bulge激凸

Into the Woods

Economics and declining birthrates are pushing large swaths of Europe back to their primeval state, with wolves taking the place of people.

By Stefan Theil

Newsweek International

July 4 issue - Germans are getting used to a new kind of immigrant. In 1998, a pack of wolves crossed the shallow Neisse River on the Polish-German border. In the empty landscape of Eastern Saxony, speckled with abandoned strip mines and declining villages, the wolves found plenty of deer and rarely encountered humans. They multiplied so quickly that a second pack has since split off, colonizing a second-growth pine forest 30 kilometers further west. Soon, says local wildlife biologist Gesa Kluth, a third pack will likely form, possibly heading northward in the direction of Berlin.

Wolves returning to the heart of Europe? A hundred years ago, a burgeoning, land-hungry population killed off the last of Germany's wolves. Today, it's the local humans whose numbers are under threat. Wolf-country villages like Boxberg and Weisswasser are emptying out, thanks to the region's ultralow birthrate and continued rural flight. Nearby Hoyerswerda is Germany's fastest-shrinking town, losing 25,000 of its 70,000 residents in the last 15 years.

Such numbers are a harbinger of the future. Home to 22 of the world's 25 lowest-birthrate countries, Europe will lose 41 million people by 2030 even with continued immigration, according to the latest U.N. Population Division report. The biggest decline will hit rural Europe. As Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others produce barely half the children needed to maintain the status quo—and rural flight continues to suck people into Europe's suburbs and cities—the countryside will lose close to a third of its population, say both the United Nations and the EU. "It's a triple time bomb," says University of Lisbon demographer Nuno da Costa. "Too few children, too many old people and too many of the remaining young people still leaving the village."

The implications of this transformation touch on everything from tourism to retirement locales to government conservation and agricultural policies. Our postcard view of Europe, after all, is of a continent where every scrap of land has long been farmed, fenced off and settled, where every tree has been measured, counted and named. But the continent of the future may look rather different. "Big parts of Europe will renaturalize," says Reiner Klingholz, head of the Berlin Institute for Population Development. Bears are back in Austria. In Swiss alpine valleys, farms have been receding and forests are growing back in. In parts of France and Germany, wildcats and ospreys have re-established their range.

This sounds like an eco-environmentalist's dream, inspiring loose talk of a Europe Pastoral—the return of wide-open spaces and primeval wilderness to a densely settled landscape. Yet the truth is more varied, and interesting. While many rural regions of Europe will empty out, others will experience something of a renaissance. Already, attractive areas within striking distance of prosperous cities are seeing robust revivals, driven by urban flight and a rising influx of childless retirees. From Provence to Piedmont, Kent to the Costa del Sol, ex-urbanites are snapping up vacation homes, hobby vineyards and horse farms.

Contrast that with less-favored areas—from the Spanish interior across the Alps to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. These face dying villages, abandoned farmsteads and changes in the land not seen for generations. Both types of regions will have to cope with a steeply aging population and their accompanying health and service needs, says Gunnar Malmberg, a rural geographer at Sweden's Umea University. "Rural Europe is the laboratory for demographic change."

Visit the Greek village of Prastos for an extreme glimpse of what Malmberg might mean. An ancient hill town in the eastern Peloponnese, Prastos once had 1,000 residents, most of them working the land. Now only a dozen are left, most in their 60s and 70s. With no children, the school has been closed since 1988. Sunday church bells no longer ring. "The old people here will die," says visiting ex-resident Petros Litrivis, 60. "Everything will be abandoned." Without farmers to tend the fields, rain has washed away the once fertile soil. Of the 50,000 goats that once grazed the hills, only a fraction remain. As in much of Greece, land that has been orchards and pasture for some 2,000 years is now covered with a parched scrub that, in the summer, frequently catches fire.

Rural depopulation is, of course, not new. Thousands of villages like Prastos dotEurope, the result of a century or more of emigration, industrialization and agricultural mechanization. "But this time it's different because never has the rural birthrate been so low," demographer Costa says. In the past, for example, a farmer could usually find at least one of his offspring to take over the land. Today, chances are he has but a single son or daughter, usually working in the city and rarely willing to return. In Italy, more than 60 percent of the country's 2.6 million farmers are at least 65 years old. Once they die out, many of their farms will join the 6 million hectares (one third of Italian farmland) that has already been abandoned.

Rising economic pressures will amplify the trend. One third of Europe's farmland is marginal, from the cold northern plains to the parched Mediterranean hills. Most of these farmers subsist on EU subsidies, since it's cheaper to import food from abroad. Already, the EU is trying to limit costly overproduction by paying farmers not to farm. "Without subsidies, some of the most scenic European landscapes would not survive," says Jan-Erik Petersen, a landscape biologist at the European Environmental Agency in Copenhagen. Take the Austrian or Swiss Alps. Defined for centuries by orchards, cows and high mountain pastures, those steep valleys are labor-intensive to farm, with subsidies paying up to 90 percent of the cost. The Austrians and Swiss pay up so that the postcard-perfect scenes can continue to exist. Across the border in France and Italy, subsidies have been reduced for mountain-farming. Since then, all across the southern Alps, villages have emptied out and forests have grown back in.

This isn't necessarily the environmentalist's dream it might seem. The scrub brush and forest that grows on abandoned land might be good for deer and wolves, but is vastly less species-rich than traditional farming, with its pastures, ponds and hedges. "Once shrubs cover everything, you lose the meadow habitat. All the flowers, herbs, birds and butterflies disappear," says the EEA's Petersen. "A new forest doesn't get diverse until it's a couple of hundred years old." An odd alliance of farmers and environmentalists have joined to put pressure on the EU to "keep the landscape open," as World Wildlife Fund spokeswoman Catherine Bett calls it. Keeping biodiversity up by preventing the land from going wild is one of the reasons the EU pays farmers to mow fallow land once a year. France and Germany subsidize sheep herds whose grazing keeps scenic heaths from growing in. Outside the range of these subsidies—in Bulgaria, Romania or Ukraine—big tracts of land are returning to the wild.

For governments, the challenge has been to develop policies that slow the demographic decline or attract new residents. In some places, such as Britain and France, large parts of the countryside are reviving more or less on their own as an increasingly wealthy urban middle class in search of second homes recolonizes villages and farms. In southern England, farmland prices have soared, helped along by burned-out investment bankers become hobby farmers, raising organic produce or rare breeds of pigs.

Riding this wave, villages like Santo Stefano di Sessanio in central Italy—down from 1,700 in the early 20th century to 124 mostly elderly people today—are counting on tourism to revive their town. A Swedish investor has bought an entire section of the village and is turning the conjoining medieval buildings into a complex of hostels for tourists and hikers headed for the nearby Abruzzo mountain chain. In Tuscany, an Italian count has taken the entire empty village of Gargonza and turned it into a luxury wellness spa. "The nice villages will be turned into hotels, and the ugly villages will be housing for hotel employees," imagines Carlo Altomonte, an economist at Milan's Bocconi University.

That may be a pipe dream. Once the baby boomers start dying out around 2020, population will start to decline so sharply in many European countries that there simply won't be enough people for every town to reinvent itself as an exurbanite enclave or tourist resort. It's similarly unclear how long current government policies can stave off the inevitable. In northern Sweden, a vast land of thick forests and small rural settlements, three decades of massive spending haven't halted the decline. "In Sweden we now talk about civilized depopulation," says Mats Johansson of the Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm. "We just have to make sure that the old people we leave behind are taken care of."

Eastern Germany is a case study unto itself. Taxpayers have sunk more than 100 billion euro into rural areas, without even a blip in the speed of decline. The countryside is full of subsidized white elephants, from a bankrupt zeppelin factory in Brandenburg to a never-used Formula 1 speedway close to that part of nowhere in which the wolves now roam. Oblivious to the demographics, hundreds of rural communities built vastly oversize water networks and sewage systems, each certain of drawing new businesses and residents. In nine cases out of 10, a dwindling number of villagers now face sharply rising costs. Worse, in some villages there are now too few people flushing for the sewage to properly flow, requiring costly investments to redimension the pipes. Shrinking, they've found, can be an expensive proposition indeed.

Some communities are turning by necessity into laboratories of innovation. In the Swiss canton of Graubunden, where the number of children has sharply dropped, school authorities in the 1980s reintroduced one-room schoolhouses in hundreds of hamlets. "Now we're entering the next phase," says Dany Bazzell of the Graubunden schools department. "There are so few children that not even the one-room schools will survive." In depopulating northern Sweden, Umea University is pushing online learning, giving students an incentive to stay in their village instead of moving away to college, from where they rarely return. Even the French have relaxed their famously strict labor rules for small-town residents, allowing people to combine part-time farm work with civil-sector jobs (such as teaching).

The biggest challenge, however, is finding creative ways to keep up services for the rising proportion of seniors. In the countryside, longer distances can make that tough. When the Austrian village of Klaus, thinly spread over the Alpine foothills, decided it could not afford a regular public bus, the community set up the Dorfmobil, a public taxi-on-demand. It now serves mainly old people without cars or relatives left to drive them. In thinly populated Lapland, an area of 80,000 square kilometers where doctors are few and far between, tech-savvy Finns are meeting the rising demand for specialized health care with Tel Lappi, a service that uses videoconferencing and the Internet for remote medical exams.

Another pioneer is the Spanish village of Aguaviva, whose residents have formed what may be Europe's first grass-roots, small-town movement to welcome foreign immigrants. In Spain's vast interior, one of Europe's most quickly depopulating regions, many villages are already abandoned, while 90 surviving ones, including Aguaviva, have banded together as the Spanish Association of Towns Against Depopulation. In 2000, Mayor Luis Bricio began offering free airfare and housing for foreign families to settle in Aguaviva, a mud-brown town of about 720 on the dry plain in Teruel province. Now, Aguaviva has 130 mostly Argentine and Romanian immigrants, coddled by locals who are grateful that they came. After closing all but the last classroom in the 1990s, Aguaviva has hired another teacher and again boasts 92 school-age kids. "Aguaviva was going to disappear from the map," Bricio says. "Immigration was our only solution."

On a continent with an often troubled relationship to migrants, such bracing realism is an astonishing step. For the most part, though, it's no solution. Like Europeans themselves, most foreign immigrants continue to prefer cities, where many of them already live. And within Europe, migration only exports the problem. Western Europeans look toward Eastern Europe as a fallback source for easy-to-integrate migrants, for instance, yet these countries have ultralow birthrates of their own. Ukraine and Bulgaria will see their populations drop by a third by midcentury. With the EU alone needing about 1.6 million immigrants a year above its current level to keep the working-age population stable between now and 2050, a much more likely source of migrants would be Europe's Muslim neighbors, whose young populations are set to almost double in that same time. But that's a hot-button issue few are as yet willing to address.

Other nettlesome issues are still open, as well. Increasingly, worried European governments are crafting natalist policies to nudge couples to have more children, from offering better child care to monthly stipends keyed to family size. They hope to copy France, which first implemented such policies in the 1930s and remains one of Europe's very few growing countries. Trouble is, these measures might raise the birthrate slightly, but across most of the aging continent there are just too few potential parents around today.

As for the land itself, right now there's a trend in many areas toward abandoning less productive land, which is sometimes reforested, sometimes left to go wild. In the American West, this might have been part of the natural cycle: people move on and the wilderness grows back. "But for thousands of years we Europeans are used to having fields and orchards and pastures around our towns," says Michel Revaz, a Swiss Alpine biologist. "It's part of our genes." The landscape, he says, is glued to the European identity, reflecting what the Germans call "Kulturlandschaft"—a landscape shaped by centuries of human care. Today's unprecedented population decline, amplified by the shifting economics of farming, puts the future of many of those Kulturlandschaften in doubt, just as pressure to cut the subsidies that fund them rises. Many Europeans are reluctant to just let nature do its thing. "We still cry when the woods close in," Revaz says. Unless, of course, you're a fan of the wolves.

With Toula Vlahou in Prastos, Jacopo Barigazzi in Milan, Mike Elkin in Madrid, William Underhill in London, Eric Pape in Paris, and Wojciech Rogacin in Warsaw

Cool websites

全球最酷50網站 時代雜誌票選出爐

【編譯蔡繼光、倪婉君／綜合二十四日外電報導】

時代雜誌選出本年度全球最酷的五十個網站，分成「藝術娛樂」、「網誌」、「生活休閒」、「新聞資訊」和「購物」五大類，食衣住行育樂無所不包，相當實用。值得注意的是，由於部落格在網上發燒，今年特別增設「網誌」類。

時代雜誌每年都會開放讀者票選他們認為能提供資訊和娛樂的五十個超讚網站。

在「藝術娛樂」類方面，從虛擬藝廊、電視八卦到專門討論你的iPod的電台節目，不一而足，一些網路上品質最佳的幽默作品也包括在內。例如，代表動畫網站的Aardman Animations (www.aardman
.com)，是阿特曼動畫公司「酷狗寶貝」卡通電影的正式網站，有興趣的網友還可以連到www.wandg.com觀賞「酷狗寶貝」幕後製作。代表古典音樂的「Opus 1 Classical」是古典樂迷必逛的網站，提供全球各地古典音樂會及各種表演的第一手資料，可依城市和月份搜尋，並提供線上購票服務。

代表書本網站的「The Complete Review」提供一千四百卅本書的書評，可依作者、書名或種類去找書評。「TV.com」從站名就可猜到是電視迷的寶庫，一共收錄一萬四千個電視節目，從喜劇、兒童節目、肥皂劇應有盡有。

代表蒐藏網站的是紐約公立圖書館的數位藝廊digitalgallery
.nypl.org；藝廊網站為線上博物館的博物館www.coudal.com/
moom.php；喜歡iPod的網友一定會喜歡的www.podcastbunker.com，專門品評收錄樂曲的音質和內容及清單。

「網誌」是今年增設的項目，蒐集到很多網友超酷的「個人日誌」， 「Bayraider」網站最妙，盡蒐些e-bay拍賣網站上最怪又最愚蠢拍賣品，還附設連結，提供網友直接點選下標。偷聽網站 Eavesdropping專門收錄在公共場合偷聽到的對話；告解藝術「Postsecret」網站更絕，歡迎網友在網誌上寫下最不為人知的秘密。

想看狗狗可愛的照片嗎？「生活休閒」類的Dogster網站絕對是愛狗人士的最佳選擇，目前有八萬六千三百八十二隻狗狗的照片，每天還會陸續增加。想看名模的美美照片，上zoozoom.com可以一飽眼福。其他如專門蒐集紐約、舊金山、洛杉磯、倫敦和芝加哥五大城市流行文化內容的www.flavorpill.net；癌症照護、數位照片、時裝、美食、房屋整修、長壽、社會網絡等，也都很有看頭。

「新聞資訊」類網站提供法律資訊、新聞、求職等線上資源，超級實用。例如，Blinkx.tv網站可以搜尋廿多家新聞機構的電視新聞報導及影片；消費者保護網站www.idtheftcenter.org提供最近數月偷竊消費者個人資料的犯行。

想撿便宜的拜金網友一定要逛狂「購物」類的Shopzilla網站，提供聰明買家最方便的網上購物，sidestep.com是預訂旅遊行程的網站，www.craigslist.org則是類似分類廣告的電子郵件清單。

Eminent domain

Eminent domain國家征用杈 expanded

Court rules cities can seize homes for economic development

By Jan Crawford Greenburg
Washington Bureau

June 24, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Rejecting pleas上訴 by homeowners fighting to keep their properties, the Supreme Court on Thursday said local governments could condemn處份 a person's home or business so the sites could be redeveloped for more lucrative uses.

In a 5-4 decision written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court said the Constitution permits governments to condemn a person's property, paying them a fair price for it, as part of a broader economic redevelopment plan to revitalize a distressed community.

The decision, one of the most anxiously awaited of the term, emphasized that governments have long relied on powers of eminent domain to condemn property for public uses, such as railways and utilities. The court has historically taken a "deferential approach to legislative judgments in this field," the majority said.

The court recognized the "hardship" such condemnations may bring to property owners uprooted趕出家園 from homes and businesses in the name of economic development. But local governments should be given "broad latitude" to determine whether their citizens would be best served by condemning private property, especially where it is part of a broader scheme for redevelopment, the court said.

"Promoting economic development is a traditional and long-accepted function of government," the court said, upholding支持 efforts by the city of New London, Conn., to redevelop a parcel of land in a distressed part of town.

Nine New London homeowners had argued that the city's efforts to condemn their property for the redevelopment project violated the Constitution's 5th Amendment, which says that no private property shall be "taken for public use, without just compensation." The private redevelopment, they said, was not a "public use."

But the court agreed with New London, holding that the proposed private economic redevelopment, promoted as one that would add jobs and increase tax revenue, did amount to a "public use" that would permit New London to take the homeowners' property after paying them the fair value for it.

Analysts differed sharply on the effect of the decision on future eminent domain cases throughout the United States. Property rights advocates, who have long urged the court to give greater protection to private property, said the decision sets a dangerous precedent that would encourage local governments to be more aggressive in taking private property.

"This is an appalling 不正當 decision by the Supreme Court," said Dana Berliner, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented the New London homeowners fighting to keep their properties. "It's now just fine to take somebody's home or business away from them just because the government thinks someone else can make more profit off that land."

But others said the court's reasoning in its decision, emphasizing that governments need carefully thought-out development plans before condemning private land, would limit the impact of the case.

"I don't think it's, `Katie, bar the door,' for government entities running over private property owners," said Mark Burkland, a co-chairman of the national land use team at the Holland & Knight law firm in Chicago who also represents Lake Zurich and other municipalities in eminent domain cases.

Burkland also pointed out that the decision makes clear that states can impose greater protections for private property than the U.S. Constitution provides. Some states, including Utah, California and Michigan, have already done that, he noted.

Illinois' Constitution contains a provision identical to the 5th Amendment's takings clause. But the Illinois Supreme Court has closely scrutinized condemnation of private land for private redevelopment efforts. In one case, in 2002, it rejected efforts by the Southwestern Illinois Development Authority to condemn a metal-shredding facility in order to provide a racetrack parking lot, said Jerold Solovy, a partner with Chicago-based Jenner & Block, who represented the shredding facility.

Thursday's decision produced a sharp dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who said it means that "any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party.

"Who among us can say she already makes the most productive or attractive possible use of her property? The specter of condemnation hangs over all property," wrote O'Connor, in an opinion joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. "Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

Thomas, who also wrote a separate dissent, said the decision would fall hardest on the poor and minorities, who would be displaced in the greatest numbers by development projects and urban renewal programs.

"So-called urban renewal programs provide some compensation for the properties they take, but no compensation is possible for the subjective value of these lands to the individuals displaced and the indignity inflicted by uprooting them from their homes," Thomas wrote.

The case started in 1998, when the city of New London approved a redevelopment plan for 90 acres of land located next to a new Pfizer Inc. pharmaceutical research facility. The city, looking to create jobs and expand its tax base, planned for hotel, housing and office developments, as well as open space, on the land.

To put its plan in motion, the city created a development corporation to buy the necessary plots from homeowners and gave the corporation the power to condemn the land and force homeowners who were refusing to sell to do so. The corporation then was to lease the land to a private developer for $1 a year for 99 years.

But some homeowners, including one woman who has lived in her home since her birth in 1918, put up a fight and challenged the city's right to acquire their land for private economic redevelopment. They argued that governments could only condemn land for more obvious public uses, such as for utilities or new roads or schools or firehouses--not for private redevelopment.

In his opinion for the majority, Stevens said the court has made clear that the government can't take land merely to benefit a particular private party or where there is no public purpose.

But in the New London case, Stevens said, there was extensive evidence that the city had crafted, thoroughly researched and carefully considered its development plan. He noted that the trial judge had found no evidence that the condemnation was designed to benefit one party or group.

Second, the court said that even though the land would not be entirely open for use by the general public, the court has always rejected such a narrow definition of "public use." The court noted that state courts and the Supreme Court have long said "public use" could include irrigation of private lands and railroad development--both of which led to the economic development of the West.

Moreover, Stevens wrote, courts should defer to legislative judgments, which can best discern local public needs.

美都市更新 可強制徵收

〔編譯張其賢╱綜合二十四日外電報導〕美國聯邦最高法院二十四日以五比四的分歧票數，判決都市政府可出於經濟發展的需要，在給予公正補償的情況下強制徵收私人住家和商店。由於美國各城市均有意推動貧困市區更新再造計劃，預料此一判例將產生廣泛影響。

本案是康乃狄克州新倫敦市的九位市民控告該市政府。新倫敦市因經濟蕭條，人口流失，十五年前被康州認定為「貧困市區」。市府為振興經濟，決定徵收該 市泰晤士河一處半島上的十五處民宅及商家，供民間開發業者使用。業者將拆除這些房舍，改建辦公大樓、會議中心飯店、新住宅區和河邊步道，使之和附近耗資三 億五千萬美元的輝瑞藥廠研發中心結合。市府認為，這項開發案將可創造就業、增加稅收，為全市帶來可觀利益。

擁有這十五處不動產的九名市民不願搬遷，拒絕市府提供的一百六十萬美元補償金。他們向康州最高法院控告市府違憲，但去年被判敗訴。九人不服，繼續向聯邦最高法院上訴，結果九名大法官意見分歧，為政府強制徵收權背書的一方最後僅以一票之差獲勝。

美國憲法第五修正案賦予政府基於「公共用途」徵收私人財產的權力，新倫敦市府據此主張其權力。原告律師反駁指出，「公共用途」只能指供公眾使用的設施如公路等，本案的民間開發案與此不符，因此市府若行使強制徵收權，將是違憲之舉。

然而以史帝文斯大法官為首的五名大法官，卻重新定義「公共用途」一詞的意涵，將之擴大解釋為「公共目的」。他們在意見書中指出，「推動經濟發展，乃 是政府之傳統的與久被接受的職能」，「很清楚地，並無理由將經濟發展從吾人對公共目的之傳統廣泛理解中排除」。由於推動經濟發展屬於「公共目的」，因此市 府為此進行徵收私產，並無違憲之處。

以歐康諾大法官為首的四名大法官，在意見書中對五名大法官的見解不表贊同。歐康諾質疑指出，「吾人中有誰能聲稱已將自己財產做出最具生產力的使 用？」若根據五名大法官的見解，則每一處私人財產都有可能被判定為未經充分利用，卻沒有任何力量能阻止州政府徵收小汽車旅館以興建大飯店、徵收住家以興建 購物中心等。她指出，本案中的發展經濟之舉，其代價將由無權無錢的人承擔：「政府現在有了許可，可以將財產從資源較少者手中，轉移到資源較多者手中」。

How to Record Internet TV

Like regular TV, TV streamed over the internet can be recorded and played back whenever you like, but this requires special software.

The following products are highly recommended by wwiTV.com:

For Windows Media streams, use WM Recorder, from Applian Technologies. It has easy one-click operation, and records virtually any streaming feed. Click here to learn more.

For Real streams, use RM Recorder, also by Applian. It is also easy to use, and supports every Real stream type. Click here to learn more.

If you want to schedule recordings, use WM VCR, which will automatically record Real or Windows Media TV at any time you choose. Click here to learn more.

WM Recorder, RM Recorder and WM VCR are available together in the Replay Video Suite. These three programs working together make enjoying TV over the internet better than ever, and are highly recommended.

Model's data closed to prince

hair: brown chest: 103 cm / 40.5"
eyes: blue waist: 82 cm / 32"
height: 189 cm / 6'2" hips: 98 cm / 38.5"
suit: 52 / 42L inseam: 83 cm / 33"
shirt: 41 cm × 89 cm / 16" × 35" shoe: 45 / 12

慾望新婦Desperate Housewives

Racy? Sophisticated? Misogynistic?
Whatever else you call it, 'Housewives' a sensation
By David Hiltbrand
Inquirer Staff Writer

Desperate Housewives has sunk its lacquered nails deep into the American consciousness.

This tart tale of five discontented neighbors and their shocking secrets is attracting more than 22 million viewers each week. It trails only CSI as TV's top show, making it the biggest out-of-the-box hit since ER a decade ago.

The flawed but fabulous gals of Wisteria Lane, who return at 9 tonight on ABC (Channel 6) after two weeks without an original episode, are the best things to happen to the watercooler since conical cups.

As was the case with previous prime-time fixations - Melrose Place, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos - weekly viewing parties are popping up around the country. These overheated heroines are rapidly acquiring the rarefied status of cultural touchstones.

So why has this sexy and cynical show captured our imagination? And what does its popularity say about us, particularly in the current climate of heightened moral vigilance?

