Isnin, 2 September 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Bilingual centre a hit with parents

Posted:

A NEW bilingual pre-school championed by former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has received overwhelming response.

About 300 young parents thronged the first open house for Hampton@Tanjong Pagar, which aims to give pupils a head start in learning two languages.

Lee announced the launch of the new centre last month at a National Day Dinner with residents in his Tanjong Pagar ward.

Yesterday's open house – which attracted parents mainly from the Tiong Bahru area – was held off-site in Bishan as the pre-school will not be ready until December.

Hampton@Tanjong Pagar will be run by private operator EtonHouse and the PAP Community Foundation.

It will have an infant care centre and run kindergarten classes.

Just two weeks after registration opened on Aug 19, the 98 childcare places and 12 infant care vacancies were several times over-subscribed. More than 200 applications for childcare and 100 for infant care had been submitted as of yesterday.

Balloting will be held this month, said EtonHouse group managing director Ng Gim Choo.

The centre, which will start classes for its first batch in January, offers a bilingual English-Mandarin curriculum. Two teachers, one who speaks English and the other, Mandarin, will be present in the classroom at all times. To help the children develop cultural sensitivity and a natural love for Mandarin, they will be exposed to Chinese art, music, theatre and literature every day.

Procurement manager Jackson Lim, 32, who has applied for a place for his one-year-old son, said it was important for his child to be exposed to both English and Mandarin. "Kids absorb languages easily at a very early age. It's good to expose them to English, a business language, and Mandarin which is often used in conversations in Asia," he said.

Lee has previously said Singapore's bilingualism policy makes learning difficult unless the child starts both languages at an early age. He said research by American social scientists had debunked the belief that teaching young children multiple languages would only confuse them. —The Straits Times / Asia News Network

SIA: Singapore girl more crucial now as quality icon

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SHE may be taking a back seat in the latest marketing campaign, but top brass at Singapore Airlines say the SIA Girl is far from over the hill.

They said her role has become more critical as the carrier increasingly relies on top-quality service.

"The essence of the Singapore Girl and her gentle, caring ways remain especially relevant today," said SIA executive vice- president (commercial) Mak Swee Wah.

"In this ever-changing world, it is even more important for service excellence to be the key differentiator."

This contrasts with days gone by, when SIA led the pack with superior hardware, new planes, flat beds and the latest in-flight movies. Now, these are offered by all top-tier carriers, including Emirates and Cathay Pacific.

In this more competitive environment, the iconic Singapore Girl remains a feature of every branding drive.

"What has changed is the way she is portrayed," said SIA acting senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Chin Yau Seng.

The airline's latest S$5mil (RM12.6mil) campaign, being launched today, took more than a year to make and cuts across print, television and digital platforms in more than 120 countries. There are three commercials shot in China, Italy and Scotland – all feature the Singapore Girl.

But unlike in the last branding exercise, the spotlight is not on her.

"We are putting the whole focus on the customer," said Chin. "The SIA Girl, who obviously plays a very big role in all the ads, is a symbol of the lengths we go to for our customers."

Critics have called the Singapore Girl outdated. But Chin said not many brands have a living, breathing icon. "No matter what, this remains a very strong point in our own marketing and we don't intend to move away from it because it is very rare."

Professor Jochen Wirtz of the National University of Singapore, who co-authored a book on SIA called Flying High In A Competitive Industry: Secrets Of The World's Leading Airline, said it made sense for to capitalise on the Singapore Girl image.

"Featuring new routes, new technologies or new products can be done periodically to position an airline as a leader in the industry, but it is not a powerful positioning in the long run," he said. "There has to be the superior overall experience on board delivered by crew supported by superior products and processes."

Singapore Management University associate professor of marketing education Seshan Ramaswami said the iconic Singapore Girl has served the airline well. But, he added that the image of an attentive Asian woman "may convey a negative stereotype of Asian women not in keeping with the tremendous strides in professional success of women the world over, and in Asia too". —The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Syrian refugee numbers swell to 2 million - U.N.
Japan outlines spending plans for Fukushima water crisis
Japan to spend nearly $500 million to fix Fukushima nuclear crisis

Syrian refugee numbers swell to 2 million - U.N.

Posted:

GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 2 million refugees have now fled Syria's civil war, piling pressure on neighbouring host countries, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The tide of children, women and men crossing borders has risen almost ten-fold over the past 12 months, figures from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR showed.

"Syria has become the great tragedy of this century - a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said in a statement.

On average, almost 5,000 people take refuge in Syria's neighbours every day, according to the report.

"If the situation continues to deteriorate at this rate, the number of refugees will only grow, and some neighbouring countries could be brought to the point of collapse," said UNHCR envoy and Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.

The number of people displaced inside Syria was holding steady at around 4.25 million, the report said.

Ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey - the four main hosts of Syrian refugees - were due to meet officials from the agency in Geneva on Wednesday to work out ways to raise more international aid.

The UNHCR said last month its work had so far stopped the refugee crisis spiralling out of control.

But "a far more substantial and coherent strategy" was needed than the $2.9 billion (1.8 billion pounds) refugee aid effort already underway it added then.

Syria's uprising against four decades of rule by the family of President Bashar al-Assad has turned into an increasingly sectarian civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Japan outlines spending plans for Fukushima water crisis

Posted:

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government plans to spend 47 billion yen (304 million pounds) to deal with mounting amounts of radioactive water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, the country's industry minister said on Tuesday.

