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Last week at a party for Pamuk in the verdant grounds of Bogazici University, poverty was nowhere to be found, but there was no shortage of confusion. Istanbul's intellectual elite had gathered to pay homage to Turkey's most esteemed literary son, the internationally renowned author of Snow and several other bestselling novels. And as they sipped chilled wine on an immaculate lawn overlooking the Bosphorus strait, the conversation was rich with claim and counterclaim. There was going to be a coup. There was not going to be a coup. The nation was in danger of lurching towards Islamism. Islamism was no threat at all. The democratic health of Turkey was dependant on joining the European Union. Turkey would thrive without the aid of the EU. And so it went on, back and forth, round and round, into the cooling spring night.
The Turkish intelligentsia are unusual in that non-intellectuals - in particular state lawyers - pay keen attention to what they have to say. Though mindful of prosecution, they are no strangers to lively debate. But the events of recent months and weeks have added an extra urgency to their opinions. Back in January, Hrant Dink, the editor of Agos, a newspaper for the Armenian community, was shot dead outside the paper's city centre offices. Dink had been an unyielding campaigner for recognition of the Armenian genocide of 1915-17.
To describe the death of up to a million Armenians during the first world war as 'genocide' is a criminal act in Turkey and Dink was one of scores of writers charged under a penal code - particularly the notorious Article 301 - that prohibits 'insulting Turkishness'. He had also received numerous death threats from ultra-nationalists. 'I do not know how real these threats are,' he wrote, not long before he was gunned down, 'but what's really unbearable is the psychological torture that I'm living in. Like a pigeon, turning my head up and down, left and right, my head quickly rotating.'
A 17-year old youth named Ogun Samast was arrested for the murder but it is widely believed that elements of the Turkish state were also involved. This suspicion was only deepened when newspapers published photographs of police posing with Samast as he held a Turkish flag and stood in front of a poster of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and irreproachable nationalist hero.
Dink was the first Turkish journalist to be killed since the Nineties, a decade in which no fewer than 37 journalists were murdered, and it was feared that his slaying would mark a new campaign of terror against writers and thinkers. Over 100,000 mourners turned out for his funeral under the slogan 'We are all Armenians', which is a dangerously subversive statement in Turkey.
Then last month the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, nominated his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul as the country's new president. Gul, like Erdogan, was an outspoken Islamist in the Nineties, but both men have moderated their language and position since coming to government in 2002. Indeed in many ways their Justice and Development Party (AKP) has proven the most liberal and democratic government in Turkish history, increasing freedom of speech, successfully encouraging girls to go to school, and making a determined case to join the European Union.
Still, Gul's appointment made a number of Turks uncomfortable, not least because the presidency is a largely symbolic position, and Gul's wife wears a headscarf, perhaps the most incendiary symbol in Turkish politics. Though Turkey is overwhelmingly a Muslim country, the state has been staunchly secular since Mustafa Kemal founded the republic out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire in 1923. 'The Republic of Turkey,' proclaimed the self-styled Ataturk (father of the Turks), 'cannot be the land of sheikhs, dervishes, disciples and lay brothers.'
Ataturk banished religion to the private sphere and set about transforming the defeated empire into a modern nation state. He abolished the caliphate, removed religious courts, changed the written script from Arabic to Latin, the calendar from Islamic to Gregorian, announced a new Western dress code of jacket and trousers and forbade the fez. In a famous speech he decreed its replacement as a cover with a brim. 'I want to make this clear,' he said. 'This headcovering is called a "hat".'
Secularism has remained more of a nationalistic than democratic concept in Turkey, not a means of securing rights so much as excluding what the state sees as wrong. Since Ataturk's death in 1938, the Kemalist philosophy has become the state's quasi-religion with Ataturk as its undisputed prophet. Headscarves, for example, are not allowed in government or civic buildings, including schools and universities, while Ataturk's likeness enjoys ubiquity on posters, badges and even in the corner of TV screens. And it is the military that is the vigilant and ruthless protector of Ataturk's image and legacy.
Rather like Louis XIV, the Turkish military is the state. On four occasions since 1960 it has intervened to bring down elected governments. The last time was in 1997 when the coalition government of Necmettin Erbakan was forced to resign in what became known, with typical Turkish irony, as the 'postmodern coup'. Erbakan had come to power using provocative Islamist rhetoric. He called for an Islamic currency and an Islamic United Nations, and declared a jihad to recapture Jerusalem. But things went too far when the Iranian ambassador was invited to visit Sincan, a suburb of the capital Ankara, and told an assembled crowd: 'Do not be afraid to call yourself fundamentalists! God has promised them the final victory!'
The following day tanks rolled into Sincan and Erbakan was made to affirm his support for secularism. Within months, as his power grew increasingly notional, Erbakan quit office and his Welfare Party was outlawed. One of the members of the Welfare Party was Erdogan, who as an Islamic firebrand in the Nineties had announced: 'You cannot be secular and a Muslim at the same time. The Muslim world is waiting for Turkey to rise up. We will rise up! With Allah's permission, the rebellion will start!'
After a spell in prison for inciting religious hatred, Erdogan emerged an apparently reformed character, a moderate and a moderniser with respect for Turkey's secularist path. He founded the AKP, which gained the largest share of votes in the 2002 general election. Yet many Turks doubt the authenticity of Erdogan's new-found moderation. They cite his failed bid to criminalise adultery, and his attempts to introduce 'alcohol-free zones'. It was the nomination of Gul for president, however - which would have meant that the prime minister, president and parliamentary speaker (the three most prominent positions in Turkish politics) were all AKP Islamists - that proved the last straw for the military.
Last month a notice was posted on the military general staff's website stating that the armed forces were ready once more to intervene. Erdogan described the message as 'a shot fired at democracy'. Elsewhere the Turkish intelligentsia, never slow to coin a new politicism, labelled it the 'e-coup'. Gul's nomination was revoked and Erdogan brought forward the general election to July. The AKP are favourites to win that election but if they do so then many observers believe a fifth coup to be the probable outcome.
Such was the momentous background to the gathering at Bogazici. And the backdrop was no less dramatic. The university sits on the European slopes of the Bosphorus in the shadow of one of Mehmet the Conqueror's castles, from which he mounted the siege and fall of Byzantine Constantinople in 1453. It's also located between the two mighty bridges that link not only the separate sides of the city but also the continents of Europe and Asia.
It's customary, to the point of cliche, to cast these man-made isthmuses as a figurative as well as actual meeting point between occident and orient, tradition and modernity, Islam and secularism. But perhaps a more appropriate geographical metaphor is the northern Anatolian faultline that runs beneath the sea of Marmara, the cause of a devastating earthquake in 1999. The political ground shifts quickly and unpredictably in these parts and there is perhaps no more promising venue for Samuel Huntington's tectonic, and much disputed, clash of civilisations.
Millions of Turks have taken to the streets this month in vast demonstrations in defence of secularism. From a distance, they seemed like progressive protests against encroaching Islamification, not least because 65 per cent of the participants were women. Many Turkish women look at the limited position of women in neighbouring Iran and feel anxious that the same fate may befall Turkey.
Turks often speak of the 'bikini and the headscarf' as shorthand for the way in which the secular and the religious co-exist. Walk around Istanbul and you'll see scantily-dressed girls kissing their boyfriends, and young covered women mingle with little sign of tension. One senior female academic, who asked for anonymity, told me she would like to allow headscarf-wearing women but 'it would end my career'. If there was one thing that all the academics and writers agreed upon at Bogazici it was that the secular demonstrations were both orchestrated by and played into the reactionary hands of the military.
'You have a situation,' said Faruk Birtek, a sociology professor and a sort of benign Kemalist, 'in which the so-called Islamists are more democratic than the secularists. It's what Hegel would call a contradiction without a dialectic.' Afterwards I was told by another academic that I should not take Birtek's words at face value. 'Turks say one thing to foreigners,' he said, 'and another to themselves.'
Whether or not this is true, they do seem to delight in what, if it wasn't a Greek word, one might term paradox. Birtek, a squat man with the kind of refined English vowels that make the Queen sound common, viewed the secularist-Islamist face-off as at base a struggle between the city and town, the cosmopolitan urban centres and the provincial population that have dramatically swollen the big cities in recent years. It reminded me of something Pamuk had written in Istanbul: '... the elite's tolerance of the military was rooted in the fear that, one day, the lower classes would combine forces with the new rich pouring from the provinces to abolish the Westernised bourgeois way of life under the banner of religion'.
Pamuk himself remained slightly aloof from the cut-and-thrust of debate at Bogazici, wearing a smile that appeared half-ironic, half-inscrutable. When the AKP first came to power, he was sceptical about their true motives. 'You make an aesthetic choice,' he told the New Yorker, 'and my choice is to find a place that is equally detached from the cruelties of political Islam.' But in the intervening years the AKP has arguably shifted closer to Pamuk, while elements within the military and some parts of the media have come to see their country's first winner of the Nobel prize for literature as an enemy target.
In a now infamous interview with a Swiss magazine, Pamuk said in 2005: 'Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody dares talk about it.' After a co-ordinated hate campaign and a lengthy legal procedure, under the terms of Article 301, charges against Pamuk were eventually dropped. But this was his first public outing in Turkey since the murder of Dink, and he now spends most of his time living abroad. With the Armenian dead, the dubious honour of being the ultra-nationalist's prime intellectual hate figure passed to the novelist, a cerebral man who seems ill-suited to the role of political hero, much less martyr. At the party, standing apart from the crowd, was a group of men in dark suits and pink ties. These were Pamuk's state-appointed security guards. The price of the protection is thought to be Pamuk's silence, though it's known that the novelist is keen to return to the job of writing without the distraction of being a freedom of speech figurehead.
Nor was Pamuk the only writer present who warranted protection. I spoke with Oral Calislar, a columnist with the newspaper Cumhuriyet. Calislar had also placed his life in danger by speaking out about the Armenian question. A veteran of Turkish prisons, which have well-earned their poor reputation, he was concerned that the threat to freedom of speech, and the looming prospect of a coup, had seriously undermined the country's chance of joining the EU.
Negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU officially began in 2005. But Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president, is far from the only European opposed to Turkish membership. Turkey's most vocal supporter was Tony Blair, and his departure is probably regretted more in Istanbul than it is London. 'If Europe turns its back on us,' said Calislar, 'we could end up like Algeria. The Islamists might say they tried the democratic way and were rejected, so they could turn to other means.'
This seemed a particularly bleak vision and not one that was shared by most Turks I spoke to. With a population of 70 million and an economy that is fast expanding, Turkey is a market of huge potential. Most seemed to believe that in the long run the economic attraction will outweigh concerns about the political and cultural differences. They were instead worried that negative European responses might be exploited by nationalists to create a more pessimistic and intolerant atmosphere, drawing out that 'huzun', perhaps, that lurks beneath the bustling streets of Istanbul. On these matters and many others, the writers and academics continued to hold forth as Pamuk bade his polite farewell and headed off with his guards, bound, as it would turn out, for the film jury at Cannes.
The following day I had lunch on the Asian shore of the city with a businessman named Samim Uygun. A former footballer with Galatasaray, one of Istanbul's three major football clubs, Uygun ran a private discussion club for nationalist army officers, politicians and businessmen called the Guven Hareketi (Trust Movement). 'We know who are with us and we know who are against us,' he told me in the tone of voice which suggested that being against them was not an advisable position.
A fastidious looking man, who is just old enough to have shared a football pitch with Sir Stanley Matthews, Uygun was reminiscent of a type often seen in Latin American countries: an upstanding citizen with an unshakeable belief in jackboot wisdom. 'We have one insurance,' he told me. 'This insurance is the military.'
You hear a lot about the 'deep state' or 'derin devlet' in Turkey, the shadowy network thought to carry out, or at least order, assassinations and other dark deeds. Every now and again the Turkish public gains a glimpse of this almost mythical entity. The most celebrated example was a car crash in the town of Susurluk in 1996. The car contained a gallery of characters that seemed to have been plagiarised from a Hollywood film noir: a high-ranking police chief, a fugitive gangster who was an assassin for the state as well as a heroin dealer, his beauty queen girlfriend, and the only survivor of the crash, an MP and wealthy Kurdish clan leader.
Also found in the car was a wealth of incriminating documentation, fake diplomatic passports, money and weapons. The MP, who had made millions from a protection racket during the war with the Kurdish PKK guerrillas, claimed, not entirely plausibly, to have lost his memory after the crash. Some minor figures were charged but the main outcome of the scandal was the undeniable exposure of the state's dirty works.
With his fond football memories and avuncular manner, Uygun seemed an unlikely participant in the deep state, but one got the impression that he may well have been connected to people who were. Our conversation ranged over various issues. He told me that Dink's murder, while sad, was 'not important'. He outlined the threat to Turkish development presented by foreign investment. But he seemed to recoil when I mentioned Pamuk's name.
'I tried to read one of his books,' he said with a vinegary expression of distaste, 'but after 10, 15 pages I couldn't understand it. My wife is an educated woman and she couldn't understand it either.' Pamuk's problematic prose appeared to confirm his undesirable status in Uygun's mind. He contested the idea that Pamuk had exercised his right to freedom of speech in mentioning the Armenian deaths. And claimed instead that Pamuk was working for others. 'It's all just a game,' he explained. But on behalf of whom was Pamuk working? Uygun paused for dramatic effect, then reached for every third-rate conspiracy theorist's favourite culprit. 'The Jewish community in the United States. They want to bring Turkey to her knees.'
From there it did not take long before he revealed that the Iraq war was all part of an Israeli plan to expand its borders across the Middle East. 'Almost 30,000 Jews are living north of Baku,' he claimed. 'And the two ribbons on the flag of Israel, we believe they represent the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea.'
Uygun was keen for Turkey to invade Kurdistan in northern Iraq. 'We have a score to settle with the Kurds,' he said. The strange thing about his cranky opinions was the striking resemblance they bore to the most paranoid rantings of Islamists. Ataturk was an avowed atheist but some of those who invoke his name with a kind of religious zeal are themselves pious Muslims. Like Dink's young killer, Uygun is an observant Muslim, the designation of Islamic nationalist being only one of the oxymoronic categories in which Turkey seems to specialise.
Yet far more than he disliked Dink or Pamuk, Uygun hated the AKP. 'They want to change the Republic into a religious state,' he said. 'He [by which I took Erdogan] wanted to declare himself as Caliph. But you saw the reactions of the people.'
Many Turks feel divided loyalties between eastern tradition and western modernity. Uygun, though, seemed positively twisted by the opposing forces. His feelings about what he called the 'Christian' west sprang from the same well of envy and grievance from which the Islamic fundamentalists drew much of their bitter inspiration, while his craving for modernity was founded on an old-fashioned belief in the civilising benefits of a secular Republic. When it came down to it, the organiser of the Trust Movement did not trust political Islam, fearing it would drag the nation down to its peasant roots, and he did not trust democratic freedom because of the challenge it posed to the status quo.
In one matter, however, Uygun was undoubtedly correct. The people had reacted. The millions of Turks who took to the streets of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir could not be ignored. It's true that many of them chanted, and held banners that read, 'No to a coup, no to sharia', but it's equally true that they were in many cases encouraged on to the streets by associations that, like Uygun's, were neither unsympathetic to the army nor the prospect of a coup.
Many secular and religious Turks believe that the AKP is practising 'takkiye', the religiously sanctioned practice of dissembling to gain advantage for the Islamic cause. But as Andrew Finkel, one of the most respected Turkey observers, said to me: 'If they're pretending to be democratic, then they are half way there. Because many parties in Turkey don't even bother pretending to be democrats.' Uygun saw himself on the centre right, which set the imagination racing over what a member of the Turkish far right might sound like. He said that the key objective of his Trust Movement was to help unite the left and right parties into a single nationalist party to fight the AKP. And there are signs that, as in Britain and other parts of Europe, the anti-American right and the anti-American left are coming together in Turkey. Nonetheless Uygun suggested that if, as seems most likely, the AKP were victorious in the July elections, there would be trouble. 'The army made a big commitment ... if the AKP don't take a lesson from it, then they have to bear the consequences.'
Not far along the Asian shore from Uygun, but a long way towards the other end of the political spectrum, Sanar Yurdatapan runs the Antenna human rights organisation from his cramped apartment. Dressed in a red-capped sleeve top and blue jeans, his long greying hair tied back in a hipster's bun, the former musician makes for a striking sartorial contrast to the starched formality of Uygun.
As youthful assistants packed envelopes, Yurdatapan told me about an incident that took place last year in Semdinli, a small town in the south-east of Turkey. Someone threw a bomb at a book store and was later caught in a military car. 'But the chief of the army said "I know that guy, he's a good guy" and he was protected. The prosecutor who tried to bring the case cannot find work even as a lawyer today. And the chief of the army was promoted to chief of staff. All of this happened before our eyes. It is really clear now, nothing is hidden any more.'
He said in the current climate it was still possible that Pamuk might be killed, and spoke of the writer having been 'silenced'. He called on all Turks to stand up and fight for their democratic rights, rejecting the idea that the nation should look to Europe to secure them. 'We should not discuss freedom of expression as a European concept,' he insisted. 'It's something we need regardless of membership.'
Though Erdogan told the International Press Institute on the same day that he was prepared to revise Article 301, Yurdatapan felt that the AKP was in no hurry to give up the powers the penal code afforded. 'Their brain is not different to that of the others. When they rule they think they need those articles, but when they are used against them they shout out.'
He also warned about another law, Article 305, that as yet has not been employed. According to this provision, any person, regardless of their nationality, who writes from abroad about the Turkish state in a critical fashion, and for personal benefit, is liable to 3-5 years imprisonment. 'They gave two examples of criticisms: if you say the Turkish army must leave Cyprus or you use the word genocide. I'm not making money from what you write, but you are,' then bursting into laughter, he added. 'You are in danger!'
'But it's not a joke, really,' he said, composing himself. 'This is the law!'
The ferry back across the Bosphorus was forced to negotiate its way through a flotilla of massive tankers passing to and from the Black Sea, and the tankers themselves had little room to manoeuvre in the narrow strait. It was a bit like finding a workable path through the complex and sometimes lethal cross-currents of Turkish politics.
For the last time, I admired the dome-and-minaret majesty of the Istanbul skyline. Seldom have history and geography come together with such splendid results. There were signs too of rejuvenation and a new confidence. As the New York Times style section recently put it: 'Istanbul is now the rare place where readers of Archaeology and Wallpaper* magazines can clink glasses with equal zeal.'
But a bristling sensitivity remains, the useless inheritance of imperial decline. You could call it a collective melancholy or 'huzun', but what seems certain is that if Turkey wants to seize hold of the future, the state needs to loosen its suffocating stranglehold on the past.
A brief history
334 BC Alexander the Great conquers Anatolia.
324 AD Emperor Constantine selects Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman empire. Renamed Constantinople.
5th century Becomes the capital of the new Byzantine Empire.
10th century Turks arrive in Anatolia from central Asia.
1453 Mehmet the Conqueror seizes Constantinople, renamed Istanbul.
1915-17 An estimated 1 million Christian Armenians are killed in ethnic strife during the reign of the Young Turks. Seen by many as the first genocide of the 20th century.
1918 The Ottoman Empire collapses at the end of the First World War.
1923 Mustafa Kemal Pasha defeats Greek occupying army, founds the new Republic of Turkey, and moves the capital to Ankara.
1934 Mustafa Kemal becomes Ataturk - father of the Turks. He dies in 1938.
1952 Turkey joins Nato.
1960 Military coup.
1971 Military coup.
1973 Bosphorus Bridge is completed, linking Europe and Asia.
1980 Military coup.
1984 War with separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) costs an estimated 37,000 lives.
1990-1999 37 journalists murdered.
1997 'Postmodern' military coup. Islamist PM Necmettin Erbakan forced to resign.
2002 The Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) win election.
2006 Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel Prize for literature.
January 2007 Armenian journalist Hrant Dink murdered.
April 2007 Military issues a warning on its website after Abdullah Gul is nominated as president. Dubbed the 'e-coup'.
May 2007 3-4 million Turks take to streets in defence of secularism.


