Twitter's Ev Williams started Medium to simplify and socialize online article writing, but the service's invitation-only nature has kept many folks on the sidelines. Today, things are opening up: Medium's now accessible to anyone willing to sign into Twitter and verify an email address. Would-be ...By Maggie Fick
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt is planning a charm offensive to persuade Gulf Arab entrepreneurs to invest in its economy, battered by political upheaval, protests and violence.
Investment Minister Osama Saleh told Reuters Cairo would host a conference in early December, and had already contacted thousands of businessmen, to try to sell the region's most populous nation to wealthy Arabs.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates promised Egypt more than $12 billion in loans, grants and petroleum product shipments after Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was deposed by the army on July 3.
Now Egypt is hoping private investors from the Gulf will pour in money as well, Saleh said, despite ongoing unrest.
"All of the Gulf in general is standing by Egypt ... We are already discussing the projects they will bring," Saleh told Reuters in an interview.
He said his ministry had set up country-specific desk officers to deal with interested investors. Delegations from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, and possibly Oman would attend the conference he added.
Ministry officials face a tough sell. Gulf Arab tourists who once spent big money at hotels are now rarely seen in Cairo.
OBSTACLES
The government has launched a fierce crackdown on Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, killing hundreds of people during protests. Mursi and other top Brotherhood leaders have been arrested.
Cairo has run through more than $20 billion in reserves and delayed payments to oil companies since an uprising toppled Mursi's predecessor, veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak, in 2011, scaring off tourists and investors.
Other potential obstacles to investment include cumbersome and shifting regulations, fears the Egyptian pound may be devalued and protracted lawsuits against local and foreign companies.
The economy is in a "very challenging period ... How do we start again to achieve high growth rates and at the same time work hard to reduce the budget deficit?" Saleh said on Wednesday.
The Mubarak-era bureaucrat who served in the same post under Mursi, also acknowledged instability posed a challenge.
"There is a problem that I can't resolve and that takes time. It is the problem of security. It comes above all the problems," he added.
Militant attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula that borders Israel have also risen sharply since Mursi's ouster.
Fears are growing that an Islamist insurgency will take hold beyond the Sinai. In September, a Sinai-based group claimed responsibility for a failed suicide bombing attack on the interior minister.
Egypt's interim government has said it is working to get the economy back on track.
The cabinet approved a 22.3 billion Egyptian pound stimulus package in August, mainly for infrastructure projects, and plans another package for early next year.
But it is avoiding politically sensitive measures needed to get control of the budget deficit, which has jumped since the beginning of the year to nearly half of all government spending.
Many of Egypt's 85 million citizens are highly dependent on costly food and energy subsidies, which account for a quarter of all state spending.
(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti and Omar Fahmy; Editing by Michael Georgy and Andrew Heavens)
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, Lou Reed takes the podium as the Velvet Underground, the group he once headed, is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Band mate John Cale is at left, and at right is Martha Morrison, accepting for late band member Sterling Morrison. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, Lou Reed takes the podium as the Velvet Underground, the group he once headed, is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Band mate John Cale is at left, and at right is Martha Morrison, accepting for late band member Sterling Morrison. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In a Wednesday, Jan. 17, 1996 file photo, members of the band the Velvet Underground, from left, Maureen Tucker; Martha Morrison, attending for her late husband, Sterling Morrison; John Cale and Lou Reed pose backstage after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/Joe Tabacca, File)
FILE - In a June 24, 2003 file photo, music icon Lou Reed has his hands imprinted as supporters cheer in the background as he is inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71.(AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009 file photo, Lou Reed performs at the Lollapalooza music festival, in Chicago. Punk-poet, rock legend Lou Reed is dead of a liver-related ailment, his literary agen said Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. He was 71. (AP Photo/John Smierciak, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Reed, the punk poet of rock n' roll who profoundly influenced generations of musicians as leader of the Velvet Underground and remained a vital solo performer for decades after, died Sunday age 71.
Reed died in Southampton, N.Y. of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who added that Reed had been in frail health for months. Reed shared a home in Southampton with his wife and fellow musician, Laurie Anderson, whom he married in 2008.
Reed never approached the commercial success of such superstars as the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but no songwriter to emerge after Dylan so radically expanded the territory of rock lyrics. And no band did more than the Velvet Underground to open rock music to the avant-garde — to experimental theater, art, literature and film, to William Burroughs and Kurt Weill, to John Cage and Andy Warhol, Reed's early patron.
Indie rock essentially begins in the 1960s with Reed and the Velvets; the punk, New Wave and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, '80s and '90s were all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by R.E.M., Nirvana, Patti Smith and countless others.
"The first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years," Brian Eno, who produced albums by Roxy Music and Talking Heads among others, once said. "I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!"
Reed's trademarks were a monotone of surprising emotional range and power; slashing, grinding guitar; and lyrics that were complex, yet conversational, designed to make you feel as if Reed were seated next to you. Known for his cold stare and gaunt features, he was a cynic and a seeker who seemed to embody downtown Manhattan culture of the 1960s and '70s and was as essential a New York artist as Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Reed's New York was a jaded city of drag queens, drug addicts and violence, but it was also as wondrous as any Allen comedy, with so many of Reed's songs explorations of right and wrong and quests for transcendence.
He had one top 20 hit, "Walk On the Wild Side," and many other songs that became standards among his admirers, from "Heroin" and "Sweet Jane" to "Pale Blue Eyes" and "All Tomorrow's Parties." Raised on doo-wop and Carl Perkins, Delmore Schwartz and the Beats, Reed helped shape the punk ethos of raw power, the alternative rock ethos of irony and droning music and the art-rock embrace of experimentation, whether the dual readings of Beat-influenced verse for "Murder Mystery," or, like a passage out of Burroughs' "Naked Lunch," the orgy of guns, drugs and oral sex on the Velvets' 15-minute "Sister Ray."
An outlaw in his early years, Reed would eventually perform at the White House, have his writing published in The New Yorker, be featured by PBS in an "American Masters" documentary and win a Grammy in 1999 for Best Long Form Music Video. The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 1996 and their landmark debut album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," was added to the Library of Congress' registry in 2006.
Reed called one song "Growing Up in Public" and his career was an ongoing exhibit of how any subject could be set to rock music — the death of a parent ("Standing On Ceremony), AIDS ("The Halloween Parade"), some favorite movies and plays ("Doin' the Things That We Want To"), racism ("I Want to be Black"), the electroshock therapy he received as a teen ("Kill Your Sons").
