Saving money never cost quite so much.
When the toilet in Carol Taddei’s master bathroom began to break down a few months ago, she decided it would be cheaper to buy a new one than pay for repairs. Ever frugal in this dismal economy, Ms. Taddei, a retired paralegal, then took her economizing a step further, figuring she could save even more by installing the new toilet herself.
Initially, things looked good with the flushing and the swishing. That is, until the ceiling collapsed in the room below the new (leaky) toilet. Rushing to get supplies for a repair, Ms. Taddei clipped a pole in her garage. It ripped the bumper off her car, and later, several shelves holding flower pots and garden tools collapsed over her head.
“It just kept getting worse,” Ms. Taddei said, ruefully describing what came out to be a $3,000, three-day renovation at her suburban Minneapolis home, finished by a professional from Mr. Handyman, a home repair service that takes emergency calls.
With the sour economy has come a class of ambitious do-it-yourselfers who are tackling things that, before the days of rampant penny-pinching, might have been left to paid professionals. An unlucky few like Ms. Taddei have learned that being thrifty sometimes comes at a high price and can bring along with it a new scourge of the times: saver’s remorse.
“Oh, tell me about it,” Ms. Taddei said. “Sometimes it’s better just to bite the bullet.”
Certain things are almost always true when times are tough, experts say, and they are not all bad. People drive less to save on gas, so there are fewer car crashes. People smoke less because cigarettes are expensive. Diets simplify and, sometimes as a result, become more healthful. Stress levels, on the other hand, tend to increase.
And while there is no national database that tracks do-it-yourself home injuries in recessions, experts say that there does seem to be an increase in the kind of accidents and mishaps that come with spending more time at home, based mostly on anecdotal evidence.
“We are seeing an increase in minor injuries, sprains and contusions,” said Dr. Peter Lamelas, who operates four urgent care centers around Palm Beach County, Fla.
The centers are seeing an increase in patients in general, perhaps because urgent care centers are a less expensive alternative to hospital emergency rooms. Based on figures for this year so far, Dr. Lamelas is expecting to have 20,000 more visits from patients than last year.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of musculoskeletal problems from people lifting heavy things, maybe moving or doing things they’re not accustomed to,” Dr. Lamelas said. “A lot of back injuries, shoulder injuries. Lacerations all the time.”
Ramon Estrada has saver’s remorse, foodie style. Hoping to save on groceries and avoid costly restaurant meals about three months ago, he accepted almost two dozen steak and fish filets from someone who offered his family their uncooked party leftovers. Being a culinary student, Mr. Estrada jumped at the chance to spend an evening chopping and seasoning and grilling, then cooling and repackaging the bounty of free food for dinners and lunches during the week.
The family ate some of the surf-and-turf on the spot. It tasted delicious, but about four hours later, “I’m completely feeling horrible,” said Mr. Estrada, 27. “Cramping stomach, the most horrible thing ever.”
Mr. Estrada’s brother had to be rushed to the emergency room. Mr. Estrada became so dehydrated that he also had to see a doctor a few days later, at the cost of at least $400 for drugs and treatment and four days of missed work.
“We learned something,” he said. “Saving money wasn’t worth all of that.”
Hair stylists and auto mechanics are often among those called to the rescue when things go wrong for money-savers.
“One of my clients decided to bleach her hair all over instead of coming in to get a full head of highlights,” said Sunny Brewer, a stylist in St. Clair, Mich. “She put bleach on her scalp and pulled it through to the ends and left it on for an hour. She had hair down past the middle of her back and now she’s sporting a chin-length bob because her hair broke off.”
The client, somewhat mortified, did not want to be mentioned by name in this article. But she did allow Ms. Brewer to tell her story as a cautionary measure.
We had to go in and do corrective color,” Ms. Brewer continued. “I charge by the hour, and I worked on her for four hours. So by the time it was over, she ended up spending close to $1,000 to have her hair corrected when it could have been $175.”
Don Tommasone, the owner of Village Automotive, a car care center in a Chicago suburb, says he spends a lot of his time these days doing corrections, too.
“We open the hood and can tell the guy tried to do it himself with cheap parts,” Mr. Tommasone said. “We see at least one a day like that. At least. The No. 1 part replaced: the battery.”