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In Alejandro González Iñárritu's kaleidoscopic study of tone-deaf culture collision and dislocation, a rifle links the fates of a Moroccan goatherder's young sons (Said Tarchani and Boubker Ait El Caid), a grieving California couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), a San Diego nanny (Adriana Barraza) stranded with her privileged charges, and a deaf-mute Tokyo schoolgirl (Rinto Kikuchi). The director and his longtime screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga mean to show the butterfly effects of American arrogance and post-9/11 solipsism throughout the world, but after a strong first hour the movie settles for cheap ironies and climactic calamities rigged to unfold almost in unison. (JR) (Countywide)
Edward Zwick's latest film assembles three refugees from central casting around the quest for an egg-sized pink diamond in Sierra Leone. When rebels rampage through his village, Solomon (Djimon Hounsou) is wrenched from his family and put to work mining diamonds. On the job, Solomon retrieves the rock and sets about hiding it when government soldiers bust in and cart everyone off to jail. Word of the diamond soon reaches Danny (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a scheme is hatched to get rich or die trying. The holy trinity of African adventure flick clichès is soon completed by the arrival of Maddy (Jennifer Connelly), a foxy idealist reporting on the blood diamond trade for an American newsweekly. (NL) (Countywide)
Like his Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Zhang Yimou's third global-market gigaproduction makes little sense in narrative terms even after two screenings, but the sets, costumes, and cinematography are so intoxicating that it doesn't much matter. Zhang's interest in the wuxia (martial arts) film may well extend no further than the kick he gets out of constructing ostentatious palaces and then watching from behind the lens as they crumble to the ground—he's a movie director, in other words. (RN) (AMC 30 at the Block, Orange; Edwards Long Beach)
The story goes like this: The ferry blows up (seen it), Denzel Washington struts on the scene to investigate (seen it), clues are discovered (seen it), a dead girl is found under mysterious circumstances (seen it), Val Kilmer arrives looking kind of pudgy (??), everyone heads off to a top-secret government base and climbs into a gigantic spark plug. There, a next-level surveillance system renders real-time composite images of anything that happened four days ago, from any angle, through all obstacles, and in the visual vocabulary of the 21st century blockbuster. Except that actually it's a time machine. (Now here is something new.) (NL) (Woodbridge Dollar Movies, Irvine)
Martin Scorsese strives to bring it all back home, remaking the strongest HK action film of recent years. Infernal Affairs is a movie with a star premise; The Departed is packed with names: Matt Damon; Leonardo DiCaprio; and Jack Nicholson; who skews crazy, reprising his turn from The Witches of Eastwick in the inflated role of a patriarchal crime boss. Neither debacle nor bore, the movie works, but only up to a point and never emotionally—nothing that wouldn't have been cured by losing half an hour . . . and Jack. (JH) (Countywide)
In a time of darkness, under the evil reign of John Malkovich—who sits upon a throne in a different soundstage from all the other cast—a hero shall rise: Eragon (newcomer Ed Speleers). And then shall cometh a big blue CGI dragon, voiced by Rachel Weisz and far lamer—physically and stylistically—than Sean Connery's beast from 1996's Dragonheart. As Eragon tries to save his home from the power-mad king of Stefen Fangmeier's lame fantasy world, much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensue, especially in the scenes when singer Joss Stone plays a fortune-telling gypsy, and even more so when songbirds Avril Lavigne and Jem foist themselves unto the soundtrack. (LYT) (Krikorian Buena Park; Regal Foothill Towne Center, Foothill Ranch; Edwards Long Beach)
Neither Half Nelson nor all bad, this white-teacher-uplifts-poor-kids-of-color drama aims to favor the students' stories, which are based on those of real-life Long Beach high-schoolers who wrote their way out of oppression and anonymity in the mid-'90s. But those diary entries too often take a back seat to the film's "Ms. G." played by two-time Oscar-winner and Chad Lowe-survivor Hilary Swank, who makes instantly credible her character's preference of work over marriage to a boring man-behind-the-woman (Patrick Dempsey). The movie's most effective lesson is teaching isn't just for teachers. (RN) (Countywide)
The third collaboration between Britain's Aardman studio and DreamWorks animation, this puckish charmer about a posh Kensington mouse flushed down the loo into London sewer country is to action-adventure what Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was to Hammer Horror. Beyond the obligatory Hollywood moralizing about community and cooperation, there's a heartfelt upstairs-downstairs tale of urban loneliness redeemed by love and family. (ET) (Regency Charter Centre, Huntington Beach; Woodbridge Dollar Movies, Irvine)
It took Norman Mailer seven years and 1,282 pages to write 1991's Harlot's Ghost: A Novel of the CIA, so director Robert De Niro and screenwriter Eric Roth can be forgiven for taking two hours and 40 minutes to tell The Good Shepherd (a/k/a A Movie of the CIA)—but then why does it feel so empty? As long as it is, Shepherd speeds through its leading man's life, cramming in 30 years without elaborating on any of them. The fictional story here is about Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), a CIA agent tied to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and suspected of being a mole. (RW) (Countywide)
With shtick as dull as it is ill-natured, this appallingly dumb and tasteless inversion of the Cinderella story features the voice of Sigourney Weaver as a generically shrieky wicked stepmother who discovers she can tinker with fairy-tale endings, notably that of Cinders (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who sports a short black Audrey Hepburn 'do and a mistaken crush on a narcissistic prince (Patrick Warburton) brazenly ripped off from Beauty and the Beast's Gaston. I spent the movie scratching my head over which audience Lionsgate is hoping to tap with this noisy rubbish. YouTubers? Tots with A.D.D.? (ET) (Countywide)
Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is an LA movie trailer producer who's just kicked her cheating boyfriend to the curb. Iris (Kate Winslet) is a Daily Telegraph wedding reporter whose own unfaithful ex is getting hitched to another woman. After bonding in an Internet chat room, they negotiate a house swap and, upon arriving in their new digs, promptly dive headfirst back into the relationship cesspool (Diaz with Jude Law, Winslet with Jack Black). The Holiday is frequently smarter and savvier than the Hollywood norm, but like writer-producer-director Nancy Meyers' other recent films (What Women Want, Something's Gotta Give), it's also reductive in its view of women. (SF) (Countywide)
Russian director Andrei Kravchuck charts the plight of his country's army of orphans, hapless waifs deserted by drunken parents, and a post-Soviet government in disarray. Caught between the brutalities of orphanage life and the profiteers of illegal adoption, little Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) longs to reunite with his real mother, and sets out to learn to read in order to find her. Lured, perhaps, by the promise of international markets, Kravchuk opts for routine uplift, and once the heroic journey is set in motion, the rest is ballast. (ET) (Edwards Westpark, Irvine)
Todd Field's second excursion into middle-class unease, after his intelligent but overrated In the Bedroom, unfolds at a leisurely, insidious pace. It posits a suburb full of hypocrites busily persecuting their local child molester (a compellingly creepy Jackie Earle) so as not face up to their own subterranean secrets and desires. Little Children divides its time between melodrama and black comedy, uneasy bedfellows in a movie that solicits serious sympathy for its wounded souls, adulterous lovers played by Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson. (ET) (Edwards Westpark, Irvine; Art Theatre, Long Beach)
How the Beatrix Potter franchise—with its tight-lipped moral justice visited upon insipid mice, bunnies, and the truly insufferable Jemima Puddle Duck—continues to flourish in this age of permissive parenting is a mystery, but surely there's a meaty drama to be made about the dark forces that drove this dyed-in-the-wool Victorian. Director Chris Noonan (Babe) and screenwriter Richard Maltby Jr. are having none of it. Miss Potter shifts the burden of ill humor onto the lady authoress' petit bourgeois mother (Barbara Flynn), thus freeing Rene Zellweger to perk up Beatrix into a chipper cross between Bridget Jones and Mary Poppins. (ET) (Century Stadium, Orange; Edwards Brea Stadium East; UA Marketplace, Long Beach)
Ben Stiller—as usual, frazzled with a touch of hipster frump—is a divorced dad in need of a gig, lest his cutie-pie kid (Jake Cherry) wind up spending all of his time with uptight bond-trading New Dad (Paul Rudd, wasted in a straightlaced cameo). So Stiller's Larry takes a job as night watchman at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, where things go bump in the night. The first half-hour's too slow; the last half-hour's too manic. But it's the first outing from director Shawn Levy (he of Cheaper by the Dozen and Pink Panther infamy) that actually entertains. (RW) (Countywide)
Dominic Purcell plays a disgraced, charisma-challenged reporter traveling to Africa alongside nature documentarian Aviva (Brooke Langton), Funny Black Guy cameraman Steve (Orlando Jones, who deserves better), and Steve Irwin-y animal guy Matthew Collins (Gideon Emery, dullsville). There, they learn that life in Africa is hard, especially with those warlords and oversized reptiles picking on everyone. With a little camp this could have been fun (see: Lake Placid, Anaconda), but director Michael Katleman (see: episodes of Gilmore Girls, Tru Calling) doesn't play it that way, and even Jürgen Prochnow's crazed Ahab wannabe is unfortunately understated. (LYT) (AMC 30 at the Block; Edwards Long Beach)
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In '06, Rocky's belated return to the ring can be blamed, like this DVD-ready sequel, on the digital revolution: The ESPN Boxing channel's computer simulation program predicts that the Italian Stallion, at least as he was in his prime, could take the current heavyweight champ, Mason "the Line" Dixon (Antonio Tarver) by K.O. Naturally, neither Rocky, now a restaurateur, nor Mason Dixon (named for the thin line between drama and comedy?) can resist when a promoter's Vegas exhibition offer follows. (RN) (Countywide)
Upon his release from jail, talented dancer DJ (Columbus Short) is shipped by his moms from South Central to Atlanta's ever-so-subtly named Truth University (a fictional amalgam of prominent black colleges). There, DJ falls for a fine sister (Meagan Good), whose father—the dean of Truth—doesn't look kindly on his little angel socializing with an ex-felon. What's a brother to do? Why, put his fancy footwork to use in service of step-dancing competitions, a tradition at black fraternities and sororities, which, as filmed by White with an overload of slow-motion effects and high-speed shutters, are about as cinematic as a televised Riverdance concert. (SF) (Countywide)

