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How to Become a Social Networking Magnet
Last Updated on January 18, 2011 by Wong Ching Ya
The long awaited week has finally arrived! *Drum roll* Let's meet our honorable guest of the month – Chris Garrett! Chris had influenced me a lot about the importance of authority blogging. I'm proud to have him here for the first time and talk about how to become a social networking magnet. The stage is yours, Chris!
When I coach my consulting clients the conversation always comes around to networking. I would say having a strong network is vital to any business that wants to succeed online, and is certainly a vital asset for getting ahead in your career today.
We have all these tools, but still people struggle to make good connections.
People say to me "Chris, how do I reach influential people?" or "Chris, how can I get better opportunities to come my way?", and most popular, "Why is my network not growing?".
There is a simple answer to ALL of these challenges.
Want to know what it is?
The Simple Networking Secret
People have networking, and especially social networking, backwards!
Somehow people have gotten the idea that we should seek the benefits before putting in any value of our own. That we can take, take, take before we give.
Think of the most selfish, self-centred and greedy person you know. Do YOU find that attractive? Would you want to recommend them to others?
Rather than think what your network can do for you, why should THEY have you in THEIR network?
How do you look from THEIR perspective?
See how simple it becomes when you turn the equation around? OK, so what you need to do become simplified, it doesn't necessarily become easy.
Add Value Without Taking
When you start networking with a 'take' mindset you turn people off.
Instead you should be building up your value to them.
Ask how you can help. Share what you know. Introduce people without asking for anything in return.
Get known as useful and generous.
What happens is more people want to get to know you, people feel like someone they can introduce to others, and most of all you build a positive reputation.
Instead of seeking out people who can help you right now, or trying to get on the radar of influential people, work on being the most useful, approachable and well-connected person in your niche. Become known for making great contributions and introductions. Over time your reputation will spread and networking will be a matter of responding to invitations rather than hunting down prized contacts!
Chris Garrett is a blogging and internet marketing consultant. He is co-author of the famous book ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income and the founder of Authority Blogger course. Learn more about Chris Garrett and his blog here. Don't forget to follow him on Twitter @chrisgarrett and facebook too!
Thank you so much Chris for this wonderful message. And for taking the time to drop some valuable advice here on Social @ Blogging Tracker, can't thank you enough! 🙂
It's too easy to fall into the trap of 'speedy results' and large numbers of followers/fans when it comes to social networking. I have been asked many times about the 'BEST' and 'FASTEST' way to drive traffic to a blog/facebook page – a few clients are not convinced about 'quality' networking but rather on overnight traffic influx. I hope this post can be a good guide for them, willing give first before force-feeding audience with spammy posts and emails.
Well, great post. I have to agree that it is more about giving than taking. And this is what gets you more popular across social networks. You have to get evolved with people, make them feel good and most importantly, you have to be interesting enough to generate buzz. This way you can certainly have a much better rapport in social networks thus finally making you a social magnet 🙂
Hi Chris,
You're right many people do have it backwards. I don't think it's because they are bad people, it's just that they don't realize you honestly get more results from helping than any thing else. What's wonderful is that the more you aim to help, the more others will be eager to help you. So instead of asking someone can they tweet something for you – try retweeting some of their work first.
Love it!
Hi Chris,
Finding 'like-minded' people is what it's all about.
It's hard to support others if you don't share the same values.
I've become more selective with whom I network for different reasons.
The saying, 'people judge you by the friends you keep' is worth remembering when developing connections.
It takes a little patience but the rewards are longer lasting.
Top tips Chris, but how do you do in reverse if necessary also…I tend to give away the farm. lol
Hiya Ching Ya,
Nice guest of the month and Chris has reiterated some very valuable information. Modern society has resulted in persons who are far too self-involved, extremely superficial and dare I say not helpful at all.
It's no wonder that those who are the exception to the rule, those who are the most giving will be those who are rewarded.
Well said, Deidre. I think it's a great time to be reminded that social virtues are to be cultivated. Try to think of others first before putting ourselves in the center of the universe. 🙂
Hi Chris:
Awesome advice! I totally agree with you on this statement: "work on being the most useful, approachable and well-connected person in your niche."
This is something that I am working hard at accomplishing!
Glad you got Cris to do this Ching Ya. You are always such a cool positive person. And you breathe life into what your doing.
Thank you so much Darren. 🙂 What a pleasant surprise to see you here. Read your post earlier and impressed. Kindly keep up the great work too!
Forgive the delay in reply. Keep making great things happen because you are heading in the right direction 🙂
Hi Chris,
Excellent advices and I'm firm believer on giving and giving more than taking.
This is the karma law on blogging because all your shares of useful information without any second intentions, will be back rewarded and amplified.
Really a magnetic article Chris and Ching Ya 🙂
All the best,
Thank you Gera, I see you have always practiced the 'giving' virtue – you weekly link love posts to readers. 🙂
I completely agree that social media is about adding value and not expecting people to retweet, like or promote your own stuff. Spend your time providing information and promoting others and you will build two way relationships that benefit all.
Really cool my friend. We both comes from the school of ABF (Authority Blogger Forum). This is a great testimonial that Chris Garrett really follow his own recipe here. Awesome 🙂
I am following the principle of giving 100% and keep on asking 'How Can I Help You?'. Read the book The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann and you will really learn what Chris says here.
Keep up rocking 🙂
Cheers.. Are
Thanks for your comment, Are. 🙂 It's always exciting to invite the 'teacher' to do a free but meaningful lecture, isn't it? Sometimes it's more than just taking notes – being practical. Keep up the great work, my friend.
I love your summary, Chris. I often wonder how easy it is to see through our efforts to promote others when our driving motivation is really promoting ourself through an expected reciprocity. I know I am guilty of this more often than I'd like to admit. Your post nailed it though. The only way it really works in the long run is to give without the expectation of having it returned.
Hi Chris, I saw your post on Ileane's Facebook page and hopped over here. I didn't realize that I wasn't following you myself. (I am now.)
I am on the same "page" as you when it comes to networking online. To me, it's about adding value and sharing. I think you sum it up best when you said "Get known as useful and generous" – words to live by!
Hi Chris,
Thank you so much for the wonderful tips. It's essential to me especially since I would be opening a Social Media company soon 🙂 I love to see myself being generous by helping others when I network online. Obviously it would be for genuine reasons. It's not always about taking, as you said 🙂 Givers are winners too!
Great post Chris and Ching Ya, this is my first visit to your blog. Great content and Chris you are SO right. I am all about how can I help you and it's really helped me so much. I love to tell this story so I hope you don't mind me sharing.
I had a guy send me an email on Facebook asking me for some advice on affiliate marketing. I sent him a response and told him to ask away, I'd be more than happy to help. He replied back saying that he had sent a message to 10 other people and I was the only one to respond. Because of that, he went directly to my site and purchased my product. Now that's what I call giving back. I continue to stay in touch with him and help him along his journey.
Thanks for sharing this Chris. I will be back to visit again.
Great tip Chris! Sometimes people want to get instant benefits from social networking not thinking that they have to put effort first and give before they get the result that they want.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Reporter's Note: President Obama is assembling his new team for his second term. I don't believe I am being chosen. Especially after all these letters. Oh well.