"The biggest reason for its success is not its themes or its placement in feminist history," says Robert J. Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. "It's that it's an exquisitely put-together show. Great casting. They chew up the scenery. And sharp writing that combines the surrealism of Twin Peaks with the nighttime-soap elements of Dynasty. It could take place on a catfish farm and people would watch it."

Despite - or maybe because of - its racy content, people are watching in red states as well as blue states. In fact, Housewives' ratings are higher in Tulsa, Okla., and Nashville than Providence, R.I., and Miami. Surprisingly, it's not as strong in libertine San Francisco as in many other cities.

Philadelphia has certainly embraced it. Among the country's top 10 markets, the show is doing better only in New York and Detroit than here, where more than 742,000 people on average tuned in during November.

The audience is remarkably disparate. Housewives is the No. 1 show among 18- to 49-year-olds. It also ranks first among 9- to 12-year-olds, according to an article in Broadcasting & Cable. And though ABC developed the series assuming it would appeal overwhelmingly to women, nearly 40 percent of the viewers are male.

Two of those males happen to head networks in direct competition with ABC.

Housewives is "my favorite show from an enemy," CBS president Les Moonves told reporters recently. "It's the one show I wish we had."

The show is "really funny and fast-paced, and there are always twists and turns you don't see coming," says Garth Ancier, chairman of the WB.

But Housewives has considerably more going for it than a winning cast and wicked plotlines.

"It's more sophisticated than a simple repetition of the soap-opera drama," says John Rash, senior vice president of the Minneapolis ad agency Campbell Mithun. "It's a reflection of the fact that the American suburban affluence of the '90s and the new decade doesn't necessarily bring happiness, but conversely brings additional worries. The stories resonate for people who are experiencing those anxieties."

Thompson adds: "It argues that the whole Donna Reed, Father Knows Best model - the very thing celebrated by family-values advocates - has the potential to be extraordinarily toxic and indeed deadly. And that message rings very true for a lot of people."

Other factors are at work. Housewives and its fellow ABC hit, Lost, mark a resurgence of serialized storytelling after years of a prime-time landscape dominated by unscripted "reality" shows and self-contained procedural dramas such as CSI and Law & Order.

Some see in the show traces of an even earlier narrative tradition.

"It has a 19th-century sensibility," argues Marisa Parham, an assistant professor of English at Amherst College. "Like a campier version of Jane Austen.

"This show is not a comedy; it's actually a satire in which a tight-knit community struggles extremely hard to make things work and yet all their efforts lead to hilarious consequences."

Housewives - rejected by NBC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Showtime and Lifetime - gleefully harnesses the dynamics of so many narrative styles that even its creator struggles to classify it.

"Our show has elements of comedy and drama," Marc Cherry told Television Week. "It's its own genre really: soap opera/mystery/drama. The amazing thing about our show is how flexible it is. There is an elasticity to it."

Maybe the hardest thing to pin down about the show is its attitude toward women.

Some view Bree, Susan, Gabrielle and the rest of their kaffeeklatsch as Stepfordish throwbacks.

"Desperate Housewives appears to perpetuate 1970s stereotypes of at-home mothers," writes Deirdre D. Johnston, an associate professor of communications at Hope College in Holland, Mich.

"The mothers are superficial, obsessed with vanity, overly controlling, and focused on micromanaging domestic activities to the point of losing perspective about what is important - like the wife who obsessively packs her husband's suitcase as he's moving out on her."

Proto-feminist Germaine Greer recently blasted the program as misogynistic.

Yet, others hail it as a radical refutation of domesticity.

In the Sunday Times of London, author Naomi Wolf wrote that "Desperate Housewives concedes that motherhood (as experienced by good and loving mothers, even in an ideal setting) can be extremely tiring and boring. All the characters, male and female, who are not caring for small children look tanned and toned; Lynette, who left a high-powered job to become a stay-at-home mother, is the only one who looks awful - exhausted, strung out, ill-dressed."

And you thought the gals on The Real World Philadelphia were uninhibited? Aggression and carnality run rampant on the show. According to Wolf, Housewives' mad sorority party of unchecked female ids "makes its obvious antecedent Sex and the City seem quaint, even demure."

The infamous Monday Night Football skit boosted that libidinous image. In fact, six days after Housewives' Nicollette Sheridan dropped towel to jump into Terrell Owens' arms, a spicy appetizer to the Eagles' November romp over the Cowboys, the show enjoyed its biggest audience to date.

At a time when the American people are professing the importance of moral values, this saucy series has somehow become the toast of the TV season.

"It's paradoxical but it's certainly nothing new," Thompson explains. "It points out an inherent hypocrisy in this country that goes back to the Plimoth Plantation. We have a long tradition... of what we say to be right and true being completely out of sync with how we behave and what we consume."

Besides, Housewives' purr may be worse than its scratch.

"There is a lot of conversation about sex, so it seems more salacious than it really is," says Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs, ABC's senior vice president of drama development. "Not that many people are having sex on the show. If anything, Mike and Susan waited longer than we would have liked to hook up."

It's not only restraint that mollifies watchdog groups.

"It does air fairly late in the evening, and its content isn't the most explicit on TV," says Melissa Caldwell, director of research for the conservative Parents Television Council. "Besides, there are consequences shown for their behaviors. They don't get off scot-free after doing horrible things."

Nothing disturbs people about the show as much as its absence. With that in mind, it's only fair to warn you: February may seem even longer than usual this year. Because of the Super Bowl and the Oscars, Desperate Housewives will air only twice next month.

What's Red, Blue and Seen All Over?

Here's how Desperate Housewives rates in the largest TV markets.

MarketRating*

Detroit 24.5

New York 21.4

Philadelphia 21.3

Atlanta 20.6

Dallas 19.9

Washington 18.6

Boston 18.5

Chicago 17.9

Los Angeles 16.7

San Francisco 15.2

*Average local ratings for the episodes of Nov. 21 and 28 and Dec. 12 and 19. A rating is the percentage of households with TVs tuned to a show.

SOURCE: ABC

" 慾望新婦"(Desperate Housewives)刻劃了五個慾求不滿的鄰居及他們驚人秘密的諷刺劇﹐在美國每星期吸引了將近二千二百多萬的觀眾觀賞，目前收視率僅次於電視影集"犯 罪現場"（CSI），它是繼十年前的"急診室的春天"（ER）之後最成功的電視連續劇。每當那些漂亮女孩們又回到ABC電視台的螢光屏上，那真是人們閑聊 最好的談話資料了。

“騎士報(Knight Ridder)”1月10日報導﹐如同之前黃金時段的系列劇如“飛越情海”(Melrose Place)、“魔法奇兵” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)、“黑道家族”(The Sopranos)等一樣，這齣連續劇每週播出時﹐觀看此劇的小型家庭聚會在這個國家的各個角落快速增長，這些受到過分熱烈歡迎的女主角們也很快的得到了 一個罕見的文化試金石之地位。

為何這個性感又諷刺的電視劇正中我們的幻想呢？還有它受歡迎的程度透露了我們的什麼事情呢，尤其在近來社會上提昇了的道德警戒風氣之中？

“它 能成功的最大原因不是它的主題或它在婦女歷史中的定位，”雪城大學（Syracuse University）的電視及流行文化教授羅伯特．湯普森（Robert J. Thompson）表示，“那是因為它是一個很技巧編排的綜合秀、優秀的演出陣容、壓倒性的演出、以及結合‘雙峰’（Twin Peaks）的超現實和‘朝代’(Dynasty)的夜間肥皂劇成分之尖銳筆觸，它即使是被放在一個鯰魚養殖場，人們還是會想看。”

也許 因 為它的內容活潑，美國各州的人都很受用這部劇，據騎士新聞報（Knight Ridder Newspaper）本年一月八日的報導，"新婦"的排名在Tulsa、Okla及Nashville幾個城市的評分﹐比在Providence、羅德島 州（R.I.）及邁阿密（Miami）的評分還要高，令人意外的是，這個系列劇在社會風氣頗為自由的舊金山（San Francisco）卻不如其他許多城市一樣那麼受歡迎。

收視群眾的差異性相當的大，根據廣播及有線電視（Broadcasting & Cable）之中一篇文章的報導，“辣妻”是十八歲至四十九歲之間觀眾的人們最愛看電視劇，同時該劇在九到十二歲年齡層中也名列第一。即使ABC電視台製 作這個連續劇時假設它會對女性觀眾有壓倒性的引吸力，但事實上它的觀眾有百分之四十是男性。

那些男性中的兩位巧恰是ABC電視台的直接競爭對手的主管。

"新婦"是我最愛看的競爭對手的作品，”CBS電視台的總裁雷斯．莫恩維斯（Les Moonves）說，“那是我希望我們能擁有的秀”。

這個秀是“真的很有趣而且節奏很快，總會有你不能預料的情節轉折。”WB電視台的主席卡爾斯．安希爾（Garth Ancier）這樣表示。

但“辣妻”除堅強的演出陣容及奇特的故情節外，還有其他相當多的特色。

“它 比一般連續劇的簡單反覆情節更複雜，”在明尼阿波利斯（Minneapolis）的Campbell Mithun廣告公司擔任資深副總裁的約翰．雷許（John Rash）表示，“它反映了一個事實，上個世紀九十年代及新的一個十年﹐美國郊區的富裕並不一定會帶來快樂，相反的卻帶來了更多的憂愁，這個故事回應了正 在經歷那些焦慮的人們。”

湯普森又說：“它證明了整個‘唐娜芮德’（Donna Reed）及‘老爸最知道’（Father Knows Best）的家庭模式－這正是家庭價值擁護者頌揚的觀念－有可能是有毒的而且致命的，那個訊息所訴說的對許多人來說都是非常真切的。”

其他因素也在起作用，“辣妻”及它的同台大作“迷失”（Lost）代表了連載故事的復活，出現在幾年來主要時段充斥著沒有編劇的所謂“現實劇”﹐及自我包含的程序劇如“犯罪現場”及“法律與命令”(Law & Order)之後。

有些人看到劇中有更早期的傳統對白之痕跡。“它有十九世紀的敏感，”在Amherst College擔任英文助理教授的瑪莉莎．帕罕（Marisa Parham）表示，“象是模仿簡．奧斯汀（Jane Austen）的版本。”

“這個秀不是喜劇；它實際上是描述一個互相緊密聯係的社區﹐努力扎掙着要使一切上軌道﹐而他們的努力卻引出了搞笑的結果。”

“辣 妻”－曾被NBC、CBS、Fox、HBO、Showtime及Lifetime等電視台拒絕－將如此多種風格的對白活力歡愉地貫穿在劇中，以至他的創作 者對如何將它分類感到困難。“我們的秀有喜劇和戲劇的成分，”馬克．切里（Marc Cherry）告訴電視週刊（Television Week），“它本身真正的歸類是：連續劇／神秘劇／戲劇。我們的秀最令人驚奇的是﹐它是這麼的有彈性，有伸縮性。”

也許這部戲最難說清的事情是它對女性的態度。評論者說法都不相同。

有 些人認為布里（Bree）、蘇珊（Susan）、佳布莉（Gabrielle）及其它咖啡聚會的朋友是對“複製嬌妻”（Stepfordish）的再現。 密歇根州Hope College擔任廣播副教授的戴爾德．強斯頓（Deirdre D. Johnston）這樣寫道，“辣妻似乎使一九七０年代的家庭主婦典型更歷久彌新。”“媽媽們很膚淺、愛慕虛榮、過度操控、並太注意細節以致失去辨別重要 事物的能力－就像幫先生打包了一大堆用品的太太，而她的先生正要搬出去一樣。”

原女性主義者喬曼茵．古瑞爾（Germaine Greer）最近猛烈抨擊這個節目是討厭女性。然而，其他人則歡呼這部劇目激烈反對將婦女鎖在家務堆中。

在 倫敦的週日時報（the Sunday Times of London）裡，瑙米．伍夫（Naomi Wolf）曾寫道，“辣妻劇承認當母親的角色﹐（一般指溫柔及可愛的媽媽，即使是在理想的家庭環境下仍）﹐可能是極度累人又無聊的。所有男女角色﹐只要不 用照顧小孩都看起來黝黑及柔和；只有離開高階職位回家當家庭主婦的黎妮特（Lynette）﹐看起來很恐怖－疲憊、精神不振、缺乏裝扮。”

還 有你會認為“費城的真實世界”一劇（The Real World Philadelphia）中的女孩子都沒有節制？“費劇”確有侵略性及內慾充斥在劇中，但根據伍夫的分析，“辣妻劇”中的家庭主婦瘋狂聚會使“費劇”看 似老舊﹐而且使‘慾望城市’看起來更古董而且假裝正經。

曾經是“週一夜間足球”（Monday Night Football）諷刺劇鼓吹那種淫蕩畫面而惡名昭章，如今在“辣妻”劇中﹐當家庭主婦妮可里特．史瑞丹（Nicollette Sheridan） 脫下浴巾投入特瑞爾．歐文（Terrrell Owen）懷裡這一幕開場戲播放六天後，從那時候起這個秀直至今天為止一直深受廣大觀眾族群的青睞。當美國人們正在宣揚道德的價值時，這個色情連續劇不知 怎麼的竟成了電視的寵兒。

“它是違背常理的，但它確實沒有什麼新奇的，”湯普森這樣解釋，“它反映出這個國家可以追溯到‘普力摩斯種植場’（Plimoth Plantation）的天生虛偽性格，我們有一項很久的傳統．．．．我們嘴上說某些東西是正確真實的，但我們的行為卻完全不同。”

“它有很多性對話，所以它聽起來比實際上看去更黃色，”ABC的戲劇製作資深副總裁蘇蘭妮．帕托摩爾－吉普斯（Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs）曾這樣表示，“其實劇中沒有那麼多性成份，舉個例子，麥克（Mike）及蘇珊就等得比我們想要的還要久。”

“它 的播放時段相當晚，它的內容也不是最露骨的，”在保守家長電視協會（the conservative Parents Television Council）擔任研究部門主管的美麗莎．卡德威爾（Melissa Caldwell）表示，“此外，有結果顯示他們的行為，他們在作了可怕事情以後不能逃脫責任。”

主婦抓狂 搏收視

「慾 望城市」和「六人行」停播之後，美國目前最紅的新影集是「抓狂主婦」 （Desperate Housewives），並且從美國一路紅到英國和澳洲。據Nielsen收視率調查，在十八到三十四歲的觀眾中它是最受歡迎的節目；美國電影協會將其評 為2004年的 「water-cooler show 」（大家最常討論的節目）。它在第一季就已奪得金球獎的最佳喜劇影集。

它 與以往當紅節目最大的不同是：主角都是結過婚的四十幾歲的家庭主婦。目前它在台灣還沒有統一的中文譯名，曾在媒體上出現過的名字包括：「慾亂絕情妻」、 「抓狂主婦」、「慾望嬌妻」、「慾望辣妻」等；從這些五花八門的譯名，對節目的主要訴求大概可窺知一二：這是一群快要抓狂的中年美女的故事。

英文的「desperate」指的是一種極端渴望、甚至到幾近抓狂的心情，沒人能想像一位「desperate」的人會做出什麼事。製作人 Marc Cherry說，他的靈感來自於他六十七歲的母親。

有 次他回家探望老母，兩人在電視新聞上看到一位德州母親Andrea Yates親手淹死她五個小孩。當他母親說 ：「I've been there」（我曾經有類似的心情）時，他非常地驚訝，因為一直以為母親很喜歡她家庭主婦的生活。她解釋說，當她在家帶三個小小孩時，先生正忙著念研究 所；若她當時沒有其他家人的幫助，她也可能像Yates一樣精神崩潰。 Cherry因而想到，或許很多好媽媽也常有瀕臨抓狂邊緣的心情。

這 節目像連續劇一般，故事都發生在富有地區Wisteria Lane。在第一集，其中一位主角自殺了，而成為之後每集節目中的旁白者。主角們包括一位女強人Lynette，她選擇在家帶四個難搞的孩子，這比任何工 作還困難。另一位是離婚的單親媽媽Susan，除了與孩子周旋之外，她對愛情仍然極度嚮往。第三位是有完美主義傾向的Bree，她的個性簡直把全家大小逼 到絕境（先生去嫖妓，兒子假裝過自己是同性戀）。第四位是當過模特兒的拜金女郎Gabrielle，她嫁給一位有錢的老公，卻無法填滿心中的欲求，還與年 方十七的園丁發生外遇。最後一位是離婚數次、仍不斷追求新戀情的Edie。

為什麼她們的故事讓觀眾為之瘋狂？有評論家說劇本寫得好，除了意想不到的劇情發展之外，娛樂價值也很高。不少男性（40%的觀眾是男人）則說，影集裡的美女令人賞心悅目。也或許，不少女性觀眾對劇中人物的抓狂心情頗感心有戚戚。

我 一直很想看看這部影集，因為也是兩個孩子的母親，有時也難免會有想要抓狂的心情。前陣子回美國探親，剛好就有機會收看；但續看了三集之後，老實說，是有 點失望。本以為節目會透過幽默的手法呈現出現代家庭主婦的辛苦和偉大，但我看到的那幾集中，大多還是靠傳統連續劇聳動的外遇、嫉恨、性愛遊戲、謀殺等橋段 來抓住觀眾的目光，也難怪支持傳統價值觀的American Family Association（美國家庭基金會）會遊說一些商人拒買這個節目的廣告。

這節目到底是在支持還是在諷刺家庭主婦，還是個爭議。但無論如何，希望大家能多體貼身邊的主婦，讓她們不要抓狂！

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Omelet Recipe and Shopping List!

By: Lance Sganzini

Cooking for bodybuilding can lead to a monotonous ordeal of egg whites, chicken and protein shakes. Lean, high protein food doesn't have to be bland and boring. At the Sganzini house we have developed a series of recipes for my diet but are also tasty for the rest of the family. We will be posting a recipe each month to help you discover ways to spice up your menu. Also, we have included our grocery list so you can get an idea of how to shop for our recipes.

My Favorite Omelets

Remove the boredom and tastelessness frm the usual egg-white breakfast with this tasty twist!

5 egg whites (include 1 yolk)
2 strips lean turky bacon (browned and cut into bite size pieces)
4 olives (sliced) or try Kalamata olives for more flavor
1/2 ouce feta cheese
3 thin slices avocado
1 slice roma tomato (diced)

Scramble the egg whites and yolk and pour into a good non-stick omelet pan. After one side is done flip the omelet completely over (this requires some practice dur to the size of the omelet). Spread the ingredients on 1/2 of the omelet. When the bottom is cooked, fold the omelet in half and server.

We use feta cheese because a little bit goes a long way for flavor. If you are not a feta fan, you can change to a reduced fat cheddar or mozzarella. Kalamata olives are the best, but difficult to find at some grocery stores. Usually the deli or gourmet food section will be the place to look.

A quick and painless way to cook bacon is to use the microwave. Place several napkins or paper towels on a paper plate. Put the bacon strips on top of the napkins and cover with several more napkins and another paper plate. Microwave the whole apparatus for 2 - 3 minutes until bacon is crip. Remover the bacon and throw the mess (and fat) away!

Enjoy! Check back next month for another great recipe.

The Lance Sganzini Bodybuilder Grocery Shopping List

With groceries like these in your house, you can't go wrong! You can make almost anything you want with these items and you will know that you are following a good diet with the right nutrients.

Our shopping list for groceries:

- Printable version

Produce

• Apples
• Oranges
• Grapes
• Strawberries
• Olives
• Kalamata Olives
• Avocado
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Lettuce
• Croutons
• Salad Dressing
• Lemons
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Tomatos
• Corn
• Pineapple
• Dice Tomatos (canned)

Dairy/Eggs

• Soy Milk
• Butter (the real stuff)
• Country Crock Light Spread
• "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" zero calorie butter spray
• Eggs
• Low or Non-Fat Cottage Cheese
• Feta
• Low Fat Cream Cheese
• Sour Cream
• Yogurt (Sugar-Free Non-Fat)

Meat/Protein

• Chicken
• Steak
• Salmon
• White Fish
• Shrimp
• Clams
• Ground Beef (7% fat)
• Ground Turkey
• Turkey Bacon
• Beans (Great Northern/Garbanzo)

Baking Ingredients/Grains

• Oatmeal
• White Flour
• Wheat Flour
• Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Powdered Sugar
• Yeast
• Cinnamon
• Low-Fat Peanut Butter
• Low-Sugar Fruit Jam
• Vanilla Pudding (Sugar-Free Non-Fat)
• Golden Raisins
• Olive Oil
• Wheat Bread (Stone Mill)
• Couscous
• Rice
• Lentils
• Barley
• Crackers
• Crescent Rolls (Light)
• Tortillas (Garlic Herb)

Pretein Shake Recipes

Are you tired of drinking the same boring, bland tasting proteins shakes? Try these superb shakes and mix things up!

---

By: Bodybuilding.com Writer

Berry Good Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 scoops of Raspberry Yogurt Protein Delite or other protein with
• 4 strawberries
• 15 blueberries
• 16 ounces of nonfat milk
• 1.2 cup of ice cubes.

It is so good that you should serve it with a little umbrella in it!

Protein-Carb Almond Blast

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 Scoops of Vanilla MyoMax Meal or other protein with
• 10-12 oz of skim milk
• 1.2 cup of dry oatmeal
• 1.2 cup of raisins
• 12 shredded almonds
• 1 tbsp of peanut butter.

It's like pudding!

Strawberry Nut Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 Scoops of Vanilla Isolean or other protein with
• 1 cup of fat-free strawberry yogurt
• 6 shredded macadamia nuts.

Plub Ice Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 scoops of Vanilla Scipro or other protein with
• 1 ripe plum (pitted) juice of 1 lemon
• 16 ounces of ice water
• 1.2 cup of ice cubes.

Peppermint Oatmeal Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 scoops of Alpine Milk Chocolate Protein Delite or other protein with
• 1 cup sugar free vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 2 cups non-fat milk
• 1.2 cup water
• a splash of peppermint extract!

Chocolate Coffee Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 scoops of Alpine Milk Chocolate Protein Delite or other protein with:
• 1 cup of skim milk
• 5 ice cubes
• 1 cup of water
• 1 spoonful of instant coffee!

Tastes like a gourmet concoction!

Plum-Lemon Cooler

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla flavor whey protein powder (Whey Best, Scipro)
• 1 ripe plum, pitted
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon multi-vitamin powder
• 16 ounces ice water
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Wild Berry Boost

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla flavor whey protein powder (Whey Best, Scipro)
• 8 raspberries
• 4 strawberries
• 15 blueberries
• 16 ounces nonfat milk
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffle

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops chocolate flavor whey protein powder (Whey Best, Scipro)
• 1 teaspoon creamy peanut butter
• 16 ounces nonfat milk
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Creatine Catalyst

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla flavor whey protein powder (Whey Best, Scipro)
• 5 Granny Smith apples
• 5 grams (one teaspoon) Creapureä creatine powder
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Special Thanks To Reformmag.com For These Recipes!

Peanut Brittle Protein Shake

This is a delicious favorite I discovered quite by accident as I sat staring at my "boring" vanilla protein powder and wanting something sweet. This mimics peanut brittle only in taste. It won't send your blood sugar soaring and it's a fun way to get in some healthy unsaturated fat.

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla protein
• 1 tbsp sugar-free instant butterscotch pudding mix, dry
• 1 tbsp natural peanut butter, chunky
• 8 oz. cold water or lowfat milk.
• 3-6 ice cubes

Directions:

Add all ingredients to blender, blend, and serve. I like to add the peanut butter in last so it stays a little chunky, just like the peanut brittle it is replacing.

Nutritional Information for added ingredients (excludes milk & protein powder):

Per Serving:
Calories - 108
Carbs - 6 g
Protein - 4g
Fat - 8 g
Fiber - 1g

---

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The Hulk

This is a pistachio flavored shake that I came up with one busy morning for my son. He loved it because it was green and walked around the rest of the day doing lat spreads that "ripped" his shirt. I loved it because it only added 19 calories to my protein shake.

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla protein
• 1 ½ tbsp sugar-free pistachio pudding mix
• 1 mint leaf or a few drops peppermint extract (optional)
• 1 few drops green food coloring (optional)
• 8 oz. cold water or low-fat milk
• 3-5 ice cubes

Directions:

Add all ingredients to blender, blend, and pour into cup. This tastes great without the mint so don't worry if you don't have it around. The shake is a light green even without the food coloring but if you want it green (like The Hulk!), you'll need a few drops.

