BY GEORGE RUSH AND JOANNA MOLLOY WITH KASIA ANDERSON AND LAUREN RUBIN

Sunday, April 14th 2002, 1:64AM

Time apparently has not diluted Mia Farrow's hatred of ex-lover Woody Allen.

Farrow has refused to allow so much as one frame of her performance in an Allen film to be used in a Turner Classic Movies tribute to the director.

The documentary, "Woody Allen: A Life in Film," is due to air on May 4. But producers have had to excise clips that feature Farrow in "Alice," "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Hannah and Her Sisters."

We're told that Allen wanted them in. But Farrow apparently wanted no association in the film with the man who married her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn.

"She was the one that wouldn't okay the clips," says a TCM spokeswoman. "He, in this case, is the innocent victim, the innocent party."

The producers ended up cutting the "Alice" clip and using Farrow-free scenes from "Hannah" and "Purple Rose."

And Farrow isn't the only one who'd like to whittle the Woodman. Some Italians are branding him a traitor for choosing to unveil his movie "Hollywood Ending" at the Cannes Film Festival instead of the Venice Film Festival, where he frequently has his premieres.

"Bravo, Woody, what an intelligent gesture," deputy minister for culture Vittorio Sgarbi declared sarcastically in an interview.

La Repubblica called Allen's decision "a slap in the face."

Allen's rep declined to comment on Mia, but said the choice of Cannes "will make sense when you see the end of the movie."

Chelsea Clinton doesn't seem to share the British media's concern that she's about to be kicked out of Oxford for not spending enough time on campus. The former First Daughter was at a nightclub again Thursday - this time in New York. The globetrotting student didn't have boyfriend Ian Klaus with her at the Spa party thrown by Bebe and Glamour magazine. So she hit the dance floor with Devon Aoki, model and Benihana heiress.

The same night found her dad in Washington, where the National Jewish Democratic Council awarded him the Hubert H. Humphrey Humanitarian Award.

"The best thing I love about being in a crowd of American Jews," Bill Clinton said in his speech, "is everybody thinks exactly the same. No one has a different opinion. And if they did have a different opinion, they'd be entirely too shy [to say so]."

Clinton's irony was appreciated. P.S. We hear he's due to play the sax at the Democratic National Committee fund-raiser at the Apollo Theater on April 24.

Unless you're Lorraine Bracco, Chloe Sevigny, Ozzy Osbourne or Wolf Blitzer, you may not be fabulous enough for the party that Mayor Bloomberg is throwing in D.C. on May 4.

Bloomberg's bash promises to be the hot ticket after the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The revel is due to be chockablock with top pols, actors and media quasars. But scribes who toil at Bloomberg News have been given a list of do's and don'ts for the dinner and party that would rival

"No significant others," they were ordered in a memo from editors. "Do some pre-filtering. People at the top of their organization, with special value to Bloom-berg News and Bloomberg LP, will get priority. Acceptance by you doesn't guarantee a place."

Justin Timberlake is auditioning replacements for ex-girlfriend Britney Spears. He recently hit some Dallas nightclubs with dancer Jenna Dewan. But it looks as though he's still on the make, judging by his flirtations at Wednesday's Candyland party at Serafina. (About a dozen girls accompanied Timberlake and 'N Sync bandmates Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick to their limo at the end of the night.)

Mark Wahlberg, Marcus Schenkenberg and Taye Diggs were also surveying the female landscape. The competition may have been too much for model Tyson Beckford, who ended up leaving the party after a heated argument with another guy over a certain lady.

Meanwhile, Ivana Trump ordered a double shot of Italians - nuzzling with businessman Christian Curato as her old boyfriend Roffredo Gaetani looked on.

The Powerpuff Girl lineup for "The Early Show" may not become reality.

With Bryant Gumbel on his way out and Meredith Vieira his possible replacement,

TV-news junkies have been envisioning an all-female lineup on CBS in the a.m. - with co-

anchor Jane Clayson and newsreader Julie Chen in the mix.

If Vieira quits ABC's "The View" in favor of "The Early Show," Clayson may not be there to greet her. Clayson's contract is up in September, and insiders tell us that Gumbel was Clayson's biggest booster. As a result of his imminent departure, Clayson has lost some juice.

A network insider says the search for Gumbel's replacement is in the early stages, with CBS News President Andrew Heyward at the helm. A CBS spokeswoman would not comment on the contenders.

"Our official response is that we don't comment on rumors," said the rep, adding, "We consider contractual information to be confidential."

Kate Winslet and Mick Jagger are clearly over their little tiff.

Jagger was peeved at the actress in September when she refused to attend the London premiere of "Enigma," the film he co-produced. Back then, she couldn't face the press horde after her split with husband Jim Threapleton. But Winslet made sure she was at Thursday's New York premiere, where she pronounced Jagger "an excellent producer."

"He has an amazing sense of humor," she told us. "He's very wise and incredibly smart. He's great to be around."

Well, up to a point. Witness the moment when Jagger stepped from his limo and the crowd of previously well-behaved fans and photogs went wild. Winslet was suddenly lost in an explosion of paparazzi flashes and female screams.

"I don't want to be Mick's friend anymore," she said with a laugh. "Too much activity!"

Jagger, who steered "Enigma" to the screen with "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels, admitted that, as a fledgling producer, his status as a rock star helped him get his phone calls returned more quickly.

"I think it's easier because people take my calls, but then after that I'm on my own," he said.

(See today's Showtime section for a profile of Jeremy Northam, the star of "Enigma.")

Baz Luhrmann is a master craftsman at film directing, but with the challenge of presenting "La Boheme" on Broadway this winter, he isn't above learning a thing or two. Luhrmann bought tickets for last night's performance of Richard Eyre's "The Crucible" - becoming one of three directors to check out the Liam Neeson-Laura Linney play over the weekend (the others were Michael Mann and Sam Mendes). Luhrmann, by the way, will use three different casts for the demanding "La Boheme."

PATRICIA ARQUETTE channeled Janis Joplin at the Park nightspot's penthouse after-party for her latest film, "Human Nature." Arquette swiped the karaoke mike from hosts Brantly and Scott Harrison to belt out "Piece of My Heart." High-spirited actors Rhys Ifans and Ben Chaplin later performed a duet to a punk number ...

POOR BEYONCE Knowles. Her group, Destiny's Child, tops the charts. She landed the part of Foxxy Cleopatra in the next "Austin Powers" movie. But, she tells W, "The more successful I get, the more I want a boyfriend. But it's hard. Where am I going to meet somebody? Everybody is trying to hook me up - it makes you feel real desperate" ...

DR. JOHN and Garth Hudson jammed at the Supper Club after the Ziegfeld screening of the remixed "The Last Waltz," Martin Scorsese's 1978 movie about The Band. Scorsese, who called it "my favorite film," was joined by Robbie Robertson, Richard Gere and Carey Lowell, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Steve Buscemi, Michael Stipe, Stanley Tucci, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne and Bebe Neuwirth and Bill Pullman ...

DAVID BLAINE came to Betsey Johnson's rescue by putting together a 27th-birthday party for daughter Lulu at Lotus the other night. Blaine performed card tricks, made silverware disappear and set himself on fire.

Summary: T ime apparently has not diluted Mia Farrow's hatred of ex-lover Woody Allen. Farrow has refused to allow so much as one frame of her performance in an Allen film to be used in a Turner Classic Movies tribute to the director. The documentary, "Woody Allen: A Life in Film,"is due to air on May 4. But producers have had to excise clips that feature Farrow in "Alice,


Saturday, August 30th 1997, 2:02AM

In the Coney Island projects Officer Ralph Dols patrolled nightly, children nicknamed him "Gentle Giant" because he would let them swing from his brawny arm.

But yesterday, Dols' family his own and his extended family of 3,000 cops who stood tall with white-gloved hands pressed firmly to their hearts had to say goodbye to their gentle giant, unsure why he was the victim of a mob-style hit.

Detectives yesterday were no closer to solving Dols' slaying, knowing not much more than what the young officer told them before he died that three white gunmen ambushed him from a dark Chevy Caprice.

At Dols' funeral, held at St. Edmund's Catholic Church on Ocean Ave. in Sheepshead Bay, the uncertainty only exacerbated the grief.

"That's the hard part about it," said Officer Sal Carola. "We don't know why he was taken."

Bagpipes and police helicopters could not drown out the sound of his family's sobs as Dols' fellow officers carried his coffin down marble steps.

"He was my blood brother," said Officer Frank Calvaruso, Dols' best friend, who wore dark sunglasses that hid his swollen eyes, and a black band covering hi s badge.

After reading a poem, Calvaruso ended his eulogy simply: "I love you, Ralph."

Dols, 28, was shot to death as he got out of his car in front of his Sheepshead Bay home after his tour Monday night.

Investigators are still looking into whether his wife's marriages to two reputed mobsters in the Columbo crime family could have played a role in his slaying. Investigators are also looking at a possible Russian mob connection.

Mayor Giuliani yesterday described the case as a possible "organized crime hit," but he urged Dols' wife, Kimberly Kennaugh Dols, to have faith that the city is behind her and that her past "doesn't matter."

"They don't know what you're like; they don't know what your family is like," Giuliani said. "I want you to know how much we respect you. You are entitled to a very special love from this city and you have it."

Police Commissioner Howard Safir vowed to catch Dols' killers.

Meanwhile, Dols' co-workers from Police Satellite Area 3 and his partners at PSA 1 passed around an NYPD baseball cap, signing their names and badge numbers, to be presented to Dols' stepson, Eddie Carini, 12.

Residents of the Coney Island housing developments also took up a collection for the cop's family.

"Ralph was superclose to his stepson, so we want to show Eddie how much Ralph was loved by cops and the people in the community he worked in," said Mike Laudonio, 26.

"Eddie is having a hard time, but he wanted all of us to tell him stories about Ralph," said Officer Mike Puhl.

"This tore us all apart," said another cop, Chris DePaolis. "We'll be hurting for a long time."

