UbuneBlog

Two teenagers have set themselves on fire near a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in south-west China amid rumours that dozens of monks were ready to ‘sacrifice their lives”, rights groups said on Friday.

The teenagers – Choepel and Khayang – were former monks from Sichuan province’s Kirti monastery, the scene of repeated protests, the London-based Free Tibet said in statement.

The latest incidents – confirmed by another rights group with contacts in the region – take the number of people reported to have set themselves on fire to seven this year.

Free Tibet, an activist group, said there were unconfirmed reports that Choepel, 19, had died while the condition of Khayang, 18, was not known.

PHOTO: AP

Money is the cause of, and solution to, a family spat, writes Michael Idato.

For fans of The Simpsons it is devastating news: their beloved television program could, after 23 years and 488 half-hour episodes, come to an end.

The six main voice actors – Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer – are locked in what looks at first glance to be a pay dispute.

But the deal-making surrounding the story – and the question of whether the studio, 20th Century Fox, will strangle the most golden of its stable of geese in pursuit of the almighty dollar – reveals an even more complex world of studio economics.
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As presented in the news, it reads like any wage dispute, albeit with immensely greater stakes. On one side we have the titanic studio, anxious to keep the money rolling in. On the other, a motley assortment of voice actors who believe they have been exploited by one of Hollywood’s most productive profit machines.

The lead actors make roughly $US440,000 an episode.

Fox is crying poor and claims the escalating cost of the show versus its steadily shrinking audience (up to 20 per cent in the US television market, according to estimates) means it now faces an uncertain future.

Fox is insisting on a pay cut for everyone, including producers and crew. According to sources, the producers have already agreed to take a cut. For the lead actors that means a trim of the weekly pay packet back to about $US240,000 an episode.

The deadline for the actors to agree is 6am today, Sydney time. If the cast capitulates, Fox will likely extend the series by two or three seasons. If not, this season – the show’s 23rd, of which two of 22 planned episodes have aired in the US – will be its last.

It does, at face value, beggar belief that Fox could cry poor. The studio has already earned more than $US1 billion in profit from The Simpsons. Long-term projections suggest it could, in the next decade, push that to up to $US2.9 billion.

According to one report, the studio has already rejected one offer from the cast – $US300,000 an episode plus an increased share in the ”back end”, that is, the money from reruns, DVD and merchandise sales – a hint, perhaps, that Fox is less interested in solving the contract dispute and more focused on stabilising its long-term profit.

Fox has said it ”cannot produce future seasons under its current financial model”, and hopes for an ”agreement with the voice cast that allows The Simpsons to go on entertaining audiences with original episodes for many years to come”.

Or does it? The relationship between the stars of The Simpsons and their employer has never been a harmonious one. Fox took only a few years to parlay a short cartoon segment from The Tracey Ullman Show into one of its biggest earners but it took a succession of pay disputes over a decade for the cast to get what it considers to be its fair share of the cream.

It clashed with the studio in 1998 and managed to get a pay increase from $US30,000 an episode to $US125,000. And again in 2004 – a particularly strained negotiation in which the six main actors refused to return to work until Fox caved into their demands – at which point they won about $US360,000 an episode. Any mutual affection has been, over the years, worn to nothing.

But unlike those past pay disputes, this time the studio is no longer anxious to keep its billion-dollar cash cow in production. Something of which the show’s producers perhaps have an inkling.

In the world of television economics, the brutal truth is it makes better business sense to finish the show and send it into syndication – American industry jargon for multi-channel reruns – which would allow Fox to sign new rerun contracts with a multitude of channels that could be worth, according to estimates, anywhere from $US750 million to $US2 billion.

By demanding a pay cut, and couching the resulting media coverage in terms of the show’s increasing cost and its high-to-unsustainable star salaries – Fox has effectively shifted the blame from the greedy studio to the show’s greedy stars.

Proof, perhaps, Fox is as ruthless in marketing as it is in business, and a monumental gamble that by the time the colourful world of the Simpson family fades to black, Fox will not be left facing the accusation it destroyed the studio’s golden goose simply to sell off its eggs to the highest bidder.