The government will spend 32 billion yen building a wall of frozen earth around wrecked reactors to prevent groundwater entering basements and mixing with water being used to cool melted fuel rods, industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters.

A further 15 billion yen will be spent on upgrading water treatment systems to reduce the amount of contaminated water that is building up at the site and threatening to overwhelm cleanup efforts after the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

About 14 billion yen for the frozen wall and 7 billion yen for water treatment will be deployed from the country's reserve budget for the current business year, Motegi said.

Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco, said on Monday it found another spike in radiation levels near a contaminated water tank at the plant, which was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Tepco is rushing to contain contaminated water that continues to increase at a rate of 400 tonnes a day, with floods of groundwater mixing with highly radioactive water that is constantly poured over the destroyed reactors to keep melted fuel rods cool.

The utility said last month that as much as 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from another tank.

(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick and Richard Borsuk)

Japan to spend nearly $500 million to fix Fukushima nuclear crisis

Posted:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan pledged nearly $500 million (321.4 million pounds) to contain leaks and decontaminate radioactive water from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, as the government stepped up its intervention in the worst atomic disaster in a quarter century.

The announcement comes just days before the International Olympics Committee decides whether Tokyo - 230 km (140 miles) from the wrecked plant - will host the 2020 Olympics and the government is keen to show the crisis is under control. Madrid and Istanbul are the rival candidates.

"The world is watching to see if we can carry out the decommissioning of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, including addressing the contaminated water issues," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told cabinet ministers, who met to approve the plan.

The government intervention represents only a tiny slice of the response to the Fukushima crisis triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which caused reactor meltdowns at the plant. The clean-up, including decommissioning the ruined reactors, will take decades and rely on unproven technology.

The measures do not address the full problem of water management at the plant, leave the fate of Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) unclear, and do not address the bigger problem of decommissioning. The sensitive job of removing spent fuel rods is to start in the coming months.

Nor do they clarify who will eventually foot the bill.

"This is a matter of public safety, so the country has to take the lead on this issue and respond as quickly as possible. Figuring out who to bill for the costs can come later," Economics Minister Akira Amari told a news conference.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a separate news conference that the government would spend a total of 47 billion yen ($473.05 million), including 21 billion yen in emergency reserve funds from this year's budget.

Of that, 32 billion yen will fund the building of a massive underground wall of frozen earth around the damaged reactors to contain groundwater flows, and 15 billion yen to improve a water treatment system meant to drastically reduce radiation levels in the contaminated water.

TEPCO CRITICISM

Tepco, Japan's biggest utility, has come under growing criticism following a stream of bad news including its admission - after repeated denials - that contaminated water was flowing into the Pacific Ocean. That was followed by leaks from above-ground tanks used to store contaminated water.

"Tokyo Electric has been playing a game of whack-a-mole with problems at the site," Trade and Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in a televised interview late on Monday, referring to a popular amusement park game.

After a recent spike in overseas alarm at the problems at Fukushima, the Japanese government is "trying to cool the international media off prior to the Olympics decision", Mycle Schneider, an independent nuclear energy analyst based in Paris who frequently visits Japan, said by email.

"At a moment when international public opinion is worrying about the long-term consequences of repeated leaks at the site, Tokyo seems to obeying the short-term logic of waiting until the Olympics decision is over. A more sustainable option might be to come out now, in Olympic spirit, with a strong decision about open, welcoming arms for international support to confront the unprecedented challenges of stabilizing the site," Schneider said.

"The government felt that we want to be fully involved and put together fundamental measures regardless of the decision on where they will hold the (Olympic) games," Motegi said, when asked if the moves were prompted by the pending Olympic decision.

Measurable radiation from water leaking from the facility is confined to the harbour around the plant, Motegi noted, and there should be no impact on other countries because the radiation will be so diluted by the sea that it is not an environmental threat.

The closest towns to the plant remain deserted and off-limits to the public. But some former residents have started to return to their homes, some of which are less than 20 kms away, as decontamination work progresses.

China said last month it was "shocked" to hear that contaminated water was still leaking from storage tanks and urged Japan to give timely and accurate information.

Tepco is storing enough contaminated water to fill more than 130 Olympic-sized swimming pools, mostly in hastily built tanks that officials have said may spring further leaks.

The planned measures are daunting. Freezing earth to block water flows is a technology commonly used in digging subway tunnels, but it is untested on the Fukushima scale and the planned duration of years or decades. The decontamination technology has repeatedly suffered from glitches.

Tepco said earlier that patrolling workers had found a new area of high radiation near water storage tanks. Workers had found no signs of fresh radiation leaks, but the company said a radiation reading on the ground near the newly found hot spot would expose a worker in just one hour to the safety limit Japan has set for exposure over five years.

No precise reading was given since workers were using instruments that only recorded radiation up to 100 millisieverts an hour. Tepco said the reading exceeded that level. Tepco said last week radiation near a different tank spiked 18 times higher than the initial reading, a level that could kill an unprotected person in four hours.

(Additional reporting by Sumio Ito, Aaron Sheldrick and Stanley White; Writing by Billy Mallard and Linda Sieg; Editing by Paul Tait and Ian Geoghegan)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

Out of toon with the times?

Posted:

Hollywood studios can't seem to get enough of animated films, even though they seem to be reaching saturation point with audiences.

WHEN it comes to computer-animated movies, studios seemingly can't get enough of talking animals, planes, cars, monsters, cavemen, snails and little blue creatures who live in mushrooms.