Summary: In the Coney Island projects Officer Ralph Dols patrolled nightly, children nicknamed him "Gentle Giant"because he would let them swing from his brawny arm. But yesterday, Dols' family his own and his extended family of 3,000 cops who stood tall with white-gloved hands pressed firmly to their hearts had to say goodbye to their gentle giant, unsure why he was the victim of a mob-style hit. Detectives yesterday were no


Last week, "20/20" told you about a British man with Aspereger's Syndrome who is capable of some amazing feats of memory and learning.

Daniel Tammet is a mathematical genius, capable of astronomical calculations in the blink of an eye. He's also a gifted linguist, speaking nine languages including one he created called Manti.

In that report, we said we watched Daniel Tammet take on the Icelandic language on a visit to that country. In fact, Daniel's trip was recorded four years ago by a documentary team which licensed "20/20" the videotape from their film, "Brainman." ABC News should have cited the documentary and made clear when it was recorded. We apologize for the errors.

Summary: Correction regarding "20/20" broadcast of June 4, 2010.


By ROBERT GEARTY and CORKY SIEMASZKO

Monday, June 10th 1996, 2:00AM

Shane Daniels, the 21-year-old who was savagely beaten into a coma outside a Hamptons nightclub, opened his eyes and answered his family's prayers by asking: "Where's mom?"

With those first words, spoken to his father and sister, and with a smile, Shane gave a sure sign Saturday that he was on the road to recovering from the brutal racial bashing allegedly at the hands of a cop he took outside Club Marakesh in Westhampton Beach, L.I.

"To hear him talk and see that smile makes it all worthwhile," his dad, Curtis, said yesterday. "He's quite a kid. He's all heart."

Shane opened his eyes and recognized his father and sister Sabrina as doctors were removing a breathing tube. His mom was not at the hospital when her son spoke.

Shane had been in a coma, part of it induced by doctors to control his healing, since the May 26 beating.

First, Shane smiled. Then he spoke.

"It was so heartwarming for all to hear him talk," said Curtis Daniels, who lives in Riverhead. "It's encouraging as hell. I feel great."

Curtis Daniels said his son said a few more words, but nothing about the racially charged beating that caused a brain hemorrhage and left him comatose.

Shane Daniels is black. The accused cop, Detective Constantine Chronis, is white.

Shane remains in critical but stable condition at University Hospital in Stony Brook. Dr. George Tyson, the hospital's chief of neurology, is expected to issue an update today on his condition.

Tyson had been concerned about a dangerous buildup of spinal fluid caused by injuries suffered when Chronis allegedly used a steel car-anti-theft device to whack Daniels across the head.

"He is breathing on his own," said hospital spokeswoman Ellen Barohn. "The breathing tubes were removed on Saturday. . . . He is talking."

Chronis, 34, charged with assault, was being held yesterday on $1 million bond or $500,000 cash bail at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead. He is expected to appear at a bail hearing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Suffolk County prosecutors were expected to impanel a grand jury this week that will begin weighing evidence toward a possible assault indictment against Chronis.

Initially, police said they were investigating whether other off-duty cops were with Chronis when the beating occurred.

They cited witness accounts that Chronis had clubbed Daniels to the ground while another man used a gun to keep Daniels' pals at bay.

Later they questioned NYPD Sgt. David Reiss, a friend and former co-worker of Chronis', who told investigators he was not with his pal that night.

Investigators have since concluded that it is unlikely other officers were involved in the incident.

Clouding the case against Chronis, investigators now have at least one witness who identifies Chronis as the man holding the gun.

Club Marakesh has been closed since a day after the attack. Last week, state officials suspended its liquor license.

Summary: Shane Daniels, the 21-year-old who was savagely beaten into a coma outside a Hamptons nightclub, opened his eyes and answered his family's prayers by asking: "Where's mom?"With those first words, spoken to his father and sister, and with a smile, Shane gave a sure sign Saturday that he was on the road to recovering from the brutal racial bashing allegedly at the hands of a cop he took outside Club Marakesh in Westhampton


The developer of MyTwitterButler, a $10 auto-follow application for Twitter (eg. follow thousands of people on Twitter so they follow you back), is claiming today he’s been “sued” by Twitter.

It’s not true: the letter he published under the title “I’m Being Sued by Twitter!!” is a cease and desist asking him to stop breaking the Twitter TOS (auto-follow is not permitted, nor is creating an app to auto-follow, since the only real use case is to spam) and to stop using “Twitter” in his product name and domain name due to confusion with Twitter’s trademark.

That one tidbit is the only interesting chapter to the story: Twitter has typically turned a blind eye to Twitterholic, Twittercounter and hundreds of legitimate Twitter applications using the Twitter name. Going after these legitimate applications would create bad PR, even though Twitter is indeed obligated to defend its trademark or risk losing it.

In fact, Twitter has won plaudits for allowing its ecosystem to blossom in this way. And after filing to trademark the word “Tweet”, the company was very clear that it would not be chasing down app makers who used the word in their names. On the subject of the Twitter trademark itself, Biz Stone wrote:

Regarding the use of the word Twitter in projects, we are a bit more wary although there are some exceptions here as well. After all, Twitter is the name of our service and our company so the potential for confusion is much higher. When folks ask us about naming their application with “Twitter” we generally respond by suggesting more original branding for their project. This avoids potential confusion down the line.

It seems increasingly clear where the line is drawn: creating spammy apps may not go down well, while those creating new applications would be best to use something more novel than “Twitter” in the app name.

We’ve put a note in to Twitter’s lawyers asking for clarification, and we’ll update if we get more details.

Summary:
The developer of MyTwitterButler, a $10 auto-follow application for Twitter (eg. follow thousands of people on Twitter so they follow you back), is claiming today he's been "sued" by Twitter.

It


A former reality-TV producer arrived in Mexico on Thursday after being extradited from the US over charges he killed his wife during a family vacation to Cancun.

Bruce Beresford-Redman landed at Cancun's airport before being taken to a prison in the resort, Mexican newspaper El Universal reported.

The former Emmy-nominated producer of "Survivor," who is charged with aggravated homicide, was expected to go before a judge by the end of the week.

He could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted, according to the report.

Monica Beresford-Redman was found dead in a septic tank at a Cancun resort on April 8, 2010 -- what would have been her 42nd birthday -- two days after her husband reported her missing.

The couple, married for nine years, had been vacationing with their two young children.

Investigators believe Monica Beresford-Redman was strangled in a room at the Moon Palace Hotel three days before her body was found. An autopsy showed that the cause of death was asphyxia by suffocation.

Bruce Beresford-Redman has continually protested his innocence.

His attorneys claim that testimony from the couple's six-year-old daughter contradicts prosecutors' assertions that there was loud arguing coming from the family's hotel room on the night Monica Beresford-Redman was killed.

The producer has been held in a Los Angeles jail since November on a fugitive arrest warrant. He chose not to appeal a US court ruling in December that upheld his extradition to Mexico in order to "defend himself on the charges," his attorneys Richard Hirsch and Vicki Podberesky said at the time.

Summary: Ex 'Survivor' producer extradited to Mexico on charge he murdered wife


The cautionary tales, which Joseph compared to anti-smoking campaigns, would be aimed at females from the “least good homes” and would combat a “sharply rising trend” that threatened more crime and declining educational standards.

"By hypothesis, most of those who provide bad parenting tend to be the least self disciplined and with short time horizons. Those girls who are most at risk will tend neither to restrain themselves nor to insist on or use contraceptives nor to have sufficient grip even to consider abortion in sufficient time.”

How, asked Thatcher’s ideological mentor, should attitudes be changed? After running through a list of options including instruction at school and classes organized by the DHSS, he continued: “One possibility - delicate and fraught with risk - would be to try to use, in connection with pregnancy, the approach used in connection with cigarette smoking - that is fear.”

Joseph, derided asmargaret the Mad Monk by his critics, went on: “We could therefore explore whether short scare films, suggesting that maternity is marvellous when the parents concerned are ready for it, might be practicable.”

In 1974 Joseph had warned in a speech that young single mothers from the lower social classes were threatening the balance of “our human stock”. His remarks, carrying with them overtones of eugenics, helped bury his chances of become leader of the Conservative Party, opening the way for Thatcher to succeed Edward Heath.

Sir John Hoskyns, former head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit, and still a confidante of hers in 1982, sensed danger, scribbling in ink on the Joseph memo: “Sir Keith is on important but sensitive ground.”

Summary: Teenage girls should be deterred from becoming teenage mothers by a campaign   of fear, one of Margaret Thatcher’s most senior ministers suggested.


With few exceptions, nice guys don’t change the world. Especially in the digital universe. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to “The Social Network,” appears to be quite a handful. And Apple founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011 of pancreatic cancer, was such a piece of work that he requires two biopics to do him justice. This one, directed by Joshua Michael Stern (“Swing Vote”), suggests that Jobs will fare better with the upcoming version from Aaron Sorkin, Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Network.” If one were to compare this film to one of Jobs’s own products, it would be more like the Cube than the iPod.

Nonetheless, “Jobs” does offer some redeeming features — Ashton Kutcher in the title role, for one. In preparing for it, Kutcher practiced Jobs’s austere “fruitarian” diet and ended up in the hospital with a wonky pancreas for his troubles. He also adopts Jobs’s lopey, vaguely Cro-Magnon walk; the piercing stare; the explosive, abusive tirades. He nearly captures the soul of the man, except when he sounds like Keanu Reeves.

At first, it seems like the filmmakers are up to the task, too. Though a bit corny, an early montage set in 1974, in which the latter-day hippie Jobs trips on acid with friends in a cornfield, packages many of the themes of the man’s life in a few minutes. Gazing into the heavens, Jobs weeps about being an abandoned, adopted child; but then, like Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams,” he hears a voice calling out to him, “There’s no time to waste!” He spins in ecstasy, and the film doesn’t waste time either, as it intercuts images from the next few years of his life: his pilgrimage to India in which a guru tells him “Life is but a journey,” a calligraphy class where he learns the beauty of fonts, and then an IBM ad that lauds the future of man and computers, all set to a Bach Brandenburg concerto.

Yes, this is a man who will transform the world, even though he kicks out his girlfriend when she gets pregnant, and betrays many of his friends along the way.

