.com/person/110362/Paul-Schrader?inline=nyt-per
[7] Night Moves: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073453/
[8] The Missouri Breaks: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074906/
[9] Alice's Restaurant: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064002/
[10] Image: http://bronxbanter.arneson.name/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/arthur-penn.jpg
Click here to print.
Copyright © 2011 Bronx Banter. All rights reserved.


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The world's most influential designer? No question about it. It's Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli, writes Kay O'Sullivan.
Those seduced by the almighty dollar might blink in surprise and mutter something about Coco Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent. Others with a superficial understanding of history might bandy around Christian Dior's name, but true students of the fashion design business will brook no argument, Schiaparelli it is.
Schiaparelli's unerring stylish
hand changed the face of fashion
like no other before her or since.
She elevated the simple craft of
making clothes into an art form,
and along the away turned a
cottage industry into an
international business
Schiaparelli was the first to
realise the potential of the brand
and reap the potential in ready-to-
wear, perfume and licensing
agreements. She creating the
concept of the runway show by
turning selling into entertainment,
and she cultivated actors
and celebrities to promote her
Schiaparelli was born in Rome in 1890. But it was in Paris during the 1930s, then at its fashionable Zeitgeist, that she established her reputation and earned herself a place in fashion history.
In contrast with her main rival, Coco Chanel, who had to battle her way out of poverty, Schiaparelli grew up in the upper strata of Roman society, in a home of scholars and intellectuals. With a book of poems published by the time she was 21, she seemed set on a similar course, but the demands of a daughter and a failing marriage caused her to redirect her creativity into a more lifesustaining medium.
Friends, including Paul Poiret, one of the great designers of the 20th century, helped and encouraged Schiaparelli, who launched her first collection to acclaim in 1927.
Business provided the necessities of life, but art remained at the core of her being and her work. Schiaparelli moved easily among the artists of the surrealist movement. Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Albert Giacometti and Jean Cocteau were contemporaries and collaborators in design, jewellery, embroidery and advertising. Dali wrote in his 1942 autobiography that Schiaparelli represented Paris.
Art was not the only inspiration behind her success. In her autobiography, Shocking Life, she wrote that "fashion is born by small facts, trends or events, never by trying to make little pleats or by the shortening or lengthening of a skirt'.
An observer of the time noted that Schiaparelli had caused Paris to drop elegance for chic. "It is chic without being obviously elegant � a way of dressing life as it is being lived today.'
Schiaparelli's 12 commandments for women
1. Since most women do not know themselves, they should try to do so.
2. A woman who buys an expensive dress and changes it, often with disastrous result, is extravagant and foolish.
3. Most women (and men) are colour-blind. They should ask for suggestions.
4. Remember, 25 per cent of women have inferiority complexes. Seventy per cent have illusions.
5. Ninety percent are afraid of being conspicuous, and of what people will say. So they buy a grey suit. They should dare to be different.
6. Women should listen and ask for competent criticism and advice.
7. They should choose their clothes alone or in the company of a man.
8. They should never shop with another woman, who sometimes consciously or unconsciously, is apt to be jealous.
9. They should buy little, and only of the best or cheapest.
10. Never fit a dress to the body, but train the body to fit the dress.
11. A woman should buy mostly in one place where she is known and respected, and not rush around trying every new fad.
12. And she should pay her bills.
Photographs from Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli by Dilys E. Blum (Yale University Press) $91.
Vogue's edict was that Schiaparelli had liberated women from the necessity for beauty. "A Schiaparelli customer did not have to worry as to whether she was beautiful or not � she was a type. She was noticed wherever she went, protected by an armour of amusing, conversation-making smartness.'
It was said that Schiaparelli, barely 153 centimetres (5 feet) and no great beauty, designed for herself. Still, her particular brand of hard chic found a ready market among the beautiful as well as those less blessed with natural attributes.
Devoted clients included bestdressed list perennials such as Daisy Fellowes, Princess Marina, Wallis Simpson and Marlene Dietrich. Mae West and woman pilots Amy Johnson and Amelia Earhart were also fans.
Schiaparelli claimed her clothes changed Katharine Hepburn from a "girl who seemed ugly and dowdy to a strikingly beautiful young woman'.
So much a part of the old world, Schiaparelli realised the potential of the new world long before her contemporaries. If the Americans wanted to supply the dollars, then Schiaparelli would deliver the designs. In 1934, a zip manufacturer paid her $US10,000 to use new plastic zips. The collection, with visible zippers in most unlikely places, was a huge critical and commercial success.
At one stage, late in her career, more than $US18 million worth of merchandise, including ties, robes and menswear carried the Schiaparelli tag.
Ironically, the woman who redefined modern dressing could not keep pace with the changes wrought by World War II. The world wanted something different, but she could only give them what they knew of her.
In an interview in the New York Times, Schiaparelli explained her take on her increasingly parlous financial situation. "Life has changed for elegant women. Even people with money aren't spending it they way they used to. Today, only a feeble minority of women will pay the prices we are forced to ask.'
Her business closed suddenly in December 1954 under a mountain of debt.
It might seem little is left of the Schiaparelli legacy, other than the moniker Shocking for that particularly vivid shade of pink that was her signature colour. But as Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli by Dilys E. Blum reveals, the fashion world owes more to the Italian designer than to anyone else.
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Portugal v Sweden Live
Available on 8 channels inside the members area!!!
Portugal host Sweden for their next World Cup qualifier on Saturday. It promises to be a close encounter between 2 sides that are underperforming so far in the qualification round. You can catch all the action online with Portugal vs Sweden live inside our member's area. With over 48,000 members we are the number one source for live World Cup football online.
Portugal have only managed to pick up 5 points from their first 4 games in the qualification phase. It is a disappointing tally for such a capable side and they will need to improve their performances if they are to make it to the main tournament next summer. In the reverse of this fixture they were held to a goalless draw followed by an identical result when they hosted Albania back in October.
Sweden sit joint on points with Portugal but currently have a game in hand. This is an ideal situation for them to play catch up and a win here could boost them to second place in the group table. Sweden were also held to a goalless draw by Albania – a team proving to be a thorn in the side for many. Sign up today and catch the action live inside our members area.
Tags: Portugal, World Cup qualifier, Sweden live, Sweden


text:
Fort Hood Profiles: Sgt. Amy Krueger
Thirteen people were killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on soldiers at the Fort Hood Army base, including Sgt. Amy Krueger. Here is a short profile:
Sgt. Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis., joined the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks and had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden, her mother, Jeri Krueger said.
Sgt. Krueger arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan in December, the mother told the Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc. Ms. Krueger recalled telling her daughter that she could not take on bin Laden by herself. "Watch me," her daughter replied.
Kiel High School Principal Dario Talerico said that Sgt. Krueger graduated from the school in 1998 and had spoken at least once to local elementary school students about her career. "I just remember that Amy was a very good kid, who like most kids in a small town are just looking for what their next step in life was going to be and she chose the military," Talerico said. "Once she got into the military, she really connected with that kind of lifestyle and was really proud to serve her country."
– The Associated Press


text:
Shanahan's Guesthouse
127-129 Rocky Lane, Birmingham, Birmingham, England
Atmosphere 69%
Cleanliness 69%
Facilities 67%
Location 64%
Safety 69%
Staff 69%
Value 71%
- Free Breakfast
- Free Wi-Fi
- Self-Catering Facilities
- Laundry Facilities
Important Information
In order to confirm your booking you will be asked to provide the cvv code of your credit card. Failing to give this data your booking may be cancelled.
In case you will check in after 9pm you need to contact us to arrange your arrival.
Check-in / Check-out
Earliest check-in: 00:00
Latest Check-out: 11:30
- Credit Cards Accepted
- No Curfew
Group booking?
Group of 15 or more traveling to Birmingham?
Map and Directions
From M6
At Junction 6 take exit A38(M) to city centre
Stay left take 1st exit (waterlinks)
At Island take first exit
At next island take 3rd exit (Lichfield rd)
At next island take 1st exit (Rocky lane)
Turn 2nd right into William Henry st
Shanahans is on the corner


text:
2 Min Read
* Canadian dollar at C$1.2371, or 80.83 U.S. cents * Bond prices higher across the maturity curve TORONTO, June 29 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Monday as global uncertainty mounted after Greece shut its banks, but losses were limited. "If this had been two or three years ago it would have been very negative for the Canadian dollar through the risk-off channel," but correlation between foreign exchange and equities has diminished to pre-crisis levels, said currency strategist Elsa Lignos of RBC Capital Markets. * At 9:14 a.m. EDT (1314 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.2371 to the greenback, or 80.83 U.S. cents, weaker than the Bank of Canada's official close on Friday of C$1.2315, or 81.20 U.S. cents. * The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.2304, while its weakest was C$1.2380. * Canadian producer prices increased by 0.5 percent in May from April, largely due to higher prices for energy and petroleum products, Statistics Canada said. * U.S. crude prices were down 1.73 percent at $58.60, while Brent crude fell 1.87 percent to $62.08. * Canadian government bond prices were higher across the maturity curve, with the two-year up 10 Canadian cents to yield 0.587 percent and the benchmark 10-year rising 97 Canadian cents to yield 1.77 percent. * The Canada-U.S. two-year bond spread was -7 basis points, while the 10-year spread was -59.9 basis points. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)


text:
Until last week, it was tempting to call him Lucky Joey. When 17-year-old Amy Fisher came to his Massapequa, New York, house last year packing a gun, his wife got shot, but Joey Buttafuoco escaped without a nick. When a grand jury investigated Fisher's claims of statutory rape against him, Buttafuoco denied the charges, and once again came away unscathed. Now Buttafuoco's luck may be running out: another grand jury indicted him on reopened statutory rape charges, which carry a possible sentence of 73 years. Brought to court in a sharp suit, sharp tie and handcuffs, he pleaded not guilty. At...