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Prof. Charles Tart is an author and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California and teaches at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto.
Dr Dean Radin, is an author, and a senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences(IONS) in California. His first career as a concert violinist shifted into science after earning a degree in electrical engineering and a Phd in Psychology.
www.ions.org www.deanradin.com
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Dr Rupert Sheldrake is an author and a British biologist and philosopher, who has individually done the most research in telepathy during the last thirty years.
|Dr Hal Puthoff is a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin Texas. He used to be the Director of the Stanford Research Institute, during "Stargate", the CIA's Remote Viewing Program in the 70's and 80's.
Dr Roger Nelson also a psychologist, was involved in the earliest "mind over matter" experiments, also called "Psycho Kinesis" , "P.K" or "Telekinesis" at Princeton University. He is now running the "Global Consciousness Project".
Professor Gary Schwartz is an author and Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, and Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.
Dr Larry Dossey is internationally renowned for advocating the role of spirituality in healthcare. He has written many books on the role of consciousness in healing. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
|Stephan Schwartz Research Associate (CSLLFR) is an author and a preeminent researcher in the field of Remote Viewing. His specialty is "Psychic Archeology".
Dr Melinda Connor Ph.D., is a psychologist, and the Director of the Karen Connor Optimal Healing Research program at Dr. Gary Schwartz's Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health at the University of Arizona
Precognition is an alleged psychic ability to predict the future. It sometimes comes as a vision, a mental flash or a dream.
Telepathyrefers to mind-reading or mind-to-mind communication. It literally means 'distant feeling'.
Clairvoyanceis the psychic ability to perceive remote places, objects or people. A scientific term for clairvoyance is 'Remote Viewing'.
Psychokinesis (PK) is the ability to move objects with the power of the mind only.
Healing is a spiritual practice that may afford gradual relief from pain or sickness, and sometimes brings about sudden 'miracle cures'.
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The weeks running up to Christmas are a very busy time for the police and they will be anticipating increases in offences of drink driving, domestic violence, armed robberies, thefts and incidents of disorder, especially when Christmas parties get out of hand.
It is therefore not surprising that Lancashire Police has already publicised various crime prevention operations to deal with this potential spike in criminal activity.
The success of these operations should not be judged by how many people are arrested, because the aim is to prevent offences happening. Unfortunately counting offences that don't actually happen is in most cases impossible and the public doesn't always appreciate the hidden success of these operations.
For example, how do you find out how many teams of armed robbers have been put off travelling to Lancashire because of strategically placed high profile road checks and the visible deployment of vehicles fitted with automatic number plate recognition systems (ANPR)?
Criminals are aware that ANPR systems can identify stolen vehicles and provide live criminal intelligence to officers. They are also aware that Lancashire Police is using covert armed response vehicles to follow cash delivery vans, which means that Lancashire is not an easy target for professional travelling criminals. Regrettably though this will still not deter all violent criminals.
This high visibility road policing will also hopefully make some people think twice before drinking and driving.
Again how do you measure how many people decide not to have that extra drink or even decide to leave their car at home?
I also like the tactic this year that the police, the Lancashire partnership against crime and Blackpool transport are working together to provide 1,800 sets of jingle bell key rings to bus passengers. These key rings are attached to bags or purses and make it more difficult for pickpockets to operate. How many thefts will not happen because of this activity?
Similarly because of heeding the seasonal crime prevention advice that is being provided, such as don't leave valuables in view when you park your car, stay with your car when you defrost it with the engine running and improve the security at your home, many people will prevent offences from happening.
Overall, Lancashire police and their partner agencies are working very hard to ensure that as many people as possible have a happy and safe Christmas. If people take notice of the advice being provided, avoid getting too drunk and rowdy at work do's and refrain from attacking their partners there will be fewer victims of crime. That will mean the boys and girls in blue can have a very quiet time and surely that is what everybody would wish for at Christmas.