Well, maybe the sequence seems inspired compared with what follows, a chronicle of high and low points in Jobs’s career put together like a PowerPoint demonstration. In 1976, the first Apple computer is born in Jobs’s garage; though designed by his geek pal Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad), Jobs does the visionary work of selling it — in this case at a local computer store.

Next, Apple launches the groundbreaking Apple II, which, as Jobs intones, “puts the power and beauty of technology in everyone’s possession.” In 1984 he unveils the Macintosh, and the award-winning commercial that posits this machine as the only hope of avoiding Orwellian totalitarianism. Then his own company betrays him, only to beg him later to return, which he does, triumphantly, with another world-changing product, the iMac, and another world-convincing promotional campaign featuring the legendary “Think Different” commercial.

Meanwhile, Kutcher goes through a routine of staring into space as he gets another brainstorm, flying into a savage tirade at those too dumb to comprehend his vision, and giving yet another inspirational pep talk. They are not persuasive; the Apple commercials that Stern unwisely shows are more cinematic than the film.

Summary: The first of two biopics of the late founder of Apple (another written by Aaron Sorkin is in development) features a compelling performance by Ashton Kutcher in the title role but otherwise reduces the life to a series of inspirations, tirades, and motivational speeches set in corporate boardrooms.  It seems like an extended Apple ad, with a few gossipy asides, but less entertaining.


According to comScore's August 2013 Multi-Platform report, 2 in 3 (67%) of UK internet users access the internet via 2+ connected devices every month (up from 59% in January this year). PC-only users constituted only 28% in August, considerably down from 37% in January, whilst Mobile-only access almost doubled its share to 5% in the same period.

Multi-platform internet usage is good news for content-creators and advertisers, as UK multi-platform users consume 23% more digital content than PC-only users, according to comScore's data.

Tablets in particular are driving high content consumption: for instance, comScore's data shows that the UK newspaper audience on tablet is now a quarter of the size of the PC audience.

According to UM's Wave 7 report, covered by Campaign magazine (with a nice infographic), 3 in 4 adults in 65 countries the report covers now own a smartphone, up from 44.8% just a year earlier. 33.3% now own a tablet vs. just 19.4% a year ago.

In addition, smartphones are now used for more activities than ever before: up from an average of 3.7 online activities in 2012 to 5.2 in 2013.

Mobile devices now account for all online sales growth as the amount of sales through desktop computers has plateaued, according to a new report by IMRG and Capgemini, covered by Econsultancy.

Though total online retail has averaged around 15% growth since Q1 2011 figures excluding mobile have actually seen a steady decline before flat-lining in Q2 2013.

23% of all online retail sales in Q2 2013 came from mobile devices. Of this proportion, tablet devices account for 85% of mobile sales so far this year with smartphones making up the remaining 15%.

Analysis of RadiumOne's data, has found that the UK is the first country to share more on mobile platforms than on desktops.

The first time when sharing on mobile devices in the UK rose above 50% was in May 2013. By August, consumer sharing in the UK was dominated by mobile devices with average desktop sharing accounting for just under a third of all sharing (32%). As recently as November 2012, mobile sharing accounted for only 28%.

Business Intelligence reports that social media marketers are moving away from metrics that purport to measure ROI, realising that social media isn't a transactional engine.

Similarly, basic metrics like number of fans or likes, known as "vanity metrics," don't offer much beyond making social media managers feel good about themselves.

Social media is mainly good at building brand presence and deepening relationships with customers. Therefore, the most suitable metrics to adopt are audience Reach, Engagement, and Sentiment.

Surprisingly few brands and businesses use metrics to perform a competitive analysis of how they stack up against other brands on social media platforms.

Summary: This week we've learned that PC-only internet use was becoming a thing of the past with mobile device ownership soaring and cross-platform internet access, shopping and sharing being the normal way of life


One of the true masterpieces of British art, John Constable's Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, will this week begin its first national tour, and visitors will no doubt admire the rainbow which arcs across it so prominently and fabulously.

But the rainbow could not be there – it is meteorologically impossible.

"That rainbow does not belong there, it is unrealistic," said John Thornes, an emeritus professor of applied meteorology at Birmingham university.

"The give away for me is the shadow to the left hand side. It shows that the sun is way over to the right of the meadows – it is not behind the rainbow. To see a full bow like that the sun has to be behind you."

The monumental Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows has storm clouds, lightning and sunshine all battling away over bucolic England and was one of the best loved paintings in the National Gallery for decades. Its display there was a loan, however, and when it was put up for sale by the heirs of Lord Ashton of Hyde the gallery was committed to completing the purchase of two Titians, the most expensive in its history.

That meant it was Tate which successfully raised the £23.1m needed to buy it. It received substantial amounts of money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund and part of the deal was that it went on a UK tour.

On Friday it will go on the first leg of that, on display at the National Museum Cardiff where visitors will be able to see it until September.

Of course it does not really matter that the rainbow could not be there. It does not stop it being a stupendous work of art and the scene has been interpreted as a metaphor for the political pressure being felt by the Church of England as well as the personal emotional turmoil of Constable after the death of his wife. In both cases the rainbow suggests optimism – there is light at the end of the tunnel. But it is slightly surprising given how much of a stickler Constable generally was for accuracy and how good and ahead of his time he was in portraying the peculiarities and unusual optical effects of the weather and skies.

"Constable was very concerned with representing as closely as possible reality and his meteorological knowledge was very good," said Thornes. "He was capable of recreating weather scenes at will."

He said it was also extremely unusual for lightning to appear at the same time as a rainbow but it did happen on very rare occasions. He said Constable deserved some slack cut. "This is before the days of photography so people didn't really know how to represent lightning."

Thornes was not trying to detract from the beauty and brilliance of the painting, he said. "One of the great things about Constable's art is that there are so many things you can look at and most of it was real.

"Art historians tend to be rather inward looking. I did a conference once where if they'd had rotten tomatoes to throw at me, they would have thrown them. How can a meteorologist tell an art historian something they don't know about Constable? And it's true that if an art historian started to tell me how to forecast the weather I'd be very suspicious."

Thornes wrote a book about Constable's skies around 15 years ago and is now considering a new edition.

In the meantime people can see the painting in all its monumental glory in Cardiff alongside the museum's own Constable, A Cottage in a Cornfield. Accurate rainbow or not, the painting is one that Constable was rightly proud of. He called it "The Great Salisbury" and wrote: "I am told I got it to look better than anything I have yet done."

Summary: The painting was loaned to the National Gallery for decades but when put up for sale was bought by the Tate for £23.1m


WASHINGTON A CONFRONTATION between authors and those who print and bind the books they write has broken out over an obscure provision of the Copyright Act designed to protect domestic jobs.

The Authors League of America, representing 11,000 professional writers, maintains that Congress may be helping one group of workers at the expense of another.

The Book Manufacturers Institute and the Graphic Arts International Union, worried about growing competition from Japan and the newly industrialized countries of the Pacific Basin, are pressing for extension of a ''Made-in-U.S.A.'' manufacturing requirement, which would otherwise expire July 1.

Their vehicle is a bill introduced by Representative John M. Ashbrook, Republican of Ohio, which would extend the so-called manufacturing clause, which eliminates copyright protection on works printed overseas by American publishers.

The clause applies only to works written by Americans. It does not apply to British, Canadian and other foreign writers who write in English, and therefore, the Authors League maintains, acts to discriminate against American writers.

Irwin Karp, counsel to the Authors League, explained that if the choice of a British author's novel or biography carries with it the bonus that it can be produced much more cheaply by manufacturers in Taiwan or Hong Kong, that puts American authors competing for a place on a publisher's list at a great disadvantage.

The Authors League is lobbying to get the manufacturing clause phased out. But if the league fails, as is likely from the support the Ashbrook bill and a companion measure in the Senate already have mustered, it wants the manufacturing requirement to apply to all literary works, regardless of the author's nationality.

The printers cite Labor Department studies showing that elimination of the manufacturing clause could result in the loss of 78,000 to 172,000 jobs in the United States publishing and printing industry.

Stephen F. Owen, lawyer for the Book Manufacturers Institute, said that many American companies will be forced to build plants in the Pacific Basin in co-ventures to stay competitive.

For the time being, however, noted Leo N. Albert, vice president of Prentice-Hall Inc., one of the largest publishing companies, it is still more economical to print in the United States. The Lost Veto

It had to happen some day, and when it did it caused barely a ripple. On Feb. 23, the United States lost its veto over changes in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development charter. Changes, which don't occur very often, require a vote of 80 percent of the World Bank's subscriptions.

The United States share, which had been well over 20 percent for most of the institution's 35 years of existence, dropped on Feb. 23 to 19.29 percent. But it will rise to more than 20 percent again when the United States makes its contribution for fiscal 1982.

Although other Western countries would probably prevent any changes opposed by the United States from being forced on the Bank, the lost veto stands as a symbol both of waning American financial support for the bank and of a declining American influence in the world. A Rich Lode

Private economic forecasting services have struck gold in the Federal bureaucracy. According to a study by the General Accounting Office, the four leading ones - Data Resources Inc., Chase Econometrics, Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates Inc. and Merrill Lynch Economics Inc. - practically doubled their take from Federal agencies between 1978 and 1980. In fiscal year 1978, their receipts totaled $1.8 million. By fiscal 1980, these had increased to $3.3 million. Later data are not available.

The report showed that in total, 24 departments and agencies spent $50 million in 1980 on economic modeling activities. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, Democrat of Texas, who asked for the G.A.O. study, commented that the bureaus should be getting such informtion from the President's Council of Economic Advisers. ''There appears to be a lot of room for Congress to make a substantial cut in spending here,'' he said. Briefcases

* The Administration is expected to use the spate of trade reciprocity bills introduced recently in Congress as a negotiating tool to get more concessions from Japan. The bills, however, are unlikely to get any Administration endorsement. They have already roused the wrath of trading partners.

* The National Association of Realtors has come up with some staggering figures on losses in economic output as a result of the depressed housing industry. Jack Carlson, the group's chief economist, reported that the slump reduced the gross national product by $138.6 billion last year.


Hometown: Born in Tennessee, moved eight times, settled in Southie at the Distillery with wife Meghan.