Amy Fisher's Revenge
A grand jury says it's Joey Buttafuoco's turn to face the music
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text:
End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup
Catching Fire catching fire. The sequel to Hunger Games doesn't come out until September, but a few coveted advance copies have begun trickling out. Read one lucky reader's happy early assessment. The blog Collecting Children's Books has a great idea for the next advance-reader release: put out a *single* copy and let people duke it out in a Hunger Games-style battle royal for the right to read it.
Horn Book's latest stars. Read Roger recently revealed which titles would receive starred reviews in the July-August Horn Book Magazine, including Machines Go to Work and a Silas favorite, The Sleepy Little Alphabet.
The BBC on "Blood and bedtime stories." "There's rarely room in children's books for scenes of slaughter and pictures of people being impaled, so why does one author want to change this?" (via Bookninja)
Eric Carle animal flash cards. These look great. The brand-new Twenty by Jenny doesn't disappoint, with a review of Eric Carle's animal flash cards.
Diversity in board books. We previously mentioned this post on board books from the new PBS kid-lit blog Booklights. Thanks to some of the comments, they've followed up with another board-book post, this time about titles with more racially diverse characters (including Spike Lee's Please, baby, please).
A Dragon in a Wagon scans. Some kind blogger has posted high-res images from this fun Magic Castle Reader:
(via Super Punch)
Don't miss these classic reissues. School Library Journal has a roundup of "fresh new reissues," new editions of beloved kids' books. We pretty much freaked out the first time we saw the new edition of 1971's Theodore and the Talking Mushroom.
James Preller interviews Fuse #8's Betsy Bird. Ha ha ha. Includes references to ferret-dancing, cheese logs, Freemasonry, and a certain similarity between Ralph Nader and Dr. Seuss.
Details on Coraline DVDs. Industry newsletter Cynopsis Kids has an exhaustive rundown on all the specs:
"Universal Studios Home Entertainment releases the stop-motion animated feature film Coraline, available on Blu-ray HD combo pack, 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD and single disc DVD on July 21, 2009. While all editions feature both the 2D and 3D versions of the film and four pairs of 3-D glasses, the Blu-ray HD and 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD also include a digital copy of the movie, as well as a range of bonus features. The Blu-ray HD combo back also includes a standard def DVD of the movie, and additional bonus features, including more interviews with director Henry Selick and behind-the-scenes exclusives within Universal's U-Control and BD-Live features."
Let's Do Nothing trailer. There's trailer out for this fun new book from author-illustrator-animator Tony Fucile (and an interview, too):
(via Cynsations) --Paul


text:
[Go to Japanese page]
Hideki Kawahara, Emeritus Professor, Wakayama University
Hideki Kawahara
, Emeritus Professor
Center for Innovative Research and Liaison, Wakayama University
Profile and activities
Curriculum vitae (PDF)
, (
Short form vitae
Google Scholar Citations
Semantic Scholar, Author Profile
STRAIGHT information and demonstrations
STRAIGHT information page
Speech morphing
Synthesized chorus
Free Matlab realtime speech tools (Now, they are merged into a package named SparkNG. Please check why?)
A new VOCODER framework developed while I was a visiting research scientist of Google UK, is now open-source on GitHub. (11/Jan./2017)
Presented my last APSIPA DL talk
at Tianjin University, China
(8/Dec./2016) (
PDF slides
Presentation on SparkNG and new F0 extractor at
Academia Sinica
Taipei, Taiwan. (
Link to PDF: edited version for public access
) (23/Aug./2016)
Will be presented in Show and Tell corner of
Interspeech 2016
. (8-12/Sept./2016)
A new F0 extractor will be presented at ISCA workshop
as a part of my work in Google. Draft is available from
Augst 2015 - June 2016: Visiting research scientist at
Google in London
Presented my APSIPA DL takl at
University College London UK
(16/May/2016) (
PDF slides
Presented my APSIPA DL talk
at Edinburgh University, UK
(29/Jan./2016) (
PDF slides
Presented my APSIPA DL talk
at Academia Sinica, Taiwan
(22/Dec./2015) (
PDF slides
Anti-aliased L-F model and its application were presented
at APSIPA 2015, in Hong Kong.
(19/Dec./2015) (
PDF slides)
Presented my APSIPA DL talk
at University of Sheffield
(2/Dec./2015) (
PDF slides
a talk at CCRMA on STRAIGHT
as a part of my APSIPA DL talks. (
PDF slide
An interactive tool to investigate relations between vocal tract transfer function, pole frequencies and bandwidths, shape, LSF (LSP), and synthesized sounds is added to
Matlab realtime speech tools
. Stand alone applications for Mac and Windows, which do not require Matlab installation are also available (15/May/2015)
Matlab realtime speech tools
are introduced in the Issue 9 of
APSIPA Newsletter
(20/April/2015). Please read the article (pp.5-10) for details.
Final Lecture at Wakayama University is scheduled on 15:00-17:00, 20th March, 2015.
Appointed as one of 2015-2016 Distinguished Lecturers of
APSIPA (Asia-Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association)
Tutorial on STRAIGHT was presented at
. (December 12-19, 2014)
PDF version of the presentation is here. (221 slides, 36MB)
Selected publications
Hideki Kawahara: Temporally Variable Multi attribute Morphing of Arbitrarily Many Voices for Exploratory Research of Speech Prosody, in Speech Prosody in Speech Synthesis: Modeling and generation of prosody for high quality and flexible speech synthesis, (eds. Keikichi Hirose and Jianhua Tao), Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp.109-120, 2015. (
This is a good introduction to a powerful extended morphing.
Hideki Kawahara, Masanori Morise, Ryuichi Nisimura and Toshio Irino: HIGHER ORDER WAVEFORM SYMMETRY MEASURE AND ITS APPLICATION TO PERIODICITY DETECTORS FOR SPEECH AND SINGING WITH FINE TEMPORAL RESOLUTION, ICASSP2013, Vancouver Canada, 26-31 May, 2013. (Accepted) (30/May/2013).
Hideki Kawahara, Masanori Morise, Ryuichi Nisimura and Toshio Irino: An interference-free representation of group delay for periodic signals, Proc. APSIPA, 3-6 December, OS.17-SLA 8, 2012 Calfornia, USA. (4/Dec./2012)
Hideki Kawahara, Masanori Morise, Ryuichi Nisimura, Toshio Irino: Deviation measure of waveform symmetry and its application to high-speed and temporally-fine F0 extraction for vocal sound texture manipulation, Interspeech2012, 2012. (10/Sept./2012)
Hideki Kawahara and Masanori Morise, Technical foundations of TANDEM-STRAIGHT, a speech analysis, modification and synthesis framework,
SADHANA - Academy Proceedings in Engineering Sciences
, Vol.36, Part 5, pp.713-722, 2011.
Hideki Kawahara, Toshio Irino and Masanori Morise, An interference-free representation of instantaneous frequency of periodic signals and its application to F0 extraction, Proc. ICASSP 2011, May 2011. (doi:
Laetitia Bruckert, Patricia Bestelmeyer, Marianne Latinus, Julien Rouger, Ian Charest, Guillaume A. Rousselet, Hideki Kawahara, Pascal Belin, Vocal Attractiveness Increases by Averaging, Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 2, 116-120, 26 (January 2010)
Romi Zäske, Stefan R. Schweinberger, Jürgen M. Kaufmann, Hideki Kawahara: In the ear of the beholder: neural correlates of adaptation to voice gender, European Journal of Neuro Science, Vol.30, No.3, pp.527-534 (August 2009)
Osamu Fujimura, Kiyoshi Honda, Hideki Kawahara, Yasuyuki Konparu, Masanori Morise and J.C. Williams, Noh Voice Quality, J. Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology,34(4), 157-170 (04 June 2009)
H. Kawaahra, R. Nisimura, T. Irino, M. Morise, T. Takahashi, B. Banno, Temporally variable multi-aspect auditory morphing enabling extrapolation without objective and perceptual breakdown, Proc. ICASSP, Taipei, Taiwan, 19-24 (2009).
Stefan R. Schweinberger, Christoph Casper, Nadine Hauthal, Juergen M. Kaufmann, Hideki Kawahara, Nadine Kloth, David M.C. Robertson, Adrian P. Simpson and Romi Zaeske, Auditory Adaptation in Voice Perception, Current Biology 18, 684-688, May 6, (2008).
Hideki Kawahara, Masanori Morise, Toru Takahashi, Ryuichi Nisimura, Toshio Irino, Hideki Banno, A TEMPORALLY STABLE POWER SPECTRAL REPRESENTATION FOR PERIODIC SIGNALS AND APPLICATIONS TO INTERFERENCE-FREE SPECTRUM, F0, AND APERIODICITY ESTIMATION, Proc. ICASSP 2008, Las Vegas,pp.3933-3936(2008)
Hideki Banno, Hiroaki Hata, Masanori Morise, Toru Takahashi, Toshio Irino and Hideki Kawahara, "Implementatioin of realtime STRAIGHT speech manipulation system: Report on its first implementation," Acoustic Science and Technology, Vol.28, pp.140-146 (2007)
Hideki Kawahara: STRAIGHT, Exploration of the other aspect of VOCODER: Perceptually isomorphic decomposition of speech sounds, Acoustic Science and Technology, Vol.27, No.6, pp.349-353 (2006).[invited]
Toshio Irino, Roy D. Patterson, and Hideki Kawahara, "Speech segregation using an auditory vocoder with event-synchronous enhancements," IEEE Trans. Speech and Audio Process., Vol.27, Issue 6, pp.2212-2221 (2006).