Sasha Bernstein is among those who decided to skip out on the salon. About six months ago, Ms. Bernstein, 26, decided she would save $60 a month by buying an at-home kit and waxing her own bikini line. All she can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Often, though, the wounds are only to one’s pride.
Tony Contreras, who works at a nonprofit legal service clinic in San Francisco, saves money on his daughter’s haircut by trimming it himself. His wife, Sierra Filucci, called the latest style “a horribly uneven mess.”
But both parents keep telling Lola, 4, how cute she looks, even though they said they cringe anytime people mention their daughter’s creative hairdo.
In suburban Baltimore, Lynne Sherman was the temporary fix when her husband’s attempt to hang molding ended up puncturing a pipe, which sent water spouting into their daughter’s bedroom. Ms. Sherman plugged the hole with her finger until a carpenter arrived.
“My husband said, ‘I took woodworking and shop in high school, so when we’re ready to do it, I’ll do it,’ ” Ms. Sherman, 50, said of the project gone awry, which cost $250 to fix, and about which her husband swore her to secrecy. “You can’t print what his reaction was, and I started that nervous laughter, ‘Oh, God what do we do?’ Now I have to say, we don’t do things ourselves anymore.”
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Tricky Repair of Camera Goes Well for Astronauts
After two days of tense spacewalks drawn out by balky bolts and badly fitting equipment, the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on Saturday breezed through the trickiest and most delicate job of their 11-day mission to the Hubble Space Telescope: fixing a camera that had not been designed to be repaired in space.
Working as calmly as if they were in shirt sleeves in the basement rather than wearing the equivalent of boxing gloves and sailing through space at five miles per second, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel conducted “brain surgery” on the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. They unscrewed screws not meant to be unscrewed and yanked circuit boards, finishing in less than three hours a job that had been allotted nearly five hours and two spacewalks.
Even the most optimistic members of the team had warned that repairing the camera was a long shot. Dr. Grunsfeld, already respected for his Hubble fix-it endeavors on two earlier missions, said before the flight that this would be a nail-biter.
When he began to remove screws almost an hour ahead of schedule, gasps and cheers broke out in the cabin of Atlantis.
“I don’t think real brain surgeons say ‘Yahoo’ every time they pull something out,” Dr. Grunsfeld said.
“Maybe they should,” replied Col. Michael T. Good of the Air Force, who was orchestrating events from inside Atlantis.
The day’s success raised the repair team’s confidence that it would succeed on Sunday, when similar surgery will be tried on another ailing instrument, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.
It was, as Scott D. Altman, the shuttle’s commander, said Saturday morning as the astronauts set out, “a great day for a spacewalk.”
Dr. Grunsfeld was on his second spacewalk of this mission and his seventh over all, every one in the name of the Hubble. Dr. Feustel was making his second spacewalk. On Thursday, the pair overcame a stuck bolt to replace the most ancient of the Hubble’s cameras, the wide-field camera No. 2, with a new version.
Dr. Grunsfeld and Dr. Feustel warmed up for the main event by installing on the Hubble a new spectrograph, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Spectrographs break down light into its constituent wavelengths, allowing astronomers to discern the composition, temperature and motions of celestial objects. The Hubble’s astronomers hope to use the instrument to trace tendrils of gas that stretch through the universe like a spider web, connecting galaxies.
The new spectrograph went into a slot occupied for the last 16 years by a box of corrective lenses known as the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement system. When it was installed in the space telescope in 1993, it provided special lenses that folded like a shower rod and took the blur out of the Hubble’s flawed vision. But all of the Hubble’s instruments now have their own correction optics, and Costar is headed for the Smithsonian Institution.
The advanced camera was a workhorse until its demise in 2007, with some of the Hubble’s most famous pictures to its credit, including the one in 2004 called Ultra Deep Field, which showed galaxies forming only 800 million years after the Big Bang.
Engineers were planning three hours’ worth of tests overnight to make sure the camera was repaired.
When it conked out in 2007, engineers said it was unlikely that the camera could be fixed. Not only was it not designed to be taken apart by astronauts wearing boxing gloves, and some parts of it were inaccessible, but the astronauts already had their hands full training to repair a spectrograph that had also not been designed to be tinkered with in space. That work will be the highlight of the spacewalk on Sunday.
