Computers in China

A New Computer-Generated Voice - Los Angeles Times

A New, Computer-Generated Voice
Chinese are increasingly demanding a freer flow of information, and analysts say the Internet will thwart government efforts to prevent it.
By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer
September 16, 2006


BEIJING — Hours after the government announced new regulations this week tightening Beijing's grip on foreign news agencies, Chinese Internet users went on a tirade.

"Dear officials," said one anonymous posting on NetEase, a popular Web portal. "Since modern technology is so advanced, why don't you invent some pills which people can take and lose their ability to think? Then you'll have nothing to worry about."

Similar outbursts have followed the release of rules aimed at tightening the state's hold on books, the Internet, magazines, karaoke, broadcasting, video games, satellite dishes, even children's cartoons.

With every passing year, Chinese are increasingly expecting freer information from varied sources and with less government spin, to the consternation of a Communist Party that has long been reliant on an information monopoly to bolster its political monopoly.

The growing appreciation among young Chinese for unfettered news — and their ability to convey their opinions rapidly across cyberspace — is a key reason why Beijing will ultimately lose the information war, analysts say, even if it wins some near-term battles.

"The fact that Chinese officials are trying harder and harder means they're actually having less and less control," said Xiao Qiang, director of the Berkeley China Internet Project at UC Berkeley's journalism school. "Between now and the Olympics, it will continue to weaken. They're fighting a losing game."

The European Union and the State Department weighed in against Beijing's new plan, which gives the state-run New China News Agency censorship authority and exclusive distribution rights over foreign wire service competitors such as Reuters and the Associated Press. Analysts say the change appears to be as much a New China News Agency profit grab as a state bid to control information.

Faced with growing criticism at home and abroad, the news agency on Wednesday defended the change on grounds of global fairness.

"The dissemination of financial information is mainly concentrated in the hands of a small group from developed countries, meaning it is hard for developing countries to have the right to distribute financial news or discuss market prices," it said, quoting its vice president, Lu Wei.

Although China has a long history of downplaying foreign criticism, ignoring the uproar from the cheap seats at home is more difficult.

In a random sampling of Internet comments shortly after the regulations were released Sunday, a few Chinese supported the government's stance as a way to stem "foreign rumors." But the vast majority slammed the new rules with sarcasm and wit, accusing the government of turning back the clock, undercutting the media's watchdog role and keeping its own people in the dark.

"Why not follow North Korea and begin a carpet ban on all information, and institute revolutionary education like in Mao's years?" said a posting by "Julien" on the popular Cat898 forum, one of several hundred Web comments on the issue that appeared early this week before the government halted further discussion. "Then I bet everyone would become a loyal citizen, convinced they were living in a harmonious paradise, with Stockholm syndrome."

The plethora of media-related edicts released by Beijing in the last 18 months reflects government frustration over the growing confidence of China's 100 million Internet users and their more global mind-set, analysts say. The latest salvo by officials, announced Wednesday, imposes strict controls on information released by the Chinese judicial system.

"Control is well beyond the power of any government. Neither America nor China can control" the Internet, said Li Xiguang, dean of the journalism school at Qinghua University and co-author of a 1996 book arguing that foreign media demonize China.

China is hardly sitting on its hands. Critics say the administration of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao has effectively used technology, high-profile arrests and the chill of self-censorship to limit the most obvious criticism and dissent.

"I have to say, it's very impressive how they work to control the Internet," said Lucie Morillon, Washington representative with Reporters Without Borders, a media rights group.

Increasingly, however, Beijing ends up looking silly and churlish in the process, some add. Last year, when the state-run China Youth Daily quietly enacted a reporter bonus system based on how much praise articles received from government officials, the editor of the newspaper's popular supplement Freezing Point posted a protest on the company's internal computer network.

Within hours, details of the plan were all over the Internet, prompting a red-faced Propaganda Department to scramble to purge all website references. The damage was done, however, and the agency was forced to drop its plan.

And when Freezing Point was closed this year, ostensibly for printing an article on Chinese history that challenged party orthodoxy, dozens of scholars signed petitions in support of Editor Li Datong, who promptly filed a legal challenge over the publication's threatened closure.

Li was ultimately replaced by a more compliant editor, but he was not imprisoned, as many had expected, and continues to speak his mind in interviews with the foreign media.

Still, three years into its expected 10-year term, the Wen-Hu leadership team appears more convinced than ever that liberalism offers few dividends and enormous potential liabilities, analysts say.

"They continue to use brutality, fear and intimidation," said Wu Guoguang, a former editorial writer for the People's Daily and now a political science professor at the University of Victoria in Canada. "They try and show a big smile and invite people to come to China and make money. But in the area of the media, they remain intent on not relaxing their control."

Media analysts predict little letup in Beijing's vigilance over the next two years, given a series of high-profile events on the horizon, although they say they remain convinced that the government is ultimately fighting a rear-guard action.

Next month, Beijing hosts a key Communist Party plenary meeting, followed in the fall of 2007 by the 17th Party Congress and in August 2008 by the Summer Olympics.

"I don't expect China to loosen up any time soon," said Xiao of UC Berkeley. "But their controls are also having less and less effect."


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mark.magnier@latimes.com

America in 3 Days

All About America in 3 Days Dogs are treated like people, money flows and life is easy. Or is it? U.S.-bound Somalian refugees get a crash course in survival. By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer September 12, 2006


SOME BASICS: Instructor Abdullahinur Sheik Kassim of the International Organization for Migration leads a class of U.S.-bound Somalis during a three-day course on life in America, covering everything from stoves and toilets to women’s rights and gay marriage.