Reviewing Reed's 1989 topical album "New York," Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that "the pleasure of the lyrics is mostly tone and delivery — plus the impulse they validate, their affirmation that you can write songs about this stuff. Protesting, elegizing, carping, waxing sarcastic, forcing jokes, stating facts, garbling what he just read in the Times, free-associating to doomsday, Lou carries on a New York conversation — all that's missing is a disquisition on real estate."
He was one of rock's archetypal tough guys, but he grew up middle class — an accountant's son raised on Long Island. Reed was born to be a suburban dropout. He hated school, loved rock n' roll, fought with his parents and attacked them in song for forcing him to undergo electroshock therapy as a supposed "cure" for being bisexual. "Families that live out in the suburbs often make each other cry," he later wrote.
His real break began in college. At Syracuse University, he studied under Schwartz, whom Reed would call the first "great man" he ever encountered. He credited Schwartz with making him want to become a writer and to express himself in the most concrete language possible. Reed honored his mentor in the song "My House," recounting how he connected with the spirit of the late, mad poet through a Oiuja board. "Blazing stood the proud and regal name Delmore," he sang.
Reed moved to New York City after college and traveled in the pop and art worlds, working as a house songwriter at the low-budget Pickwick Records and putting in late hours in downtown clubs. One of his Pickwick songs, the dance parody "The Ostrich," was considered commercial enough to record. Fellow studio musicians included a Welsh-born viola player, John Cale, with whom Reed soon performed in such makeshift groups as the Warlocks and the Primitives.
They were joined by a friend of Reed's from Syracuse, guitarist-bassist Sterling Morrison; and by an acquaintance of Morrison's, drummer Maureen Tucker, who tapped out simple, hypnotic rhythms while playing standing up. They renamed themselves the Velvet Underground after a Michael Leigh book about the sexual subculture. By the mid-1960s, they were rehearsing at Warhol's "Factory," a meeting ground of art, music, orgies, drug parties and screen tests for films that ended up being projected onto the band while it performed, part of what Warhol called the "Floating Plastic Inevitable."
"Warhol was the great catalyst," Reed told BOMB magazine in 1998. "It all revolved around him. It all happened very much because of him. He was like a swirl, and these things would come into being: Lo and behold multimedia. There it was. No one really thought about it, it was just fun."
Before the Velvets, references to drugs and sex were often brief and indirect, if only to ensure a chance at radio and television play. In 1967, the year of the Velvets' first album, the Rolling Stones were pressured to sing the title of their latest single as "Let's Spend Some Time Together" instead of "Let's Spend the Night Together" when they were performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The Doors fought with Sullivan over the word "higher" from "Light My Fire."
The Velvets said everything other bands were forbidden to say and some things other bands never imagined. Reed wrote some of rock's most explicit lyrics about drugs ("Heroin," ''Waiting for My Man"), sadomasochism ("Venus in Furs") and prostitution ("There She Goes Again"). His love songs were less stories of boy-meets-girl, than ambiguous studies of the heart, like the philosophical games of "Some Kinda Love" or the weary ballad "Pale Blue Eyes," an elegy for an old girlfriend and a confession to a post-breakup fling:
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It was good what we did yesterday
And I'd do it once again
They fact that you are married
Only proves you're my best friend
But it's truly, truly a sin
___
Away from the Factory, the Velvets and were all too ahead of their time, getting tossed out of clubs or having audience members walk out. The mainstream press, still seeking a handle on the Beatles and the Stones, was thrown entirely by the Velvet Underground. The New York Times at first couldn't find the words, calling the Velvets "Warhol's jazz band" in a January 1966 story and "a combination of rock 'n roll and Egyptian belly-dance music" just days later. The Velvets' appearance in a Warhol film, "More Milk, Yvette," only added to the dismay of Times critic Bosley Crowther.
"Also on the bill is a performance by a group of rock 'n roll singers called the Velvet Underground," Crowther wrote. "They bang away at their electronic equipment, while random movies are thrown on the screen in back of them. When will somebody ennoble Mr. Warhol with an above-ground movie called 'For Crying Out Loud'?"
At Warhol's suggestion, they performed and recorded with the sultry, German-born Nico, a "chanteuse" who sang lead on a handful of songs from their debut album. A storm cloud over 1967's Summer of Love, "The Velvet Underground & Nico" featured a now-iconic Warhol drawing of a (peelable) banana on the cover and proved an uncanny musical extension of Warhol's blank-faced aura. The Velvets juxtaposed childlike melodies with dry, affectless vocals on "Sunday Morning" and "Femme Fatale." On "Heroin," Cale's viola screeched and jumped behind Reed's obliterating junkie's journey, with his sacred vow, "Herrrrrr-o-in, it's my wife, and it's my life," and his cry into the void, "And I guess that I just don't know."
"'Heroin' is the Velvets' masterpiece — seven minutes of excruciating spiritual extremity," wrote critic Ellen Willis. "No other work of art I know about has made the junkie's experience so horrible, so powerful, so appealing; listening to 'Heroin' I feel simultaneously impelled to somehow save this man and to reach for the needle."
Reed made just three more albums with the Velvet Underground before leaving in 1970. Cale was pushed out by Reed in 1968 (they had a long history of animosity) and was replaced by Doug Yule. Their sound turned more accessible, and the final album with Reed, "Loaded," included two upbeat musical anthems, "Rock and Roll" and "Sweet Jane," in which Reed seemed to warn Velvets fans — and himself — that "there's even some evil mothers/Well they're gonna tell you that everything is just dirt."
He lived many lives in the '70s, initially moving back home and working at his father's office, then competing with Keith Richards as the rock star most likely to die. He binged on drugs and alcohol, gained weight, lost even more and was described by critic Lester Bangs as "so transcendently emaciated he had indeed become insectival." Reed simulated shooting heroin during concerts, cursed out journalists and once slugged David Bowie when Bowie suggested he clean up his life.
"Lou Reed is the guy that gave dignity and poetry and rock n' roll to smack, speed, homosexuality, sadomasochism, murder, misogyny, stumblebum passivity, and suicide," wrote Bangs, a dedicated fan and fearless detractor, "and then proceeded to belie all his achievements and return to the mire by turning the whole thing into a monumental bad joke with himself as the woozily insistent Henny Youngman in the center ring, mumbling punch lines that kept losing their punch."
His albums in the '70s were alternately praised as daring experiments or mocked as embarrassing failures, whether the ambitious song suite "Berlin" or the wholly experimental "Metal Machine Music," an hour of electronic feedback. But in the 1980s, he kicked drugs and released a series of acclaimed albums, including "The Blue Mask," ''Legendary Hearts" and "New Sensations."