Working as calmly as if they were in shirt sleeves in the basement rather than wearing the equivalent of boxing gloves and sailing through space at five miles per second, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel conducted “brain surgery” on the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. They unscrewed screws not meant to be unscrewed and yanked circuit boards, finishing in less than three hours a job that had been allotted nearly five hours and two spacewalks.
Even the most optimistic members of the team had warned that repairing the camera was a long shot. Dr. Grunsfeld, already respected for his Hubble fix-it endeavors on two earlier missions, said before the flight that this would be a nail-biter.
When he began to remove screws almost an hour ahead of schedule, gasps and cheers broke out in the cabin of Atlantis.
“I don’t think real brain surgeons say ‘Yahoo’ every time they pull something out,” Dr. Grunsfeld said.
“Maybe they should,” replied Col. Michael T. Good of the Air Force, who was orchestrating events from inside Atlantis.
The day’s success raised the repair team’s confidence that it would succeed on Sunday, when similar surgery will be tried on another ailing instrument, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.
It was, as Scott D. Altman, the shuttle’s commander, said Saturday morning as the astronauts set out, “a great day for a spacewalk.”
Dr. Grunsfeld was on his second spacewalk of this mission and his seventh over all, every one in the name of the Hubble. Dr. Feustel was making his second spacewalk. On Thursday, the pair overcame a stuck bolt to replace the most ancient of the Hubble’s cameras, the wide-field camera No. 2, with a new version.
Dr. Grunsfeld and Dr. Feustel warmed up for the main event by installing on the Hubble a new spectrograph, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Spectrographs break down light into its constituent wavelengths, allowing astronomers to discern the composition, temperature and motions of celestial objects. The Hubble’s astronomers hope to use the instrument to trace tendrils of gas that stretch through the universe like a spider web, connecting galaxies.
The new spectrograph went into a slot occupied for the last 16 years by a box of corrective lenses known as the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement system. When it was installed in the space telescope in 1993, it provided special lenses that folded like a shower rod and took the blur out of the Hubble’s flawed vision. But all of the Hubble’s instruments now have their own correction optics, and Costar is headed for the Smithsonian Institution.
The advanced camera was a workhorse until its demise in 2007, with some of the Hubble’s most famous pictures to its credit, including the one in 2004 called Ultra Deep Field, which showed galaxies forming only 800 million years after the Big Bang.
Engineers were planning three hours’ worth of tests overnight to make sure the camera was repaired.
When it conked out in 2007, engineers said it was unlikely that the camera could be fixed. Not only was it not designed to be taken apart by astronauts wearing boxing gloves, and some parts of it were inaccessible, but the astronauts already had their hands full training to repair a spectrograph that had also not been designed to be tinkered with in space. That work will be the highlight of the spacewalk on Sunday.
First Lady Delivers a Charge to Graduates
Michelle Obama on Saturday encouraged the first full graduating class at the University of California, Merced, to help change the world by using the same determination they had shown in bringing her to campus.
“A few people may be wondering why did I choose the University of California, Merced, to deliver my first commencement speech as first lady,” Mrs. Obama said. “The answer is simple: you inspired me, you touched me.
“There are few things that are more rewarding than to watch young people recognize that they have the power to make their dreams come true. And you did just that.”
Mrs. Obama was drafted to speak here at the smallest, newest campus in the University of California system through a lobbying effort by students and their families. They peppered the White House with letters, videos and hundreds of Valentine’s Day cards.
“And let me tell you, it worked,” she said. “Because I’m here.”
The speech capped weeks of anticipation at the university for an event that left some students star-struck on a blazingly bright and hot afternoon.
“I haven’t seen anyone of that magnitude in person,” said Daniel Titcher, 22, a senior. “Maybe a state senator or assemblyman or something, but nothing like this.”
The appearance also delighted university officials, who had been working to raise enough money to pay for a more elaborate commencement, attended by more than 10,000 people. The $700,000 price tag for the event included enhanced security, like dozens of metal detectors. Lookouts were on rooftops around the school’s quad, and Secret Service agents patrolled the campus, which sits surrounded by browning farmland outside Merced.