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U.N. climate talks kicked off Monday in Bangkok with leaders calling for delegates to break the deadlock over a global warming deal and warning that failure to act would leave future generations fighting for survival.
Negotiations on a new U.N. climate pact have been bogged down by a broad unwillingness to commit to firm emissions targets, and a refusal by developing countries to sign a deal until the West guarantees tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance – something rich countries have so far refused to do.
"Time is not just pressing. It has almost run out," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said, with a clock nearby showing there were 70 days until world leaders were scheduled to meet in Copenhagen to finalize a pact.
"But in two weeks, real progress can be made toward the goals world leaders set for negotiations, to break the deadlock and cooperate toward concrete progress," he said, adding there were no other options. "If we don't realize Plan A, the future will hold us to account."
Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister for climate and energy whose country will host the talks in December, told delegates the world was watching and urged them to build on momentum from last week's U.N. climate summit where 100 world leaders pledged their support for an agreement.
At the New York summit, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao – whose countries are the world's two biggest emitters, each accounting for about 20 percent of greenhouse gas pollution – both vowed tough measures to combat climate change.
Hu said China would generate 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources within a decade, and for the first time pledged to reduce the rate by which its carbon emissions rise. He did not give specific targets.
Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, whose nation generates more than 4 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, pledged to seek a 25 percent cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2020.
The United States has offered much lower targets so far, with the legislation passed by the House of Representatives aiming to reduce emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels – that is about 4 percent below 1990 levels – by 2020. The Senate has yet to take up the climate bill.
"We have a tremendous task before us," Hedegaard said. "You and I face great expectations from citizens around the world. They want action on climate change and they want it now. If we fail to act, we will face dire consequences."
The two weeks of U.N. climate talks in the Thai capital, the second to last meeting before Copenhagen, are drawing some 1,500 delegates from 180 countries who will be tasked with boiling down a 200-page draft agreement to something more manageable. They also will be working to close the gap between rich and poor countries that risk derailing the talks in December.
Most countries agree that temperature increases should be limited to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels of about 150 years ago – a level believed necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. But so far, there is no consensus on how to do that.
Most industrialized nations have offered emissions cuts of 15 percent to 23 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, falling short of the 25 percent to 40 percent cuts scientists and activists say are needed to keep temperature increases below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).
De Boer said negotiations were far behind where they should be, but he remained confident a deal would be reached in Copenhagen. Others are not sure.
David Victor, a political scientist who has written about climate negotiations since 1990, said it is unlikely a comprehensive treaty can be completed this year.
"The world economic recession has made most governments acutely aware of policies that could affect economic growth," he said. "And the range of issues on the table in Copenhagen is so large and complex and the time available to sort them out is very short."