Hideki Kawahara, Alain de Cheveigne, Hideki Banno, Toru Takahashi and Toshio Irino, Nearly Defect-free F0 Trajectory Extraction for Expressive Speech Modifications based on STRAIGHT, Proc. Interspeech2005, Lisboa, pp.537-540, Sept. 2005.
David R. R. Smith, Roy D. Patterson, Richard Turner, Hideki Kawahara and Toshio Irino, The processing and perception of size information in speech sounds, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117(1), pp.305-318, Jan.2005.
Hideki Kawahara, Hideki Banno, Toshio Irino and Parham Zolfaghari, ALGORITHM AMALGAM: Morphing waveform based methods, sinusoidal models and STRAIGHT, Proc. ICASSP'2004, Montreal Canada, vol.1, pp.13-16, 2004
Hideki Kawahara and Hisami Matsui, Auditory morphing based on an elastic perceptual distance metric in an interference-free time-frequency representation, ICASSP'2003, pp.256-259 (2003).
Alain de Cheveigné,Hideki Kawahra, YIN, "a fundamental frequency estimator for speech and music", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.111, No.4, pp.1917-1930 (2002)
H. Kawahara, Jo Estill and O. Fujimura: Aperiodicity extraction and control using mixed mode excitation and group delay manipulation for a high quality speech analysis, modification and synthesis system STRAIGHT, MAVEBA 2001, Sept.13-15, Firentze Italy, 2001.
Hideki Kawahara, Yoshinori Atake and Parham Zolfaghari: Accurate vocal event detection method based on a fixed-point to weighted average group delay, ICSLP-2000, Beijing, pp.664-667 2000.
Hideki Kawahara, Haruhiro Katayose, Alain de Cheveigne, Roy D. Patterson: Fixed Point Analysis of Frequency to Instantaneous Frequency Mapping for Accurate Estimation of F0 and Periodicity , Proc. EUROSPEECH'99, Volume 6, Page 2781-2784 (1999).
Hideki Kawahara, Ikuyo Masuda-Katsuse and Alain de Cheveigne: Restructuring speech representations using a pitch-adaptive time-frequency smoothing and an instantaneous-frequency-based F0 extraction: Possible role of a reptitive structure in sounds, Speech Communication, 27, pp.187-207 (1999). [1998-1999 EURASIP best paper award]
Alain de Cheveigne,Hideki Kawahara,"Missing-data Model of Vowel Identification" J.Acoust.Soc.Am., Vol.105, pp.3497-3508, 1999.
Hideki Kawahara, Alain de Cheveigne and Roy D. Patterson: An instantaneous-frequency-based pitch extraction method for high-quality speech transformation: revised TEMPO in the STRAIGHT-suite, Proc. 5th Int. Conf. on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP '98), Sudney, (1998.12).
Hiroko Kato and Hideki Kawahara: ``An Application of the Bayesian Time Series Model and Statistical System Analysis for F0 Control'', Speech Communication, (1998)
Hideki Banno, J. Ju, Satoshi Nakamura, Kiyohiro Shikano and Hideki Kawahara: ``Efficient Representation of Short-time Phase Based on Group Delay'', ICASSP'98, SP26.6, Seattle, (1998.5).
Alain DE Cheveigne (CNRS), Hideki Kawahara, Minoru Tsuzaki, and Kiyoaki Aikawa: ''Concurrent Vowel Identification I: Effects of relative Level and F0 Differences,'' J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol.101, pp.2839-2847 (1997.5)
Hideki Kawahara: ''Speech Representation and Transformation using Adaptive Interpolation of Weighted Spectrum: VOCODER Revisited,'' Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP '97), vol.2, pp.1303-1306 (1997.4)
Topics before 2014
My presentation of Seminar Series of the DFG Research Unit Person Perception, titled
"Making speech tangible" (PDF) is linked.
(November 13, 2014)
Matlab source codes, presentation and a demonstration movie of "Temporally static group delay representation" are available. (
link to the supplemental page to Interspeech2014
) (17/Sept./2014)
Presented "Temporally variable multi-aspect N-way morphing" at APSIPA 2013 ASC. (31/October/2013)
My presentation at APSIPA 2013 (pdf)
Presented a new F0 extractor (again!) and important "Take home message" at ICASSP2013. Please check
my presentation at ICASSP2013
. (30/May/2013)
an invited talk
PPRU-Workshop VII
, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany (2013.4.26)
Presentation at Interspeech 2012.
Presented an invited talk at
LISTA workshop 2012 Edinburgh, 2-3 May 2012 .
Organized a special session
(SS-L9: Advances in singing-voice synthesis, transformation, and application)
(25-30 March 2012, Kyoto) (
My ICASSP presentation is now available: 6/April/2012
Invited talk on Signal processing challenge for singing vice texture was presented at the SIGMUS94 special event on Singing information processing (
USTREAM video: in Japanese
) using (
interactive iBook: in Japanese
) (3/Feb./2012)
A new instantaneous frequency calculation method was presented at ICASSP2011 (
Demo movies
) (27/May/2011)
Movie visualizations on how TANDEM-STRAIGHT works
are accessible now. Detailed descriptions on them were presented as a tutorial session in
. (
Presentation slides(PDF)
An introduction and operation manual for TANDEM-STRAIGHT with GUI is [
accessible online through APSIPA proceedings page
](Oct, 2009)
An extended framework of morphing is formulated and presented at ICASSP2009. [
presentation slides (pdf)
](April, 2009)
It is shown for the first time that adaptation to nonlinguistic information in voices elicits systematic auditory aftereffects.
(Current Biology 18, 684-688, May 6, 2008) DOI link to the article
A completely new reformulation of STRAIGHT (TANDEM-STRAIGHT) was presented at ICASSP2008. [
presentation slides (pdf)
](April, 2008)
Invited talk on "STRAIGHT as a research tool for L2 study: How to manipulate segmental and supra-segmental features" (organized by Jared C. Bernstein and Reiko Akahane-Yamada) at Fourth Joint Meeting of ASA and ASJ (Decemter 2006). [
presentation slides (pdf)
] [
morphed synthetic R/L continuum (wmv)
] [
morphed natural R/L continuum (wmv)
Lay language paper on "Voice quality of artistic expression in Noh: An analysis-synthesis study on source-related parameters"
was presented at Fourth Joint Meeting of ASA and ASJ (Decemter 2006).
Auditory morphing demonstrations on emotional speech. (Flash movie)
This demonstration was on display at National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation Tokyo from 23 April to 15 August 2006. The title of the special event was "Love stories - Why you are not alone.". The interface was designed by Takashi Yamaguchi and auditory morphing sounds were synthesized by Hideki Kawahara using STRAIGHT-based morphing algorithm.
: A very high-quality speech manipulation system
(tutorial page)
(Publicly accessible STRAIGHT trial version)
(The latest version of STRAIGHT (STRAIGHTV40) is available to the registered users.)(20 Sept. 2005)
STRAIGHT based TTS (Text To Speech) system won the first place in the Blizzard challange and reported at
. (Sept. 2005).
"Temporal media design project" supported by CREST (Aka CrestMuse project) (2005 to 2010: PI is Prof. Katayose and I will take part) uses STRAIGHT as one of key components. (Sept. 2005).
Invited talk on "Manipulating the pulse rate and resonance scale in speech and animal calls", at the special session "Size information in speech and animal calls" (organized by
) at the 149th ASA meeting in Vancouver, Canada. (May 2005).
A STRAIGHT-generated chorus won the first place in blindfold listening test of synthetic vocal systems conducted by RENCON'04,
(June 2004).
: Wakayama workshop on Auditory and Vocal rEsearch
(April 2004)
e-Society project (primary investigator of a subgroup on flexible speech synthesis software)
"Auditory brain project" by CREST (primary investigator,1997-2002)
(CMAP-CREST workshop 2002)
Last update: Thu Apr 20 21:29:48 JST 2017


text:
Previous sections have indicated the importance of homeostatic control, the requirement of a set environment and how evolution and natural selection adapts a species to favour its environment. In more extreme ecosystems, these laws of nature are essential. These types of evolutionary changes are as follows;
These types of changes in an organism affect its actual structure, for example, birds occupying islands further away from its natural habitat may evolve to grow longer wings over time due to its more remote nature.
Physiological changes are changes in the actual biological processes of an organism, for example, over millions of years, mammals, though diversifying, developed different limbs to suit the way they operate in an environment, such as the nimble fingers that a human possesses, for skills such as typing via the adapted pentadactyl limb that we possess.
Changes in the way an organism responds and interacts to its external environment. This is illustrated by the kangaroo water rat, an organism that hibernates during hot periods of the day to conserve water. This is an example of a behavioural adaptation in response to the prevailing conditions of the environment
This is called dormancy, where all unnecessary actions and reactions (i.e. moving) are restricted to preserve the limited resources and foodstuff available to them. In such ecosystems, organisms must pay close attention to how they direct the resource of water in their body. Here is why, the many possible ways we lose water from our bodies. Surprisingly, much of the water we lose from our daily intake is from respiration, as when we breath out, water is also accompanies the waste CO2.