John Garamendi Jr., the vice chancellor for university relations, said he had been supportive but skeptical when student leaders told him they were trying to book Mrs. Obama. “I said, ‘Good luck,’ ” Mr. Garamendi recalled, with a laugh. “I said, ‘I love you guys.’ And I kept walking.”
But sure enough, in late March, Mrs. Obama announced that she would make her sole college commencement appearance this season at the Merced campus. The decision brought a swell of pride to this university in the Central Valley of California.
“Anybody who asks where my daughter’s graduating from, I say, ‘U.C. Merced,’ and they go, ‘Oh!’ ” said Shelly Comer, a nurse whose elder daughter, Michelle, was receiving her degree in psychology. “And then they start talking about Michelle Obama.”
Mr. Garamendi echoed that. “The eyes of the world are on us at this moment,” he said. “People are learning that there are positive things happening in California’s Central Valley.”
The first lady’s visit brought a jolt of excitement to the region, which has been battered by drought, high unemployment and a high foreclosure rate.
Conor Mangan, 22, said he hoped that Mrs. Obama’s appearance would help the local economy, if only for a day. “I hope it pays off,” said Mr. Mangan, who noted that he had backed Ron Paul in the presidential race.
Economic concerns were also on the mind of Irvin Junprung, 22, a biology major, who summed up the immediate plans for him and many of his fellow graduates. “Find work,” Mr. Junprung said.
Speaking at the commencement, Mrs. Obama stayed on inspirational terrain, echoing President Obama’s themes of community service and perseverance in tough times. “My husband knows a little something about the power of hope,” she said. “You are the hope of Merced. And this nation.”
“A few people may be wondering why did I choose the University of California, Merced, to deliver my first commencement speech as first lady,” Mrs. Obama said. “The answer is simple: you inspired me, you touched me.
“There are few things that are more rewarding than to watch young people recognize that they have the power to make their dreams come true. And you did just that.”
Mrs. Obama was drafted to speak here at the smallest, newest campus in the University of California system through a lobbying effort by students and their families. They peppered the White House with letters, videos and hundreds of Valentine’s Day cards.
“And let me tell you, it worked,” she said. “Because I’m here.”
The speech capped weeks of anticipation at the university for an event that left some students star-struck on a blazingly bright and hot afternoon.
“I haven’t seen anyone of that magnitude in person,” said Daniel Titcher, 22, a senior. “Maybe a state senator or assemblyman or something, but nothing like this.”
The appearance also delighted university officials, who had been working to raise enough money to pay for a more elaborate commencement, attended by more than 10,000 people. The $700,000 price tag for the event included enhanced security, like dozens of metal detectors. Lookouts were on rooftops around the school’s quad, and Secret Service agents patrolled the campus, which sits surrounded by browning farmland outside Merced.
John Garamendi Jr., the vice chancellor for university relations, said he had been supportive but skeptical when student leaders told him they were trying to book Mrs. Obama. “I said, ‘Good luck,’ ” Mr. Garamendi recalled, with a laugh. “I said, ‘I love you guys.’ And I kept walking.”
But sure enough, in late March, Mrs. Obama announced that she would make her sole college commencement appearance this season at the Merced campus. The decision brought a swell of pride to this university in the Central Valley of California.
“Anybody who asks where my daughter’s graduating from, I say, ‘U.C. Merced,’ and they go, ‘Oh!’ ” said Shelly Comer, a nurse whose elder daughter, Michelle, was receiving her degree in psychology. “And then they start talking about Michelle Obama.”
Mr. Garamendi echoed that. “The eyes of the world are on us at this moment,” he said. “People are learning that there are positive things happening in California’s Central Valley.”
The first lady’s visit brought a jolt of excitement to the region, which has been battered by drought, high unemployment and a high foreclosure rate.
Conor Mangan, 22, said he hoped that Mrs. Obama’s appearance would help the local economy, if only for a day. “I hope it pays off,” said Mr. Mangan, who noted that he had backed Ron Paul in the presidential race.
Economic concerns were also on the mind of Irvin Junprung, 22, a biology major, who summed up the immediate plans for him and many of his fellow graduates. “Find work,” Mr. Junprung said.
Speaking at the commencement, Mrs. Obama stayed on inspirational terrain, echoing President Obama’s themes of community service and perseverance in tough times. “My husband knows a little something about the power of hope,” she said. “You are the hope of Merced. And this nation.”