Nutritional Information for added ingredients (excludes milk & protein powder):

Per Serving:
Calories - 19
Carbs - 5g
Protein - 0g
Fat - 0g
Fiber - 0g

Oatmeal Meal Replacement Shake

This is a homemade meal replacement that contains all the nutrition of a hearty bowl of oatmeal. It's got complex carbs, protein, and a little good fat to extend its contribution to your energy stores. If you expect the rest of the day to be hectic, why not double it up and take half of the shake to work to ensure you don't skip a meal just because you'll be stuck in a meeting.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup dry measure oatmeal, cooked in water and cooled
• 2 scoops vanilla protein
• 3 dashes cinnamon
• 1/8 c sugar free maple syrup or equivalent amount brown sugar replacement
• 1 tbsp chopped almonds (or flaxseed oil or natural peanut butter)
• 12 oz. water or low-fat milk

Directions:

Add all ingredients to blender, blend, and pour into cup. If your short on time, just use dry oatmeal or oat flour.

Nutritional Information for added ingredients (excludes milk & protein powder):

Per Serving:
Calories - 215
Carbs - 33g
Protein - 7g
Fat - 7g
Fiber - 5g

Cinnamon Roll Protein Shake

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 1 tbsp sugar-free instant vanilla pudding
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp imitation vanilla (or 1/4 tsp extract)
• 1 packet artificial sweetener
• a few dashes butter flavor sprinkles or butter-flavor extract
• 8 oz. water (or low-fat milk)
• 3 ice cubes

Directions:

Add all ingredients to blender, whip, and serve.

Nutritional Information:

Aor added ingredients (excludes protein powder & use of milk)
Calories - 25
Carbohydrates - 5g
Protein - 0g
Fat - 0 g
Fiber - 0 g

Nada Colada Protein Shake

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 c pineapple-orange juice*
• 1/4 tsp rum extract
• 1/4 tsp coconut extract (or 2 tbsp shredded coconut)
• 1 packet artificial sweetener
• 4 oz. water (or low-fat milk)
• 3-6 ice cubes

Low-carb version: Omit juice and use 1/2 tsp sugar-free pineapple-orange drink mix (dry). Increase water or milk to 8 oz.

Directions:

Add all ingredients to blender, whip, and serve.

Nutritional Information:

for added ingredients (excludes protein powder & use of milk)
Calories - 61
Carbohydrates - 15g
Protein - 0g
Fat - 1g
Fiber - 0g

Protein Shake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 tsp. safflower oil
• Several pieces of ice
• 1 banana
• 1 package of Carnation Instant Breakfast (there's also a lo-carb mix)
  (any flavor--strawberry, chocolate, cappacino, French vanilla, chocolate malt)

Directions:

Mix together in blender until ice is completely crushed and mixed well.

Jay Robb Whey & Egg White Protein Shake Recipes

Banana Delight

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. pure water
• 1/2 banana (frozen)
• 2 oz. protein of choice
• 2 tsp. flax seed oil

Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 10 oz pure water
• 8 frozen strawberries
• 4 tbs. low fat sour cream
• 10-15 drops liquid stevia (optional)
• 1.5 oz. protein of choice

Blueberry Dream

Ingredients:

• 10 oz. Pure water
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1.5 oz. protein of choice
• 2 tsp. flax seed oil
• 15 drops liquid stevia (optional)

Fat Burning Peaches and Cream

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. pure water
• 1 ripe peach
• 2 tbs. low fat sour cream
• 8 drops liquid stevia (optional)
• 1.5 oz protein of choice

Quick Start

Ingredients:

• 3 oranges (fresh juiced only, NOT canned or bottled
• 6 drops liquid stevia (optional)
• 1 oz. protein of choice

Tropical Treat

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. pure water
• 1/2 banana (frozen)
• 2 tbs. low fat sour cream
• 1 tsp. coconut extract
• 10-15 drops liquid stevia (optional)
• 1.5 oz. protein of choice (vanilla flavor)

Tropical Pleasure

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. pure water
• 1/2 tsp. pineapple extract
• 1/2 tsp. coconut extract
• 1 tbs heavy cream
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 heaping scoop (1 oz) of Egg Protein
• Stevia or Agave to taste (optional)
• 2-3 ice cubes (optional)

Chocolate Almond Delight

Ingredients:

• 10-12 oz. pure water
• 15 raw almonds
• 1/2 tsp. coconut extract
• 1.5 oz protein of choice (chocolate flavor)
• Stevia to taste (optional)
• 3-5 ice cubes (optional)

(first, blend the almonds until creamy smooth in 1/2 the water, then add the rest of the ingredients)

Chocolate Lovers

Ingredients:

• 12 oz pure water
• 1 tsp. pure cocoa powder
• 2 tbs. low fat sour cream
• 10-15 drops liquid stevia
• 2 oz. protein of choice (chocolate flavor)
• 2 tsp. flax seed oil

High Energy Shake!

Ingredients:

• 10 oz pure water
• 10 strawberries (Fresh or Frozen)
• 1 tbs. flax seed oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 heaping scoop (1 oz) of protein of choice
• Stevia to taste (optional)
• 2-3 ice cubes (optional)

Super Slimmer

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. pure water
• 1 tbs. flax seed oil
• 1/2 ripe peach (peeled)
• 6 frozen strawberries
• 1 heaping scoop (1 oz) of of protein of choice
• Stevia to taste (optional)

Heavy Gainer

Ingredients:

• 10-14 oz. pure water
• 1/2 cup raw almonds - blend with water only until creamy smooth then add...
• 1/2 large frozen banana
• 2 level scoops (2 oz) of protein of choice
• Stevia to taste (optional)

Weight Gainer

Ingredients:

• 14 oz. pure water
• 2 bananas or 2 scoops YAM Power
• 3 tbs. peanut butter
• 6 drops liquid stevia (optional)
• 2 oz. protein of choice

Mineral Power

Ingredients:

• 10 oz. pure water
• 1 oz. liquid ionic plant source minerals
• 1 packet knox gelatin
• 1 tbs. flax seed oil
• 1 heaping scoop (1 oz) of protein of choice
• Stevia or to taste (optional)

Special Thanks To Jay Robb For His Protein Shake Recipes! Be Sure To Check Out His Website, http://www.jayrobb.com!

Recipes Sent In By Bodybuilding.com Visitors

Super Healthy Honey Banana Shake

Super healthy shake that tastes pretty damn good - the flax seed oil helps the nutrients digest gradually so you get a steady supply of protein, I always put some honey in, cause it's healthier than sugar, and after a workout it will feed your body's need for simple sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of pure water
• 1 big scoop of vanilla whey protein powder
• 3/4 cup of natural yoghurt
• 1 banana
• 1 tsp of flax-seed oil
• 2 tsp of honey
• 1 tsp spirulena

The spirulena definately changes the color and flavor of this shake alot! So if you cant get used to the taste simply leave it out. The shake provides carbs, protein and plenty of vitamins/minerals, so you can easily use it as a meal replacement.

Rock N' Roll Protein Shake

Here is my favorite protein smoothie I have for breakfast a few times a week! If you are close to a show, knock out the banana and essence! This shake gives you a good start to the day with high protein, good fats, good carbs giving potassium.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of pure water
• 1 big scoop of vanilla whey protein powder
• 3/4 cup of natural yoghurt
• 1 banana
• 1 tsp of flax-seed oil
• 2 tsp of honey
• 1 tsp spirulena

Banana Almond Creme

Ingredients:

• 1 Banana
• 12 Cup Milk
• 10 Almonds
• 1 Serving Protein
• 5 Ice Cubes

Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops Designer Whey Strawberry
• 4 large strawberries
• blueberries ( a small handful)
• water (just a few drops)
• 1/2 C ice
• Splenda

Start off by crushing the ice in the blender and then gradually add the fruit and enough water to get it smooth. Finish off with the two scoops of whey and enough Splenda to make it sweet.

Pineapple Power

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of pineapple juice
• 3 strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1 teaspoon of yogurt
• 1 scoop of your choice of protein

Orange And Cream Delight

Ingredients:

• 1 Bottle of Orange Gatorade
• 1 Packet Vanilla myoplex

Simple, yet tasty!

Strawberry Savior

Ingredients:

• 4 scoops vanilla designer whey
• 8 fluid ounces water
• 1 colombo strawberry yogurt
• 3 frozen strawberries
• 1 teaspoon creatine
• 1 teaspoon flax seed oil

Tastes great and is an awesome mass gaining combination!

Vanilla Coffee Delight

Ingredients:

• 10-12 oz. low-fat milk
• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 cup low-fat coffee flavored ice cream

Add all ingredients in blender. Blend and enjoy.

Iso-Egg Heavy Gainer

Ingredients:

• 3 scoops Isopure Whey Protein (Vanilla/Chocolate)
• 4 egg whites
• 1 tbls. Peanut Butter
• 8 oz. cold water
• 2 cups ice

Put all in blender, and mix, mix, mix!

Egg-cellent Shake

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk or 3-4 scoops vanilla ice cream

Add all ingredients in blender. Blend and enjoy.

The Best Protein Shake Ever

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops chocolate protein
• 10 Ice Cubes
• 12 oz. fat free milk
• 2 tblsp fat free vanilla yogart
• 1 tblsp reduced fat peanut butter
• 2 tblsp hazelnut coffee
• 1/8 cup caramel ice cream topping

You can add more or less caramel topping, depending on how sweet you want your shake.

Peanut Butter And Banana Shake

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops USn Vanilla Muscle fuel
• 100g almond flakes
• 1 table spoon peanut butter
• 500ml skim milk
• half banana
• 1 table spoon honey

The Best Overall Tasting Homemade Protein Shake

This recipe includes cottage cheese - the king of all cheap, easy, high BV protein sources ! Don't worry, you can't taste it and the blender eliminates the texture.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. skim milk
• 2 cups no-fat cottage cheese
• 3 scoops Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein Powder (vanilla)
• 1/2 cup non-fat, reduced-sugar vanilla yogurt scoop of your favorite fruit (I like frozen strawberries & banana)
• Splenda or Sweet-n-Low to taste (about 2 packets)
• Handful of Ice

Directions:

Blend together and chill. Makes 3 two-cup servings.

Guzzle for an awesome post-workout shake. The high-glycemic-value carbs spike insulin to deliver protein to your muscles. Add dry oats for more complex carbs, and add more cottage cheese to boost the protein! Add more milk if the mix is too thick.

Nutritional Information for 1 Serving:

Calories = 414
Protein = 40 grams
Carbs = 26 grams
Fat = 2 gram

Bulking 101 for the ectomorph

By: Jonathan Deprospo

Since being involved in bodybuilding for sometime now I have experienced the same old story of the ectomorphic bodybuilder hitting a plateau at 180lbs. to 200lbs. way to many times now. This is how the conversation usually goes.

Bodybuilder:

"Help me, I'm stuck at 200 (at a height of 5-10 or so) and I can't seem to gain any more size or strength no matter what I do. My body fat stays around 5%-6% and I eat around 250g of protein, and the rest of my foods are clean sources. I try to eat a lot but I don't really have a big appetite."

What's wrong with this picture? A hell of a lot actually. Listen, if you have an ecto-morphic metabolism you must adhere to a different set of rules if you wish to one day hit freak status. And this all boils down to the dinner table.

Ectomorphic bodybuilders (those who have very, very fast metabolisms) must eat massive amounts of food to reach their goals. This is due to the fact that their basil metabolic rate is several times faster than the average person who requires them to have to eat massive amounts of food to maintain muscle mass, never mind gain.

Think about it, if 3,500 calories got you from 160lbs. to 180lbs., and 4,000 got you up to 200lbs. What do you think your going to have to consume to get up to 220lbs. never mind 250lbs.! Your caloric intake is going to have to be raised drastically in order to get to higher body weights. Also your protein intake is going to have to be raised significantly to support the growth of new tissue. So let's use the typical scenario that was mentioned above and work to create a way to get this bodybuilder on the fast track to growth again without raising body fat levels too much, if any.

Before I precede any further I want to make one point clear, do not THINK you have a fast metabolism and try to follow this protocol because you will end up looking like Lee Priest in the off season pretty damn fast. If you do not understand monotypes, please review what PURE ectomorphic qualities are and then see if you fit the picture.

I do not want to see some heavy endomorph think he has a hard time gaining size read this article and think that this is what he has to do to get larger. Endomorphs follow an entirely different set of rules from an ectomorphic bodybuilder.

If an Endomorph follows this protocol you WILL get fat, there is no doubt about it, so don't try it if you don't want to gain a few extra rolls and a double chin.

Protein Intake

If you think you are going to get past 200lbs. while only eating 250g of protein you are crazy. If you want to get from 200lbs. to 220lbs a good rule of thumb is to double the weight you wish to be at and that's how much protein you should consume on a daily basis. So if you are shooting for 220lbs. you should be consuming around 400g-450g of protein on a daily basis.

I know this seems like a lot but if you employ some of the hard gainer strategies that I discuss in this article you will find that you can add up a lot of protein on a daily basis very quickly. Your mainstay of proteins should be coming from steak, eggs, chicken, protein shakes, and milk.

All of these protein sources are dense sources, calorie wise, mostly steak and eggs. These should be the bulk of your protein sources, due to the fact that they are known to put on mass fast. So, with your protein needs down, calorie wise that only comes out to about 1800 calories or so. Which is not much at all, but a hell of a lot of protein. So where is the rest of those calories going to come from, knowing that our example has the appetite of a fashion model?

Junk Food

Yes, you read it correctly. Junk food can be a very useful tool to the ectomorphic bodybuilder trying to put on size without worrying about body fat levels too much. But with any thing in bodybuilding there are rules to how you must employ junk food into your daily diet to aid in gaining size and not just satisfying your taste buds. The selection of junk food must contain adequate amounts of protein to meet your needs.

So, this can be Wendy's, KFC, Pizza, and foods like that. Just think about it, if you eat a triple cheeseburger from Wendy's you are getting around 50g of protein, but you are also getting a whopping amount of calories that will go along with that, that you will not get from eating your standard chicken and rice meal.

Click On Your Favorite Restaurant To Learn The Truth! © © © © © © © © ©

There is also another rule that must be meeting before you go run off to your nearest fast food joint, you must have some sort of protein shake before you eat the meal, consisting of a minimum of 50g of protein.

You must also try to limit your intake of carbohydrates when you go out for these meals, which means, at Wendy's skip the fries and stick to the burgers, KFC stick to the chicken and ditch the mash potatoes, and when having pizza skip the bread and just stick to the pizza.

This will insure you will gain minimal amounts of fat from this technique, while giving a blast to your metabolism. Just by having a junk food meal a few times a week to a small one once a day, you can add an easy extra 1,000+ calories to your diet, while at the same time satisfying your taste buds.

The Protein Shake

Protein shakes are one of the greatest assets when trying to gain size fat. They are quick, easy, and you can take them down pretty quickly and frequently. But protein powder and water (or milk) will not provide you with many calories what so ever, so you will have to improvise.

With each protein shake you have, you should strive to take in 1-2 tablespoons of a healthy oil (olive and flax will be the best) but don't add too much oil too quick because you will be having some bathroom problems following the shake. With the oils start slow and work your way up.

If you have not yet heard, olive oil and flax oil have more benefits to the bodybuilder than I can type on this page, and they also can increase your calories very quickly. But when incorporating a high amount of fats you should try to limit your carbohydrate intake at that specific meal, so the fats will be used as your energy source and not laid down as adipose tissue.

With protein powders you can also create your own weight gainer shakes by including ingredients such as:

• Oatmeal
• Simple sugar powders
• Fruit (frozen or fresh)
• Egg whites
• Peanut butter
• Cottage cheese
• Ice cream, chocolate syrup, etc.

Now just think if you laid all of those foods out in front of you how long it would take you to eat that meal, and you most likely wouldn't finish it. But if you blended that into a big shake, you could take that down a lot quicker, and due to the fact that all of the food choices are blended, the digestion process would occur faster and more efficiently than if you had eaten them whole.

The last way that an ectomorph can incorporate the protein shake is by eating your regular healthy meal, followed by a protein shake consisting of 30g-50g of whey mixed in some water or milk.

So, say you have 3-4 meals of 50g of protein worth of chicken or steak with your rice and vegetables, you will be able to add an extra 120g-150g+ of protein just by drinking whey shake with each solid meal. And that's also not including you weight gainer type shake, or your protein + healthy fat shake which will each include around 60g+ of protein. Protein shakes can go a long way in gaining size.

Now don't get me wrong, all of these techniques listed above will make consuming the amount of calories necessary for growth easier, but at the same time you will still have to force down the food and meals at times. But I can make certain to you that you will be able to drastically increase your calories/protein by incorporating these simple techniques at the right times.

So, for example if you have trouble eating a large breakfast in the morning, this is an opportune time to incorporate the homemade meal replacement shake (drinking a shake is a lot easier than eating a large plate of eggs with a big boll of oats) for your breakfast. And you will most defiantly be able to take in more calories than your standard breakfast if you combine some/all of the ingredients that I laid out above for the homemade shake.

BONUS: Protein Shake Recipes

Berry Good Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 scoops of Raspberry Yogurt Protein Delite or other protein with
• 4 strawberries
• 15 blueberries
• 16 ounces of nonfat milk
• 1.2 cup of ice cubes.

It is so good that you should serve it with a little umbrella in it!

Protein-Carb Almond Blast

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 Scoops of Vanilla MyoMax Meal or other protein with
• 10-12 oz of skim milk
• 1.2 cup of dry oatmeal
• 1.2 cup of raisins
• 12 shredded almonds
• 1 tbsp of peanut butter.

It's like pudding!

Strawberry Nut Shake

Ingredients:

• Mix 2 Scoops of Vanilla Isolean or other protein with
• 1 cup of fat-free strawberry yogurt
• 6 shredded macadamia nuts.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffle

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops chocolate flavor whey protein powder (Whey Best, Scipro)
• 1 teaspoon creamy peanut butter
• 16 ounces nonfat milk
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Creatine Catalyst

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops vanilla flavor whey protein powder (Whey Best, Scipro)
• 5 Granny Smith apples
• 5 grams (one teaspoon) Creapureä creatine powder
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

For more recipes, click here.

If you don't like making a lunch, grab a protein shake and head over to Wendy's for a few burgers during lunchtime, just try not to eat the fast food too late into the day when your metabolism starts to slow down somewhat. But for most pure ectomorphs their metabolisms are racing the whole day. After the fast food meal you can have a healthy meal of chicken and rice followed up with a 50g shake. Then assuming you train later in the day this is a good time to have your protein + fat meal.

Following your workout you should consume a simple sugar and whey shake to insure that the rebuilding process takes place immediately, and within two hours have a carb laden healthy whole food meal. Try to limit fats in the post workout window due to the fact that they will slow the absorption rate of the meal eaten, but for an ectomorph carbohydrates can be consumed in large quantities after working out. And lastly before resting for the evening have another shake or solid protein meal with a small amount of fats.

Carbohydrates should be limited in this meal because your glycogen stores should be tapped out from your post-workout feedings, and you don't want those excess carbohydrates taken in before bed become converted to adipose tissue. So there is an example day for the ectomorphic bodybuilder that has hit a growth plateau, this example incorporates all of the strategies listed above, but you do not have to incorporate them all at once.

Try to add a few of the strategies every few days or so, enabling your body to slowly adapt to the stimulus of increased food intake. Within a few weeks of this protocol you will have turned your body into a muscle building/ fat burning machine. But remember one thing; none of this will work if you are not consistent on an everyday basis.

In the sport of bodybuilding consistency is KEY.

效法Take a leaf out of sb.

I think he( Tom cruise) take a leaf from Russel Crowe... a phone with you. And then throw a phone.

山達教會(科學教派)的驚人內幕

Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power.

This famous article critical of Scientology has been the target of an organized book-burning campaign by Scientologists as detailed in the Scarff deposition. The piece was awarded the Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism, the Worth Bingham Prize and the Conscience in Media Awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

By republishing it into the digital domain of the Usenet we hope to confer a kind of immortality on it that Scientology never does on either the perpetrators or victims of its crimes.

Please use under the fair use provision of the U.S. Copyright code.

Even as the cult of Scientology tries to destroy the truth, the truth shall be loosed over the planet forever.

---

Time Magazine May 6, 1991 page 50.
Special Report (cover story)
Copyright © 1991 Time Magazine

The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power

Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes. Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming for the mainstream

by Richard Behar

By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the sun. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to obtain his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief.

This young Russian-studies scholar had jumped from a 10th-floor window of the Milford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the hood of a stretch limousine. When the police arrived, his fingers were still clutching $171 in cash, virtually the only money he hadn't turned over to the Church of Scientology, the self-help "philosophy" group he had discovered just seven months earlier.

His death inspired his father Edward, a physician, to start his own investigation of the church. "We thought Scientology was something like Dale Carnegie," Lottick says. "I now believe it's a school for psychopaths." Their so-called therapies are manipulations. They take the best and the brightest people and destroy them." The Lotticks want to sue the church for contributing to their son's death, but the prospect has them frightened. For nearly 40 years, the big business of Scientology has shielded itself exquisitely behind the First Amendment as well as a battery of high-priced criminal lawyers and shady private detectives.

The Church of Scientology, started by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to "clear" people of unhappiness, portrays itself as a religion. In reality the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner. At times during the past decade, prosecutions against Scientology seemed to be curbing its menace. Eleven top Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife, were sent to prison in the early 1980s for infiltrating, burglarizing and wiretapping more than 100 private and government agencies in attempts to block their investigations. In recent years hundreds of longtime Scientology adherents -- many charging that they were mentally of physically abused -- have quit the church and criticized it at their own risk. Some have sued the church and won; others have settled for amounts in excess of $500,000. In various cases judges have labeled the church "schizophrenic and paranoid" and "corrupt, sinister and dangerous."

Yet the outrage and litigation have failed to squelch Scientology. The group, which boasts 700 centers in 65 countries, threatens to become more insidious and pervasive than ever. Scientology is trying to go mainstream, a strategy that has sparked a renewed law- enforcement campaign against the church. Many of the group's followers have been accused of committing financial scams, while the church is busy attracting the unwary through a wide array of front groups in such businesses as publishing, consulting, health care and even remedial education.

In Hollywood, Scientology has assembled a star-studded roster of followers by aggressively recruiting and regally pampering them at the church's "Celebrity Centers," a chain of clubhouses that offer expensive counseling and career guidance. Adherents include screen idols Tom Cruise and John Travolta, actresses Kirstie Alley, Mimi Rogers, and Anne Archer, Palm Springs mayor and performer Sonny Bono, jazzman Chick Corea and even Nancy Cartwright, the voice of cartoon star Bart Simpson. Rank-and-file members, however, are dealt a less glamorous Scientology.

According to the Cult Awareness Network, whose 23 chapters monitor more than 200 "mind control" cults, no group prompts more telephone pleas for help than does Scientology. Says Cynthia Kisser, the network's Chicago-based executive director: "Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members." Agrees Vicki Aznaran, who was one of Scientology's six key leaders until she bolted from the church in 1987: "This is a criminal organization, day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy [Bakker] look like kindergarten." To explore Scientology's reach, TIME conducted more than 150 interviews and reviewed hundreds of court records and internal Scientology documents. Church officials refused to be interviewed. The investigation paints a picture of a depraved yet thriving enterprise. Most cults fail to outlast their founder, but Scientology has prospered since Hubbard's death in 1986. In a court filing, one of the cult's many entities -- the Church of Spiritual Technology -- listed $503 million in income just for 1987. High-level defectors say the parent organization has squirreled away an estimated $400 million in bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Cyprus. Scientology probably has about 50,000 active members, far fewer than the 8 million the group claims. But in one sense, that inflated figure rings true: millions of people have been affected in one way or another by Hubbard's bizarre creation.

Scientology is now run by David Miscavige, 31, a high school dropout and second-generation church member. Defectors describe him as cunning, ruthless and so paranoid about perceived enemies that he kept plastic wrap over his glass of water. His obsession is to obtain credibility for Scientology in the 1990s. Among other tactics, the group:

• Retains public relation powerhouse Hill and Knowlton to help shed the church's fringe-group image.

• Joined such household names as Sony and Pepsi as a main sponsor of Ted Turner's Goodwill Games.

• Buys massive quantities of its own books from retail stores to propel the titles onto best-seller lists.

• Runs full-page ads in such publications as Newsweek and Business Week that call Scientology a "philosophy," along with a plethora of TV ads touting the group's books.

• Recruits wealthy and respectable professionals through a web of consulting groups that typically hide their ties to Scientology.

The founder of this enterprise was part storyteller, part flimflam man. Born In Nebraska in 1911, Hubbard served in the Navy during World War II and soon afterward complained to the Veterans Administration about his "suicidal inclinations" and his "seriously affected" mind. Nevertheless, Hubbard was a moderately successful writer of pulp science fiction. Years later, church brochures described him falsely as an "extensively decorated" World War II hero who was crippled and blinded in action, twice pronounced dead and miraculously cured through Scientology. Hubbard's "doctorate" from "Sequoia University" was a fake mall-order degree. In a I984 case in which the church sued a Hubbard biographical researcher, a California judge concluded that its founder was "a pathological liar."