Think of: A modern mix of Expressionism and Impressionism, sometimes with a street-art twist. “I just try to paint exactly how I want to and how I feel like I need to. That way, whatever I paint is going to be my hands.”

What caught our eye: A vibrant, vivid, imaginative take on the city of Boston.

Light bulb moment: Before making a go of being a professional artist, O’Day was an engineer and designer for the Navy. He graduated from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley. “Somewhere between getting out of college in 2005 and now, I just said ‘I’m just going to try to make a go of it as a professional artist.’ . . . I guess it was about a year and a half ago that I made that decision.”

Biggest thrill: “Earlier this year I did a show where I collaborated with 15 other artists and it was a complete experiment, but it was far more successful in the response from the public than any other show I’ve ever had. It was at Voltage in Kendall Square. It was the most exciting thing too because I didn’t have control over the whole thing. It could have gone either way, but people loved it, I loved it. It was just one of those times where something finally worked.”

Inspired by: “First, I would say my friends and peers. The people that I work with and the people that I went to school with and the people that I make art with, they’re my biggest inspiration . . . you’re just getting better every time you get together.” O’Day also notes “any of the artists where you can see a heavy hand,” like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ralph Steadman, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Aspires to: “I’ve never had a show overseas, so that’s my next step. My next main goal in life is to find a place for my wife and my child-to-be to live. We’re having a daughter in July.”

For good luck: Listening to heavy metal music. O’Day is also a drummer/singer in a two-man heavy metal band, Mollusk.

What people should know: O’Day paints more than just landscapes. “People probably wouldn’t know unless they came to my studio that I do mostly non-landscapes. All the work that I make for myself is quite a bit different.”

Coming soon: O’Day will open a solo show titled “Dissolving Structures: New Work by Adam O’Day” at Cassandra Complex Gallery in Provincetown in June. www.thecassandracomplexgallery.com

Summary: Age: 32 Hometown: Born in Tennessee, moved eight times, settled in Southie at the Distillery with wife Meghan. Think of: A modern mix of expressionism and impressionism, sometimes with a street-art twist. “I just try to paint exactly how I want to and how I feel like I need to. That way, whatever I paint is going to be my hands.” What caught our eye: A vibrant, vivid, imaginative take on the city of Boston. Lightbulb moment: “Somewhere between getting out of college in 2005 and now, I just said ‘I’m just going to try to make a go of it as a professional artist.’…I guess it was about a year and a half ago that I made that decision.” Before making a go of being a professional artist, O’Day was an engineer and designer for the Navy. He graduated from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley.


FORTUNE — When Apple AAPL posted the off-contract price of the entry level iPhone 5C on its Chinese website — 4,488 yuan including taxes and import fees, or more than $730 — Wall Street reacted with something akin to sticker shock, driving the company’s share price down $56 (11%) in less than a week.

After all, this was the device with which Apple was supposed to reclaim its lost market share in the world’s largest mobile phone market. How was it going to do that with a $730 phone?

But now that we’ve seen the first rate cards from China Telecom CHA and China Unicom CHU — the No. 2 and No. 3 Chinese carriers after China Mobile CHL — it’s clear that Chinese buyers will have plenty of opportunities to avoid the full unlocked sticker price. Like AT&T T , Verizon VZ and the rest of the U.S. carriers, the Chinese mobile phone operators are subsidizing the new iPhones — in some cases more aggressively that than their U.S. counterparts.

China Telecom, for example, offers three different plans in which the iPhone 5S, which starts at $199 in the U.S., is free to Chinese buyers — as long as they are willing to lock themselves into a long and relatively expensive contract.

China Unicom has eight plans that offer the $99 iPhone 5C for “free.”

[UPDATE: According to MacRumors, many models of the iPhone 5S, which were available for pre-order in China but not in the U.S., have already sold out in China. Apple U.S., meanwhile, has not issued its usual Monday morning pre-sale sales report, perhaps because sales were light, perhaps because Apple doesn't want to reveal sales numbers for one new model without the other.]

Zero dollars upfront, its turns out, is also an option in Japan and the U.K., as indicated by the chart below, posted Monday by ISI’s Brian Marshall.

How well the new iPhones sell at those subsidized prices depends on how onerous the monthly charges turn out to be. According to Bloomberg, China Unicom has already taken 100,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 5C. How that compares to the 300,000 orders it took for the iPhone 5 last year won’t be clear until the other new model — the iPhone 5S — goes on sale this Friday.

“Carriers across the U.S. (and internationally) are already offering a wide range of price and plan choices for 5c/5s,” ISI’s Marshall told his clients. “We believe the actual choices consumers have for iPhone adoption (e.g., both upfront and monthly costs) are much more varied than can be captured by a single, unlocked ‘sticker’ price.”

Summary: In China, the $99 iPhone 5C goes for anywhere from 4,488 yuan ($730) to "free."


General Motors GM isn’t the only company struggling under the weight of millions of auto recalls.

The pain has trickled down to car rental companies, which are struggling with added costs and low supply due to the faulty vehicles.

This includes Hertz HTZ , which said Tuesday that the recalls have impacted its bottom line and its annual results will be “well below” initial expectations.

Nearly 44 million vehicles have been recalled in the U.S. this year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. GM alone recalled about 28 million cars for safety repairs, including those with faulty ignition switches that were linked to driver deaths. While car rental agencies are not required to have recalled vehicles fixed, many will not send out cars with known safety concerns.

Hertz initially expected 2014 earnings of $1.70 a share, but the high number of recalls and an ongoing audit of past financial results led the company to lower its outlook. Investors took note: Hertz’s stock dropped as much as 13% Wednesday. It’s largest intraday plunge since Nov. 5 and erasing all the company’s stock gains for the year.

The recalls constrained the supply of available vehicles, which “limited the company’s ability to convert demand into transaction days.” While limited supply is often associated with higher prices, that wasn’t true for Hertz since most vehicles are booked ahead of time.

“Fulfilling advance reservations and contracted business consumed the majority of available fleet,” Hertz reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “This left the company without inventory to capture more of the higher-rate leisure close-in rentals.”

Avis CAR , which reported its second quarter results on Aug. 5, said that recalled vehicles cost the company in the tens of millions. The company had close to 125,000 recalled cars through the end of July, approximately one-third of its peak fleet. That’s almost double the 70,000 recalled vehicles throughout all of 2013. The record number of recalls “played havoc with fleet and operational logistics,” said CEO Ron Nelson.

Avis held onto more cars than it normally would to meet high customer demand, adding to its overall fleet costs that it anticipated would be up 3% year-over-year.

“It is a constantly evolving issue and some cars have been grounded for literally months because of an inability to get parts and some cars we can fix overnight because it is just a flash to the car computer,” said Nelson when asked about the added expenses. “But I would say at least through the first — at least through July, let’s put it at that, it is an eight digit number.”

Not every rental company felt the recall impact to the same degree.

Enterprise Holdings — a private company that includes Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Alamo and National — said that the spat of faulty vehicles didn’t have a material impact on its business, according to spokeswoman Christine Cavallini. In fact, the company benefited from the overflow of people who rented cars while their recalled vehicles were being serviced.

Both Avis and Hertz expect the ongoing impact to diminish over the third and fourth quarters of this year, pending the stream of faulty vehicle announcements trails off.

Late Wednesday, billionaire investor Carl Icahn revealed in a SEC filing that he has taken a large stake in Hertz.

Summary: The car rental companies are struggling with higher costs and low supply due to a rash of car recalls this year.


Small- and medium-sized U.S. businesses ramped up hiring in October, clocking up the second highest monthly gain in job growth for 2014.

Private-sector payrolls in the U.S. grew by 230,000 in October, according to a report by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing and analysis provider Moody’s Analytics — growth that matched what observers had projected.

The gain was fueled by sharp increases for medium-sized businesses, which added 122,000 jobs last month, and the 102,000 jobs added by small businesses. ADP classifies medium-size businesses as those with 40 to 499 employees. Small businesses have fewer than 50.

“Job growth is strong and broad-based across industries and company sizes,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

The professional/business services sector added the most jobs last month, 53,000. Job growth was also strong for the construction, manufacturing, and trade/transportation/utilities sectors.

The labor market has strengthened of late, bolstered by U.S. economic growth that has encouraged employers to add jobs and issue fewer pink slips. The Federal Reserve and economists have been encouraged by the broad-based nature of those new jobs, though weak wage growth has been problematic.

Zandi said with unemployment and underemployment quickly declining, better progress could soon be made on the wage front.

“The job market will soon be tight enough to support a meaningful acceleration in wage growth,” Zandi said.

The ADP report was issued two days before the federal government’s monthly jobs report, which includes the unemployment rate. Economists expect that report to show U.S. hiring climbed by 240,000 in October, while the nation’s unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 5.9%.

Summary: Solid increase of 230,000 positions last month, according to latest ADP report.


As anticipated, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is finalising preparations to track jolly old Saint Nicholas on his journey around the world.

Following a classified test flight of Santa’s sleigh and reindeer contingent last month, the defence organisation has launched its annual campaign, NORAD Tracks Santa, and has begun rolling out the technology used to follow Santa Claus each year.

According to the official ‘NORAD Tracks Santa’ website, there are four methods used in the tracking operation.

The first signs of Santa Claus’ departure are revealed via the NORAD radar system, designated as the North Warning System.

This complex and powerful radar system utilises the resources of 47 installations in the United States and Canada to monitor North American airspace, with its capabilities extending all the way to the North Pole.

NORAD and other agenices across the globe will be tracking Santa this Christmas.

Once the radar system has received indications of Santa’s sleigh in flight, a network of geo-synchronous satellites should be able to detect the distinct infrared signal that is produced by Rudolph’s very shiny nose as he guides the sleigh into an initial departure configuration.

NORAD then uses strategically placed ‘SantaCams’ to visually acquire Santa and his sleigh as he passes over various locations along his flight path.

These digital cameras are only activated once a year, on December 24, and images are downloaded onto the NORAD Tracks Santa website for the public to view.

To confirm Santa’s progress, NORAD launches Canadian CF-18 fighter jets to escort Santa Claus across Canadian airspace.