Series: Bad sciencePrevious | Index Speculation, hypothesis and ideas. But where's the evidence
You will be familiar with the work of Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield. The Oxford University professor is head of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, where she has charged herself with promoting the public's understanding of science, of what it means for there to be evidence for a given proposition. This is important work.
You will also be aware of her more prominent activity on the terrifying risks of computers, exemplified in the Daily Mail headline "Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist", "Computers could be fuelling obesity crisis, says Baroness Susan Greenfield" in the Telegraph, and so on.
These stories arise from a string of lectures, public meetings, pronouncements and articles in the popular press, generated by Greenfield over the past few years. They are never set out as a clear hypothesis with the accompanying evidence and a clear suggestion of what research programmes might be planned to clarify any uncertainties. She has explained, when criticised for a lack of clarity, a lack of evidence and an excess of panic, that these are merely ideas, speculations, hypotheses.
But with her repeated experience of being the engine behind such scare stories over many years, she should be able to predict that her "speculations" and "hypotheses" will inevitably result in scare stories in the press.
This week, we learn about her concerns on obesity through the Telegraph and Daily Mail. "Computer games, the internet and social networking sites may be fuelling the obesity crisis" is the theory. By encouraging kids to sit around? No – "by changing the workings of the brain, an eminent scientist has warned."
Do Greenfield's ideas have any substance? Let's see. "While a child who falls out of a tree will quickly learn not to repeat the mistake, someone who goes wrong on a computer game will just keep playing." It seems to me that experimenting in a safe environment is one of the key, enduring, almost definitive features of all play. "Computer use could be cutting attention spans, stifling imagination and hampering empathy," she said. "As a result, the parts of the brain involved in these traits will not develop properly."
With the best will in the world, this seems slightly foolish, simply because there are so many different things you could do with a computer, some of which would probably enhance attention span, imagination, and empathy.
Let us be clear. It is possible that much of the Baroness's output on this topic is speculative flim flam, dressed up in a science-y "gloss". And perhaps it is dangerous and unhelpful for one of our most prominent science communicators to appear repeatedly in the media making wild headline-grabbing claims about the dangers of computers, with minimal evidence. Is Greenfield unhelpfully misrepresenting what it is that scientists do, and indeed the whole notion of what it means to have empirical evidence for a clearly stated claim, thus undermining the public's understanding of science?
I don't know. I am merely raising it as a hypothesis. We need to examine these questions in more detail. I am very, very happy to do so.
courtsey:the guardian uk
You will also be aware of her more prominent activity on the terrifying risks of computers, exemplified in the Daily Mail headline "Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist", "Computers could be fuelling obesity crisis, says Baroness Susan Greenfield" in the Telegraph, and so on.
These stories arise from a string of lectures, public meetings, pronouncements and articles in the popular press, generated by Greenfield over the past few years. They are never set out as a clear hypothesis with the accompanying evidence and a clear suggestion of what research programmes might be planned to clarify any uncertainties. She has explained, when criticised for a lack of clarity, a lack of evidence and an excess of panic, that these are merely ideas, speculations, hypotheses.
But with her repeated experience of being the engine behind such scare stories over many years, she should be able to predict that her "speculations" and "hypotheses" will inevitably result in scare stories in the press.
This week, we learn about her concerns on obesity through the Telegraph and Daily Mail. "Computer games, the internet and social networking sites may be fuelling the obesity crisis" is the theory. By encouraging kids to sit around? No – "by changing the workings of the brain, an eminent scientist has warned."
Do Greenfield's ideas have any substance? Let's see. "While a child who falls out of a tree will quickly learn not to repeat the mistake, someone who goes wrong on a computer game will just keep playing." It seems to me that experimenting in a safe environment is one of the key, enduring, almost definitive features of all play. "Computer use could be cutting attention spans, stifling imagination and hampering empathy," she said. "As a result, the parts of the brain involved in these traits will not develop properly."
With the best will in the world, this seems slightly foolish, simply because there are so many different things you could do with a computer, some of which would probably enhance attention span, imagination, and empathy.