Dear Mr. President,
I'm sure you were none too happy about Susan Rice withdrawing her name from consideration as a possible new Secretary of State. Heaven knows what kind of back door wrangling was involved in all that, and I doubt you were surprised, but it is never comfortable for an administration to see one of its possible picks for a job being instead picked off by the critics.
That said, I am struck by something that one of those critics said weeks ago; in essence it was, "Yes, Rice is a highly qualified candidate for the job. But there are plenty of those in D.C. There is no reason for the president to stick with her when clearly she has become a lightning rod over the Benghazi incident."
That, I suspect, sounded pretty harsh to many of her fans. But there is a ring of practical politics in it, that you and I both know can't be ignored in this town.
I'm sure you realized within a few weeks of taking the job that your effectiveness depends in large part on how much faith voters have in your leadership. So while many may find it admirable that you defended Rice in the early weeks after the attack, just as many may appreciate your decision to move on now.
The anger at her statements following the attack has not abated. Republican critics, who are looking for any weakness in your armor, would have surely used her confirmation to rehash the painful events over and over again. Beyond that, they would have suggested none too subtly that your judgment was unsound in even considering her after what happened in Benghazi. And even if Rice survived the process, she would have been a target; someone whose every move would be scrutinized and every misstep assailed. That may well have weakened her effectiveness, no matter how good she was at the job.
Now, would she have been good at the job? No one really knows, nor now will they ever. But it is virtually certain that there are indeed many other strong candidates for the post, and the sooner you can move on to them, the sooner your administration can put these troubles behind you.
Hope all is well.
Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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November 15, 2009
Dear Tiger,
Where did the time go?
It seems like it was just yesterday that you were stepping off your Gulfstream at Essendon and were whisked away in a limo. We now realise this past week went way too fast.
Good on ya, mate. You have once again proven yourself as the world's greatest golfer. Our sincere congratulations for winning the "other" Masters. We are so honored to have you as our champion. To be perfectly candid, we were rooting for you and are thrilled you got the job done. (Relieved, actually. Ha ha!)
We love our own—Chalmers, Nitties, Scott, Appleby, Ogilvy, Parry, Pampling and all our boys—but they have had their chances over the years and will have many more. This was the year of the Tiger.
Please, please, please do not stay away so long between visits. We are accustomed to hardship. It is part of our national identity. But 11 years is a very long wait, even for us. We will do everything humanly possible to make any visit unbelievable. We think you know that.
Or just drop by whenever you are in the neighborhood. (Maybe on your way back from Asia next year.) We promise not to make such a terrible fuss. It could be a small bash. (We would not have to tell Brumby or other pollies and curtail the journos and earbash.)
Thanks again for coming. It exceeded our expectations in every way. Hugs and kisses and camera clicks! (Not when you are in mid swing, of course.)
Love always,
P.S. Do write. Even if just an occasional email from your agent.
P.P.S. If for some reason you cannot make it back to Oz, we will always have Kingston Heath.
(Image: Keith Allison/Flickr)
(This is an ARMCHAIR GOLF spoof.)


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How to Go Viral From Space
Orbital YouTubing made Chris Hadfield an Internet sensation — and got millions of people hooked on science.
Chris Hadfield knows all about spacewalking, piloting a fighter jet, and living on the ocean floor. The mustachioed Canadian might also be the Internet's most unlikely music-video superstar.
But of course, when you can film your performance in zero gravity, why wouldn't you expect to get 22 million hits?
{{ BIZOBJ (video: 4897) }}
But Hadfield's world-famous rendition of "Space Oddity" isn't his proudest achievement. For him, it's the fact that millions of people who have watched his YouTube videos have become interested in science and space. Most gratifying, he says, is "seeing people change their mind and do something more challenging and productive with their life as a result of seeing me as an example."
Over a 21-year spaceflight career, Hadfield, 54, became the first Canadian to spacewalk, as well as the first to use the robotic Canadarm. He also spent time on an undersea mission helping NASA simulate space expeditions.
During that time, he's had plenty of opportunities to help others learn about life in orbit, whether speaking to school groups or filming educational videos. "I used the best technology that was available each time to try and share the experience with everybody," he said.
On his final mission, from late 2012 to early 2013, he used the power of YouTube to reach the masses as never before. In five months aboard the space station, Hadfield filmed nearly 100 videos, demonstrating everything from shaving to exercising to sleeping to crying in space.
Hundreds of thousands of people (sometimes millions) saw each video, and Hadfield said the response has been overwhelming. "Constantly, every single day, I get emails," he said. "People stop me on the street."
Among the many who have felt the impact of Hadfield's career is current Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who first met his predecessor when he was still a student. "He made those decisions [to become an astronaut] because he was inspired by the space program and the work I was doing," Hadfield said.
It's a journey inspired in much the same way as Hadfield's own. Hadfield credits Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for inspiring his own career. "I chose to do what I've done with my life because of those initial NASA astronauts," he said. "They were the first reality TV. It was the ultimate reality TV." And while his YouTube videos might come in a different format than their live moonwalk, Hadfield sees a common thread: "clear communication of a new experience."
{{ BIZOBJ (video: 4898) }}
For Hadfield, that communication helped people get a glimpse of "everyday" life in space — far from everyday for folks on the ground. Even simple tasks, he said, can get tricky in weightlessness. "It's almost always the opposite," he said. "Something that's easy on Earth is hard in space, and vice versa."
Perhaps most difficult? Putting on a pair of shoes. Without the benefit of gravity, Hadfield found it tricky to maneuver his feet and pull on a shoe. "By the time you get one shoe on, the other's disappeared," he said.
Of course, even more difficult was the time spent away from his wife and three children. But floating above the Earth isn't the loneliest part of being an astronaut. The years of training for each mission, during which Hadfield was away from home two-thirds of the time, made for more irregular communication than his time in space. "Being in space was pretty reliable," he joked. "People knew where I was."
Hadfield, who grew up in southern Ontario, returned to Canada after retiring in 2013. But he's still keeping a close eye on orbital developments. Much has been made of the tension between the U.S. and Russia (especially NASA's partial cut-off of communication with Moscow), but Hadfield doesn't think the International Space Station partnership is in any danger.
"I think more than ever you need an example like the space station," he said. "Any kid in the Ukraine or any kid in Russia or any kid in the U.S. can walk out in the morning or at dusk and see the station in the sky. It is a visible example of how we can accomplish stuff when we find ways to work together."
He says he's proud of his own work in setting that example. "Throughout my astronaut career, that was one of my objectives. How do I share this experience?" he said. "Between the science videos, education videos, and the music videos, there have been millions of people who understand the space station differently."


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Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn
Ceramic Works, 5000 BCE – 2010 CE
Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn
Guest curators Philip Tinari and Richard Torchia introduce Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn (Ceramic Works, 5000 BCE – 2010 CE).
A Conversation with Wei Hsueh and Namita Gupta Wiggers
PNCA Faculty Wei Hsueh and MoCC Curator Namita Gupta Wiggers discuss historical and cultural contexts for Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn.