Apart from being a very entertaining and enlightening read, the contrast between the cultures and peoples' lives in different environments was thought provoking.

Have a read and see what you think.

Dave

KAKUMA, Kenya — They had learned how to buy bus tokens and clip coupons. Gotten hands-on training for lighting a gas stove and flushing a toilet. Taken a pop quiz on women's rights.

But for a group of U.S.-bound Somalian immigrants taking a three-day crash course on life in America recently, one topic by far stirred the most buzz: snow.

Staring at pictures of snow-covered roofs and hearing stories about waking up to find a frontyard covered in white, the Somalis (who'd rarely felt temperatures below 60 degrees) peppered the instructor with questions.

"How do I save my family from this … snow?" asked Hassan Mohammed Abrone, 41, a father of two who was already trying to embrace the American lifestyle by wearing a Statue of Liberty baseball cap and a pair of secondhand Nike Airs.

After hearing a description of coats, scarves, gloves and long underwear, another student, Lelya Yussuf, 23, asked: "How can we walk while wearing all that? Isn't it too heavy?" In an effort to explain snow to people who have never seen it, the instructor asked students to imagine how it would feel to live inside a refrigerator. But the analogy fell flat for some, because they'd never heard of such an appliance.

"This job takes a lot of patience," instructor Abdullahinur Sheik Kassim said. "You can't take anything for granted."

For the Somalis in this northern Kenya refugee camp, passing a class in America 101 is the final hurdle to boarding airplanes for new lives. As they fly toward the United States, they will learn for the first time where their new homes will be.

A speed-read through American culture, the U.S.-mandated class tries to prepare them for what they will find when they arrive. It covers everything from mini-malls and microwaves to same-sex marriage.

For most of the students, ranging in age from 4 to 65, it's a steep learning curve. They've spent much of their lives fleeing Somalia's 15-year civil war, scrambling to survive in the bush or toiling in squalid refugee camps. Most come from persecuted ethnic groups and clans, such as the Bantu or Ashraf, that were the first to lose what little property they had after the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in 1991. Now those same injustices have made them eligible to escape to the United States.

The cultural orientation class is one of hundreds given each year in Africa by the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, one of the world's largest refugee-assistance groups, which organizes the class with funding from the U.S. State Department.

Such programs began in the 1970s for Southeast Asian refugees heading to the United States. Back then, immigrants spent months at transition camps, learning the English language and American customs before entering the country. Over the years, budget cuts have pruned the orientation program to less than a week.

"In just three days, there is not a lot that we can realistically do," said Pindie Stephen, the group's regional coordinator for the classes in Kenya. "All we can do is plant the seeds of values and concepts they will encounter later. And we try to dispel myths, because so much of what they learn is from the rumor mill."

Refugees often believe that life in the U.S. will be easy, that they will live in big homes with cars and television sets. Such descriptions come from relatives in America who sometimes exaggerate their prosperity, or from the U.S.-made TV movies occasionally shown inside refugee camps.

"I know all about America," said Amal Nuradia, 27. "I've seen the Hallmark Channel." She is among the thousands of Somalian refugees at Kakuma, most of whom fled their country more than a decade ago. More than 12,000 have resettled in the U.S. in recent years.

"What do you know about America?" Kassim asked at the beginning of a recent orientation class. Students yelled out their answers: It's a superpower. People are always in a hurry. Neighbors don't talk to each other. Dogs are treated like people. Gay people get married. All children go to school.

With only 15 hours of class, Kassim wasted no time, covering U.S. history in less than 90 seconds. George Washington was the first president. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Martin Luther King Jr. marched for civil rights. Time for the next subject.

Much of the curriculum is based on feedback from recent immigrants. For example, when new immigrants complained about being bewildered by the modern conveniences of a typical American home, IOM built a fully functioning kitchen and bathroom at the back of one classroom. Long flights to the U.S. were so traumatic that a video was added about airplanes, from lavatories to airsickness bags.

Somalian Bantu, who were historically treated like slaves by other groups and lived in mud huts in the bush without water or electricity, usually know little of modern society, needing instruction on such basic tasks as flipping light switches or turning doorknobs. Other students are from more developed urban centers, such as Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, but even they have limited exposure to sights such as skyscrapers, freeways or elevators, and their children have been largely raised on the run or inside refugee camps.

Sensing the students' anxiety about snow, Kassim spent the next hour explaining U.S. weather. In their textbooks, students read about the importance of punctuality and Americans' "obsession" with cleanliness.

Of the 25 students, only one spoke English, so Kassim practiced some key English phrases.

"Po-LEESE! Po-LEESE!" the students recited in unison, practicing a 911 call.

Coming from a country without government or law, the idea that help is only a phone call away amazed Yussuf, whose parents were killed and who is traveling to the U.S. alone. "So if anyone bothers me, I just call 911 and the police come and beat them?" she asked. "Life must be very easy."

Immigrants also heard about U.S. laws. Beating your wife and children is illegal, they were told, and so is chewing khat, the leafy amphetamine-like stimulant popular in Somalia. Performing genital excision on young girls is prohibited.

"If I can't beat my wife, how will she know that I love her?" Abrone asked, seated next to his silent teenage bride.

Monogamy was equally unpopular with some men, who said their religion permitted four wives. But Kassim shut down the debate. "It doesn't matter," he told them. "In the U.S. you'll barely be able to afford one wife, anyway."

The second day of class began with an exercise in equality. Students broke into teams and were asked to identify which potential U.S. jobs — taxi driver, hairdresser or doctor, for example — were held exclusively by men and which were held by women. It was a trick question, designed to spark a discussion about gender equality.

In one group, Abdi Ahmed Mohammed, 56, a former Mogadishu shopkeeper, grabbed the worksheet and began dividing the occupations by gender.

