Salon.com > London http://www.salon.com Sun, 19 May 2013 09:17:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 World’s most dangerous magazine? http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/this_magazine_will_get_you_arrested_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/this_magazine_will_get_you_arrested_partner/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 20:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13294150 Global Post LONDON, UK — In the deepening investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings, federal officials have reportedly found copies of the Al Qaeda magazine Inspire and other extremist materials on a computer belonging to Katherine Russell, the widow of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

If these reports are true, and if this case took place in the UK, no other evidence would be needed to arrest and prosecute Russell, 24.

Simply having a copy of Inspire — or any other materials deemed “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” — is a crime here.

Under Section 58 of the UK’s Terrorism Act, a 2000 law granting sweeping powers to law enforcement, it is a criminal offense to download, copy or otherwise possess Inspire. Same goes for bomb-making instructions, extremist speeches, or any number of materials that in the United States are protected under the First Amendment.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/this_magazine_will_get_you_arrested_partner/feed/ 6 Julian Assange: The government is a vindictive loser http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/julian_assange_the_government_is_a_vindictive_loser_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/julian_assange_the_government_is_a_vindictive_loser_partner/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13293903 London—A tiny tip of the vast subterranean network of governmental and intelligence agencies from around the world dedicated to destroying WikiLeaks and arresting its founder, Julian Assange, appears outside the red-brick building on Hans Crescent Street that houses the Ecuadorean Embassy. Assange, the world’s best-known political refugee, has been in the embassy since he was offered sanctuary there last June. British police in black Kevlar vests are perched night and day on the steps leading up to the building, and others wait in the lobby directly in front of the embassy door. An officer stands on the corner of a side street facing the iconic department store Harrods, half a block away on Brompton Road. Another officer peers out the window of a neighboring building a few feet from Assange’s bedroom at the back of the embassy. Police sit round-the-clock in a communications van topped with an array of antennas that presumably captures all electronic forms of communication from Assange’s ground-floor suite.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), or Scotland Yard, said the estimated cost of surrounding the Ecuadorean Embassy from June 19, 2012, when Assange entered the building, until Jan. 31, 2013, is the equivalent of $4.5 million.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/julian_assange_the_government_is_a_vindictive_loser_partner/feed/ 23 Mammoth elephant bird egg nets $100,000 bid at auction http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/mammoth_elephant_bird_egg_nets_100000_bid_at_uk_auction_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/mammoth_elephant_bird_egg_nets_100000_bid_at_uk_auction_ap/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:43:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13280748 LONDON (AP) — A massive, partly fossilized egg laid by a now-extinct elephant bird has sold for more than double its estimate at a London auction.

Christie's auction house said Wednesday that the foot-long, nearly nine-inches in diameter egg fetched 66,675 pounds ($101,813). It had been valued at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds pre-sale, and was sold to an anonymous buyer over the telephone after about 10 minutes of competitive bidding.

Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The oversized ovum, laid on the island of Madagascar, is believed to date back before the 17th century.

Flightless, fruit-gobbling elephant birds resembled giant ostriches and could grow to be 11 feet high (3.4 meters). Christie's says their eggs are 100 times the size of an average chicken's.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/mammoth_elephant_bird_egg_nets_100000_bid_at_uk_auction_ap/feed/ 8 Terrorism comes home http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/boston_bombings_echo_london_madrid_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/boston_bombings_echo_london_madrid_partner/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13278536 As an eighth-grader in a Cambridge public school, suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was quiet, friendly, spoke good English and seemed at home in his adopted country.

While hundreds of police officers pursued the 19-year-old during a nationally-televised rampage across Boston Friday, a former classmate recounted memories of the refugee who, according to counterterror officials, became a U.S. citizen on an ironic date: Sept. 11, 2012.

The story of the Boston bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, is still unfolding at high speed. Many aspects of the case, including the brothers' motivations, are not yet clear. But a portrait began to emerge Friday based on ProPublica interviews with counterterror officials, the public statements of relatives and associates, and reports in the media.

Counterterror officials believe the brothers were Islamic extremists. And the information available so far suggests that they appeared to integrate well into U.S. society, yet slid into a spiral of Islamic radicalization with bloody results. The profile has similarities to the home-grown terrorists behind attacks in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, according to counterterror officials.