All in all, these changes are necessary for an organism, and its species to survive in a particular ecosystem. Animals (and plants) that live in an aquatic environment over time have become suited to their habitat. To other animals, this would be a problem, you may notice if you stay in the bath or swim under water for a long period of time that your hands and feet become wrinkled. This is because osmosis is occurring between you and the aquatic environment.
The higher concentration in the external environment means that the concentration gradient of osmosis must even out, therefore the cells in our hands and feet become turgid (a higher than normal concentration of water). With this in hand, aquatic animals must perform osmoregulation to ensure that their bodies internal environment remains at its optimum level. Take note that osmosis will always occur until their is an equilibrium between the internal and external environment (isotonic concentration). Our genomes' are used to dry environments, so this deviation from our body's norm can indeed indicate that we are less suited to surviving in a water environment because we are not adapted to do so any more, unlike our distant ancestors.
In regards to organisms in a freshwater habitat, they face the problem of continuous osmosis of water in to their bodies, because their body is hypotonic in comparison to their external environment. This means that water will continue to diffuse into the fish until their is an isotonic concentration between the two environments. Since the fish would not be able to operate with such a high concentration of water in their system, evolutionary adaptations have overcome this problem. The kidneys which deal with the uptake of water are suited to their function, as the glomerulus' of the kidney has a large surface area to reduce the concentration of water in the blood. As these kidney tubules allow a large scale movements of ions out of the bloodstream, the organism needs to reabsorb some important ions such as salt back into the bloodstream via active transport.
You can relate this osmoregulation to the way glycogen is stored in the kidney of humans, as the homeostatic controls involved with this area are there primarily to ensure that the conditions inside the organism are suited to the demands put upon it. Excess water within such an organism would damage the internal organs of it beyond repair by damaging the cell membrane and organelles due to the pressure caused by the water.
The opposite problem exists in animals that live in the ocean, where the salty water means that water is at a lower concentration than most organisms. The result here is that the organism is hypertonic to its external environment (has a higher water concentration), and must re-absorb water to remain in a healthy state. Evolutionary adaptation has also favoured these animals, and the kidneys have been anatomically altered over time to ensure the long-term survival of such organisms. The glomeruli in such organisms have a much smaller surface area, because the need to excrete ions into its external environment is not as extreme, because most water needs to be retained for survival, unlike freshwater organisms. Little salt needs to be re-absorbed due to the fact the salt-water environment can be drunk, and therefore is not as scarce as it would be for a freshwater organism.
The key point is that these organisms need to maintain an optimum water concentration in their internal environment to continue to function normally and optimally.
In more extreme environments, such as the desert, water is scarce and water must be stored in times of need, hence a camels humps.
Much water can be lost via sweat, under extremely hot weather or strenuous exercise
Excretion via urine and faeces also accounts for much of our water loss
Water is also required by many of our biological processes, and is therefore an exhaustible resource for these continuing processes.
Behavioural adaptations come into play here, as some species, such as the kangaroo rat lay in long periods of dormancy when the weather is hot, which would result in the rat losing more water through respiration than it can afford. The rat lays dormant underground in moist conditions where the concentration in water in the air and the rats lungs is at its minimum, therefore the least amount of water is lost to the external environment.
All these adaptations are designed for the organisms to survive more tolerably in their present habitat, and without these evolutionary changes, some of the species on the planet may not have survived to this point.
A plant requires water as an essential ingredient of photolysis, the photochemical stage of photosynthesis where water is split using light energy. This is the part of the process in which a plant obtains its' energy, and thus illustrates the importance of water to a plant.
Water is absorbed from the root and is transported to all areas of the plant, this passage of water is called the transpiration stream. Water is absorbed by the roots of a plant, which possess many root hairs with large surface areas for extensive absorbing of water. We have already discussed how osmosis occurs across a concentration gradient in preceding tutorials, and this is the case here.
When water is required an the concentration of water in the roots is low, water is absorbed from the higher concentration of water found in the ground. This same occurrence goes for the concentration difference between cells, as the water rich root cells allow osmosis to occur up the plant until their is an equal concentration throughout the organism.
Scientists were previously perplexed by the nature in which water could defy the force of gravity and move up the plant, since water molecules are heavier than the surrounding atmosphere. Through extensive studies, the following factors are thought to play a role in pushing water up the transpiration stream.
This factor is brought about by osmosis and the unequal concentration of water across the plant. Osmosis will occur up the plant until their is an equal concentration
This is due to adhesion, the force of attraction between two different particles. When water passes up the thin xylem tubes, it adheres to its surface area, while the force of osmosis gently pushes the water molecules to their desired location
This is thought to be the major force that allows water to be transported throughout a plant. Water is transpired by a plant via stomata, which means water concentration in these areas will be especially low. Since osmosis occurs across a concentration gradient, water will 'rush' into these areas to even out the water concentration across the plant.
It is an eventuality that water is lost in some way, such as through the stomata, similar to how humans lose water through respiration when breathing out. Stomata are also the source of CO2 which a plant required for photosynthesis, and while stomata open in daylight for the intake of CO2 when most photosynthesis occurs, this allows an increased loss of water to the external environment.
These stomata structures alter in size according to their turgor, which is mostly determined to the water concentration in them. When water concentration drops in the stroma areas, the opening to the external environment closes. Stomata therefore play a regulating role in the homeostasis of water control. During a particular hot day, while the stomata is open for photosynthesis, transpiration can occur at a much higher rate due to the temperature. When this occurs, the water concentration drops in the stomata and therefore it loses turgor, and in turn the stomata opening closes. This ensures that water concentration is kept near its preferred level. This type of water transpiration occurs in mesophyte plants, which occupy climates that are of average rainfall and of average temperature.
Xerophytes, such as many species of cactus, live in more extreme environment. Evolutionary adaptations has allowed them to survive and prosper in such ecosystems as the deserts of the Earth. These evolutionary adaptations effectively reduce the transpiration rate of a plant, and promote water retention, and are as follows;
The leaf surface curves in on itself, meaning the water transpired remains in close contact with the leaf. The result is a high concentration of water adjacent to the leaf surface, which will move across the concentration gradient of water back into the plant. In this instance, less of the leaf surface area is exposed directly to the atmosphere.
The same effect is acquired in the concept of double insulated walls that are used in modern housing, where a cavity between inside and outside reduces the rate of diffusion between cold and hot air - meaning that heat retention is improved in a similar way to the water retention example above.
This has the same effect of curved leaves, preventing a clean break of water into the atmosphere from transpiration. Water molecules stick to these hairs, due to the adhesive attraction between the two structures.
Less stomata across a plant means less opportunity for water to escape.
Varying species of xerophytes also possess other various evolutionary adaptations suited to their existence. Areas that lack a steady flow of rainfall house plants with roots are spread across the grounds' surface, to absorb as much water as possible while they have the chance.
Hydrophytes are plants that live their lives in an aquatic environment, and face different problems from xerophytes. They receive oxygen they require from fluid-filled spaces that store oxygen for as and when it is in demand. One other problem (comparable to the wind) is the continuous water currents that barrage the exterior of the plant. In water, things weigh around two and a half times lighter than they would above ground. The plant must have a flexible nature to cope with the strains of this water current, and evolutionary adaptations in such hydrophytes has reduced the amount of xylem found in such plants. This is elementary as these plants, which are surrounded in water do not have to rely on the forces related to the transpiration as much as their above ground counterparts.
The water cycle, sometimes referred to as the hydrological cycle, is the continuous transfer of water from air, sea land and water in a continuous cycle. This continuous movement of water is sufficient to provide good living conditions on the planet while at the same time transferring the water to places where it is needed as a norm.
Water in the oceans evaporates with long, direct exposure to the heat from the sun, and with the warm air above the warming ocean, the droplets of water rise as cold air rushes in to fill the gap of the rising warm air. This elevation of water is essentially cloud formation.
The clouds are easily moved in the direction of the wind, and this driving mechanism pushes the cloud in any given direction, while more water evaporates from the ocean as well as transpiring from plants and animals. The clouds, which eventually rise to high altitude and discharge their water as they hit the cooler air.
This rainfall can end up in a variety of places in the short term future, many of which in some way promote advantageous conditions for life to take advantage of it; water being an essential compound for countless species.
The next tutorial looks at the freshwater ecosystem, which plays an important part in this water cycle but is also an important habitat for many species in which they depend on (and have adapted to) for survival.


text:
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The Metathorcs are a group of radiant zones accessible by beings indigenous to the material planes through advanced psionics.
Each metathorc is a spiral encystment of space and time governed by the will of a single godling overseer who monitors the constant channeling of psychic energy from the material plane to its metathorc. He/she is surrounded by a court of petty godlings, ghosts and aetheric phantoms. In this place these beings possess bodies of translucent jelly described as "pseudo-flesh" by the learned -- a kind of substitute for mortal flesh that can be altered according to the will of the mind that controls it. The lord or lady of the metathorc may occupy one body, several, or many thousands of pseudo-flesh forms. [Note that pseudo-flesh is particularly vulnerable to magical fire, and that its regenerative properties may be undermined by the higher forms of dispellery or through occult artifacts of cancellation.