He played some reunion shows with the Velvet Underground and in 1990 teamed with Cale for "Drella," a spare tribute to Warhol. He continued to receive strong reviews in the 1990s and after for such albums as "Set the Twilight Reeling" and "Ecstasy" and he continued to test new ground, whether a 2002 concept album about Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven," or a 2011 collaboration with Metallica, "Lulu."
Reed fancied dictionary language like "capricious" and "harridan," but he found special magic in the word "bells," sounding from above, "up in the sky," as he sang on the Velvets' "What Goes On." A personal favorite was the title track from a 1979 album, "The Bells." Over a foggy swirl of synthesizers and horns, suggesting a haunted house on skid row, Reed improvised a fairy tale about a stage actor who leaves work late at night and takes in a chiming, urban "Milky Way."
___
It was really not so cute
to play without a parachute
As he stood upon the ledge
Looking out, he thought he saw a brook
And he hollered, 'Look, there are the bells!'
And he sang out, 'Here come the bells!
Here come the bells! Here come the bells!
Here come the bells!'
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-27-Obit-Lou%20Reed/id-8d9f6625af7d48ec8144fe39baee9fe4
When a nation sends its citizens to war, there are few things more important than providing the best treatment possible after they get injured in the line of duty.
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When a nation sends its citizens to war, there are few things more important than providing the best treatment possible after they get injured in the line of duty.
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It was the most succinct -- and graphic -- analysis yet offered of the political implications of the Obamacare rollout.
"There's no way Democrats can spin this ----," said comedian Jon Stewart. That it was Mr. Stewart who said this is significant, because he has a big following among healthy young people, who must sign up for Obamacare in the millions to keep what so far has been mostly farce from becoming a fiasco.
And he was spot on. Most of the "mainstream" media have treated Democratic spin as news, and -- if it reflected poorly on the Obama administration -- played down or ignored genuine news.
The media shield has protected the president from failures in foreign policy, in which most Americans have little knowledge and less interest, and has limited blowback from scandals which most Americans don't think concern them.
But no amount of spin can cloak reality for Americans whose health insurance policy has been canceled, or whose premiums have doubled. Those who've spent hours fruitlessly trying to access Obamacare websites find it harder to believe the president is on top of things, his administration competent.
Obamacare screwups are too big, too obvious, too close to home for journalists to ignore. Despite the welcome distraction of the government "shutdown" -- whose mostly imaginary consequences could be blamed on Republicans -- more negative stories have been written and broadcast about the Obama administration in the last three weeks than ever before.
And now, with the "shutdown" over, Obamacare's botched rollout is the No. 1 story.
Most media attention has been directed at the "glitches" which cause Obamacare websites to crash under volumes of traffic many blogs handle with ease. They won't be fixed for months, IT experts say. If the sites aren't up and running by the middle of November, it'll be all but impossible to sign up enough people to keep Obamacare from going into a financial "death spiral." But IT problems are the least of Obamacare's troubles.
* The websites were deliberately designed backward, some suspect, to hide for as long as possible how much more people will have to pay for health insurance. There is no fix for sticker shock.
* Many who filled out application forms likely will learn the hard way that the websites have made them easy marks for identity thieves.
* Obamacare will exacerbate a massive shortage of primary care physicians, doctors predict. It will be especially difficult for Medicare patients to get timely treatment.
* If plaintiffs win any of four pending lawsuits, many of the Obamacare subsidies could be junked. Plaintiffs have the wording of the law on their side.
The administration needs 2.7 million healthy young people to sign up to subsidize those who are older and sicker. Because even "low information" voters blanch at the prospect of paying 9 percent to (in Vermont) 600 percent more for health insurance (pre-subsidy) -- especially when so few have jobs, so many have student loans to pay off -- I doubt that many would sign up under any circumstances. Website problems make it all but impossible.
"The healthy young man who sees an ad during a baseball game will not keep trying 25 times over a week if the site is not working," wrote health care expert Yuval Levin for National Review.
Most persistent will be those with health problems and no insurance. Insurance for a pool comprised chiefly of the sick and indigent would be prohibitively expensive. That's the "death spiral."
Obamacare has so many egregious, apparently insoluble problems some suspect it was designed to fail, to usher in a "single payer" system. I doubt a president with so much self-regard would deliberately subject himself to ridicule.
Since so many in the administration knew Obamacare wasn't ready for prime time, why didn't Mr. Obama accept the lifeline Republicans offered and delay implementation for a year?
The president's counterfactual insistence at his much-lampooned news conference/infomercial Monday that Obamacare has brought down health costs suggests his enormous self-regard has made him unwilling to acknowledge flaws in his "signature achievement."
Or maybe he's so partisan he couldn't bear to make a concession to the GOP.
It was a big mistake. The ugly reality of Obamacare is shattering Mr. Obama's carefully contrived image and clobbering his credibility. White House spin is now unconvincing even to former White House spinners.
It won't be long before Democrats regret they won the shutdown showdown and Republicans rejoice they didn't.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Police say a roadside bomb has killed 18 civilians and wounded five as they rode a small bus home after attending a wedding in a lawless district of eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
Deputy provincial police chief Col. Asadullah Ensafi said the blast occurred Sunday in the Andar district as the bus travelled from one village to another.
He says the dead include 14 women, three men and a child. Ensfai says the wounded are all women and two are in critical condition.
Roadside bombs are the Taliban's weapon of choice and are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties.
Andar is one of the few districts in Ghazni where the Taliban retain some measure of control and often attack security forces, mostly by laying bombs along roads.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-27-AS-Afghanistan/id-4cf09e128c324701a182a5a83d9cc984Celebrating the holiday with her little ones, Alessandra Ambrosio took her kids to a fall fair in Santa Monica, California on Saturday (October 26).
The Victoria's Secret Angel and Anja made a devilish duo as mom wore a skin tight red top and matching legging with her denim cutoffs and devil horn headband.
Wearing a Dracula cape and an adorable red devil tail, baby Noah looked more lovable than scary at the event.
Just the night before, Alessandra enjoyed a more adult costume as she portrayed a sexy Queen of Hearts at the Casamigos Halloween party.
Reporting for duty on the set of her new film, Jessica Biel shot scenes for “Shiva and May” in Encino, California on Tuesday afternoon (October 22).
Joined by costar Zosia Mamet, the “7th Heaven” starlet hopped into a classic Blue Marlin and drove around the nearby streets while the cameras rolled.