"He was always a nice kid," said Cam Blauchner, who attended middle school with Dzhokhar, in a telephone interview with ProPublica. "He was shy, but not in a creepy way. He was a sweet guy. We played soccer together. I knew he was from Chechnya, but he never talked about it. He never mentioned his religious affiliation. I didn't know he was Muslim."

At some point, however, Dzhokhar and his brother plunged into a subculture that is grimly familiar to counterterror agencies in Europe and, to a lesser but worrisome extent, the United States, officials said.

There are signs that the brothers showed interest in the conflict in Syria, which has drawn al Qaida fighters and other militants from across the Muslim world and Europe, according to a U.S. counterterror official. Like others interviewed for this story, the official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing case.

The brothers had viewed videos about the plight of Syrian Muslims, the official said. Syria is the latest hotspot on the world map of jihad. Holy warriors a decade ago were inspired by videos about brutal combat between jihadis and Russian troops in the brothers' family homeland: the predominantly Muslim region of Chechnya, a breeding ground for al Qaida fighters in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Tamerlan had viewed a video titled "I Dedicate My Life to Jihad," according to a U.S. law enforcement official. The brothers also were apparently influenced by the online Inspire magazine, a slick English-language publication that plays a strong role in disseminating ideological tracts and bomb-making techniques to Western extremists, the U.S. counterterror official said.

"It's like London, it's like Madrid in the radicalization," the counterterror official said. "These guys were produced by the international jihadist machine. The biggest thing is they were individuals willing to die. They were committed. There was interest in events overseas affecting Muslims. And a lot of Internet activity — the things that everyone in the counterterror community worries about."

The brothers had traveled in recent years to Russia, officials said. Tamerlan returned via New York from a trip to Moscow in July 2012, according to a U.S. law enforcement official. But officials said nothing so far indicates recent travel to Chechnya, in southern Russia, or war zones where terrorist groups provide training and direction to Western recruits.

"The big question is, are they part of a bigger network or just two brothers who decided to do this and pulled it off on their own?" the law enforcement official said. The well-choreographed bombing, the preparation of multiple explosive devices and the ferocity with which the fugitives battled police could indicate overseas training, officials said.

Suspected Chechen terrorists have been arrested in alleged bomb plots in Denmark, France and Spain in recent years. The failed "underwear" bomber who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit in 2009 was trained and deployed by al Qaida in Yemen. Would-be bombers in plots against New York in 2009 and 2010 were directed by al Qaida and allied networks in Pakistan.

The brothers are ethnic Chechens whose family moved around the war-torn Caucuses region when the boys were young. Tamerlan was born in Dagestan, near Chechnya, and Dzhokhar in Kyrgyzstan, according to officials and media reports. They went as refugees to the United States, arriving separately, according to counterterror officials and televised statements by an uncle in Maryland.

Dzhokhar arrived in 2002 on a tourist visa, obtained permanent resident status in 2007 and became a citizen in 2012, officials said. Tamerlan was admitted as a refugee in 2003 and later became a permanent resident, officials said. Tamerlan has an arrest for domestic violence on his record, the law enforcement official said.

The family lived in Cambridge when Dzhokhar was in middle school at the Community Charter School of Cambridge, according to his classmate, Blauchner. Dzhokhar stood out in a mostly African-American student population, but he got along well with classmates at the school, which stresses academic rigor and strict discipline, according to Blauchner, now a sophomore at the University of Chicago.

Dzhokhar had long hair and was short, pale and thin when Blauchner knew him in seventh and eighth grade. The immigrant boy wore the school-mandated uniform of khaki pants and a white, black or red polo shirt. He often ate lunch in the cafeteria with Blauchner and friends of Ethiopian and Bengali descent.

Dzhokhar studied hard and stayed out of trouble, according to Blauchner, and went on to win a scholarship, according to media reports. He was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, according to media reports.

"He never seemed disgruntled," Blauchner said. "He never seemed sad. We weren't the nerdy kids, but we were more into academics."

Although he has not seen Dzhokhar since they graduated from middle school, Blauchner said he recognized his former classmate from the photos made public by the FBI. Blauchner was stunned.

The frenzy after the Boston Marathon attacks recalls the aftermath of the bombings on public transport systems that killed 191 people in Madrid in 2004 and 52 people in London in 2005, as well as a failed bombing in London two weeks later.