Bondsmen are beings entirely under the will of the godling overseer -- they may be altered only through the consciousness of their master. Some of them are bestial and crude. Others are more human-like in shape. All of them are psychically linked to the overseer -- it is aware of all their movements, thoughts and designs.
Courtesans are the loved things of the overseer that make its eternal duty bearable. Their forms and relative complexities vary from metathorc to metathorc, but they all share certain powers and liberties that set them apart from other beings found within these regions. Special courtesans who have partially merged with the overseer are called consorts. Typically the lessermost consort is responsible for the terrestrial laws that govern all mindful things dwelling in the metathorc. It is a duty passed down from courtesan to courtesan throughout the aeons. The post of lessermost is a social ritual perceived as a period of punishment necessary for all consorts to obtain understanding with the overseer. This sharing of minds slowly alters the overseer's mental morphology as time passes, often to narrower and narrower forms of intense perception and awareness. This "hardening" of mental content and relationships is unavoidable and (unfortunately for the overseer and his subjects) leads frequently to divine malaise and other disorders of the godmind.
Metathorcs are flooded with psychic energy at the same pace that this same stuff is being burned away into empty space. This transitory condition gives rise to anger, deep sadness and obsession in all sentient beings in its proximity. Visitors are advised to come in the company of ghost-travelers like the lawful couriers of Greater Gloth who charge their clients pieces of their constitution (which they convert to an edible yellow plasm called garmonbozia) for their protection and aegis.


text:
Friday, 21 July, 2017, 9:31 ( 7:31 GMT )
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Front Page
(Issue 396)
Archived Issues
Summary of the American and International Press on the Libyan Revolution -
Morgan Strong
24/07/2011 10:22:00
Rebels Say Al Qathafi Must Face Trial as Tripoli Hit
N.Y. Times
) - A Libyan rebel spokesman insisted Friday that Muammar Al Qathafi stand trial at the international war crimes tribunal, despite growing Western consensus that the longtime dictator be allowed to stay in his homeland if he relinquishes power.
NATO jet planes, meanwhile, struck the capital Tripoli near Al Qathafi's headquarters at Bab al-Azziziyah in the early hours of the morning Saturday.
Several bright flashes and loud explosions split the night at around 2:30 a.m. local time while jets could be heard circling overhead.
NATO bombing raids and other military operations began this spring to protect civilians rebelling against the Libyan regime, but Al Qathafi has managed to keep his grip on the capital, Tripoli, to the frustration of Western leaders.
NATO planes struck a factory near the embattled oil city of Brega on Friday killing six guards, Libyan officials said.
The plant, located six miles (10 kilometres) south of the strategic oil installation, builds the huge pipes that carry water from underground aquifers deep in the south to the coast as part of the Great Man Made River irrigation project.
"Major parts of the plant have been damaged," said Abdel-Hakim el-Shwehdy, head of the company running the project. "There could be major setback for the future projects."
At least 70 percent of Libyans survive on the water carried through the pipes to the coast in the project, according to government figures.
"Most Libyans drink from the Great Manmade River, most Libyan land is farmed from the water, so any harm against this vital project is a harm against all Libyans," warned government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. "We believe this a very dangerous development in NATO'S attacks."
Washington, Paris and Rome have all proclaimed their acceptance of the idea that Al Qathafi remain in Libya on the condition that he give up power and the Libyan people grant their approval.
In Rome, rebel spokesman Ali al-Issawi met with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
Asked how the so-called "leave Al Qathafi in Libya option" squares with the warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court, al-Issawi told reporters that there was "no contradiction between the two."
"The first principle is that Al Qathafi should step down," al-Issawi, a leader of the rebels' executive office said after a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. "After that you can talk about the details."
"We would like Al Qathafi to be taken to the ICC," al-Issawi said, referring to the Hague-based tribunal.
Al-Issawi's office essentially serves as a Cabinet for the National Transitional Council, the Benghazi-based anti-Al Qathafi front that was recently recognised by Washington as Libya's legitimate government.
Frattini noted that Libya isn't among the signatory countries to an agreement obligating arrest for such warrants, and he stressed that while "impunity (for Al Qathafi) would be a mistake, it has to be the Libyans to decide" Al Qathafi's fate. Whatever that decision is, "we'll respect it," the foreign minister added.
Whether Western support to allow Libyans to keep Al Qathafi in his country once out of power indicates waning desire to drive him out of Tripoli is unclear. There have been fears the civil warfare could end in a kind of stalemate, with the rebels in charge mainly in eastern Libya and Al Qathafi's forces entrenched in Tripoli.
Al-Issawi said that a blast at a Tripoli hotel Thursday where several top members of the regime, including Al Qathafi's son Seif al-Islam, were meeting was caused by a rocket launched from within the city.
"This is a good signal that people inside Tripoli are organising" against Al Qathafi, Frattini told reporters.
The rebel spokesman said the attack "severely wounded" Abdullah Mansour, apparently a high official in Al Qathafi's inner circle.
A Tripoli-based opposition group called the Free Generation Movement said in a statement that three rocket-propelled grenades were used to attack the hotel.
However, the government spokesman, Ibrahim, denied any attack had occurred, saying it was only an accident turned into a propaganda ploy by rebels.
"There was no attack yesterday whatsoever, there was an explosion near the Sheraton caused by a (cooking) gas cylinder," said. "It was a kitchen explosion that was immediately turned into an attack to boost (rebel) morale."
Libya, a major supplier of oil and natural gas to Italy, was Rome's biggest trading partner before the outbreak of civil war, and al-Issawi assured Frattini that Italy would regain that rank in Libya's future.
"We invite all the Italian companies in Libya to restart their activities," al-Issawi told reporters.
Among those eager to return to full operations is Italian energy company Eni, which the Libyan government has banned from operating in Libya due to Italy's participation in the NATO attacks.
Frattini delivered some good news to the rebel's political arm. He said that within days, the first tranche of euro350 million ($503 million) in cash and fuel would be transferred to Benghazi to help civilians there, while Italy and other countries wait for U.N. sanctions officials to free up billions of dollars in frozen Al Qathafi regime assets.
Blasts rock Tripoli, Libya state TV says NATO strikes
) - Explosions rocked the Libyan capital early on Sunday,
witnesses said, sending a giant plume of smoke into the air. Libyan state television said NATO air strikes struck the Libyan capital but gave no further details.
Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi is clinging to power despite ongoing NATO-led air campaign and a lengthening conflict with rebels who now control roughly half the country.
The explosions hit Tripoli at about 0100 local time on Sunday, a day after NATO launched strikes on what it said was a military command site in Tripoli.
State television said the NATO strikes early on Saturday had hit civilian and military sites and had wounded several people.
One Tripoli resident said one of Sunday's strikes appeared to have hit an intelligence building in Tripoli, the first hit on that building since the Western-led military alliance began strikes on Libya in March.
Libya rebels report loss of Qatrun
AFP/Daily Star, Beirut
) - Libyan rebel fighters have lost control of the southwestern oasis town of Qatrun after an attack by forces loyal to Muammar Al Qathafi, a member of the local Toubou tribe told
on Saturday.
Al Qathafi's troops swept in from the north on Thursday, forcing rebel fighters from the town, according to Mohammed Lino, who relayed information gleaned via satellite phone, said in Benghazi.
At least two people are thought to have been killed and eight wounded in the attack.
The lack of transport links to the southwest, patchy telecommunications and poor security make independent verification of the claim impossible.
But Lino said Al Qathafi's forces had been camped on the north side of the town and rebels in the south, with an estimated 20,000 civilians trapped between the two.
It is not clear if the town has since been taken.
Toubou tribesmen had earlier reported capturing the town on July 17. A delegation is now in Benghazi to ask for supplies and assistance.
Qatrun is 1,000 kilometres south of Tripoli.
Al Qathafi's forces had tried to retake the town on at least three occasions before Thursday.
"We have been attacked twice in the past week by Al Qathafi's army," said Mohammed Sidi, a Toubou tribal leader said earlier this week.
One attack, he said, involved as many as 150 4X4 vehicles. In repelling the attacks, one person was killed and eight wounded.
Qatari munition-labelled boxes sent to Libya
) - Trucks apparently carrying munitions found amid medical and other supplies on a Qatari flight to Libya.
Qatar has sent at least 200 tonnes of aid, including medical supplies, to help Libyan opposition forces since foreign support began to arrive.
The Qatari air force showed Al Jazeera a cargo plane bound for Libya containing computers, printers, rice, milk and sugar.
The main cargo on the plane were a military police unit and some intelligence personnel. Also on the plane were four trucks full of wooden boxes which were clearly marked "munitions".
Al Jazeera was unable to find out if they were for the Qatari security forces to use or the rebels.
But the trucks were driven away by men who told Al Jazeera they had recently joined the pro-democracy fighters.
Police in Libya rebel capital pivot from oppressor to protector
L.A. Times
) - The police force in Benghazi, the Libyan rebel stronghold, is 6,000 poorly trained and woefully equipped men struggling to establish law and order in the middle of a revolution.
Officer Sharif Ganasi was working the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift, cruising the trash-strewn streets of Benghazi, alert for drunks and carjackers.
His new black police uniform was too tight and too hot. He was drenched with sweat, his bulky body crammed into the tiny driver's seat of a white Hyundai compact. His hand-held radio kept cutting out.
"We could use better equipment," he said as he guided car 23 through evening traffic in the de facto capital of Libya's rebels.
Ganasi doesn't carry a gun or a badge. He rarely arrests anyone. Mostly he reports suspicious activities so that police headquarters can dispatch officers who actually do have guns.