Hubbard wrote one of Scientology's sacred texts, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, in 1950. In it he introduced a crude psychotherapeutic technique he called "auditing." He also created a simplified lie detector (called an "E-meter") that was designed to measure electrical changes In the skin while subjects discussed intimate details of their past. Hubbard argued that unhappiness sprang from mental aberrations (or "engrams") caused by early traumas. Counseling sessions with the E-meter, he claimed, could knock out the engrams, cure blindness and even improve a person's intelligence and appearance.

Hubbard kept adding steps, each more costly, for his followers to climb. In the 1960s the guru decreed that humans are made of clusters of spirits (or "thetans") who were banished to earth some 75 million years ago by a cruel galactic ruler named Xenu. Naturally, those thetans had to be audited.

An Internal Revenue Service ruling in 1967 stripped Scientology's mother church of its tax-exempt status. A federal court ruled in 1971 that Hubbard's medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could no longer be called a scientific treatment. Hubbard responded by going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection for Scien- tology's strange rites. His counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, franchises became "missions," fees became "fixed donations," and Hubbard's comic-book cosmology became "sacred scriptures.'

During the early 1970s, the IRS conducted its own auditing sessions and proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency's employees. By late 1985, with high-level defectors accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as S200 million from the church, the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members "worked day and night" shredding documents the IRS sought, according to defector Aznaran, who took part in the scheme. Hubbard, who had been in hiding for five years, died before the criminal case could be prosecuted.

Today the church invents costly new services with all the zeal of its founder. Scientology doctrine warns that even adherents who are "cleared" of engrams face grave spiritual dangers unless they are pushed to higher and more expensive levels. According to the church's latest price list, recruits -- "raw meat," as Hubbard called them -- take auditing sessions that cost as much as $1,000 an hour, or $12,500 for a 12 1/2-hour "intensive."

Psychiatrists say these sessions can produce a drugged-like, mind-controlled euphoria that keeps customers coming back for more. To pay their fees, newcomers can earn commissions by recruiting new mem- bers, become auditors themselves (Miscavige did so at age 12), or join the church staff and receive free counseling in exchange for what their written contracts describe as a "billion years" of labor. "Make sure that lots of bodies move through the shop," implored Hubbard in one of his bulletins to officials. "Make money. Make more money. Make others produce so as to make money . . . However you get them in or why, just do it."

Harriet Baker learned the hard way about Scientology's business of selling religion. When Baker, 73, lost her husband to cancer, a Scientologist turned up at her Los Angeles home peddling a $1,300 auditing package to cure her grief. Some $15,000 later, the Scientologists discovered that her house was debt free. They arranged a $45,000 mortgage, which they pressured her to tap for more auditing until Baker's children helped their mother snap out of her daze. Last June, Baker demanded a $27,000 refund for unused services, prompting two cult members to show up at her door unannounced with an E-meter to interrogate her. Baker never got the money and, financially strapped, was forced to sell her house in September.

Before Noah Lottick killed himself, he had paid more than $5,000 for church counseling. His behavior had also become strange. He once remarked to his parents that his Scientology mentors could actually read minds. When his father suffered a major heart attack, Noah insisted that it was purely psychosomatic. Five days before he jumped, Noah burst into his parents' home and demanded to know why they were spreading "false rumors" about him -- a delusion that finally prompted his father to call a psychiatrist.

It was too late. "From Noah's friends at Dianetics" read the card that accompanied a bouquet of flowers at Lottick's funeral. Yet no Scientology staff members bothered to show up. A week earlier, local church officials had given Lottick's parents a red-carpet tour of their center. A cult leader told Noah's parents that their son had been at the church just hours before he disappeared -- but the church denied this story as soon as the body was identified. True to form, the cult even haggled with the Lotticks over $3,000 their son had paid for services he never used, insisting that Noah had intended it as a "donation."

The church has invented hundreds of goods and services for which members are urged to give "donations." Are you having trouble "moving swiftly up the Bridge" -- that is, advancing up the stepladder of en- lightenment? Then you can have your case reviewed for a mere $1,250 "donation." Want to know "why a thetan hangs on to the physical universe?" Try 52 of Hubbard's tape-recorded speeches from 1952, titled "Ron's Philadelphia Doctorate Course Lectures," for $2,525. Next: nine other series of the same sort. For the collector, gold-and-leather-bound editions of 22 of Hubbard's books (and bookends) on subjects ranging from Scientology ethics to radiation can be had for just $1,900.

To gain influence and lure richer, more sophisticated followers, Scientology has lately resorted to a wide array of front groups and financial scams. Among them:

• CONSULTING. Sterling Management Systems, formed in 1983, has been ranked in recent years by Inc. magazine as one of America's fastest-growing private companies (estimated 1988 revenues: $20 mil- lion). Sterling regularly mails a free newsletter to more than 300,000 health-care professionals, mostly dentists, promising to increase their incomes dramatically. The firm offers seminars and courses that typically cost $10,OOO. But Sterling's true aim is to hook customers for Scientology. "The church has a rotten product, so they package it as something else," says Peter Georgiades, a Pittsburgh attorney who represents Sterling victims. "It's a kind of bait and switch." Sterling's founder, dentist Gregory Hughes is now under investigation by California's Board of Dental Examiners for incompetence. Nine lawsuits are pending against him for malpractice (seven others have been settled), mostly for orthodontic work on children.

  Many dentists who have unwittingly been drawn into the cult are filing or threatening lawsuits as well. Dentist Robert Geary of Medina, Ohio, who entered a Sterling seminar in 1988, endured "the most extreme high-pressure sales tactics I have ever faced." Sterling officials told Geary, 45, that their firm was not linked to Scientology, he says. but Geary claims they eventually convinced him that he and his wife Dorothy had personal problems that required auditing. Over five months, the Gearys say, they spent $130,000 for services, plus $50,000 for "gold-embossed, investment-grade" books signed by Hubbard. Geary contends that Scientologists not only called his bank to increase his credit card limit but also forged his signature on a $20,000 loan application. "It was insane," he recalls. "I couldn't even get an accounting from them of what I was paying for." At one point, the Gearys claim, Scientologists held Dorothy hostage for two weeks in a mountain cabin, after which she was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown.

  Last October, Sterling broke some bad news to another dentist, Glover Rowe of Gadsden, Ala., and his wife Dee. Tests showed that unless they signed up for auditing Glover's practice would fail, and Dee would someday abuse their child. The next month the Rowes flew to Glendale, Calif., where they shuttled daily from a local hotel to a Dianetics center. "We thought they were brilliant people because they seemed to know so much about us," recalls Dee. "Then we realized our hotel room must have been bugged." After bolting from the center, $23,000 poorer, the Rowes say, they were chased repeatedly by Scientologists on foot and in cars. Dentists aren't the only once at risk. Scientology also makes pitches to chiropractors, podiatrists and veterinarians.
  

• PUBLIC INFLUENCE. One front, the Way to Happiness Foundation, has distributed to children in thousands of the nation's public schools more than 3.5 million copies of a booklet Hubbard wrote on morality. The church calls the scheme "the largest dissemination project in Scientology history." Applied Scholastics is the name of still another front, which is attempting to install a Hubbard tutorial program in public schools, primarily those populated by minorities. The group also plans a 1,000 acre campus, where it will train educators to teach various Hubbard methods. The disingenuously named Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a Scientology group at war with psychiatry, its primary competitor. The commission typically issues reports aimed at discrediting particular psychiatrists and the field in general. The CCHR is also behind an all-out war against Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac, the nation's top-selling antidepression drug. Despite scant evidence, the group's members -- who call themselves "psychbusters" -- claim that Prozac drives people to murder or suicide. Through mass mailings, appearances on talk shows and heavy lobbying, CCHR has hurt drug sales and helped spark dozens of lawsuits against Lilly.

  Another Scientology linked group, the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, holds antidrug contests and awards $5,000 grants to schools as a way to recruit students and curry favor with education officials. West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller IV unwittingly commended the CBAA in 1987 on the Senate floor. Last August author Alex Haley was the keynote speaker at its annual awards banquet in Los Angeles. Says Haley: "I didn't know much about that group going in. I'm a Methodist." Ignorance about Scientology can be embarrassing: two months ago, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, noting that Scientology's founder "has solved the aberrations of the human mind," proclaimed March 13 "L. Ron Hubbard Day." He rescinded the proclamation in late March, once he Iearned who Hubbard really was.

• HEALTH CARE. HealthMed, a chain of clinics run by Scientologists, promotes a grueling and excessive system of saunas, exercise and vitamins designed by Hubbard to purify the body. Experts denounce the regime as quackery and potentially harmful, yet HealthMed solicits unions and public agencies for contracts. The chain is plugged heavily in a new book, Diet for a Poisoned Planet, by journalist David Steinman, who concludes that scores of common foods (among them: peanuts, bluefish, peaches and cottage cheese) are dangerous.

  Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop labeled the book "trash," and the Food and Drug Administration issued a paper in October that claims Steinman distorts his facts. "HealthMed is a gateway to Scientology, and Steinman's book is a sorting mechanism," says physician William Jarvis, who is head of the National Council Against Health Fraud. Steinman, who describes Hubbard favorably as a "researcher," denies any ties to the church and contends, "HealthMed has no affiliation that I know of with Scientology."

• DRUG TREATMENT. Hubbard's purification treatments are the mainstay of Narconon, a Scientology-run chain of 33 alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers -- some in prisons under the name "Criminon" -- in 12 countries. Narconon, a classic vehicle for drawing addicts into the cult, now plans to open what it calls the world's largest treatment center, a 1,400-bed facility on an Indian reservation near Newkirk, Okla. (pop. 2,400. At a 1989 ceremony in Newkirk, the As- sociation for Better Living and Education presented Narconon a check for $200,000 and a study praising its work. The association turned out to be part of Scientology itself. Today the town is battling to keep out the cult, which has fought back through such tactics as sending private detectives to snoop on the mayor and the local newspaper publisher.

• FINANCIAL SCAMS. Three Florida Scientologists, including Ronald Bernstein, a big contributor to the church's international "war chest," pleaded guilty in March to using their rare-coin dealership as a money laundry. Other notorious activities by Scientologists include making the shady Vancouver stock exchange even shadier (see box) and plotting to plant operatives in the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Export-Import Bank of the U.S. The alleged purpose of this scheme: to gain inside information on which countries are going to be denied credit so that Scientology-linked traders can make illicit profits by taking "short" positions in those countries' currencies.

  In the stock market the practice of "shorting" involves borrowing shares of publicly traded companies in the hope that the price will go down before the stocks must be bought on the market and returned to the lender. The Feshbach brothers of Palo Alto, Calif. -- Kurt, Joseph and Matthew - have become the leading short sellers in the U.S., with more than $500 million under management. The Feshbachs command a staff of about 60 employees and claim to have earned better returns than the Dow Jones industrial average for most of the 1980s. And, they say, they owe it all to the teachings of Scientology, whose "war chest" has received more than $1 million from the family.

  The Feshbachs also embrace the church's tactics; the brothers are the terrors of the stock exchanges. In congressional hearings in 1989, the heads of several companies claimed that Feshbach operatives have spread false information to government agencies and posed in various guises -- such as a Securities and Exchange Commission official -- in an effort to discredit their companies and drive the stocks down. Michael Russell, who ran a chain of business journals, testified that a Feshbach employee called his bankers and interfered with his loans. Sometimes the Feshbachs send private detectives to dig up dirt on firms, which is then shared with business reporters, brokers and fund managers.

  The Feshbachs, who wear jackets bearing the slogan "stock busters," insist they run a clean shop. But as part of a current probe into possible insider stock trading, federal officials are reportedly investigating whether the Feshbachs received confidential information from FDA employees. The brothers seem aligned with Scientology's war on psychiatry and medicine: many of their targets are health and bio- technology firms. ""Legitimate short selling performs a public service by deflating hyped stocks," says Robert Flaherty, the editor of Equities magazine and a harsh critic of the brothers. "But the Feshbachs have damaged scores of good start-ups."

  Occasionally a Scientologist's business antics land him in jail. Last August a former devotee named Steven Fishman began serving a five-year prison term in Florida. His crime: stealing blank stock-confirmation slips from his employer, a major brokerage house, to use as proof that he owned stock entitling him to join dozens of successful class-action lawsuits. Fishman made roughly $1 million this way from 1983 to 1988 and spent as much as 30% of the loot on Scientology books and tapes.

  Scientology denies any tie to the Fishman scam, a claim strongly disputed by both Fishman and his longtime psychiatrist, Uwe Geertz, a prominent Florida hypnotist. Both men claim that when arrested, Fishman was ordered by the church to kill Geertz and then do an "EOC," or end of cycle, which is church jargon for suicide.

• BOOK PUBLISHING. Scientology mischiefmaking has even moved to the book industry. Since 1985 at least a dozen Hubbard books, printed by a church company, have made best-seller lists. They range from a 5,000-page sci-fi decology (Black Genesis, The Enemy Within, An Alien Affair) to the 40-year-old Dianetics. In 1988 the trade publication Publishers Weekly awarded the dead author a plaque commemorating the appearance of Dianetics on its best-seller list for 100 consecutive weeks.

  Critics pan most of Hubbard's books as unreadable, while defectors claim that church insiders are sometimes the real authors. Even so, Scientology has sent out armies of its followers to buy the group's books at such major chains as B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks to sustain the illusion of a best-selling author. A former Dalton's manager says that some books arrived in his store with the chain's price stickers already on them, suggesting that copies are being recycled. Scientology claims that sales of Hubbard books now top 90 million worldwide. The scheme, set up to gain converts and credibility, is coupled with a radio and TV advertising campaign virtually un- paralleled in the book industry.

Scientology devotes vast resources to squelching its critics. Since 1986 Hubbard and his church have been the subject of four unfriendly books, all released by small yet courageous publishers. In each case, the writers have been badgered and heavily sued. One of Hubbard's policies was that all perceived enemies are "fair game" and subject to being "tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." Those who criticize the church journalists, doctors, lawyers and even judges often find themselves engulfed in litigation, stalked by private eyes, framed for fictional crimes, beaten up or threatened with death. Psychologist Margaret Singer, 69, an outspoken Scientology critic and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, now travels regularly under an assumed name to avoid harassment.

After the Los Angeles Times published a negative series on the church last summer, Scientologists spent an estimated $1 million to plaster the reporters' names on hundreds of billboards and bus placards across the city. Above their names were quotations taken out of context to portray the church in a positive light.

The church's most fearsome advocates are its lawyers. Hubbard warned his followers in writing to "beware of attorneys who tell you not to sue . . . the purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win." Result: Scientology has brought hundreds of suits against its perceived enemies and today pays an estimated $20 million annually to more than 100 lawyers.

One legal goal of Scientology is to bankrupt the opposition or bury it under paper. The church has 71 active lawsuits against the IRS alone. One of them, Miscavige vs. IRS, has required the U.S. to pro- duce an index of 52,000 pages of documents. Boston attorney Michael Flynn, who helped Scientology victims from 1979 to 1987, personally endured 14 frivolous lawsuits, all of them dismissed. Another lawyer, Joseph Yanny, believes the church "has so subverted justice and the judicial system that it should be barred from seeking equity in any court." He should know: Yanny represented the cult until 1987, when, he says, he was asked to help church officials steal medical records to blackmail an opposing attorney (who was allegedly beaten up instead). Since Yanny quit representing the church, he has been the target of death threats, burglaries, lawsuits and other harassment.

Scientology's critics contend that the U.S. needs to crack down on the church in a major, organized way. "I want to know, Where is our government?" demands Toby Plevin, a Los Angeles attorney who handles victims. "It shouldn't be left to private litigators, because God knows most of us are afraid to get involved." But law-enforcement agents are also wary. "Every investigator is very cautious, walking on eggshells when it comes to the church," says a Florida police detective who has tracked the cult since 1988. "It will take a federal effort with lots of money and manpower."

So far the agency giving Scientology the most grief is the IRS, whose officials have implied that Hubbard's successors may be looting the church's coffers. Since 1988, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the revocation of the cult's tax-exempt status, a massive IRS probe of church centers across the country has been under way. An IRS agent, Marcus Owens, has estimated that thousands of IRS employees have been involved. Another agent, in an internal IRS memorandum, spoke hopefully of the "ultimate disintegration" of the church. A small but helpful beacon shone last June when a federal appeals court ruled that two cassette tapes featuring conversations between church officials and their lawyers are evidence of a plan to commit "future frauds" against the IRS.

The IRS and FBI have been debriefing Scientology defectors for the past three years, in part to gain evidence for a major racketeering case that appears to have stalled last summer. Federal agents complain that the Justice Department is unwilling to spend the money needed to endure a drawn-out war with Scientology or to fend off the cult's notorious jihads against individual agents. "In my opinion the church has one of the most effective intelligence operations in the U.S., rivaling even that of the FBI," says Ted Gunderson, a former head of the FBI's Los Angeles office.

Foreign governments have been moving even more vigorously against the organization. In Canada the church and nine of its members will be tried in June on charges of stealing government documents (many of them retrieved in an enormous police raid of the church's Toronto headquarters). Scientology proposed to give $1 million to the needy if the case was dropped, but Canada spurned the offer. Since 1986 authorities in France, Spain and Italy have raided more than 50 Scien- tology centers. Pending charges against more than 100 of its overseas church members include fraud, extortion, capital flight, coercion, illegally practicing medicine and taking advantage of mentally incapacitated people. In Germany last month, leading politicians accused the cult of trying to infiltrate a major party as well as launching an immense recruitment drive in the east.

Sometimes even the church's biggest zealots can use a little protection. Screen star Travolta, 37, has long served as an unofficial Scientology spokesman, even though he told a magazine in 1983 that he was opposed to the church's management. High-level defectors claim that Travolta has long feared that if he defected, details of his sexual life would be made public. "He felt pretty intimidated about this getting out and told me so," recalls William Franks, the church's former chairman of the board. "There were no outright threats made, but it was implicit. If you leave, they immediately start digging up everything." Franks was driven out in 1981 after attempting to reform the church.

The church's former head of security, Richard Aznaran, recalls Scientology ringleader Miscavige repeatedly joking to staffers about Travolta's allegedly promiscuous homosexual behavior. At this point any threat to expose Travolta seems superfluous: last May a male porn star collected $100,000 from a tabloid for an account of his alleged two-year liaison with the celebrity. Travolta refuses to comment, and in December his lawyer dismissed questions about the subject as "bizarre." Two weeks later, Travolta announced that he was getting married to actress Kelly Preston, a fellow Scientologist.

Shortly after Hubbard's death the church retained Trout & Ries, a respected, Connecticut-based firm of marketing consultants, to help boost its public image. "We were brutally honest," says Jack Trout. "We advised them to clean up their act, stop with the controversy and even to stop being a church. They didn't want to hear that." Instead, Scientology hired one of the country's largest p.r. outfits, Hill and Knowlton, whose executives refuse to discuss the lucrative relationship. "Hill and Knowlton must feel that these guys are not totally off the wall," says Trout. "Unless it's just for the money." One of Scientology's main strategies is to keep advancing the tired argument that the church is being "persecuted" by antireligionists. It is supported in that position by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Council of Churches. But in the end, money is what Scientology is all about. As long as the organization's opponents and victims are successfully squelched, Scientology's managers and lawyers will keep pocketing millions of dollars by helping it achieve its ends.

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Mining Money in Vancouver

[Sidebar; page 54]

One source of funds for the Los Angeles-based church is the notorious, self-regulated stock exchange in Vancouver, British Columbia, often called the scam capital of the world. The exchange's 2,300 penny-stock listings account for $4 billion in annual trading. Local journalists and insiders claim the vast majority range from total washouts to outright frauds.

Two Scientologists who operate there are Kenneth Gerbino and Michael Baybak, 20-year church veterans from Beverly Hills who are major donors to the cult. Gerbino, 45, is a money manager, marketmaker and publisher of a national financial newsletter. He has boasted in Scientology journals that he owes all his stock-picking success to L. Ron Hubbard. That's not saying much: Gerbino's newsletter picks since 1985 have cumulatively returned 24%, while the Dow Jones industrial average has more than doubled. Nevertheless Gerbino's short-term gains can be stupendous. A survey last October found Gerbino to be the only manager who made money in the third quarter of 1990, thanks to gold and other resource stocks. For the first quarter of 1991, Gerbino was dead last. Baybak, 49, who runs a public relations company staffed with Scientologists, apparently has no ethics problem with engineering a hostile takeover of a firm he is hired to promote.

Neither man agreed to be interviewed for this story, yet both threatened legal action through attorneys. "What these guys do is take over companies, hype the stock, sell their shares, and then there's nothing left," says John Campbell, a former securities lawyer who was a director of mining company Athena Gold until Baybak and Gerbino took it over.

The pattern has become familiar. The pair promoted a mining venture called Skylark Resources, whose stock traded at nearly $4 a share in 1987. The outfit soon crashed, and the stock is around 2 cents. NETI Technologies, a software company, was trumpeted in the press as "the next Xerox" and in 1984 rose to a market value of $120 million with Baybak's help. The company, which later collapsed, was delisted two months ago by the Vancouver exchange.

Baybak appeared in 1989 at the helm of Wall Street Ventures, a start-up that announced it owned 35 tons of rare Middle Eastern postage stamps -- worth $100 million -- and was buying the world's largest collection of southern Arabian stamps (worth $350 million). Steven C. Rockefeller Jr. of the oil family and former hockey star Denis Potvin joined the company in top posts, but both say they quit when they realized the stamps were virtually worthless. "The stamps were created by sand-dune nations to exploit collectors," says Michael Laurence, editor of Linn's Stamp News, America's largest stamp journal. After the stock topped $6, it began a steady descent, with Baybak unloading his shares along the way. Today it trades at 18 cents.

Athena Gold, the current object of Baybak's and Gerbino's attentions, was founded by entrepreneur William Jordan. He turned to an established Vancouver broker in 1987 to help finance the company, a 4,500-acre mining property near Reno. The broker promised to raise more than $3 million and soon brought Baybak and Gerbino into the deal. Jordan never got most of the money, but the cult members ended up with a good deal of cheap stock and options. Next they elected directors who were friendly to them and set in motion a series of complex maneuvers to block Jordan from voting stock he controlled and to run him out of the company. "I've been an honest policeman all my life and I've seen the worst kinds of crimes, and this ranks high," says former Athena shareholder Thomas Clark, a 20-year veteran of Reno's police force who has teamed up with Jordan to try to get the gold mine back. "They stole this man's property."

With Baybak as chairman, the two Scientologists and their staffs are promoting Athena, not always accurately. A letter to shareholders with the 1990 annual report claims Placer Dome, one of America's largest gold-mining firms, has committed at least $25.5 million to develop the mine. That's news to Placer Dome. "There is no pre-commitment," says Placer executive Cole McFarland. "We're not going to spend that money unless survey results justify the expenditure."

Baybak's firm represented Western Resource Technologies, a Houston oil-and-gas company, but got the boot in October. Laughs Steven McGuire, president of Western Resource: "His is a p.r. firm in need of a p.r. firm." But McGuire cannot laugh too freely. Baybak and other Scientologists, including the estate of L. Ron Hubbard, still control huge blocks of his company's stock.

[ Caption: ATHENA GOLD'S WILLIAM JORDAN. Cult members got cheap stock, then ran him out of the company ]

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[The following part was only in the international version of TIME]

Pushing Beyond the U.S.:

Scientology makes its presence felt in Europe and Canada

By Richard Behar

In the 1960s and '70s, L. Ron Hubbard used to periodically fill a converted ferry ship with adoring acolytes and sail off to spread the word. One by one, countries -- Britain, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Venezuela -- closed their ports, usually because of a public outcry. At one point, a court in Australia revoked the church's status as a religion; at another, a French court convicted Hubbard of fraud in absentia.

Today Hubbard's minions continue to wreak global havoc, costing governments considerable effort and money to try to stop them. In Italy a two-year trial of 76 Scientologists, among them the former leader of the church's Italian operations, is nearing completion in Milan. Two weeks ago, prosecutor Pietro Forno requested jail terms for all the defendants who are accused of extortion, cheating "mentally incapacitated" people and evading as much as $50 million in taxes. "All of the trial's victims went to Scientology in search of a cure or a better life," said Forno, "But the Scientologists were amateur psychiatrists who practiced psychological terrorism". For some victims, he added, "the intervention of the Scientologists was devastating."