Those cases similarly featured frantic manhunts, publicized photos of suspects, and chaotic and confused media reports.

In Madrid, police tracked down a group of suspects who died after a shootout when their booby-trapped hideout exploded, killing a police officer.

The profiles of the Madrid and London suspects resemble the information emerging about the Tsarnaev brothers. Spaniards and Britons were shocked to discover that the terrorists had grown up in their midst and benefited from the comfort of Western societies.

A Tunisian-born leader of the Madrid bombers had received a Spanish university scholarship and was a well-liked employee at a real estate agency.

A Moroccan-born leader spoke street Spanish, was known by the nicknames "El Chino" and "Mowgli," dealt drugs and zoomed around with his long-haired Spanish girlfriend on a motorcycle.

Several convicted bombers in the failed London attack had come to Britain as children thanks to generous asylum policies for refugees from East Africa. Three of the suicide bombers who died in the successful attack two weeks earlier were seemingly well-integrated, British-born sons of Pakistani immigrants.

Yet, despite their Western ways, the attackers in London and Madrid harbored deep hatreds and inflicted indiscriminate slaughter on their fellow citizens.

Young men from Muslim immigrant backgrounds who radicalize in the West get swept up in the seductive outlaw culture of jihad. They construct a new identity in which the struggles of their Muslim homelands, even if they do not know them well, play a powerful role and foment anger at the West.

Counterterror officials say a similar trajectory could explain why the Tsarnaev brothers designed an attack on families at a festive sporting event.

Whatever the motive turns out to be, the fact that the brothers spent years in Boston sheds light on their choice of target. They likely knew the significance of the marathon, the ebb and flow of the crowds during the race, the geography. It remains to be seen whether they considered the symbolism of the date: April 15 was both tax day and Patriots' Day, marking the first battles of the American Revolution.

The choice of the day led some counterterror officials in recent days to suspect that the bombers were American-born, extreme-right, antigovernment terrorists.

In reality, it appears the suspects were the mix that most worries law enforcement: longtime Americanized residents who know the society well, but have a profile enabling them to develop connections to Islamic extremist ideology, if not actual movements, overseas.

The Madrid bombers had strong ideological links to al Qaida, but carried out the attacks with minimal overseas training and direction. The London bombers, in contrast, communicated with al Qaida masterminds who provided training and directed them to their targets from Pakistan.

The results in both cases were devastating.

Now, U.S. intelligence officials are combing through files, intercepts and data bases to see if they had previous information on extremist activity of the Tsarnaev brothers. In Madrid, London and many other cases, the attackers had earlier surfaced on the radar screen of law enforcement.

That is not necessarily a scandal; it is simply the reality of the terrain of counterterrorism.

Updated Friday, April 19, 9:10 p.m.

The FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder of the brothers suspected in the Boston bombings, in 2011, two U.S. law enforcement officials told ProPublica Friday evening. The FBI agents conducted the inquiry into suspected extremist or terrorist activity at the request of a Russian security agency, the officials said.

“Yes he was interviewed,” a U.S. law enforcement official said. “Nothing derogatory came of it. We reported it back to the other agency, but never got anything as far as further communications from them. There was never any reason to do anything else.”

Tsarnaev’s mother has told media outlets that the FBI had contact with her about her son’s potential involvement in extremism five years ago, but the law enforcement official said authorities were only aware of the inquiry in 2011. Other media outlets also reported the 2011 interview late Friday.

In past cases in the United States and overseas, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have identified, followed or investigated suspects who were later implicated in attacks or plots. Experts point out that security forces simply do not have enough personnel to constantly watch every potential extremist who comes to their attention. Hard decisions have to be made.

Cases that have brought criticism of U.S. authorities include the failure to more closely investigate leads about Maj. Nidal Hassan, the accused shooter in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, and about David Coleman Headley, a central figure in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/22/boston_bombings_echo_london_madrid_partner/feed/ 4 Thousands run in NYC, elsewhere to support Boston http://www.salon.com/2013/04/21/thousands_run_in_nyc_elsewhere_to_support_boston/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/21/thousands_run_in_nyc_elsewhere_to_support_boston/#comments Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/2013/04/21/thousands_run_in_nyc_elsewhere_to_support_boston/ NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of runners in New York and across the world are showing their solidarity with the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

More than 6,000 runners finished Sunday's Run for the Parks, a four-mile run in Central Park that was planned before Monday's attacks.