Such is the marginalized world of Benghazi's finest: 6,000 poorly trained and woefully equipped men struggling to establish law and order in the middle of a revolution.
They haven't been paid in two months. They often buy their own gasoline. If they want a gun, they come up with their own.
The first target of rebels who liberated eastern Libya from Muammar Al Qathafi in February was the instrument of state repression: the police. Their stations were burned and ransacked. Guns, radios and police cruisers were looted. Cops fled, many to join the rebel fight against Al Qathafi's troops.
Five months later, 80% of those police officers are back on the streets. But of the more than 500 police cars they once drove, barely 100 have been returned.
For all the shortcomings, though, Benghazi's police seem to be slowly earning something that did not exist under Al Qathafi: trust.
"Before, people were terrified of the police; they hated us," Ganasi, 35, said as pedestrians waved to him on his rounds. "Now they see us as someone who can protect them, not someone to protect the people in power."
Ashour Showil, 52, the city's new police chief, served as Benghazi's top traffic officer under Al Qathafi. He now commands both forces. Before, he acknowledges, police were "a threat to civilians, rather than their protectors."
Now, as Showil tries to fashion a modern police force from the ashes of a state security apparatus, he has a simple message for his officers:
"The old ways are gone," he said. "Police are here to serve the people, to treat them with respect."
Officers explain their sudden pivot from oppressors to public servants by saying they quietly seethed under Al Qathafi's regime. Ganasi said he was jailed for two weeks for complaining about raw sewage at the police academy.
"No one was proud to be a policeman then, but you couldn't say anything or there would be severe punishment," said Saad Mohammed Agheli, a 21-year traffic police veteran who patrols in a Ford Crown Victoria.
Saad Ashour, 32, who sells coffee outside a downtown police station, said people tolerate the suddenly repentant police because ordinary citizens also resented Al Qathafi's stifling rule but were terrified to speak out.
Besides, he said, it was the dreaded Lijan Thawriya, Al Qathafi's secret security police, they really hated, not ordinary cops.
"We're being patient with the police, because they're sincerely trying to be good officers," Ashour said. "They just need better training to learn how to serve the people."
The scholarly Showil, whose men address him as "Doctor" on account of his advanced degree in legal management, said that crime is down in Benghazi. His said his city is far safer than any municipality in Egypt or Tunisia, two neighbours that toppled long-standing autocrats this year.
In fact, Benghazi is far less chaotic than it was in February and March, when gunmen roamed the streets, firing weapons day and night. Gun trucks crammed with looted police and army weapons careened through the streets.
The gun trucks are now at the battle front outside the oil city of Port Brega, 140 miles southwest of Benghazi, and few weapons appear in public here. In fact, police have issued a directive that any American gun-control advocate would love: All weapons must be registered, and they may not be carried on the street.
Billboards proclaim: "Hey, young guy, don't shoot. You're scaring my mother!"
Out on evening patrol, Ganasi said robberies and kidnappings are few these days. Thefts are down, except for a rash of cellphone pilfering.
But even with the gun law, young toughs with looted weapons still embark on carjacking rampages. Firearms were strictly banned under Al Qathafi's rule, so guns have a distinct allure for young men, Ganasi said. They are the cause of most violence here, he said.
"Now, when these young guys get into fights, somebody ends up shot dead," he said.
In March, Ganasi said, he and two other officers encountered an armed gang that had carjacked a woman. One officer was armed, so they confronted the carjackers instead of calling headquarters.
The officer fired into the air and the gang retreated, Ganasi said. They didn't arrest anyone, but they recovered the woman's car and escorted her home.
Alone and unarmed tonight, he wouldn't dare confront gunmen. He focuses instead on young men drinking khamra, or homemade booze. Alcohol is banned in Muslim Libya.
"We never got cooperation from the public before, but now these guys' fathers report them for drinking and carousing," Ganasi said.
He steered past the Doha police station, burned and gutted in February but now rebuilt as a showpiece. In other neighbourhoods, chief Showil said, people who had reviled the police now raise money to rebuild substations.
Inside the whitewashed Doha station, deputy station chief Moussa Muzany has only 15 pistols and 10 automatic rifles for 150 officers. He pointed to a stack of papers in his bare, freshly painted office.
"Those are police reports of stolen weapons" from the February uprising, he said. "I'm still trying to get them back."
Muzany does not carry a gun. Asked about his station's most urgent needs, he replied, "Everything: cars, gasoline, guns, training." Seven of his men are fighting for the rebels.
Even under Al Qathafi, Muzany said, officers' access to guns was restricted. Al Qathafi kept both the police and the military in restive eastern Libya weak and poorly armed to discourage coup attempts.
Weapons restrictions were tossed aside to help put down the February uprising, but many officers joined the rebels after security police shot their relatives.
Al Qathafi had given the best weapons to the Lijan Thawriya, which detained, tortured and killed regime opponents. The Lijan Thawriya is gone here, but rebels who control the east have their own special security branch.
Working with militias that report to the military, it hunts down suspected pro-Al Qathafi sympathisers, including former security branch members, and detains them without charge or trial.
Muzany said security police intercepted several carloads of explosives that Al Qathafi supporters intended for attacks on civilians at a recent rebel rally.
In his little Hyundai - one of dozens donated by wealthy businessmen - Ganasi drove on. A cop for 13 years, he fled his post during the uprising, he said, but returned a week later because police work is all he knows.
It was early evening. The call to prayer rang out. Garbage burned in alleyways, and stray dogs tore at bags of restaurant waste. Idle young men gathered in sidewalk cafes.
Ganasi steered the car to a hotel, his normal duty station, where he provides security, sitting for hours at a time, listening to radio calls, usually hot and bored. He parked, took a drag on a cigarette and exhaled blue smoke.
"A new day is coming," he said. "Soon, God willing, we will all be doing real police work."
Libya wants more talks with U.S. and rebels
Daily Star, Beirut
) - Libyan representatives are ready to hold more talks with the United States and with rebels hoping to push Muammar Al Qathafi from power, but Al Qathafi will not bow to demands he quit, a government spokesman said.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said senior Libyan officials had a `productive dialogue' with U.S. counterparts last week in a rare meeting that followed the Obama administration's recognition of the rebel government that hopes to end Al Qathafi's 41-year rule.
"We believe other meetings in the future ... will help solve Libyan problems," Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli on Friday. "We are willing to talk to the Americans more."
Early on Saturday NATO warplanes bombed targets in the Libyan capital, causing damage and casualties, Libyan state television said, without giving details.
witness said there were at least six blasts, adding they were the largest to the hit the capital in several weeks. Four explosions rocked the hotel where international media were based and two more were heard slightly further off.
As Al Qathafi clings to power despite five months of civil conflict and a lengthening NATO bombing campaign, the West is increasingly hoping for a negotiated settlement to the Libyan conflict.
While the United States, NATO's dominant military power, is hoping that talks can gain traction, it along with the rebels that now control roughly half of Libya insists Al Qathafi must go.
Ibrahim said Libyan officials - but not Al Qathafi himself - would be willing to hold further meetings with rebels. But such talks will only take place on the government's terms, he said, as it urges them to put down their arms and rejoin the Al Qathafi camp.
"Nations do not negotiate with armed gangs," Ibrahim said. Al Qathafi is urging Libyans, however, to persuade rebels to disarm - and to fight them if they don't.
The comments came as the Libya reported a NATO airstrike near the eastern oil hub of Brega, the scene of recent fighting, which the government said killed six guards at a water pipeline plant. The report could not be immediately verified.
As Western nations intensify diplomatic efforts to foster an exit from the conflict, a European diplomat said that a U.N. envoy will seek to persuade warring parties in Libya to accept a plan that envisages a ceasefire and a power-sharing government, but with no role for Al Qathafi.
The diplomat said the informal proposals would be canvassed by the special U.N. envoy to Libya, Abdul Elah al-Khatib, who has met both government and rebels several times.
Khatib, a Jordanian senator, told
in Amman he hoped both sides would accept his ideas.
"The U.N. is exerting very serious efforts to create a political process that has two pillars; one is an agreement on a ceasefire and simultaneously an agreement on setting up a mechanism to manage the transitional period," he said. He did not go into the details of that mechanism.
Tough fight
Poorly armed rebels seem unlikely on the cusp of the Islamic holy month to quickly unseat Al Qathafi, who came to power himself as a young revolutionary influenced by Egypt's Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
The rebels declared advances this week but they also suffered losses near their stronghold of Misurata and in fighting for Brega.
On Thursday rebels said minefields slowed their advance on Brega - which they had earlier claimed to have all but captured - but that they had pushed closer to Zlitan, on the Mediterranean coast 160 km (100 miles) east of Tripoli.
A rebel spokesman near Zlitan called urgently for help for people in nearby Souk al-Thulatha who joined the rebels but were now besieged by government forces. "This is very dangerous for the course of the revolution," he wrote in an online posting.
Al Qathafi has stepped up his defiant rhetoric amid persistent reports of talks. Pro-government rallies are being shown almost daily on state television, perhaps a reminder to outsiders that he can still command considerable support.
On Friday, thousands of people gathered near Tripoli's historic centre to watch the unveiling of a massive likeness of the longtime leader.
State television said Al Qathafi would make another speech on Saturday, this time addressed to Egyptians on the anniversary of their revolution - not this year's, which toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but pan-Arabist Nasser's in 1959.
Despite facing a rebel challenge and ostracised by much of the international community, the government remained potent, Ibrahim said.