Craft Conversation: Dawn Odell
In "Culture Clash: Understanding Value in Chinese Antiquities Now," Lewis and Clark Professor Dawn Odell looks to the history of Chinese art to provide a framework for understanding the work of Ai Weiwei.
CraftPerspectives Lecture: Philip Tinari
Philip Tinari, founding editor of LEAP, a new bimonthly journal of contemporary Chinese art based in Beijing, lectures on the practices of Jingdezhen porcelain production in the context of Ai Weiwei's approach.
Craft Conversation: Dawn Odell
Culture Clash: Understanding Value in Chinese Antiquities Now
October 2, 2010
CraftPerspectives Lecture: Philip Tinari
Postures in Clay
October 19, 2010, 6:30 pm
July 15, 2010 – October 30, 2010
Curated by: Richard Torchia and Gregg Moore
Presenting Sponsor:
Featuring a selection of ceramic works and photographs ranging from 1993 to the present, Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn offers viewers a focused look at Ai's iconoclastic appropriations of historic clay pots and porcelain vases. The oldest works in the show utilize 7000-year-old Neolithic urns dating to 5000 BCE ('Before Common Era,' a non-religious alternative to the use of BC). This body of work is distinguished by its paradoxical investment in the Chinese ceramic vessel, a legacy whose values and significations it both questions and transcends. Ai's focused exploration of earthenware and porcelain, begun just after the artist returned to Beijing in 1993 from a decade in New York City, is critical to understanding his radical practice that has evolved to incorporate sculpture, installation, photography, video, performance, and architecture as well as curating and activism.
Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn includes examples of a range of Ai's practices, including his unprecedented use of Neolithic and Han dynasty vessels as historic "readymades," replicas appropriating Qing dynasty (18th-century) porcelain commissioned by the artist from craftsmen in the town of Jingdezhen, where porcelain has been produced for the past 1700 years, and mimicry of the traditional trompe l'oeil strategy of producing glazed teapots and vases that replicate natural forms. As a group, the selected examples show Ai working through the dynastic progression of Chinese ceramics to reconcile the formal, material logic and historical, political commentary that give his work its unique mixture of gravity and wit.
Exhibition Catalog
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalog featuring four essays commissioned for the exhibition and appearing in both English and Chinese translation. Essays include contributions by Philip Tinari, Dario Gamboni, Stacey Pierson, and Glenn Adamson, as well as the first English translation of an interview with Ai originally published in his White Cover Book (1995). The exhibition catalog is produced in collaboration with Office for Discourse Engineering, a Beijing-based editorial studio, distributed in the U.S. by RAM Publications and available for purchase in The Gallery at Museum of Contemporary Craft.
Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn has been organized by Arcadia University Art Gallery and supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Curated by Richard Torchia, Arcadia University Gallery Director, and Gregg Moore, Arcadia University Associate Professor of Art and Design.
PNCA+FIVE Ford Institute for Visual Education
Paul G. Allen Family Foundation · The Collins Foundation · John Gray Charitable Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation · The Ford Family Foundation · MJ Murdock Charitable Trust · National Endowment for the Arts · Oregon Arts Commission · PGE Foundation · Regional Arts & Culture Council · Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation · The Standard · Mary Hoyt Stevenson Foundation · Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust · Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt · The Western States Art Federation · Whiteman Foundation · ziba · Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP
With special thanks to: Gerding Edlen Development and their support of the Cyan PDX Cultural Residency Program, The Heathman Hotel, The Nines Hotel, Twenty Four Seven, NWC Nick Weitzer Contracting and Willamette Week.


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Foxconn Technology Group, the maker of Apple's iPhone, is investing at least 5 billion yuan (US$811 million) to develop electric car manufacturing in a Chinese province.
The Taiwanese company is making the investment in China's Shanxi province, it said on Wednesday. Foxconn already has two factories in the province. One of these assembles smartphones while the other is devoted to producing robots and automation equipment, it added.
Foxconn has largely focused on electronics manufacturing for clients including Microsoft, Sony and Amazon.com. But the company is branching out into new business sectors, as a way to grow its revenue streams. Analysts estimate that it makes as much as half of its revenue from assembling Apple products.
In June, Foxconn's CEO Terry Gou said that the company is targeting to build electric cars with a price of less than $15,000.
Foxconn has already been developing electric car batteries for some time, and the company has many customers for them, he added. It also manufactures the touchscreen panels found inside the electric cars from Tesla Motors.
Gou was mum in June on the exact details for the company's electric car production, and what partnerships it might include. But the Taiwanese company could end up targeting China for its electric car sales. The country is a major market, and its government has been trying to promote sales of electric cars.


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The name that springs instantly to mind is Alfred Watkins (1855-1935). The story of his "discovery" of an ancient system of lines crossing the British landscape is well known to present-day ley line afficionados and to the small number of archaeologists who have ever looked into them. I quote his summary of the system on the main site, but it is worth repeating here:
…imagine a fairy chain stretched from mountain peak to mountain peak, as far as the eye could reach, and paid out until it touched the "high places" of the earth at a number of ridges, banks, and knowls. Then visualize a mound, circular earthwork, or clump of trees, planted on these high points, and in low points in the valley other mounds ringed round with water to be seen from a distance. Then great standing stones brought to mark the way at intervals, and on a bank leading up to a mountain ridge or down to a ford the track cut deep so as to form a guiding notch on the skyline as you come up. In a bwlch or mountain pass the road cut deeply at the highest place straight through the ridge to show as a notch afar off. Here and there, at two ends of the way, a beacon fire used to lay out the track. With ponds dug on the line, or streams banked up into "flashes" to form reflecting points on the beacon track so that it might be checked when at least once a year the beacon was fired on the traditional day. All these works exactly on the sighting line. The wayfarer's instructions are still deeply rooted in the peasant mind to-day, when he tells you—quite wrongly now—"You just keep straight on".
According to a later account, all this came to him "in a flash" on 21 June 1921 during a visit to Blackwardine; according to his son Allen, this happened while poring over a map. A variation on the 'origin myth' quoted by John Michell holds that the revelation happened whilst out riding in the hills near Bredwardine in 1920, observing the Herefordshire landscape he loved. It is unclear why there are two different versions of the story; Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy note wryly in their excellent Ley Lines in Question (Tadworth: World's Work, 1983) that John Michell's version reflects how "ley hunters would like to think it happened".
What is strange is that few people ever bother to read what Watkins himself says in the Introduction to his first publication on the subject, Early British Trackways, in 1922. There, he says:
I knew nothing on June 30th last of what I now communicate, and had no theories. A visit to Blackwardine led me to note on the map a straight line starting from Croft Ambury, lying on parts of Croft Lane past the Broad, over hill points, through Blackwardine, over Risbury Camp, and through the high ground at Stretton Grandison, where I surmise a Roman station. I followed up the clue of sighting from hill top, unhampered by other theories, found it yielding astounding results in all districts, the straight lines to my amazement passing over and over again through the same class of objects, which I soon found to be (or to have been) practical sighting points.