Organizers sold "I Run for Boston" T-shirts with proceeds going to the One Fund Boston, the official fund for bombing victims.

Other "Run for Boston" events have taken place worldwide, with many runners wearing blue and yellow, the official Boston Marathon colors.

More than 500 runners gathered Saturday in St. Louis for a Unity Run. In San Francisco, about 400 people ran Friday along the Embarcadero. A run christened "Boston Strong San Diego" is planned for Monday.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/21/thousands_run_in_nyc_elsewhere_to_support_boston/feed/ 1 Police forces across the globe amp up security following attacks http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/police_forces_across_the_globe_amp_up_security_following_attacks_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/police_forces_across_the_globe_amp_up_security_following_attacks_ap/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:42:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13271773 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police in Los Angeles, New York City, London and other cities worldwide stepped up security Monday following explosions at the Boston Marathon.

Los Angeles police Lt. Andrew Neiman said the department was urging officers to be extra vigilant around large crowds and would increase security at sporting events such as the Los Angeles Dodgers game Monday night.

The department was also activating its emergency operations center to increase communication and increasing patrols for transit and other critical areas, Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Police in Washington, San Diego, Vegas and Atlanta were monitoring events closely and assessing potential increases in security measures. Agencies were also stepping up social media response, telling the public via Twitter and Facebook to report suspicious activity to the police.

Chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Monday that critical response teams were deployed around the city, and officials were stepping up security at hotels and other prominent locations.

Police at three major Los Angeles area airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, were in a "heightened state of vigilance," with increased patrols to make it visible that more police were on duty Monday, said Chief of Airport Police Patrick Gannon.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/police_forces_across_the_globe_amp_up_security_following_attacks_ap/feed/ 0 The week in 10 pics http://www.salon.com/2013/04/13/the_week_in_10_pics_9/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/13/the_week_in_10_pics_9/#comments Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13269493 http://www.salon.com/2013/04/13/the_week_in_10_pics_9/feed/ 8 Bitcoin goes mainstream http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/bitcoin_goes_mainstream/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/bitcoin_goes_mainstream/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:23:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13267509 LONDON (AP) -- With $600 stuffed in one pocket and a smartphone tucked in the other, Patricio Fink struck a deal that's joining thousands like it in a virtual revolution.

The Argentine software developer was dealing in bitcoins - getting an injection of the cybercurrency in exchange for a wad of real greenbacks he handed to a pair of Australian tourists in a Buenos Aires Starbucks. Fink wanted to add to his electronic wallet. The visitors wanted spending money at black market rates without the risk of getting roughed up in one of the Argentine capital's black market exchanges.

In the safety of the coffee shop, the tourists transferred Fink their bitcoins through an app on their smartphone and walked away with the cash.

"It's something that is new," said Fink, 24, who described the deal to The Associated Press over Skype. "And it's working."

It's transactions like these - up to 70,000 of them each day over the past month - that have propelled bitcoins from the world of Internet oddities to the cusp of mainstream use, a remarkable breakthrough for a currency which made its online debut only four years ago. When they first began pinging across the Internet, bitcoins could buy you almost nothing. Now, there's almost nothing bitcoins can't buy. From hard drugs to hard currency, songs to survival gear, cars to consumer goods, retailers are rushing to welcome the virtual currency whose unofficial symbol is a dollar-like, double-barred B.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/10/bitcoin_goes_mainstream/feed/ 0 Justin Bieber’s bad week: explained! http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/justin_biebers_bad_week_explained/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/justin_biebers_bad_week_explained/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:56:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13223369 It's been a bad week for teen-pop singer Justin Bieber: he fainted at a concert in London, later tweeting a shirtless photo to prove he'd recuperated. This after he showed up two hours late to another concert, tried to bring a bunch of underage teens (including actor Jaden Smith, 14) to a nightclub, and wandered the streets of the British capital in a state of undress.