Once Santa Claus enters United States airspace, the venerable F-15, F-16 or the newer F-22 fighter jets take over escorting duties.

While the reindeer-powered sleigh can significantly outpace NORAD’s fighter jets (its maximum speed is estimated to be ‘faster than starlight’), Santa Claus seems quite happy to reduce speed and wave to the escorting pilots.

If Santa Claus repeats his flight plan from previous years, the children of the South Pacific will be the first to receive gifts this year.

Santa will then make quick progress as he travels across New Zealand and Australia, generally travelling in a westerly direction but also zig-zagging north and south to make sure he covers the entire population.

While over Australian airspace, Santa Claus will receive additional guidance from Australian air traffic control services.

According to Airservices Australia, Santa will be utilising a technology known as ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast.

This technology will allow our air traffic controllers to monitor Santa’s progress across Australian airspace, much the same way that air traffic controllers can already track the thousands of commercial flights each day.

To distinguish the sleigh from other air traffic, Santa will use the designation ‘SLEIGH RIDER 1’ over Australian airspace.

NORAD concedes that while they have some historical information regarding Santa’s flight path, unforeseen circumstances such as weather could alter Santa’s progress across the hemispheres, hence the need to keep a close eye on his progress.

The Santa-tracking operation is believed to have begun in 1955 following the misprint of Santa’s telephone number on a department store advertisement.

The telephone number would have put children in contact with the North Pole, but due to the misprint, the number actually connected children through to the ‘hotline’ of the Commander-in-Chief at CONAD (the predecessor of NORAD).

Rather than ignore the erroneous telephone calls, the team at CONAD would give updates to the children of Santa’s whereabouts.

For nearly sixty years, volunteers at NORAD have been pooling their resources during the Christmas season to continue the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, increasing their capabilities and extending their reporting to the Internet.

While the annual tracking operation has been overwhelmingly successful, some mysteries are still unsolved.

For example, Santa’s ability to give gifts to billions of children in a single night has been particularly puzzling for physicists and aerospace engineers alike, with some suggesting that warping of the space-time continuum around the sleigh could allow Santa to reach every boy and girl before daybreak.

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(REUTERS) – U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as crude oil prices continued their descent, but the S&P closed out a third straight year of double-digit gains.

For the year, the Dow ended up 7.5 percent, notching its sixth straight annual gain, and the Nasdaq rose 13.4 percent. The best-performing S&P component in 2014 was Southwest Airlines Co up 124.6 percent, whileTransocean Ltd, down 62.9 percent, was the worst.

Equities lost steam heading into the New Year after rallying nearly 6 percent over eight sessions, sparked by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s commitment to be “patient” about raising interest rates and positive economic data.

Still, the S&P 500 has risen in seven of the past ten sessions, hitting a series of intraday and closing records, and finished the year up 11.4 percent. The stock market will be closed Thursday.

“The fact of the matter is markets put in a solid year in spite of significant headwinds that could have easily derailed a multi-year bull market,” said Peter Kenny, chief market strategist at Clearpool Group in New York.

“The most the bears got out of this year was a 10 percent correction on an intraday basis and the markets stubbornly moved higher, and for good foundational reasons.”

Gains may be tougher to come by next year, and a pick-up in profits growth may be essential if the market is to continue to add to its historic gains.

Action in the energy space was once again a focus for investors. U.S. crude oil settled down 85 cents at $53.27 a barrel, its lowest since May 2009. Brent settled down 57 cents to $57.33.

The S&P Energy index, easily the worst performing sector of the year with a decline of 10 percent, lost 0.8 percent Wednesday. Diamond Offshore fell 3.6 percent to $36.71 and Noble Corp fell 2.8 percent to $16.57.

The CBOE volatility index, which measures the cost of protection against a drop on the S&P 500, surged 20.4 percent, its biggest jump since Dec. 10 and the fourth straight climb. Quarterly options on the S&P 500 expire at the end of the month.

“Part of it may be the quarterly expiration of S&P options but a lot of it has to do with crude being down today,” saidJ.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at retail brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

Traders might be also looking to load up on some protection before they head out for the holiday, Kinahan said.

“We had such a nice year that many people may be looking to buy some protection for a ‘just-in-case scenario’ for between now and the new year,” Kinahan said.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 160 points, or 0.89 percent, to 17,823.07, the S&P 500 lost 21.45 points, or 1.03 percent, to 2,058.9 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 41.39 points, or 0.87 percent, to 4,736.05.

Volume was light, with about 5.21 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.95 billion average this month, according to BATS Global Markets.

Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE 2,000 to 1,105, for a 1.81-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,571 issues fell and 1,194 advanced for a 1.32-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 126 new highs and 35 new lows.

Summary: Despite occasional market gyrations, major indexes all showed strong gains for 2014.


If artificial intelligence does lead to humanity's downfall, it probably won't be as dramatic as in the Terminator movies. (AAP)

There was the psychotic HAL 9000 computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey".

The humanoids which attacked their flesh-and-blood masters in "I, Robot".

And, of course, "The Terminator", where a robot is sent into the past to kill a woman whose son will end the tyranny of the machines in the future.

Never far from the surface, a dark, dystopian view of artificial intelligence (AI) has returned to the headlines, thanks to British physicist Stephen Hawking.

"The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," Hawking told the BBC.

"Once humans develop artificial intelligence it would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said.

But other experts were divided.

Some agreed with Hawking, saying that the threat, even if it were distant, should be taken seriously. Others said his warning seemed overblown.

"I'm pleased that a scientist from the 'hard sciences' has spoken out. I've been saying the same thing for years," said Daniela Cerqui, an anthropologist at Switzerland's Lausanne University.

Gains in AI are creating machines that outstrip human performance, Cerqui argued. The trend eventually will delegate responsibility for human life to the machine, she predicted.

"It may seem like science fiction, but it's only a matter of degrees when you see what is happening right now," said Cerqui. "We are heading down the road he talked about, one step at a time."

Nick Bostrom, director of a programme on the impacts of future technology at the University of Oxford, said the threat of AI superiority was not immediate.

Bostrom pointed to current and near-future applications of AI that were still clearly in human hands -- things such as military drones, driverless cars, robot factory workers and automated surveillance of the Internet.

But, he said, "I think machine intelligence will eventually surpass biological intelligence -- and, yes, there will be significant existential risks associated with that transition."

Other experts said "true" AI -- loosely defined as a machine that can pass itself off as a human being or think creatively -- was at best decades away, and cautioned against alarmism.

Since the field was launched at a conference in 1956, "predictions that AI will be achieved in the next 15 to 25 years have littered the field," according to Oxford researcher Stuart Armstrong.

"Unless we missed something really spectacular in the news recently, none of them have come to pass," Armstrong says in a book, "Smarter than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence."

Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, an AI expert and moral philosopher at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, said Hawking's warning was "over the top."

"Many things in AI unleash emotion and worry because it changes our way of life," he said.

"Hawking said there would be autonomous technology which would develop separately from humans. He has no evidence to support that. There is no data to back this opinion."

"It's a little apocalyptic," said Mathieu Lafourcade, an AI language specialist at the University of Montpellier, southern France.

"Machines already do things better than us," he said, pointing to chess-playing software. "That doesn't mean they are more intelligent than us."

Allan Tucker, a senior lecturer in computer science at Britain's Brunel University, took a look at the hurdles facing AI.

Recent years have seen dramatic gains in data-processing speed, spurring flexible software to enable a machine to learn from its mistakes, he said. Balance and reflexes, too, have made big advances.

Tucker pointed to the US firm Boston Dynamics as being in the research vanguard.

It has designed four-footed robots called BigDog (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww) and WildCat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhooVgC_0eY), with funding from the Pentagon's hi-tech research arm.

"These things are incredible tools that are really adaptative to an environment, but there is still a human there, directing them," said Tucker. "To me, none of these are close to what true AI is."

Tony Cohn, a professor of automated reasoning at Leeds University in northern England, said full AI is "still a long way off... not in my lifetime certainly, and I would say still many decades, given (the) current rate of progress."

Despite big strides in recognition programmes and language cognition, robots perform poorly in open, messy environments where there are lots of noise, movement, objects and faces, said Cohn.

Such situations require machines to have what humans possess naturally and in abundance -- "commonsense knowledge" to make sense of things.

Tucker said that, ultimately, the biggest barrier facing the age of AI is that machines are... well, machines.

"We've evolved over however many millennia to be what we are, and the motivation is survival," he said.

"That motivation is hard-wired into us. It's key to AI, but it's very difficult to implement."

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Summary: Famed scientist Stephen Hawking's view that artificial intelligence is an imminent threat to human life has stirred debate in the field, with experts weighing in on both sides of the fence.


Ted Dimon Sr. started a new job yesterday.

Not just any job. Formerly a broker at Merrill Lynch, Dimon joined the brokerage unit of JPMorgan Chase . His son happens to be CEO of the parent company.

Word is, Jamie Dimon steered clear of the deal to hire his 78-year-old dad, who arrived with five other Merrill brokers in tow. According to people close to father and son, Ted Dimon Sr. initially reached out to Barry Sommers, the CEO of Bear Stearns Private Client Services, in the spring of last year, after JPMorgan Chase bought Bear on the cheap as the Wall Street firm was collapsing. Talks revved up in the past four months, as Merrill has been adjusting to its own integration into Bank of America and new leadership under former Citigroup exec Sallie Krawcheck.

It’s been musical chairs across the industry lately. (The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that UBS’ new wealth management boss, Bob McCann, who hails from Merrill, is hiring a team of top guns from his old firm.) For the elder Dimon, the rhythm could not be more different at 277 Park Avenue, where his office is directly across the street from his son’s. (“As I look from the third floor over Park Avenue, I have a bird’s-eye view of when Jamie gets in the morning,” Dimon Sr. said through a JPMorgan spokesman this morning.) Whereas BofA Merrill Lynch employs 14,979 financial advisors (as brokers like to be called), JPMorgan’s Bear operation is a boutique with just 380 such salespeople. Jamie Dimon, who is 53, wants to expand the business, though. He’s talked about upping the number to 1,000.