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Republicans: Expand free trade. More aggressive advocates of free-trade agreements than their Democratic counterparts, Republicans insist that decreasing trade barriers with other nations is necessary to compete in the global economy. Most supported the Central American Free Trade Agreement (cafta). At the same time, some Republicans have pushed for tougher laws to protect American patents and technologyparticularly from piracy by the Chinese.
Democrats: Embrace fair or "smart" trade. Democrats were largely opposed to cafta and argue that free-trade agreements must be fair. That means including labor and environmental protections, as well as retraining and providing other assistance to U.S. workers whose jobs are jeopardized by lowering economic barriers between countries. They want to enforce the protections guaranteed in past trade agreements.
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Neighbors protesting Main Street development
New zoning allows retail, housing mix
Three years ago, Town Meeting voters changed the zoning on the east side of Northborough to encourage new developments mixing shops, offices, and apartments. The idea was to create clusters that would generate tax revenue but require fewer public services.
Now, residents in the newly zoned neighborhood are having second thoughts.
Homeowners in the so-called Business East District are angry about local developer Tim Shay's plan to tear down a single-family house at 130 Main St., and build three buildings with shops, offices, and 12 apartments in its place.
The altered zoning laws might allow for the project, but the proposal would make the heavily congested intersection of Brigham Street and Route 20 (Main Street) worse, and kill the character of the neighborhood, the homeowners say.
"It's too dense,'' said Deidre Merritt, who lives on Wesson Terrace, about a quarter-mile from Route 20. "It spills into a residential area with lots of single-family homes and young families with kids.''
Shay could not be reached for comment.
Homeowners said Shay had discussed the project with them, and had even agreed to remove balconies that would have given his tenants a bird's-eye view of their yards. But he has rebuffed their requests that he build only two buildings on the 1.8-acre lot, they said.
Residents will have another chance to ask Shay to curtail his proposal when the Zoning Board of Appeals resumes its hearing on the project, slated for 7 p.m. March 27.
Around 75 people attended the board's hearing last month, according to Northborough's town planner, Kathryn Joubert, who said she expects a similar audience to show up at the upcoming Tuesday night session.
The zoning in the district requires the board to approve Shay's plan, said Joubert. She understands why residents might be critical of the project, Joubert said, but pointed out that it fits with the development envisioned in the new zoning approved by Town Meeting in 2009.
"The neighbors are used to seeing this small, abandoned white house there,'' said Joubert. "Yet that house is sitting in the middle of a commercial district. Change is very hard.''
Meanwhile, the town's Historical Commission is taking a look at the project. On March 7, the commission designated 130 Main St. as a historically significant property, citing its legacy as home to a shoemaker's business in the mid-1800s, said the building inspector, Bill Farnsworth.
The designation triggered Northborough's demolition bylaw, which requires Shay to wait until early August before he can tear down the single-family house; in the meantime, the Historical Commission will be seeking alternatives to the structure's razing.
Most homeowners said they wanted Shay to reduce the amount of cars that would use the site's proposed 66-space parking lot. The development would face Route 20, but it also would have an entryway on Brigham Street that could divert drivers through residential areas, they said.
Shay provided a traffic study with his application to the Zoning Board of Appeals that forecast around 462 cars entering and leaving the proposed development every day, a fraction of the 18,400 cars that the study said commonly pass on Route 20 during weekdays.
Homeowners weren't persuaded. "Adding one more car is a quality-of-life issue, and they are talking about 462 cars daily,'' said Carol Chione, who lives on Brigham Street. "It's not that I'm against business, but I think there needs to be some serious modifications.''
Joubert sympathized with Chione and her neighbors. She said the town was working on improving the crossroads.
"The intersection where this is being located is definitely a difficult intersection in town,'' said Joubert, adding that state transportation officials who have jurisdiction over the road had repeatedly denied the town's requests to put a traffic signal there.
The town has been studying the feasibility of adding a connecting road that would link Brigham to Maple Street, which is less than 50 feet east from Brigham's intersection with Route 20, said Joubert.
Drivers heading from Brigham Street to Maple Street often clog up Route 20. A connector would help clear up the intersection, she said.
It's not clear whether the new link would satisfy local residents, however.
"We are just trying to keep this small, quaint look to our town,'' said Leland Drive resident Karen Ares.


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|Number of bedrooms
|1 Bedroom
|Number of bathrooms
|1 Bathroom
|Floor number
|Standard occupancy
|4 Guests
|Max occupancy
|Max 4 Guests*
With 45 square meters, the one-bedroom apartment is suitable as a modern day home in the city. It offers a large balcony, relaxing views over the waters of Amsterdam and has large windows that make this apartment bright and truly enjoyable.
The living room has a flat screen TV, a relaxing lounge with a sofa bed for the kids and a cozy dining table for four. The open plan kitchen is equipped with everything you need to prepare your homemade meals and has a dishwashing machine for your convenience.
Ready to relax? Get your night's sleep after a long busy day in the tranquil bedroom, equipped with a brand new comfortable double bed and views over the Amsterdam waters. It is perfectly designed for a relaxing stay, with a calming interior, plenty of natural light, and curtains to tuck away when you are ready to get your rest.
To complement the relaxing vibe throughout the apartment, there is a bathroom available with a relaxing bathtub, separate shower, a hairdryer, and a sink. The toilet is located separately in the hallway of this apartment. In the hallway, you can also find a wardrobe to store your luggage and wear.
Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the apartment.
The number of nights you have selected is more than 14 nights. Please fill out all appropriate fields and we will get you the best deal in three hours.
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Nothing gets the blood pumping like a good war movie with an outrageously patriotic score! Such is the case of Tony Scott's Crimson Tide! Set in the time prior to the end of the Cold War era, America has been put on alert. A Russian dissident has taken control of the Politburo and is waging war on those who do not share his political point of view. In an early morning raid, his forces gain control of a cache of Nuclear weapons and the ability to launch an all out attack on anyone not in line with his goals and ideals. The USS Alabama, a top drawer Nuclear Submarine is dispatched to the region with specific instructions to put down this threat should the threat prove to be more than that. The Commander of the boat (Gene Hackman) has seen combat and lives for the battle. His Executive Officer (Denzel Washington) however is the new breed of military man in that; he views war as the enemy and not a means to an end. During routine prep for the possibility of conflict, an emergency message is received by the sub advising that the situation has worsened and an attack on the US is imminent. Ready to meet the aggressor with both barrels blazing, Hackman steams ahead to meet the would be conqueror of America however, given the great amount of both static and an inability to confirm the message, Washington has his doubts about proceeding without confirming the orders as received. Hackman and Washington go head to head and the action is more than incredible, it's gripping and totally immersing. Of all the sub dramas: Hunt for the Red October, U-571, Run Silent Run Deep, Gray Lady Down etc… Crimson Tide has an emotion and drive all it's own! It's hard to pick a favorite out of this category but if I could, Crimson Tide would be right up there with HFRO & U-571!
The audio for Crimson Tide is a very well delineated 5.1 DD soundtrack. The surrounds are put to incredible use as well as the Sub. There are a decent amount of aural effects that essentially immerse you in the experience and the audio track is one exceptionally loud and clear presentation. The video is for the most part a beautifully rendered widescreen digital transfer. The only moments at issue are a few instances of shimmering and slight pixelation. Other than that, the transfer sparkles. The blacks are deep and true and the reds are rich and luxuriant in their presentation.
There are no extras for this disc.
Crimson Tide is a great movie! The chemistry between Hackman and Washington is stellar. You couldn't have asked for better actors to play these roles. The action is intense and the excitement of the film never lets up. I am crazy about war movies and Crimson Tide is one of those well-written, well-acted and well-directed films that are a credit to the genre. If you are interested in a good drama with teeth, Crimson Tide is for you. I can't recommend this movie enough! The one thing stuck in my craw however is the absolute lack of extras available on the disc! None! Not even a trailer for the movie is included. Hollywood Pictures could have spent a little more money and given us just a taste of the goodies but, they held back in total. With no SE on the horizon, this is going to be the best boat going. If you haven't seen it, you just have to. If you have, see it again! It's a lot of fun and very well presented. Highly Recommended