So, what Watkin noted was an alignment of sites on a map; he may have seen this while planning his journey to Blackwardine, during the journey or upon arrival at his destination. At any rate, we can put the minor controversy of the exact details of his "discovery" to rest.
But to what extent was this his discovery? Wikipedia is in no doubt: "The concept of "ley lines" originated with Alfred Watkins in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track, though Watkins also drew on earlier ideas about alignments; in particular he cited the work of the English astronomer Norman Lockyer, who argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at solstices.". Much as I am criticised by commentors here for quoting Wikipedia, it has become one of the most widely used sources of information in the world today and is often the first (and, indeed, only) reference source to which people will resort. It also tends to reflect received wisdom (even when that wisdom is wrong). And that is what seems to be the case with its entry for ley lines.
Back to Joseph Houghton Spencer
Joseph Houghton Spencer was a nineteenth-century antiquary, who published papers on Castle Neroche, Taunton Castle and other sites of interest in the Taunton area. He was an architect by profession, restoring the church at Goathurst (Somerset) in 1884 and designing a number of others. He was based, unsurprisingly, in Taunton (Somerset, England). His antiquarian interests are best represented through his transcripts of historic parish registers, which continue to be used today.
He came to my attention thanks to a member of my local archaeological society, who knows my interest in Bad Archaeology. During some research this member was undertaking on medieval routes in north-eastern Hertfordshire, he came a cross a paper published in The Antiquary Volume XIX (1889, pages 94-101), titled Ancient trackways in England (a number of sources incorrectly give the volume of The Antiquary as XX).
The paper starts with an account of "a broad pathway, about 600 feet long, which is crossed by another of the same length, thus forming a Greek cross" in woodland at Barton Grange in Taunton. From this, he leaps to a number of conclusions that go way beyond the evidence: noting that the Grange "is said to have been the summer residence of the Prior of Taunton" and that these paths were known as "the "Monks' Walk"" in the 1880s, he concludes that they were part of the putatively monastic layout. He then proceeds to extend the centre lines of these paths to tracks and monuments outside Barton Grange Park and surmises that to avoid blocking the view from the central crossing of the two main paths, "openings were left in the walls when the building was first projected on the line of sight". In other words, he is suggesting that the layout of the paths pre-dates the monastic foundation.
Next, astronomical alignments are brought into play: one line "points directly towards the position on the horizon where the sun sets on June 21". He also brings into play various prehistoric earthworks, including hillforts and round barrows, prominent hills and "suggestive names", such as Cold Harbour, Pipe House, Horn Ash, Three Ashes and Stony Knap, without explaining what is "suggestive" about them. One line is extended out to the south coast at the Isle of Portland and in the opposite direction across the Bristol Channel to south-west Wales and further, across the Irish Sea and into the Atlantic Ocean "at or near Killala Bay". This makes the supposed St Michael's Ley seem positively parochial! The other principal line is also extended, using Roman roads as well as the usual hills and earthworks together with "Black's "Atlas"" to the North Sea, "nearly in a line with Spurn Head". He then devises lines parallel to these, passing through Castle Neroche.
What does he make of all this?
Having recorded these observations, I venture to suggest the following explanation:
The general design of the works seems to be a central line of long distance signals, with more frequent posts to the right and left connecting the natural harbours at the mouths of the Wey, Axe, Otter, Exe, Teign, Parret, Brue, Avon, Medway, Thames, and Humber; also St. Gennys, near Bude Haven, an important position on the Cornish coast, and Minehead.
These direct signal-line stations, though no doubt connected with each other by trackways, would not always afford the best lines for the principal roadways; and we find that the early ridgeways, so far as they have been traced, connected nearly all the foregoing points; but, owing to the physical and other difficulties, not in straight lines. There seem to be indications of other parallel arrangements of fortified posts and beacons, and it is probable that, upon further research, it will be found that these north-west and north-east lines are preserved as guiding ones throughout the entire district, which was under the control of these early, perhaps Phœnician, far-seeing engineers.
This is all very similar to Watkins's system, but without the insistence that the hypothetical tracks need to follow precisely the alignment marked by various monuments and landscape features.
Like Watkins, Houghton Spencer seems to have regarded the system as surviving through the medium of christianised pagan sites. He hypothesised that the system fell into disrepair "until the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII. Then the idea was lost, and, consequently, no regard was paid in building, from the seventeenth century downwards, to the far-reaching lines of the cross". Unlike Watkins, who saw medieval church builders as merely building on ancient markers, Houghton Spencer believed that the medieval church retained a knowledge of this system, although "in the hands of laymen it has been carefully preserved for more than three centuries, and by no one more conservatively than the present owner… to whom I would venture to suggest that a careful excavation at the cross-centre would probably be attended with interesting results". Also unlike Watkins, everything in the system hinges on these crossing paths at Barton Grange, described as "[t]his cruciform centre of, perhaps, both civil and religious government".
The paper concludes with a typical late nineteenth century farrago of quite unscientific linguistic speculation. Using Greek and Hebrew to seek etymologies for English placenames provided Victorian antiquaries with opportunities to show off their learning, but carry little weight today except among misguided amateurs. Once again, though, Watkins was equally keen on "suggestive names" to determine the passage of a ley line, where no physical marker could be found.
Of course, to a twenty-first century archaeologist, these broad pathways present no problem. They are typical of eighteenth-century gardens created by landscape gardeners to enhance the country estates of the wealthy. Barton Court is a probably sixteenth-century house, now much altered; nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps show the layout of the woodland walks and they look absolutely typical of this type of garden feature. The two principal arms of the cross run to the corners of the roughly rectangular woodland and appear to survive, albeit overgrown, to the present day. We can discount any great scheme of alignments, spiritual and political centre of ancient Britain, routes to the significant harbours of Britain and so on.
Watkins or Houghton Spencer?
So, who did 'discover' (recte 'invent') ley lines? The term ley belongs to Watkins, completely misunderstanding Old English lēah (principally meaning 'woodland clearing' in placenames). The ley line system as widely (mis)understood today is his concept, modified by the New Age speculations of writers such as John Michell. But was Watkins drawing on this paper by Joseph Houghton Spencer? He does not mention it in any of his published works. The Woolhope Club, the antiquarian and natural history society of which Watkins was a prominent member, did not subscribe to The Antiquary, so he will not have seen Houghton Spencer's thirty-year-old paper in the club library. Although the two ideas are so close in conception, there seems to be little cause to accuse Alfred Watkins of plagiarism. The idea of ancient trackways of any age—prehistoric, Roman or medieval—or any character—military ways, saltways, trade routes—was part of the general culture of Late Victorian and early twentieth-century antiquarian speculation. A more rigorous approach to studying tracks has never really been at the forefront of archaeological research: some of the worst "research" was been carried out on Roman roads (for instance, The Viatores Roman roads in the south-east Midlands, while well intentioned, is a triumph of enthusiasm over rigour).
