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18 February 2000
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Almodovar adds Oscar nomination to glory listPedro Almodovar's route to the Oscar podium came one step closer this morning as his All About My Mother ended a year of awards glory and won an Academy Award nomination for foreign language film of the year.The film marks Spain's 18th foreign language film Oscar nomination and could be the country's third winner (after To Begin Again in 1982 and Belle Epoque in 1993). It is Almodovar's second nomination after Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown in 198
American Beauty leads Oscars raceAs expected, Sam Mendes' American Beauty led the pack in the nominations for the 72nd annual Academy Awards with eight nominations including those for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.But the Academy came up with some major surprises including six nominations for box office behemoth The Sixth Sense including Best Picture and Best Director, and seven for Miramax Films' The Cider House Rules including Best Picture and
Andalusia signs up for EC Mediterranean programmeThe cultural council of Spain's Andalusian regional government has signed an agreement with the European Commission's General Direction of Exterior Relations to join the Euro-Mediterranean Audiovisual Development Program, dubbed the MEDEA program.With a budget of $4.9m (euro5m) to be spread out over three years, MEDEA aims to support the development and co-production of films and documentaries across Europe and the Mediterranean.The 27 countries encompassed in the programme incl
AtomFilms swoops on Primedia's Short And CurliesSouth Africa's Primedia Pictures has signed a distribution deal with US-based AtomFilms for distribution of its 'Short And Curlies' series of short films following their acclaim at international film festivals such as Venice, Edinburgh and Cannes.The agreement encompasses on-line and air-line distribution in all languages for five years. Seattle-based AtomFilms is a web operation that specialises in distribution of short films over the internet.AtomFilms backers include both War
Australia's Pennell moves into big-budget arenaAustralian production outfit Pennell Motion Pictures is set to produce A$15-20m ($9.5-12.6m) romantic comedy Amorous Intrigue, displaying further evidence that the Australian production community is intent on moving into bigger-budget projects.The film is based on the true story of Aphra Bhenn, who was a writer in the UK over 300 years ago. The project is being packaged by Creative Artists Agency in the US and Hugh Jackman is already attached to play the role of the swashbucklin
Becker lines up comedy for MiramaxX-Filme Creative Pool's Wolfgang Becker is developing comedy Hamstrung (Schinken), which could be the first project to go through the company's first-look deal with Miramax.The film, which Becker will direct, is about a butcher from Aberystwyth, Wales who travels to Phoenix, Arizona, to take part in a world ham championship. X-Filme signed the first-look deal with Miramax in 1998.Becker said that he is also developing two other directing projects - the long-gestating S
Bengal offers security to Mehta's troubled WaterThe Indian state of Bengal has offered Deepa Mehta's troubled production, Water, safe passage if the film relocates to Calcutta or elsewhere in Bengal.Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu said: 'If anyone tries to be disruptive after we grant the film permission to shoot, my government will ensure that such disrupters are immediately put in place.'' However Basu made the statement after opposition parties announced they would try to prevent Water filming in Bengal as it is 'a
BERLIN: COMPETITION AND JURY LINE-UPBelow is a list of titles confirmed for the various sections of the 50th International Film Festival Berlin (February 9-20). OPENING NIGHT FILM (also in competition):The Million Dollar Hotel - Wim Wenders (Germany-US)COMPETITION:Any Given Sunday - Oliver Stone (US)The Beach - Danny Boyle (US)Boys' Choir (Dokuritsu Shonen Gasshoudan) - Akira Ogata (Japan)The Captain's Daughter (Russkij Bunt) - Alexander Proschkin (Russia)Clo
BFC appoints Jones as first directorThe British Film Commission (BFC) has made a raft of appointments headed by the recruitment of Terri Jones as the body's first director.Jones, formerly director of production at UK TV station LWT, will oversee the day-to-day running of the BFC. She will also assist commissioner Steve Norris in setting and implementing policy.Other appointments see Alison Sawkill taking up the post of head of information and Julia Kenny joining as research co-ordinator. Additionally, Heather Brow
BFI to unveil plans for new London film centreUK Government-backed film and TV body the British Film Institute (BFI) will this week unveil plans for a film centre at London's South Bank complex.The new development will replace the institute's often-criticised National Film Theatre, a venue for some screenings during November's London Film Festival (LFF). The new complex will also house much of the BFI's other work, along with the non-film activities of other cultural bodies. No cost has been given for the new site and an architect
Blockbuster adds overseas rights to shopping listBlockbuster Entertainment, which has just added The Opportunists to its haul of Sundance festival pick-ups, now wants to extend its aggressive acquisition policy to include all English-language rights to independent films that can be branded internationally as video store exclusives.The world's most extensive home entertainment rental chain, with approximately 6,900 outlets spanning the US and 26 other countries, Blockbuster caused a stir at this year's Sundance by agreeing to a
Bronson named international chief at UniversalNadia Bronson, for years the lifeforce behind Universal Pictures' international marketing department, has been promoted to president, international theatrical marketing, distribution and operations at the studio.Bronson who since 1997 has been president, international marketing, will now be responsible for international distribution and operations related to all feature film releases overseas. She will continue to report to Stacey Snider, chairman, Universal Pictures.Bronson's
CAA strikes first-look deal with BloomsburyUS talent and literary agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has struck an innovative first-look deal with Bloomsbury Publishing, a leading UK independent publisher with a portfolio that has yielded The English Patient, The Piano and Shine.Under the terms of the deal, Bloomsbury will filter the manuscripts it believes have most publishing and film potential to CAA, which will represent the properties to US studios and its roster of talent and film-makers. Bloomsbury
Canada's Behaviour sells studio to TubeMontreal-based producer-distributor Behaviour Communications is selling its new media subsidiary, which operates its Digital Studio, to Tube Studios for about $586,000 (C$850,000). The deal, to close March 6, will transform Tube into Montreal's largest studio specialising in 3D animation and visual effects."The acquisition of the studio allows Tube's growth to accelerate," said Tube's interim chief Dominique St-Louis. "Now we will be able to better respond to the growing demands
Cecchi Gori steps down from running family empireIn a surprise move, Vittorio Cecchi Gori has stepped down from day-to-day running of the Italian film and television company his father set up in the 1940s. The move marks the end of family management of the company, which Vittorio Cecchi Gori took over when his father Mario died in the 1990s.In an interview with Milan daily Corriere della Sera, the maverick producer said that he will remain the president and owner of the company which is due to be floated on the Milan stock exc
Channel 5 shareholders buy out Warburg stakeLuxembourg-based CLT-Ufa and the UK's United News and Media and Pearson have increased their stakes in UK broadcaster Channel 5, as financial investor Warburg Pincus sold out of the channel.The three shareholders paid $277m (£172m) for Warburg's 18% stake in a move that is regarded as an endorsement of the loss-making channel. The sale values Channel 5 at $1.74bn (£1.09bn).However United's move to increase its Channel 5 stake could have regulatory repercussions. The company's pr
CineMedia strikes co-prod deal with UK's Own2FeetFollowing its entry into licence trading last month (Screendaily, Jan 26), expansionist German post-production entity CineMedia Film is becoming involved in international co-production through a strategic partnership with UK producer Own2Feet Productions.Under the terms of the deal, struck between Own2Feet and CineMedia production subsidiary TaunusFilm-Produktion, the two partners will each put up 50% of the budget for three projects - a classical thriller, a psychological thril
Disney pulls plug on Canadian animation studiosSo much for Canada stealing all that production work from Hollywood: The Walt Disney Co has now confirmed that it is closing its animation facilities in Vancouver and Toronto four years after opening them, laying off more than 200 staff and dealing a significant blow to Canadian animation.Canadian sources on the West Coast say that the Vancouver facility has already been effectively shut in the past few weeks after equipment was shipped out from the plant. The Toronto studio has been l
DreamWorks sponsors Bristol animation festDreamWorks SKG, the US studio which recently struck a long-term deal with Bristol-based animation production house Aardman Animations, is sponsoring a new animation festival in the city. The event, titled Animated Encounters (May 19-21), will include preview scenes from Aardman's highly-anticipated June release, Chicken Run, which Pathe Distribution is handling in the UK. Also in the line-up are a focus on 1970's TV classics; a round-up of new international and British films; an
Estudio's debut release powers Mexican box officeThe first feature produced by start-up Mexican film company Estudio Mexico, Gimme Power (Todo El Poder), has burst into Mexico's box office chart. After a successful debut on 320 screens on January 20 the film continues to dominate in cinemas falling just 11% in the last two weeks. To date, it has grossed $4.3m (pesos42m) nationwide, according to distributor Videocine. In Mexico City, the film opened at number one with a seven-day gross of $0.7m, before being ousted by the release of
EU challenges assumptions behind box office growthMedia Salles, the European Union-financed exhibition research and support operation, has called into question the widespread assumption that multiplex growth in Europe is responsible for the growth in admissions seen over the last ten years.'There appears to be a rather weak relationship between the two,' said Joachim Wolff, president of the Union International des Cinemas (UNIC), at a conference organised by Media Salles in Berlin.Discussing one of the first concrete attempts t
Famous Players, Alliance invest in Canadian chainViacom's Famous Players Theatres and Alliance Atlantis Communications have taken a combined 21% stake in Galaxy Cinemas, the newest player in the Canadian exhibition market.The joint venture, announced Thursday, calls for the construction of 21 state-of-the-art multiplexes over the next 30 months, all of them in smaller markets with population bases of between 50,000 and 150,000 people.Galaxy, which has yet to screen a film, was formed in 1998 by Ellis Jacob, former chief operat
Film Company takes off with Palm's SpacemanUK-based sales outfit The Film Company (TFC) has secured worldwide rights to Spaceman, winner of the audience award for best competition feature at the Austin Film FestivalTFC acquired the film from Palm Pictures, which picked up the title following positive US reviews from its festival run. Directed by Internet humorist Scott Dikkers, the film tells the story of a four-year-old abducted by aliens and raised on a distant planet to be an unstoppable killing machine. He returns to
FilmFour to bankroll Pasolini's EmperorThe UK's FilmFour is fully-financing The Emperor's New Clothes, a historical fantasy being produced by The Full Monty's Uberto Pasolini and directed by Palookaville's Alan Taylor.Adapted by Kevin Molony from Simon Leys' novel The Death Of Napoleon, the script tells the story of how Napoleon did not die in exile but returned to France in disguise to reclaim his throne. He finds that the battleground of Waterloo has become a theme park and that Paris asylums are full
Former Danish festival chief hooks up with TrustBerlin jury member Lissy Bellaiche, who headed up the Danish Film Institute's festival department for 19 years until last autumn, is moving to Trust Films Sales, the international sales outfit controlled by Danish production company Zentropa.In her new role, Bellaiche will aim to ensure that Trust's growing slate of Danish and foreign films are present at film festivals around the world. The move again puts Zentropa ahead of domestic competitors, as it is the first Danish company to hi
France's GMT gears up for Napoleon four-parterLeading French drama producer GMT Productions is developing a four-part mini-series, Napoleon, which is set to Christian Clavier (Asterix & Obelix, The Visitors) in the title role. The big-budget historical drama will be co-produced by French public broadcaster France 2 and will be filmed in both French and English. The script is being written by Didier Decoin.Napoleon is also likely to involve GMT's regular partners, Germany's KirchGroup/Taurus Film
German admissions break records as revenues fallCinema admissions in Germany reached a new record last year, climbing from 148.9m to 149m, according to statistics from Berlin-based German Federal Film Board (FFA). However, at the same time, box office revenues fell by 1.2% from $807m (DM1.6bn) to $797m (DM1.58bn) because of a drop in the average ticket price to $5.35 (DM10.61).The FFA argued that the decrease in revenues was partly due to increasingly cut-throat competition between cinemas and the emerging 'one-dollar screens
Grosvenor steps up sale and leaseback activityCanadian-UK financier Grosvenor Park has started providing funding for films through the UK's tax-based sale and leaseback system at financing or production stage rather than after the film is completed.Grosvenor aims to provide about 6% of the budget on projects its finances at this stage. The company is finalising deals for Dave Stewart's Honest for an enhanced soundtrack and The Body, starring Antonio Banderas, for further post-production costs and an extra day shootin
Hotel SplendideDir: Terence Gross. UK. 2000. 99mins.Prod co: Renegade Films. UK dist: FilmFour. Int'l sales: FilmFour International. Prod: Ildiko Kemeny. Exec prod: Robert Buckler. Scr: Gross. DoP: Gyula Pados. Prod des: Alison Dominitz. Ed: Michael Ellis. Mus: Mark Tschanz. Main cast: Toni Collette, Daniel Craig, Katrin Cartlidge, Stephen Tomkinson, Hugh O'Connor, Peter Vaughan. A highly-anticipated entry in the non-competitive Panorama section at Berlin, Terence Gross' Hotel Splend
House to produce Armstrong comedy, Broken HillAustralian producer Lynda House has unveiled a slate of new projects including a comedy-drama to be directed by Gillian Armstrong and a $7.5m (A$12m) futuristic fairy-tale The Broken Hill, which has a pack of wild dogs as one of the cast members.Gillian Armstrong, who credits include Little Women and Oscar And Lucinda, is attached to direct scriptwriter Helen Hodgman's adaptation of Emily Ballon's novel Waiting For Matindi. The novel is set in the Sydney seaside su
Inaugural Mexican fest mines for Pan-American gemsPan-American films are to be at the heart of a new festival in Zacatecas, only Mexico's second festival of international standing.In what is seen as a development year, the first Zacatecas International Film Festival will be held in October (20-25) in a former silver mining town in the centre of the country, north of Mexico City. In following years the organisers hope to switch to the event to the more comfortable month of June.The event is being started "in an effort to promote
Japanese partners join forces for movie channelNews Corp, Sony, Fuji TV and Softbank are forming a joint venture company - Nihon Eiga Eisei Hoso (Japanese Movie Satellite Broadcasting) - to create a cable and satellite movie channel specialising in Japanese films. The partners aim to build the country's leading Japanese film channel with the co-operation of Japan's top film companies. To set it on its way, the new company will take over management of two Japanese film channels currently offered by Sky Entertainment. Set to b
Jersey woos Franchise with Caveman's ValentineThe increasingly prolific Franchise Pictures has teamed up with Jersey Films to co-produce and co-finance Caveman's Valentine, a psychological thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson which started shooting in Los Angeles this week.Universal Pictures has all rights to the film in North America, and Franchise will be selling it at next week's American Film Market (AFM).The movie marks the first picture from director Kasi Lemmons since her acclaimed Southern Gothic melodrama