"NATO, you are losing, you will lose," he said. "The armed gangs in the western mountains and the east part of the country, you have no future (in the country). Admit it."
Ibrahim also denied a report from rebel foreign spokesman Ali Essawi that Mansour Daw, a key aide to Al Qathafi, had been wounded in a rebel rocket attack on a meeting of Al Qathafi's inner circle in Tripoli on Thursday. Ibrahim said there had been an explosion caused by a kitchen gas cylinder.
Hopes for a negotiated settlement are growing as Europe and the United States grapple with fiscal crises at home. This week, France said for the first time that Al Qathafi could stay in Libya as long as he gives up power.
But there is little evidence in Libya that either side is ready to make serious concessions.
"The first principle for Libyans is that Al Qathafi should step down, and announce this and make this very clear. After that, we can talk about details," Essawi told reporters in Rome.
"Negotiations will be only on the departure of Al Qathafi. We will not negotiate on his staying in Libya or ruling the Libyans," he said.
Ibrahim meanwhile reiterated that Al Qathafi would not leave his position nor leave Libya on demands from rebels or from NATO.
Complicating Al Qathafi's situation is the fact that the world court in The Hague which seeks his arrest over crimes against humanity allegedly committed by his forces, he added.
As the war in Libya drags on, the U.S. military is weighing options that may deepen its involvement in the conflict and its alliance with the rebels.
A U.S. official told
on Friday that the United States is considering a NATO request to send more Predator drones to Libya, as well as other surveillance aircraft. It has also reopened a debate over arming the rebels, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Al Qathafis resilience has diluted Western ambitions for change in Libya
Al Arabiya
) - Military pressure alone may not end Libyas war, but neither is diplomacy proving to be the fast track to peace that impatient Western powers had hoped. Ineptly deployed, it may even put a brake on the deal-making a resolution will almost certainly require, analysts say.
Just how slippery the political track has become for the West emerged on Wednesday, when France, a leading nation in the coalition attacking Colonel Muammar Al Qathafis forces, said the Libyan leader could remain in the country if he relinquished power.
The idea floated by Foreign Minister Alain Juppé will be anathema to many in the rebel opposition who insist Colonel Al Qathafi not only end his 41-year-old rule but also leave the country.
The notion also looks at odds with a Al Qathafi arrest warrant issued by The Hague court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed by state forces against civilian demonstrators.
Perhaps most starkly of all, Mr. Juppés remark shows how far Colonel Al Qathafis resilience has diluted Western ambitions five months after the start of an anti-government revolt and four months after NATO began air strikes.
Then, back on February 24, Mr. Juppé, echoing the aspirations of officials in many Western states, said: I hope wholeheartedly Al Qathafi is living his last moments as leader.
The more modest the Wests expectations, the better the deal Colonel Al Qathafi may eventually be able to strike.
Foreign powers are eager for a rapid end to hostilities, because they want the oil-exporting nation of 6 million to emerge as a stable democracy rather than fall prey to ethnic or tribal conflict, or become a haven for Islamist militants - both outcomes a prolonged conflict might produce.
But the remarks by Mr. Juppé, the first senior Western official to express the Al Qathafi-can-stay option in such a direct manner, will give great comfort to the leader, said Jon Marks, a veteran Libya watcher and chairman of Cross Border Information, a UK-based consultancy.
It would encourage the Colonel in a belief that he can widen rifts within the international community by stringing out talks with Western powers on a potential exit strategy, he said.
Opposition activist and journalist Ashour Shamis said it was impossible to imagine Colonel Al Qathafi, a proven survivor who ruled for years under sanctions, remaining in Libya in retirement keeping quiet and not making trouble.
In his mind he is Libya and therefore has the natural right to intervene. So this idea of Al Qathafi staying in the country undermines the whole project (or reaching a workable solution).
It will create more problems than it solves.
Western officials have said they are receiving continual approaches by Libyan officials expressing contradictory messages on how to bring peace to the country. Some indicate a willingness to step down and help with transitional elections.
But on the record, Colonel Al Qathafi appears defiant. Earlier this month he even threatened to take the war to Europe.
His foreign minister, Abdulati al-Obeidi, said on Wednesday that the government was not in any discussions about Colonel Al Qathafis potential departure from power.
As a result of the mixed messages, no one appears sure whether Colonel Al Qathafi intends to fight in hope of keeping his grip on the territory around Tripoli or seek an exit strategy that guarantees security for himself and his family.
Colonel Al Qathafi is under huge pressure from dwindling fuel supplies and a broadening network of diplomatic acceptance of the rebels, notably Washingtons July 15 recognition of the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council as Libyas government.
The colonels best hope of survival is for a large-scale fallout between NATO members and a scaling back or cessation of air strikes, a briefing by risk analysis firm Maplecroft said.
This, however, is unlikely to occur in the near term. As such, the noose continues to tighten around Al Qathafi.
But Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, said behind-the-scenes contacts had clearly not clinched agreement about Colonel Al Qathafis evident desire to stay in Libya. Theres no real indication that that difference has been bridged yet.
Some analysts say Colonel Al Qathafi is not likely to embrace the notion of asylum in a third country, even if the UN Security Council voted to give him immunity from prosecution.
Uppermost in the minds of Colonel Al Qathafis aides, Miles said, was the case of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was arrested in March 2006 for crimes committed in Sierra Leones 1991-2002 civil war.
Mr. Taylor was in exile in Nigeria from 2003 until March 2006, when he briefly disappeared before Nigerian police arrested him at a remote border post as he tried to flee into Cameroon.
The version of the Charles Taylor story that seems to be believed in Libya is that he was given assurances of asylum by the Nigerians and they welshed on this and handed him over to the court, Mr. Miles said.
That must be in anyones mind if they are thinking in terms of asylum in Africa.
U.S. struggles to free money for Libyan rebels
Washington Post
) - Despite newly won diplomatic recognition from the United States, Libyan rebels could face a long wait for promised financial relief, say U.S. officials who cite a thicket of red tape that continues to ensnare most of the $34 billion in frozen Libyan assets held in U.S.-controlled bank accounts.
Obama administration officials held at least two rounds of meetings over the past week to explore ways to free the money, which the opposition Transitional National Council says it urgently needs to pay salaries and buy ammunition and other critical supplies.
But so far, State and Treasury department officials have identified only a small fraction of the vast Libyan holdings that can be quickly freed for the rebels, according to current and former officials familiar with the talks.
Even that modest sum - estimated by some officials to be as little as a few hundred million dollars - will likely be released slowly because of bankers concerns about possible legal risks in handing over money to someone other than the account holder, the officials said.
All these institutions want assurances that theyll be protected, said one U.S. government official who insisted on anonymity in describing internal discussions about money for the rebels. This is something that is going to take some time.
The surprising difficulties over releasing money are latest in a series of frustrations for the rebel group, which had hoped that diplomatic recognition would lead to the freeing of billions of dollars in frozen assets controlled by autocratic leader Muammar Al Qathafi.
TNC officials say billions are needed urgently to keep the transitional government afloat and allow their troops to press their their five-month-long fight against Al Qathafi loyalists.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on July 15 that the United States would recognize the TNC as Libyas official government, a move that itself followed months of legal wrangling over whether Washington could grant formal recognition to a group that does not control large swaths of the country.
But while the rebels hailed Clintons announcement, the opposition group has seen few benefits so far. On Friday, the TNCs representative in Washington was still waiting for word on when he could move into the empty Libyan Embassy.
Ali Aujali, who was Al Qathafis ambassador before resigning earlier this year, said he needed just the State Department to finalize the issue before he moved back in.
Aujali met with State Department officials this week to implore them to unfreeze some of the Libyan assets in U.S. institutions. But he acknowledged afterward that it would take weeks before the rebels would see the cash.
The money is really needed in Libya, badly needed, he said. I think the Americans recognise this is very important, he said, adding that the U.S. diplomatic recognition will help many other countries to change their position to send the money to the TNC.
Officials with the TNC have said they are not seeking the immediate handover of all $34 billion in frozen assets, a sum they acknowledge the council may not yet be able to handle.
But Aujali said at least $4 billion was needed by his government would ensure that markets were stocked with critical supplies and the TNC could maintain credibility with the population. The rebels also need weapons, he said.
Al Qathafi is not killing people using potatoes or tomatoes, he is using real weapons, he said.
One option, he said, might be using the frozen funds as collateral. We can have loans against this frozen money. Thats what Turkey did, Aujali said, referring to a $200 million payment from the Turks.
The TNC signed a contract last month with the lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs to help them win diplomatic recognition from the U.S. government and gain access to the frozen funds.
The contract allowed payments of up to $50,000 a month to the Washington firm, but also stipulated that Patton Boggs would not seek payment until the TNC was on sound financial footing.
U.S. and Libyan officials cite several hurdles in releasing money to the rebels. Chief among them are legally binding economic sanctions imposed against the Al Qathafi regime by the U.N. Security Council.
Unfreezing the money, diplomats said, would require a consensus vote of the U.N. sanctions committee, which includes countries such as Russia and China that are skeptical of NATOs military campaign in Libya.
Other difficulties stem from the fact that Libyas financial holdings are widely dispersed among financial institutions that are subject to the laws of foreign governments, some of whom do not yet recognize the TNC as Libyas government, diplomats said.
Indeed, some U.S. legal experts continue to question whether the U.S. recognition of the TNC was legally sound.