Teddy Wayne, whose novel The Love Song of Jonny Valentine came out in January, isn't surprised. Wayne's novel deals with a male pop star who's a bit younger than the 19-year-old Bieber, but who still finds his way to all-night clubs, prescription drugs, and disappointing his fans on a way-too-long tour. The book was written back when Bieber was the apple-cheeked nice boy of pop. He spoke to Salon.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/justin_biebers_bad_week_explained/feed/ 2 Justin Bieber: I have no excuse http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/justin_bieber_i_have_no_excuse/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/justin_bieber_i_have_no_excuse/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:42:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13219077 LONDON (AP) — Justin Bieber apologized Tuesday to his young fans — and their outraged, overtired parents — after they accused him of taking the stage almost two hours late for a concert in London.

The singer insisted he had only been 40 minutes late, and blamed "technical issues."

But, he added in a tweet to his 35 million followers: "There is no excuse for that and I apologize for anyone we upset. However it was great show and I'm proud of that."

Concertgoers said the teenage star appeared onstage at the 02 Arena on Monday at 10:30 p.m., when the start time had been listed as 8:30. Many in the audience, who had been waiting for hours, faced the choice between leaving early or missing the last trains home.

"There were teenage girls crying outside," said financial analyst Louise Cooper, who had taken her 9-year-old daughter to the gig as a birthday present.

"The ladies sitting with us had to leave after 20 minutes and they had spent 70 quid (70 pounds, about $106) each on a ticket, which is really bad.

"It's one thing if your demographic is 50-year-olds, but his demographic is lots of little girls who need to go home and go to bed."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/justin_bieber_i_have_no_excuse/feed/ 6 Paul Bremer still believes Iraq is better off http://www.salon.com/2013/02/11/paul_bremer_still_believes_iraq_is_better_off/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/11/paul_bremer_still_believes_iraq_is_better_off/#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:57:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13197675 This past week, while giving a speech at an event organized by the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society in London, former U.S. civil administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer was confronted by the legacy of the human catastrophe he had helped facilitate during his tenure in that country. In an incident captured on video, an Iraqi man in the crowd who stood up to address the panel and said that he had been forced to flee Iraq after “the U.S. destroyed my country” threw both his shoes at a seemingly stunned Bremer before being removed from the event. In the commotion afterward he can be heard to yell “You f***** up my country, you destroyed the country. F*** you and f*** your democracy.” After regaining his composure and suggesting that the Iraqi man “improve his aim if he wants to do things like that,” Bremer addressed the quieted crowd by saying, “If he had done that while Saddam Hussain had been alive he would be a dead man right now.” Upon hearing Bremer’s words of proud reassurance, the gathering of neoconservative think-tank intellectuals burst into applause -- a moment emblematic of the arrogance that legal impunity has generated for the architects of one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 21st century. For Bremer -- who often refers critics to "the Iraqi people" when questioned over the country's monumental cost in human suffering during his civil administration -- to be confronted by one of those very same Iraqis and still maintain his hubristic defiance is indicative of his moral bankruptcy and that of the neoconservative movement for which he remains an esteemed representative.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/11/paul_bremer_still_believes_iraq_is_better_off/feed/ 8 David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s golden years are set for the big screen http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/david_bowie_and_iggy_pops_golden_years_are_set_for_the_big_screen/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/david_bowie_and_iggy_pops_golden_years_are_set_for_the_big_screen/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13194936 Todd Haynes fantasized about the unlikely friendship and collaboration between David Bowie and Iggy Pop through his fictional "Velvet Goldmine." But now the filmmaker Gabriel Range is directing a biopic about the glam rock duo's time together in the mid- to late 1970s in West Berlin, according to the Guardian. Range, best-known for his movie about an imaginary assassination of George W Bush, is working from a screenplay by Robin French, reports the Hollywood Reporter. French, a TV writer for the BBC3's  sitcom"Cuckoo," has tentatively titled the film "Lust for Life," basing the screenplay largely on Paul Trynka's Bowie and Pop biographies, "Starman" and "Open Up and Bleed."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/david_bowie_and_iggy_pops_golden_years_are_set_for_the_big_screen/feed/ 22 Helicopter crash kills two in central London http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/helicopter_crash_kills_2_in_central_london/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/helicopter_crash_kills_2_in_central_london/#comments Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13172950 Global Post A helicopter crash in Vauxhall, central London, during the morning rush hour has killed two people, according to police reports.