Korea lures co-producers with incentive fundingKorea's newly-galvanised film commission, KOFIC, is courting international partners to rebuild the country's recovering film industry with $3m in government cash.KOFIC's international business chief Paul Yi has been in Berlin alerting potential production and distribution partners to the government's new pro-film structures. These include $15m of incentive funding, at least $3m of which is earmarked for international assistance.'We have borrowed models from around the world and
Lagardere, Deutsche Telekom form internet allianceEurope's internet-oriented merger frenzy is showing no signs of slowing down. In the latest deal, French defence and media conglomerate Lagardere is merging its internet service provider (ISP), Club Internet - which has 380,000 subscribers - with Deutsche Telekom's T-Online, which with 4.3 million subscribers is Europe's largest ISP.Following a share swap, which values Lagardere at $376m (FFR2.5bn), the German telco will own 99.9% of Club Internet, while Lagardere will hold 6.5% of T-O
Le Studio unveils Schroeder's shrouded VirgenA Cannes competition hopeful by Barbet Schroeder and two European pictures with $20m-$30m budgets are among half a dozen new additions to the Berlin and AFM sales slate of French production powerhouse Le Studio Canal Plus.Set in Medellin, Colombia, Schroeder's picture La Virgen De Los Sicarios has been cloaked in secrecy since its origins, but is now in post-production and seems a virtual certainty for official selection at this year's Cannes Film Festival.Filmed in Spani
Love's Labour's LostDir: Kenneth Branagh. UK. 1999. 93 mins.Prod cos: Pathe Pictures, Miramax, Intermedia, Arts Council of England, Le Studio Canal Plus. Int'l sales: Intermedia. Prods: Branagh, David Barron. Exec prods: Guy East, Nigel Sinclair, Alexis Lloyd, Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein. Scr: Branagh, adapting from Shakespeare. DoP: Alex Thomson. Prod design: Tim Harvey. Eds: Daniel Farrell, Neil Farrell. Mus: Patrick Doyle. Main cast: Branagh, Alicia Silverstone, Alessandro Nivola, Natascha McElh
Milan to launch feature film festival in SeptemberMilan's four-year-old short film festival, Cortometraggio, is to be expanded into an international feature film festival from this September.The MilanoFilmFestival (Sept 11-17) is to run two competitions, one dedicated to full-length films and one to shorts. The event aims to showcase overseas films that have not found distribution in Italy.The festival will be run by the Cortometraggio organisers Associazione Aprile. Backing comes from sources including local and regional gover
Moreau to be patron for Berlin's Shooting StarsDir: Carlos Diegues. Brazil. 1999. 110 mins.Prod co: Rio Vermelho. Co-prod: Globo. Int'l Sales: TFI International (33) 1 41 41 35 32. Prods: Renata de Almeida Magalhaes, Paula Lavigne. Scr: Diegues, with the collaboration of Hermano Vianna, Hamilton Vaz Pereira, Paulo Lins and Joao Emanuel Carneiro, based on the play by Vinicius de Moraes. Dop: Affonso Beato. Prod des: Clovis Bueno. Ed: Sergio Mekler. Music: Caetano Veloso. Main cast: Toni Garrido, Patricia Franca, Murilo Benicio, Z
Natural Nylon's NYC sibling builds digital studioNatural Nylon Films, the New York production company that describes itself as the sister company to London's star-laden Natural Nylon Entertainment, has reinvented itself as a digital entertainment studio with its own 5,000 sq.ft. production facility in the heart of Manhattan's Silicon Alley.The New York branch of Natural Nylon is run by president Richard Burns, a producer-director who first teamed up with rising British superstar Jude Law (currently up for a Best Supporting Actor Osca
Newmarket, BVFS hold hands along Burns' SidewalksNewmarket Capital Group and Buena Vista Film Sales (BVFS) have teamed up to back Sidewalks Of New York, the latest film from Ed Burns, who will write, direct, produce and star in the film alongside his girlfriend Heather Graham and Stanley Tucci.It is the fourth picture on which Burns has fulfilled all four functions following his Sundance Film Festival-winner The Brothers McMullen (1995), She's The One (1996) and No Looking Back (1998). His acting roles sin
No-One SleepsDir: Jochen Hick. Germany. 2000. 108 mins.Prod co: Galeria Alaska. Int'l sales: Media Luna. Prod: Hick. Scr: Hick. DoP: Thomas M Harting, Michael Maley. Ed: Helga Scharf. Mus: James Hardway. Main cast: Tom Wlaschiha, Irit Levi, Jim Thalman, Richard Conti.A cross between William Friedkin's 1980 Cruising and Michael Crichton's 1978 Coma, No-One Sleeps marks a big advance for German-born US-based director Jochen Hick. This noir thriller was a resounding
Notting Hill, East Is East win at Empire awardsNotting Hill was voted Best British film at the Empire Film Awards, which took place today in London, while East Is East deservedly scooped best debut for director Damien O'Donnell. The Best Film award went to US blockbuster The Matrix, and best actor to Irishman Pierce Brosnan.Stars including Oscar-nominee Michael Caine, Alicia Silverstone, Minnie Driver, Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh turned out for awards which were a celebration
Oederkerk hits AFM with high-concept comediesSteve Oedekerk, the writer of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor and the writer/director of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Patch Adams, is entering the international marketplace with his company O Entertainment.O is offering a trio of high-concept comedies to buyers at AFM led by The Thumb Double Feature, featuring Oedekerk's celebrated Thumb characters sitting in the theatre watching two movies - Thumbtanic and Thumb War
OFDC report calls for Ontario studioOntario's film industry needs a state-of-the-art studio facility, according to a study commissioned by the Ontario Film Development Corp and the Toronto Film and Television Office. The report, undertaken by real estate consultancy Drivers Jonas North America and LA-based analyst ERA, suggests that Ontario's industry should stop competing on price point alone and bring about qualitative changes that only a top-flight studio can deliver. This would entice the high-budget, effects-driven
OrfeuDir: Carlos Diegues. Brazil. 1999. 110 mins.Prod co: Rio Vermelho. Co-prod: Globo. Int'l Sales: TFI International (33) 1 41 41 35 32. Prods: Renata de Almeida Magalhaes, Paula Lavigne. Scr: Diegues, with the collaboration of Hermano Vianna, Hamilton Vaz Pereira, Paulo Lins and Joao Emanuel Carneiro, based on the play by Vinicius de Moraes. Dop: Affonso Beato. Prod des: Clovis Bueno. Ed: Sergio Mekler. Music: Caetano Veloso. Main cast: Toni Garrido, Patricia Franca, Murilo Benicio, Z
Orfeu clinches top prize at Brazilian awardsCarlos Diegues' Orfeu scooped the best film award at the Grand Prize Cinema Brazil (Feb12) in the city of Petropolis.Diegues' film beat off competition from Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas' The First Day (O Primeiro Dia), Helvecio Ratton's Love & Co (Amor & Cia), Aluizio Abranches' A Glass Of Rage (Um Copo De Colera) and Luiz Villaca's Behind The Curtain (Por Tras Do Pano).However Salles and Thomas won in the best director and best screenplay
Redbus boosts slate with Buena Vista, UK titlesUK distributor Redbus Film Distribution has acquired a slate of high-profile titles including Buena Vista International's Play It To The Bone, starring Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson, and Gun Shy, with Liam Neeson and Sandra Bullock.The titles are to be joined by a third as-yet-undisclosed Buena Vista film, which is currently in pre-production.The ambitious UK distributor, which recently revealed that it is planning an IPO, has also taken rights to several ot
Rudge to head Universal Video, continental EuropeUniversal Pictures International Video (UPIV) has appointed Phil Rudge to the post of vice president of Continental Europe.Rudge, formerly managing director of Universal Pictures Video UK (Rental Division), will report to UPIV president Peter Smith. Based in London, he will manage all local sales and marketing operations across Spain, France, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia and Italy.Rudge was sales director at the UK's Virgin Vision and 20th Century Fox before joining PolyGram Fi
Sales companies in line for MEDIA boostEurope's film sales companies are to get a cash boost under a new scheme to include them in the distribution section of the European Union's next MEDIA Programme. Under MEDIA Plus, the new five-year support system which replaces MEDIA II from January 2001, distribution will be allocated $98.2m (euro100m) and film sellers a further $4.9m (euro5m).MEDIA boss Jacques Delmoly said that the sellers system will be based on the pilot programme launched last year under MEDIA II: 'It is
Scream 3 keeps The Beach off top spotMiramax/Dimension Films' Scream 3 remained at the top of the US box office with a $16.4m gross over the three-day weekend at a phenomenal 3,467 theatres. That represents a steep drop of 58% from its first weekend opening, although Scream 2 suffered a similar drop-off in its second weekend and went on to gross over $100m. Scream 3's ten day total is $57m and it looks set to become the year's first $100m movie.20th Century Fox's The Beach opened with $15m at 2
Spain's Filmax rolls out fantasy Factory blueprintSpain's aggressively expanding Filmax Group has announced a new slate of films for its fledgling Fantastic Film Factory and is now moving ahead on plans to construct a studio in Barcelona with the aim of transforming the city into the sci-fi and fantasy film capital of Europe.At the same time, Filmax confirmed this week that it has acquired worldwide sales rights for the first time on a non-Filmax Spanish film, The Warrior's Heart (El Corazon Del Guerrero), produced by To
Splendid/IEG direct Searchlight's Traffic overseasAggressive German player Splendid Medien and its subsidiary Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) are putting up between $35m-$45m of the $60m-$65m budget for Fox Searchlight's Traffic, set to star Harrison Ford and Catherine Zeta-Jones.IEG will take international rights to the film, while 20th Century Fox will handle domestic distribution. The project is set to start shooting in April with Steven Soderbergh directing. Ford will play a judge battling against the drug trade in the US
The Legends Of RitaDir: Volker Schloendorff. Germany. 1999. 101 mins.Prod cos: Babelsberg Film Production, Mitteldeautsches Filmkontor, MDR. Int'l sales: Bavaria Film International. Prods: Arthur Hofer, Emmo Lempert. Scr: Wolfgang Kohlhasse, Volker Schlondorff. DoP: Andreas Hofer. Ed: Peter Przygodda. Main cast: Bibiana Beglau, Martin Wuttke, Nadja Uhl, Harald Schrott.Volker Schloendorff, veteran of the New German Cinema of the seventies, goes back to that period in The Legends of Rita
The Road HomeDir: Zhang Yimou. China. 1999. 100 mins.Prod co: Guangxi Film Studios, Beijing New Picture Distribution Co. Int'l sales: Columbia. Prod: Zhao Yu. Scr: Bao Shi. DoP: Hou Yong. Ed: Zhai Ru. Mus: San Bao. Main cast: Zhang Ziyi, Sun Honglei, Zheng Hao, Zhao Yuelin, Li Bin.Of Zhang Yimou's two films either pulled from or rejected by Cannes last year, Not One Less won the Venice Festival's Golden Lion and The Road Home was presented in competition at Berlin. Th
Time Warner grabs key foothold in Spanish pay-TVWarner Bros. International Television (WBIT) has paid around $32m for a ten per cent stake in Spain's leading pay-TV operator, Canal Satellite Digital (CSD), exercising an option first offered in 1997. Sogecable remains the majority shareholder of CSD with 83% of the digital platform that had more than 800,000 subscribers at the start of this year and now looks positioned to capitalise on demand for high-speed internet access. Sogecable, which is controlled by Spanish media empire Pris
Tokuma to enter exhibition with Warner Mycal stakeJapan's Tokuma Group plans to invest in the country's largest multiplex operator Warner Mycal, as well as make films exclusively for the chain, according to group president Yasuyoshi Tokuma. The moves form part of Tokuma's strategy to create a vertically integrated film company. The group already includes the Tokuma Shoten publishing company, Daiei film studio and Studio Ghibli animation house.Tokuma plans to invest in Warner Mycal when it increases capitalisation in May or June
Toy Story 2 propels UK to all-time highToy Story 2 not only shattered UK box office records over the weekend but also broke the boundary of the animation genre. The Walt Disney/Pixar computer-generated animation scooped an unprecedented £7.8m ($12.4m) in the UK over three days (Fri 11-Sun 13), becoming the country's all-time highest weekend gross. This surpasses Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace's Friday to Sunday gross of £7.5m ($12m) and truly proves the crossover age and gender appeal of the film, creati
Tsatsiki racks up sales in BerlinNordisk Film has sold Swedish film Tsatsiki, Mum And The Policeman to Cinemien Film & Video Distribution for Benelux and Best Film Distribution for Poland.The film, which dominated the recent Swedish Film Awards, winning prizes for best film, director, script and cinematography, has been a hot item on the Berlin market since opening the Kinderfilmfest last Thursday.Meanwhile, Nordisk said German rights to the film are still available despite earlier reports that it had be
Tsatsiki sweeps the board at Swedish film awardsSwedish children's film Tsatsiki, Mum And The Policeman dominated the Swedish Film Awards - the Guldbagga 1999 - which took place in Stockholm yesterday, winning prizes for best film, best direction, best cinematography and best script.The film, which also took the top prize at the Goteborg Film Festival over the weekend, is directed by Ella Lemhagen and written by Ulf Stark with Anders Bohman as DoP.Other Guldbagga prizewinners include best actress Katarina Ewerlöf
Tsatsiki, Mum And The PolicemanDir: Ella Lemhagen. Sweden. 1999. 91 mins.Prod Co: Felicia Film with Film I Vast, Norsk Film AS. Int'l Sales: Nordisk Film. Prod: Anne Ingvar. Scr: Ulf Stark. DoP: Anders Bohman. Ed: Bernhard Winkler. Music: Popsicle. Main cast: Samuel Haus, Alexandra Rapaport, Jacob Ericksson, George Nakas.Already creating substantial buzz in Berlin, Tsatsiki, Mum And The Policeman proved a fine choice to open Berlin's children's film section, Kinderfilmfest, at the Zoo-Palast cin
Wachs set to exit Babelsberg postStudio Babelsberg chairman Friedrich-Carl Wachs has shocked the German film industry by announcing that he plans to quit his position at the end of the month.Speaking at a hastily-convened press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, Thierry Potok, managing director of Babelsberg owner Vivendi's German property and services division, said that despite a good working relationship, there had been differences of opinion between Wachs and Vivendi about the future development of the studio
Wenders rockumentary to roll in MarchA March 11 start has been scheduled for Wim Wenders' next film, Vill Passiert, a feature-length documentary about veteran German rockers BAP (Screendaily, Feb 11).Produced by Cologne-based production outfit Screen:Works and public broadcaster WDR with backing from Filmstiftung NRW, the film is described by Wenders as "a small road movie" which will combine concert footage with fictional elements.Wenders, who is considering directing a music video for Duesseldorf-ba
Where A Good Man GoesDir: Johnnie To. Hong Kong-China. 1999. 86 mins.Prod co: Milky Way Image. Int'l sales: Milky Way Image. Prods: Johnnie To, Wai Ka-fai. Scr: Yau Nai-Hoi. DoP: Cheng Sui Keung. Ed: Chan Chi Wai. Main cast: Lau Ching-wan, Ruby Wong.A delightfully off-beat crime comedy, unusually set in Macao, Where A Good Man Goes benefits from excellent performances in both main and supporting roles, some gentle but genuine humour and sharp direction from Johnnie To, a veteran of som
X-Filme launches German distribution labelX Filme Creative Pool, the production company behind German hit Run Lola Run, has launched a distribution label along with a new development slate that includes its first non-German production.The new label - X Verleih - plans to release 4-8 films a year. Its first release will be the next feature from Lola director Tom Tykwer, The Princess And The Warrior, which Le Studio Canal Plus recently picked up for international sales. Former Senator Film executive Anatol N
Zentropa to handle world on controversial PlumDenmark's Zentropa is sealing its reputation for handling controversial fare by acquiring world rights, excluding North America, to Don's Plum, a four-year-old film that has never been released due to a legal battle between one of it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and independent producer David Stutman.DiCaprio's agent attempted to block release of the low-budget film claiming that his client had never agreed to make a full-length feature and demanding DiCaprio's pre-Titantic $3