Let us be clear. It is possible that much of the Baroness's output on this topic is speculative flim flam, dressed up in a science-y "gloss". And perhaps it is dangerous and unhelpful for one of our most prominent science communicators to appear repeatedly in the media making wild headline-grabbing claims about the dangers of computers, with minimal evidence. Is Greenfield unhelpfully misrepresenting what it is that scientists do, and indeed the whole notion of what it means to have empirical evidence for a clearly stated claim, thus undermining the public's understanding of science?
I don't know. I am merely raising it as a hypothesis. We need to examine these questions in more detail. I am very, very happy to do so.
courtsey:the guardian uk
Military spending not fit for purpose, says army head
The head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, today delivered his starkest warning yet to the government about pressures on his soldiers, describing the defence budget as "unbalanced" and "heavily skewed" in favour of hi-tech, expensive platforms irrelevant to present conflicts such as Afghanistan.
In a clear reference to such projects as plans to deploy expensive US jets on two new large aircraft carriers and buy new Eurofighters for the RAF, he said: "We have an absolute obligation to understand their needs and to provide [British troops] with the tools and training to do their jobs, and not squander our increasingly scarce resources on those things that are not relevant to today's and tomorrow's absolute requirements."
Noting that just 10% of the existing defence equipment programme was being spent on the army, he continued: "History will not judge our decision-making kindly if we duck the difficult decision and just muddle through. We are at the cross-roads."
Dannatt said the armed forces were likely to be engaged in "intervention and stabilisation operations". "We are in an era of persistent conflict. Iraq and Afghanistan are not aberrations, they are signposts to the future. We risk becoming irrelevant if we do not adapt right across the board."
In a speech to the Chatham House thinktank, Dannatt called for a major rethink of Britain's military capabilities – much of which was still the legacy of the cold war. The threat of an attack on Britain by a hostile state had diminished; the danger now was of an "age of upheaval" characterised by a "kaleidoscope of conflict" involving terrorism, insurgency, and piracy.
He said the fight against al-Qaida-inspired extremism was "probably the struggle of our generation – perhaps our thirty years war" and that many of Britain's existing capabilities were of "questionable relevance".
The British were criticised by some in the US for failing to support the Iraqis more effectively when they took control of Basra from the militias after British forces had withdrawn from the city.
"Credibility with the United States is earned by being an ally that can be relied on to state clearly what it will do and then do it effectively.
"Credibility is also linked to the vital currency of reputation and in this respect there is a recognition that our national and military reputation and credibility, unfairly or not, have been called into question at several levels in the eyes of our most important ally as a result of some aspects of the Iraq campaign."
• The Royal Marine killed on Thursday while travelling in a Viking armoured vehicle near Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan was named yesterday as Jason Macki, 21.
In a clear reference to such projects as plans to deploy expensive US jets on two new large aircraft carriers and buy new Eurofighters for the RAF, he said: "We have an absolute obligation to understand their needs and to provide [British troops] with the tools and training to do their jobs, and not squander our increasingly scarce resources on those things that are not relevant to today's and tomorrow's absolute requirements."
Noting that just 10% of the existing defence equipment programme was being spent on the army, he continued: "History will not judge our decision-making kindly if we duck the difficult decision and just muddle through. We are at the cross-roads."
Dannatt said the armed forces were likely to be engaged in "intervention and stabilisation operations". "We are in an era of persistent conflict. Iraq and Afghanistan are not aberrations, they are signposts to the future. We risk becoming irrelevant if we do not adapt right across the board."
In a speech to the Chatham House thinktank, Dannatt called for a major rethink of Britain's military capabilities – much of which was still the legacy of the cold war. The threat of an attack on Britain by a hostile state had diminished; the danger now was of an "age of upheaval" characterised by a "kaleidoscope of conflict" involving terrorism, insurgency, and piracy.
He said the fight against al-Qaida-inspired extremism was "probably the struggle of our generation – perhaps our thirty years war" and that many of Britain's existing capabilities were of "questionable relevance".
The British were criticised by some in the US for failing to support the Iraqis more effectively when they took control of Basra from the militias after British forces had withdrawn from the city.
"Credibility with the United States is earned by being an ally that can be relied on to state clearly what it will do and then do it effectively.
"Credibility is also linked to the vital currency of reputation and in this respect there is a recognition that our national and military reputation and credibility, unfairly or not, have been called into question at several levels in the eyes of our most important ally as a result of some aspects of the Iraq campaign."