Per the synopsis, “Jessica stars as May, a clean-living yoga instructor who finds herself behaving in ways she never imagined in an effort to protect her newly discovered sister Shiva, who is a sex worker.”
Also starring Joe Anderson and Edi Gathegi, “Shiva and May” is slated to hit theaters sometime in 2014.
Samsung Extends Galaxy Gear Compatibility to Galaxy S III, S4, Note II, and More
October 23, 2013
Samsung provides more users with enhanced flexibility and freedom via extended Galaxy Gear compatibility
Seoul, Korea - Oct 23, 2013 - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. today announced that more Samsung devices will be compatible with Galaxy Gear, a perfect companion device that makes mobile communication easier and more enjoyable.
Galaxy Gear will be available for use with Galaxy S4, S III, and Note II through the Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) update. The update came first to Galaxy S4 devices in Germany in October. Samsung will also extend Galaxy Gear compatibility to other GALAXY devices – including Galaxy S4 mini, S4 Active, Mega 5.8, Mega 6.3, and S4 zoom – through a separate software update beginning at the end of October. Software update schedules for each device will vary by country and carrier.
"Extending Galaxy Gear compatibility to more Galaxy devices reflects our deep commitment to continuing to deliver enriched mobile experiences to our consumers," said JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile division, Samsung Electronics. "Through a significant effort to enhance and enrich the Galaxy experience, Samsung continues to empower our users in their mobile lives and enable smart freedom with Galaxy Gear."
Samsung Galaxy Gear
Galaxy Gear will enable Galaxy S4, S III, and Note II users to make and answer calls and view incoming messages and notifications with just a glance. For a closer look at more important messages, users can simply pick up their master device and the Smart Relay feature instantly reveals the full content. Users can also find major social apps on Samsung Apps to maintain connections to their social networks via Galaxy Gear.
With a 1.9 Megapixel camera, users can snap a visual memo by simply tapping Galaxy Gear's screen. Photos are then easily and automatically saved in the master device's gallery. Users can enjoy a built-in Pedometer app and use Galaxy Gear to control the music played on their master devices. Of course the device also functions like a watch, with the option to change the face with 10 different clock options and even more options available via Samsung Apps.
Harold Lee's son Henry, perched on the roof of a camera truck, helped produce and import Chinese-language films from Hong Kong and China in the late 1940s.
Harold Lee's son Henry, perched on the roof of a camera truck, helped produce and import Chinese-language films from Hong Kong and China in the late 1940s.
Douglas Lee thought he knew just about everything about the family business.
Since the late 1930s, the Lee family has sold insurance at 31 Pell Street in New York City's Chinatown. Their entrepreneurial roots in the Chinese-American community stretch back to 1888, when the Lees opened a grocery store at the same location.
One hundred twenty-five years later, the family's longstanding history in Chinatown is on display in a new exhibit at New York's Museum of Chinese in America.
When Lee and his sister Sandra started gathering artifacts for the exhibit, they pored over old business records stored in the family's safe. That's when Lee, a film and TV executive who has worked at HBO and 20th Century Fox, discovered his career in the entertainment industry is not such a divergence from the family business after all.
An old ledger book is one of the few remnants of the New York Chinese Film Exchange, a business venture founded by Lee's grandfather Harold in the late 1920s — and long forgotten by his descendants. The company distributed Chinese-language films to theaters serving immigrant moviegoers.
"Everybody's mind is a little bit blown," Lee says of his family's reaction to the recent discovery. "It's part of my family history that nobody really knew about or talked about until I did this research."
Douglas Lee discovered this ledger sheet, written in Chinese, in a family safe. It shows the box office performance of films distributed by the New York Chinese Film Exchange.
Douglas Lee discovered this ledger sheet, written in Chinese, in a family safe. It shows the box office performance of films distributed by the New York Chinese Film Exchange.
He later found out that Harold Lee's uncle helped finance the Great Wall Film Company. Douglas and Sandra Lee write about the production company's history in the museum exhibit's companion journal:
"The studio was born when Chinese community leaders, outraged over the 1921 release of The First Born, a movie that depicted everyday Chinese life to be full of drugs, opium dens, brothels, foot binding ... protested to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. They were told to make their own pictures if they wanted to change the stereotypes and the Great Wall Film Company was the result, underwritten by Lee family money."
The company, which went out of business in 1930, produced about 30 films. In 1945, Harold Lee also transformed an English-language movie theater into the Silver Star Theater, one of the first to screen Chinese-language films from China and Hong Kong in New York's Chinatown. The theater was torn down in the late 1950s, but it was among a string of institutions that once served as a unique source of entertainment for immigrants.
For Douglas Lee, unearthing this lost family history in the movies has been reaffirming. "I felt like, 'OK, maybe it is in my blood,' because I've basically spent all of my career in film distribution," he says.
So far, Lee has tracked down one of the Great Wall Film Company's films online — a silent, black-and-white movie from 1928 called Poor Daddy. He says he's now on the hunt for others.
Apple's move to offer its latest desktop operating system, OS X Mavericks, for free isn't going to affect the Linux operating system at all, its creator Linus Torvalds said.
Linux has been giving its OS away for 22 years, said Torvalds during a question-and-answer session at LinuxCon Europe in Edinburgh on Wednesday. But Apple's decision to offer its OS for free as of Tuesday is entirely different from Linux' philosophy, he said. In fact, one of the reasons Torvalds uses the term open source instead of free software because there is a difference between open and free, he said.
While Apple's Mavericks update might be free it is not open source and people still need expensive hardware to use the OS, he said. "The fact that Apple gives the OS away is completely irrelevant," Torvalds said. "I don't think that it impacts Linux at all."
Torvalds is not thinking of retiring at all, he told the audience when asked what needed to happen for him to retire. "It needs to get not interesting and that hasn't happened yet," he said. But he would probably stop if he gets the feeling that he can't code anymore or the doctor tells him to quit.
While Torvalds doesn't tend to do a lot of programming these days, he still likes what he does, he said. "People just know who I am," he said. And while developers according to Torvalds can have "the attention span of slightly moronic woodland creatures" he likes to be responsive to developers and maintainers of the kernel who reach out to him. Nevertheless, he said, part of his role is to be able to say, "No, this is not how we do things."
Even if Torvalds gets hit by a bus, Linux will have no issues going on, he said. There are thousands of people involved with Linux for more than 20 years of which some from the beginning are still around, he said. "We have an incredible deep set of developers."