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Apple to pay $40 to certain Apple iPad buyers to settle Class Action suit
0. phoneArena posted on 31 Oct 2013, 02:19
Those who purchased the OG Apple iPad with 3G connectivity on or before June 7th, 2010 are entitled to a $40 payment from Apple, and a discounted data plan from AT&T, according to the terms of a Class Action settlement that was sent out via email to members of the class; when AT&T first helped launch the iPad in the U.S., it first offered unlimited 3G service to owners of the tablet. AT&T eventually eliminated the unlimited data program...
This is a discussion for a news. To read the whole news, click here
1. cc3493 (Posts: 158; Member since: 06 Jul 2013)
I dont live in the U.S. but AT&T dont seem like a very good network company from what im hearing...
6. JC557 (Posts: 1794; Member since: 07 Dec 2011)
Can be hit or miss at times. Sometimes the towers get too congested and there may be problems with service. Same goes for every company that has a high volume of subscribers in an area.
2. Miracles (Posts: 560; Member since: 31 Aug 2013)
Can someone put it in the average person's words cuz I don't understand law in the US (yes, I graduated high school). So why is Apple being sued?
3. eisenbricher (Posts: 973; Member since: 09 Aug 2012)
Simply said, a promise made not kept. Customers felt backstabbed and revolted against them in the court. Court agreed and they got justice in a way.
5. downphoenix (Posts: 3165; Member since: 19 Jun 2010)
as much as I love to see Apple suffer, the fault is solely with AT&T on this. Apple has nothing to do with AT&Ts data package offerings. Unless there was evidence that Apple said they wouldnt offer the Ipad to AT&T unless AT&T ditched unlimited plans (Which would not make sense as that would be more harmful than good to Apple, since limited data plans means less data consumption which means potentially less app/music/game purchases), Apple shouldnt be punished for this.
4. InspectorGadget80 (unregistered)
Only 40$?