But there are signs that the abundance of animated movies may be nearing a saturation point as family audiences confront a growing number of choices over what they choose to spend their movie dollars on.

"We're all sitting at a very delicate point," said Chris Meledandri, chief executive of Illumination Entertainment, which produced the hit Despicable Me films. "Everybody has been able to survive so far, but as more films are planned, it's inevitable that there will be more acute cannibalisation off each other."

This year will see the wide theatrical release of 11 animated movies – up from six a decade ago – including six studio movies in the summer alone, making it one of the most congested periods ever for computer animated movies.

Turbo was a surprise disappointment at the US boxoffice, but DreamWorks bosses expect it will still be profitable after international takings are counted.

In total, 75 animated movies have been released since 2008, according to Hollywood.com, and an additional 13 movies are slated for release in 2014, not counting films released in fewer than 500 theatres.

"There's a huge number of animated films coming out," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office division of Hollywood.com. "There's no question studios are going to commit huge resources to animation, but I think there's a learning curve about how audiences react to films and how often they are released."

The flood of computer-animated movies is reminiscent of the late 1990s, when Disney blockbusters such as The Lion King spurred others to jump into the business – only to fail with a string of box-office clunkers such as Iron Giant, that led to widespread layoffs.

Most of the recent movies, however, have fared well at the box office, some hugely so. Universal scored a massive hit with Despicable Me 2. Since its release on July 3, the Universal sequel, produced for US$76mil (RM253mil), has raked in more than US$750mil (RM2.5bil), making it the most profitable movie in the studio's history.

Disney also produced a hit with Pixar Animation Studios' Monsters University, which has pulled in more than US$658mil (RM2.2bil) in ticket sales since its release in June.

But there also have been some high-profile stumbles.

DreamWorks Animation, one of the industry leaders, had an unexpected misfire this summer with its computer-animated release Turbo, released just two weeks after Despicable Me 2.

The film made US$21mil (RM70mil) in its opening weekend, less than half what the Glendale studio pulled in for the opening weekend of its prior movie, The Croods. Just five months earlier, DreamWorks took a US$87mil (RM290mil) write-down on its holiday movie Rise Of The Guardians, which helped trigger the first-ever layoffs at DreamWorks this year.

Chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg has cited market overcrowding in explaining the weak opening for Turbo.

"We just ran into a perfect storm of way too many movies," Katzenberg recently told analysts. "We've never experienced this level of animation congestion in a period of time."

Katzenberg, however, said he expects Turbo will be profitable because of international ticket sales. Upcoming releases, he noted, won't face such problems next year and in 2015 because they will be spaced further apart from rival animated films.

DreamWorks, Disney and Pixar used to dominate the animation movie industry but now face growing competition from other studios. Sony, Paramount, Universal and Fox, which owns Ice Age creator Blue Sky Studios, each have animation divisions with several movies in the pipeline.

In addition, Warner Bros. announced this year it would return to the animation business, producing one animated feature a year starting in 2014, including an animated movie based on the LEGO toys.

Disney's latest animated release, Planes, had a soft landing at the box office during its opening weekend this month. But the movie, originally intended to go straight to DVD, cost only about US$50mil (RM167mil) to make and the studio already has approved a sequel.

Some of the newer studios have been squeezed by the animation crunch.

Sony had a weaker-than-expected opening for Smurfs 2, a hybrid of live action and animation that earned just US$17.5mil (RM58.3mil) in its opening weekend – less than half what the first Smurfs movie grossed in its opening weekend. Still, the movie has made up ground overseas and the studio expects the film will generate a healthy profit. A sequel is planned for 2015.

Since its launch more than a decade ago, Sony's animation unit has had a mixed track record, with costly misfires such as Arthur Christmas, along with hits such as last year's 3D movie Hotel Transylvania. Next month the unit will release a sequel to the 2009 movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.

Some industry veterans say Hollywood may be saturating the market with too many animated movies, with characters and storylines that begin to look too familiar.

"As things go in Hollywood, something is seen as successful and everyone jumps onboard," said Wade Holden, an analyst with research firm SNL Kagan. "When there are more choices and families only have a certain amount of dollars, they're going to throw their money behind one film or the other and that's why we're starting to see some of these big (computer-generated) films miss."

But Holden says the genre is here to stay, noting that animated films typically outperform other types of movies at the box office. In an analysis of average box-office grosses by genre, SNL Kagan found that animation consistently ranked second behind action movies in each of the last five years. Animated movies also are appealing because they generate more revenue from DVD and toy sales than any other genre.

"Despite the fact that some movies fail, overall the animated genre is one of the most consistently performing," said Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com. "It's been a pretty mighty profit centre. As long as families keep making kids, studios are going to keep making these movies."

Industry pioneer John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Walt Disney's and Pixar's animation studios, isn't worried about overcrowding.

"The pool is big," Lasseter told the Times in April. "The water's warm. The more the merrier. Some come in and make a bad movie. I like healthy competition. I'd much rather be in a healthy industry than be the only player in a dead industry." – Los Angeles Times / McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Wong Kar Wai, the grand director

Posted:

The renowned director ventures into new territory with martial arts epic The Grandmaster.

Released in the spring of 2008, My Blueberry Nights was expected to be the big American breakthrough for the esteemed Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar Wai – the first English-language movie from a director whose previous work (In the Mood For Love, Chungking Express, Happy Together, 2046) had earned him an international fan base on the arthouse and film festival circuits.