Photo: AP/Fox

His approval ratings may be plummeting at home but in China, US President Barack Obama is king – or at least the kitsch products bearing his likeness are.

Take a stroll down a hutong – narrow alley – lined with shops in the capital city Beijing and you will see Mr Obama dressed up in communist garb staring at you from a sling bag, coin pouch, T-shirt and even a paper fan.

Selling products with Mr Obama’s image is not new. Few would forget Shepard Fairey’s blue, red and beige poster of the now President during his 2008 election campaign with the word “HOPE”.

But the Obama kitsch in Beijing is influenced by a different source altogether – Mao Zedong, the father of Communist China.

Chairman Mao kitsch has been all the rage in China for some years, and during my week-long visit to Beijing in June, I saw Mao memorabilia everywhere. There was even Mao’s face depicted in stained glass.

I came across the term “cult of personality” while studying about the former Soviet Union in high school, so perhaps it’s not surprising Mao’s mug has graced everything from clocks to bobbleheads.

But Mr Obama? What made the Chinese so fond of the American leader they call him “Obamao”? So much so that T-shirts bearing the moniker were banned by the Chinese government in 2009 when Mr Obama visited, fearing they would cause offence.

Associate Professor Feng Chongyi of the University of Technology, Sydney’s China Research Centre said Chinese fondness for Mr Obama grew from his links with developing countries through his Kenyan father and childhood stint in Indonesia.

“During the Mao years, he campaigned for the cause of the Third World. And Obama is seen as coming from the Third World, so the Chinese regarded him as one of them,” Associate Professor Feng said.

But he hastened to add that during Mr Obama’s 2009 visit to China, the President was not warmly welcomed by the authorities.

The allure of Mao, on the other hand, changed over the years, Associate Professor Feng added. While Mao was alive, he was worshipped for his political prowess. The Chinese both respected and feared him. But following his death in 1976, Mao became a religious figure.

“They’ve sort of turned him into a god that provides protection because he was so powerful when he was in power,” Associate Professor Feng said.

And Mr Obama is not the only foreigner to receive the kitsch treatment in China. As I walked through one hutong, I saw a paper fan sporting the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s face beside the caption: “Do not miss me, I’m already a legend.”

Photo: Glenda Kwek

A Hitler lookalike appeared on key rings and magnets on sale at 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan, triggering a strong reaction Monday from the de facto Israeli embassy, which said it was “appalled.”

The items, seen at several 7-Eleven convenience stores in Taipei, sported an Adolf Hitler-style cartoon figure with a short black mustache, a brown jacket and a red-black-and-white symbol reminiscent of the Nazis’ swastika banners.

“I find it tragic that once again people (in) marketing and promotion fail to recognize the meaning of the dark age in human history the Nazi dictator represents,” a representative of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei said.

Simona Halperin added that she was sure the images were the result of “ignorance” and did not reflect “support or identification with the atrocities committed during the Holocaust by the Nazis.”

Mark Lee, a blogger who created the cartoon figure, staunchly defended himself, saying he had no intention of promoting Nazi thinking.

“I had hoped to use it to satirize some bosses. In the eyes of disgruntled employees, many bosses are greedy and dictatorial and like vampires trying to suck money from them,” Lee said.

An official from President Chain Store Corp, which runs 7-Eleven in Taiwan, denied the images were meant to represent the German dictator.

“They don’t look like Hitler. It’s not a mustache, but a tooth,” she said, referring to a black square in the middle of the figure’s face.

An official at the German Institute Taipei, Germany’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, expressed “regret that Nazi images are mistakenly used on some improper occasions”.

East Asian pop culture and commercial art has a long history of fascination with Hitler and the Nazis.

Occasionally, Hitler turns up in Asian advertisement campaigns, and in the 1990s a pub called “Nazi Bar” was briefly in operation in Taipei.

In July the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei expressed shock when three local students were seen dressed in Nazi uniforms at a military-organized summer camp.

Neither Israel nor Germany have embassies in Taiwan, as China requires from all its diplomatic allies that they sever official ties with the island.

Photo: AFP

“SNAPPY” the crocodile has no one to blame but himself for changing colour, his owner says.

At first glance, it looks like “Snappy” has tanned up for the Brownlow.