subset: commoncrawl


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Firekeepers Brings The Bunny
We always enjoy a visit from our friends at Firekeepers Casino Hotel. And this morning it wasn't just "humans" Chefs Michael & Jen, GM/VP Hotel Operations Kathy George and Career Development Specialist Sara Laning. Oh no…Chef Herve decided to continue his assult on my soul with what can only be described as the Caddyshack Gofer Bunny. Whether intentional or accidental, he both delighted and terrified us with his chocolate creation; golf-themed in preparation for the big tournament coming up in June. Be afraid…be very afraid.


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The blog itself is a commentary and follow up to an article claiming conservative Christians selectively apply Biblical teachings in the gay marriage debate... But the central question of this follow up is worth its own discussion, I think.
Blog article:
His assertion is clear - people use the word "evangelical" in at least two (if not more) vastly different ways. Leading some to make accusations not unlike the RINO cry (republican in name only) that some evangelicals are claiming to be what they are not (EINO?).
I'm curious what peoples reactions to the blog article and the argument he presets, as well as your own personal definition of what it means to be an evangelical christian (whether you are one, or not).
Speaking personally - I admit to falling into the latter category he discusses - Evangelical as a social/political/cultural classifier, rather than a specifically theological one. And the ramifications of that are interesting.
Views: 1662
And should add, this is part of what I wanted as well - to learn what you consider important when defining what an evangelical christian is. To you, "traditional christian views on sexuality" includes abstinence (though outside of Paul, I don't know what support there is for that). - and is an important factor to you. What else?
I'm not sure how much theological flexibility there really is, within the evangelical tradition as it exists, and given my philosophical leanings, I'm naturally quite suspicious of any attempt to provide an abstract definition of evangelicalism, divorced from the historical context. I've read various Catholic and Protestant attempts to justify discarding the traditional Christian view of sexual morality (probably more Catholic than Protestant, actually) and haven't been that impressed, for a few reasons. They nearly all seem to be attempts to abandon the tradition in favor of the new secular hotness, rather than attempts to think through potential problems with the tradition. For instance, if you want to dismiss Paul, that's one thing, but for an evangelical to so breezily dismiss him, well, I think that's pretty clearly getting into EINO territory. I think there's support for abstinence outside of marriage in other parts of the New Testament besides Paul's letters, but for an evangelical, Paul should be enough.
The point I might be most sympathetic on is complaints about the reification of moral expressions into dogmatic absolutes, but think the complainers tend to overlook their value for instruction, if nothing else.
My primary criticism of these sexually liberal evangelicals (for lack of a better term) is that they are reconsidering orthodox notions of sin in this area not because of honest intellectual conviction but because orthodoxy is hard, unpopular, and unfashionable. Which, I recognize, is a difficult assertion to support (how can I really know what their motives are), so I report it as my impression, not a demonstrable fact.
As to why it matters, I think a tendency to minimize sin leads to minimizing salvation. I doubt many things at times, but if anything in Christianity is true in my experience, it is that we, and particularly I, are sinners in need of a savior. I've reflected quite a bit on the heroic attempt in Zarathustra to redeem time and "It was", and it isn't sufficient. And so I'm very skeptical of those who would tell us that the tradition is wrong, and what we thought was sin isn't. All may be well, and all manner of things may be well, but if so, it will be because of redemption and forgiveness, not because they are well now.
Interesting points, Nathanael. Thanks for taking the time to clarify your thoughts.
A couple more points:
1. I would add that the picture of the billboard used to head the blog post serves as an illustration of my point. It (and the explanatory website behind it) presents an extremely speculative interpretation of Scripture as incontrovertible fact. Reading the explanatory essay by the billboard's sponsors, I didn't observe someone putting themselves under the authority of Scripture, but someone eager to force their values onto it (that their treatment of sexual relations in Roman culture was also a bit off didn't help my impression of the author's intellectual integrity). One obvious question: if this interpretation of the gospel accounts is so obvious based on language and culture, why didn't the early church, which was far more familiar with the language and culture than the the folks behind the billboard, interpret it in this way? One answer, I suppose, is the usual: Paul corrupted everything. Lots of folks have that view, but I don't see how an evangelical in any sense of the tradition of that term can.
2. On the subject of Jesus, the gospel accounts, far from showing him lessening the demands of the Law regarding sexual morality and marriage, actually show him radicalizing them. He offers forgiveness to sexual sin, as to all sin, but on the matters of adultery and divorce he invokes standards far more stringent than those of the letter of the Law.
In summary, for these, and other reasons, I think that many of those arguing the compatibility of Christianity with modern sexual sensibilities are far more eager to remake Jesus into their image than to be remade into His.
He offers forgiveness to sexual sin, as to all sin, but on the matters of adultery and divorce he invokes standards far more stringent than those of the letter of the Law.
I don't disagree with you here. And that was part of the point that the blog was reacting to - that many evangelical's impose the marriage restriction on homosexuals, but NOT on adulterers, divorcees, etc. That there is an implicit hypocrisy in which elements of Christian sexuality, they choose to bother with enforcing.
I think there can be an element of hypocrisy. My view is that the way Christians rolled over on divorce, in particular, made it much harder to win on gay marriage. Those fights may have been lost anyway, with technology and wealth making it much easier to mitigate the consequences of relaxing moral standards on sexuality, but the ease with which many Christians accepted changes to heterosexual moral codes certainly made it harder to resist.
That said, I don't fault those who, in say 2005, chose to focus on blocking gay marriage (where at least limited success could be achieved) over ending no-fault divorce (politically impossible).
Certainly from a practical standpoint, that makes sense. But it does certainly weaken the biblical argument against.
"It matters not that Merritt and Powers's argument is so supremely superior to Moorohler's — anyone with a modicum of intellect can see that. Merritt and Powers present an airtight argument. It's a stupid law, as most anyone can see, and it surely isn't defensible by any biblical argument."
The need for additional wording such as "supremely" and "modicum" and even "surely" reveal the weakness of the statement. The need to ridicule is also noted as weak.
I did know an Episcopalian (not an Evangelical) who objected to the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop because he was having sexual relations outside of marriage, which was not proper behavior of a presbyter. She supported changing the law to allow for civil (and religious) gay marriage, though, and admitted her position wasn't reasonable.
But it is possible to get stuck on one part of "traditional sexual morality" while letting the others go, especially when we're talking about voters rather than theologians or even politicians. I think everyone picks and chooses what parts of "traditional Christian morality" will be important to them. I don't know that any Bishop has ever been objected to because he was a glutton, for example.
1. It's inevitable that homosexual acts and/or homosexual partnerships will be common, whatever the civil law is. Then I'm free make my judgments about civil gay marriage based on prudential considerations not related to sexual morality.
2. Whatever influence prohibiting gay marriage in the civil law can have on homosexual acts/partnerships, it's outweighed by other benefits of accepting gay marriage.
3. The civil law should not regulate sexual morality.
There are probably other ways of thinking in which support for civil gay marriage is not a direct expression of one's beliefs on the morality of sex in various circumstances.
Or is it sufficient to not give any fucks where you stuff your penis so long as it isn't being done to me, on me, or with my money?
I would think that's plenty sufficient, and furthers the statement that two guys porking eachother has absolutely 0 effect on the rest of the world.
Charismatic = Cheerleaders
Evangelical = Pep Squad
Fundamentalist = OMG, Dance Squad? WTF?!?!?!?
I lol'ed.
Allow the great Norm McDonald to clarify:


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I'm trying to create a link (which I shall put in an e-mail) that will direct to a specific part of the target page.
My site uses a page template, and the content files are inserted using a PHP 'require' statement. Such statements won't take query strings or (I discover) bookmarks. Thus "require_once 'targetfile.php#bookmark'" results in an error.(whereas "require_once 'targetfile.php'" works as expected.
If I write an absolute URL the template page is by-passed, and the content is displayed with no styling.
I'm trying to think of a workaround. Can anyone help, please.
Strip off the #bookmark to use in the require. The #bookmark is used by the browser after the page loads while you are using the part before that to determine what to load.
Thank you, felgall.
I think I have expressed the title of my thread poorly. I know that the 'require' won't work with the bookmark, and why.
A better title might have been: "How do I get a bookmark through a PHP 'require' statement ?"
What I'm trying to work out is how to access the page in such a way that the visitor is taken to the bookmarked part of the page, just as they would be with a normal link with no PHP involved. I can't write a regular URL such as 'http://example.com/path/pagename.php#bookmark' because that will bypass the template and the page will be displayed with no styling (and I will shortly be adding some code to prevent that happening too).
I do have the bookmark available as a PHP variable, so perhaps some JS to focus on the element with id='bookmark' could be used. But it's a fair bit of work for one bookmark.
Hi Tim,
I'm a little confused as to what the problem is. The fragment (the # symbol and anything that comes after) is not passed to the server, it's only used within the browser, so it can't affect what happens on the server.
To use your example, if a user navigates to: http://example.com/path/pagename.php#bookmark, the server will load pagename.php and send the output back to the user's browser. Once the page has been received, the browser will scroll to the element with the ID bookmark.
Hello Fretburner,
Yes, what you say is absolutely correct. My problem is that a URL like 'example.com/path/filename.php#bookmark' will bypass my index.php control file and the page template, so the page gets displayed with NO styling. My content 'pages' are not complete HTML pages in their own right, they are just scripts (often with lots of plain HTML text and image content, but no DOCTYPE or head).
My control file, together with .htaccess ensures that the site navigation loads all page content into the template using the PHP 'require'. But as is well established this will not work if there's a query string or bookmark on the end of the content file name. Therefore if I want to give someone an absolute URL to a bookmarked place I have a problem.
I have to 'extract' the bookmark, load the contents file using PHP 'require' and then make the bookmark available to the HTML page when it has loaded.
I'm working on a solution in which the control script strips off the bookmark and turns it into a PHP variable which is loaded into a hidden input in the template. I then use JS and a couple of lines of jQuery to scroll the page to the bookmark ID (given by the value of the variable). It works (in prototype), but it may cause me problems in mod_rewrite (.htaccess). I had hoped to find something simpler.
Could you give an example of a working URL that does load one of your content pages correctly? If you could also share the code that does the routing and requires the chosen content page, as that might also be useful.
This is the part that I'm struggling to understand. Your server (and therefore your .htaccess file) never sees the fragment, so it should be impossible for it to interfere with the require statement.
I had no idea when I started this thread that it would be so difficult to explain what I saw as my problem, but your questions have made me re-examine my assumptions.
This link will open the 'Terms and conditions' page of a B&B web site. http://www.mull-bed-and-breakfast.co.uk/terms. .htaccess creates a query string, index.php parses that and attaches the correct argument to the PHP 'require' statement.
So far so good, but what happens when I want to direct the visitor to the paragraph at the bottom of that page about dogs (for example) ? I made the assumption that I couldn't just add the bookmark as in http://www.mull-bed-and-breakfast.co.uk/terms#dogs. Just to be sure I tried it, and it didn't work, thereby confirming my assumption that .htaccess would choke on it.
However having persevered with this issue since my last posting, it looks to me as if the reason it didn't work was a typo. I hope that if you click the second link above it will now take you to the intended place ? If it doesn't I'm back to square one.
It seems to work OK for me, which means my work with the <input> and JS was unnecessary (although that did work too), so I expect I learnt something.
While investigating I've also added rules to .htaccess to prevent pages being loaded outside the template, so something useful has come out of it.
Thank you for your help.
No worries.
Yeah that link works fine for me and scrolls the page to the correct location. Nice site, by the way. I had a browse through the gallery, it looks quite idyllic there!
Thanks for your help and kind words about our B&B site. Yes, it's nice here, but it can be very wet and windy in winter. Rarely very cold, I'm not sure we even had a frost last winter..


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MOCK-Gothic Wray Castle opens to the public this weekend after being given a facelift.
The National Trust property on the shores of Windermere has a newly-painted interior.
The central tower, which is almost 100 feet high, has been restored to its period colours following an eight-week project. Giant scaffolding, close to 100 feet high, was installed to get the job done. Craftsmen from Staveley furniture experts Peter Hall and Son have also been on site restoring the original oak flooring in the former grand dining room which had been covered in carpet for several decades.
Wray Castle's manager Rosemary Lord said: 'Wray Castle had an amazing year last year, with over 70,000 people coming through the door, with lots coming by the new boat route, which is great because it means less traffic on our lovely Lakeland lanes.
"This year we've spruced up our visitor facilities and we're introducing archery sessions for families enjoying Easter in the lakes."
The works are all part of a long-term project to conserve and protect the castle, which has been a grand home, a radar college, the headquarters of a freshwater marine organisation and finally a corporate centre for a mobile phone company. Further works are planned to secure the castle's future as a family destination.


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Archive for April, 2012
April 20 races cancelled
Races for tonight April 20, 2012 have been cancelled. The Together WE Fight Hunger 25 for 35 in honor of Brian Hetrick will be rescheduled, information will be released on the rescheduled event later this weekend.
Decision coming at 1 p.m. for racing tonight
Rain in Donnellson over night has left the racetrack very wet, and cool temps and no sun are making the drying process ver slow. We will make a decision at 1 p.m. about the racing action tonight at Lee County Speedway.
Sponsor makes mistake correct for Sport Mods Friday night
DONNELLSON, Iowa (April 19, 2012) – TA Auto & Tire has added money to the Shottenkirk Parts Express IMCA Sport Mod purse for tomorrow night, April 20, to make the seventh and eighth place finishers each earn $100.
Our initial story was listed as the top eight spots were earning $100 or more, but it was an error, which was corrected with the post yesterday. Today, however, after some conversations, Tracy St. Clair decided he would put the money up to make the purse pay $100 for 6th, 7th and 8th.
The corrected and final purse payout for the IMCA Sport Mods is listed below.
|Sport Mods
Sport Mod payout correction
There was a mistake in the story for this weekend's event when talking about the sport mod payout for the Together WE Fight Hunger 25 for 35 in honor of Brian Hetrick. It was in the story that the top eight positions would make at least $100. That is actually the top six positions. The payout listed below the story was correct, but the wording in the story was wrong. We appologize for the error.


text: Sep 05 2012 NOT ANOTHER ONE!!! Basketball Wives Star JENNIFER WILLIAMS Is Spotted Out CREEPING . . . With ANOTHER Celebrity Man!!! September 5, 2012: We understand that Jen is single and dating . . but girl you might wanna let your coochie get a NIGHT OFF. In the last TWO WEEKS she's been spotted out with Maxwell, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and now T.O.


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Marc Jacobs on Terry Richardson: "He's Not Ill-Spirited"
Marc Jacobs discussed his work and his life at the the French Institute Alliance Francaise's designer talks last night. He's been interested in fashion since the days of back-to-school shopping outings, he told the crowd, with one notable exception: "My cat was sick and I wanted to be a veterinarian. That was at age eight and it was a passing moment."
Jacobs was interviewed by the Museum at FIT's deputy director Patricia Mears, who asked him to explain his design philosophy. "I love things that are banal," Jacobs said. "I love clichés. I like things that are awkward. I like imperfection. But what that means within a given season, I don't know."
After the panel, we had a chance to ask the designer his thoughts about the Terry Richardson controversy. Some background: last week, model Rie Rasmussen accused the famed photographer of abusing his power when he obtains his sexually-charged photos, Page Six reported. The news item set off a flurry of blog posts, including models' stories, defenses of and condemnation for Richardson. By the end of the week, Richardson posted an apology via his Web site.
We asked Jacobs whether sexy photo shoots with young models should be more closely monitored by the fashion industry. "I've worked with Terry and Terry has asked me to do some crazy things," Jacobs said. "I know that those pictures will exist if I do them. But I'm a big boy and I can say no."
Jacobs said he hadn't heard about the controversy, but added that Richardson is "not ill-spirited."
Talking more widely about the industry, he added: "If a girl is underage, maybe the girl's agent or chaperon should be present on the shoot. That's the hard part. Who's to blame or who's to watch?"