But despite a starry cast (Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz) and a healthy promotional push by The Weinstein Co, the movie was a critical and commercial failure in the United States, grossing less than US$1mil/RM3.2mil (the film fared much better overseas, earning nearly US$22mil/RM70.4mil).

So, Wong turned his back on Hollywood and went back to his roots. Six years later, he emerged with one of his best films to date.

The Grandmaster is a sweeping epic that uses the life of Ip Man (played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the kung fu master who trained Bruce Lee, to recount two tumultuous decades in China's history.

Packed with elaborate, eye-popping fight sequences choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix, Kill Bill), The Grandmaster is the most action-intensive film Wong has made. It is also among his most personal. The movie incorporates his recurring theme of romantic longing (Ip has an unspoken, unfulfilled love affair with Gong Er, another martial arts master played by Zhang Ziyi) into a recreation of Japan's invasion of China in 1937 – an event that forever changed the country's culture.

Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung Chiu Wai had to do all the fight scenes in The Grandmaster themselves.

"The Grandmaster was new territory for me, because I knew nothing about martial arts," Wong says. "This is also the first time I've made a film about China in the 1930s. But when I was writing it, I wasn't conscious of the love story elements.

"The immediate attraction between Ip and Gong is more than just man and woman. They are both martial artists. They are more like comrades. When they're forced to say farewell, they're not just saying goodbye to a friend or a lover. They're also saying farewell to an era, which will probably turn out to be the best times of their lives."

Wong spent three years researching The Grandmaster before a single frame was shot. He travelled to various cities in China and Taiwan in the company of martial arts coach Wu Bin (who trained the action-film star Jet Li) and met with a number of masters who shared their philosophies and differing fighting styles. Wong wanted to make sure he got even the smallest details right, because he felt a responsibility to pay homage to a past that was on the verge of being forgotten.

"I didn't want to make a kung fu film," he says. "I wanted to make a film about the history of kung fu. It's a film about that world at that precise time. In the 1930s, people like Ip Man and Gong Er were not typical martial artists. They weren't street-fighters. They came from very wealthy families with their own banners and rituals. That is a class that doesn't exist any more."

The Grandmaster was shot in 22 months over a period of three years, allowing time for the actors to becomes experts in the various schools of kung fu they were representing. Wong insisted that Leung and Zhang perform all their own fighting (no stunt doubles were used), and the action sequences were so elaborate that they would take weeks to film (the opening setpiece, in which Ip fends off hordes of kung fu students under a rainstorm, took a month).

Born in Shanghai in 1956, Wong moved to Hong Kong with his parents when he was seven, and his childhood memories were part of the motivation that led him to make The Grandmaster.

"I grew up on a street where there were several different martial arts schools," he says. "Some of them were from northern China and some from the south. I was curious to know where they all came from and what happened to their past. When you spoke to an established master in Hong Kong, their best stories were all about their younger days.

"The year 1936 was one of the golden years for Chinese martial arts. It was right before the Japanese invasion, and after that happened, all these martial artists wanted to do their part. They had a platform to be noticed and do something other than challenge each other, so they joined forces to help defend their country."

One of the pleasures of The Grandmaster is learning about the multitude of kung fu styles. Ip practiced Wing Chun, which consists of only a few basic but critical moves. Gong was the daughter of a master of Bagua, a more complex form of kung fu that was sometimes referred to as "64 Hands".

"I had to understand the differences between all the various schools so I could film them properly," Wong says. "I spent a lot of time attending demonstrations and meeting martial artists. One master said something to me that I never forgot. He said 'When you go into a fight, it's almost like kissing the other person'. I (asked) what that meant and he said 'First, you have to get close to your opponent. And when you kiss someone, you can feel it throughout your whole body. Your reaction is very concentrated. It's almost like a reflex'. That was his way of describing kung fu."

Wong clearly remembered that description while shooting the face-off between Ip and Gong: In one beautiful, slow-motion shot, the two warriors hover in the air, their faces just inches apart, like two lovers about to embrace. The sensuality of the moment is so subtle that some viewers may not even notice it. And even though the film's third act takes on the dreamy, gorgeous aura that is Wong's trademark, The Grandmaster is categorically an action movie first.

However, some of Wong's stylistic flourishes have been lost. The version of The Grandmaster being released in the United States by The Weinstein Co runs 108 minutes; the cut released in China was 130 minutes.

"We had an obligation to release the film here (the US) under two hours," Wong says. "But I didn't want to just cut and take out entire scenes. The structure of the original version is extremely precise: If you removed certain things, the movie's structure would collapse. So I decided to make a different version for American audiences that tells the story in a more linear way."

Eugene Suen, a Chinese-American filmmaker and producer of the coming drama Abigail Harm, has seen both cuts of The Grandmaster and strongly prefers Wong's original edit, which may still get a DVD release stateside.

"The differences are very noticeable, to the extent that I feel they are different movies," Suen says. "Many of Wong's previous movies dealt with Western preoccupations and a heightened sense of romance, so they could travel the world without any re-editing. This one is a great reappropriation of his prominent themes – the passage of time, unfulfilled love, romantic longing – as a survey of contemporary Chinese history."

Suen also says the references to Bruce Lee in The Grandmaster are much more overt in the US version (including a title card preceding the end credits that spells out the connection). "There are a couple of scenes of Ip Man training his students and there's this little kid there practicing, but there's no strong hint as to who he is," Suen says.