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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, disabling disease affecting the central nervous system, composed of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. The disease affects more than two million people worldwide. MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease, meaning that the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the person's healthy tissues. The underlying cause of the immune system's malfunction in MS patients is not yet understood. In patients with MS, immune system attacks target the protective insulation (myelin) surrounding the nerve fibers of the central nervous system, producing inflammation, destruction and scarring. Scar tissue (sclerosis) forms in place of the myelin and causes a slowing and/or blockage of electrical signals from the brain to other parts of the body. The physical symptoms associated with MS—which vary from person to person, and even from time to time in the same person—are a direct result of this impaired transmission of nerve signals. There is currently no cure for MS, though there are treatments and medications available to help control symptoms and slow the progression of the disease.
MS typically progresses along one of four clinical courses, each of which may be mild, moderate or severe:


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UK Biotechs Present Novel Technologies at BioTrinity 2017
Biotechnology Rolls on Despite Brexit Uncertainty
Avoiding Costly Errors in Bioassay Development
Developers Have a Range of Options When Optimizing Bioassays for Biologics
Screening Innovations and 3D Cell Culture Assay Developments
Showcased at ELRIG
New Tech Aids Drug Discovery
In Scientific Publishing, Sharing Is Caring
The Saga for Open-Access Research Continues
Researchers Awarded $2.4M to Study Neuronal Regeneration
Researchers associated with the University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute's Regeneration Project have received a $2.4 million NIH Grand Opportunity grant to study regeneration of neuronal tissue. They hope to find ways to tap unused human capacities to treat spinal cord injury, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neural conditions.
To this end they have begun creating genomic tools to compare the regenerative capacity of the Mexican axolotl salamander with established mouse models of human disease and injury. "The axolotl is the champion of vertebrate regeneration, with the ability to replace whole limbs and even parts of its central nervous system," says Edward Scott, Ph.D., principal investigator for the grant and director of the McKnight Brain Institute's program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.
"These salamanders use many of the same body systems and genes that we do, but they have superior ability to regenerate after major injuries. We think that studying them will tell us a lot about a patient's natural regenerative capacities after spinal cord injury and nerve cell damage."
The team has already referenced human and mouse genes with axolotl counterparts. They have estimated that humans share about 90% of genes with the axolotl salamander.
The researchers say that it could be small but important changes in the way these genes function in an injury environment, which the salamander can use for regeneration but humans cannot. People are capable of a certain degree of regeneration, however. Humans can re-grow fingertips and even more than half of their liver. But they cannot replace whole limbs, and restoring parts of their brain and spinal cord is a daunting challenge.
As discoveries are made, more researchers will begin using the axolotl as a model for exploring regenerative techniques, the scientists believe. "Only now have new genetic, molecular, and cellular technologies as well as scientific knowledge of the salamander, mouse, and human genomes and 'regeneromes' risen to a level where scientists can compare system-wide responses to injury," according to Dennis A. Steindler, Ph.D., executive director of the McKnight Brain Institute and a co-investigator on the grant.
Grand Opportunity grants are funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and are intended to support research with high short-term impact and a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and healthcare delivery.
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MCAST: Implementing Cisco Multicast v2.0
Book Now - 2 Delivery Methods Available:Scheduled Online Onsite
Implementing Advanced Cisco IP Multicast (MCAST) Version 2.0 provides students with in-depth knowledge about the IP multicast building blocks that make this IP service deployable. Bandwidth and processing power are wasted when data is replicated and sent from a source to potential receivers multiple times. With IP multicast and a sophisticated group of protocols, information is delivered with minimal effects on bandwidth and processor load. This IP service helps ensure simultaneous information delivery only to the people and the machines that require the information.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Explain the benefits of multicasting
- List various types of multicast applications and their requirements
- Identify the addressing issues of IP multicasting
- Explain the way multicast applications work and identify the prerequisites that have to be fulfilled for an implementation
- Explain the principles and detailed operation of different Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) modes
- Describe the variants of PIM sparse mode (bidirectional PIM environments and Source Specific Multicast)
- Select multicast protocols for different environments
- Describe the deployment of multicast in Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) environments
- Describe multicast deployment in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPN environments
Training Partners
We work with the following best of breed training partners using our bulk buying power to bring you a wider range of dates, locations and prices.
IP Multicast Concepts and Technologies (4 topics)
- Introducing IP Multicast
- Understanding the Multicast Service Model
- Defining Multicast Distribution Trees and Forwarding
- Reviewing Multicast Protocols
Multicast on the LAN (3 topics)
- Mapping Layer 3 to Layer 2
- Working with Cisco Group Management Protocol
- Using IGMP Snooping
PIM Sparse Mode (4 topics)
- Introducing Protocol Independent Multicast Sparse Mode
- Understanding PIM-SM Protocol Mechanics
- Using PIM-SM in a Sample Situation
- Configuring and Monitoring PIM-SM
Rendezvous Point Engineering (4 topics)
- Identifying RP Distribution Solutions
- Implementing Auto-RP
- Using PIMv2 BSR
- Using Anycast RP and MSDP
PIM Sparse Mode Protocol Extensions (4 topics)
- Introducing Source Specific Multicast
- Configuring and Monitoring SSM
- Reviewing Bidirectional PIM
- Configuring and Monitoring Bidirectional PIM
Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP (2 topics)
- Introducing MP-BGP
- Configuring and Monitoring MP-BGP
Interdomain IP Multicast (4 topics)
- Examining Dynamic Interdomain IP Multicast
- Explaining Multicast Source Discovery Protocol
- Using MSDP SA Caching
- Configuring and Monitoring MSDP
IP Multicast Security (2 topics)
- Introducing IP Multicast and Security
- Securing a Multicast Network
Multicast Optimization and High-Availability Features (1 topic)
- Using Multicast Optimization and High-Availability Features
Applications of Multicast (3 topics)
- Exploring IP Multicast and Video Applications
- Using IP Multicast in Mission-Critical Environments
- Exploring How Enterprise IT Uses IP Multicasting Globally
- Work experience and configuration skills for Cisco routers and LAN switches.
- Implementing Cisco IP Routing (ROUTE)
Additional Learning
The courses below may help you meet the knowledge level required to take this course. If you are unsure please ask a training advisor .
ROUTE: Implementing Cisco IP Routing
This 5-day is designed to provide professionals of medium-to-large network sites with information on the use of advanced routing in implementing scalability for Cisco routers that are connected to LAN...
Scheduled Dates
Please select from the dates below to make an enquiry or booking.
Different pricing structures are available including special offers. These include early bird, late availability, multi-place, corporate volume and self-funding rates. Please arrange a discussion with a training advisor to discover your most cost effective option.


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This promotion must be booked online
using code MIDWEEK17 in the SPECIAL NEEDS box.
This offer can not be used with any other offers, packages, on holidays or with gift certificate redemption.
Gift certificates of $200.00 or more include a complimentary Bottle of Champagne
Gift certificates of $500.00 or more include a Bottle of Champagne & Fresh Flowers.
You may order a gift certificate online HERE, or by calling 1-800-228-1997.
All certificates are mailed Priority Mail within 24 hours. Gift Certificates do not expire.
Thank you for choosing Cotton Mansion.
If you are planning a Honeymoon, Anniversary or just a Romantic Getaway by beautiful Lake Superior, celebrate your romance in luxury with an elegant Whirlpool Suite at Duluth's Historic Cotton Mansion.
Book three nights at regular midweek rate (Sun/Mon/Tue**) in any of our Whirlpool Suites and receive $50.00 off your third night plus a complimentary bottle of champagne. This offer can not be used with any other specials. When making your reservation by phone, or online, be sure to mention the "Romance Package".
**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE PACKAGE IS OFFERED FOR A SUNDAY or MONDAY CHECK-IN ONLY.
*Please request promotion at time of reservation.
Call the Cotton Mansion at:
(218) 724-6405 or 1-800-228-1997 or email@example.com for details and reservations.