We hoped to chat with Ted Sr., but he’s apparently too busy building client assets. (He started his new job on the day the Dow hit a 13-month high.) We do have a sense of how the father-son dynamic will work at JPMorgan Chase. In Last Man Standing, the recently released biography of Jamie Dimon, author Duff McDonald says that when Ted Sr., the son of Greek immigrants who became a stockbroker 50 years ago, was working for Salomon Smith Barney under Jamie and Sandy Weill, “there might be a company name on his business card, but Ted Dimon Sr. reported to no one.” He was a “free agent,” and Jamie confirmed that “he would never say I was his boss.”

It was Ted Sr. who introduced Jamie and Sandy Weill decades ago when Jamie was a teenager and the families socialized together. If you’re familiar with the Shakespearean saga that followed, you probably know that Jamie wrote an economics paper at Tufts University, where he went to college, about the 1974 merger of Hayden Stone (Weill’s company) and Shearson, Hammill (where Ted Sr. worked). Impressed with Jamie’s analysis, Weill hired the brash whiz kid to work for him.

And they went on to assemble the financial-services empire that became Citigroup. Their relationship unraveled over personal rivalries and jealousies. Weill fired Dimon. And Dimon went on to be CEO of Bank One and then, in 2005, JPMorgan Chase.

Now Ted Dimon is staking his future at JPMorgan, which outranks Citigroup, BofA, and even Goldman Sachs in stock-market capitalization. No dummy, that Dimon.

Summary: by Patricia Sellers Ted Dimon Sr. started a new job yesterday. Not just any job. Formerly a broker at Merrill Lynch, Dimon joined the brokerage unit of JPMorgan Chase . His son happens to be CEO of the parent company. Word is, Jamie Dimon steered clear of the deal to hire his 78-year-old dad, who…


Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle

Ginn again? WR will reportedly visit 49ers

Last year, the 49ers had interest in a slew of free-agent wide receivers with punt-return ability, a list that included New England’s Julian Edelman, Detroit’s Golden Tate and Atlanta’s Devin Hester.

A year later, the search continues. And that explains why well-traveled wideout Ted Ginn, 29, will visit the 49ers on Wednesday, according to ESPN.

Ginn, of course, is a decorated return specialist whose three-year tenure with the 49ers was highlighted by two fourth-quarter return touchdowns in a win over Seattle in the 2011 season opener. Ginn visited the Titans on Tuesday.

In an eight-year career spent with four teams, he’s ranked among the NFL’s top 10 in punt-return average five times. His 11.1 career average ranks 17th in NFL history and third among active players. Last year, in his lone season with Arizona, he ranked eighth in punt-return average (10.7) and had a 71-yard touchdown. He averaged a career-low 19.0 yards on 22 kickoff returns.

The Cardinals signed Ginn to a three-year, $9.75 million contract last year, but released him in February in a cost-cutting move.

The 49ers are seeking a speedy wide receiver, but likely wouldn’t be looking for the fleet Ginn to fill that role. Ginn, the No. 9 pick in 2007, has averaged just 20.2 catches and 264 yards per season since 2009. In 2014, he had 14 catches for 190 yards with no touchdowns.

Last year, wide receiver Bruce Ellington served as the 49ers’ primary punt returner and averaged 8.2 yards on 23 runbacks. The 49ers also signed return specialist Trindon Holliday before the regular-season finale and added Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne this week.

Summary: Last year, the 49ers had interest in a slew of free-agent wide receivers with punt-return ability, a list that included New England’s Julian Edelman, Detroit’s Golden Tate and Atlanta’s Devin Hester.  Ginn, of course, is a decorated return specialist whose three-year tenure with the 49ers was highlighted by two fourth-quarter return touchdowns in a win over Seattle in the 2011 season opener.  In an eight-year career spent with four teams, he’s ranked among the NFL’s top 10 in punt-return average five times.  Last year, wide receiver Bruce Ellington served as the 49ers’ primary punt returner and averaged 8.2 yards on 23 runbacks.  The 49ers also signed return specialist Trindon Holliday before the regular-season finale and added Australian rugby league star Jarryd Hayne this week.


Barbie Shero dolls Trisha Yearwood (left), Sydney Keiser, Emmy Rossum, Ava DuVernay, Kristin Chenoweth and Eva Chen

04/29/2015 AT 01:00 PM EDT

Talk about living in a

Toy manufacturer Mattel honored six inspirational power females who have pushed boundaries and expanded possibilities for women by creating one-of-a-kind lookalike dolls, which were unveiled Friday at

's Power of Women Luncheon in New York City.

for Barbie's Shero (a clever term for lady heroes) project were

, actress and animal welfare activist

magazine editor Eva Chen, country singer-actress

But Barbie collectors won't find these special editions in stores. Following the awards ceremony, each honoree auctioned off her doll doppelgänger to benefit a charity of her choice.

"I'm honored that they asked me to be a part of this," Yearwood told PEOPLE at the event. "I think about the women in my life that have been my Sheroes, and my mom is the one that comes to mind."

star Rossum took to Instagram to express her excitement about her new mini me, writing, "#Mattel made me my very own Emmy Barbie."

The celebration continued Monday when Barbie celebrated its National #Shero Day by encouraging women everywhere to give a social media shout out to female leaders in their lives using the special hashtags #Shero and #BeSuper.

Summary: "I'm honored that they asked me to be a part of this," Barbie honoree Trisha Yearwood told PEOPLE


WHEN taxpayers receive raises to offset the ravages of inflation, they often experience so-called bracket creep. That is, they are taxed more heavily on some or all of their added income under a system that levies at a progressively higher rate. More and more individuals who have encountered this frustration are investing in tax-exempt municipal bonds, and they do so mostly through unit investment trusts.

Unit investment trusts consist of fixed portfolios of tax-exempt bonds. In today's high-interest market, they offer tax-free yields of 10 1/2 to 11 percent.

Taxpayers with surprisingly modest incomes can use the trusts effectively. For example, a family reporting taxable income of $25,000 would be in the 32 percent Federal income tax bracket. To obtain an after-tax yield equivalent to a unit investment trust's, the family would have to find a taxable investment yielding 16 percent.

The advantage offered by the trusts is, of course, more dramatic as one moves up the income scale. Those who are taxed at a 50 percent rate, for instance, would have to find a taxable investment offering 21 percent for equivalent after-tax yield.

Last year was a banner one for unit trusts. Roughly $4.5 billion worth was sold, a stunning increase from 1979's $2.95 billion, then a record.

Frank P. Wendt, chairman of John Nuveen & Company and a pioneer in these trusts, explains that trust assets are invested in tax-exempt securities rated A and AA. Adding to the trusts' appeal, he said, is the fact that units are redeemable at any time at net asset value. In most cases, equivalent tax-sheltered investments would not provide the diversification offered by the trusts, which normally include 15 to 20 different municipal bond issues.

Although trust units come in $100 denominations, $5,000 is the usual minimum investment, even on an additional commitment. Mr. Wendt said that the usual purchase was for at least $20,000 worth.

There are also special unit investment trusts for those who pay income taxes to state or local govern-ments. The assets of these trusts are invested in securities issued within a given state. There are earmarked intrastate trusts for New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California, all of which impose heavy income taxes. For residents purchasing these special trusts, the income is totally free from Federal, state and local income taxes.

Nuveen has issued 170 unit investment trusts as sole sponsor. A spokesman for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith says that a syndicate managed by that firm has marketed 244 of the trusts. In all, there are more than a dozen sponsors, including such major brokers as E.F. Hutton; Smith Barney, Harris Upham, and Moseley, Hallgarten.

Almost every broker offers unit investment trusts, whether the firm is a sponsor or not, and it is possible to buy them whenever brokers are open for business. Although trust prices are normally not quoted in the newspapers, brokers supply quotations daily.

The holder receives periodic income by check and can arrange for monthly, quarterly or semiannual payments. The holder can also choose to have his income automatically reinvested, tax-free, to gain the benefits of compounding.

There are disadvantages and risks, however. Obviously, long-term owners of unit trusts would sustain heavy losses if they liquidated their holdings today. When interest rates rise - as they have of late to record levels - prices of existing fixed-interest obligations recede until yields equal those available on new securities of similar quality.

Mr. Wendt contends that those who buy at today's record rates ''could experience capital gains if interest rates return to more traditional levels.'' He conceded, however, that those who own fixed-interest securities would be further behind if interest rates rose higher still.

In his view, unit investment trusts are purchased by investors seeking a reliable stream of tax-free income over a period of years. ''They are less concerned about market price fluctuations than the common stock purchaser, for example,'' Mr. Wendt said.

In relation to other tax shelters, he said, unit trusts are ''really the only shelter available to the individuals providing marketability as well as a fixed stream of tax-sheltered income.'' Traditional shelters such as oil, gas and real estate have certain tax write-off benefits, he said. But he added: ''Typically, they are not marketable investments. Meantime, the income stream usually varies.''

Despite the appeal of the unit trusts, some investors prefer individual issues of municipal bonds for even higher yields and for the ability to select specific maturities so that the principal will be available when needed - for tuition when a son or daughter starts college, for instance.

While municipals can be purchased directly in multiples of $5,000, the normal trading unit is $25,000. The smaller so-called odd lots do not generally command a good secondary market. Furthermore, unless an individual has a substantial sum of money to invest, diversification can be difficult.


WASHINGTON, May 7— The State Department asserted today that the United States did not expect Libya to cut off exports of oil to the American market in retaliation for yesterday's order expelling Libyan diplomats from Washington.

The department's spokesman, Dean Fischer, told reporters at his daily briefing, ''We have no reason to assume that this might happen.'' Libya provides about 4 percent of United States oil.

Later, however, in an interview published in the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, Ali el-Houderi, the head of the Libyan mission in Washington, warned that Libya might indeed halt oil supplies to the United States in reaction to the expulsion order, according to United Press International. ''The shutting down of the American Embassy in Tripoli is also a possibility,'' he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Fischer declined today to give detailed reasons for the expulsion order, which yesterday was attributed to Libya's ''wide range of provocation and misconduct'' including support for international terrorism. Nor would he be drawn into speculation that the Reagan Administration had made the move because the world oil supply is now plentiful.