On a final note, I'd like to correct a misconception in the Wikipedia entry for Alfred Watkins, quoted above. According to the editors, "[a]rchaeologists in general do not accept Watkins' ideas on leys. At first they regarded the ancient Britons as too primitive to have devised such an arrangement, but this is no longer the argument used against the existence of leys". That is just plain wrong, although it is the sort of accusation flung at archaeologists by ley hunters. As Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy point out, academics largely ignored it, even if O G S Crawford did regard Watkins as a crank, his reason for notoriously refusing an advertisement for The Old Straight Track in Antiquity. There was a general perception that prehistoric people had little use for such a complex system. The prevailing (but incorrect) view of Neolithic Britain as a heavily forested landscape, save for a few pioneering farms, made the establishment of the network a virtual impossibility in the view of prehistorians. It was left to amateur enthusiasts to take up Watkins's idea. No, the problem that academics had with the concept of ley lines was that Watkins, like Houghton Spencer before him, failed to provide any evidence for the antiquity of the system. Despite Wikipedia, ley lines do not exist!


text:
Bosnia raids after US embassy attack
CORNJA MAOCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Special police units raided homes Saturday in a Bosnian village linked to the gunman who fired an automatic weapon at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in what authorities called a terrorist attack. The raids c...
CORNJA MAOCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Special police units raided homes Saturday in a Bosnian village linked to the gunman who fired an automatic weapon at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in what authorities called a terrorist attack. The raids came as 17 suspected associates of the shooter, all said to be members of the ultraconservative Wahhabi Muslim sect, were briefly detained in Serbia.
A convoy of police vehicles entered the isolated northern village of Gornja Maoca, known to be inhabited by many Wahhabis, and officers wearing black masks and camouflage uniforms surrounded several houses, according to an Associated Press video. The reporter saw the security forces enter some homes before officers asked him to leave.
The gunman, identified by police as 23-year-old Mevlid Jasarevic, is accused of shooting at the embassy building in Sarajevo for at least 30 minutes Friday, wounding a policeman guarding the facility, before a police sniper immobilized him with a shot in his leg.
An amateur video obtained by the AP shows what appears to be Jasarevic roaming a deserted intersection, waving his gun and occasionally turning toward the embassy building, shooting at the fence and facade. Another video caught him dropping on the ground after the sniper shot him.
Jasarevic is believed to be a follower of the Wahhabi sect, and police said he visited Gornja Maoca several times this and last year. Both the gunman and the police officer were hospitalized and their wounds weren't considered to be life-threatening, authorities said.
Bosnian and Serbian police have coordinated the response to the embassy attack, and the raids in Bosnia on Saturday were part of a joint operation. The village appeared blocked with police setting up checkpoints, stopping cars and searching them.
Police were searching several locations in Bosnia and questioning people, State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara said.
"We are cooperating with colleagues in Serbia, working with them and the U.S. Embassy," he said.
In Serbia, police said in a statement that as part of the detentions of suspects, some 18 houses were searched and computers and mobile phones confiscated. The 17 people held were later released after questioning, police said.
Wahhabism is a very conservative branch of Islam that is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Police raided Gornja Maoca in February 2010 because its residents were accused of posing a security threat in Bosnia by promoting racial and religious hatred and illegally possessing weapons.
Many Bosnian Muslims are extremely protective of their relations with the U.S. because it was the driving force behind NATO military intervention against the Serbs during the 1992-95 war and brokered a peace agreement that ended the conflict.
Furious callers on live radio shows suggested the Wahhabi movement should be banned and its members expelled.
"Here I am searching the newspapers every morning looking for news about foreign investments so this place can move forward and then an idiot like this comes and destroys everything. It will take years for us to wash this," cab driver Ismet Besic said.
"It looks as if he was just waiting for cameras to show up, to be seen all over the world," Nermin Muftic, 38, said watching videos of the shooter on YouTube on his mobile phone with his friends during morning coffee.
"He just wanted to pull this show and hurt Bosnia. Who knows what people in the world think of us now," he said.
Islamist extremists joined Bosnia's 1992-95 war for independence. They were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's quest to create "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.
Bosnian intelligence officials have said last year that at least 3,000 Wahhabis live in Bosnia.
Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, issued a statement Friday condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States."
"The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said.
U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Patrick Moon told reporters "this is a regrettable incident," and that his country has full confidence in Bosnian police and judicial authorities. He pledged "full cooperation" in the investigation, adding that an FBI team will arrive in Bosnia to assess the damage to the embassy.
Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed to this report.


text:
The world economic recovery is gaining strength, but it remains unbalanced.
Three numbers tell the story. We expect the world economy to grow at about 4.5 percent a year in both 2011 and 2012, but with advanced economies growing at only 2.5 percent, while emerging and developing economies grow at a much higher 6.5 percent.
On the good news side. Earlier fears of a double dip—which we did not share—have not materialized. The main worry was that, in advanced economies, after an initial recovery driven by the inventory cycle and fiscal stimulus, growth would fizzle. The inventory cycle is now largely over, fiscal stimulus has turned to fiscal consolidation, but private demand has, for the most part, taken up the relay.
Fears have turned to commodity prices. Commodity prices have increased more than expected, reflecting a combination of strong demand growth and a number of supply shocks. These increases conjure the specter of 1970s style stagflation, but they appear unlikely to derail the recovery.
- In advanced countries, the decreasing share of oil, the disappearance of wage indexation, and the anchoring of inflation expectations, all combine to suggest small effects on either growth or core inflation.
- The challenge is greater in emerging market and developing countries, where the share of food in consumption is larger, and the credibility of monetary policy is often weaker. Inflation may well be higher for some time but, as our forecasts indicate, we do not expect a major adverse effect on growth.
Turning to the bad news. The recovery, however, remains unbalanced.
In most advanced economies, output is still far below potential. Unemployment is high, and low growth implies that it will remain so for many years to come. The source of low growth can be traced to both pre-crisis excesses and to crisis wounds. In many countries, especially in the United States, the housing market is still depressed, leading to anemic housing investment. The crisis itself has led to a large deterioration in fiscal positions, forcing a shift to fiscal consolidation, while not eliminating market worries about fiscal sustainability. And, in many countries, banks are struggling to achieve higher capital ratios in the face of increasing non-performing loans.
The problems in Europe's periphery—with the combined effects of low growth, fiscal woes, and financial pressures—are particularly acute. Reestablishing fiscal and financial sustainability, in the face of low or negative growth and high interest rates, is a substantial challenge, and will take time. And, while they are extreme, the problems of Europe's periphery point to a more general problem, an underlying low rate of growth of potential output. Adjustment is very hard when growth is very low.
The policy advice to advanced countries remains largely the same as in previous World Economic Outlooks, and so far, has been only partly heeded. Increased clarity on banks' exposures with ready recapitalization plans if and where needed. Smart fiscal consolidation, that is neither too fast, which could kill growth, nor too slow, which would kill credibility. The redesign of financial regulation and supervision. And, especially in Europe, an increased focus on reforms to increase potential growth.
In emerging market countries by contrast, the crisis has not left lasting wounds. Their fiscal and financial positions were typically stronger to start, and adverse effects of the crisis have been more muted. High underlying growth and low interest rates are making fiscal adjustment much easier. Exports have largely recovered, and whatever shortfall in external demand they experienced has typically been made up through an increase in domestic demand. Capital outflows have turned into capital inflows, due to both better growth prospects and higher interest rates than in advanced countries.