But in the same way Lee helped popularise martial arts movies in the US in the 1970s, his aura may help attract audiences who might have not otherwise noticed The Grandmaster. And this sumptuous, spectacular movie merits attention. — The Miami Herald/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Idol (finally) gets a judge

Posted:

Harry Connick Jr lands final American Idol judging spot.

We have a taker! Harry Connick Jr has taken the final spot on the American Idol judges' panel for Season 13.

He will join returning judges Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez. Randy Jackson will be back as a mentor, according to THR.

Fox and representatives for Connick did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.

Connick is no stranger to the show. Most recently, he guest mentored the final four women in May. At the time (and an early sign that the current panel was on their way out), Connick confirmed to reporters that the show had approached him about joining Season 13. Back then, he was wary about making the commitment.

Earlier this week, reports spread that he was once again in talks with the show as timing was getting critical.

Idol usually starts taping in September and its lack of a third judge threatened the production schedule. Things heated up last weekend when host Ryan Seacrest tweeted, "Got some @AmericanIdol news for you coming very soon..."

Connick, 45, has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide. He has earned more No. 1 albums than any other jazz musician in US jazz chart history. And he has won three Grammy awards.

The path to Connick was certainly one with several twists and turns for the Fox competition show. Plagued with dwindling ratings, it looked at reinventing itself.

Yet, after Kelly Clarkson's refusal to join tanked an idea for an all-alumni panel, Idol shuffled through several candidates including Jennifer Hudson, producer Dr Luke, music manager Scooter Braun and hip hop artist Will.I.Am. Aside from the judges shakeup, Idol fired founding executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, replacing them with all new exec producers. Additionally, Fox's head of alternative programming Mike Darnell left his post after 18 years. — Reuters

Crossing Jordan (with Dexter)

Posted:

You know you've been watching too much TV when you start imagining unlikely crossovers. The Spudniks let their imagination go wild this week imagining possible (or rather, implausible) crossovers that could make TV more fun. You think?

IF Sherlock Holmes (take your pick between Bennedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock or Jonny Lee Miller from Elementary) lived in Miami, Florida, I bet the city would be free of its most elusive serial killer ever – Dexter Morgan.

And, if Sherlock were hired as a consultant with the Miami Metro Police Department, we'd surely get more nail-biting moments on Dexter than we have of late.

Picture this. Sherlock is in Miami to investigate the suspicious death of Detective James Doakes who was the only (can you believe it?) person in Miami Metro who thought something was amiss with Dexter. Sherlock arrives a few years late (he had important Moriarty-related business to attend to in London) and starts reading Doakes' notes on the Bay Harbour Butcher cases.

Sherlock, with his piercing blue eyes, immediately sees the many gaps in the case and figures out that all leads point to ... Dexter.

Wonder if Dr House will be as mean to The Walking Dead as he is to the living.

The two have a showdown and Dexter knows he's cornered. All that's left is for him to get the British detective – oh, sorry, consulting detective onto his kill table. Which is when Watson swings into action ...

Now imagine if Sheldon Cooper and his geek squad somehow stumbled upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Fringe Division.

Oh yes! A Big Bang Theory and Fringe mash-up would be awesome ... and insane.

Sheldon meets Walter Bishop who introduces him to Fringe Science and takes him, literally and intellectually, to a parallel universe. Now I wonder who would be driven up the wall first? And what would Faux-Sheldon be like?

Is it just me or have the Winchester brothers' adventures on Supernatural gotten a little boring and predictable? No? What if the two took a break from hunting demons to killing some awesome flesh-eating zombies on The Walking Dead. Think of it as a vacation for the Winchester boys – they've literally been to hell and back and could use a week or two to unwind. They'd drive around in their Impala and take the walkers out a bunch at a time. – SI

CAN we throw in Fox Mulder and Dana Scully into that Big Bang-Fringe mash up?

I can't imagine either Mulder or Scully being able to put up with Sheldon or Walter Bishop. And while we're at it, how about Dr Temperance Brennan aka Bones? I think she'd get along well with those two being as eccentric as she is. Maybe Seeley Booth can team up with Scully and Olivia, while Mulder and Peter Bishop can go off and to what they do best – woo the lady viewers.

I'm wondering if you could put two completely different sorts of TV programmes together like Suburgatory and True Blood. George and Tessa Altman – they look like they could be shapeshifters or fairies or one of those types right? Right? And it would be interesting to see Noah Werner (played by the kookily charming Alex Tudyk) find out he actually is a vampire.

How about we throw Castle into the Criminal Minds team? You think they would give him the time of day with his wild imaginations and fiction-based theories? I actually think Kate Beckett would make a nice angel (as in Charlie's Angels).

And since they can all sing and dance, maybe the kids from Glee can audition for Smash? Or would that be too easy?

I think Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother) could transport himself back in time and go out with everyone on Friends. Yeah, even ... wait for it ... the ugly naked guy across from Monica's apartment.

Imagine the ensemble cast of Friends hanging out at MacLaren's Pub or Barney, Lily, Robin, Marshall and Ted having coffee at Central Perk?

What if they find a vaccine that works and zombies can get treatment at Seattle Grace Hospital? Miranda Bailey in the ER yelling her head off at every zombie that enters. Bring 'em on.

If there's too many of them to deal with, I'm sure Dr House and gang wouldn't mind some extra patients, so send them over to the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (they may solve some other medical problems as well! Win-win!).

But we'd need one of those Discovery Channel, Animal Planet or Nat Geo wildlife hunters to somehow cart them over to the medical institutions. Jeremy Wade, you ready to cross over from River Monsters to The River, perchance? – AMC

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

Out of toon with the times?

