September 2009

$250K top prize up for grabs in Mich. art event (AP)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A school of glimmering, silvery-white fish wriggle high above a downtown river. A few blocks away on a Michigan sidewalk, four stark red piranhas have taken large bites out of a running man's briefcase and rear end. A purple, 10-foot-tall jelly bean stands outside a nearby castle.
As the first ArtPrize art competition is set to begin next week in Grand Rapids, works of every imaginable size, shape, color and medium are popping up at 159 venues throughout the downtown area. More than 1,200 artists from two dozen countries are competing for a total of $449,000, including $250,000 for first place — one of the world's largest awards for an art competition.
"I think this is amazing to have this much artwork all throughout downtown," said Sarah Joseph, director of exhibitions at Kendall College of Art and Design. "It's great that it's everywhere."
If it's not everywhere just yet, it soon will be.
Colorful oils, acrylics and sketches are at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital. Rocky's Bar and Grill will have a hodgepodge of paintings, including one of a clown, and photographs of various Michigan locales. The Thomas M. Cooley Law School will offer have a steel-and-polyurethane sculpture of a human figure.
As Judy Johnson walked past the four red piranhas Monday, she said she believes the 18-day event that kicks off Sept. 23 will give a boost to the state's second-largest city.
"I think it'll be fantastic," said Johnson, 57, an administrator for Grand Rapids Public Schools. "It will get people downtown and be something to put Grand Rapids on the map, hopefully."
She plans to bring in friends and family members to "see as many (works) as we can."
People who register for the event will determine the top 10 artworks, including the winner, by voting at ArtPrize's Web site, or through text messaging or an iPhone application. Prizes will be awarded Oct. 8, two days before the competition ends to give people time to see the winning pieces.
"The point of ArtPrize is the conversation," said Rick DeVos, 27, who created the competition. "That's why it's a public vote ... to give a reason for people to talk to each other about what they like, what they don't like, why you should like this, why you shouldn't like that."
The response from artists and venue officials has been remarkable, he said.
"When we announced this in April, we figured, kind of internally, that if we had 300 artists that matched with venues, that would be success for the first year," DeVos said. "We're at 1,262 — so about four times that — and it kind of blows us away, but it's really cool and I think speaks to the hospitality of the community."
In 2006, DeVos established Spout.com, a social-networking site for film buffs. His grandfather, Rich, co-founded direct-sales giant Amway Corp., and his father, Dick, is a former president of the company.
The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation is fronting the prize money. ArtPrize will return next year for sure and Rick DeVos hopes it will become an annual competition, but that all depends on how self-sufficient the event can become.
Celeste Adams, director of the Grand Rapids Art Museum said the competition "is really about young people embracing the arts."
Several hundred artists asked to display their works at the museum, but just two were chosen because they suited the museum's available space. One is a short black-and-white film that will be shown in a continuous loop on an outside wall of the building and the other consists of several sharp, digitally created images of largely urban scenes.
What's likely to be one of the most visible ArtPrize entries is Grand Rapids photographer and artist David Lubbers' kinetic, metal sculpture that's on a tiny island in the middle of the Grand River.
"The Grand Dance" looks like a large mobile with its 16 white figures that resemble fish that turn with the wind. It stands about 35 feet tall, 30 feet wide and 30 feet long. At night, two spotlights will shine on the piece so that it appears to be hovering over the water.

"It seemed like a perfect place for a sculpture," he said.

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On the Net:

ArtPrize: http://www.artprize.org

U.S. rebuffing big banks' push to exit bailout (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Some of the largest U.S. banks will remain caught in the government's financial bailout program for months, as officials do not expect to grant the next wave of exit approvals until near the end of the year, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Banks such as Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) have been chafing under the government's reins and want to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which delivered capital infusions to banks along with limits on pay, share repurchases and dividends.

Citigroup has been in preliminary talks with U.S. officials on how to repay part of government funds but the process could take at least a couple quarters, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Regulators want to see that firms have fully taken advantage of the more open credit markets to raise significant capital buffers before they remove the government leash from more of the largest banks.

The U.S. Treasury Department first started releasing the big banks from the financial bailout after the government conducted an intensive "stress test" earlier this year of the firms' loan portfolios, earnings prospects and capital positions.

Ten banks received approvals in June to repay $68 billion in federal bailout funds. Since then, there have been few clues about when the other large banks would be allowed to exit the program and if those approvals would come piecemeal or as another group.

"We will see another wave of repayments," the source said, speaking anonymously because the approach has not been announced publicly.

A Treasury spokesman declined to comment.

There is intense investor interest in which banks will be released, and the government is aware that granting individual approvals for the biggest banks to repay TARP could put immense pressure on the other institutions, the source said.