• The Royal Marine killed on Thursday while travelling in a Viking armoured vehicle near Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan was named yesterday as Jason Macki, 21.
Labour MPs who cheat on expenses will be deselected
Any Labour MP found to have made improper expenses claims will be automatically deselected and barred from standing at the next general election as the party desperately tries to overcome the constitutional crisis facing parliament.
The Guardian has learned that the radical proposal is expected to be agreed next week by Labour's national executive, a move that acknowledges the deep anger among voters to the escalating scandal over MPs' claims.
Gordon Brown has also given ministers a Monday night deadline to ensure their expenses claims for the past five years are lodged with the parliamentary authorities and ready for publication.
Any deselection would happen after the parliamentary commissioner for standards had ruled that an MP had been found clearly guilty of improperly claiming.
The prime minister, who is expected to give a major TV interview on Sunday, is to resist a more sweeping grassroots proposal from leftwing NEC members that would compel every sitting Labour MP to go though a fresh selection process so the public can be reassured all candidates are "fit and proper persons" to stand at the election. Labour officials met and said such a move would be unfair.
In another rollercoaster day which saw the first ministerial casualty of the affair and signs of simmering public anger, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service announced they were setting up a joint panel to consider multiple allegations that MPs have broken the law in their expenses claims. The police said they were acting because they had received so many complaints from the public.
In other key developments:
• A second Labour backbencher, David Chaytor, was forced to concede tonight that he had claimed £13,000 in expenses to cover mortgage interest payments on his London flat after the mortgage had been paid off. Downing Street said Chaytor was likely to be interviewed by Nick Brown, the chief whip, and face suspension from the parliamentary party along with a similar backbench offender Elliot Morley. Chaytor said he had made an unforgivable error and would repay the money.
• Lord Foulkes, a close friend of the Speaker, Michael Martin, gave a broad hint that Martin had decided to resign before the election, saying it was logical for him to do so by then.
• Shahid Malik, the justice minister, was forced to stand down from his post by Brown pending an investigation into whether an allegedly subsidised rental of a home in his Dewsbury constituency represented a breach of the ministerial code. He is the first minister to be disciplined since the allegations started, but last night won the support of his local party.
• William Hague, the Tory deputy leader, revealed he was going to divest himself of the vast bulk of his outside interests, a decision that will put pressure on the other shadow cabinet members.
• David Cameron, battling to keep abreast of public anger over the allegations of sleaze, told his Scottish Tory party that this was a time of "great danger" for democracy in the UK.
• The deputy leader of the house, Chris Bryant, was forced to deny stories that he had flipped his second home.
• The former father of the house, Tam Dalyell, was accused of attempting to charge £18,000 for two bookcases two months before he stood down as an MP in 2005.
The furore surrounding Malik forced Brown to act early yesterday. It was alleged Malik should have declared on the ministerial register that the rent on his constituency home was below the market rate, so making him potentially beholden to the landlord. The prime minister told him to step down after discussions with the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, and the justice secretary, Jack Straw. The true market value of the rent of the home was a matter of dispute, and some ministers said Malik had been made a sacrificial lamb. He said he would return to the government with his head held high.
Morley, the former minister suspended from the parliamentary Labour party on Thursday, said he might quit as the MP for Scunthorpe over the issue. He said: "What matters to me is the view of my local people and my local party. I need to talk this through with them."
Similar signs of a grassroots rebellion were emerging in the Tory party, with two-thirds of those polled on the Conservative Home website urging the Tory MP Andrew Mackay, to quit over his expenses
The Guardian has learned that the radical proposal is expected to be agreed next week by Labour's national executive, a move that acknowledges the deep anger among voters to the escalating scandal over MPs' claims.
Gordon Brown has also given ministers a Monday night deadline to ensure their expenses claims for the past five years are lodged with the parliamentary authorities and ready for publication.
Any deselection would happen after the parliamentary commissioner for standards had ruled that an MP had been found clearly guilty of improperly claiming.
The prime minister, who is expected to give a major TV interview on Sunday, is to resist a more sweeping grassroots proposal from leftwing NEC members that would compel every sitting Labour MP to go though a fresh selection process so the public can be reassured all candidates are "fit and proper persons" to stand at the election. Labour officials met and said such a move would be unfair.