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SUVs continue to be a popular vehicle choice for many drivers due to their higher driving position, versatile cargo-carrying capabilities, towing capacity, and available all-wheel drive. Plus, full-sized models can seat up to eight and offer even greater towing capacities. New SUVs range in price from around $17,000 to luxury models costing over $60,000. Used models can save you significantly as long as you choose wisely.
The first major purchase consideration is deciding what size you need: small, medium, or large. For most drivers, a small or medium-sized car-based SUV (aka crossover), such as a Toyota Highlander or Nissan Murano, can provide a good balance of features, fuel economy and function.
Be honest with how you intend to use your SUV. For example, if you almost never go off road or tow a trailer, it doesn't really make much sense to buy a heavy truck-based model (such as a Toyota 4Runner or Ford Explorer), and have the vehicle carry around all that extra weight and hardware that you'll never use. Plus, truck-based models tend to be thirstier at the pumps than car-based vehicles.
As with all cars, safety is a key concern with SUVs. Due to their inherent higher center of gravity, SUVs are more prone to rollovers. When shopping for a used model, check to make sure that it's equipped with electronic stability control and curtain air bags—two features we strongly recommend. Most 2005-present midsized and large SUVs have these important safety features.
To help you narrow the field, we have compiled a list of Consumer Reports recommended used SUVs. These vehicles have performed well in our road tests, have average or better reliability, and have performed adequately if included in crash tests.
Small SUVs
Ranked by reliability
|2000-2009 Honda CR-V
|2007-2009 Acura RDX
|2005-2008 Hyundai Tucson
|2004, 2007, 2009 Mitsubishi Outlander
|2006-2008 Kia Sportage
|2008-2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid
|2003-2009 Subaru Forester
Midsized & large SUVs
Ranked by reliability
|2003-2009 Honda Pilot
|$8,000-over $30,000
|2000-2009 Toyota 4Runner
|2001-2009 Toyota Highlander*
|$6,000-over $30,000
|2000-2009 Lexus RX
|$8,000-over $30,000
|2000-2001, 2004 Toyota Land Cruiser
|2001-2009 Acura MDX
|$8,000-over $30,000
|2003-2009 Infiniti FX35
|$14,000-over $30,000
|2001-2003 Infiniti QX4
|2002-2004, 2008-2009 Hyundai Santa Fe (V6)
|2003-2007 Lexus GX (except '08-'09)
|$18,000-over $30,000
|2006 Subaru Tribeca
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The Société daide au développement de la collectivité (SADC) de la région de Coaticook was created in 1994 from the merger of the Comité daide au développement de la collectivité (CADC) and the Centre daide aux entreprises (CAE) de la région de Coaticook. The SADC is a corporation incorporated under part II correction of the Canada Business Corporations Act.
The CADC supported and monitored community development initiatives while the CAE provided businesses with financial and technical assistance.
|Creation of the Coaticook region CADC
|Creation of the Coaticook region CAE
|Merger of the Coaticook region CADC and CAE to create the Coaticook region SADC
|The SADC Network in Quebec was established on May 6, 1995 and now includes 57 SADCs and 10 CAEs.
The Société daide au développement de la collectivité (SADC) de la région de Coaticook, along with its predecessors, the CADC and CAE, have been rooted in our community for over 25 years. They have played an extraordinary role in our regions vibrancy and development.
The Coaticook SADC has always been about local citizens interested in fostering decision-making autonomy and initiative in the regions socio-economic development. Thanks to the outstanding commitment of its staff and the volunteers on its various boards of directors, the SADC has continued to uphold its mission to this day.
Our SADCs beginnings can be traced back to 1986, when Canada introduced the Programme de développement des collectivités (Community Futures Program) to help create CADCs or Comités daide au développement des collectivités (Community Futures Committees). The committees were put together with a view to guiding and supporting development initiatives in difficult economic situations. In Coaticook, the regional CADC was formed in 1987 and presided by Michel Raymond, then Rosaire Provencher (1992) and Serge Arsenault (1993-94).
Starting in 1988, volunteers at our CADC began working toward creating a CAE or Centre daide aux entreprises (Business Development Centre) devoted to spurring on employment development and business services using a federal investment fund. The original CAE Board of Directors, founded in June 1989, counted seven members and was presided by Robert Fortier (1989-94). The CAE set up shop at 120 Child St., Coaticook and was headed by General Manager Michel Dassylva.
In 1993, the federal government decided to merge the CADCs and CAEs into Sociétés d'aide au développement des collectivités (SADCs). Coaticooks merger was officially adopted in October 1994, creating the SADC de la région de Coaticook: a non-profit organization incorporated under part II of the Canada Corporations Act. Our SADCs first General Manager was Michel Dassylva, followed by Acting General Manager Gaston Bachand in 2008 and then Joanne Beaudin in 2009. Over the years, the SADC has been presided by Serge Arsenault (1994-99 and 2001-06), Raymond Duteau (1999 and 2000), Gilles Vaillancourt (2000-2001), Gaétan Labelle (2006-2011) and Serge Gosselin (since November 2011). From its original address at 14 Adams St., Coaticook (1995), the SADC has moved to 38 Child St. (2004).
Benefits for the community
Thanks to financial support from Canada Economic Development, the SADC de la région de Coaticook has helped to create or maintain 1,033 jobs in our MRC. Over the years, the SADC has been able to grant 308 loans to regional businesses, for a total of $10,814,301.
Over the years, the SADC has also established and supported hundreds of local development projects related to high-speed internet access in rural areas, technological literacy, the Table de concertation regional (regional round table), the Ressourcerie des Frontières (recycling centre), the CIARC or Centre d'initiatives en agriculture de la région de Coaticook, the Radio cooperative, and the Voie des Pionniers (Pioneer Trail), to name only a few.
A well-established pillar of the community, the SADC de la région de Coaticook continues to pursue its mission today, with special emphasis on sustainable development. Its slogan as of 2011Your dreams, our passion A SUSTAINABLE RELATIONSHIP!is a reflection of our promise to the community.


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Grammy Rewind: Beyoncé Knowles
It has been a definitive fashion year for Beyoncé, raising the bar from her wide-eyed pageant gowns of the Tina Knowles era to the hard-edged fierceness of Sasha.
Let us not forget her original stomping grounds were the Grammy Awards.
As this year's carpet rages on, take a moment to appreciate the evolution of Mrs. Jay-Z. The mixed bag looks from Destiny's Child sweet n' sassy days are a nice precursor to the sophistication of her solo debut, that avalanched into the avant garde headgear we've come to know and love.
Take a spin through the fifty most beautiful shots of Beyoncé through Grammy's many moons.


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The People of Wal-Mart Music Video [VIDEO]
Everyone's favorite website with musical accompaniment!
You have probably visited peopleofwalmart.com, the website that showcases some of the more… ummm… colorful people that shop at America's largest retailer. Here's the best of the best, sync'd with "Sexy And I Know It" from LMFAO.


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One of the posters has Shrek behind the bars, while the other one sees Rumpelstiltskin surrounded by witches.
"Shrek Forever After" has got another preview as DreamWorks has launched two new posters via Yahoo! Movies. Highlighting the problem that is faced by Shrek in the upcoming film, one of the images captures the ogre behind the bars. The other one-sheet, meanwhile, features the one with whom Shrek has to deal, Rumpelstiltskin.
Said to be the last installment from the franchise, "Shrek Forever After" will follow Shrek who ends up as a domesticated family man. Longing for the days when he felt like a "real ogre", he is tricked into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin.
He suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumpelstiltskin is king and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Now, it's up to Shrek to undo all he's done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his one true love and family.
The film will hear familiar voice from Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz who are additionally joined by Kathy Griffin, Kristin Schaal, Jon Hamm and many others among the cast ensemble. Directed by Mike Mitchell, the 3-D animation will entertain audience in the U.S. starting May 21.


text: Politics 31 March 2011 A problem from hell Barack Obama's foreign affairs Valkyrie. Sign up for our weekly email * On 12 March, at a specially convened meeting in Cairo, the Arab League voted to recommend to the United Nations Security Council that a no-fly zone be imposed over Libya. Earlier that day, on a military plane flying out of Bahrain, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, had told reporters that, although the US had the wherewithal to enforce such a policy, "The question is whether it's a wise thing to do and that's the discussion that's going on at a political level." Presumably, Gates was speaking for the Obama administration. Yet, by the evening of 15 March, any misgivings the president might have had about a no-fly zone appeared to have gone and he was instructing the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, to argue for a resolution responding to the Arab League's call. What changed? Who or what had convinced Obama to, as one writer put it, "pivot on a dime"? The final decision to press for a UN resolution was taken at a meeting at the White House on 15 March, described by administration officials as "highly contentious". Those responsible for persuading the president of the merits of intervention included the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who participated by telephone from the Middle East, Rice and Samantha Power, the 40-year-old senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) and former executive director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Gates and other members of the NSC had argued against. The irony of being outmanoeuvred by these three "Valkyries of foreign affairs" (a description coined by the writer Jacob Heilbrunn) will not have been lost on Gates. He won't have forgotten what has come to be known as "Monstergate", an episode that occurred in 2008 during the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Power - who was working as an adviser on foreign policy to Barack Obama, then a federal senator - had taken time out from the campaign to promote her latest book, a biography of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN diplomat killed in a bombing in Baghdad in the early days of the US occupation of Iraq. In early March 2008, her publicity tour took her to London where she gave several interviews, including, fatefully, one to the Scotsman newspaper. Asked about negative campaigning by Obama's main opponent in the primary race, Clinton, Power said: "She is a monster - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything." Despite her desperate attempts to retract the remark, the Scotsman published it. She resigned from the Obama campaign soon afterwards. Power, who was born in Ireland in 1970 and moved with her family to the United States at the age of nine, first met Obama in 2005, when he was newly installed in the US Senate. He had just read her first book, "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide (2002), and asked if they could meet to discuss it. "We were supposed to meet for only an hour," she told the online magazine Salon, "but ended up meeting for three or four hours at a steakhouse. Suddenly, it was almost midnight and I heard myself saying to him, 'Why don't I just quit my job at Harvard and work in your office for a year or whatever?'" Power did just that, taking a sabbatical from Harvard University in 2005-2006. (She was the founding executive director of the Carr Centre there between 1998 and 2002.) The phrase "a problem from hell" was taken from the late Warren Christopher's description of the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The book grew out of Power's reporting from the Balkans between 1993 and 1996, when she wrote for the Boston Globe and the Economist. Frustrated and enraged by Washington's failure to act in the summer of 1995, when General Ratko Mladic's Bosnian Serb forces threatened the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica, she decided to explore "America's responses to previous cases of mass slaughter". The book, which won a Pulitzer prize, examines several cases of US inaction in the face of genocide: in Cambodia in the late 1970s, in Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1980s, in the Balkans in the early 1990s and in Rwanda in 1994. It has two heroes: Raphael Lemkin, the Polish international lawyer who invented the term "genocide" at the end of the Second World War and helped to secure, in 1951, the passage of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; and the Democratic Party senator William Proxmire, who, between 1967 and 1986, made 3,211 speeches on the floor of the Senate, urging that the US ratify the convention. "A Problem from Hell" ends with Power arguing that the US has a "moral responsibility" to stop genocide wherever and whenever it occurs. "When innocent life is being taken on such a scale," she writes, "and the United States has the power to stop the killing at reasonable risk, it has a duty to act." As she said later: "Genocide was the lens for me." In making policy over Libya, however, that may turn out to be a distorting optic. For all Muammar al-Gaddafi's attacks on civilians and his lurid threats of further reprisals against the rebels, there is no genocide taking place in Libya. As the political philosopher Michael Walzer - who, like Power, supported humanitarian intervention in the Balkans - has pointed out, there is a difference between stopping a massacre and overthrowing a tyrant. One lesson we ought to have learned from the Iraq war is that the latter has to be "local work". Jonathan Derbyshire is culture editor of the New Statesman Jonathan Derbyshire is Managing Editor of Prospect. He was formerly Culture Editor of the New Statesman. Subscribe from just £1 per issue This article first appeared in the 28 March 2011 issue of the New Statesman, Why Libya? Why now? More


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- Death:
Etty en-Route to Auschwitz
Tuesday September 7th. 1943 — Westerbork Holland
Etty Hillesum
Etty was deported to Auschwitz from Westerbork on Tuesday 7th. September 1943. On board the 'Transport' she found room enough to write her last letter, a postcard destined to reach her friends. The postcard was thrown from the Train where passersby found it and mailed it on. The postmark; Wednesday 15th. September 1943, addressed to:-
Opening the Bible at random I find this:-
'The Lord is my high tower'
I am sitting on my rucksack in the middle of a full freight car. Father, Mother and Mischa are a few
cars away. In the end, the departure came without warning, on sudden special orders from The
Hague. We left the camp singing, Father and Mother firmly and calmly, Mischa, too. We shall be
travelling for three days. Thank you for all your kindness and care. Friends left behind will still be
writing to Amsterdam; perhaps you will hear something from them. Or from my last letter from camp.
Good-bye for now from the four of us."
Etty Hillesum was murdered at Auschwitz on Tuesday 30th. November 1943, 84 days after being 'Transported East'.
For me this has been a further trauma in my struggle with the Holocaust. I did not want to finish her Book so that I could, in my mind, keep her alive somehow within my imagination. Sadly, in my rush to find out what she had to say next, her work in impressing me had been done and her epitaph is here to be written. I have gone through a metamorphosis of change with the Holocaust.
Where I first sought out anger and even hatred, I can see that Justice is not best served by revenge, but it must be serviced correctly or there is only anger left to seek out redress.
Patrick Dempsey.