The large banks still locked in TARP include: Wells Fargo (WFC.N), Fifth Third (FITB.O), GMAC, KeyCorp (KEY.N), Bank of America, PNC Financial (PNC.N), Regions Financial (RF.N), SunTrust (STI.N), and Citigroup (C.N).

Some of these institutions demonstrated on Tuesday just how eager they are to exit TARP. Appearing at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York, leaders at SunTrust, Regions Financial and Bank of America all spoke out about how they want to repay, and do it as soon as possible.

"It is very desirable to get out from under this," said Michael Holland, president of money manager Holland & Co in New York. "This is a crisis situation that one would hope is now behind us. The longer they are in it, the more we are being told by the feds that this isn't behind us."

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski in Washington and Steve Eder in New York with additional reporting by Dan Wilchins and Joe Rauch; editing by John Wallace and Matthew Lewis)

Wallets

A wallet generally has one or more currency pockets; in some cases, there may also be a money clip. Wallets usually have one or more pockets for storing credit card or identification cards, which may be oriented vertically or horizontally.

Some wallets are attached to metal chains which are then clipped onto a belt, as a way of preventing loss or theft by pickpockets. Some travellers replace wallets with money belts, which are belts with a hidden money compartment.
Other types of small bags can also serve as wallets, such as this golf tee bag which is used to hold credit cards and money

Wallets

Clive Owen sheds macho image for "Boys are Back" (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) –
British star Clive Owen has specialized in playing macho men in two decades of movies and television: tough, taciturn and unshaven, with long stares from smoldering gray-green eyes.

But Owen, nominated for an Oscar for his role in the 2004 drama "Closer," is trying on a new persona in his latest film, "The Boys are Back," playing an inept father who suddenly finds himself a grieving single parent to an equally grieving son.

"I haven't done a film like this before and parenting is a big part of my life. It was a challenge to explore, and something that I thought was very well written -- the ups and downs of parenting," Owen said in an interview.

The movie, which was featured at the Toronto International Film Festival and opens in U.S. theaters on September 25, includes a lot of shots of Owen looking lost, and a lot more where he is clearly clueless about coping with a 7-year-old whose mother has just died.

Set in Australia and Britain, it follows a period in the life of sportswriter Joe Warr, whose ranch house fast turns into a pigsty as Warr brings his "just say yes" philosophy of life to the caring of his young son.

The two are joined by Joe's older boy from England, and what plays out on screen is an exploration of parenting and father/son relationships that Owen said is more true to real life that what audiences tend to see on film.

"Very often when you see families it's all perfect and neat, and parenting isn't like that. You do have constant negotiations. Things are ever developing and ever changing, and you constantly have to evaluate how you deal with your kids."

Owen has two daughters, aged 10 and 12, with his wife, Sarah-Jane Fenton, and he said this was one of the first of his movies they've been able to see. His other films like "Closer," or Spike Lee's popular "Inside Man" were not quite suitable.

"They feel very part of this one because they were in Australia for a few weeks," he said.

The star, who has played a range of characters from the adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" to man-on-the-run Theo Faron in science fiction film "Children of Men," is not immediately turning back to those tough roles.

In fact, he said his next venture will be another family movie, but a darker, different one. "It's a very upsetting family drama," he said, without giving details.

Meanwhile, a sequel to the 2006 box office hit "Inside Man" is also in the works, he said.

That film, set in New York, stars Owen as the robber who plans the perfect bank heist, with Denzel Washington and fellow Brit Chitiwel Ejiofor as the cops who try to outwit him.

(Edited by Bob Tourtellotte and Doina Chiacu)

Mullen says more forces needed for Afghan war (AP)

WASHINGTON – More American troops likely will be needed to win the war in Afghanistan, the top U.S. military officer told skeptical Democrats on Tuesday as he cited a need to prove U.S. commitment in the battle-ravaged region.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a proper effort to counter the Taliban insurgency correctly "probably means more forces."
Mullen spoke during a hearing on his nomination for a second term as the president's senior military adviser. The influential chairman of the panel, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., used the session to underscore his opposition to additional forces, at least until the United States takes bolder action to expand Afghanistan's own armed forces.
"Providing the resources needed for the Afghan Army and Afghan police to become self-sufficient would demonstrate our commitment to the success of a mission that is in our national security interest, while avoiding the risks associated with a further increase in U.S. ground combat troops," Levin said.
Levin is one of several leading Democrats who have expressed skepticism in recent days about adding more American troops. Levin first wants to make sure larger numbers of Afghan security forces are trained and deployed on the battlefield and in Afghan communities.
Mullen told the senators that "it's very clear to me that we will need more resources," to carry out the revamped counterinsurgency strategy Obama laid out earlier this year.
Mullen said he did not know how many more troops would likely be requested by the commanding general in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. A debate over the right mix of forces and other resources will be held in the coming weeks, Mullen told the panel.
Levinis Republican counterpart, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said committing too few forces to the war would invite a rerun of mistakes the U.S. made in Iraq. "I've seen that movie before," said McCain, the committee's ranking Republican.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said Afghans will get the wrong message if the U.S. is only willing to commit additional training specialists instead of combat troops.
"They're essentially going to decide we're on our way out," Lieberman said.
Mullen agreed that Afghans and Pakistanis are "waiting on the sidelines to see how committed we are."
However, "it's not as simple as trainers. It's not as simple as combat troops," Mullen said.
Mullen said he has made no recommendations to the White House about how many more forces might be needed. He said McChrystal will submit his request very soon.
Mullen has been sounding increasingly glum about the prospects for the war, which will enter its ninth year this fall. On Tuesday he said the war would continue to deteriorate without a renewed U.S. commitment, and he said Gen. McChrystal found conditions worse than he had expected when he took the job this summer.
The United States has about 65,000 troops in Afghanistan now, with a few thousand additional trainers due by the end of this year.