In another rollercoaster day which saw the first ministerial casualty of the affair and signs of simmering public anger, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service announced they were setting up a joint panel to consider multiple allegations that MPs have broken the law in their expenses claims. The police said they were acting because they had received so many complaints from the public.
In other key developments:
• A second Labour backbencher, David Chaytor, was forced to concede tonight that he had claimed £13,000 in expenses to cover mortgage interest payments on his London flat after the mortgage had been paid off. Downing Street said Chaytor was likely to be interviewed by Nick Brown, the chief whip, and face suspension from the parliamentary party along with a similar backbench offender Elliot Morley. Chaytor said he had made an unforgivable error and would repay the money.
• Lord Foulkes, a close friend of the Speaker, Michael Martin, gave a broad hint that Martin had decided to resign before the election, saying it was logical for him to do so by then.
• Shahid Malik, the justice minister, was forced to stand down from his post by Brown pending an investigation into whether an allegedly subsidised rental of a home in his Dewsbury constituency represented a breach of the ministerial code. He is the first minister to be disciplined since the allegations started, but last night won the support of his local party.
• William Hague, the Tory deputy leader, revealed he was going to divest himself of the vast bulk of his outside interests, a decision that will put pressure on the other shadow cabinet members.
• David Cameron, battling to keep abreast of public anger over the allegations of sleaze, told his Scottish Tory party that this was a time of "great danger" for democracy in the UK.
• The deputy leader of the house, Chris Bryant, was forced to deny stories that he had flipped his second home.
• The former father of the house, Tam Dalyell, was accused of attempting to charge £18,000 for two bookcases two months before he stood down as an MP in 2005.
The furore surrounding Malik forced Brown to act early yesterday. It was alleged Malik should have declared on the ministerial register that the rent on his constituency home was below the market rate, so making him potentially beholden to the landlord. The prime minister told him to step down after discussions with the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, and the justice secretary, Jack Straw. The true market value of the rent of the home was a matter of dispute, and some ministers said Malik had been made a sacrificial lamb. He said he would return to the government with his head held high.
Morley, the former minister suspended from the parliamentary Labour party on Thursday, said he might quit as the MP for Scunthorpe over the issue. He said: "What matters to me is the view of my local people and my local party. I need to talk this through with them."
Similar signs of a grassroots rebellion were emerging in the Tory party, with two-thirds of those polled on the Conservative Home website urging the Tory MP Andrew Mackay, to quit over his expenses
China builds first sex theme park
China is building what is billed as its first sex theme park, aimed at improving both the sex education and the sex life of its visitors.
Due to open in Chongqing in October, Love Land will include displays of giant genitalia, naked bodies and an exhibition on the history of sex.
The park will also offer sex technique workshops and safe-sex methods.
Among the attractions is a giant rotating statue of the lower part of a nearly naked woman.
"Sex is a taboo subject in China but people really need to have more access to information about it," the park's manager, Lu Xiaoqing told the China Daily state newspaper.
"We are building the park for the good of the public. I have found that the majority of people support my idea, but I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty."
He was inspired to build the park after a visit to South Korea's popular sex theme park in Jeju.
Critics say Love Land is a vulgar concept, and that the Chinese people are not ready to talk publicly about sex.
"These things are too exposed," Liu Daiwei, a Chongqing policewoman, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
"I will feel uncomfortable to look at them when other people are around."
Due to open in Chongqing in October, Love Land will include displays of giant genitalia, naked bodies and an exhibition on the history of sex.
The park will also offer sex technique workshops and safe-sex methods.
Among the attractions is a giant rotating statue of the lower part of a nearly naked woman.
"Sex is a taboo subject in China but people really need to have more access to information about it," the park's manager, Lu Xiaoqing told the China Daily state newspaper.
"We are building the park for the good of the public. I have found that the majority of people support my idea, but I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty."
He was inspired to build the park after a visit to South Korea's popular sex theme park in Jeju.
Critics say Love Land is a vulgar concept, and that the Chinese people are not ready to talk publicly about sex.
"These things are too exposed," Liu Daiwei, a Chongqing policewoman, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
"I will feel uncomfortable to look at them when other people are around."
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