"Wait," Yussuf complained. "Why is 'housekeeper' female?"

"It's woman's work," Mohammed snapped, checking the box for "female."

As the instructor began calling on students to defend their answers, it became clear that, at least in the U.S., the correct answer for all jobs was "both." Mohammed began discreetly erasing his worksheet, and when the instructor asked for his answer for "baby-sitter," he covered the paper with an arm and answered confidently, "Both."

The day ended with a tour of the mock kitchen and bathroom. Mohammed ran his fingers over the surface of the gas stove as if it were a shiny new Porsche. Kassim demonstrated how to use a variety of strange Western products, including toothpaste, shampoo and toilet paper.

"Why must I hide behind the curtain in the shower?" one student asked.

"It's to prevent the water from splashing," Kassim explained.

Some refugee experts worry that the classes focus too heavily on such basic household lessons.

"They can learn about flushing toilets and riding buses once they get there," said Hussain Mahmood, head of the Kakuma branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which also works with Somali refugees. "Instead, I think they'd be better served by a frank discussion about the discrimination and hostilities they may face as Muslims or Africans in the U.S. What's going to happen when a woman in a scarf meets some skinhead? I'd like to see more about dealing with those cultural challenges."

By the end of the second day, however, the challenges of living in the U.S. were beginning to sink in for some.

"I'm starting to worry about where I will live and who will take care of my baby when I go to work," said Fozia Ahmed Hussein Mohammed, 24 and eight months pregnant. Her boyfriend was not eligible to go with her.

"This is going to be more difficult than I thought," she said.

By the third day, Kassim was scrambling to squeeze in the final lessons. He turned to finances and budgeting. Immigrants might hope to earn $1,000 a month, he told them, but rent for a two-bedroom apartment averages $800, depending upon the area. "One income will not be enough," he said.

New arrivals get a 30-day assistance package, including help finding a house or apartment, but after that they are expected to find employment. U.S. government relief programs, such as food stamps and welfare, are also available to immigrants.

Kassim concluded with a lesson that left many students in disbelief. He showed them a large chart displaying immigrants' typical mood swings, first soaring during a "honeymoon" phase, then plummeting during a "depression" and finally settling at a "recovery."

"At first you will feel as if you've gone to paradise," Kassim said. "Everything is so easy." But research has shown that later many will experience sadness, loneliness, culture shock and pangs of guilt over friends and family left behind in Africa.

"It's called stress," he told them. "You can't sleep. You watch TV all the time. Some people even kill themselves." A few students stiffened in their chairs. A couple laughed nervously. It was incomprehensible that they would survive years of hunger and homelessness in Somalia only to commit suicide in one of the richest countries in the world.

"How could we feel depressed there?" Abdi Ahmed Mohammed asked. "After the life we are living, any other life will be better." Asked for a show of hands of how many believed they might experience stress or sadness, not a single hand went up.

"We do what we can to warn them," Kassim said after conducting a brief graduation ceremony. "I hope they are ready."

Outside, graduates clutched their cultural orientation "diplomas," unable to hide their growing excitement. Some would board airplanes in a matter of days.

Sofia Sharif, 21, was 6 when her village was attacked. Her father was killed; her mother and five siblings disappeared into the bush. Today she is alone in the world, except for a distant older cousin who kept Sharif out of school and forced her to keep house and take care of the cousin's children.

"If my parents had lived, I might have had the chance to go to school," Sharif said. "But so what? I'm 21. I'm single. And now I'm going to America."

Girls' version of dream dates

Is he your dream date?
By Maggie Kim

This is the girls' version of the preceeding post. The picture came with the article (from MSNBC).
Dave

Your mother always wanted you to end up with a nice doctor while your teenage self probably fantasized about going on tour with the lead singer of a rock band. Now that you’ve grown up, your tastes have gotten a bit more sophisticated, leaning towards strong, sexy, smart and talented types like writers, firemen, and yep, doctors. So what would it really be like to date one of these guys—amazing... or amazingly disappointing? Well, to find out, we spoke to women who actually lived the fantasy and dated these guys. Here’s what they had to say about the experience.

Dream date #1: Firefighter
“Without a doubt, Derik was a hunk—great body, rugged and totally manly. He was hot in his uniform, but even hotter out of it! My biggest complaint was that his entire life revolved around the firehouse and his ‘boys’ there. After his work shift ended, he still wanted to hang out at the firehouse and cook dinner for everyone. When you date a firefighter, you get the entire firehouse. Also, being with a man’s man went hand-in-hand with dealing with his chauvinistic attitudes. He believed that a woman should do woman’s work, like cleaning and getting him beers. That just didn’t fly with me.”
–Olya K., 29, Long Island, NY

Dream date #2: Doctor
“Paul and I dated for three years before getting engaged. I come from a family of physicians so I knew what to expect—good and bad. Being involved with a doctor definitely has its benefits: I’ve quickly gotten appointments with specialists since Paul has friends in a variety of fields; when I go to the hospital for a test, the staff knows me; and Paul can reassure me when I don’t feel well (I remember being concerned about a mole on my back and Paul had a look and told me it was nothing). But when it comes to his own symptoms, that’s a different story. Being a doctor, he sometimes over-reacts to the slightest sign, I guess because he knows the worst-case scenario. And he can get called to the hospital at any hour, on any day (including special occasions and holidays), so planning things in advance is really tough. And his crazy hours mean he’s always tired, so intimate moments aren’t as frequent as we’d like. Plus, medicine is not as lucrative as people think it is. Before we got married, my mom told me the life of doctor’s wife is not glamorous. Now I know she’s completely right! It is nice to always have a doctor in the house, but it’s not the cushy life they lead you to believe it is in the movies.”
–Claire G., 34, Long Island, NY