Posted:

Hollywood studios can't seem to get enough of animated films, even though they seem to be reaching saturation point with audiences.

WHEN it comes to computer-animated movies, studios seemingly can't get enough of talking animals, planes, cars, monsters, cavemen, snails and little blue creatures who live in mushrooms.

Turbo was a surprise disappointment at the US boxoffice, but DreamWorks bosses expect it will still be profitable after international takings are counted.

Disney also produced a hit with Pixar Animation Studios' Monsters University, which has pulled in more than US$658mil (RM2.2bil) in ticket sales since its release in June.

But there also have been some high-profile stumbles.

DreamWorks Animation, one of the industry leaders, had an unexpected misfire this summer with its computer-animated release Turbo, released just two weeks after Despicable Me 2.

Chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg has cited market overcrowding in explaining the weak opening for Turbo.

"We just ran into a perfect storm of way too many movies," Katzenberg recently told analysts. "We've never experienced this level of animation congestion in a period of time."

In addition, Warner Bros. announced this year it would return to the animation business, producing one animated feature a year starting in 2014, including an animated movie based on the LEGO toys.

Some of the newer studios have been squeezed by the animation crunch.

Some industry veterans say Hollywood may be saturating the market with too many animated movies, with characters and storylines that begin to look too familiar.

Industry pioneer John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Walt Disney's and Pixar's animation studios, isn't worried about overcrowding.

Wong Kar Wai, the grand director

Posted:

The renowned director ventures into new territory with martial arts epic The Grandmaster.

So, Wong turned his back on Hollywood and went back to his roots. Six years later, he emerged with one of his best films to date.

The Grandmaster is a sweeping epic that uses the life of Ip Man (played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the kung fu master who trained Bruce Lee, to recount two tumultuous decades in China's history.

Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung Chiu Wai had to do all the fight scenes in The Grandmaster themselves.

Born in Shanghai in 1956, Wong moved to Hong Kong with his parents when he was seven, and his childhood memories were part of the motivation that led him to make The Grandmaster.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

Asia markets lifted by upbeat data; yen eases
RUBBER-Tokyo Futures Hit 3-Month High On Weaker Yen
Tenaga energises market as KLCI climbs

Asia markets lifted by upbeat data; yen eases

Posted:

TOKYO/SYDNEY: Asian markets marked a second day of gains on Tuesday after a string of upbeat factory data around the globe boosted shares and most commodities, while a delay in a potential U.S. strike on Syria diminished the safe-haven appeal of gold and the yen.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.3 percent, building on Monday's 1.2 percent rise and on track for a fourth day of gains, and Japan's Nikkei stock average added 1.9 percent. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 0.2 percent, though caution ahead of U.S. employment data at the end of this week limited gains.

Friday's U.S. job data that could provide clues on when the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin rolling back its bond-buying stimulus programme, noted Hi Investment & Securities analyst Kim Seung-han in Seoul. "Initially the market will reflect on the euro zone's data but cues ahead may limit the extent of foreign inflows and cap market gains," he said.

The dollar rose 0.3 percent to 99.62 yen after touching a one-month peak of 99.67 yen, while gold eased about 0.2 percent to $1,391.96 an ounce as investors rediscovered an appetite for risk.

The Reserve Bank of Australia holds its monthly policy meeting on Tuesday and is widely expected to hold rates steady, after having cut rates to a record low of 2.5 percent in August.

While Wall Street was closed for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, U.S. stock futures posted solid gains with the S&P 500 contract up 0.9 percent. Broad gains across European bourses lifted MSCI's world equity index 0.6 percent.

Prospects for the global economy brightened considerably according to a fresh round of purchasing managers' surveys for August.

Factory activity in the euro zone rose at its fastest pace in more than two years, and even manufacturing in struggling Spain grew for the first time since April 2011.

The UK's version of the survey far outstripped expectations and sent sterling up 0.1 percent to $1.5551 as the market brought forward the likely timing of the first rate hike there in years.

All of this reinforced the impact of China's PMI, which showed activity in the country's vast manufacturing sector was at its highest in more than a year.

That continued to buoy commodities, with copper prices rebounding 0.4 percent to $7,270 a tonne.

Markets were also unwinding many of last week's safe-haven trades as worries about an imminent military strike against Syria abated after U.S. President Barack Obama decided to seek congressional approval.

U.S. crude oil prices slipped 0.7 percent to $106.85 a barrel, while Brent lost 0.1 percent to $114.25. - Reuters

RUBBER-Tokyo Futures Hit 3-Month High On Weaker Yen

Posted:

TOKYO: Key TOCOM rubber futures rose nearly 3 percent on Tuesday to hit a three-month high in early morning trade, as the yen held at a one-month low against the dollar.

FUNDAMENTALS

* The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for February delivery <0#2JRU:> was changing hands 6.1 yen higher at 284.6 yen as of 0036 GMT. The benchmark contract rose as much as 2.9 percent to 286.7 yen, the highest since May 23.

* The safe-haven yen started Asian trade at one-month lows against the dollar on Tuesday, having fallen broadly as fresh signs of a pickup in global manufacturing activity helped lift risk appetite. A weak yen makes yen-denominated assets more affordable when purchased in other currencies.

* A prolonged protest by rubber farmers in Thailand's southern Nakhon Si Thammarat province has disrupted distribution systems and delayed thousands of tonnes of prompt Thai rubber shipments for up to two weeks, exporters said on Monday.