The challenge for most emerging countries is quite different from that of advanced countries, namely how to avoid overheating in the face of closing output gaps and higher capital flows. Their response should be twofold.
- First, rely on a combination of higher interest rates and fiscal consolidation to maintain output at potential.
- Second, use a mix of reserve accumulation and macroprudential tools, including, where needed, capital controls, to avoid increases in systemic risk stemming from inflows. Countries are often tempted to resist the exchange rate appreciation which is likely to come with higher interest rates and higher inflows. But appreciation increases real income, is part of the desirable adjustment, and should not be resisted.
Overall, the macroeconomic policy agenda for the world economy remains the same, but with the passage of time, more urgent. For the recovery to be sustained, advanced countries must reduce government deficits and debt levels. To do so and to maintain growth, they need to rely more on external demand. Symmetrically, emerging market countries must rely less on external demand, and more on domestic demand. Appreciation of emerging market countries' currencies relative to advanced countries' currencies is an important key to this global adjustment.
The need for careful design of policies at the national level, and coordination at the global level, may be as important today as they were at the peak of the crisis two years ago.


text:
The 21st Century is becoming ever more dependent upon wireless communication for
phones, tablets, and notebooks. Wireless delivery of video and Internet
service is rapidly expanding worldwide.
Ideally, the wireless communication process could start with a
user interface based on speech recognition where we merely talk to a personal
mobile device that recognizes our words and commands. The personal mobile device
would connect seamlessly to embedded devices in the
environment. The message would be relayed to a server residing on a network with
the necessary processing power and software to analyze the contents of the
message. The server would link to additional Web resources that could then draw
necessary supplemental knowledge from around the world through the Internet.
Finally, the synthesized message would be delivered to the appropriate parties
in their own language on their own personal mobile device.
This process requires us to explore the
following communications relationships:
There are a number of challenges to the development and deployment of scalable,
intelligent wireless Web applications.
These include: device proliferation, bandwidth and interface limitations,
and applications with greater capabilities, and upgraded wireless standards.
Perhaps the most daunting challenge is the integration,
synthesis and interfacing of these elements. So, just how will the Web become
smart-enough to fulfill the vision of a robust global mobile system providing
increasingly relevant and intelligent applications? The development of the
physical components and software necessary to implement the Intelligent Wireless
Web requires insight into the compatibility, integration and synergy of the
following five emerging technology areas:
As the Web matures, the information technology community seems to be viewing the
Web as a global database with a knowledge representation system. While a
database management system is simply a collection of procedures for retrieving,
storing, and manipulating data, it is also possible to view the Web in terms of
applied "learning algorithms" in which data is taken from a database as input
and, after performing appropriate algorithmic operations (based upon statistics,
experiment, or other approaches), returns an output statement that contains
enhanced data thereby representing learning. In building the Intelligent
Wireless Web, we are seeking to create a Web that learns, yielding continuously
improved applications and information. We will highlight
the innovative processes underway in each of these technological areas:
Communication between humans and their machines has been the subject of a large
amount of technical research. Work on the "man-machine interface" has been
conducted since the development of complex machinery, such as locomotive trains,
automobiles and washing machines. The need to efficiently provide information to
machines, to control their functions, and receive information from machines to
inform the human operators of their status, has increased dramatically over many
decades. How should we converse with a computer, its connected devices and the
machines they may control? If talking is the most natural way humans communicate
- why not communicate with computers through ordinary language? After all, we
learn to speak before we learn to read and write. Speech is also a highly
efficient form of communications - people speak about five times faster than
they type.
Today, there are two basic approaches to deciphering spoken commands. One
approach uses matching algorithms that compare bit patterns of the spoken
commands to standard bit patterns stored in the speech recognition software's
library of patterns. The commands and related bit patterns are matched for
appropriate actions. This approach is most often used in discrete speech
applications. A library of bit patterns is created by averaging the patterns of
a large sampling of pronunciations for a specific vocabulary. In the second
approach users "train" the speech software by providing speech patterns. This
approach uses statistical modeling and libraries of word and grammar rules to
increase the accuracy and responsiveness of the speech software. Most of today's
speech recognition applications have a vocabulary database of up to 200,000
words with appropriate grammar rules Speech recognition (speech-to-text)
transforms human voice inputs into commands and characters. Speech recognition
would be a highly desirable capability for handheld, mobile devices, if the many
obstacles can be overcome, allowing machines to recognize the user's comments
and respond in context. There are two modes of speech recognition:
command-and-control and dictation. Voice input to a command- environment can
trigger specific actions and can be used to navigate an application. For
example, a user speaks the command "Call George" to launch the application that
automatically dials George's cell phone number. Rather than speaking a single
word or phrase to initiate an action, dictation transcribes the user's speech
into text. The text file can then be saved just like any other file and send it
as an attachment over the Web.
The Speech Interface Framework working group of the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) is developing standards to enable access to the Web using spoken language
(see www.w3.org/Voice). The Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)
specification is part of a set of new markup specifications for voice browsers.
It is an XML-based markup language for assisting the generation of synthetic
speech on the Web. It provides authors content to synthesis in a standard way
and to control aspects of speech such as pronunciation, volume, pitch, and rate
across different synthesis-capable platforms. The VoiceXML Forum is an industry organization established to promote
VoiceXML as the standard for speech-enabled Web applications. Current computer
systems use video displays and the keyboard or mouse (to point and click) as the
primary methods for user interface. What is needed to transition from the point
and click method to the more natural use of human speech as a primary user
interface (though not the only means). The main technology requirements are
centered on speech recognition, speech understanding, converting text to speech,
language translation, speech synthesis, and speech markup language.
REQUIREMENTS: Speech Recognition - Language Understanding Text to Speech
Speech is also a highly efficient form of communications, since people speak
about five times faster than they type. When speech recognition reliability
begins to reach the necessary level of acceptable performance, we can expect to
see a rapid adaption of the technology.
For many different purposes, the use of natural speech greatly improves the
effectiveness of our communications; this is especially true for wireless
applications since mobile devices are small and awkward to manipulate, and, in
addition, have limited capacity for receiving and delivering text or graphic
information. Is this to say that future systems will rely exclusively on the
speech interface to wireless handheld devices? Of course not. Future systems
should be expected to implement a variety of user interfaces and terminal
devices. The mouse and its associated graphic displays will be with us for some
time, and there will always be the need to display highly data-intensive visual
outputs. Speech-based interfaces represent a new dimension that does not exclude
but rather builds upon the methods currently used to interact with computer
systems and networks.
The final element in the desired communication process for the Intelligent
Wireless web is delivering recognizable speech output to the recipient through
speech synthesis. Speech Synthesis is the automatic generation of speech from
text data or from other non-text applications. Text-to-Speech (TTS) refers to
audible responses from the computer. The actual voice responses can use recorded
human speech phrases or audio generators that produce a natural human sound.