Dream date #3: Comedian
“Ironically, it’s not funny being with someone who’s always worried about being funny. My guy Jim always had to be ‘on’ and it was exhausting. I loved his sense of humor—it was what I was attracted to in the first place, but he never knew when to be serious. Sometimes I wanted to discuss something I read in the paper, but Jim had to make a joke or wry observation about everything. War’s not a laughing matter, in my opinion. Plus everything you say might go into your boyfriend’s act. I dated him for years, and after we broke up, another one of my friends caught his new act. It was all about me—and apparently it wasn’t flattering. Definitely not funny!”
- Susan M., 39, Philadelphia

Dream date #4: Fashion photographer
“My photographer boyfriend was great about telling me how gorgeous I was, and he loved taking pictures of me, whether they were snapshots or major projects he was working on. He made me feel like a supermodel. But telling women how beautiful they are while taking their picture was his job! After hearing about another audition with hot, 20-year-old models and seeing the fruits of his labor — photo spreads with scantily-clad glamazons — my insecurities really got the better of me. The final straw was when we went to another chic fashion party and just about every dewy-skinned, size-two beauty rushed up to say hello, and he simply basked in the attention. That’s when I realized that enduring mind-numbing small talk while getting looked down upon by girls I’d seen in magazines was part of the job description of being a fashion shutterbug’s girlfriend. I wound up quitting pretty soon afterward.”
- Anne L., 28, New York City, NY

Dream date #5: Screenwriter
“There’s something glamorous about dating someone in the film industry. And if you’re dating a working screenwriter, he can work from home and he’s got plenty of money. So Kevin and I could sleep in late, spend the day together and go to fancy restaurants at night. But he’d get really depressed if he was ‘blocked’ or if a pitch meeting didn’t go exactly how he wanted it to. I also got tired of his starry-eyed descriptions of Hollywood players. Screenwriters are on the outskirts of fame, and I think my ex-boyfriend always wanted to be in the thick of it, so I’d have to listen to endless stories about parties where he got to rub shoulders with A-listers, but really only got to hang out with C-listers. It was kind of depressing.”
- Meg K., 33, Los Angeles, CA

Dream date #6: Restauranteur
“Greg always knew the hottest new places with the best food and was happy to take me there. We had some really great dining experiences—at least when it came to the food. The trouble would start when we got to the restaurant. It was the same every time: He’d carefully study the entire menu and when the waiter would come to take our order, he’d ask a zillion questions about how something was prepared or what it came with, until finally he’d mention, ‘I work in restaurants, too,’ and drop the name of his place. It was so embarrassing because most of the time, the waiter would be like, “Who cares?” He also couldn’t talk about anything besides the restaurant business. It was such a small, competitive world. I actually would have to ask that we talk about something else.”
- Maria F., 32, Darien, CT

Dream date #7: Musician
“Dating a famous musician was definitely exciting. I loved seeing Bryan perform to sold-out crowds. And being someone’s muse — he dedicated an entire album to me — was unbelievable. But unless you’re willing to give up your life to be a touring rock star’s girlfriend, you don’t see each other for weeks or months at a time. And the groupie cliché is true! I remember one very well-known rock groupie who came backstage after a show because she wanted to sleep with my boyfriend, even though he’d already introduced me as his girlfriend! She wouldn’t leave until my boyfriend finally asked her to go. But I always wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t been there that night. I loved the thrill of being a rocker’s girlfriend, but lack of stability — and commitment — went hand in hand with it, so ultimately I had to end things.”
–Lisa B., 32, Washington, D.C.

Maggie Kim (www.maggiekim.com) is a rock musician and writer in New York City.

Guys' fantasy dates

Dating the woman of your dreams
By Dan Bova



This is a little bizarre, but certainly interesting reading. And this is only half the story...
Dave

When it comes to fantasy women, guys aren’t the most original. For generations, most men have imagined smokin’ hot bikini models in magazines drooling right back at us or a pretty masseuse who offers up backrubs 24/7. While most guys accept that these are unattainable fantasies, some are able to make them realities. We asked the latter group of lucky fellas if dating these dream lovers lived up to their great expectations. Read on to hear what it’s really and truly like to date one of these women.

Dream date #1: Flight attendant
“I met Liv on a flight from New York to Atlanta. I stood around the jump seat area under the pretense of stretching my legs (flight attendants get totally hot for guys who know how to combat deep vein thrombosis, right?) and asked her about a book she was reading. I thought that it would be fantastic to brag that I was dating a flight attendant. It has a sexy, glamorous quality, plus I figured there would be tons of free trips and unexpected getaways to exotic locales. Every guy I ever told, ‘I’m dating a flight attendant’ got a faraway look in his eye and just nodded his head to silently say, ‘Good man, good man.’ The bragging rights totally exceeded my expectations, but the getaways turned out to be kind of a pain. You get to fly for free basically, but you never know when or if you can get back from where you came. Another downside was that she was flying the B-list routes to none-too-scenic small towns all over the interior of the country and dealing with irate passengers all day long, so she wasn’t usually in the best of moods when we got to spend time together. But still, she was gorgeous. And in the time we dated, I never got more high-fives from other dudes in my life.”
- Wayne, 28 Atlanta, GA