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Events for 15th May 2017
Day Navigation
8:45 am
Low-cost Shiatsu
Shiatsu therapy with Fen My name is Fen, I'm a Shiatsu practitioner, Holistic Clinical Aromatherapist and Massage Therapist. I am passionate and fascinated by the potential for natural therapies to improve our everyday lives and to inspire our own self-healing. Through the incredible power of intuitive touch, movement and aromatherapy, I work with clients to […]Find out more »
9:30 am
Chiropractic – Female Therapist
Chiropractic is a way of adjusting the bones of the body to maintain the correct alignment of the spine and to ensure that the body's nerve supply works efficiently. If part of the spine column becomes misaligned a nerve may become pinched which may lead to pain or restricted mobility. If you feel you can benefit […]Find out more »
10:00 am
Eastern and Central Europe Women's Wellbeing Group
The group provides an opportunity for women to share their experience, seek information, advice or help in difficult situations. All women welcome as long as they can speak English or Polish. Includes: crafts, health and wellbeing advice, conversation in English with native speakers, English language classes. We also try different creative activities and learn new […]Find out more »
Bellyfit (for Polish and Somali peer group members)
Bellyfit is a complete workout for women, a fitness style group practice, that blends contemporary cardio with ancient dance moves and pilates/yoga inspired stretch section. Please note that this class is ONLY for Polish/Somali ladies who attend Polish / Somali peer support group. Please contact Ania (07944 213343) or Muna (07949 740121)Find out more »
1:00 pm
Weaning course starting 17th July
Practical weaning advice and tips for parents of babies from 5 months old who are going onto solid foods. Starting on 26th June and running through to 17th July 2017. Sessions are run between 1pm-3pm every week. You will need to be referred by your health visitor in order to book yourself on to the […]Find out more »
2:00 pm
Walking for health
If you're interested in taking short, gentle walks in the local area then please come along to Wellspring every Monday afternoon at 2pm. We take 30-minute walks at a very gentle pace - so it's suitable for all ages and abilities, including those who may need mobility aids such as a wheelchair or rollator. Come along […]Find out more »
3:00 pm
Low-cost Acupuncture
Acupuncture treatments with Bea Bea has been with the Wellspring Clinic since 2012. She is experienced in both complementary health and conventional medicine, having worked for more than 25 years in nursing. She has done a 3 year degree course in acupuncture and is a member of the British Acupuncture Council. Bea is a practitioner […]Find out more »
4:30 pm
Pilates (for improvers)
Improvers class. Price - £8 per class, or £45 in advance for a 6 week term (except for the smaller Thursday Intermediate class which is £51 in advance for a 6 week term) Please book in advance. Contact Joyce on 0117 902 4603 for more information or to book a sessionFind out more »
5:00 pm
Low-cost Massage/Reflexology
Massage and Reflexology therapy with Debbie. "I am a highly committed and professional massage practitioner and I draw on the skills I have to create a unique treatment for each client according to their needs and expectations." For further information contact: email@example.com 07766 545 137Find out more »
5:30 pm
Pilates (for intermediates)
For intermediates. Price - £8 per class, or £45 in advance for a 6 week term (except for the smaller Thursday Intermediate class which is £51 in advance for a 6 week term) Please book in advance. Contact Joyce on 0117 902 4603 for more information or to book a sessionFind out more »
7:15 pm
Changes Bristol – Support group for adults suffering mental distress
Support meeting for those suffering from any kind of mental distress including anxiety, depression, stress and bipolar. No referral or formal diagnosis is necessary. No need to book - just turn up on the day.Find out more »


text:
Making Room In My Head For the Mystery
Peeling Back the Veil
by Clarity
About the Book
"Making Room In My Head For the Mystery" is an adventure, that occurs solely in a time of exploration of what one calls the wilderness of our instinctual nature, that now claims its right to have a room in the mind.
This is totally a reclamation of territory that we were once familiar with, but has been hidden and not allowed to occupy space in the intellectual arena of thought and decision-making.
It is considered foreign, but is actually the kernel seed essence of what the mind orginated from.
Features & Details
- Category Religion & Spirituality
Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
80 Pages
- Publish Date Sep 03, 2011
- Language English
- Tags quantum physics, maine, clarity, spiritual, spirituality, mystical, mind, mysticism, thought, science, metamorphosis, intuition, instinct, color, art, painting, visionary
About the Creator
We, Robert & Su.Sane Hake (Clarity), are multi-media artists and writers. We collaborate on the same piece at the same time, it is the hallmark of our style. Our work is intuitive. We've been called Contemporary Visionaries, Outsider Artists, Folk Primitives, Patternists, and our work falls within the Healing Arts, but most of all each body of work we do is unique to itself, and lies within the path of the Sacred. We are interested in Mysticism, the Sacred, divinational beliefs of indigenous people, sacred patterns, and alchemy within the creative process.
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text:
By Philip Jankowski
Killeen Daily Herald
Killeen's early voting numbers have a chance to break records if 208 voters cast ballots on the last day of early voting.
The final count was not available by press time Tuesday; but as of Monday, 1,696 people went to the polls. That's the highest number since 2004, when 1,904 Killeen residents voted early setting the city's record for the largest amount of pre-election day voting since 1990.
Daily voter turnout has varied between 217 people on May 1 to 341 on Thursday.
"It's very encouraging to see the numbers we are seeing so far," said interim city manager Glenn Morrison. "I hope that turnout remains strong for the election."
The high numbers underscore the importance of Killeen's election, with voters selecting more seats than usual because of November's successful recall of five council members. "With the number of positions that are open and the number of candidates that are running, it's no question this is an important decision the voters are making," Morrison said.
Twenty-six candidates are running for three at-large seats, two district seats and mayor. It is the second highest number of candidates in Killeen's history.
The at-large seats will go to the top three vote earners. District seats and mayor do not require a majority vote.
Harker Heights Assistant City Manager Patty Brunson said early voting turnout was typical this year for the city, which had 430 early votes after extended voting hours ended Tuesday.
"I always like to make my last day a 12-hour day to give that last opportunity to come in," she said.
Contact Philip Jankowski at email@example.com or (254) 501-7553.
If you vote
Election Day is Saturday. Polls will be open in all precincts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. as voters fill municipal and school board seats.
Check Saturday's edition of the Killeen Daily Herald for a list of polling locations.


text:
October 02 2012
(SPOILER) Behind Angel & Faith's 'Family Reunion' arc in Buffy Season 9. Christos Gage gives the lowdown to Comic Book Resources.
"to help power up the weapon that killed Rupert Giles"
Um... Would that be Angel they are powering up?
Um... Would that be Angel they are powering up?
Yes, and when exactly did they tell us the Scythe-ax has a connectionm of some kind with those killled by it? Because most of them we don't want to chase down , do we?
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text:
Most flights take off and land without issue. But at least one prominent aviation organization says unruly passengers in the air are an escalating problem.
On a flight Monday from New York to West Palm Beach, Florida, a dispute between two passengers got out of control.
According to a police report, after a 32-year-old woman put her head down on a tray table, the person reclining in front of her "struck her on the head."
Three flight attendants reported that the 32-year-old became "disruptive" and "combative." The plane was diverted to Jacksonville.
That incident was one of at least three in the last week where planes made unscheduled landings.
In June, a Jet Blue passenger caused a New York-Las Vegas flight to divert to Detroit.
In November, another man's threat caused a Spirit Airlines flight to divert.
According to the airlines' global trade association, in the past three years there has been one "unruly passenger" incident for every 1,300 flights.
The delays add up. One independent airline analyst says delays cost $6,000 an hour plus airport landing fees for some domestic jets.
Steven Wallace, a former accident investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration, says pilots will not divert the plane unless they absolutely must.
"I think diversion is the last resort, it's a tremendous inconvenience to the passengers, and it's a tremendous cost to the airline," Wallace said. "Passengers may miss connect, they may have to dump fuel if they go off on a long flight and then turn back right at the beginning of it. That definitely is a last result."
During a 12-month period ending in June, there were nearly 15,000 flight diversions by U.S. airlines, about 41 flights a day.
In many cases, planes divert because of weather or mechanical problems. In cases where there is a passenger disruption, flight crews have to make a determination: Will the person harm others or is there a security threat?