But the cranky chameleon has no one to blame but himself for changing colour – after apparently biting off more than he could chew.

Owner Tracey Sandstrom, who runs Roaming Reptiles, said Snappy made a meal out of the filter in his water tank.

“I think it caused the pH levels in his water to soar which has led to the change in colour.”

She was stunned when her prized pet turned bright orange.

“Snappy’s pretty territorial and he attacked the filter one day and a few weeks after that, I noticed he was orange,” she said.

The 2.5m croc stays warm at night in his heated indoor tank before moving outside through his “croc flap” to bask in sunshine by day.

“It doesn’t seem to have affected him at all. He’s still got a healthy appetite, is normally aggro and doing everything he always does,” Ms Sandstrom said.

Darwin croc expert Grahame Webb examined the Herald Sun photos and confirmed Snappy was a picture of health.

Professor Webb said he had seen crocs with stained skin and teeth before, usually caused by tannins in their water.

“Our guess is that it is something in the water such as iron or tannins from leaves or some red algae that oxidises when it dries,” Professor Webb said.

“It seemed significant to us that the tongue was not coloured, or the inside of the angle of the jaw, which are more likely not to dry, whereas the skin would dry when they bask.”

Professor Webb some some foods could possibly also cause an animal to go a reddish color.

“That happens evidently if they have high concentrations of beta carotene, but it would be unusual to use such foods. Snappy certainly seems OK.”

Picture: Alex Coppel

Texas death row inmates will no longer get their choice of last meals, after the menu request of a man condemned for a notorious hate crime slaying left a bad taste in the mouth of a prominent senator.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed on Wednesday, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound (450 grams) of barbecue meat, three fajitas, a meat lover’s pizza, a pint of ice-cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
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Prison officials said Brewer didn’t eat any of it.

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining James Byrd jnr, 49, to the back of a pick-up truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in 1998.

Brewer’s dinner request prompted Senator John Whitmire to demand the end of the practice in a letter to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege,” Whitmire, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in the letter on Thursday.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator’s concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

“Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made,” Livingston said.

“They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.”

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request “ridiculous”.

“It’s long overdue,” the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press.

“Mr Byrd didn’t get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical.”

Whitmire warned in his letter that if the “last meal of choice” practice was not stopped immediately, he would seek a state statute to end it when congress convened in the next legislative session.

It was not immediately clear whether other states had made similar moves.

Some limit the final meal cost: Florida’s maximum is $US40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally.

Others, such as Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate that meals be prison-made.

Some states do not acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple “final” meals, restrict it to one or impose “a vast number of conditions”, he said.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency’s practice has been to fill a condemned inmate’s request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer’s request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.

On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster’s request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon (19-litre) bucket of peaches.

He received a reprieve from the US Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 70 kilometres east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods’s request included two pounds (one kilogram) of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints (one litre) of ice-cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.

Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website.

That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released.

Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky’s Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called Meals to Die For.

Photo: AP

Russian billionaire and British newspaper proprietor Alexander Lebedev hurled punches at a fellow Russian businessman during a television talk show, sending the property developer flying across the studio.

Sergei Polonsky, himself once a billionaire who lost part of his fortune during the economic crisis, goaded Mr Lebedev on the pre-recorded show, announcing that he would rather punch someone than discuss financial issues with oligarchs.

“Do you want to try it out?” Mr Polonsky said.

Within seconds Mr Lebedev, who owns British newspapers including The Evening Standard and The Independent, jumped up and punched Mr Polonsky three times in the face, knocking Mr Polonsky off his metal stool and causing him to slide alongside the stage.

“I am in shock,” a dazed Mr Polonsky later told the show’s anchor, who intervened in the brawl and held back a snarling Mr Lebedev.

A host on the show, called Crisis: The Russian Response, said the brawl was a sign of a worsening economic situation.

“If oligarchs are fighting, then it means things are not going well and the crisis a very worrying issue,” said Yekaterina Gordeyeva, with a slight smile.

Mr Lebedev, 51, is a former Russian spy who made billions trading stocks and bonds after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mr Polonsky was on the Forbes billionaires list in 2008 but was knocked off during the economic crisis, which hit Russia harder than many other emerging countries.