Dream date #2: Massage therapist
"The first time I went out with this woman, she told me she was a massage therapist and I admit I thought it was hot. I figured that she’d be in shape, comfortable with her body, somewhat health-conscious and down-to-earth—and would be giving me killer massages all of the time. I got the first parts right, but she came home physically tired, and I ended up massaging her more often than the other way around. I guess if you’re dating a dentist, the last thing she wants to do at the end of the day is help you floss. There’s some old Seinfeld episode about dating a massage therapist, and I heard about it all the time from my friends. I still haven’t seen it, but the message was kind of the same—you aren’t going to get a lot of free massages. The nights where she did surprise me with her magic hands—omigod, it was beyond awesome.”
- Edgar, 35, Tampa, FL

Dream date #3: Bartender
“I spotted Jessica at my local bar in downtown New York. I thought dating a bartender would mean a lot of late nights at the bar getting free drinks, leaving a sleeping woman in my bed when I left for work and lots of parties with her bar friends at 3 a.m. And that’s pretty much what it was like. She took me to all of these after-hours parties and had all of these great stories about crazy customers getting in fights or passing out while they were in the middle of hitting on her. It was wild. It was like living a rock-star life. Free drinks and sex at 4 o’clock in the morning... it was pretty great, actually.”
- Hugh, 30, New York City, NY

Dream date #4: Model
“It’s easy to think that models are stuck-up, but my girlfriend is nothing like that. She’s cool and down-to-earth and doesn’t fit any of those stereotypes. Her job hasn’t put any strain on our relationship at all. I mean, you have to understand exactly what being a model entails, which is your girlfriend doing photo shoots with tons of different photographers and getting all sexy in front of the camera. If you’re the jealous type, don’t date a model. You have to trust that even though all of these guys are hitting on her at shoots or in bars, she wouldn’t cheat on you. You can’t get jealous because people are falling over themselves for her, and you can’t get cocky either because you’re dating a gorgeous woman. Honestly, beautiful as she is, the best part of our relationship is that we make each other laugh and are best friends.”
- Andrew, 23, Cleveland, OH

Dream date #5: Chef
“When I met Dee, she was just finishing up culinary school. It was great because I got to eat her homework! Now that she’s a professional chef and on her feet 15 hours a day, I feel bad having her cook for me, but I couldn’t keep her out of the kitchen if I tried. She makes the most insanely delicious food I’ve ever had in my life. Like she can make mac ‘n’ cheese that’ll blow your socks off! But she also always surprises me by making super-fancy dishes like duck just because it looked good at the market that day. She puts so much love into her dishes, you feel like you’re being taken care of. It’s really sweet. The only problem is that I’ve put on about 10 pounds since we’ve been together!”
- John, 38, Los Angeles, CA

Dream date #6: The boss
“My boss and I used to innocently flirt a lot at after work get-togethers. The flirting kept escalating, and one night, we wound up slipping out the back door and hooking up at her apartment. The first time I woke up next to her, I kind of freaked. I was like, ‘I’d better go get coffee and the paper and be Super-Guy or else she’ll fire me!’ It took a couple of dates before I could shake the ‘She’s your boss!’ voice screaming in my head. It was very nerve-wracking, always wondering if our co-workers had figured it out. I became paranoid. I’d be thinking, ‘Why did so-and-so ask me where I went this weekend? Did someone see us together?!’ And I was in this weird in-between world where I’d hear my co-workers bitch about their workloads at lunch, and later, hear her bitch about how some of my co-workers were slackers. But there were some pretty cool perks, though. Besides getting to see and work with someone I loved every day, she told me when it was a good time to ask for a raise!”
- Joe, 27, Stamford, CT

Dream date #7: Sex writer
“When I met Julie and found out she was a sex writer, of course I thought she would be wild in bed! And over the years, that has turned out to be pretty true. It’s exciting to be surprised by her creativity—I never know what she’ll do next. Sometimes she opens the closet and pulls out costumes, sometimes she brings in some interesting food items from the kitchen. There is never a dull moment. Needless to say, I love it when she is working on a new story or book! Being with a sex writer is all I dreamed it would be—and more.”
- Jay, 41, Glendale, CA

first female space tourist

interview with Anousheh Ansari
By Sara Goudarzi

An American-Iranian who fled Iran's Islamic revolution two decades ago fulfilled a childhood dream yesterday when she became the first female space tourist. This interview was recorded on September 15.


United States entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari has been training for six months to get away from it all. Unlike most tourists, she won't be sporting a camera around her neck, and come Monday she won't need a boarding pass to get on her flight.

That's because Ansari is no ordinary sightseer. In just three days she will escape the bounds of Earth to float around in the International Space Station (ISS) for 10 days. Iranian-American Ansari, the first female space tourist, will hitch a ride to the ISS aboard the Soyuz TMA-9 capsule along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria.

Originally, Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto was supposed to be the world's fourth space tourist under a deal arranged by the Virginia-based space tourism firm Space Adventures with the Russian Federal Space Agency. But Enomoto was disqualified late last month from flying due to a health concern, allowing Ansari to become a primary crewmember.

Ansari has been in quarantine since September 2 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan and has been keeping a blog to share her experience with those dreaming of spacelight, an effort Ansari wishes to continue as an outreach project upon her return.

In a telephone interview with SPACE.com, Ansari discussed the hardest part of her training, the most anticipated part of her trip, and why she takes offense to the term "space tourist."

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SPACE.com: With only a few days before launch, what is there still left to do?

Anousheh Ansari: I think we pretty much completed all of our training. There are just some final procedural things that we are reviewing. There are also some ceremonial things that we will be doing in the next few days such as press conferences and meetings. We just completed our final fit check today so that was I guess one of most important steps before the launch, which was conducted successfully.

SPACE.com: How do your husband and family feel about your trip?