"I'm the person who people know and they know how I work. That means that they may not always like what I do and how I present things but they can trust that I act in a certain way and that is important," he said. "But there are other people that are impolite and can take patches," he added, referring to his flare-ups.
Torvalds said he has no idea where Linux will end up in five years. "I never had a plan. I still don't have a plan. It is kind of evolution in biology: there is no end plan. It is just that what works survives," he said. Linux will keep on evolving and improving in the same way, he said.
"I don't know which direction we'll improve in, but I don't feel I need to worry about that," he said.
Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com
Loek Essers focuses on online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues.
More by Loek Essers, IDG News Service
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A look at Game 3 of the World Series at Busch Stadium on Saturday night as the Boston Red Sox take on the St. Louis Cardinals:
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WILD ENDING: Cardinals win 5-4 on crazy play — obstruction at third base in the bottom of the ninth inning.
St. Louis takes 2-1 lead in best-of-seven Series. Game 4 is Sunday night at Busch Stadium.
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TIED AGAIN: Twists and turns, back and forth in this one.
The Red Sox came right back and scored twice in the eighth inning to tie it again, 4-all. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single and Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch for the sixth time this postseason. Both runners moved up on Dustin Pedroia's groundout, and David Ortiz was intentionally walked.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny went to hard-throwing closer Trevor Rosenthal with the bases loaded, hoping for a five-out save from a rookie who has looked almost untouchable this October. But the Red Sox pushed two runs across.
Daniel Nava drove in one with a short-hop grounder that was smothered by second baseman Kolten Wong, who had just entered on defense in a double-switch. Nice play by the rarely used rookie.
Wong went to second for the forceout, but Nava beat the relay and Ellsbury scored to make it 4-3. Xander Bogaerts tied it when he chopped a single up the middle.
Brandon Workman jammed Matt Holliday and retired the slugger on a routine fly with two on to end the bottom of the eighth. Still tied at 4, heading to the ninth.
___
BACK ON TOP: Holliday's two-run double puts the Cardinals back on top in the seventh inning, 4-2.
Tough inning for Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow. Matt Carpenter reached safely when he checked his swing on an infield single to shortstop. Carlos Beltran was grazed on the elbow pad by a pitch — making no effort to get out of the way.
Beltran, in fact, almost appeared to stick his elbow out just a tiny bit to make sure the ball made contact.
Junichi Tazawa came on and Holliday pulled a grounder past new third baseman Will Middlebrooks. The ball kicked into the left-field corner and Holliday went all the way to third on the throw to the plate.
Tazawa then got a couple of strikeouts and prevented further damage.
It was Middlebrooks' first inning in the field. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh and took over at third base in the bottom half.
That shifted Bogaerts to shortstop — and neither one was able to make the difficult defensive play Boston needed in that inning.
With four RBIs and three extra-base hits, Holliday is having a big Series so far.
___
ALL TIED UP: Daniel Nava's run-scoring single on the first pitch from Cardinals reliever Seth Maness ties the score at 2 in the sixth inning.
Both starting pitchers take a no-decision. Joe Kelly issued a leadoff walk to Shane Victorino and was lifted after Dustin Pedroia lined out to third.
Lefty specialist Randy Choate tried to sneak a two-strike fastball by red-hot David Ortiz, but Big Papi sniffed it out and singled through the hole on the right side to send Victorino to third.
That brought on Maness, who gave up Nava's sharp single to left.
Maness then got rookie Xander Bogaerts to ground into an inning-ending double play.
That is Maness' specialty. He induced 16 double-play grounders during the season, the most among NL relievers.
Tied at 2 heading into the seventh. Rookie lefty Kevin Siegrist on for the Cardinals.
___
ONE-RUN GAME: A leadoff triple by Bogaerts helps Boston trim the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth inning.
Right fielder Carlos Beltran, playing with those bruised ribs, couldn't cut off the ball in the gap. Beltran was unable to bend over enough to glove the ball — or perhaps he had an idea how much it would hurt and shied away.
Stephen Drew followed with a strikeout, but Bogaerts scored when pinch-hitter Mike Carp bounced a chopper to second base. St. Louis got the force at second, but Carp easily beat the relay to first as Bogaerts scored.
Joe Kelly struck out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the inning.
With all the talk about the Boston beards, nobody ever seems to mention Carp's bright red number. Yes, he's a bench player — but it's an epic effort.
Long, straight, stiff as a board. Definitely has an Amish look to it. Or maybe more Scandinavian. Tough to choose.
Carp batted for pitcher Jake Peavy, so left-hander Felix Doubront is on in the bottom of the fifth.
Doubront retires David Freese with two on to end the inning. Cardinals lead 2-1.
___
ESCAPE: Peavy pitches out of major trouble in the fourth inning. Bases loaded, nobody out — Cardinals don't score.
Conservative move by third base coach Jose Oquendo to hold Yadier Molina at third on Jon Jay's single to center. Looked as though it would have been tough to throw out Molina at the plate. And with light-hitting Pete Kozma and pitcher Joe Kelly up next, probably a good time to take that chance.
Molina, however, wasn't running very well as he got to third, and Oquendo threw up a late stop sign.
Kozma was called out on strikes before Kelly and Matt Carpenter popped up.
Good move by Cardinals manager Mike Matheny to let Jay swing the bat instead of bunt with runners at first and second and none out. Again, with the bottom of the lineup to follow, good time to be aggressive.
Matheny certainly was. Oquendo was not.
___
SETTLING IN: Peavy looked much sharper in the second and third than he did in the first inning. Maybe he's settling down a bit and finding his rhythm.
Peavy is a fiery guy on the mound, often yelling at himself in the middle of a game. Controlling his emotions can be an issue for him. Perhaps Peavy was a little over-amped in the first inning.
Cardinals still lead 2-0 after Joe Kelly strikes out Daniel Nava on a full-count pitch with two on to end the top of the fourth.
Jacoby Ellsbury's leadoff grounder in the fourth got past a diving Matt Carpenter at second base for Boston's first hit.
___
SLOPPY PLAY: Ellsbury and the Red Sox catch a break on some bad baserunning by Matt Holliday in the third.
Playing deep against Holliday, Ellsbury ran in a long way on a popup to shallow center and appeared to have some trouble with the wind. Ellsbury dropped the ball for an error, but second baseman Dustin Pedroia alertly fired to first to throw out Holliday, who rounded the bag too far and was slow trying to get back.
Probably should have reached second safely if he had busted it out of the box the whole way.
These teams tied for the best regular-season record in the majors, but there certainly has been some sloppy play so far in this Series.