Photo Books

Photo Books

Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information about a journey, are called logbooks or simply logs. A similar book for writing daily the owner's private personal events, information, and ideas is called a diary or personal journal.

Albums are books for holding collections of memorabilia, pictures or photographs. They are often made so that the pages are removable. Stamp albums hold collections of stamps.

Adult Halloween Costumes

The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, vampires, bats, owls, crows, vultures, pumpkin-men, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and demons.

At lunch-time (midday meal, sometimes called "dinner" in Ireland), a traditional Halloween meal Colcannon is eaten, often with coins wrapped in grease-proof paper mixed in. In recent decades the practice of midday dinners in the home has declined and with it this traditional Halloween ritual. Irish children typically have a week-long Mid-term break from school that coincides with Halloween which falls on the 31st of October.

Adult Halloween Costumes

Personalized Pens

Ancient Egyptians had developed writing on papyrus scrolls when scribes used thin reed brushes or reed pens from the Juncus Maritimus or sea rush . In his book A History of Writing, Steven Roger Fischer suggests that on the basis of finds at Saqqara, the reed pen might well have been used for writing on parchment as long ago as the First Dynasty or about 3000 BC. Reed pens continued to be used until the Middle Ages although they were slowly replaced by quills from about the seventh century.

The first patent on a ballpoint pen was issued on October 30, 1888, to John J Loud. In 1938, László Bíró, a Hungarian newspaper editor, with the help of his brother George, a chemist, began to work on designing new types of pens including one with a tiny ball in its tip that was free to turn in a socket. As the pen moved along the paper, the ball rotated, picking up ink from the ink cartridge and leaving it on the paper.

Personalized Pens

Iran nuclear talks probably in Turkey: Solana (AFP)

BRUSSELS (AFP) –
Talks next month between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme will probably be held in Turkey, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Tuesday.

The talks from October 1 will "very likely" be held in Turkey, Solana told reporters in Brussels ahead of EU foreign ministers' talks.

The five UN Security Council permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany are due to take part in the talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

"At this point in time, we are going to try to enter into a negotiation," said Solana, stressing the "double-track approach," -- the carrot and stick of trade, aid and sanctions.

It will be the first high-level meeting since the Obama administration took over in the United States and initiated its more open policy towards Tehran, a European diplomatic source said.

The last encounter, with the United States taking part, was in July 2008 in Geneva.

The meeting comes after Iran submitted a document to world powers laying out its position on resolving several global security problems. The text said the Islamic republic was ready to enter into negotiations on a number of issues.

Western nations are calling on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment drive which they suspect is for making atomic weapons.

Tehran denies the charges and says its nuclear programme has peaceful goals.

The United States has said the new offers from Iran are "not really responsive" to concerns about its nuclear programme, dampening hopes for new talks aimed at breaking a three-year impasse.

Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions and European diplomats said Friday that the EU could consider introducing more unilateral sanctions if the UN Security Council cannot agree to do so.

Europe and others envisage adopting fresh sanctions if the impasse persists, but are aware that reluctance from veto-wielding UN Security Council nations Russia and China could limit their effectiveness.

Kites

http://www.pictureprettykites.com

A kite is a flying tethered object that depends upon the tension of a tethering system. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air (or in some cases water ) flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind. The resultant force vector from the lift and drag force components is opposed by the tension of the one or more lines or tethers. The anchor point of the kite line may be static or moving (e.g., the towing of a kite by a running person, boat, or vehicle ).

Tails are used for some single-line kite designs to keep the kite's nose pointing into the wind. Spinners and spinsocks can be attached to the flying line for visual effect. There are rotating wind socks which spin like a turbine. On large display kites these tails, spinners and spinsocks can be 50 feet (15m) long or more.