However, a large amount of memory is needed to store the recorded voice
Man-machine interaction applications will require a virtually unlimited
vocabulary of speech output and a wide-ranging sound analysis and generation
capability from text-to-speech (TTS) systems in order to produce ever more
human-sounding speech. At the same time, current applications place practical
constraints on TTS system parameters, with limitations on factors such as memory
size, software flexibility, and processor performance. For example, many
embedded systems require small (and therefore limited)
TTS systems for slower processors; some wireless applications require small
speech generation components on the wireless client coupled with low data
transmission rates. An increasing number of applications, however (e.g., dialog
systems, aids for disabled individuals, and Web page readers), will benefit from
control over voices, pitch, and other aspects of the speech output. TTS systems
today do not yet meet the fundamental goal of producing speech indistinguishable
from that of a human. A system that is natural-sounding in one area, such as
overall voice quality or the quality of individual speech sounds, may be
unnatural-sounding in another, such as prosody (pitch patterns and timing); or a
system that is generally more natural-sounding may be less intelligible. In some
cases, a system that excels in overall voice quality may require an unacceptable
amount of memory or execution time. The ultimate goal, then, is a system that
not only faithfully replicates human speech, but also meets the needs of
applications in terms of flexibility, memory usage, and performance. Thus the
most significant issues related to speech synthesis are the production of high
quality speech while minimizing the hardware and software requirements including
memory, algorithmic complexity and speed of computation.
From dumb & static to intelligent & dynamic :
We have said that fundamentally, our vision for the future of an Intelligent
Wireless Web is very simple - it is a network that provides anytime, anywhere
access to information resources with efficient user interfaces and applications
that learn and thereby provide increasingly useful services whenever and
wherever we need them. For the Web to learn, it requires learning algorithms and
mechanisms for self-organization of a hypertext network. It needs to develop
algorithms that would allow the Web to autonomously change its structure and
organize the knowledge it contains, by "learning" the ideas and preferences of
its users.
One way to move toward theses goals has been suggested by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) through the use of better semantic information as part of web
documents, and of the use of next generation web languages like XML and RDF. The
Semantic Web Architecture will move from IP to Mobile IP combined with an XML
Layer, an RDF and Schema layer, and a Logic layer. Facilities to put
machine-understandable data on the Web are becoming a high priority for many
The Web can reach its full potential only if can process automated tools.
Tomorrow's programs must be able to share and process data even when designed
totally independently. The Semantic Web is a vision of having data on the web
defined and linked in a way that it can be used by machines not just for display
purposes, but for automation, integration and reuse of data.
So what are, the key needs to enable transition from the current dumb and static
systems to the intelligence and flexibility of the Intelligent Wireless Web? We
believe the key is in the Semantic Web. Key technology requirements include XML
schema, RDF schema, logic layering,
distributed Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI server farms. In addition,
information registration and validation will also be an essential global service
to support activities, such as, financial transactions.
REQUIREMENTS: XML schema, RDF schema, Logic Layer
The Intelligent Wireless Web
by H. Peter Alesso and Craig F. Smith


text:
Congressman: Troubled Army program needs more oversight
- Details of internal Army report were not made public
- %24250 million Human Terrain program involves sending social scientists to war zones
- Tight budgets mean programs must be more accountable%2C Rep. Hunter says
WASHINGTON -- The Army needs to justify the continuation of a $250 million program to send social scientists to the battlefield because of problems outlined in a report by USA TODAY, a U.S. representative said in a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh Tuesday.
The Pentagon has lost the ability to objectively assess the value of Human Terrain System teams and other programs, said Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and member of the House Armed Services Committee.
"I would like to know whether the Army is considering expansion of the Human Terrain System, as well as any justification for continuing the program in light of severe and detrimental cuts to military operations," Hunter said in the letter.
Problems come to light with programs such as Human Terrain teams, he said, only when Congress or the media ask probing questions. Military officials lose objectivity when they've been involved with programs for years, Hunter said.
Hunter also asked McHugh for more details on how the Army determines whether the program works or not.
Congress will take a closer look at Human Terrain teams and other programs, he said, because the military has not measured their effectiveness properly.
"You have programs that you can't really gauge an outcome," Hunter said. "We'll be looking at that more."
The Human Terrain teams take funding away from more urgent needs such as paying for Marines to train and ships to operate, Hunter said. The Pentagon plans to cut funding for training except for troops headed to combat to deal with budget cuts scheduled for March 1.
"Even if it worked perfectly, and commanders said it was saving lives, we're at a time now with our budget and economy that the money might not better be put to use in operational capability that we're cutting," he said.
The USA TODAY investigation, based on internal Army documents and interviews with social scientists involved in the program, found that there were substantiated instances of sexual harassment and racism and potential fraud in filing time sheets. Some commanders also questioned the value of the teams' reports, according to Army documents.
Potential time sheet fraud is unfortunately something familiar to large Pentagon programs, said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group.
"Service contract spending is one area where large cuts and oversight are needed," Amey said. "Such contracts are often riddled with unclear requirements and little oversight of the deliverable. It's one thing to follow the cost and performance of a finished plane or ship, but it's another thing to effectively monitor time, performance, and outcomes of service contracts. This isn't the first case I've heard of alleging service contract over billing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I'm sure it won't be the last."
A contractor was fired over a sexual harassment allegation, and a soldier was disciplined for making racist statements. However, no one appears to have been prosecuted or reprimanded for systematic abuse of time sheets. The Army's internal investigation showed that supervisors directed team members to claim the maximum amount of overtime and comp time possible, earning them salaries topping $280,000 and entitling them to six months paid leave upon returning to the United States.
The Army maintains that the problems with the program have been addressed. Supervisors have been trained to fill out time sheets properly. Moreover, investigations into time sheet abuse by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have not resulted in prosecutions, the Army says.
Reports of the Human Terrain program conducted after the May 2010 Army investigation said the service's Training and Doctrine Command was either slow or unresponsive in producing documents about the program. TRADOC is the Army branch that manages the program.


text:
Everything old is new again at this movies this year. And we're not just talking about sequels.
Hollywood has taken its "rely on established 'brand' names" thing to the next level.
So we have a new "Hercules" (in theaters now) and a new Jack Ryan (Chris Pine, "Shadow Recruit," just opened). Aaron Eckhart is a new Frankenstein ("I, Frankenstein," opening Friday).
There's a new "Godzilla" (May) and a new "Annie" (December) to go along with that rebooted "Spider-Man" (May) duking it out for box office supremacy with those new "X-Men" (May).
And if you think about it, "Divergent" (March) could be the new "Hunger Games," with Shailene Woodley taking a sci-fi turn to match Jennifer Lawrence's big bow-and-arrow payday.
Skipping past the almost Biblical deluge of sequels, from "Captain America" ("The Winter Soldier," April) to "Madagascar" ("Island of Lemurs," April), "The Hunger Games" ("Mockingjay, Part 1," November) to "The Hobbit" ("There and Back Again," December), ignoring even the last desperate gasp of Jim Carrey and the Farrelly Brothers ("Dumb and Dumber To," November), there's still a lot to look forward to on the big screen.
The engaging documentaries and breakout foreign films will find their way to us more indirectly. But here are 14 titles with firmer release dates, films tempting enough to tease us through 2014.