News from Australia.
CONFRONTING images of a 34-year-old man dying from lung cancer and a premature baby struggling to breathe are among the new warnings that will cover the front of cigarette packs from next year.

Fifteen new pictures will replace the photographs that have been used since 2006 as the federal government steps up its campaign to reduce the number of smokers.

“The new graphic health warnings are a striking and confronting reminder of the death and disease that tobacco brings and are a proven, effective way of helping people to kick this deadly habit,” the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said.
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“Seeing the heartbreaking harm that can be caused to an unborn baby or the horrific effects of cancer is a shocking reminder that quitting smoking is one of the best things that someone can do to improve their health.”

A government committee recommended replacing the old pictures because they were becoming familiar and starting to lose their impact.

From July 1 next year the size of the pictures will more than double to 75 per cent of the front of a cigarette pack from the present 30 per cent.

The principal medical adviser for population health in the Department of Health, Dr Bernie Towler, said about 15,000 people a year died from the effects of smoking.

”We know graphic health warnings are effective,” Dr Towler said. ”People who think about quitting smoking are more likely to make attempts to quit smoking.”

Other images include a gangrenous foot, a man with a colostomy bag, mouth ulcers and a lung affected by emphysema.

Ms Roxon said she found the image of a premature baby particularly confronting.

”I think it’s pretty gross,” she said. ”If I was a smoker I think it would put me off. If my partner was a smoker I think it would make me step up my efforts to get him to stop.”

The government expects its controversial plain packaging laws to be passed by Parliament this week. Under the new laws, tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours and promotional text will be banned from 2012. The packaging background will be a drab brown colour, which research has found has the least appeal to smokers. Brand names will appear on the top, bottom and front of the pack in a standard colour, font and size.

The government has set a target of reducing the percentage of the population that smokes from 15 per cent to 10 per cent by 2018.

A US company is giving new clients a voucher to buy an AK-47 assault rifle to defend themselves from violent crime.

Sarasota-based MerchantService.com provides small stores and businesses with cash machines and credit card processing services.

Its No Merchant Victim program now offers a voucher that can be used to buy a gun such as an AK-47 from a local gun dealer, or upgraded security camera equipment, when clients have had its services for three months.

“We encourage all merchants to stand their ground against attack with lethal force,” company president Gino Kauzlarich said.

“Hence our recommendation they buy a firearm such as a AK-47 … (But) what the merchant chooses to do with the voucher payment cash is the merchant’s choice.”

He charged that US Federal Government plans to increase early releases from prison, particularly in California, will likely fuel violent crime such as assaults on merchants.

Mr Kauzlarich also said that with 400,000-500,000 guns robbed annually in the US, “our goal is to effect a societal expectation shift that every criminal should expect to confront lethal force when they attack our merchants, rather than the criminal justice system protects the criminals well-being during the commission of murders, robberies and crimes”.

Bejewelled scale model Lamborghini expected to fetch more than six times as much as the real car.

One highly detailed toy car, or six Lamborghini Aventadors?

To most the decision makes itself, but an elaborate new scale model of the range-topping Lambo has been tipped to fetch nearly five million dollars when it comes up for auction later this year.

The one-eighth scale model – labelled as the most expensive model car in the world – has been created by German model making enthusiast Robert Gulpen in cahoots with the Italian supercar manufacturer.

It reportedly took more than 500 hours to create, with the body of the car milled from carbon fibre with intricate gold thread lacework.

Reports claim that the car is embedded with approximately €2 million ($2.67m) of precious stones and metals, including glitzy gold and platinum wheels, bejewelled headlights, a pair of diamond-lined seats and steering wheel, and, unlike some model cars, you can open and close the doors.

“This is a high-tech work of art,” Gulpen is quoted as saying. “I wanted to do something unique, something that has not existed until now.”

The model car will be auctioned in December by Sotheby’s, with a reported starting price of €3.5 million ($4.67m) – about six times as much as the regular $754,600 Lamborghini Aventador.

Eager to secure it before the auction? You can buy it now for €4.5 million ($6.01m).

The model was unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show, and is encased in a bullet-proof glass casing with integrated electronic sensors.

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