___
EARLY LEAD: Run-scoring singles by Holliday and Yadier Molina give St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
The Cardinals are 7-0 when scoring first this postseason. That flame-throwing young bullpen has a lot to do with that. You don't want to be behind in the late innings against this team.
Peavy, coming off a poor start in the ALCS against Detroit, doesn't appear to have many answers so far tonight, either. Several hard-hit line drives so far, though the Cardinals do not have an extra-base hit yet.
Interesting play by Carlos Beltran after Matt Carpenter's leadoff single. When the count went to 3-1 and Boston third baseman Xander Bogaerts shifted further off the line, Beltran tried to bunt for a base hit. He was thrown out by Peavy and credited with a sacrifice.
Beltran's bruised ribs might have had something to do with that decision. Fox sideline reporter Ken Rosenthal had just noted that Beltran took another pain-killing injection before the game but said he was feeling better.
Rosenthal, however, said Beltran told him he feels more comfortable swinging right-handed than left-handed since banging into the outfield wall in Game 1. Beltran feels as though his bat is dragging from the left side, Rosenthal said.
___
HERE WE GO: Under way in Game 3 as the World Series shifts to Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Peavy was 0-1 with an 8.31 ERA in two playoff starts this month, though he did pitch well for 5 2-3 innings against Tampa Bay in the division series. This will be the first career World Series start for the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner.
Joe Kelly gets the ball for the Cardinals. He was 0-1 with a 4.41 ERA in three playoff starts.
Wearing those distinctive goggles, Kelly looks fired-up. Pumping in a heater at 98 mph in the first inning, he struck out Jacoby Ellsbury looking and then grabbed a comebacker barehanded.
Carpenter helped Kelly with a spectacular, diving play in the second to rob Daniel Nava of a hit. Nava getting his first World Series start in left field instead of Jonny Gomes.
Fox notes that 16 of the past 18 World Series that were tied 1-all were won by the team that took Game 3.
___
UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY: With the move to the NL ballpark, there was no designated hitter allowed. Wanting to keep David Ortiz in the lineup after he homered in Games 1 and 2, Red Sox manager John Farrell put Big Papi at first base — where he played just 39 innings during the regular season.
Mike Napoli relegated to the bench for Boston, taking a big bat out of the lineup.
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HELP, PLEASE: In the first two games of the Series, Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia combined for seven hits in 13 at-bats. The rest of the Red Sox were 5 for 51 for an .098 batting average.
___
EQUINE GUESTS: The Budweiser Clydesdales took a lap around the warning track before player introductions. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. owned the Cardinals from 1953-96.
There also was a pregame video tribute to Hall of Famer Stan Musial, the Cardinals great who died in January.
Willie McGee, the former St. Louis outfielder and 1985 NL MVP, threw out the first ball.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Allen Craig slid home and it sure looked as though he was out.
Didn't matter.
A rare obstruction call by an umpire let Craig score with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, finishing off a mad-cap play that sent the St. Louis Cardinals over the Boston Red Sox 5-4 Saturday night for a 2-1 lead in the World Series.
It was as crazy an ending in a World Series game as anyone had seen, and created a wild scene at home plate. The Cardinals rushed out to congratulate an ailing Craig while the Red Sox rushed to the exact same spot to argue the call.
A walk-off win? More like a trip-off.
"I'm in shock right now," Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina said. "Wow, it's unbelievable."
Third baseman Will Middlebrooks tripped Craig after a wild throw got away following Jon Jay's ninth-inning grounder.
Boston tied the score with two runs in the eighth before Molina singled with one out in the ninth off loser Brandon Workman. Craig, just back from a sprained foot, pinch hit and lined Koji Uehara's first pitch down the left-field line for a double that put runners on second and third.
With the infield in, Jay hit a grounder to diving second baseman Dustin Pedroia. He made a sensational stab and threw home to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who tagged out the sliding Molina.
But then Saltalamacchia threw wide of third while trying to get Craig. After the ball got by, Middlebrooks, with his stomach on the field, raised both legs and tripped Craig, slowing him down as he tried to take off for home plate.
Third base umpire Jim Joyce immediately signaled obstruction, and even though a sliding Craig was tagged by Saltalamacchia at the plate following the throw by left fielder Daniel Nava, plate umpire Dana DeMuth signaled safe and then pointed to third, making clear the obstruction had been called.
"It's part of the game," Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday said. "The guy was in his way. ... We'll take it."
Craig returned for this Series from a sprained left foot that had sidelined him since early September. After an awkward slide on the final play, he hobbled off the field in apparent discomfort.
The Red Sox scored twice in the eighth inning to tie it 4-all. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single and Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch for the sixth time this postseason. Both runners moved up on Pedroia's groundout, and David Ortiz was intentionally walked.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny went to hard-throwing closer Trevor Rosenthal with the bases loaded, hoping for a five-out save from a rookie who has looked almost untouchable this October. But the Red Sox pushed two runs across.
Daniel Nava drove in one with a short-hop grounder that was smothered by second baseman Kolten Wong, who had just entered on defense in a double-switch.
Wong went to second for the forceout, but Nava beat the relay and Ellsbury scored to make it 4-3. Xander Bogaerts tied it when he chopped a single up the middle.
Brandon Workman jammed Holliday and retired the slugger on a routine fly with two on to end the bottom of the eighth. That sent the game to the ninth tied at 4.
Holliday's two-run double puts the Cardinals on top 4-2 in the seventh.
It was a tough inning for Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow. Matt Carpenter reached safely when he checked his swing on an infield single to shortstop. Carlos Beltran was grazed on the elbow pad by a pitch — making no effort to get out of the way.
Beltran, in fact, almost appeared to stick his elbow out just a tiny bit to make sure the ball made contact.
Junichi Tazawa came on and Holliday pulled a grounder past Middlebrooks at third. The ball kicked into the left-field corner and Holliday went all the way to third on the throw to the plate.
Tazawa then got a couple of strikeouts and prevented further damage.
It was Middlebrooks' first inning in the field. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh and took over at third base in the bottom half.
That shifted Bogaerts to shortstop — and neither one was able to make the difficult defensive play Boston needed in that inning.
Cardinals starter Joe Kelly, one of the few major league pitchers to wear glasses on the mound, set down his first nine batters. The Red Sox seemed to see him better the next time around in coming back from a 2-0 deficit.
Bogaerts opened the fifth with a triple that banged-up right fielder Beltran couldn't quite reach. The rookie later scored on a grounder by pinch-hitter Mike Carp.