"The Monuments Men" (Feb. 7) would have gotten lost among the other Oscar contenders over Christmas. So say good-bye to its Oscar chances, but "hello" to having a potentially artsy and cerebral action film with George Clooney leading John Goodman, among others, as they try to save Europe's cultural treasures from the Nazis and combat damage in the last days of World War II. A true story.
"300: Rise of an Empire" (March 7) is not the only sequel to have history (Greco-Persian conflict) as its subtext. But this brawny, two-fisted "How the Greeks Saved Western Civilization" could have more going for it than "X-Men: Days of Future Past," where the mutants, um, save mutant Western civilization.
"Veronica Mars" (March 14) could turn out to be the ultimate expression of fandom, a paradigm-shifting movie with implications for the future of film. Fans financed Kristen Bell's return to the character that made her famous, going outside the studio system to get something they want to see on the screen. They paid to get a movie based on a TV show about a young, (now older), sassy private investigator made. And based on the trailer, they, and the rest of us, won't be disappointed.
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" (March 7) is Wes Anderson's latest foxtrot into "twee." And he takes Ralph Fiennes, in a rare comic turn, with him as Fiennes plays the legendary concierge at a legendarily daffy Old World hotel. Bill Murray and Jeff Goldlum are here, of course. Angela Lansbury, too.
"Noah" (March 28) could be, if we're pessimists, this year's "Lone Ranger" or "John Carter" or "Battleship," that head-scratching fiasco that seemed like a hare-brained idea from the get-go. Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan") directing Oscar winner Russell Crowe in a no-expense-spared Biblical epic? Then again, it could be great, and Hollywood is at least trying to reach that supposedly built-in Christian film audience, as evidenced by February's "The Son of God" and April's "Heaven is for Real."
"The Fault in Our Stars" (June 6) is a promising summer teen romance from the writer-director of "Stuck in Love." The always-real Shailene Woodley stars as a cancer patient who falls for a lad (Nat Wolff of "Stuck in Love") in her support group. We're about to find out if teenagers will show up for a date movie that's a weeper.
"Tammy" (July 2) is where Melissa McCarthy cashes in on her epic 2013 at the box office, co-writing and starring in this road trip comedy about a newly unemployed, newly-ditched woman who hits the road with her foul-mouthed, hard-drinking diabetic grandma (Oscar winner Kathy Bates). If McCarthy is still a hot commodity, this will be the comedy that devours the summer.
"Magic in the Moonlight" (July 26) lets Emma Stone and Hamish Linklater, along with Oscar winners Colin Firth and Marcia Gay Harden, get their turn in a Woody Allen summer comedy.
"Gone Girl" (Oct. 3) gives us David ("Zodiac") Fincher's take on Gillian Flynn's best-selling thriller about a missing woman (Rosamund Pike) and the husband (Ben Affleck) everybody thinks did her in. Hitchcockian? Count on it.
"The Interview" (Oct. 10) is the new farce from the "This is the End" team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. James Franco plays a talk show host, Rogen his producer and Lizzy Caplan is the C.I.A. agent who drags them into her assassination plot. Yeah, it'll be dark, profane and, chances are, fiercely funny.
"Interstellar" (Nov. 7) is Christopher Nolan's latest thinking-person's sci-fi epic, about wormholes and the possibilities of where humans can travel once we harness them. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain are the headliners in the cast.
"Exodus" (Dec. 12) has Oscar winner Christian Bale as Moses, leading the Chosen People out of Egypt. Joel Edgerton should make a fearsome Ramses, and Ridley Scott found work for his old pal Sigourney Weaver ("Alien") for this, the final Bible epic of the year.
"Unbroken" (Dec. 25) is based on the true story of an American Olympic hopeful who survives being shot down in the Pacific and imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese. Relative unknown Jack O'Connell won the role, and Angelina Jolie ("In the Land of Blood and Honey") directs this film based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-seller.
"Into the Woods" (Dec. 25) offers up a little Sondheim twist on classic fairy tales, a more highbrow "Wicked" if you will, with songs by one of America's greatest Broadway composers. Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine and Anna Kendrick are the stars of this Rob Marshall musical.
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text:
Sarkozy, Obama, Merkel and Cameron stand together.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A sharp drop in manufacturing, a towering debt-to-GDP ratio and a jaw-dropping decline in equity markets.
No -- not the United States. Europe!
Many of the underlying tremors that led to this week's steep sell-off in the U.S. have been festering in plain sight in Europe for a year or more.
Consider a few figures:
European indexes have been hammered over the past month, with the main exchanges of England (UKX) off 12.9%, France (CAC40) 17.6% and Germany (DAX) 16.7%.
The economies of Italy and France -- two of the continent's largest -- expanded by only 0.3% and 0.2% in the second quarter.
The problem?
Developed countries piled on massive amounts of debt during the recession.
Advanced economies worldwide increased their debt burden from $18.1 trillion in 2007 to $29.5 trillion in 2011, according to researchers at the Brookings Institution. And that's not the half of it. The number is projected to grow to $41.3 trillion by 2016.
The bill collector has already come for some. Billions have been spent propping up Ireland and Greece, and investors have not been shy about sending yields through the roof when they smell blood in the water.
Investors lending money to Spain are now demanding interest rates of 6%, while Greek bonds carry a 15% rate and yields on Italian notes spiked this week to 5.5%.
Coupled with weak growth, the sharp increase in interest rates only adds to the countries' debt and makes it even more difficult for them to lower their debt-GDP-ratio.
There is some evidence that politicians are waking up to the scale of the crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to interrupt their summer vacations -- a hiking holiday in Italy and a three-week excursion to the French Riviera -- to confer by phone about the growing economic unease.
That's welcome news, because while the crisis started at the continent's periphery, it has now arrived at the gates of Italy and Spain.
And that, according to Domenico Lombardi, a senior fellow at Brookings and former International Monetary Fund executive board member, should worry policymakers in the United States.
"Italy has been hit," Lombardi said. "It's the third largest economy in the euro area, and there is no organization that can bail Italy out. It's just too big to swallow."
If the situation in Italy were to worsen, the impact could lead to weakening demand for U.S. exports, uncertainty in global currency markets, and consequences for U.S. banks that are exposed to the European banking system.
The timing couldn't be worse for the United States, which is about to engage in some fiscal belt-tightening as a result of the debt ceiling deal negotiated in Washington.
With the government pumping less money into the economy, policymakers need to find a way to increase demand for U.S. exports, Lombardi said.
"But this is certainly not going to come from Europe," he said.
The tremendous instability in Europe is yet another drag on an already weak U.S. economy and could increase uncertainly, spark a rush to safe-haven assets or delay major investments by American businesses.
"The economic recovery in the U.S. is inherently fragile," Lombardi said. "And this could have a dramatic effect on the job market outlook."
On Friday, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn tried to calm the swirl of rumors as markets bucked up and down.
"The market unrest witnessed in the last few days is simply not justified on the grounds of economic fundamentals," he said, having broken off his holidays to return to Brussels. "It is not justified for Italy. It is not justified for Spain."
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