* For the top stories in the rubber market and other news, click, or

MARKET NEWS

* U.S. crude futures fell in early Asian trade on Tuesday as President Barack Obama's efforts to persuade the Congress to back his plan to attack Syria met with skepticism.

* Japan's benchmark Nikkei average opened up 1.29 percent at 13,748.68 on Tuesday, while the broader Topix gained 1.38 percent to 1,133.16.- Reuters

Tenaga energises market as KLCI climbs

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Some mild fund buying of power giant Tenaga Nasional helped shore up Malaysian blue chips in early Tuesday trade.

At 9.17am, the FBM KLCI was up 3.42 points to 1,720.98. Turnover was 64.07 million shares valued at nearly RM38mil. There were 113 gainers, 84 losers and 99 counters unchanged.

Investors are expecting the subsidy rationalisation to see a review of Tenaga's tariffs. Tenaga rose 23 sen to RM8.90 with 174,600 shares done.

Kossan Rubber Industries rose 21 sen to RM6.52 as investors were positive about its one-for-one bonus issue.

Genting Bhd rose six sen to RM9.36 while among the telcos, Maxis gained six sen to RM6.93 and Aixata edged up five sen to RM6.71.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

Breakout movie stars this fall

Posted:

Five up-and-coming young actors who will be making headlines within the next few months.

By Brent Lang and Lucas Shaw

Many fall films are anchored by promising up-and-comers in projects that could make them household names – or Oscar attendees. Some, like Asa Butterfield, have already landed impressive parts in films like Hugo, but are ready to take the next leap forward. Others have strung together a string of weighty performances in supporting roles, but now are ready to take centre stage.

Asa Butterfield

How he'll spend his fall: Rescuing the planet from alien attacks as the teenage warrior in the big screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Enders Game (US: Nov 1).

Upcoming: Lionsgate and Summit think that Ender's Game (pic above) has franchise potential to rival The Hunger Games and Twilight. If audiences embrace the futuristic adventure, there could be plenty more Ender Wiggin in Butterfield's future; Card wrote four sequels to his hit novel. The 16-year old actor has also signed on to the fantasy adventure The White Circus opposite Chloe Grace Moretz.

Why he's about to break through: Butterfield first caught audiences' attention as the wide-eyed orphan in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, but Ender's Game marks his first full-fledged action role. The big-budget extravaganza will rise or fall on his performance. If it works, the opportunities are limitless. Just ask Jennifer Lawrence.

Oscar Isaac

A puss and a melody: Oscar Isaac and a friend in Inside Llewyn Davis.

How he'll spend his fall: Stumbling his way through Greenwich Village during the 1960s folk music explosion in the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (US: Dec 6) and examining the finer points of 19th century Parisian infidelity in Therese opposite indie "It Girl" Elizabeth Olsen (US: Sept 27).

Upcoming: He will star as a Greek guide to married tourists in the thriller The Two Faces Of January with Viggo Mortensen and play legendary drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in The Ballad Of Pablo Escobar.

Why he's ready to break through: As a nomadic folk singer consigned to the margins of the music industry, Isaac astounded critics when the film debuted at Cannes. Many reviewers predicted big things for the actor, including a possible Oscar nomination. Isaac has demonstrated an impressive intensity in supporting roles such as the ill-fated thief he played in Drive, but here he is front and centre.

Bonus points for doing his own singing and guitar work.

Margot Robbie

How she'll spend her fall: Playing Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest in Martin Scorsese's Wolf Of Wall Street (pic above) and starring in time-travel romance About Time.

Upcoming: A supporting role in Suite Francaise, a film set in German-occupied France, and the lead role in Focus opposite Will Smith. In Focus, she'll play a young, attractive woman sheperded by a grifter (Smith).

Why she's ready to break through: Robbie has been scratching at the door of stardom for a few years, particularly when she landed a lead role on the short-lived ABC show Pan Am. She's now ready for her breakthrough thanks to movies, taking a major part in Scorsese's latest before starring alongside one of the world's biggest movie stars next year.

Daniel Bruhl

How he'll spend his fall: Helping Julian Assange steal state secrets as a technology activist in The Fifth Estate (US: Oct 18) and racing for the world championship as Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda (pic above) in Rush, out in the US on Sept 20.

Upcoming: He'll engage in international espionage in the big screen adaptation of John Le Carre's A Most Wanted Man opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman before crossing the boards with Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz in the backstage drama Sils Maria.

Why he's ready to break through: Bruhl is already a star in Europe thanks to his buttermilk features that belie an inner steel. Chris Hemsworth may be the bigger name in Rush, but it's Bruhl who has the showier role as a race car driver who has to battle back from a devastating accident to compete for the sport's top prize.

Plus, with Edward Snowden a hot topic of debate, The Fifth Estate and its examination of WikiLeaks is bound to stir controversy.

Naomie Harris

How she'll spend her fall: Playing Nelson Mandela's wife Winnie in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. The Weinstein Co film will premiere at Toronto in Canada before opening in theatres in November.

Upcoming: Though little has been announced about the next James Bond movie, it's hard to imagine she won't be included since she was anointed the new Money Penny at the end of the last one.

Why she's ready to break through: She's stolen scenes in several big-budget films over the past few years, from two Pirates Of The Caribbean films to the aforementioned Skyall (pic above) . Now viewers will get a chance to see her in a different light, playing one of the best roles for a black actress you can imagine.