The Milan case was triggered by parents complaining to officials that Scientology had a financial stranglehold on their children, who had joined the church or entered Narconon, its drug rehabilitation unit. In 1986 Treasury and paramilitary police conducted raids in 20 cities across Italy shutting down 27 Scientology centers and seizing 100,000 documents. To defend itself in the trial, the cult has retained some of Italy's most famous lawyers.

In Canada, Scientology is using a legal team that includes Clayton Ruby, one of the country's foremost civil rights lawyers, to defend itself and nine of its members who are to stand trial in June in Toronto. The charges: stealing documents concerning Scientology from the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Canadian Mental Health Association, two police forces and other institutions. The case stems from a 1983 surprise raid of the church's Toronto headquarters by more than 100 policemen, who had arrived in three chartered buses; some 2 million pages of documents were seized over a two-day period. Ruby, whose legal maneuvers delayed the case for years, is trying to get it dismissed because of "unreasonable delay."

Spain's Justice Ministry has twice denied Scientology status as a religion, but that has not slowed the church' s expansion. In 1989 the Ministry of Health issued a report calling the sect "totalitarian" and "pure and simple charlatanism." The year before, the authorities had raided 26 church centers, with the result that 11 Scientologists stand accused of falsification of records, coercion and capital flight. "The real god of this organization is money," said Madrid examining magistrate Jose Maria Vasquez Honrnbia, before referring the case to a higher court because it was too complex for his jurisdiction. Eugene Ingram, a private investigator working for Scientology claims he helped get Honrubia removed from the case for leaking nonpublic documents to the press.

In France it took a death to spur the government into action: 16 Scientologists were indicted last year for fraud and "complicity in the practice of illegal medicine" following the suicide of an industrial designer in Lyon. In the victim's house investigators found medication allegeally provided to him by the church without doctor's prescription. Among those charged in the case is the president of Scientology's French operations and the head of the Paris-based Celebrity Centre, which caters to famous members.

Outside the U.S., Scientology appears to be most active in Germany where the attorney general of the state of Bavaria has branded the cult "distinctly totalitarian" and aimed at "the economic exploitation of customers who are in bondage to it." In 1984 nearly 100 police raided the church in Munich. At the time, city officials were reportedly collaborating with U.S. tax inspectors and trying to prove that the cult was actually a profitmaking business. More recently, Hamburg state authorities moved to rescind Scientology's tax reduced status, while members of parliament are seeking criminal proceedings. In another domain, church linked management consulting firms have infiltrated small and middle sized companies throughout Germany, according to an expose published this month in the newsmagazine DER SPIEGEL; the consultants, who typically hide their ties to Scientology, indoctrinate employees by using Hubbard's methods. A German anticult organization estimates that Scientology has at least 60 fronts or splinter groups operating in the country. German politics appears as well to attract Hubbard's zealots. In March the Free Democrats, partners in Chancellor Helmut Kohl' s ruling coalition in Bonn, accused Scientology of trying to infiltrate their Hamburg branch. Meanwhile the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, has been warning its members in the formerly com- munist eastern part of the country against exploitation by the church. Even federal officials are being used by the church: one Scientology front group sent copies of a Hubbard written pamphlet on moral values to members of the Bundestag. The Office of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher unwittingly endorsed the Scientologists' message: "Indeed, the world would be a more beautiful place if the principles formulated in the pamphlet, a life characterized by reason and responsibility, would find wider attention."

[end of Internationl Edition-only section]

---

The Scientologists and Me

[Sidebar, page 57]

Strange things seem to happen to people who write about Scientology. Journalist Paulette Cooper wrote a critical book on the cult in 1971. This led to a Scientology plot (called Operation Freak-Out) whose goal, according to church documents, was "to get P.C. incarcerated in a mental institution or jail." It almost worked: by impersonating Cooper, Scientologists got her indicted in 1973 for threatening to bomb the church. Cooper, who also endured 19 lawsuits by the church, was finally exonerated in 1977 after FBI raids on the church offices in Los Angeles and Washington uncovered documents from the bomb scheme. No Scientologists were ever tried in the matter.

For the TIME story, at least 10 attorneys and six private detectives were unleashed by Scientology and its followers in an effort to threaten, harass and discredit me. Last Oct. 12, not long after I began this assignment, I planned to lunch with Eugene Ingram, the church's leading private eye and a former cop. Ingram, who was tossed off the Los Angeles police force In 1981 for alleged ties to prostitutes and drug dealers, had told me that he might be able to arrange a meeting with church boss David Miscavige. Just hours before the lunch, the church's "national trial counsel," Earle Cooley, called to inform me that I would be eating alone.

Alone, perhaps, but not forgotten. By day's end, I later learned, a copy of my personal credit report -- with detailed information about my bank accounts, home mortgage, credit-card payments, home address and Social Security number -- had been illegally retrieved from a national credit bureau called Trans Union. The sham company that received it, "Educational Funding Services" of Los Angeles, gave as its address a mail drop a few blocks from Scientology's headquarters. The owner of the mail drop is a private eye named Fred Wolfson, who admits that an Ingram associate retained him to retrieve credit reports on several individuals. Wolfson says he was told that Scientology's attorneys "had judgments against these people and were trying to collect on them." He says now, "These are vicious people. These are vipers." Ingram, through a lawyer, denies any involvement in the scam.

During the past five months, private investigators have been contacting acquaintances of mine, ranging from neighbors to a former colleague, to inquire about subjects such as my health (like my credit rating, it's excellent) and whether I've ever had trouble with the IRS (unlike Scientology, I haven't). One neighbor was greeted at dawn outside my Manhattan apartment building by two men who wanted to know whether I lived there. I finally called Cooley to demand that Scientology stop the nonsense. He promised to look into it.

After that, however, an attorney subpoenaed me, while another falsely suggested that I might own shares in a company I was reporting about that had been taken over by Scientologists (he also threatened to contact the Securities and Exchange Commission). A close friend in Los Angeles received a disturbing telephone call from a Scientology staff member seeking data about me -- an indication that the cult may have illegally obtained my personal phone records. Two detectives contacted me, posing as a friend and a relative of a so-called cult victim, to elicit negative statements from me about Scientology. Some of my conversations with them were taped, transcribed and presented by the church in affidavits to TIME's lawyers as "proof" of my bias against Scientology.

Among the comments I made to one of the detectives, who represented himself as "Harry Baxter," a friend of the victim's family, was that "the church trains people to lie." Baxter and his colleagues are hardly in a position to dispute that observation. His real name is Barry Silvers, and he is a former investigator for the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force. (RB)

---

[Photograph, page 51]
The Lotticks lost their son
[photograph of the couple standing beside the grave of their son.]

[Photograph, page 53]
Harriet Baker, 73, lost her house
[photograph of Harriet Baker on front of her old home.]

[Chart, page 52-53]
The Bridge to enlightenment
[shows costs of various "courses" ranging from a free Personality Test to more than $1,000 an hour for "finding and releasing" "body thetans" (BTs).]

Back to: Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz

AB slide

用來用去還是這款的練腹肌最有效果

Dirt Devil Platinmu Force 08240

This premium hand-held vacuum cleaner is a real charmer when it comes to handling quick spills, cleaning upholstery or automobile interiors, or for those hard-to-reach corners and crevices. It comes with an onboard hose and crevice tool as well as a detachable power nozzle with motorized brush roll for deeper cleaning. Although nothing beats the convenience of a cordless unit for grab-it-and-go portability, a long, 20-foot power cord enables ample reach for cleaning emergencies. In addition, the corded design gives the unit more power and does not limit its use to a specific running time. A permanent belt never needs replacing, and its dirt-container collection design eliminates the use of bags. This uniquely designed hand vacuum is a step-up from the bare-bones, basic hand-held units that frequent many workshops, garages, and homes. If you’re looking for a supplemental vacuum with a little extra cleaning zing, the Platinum Force 08245 is worth the added investment.

背景資識: Scientology科學教派(知覺教派)

Tom Cruse? How could expecte a Scientologist? If you can uderstand, maybe you will be bothered by his abnormal and fucking crazy behavior recently?
-陳雪慧

The Church of Scientology is a rich and vengeful religious cult, or as one critic puts it, "a cross between the Moonies文鮮明的統一教 and the Mafia黑手掌." But it would be a mistake to dismiss its underlying technology as harmless or ineffective. Scientologists know a great deal about thought control, social control, rhetorical judo 語言上詭辯(defeat by misdirection, deft use of logical fallacies邏輯上謬論的靈巧用) and high pressure sales, though as victims of their own technology, they wouldn't characterize it that way.

Despite its extensive advertising campaign, including half-hour TV infomercials置入性言銷 for Dianetics消毒/打預防針(排除有害形象的精神療法), the Church has been careful to maintain a veil保持神祕 of mystery about its teachings教義, in part by outlawing any meaningful discussion or analysis of them. (See the policy bulletin prohibiting verbal tech.) To learn the inner secrets of the cult requires years of strict obedience and large monetary donations.

In return, Scientology promises its adherents "total freedom". The Internet, through sites like this one, is going to make good on that promise. This web site is dedicated to exposing the various technical tricks behind Scientology, until all its secrets have been laid before the public at no charge.

不爽unamused 捉狂

Prankster squirts Cruise with water

Actor not laughing: 'You're a jerk'

LONDON, England (AP) -- Newly engaged Tom Cruise wasn't laughing after a prankster惡作劇之人 squirted噴水 the actor with water at the London premiere of his movie "War of the Worlds."

The culprits被告 were a fake reporter and camera crew working for a British comedy show.

The "reporter"所謂的記者 held up伸出 to Cruise's face a bogus假 microphone that squirted water. An unamused不爽的 Cruise told him, "I'm here giving you an interview and answering your questions and you do something really nasty. You're a jerk混蛋."

Police arrested the fake reporter and three members of his camera crew. They could be charged with assault企圖傷害(人身侵害).

Cruise's fiancee, actress Katie Holmes, attended the premiere but wasn't next to him during the incident.

The couple's courtship戀情期 -- and days-old engagement -- has drawn a mountain of gossip 招來許多閑言閑語 and media attention. Polls世論調查 showed that many fans believed their relationship was a ruse花招 to stir up激起 publicity for "War of the Worlds" and Holmes' latest project, "Batman Begins."

If so, they're going to extreme lengths -- Holmes now sports a flashy engagement ring, presented to her when Cruise proposed to her last week atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

what does model use for skincare?

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	Mint Julep Masque The most popular skin care masque for home use. Rinses away blackheads and helps dry up acne pimples. Also shrinks enlarged pores on the face and neck.

Ice Cream

夏天遇見Gelato＆Ice Cream

義式Gelato

What is Gelato？
義大利的Gelato究竟是什麼？眾說紛紜，有一說是義大利文「冰淇淋」的意思，
也有人就其口感認為是空氣含量較低的冰品。
Gelato就是以牛奶做為基底，然後加上各式配料做成，脂肪含量也不高。
一般125ml的霜淇淋熱量大約150大卡，其中脂肪含量佔16～30%，
義式Gelato脂肪含量卻不到10%，平均熱量也僅120大卡。

IS COFFEE Gelato！

在 台成立八年的IS COFFEE，不只賣咖啡，夏天也做出不同口味的冰淇淋，各店口味依暢銷度略有不同。今夏Gelato增加了哈密瓜新口味，清涼微甜又不膩。行銷公關邱郁 婷特別推薦三小球吉來多加上脆皮餅乾，如花籃般的脆餅，可以避免冰淇淋融化的不便，上層則再灑上什錦水果乾和燕麥，其中藍莓的酸甜加上豐富果粒，每咬一口 都能體驗顆粒的存在感；瑞士巧克力的奶香順滑，與藍莓搭配起來有著意外的味覺效果。

ASTO

義 大利流傳這樣的真實故事，一位母親帶著生病的小孩前往讓醫生 看診，但用盡辦法小孩就是不肯吃藥、也不願進食，醫生對母親說，那就帶他去吃冰淇淋吧！對義大利人來說，冰淇淋的重要性就跟米飯之於中國人一樣，運用牛奶 製成的Gelato或水果製的Sorbetto，有其一定的營養價值。

香草口味一直高居Asto排行榜前幾名，ASTO公關嵇泓茵形容，店內的香草冰淇淋採法國香草豆莢製成，顏色不但不會是「死白色」，上面還帶有植物本身的自然顆粒，吃下第一口有著厚實香醇的味道，並留在口中久久不散。

另外在義大利當地與台灣同步熱門的口味，名為「熱情拉丁女郎」，義大利原名浪漫得很，叫做Amarena，用道地的酒釀櫻桃加上牛奶製成，是屬於性感又純真的酸甜口味，也是許多熟女初次必嘗的選擇呢！

今 年剛推出的納豆口味，是店內的大膽嘗鮮，初聽到納豆的確令人卻步，不少人形容納豆像臭襪子的味道，Asto卻運用了獨家技術，去除納豆特有的「香味」，即 使是第一次品嘗納豆的人，也不會被它的昭彰惡名嚇跑，含一匙在口中，嘗到牛奶的味道為主，約五秒後，納豆的豆味才會慢慢釋出；但又不像原本那樣嗆鼻，是今 年獨家新推出的養生冰品。

Felice／微風廣場B1

義大利冰淇淋在台灣並不是新鮮事兒，Felice的口感卻非常獨特。
Felice最特別的口味當屬餅乾巧克力，普通Gelato吃起來都會帶點碎冰的冰晶口感，但是這兒的餅乾巧克力卻非常滑順，在口中迅速的融化，卻沒有冰淇淋的膩口與油脂，即使屬於較濃郁口味的巧克力冰淇淋，吃起來也感到很清爽，女生也能嗑掉一大球。

這個招牌口味外觀不甚討喜，白色的冰體當中夾雜著細碎的黑點兒，入口之後濃濃的奶香帶著巧克力餅乾的甜蜜，有冰淇淋的口感，卻少了冰淇淋的熱量，吃一口就覺得幸福感十足。

當 然用水果調成的口味也不少，受歡迎的各式莓類當然不可少，就連養樂多口味也在各式滋味之林。鮮果調成的口味吃起來顆粒稍微粗一點，帶點嚼感，但是口味較市 面上其他冰淇淋清新許多，口中非但不覺得有負擔，而且甜度也明顯的降低，對於愛吃又怕胖的俊男美女們是夏季最棒的選擇。

美式Ice Cream

What is Ice Cream
冰淇淋（Ice Cream），據說是中國發明並由馬可波羅傳到歐洲。
它和Gelato的差別除了名稱不同外，材料上也大有差別。
雖然兩者都是用牛奶做成的基底加上許多配料打成，
但好吃的冰淇淋其實在裡面又多加了鮮奶油。
空氣和水分在一般冰淇淋中大概各佔1/4，脂肪含量大約在15%上下， 但因為脂肪越多口感越滑細，某些地區甚至會高到20%，
對於身材算是殺手級的頭號大敵。

KINDORI／台北衣蝶

現點現做的冰淇淋有沒有吃過？KINDORI就是這樣的冰淇淋。這個品牌來自日本，不過，從外觀看倒是沒啥日本味兒。

不 同於其他品牌，強調100%鮮果、鮮奶製作的KINDORI冰櫃裡有2/3被冷凍水果佔據。以牛奶口味的冰為基底，客人可以自由點一種水果當配料，接著放 入機器用尖錐狀的機器現打。KINDORI表示，衣蝶店以草莓口味最受歡迎，不過真正懂吃的行家絕不會錯過抹茶紅豆這口味。綠色的抹茶紅豆雖沒有一般冰淇 淋綿密的口感，放進口中卻迅速溢滿茶香，微帶苦味的清香與紅豆顆粒碎成了完美的樂章。櫃上的服務人員很驕傲地說：「這是得冠軍的抹茶粉做出來的冰淇淋 喔！」

平心而論，KINDORI用料非常實在，雖然冰櫃裡的水果因為久凍，實在很難引人食慾，令人驚喜的是，單吃的其他幾種口味，香醇之 餘還能看見業者的用心與良心。香草口味以價格昂貴的新鮮香草莢製成，細微的香草籽散發自然清甜的滋味；別處嚐不到的豆漿口味入口即是滿嘴黃豆香味兒，巧克 力還用法國知名的Valrhona法芙娜咧！

店長李小姐表示，台灣有27種鮮果，口味比日本還多，吃在口裡少了人工色素、香味的虛偽，多了天然水果的鮮甜，也帶來低脂、健康的滋味。

Big Tom

冰 淇淋也有博物館？Big Tom門口的巨大乳牛雕像，可是自荷蘭船運來台，成立以來吸引不少民眾注意，強調全天然、低脂低糖、有機、空氣含量低的QQ口感，吃起來就像柔軟的麻糬， 今夏則推出三種新口味，分別是蘭姆葡萄、檸檬雪酪、芒果雪酪。加上厚厚的鬆餅一起享用最美味，一刀切下熱呼呼的鬆餅，立即能感受外脆內軟的紮實，沾取盤邊 的加拿大楓糖，再加上冰涼的冰淇淋一起送入口中，三種味覺揉合在一起的默契十足。一般雪酪給人的印象是極容易化成水，這裡的雪酪則十分綿稠細緻，剛咬下時 Q度十足。

第一家推出鐵板冰淇淋的Big Tom，在鐵板上淋上紅酒，香味馬上為蛋糕吸收，挖一口冰淇淋加上蛋糕，紅酒香味立刻發酵，吃完後，口中還帶有淡淡的酒香，讓人想立刻再吃下一口。

店內提供的湯匙很特別，正反面的按摩顆粒，在食用前先刺激舌頭，增加唾液分泌、使味蕾展開，就能充份享受冰淇淋的口感及味道了！

解讀Blog全球旋風！－5年出現3,100萬個，誰能輕易逃避

台灣人稱它「部落格」，中國人稱它「博客」；當今全球所有40歲以下的人都關注它，因為眼前3,100萬個Blogs正改變著所有的商業潛在機會、既有的政治權力，以及全世界的媒體！

作者：史倩玲 它是一種現象與力量，正席捲全球，蔓延速度驚人，但卻仍沒有人能篤定預言它的「前途」或「錢途」。 但這並不意味著我們可以小看它、忽視它、輕視它，如同九○年代IBM小看了PC、微軟忽視了Internet、摩托羅拉輕視了GSM手機，那樣地讓不知名的競爭對手，踩著一個不知名的新技術乘風而起。 它的英文名字叫「Blog」，台灣翻譯成「部落格」，中國則叫它「博客」，「Blog」剛被二○○四年韋氏大辭典編輯委員會選為「年度之字」（word of the year），如果你在搜尋引擎Google上鍵入「b-l-o-g」這四個英文字母，你將會得到一億一千三百萬個鏈結網頁，這數字是美國總統布希的三倍。 中國清華大學博士候選人、博客中國網站董事長方興東指出，部落格最早的原型誕生於一九九三年，原本是一種網路過濾器（filter），功能僅限挑選一些網 站，並做些簡單的介紹，一九九四年美國史瓦斯摩爾大學（Swathmore College）大學生霍爾（Justin Hall）建立了第一個Blog，然而卻因受限於技術，直到一九九九年「Blog」名稱正式出現時，全球也不過只有二十三個部落格。 但也在那一年，美國網路工程師威廉斯（Evan Williams）開發出方便市井小民自助架設部落格的網站Blogger後，和其它類似的網路服務商一舉帶動起「部落格全球風潮」，至今全球已經有三千 一百萬個部落格（與加拿大一國人口相當），美國網路產業調查公司Perseus更預估，此一數字在微軟和雅虎相繼推出免費部落格設站服務後，預計到二○○ 五年底將再成長到五千三百萬個，也就是平均一天冒出四萬──當下每過一分鐘，就有二十八個新部落格在世界各地誕生。正由於風起雲湧的氣勢難擋，威廉斯所創 立的公司Pyra Labs於前年被網路搜尋巨人Google買下，他也隨著Google上市成為矽谷的青年百萬美元富豪。 到底──Blog的人氣從何而來，它又將為商業世界和全球社會帶來哪些影響？ 新世代的個人日誌 「Blog」來自英文「Web log」的簡寫，顧名思義，它的原始用途是網路高手們的「網上日誌」，以日期編年紀事，方便同儕回應。部落格普及化後，網友發現它在WWW網頁上好學好 用，不僅可以容納長文字，包羅照片和影音串流，而且還可以互相鏈結，因此立刻便成為建立「個人網頁」的最佳解決方案，簡單容易上手的特性，讓它的數量以等 比級數的速度向上增長。針對部落格旋風，加州網路公司Six Apart副總裁勒穆爾（Loic Le Meur）語出驚人的評論：「部落格是一種革命，是業餘者的復仇。」而微軟總裁比爾蓋茲則將部落格看成是「電子郵件」、「BBS」、「即時通訊」 （Instant Messenger，如MSN）三大服務後的「第四項」網路殺手級應用。二○○四年微軟年度CEO高峰會上，比爾蓋茲便首次提醒他手下的管理者：「部落格 不具有電子郵件和網站的缺點，將成為未來重要的商務交流工具。」 中央研究院社會所副研究員鄭陸霖分析部落格迅速普及的原因，主要是因為部落格不像以往的個人網站架設困難，「建部落格的技術門檻極低，你不需要會複雜的 html語言，只要學會打字跟上網，就有能力架設自己的部落格，」鄭陸霖以自己的經驗為例，當初為了建自己的個人網頁（Homepage），不但得請懂得 html語言的朋友幫忙架設，當網站功能不敷所需時，還要大費周章的更改網站設定。 容易簡單上手的特性，並不是部落格迅速普及的唯一原因。鄭陸霖指出，部落格的形式類似「私人佈告欄」，容許作者以較長的文章表達完整的概念，同時部落格上 的「RSS」（Really Simple Syndication）訂閱程式，方便網友藉由簡單操作，即可在部落格內容更新時主動提醒，在在都使這個新媒體產生強大力量，「部落格就是個人的線上出 版系統，」他一語中的地指出，這種「微型出版」的概念，扭轉了僅有大型組織才能對大眾傳遞訊息的傳統，當「出版」與「訂閱」的過程變得成本便宜，而且「成 品」同樣美輪美奐，部落格便呼應著二十一世紀個人主義時代「喊出自我」的潮流，迅速成為網路世界的狂迷現象。 純真無私的新媒體？ 為什麼部落格會具有影響力？很重要的原因是它原初創生時的「真實、不作假」的特性，直接衝撞由政府、企業和媒體「包裝」過的傳統資訊，也連帶挑戰了這些傳統資訊霸權的權威。 以政治影響力為例，當年美國前總統柯林頓與實習女助理陸文斯基的緋聞，最早便是透過美國部落格作者德拉吉（Matt Drudge）的網頁散佈出去，從而釀成「國際性」的事件。美國國會參議員多數黨領袖洛特（Trent Lott）因為公開支持大白人主義的同僚參選總統，被眾多部落格引經據典，考掘出眾多被封鎖的史料而導致下台。二○○三年，英美聯軍入侵伊拉克，召致全世 界的反戰聲浪，但其中最具殺傷力的，就是身處伊拉克首都巴格達眾多部落格所發出的現場新聞，徹底顛覆了美國官方所操縱的媒體形象，其中一位伊拉克青年部落 格站長帕克斯（Salam Pax）除了獲得英國《衛報》（The Guardian）聘為正式記者，其網路日誌更出版成實體書。二○○四年美國總統大選前夕，兩黨總統候選人運用部落格「私密、寫真、真誠」的媒介特性，紛 紛建立自己的部落格來競爭選民的支持，卻反向地為部落格打開了應用的知名度。 在企業和社會層面，部落格帶來的影響力可謂五花八門，對個人而言，部落格是一個深度溝通的媒介，可以幫助願意吐露私密心情的企業家和創作者，快速建立外部認同的管道，對企業而言，部落格則意味著一種新型態的行銷、公關、測試消費者意向的強力工具。 「謝謝你污辱我！」這是柬埔寨前國王西哈努克（Norodom Sihanouk）在個人部落格上對訪客留言的回應，西努哈克不僅在部落格上分享他所喜愛的偶像、年輕時的風流軼事，當然也包括他對柬埔寨政局的看法，在 去年底他宣布退位後，他對柬埔寨政治氣候的影響力卻有增無減，這全都來自他那個被CNN稱之為「全世界最多彩」的個人部落格。除了中南半島的國王，美國總 統布希、通用汽車副總裁魯茲（Bob Lutz）、日本Livedoor社長堀江貴文、女星倉木麻衣，甚至連AV女優南波杏和金澤文子都擁有自己的部落格。一九九七年，韓國青年吳連鎬創立了精 神與部落格類似的韓國網路新聞網站「Oh my news」，在二○○二年報導美軍駕車撞死兩位女學生之後，團結起韓國青年社會的反美運動，同時也在總統大選時發起網路動員，成功地將平民領袖盧武鉉拱上 總統寶座。 以製作Flash軟體聞名的Macromedia（今年被Adobe購併），在三年前就設立好幾個員工部落格，為顧客提供技術支援服務，在二○○三年，當 Macromedia推出一個慢得令人火冒三丈的軟體之後，公司裡的「部落客」立即從部落格上確認軟體需要修補，同時也透過部落格回應以消弭顧客的怒氣， 快速幫公司渡過經營危機，「它真是個棒得不得了的預警系統，」資深副總裁海爾（Tom Hale）指出：「能迅速控制損害，就是帶來可觀利益。」 與世界即時溝通的獨家魅力 部落格為何能作為「社會情緒」的觀看窗口？答案是「這個新媒體無與倫比的『即時性』（tied to a moment），」部落格搜尋服務公司Technorati創辦人西弗來（David Sifry）解釋：當訊息一在部落格上流傳、討論，就會透過鏈結和訂閱機制快速地形成某些集體共識，甚至提出有效的建議，這種立即的「反饋」不僅傳統媒體 做不到，就連Internet上的線上討論區也無法完成，「它是一種『全球交談』（global conversation），快到『以分鐘計』（minute by minute），幫助你『即時理解』（up-to-the-minute read）這世界的思考和想法」。今年買下部落格世界著名的影像分享軟體公司Flickr，準備大舉進軍部落格市場的雅虎，對這新媒體的力量再清楚不過， 資深副總裁韋納（Jeff Weiner）坦言：「歷史上，從來沒有一個市場調查工具，像Blog這麼有力量。」 部落格盛行現象，像是平原中佇立的一塊大石，很難不去注意它的存在。當這塊大石開始滾動，傳統新聞媒體首當其衝地受到衝擊。 去年底，美國國會兩黨與白宮都對部落格站長發出採訪許可證，引起了傳統新聞媒體的不滿，紛紛起而質疑這種網路力量的權威度與公信力，但這股聲音在去年美國 哥倫比亞電視網（CBS）資深主播丹．拉瑟（Don Rather）於其「六十分鐘」新聞節目製造假新聞，誤指美國總統小布希在三十年前曾在軍中運用特權，從而被部落格網主們揭發後，已漸漸煙消雲散，丹．拉 瑟也因此道歉辭職。 但在部落格世界裡最轟動的「新聞」，當屬今年四月，由去年曾與影星「阿諾」一齊競選加州州長的知名專欄作家赫芬頓（Arianna Huffington）所創立的部落格「赫芬頓郵報」（Huffington Post），在這個超級部落格裡，赫芬頓女士自己充當召集人，號召了包括知名作家克朗凱（Walter Cronkite）、電影明星黛安基頓（Diane Keaton）、劇作家馬密（David Mamet）等三百個超級寫手，一舉顛覆傳統部落格的「個人」、「業餘」、「游擊戰」的形象，並由前美國線上時代華納執行副總裁李樂（Kenneth B. Lerer）出面經營網站，直接挑戰如《華盛頓郵報》、《紐約時報》等大型實體新聞媒體。赫芬頓指出：「赫芬頓郵報」部落格不僅將嘗試賣廣告，也準備把內 容賣給實體媒介，因此「赫芬頓郵報」不僅將挑戰年方六歲的部落格「非商業」傳統，也直接挑戰到實體報紙在內容供給上的「優勢」地位，才不過成立一個月， 「赫芬頓郵報」便與新聞版權授權商Tribune Media Services簽約，供給美國各實體報紙專欄。大勢所趨之下，台灣聯合線上副總經理賴建汀認為，部落格未來很可能成為各種機密的佈告欄，「早年水門案的 深喉嚨，洩露資訊的地點選在隱密的停車場，但現代深喉嚨，卻可以在部落格上公開洩密，」他語帶幽默的表示。 冷靜面對部落格旋風 因為方便、便宜、高效率，部落格正成為網路世界的新風暴，但也正因它的原始和草創性格，不少觀察家也提 醒：對於部落格商業模式的一廂情願樂觀，其實和過度悲觀一樣危險，聯合線上總經理劉永平就指出，部落格的影響力未必如大家想像中的大，部落格的確揭發不少 傳統媒體沒有報導的事實，但部落格的消息最後還是需要經過傳統媒體大肆渲染，才能發揮其影響力；而在任何人都能成為「部落客」的情況下，部落格也極有可能 像當初的BBS一樣，在瞬間吸引大量人潮後，便因其網路資訊的「低價值度」，而逐漸失去吸引力。 此外，雖然部分「部落客」期望以高點閱率賺取廣告費用，但美國Publicis旗下的互動媒體購買公司Starcom IP經理巴克扎克澤指出，如果部落格不能創造自己網站的差異化內容，便不可能像其他傳統媒體那樣，發展出較大的商業規模，美國Forrester Research最新的調查證實了他的懷疑──雖然約有六成廣告買主對部落格廣告表示興趣，但真正投入廣告預算的廠商，卻仍然鳳毛麟角。 雖然部落格未必是當下立即敲響收銀機的生財工具，但未來普及發展潛力仍不容小覷。網路不像電視廣播媒體受到頻寬資源的限制，在3G基地台以及Wi-Fi佈 建逐漸普及的現在，加上手機上網的應用逐漸增加，能呈現影音、文字的部落格，似乎比任何其它媒體都更適合來表達「個人」的自我意象、價值態度和美學品味。 如果時光倒回到一九九○年，你能會想到在自己的名片上，必須一定要印上「電子郵箱地址」和「行動電話號碼」嗎？那個年代裡，不會有市值七百八十億美金的 Google，不會有一年可作七十億美金線上零售的亞馬遜，你仍會誤以為「Nokia」是一家日本雪橇企業，而雅虎的楊致遠和費羅（David Filo）還不認識網際網路，甚至連華爾街都還認為英特爾是家被日本人擊垮的記憶體公司！ 正因如此，即使我們仍然無法預知部落格的未來能耐，但我們是要「急著否定它」，還是「熱誠探索它」，就成為決定你我未來成功的關鍵了──看看愈來愈多人的名片印上自己部落格的網址，答案應該是再簡單不過...。