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Emilie Renier feels as if she�s come full-circle.
The California native, who now lives in New York City, graduated from Elon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theater in 2012 and studied under Catherine McNeela, Lynne Kurdziel Formato and Fred Rubeck, to name a few.
Chandon Jones, also an Elon University graduate, joined the touring company of �Beauty and the Beast� during its first season on the road in 2009. Renier and Jones knew each other while at Elon. Renier is on her first national tour with the show and Jones is involved in the audition process.
Renier auditioned for the show this January and will be performing as either a spoon, napkin or plate when the tour comes to the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC), 123 Vivian St., Durham, this week. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13.
She�s hoping that some Elon alumni as well as her former professors will be able to come see the show.
Of Elon, she said, �it was such a loving, nurturing environment. I have no idea where I would be as a person or a performer if I hadn�t gone to school there.�
The professors at Elon, she said, �were so beneficial to us as students because they were still fulfilling their professional goals and then coming back and teaching us, too.�
Renier grew up in a family of performers. Her mom is an actress and her older sister is now studying theater at Columbia University.
The tour hit the road about a month ago and every show, she said, �is exciting. So many people are familiar with the Disney movie that we have an obligation to them to create this storybook atmosphere. I never get tired of catching glimpses of kids in the audience, especially the little girls who come dressed in their Belle costumes.�
�A lot of families come for the kids, but end up enjoying the shows themselves,� she said.
Tickets range from $27.75 to $79.75 and can be purchased at www.dpacnc.com or call (919) 680-2787.


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Exclusive DVDetails, art: "BLOODMARSH KRACKOON" terrorizes the Bronx!Movies/TV,News Michael Gingold
The latest toxic-waste-spawned critter to terrorize the DIY horror scene is the BLOODMARSH KRACKOON, and it's coming to DVD and digital channels this summer. Read on for the details, a first look at the cover art and the NSFW trailer.
Directed by Jerry Landi, BLOODMARSH KRACKOON stalks onto video May 20 from Independent Entertainment, and stars Sal Amore, Scott Barile, Joseph Ferri, Bob Connelly and model/actress Cindy Guyer. The synopsis: "Urban legend claims a vicious crack-addicted raccoon nicknamed 'Red Eye' was behind a series of gruesome murders in Bronx neighborhood Locust Point. Politically ambitious Deputy Mayor Peter Rabbit sees an opportunity to advance his career, and enlists his cousin and best friend to capture the mutant creature—unaware that two more bloodthirsty 'krackoons' are lurking in the shadows…"
The prequel film KRACKOON will also be included on the DVD, along with a behind-the-scenes featurette and trailer vault. Retail price is $14.95. See BLOODMARSH KRACKOON's Facebook page here.


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Nike drops a clean pair of their increasingly popular Roshe Run silhouette in the form of this "Sail/Sail – Medium Orewood Brown – Volt" colorway. Featuring the Beaverton Behemoth's innovative Hyperfuse construction along the upper, the sneakers feature a very subtle color palette throughout. The sneakers are now available from select retailers including Overkill.
Nike Roshe Run Hyperfuse "Sail/Sail – Medium Orewood Brown – Volt"
Highsnobiety Sneakers


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History Home
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Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program
> Alpha List of Finding aids
Title: Selected works of Galen / translated by Robert Montraville Green for Sidney Licht [ca.1953] Creator: Galen
Dates: 1951-1979
Extent: 0.84 linear feet (2 boxes)Abstract:Carbon copies of translations made by Robert M. Green of twenty works by Galen.Call number: MS C 82Language: Collection materials primarily in
Materials stored offsite. Retrievals made last Friday of the month. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com for scheduling.
Carbon copies of translations made by Robert M. Green of twenty works by Galen.
Copyright, Privacy, Accessibility, Site Map, Viewers and Players
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894 National Institutes of Health, Health & Human ServicesFreedom of Information Act, Contact NLM
Last reviewed: 2 December 2016Last updated: 2 December 2016First published: 21 April 2004


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Don't miss your chance to see Eric Church in Atlanta! Check out the schedule below for the concert date of your choice, then buy your Eric Church Atlanta tickets before they sell out!
Looking for Eric Church tickets in other cities? View all Eric Church tickets »
Sorry! We couldn't find any events for Eric Church in Atlanta.
If you were searching to see if Eric Church is coming to Atlanta, then you're in luck! For their latest tour, Eric Church will indeed hold a concert in Atlanta. Have an awesome concert experience when you go to see Eric Church in Atlanta. Get your Eric Church tickets Atlanta and join fellow fans for a concert to remember!


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Nintendo 3DS
Is it worth it to get a Nintendo 3DS right now?
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- Nintendo 3DS
- Is it worth it to get a Nintendo 3DS right now?
Retroxgamer0 4 years ago#11
Dead or Alive Dimensions(best 3ds fighter I ever played, online's dead though)
i found that funny for some reason lol
Justice98405 4 years ago#12
If you never had a DS, like me, that MASSIVE library of DS games, with some GREAT titles in there, that alone makes a 3DS/3DS XL worth a purchase, actually getting some of the good 3DS games is just a bonus. :)
Code of Princess, Zelda: Ocarina 3D, Ghost Recon: Shadow Warrior, Kid Icarus: Uprising, RE: Revelations. All good games if you ask me.
To the mattresses.
PSN: Justice_98405, Xbox Live: Justice98405
Nickcool1996 4 years ago#13
Look through the gamelist. If you would like one, I could post the exclusives for it.
You'll likely want to buy one next year though since we're getting a hefty amount of games with many in Japan needing to be localized. 3DS Systems are rumored to be cheaper next year too.
Nickcool1996 4 years ago#14
Meh, was bored.
Posting things from many genres whether I like the games or not.
Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone
Code of Princess
Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic
Dead or Alive: Dimensions
Denpa Men: They Came By Wave, The
Fractured Soul
Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning
Heroes of Ruin
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Liberation Maiden (Short)
Mario Kart 7
Mighty Switch Force!
Mutant Mudds
Nano Assault
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (DLC Too)
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure
Samurai Warriors Chronicles
Style Savvy: Trendsetters (Since People Seem To Like It)
Super Mario 3D Land
Tekken 3D Prime Edition
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II
Cave Story (e-Shop)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, The
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
Sonic Generations
Star Fox 64 3D
Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition
Tales of the Abyss
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
Releasing This Year:
Crimson Shroud
2013 (Comfirmed):
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Q2)
Brain Age: Concentration Training (Feb 10, 2013)
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (Feb 26, 2013)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (Feb 4, 2013)
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (March 2013)
Needs To Be Localized:
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry no Wonderland 3D
Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney
Unchained Blades
Needs To Be Released:
Dragon Quest VII
Fantasy Life
Gyakuten Saiban 5 (PR 5 - Confirmed For Localization)
Monster Hunter 4
Rune Factory 4
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Youkai Watch
I missed something, didn't I? <_<
Nickcool1996 posted...
Meh, was bored.
yes, luigi's mansion 2.
how could you ;(
rumors about bleach getting cancelled,hope its just a rumor.
I would say without a doubt. We all have different tastes ofcourse but there are already a handful of great games.
Ocarina portable
a mario kart game
a 3D mario platformer game
a paper mario
a resident evil
and some great ones coming soon like
a fire emblem
a luigi's mansion
a 2D(ish) castlevania
an animal crossing
plenty of reasons to own one now.
last $$: Gravity Rush, Pokemon Conquest, SSX, Atelier Meruru LE, Tales of Graces F
Playing: Legend of Dragoon PSN/PSPgo +
Nickcool1996 4 years ago#17
masa8mune posted...
Nickcool1996 posted...Meh, was bored.
Ah dang it.
Uh Q2 2013.
Castlevania too...
I certainly think so. There are sales and bundle deals right now, and next year will see the release of games like Etrian Odyssey 4, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, and Monster Hunter, among others. I suppose you could put it off to next holiday season to see if there's a price drop or something. *shrug*
Samantha Wright is my waifu.
diving_devil46 4 years ago#19
Right this moment? If you find it at a really good price then yeah I reckon there's enough to value it.
But only barely. People like to post long lists of games but there really hasn't been that many games for it just yet.
As an investment for next year the 3DS is well worth it, there's a really strong line-up on it's way as I am sure you know.
Also, be warned about Kid Icarus if you are left handed. Even in lefty mode it is really uncomfortable to play.
I can only play it for about 5-10 minutes before I get a hand or wrist cramp. I didn't think a game with such a bad control scheme would ever reach such critical acclaim. This is just my opinion, but the game's control set-up is truly the most awkward thing I have ever experienced in recent years.
The game itself is high quality however.
Nickcool1996 4 years ago#20
diving_devil46 posted...
Right this moment? If you find it at a really good price then yeah I reckon there's enough to value it.
Holey Moley man, get a CPP.
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The Rig haunted house aims to be annual event
Camden — The CREW, a Camden Hills Regional High School based mentoring program, hosted a haunted house on Halloween night at the Rig, the local high school hang out in downtown Camden.
Trick-or-treaters were lured to the haunt by the heckling of a wicked witch and the sauntering sounds of a saxophone played live. Inside the spooky house the atmosphere was rife with phantoms, monsters, and severed heads eliciting screams that could be heard from the street. The goal of the haunted house was to bring awareness to the Rig location by engaging in the spirit of a popular community event. It was the first year for the haunted house and it was a great success bringing many to the front door of the Rig. The CREW hopes to continue the new tradition annually.
The CREW is a mentoring program at Camden Hills where students and adults cultivate positive friendships by connecting and engaging in community-based activities and projects in an effort to re-enforce and strengthen core school values. If interested in learning more about the program or how to get involved please contact Brystle or Kelly at 236-7800 ext. 328.
The Rig is a meeting place for young adults (between nine and 12 grade) that provides opportunity a place for local area youth to develop connection — with themselves, with one another and with the community. The Rig is a place of safe exploration for young adults to pursue new ideas, new friendships and new skills. Members will assist with The Rig's operation and help facilitate community-based initiatives. For more information, email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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In this chapter, Margaret de Lattre looks at case studies of 3 very different organisations; AA, Dyson and ITS Technology, and explores how, by changing the underlying culture of their businesses, they have enabled innovation to prosper.
de Lattre, M. (2003) A Culture of Innovation, in Jolly, A. (ed.) Innovation - Harnessing Creativity for Business Growth, Kogan Page.