A fire official told the BBC that one of the dead had been onboard the helicopter. Reports as of 8 a.m. EST said that the helicopter pilot was among the dead.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the helicopter hit a crane mounted on a skyscraper in misty conditions, sending both crashing to the ground as fuel spilled along the street.

Video footage showed flaming debris on the ground in the Vauxhall district of south London, close to the headquarters of the British spy agency MI6, the LA Times wrote.

The paper pointed out that helicopters are common in London.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/helicopter_crash_kills_2_in_central_london/feed/ 0 The worst publisher of all time http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/the_worst_publisher_of_all_time/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/the_worst_publisher_of_all_time/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13166288 Plagiarism, lying, fabricating quotes, repurposing old work as new, assuming false identities to promote themselves and tear down their rivals — is there no end to the mischief and malfeasance today's authors get up to? Many would call modern-day publishers even worse, peddlers of thinly veiled smut and sensationalistic rubbish, derivative rip-offs and trashy celebrity bios. Are publishers not intent on (and ingenious at) ripping off any ink-stained wretch unfortunate enough to come under their thrall? Literary culture as we know it must surely be staggering into its final, degraded stage — am I right?

Not so fast. I recently came into possession of a reprint of an old pamphlet, titled "An Author to be Lett," written by the English poet Richard Savage in 1729; its contents serve as a reminder that it was ever thus. The work purports to be a prospectus discovered in a "leathern case, which had once been red, but was grown black with Grease" that had been "accidentally drop'd near the Mews Gate," a London neighborhood known for its concentration of booksellers. The document's alleged author, one Iscariot Hackney, was meant to stand for the entire scribal community known as Grub Street, a conglomeration of down-at-heel, mercenary writers serving the thriving periodical press as well as a booming book trade. A "hackney" was a horse (eventually a cab) that could be hired by the hour, and in time writers operating on the same principle would become commonly known as hacks.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/10/the_worst_publisher_of_all_time/feed/ 4 Toronto Film Critics Association names “The Master” best film of 2012 http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/toronto_film_critics_association_names_the_master_best_film_of_2012/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/toronto_film_critics_association_names_the_master_best_film_of_2012/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:25:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148547 Paul Thomas Anderson's religious cult drama, "The Master," won four top awards at the Toronto Film Critics Association, including best picture, best director, best screenplay, and best supporting actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of cult leader Lancaster Dodd.

As the Global News notes, the Toronto critics are "the latest film group to break from an early consensus" of critics who largely favour "Zero Dark Thirty." (This past weekend, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle also honored "The Master" as the best picture of 2012.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/toronto_film_critics_association_names_the_master_best_film_of_2012/feed/ 0 Oscars Academy honors Pedro Almodovar in London http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/oscars_academy_honors_pedro_almodovar_in_london_2/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/oscars_academy_honors_pedro_almodovar_in_london_2/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:57:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123919 LONDON (AP) -- Director Pedro Almodovar is being hailed by Hollywood at an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences retrospective in London.

The iconoclastic Spaniard is due to receive tributes at Thursday's event from colleagues and admirers, including fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, screenwriter Peter Morgan and fellow directors Stephen Frears and Sally Potter.

Almodovar is part of a creative generation that emerged after Spain ended decades of dictatorship in the late 1970s. His quirky and sometimes outrageous films helped launch the careers of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

He found international success with "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" in 1988.

His 1999 movie "All About My Mother" won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, and Almodovar took the best original screenplay Oscar in 2002 for "Talk to Her."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/oscars_academy_honors_pedro_almodovar_in_london_2/feed/ 0 “The Great Pearl Heist”: True crime in Edwardian London http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/the_great_pearl_heist_true_crime_in_edwardian_london/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/the_great_pearl_heist_true_crime_in_edwardian_london/#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13109579 A tall, elegant crime boss; a mild-mannered but brilliant police inspector; a volatile Spanish jeweler; an elaborately planned theft; a cat-and-mouse game in the streets of Edwardian London and the world's most valuable necklace — how is it that no one has turned the true story told in Molly Caldwell Crosby's "The Great Pearl Heist" into a movie? Forget that — why is this the first book to appear on the crime in over 80 years?