The spokesman said that representatives of many of the 50 American companies, including oil companies, that operate in Libya had met with State Department officials today to discuss the safety of the 2,000 Americans living in Libya. Companies Previously Cautioned

He said the department had previously urged the companies to get their people out of Libya. Mr. Fischer said department officials had explained the expulsion order to the company officials, but again declined to be specific.

Mr. Fischer said that the 27 members of the Libyan Embassy staff, including their families, had been ordered to leave the United States by midnight next Wednesday, which he said was five working days after the order has been issued.

He noted that the 4,000 Libyan students in American schools would be allowed to remain so long as they obeyed United States laws. He also said he had no reason to believe that they would be put under surveillance, as some Iranian students were during the period when American hostages were held in Teheran.

Asked why the United States, on one hand, was seeking help from the Soviet Union to lessen tensions in the Middle East while, on the other, expelling the Russians' Libyan friends from Washington, Mr. Fischer said that this was not a case in which ''linkage applies.'' P.L.O. Will Be Allowed to Stay

He said that the Palestine Liberation Organization's information office in Washington would be allowed to remain, even though the Administration has labeled the P.L.O. a terrorist organization. Mr. Fischer said the Administration would ''look at each case on its merits.'' He declined to say whether the Libyans would be permitted to open a similar office.

On a related matter, Mr. Fischer said that Ambassador Philip C. Habib, the President's special envoy, had arrived in Beirut on his mission to listen to leaders in that region for ideas on how to resolve what Mr. Fischer called ''the extremely dangerous situation'' in Lebanon.

The spokesman said he did not know whether Mr. Habib would return to Washington to report and to help formulate an American position on the crisis or would undertake ''shuttle diplomacy'' among the capitals in an effort to mediate the dispute. He said only that Mr. Habib needed ''maximum flexibility'' to operate. ---- Libya Denies Backing Terrorism

TRIPOLI, Libya, May 7 (AP) - The Libyan Government, in response to the expulsion of its diplomats from the United States, denied today that it supports international terrorists, according to the Libyan press agency.

The Government maintains that it distinguishes between terrorism, which it opposes, and liberation movements, which it supports. ''Libya has condemned international terrorism in every stand it has taken and in all international accords regarding the subject,'' the agency said. ----

A report on oil output by American companies in Libya appears on page D8.


DALLAS, Feb. 10— H. Ross Perot, the Texas computer millionaire who once dispatched a paramilitary team to free two of his employees from an Iranian prison, is now bringing a vigorous legal challenge to the agreements that led to Iran's release of the 52 American hostages.

Mr. Perot's Dallas-based computer services company, the Electronic Data Systems Corporation, is seeking a court order to bar the United States from ''taking any action to nullify, interfere with, or abrogate'' either the $19 million judgment it won against Iran for breach of contract, or the order it obtained attaching Iranian funds to satisfy that judgment.

If Mr. Perot wins, it is possible that the court could broadly invalidate parts of the agreement with Iran on constitutional grounds. It is also possible, however, that a narrower ruling in his favor could simply conclude that the agreement, legal or not, does not apply to his company's unique position.

Judge Robert W. Porter of the Federal District Court here, who awarded E.D.S. a $19 million judgment against Iran last May 9, is expected to rule this week on a preliminary injunction.

The Justice Department has opposed the request, arguing that an injunction would be ''premature'' because President Reagan has not yet determined what actions to take to implement the hostage agreement, and also that the court should not ''interfere with the implementation of sensitive foreign policy'' by limiting the President's options.

Former President Carter promised in the hostage agreement ''to terminate all legal procedings in the United States courts'' by American persons and companies against Iran, ''to nullify all attachments and judgments obtained therein, to prohibit all further litigation based on such claims, and to bring about the termination of such claims through binding arbitration.'' He also promised to ''act to bring about the transfer'' from the United States of more than $3 billion in Iranian assets that remain frozen.

The Justice Department said in its brief last week that ''these agreements, when fully carried out, will settle the crisis with Iran.'' But Mr. Reagan and other top officials have said that the Administration is still studying legal issues concerning the agreements and has not yet determined the extent to which they will be carried out. In a Strong Position

E.D.S. is in perhaps the strongest legal position of all the companies that have challenged or plan to challenge the as-yet unperformed provisions of President Carter's agreements with Iran.

The company is apparently the only one of the more than 350 claimants with lawsuits against Iran that won a final judgment which attached Iranian assets - secured by a court order - before Nov. 14, 1979. That is the date when President Carter froze all such assets in the wake of Iran's seizure of the hostages. The attachment order against Iranian deposits in the Marine Midland Bank in New York was issued on June 13, 1979 by Federal District Judge Charles L. Brieant in New York.

E.D.S. filed its lawsuit against Iran on Feb. 23, 1979, charging Iran with failing to make payments for several months for E.D.S.'s work in helping computerize Iran's national health, welfare and social security records under a three-year contract signed in 1976.

The broad legal and constitutional challenges thrown down in the 41-page brief filed by Thomas W. Luce 3d, a Dallas lawyer representing E.D.S., go to the core of President Reagan's power to implement his predecessor's international agreement.

The President has broad constitutional and statutory powers to conduct foreign affairs without interference from the courts. But no President in history has attempted to sweep away court orders and lawsuits by decree in order to ship out of the country billions of dollars of foreign assets claimed by Americans, as President Carter agreed to do. Some legal experts, as well as lawyers representing claimants, say that Presidential power to take such steps is very much in doubt. 'Outermost Boundaries'

E.D.S. argues in its brief that ''in its understandable zeal to end the illegal imprisonment of Americans by defendant, the Government of Iran, the executive branch has adhered to agreements which, if applied to E.D.S., will clearly cross the outermost boundaries of the executive's legal powers under the Constitution and statutes of the United States.''

E.D.S. also asserts that it uniquely has obtained both a judgment in its favor and an attachment of Iranian funds. Further, it argues, if the agreement with Iran was intended to restore things as they were before the freeze, that attachment should be honored.

The pre-freeze attachment and the $19 million judgment are not the only unusual aspects of E.D.S.'s dispute with Iran. Mr. Perot, a 50-year-old Annapolis graduate, sent employees trained in paramilitary techniques and led by a retired Green Beret colonel to Teheran in an effort to free two employees he said were being held as hostages for ransom.

The two employees were jailed by the late Shah's Government on Dec. 28, 1978, several months after Iran stopped making payments under the contract, apparently in connection with allegations of corruption involving American companies and Iranian officials. The Shah's Government demanded a $12.75 million payment, which it said was owed by the company, for the release of the two employees.

The employees escaped from the prison on Feb. 11, 1979, when a revolutionary mob stormed the prison following the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile. Mr. Perot said his men had arranged the mob, although his account is disputed by American diplomats.

Illustrations: Photo of H. Ross Perot


THE STRANGER BESIDE ME, by Ann Rule. (NAL/Signet, $3.50.) The story of Theodore Robert Bundy, the prototypical ''boy next door'' who is suspected of having killed 36 young women in five states and was convicted of three murders in 1979. The account is all the more remarkable because it is told by a crime writer who knew him for 10 years but hadn't the slightest inkling that he was the guilty man when she set out to report on the case. Our reviewer Thomas Thompson called this ''as dramatic and chilling as a bedroom window shattering at midnight.''

THE TROUBLE WITH NOWADAYS, by Cleveland Amory. (Ballantine, $6.95.) In this satiric tirade, Cleveland Amory settles down in a chair in a gentleman's club and, in a style befitting a crusty curmudgeon, holds forth on such ills of our times as emancipated women, unregulated children, ''new'' religions, contemporary literature and the servant problem. As a New York Times reviewer observed, he ''is one of those rare writers who can illuminate deep moral indignation with hilarious anecdotes and sardonic wit.''

THE PHILOMEL FOUNDATION, by James Golin. (Avon, $2.25.) A quintet that specializes in playing old music on old instruments receives an offer from a foundation it can't refuse - a chance to make several concert appearances in Europe. Then it turns out they're expected to help get a famous Russian musician, a dissident, out of East Germany. A quietly told, consistently absorbing espionage tale, embellished with details about the music world that strike the right note.

THE OWL SERVICE, by Alan Garner. (Ballantine/ Del Rey, $1.95.) When Alison and her new stepbrother Roger go with their parents to the house in a brooding Welsh valley that belonged to her late father, they find themselves caught up in an eerie chain of experiences that repeat and extend the legends of the locality. The subtle manner in which Alan Garner weds haunting romance and acid reality makes this book, originally published in 1967 as a story for young people, deserve the attention of fantasy lovers of all ages.

TESTAMENT OF FRIENDSHIP. TESTAMENT OF EXPERIENCE. By Vera Brittain. (Wideview Books, $7.95 each.) In these two volumes, the English novelist Vera Brittain (1893-1970) continues the autobiography she began in ''Testament of Youth'' (Wideview, $7.95). In ''Testament of Friendship,'' first published in 1940, she recalls her close relationship with Winifred Holtby, formed when they were Oxford undergraduates and continued through Miss Brittain's marriage and their separate careers as practicing writers. In ''Testament of Experience'' (1957), Miss Brittain tells of her happiness as wife and mother and her fears, frustrations and achievements as a public figure during a quarter century marked by the Depression, the growth of fascism, the Spanish Civil War and World War II. As Carolyn G. Heilbrun writes in an introduction to the latter volume, the author ''still lives among us as a writer of testaments, cantankerous both for herself and for noble causes.''

HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, by Joanne Greenberg. (Avon, $2.95.) Ten short stories by Joanne Greenberg, who under the name Hannah Green wrote that memorable 1964 novel ''I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.'' They concern crimes both serious and comic, Jewish characters, an ambulance driver, inmates of an insane asylum, a drug peddler. In his review, Ivan Gold remarked that Mrs. Greenberg is ''able to write movingly of God and Satan, good and evil, faith and doubt, because she grounds the largest themes in the most persuasive mundane detail.''

A SHORT WALK IN THE HINDU KUSH, by Eric Newby. (Penguin, $4.95.) After 10 years in London's fashion biz, Eric Newby whimsically decided to take off with a friend on an expedition through the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, an adventure for which they were equipped with only a British sense of humor. This report on what ensued, originally published in 1959 as ''A Short Walk: A Preposterous Adventure,'' is wry, droll, sometimes eloquent, a small classic of its kind.