AA: As you can imagine, they're pretty excited. They know how long I have been waiting for this day and how happy I am that it's finally here. I know they're happy for me and at the same time I am sure that they're a bit apprehensive and a little nervous about the whole thing. I especially know my mom is really nervous. They're cheering each other up, trying to stay positive, focusing on the good things, and all praying for my safe return.

SPACE.com: What's it been like being far from them during your 6-month training?

AA: It's been the hardest part of being in training. We're a close family; we spend a lot of time together. Not being with them, especially not being with my husband has been the most difficult part of the training for me.

SPACE.com: Have you been able to visit each other at all?

AA: Yes, we've had several short visits. During my [training] time, he came to Star City a few times and we met for several weekends in Europe, which meant a shorter flight for both of us. But still, it's not the same because ever since we got married over 15 years ago we've spent almost 24 hours [of each day] together because we work together so it's been very difficult. We've never been apart for such a long time.

SPACE.com: And you will never be as far distance wise as you will be in a few days.

AA: That's true too!

SPACE.com: What projects did you have to give up to go on this trip?

AA: There were a couple of things that I was negotiating and working on. One of them had to do with installing a telescope on the ISS, which was a very involved program. I was trying to find out some of the activities that different space agencies were initiating to see if I could partner with them to bring a private or commercial aspect to it. Not to use it commercially but to use it for educational purposes for amateur astronomers and other people interested in astronomy.

Unfortunately, that's a very involved program that would have taken at least a year or two to get approved and get the potential documents done and the equipment certified. So I knew for sure that wasn't going to happen on my flight. But it's something that I am going to continue pursuing and it doesn't have to be coinciding with my spaceflight.

SPACE.com: How did you find out that Diasuke Enomoto wouldn't be flying? How did it feel to no longer be the back up?

AA: I was actually going back to my room after finishing my day of training and I received a call from "Space Adventures" telling me that I've been moved up to become part of the primary crew.

First I couldn't believe it. I thought they were joking with me and then as I started believing them I was in complete shock and total excitement and you know, I would've screamed if I wasn't embarrassed of the people around me.

SPACE.com: Do you consider yourself a role model for Iranian women and women in general?

AA: Well I certainly hope to be. In my work and everything that I have always done, I have tried to be an example.

I hope to inspire everyone—especially young people, women, and young girls all over the world, and in Middle Eastern countries that do not provide women with the same opportunities as men—to not give up their dreams and to pursue them.

It may seem impossible to them at times. But I believe they can realize their dreams if they keep it in their hearts, nurture it, and look for opportunities and make those opportunities happen. Looking back at my life, I'm hoping that I could give them a positive example how that could happen.

SPACE.com: When did your fascination with space begin? When was it that you knew this was the path you were going to take?

AA: It wasn't like a special moment that I just realized this is what I wanted to do. It was something that ever since I remember has been in my heart and a part of me. I always was fascinated by space and always wanted to learn more about it and wanted to experience it first hand by flying into space. I don't know how it began or where it began. Maybe I was born with it. Maybe it's in my genes. I don't know. My husband [Hamid Ansari] sometimes jokes and says you know I think you're not from this planet. You may have come from another planet and you're just trying to get back home.

SPACE.com: What are you most looking forward to on this trip?

AA: I'm looking forward to the entire experience but I think one of the most special parts of it would be being able to see the Earth from space and to just experience that totality of it and see it as this beautiful blue planet swimming in the darkness of universe. It's something that I think will be very special.

SPACE.com: I think other people who have made it to space have similar sentiments. The fragility of Earth often strikes them.

AA: I believe that's part of it. I hope that more and more people will get to have this experience because it does give you a new perspective on life, and on everything else like how to live your life and interact with your environment.

I've talked to different astronauts and cosmonauts and read their books, and think that it's a common theme that you hear from all of them. It does make a big difference. I am hoping that more and more people will be able to have that experience first hand and I think it may make our world a better place to live if more people flew to space.

SPACE.com: What experiments will you be participating in while on the trip?

AA: There are a few experiments, a couple of them with the European Space Agency that have to do with the effects of low back pain on astronauts and cosmonauts. The other one is on microbial lifeforms onboard the station and how they spread. I will also be doing some educational programs on the different laws of physics that I'm planning to videotape. Sometimes it's easier to demonstrate things like that in zero gravity environments.

SPACE.com: What advancements do you believe will emerge from private exploration of space?

AA: There's an infinite amount of energy resources out in space, that given the right technology and the right environment, we can benefit from.

Development of technology for travel to outer edges of space needs to be developed. And it's a necessity, I think for us, to start thinking about it now and start planning and designing because it's something that's not going to happen overnight.

It will take generations to perfect this type of travel means. So I am hoping to bring more attention to it, bring more private funding to it and to see more innovation happen because of the involvement of the private industry.

SPACE.com: On your website you mention that one of your goals as the first space ambassador is "to promote peace and understanding amongst nations." How do you envision space explorations will achieve such a lofty goal?

AA: I think based on what we were just talking about. The spaceflight experience gives you new perspective on your environment and the planet we live on and the understanding of how fragile it is and how our actions impact our environment.

Looking at it from up there you can't see any borders or any differentiation between different races or anything like that and all you see is one planet; one place that all of us have to take care of if we want to be able to live on it for a long time. Our current technologies and everything we have does not afford us the luxury of saying ok if we blow up this planet and make it inhabitable for ourselves we can pack up and live some place else. So on one hand you look at your safe haven on Earth and then you turn around and then you look at the blackness of the universe and see that there is not a lot of habitable planets or moons around you. You sort of feel like you need to take care of the precious gift you've been given and I think that's sort of how I am hoping the message would be.

SPACE.com: You don't like the term "space tourist" and call it an "over simplistic label to a complicated process." Can you further explain that?