While Jennifer Hudson will play it just two months earlier, we're guessing Harris holds her own. And after that? Another big Bond movie. — Reuters

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The Star Online: Nation

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The Star Online: Nation

Raising the bar of education
Nepali feeling lonely as friends flee country
Set up child psychology unit, says Wee

Raising the bar of education

Posted:

The implementation of the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2015 will elevate the country's education system to the top third of the world's best education systems.

National Education Dialogue panellist Datuk Kamal D E Quadra said the plan outlines various aspirations through 11 shifts implemented in three waves to meet the needs of all citizens and to develop the country.

He said the government has taken a bold step to transform the education system for the better.

"It will benefit Malaysia and Malaysians. If everything is put in place as proposed in the blueprint, we should be moving towards the right direction," he said.

Among the factors that will assist the government to improve the quality of education is to intensify internal and external performance management with a clear Key Performance Index that places high expectations on every individual.

The system will emphasise on capability building to help individuals achieve their goals, reward outstanding performance and address the problem of low performance with greater tact.

Kamal, who has 41 years' experience in education, said students should be approached based on their abilities and capabilities.

"There is no point of pushing them too hard because they may just get demoralised when their peers are way ahead of them.

"And when they have reached a level where they can no longer cope, they will continue to fall," explained the Sabahan.

As such, he proposed the introduction of two syllabi – one for beginners and another for the more advanced.

"Who knows through such an approach, it would help create interest among the beginners to move further ahead to a more advanced syllabus.

"Otherwise, they are equipped with the basics, which would allow them to pull through later in life," he said.

Kamal pointed out that while Sabah students often get bad reviews for their poor command of English, "our students are doing very well in other subjects.

"So it is not fair to judge them over one bad subject".

The Yayasan Sabah College Board of Directors chairman made his proposal during the consultation period for MEB 2013-2025.

He said the approach is not meant to segregate the students, but rather to create an avenue for special attention be given to those who need more help.

On a higher level, Kamal said there is a need to further promote vocational and technical subjects and skills in line with current market needs for industrial-based sectors such as the oil and gas industry.

"Take our college as an example, we have a welding course and even before the students graduate a few companies have come to check how many graduates we can produce.

"There is a demand in that field. But sometimes, the problem lies with the parents as some do not see the job prospects.

"Society needs to change their mindset and perception on jobs. It does not mean work that dirties your hands is bad," said Kamal who was the former Sabah Education Department director.

He added that sufficient funding is necessary to ensure that teachers are equipped with the right tools.

"In the case of Sabah, we need a level playing field so both teachers in the urban and rural areas will be able to enjoy the benefits of these changes.

"I also believe that apart from improving student performance, the teachers must also be equally good. The world is changing fast and our challenge is also to modernise the teachers as well.

"They have to be tech-savvy as it would help them progress in their work."

Nepali feeling lonely as friends flee country

Posted:

GEORGE TOWN: Security guard Padam Limbu, 25, has no qualms about the crackdown against illegal immigrants as he has a valid work permit.

The Nepali, however, will be lacking companionship as most of his housemates are fleeing the country as they do not have proper documentation.

"Some of my friends paid RM4,000 to RM5,000 each to agents promising them valid work permits. They waited for one to two years, but to no avail.

"I think they were conned," Limbu said, adding that his housemates were already packing their belongings yesterday.

Limbu, who is a father of a two-year-old boy, last returned to his country in April.

Meanwhile, Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd officer-in-charge R. Chandra Mohan said business would go on as usual as they only provided service to those with valid documents.

Merchantrade is a company specialising in helping migrant workers remit money to their home countries.

"We only entertain those with legal documents.

"We will only proceed with the transaction after seeing passports and other documents from our customers.

"Most of our customers are from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam," he said when met at his office.

A foreign caretaker at a grocery shop, who declined to be named, said all his colleagues have valid documents.

"Our boss will only employ those with proper documents," he said at his shop in Jalan Gurdwara.

Set up child psychology unit, says Wee

Posted:

YONG PENG: The Education Ministry needs to set up a child psychology unit to address mental health issues among students in schools, said MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.

He said if situation permitted, the ministry should start recruiting more child psychologists as one of the measures to help students.

He said that counselling teachers alone were inadequate to address psychiatric issues and that it was time to go to the next level and think about establishing an advanced psychology unit dedicated to mental health services for students.

"There is a difference between child psychologists and counselling teachers, as the former requires more extensive training in order to give appropriate advice and treatment," he said when asked to comment on recent suicide cases involving students in the country.

Dr Wee, a former deputy Education Minister, said when he was with the ministry he had come across several suicide cases involving students.

Some of the suicide cases were linked to broken homes, depression, and health problems among others, he said during an interview yesterday.

Dr Wee said in countries such as Singapore, there are about 40 child psychologists working with the Ministry of Education, while Malaysia just relied on counselling teachers.

"Certain issues faced by the students are complicated and only a child psychologist would know how to handle the situation and provide professional intervention.

"I hope the ministry will look into this," he said.

The latest student suicide took place last Saturday when a Form Five student with a previous psychiatric record was found hanged at his double-storey home at Taman Bandar Baru, Kampar.

The 17-year-old boy from SMK Sentosa hanged himself using his school tie at the house staircase.

Last Wednesday, a 20-year-old college student, believed to be suffering from stress after having to re-sit six exam papers, fell to her death from the 10th floor of a flat in Tanjung Bungah in Penang.

The Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) accounting student was found sprawled in a pool of blood by residents who alerted the police.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Isnin, 2 September 2013