Perhaps it's just that the necklace — a gradated strand of perfectly matched pink pearls — lacked a catchy name, or a curse? Nevertheless, this was a significant piece of jewelry. In the early 20th century, before the advent of cultured pearls and when the gems could only be found in one out of hundreds of wild oysters, the necklace was fabulously precious, worth "twice the price of the Hope Diamond" according to Crosby. The New York Times dubbed it "the Mona Lisa of pearls," an odd coincidence since Leonardo da Vinci's painting was also stolen around the same time. The pinching of the pearl necklace -- the property of one Max Mayer, a British jeweler -- did constitute front page news. But Joseph Grizzard, the legendary "King of the Fences" who masterminded the theft, never told his side of the story, so there's been no definitive firsthand account of the caper to move the story along.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/the_great_pearl_heist_true_crime_in_edwardian_london/feed/ 1 Smithsonian to lend Dorothy’s ruby slippers to London http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/smithsonian_to_lend_dorothys_ruby_slippers_to_london/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/smithsonian_to_lend_dorothys_ruby_slippers_to_london/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:25:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13030111 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dorothy's ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" are leaving Washington on their first international journey to London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

Judy Garland wore the shoes in the 1939 film in which she played a Kansas farm girl on a magical journey. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History announced the rare loan of its popular slippers Thursday.

They will be shown with Dorothy's blue-and-white gingham dress in "Hollywood Costume," an exhibit opening Oct. 20 in London. Curators say it's the first time Dorothy's dress and shoes have been together since the movie was filmed.

To make the slippers, a designer dyed the shoes red and attached netting to cover them with red sequins.

The Smithsonian plans to hold a departure ceremony Tuesday.

© 2012 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/smithsonian_to_lend_dorothys_ruby_slippers_to_london/feed/ 0 How Citigroup stays fraud-proof http://www.salon.com/2012/09/08/how_citigroup_stays_fraud_proof/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/08/how_citigroup_stays_fraud_proof/#comments Sat, 08 Sep 2012 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13005224 AlterNet It’s one of the few things that's predictable on Wall Street; an immutable signature on the reply briefs whenever Citigroup is charged with fraud – and that is quite often.

Brad Karp, a partner at the 737-attorney-strong Wall Street law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, has been Citigroup’s go-to guy for fraud allegations since the company was born out of the too-big-to-fail merger of Travelers Group insurance, its myriad Wall Street investment banks, brokerage units, and Citicorp, parent of Citibank.

When the London-based private equity firm, Terra Firma, claimed it had been lied to and defrauded by Citigroup, making it overpay for the purchase of EMI, a British music label, in 2007, Karp and colleagues wrung an 8-0 decision from the jury in favor of Citigroup. Karp was also on hand to witness victory when the trustee for the bankrupt Italian dairy giant, Parmalat, charged Citigroup with fraud. Then there were fraud charges connected to Citigroup’s involvement in the collapse of WorldCom AND Enron -- along with auction rate securities, rigged stock research and understating its exposure to subprime debt by $39 billion. Karp, Karp, and more Karp.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/08/how_citigroup_stays_fraud_proof/feed/ 1 “NW”: Zadie Smith’s neighborhood http://www.salon.com/2012/08/26/nw_zadie_smiths_neighborhood/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/26/nw_zadie_smiths_neighborhood/#comments Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12993118 In the opening paragraph of "NW," Zadie Smith's first novel in seven years, Leah Hanwell, one of the book's central characters, hears a line on the radio and tries to write it down on the back of the magazine she's holding. The sentence is "I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me," and for all I know it's taken from a recent popular song -- "NW" is judiciously sprinkled with glancing references to such things -- so I googled it. It looks like Smith made the line up, but it's already pinging around the Internet, one of those inspirational maxims that so many people like to post to their Tumblrs and blogs.

Leah can't write the motto down, however; all she's got is a pencil and a "pencil leaves no mark on magazine pages." Fitting, since the rest of "NW" is devoted to showing how few of us get to write our lives at will, and how even those who seem to have managed it find the results unsatisfying. The novel takes its title from London's northwest postal sector, specifically the neighborhood of Willesden, where Smith herself grew up. There, Leah met her best friend, Natalie Blake, at the age of 4, when both girls were residents of Caldwell, a council estate -- the British equivalent of a housing project.

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