嘴破 Canker sore & mouth ulcer

canker sore 嘴破
http://www.dentist.net/cankersore.asp
OTC: over the counter 不用處方箋
benzocaine 麻藥
non-burning 無灼燒感
treatment

Solution of refining your skin in summer

Blackheads and Enlarged Pores

Porefection

Concern with pore size is practically a national obsession困擾. No doubt this is provoked激起 by inescapable multimedia images of glamorous faces airbrushed to impossibly unattainable perfection. This skewed perception of how skin should look is as realistic as the Barbie doll’s similarity to true female anatomy. The truth is that pores are a fact of life. They aren’t invisible and everyone has them. But not everyone knows how best to minimize pores’ appearance.

Porely Designed

Pores play a vital role in skin physiology. After all, without them we’d have nowhere for hair to grow out of, no method for skin oils to reach the surface, protecting skin from environmental dehydration.

Technically speaking, the pore is little more than the opening of the hair follicle onto the surface of the skin. The source of the hair follicle lies deep within the dermis. Midway up the dermal layer, the sebaceous oil gland empties into the hair follicle. Both skin oil (sebum皮脂) and the hair breach the surface through this tiny aperture. Wherever there is a hair, there will be a pore.

Larger Than Life

Why do pores appear larger than life? Anything that attracts attention or expands their natural architecture magnifies their appearance. These can be dealt with. However, the closer you look in the mirror, the larger those pores are going to appear. If you have a habit of examining your skin in the magnifying side of your beauty mirror, perhaps it isn’t really your best friend. So put it aside and address these factors that really do play havoc with your pores.

• Genetics may certainly be to blame. Barely visible on those prone to drier skin, individuals with oily, thicker (glabrous) skin tend to have larger looking, more noticeable pores. This is often hereditary.

• Sun damage is another cause. As we age, one of the ways sun damage affects the skin is through the enlargement of the pores. Sun damage and aging cause the epidermis to thicken and a rim of cells are more likely to collect around individual pores. While microscopic, these rings exaggerate pore diameter.

• Pores may be more visible simply due to lack of good skin grooming肌膚照料 and poor exfoliation脫皮. Too much surface oil and remnant naturally shed skin cells can collect around the edges of pores, creating the illusion of the pores being larger than they really are.

• Blackheads and enlarged pores often go hand-in-hand. Blackheads can either expand pores or simply focus attention on them. But pores can appear larger than life for many reasons, blackheads being but one of them.

Film Noir

Pores are a natural part of the skin; blackheads are the superficial plugs that may form within them. Pore dilatation begins with faulty exfoliation of cells lining the interior gland - cells are too “sticky” leading to microscopic plugs.

Sebaceous glands continue to produce sebum that accumulates behind the plug. Protracted pooling of skin oils serves to both nourishes bacteria (like P. acnes and S. epidermidis).

Dead skin cells, oils and bacteria choke the follicular opening, expanding the diameter of the pore. Blackheads – medically termed “open comedones” - are an all too common outcome. Plugs within the pores composed of sebum, cellular debris and bacteria congest the gland and expand the pore. Contact with air allows oxygenation to take place, turning the plugs black, further heightening visibility.

In Search Of Porefection

An inordinate amount of time seems to be devoted to facials and extractions. Certainly well performed “physical” exfoliation can indeed cleanse cellular matter caught beneath the surface. But poorly executed, glands can be ruptured contributing to sudden acne flare-ups. What they don’t do however is tackle those other contributing causes of large-looking pores. Chemical based treatments can often succeed in solving multiple issues. Sometimes a strategic combination produces the best results. Targeting the key factors that cause exaggerated pore diameter quickly minimize visibility.

• Unplugging debris

• Eliminating bacteria

• Reducing excessive oiliness

• Removing blackheads

• Smooth out the edges

• Reduce sun damage

• Draw the pores closed

Pore Performers

So you know what needs to be done, but how to accomplish the goal? These are the how’s and why’s of pore minimizing performers:

Azelaic Acid

Azelaic Acid is a naturally occurring dicarboxylic acid found in grains like wheat, rye and barley. Azelaic acid has been shown in lab studies to possess antibacterial activity against common skin bacteria Proprionobacterium acnes (P. acnes) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis). As shown by electron microscopic and routine histopathology evidence of patients enrolled in Azelex Cream studies, azeleic acid appears to be an effective means of reducing microcomedone formation. Azeleic acid can be found in prescription Azelex Cream and Finacea as well as nonprescription DERMAdoctor Picture Porefect Pore Minimizing Solution.

Topical Vitamin A Treatments

There are a myriad of prescription medications in this category: Retin A, Retin-A Micro Gel, Tazorac, Avita and Differin. Renova and Avage are their skin rejuvenating counterparts and also work to help as potent pore minimizers. Topical Vitamin A treatments work by normalizing the keratinization process. They help prevent the cells lining the gland from sticking together, promoting more effective exfoliation. Used on blackheads, they work to loosen the plug as well as chemically “peel” the rim of the pore – ideally all without seeing flaking skin or irritation.

Retinol is an OTC form of Vitamin A. While not as potent as it’s prescription counterpart, it still offers help in reducing pore visibility and improving skin texture. SkinCeuticals Retinol 1.0 contains 1.0% retinol, which is very concentrated. Don’t let retinol fool you; it’s still as potentially irritating as the Rx options, so use any of these treatments sparingly, every other night and wait 30 minutes after washing before application. All increase sun sensitivity (meaning don’t forget your SPF 30 during the day) and none should be used while pregnant or nursing.

Retinyl palmitate is another OTC form of topical Vitamin A used in skin care and is less potent than retinol. However, follow the above advice for it, too.

AHAs 果酸 & BHA

As far back as Cleopatra, alpha hydroxy acids have been used in skin care. Alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) is a blanket term for a variety of fruit acids including Glycolic, Citric, Lactic, Malic and Tartaric. AHAs help disintegrate the "glue" that hold dead, dry skin cells to the surface of the skin. By doing so, the epidermis is exfoliated leaving a silky texture. Removal of this external barrier enables easier, deeper penetration of other skin treatments as well.

BHA (beta hydroxy acid) is the trendy term for salicylic acid, a natural acid derived from willow bark, wintergreen leaves, and sweet birch bark. It also works to exfoliate cellular debris and unplug pores. It’s a golden oldie effective ingredient often used in dermatology for acne therapy. Several skin care options incorporate both AHAs and BHA (such as MD Formulations Glycare Acne Gel) to help amplify chemical exfoliation.

Oil Reduction

Granted not everyone looking to minimize the appearance of their pores has an issue with oiliness. But if so, or if blackheads are an issue, reducing excessive surface skin oils helps reduce build-up and pore plugging which contributes to pore visibility. DERMAdoctor Tease Zone Oil Control Gel helps absorb oils and mattifies without drying out the skin. This makes it the perfect option no matter what skin type is being treated.

Those plagued by extreme oiliness may find that washing with MD Formulations - Facial Cleanser for Oily and Problem Prone Skin once or twice a day, followed by the application of MD Formulations Glycare Lotion and then DERMAdoctor Tease Zone Oil Control Gel is highly beneficial. If using a topical Vitamin A therapy every other night, such as Tazorac Gel, severe oiliness is rapidly controlled.

Physical Exfoliation

Whether looking to use an exfoliating cleanser such as Peter Thomas Roth AHA/BHA Face & Body Polish, home microdermabrasion like DermaNew Microdermabrasion Total Body Experience or simply trying to extract that stubborn blackhead with Tweezerman No-Slip Skin Care Tool, remember gently does it! Physical exfoliation has its place in minimizing pore appearance. But don’t scrub until your skin bleeds! If aggressive exfoliation is your passion, consider investing in a series of medical microdermabrasions or medically performed chemical peels.

Picture Porefect

DERMAdoctor Picture Porefect Pore Minimizing Solution removes excess skin oils, crops out blackheads and smoothes out edges. It works to effectively target blackheads, past sun damage, excess oil build-up, bacterial proliferation and poor exfoliation. It accomplishes this by containing azeleic acid; potent AHAs - glycolic, lactic, citric and tartaric acids; retinol, Sebum Sequestering Micro-Particle polymer technology to absorb excessive oils; green tea and willow bark to reduce inflammation often accompanying early acne. Finally it contains aluminum zirconium tetra chlorohydrex glycine, an active astringent agent that draws freshly cleansed pores closed. Essentially it´s everything in a single product to keep your regimen simple and highly effective. Apply once or twice a day to keep skin looking radiant and flawless.

Thinking about trying to get skin like that model on the latest beauty magazine cover? Forget it – she doesn’t have that skin either! Don’t let Nature determine your skin type. Follow the guidelines and let your skin be a vision of porefection.

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter. I hope you have found it informative.

Audrey Kunin, M.D.

(Any topic discussed this article is not intended as medical advice. If you have a medical concern, please check with your doctor.)

Article updated March 31, 2005.

毛孔粗大是許多人的困擾，尤其到了夏天，油脂分泌旺盛再混合了污垢堆積，毛孔被越撐越大，感覺更明顯！造成毛孔粗大的原因很多，一半是因遺傳，另一半則取決於後天的保養，應如何對症下藥調理肌膚，朝「無毛孔美女」方向邁進，以下皮膚科醫師李士虹及美容專家牛爾將為你解說！ 報導╱邱巧貞　攝影╱施偉平、周頌德

原因一 遺傳性油性肌膚 通常天生油性膚質或混合性膚質的人，都會有毛孔粗大的問題，因為油脂分泌旺盛，過多的油脂容易堆積在毛孔，將毛孔撐大。

解決之道 李士虹：可以控油方式來調理肌膚，使用含鋅、果酸及A酸等成分的保養品來抑制出油量，不過膚質是天生的，沒辦法永久改變，一旦停用，出油狀況就會漸漸恢復。 牛 爾：在保養品部分常用的方法是運用果酸及水楊酸的代謝性，加強油份排除，不過效果較為有限。目前最有效的方法是服用女性荷爾蒙或A酸，徹底改變肌膚出油狀 況，不過副作用很大，像是長期服用A酸，容易產生嘴巴及淚腺乾燥的情況，而長期服用女性荷爾蒙，會增加乳癌及血栓的機率，並不建議使用。

搭配產品 1.理膚寶水(La Roche-Posay)硫酸鋅舒緩噴液450元，含鋅可抗菌，可單獨使用，也能與A酸配合使用。 2.妮傲絲翠(NeoStrata)果酸深層保養凝膠1800元，含15％的甘醇酸。 3.理膚寶水(La Roche-Posay)青春每日更新精華露900元，含水楊酸、鋅等成份。

原因二 隨著肌膚的老化 通常年輕族群與熟齡者，毛孔粗大的原因不盡相同。年輕族群的毛孔問題多好發在T字部並混合著黑頭粉刺，主因皮脂分泌量多，過剩的皮脂堆積的緣故，所以毛孔 有著明顯的粉刺突起；而熟齡者的毛孔問題則不單發生在T字部，還會從鼻翼擴散至兩頰，毛孔是呈現凹陷狀，主因是隨年齡增長，角質層水分含量減少，或是纖維 的老化，以致於缺乏彈性，使毛囊周邊支撐系統破壞，導致毛孔粗大。

解決之道 李士虹：可使用果酸、A酸等保養品，能去除老廢角質，還能深入真皮層，刺激膠原蛋白增生，讓肌膚回復彈性，毛孔看來就不明顯。 牛爾：年紀增長的毛孔鬆弛問題，運用刺激肌膚膠原增生原理，可幫助肌膚恢復緊實，相對毛孔也會被拉平些，目前保養品最有效成分是維他命A等，醫學美容可運用脈衝光來改善。

搭配產品 1.妮傲絲翠(NeoStrata) NEO-TEC高效抗老防護凝露1400元/15ml，含左旋維他命C，能促進膠原蛋白生成。 2.薇姿（Vichy）彈力修紋緊膚晚霜1250元/50ml，含胜肽可強化膠原纖維的支撐結構。 3.妮傲絲翠(NeoStrata)Exuviance果酸極緻抗老精華2500元/30ml，含果酸的高濃度配方，能促進膠原蛋白生成。

原因三 擠壓粉刺及面皰不當 擠壓粉刺或面皰不當時，也會刺激毛孔周圍的結締組織，使毛孔變得較粗大。

解決之道 李士虹：深層的去除粉刺或自己在家使用妙鼻貼，建議每個月做1次即可，擠完後要以收斂水或是冰敷來降溫，能讓毛孔收縮，看起來細緻，但這只是暫時的效果，擠完粉刺後，還是得需靠平日持續保養。 牛爾：若肌膚已經出現明顯凹洞的情況，則要藉由磨皮或是冷觸雷射來改善。

搭配產品

IPSA粉刺面膜組合N，事前柔軟霜＋泥狀敷面乳 1200元，先柔軟粉刺，再拔除軟化的毛孔污垢粉刺。 Carita活膚控油煥采化妝水1850元/200ml，加入礦物粉末，可吸收肌膚表面的過多皮脂。

原因四 陽光造成鬆弛及粉刺 過度紫外線的照射會讓肌膚的提早老化，同時也會讓細胞組織鬆散、漸漸形成凹陷，藉著地心引力會更強化細胞間的拉長作用。若再加上空氣中的髒污，除了凹陷外，還會有粉刺。

解決之道 李士虹、牛爾：做好防曬是抗老的不二法則。針對髒污導致的毛孔粗大，定期去角質也是幫助毛孔細緻的必要方式，另外，想縮小毛孔，清潔卸妝非常重要，假如你 是想使用以油溶油的卸妝油來卸除粉刺，通常使用的是去油力強的油脂，很容易連表皮的油脂也被洗掉，所以不要過度按摩，卸妝後的保濕也很重要。

原因五 壓力荷爾蒙所造成 壓力過大造成賀爾蒙失調，也會讓油脂分泌旺盛，導致毛孔粗大。

解決之道 李士虹、牛爾：針對壓力所產生的油脂分泌旺盛，最根本的方式還是調整作息，放鬆心情，在醫學上有人會使用類固醇來治療，但這並非常規的治療方式。

哪裡買 妮傲絲翠NeoStrata 0800-532-666 理膚寶水La Roche-Posay 0800-257-889 薇姿Vichy 0800-256-889 IPSA、Carita（02）2375-1666

同志史兩千年前開始

為了滿足性愛情慾，人類性愛花招百出，連同性間的花招，也逐漸浮上檯面，成為另類討論焦點。只是，多數的人不知 道，在古今中外各種非常態性行為中，其實同性戀可說是歷史最悠久、散布最為廣泛的另類性族群；同時，早在西元前6世紀到西元前4世紀的文藝作品中，也可發 現到古代同志的蹤跡。 報導╱黃春菁．圖片提供╱柏室科技藝術

從追求均衡力與美的古希臘時代開始，就出現許多肌肉勻稱的美男子塑像，同時也盛行同性戀情。性史研究者劉達臨即於其著作《性愛進化史》中指出，古希臘盛行戀童風，並把它視為「高等教育」的一個分支。 古希臘「少年愛」影響大 當男孩接受傳統基本教育後，即被置於一個成年男子的羽翼下，男子負責少男的道德與心智發展教育，但最後都會轉為師生戀。包括柏拉圖、蘇格拉底、阿 基畢阿底斯都是「少年愛」擁護者；他們反對肉慾之愛，也鄙視女子，認為不管是多美麗的女人，都是愚蠢的，所以最好的還是「少年愛」。 受古希臘文化 影響的地中海各地，也有同志傾向；甚至還在軍隊中，從同袍情誼衍生成同性戀情誼。其中，最有名的即是被馬其頓帝國亞歷山大帝所擊潰的波斯強軍「底比斯聖 軍」；但最弔詭的是，年紀輕輕即稱霸歐亞非三洲的亞歷山大帝，是歐洲人眼中的「傳奇英雄」，但這個驍勇善戰的大將竟也是個同志，讓後人津津樂道。 在古代東方各國，同性愛也很流行，例如日本歷代男色古書中記載「蔭間」（即「男昌」，也就是男妓）；然而，最有名的還是18世紀「浮世繪」中的同性愛畫作。還有中國古代正史和野史上，所謂「斷袖」、「龍陽」、「分桃」等詞彙的出現，也是同性戀的證明。 此外，同志現象不限於開化民族，例如新幾內亞的馬瑞德安林人是勇猛的獵頭戰士，也是世上少數將同性戀制度化的民族。他們的男孩青春期儀式，是被引介到同志狂歡會中，由成年男子和少男進行「口交」，才算完成「成人禮」。即使在婚後，同性戀仍是大多數男子主要的性行為型態。 古阿拉伯宮廷女同志多 至於女同志的歷史，則以古希臘女詩人莎弗為開端，於小島列斯波開設女子學園，這同時也是女同志語源「Lesbian」的由來。在古代歐洲宮廷中，部分女子由於性壓抑，就以同性性愛做為宣洩，這和中國古代的宮廷女性如出一轍。 另外，古阿拉伯後宮的寵妾和侍女們，為了撫平空閨之寂，女同志之風甚熾，同時也有「磨鏡女」的稱呼出現，意思是具有互相摩擦陰蒂技巧的女人，她們還會以工具、手指和口交等方法互相給予性刺激。 如今，據德國性學博士施奈貝爾的估算，全世界同性戀者約佔總人口的2％至4％，也就是超過一億人；就這個數字看來，同性戀不僅沒有因時空演化而消失，反而更積極地開始在全球各地，展開爭取同志人權的運動。 人獸交原指與神結合 一般人認為，「男歡女愛」是一種自然規律；但就在3年前，中央大學性別研究室網站，公布一連串「人獸交」圖片，不僅引發學界猛烈撻伐，也讓人獸交這樣的性行為開始被廣泛討論。 古希臘秘密儀式 對此，劉達臨指出，對思維正常的現代人來說，「人獸交」實在是令人難以理解，但其卻有歷史和文化的根源，對某些民族來說更是具有群體性，無法簡單歸咎於個人的怪念頭與惡行。 據 考證，獸姦的行為來自古希臘的秘密儀式，在遠古社會中，人與獸的結合，是神怪高潔的行為，而不是淫穢的勾當。人們認為，鱷魚、山羊、牛等動物，都是神的化 身，和牠們性交，也就是神和人的結合。例如希臘著名神話《麗達與天鵝》，即是風流成性的宙斯化身成天鵝，與丁達魯斯的美麗妻子麗達熱情做愛，象徵人與神間 的距離，只是意念轉換的一線之隔。

Chien-Ming Wang on YES Network

YES Network

comcast:Ch39
timerunner:30
direct tv:622

The YES Network launched on March 19, 2002 as a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week premier sports and entertainment television network featuring主打 the 26-time World Champion New York Yankees Major League Baseball team. The YES Network is available to viewers in New York, Connecticut, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In addition to 130 Yankees games, YES broadcasts other professional and collegiate sports teams as well as classic sports footage. The YES schedule also includes original biography, interview, and magazine programs.