MASSIMO SCOLARI: Watercolors and Drawings 1965-1980, edited by Francesco Moschini. (Rizzoli, $19.95.) This album of 99 watercolors and 277 drawings records the artistic development of Massimo Scolari, an innovative young Milanese architect whose ideas became known in this country during the past half dozen years while he served teaching stints at Cornell, U.C.L.A. and Cooper Union. As the Italian art critic Francesco Moschini observes in his introduction, some critics ''tend to completely dismiss Scolari's work or to relegate it to the sidelines with respect to the real issues of architecture,'' in part because of his own ''obscure'' and ''ambiguous'' comments about it. Mr. Moschini offers his own assessment of the architect's aspirations and accomplishments, an assessment that is likely to provoke further discussions and reappraisals. Reproduced above are sketches for houses made by Mr. Scolari during the mid-70's.


ATLANTA, Sept. 13— New Yorkers were not th e only people to get a surprise just before the primary elections. A tlantans, preparing for their own citywide nonpartisan primary on Oct . 6, got their own shock.

On Friday, a Fulton County judge ruled that 76,980 people in Atlanta and Fulton County, nearly a third of the registered voters in those jurisdictions, had been improperly registered. Their votes in the uncoming primary will be disqualified, he said, unless his ruling is overturned.

This ruling by Judge Charles Weltner unleashed a host of problems in what had been emerging as a relatively unexciting campaign for mayor. The court ruling has overshadowed all other issues as political analysts attempt to assesss its effects.

A suit by the Voter Information Project, a Republican supported organization of primarily white conservatives, was brought before Judge Weltner. The judge ruled that the county had failed to follow the specifics of a 1978 state law requiring election officials to advertise neighborhood voter registration sites in advance.

Before his ruling, Judge Weltner said, ''A matter as essential to the republic as voter registration has got to be carefully structured.''

With that, Judge Weltner rejected arguments by county attorneys that although they had not complied with the letter of the law, they felt that the general public had been made aware of the establishment of the voting sites thorough newspaper articles. Hearing Set for Wednesday

By nightfall, the county and several organizations had filed appeals with the Georgia Supreme Court. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Fulton County election officials were trying to sort out the effects of the ruling. Election officials said that to comply with the court order, 95,000 registration cards would have to be gone through by hand so that those who were registered at neighborhood locations could be ''flagged.'' If the appeals process has not been completed by Oct. 6 and the elections are not postponed, those voters' ballots will be impounded pending resolution of the appeals, unless they have again registered.

Some citizens here who are deeply involved in political life noted that most of those who registered at neighborhood voter registration points were blacks and that such a ruling, if upheld, could have a major effect on the outcome of the race for mayor, as well as other contests.

Nearly a dozen candidates are in the race to succeed Mayor Maynard Jackson, who is not permitted to run for a third term. The leading candidates appear to be former Representative Andrew Young, who was chief United States delegate to the United Nations in the Carter Administrati o n; Reginald Eaves, a Fulton County commissioner and former commis sioner of safety for the City of Atlanta, and Representativ e Sidney Marcus, chairman of the Fulton County House delegation to the State Legislature.

Mr. Marcus is white and the other two are black, but Mr. Marcus has considerable support among blacks. Atlanta is just over 50 percent black. Implications Being Studied

A spokesman for Mr. Marcus said that his staff was still trying to assess the implications of the ruling. Efforts to reach Mr. Eaves by telephone were unavailing.

Stoney Cooks, a spokesman for the Young campaign, said the ruling constituted an ''attack'' upon the right of citizens to vote and was a ''violation'' of the Voting Rights Act, which was adopted in 1965 by Congress to protect the interest of racial minorities in the political process.

Jondell Johnson, executive director of the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said, ''The N.A.A.C.P. will not accept this ruling lying down.''

John Tye Ferguson, a county attorney, called the order an ''extreme remedy'' for ''nonfeasance of election officials.''


''There is so much posturing. All the characters - the Governor, the Mayor, the M.T.A., the Comptroller, the legislative leaders, the Council President -trying to avoid responsibility, and meanwhile the system collapses around us.''

That was the unusually frank assessment by Carol Bellamy, the City Council President, of the public agonizing by transit and public officials over an almost inevitable increase in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's bus and subway fare.

The attempt to demonstrate herculean efforts to avoid a fare raise while diffusing or shifting responsibility for it in an effort to influence voters has been standard procedure in the city and state for many years. The strategem is supposed to be particularly important now because Mayor Koch is seeking re-election this year and Governor Carey is preparing to seek a third term next year.

Election records, however, do not support the theory that voters punish politicians for fare increases, and politicians cannot recall any mayoral or gubernatorial candidate who was defeated because of one. Board Shields Politicians

''Fare increases don't hurt - that's a truism, but I don't think politicians perceive it that way,'' said Harold L. Fisher, former M.T.A. chairman and a veteran of many city and state campaigns.

''They're less damaging than politicians think,'' said Deputy Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., Mayor Koch's principal spokesman on the authority. However, he recalled with a chuckle that his grandfather, the late Senator, thought ''he had not been strong enough on the 5-cent fare.''

In fact, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which would actually impose the fare increase, helps shield elected officials from voter wrath. The authority's members are appointed by the Governor, Mayor and legislative leaders of both parties, so responsibility for its actions - such as a fare increase - can be diffused.

The fare held steady at 5 cents from 1904 to 1948 and has been increased seven times since then, three times under former Mayor John V. Lindsay. Yet, Mr. Lindsay was re-elected after one fare increase and retired undefeated after the other two. William O'Dwyer was also re-elected after the subway fare jumped from 5 to 10 cents in 1948. Fiscal Crisis, Not Fares

Mayor Abraham D. Beame was defeated two years after the fare rose from 35 to 50 cents in 1975, but his defeat was widely ascribed to the city's fiscal crisis, not the fare increase. Similarly, Vincent R. Impellitteri was defeated in the Democratic primary after the fare jumped from 10 to 15 cents in 1953 but then, too, the fare was not a major issue.

The fare was last increased - from 50 to 60 cents - in June, but there are no indications it had any ill effects on Mayor Koch's standing in the polls.

But elected officials still run scared in the face of a fare raise. ''A fare increase doesn't help'' a politician seeking re-election, said former Mayor Robert F. Wagner, father of the Deputy Mayor and one of the master politicians of recent years. He said a fare increase would represent ''further irritation'' of riders already angered by ''crime, graffiti and poor maintenance.'' Wagner Theory Has Its Adherents

The principals in the city-state-M.T.A. negotiations to fill a growing gap in transit operating revenues, apparently subscribe to the Wagner theory: Mayor Koch seemingly resists a fare increase while pressuring the state for more operating funds, while Governor Carey looks to the fare box as well as the city and state to take up the slack.

The Mayor has even proposed possible regional or statewide taxes in lieu of a fare increase, but this, too, can be seen as political manuevering - upstate and suburban legislators have a history of resisting tax increases for their constituents that will be even partly used to defray city transit costs.

''The fare increases always come after the fact,'' Miss Bellamy said, ''after the service is bad because of lack of funds. My own preference is some kind of transit tax, but how real is it? It would require very difficult, hard lobbying that hasn't happened yet.''

Miss Bellamy was the target of a Koch barb last week when he compared the Council President to ''Pontius Pilate'' because she - doing some pirouetting herself - said she thought the authority's chairman could raise the fare without the board's approval. Koch Assails Bellamy Proposal

Their differences deepened when the Mayor accused her of trying ''to cut off our legs at the knees'' by her proposal that the city use its 1981 budget surplus to help close the transit operating deficit. He contended that Miss Bellamy had undercut the city's bargaining position with the state.

''Everybody's jockeying for position so that it will be the other guy's fault,'' said Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff, a former city transportation administrator and a member of the authority's board.

At a recent board meeting, Stephen Berger, another member, facetiously expressed the hope that all parties would endorse Mr. Koch's re-election ''and leave us alone for six months.''

''It comes down to whether or not the politicians will accept the responsibility for which they were elected,'' Mr. Sidamon-Eristoff said. ''If they don't do what they should do, we'll do it.''


WEST BERLIN, July 23— The Soviet Union is not prepared to remove nuclear weapons to have the Kola Peninsula included in a proposed nuclear-free zone for Northern Europe, Novosti, the Soviet press service, said here today.

A statement, with a Moscow dateline, also ruled out inclusion of the Baltic Sea, where the Russians keep a fleet of submarines carrying nuclear warheads.

The idea of a nuclear-free zone that would include Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark has been discussed in the last few months in the Scandinavian countries and was brought up by Willy Brandt, the West German Socialist leader, in talks with Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, in Moscow this month.

Mr. Brandt said after his return to Bonn that he would urge the Norwegians and other Scandinavians to seek clarification from the Soviet Union on the proposal. For all practical purposes, the area is already a nuclear-free zone, as no Scandinavian country has atomic arms or has permitted the deployment of such weapons on its territory.

The Novosti statement said: ''As far as Soviet territory is concerned, the military potential on the Kola Peninsula is part of the global strategic balance between the United States and the U.S.S.R. and is not aimed at the Nordic countries.''

The Kola Peninsula borders on Finland and Norway. The statement emphasized Moscow's interest in the plan, saying the Soviet Union was ready to act ''as a guarantee power for a nuclearfree zone in northern Europe.''

Novosti said the call for inclusion of the Baltic was ''illogical'' since only inland waters of participating countries could be declared nuclear free.

''If it is a question of adjoining territories, the area of Schleswig-Holstein, where atomic weapons are stationed, or the international waters of the North Atlantic, where rocket-carrying American submarines and carriers are constantly in operation, can just as much be included as the Baltic or the Kola Peninsula,'' the report said.

Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany's northernmost state, is the site of some American nuclear weapons. The Soviet statement said that Mr. Brezhnev was ready to discuss with representatives from the Nordic countries ''some measures in Soviet area bordering on Scandinavia,'' adding that this professed willingness to discuss the issue ''represents a concession to the skeptics in Northern Europe.''