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Many law firms today have established their own blogs separate from their main websites. Reports have confirmed that they now recognize the essence of a blog in being able to attract more clients and build their credibility both online and offline. A 2012 survey done by Greentarget, a communications firm, showed that in-house attorneys do trust blogs and that they even read … [Read more...]
Japanese Venture Capitalist Firm Pivoting to South East Asian Startups
Japanese venture capitalist firm, Sunbridge Global Ventures, is aggressively moving into the South East Asian startup scene, which has exponential growth over the last couple of years. Like many savvy incubator investors, Sunbridge Global has recognized the scene is to hot to miss out on. What is more, and unlike Japan in many sectors- it remains relatively unsaturated, as … [Read more...]
MySpace is Back with a Vengeance
Active social media users and entrepreneurs wanting to expand their online presence have a new place to go to. It's the newly improved MySpace. The long wait is over as the social network has been reborn with a new design and is now accepting new users by invitation. Initially, the new users are those who registered for a pre-launch invite. Also, it has a new url which is … [Read more...]
Getting Others to Talk About You
The biggest part of my new job as Community Manager for PicApp is to find people interested in what the company has built and get them to use it or at least talk about it. This has proven far more difficult than I ever could have imagined. Even if you have a great product, you have to find ways to cut through the noise to get their attention, and even then, most bloggers are … [Read more...]
The Friendly Behaviour of Web 2.0
The term web 2.0 is concerned with the interaction of the users. For this it makes use of the small applications concerning the software employed. The best thing about this application is that it is compatible with a lot of platforms like Java, Ajax and Adobe. There are many website hosting companies which make use of web 2.0 to get more accessibility to different software's. T … [Read more...]


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Choose One of these free gifts
*You will be able to pick your FREE item at checkout.
The CareAlert Smart Dialler is a brilliant piece of technology. It is a PERFECT way to provide peace of mind for the whole family and protect our loved ones. Should an unfortunate sudden accident or illness occur in the home, eg: this could be shortness of breath, a slip in the bathroom, maybe a fall outside or even an un-invited intruder…. All you have to do is push the emergency buttons on the uniquely designed water proof pendant and the CareAlert Smart Dialler will then proceed to call up to 5 people of your choice letting them know you need help…you can even program it to dial triple Zero. An Ambulance can then be dispatched to help out, and guess what, the best part is -
There are NO monitoring fees EVER!!....
This feature alone can save you upwards of $350+ per year!
PLEASE NOTE: You will require a landline style telephone to programme your CareAlert Smart Dialler.
Check out the list of features listed below.
- User friendly and is easy to program – Instructional DVD included
- Comes complete with nothing else to purchase, pack includes one remote pendant, stainless steel chain, wrist strap, battery backup plus ALL connection cords
- Stores up to 5 phone numbers of your choice - can include Triple Zero
- Pendant is waterproof and can be worn in the shower or bath
- Re-chargeable battery back-up in case of power failure
- 2-way communication facility with base station
- Uniquely designed pendant that makes accidental activation near to impossible
- Individually coded making it suitable for retirement villages and nursing homes
- Absolutely NO Monitoring fees EVER…..SAVE $$$
Up until now the Carealert Smart Dialler required a fixed home line to operate … So the question is … Are you paying on-going expensive phone line / NBN rentals? If you are, more than likely these are costing you anywhere from $350 - $600+ per year PLUS in some cases the added cost of phone calls! Well, you can forget about these expenses!
We can now announce that landlines at last are a thing of the past. We now have available the CareAlert Mobile Gateway which uses sim card technology which does away with fixed phone lines and uses the mobile network. This still allows you to make and receive calls with your existing home handset telephone PLUS your CareAlert Smart Dialler will still operate as normal, even during a power failure. Once you are connected to NBN through fibre to the node, you will NOT be able to make emergency calls during a power failure. With the CareAlert mobile gateway you will have full operation 24/7 despite loss of mains power.
Check out the list of Mobile Gateway features below.
- Uses 3G Sim Card technology
- Fixed Landline not required saving you up to $40+ per month
- Works independently of the NBN
- Your CareAlert Smart Dialler and phone will still operate even during a power failure**
- Allows you to make and receive calls with your existing handset telephone
- Only one adaptor required to power both the CareAlert and Mobile Gateway
PURCHASE OPTIONS (3 options available)
1 x CareAlert plus Mobile Gateway Package Deal:
No sim card: $469
This option allows you the freedom to choose your own sim card provider.
(Our gateway does not function on the lower 850MHz bandwidth such as Aldi or Kogan etc)
Emergency only sim card: $479
Includes 80 mins of talk and 365 day expiry*
Talk / Emergency sim card: $499
Includes 400 mins of talk and 365 day expiry*
A SPECIAL FEATURE of the CareAlert Mobile Gateway is that should your sim card become inactive or expired, your CareAlert can still dial out to "Triple Zero"
You will be notified either by email or by a phone call when your sim card has either expired or the credit has been used. You can receive as many calls as you like without any charge. You will have your own new mobile phone number applicable to your CareAlert Mobile Gateway
*All sim cards supplied by Carealert will need re-charging after 12 months or if credit is used prior. CareAlert will endeavour to notify the user via email / phone when recharging is required.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: We only provide an Amaysim 3G sim card which works on the Optus network. This provides mobile coverage to 98.5% of the Australian population. Our gateway does not function on the lower 850MHz bandwidth such as Aldi or Kogan etc.
**To allow a phone to continue to work during a power failure through the Mobile Gateway you will need to use a non-powered corded style phone.
To ensure you are living in an area where the Optus network is available ... CLICK HERE
Recharging Costs (admin fee included):
Emergency Only (minimum) - $20 (80 mins of talk and 365 day expiry*)
Talk / Emergency - $60 (400 mins of talk and 365 day expiry*)
For full Amaysim critical information summary details of an activated sim, please CLICK HERE
PLEASE NOTE: Returns / Refunds will incur an Admin and Postage fee of $39 plus sim card credit pre-payment expenses. Customer can retain the sim card for personal use.
The CareAlert Mobile Gateway does not offer data. If you require data at your home - you will still need the NBN.


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Ironman Parent Child Scramble
A FULL house of participants made their way to Ironman Golf Course for the Parent Child Scramble. Twenty teams maxed out the 9 hole golf course as they played an 18 hole improvement scramble, where the second nine played could only improve on the scores from the first nine.
It is the first time we have ever had a SWEEP in the two divisions. Joey and Mike Simonich won the 8 and under division with a three under 24! Mike paired with his other son Ian to win the 9 and older division with a two under 25. It took an even par or better score to gain a prize in the 8 and under division!
This concludes one of our best week long tournaments in recent history. The weather helps, but it was fun to see ample participation in the girls division, the older boys division as well as the Wee Tee tournament that kicks off our week on Wednesday. We will go to a morning and afternoon tournament for the parent child scramble next year, as we had to turn away seven groups on the waiting list!
Golf is a wonderful sport where great shots excite us and we learn to overcome the bad shots and move on. Mini-Life lessons are presented to us constantly as we strive to get better at this game.
Thanks to all the participants and the parental support this past week.