Gotta,gonna

Gotta
1-Short for "got to", meaning "have to". See have gotta.
2-Short for "Have you got a".

I gotta go now.=I have to go now.
Gotta ciggie?=Have you got a cigarette?

have gotta

Means "have to".

I've gotta go now.=I have to go now.
He's gotta hit'im.=He has to hit him.

gonna

Going to

I am gonna do that right now.
Translation = yeah, I'll be doing that just as soon as you drop 40 pounds!

靚男Smith

Royal Weeding?

非官方觀點 Unofficial Point

Network of communication

T-mobile
cellphne serivicel(1000mins/month)



Comcast
internet




Stanaphone
u.s toll-free and receiving fax


skype
intl-long distance


Dynasky
intl-long distance with cell phone


ipbb
intl-long distance for Taiwan domestic cell phone call(good sound quality)

紐約

New York news release
紐約 新鮮事
如果把紐約比喻做一片大沙漠，那麼這裡的流沙區實在太多，很容易就會吸住旅人腳步，讓人深深陷入其中。

記者楊詩涵／美國報導．攝影
在五月的紐約旅展，認識了新朋友米娜，她曾經是每天早晨醒來就望見雙子星大樓、道地的土生土長紐約客。她建議我一定要去肉品包裝區（簡稱MPD或Mepa，Meatpacking District）。當她提到那地方的時候，眼神裡閃動的亢奮劑幾乎把我掐死，好奇心瞬間斗盛。

詭異的肉品包裝區
直到遇見住在紐約的朋友，他們才告訴我已經預訂了位在此區的餐廳，這巧合讓我推翻了原有的採訪計畫。而且《慾望城市》影集裡的珊曼莎宣告入住此區，更助長我涉足這紐約客傾狂之境的決心。即使夾在西村（West Village）和雀而喜（Chelsea）之間的這區塊，還未在紐約市地圖上標示出名稱來。

如果，白天站在第9大道與西14街交叉口，絕對不會對這地方有所幻想──只有工人、卡車、冰庫和飛濺的血水，不久前還是優雅的紐約客絕不涉足之地。到了天 色向晚，這裡的空氣迅速地充滿了躁動感，就像把《神隱少女》電影中的夜間鬼城搬到這裡來。白天關著鐵閘門的店家開始亮燈、搬桌，街頭巷尾開始傳出活動聲， 讓人誤以為這裡的紐約人，作息和紐約其他的地方有12小時的時差，把月亮當太陽來用。
　
白天黑夜異世界　
時裝精品Stella McCartney、Alexander McQueen、Scoop以及《欲望城市》女主角凱莉最愛的Manola Blahniks，在此區悄悄扎根；著名的美髮沙龍Bumble and Bumble、Armando Corral也在此恭候大駕。最精采的是到了晚間，各式的餐廳、酒吧、精品旅館開始喧囂，肉品包裝區的靈魂時段才真正開始。

這之中最著名的是第一家進駐的精品旅館Hotel Gansevoort，擁有空中花園，每晚房價325美元起跳；裡頭的餐廳幾乎家家客滿，前去各網站大力推薦的Bivio餐廳晚餐的結果，讓我對帶路的紐約朋友感激莫名。

離預約用餐時間還有半個小時，逛到第12街上，家具店的展示櫥窗還沒關燈，vitra的椅子擺在店裡，端的是藝術品的架子；bodum不只賣廚房用品，還 有咖啡座；一旁的Western超級市場有著名的冷凍肉品區，除了選擇超多之外，停留店內此區太久，恐有變成急凍人之虞。

天黑沒多久，街上就竄出重度糜爛的音樂，食物香氣隨著人群聚集快速奔走，像血球隨著體溫升高而迅速滾動，肉品包裝區的能量如核爆擴散。血性男子的工作空間 變成時尚與美食拚鬥之地，斑駁大樓亮起冷光霓虹；粗獷與溫柔的交會、衝突和矛盾的註解，是肉品包裝區最熱辣的風格。

現代美術館

記者楊詩涵／美國報導．攝影
現代美術館（the Museum of Modern Art，特愛縮寫的紐約人稱其MOMA）經過長時間的裝修後，幾乎悶壞了一掛熱愛逛美術館的紐約客和觀光客，去年底重新開幕後，到現在還沒退燒。

美術館門面的MOMA字樣映在玻璃帷幕上，是最極簡與優雅的特色。裡頭展出的都是響噹噹的大師作品，逛網站就可以知道現在最新的展品，在此多費唇舌說明也不及親臨現場的萬分之一，因此說說置身美術館的心得。

大師作品當然不能錯過，但美術館建物本身就是一個令人讚嘆的作品，自然庭院的設計除了放置可以親近的裝置藝術，整個綠地的視野會投射在建物背面的玻璃上，框進鄰近高樓和天空，延展出藝術品的生命曲線。

展場內一室的白牆展現出輕色系的寬闊，藝術品擺置其間恰到好處，讓循動線前進的遊客完全感受分明的節奏，分區展出不同調性的作品也讓人方便選取自身喜好。 樓梯更是MOMA不可錯過的空間美學，一、二樓之間懸吊的直升機作品配合挑高的樓面，打破空間的侷限；三、四樓之間挖空的牆面剛好可以看到拾階而上的人 們，這長方體的空間魔力，隨著人們的步伐律動，讓人百看不厭。

但是，現代美術館最令我著迷的時刻，其實始自館外。當我在對街取景時，不小心留意到柏油路上的垃圾，那裡躺著三只歡愉過後的保險套，美術館裡的作品不乏大師的經典創造，這三只被丟棄的時光殘像，卻更親近人間，這就是紐約！

砸錢吃大餐

記者楊詩涵／美國報導．攝影

在紐約吃上一頓正式的晚餐，要有砸錢的心理準備，在Bivio義大利餐廳昏暗的燈光下，我幾乎把菜放冷還是沒法拍到跟美味一樣拔尖的照片，默默希望這幾張圖片可以傳達我舌頭與胃當時的滿足感，是如何的感動了自己，並且微笑簽下3個人200美元的帳單。

前菜 酪梨鮭魚
切成柱狀的生鮭魚不冰冷，薄撒白芝麻、澆上橄欖油，入口即化卻洋溢出魚肉的新鮮溫潤，和日式生魚手法完全不同，卻創造出另一派系的美味，佐以新鮮切片的厚厚酪梨，雖是一盤冷菜，卻暖到心坎裡。

前菜 培根起司烘蘆筍
這道菜的食材碰在一起沒什麼新意，起士香卻不膩，讓人驚嘆這家餐廳以起士著稱的名號，居然用得如此巧妙；培根不過鹹，剛好帶出蘆筍的鮮味，一口咬下蘆筍，口中還竄出湯汁，醒味一百分的菜色。

主菜 薄煎鮪魚
從肉片的厚度可以看出這家餐廳的誠意。煎得恰到好處，魚肉仍然紋理分明，微熟的最外層看相極佳，擺盤帶巧思不做作，原本以為分量太多會吃到膩，卻沒想到新鮮的魚片和黑胡椒粒迸出極品佳作。

綠猴子餐廳（Le Simgf Vert）
這家位在雀兒喜的狹小餐廳，每到夜晚人聲鼎沸、水洩不通，排隊等位是稀鬆平常的事。淡菜（mussel）、海鮮湯、法式炙鴨、羊排都是必點佳肴；這羊排料理方式說起來不見得有別於其他餐館，卻可以讓人啃到見骨還不甘休！


〈記者推薦〉
中央公園

記者楊詩涵／美國報導．攝影
若說此行採訪有所偏執，那絕對是中央公園。無意偷得兩小時的空閒時光，立刻鑽進地鐵站搭車到此，從新啟用的時代華納中心（Time Warner Centre）對面入口處進入公園，看雕像上停留的鴿群比人們更愜意地觀看公園風景。

閒坐岩石上以優格當午餐，公園內的慢跑者、騎單車者、乘馬車者，創造公園內交通繁忙的現象。一旁松鼠跑來跑去，試探我是不是能給牠一點脆果。

中央公園每年有2千萬遊客，橫跨了47條街道，裡頭有21座遊樂場、26座棒球場、30座網球場、2萬朵鬱金香和滿眼的綠樹，兩小時只夠我碰到大都會博物 館卻沒時間一逛。不過沒辦法，因為它是中央公園，大到可以讓人心滿意足地回頭去工作，就像上千萬人來到這裡而終究必須離去。

〈風景明信片〉
紐約趣像

記者楊詩涵／美國報導．攝影

時代廣場的麥當勞二樓，極其辛辣地陳設著各式各樣的裝潢，這一個角落除了熱情的立體造景，還有右下角的情人擁吻。

紐約永遠處於施工狀態，如果可以把這一串工人的辛勤背影搬到帝國大廈頂樓，應該就可以厚著臉皮去角逐攝影比賽。

三輪車（pedicab）是紐約新興交通工具，只有在交通恆常壅塞的城市裡，才有這種風景穿梭在喇叭尖叫的車陣中。

旅遊資訊

記者楊詩涵／美國報導．攝影

●肉品包裝區的精湛網站：http://www.meatpacking-district.com，搭乘地鐵A、C、E、L線可抵達第14街，區內店家有簡介口袋小書可索取。

●Bivio餐廳網址：http://bivionyc.com。綠猴子餐廳（Le Simgf Vert）電話：+1（212）3664100。4人份吃得好、吃到飽足，約需200美元，在紐約大小餐廳用餐得再加上15％小費。

●現代藝術美術館（MOMA）門票20美元，網址：http://www.moma.org。可購買美術館的套票較划算，6家美術館聯票53美元（原價 107.5美元），聯票訊息可上網http://citypass.com/city/ny.html?id=NjBVbdvo。

●赴紐約可選擇搭乘長榮、華航、聯合、西北等航空，前兩者直飛，聯合經東京、西北經大阪轉機，可洽各航空公司訂位組。

●在紐約玩以搭乘地鐵最有樂趣，一週套票為42美元，每段票以入站到出站計，無論多遠皆為2美元，可於各地鐵站購買。

●目前匯率約為1美元兌台幣31元。

現場直擊:街路的明星

Putting the "Hung" in Hungarian

Unzipped: Hi Arpad, how was your flight to Los Angeles?

Long!

Are you filming any videos while you’re here?

I’m doing a movie with Chi Chi [LaRue] for Rascal Video called Night Shift, and one for All Worlds called Tune Up, I think. And I just did Fire Island Cruising 6 for Michael Lucas’ video company while I was in New York.

Honestly, I haven’t seen your work before Hot House’s Skuff 2. I assume you did other movies or modeling before that.

Oh, yes, I’m no virgin. I started with Kristen Bjorn in Comrades in Arms, and…

Oh…gosh, I’m dumb. I have seen you, then.

Yes, I’ve been doing this for about five years.

So how was it working with Bjorn?

He’s very good and very thorough. But after experiencing [making videos for different directors], I found that it’s easier [working] with other people.

I hear the days are sometimes long on Bjorn’s sets.

Yes! Days, days, days, not hours. [Laughs] His movies are very good and very high quality, but you’re exhausted when you’re finished. And when I started there was no Viagra, you know?

Oh, yeah, so no insurance there. It was all you. So, where are you from, exactly?

I’m from Hungary.

How long have you been in the United States?

About 10 months now. I live in Miami.

Welcome! What prompted your move here?

My ex-boyfriend, who’s also a porn star now. Not that I affected him or made that happen. He already had an affinity for it.

How have your 10 months been?

The first six I was with my ex, which wasn’t easy. But after that it was fine.

Have you noticed any weird things about the United States? Is there anything you just don’t get about American culture?

[Laughs] I could speak to you about this for hours…

Please do.

I used to think that America was much closer to Europe regarding culture and the way things are done, but it’s absolutely not. I’m used to it all now, but when I came here I was full of complaints.

Tell me some. I promise I won’t say you’re an ingrate.

It seemed to me that Americans were… I know it’s bad to generalize, but I had the experience that they were much less friendship- and family-oriented than Europeans. All I could see was an emphasis on work and career and money and “being somebody.”

It’s true. We like to think of ourselves as being traditional and having solid values, but I think Americans are running scared these days, and that might have something to do with it.

I think you don’t take care of your citizens as well as Europe.

That’s completely true. We make everyone pull themselves up, even if they can’t. So far you’re not saying anything untrue or outrageous.

I think you can win much more here and you can also lose much more here, you know? And the amount of vacation time you get on jobs here is terrible.

I know! You guys go off on monthlong holidays to Mykonos and Tibet! But I bet we have more porn opportunities.

[Laughs] Yes, that’s true.

So have those opportunities made you recognizable?

Sometimes. Sometimes gay men know who I am. But it’s only then that I think of this as my career. I have another job, of course. Porn is pocket money for me.

So you didn’t have a burning desire to be in porn?

[Laughs] My desire was to make money. I was confused about whether I wanted men or women. And my first shoot was awful. It’s better now, but it’s a job for me, performing sexually. Completely different from sex in my private life.

You mean you’re not having double-penetration moments all the time in private like in Skuff 2?

Well, that depends. The man I top in that double-penetration scene is my ex!

By Dave White

Welcome To The Ask Arpad Miklos Message Board

Q. I've watched Hungarian & Thick As Thieves, and also a one-to-one scene with Sasha (that was really LOVEMAKING ... my favorite scene) in Comrades In Arms. You are the most attractive actor to me so far... You are manly handsome with tender & sweet feeling to me, nice-firm-muscular (not overdone) body and beautifully shaped hard cock (just nice size, not too small or big... Making my mouth watered and asshole itchy) Are you really gay, bi or straight? You enjoy making love with guys on & off screen? What's the your favorite scene so far? Which co-actor excited you most? What's your favorite position? What's your sexual-fantasy?

A. Thank you for your compliments! Well, I'm simply a man. I try to fulfill my imagination in my sex life off camera; in front of the camera I have to work and concentrate on doing everything well. The work was most pleasant with Arpad Banfalvi, and in my favorite scene was the double penetration in Thick as Thieves. My favorite position's somewhere between 68 and 70... About my sexual fantasy: sometime I'd like to experience things in real life the way they look in Kristen's videos.

Q. Arpad... This is without a doubt one of my most exciting fantasies come to life. Being able to converse with you through this ASK THE STARS segment. I have told Kristen many times that you are the HOTTEST model he has ever brought our way through your video appearances. The Hungarian series were excellent, but your most awesome performance was in THICK AS THIEVES! You are my Numero Uno favorite and I am patiently waiting until you make your next appearance. Kristen stated that the new one now in production will not have you in it, but you have got to be in the next one. I could never tire of seeing you. I would even consider appearing in a KB video myself if I knew Kristen would put me in a scene with you. Then I would have fulfilled my utmost dream. Maybe I could even persuade you to consider a relationship. At any rate, you are at the top of my list of KB models and I doubt if anyone will ever take your place. Thanks for giving me many hours of hot, hot enjoyment.

A. Thank you for your kind words. Just keep it up till we meet in person!

Q. You're my favorite! Each video you look better and better. In real life are you a top or a bottom?

A. In real life, I'm just a lover who enjoys having sex.

Q. You are really a very sexy man! I have all four of your videos, and you've gotten me off more times than I can count! Of the films you worked on, which one was your favorite to make? Who was your favorite costar?

A. Thank you! My favorite thing was the Double Penetration in Thick as Thieves with my favorite co-actor, Arpad Banfalvi.

Q. Hi Arpad Miklos. You are very handsome, you seem interesting, and I would like to meet you in person. I'm from Puerto Rico, I'm 28 years old, and I like hot sex. I wish you a lot of success with your acting career.

A. Thank you! If I go to Puerto Rico someday (I've never been there), I'll look for you, by all means.

Q. Where do you live?

A. I'm living in Europe.

Q. What kind of work do you do (when you're not filming)?

A. I'm a chemist.

Q. Are you in a relationship? Does that conflict with your video work?

A. Yes, I am, and this kind of my work didn't cause any problem between us. We discussed the whole affair and we agreed not to be jealous or anything else. By the way, this work is really pretty hard to do!

Q. Do you have a sexual fantasy that you can share with us?

A. Yes, sometime I'd like to have experiences in real life like in Kristen's videos.

Q. What was it like to do the double penetration in the new video THICK AS THIEVES? It looked great!

A. Thanks! It was quite an interesting task and a big challenge, but I think we were able to carry it out. We really did our best.

Q. I've heard that funny things can happen on the set of a porno video. Can you tell us about the funniest things that you remember that happened on the set?

A. The funniest story happened while making the film "Hungary for Men." As you may know, there are a few scenes inside the room of an old cottage. Since the furniture was original, about 80 years old, the bed wasn't able to bear 4 men having sex on it, and it collapsed before Kristen could finish filming the scene. Then everybody laughed a lot, and we had a break while waiting for it to be repaired.

Q. In real life, is it always an advantage to have a big dick (like yours), or does it sometimes scare people away because it's "too big"?

A. Until now nobody has had anything against my dick. I think people like dick sizes like mine. I don't think that it's a disadvantage to have such a big dick.

Q. I'm your big fan from Taiwan. When I first saw you in Comrades in Arms, you really drove me crazy! I ordered Thick as Thieves recently, and you look great, you're still hot in the video. I thank KB for giving us an opportunity to ask you questions. How old are you? Where are you originally from? Are you gay, bi, or straight? Do you like to travel? Have u ever to Taiwan? What did you to do before making porn films? When you do sex for video, is it safe sex? Off camera, what is your sex life like? We know that group scenes are a main feature, of KB videos. Do you prefer group sex or one-to-one sex? I really enjoy your films, I will always support you!

A. Thank you! Here is a short bio: I'm 31 years old. I'm originally from my mother and father. I'm simply a man, and I prefer not to categorize myself with labels. I love traveling, but I've never been to Taiwan. (But my bike was born in Taiwan...). I'm still a chemist. In front of the camera everybody has to practice safe sex, it's obligatory in Kristen's videos. My sexual life's very erotic and joyful as well as safe, of course. Group or one-to-one sex doesn't cause any problems for me, I always try to do my best at whatever I have to do.

Q. Please tell me, what is the best thing about making porno videos? And what is the worst thing?

A. I think the best thing is if I can carry out the task that Kristen's gave us, and everybody is satisfied with it. The worst thing, I think, is if you have a bad costar.

Q. If you were granted three wishes, what would you wish for?

A. Happiness, peace and three more wishes...

Q. If you were to direct a porno video, how would you do it? How would it be different from Kristen's videos?

A. I don't think I would change almost anything if I directed a porno video, as I consider Kristen a very professional and human director.

Q. Which do you prefer; circumcised or uncircumcised men? Do you have any views about circumcision?

A. I really don't know. I haven't met any circumcised men yet. But I think every uncircumcised man has to pay special attention to the hygiene.

Q. For you, what is the most attractive part of a man's body?

A. In brief: head, torso, arms, legs (including the "third leg" too, of course...)

Q. What is like growing up in a communist country, and then changing over to democracy?

A. I think it's not as boring as growing up in a democracy and dying there too... Nevertheless it's definitely better to live in democracy.

Q. What is gay life like in Hungary? How is it different from the USA?

A. I guess it's more difficult in Hungary than in the USA. When Hungary was a communist country, it wasn't an advantage to be different from the others. Changes in attitude will still take some time.

Q. How do you feel about working with other models who are more well hung than you? Would it be a turn on, or would it intimidate you?

A. Well, a nice body or a nice body part can turn me on any time. I don't keep comparing myself to others. I try to appreciate better side of everything.

Q. Would you consider bottoming in a video?

A. I don't think I would.

Q. What do you consider your best feature? What do you consider your worst feature?

A. I modestly consider my best feature my dick. My worst feature is everything else!

Q. Does your family know about your video work? If so, how do they deal with it? And if you're in a relationship with someone, how does he deal with it?

A. They don't know about my video work. My partner knows about it, though. We discussed it, and we agreed not to have any conflict about it. We treat it in a very intelligent way.

Q. What are your religious beliefs, if any?

A. I'm originally a Roman Catholic, but I don't agree with everything about it.

Q. Which scene has been your favourite and the one that got you the most turned on and why?

A. My favorite scene is that certain Double Penetration in Thick as Thieves because it was a really big and interesting challenge, I'd never done it before as well. It required entire collaboration, especially between the actors, but extended in the whole crew too. We fulfilled the task and it was a great feeling.

Q. Hello, I wanted to tell you that I have enjoyed your work in all of the KB videos so far and you have a natural sex appeal and friendly charm about you...you look as if you are genuinely enjoying the pleasure of haveing sex with the other hot men. I know all the models always stress that all this hot sex is "work", but isn't it also fun and pleasurable? also I enjoyed your rimming scene in Thick as Thieves...tell us, do you enjoy licking another man's butt and why?

A. Thank you! Well, this kind of work really can be stressful. To fulfill the task Kristen's made up demands concentration and everything can't succeed every time. So it's necessary to make several takes the scene, etc., and it extracts people's strength. But on the other hand there are lots of jokes and laughing, of course. I possibly try to do everything at my best while filming. Concerning that certain licking, it helped me a lot that I was working with my favorite co-actor

UNZIPPED Apr 2004

INCHES Aug 1999, Apr 2002, Jan 2005

BEST OF INCHES 2003 (#35)

IN TOUCH Oct 1996

HONCHO Jan 2004, March 2005

ALL MAN Jan 2004

MANDATE April 2002

[2] Jan/Feb 2005

BLUEBOY July 2005

XXX SHOWCASE v12 n03. v12 n05, v12 n12

NOWY MEN FOTO: THICK AS THIEVES 1991

NOWY MEN FOTO: THE ISLE OF MEN 2001

MEN OF THE WORLD Bruno Gmunder

UNZIPPED CALENDAR 2005

BUCKSHOT VIDEO COLLECTION #4 Colt Studio

BUCKSHOT VIDEO COLLECTION #5 Colt Studio

Buckshot / Colt Studio:

LeatherBound dir: Kristofer Weston

BUCKLEROOS - PART 1

TAKING FLIGHT PART 1 (Falcon Pac 154) Falcon

go to: FEATURED VIDEO/DVD PAGE

_________________________

Falcon Studios:

DEFINED (FVP-143)

TAKING FLIGHT - PART 1 (FVP-154)

MAN MADE (FVP-158)

BOOTSTRAP (FVP-159)

All Worlds:

NOMADS

POOL BOY

TUNE UP

Kristen Bjorn / Sarava Prod.:

BONE ISLAND

COMRADES IN ARMS

HUNGARY FOR MEN

THE ISLE OF MEN

THICK AS THIEVES

THE VAMPIRE OF BUDAPEST

Rascal / Channel 1:

HOLE PATROL

NIGHT SHIFT

Catalina:

REBEL

69: DISCOVER THE SECRET

TRUCKSTOP DADDY 2

UNCUT FUCKERS

Hot House:

THE HARD WAY

MANHUNT.THEMOVIE

THE ROAD TO TEMPTATION

SKUFF 2: DOWNRIGHT FILTHY

SKUFF 3: DOWNRIGHT WRONG

Lucas Ent.:

FIRE ISLAND CRUISING 6

MANHATTAN HEAT

other studios:

STOKED 2 Raging Stallion

ACE IN THE HOLE Studio 2000

[2] FOR THE TAKING Unzipped Video

PROWL 4: BACK WITH A VENGEANCE MSR Videos

MEDIC MEN [as: Francois Kagylo] Herve Handsome / High Octane

COCK SCENE INVESTIGATORS Massive

Premium Gallery & Content Sites:

COLT STUDIO WEB SITE

On-Line Shop & Members Galleries / Streaming Media

FALCON STUDIOS

Extensive Galleries featuring the Men and Videos. Also the first place to see the new men.

Videos on demand, and exclusive Web Only content.

CHI CHI LARUE / CHANNEL 1 & LIVE & RAW

CHANNEL 1 RELEASING VIDEO ON DEMAND

Extensive variety of Galleries (both Model and "Hard Core" action) at Channel 1 Releasing featuring both Rascal Video and Live & Raw photography. Live & Raw Membership offers extended services of viewing past performances On-Demand for.

LUCAS ENTERTIANMENT

Full Video and Model listings. Members Section has Extensive Model & Action Galleries. Streaming Video of Movie clips and exclusive Web Only content.