Slumping Shane Victorino drew a leadoff walk from Kelly in the sixth and wound up scoring the tying run. Ortiz grounded a single off lefty reliever Randy Choate, and Nava greeted Seth Maness with an RBI single that made it 2-all.
Their fielding woes from Game 1 far behind them, the slick-fielding Cardinals made several sharp plays. Kelly barehanded a one-hopper, Carpenter threw out a runner from his knees up the middle and third baseman David Freese backhanded a line drive.
St. Louis quickly broke ahead, scoring in the first inning for the first time this October on RBI singles by Holliday and Molina. After the Cardinals got three hits in a span of four pitches, Red Sox reliever Felix Doubront began heating up in a hurry before Jake Peavy settled down.
Peavy wriggled out of bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth to keep the Cardinals' lead at 2-0. He got some help, too, from St. Louis third base coach Jose Oquendo.
With runners on first and second, Jon Jay hit a sharp single to center. The Red Sox were conceding a run and ready to let Molina score from second, but Oquendo held up the slow-footed catcher.
Peavy actually lowered his career postseason ERA by more than a full run, down to 9.27 in five winless starts.
A day before Kelly and Peavy faced each other, they sounded totally different.
Kelly kidded about his pregame preparation: He stays up all night taking on his Twitter followers, shooting away in "Call of Duty," the popular first-person war video game.
Peavy, meanwhile, was already ramped up and ready to go.
"This is what I've lived for my whole life," he said Friday. "I'm as prepared as I'll ever be, physically, mentally."
NOTES: Cardinals Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith and Red Schoendienst took part in the first-ball festivities, with fan favorite Willie McGee tossing the pitch. ... At 21, Bogaerts became the third-youngest player to hit a triple in a World Series. Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle did it at 20. ... Molina has a six-game hitting streak in World Series play. ... The family of late umpire Wally Bell was in the stands. Bell died at 48 this month, and the six-man crew is wearing patches to honor him. Bell's first plate job in the World Series was at this ballpark in 2006.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — College athletes are graduating at an all-time high rate, the NCAA said Thursday.
Eighty-two percent of athletes in the 2006-07 freshman class earned a diploma within six years, up one percentage point from the 2005-06 class. That matched a record.
Graduation rates over the four-year measure, which covers freshmen who entered school between 2003-04 and 2006-07, hit 81 percent, also a one percentage point increase and another record, the NCAA said.
Why the jump?
Graduation rates among black female athletes improved from 76 percent in 2005-06 to 78 percent in 2006-07. And football players in the Bowl Subdivision topped last year's record-high of 70 percent by hitting 71 percent. White players in the FBS made a 4-percentage point jump, to 84 percent, while the rate among black FBS players improved from 62 percent to 64 percent.
The report also showed percentages among athletes in some sports regressed.
After 6 percentage point jump to 74 percent in last year's report, all men's basketball players in the one-year measure dropped to 72.9 percent this year. Still, it is the first time Division I college basketball players have had to back-to-back years at 70 percent or better.
The federal government report also shows the two biggest money-making college sports — football and men's basketball — continue to lag behind almost all others when it comes to graduation rates.
According to the four-year federal numbers, men's basketball players are graduating at a rate of 47 percent while FBS football players have a grad rate of 58 percent and Football Championship Subdivision players are at 56 percent. Of the 35 sports that were measured, only three others — baseball (48 percent), women's bowling (53 percent) and wrestling (56) — had a grad rate under 60 percent.
The NCAA began tracking graduation rates with the 1995-96.
The biggest explanation for the difference is the NCAA includes the academic performance of transfer students at their new schools. Though the federal numbers do not, they have consistently showed college athletes are more likely to earn degrees than the overall student body. This year is no different as the federal numbers showed 65 percent of athletes earned degrees compared with 64 percent of other students.
Critics contend that the federal numbers are more accurate. They also suggest college athletes receive more financial help than other students and have more access to tutors and other academic help, provided by the athletic department.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-24-NCAA-Grad%20Rates/id-1347336b702549edaee76d88f3e34425Looking to distract themselves from the recent tabloid attention, Kendall and Kylie Jenner headed over to Fred Segal in West Hollywood for a spot of shopping on Wednesday (October 23).
The “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” cuties were joined by a few friends and Kendall’s new puppy as they chatted and shopped while shutterbugs looked on.
As previously reported by the GossipCenter, the Jenner gals have both fired back at claims that they scored fake IDs, got wasted, and hung out at a sex-themed nightclub last week.
Kendall tweeted, "I am so done with everyone making my little sister and I out to be something that we are not. shut up with these stupid rumors and stories."
"I'm not going to sit around and let grown adults create untrue stories about me underage drinking & partying every night with a fake I.D,” added Kylie.
Marcia Wallace has died at the age of 70. The actress died Friday night, Oct. 25, in Los Angeles, TMZ reports. According to the site, she had been sick for the past several months, and passed away at her home with her family by her side.
PHOTOS: Stars we've lost in 2013
The Emmy awarding-winner actress first broke out in Hollywood in TV with guest roles in Bewitched, The Brady Bunch and The Bob Newhart Show. She also was featured in Murphy Brown, 7th Heaven and The Young and the Restless. Her film credits include My Mother the Werewolf and Teen Witch.
Wallace was best known as the voice of Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons for the past 23 years from 1990 to 2013. She also spent three decades on various TV game shows in the 70's, including Hollywood Squares, Match Game and The $25,000 Pyramid.
PHOTOS: Funniest female stars in Hollywood
Wallace was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 and became a high-profile advocate for breast cancer awareness. She became a motivational speaker, and traveled across the country to discuss her personal story.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A plane dousing wildfires in bushland around the Australia's biggest city, Sydney, crashed into a national park on Thursday, sparking a new fire to add to 55 still burning across the state of New South Wales.
The accident happened as the immediate threat from the fires eased thanks to cooler weather, but the Rural Fire Service (RFS) warned of hot and dry weather ahead as summer hits its peak.
"It's hard to definitely say that (the worst is over) at this stage," said RFS spokeswoman Natalie Sanders. "We have got cooler temperatures today and the winds are slightly lower but with these fires still going, it's hard to say how long they'll go for and whether there will be any further damage."
More than 200 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales since last Thursday, when fires tore through Sydney's outskirts, razing entire streets. One man died from a heart attack while trying to save his home.
The RFS said it held "grave concerns" for the pilot of a water bomber fixed-wing aircraft that crashed in the Budawang National Park, 270 km (170 miles) southwest of Sydney, a wilderness area of steep mountainsides and forests popular with hikers and campers.