John B. Bellinger III, who was departments legal counsel during the George W. Bush administration, said recognition raises difficult questions as to who has the international obligations of Libya under international law - such as upholding the Vienna convention, which requires governments to provide access to detained foreigners.
Who owes that obligation? Is it that the old Libyan government under Al Qathafi or the new transitional council? Bellinger asked in a
Washington Post
But other experts on international law note a long tradition by U.S. governments to use diplomatic recognition as a policy instrument, backing new governments whenever theres a compelling U.S. interest for doing so.
Lawyers will always come up with elaborate arguments, said Philip Zelikow, a former Counsellor to the State Department. The important questions are: What are the facts on the ground, and what is it that you want to achieve.
Rather than debating the issue for months, the administration should have granted recognition months ago, thus avoiding the current problems with frozen assets, he said. Back then, it might have been a decisive factor, he said. It could have knocked the wind of of Al Qathafis sails.
Libyan women fight for freedom on the home front
) - Libyan men have had to reassess how they view the fairer sex since the start of the uprising, and when the dust settles the role of women in the north African country may well have changed for ever.
The women of Libya - especially in the Nafusa Mountains - were among the protesters before the fighting started, and since then they have readied their sons and husbands for battle and nursed the wounded.
Meanwhile, they are also fighting for their own emancipation in the new Libya they are helping their men to forge.
Women do not exchange glances on the streets of the conservative Arab city of Zintan at the foot of the Nafusa range in western Libya. Behind walls daubed with graffiti proclaiming a "Free Libya," they move like black phantoms, hidden behind the full veil of the niqab.
At home, the arrival of an unfamiliar male guest sparks panic, and the ladies of the house scatter like bees. In times of war, they spend most of their time cloistered within four walls.
However, the ladies of Libya have felt the winds of change at their backs.
They were chanting "Down with Al Qathafi" at the start of the insurrection, alongside the men, calling for veteran strongman Muammar Al Qathafi to go.
"I've rallied with plenty of young women, even some pregnant ones. The men were so impressed they fired their Kalashnikovs in our honour! That showed them we were equal, and changed their opinion of us," says Afaf Abusaa, a 20-year-old technology student.
With the men away at the battlefield, the women secure the home front with housework and by providing moral support.
"Men have seen the women nurse the wounded, do volunteer work and cook for the fighters. They've seen mothers tell their sons: 'Go and fight. I will support you.' They hadn't expected that," says Hana Akra, a 24-year-old medical intern.
Women in Libya have come to see the revolution as a route towards their own emancipation, a way to break free from the jobs reserved for them: nurse, secretary or teacher, trades that leave time to take care of the family.
Not they can see a future in which they are not overlooked for a position because a man, albeit a less qualified one, has applied for the same job.
They hope that in the new Libya, their parents will allow them to select their own husbands, that their fathers and brothers will stop bossing them around and forbidding them from actively choosing their own path through life.
"Society is very conservative here," says Najiah Hamza, a 26-year-old medical student. "Women don't really have the chance to control their own destiny. We are always told: 'Don't say this, don't do that.' I hope the revolution helps us."
Forty-year-old Salma Abu Rawi recalls how her parents refused to let her marry her childhood sweetheart because he wasn't from Zintan, while Abusaa would rather not have to wear the veil after she is married.
Akra explains how she has to fight to become a surgeon, a profession reserved for men. "A woman must break the glass ceiling," she says.
"Parents are afraid to let their daughters go out, or work, for fear of gossip. We hope this will change, that men change, that they stop wanting us to be devoted primarily to the house, to the cooking and the children. We also want to be ourselves," says Alazumi Asma, a 22-year-old trainee laboratory assistant.
In the Berber villages of west Libya, women traditionally enjoy more freedom than in other parts of the country.
In Yafran, women do not have to wear the veil in public. They can be seen behind the steering wheels of cars or discussing contraception in front of men. And no one at home can order them around.
Berber ladies feel they have been leading the way towards women's liberation in Libya for some time. "Even under Al Qathafi, we wanted to show the way," says Twzeen Ali Abud, a 20-year-old student.
They want to go further still. Women's rights groups are popping up in Zintan, where there is talk of changing the laws on divorce and allowing women to participate in politics.
"The revolution gave us a chance to play a role" in society, says 23-year-old pharmacist Anya Ali Abud.
Show of support for Al Qathafi in Sirte
) - Sirte is Col Al Qathafi's hometown. It's also his heartland. For this reason, the Libyan government invited us to have a look.
It wanted to show us that - in this part of the country at least - the leader still has plenty of support.
The six-hour drive from Tripoli to Sirte was a chance to see what life is like in the parts of Libya which are controlled by the government. Official guides (or minders) drove us in a minibus - firstly along the coastal road, then south into the desert in order to avoid the rebel-held city of Misurata.
Our drive took us past watermelon stands and herds of camels. We passed more than a dozen makeshift military checkpoints along the way - sometimes little more than a couple of soldiers guarding a few bricks laid across the road.
None of the soldiers we came across looked particularly anxious. We saw no sign of any rebels.
The ease of the journey was noticeable. There was no sense of siege.
Green brigade
In fact, it was often hard to tell that this is a country at war. The only obvious reminders were the long queues for petrol in Tripoli.
One line next to the main coastal road stretched for about a kilometre. Many of the cars were empty - suggesting that the drivers believed that the wait for petrol would be extremely long.
We arrived in Sirte in time for an early evening rally in support of Col Al Qathafi. Several thousand people gathered in the centre of the city. Many wore green baseball caps or waved green flags (green is the colour of those who support the colonel).
One young boy sat on the curb and diligently coloured his right forearm with a green felt-tip pen.
"Write the truth now," one man told us. "Hundreds of thousands of people," he said, pointing towards the crowd.
Many demonstrators carried pictures of Col Al Qathafi. Behind the stage, there was a picture of a young man who had been killed in the past few months of conflict.
"He is a martyr," another man told me approvingly.
'Judgement Day'
The rally included an audio message from the leader himself.
"There will be no talks between me and them (the rebels) until Judgement Day," Al Qathafi's voice told the crowd, to cheers.
"I'm here to support Al Qathafi because NATO just wants the oil," said Hamed Abel Asha. "This war is only for changing the government to get the oil."
"I'm very happy for this President Muammar Al Qathafi - I love Africa," said Ismail Abdullah. "Muammar Al Qathafi is very good for everybody black in Africa."
The demonstration ended with celebratory gunfire and fireworks.
It was a chance for some of the colonel's younger supporters to try out their still-developing shooting skills.
One teenager standing beneath a block of flats fired a volley of shots from an AK47 into the air. He was immediately accosted by a man who was annoyed that the shots had been fired so close to his children.
The teenager took a few steps down the street, fired off another shot, realised that he had run out of ammunition, and walked away.
Morgan Strong,
- Contributing Editor, New York
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Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.
|Margin Notes
|Chap. 153
|Time extended to St. Louis, Oklahoma and Southern Railway to construct road through Indian and Oklahoma Territories.
Ante. p. 588.
{Page 677}
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Act granting to the Saint Louis, Oklahoma and Southern Railway Company a right of way through the Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory, and for other purposes, which took effect on March twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, be, and the same is hereby, amended as follows:
The time for completing the survey of the entire line of said road and filing a map of the same with the Secretary of the Interior and constructing the first fifty miles, and the completion of the remaining sections thereof, shall be, and is hereby, extended two years from the dates specified in said Act.
Approved, February 13, 1899.


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Latest question:
How do you think the new GigE standards will influence the machine vision industry?
Respond or ask your question now!
By Lee J. Nelson
Contributing Editor
Several major UK- and US-based professional networks already are using Hi-Motion for high profile international sporting events. In fact, dramatic super-slow-motion replays were broadcast at the 2006 NFL AFC Championship Game, NFL Super Bowl, Six Nations International Championship (Rugby Union Internationals) and FIFA World Cup matches.
Relying on the latest technologies, fx Cam acquires up to 1000 fps with resolution exceeding 1280�720 pixels. At that speed, the camera captures better than 33 frames for each frame of standard video, extending one second of original fast-paced action to over thirty. It can accept an assortment of 35 mm format lenses, and it is completely self-contained. It is employed in television production, commercial film applications and sports broadcasting, including ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball and Sky Sport's International Cricket.
Engineers at Olympus Surgical & Industrial America, Inc. (Orangeburg, N.Y.) substantiate that embedding a processor into the camera head can replace the PC to which a high-speed video system customarily is tethered. A sufficiently powerful on-board device precludes obvious drawbacks, extends advantages such as a choice of real-time operating systems and control protocols while maintaining PC connectivity and preserving external I/O, if needed.
The Olympus i SPEED series features a reliable, 21.3-cm high-resolution LCD panel that was the genesis of Olympus' Controller Display Unit (CDU). It also offers an intuitive user-interface with a soft-key approach where action is determined from operating context and indicated by on-screen graphics.
Conventional PC-based cameras customarily rely on software-running on the PC-for color, tint, hue, saturation, contrast and zooming, recording and playing back stored imagery. The PC generates the user-interface and video is displayed in a window on the PC's screen. Although convenient, one drawback is relatively slow processing speed. While embedded processors usually do not have sufficient power to handle real-time video, the i-SPEED camera provides a full 60 fps update rate on its CDU even while recording. For playback, the unit similarly retrieves and displays video at up to 60 fps, without frame skipping. To facilitate those capabilities, Olympus implemented i-SPEED's video processing algorithms in FPGAs.