Arpad Miklos

RAGING STALLION'S REAR STABLE

Expanded Galleries and Stream Video from Raging Stallion's Videos.

ALL WORLDS VIDEO / MALE VAULT

Extensive Image Galleries of Porn Stars & Video Stills. On-Line Video Clips. Video Discounts.

Studio Links:

CHANNEL 1 RELEASING

HIGH OCTANCE (Hervé Handsome)

HOT HOUSE VIDEO

MSR VIDEO

CATALINA VIDEO

STUDIO 2000

Other Sites of interest:

ARPAD MIKLOS WEB SITE

COLT STUDIO YAHOO GROUP: groups.yahoo.com/group/COLTStudio/

aka: Francois Kagylo (Herve Handsome)

stats:

Birthday: September 11

Nationality: Hungarian

Height: 6' 2''

Weight: 215 lbs.

Cock: 10" uncut

Kristen Bjorn comments: Arpad is a very well educated, soft spoken man who amazed everyone with his huge dick - which was always hard.

" I'm a 35 y/o (2002), 190cm (6'2"), 98 kg (215 lbs.), open minded, down-to-earth, a bit shy, laid-back, non-smoking, only top guy looking for good-looking, muscular, masculine, possibly hairy (that turns me on extraordinally...) and non-smoking, non-drug consuming, healthy, bottom/vers./top guys, who consider coming to Hungary in the near future.I would guide you around Budapest (if I have time :-)) and we could find some engagement for the nights too... ;-)

Arpad Miklos

Oh, I forgot to tell U that I'm Top Only!... :-))) "

Arpad Miklos

乞丐郎君千金女

台灣的國中基測出現這樣有趣的題目


典故是來自歌仔戲"乞丐與千金"(楊麗花於1992年製作)
那個洞穴是指陜西的窯洞(crave dwelling in northwest China)
這個題目出的相當精妙,不但考點多,需要思考,也融合台灣意識與新台灣人需俱備的中國常識

[戲曲版-稍為過時]

    西安城南小雁塔附近有個武家坡，上有一孔破舊的窯洞，洞沿上題有「古寒窯」三
個字，相傳當年王寶釧苦守寒窯十八載，等待丈夫薛平貴歸來的故事，就是發生在此。
窗前還建有一座祠廟，廟內供奉著王寶釧與薛平貴的塑像，祠柱上題著一副對聯：
   　　　　　十八年古井無波，為從來烈婦貞媛，別開生面；
   　　　　　千餘歲寒窯向日，看此處曲江流水，想見冰心。
   王寶釧本是唐懿宗時期朝中宰相王允的女兒。王允沒有兒子，只有三位如花似玉的
干金承歡膝下：長女名寶金，許配兵部侍郎蘇龍為妻；次女寶銀，也已嫁給了九門提督
魏虎；三女兒便是寶釧，三姐妹中她才貌最為出眾，既然兩個姐姐都婚配得門當戶對，
父母當然也想為待字閨中的小女兒找一位乘龍快婿。
   三小姐寶釧似乎比父母更挑剔，許多前來提親的豪門貴族公子都被她堅定地回絕了，
別人都以為是相府千金心高氣傲。實際上寶釧心中自有一套擇夫標準，她一不慕權貴，
二不貪虛名，一心只求嫁個有才有德的如意郎。無奈那些豪門之後，不是花花公子，就
是酒囊飯袋，怎麼能讓她看上眼呢？
   當時長安城南一帶，山環水繞，風光秀麗，每到春暖草綠，柳暗花明的時候，京城
長安裡的皇族顯貴、文人雅士、貧民百姓，都喜歡到這裡賞花游春。這年春天，王寶釧
也帶著幾個丫環來南郊踏青，不料遇上一夥不明來歷的風流公子追隨糾纏，討厭卻又擺
脫不了。這時，旁邊一位衣著陳舊的年輕書生看不過去，果敢上前攔阻這夥人的無禮之
行。這伙錦衣公子根本不把這書生放在眼裡，七手八腳地推搡著他，還罵道：「哪來的
野小子，在這裡管起爺們來了！」書生毫不畏懼，回敬道：「路見不平有人鏟，光天化
日之下調戲良家婦女，豈有此禮？」錦衣公子們當然來氣，心想你這小子怕是吃了豹子
膽，於是一擁而上，對那書生拳腳相加。
   王寶釧在一旁為這位仗義書生正擔心，不想那書生只略擺架式，輕輕一格，便把那
伙中看不中用的錦衣公子撞得七倒八歪，心知不是書生的對手，相扶著罵罵咧咧走開了。
   寶釧暗自佩服著書生的功夫和膽略，見那群風流公子走開，連忙上前作禮感謝。書
生略有些靦腆，連聲說：「理當如此，小姐不必多禮！」
   書生愈是客氣，王寶釧就愈是欣賞他，口中稱謝不已，一來二往，兩人便熟絡起來。
這書生只道自己叫薛平貴，父母雙亡，家道中落，只剩下自己一人，至於詳細家世卻不
肯相告。在王寶釧看來，這書生不只是武功高強，而且知書達禮，頗具文采，雖然衣著
寒酸，卻掩不住氣宇軒昂，不由心生愛慕。於是兩人結伴遊賞，一路鳥語花香，春氣襲
人，一種溫馨的感覺迴盪在兩人中間。薛平貴知道了眼前的小姐乃是相國千金，不但容
貌姣美，言談舉止又那麼嫻雅而不矯揉、端莊而不傲漫，確實讓他著迷，但又自愧太不
般配。
   不知不覺，兩人一同度過了一個下午，言語十分投緣，彼此從對方的眼神中都能讀
出幾分愛慕，因為丫鬟相隨，也不便更深地說些什麼，日暮分手時，兩人眼光中充滿眷
戀與不捨。
   回到家中，王寶釧不敢向父母稟明春遊遇良人的事，她知道父母不會答應把她許配
給一個毫無功名的落魄書生，只好暗飲相思，愁悵度日。不久，老父又摧促三女兒趕快
訂下婚事，以免成了老姑娘。王寶釧靈機一動，提出了以拋擲繡球來決定終身大事的辦
法。寶釧想，自己拋球徵婚的消息一傳出，有情郎薛平貴一定會趕來參加，到時繡球落
哪方就全憑自己決定了。而王父眼看著執拗任性的三女兒年齡漸大，婚事卻總是訂不下
來，心中甚為著急，既然她自己提出拋繡球的，此法古已有例，再說公子王孫爭相簇擁
在自家門前也是件風光的事，於是就應允了。只是暗中決定，到那天院門要把緊，只放
些有身份的公子進來，這拋球的規矩可是「中雞嫁雞，中狗嫁狗」的，可不能讓那些貧
賤小子撿了便宜。
   於是王家院裡搭起了高高的彩樓，訂了個黃道吉日由三小姐拋擲繡球擇婿。王宰相
遍邀了京城的貴冑子弟前來參加。消息傳出後，遠遠近近有身份的名家公子都爭相趕到
王家，因為大家早就風聞了王家三小姐的才貌，又貴為相國千金，繡球若能有幸打中自
己的頭，那豈不是喜從天降？所以誰都想來碰碰運氣。
   王家的院門果然把持甚嚴，不是有頭有臉的人決不許進。那麼無錢無位的薛平貴豈
不是進不來了？不用著急，聰明的寶釧早有安排，她早已讓上次同去春遊、見過薛公子
面的貼身丫環到院外悄悄尋找薛平貴，讓她帶薛平貴從側門進院。
   吉時已到，一陣鑼鼓炮仗響過之後，彩樓上的垂簾輕輕撩起，一群待女簇擁著一個
如花似玉、衣著艷麗的小姐露出面來，小姐手上托著一個五彩繡球。樓下院中披紅戴紫
的公子哥兒們轟動起來，都伸長了脖子，期待著天賜良緣降落到自己頭上。上面王寶釧
粉面含笑，似乎胸有成竹，玉腕翻處，繡球已翩翩落下，不偏不倚，正打在院中一角的
布衣公子薛平貴頭上，正如後來戲曲裡所唱的「王孫公子千千萬，彩球單打薛平郎。」
   王允仔細一看，繡球拋中的女婿竟是一個衣著寒酸的落拓少年，當即心中生怒，立
下了悔婚的決心。回到屋裡後，王允對剛下彩樓的寶釧堅決地說：「為父不同意這樁婚
事！此事擇日再議。」原本心中喜滋滋的寶釧，一聽父親的話，猛地吃了一驚，很快她
就明白了父親一定是見了薛平貴的貧賤，而不惜違約悔婚的。此時寶釧心中主意已定，
她決意不再憑父親任意擺弄自己的終身大事，就接口據理力爭道：「既是拋球定婚事，
那便中雞嫁雞，中狗嫁狗」父親怎能置信義而不顧，出爾反爾呢？」
   父女倆一番唇槍舌戰，誰也說服不了誰，最後王寶釧執意嫁給了心上情郎薛平貴，
王允一怒之下與她斷絕了父女關係。成了薛平貴的妻子，就要跟著薛平貴走，這時薛平
貴了無棲身之所，平時就在親戚朋友家，東一日，西一宿地借住，如今添了妻子，總得
有個自己的窩，於是兩人搬進了武家坡上的一處舊窯洞。在寒窯中，夫妻倆男樵女織，
過著清苦的日子，幸而夫妻間互敬互愛，相依為命，苦日子也過得頗有滋味。雖然王寶
釧的父親與她斷絕了關係，而相距不遠的老母卻無法割捨這個惹人憐愛的小女兒，不時
派人來探望他們，送些錢物，使他們的生活得以維持下來。
   鹹通九年，桂州邊區戌卒發生了叛亂，聚眾為匪，攻佔了邊防重鎮，並向北逼進。
朝廷派康承訓率軍討伐，為了增強兵力，還令沙陀部隊隨軍助戰。
   沙陀原本是大唐西北邊區的一支游牧部落，因與吐蕃交戰失敗，酋長就率殘部歸附
唐朝，唐廷把他們安置在定襄一帶。接到調遣令，沙陀部隊先趕往長安待命，隨時準備
奔赴桂州。文武兼備的薛平貴看準了機會，認定自己建功立業的時候已到，於是在大軍
雲集長安之時，薛平貴參加了沙陀的部隊。
   王寶釧是多麼不願意自己的丈夫離開，但薛郎是有才有識的偉男兒，總不能與自己
終身相守寒窯，她擦掉淚水，為薛郎收拾行裝，揮手送他出征。
   在沙陀部隊中，薛平貴憑著自己出色的武藝和才學，漸漸受到酋長朱邪赤心的重視，
當部隊轉戰湘江、淮泗一帶時，薛平貴成為了沙陀部隊與唐軍之間的連絡人物。終於剿
平了叛亂，唐軍班師回朝，沙陀部隊因在戰爭中居功最大，唐廷賜朱邪赤心姓李名國昌
並授為大同節度使。薛平貴沒有來得及回長安探望久別的妻子，就隨軍駐進了大同。
   為了今後的幸福。薛平貴在大同努力爭取立功晉升的機會，無奈戰爭平息，這種機
會是很難遇上的。一次，薛平貴隨朱邪赤心一家到郊外狩獵，行到山崖時，朱邪赤心的
女兒春花公主的坐騎突然受驚失控，揚蹄飛奔，眼看就要墜下懸崖。緊隨其後的薛平貴，
飛奔向前，伸臂竭力攔住了公主的馬匹。兩匹馬行到山坡上，薛平貴下馬扶起受驚的春
花公主，正值情竇初開的小公主，見救她的人是一位年輕英俊的漢族勇士，不由地心旌
搖晃，憧憬如泉，就勢倒在一薛平貴懷裡。
   從那天起，春花公主就如癡如醉地愛上了薛平貴，沙陀少女不像漢族姑娘那般靦腆
羞澀，春花公主又依仗著自己的美麗和地位，向薛平貴頻頻發動進攻，像一團火焰一樣
猛烤著薛平貴。薛平貴心裡一直掛牽著長安寒窯中苦等自己的妻子王寶釧，他不願意背
叛她誠摯的愛心；可是自己在沙陀部隊裡一直默默無聞，若不抓住春花公主這個台階，
以後怕是很難再有高昇的機會，何況若是惹惱公主，自己還不知道能不能在這裡呆下去。
權衡再三，薛平貴成了沙陀酋長的「駙馬爺」，他在沙陀軍中的地位自然也就急驟地升
高了。當然，他不會忘記結髮之妻，曾多次趁唐廷專使前來大同慰勞之際，悄悄托使者
為王寶釧帶去書信金帛，接濟伊人的生活，當然他沒告訴她自己在這裡已另配佳偶。而
寒窯中的王寶釧始終矢志不移，紡紗度日，一心一意籌待著良人衣錦榮歸。
   一年又一年地過去了，總也不見薛平貴歸家的身影，後來竟還斷了音信。是薛郎變
心了嗎？不是，是政局在這時發生了急劇的動盪。
   沙陀酋長朱邪赤心的嗣子李克用屯兵蔚州，對朝庭頗為不滿，因而野心勃勃地四出
擴充勢力、地盤，唐廷忍無可忍，出兵討伐沙陀軍，朱邪赤心與李克用父子率眾逃入陰
山一帶的達靼人地區，薛平貴自然也追隨他們到了陰山。陰山與長安兩地遙遙，不通音
訊，薛平貴心想不知何時才能與寶釧團聚。
   就在這時，黃巢在山東冤句聚眾起義，大軍浩浩蕩蕩，由江西、浙江、福建至廣州，
再經桂州至潭州，占領了兩湖廣大的地盤。唐僖宗乾符年間，因治國無道，天下擾攘不
安，到了廣明年間，黃巢趁機率軍攻陷了東都洛陽，緊接著又突入潼關，直逼京師。長
安情勢緊迫，大唐軍隊力不足用，朝廷只好派特使到陰山赦免李克用之罪，並賜以官爵，
請他率軍人京援戰。
   於是，李克用於中和二年率沙陀兵一萬七千人南來，會合諸路勤王援軍，攻克了已
被黃巢占領的長安，保住了大唐江山。
   薛平貴隨軍來到長安，固沙陀軍戰功輝煌，李克用成了唐室功臣，薛平貴也水漲船
高，被朝廷委以重職。功成名就的薛平貴只身步行來到武家坡的寒窯中，終於與分別達
十八年之久的妻子王寶釧見面了。那情那景，已是用文字難以描述，總之，夫妻相見，
直從正午嗚咽流淚到黃昏。
   王寶釧終於走出了寒窯，被接入薛平貴府中。這時薛平貴已有了王寶釧與朱邪春花
兩位妻子，兩個人不分大小，平起平座，相處得甚為和睦、經過了十八年的苦盼，王寶
釧終於有了一個美滿的家庭。而王寶釧苦守寒窯十八載的故事也被人們傳為美談，並搬
上了戲曲舞台。

[周遊改編-充滿女性意識的現代版]
生於官宦之家，京城第一美女王寶釵[王寶釧]（張玉嬿飾），提親者絡繹不絕。因提親者眾，甚至以王父的官為脅，逼於無奈，寶釵提出拋繡球招親，抱終身大事交給了命運。繡球無意間落到以勞力為生的謝明貴[薛平貴]（張晨光飾）手中。王府人反悔，寶釵不顧家人反目，下嫁明貴，京城人喧然“千金小姐下嫁乞丐郎”。

　為了破壞這 椿婚姻，往日的情敵、親人百計盡出。兩人在貧苦與患難中其樂也融融。為了生計，明貴被逼從軍，因明貴得天助而力大無比，在高伯宣（王中皇飾）也是情敵的奸 計下，履見戰功的明貴不但無功還成了欽犯。為打西涼，明貴為虜，然多情的西涼公主黛瓚[代戰公主]（歡歡飾）維護下，得以活命。寶釵為丈夫生死不明，千里尋夫到西涼， 與明貴擦身而過。途中遇上了瘟疫，因而死了隨行的婢女，明貴找來，誤認寶釵已死，明貴萬念俱灰，只有孤守寶釵墳墓。

　寶釵回唐，明貴生死不明，只明苦守寒窯待夫歸來，一等就十餘年，聽到的卻是明貴和西涼公主成婚的消息，而在西涼國，明貴也輾轉得知寶釵未死的訊息，此時西涼內亂，明貴與公主逃回大唐，在貧困交加中，三人碰面，然滄海桑田，人事已非。

　公主被蓋世文（王伯昭飾）抓走，明貴卻在無意間救了皇上，因而當了征西大將軍，並從天書中學獲一武藝，明貴平定西涼，救了公主，受封為西涼王。寶釵、明貴、公主三人終於雨過天青，三人團聚，然寶釵因往日疲勞，在天下歌舞昇平中，淒然而逝。

(主題曲)

女人心男人情
(乞丐郎君千金女主題曲)作詞：陳慶仁　作曲：陳慶仁　編曲：張振杰

女人的心男人的情　雖然活在兩個世界　也欲追求幸福的未來

甲你作伙的日子　親像作夢暇呢美
你講有你的所在　今生不乎阮流目屎
但是外面的世界多姿多采
不知你對阮是不是真情愛

甲你鬥陣的日子　親像流星暇呢緊
你講不捌談戀愛　希望這是你最後一擺
雖然外面的世界多姿多采
只有你深深惦在阮的心內

女人的心雖然軟弱　面對感情無人比阮擱卡堅強
男人的心雖然糊塗　面對溫柔無人比我擱卡疼惜
阮將一生交代乎你　千萬不通誤阮的情意
海會乾石會爛　也袂改變心意　這世人只希望有你

Pacific Sun and data website

http://www.smutjunkies.com/directory.html
http://www.gaymagix.com/item_show.cfm?itemid=26733
http://www.highoctane.org/

One fine day

Listen, Jack. I've got to go to exfoliated.

Cyber home & JVC region-free code

power on
empty tray
press " menu"
press 1
then 9
new menu will pop up
region code will show 1
press " enter"
it will show " --"
type 0 for all regions
hit "enter"
press "open/close"
enjoy

http://www.videohelp.com
I only tested with region 2 disk
works fine


We take no responsibility for damages caused by following these instructions.
You've chosen to view the multiregion hack for the JVC XV-522 DVD player. To convert this player into a multiregion DVD player please follow these simple instructions (assume you are using the remote control unless otherwise stated):
Empty tray
Unplug player
Hold Play and Open/Close on player
Plug in player
Release buttons when menu appears
Press 3D-Phonic, Menu and Menu
Display shows 000 5858
Use "Down" buttons to change "000" to "02e"
Change last 4 digits to:
0000 for multiregion
0101 for Region 1
0202 for Region 2
Press Enter and Standby
Wait 10 seconds
Press Standby
Having Problems?Although we take every care to ensure that the hacks supplied here are correct, mistakes can be made. If the above hack does not work at first, please firstly ensure that you have followed the instructions exactly. Try repeating the process a couple of times.
Region code hack posted by mmarengoni, June 02 2004:
Hi, I am trying to find a hack for this dvd player. So far I got this:

stop + play buttons while pluging in => N200J in display
>> button in unit => EEPROM initialization (on tv) a P highlights in the unit
The set up key in the remote goes through"
1st- BE Version 12729
2nd- FE Version 3c27
3rd- turn on all lights in the unit display
4th- Check Mode
5th- Test Mode (on tv)

Some messages show up on the TV (if on) and some others in the unit display.

This is what I got so far, any other hint??

'Deep Throat' secret becomes the talk of the nation

Former FBI deputy代理 director Mark Felt was hailed as a hero and denounced as a villain叛徒 after confessing to being the Watergate scandal's "Deep Throat" -- a disclosure that startled even President George W. Bush.

Felt's family and The Washington Post, which spearheaded press coverage of the Watergate cover-up in the early 1970s, confirmed that Felt was the celebrated anonymous source whose leaks helped bring down president Richard Nixon.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt, now 91, told Vanity Fair 浮華世界雜誌 in an article published that was the talk of the nation on Wednesday.

"All I can tell you is that it was a revelation that caught me by surprise," President Bush told reporters, summing up the feeling of many in the Washington establishment.

"For those of us who grew up, got out of college in the late '60s, the Watergate story was a relevant story," Bush said. "And a lot of us have always wondered who Deep Throat might have been. And the mystery was solved yesterday."

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was appointed by Nixon as the US ambassador to NATO, in the 1970s, gave a guarded response when asked if he thought Felt had been right to leak confidential information.

"Well, I'm not in any judgmental mood," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing.

Prepared in strict secrecy by the magazine, the Vanity Fair article flat-footed former Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who, along with the newspaper's former editor Ben Bradlee, had kept Felt's identity secret for more than 30 years.

After initially refusing to confirm Felt as the source, Woodward and Bernstein eventually gave in. "Mark Felt was Deep Throat and helped us immeasurably巨大的 in our Watergate coverage," the statement said.

The two were preparing a major article about their contacts with Deep Throat to be published on Thursday.

Deep Throat met with Woodward several times to help break stories about the involvement of Nixon administration officials in the June 17, 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.

The scandal ultimately最終 led to Nixon becoming the first US president to resign in August 1974.

Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, described his grandfather as "a great American hero" and said his family hoped the country would see him the same way.

But not everyone did -- especially former Nixon aides助手.

G. Gordon Liddy, a Nixon operative who served four and a half years in prison for engineering the Watergate break-in, said Felt "violated the ethics of the law enforcement profession," while former Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan bluntly labelled him a "traitor."

Chuck Colson, the head of White House communications in 1972, said Felt could have helped America avoid a wrenching political crisis.

"Mark Felt could have stopped Watergate," said Colson. "He was in a position of that kind of influence. Instead, he goes out and basically undermines the administration."

Felt's disclosure received a more positive reception in the press, with several leading US dailies on Wednesday hailing Deep Throat as a prime example of how anonymous sources can keep government abuse in check.

Hal Holbrook 哈爾‧霍爾布魯克, the actor who played the Deep Throat character in the 1976 Watergate movie "All The President's Men" 總統的人嗎 said he thought Felt had been driven by a "higher purpose."

"The important thing was not who it was, but why he did it," Holbrook said. "It's called morality. That is something that is not very popular today."

Jones said his grandfather had initially expressed deep reservations about revealing his secret.

"But as he recently told my mother, 'I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal. But now they think he's a hero,'" Jones said.

Felt's family had no idea about his secret until 2002, when Felt's close friend and frequent social companion, Yvette La Garde, told his daughter Joan that Felt had confided to being Woodward's source.

The Vanity Fair article said Joan confronted her father, who initially denied it, but after she explained La Garde's disclosure, he responded: "Since that's the case, well, yes I am."

He finally gave in to family pressure to go public when his daughter persuaded him that the story could bring some financial benefit that would help pay for his grandchildren's education.

With the secret finally out, The New York Times said Watergate aficionados would mourn the end to a 30-year cottage industry of Deep Throat speculation.

"It's a little like discovering that Superman's secret identity was, well -- Clark Kent," the newspaper said.

針眼 Sty

A sty is an acute infection 傳染 or inflammation 發炎 of the secretory 分泌 glands of the eyelids.

This common infection or inflammation results from blocked glands within the eyelid. When the gland is blocked, the oil produced by the gland occasionally backs up and extrudes through the wall of the gland, forming a lump, which can be red, painful, and nodular. Frequently, bacteria can infect the blocked gland, causing increased inflammation, pain, and redness of the eye and even redness of the surrounding eyelid and cheek tissue.

The lump can point externally (outward) or internally (inward). Frequently, the lump appears with a visible whitish or yellowish spot that looks much like a large pimple. Usually, one obvious area of swelling is apparent on one lid, but many styes can appear on one or both eyelids simultaneously.

The lump frequently goes away when the blockage of the gland opening is relieved. Furthermore, the infection goes away when the pus is drained from the sty.

DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

• An examination of the eye generally confirms this infection.

• 

• Many sties will drain 乾去 on their own, but to facilitate the drainage of the abscess and reduce pain, a folded clean cloth can be used as a compress消炎用濕敷布. The compress should be dipped in warm water, wrung out until just a little dripping remains, and applied to the eye. Dip the folded cloth repeatedly to keep the compress wet and warm. Continue the application of the compresses for 10-15 minutes. Using a clean cloth each time, apply the warm compresses 4 times a day for 3 to 4 days.

• Drug therapy can be prescribed by your health care provider. Do not use any medicine (including over-the-counter remedies) without checking with your health care provider. Generally, drug therapy includes antibiotic eye drops/ointment and, occasionally, an antibiotic taken by mouth. Carefully follow the directions prescribed by your health care provider.

• If a sty does not drain spontaneously with compress application, visit your health care provider for assistance. Do not attempt to squeeze or drain the sty yourself. This will spread the infection and may cause cellulitis. Have your eye rechecked if symptoms persist after several days of treatment.