Sanders said 20 of the 55 fires still burning on Thursday had yet to be contained by firefighters, who fear strong winds may see three major fires in the Blue Mountains commuter district west of Sydney join up in coming days, creating one massive wildfire.
The fires have so far burned through more than 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) and have a perimeter of some 1,600 km (990 miles).
Police have arrested several children suspected of starting fires. Other fires were sparked by power lines arcing in strong winds, according to the RFS.
(Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by Jane Wardell and Nick Macfie)
By Tim Hepher
LONDON (Reuters) - Airbus is poised to review its A380 superjumbo after a slump in orders and has not ruled out shaving output of the world's largest jetliner while waiting for the economy to come to its rescue.
Despite aggressive marketing, sales of the 525-seat double-decker are running at idle as in tough times many airlines are focusing on narrower, lighter, two-engine models, including Airbus's own A350.
U.S. rival Boeing
Airbus has not booked a firm A380 order this year but has taken three cancellations. It has sold a total of 259.
Its sales chief is confident Airbus will sign a number of deals in the next two months to avoid ending the year with more cancellations than orders - an embarrassment for an aircraft hailed as a European wonder when it was unveiled in 2005.
But in its factories, Airbus is approaching a crunch point despite the jet's popularity with passengers after six years.
The immediate worry is that gaps in the production line for 2015 will force airbus to build jets it hasn't been able to sell - known as "white tails" - tying up cash in planes worth $400 million each at list prices, most of which is paid on delivery.
Time to avert the problem is running out because parts like metal forgings have to be ordered up to two years ahead.
Amid such concerns, Airbus is likely to take the opportunity to "review the situation and strategy" for the A380 at the end of the year, said an industry source who asked not to be named.
Options include trimming production below the targeted 30 a year, taking a less pro-active stance on the jet and mainly producing what has been sold, and reviving plans to upgrade it beyond the end of the decade.
Airbus declined to comment on any review, but ruled out straining its resources by building an unwanted jet.
"Regarding 2015, we have a few slots at the end of the year and we still work to try to fill them," said Tom Williams, executive vice president for programs at the planemaker.
"Clearly we would want to keep A380 production around 30 aircraft per year as we have stated many times; however, we will never build ‘white tails'. We are pragmatic and we will adapt production rates and our cost structure in line with demand: small variations are not a crisis."
PRESSURE TO BREAK EVEN
Analysts say that depending on its magnitude, a cut would be scrutinized for any impact on Airbus's target to break even on the A380 in 2015, though most investors are focused on the A350.
Nick Cunningham of Agency Partners said Airbus may be forced to lower A380 costs more quickly than planned if it still wanted the jetliner to break even in 2015 while also cutting output.
One way of easing pressure would be to bring forward planes scheduled for later delivery, though superjumbo production is significantly less flexible than on smaller jets. Williams said Airbus would look at making "small advancements" if needed.
Airbus boasted the A380 would reshape aviation when it was launched in 2001, offering new comforts and lower operating costs. It sees a total market for 1,711 very large jets over the next 20 years, much higher than Boeing's forecast of 760.
But the A380's birth was beset by technical and management rows, and sales fell abruptly when the discovery of wing cracks in 2011 hit momentum.
Germany's Lufthansa
"For me, there will always be a market for a 500-plus seater," said Tim Clark, president of Dubai's Emirates.
The airline has ordered a total of 90 A380s and does not see the arrival of slightly smaller twinjets - such as the Boeing 777X that it also plans to add to its fleet - as a threat.
"As the economy returns to a degree of normality, as it will, history tells us the rebound will be a lot faster and more aggressive than in previous decades, and this time next year we could be having a different discussion," Clark said.
GROWTH MODE
In June, Airbus announced a marketing partnership with Doric Lease Corp, which provisionally ordered 20 A380s and is expected to finalize as early as next month. The same group is already a major A380 investor through financing deals with Emirates.
"The slow period of sales coincided with the great recession. I am aware of airlines that were going to take the aircraft but didn't because of the global economic slowdown," said Doric Lease Corp Chief Executive Mark Lapidus.
"I would say this is now changing because growth is coming back. We are now in a growth mode, not in a survival mode," he said, adding the group was talking to several airlines and sees "significantly more orders for the plane in the next 12 months".
Slow sales are not the only headache, however. Analysts say the quality of the undelivered backlog has also deteriorated.
Airbus's 148 remaining undelivered orders for A380 include up to around 30 aircraft that analysts say may not get delivered, notably five for grounded Indian airline Kingfisher.
Others include 10 for Hong Kong Airlines, which faces Chinese divisions over the jet, and six for Virgin Atlantic, which has negotiated cancellation rights.
The backlog is also increasingly dominated by one customer, Emirates, which makes up a third - and well above 40 percent if you exclude those orders considered least likely to be fulfilled by other airlines, according to a Reuters analysis.
That comes as a mixed blessing for airline CEO Tim Clark, who says he is surprised more airlines had not ordered the jet.
"The last thing we want is to see the A380 marginalized," he told Reuters. It may, however, give the Dubai carrier a significant say in how the A380 will evolve, particularly whether the world's biggest passenger jet will get even bigger.
EMIRATES WANTS BIGGER A380
"We have always been an advocate of stretching the airplane," Clark told Reuters. "We have 37 in operation today, and on most routes a bigger plane would work quite nicely."
Airbus shelved its original plans for a second A380 version with 100 more seats when it became clear that the aircraft was not selling as quickly as it would have liked.
But now, engine makers are bringing out new products to power Boeing's revamped 777 and the competing Airbus A350-1000, meaning some of the development needed to re-engine and potentially expand the A380 has potentially already been done.
Some 60 years after the jet age began, reviving such a move could bring the world closer to an eye-popping 1,000-seat megajumbo if others opted to fill it with all-economy seats. The current model is certified to hold 853 people in such a layout.
"We are not in any rush to make any decisions to change the design of the A380, and there is no such decision," said Airbus's Williams.
Even so, industry sources said Airbus and some suppliers had begun to think about what capital, engineering resources and facilities may be needed. Airbus has also started sounding out engine makers on what they could provide next decade.
"I think the A380 will get stretched; exactly when depends in part on how successful we are," said Lapidus, referring to Doric's joint marketing drive with Airbus.
"If we are very successful, it will happen sooner rather than later ... Imagine in a number of years that Airbus is approaching 500 orders for the A380: at that point the market will say very loudly to Airbus, you have to make that 650-700 seater aircraft."
(Editing by Will Waterman)