AA: Absolutely. In a way I take offense when they call me a tourist because it brings that image of someone with a camera around their neck and a ticket in their hand walking to the airport to go on a trip somewhere and coming back to show their pictures. But I think spaceflight is much more than that.

I've been training for it for six months. I think if it is to be compared to an experiment or an experience on Earth it probably is closer to expeditions like people who go to Antarctica or people who climb Mount Everest. I mean that requires a lot more preparation, thinking, and studying or appreciation of the environment. So I would probably compare it more to an expedition than I would to a touristy trip to another city.

SPACE.com: You'll finally conquer space, so what's next for you?

AA: I'm going to go back to work. We're launching [a] new company. At the same time, there's a project that we've been working on for a couple of years now and it's to a point to be ready to be commercially launched. So we're really excited about that and that's one of the major areas I'll be concentrating on upon my return and whatever spare time I have I'll be spending it going around and promoting my educational activities through the "X- Prize Foundation."

Koizumi's political drama

Koizumi's political drama drew cheers, boos
Makoto Miyazaki, Takashi Noguchi and Kiyofumi Matsunaga / Yomiuri

The postwar era's third-longest administration, led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, will end on Sept. 26, when the extraordinary Diet session is convened.

Here we look back at some symbolic events of the political drama that the 64-year-old prime minister simultaneously starred in, and directed.

Koizumi, who declared he would "destroy the Liberal Democratic Party," won the party's presidential race in April 2001. His Cabinet recorded the highest approval rate in history--85.5 percent--according to a survey conducted in May 2001. This surpassed the approval rating of 73.5 percent for the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, according to a November 1993 survey.

Koizumi's first Cabinet attracted unprecedented attention: He appointed popular lawmaker Makiko Tanaka and economist Heizo Takenaka as foreign minister and state minister in charge of economic and financial policy, respectively. Many TV gossip shows featured Cabinet ministers' movements almost every day.

"Isn't it [the Cabinet he appointed] astonishing?" Koizumi reportedly said to LDP executives with a satisfied look, after having formed his first Cabinet.

As Koizumi had boasted they would, the cabinet appointments attracted much attention and were full of surprises. This was due to the fact that, unlike his predecessors, he refused to consider the LDP factions' wishes in his ministerial appointments.

However, Tanaka soon came into conflict with Foreign Ministry officials due to her unconventional and often extraordinary behavior--she even canceled a meeting with a U.S. senior official shortly after assuming her post. The "heroine" whom Koizumi had once relied on as the source of his public support turned out to be a "sticking point" for his Cabinet.



In January 2002, Koizumi finally dismissed both Tanaka and a Foreign Ministry senior official with whom she had frequent spats. After the incident, the Cabinet's approval ratings plummeted.

However, Koizumi's surprise visit to Pyongyang in September 2002 helped his Cabinet regain public support.

The tragic cases of Japanese abducted by North Korea were revealed after Koizumi's first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, igniting anti-North Korea sentiment among Japanese while boosting support for Koizumi's diplomacy. The Cabinet's approval rating rallied to 66.1 percent in a survey conducted shortly after his visit to North Korea, which was up 20.4 points from the previous month's survey.

Though the United States at first expressed distaste for Koizumi's diplomacy with North Korea, which was suspected of developing nuclear weapons, Koizumi did not change his direction. The diplomatic methods he used to press his assertions, unlike those his predecessors had traditionally adopted, also garnered popular support.

In another example of his uniqueness, Koizumi supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, even though France and Germany opposed it. He also dispatched 600 members of the Ground Self-Defense Force to areas considered dangerous, opening up a new frontier in Japan's international cooperation activities.

Another of Koizumi's unique diplomatic style was his annual visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, despite domestic and foreign opposition. Consequently Chinese and South Korean leaders refused to hold summit talks with him.

The highlight of Koizumi's political drama may have been his showdown with LDP rebels who refused to agree to his postal privatization policy.

After the postal privatization bills were rejected by 17 votes in the House of Councillors during a 2005 ordinary Diet session, Koizumi immediately dissolved the House of Representatives, saying he would ask for the public's judgment over postal privatization.

For the lower house election, Koizumi fielded so-called assassins in the constituencies of the rebels who had voted against the postal privatization bills, to prevent them from returning to the Diet. Koizumi's determination to win the political battle, which some people said was overly ruthless, gained the interest and support of the public, including floating voters, and helped the LDP win a historic victory. The postal privatization bills were passed at an extraordinary Diet session after the election, and Koizumi's long-cherished wish was accomplished.

In a November speech, Koizumi spoke about the lower house election in which the rebels were virtually wiped out, saying, "It [the election] changed the LDP dramatically."

(Sep. 19, 2006)

New TOEIC---speaking, writing

New TOEIC to offer speaking, writing tests from next January

It looks like aspects of the Toeic and the iBT Toefl are merging. For further info, you could also look at http://communicate01.googlepages.com/.
It might help make some meaning out of all the chaos.

Dave


Kiyomi Arai Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

The U.S.-based test organizer Educational Testing Service has announced a new approach in one of its major products--the Test of English for International Communication--beginning in January next year.

The current TOEIC test evaluates the listening and reading skills of test-takers. In addition, ETS will launch TOEIC speaking and writing tests, which will be offered in a package but scored individually.

The new tests' materials will be provided through the Internet, although test-takers will still have to go to authorized testing centers because of the need to confirm their identification.

The speaking test will take 20 minutes and involve 11 questions, while the writing test will take one hour for eight questions. Test-takers will receive separate scores for each test, with additional information provided on their proficiency levels in each area.