text: Tags: Show Magazine, Stephanie Monique Stephanie Monique – SHOW Magazine Behind the Scenes Video Previews You are one step closer to enjoying The Sexy Ladies of SHOW. You will have access to over 78030 photos in the members area, in addition to 62 SHOW issues. Share this:FacebookTwitterGoogleTumblrPinterestLinkedInRedditPocket Related Published: June 3, 2015 Categories: Features, Updates Tags: Show Magazine, Stephanie Monique


text:
UK house prices saw their biggest fall in 12 years during November, according to Nationwide building society.
At the same time, the Bank of England said the number of mortgage approvals fell to a near three-year low.
But as always, experts remain divided over what the future holds.
We asked for your comments - a selection of which are below - the debate is now closed.
Bad economic management has seen property prices rise too high and a correction now seems inevitable. This is good news for some and bad news for others, but the main problem overall is the volatility. For the present, we need a small cut in interest rates to help achieve a "soft landing". Hopefully, the authorities can then learn not to repeat their mistake of allowing too much easy credit and hence introduce relative stability in the housing market for the future.Chris Grey, Guildford
A steep fall in prices would be good. If they stay at their obscenely high current levels it would mean that people who have been saving to buy a house will have effectively had their savings, and much more, "removed", and many workers, not only Public Sector, will need massive pay rises if they are ever to afford to buy a decent (rather than cheaply-built "affordable" ) home.Richard, UK
Steven from Bristol, you are wonderful, you have confirmed my own thoughts. Thank goodness you made the effort to send a message, and I love Bristol.Matthew Dickinson, Newark
As a long term home owner this is not a threat to me, but I have felt that the price bubble in houses was far from good news but fuelled by stupid and greedy lending for purchasers, as shown in the Northern Rock debacle - some panic set in and with parents re-mortgaging to find deposits for their children, the competition for property was on the "up". I do not want to see a return to negative equity but I see no other outcome. Of course sellers and new purchasers will hang on as long as they can, in the hopes that things will get better, probably incurring more debt in the process. I would have hoped that the government would have had the courage to say that ever rising house prices were not all good news, to try to cool the market long ago, but the difficulty is that it suited them as a demonstration of the success of their policies of fiscal prudence. Tough on new young house buyers again.Tim Conolly, Mirfield
House prices are still relatively cheap compared with rental incomes. There is still great demand for quality rented property. The UK is a densely populated country with a shortage of space. Compare the UK situation with Switzerland, another strong economy with high levels of migrant labour and high population density. UK house prices still have quite a lot further to rise to be comparable.Anthony Cooke, Cambridge
Yes, I am in favour of a fall in house prices for several reasons: first time buyers and people who live in this part of the world (Cornwall and Devon) have been priced out of the market almost entirely by incomers and the ghastly, selfish, second-home owners. But I am also concerned with the "last time buyer". People like me who are retired and live in a modest three bedroom house in an area which has gone up in value so much, that if I want to move a bit closer to the surviving members of my family, but still wish to live in a similar house, it will cost me something like £20,000, with more than half the money going straight to government in stamp duty and VAT - and they do absolutely nothing for it - which is even less than the estate agent. And the stamp duty fiasco was set up by one of the meanest chancellors (to ordinary people) we have seen.Peter Cocks, Bideford
Why should we work all our lives while living in poverty to pay for something that is so over-priced? This needs correcting. If the government or Bank of England in any way think that it is their responsibility to support house prices, I think they must have a vested interest. History is littered with asset price bubbles. As the bubble inflates no one thinks the price will fall. There are always those that think this is a new era and there are factors to support the asset price - those are the ones with investments in the bubble. This house price bubble has been created by easy money - easy money that has been provided by banks.. The Bank of England has to use the CPI as its inflation target. Why is this - why not use RPI? Please explain why Gordon Brown has allowed this house price bubble?Neil, Herts
I am on £35,000 a year with a large deposit. However I can not even afford the cheapest property. It is all overvalued and I blame the property speculators ramping prices up, together with loose lending. It is a false economy and vulnerable to a crash especially in this credit crunch.Gavin, London
Of course a fall in house prices would be good. I have a "good" job that, while not particularly well paid (£21,000 per year) requires a postgraduate qualification. In my line of work - teaching English as a foreign language - I cannot really expect to earn much more. Surely I should be able to buy my own home at this stage in my life? And if not, surely I should have access to a type of long-term tenancy agreement? What kind of society is this where someone who has worked hard, studied hard and achieved success in her line of work is forced to accept a home that could be taken away from her with just one month's notice? Not a very compassionate, caring or fair one, I would hazard.Jessica Watson, Edinburgh
Comments that house prices are overvalued need to be considered in the economic context of demand and supply, especially when translated into forecasts for house prices falls, as demand and supply will change over the forecast period. For instance, if house prices are 40% overvalued relative to income and the market corrects over 5 years, then house prices will not fall by 40% over that period as incomes will rise. If incomes rise by 25%, say, then in nominal terms house prices will only fall by 11%.Mike Smith, London
The comments we publish are not necessarily the views of the BBC but will reflect the balance of views we have received. It is helpful if contributors state if they work for any organisation relevant to an issue discussed. Readers should form their own views on whether messages published represent undeclared interests, or views prompted by a common source.
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text:
Nico Rosberg revealed Mercedes did not discuss the possibility of enforcing team orders on its drivers prior to the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Rosberg was unhappy at being told not to overtake Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the race and repeatedly complained to team principal Ross Brawn on the radio during the final stint.
"The difficulty was that we hadn't really discussed them beforehand and so that was a mistake that we did," said Rosberg in the press conference prior to the Chinese Grand Prix.
"What's important going forward is that everything is discussed and then whichever way it goes, if I'm in front and Lewis is behind, he will respect it and vice-versa, then it's OK as long as one is prepared for it and it's discussed well and understood, that's the important thing and that 's the main mistake we did at the team."
Rosberg added he never considered disobeying the order to stay behind Hamilton: "At the end of the race I didn't have that thought, no. I decided well before to fully respect the instructions that Ross had given me."
However he firmly believes he has equal status with Hamilton and expects that will become obvious in the near future: "Very confident. No number one or number two. Extremely confident. But you can also answer that yourself in a few weeks' time, one month's time, that question."
2013 Malaysian Grand Prix
- Horner: Vettel and Webber have a "healthy rivalry"
- Webber wins Malaysian GP Driver of the Weekend
- Red Bull gives up on team orders as Vettel admits he would defy them again
- Malaysia retirement no concern for Alonso
- Massa: Red Bull's team orders not "intelligent"
Image ?�?� Daimler/Hoch Zwei


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THIS giant barrel jellyfish was found washed up on Brownsea Island today.
Eleven-year-old Dylan Vincent from Poole is pictured next to the scary-looking creature.
Around a dozen barrel jellyfish sightings have been reported along the south coast recently and experts believe there will be more as the weather warms up.
They are harmless to humans but people are still advised not to touch them.
Do you have a picture to send us? email firstname.lastname@example.com, text it to 80360, starting your message with BE or fill in the Send Your News form.
Don't forget to include your name so we can credit you!
- Monster of the deep: giant jellyfish found washed up on Sandbanks beach
- Giant jellyfish wash up on Dorset beaches


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JNF Wire: There's No Place Like Home
July 26, 2016
Adam H. Brill, Director of Communications
212-879-9305 x222
There's No Place Like Home
By: Yocheved T. Kolchin
Yocheved Kolchin, in Nefesh B' Nefesh baseball cap, at Ben Gurion
Airport with JNF-USA staff moments after arriving in Israel.
My great-grandfather, David Asher, was born in Memel, a small German town that because of border changes is now part of Lithuania. He eventually left Germany and went to Scotland and lived there for several years before arriving in the United States. However, many years later, when he was in his late 80s, he made aliyah to Israel.
His wife, my great-grandmother, refused to leave her grown children in New York, so, alone, he boarded a boat to Israel without her.
My great-grandfather had a history of heart problems, but when he arrived in Jerusalem he threw away his heart medications, saying, "The air of Jerusalem is all the healing I need." He lived in Israel for about a year, at which point he returned to the States to visit his wife. This time she was ready to go with him, and the two booked passage for Israel.
The day before their boat set sail, my great-grandfather passed away.
As I made aliyah on the recent July 18th Nefesh B'Nefesh charter flight, I couldn't help but compare my aliyah experience to that of those who preceded me. There was my great-grandfather, who came on a boat that took weeks to arrive. And then my aunt and uncle, who made aliyah in 1974 and had no one to greet them at the airport besides their taxicab driver. Beyond my own family members, I thought about the many experiences of the early immigrants to Palestine before 1948, and of the early pioneers who labored hard to develop the land. Historically, aliyah has been a Jewish dream born of yearning and struggle.
In contrast, the atmosphere in JFK airport as 200 olim chadashim prepared to start a new life in Israel was celebratory and excited. Large pieces of cake were passed around, delighting the 103 children who were making aliyah with us. Family members hugged each other and promised to Skype. Young people discussed their inspiration for making aliyah and their plans for starting careers in Israel.
My own inspiration for aliyah dates back several years. I come from a very Zionistic family, and after spending a year in Israel in 2014, I was determined to come back. At a Nefesh B'Nefesh conference that November, I happened to meet a representative from Jewish National Fund (JNF), and when I heard her describe JNF's work to develop the land of Israel and to build American Jewry's connection to Israel, I knew I wanted to get involved. Several months later, I started working as JNF's Israel Advocacy and Education Director for New York, a position I held for the past year and a half. It was a great privilege to help students learn about and develop a commitment to Israel.
So the experience of making aliyah not only on a Nefesh B'Nefesh charter flight, but on a flight that was also sponsored by JNF, was incredibly meaningful for me. Joining us on the flight was JNF's Chief Development Officer Rick Krosnick, who gave me an excellent piece of advice on making aliyah. "Wherever you go, make it small," he told me, with the advice to focus on building connections with a small group of people and creating a community for myself.
We finally arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and I stepped onto the tarmac. I took my first deep breath of air as an Israeli citizen and I knew I was home. Minutes later, we were enveloped by the crowds of over 1,500 people who had come to welcome us home as new olim.
I've never been a "rockstar," but at that moment, surrounded by a cheering and clapping crowd, I certainly felt like one! Several of my co-workers at JNF were there to greet me, and as I hugged them I knew that in America or in Israel, I would always be a part of the JNF-USA family.
I can't say making aliyah has been easy for me. My Hebrew is far from perfect, the bureaucracy here can be deeply frustrating, and I don't think I'll ever understand the Israeli banking system. And, of course, there are people and places back home that I miss terribly. But when I think back to singing the Hatikvah for my first time as an Israeli citizen alongside 1,500 others, I felt blessed.
I know I'm living the dream of both my family and my people. I've finally come home.
# # #
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND (JNF) began in 1901 as a dream and vision to reestablish a homeland in Israel for Jewish people everywhere. Jews the world over collected coins in iconic JNF Blue Boxes, purchasing land and planting trees until ultimately, their dream of a Jewish homeland was a reality. JNF gives all generations of Jews a unique voice in building a prosperous future for the land of Israel and its people.
JNF embodies both heart and action; our work is varied in scope but singular in benefit. We strive to bring an enhanced quality of life to all of Israel's residents, and translate these advancements to the world beyond. JNF is greening the desert with millions of trees, building thousands of parks, creating new communities and cities for generations of Israelis to call home, bolstering Israel's water supply, helping develop innovative arid-agriculture techniques, and educating both young and old about the founding and importance of Israel and Zionism.
JNF is a registered 501(c)(3) organization and United Nations NGO, which continuously earns top ratings from charity overseers.
For more information on JNF, call 888-JNF-0099 or visit www.jnf.org.
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