During an interview with The Daily Yomiuri following a press conference in Tokyo in mid-July, ETS Assessment Specialist Jessica Reeder said the tests were developed using a cutting-edge ETS method--"advanced measurement design methodology"--to make it clear what level the test-taker has attained.

The method uses a top-down approach: first develop broad ideas about what kind of skills needed to be scored, then devise tasks and finally come up with actual questions. Thus the new tests include new tasks, such as writing an e-mail in response to one presented on the test sheet.

Bhaskar Pant, ETS managing director of Asia-Pacific operations, said the organization started developing the tests a decade ago in response to increasing demand from test-users, who are mainly corporations. "Communicative skill is something that has been recognized by the global marketplace, as English becomes used more and more in e-mail communication and conference calls. Business tasks require speaking and writing skills much more so than before because of the increase of global interaction," he said.

The conventional TOEIC test combined with the new TOEIC speaking and writing tests will evaluate four skills--speaking, listening, writing and reading--just as in the new Internet-based TOEFL test that started recently, also offered by the ETS.

Pant said ETS emphasizes that it is becoming more important for a person to have communicative skills, and both TOEFL and TOEIC tests measure the same four skills, though their concepts and markets differ.

Practice versions of the TOEIC speaking and writing tests are available on the ETS Web site: www.toeic.or.jp/sw/.

(Aug. 31, 2006)

Japan's thought police

BIG BROTHER ALERT
The Rise of Japan's Thought Police

By Steven Clemons
Sunday, August 27, 2006;

Anywhere else, it might have played out as just another low-stakes battle between policy wonks. But in Japan, a country struggling to find a brand of nationalism that it can embrace, a recent war of words between a flamboyant newspaper editorialist and an editor at a premier foreign-policy think tank was something far more alarming: the latest assault in a campaign of right-wing intimidation of public figures that is squelching free speech and threatening to roll back civil society.

On Aug. 12, Yoshihisa Komori -- a Washington-based editorialist for the ultra-conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper -- attacked an article by Masaru Tamamoto, the editor of Commentary, an online journal run by the Japan Institute of International Affairs. The article expressed concern about the emergence of Japan's strident new "hawkish nationalism," exemplified by anti-China fear-mongering and official visits to a shrine honoring Japan's war dead. Komori branded the piece "anti-Japanese," and assailed the mainstream author as an "extreme leftist intellectual."

But he didn't stop there. Komori demanded that the institute's president, Yukio Satoh, apologize for using taxpayer money to support a writer who dared to question Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, in defiance of Chinese protests that it honors war criminals from World War II.

Remarkably, Satoh complied. Within 24 hours, he had shut down Commentary and withdrawn all of the past content on the site -- including his own statement that it should be a place for candid discourse on Japan's foreign-policy and national-identity challenges. Satoh also sent a letter last week to the Sankei editorial board asking for forgiveness and promising a complete overhaul of Commentary's editorial management.

The capitulation was breathtaking. But in the political atmosphere that has overtaken Japan, it's not surprising. Emboldened by the recent rise in nationalism, an increasingly militant group of extreme right-wing activists who yearn for a return to 1930s-style militarism, emperor-worship and "thought control" have begun to move into more mainstream circles -- and to attack those who don't see things their way.

Just last week, one of those extremists burned down the parental home of onetime prime ministerial candidate Koichi Kato, who had criticized Koizumi's decision to visit Yasukuni this year. Several years ago, the home of Fuji Xerox chief executive and Chairman Yotaro "Tony" Kobayashi was targeted by handmade firebombs after he, too, voiced the opinion that Koizumi should stop visiting Yasukuni. The bombs were dismantled, but Kobayashi continued to receive death threats. The pressure had its effect. The large business federation that he helps lead has withdrawn its criticism of Koizumi's hawkishness toward China and his visits to Yasukuni, and Kobayashi now travels with bodyguards.

In 2003, then-Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka discovered a time bomb in his home. He was targeted for allegedly being soft on North Korea. Afterward, conservative Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara contended in a speech that Tanaka "had it coming."

Another instance of free-thinking-meets-intimidation involved Sumiko Iwao, an internationally respected professor emeritus at Keio University. Right-wing activists threatened her last February after she published an article suggesting that much of Japan is ready to endorse female succession in the imperial line; she issued a retraction and is now reportedly lying low.

Such extremism raises disturbing echoes of the past. In May 1932, Japanese Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated by a group of right-wing activists who opposed his recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and his staunch defense of parliamentary democracy. In the post-World War II era, right-wing fanatics have largely lurked in the shadows, but have occasionally threatened those who veer too close to or speak too openly about sensitive topics concerning Japan's national identity, war responsibility or imperial system.

What's alarming and significant about today's intimidation by the right is that it's working -- and that it has found some mutualism in the media. Sankei's Komori has no direct connection to those guilty of the most recent acts, but he's not unaware that his words frequently animate them -- and that their actions in turn lend fear-fueled power to his pronouncements, helping them silence debate. What's worse, neither Japan's current prime minister nor Shinzo Abe, the man likely to succeed him in next month's elections, has said anything to denounce those trying to stifle the free speech of Japan's leading moderates.

There are many more cases of intimidation. I have spoken to dozens of Japan's top academics, journalists and government civil servants in the past few days; many of them pleaded with me not to disclose this or that incident because they feared violence and harassment from the right. One top political commentator in Japan wrote to me: "I know the right-wingers are monitoring what I write and waiting to give me further trouble. I simply don't want to waste my time nor energy for these people."

Japan needs nationalism. But it needs a healthy nationalism -- not the hawkish, strident variety that is lately forcing many of the country's best lights to dim their views.


steve@thewashingtonnote.com


Steven Clemons is director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and co-founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute.