Anyone here like Pantera? I'm a long time fan, loved Dime, and Vinnie Paul! I found a clip I wanted to share with any other fans here. The video is from DIMEBAGVISION, which is a part of the new book about Dimebag, He Came to Rock. Check it out here.

Enjoy!

( Image above by Peter Beste. You're welcome! ) The LA Weekly has a feature up about a new book with portraits of very serious Norwegian Black Metal dudes. In True Norwegian Black Metal, photographer Peter Beste captures the "blackest of the black: apolitical and anti-Christian separatist self-preservationists who’d sooner make a lampshade out of their own skin than to try to convert fans." Snip from Siran Babayan's piece: Take, for example, Immortal singer-bassist Abbath strolling through the woods surrounded by moss-covered emerald trees (“That’s essentially his backyard”), or Gorgoroth singer Gaahl standing in front of a snow-capped log cabin. Every turn of the page is a moving postcard of brooks, lakes and forrests. Which begs the question: With all the serenity and breathtaking views, what’s to rebel against? Apparently, Mother Nature makes mean Vikings out of little boys. If Black Sabbath were a product of bleak, industrial Birmingham, it should be no surprise that music this extreme thrives in a country with such high precipitation and so many months of either uninterrupted daylight or darkness. So don’t let the scenery fool you. These are some disturbed and disturbing fuckers, whether it’s guitarist Ymon of Perished with his arms covered in branding marks, or Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest smoking heroin off tin foil or a nude female model being painted in cow’s blood before she’s about to be hung from a cross for a Gorgoroth show in Krakow. Nearly everyone is wearing a scowl, corpse paint and spikes. And Beste’s grossest moment has him shooting Nattefrost smeared in his own shit. Of all the bands featured, Beste focuses on the Tolkien-inspired Gorgoroth and its lead troublemaker Gaahl, who’s been arrested twice for alleged assault and torture, and whose face, with its sunken cheeks, looks even creepier without makeup. And that Krakow gig in 2004 not only included human crucifixes but sheep heads mounted on sticks. (Dude, one photo of decapitated sheep heads would’ve been enough.) Images of Satan (LA Weekly), and there's a terrific slideshow here (NSFW). Here's the Amazon link if you'd like to buy the book. (Thanks Richard Metzger) Previously on Boing Boing: Black Metal for Dummies Black Metal cupcakes More on sociology of Malaysian Black Metal Malaysia bans metal as un-Islamic. For those about to rock: jail ... Cookie Monster Tribute Heavy Metal Band Malaysian metal and the Man: a first-hand account Dave Hill and Black Metal Dialogues...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=92a61e9f9b046cebd8cb76c657684f61p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=92a61e9f9b046cebd8cb76c657684f61p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=92a61e9f9b046cebd8cb76c657684f61" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

Bloodlines: Inside Higher Ed published an article on the recently revived lawsuit by the Havasupai tribe against researchers at Arizona State University. The suit alleges that researchers (other than the original investigator who collected the blood) have used blood samples for purposes other than outlined in the IRB protocols. Said one commenter:
“This is a really interesting case because it opens up some questions of the reasonableness of practices that have been flying under the bioethical radar,” said Jonathan Marks, a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and an expert on informed consent and bioethics. Marks said that while he did not know the specifics of what happened in Arizona, he sees a widespread problem of anthropologists collecting blood for one purpose (with informed consent) and then having other scholars use the blood (without consent). Ethics issues abound, he said, because some of the subsequent research is potentially lucrative and because of the realities that these interactions do not take place on a two-way street.
Building/Burning Bridges: Hanna Fearn wrote for the UK Times Higher Ed Supplement on the divisions between evolutionary and sociocultural anthropology. Sometimes, one is left wondering whether The Great Divide Fearn speaks of is between evolutionary vs. social anthro or between U.S. and British models, as a lot of the British scholars interviewed suggested that the rising tide of evolutionary anthropology is coming from the States. Hmm, if that’s the case, the Chagnon reference might not be the most convincing. (Thanks to Crystal at Travel Scrabble for linking to this).

Addenda: Click here for a response to Fearn’s article by Michael Stewart on Cognition and Culture.

Archeology of Homelessness: Phys.Org reported on the research of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI for the midwesternly challenged) anthropology professor Larry J. Zimmerman and IUPUI student Jessica Welch. The archaeological survey was designed to look at homeless life outside of shelters, where most ethnographies of the homeless take place. Welch, herself formerly homeless, and Zimmerman will be publishing results in Historical Archeology early next year.

Saying Goodbye to ‘the Stranger’: NY Magazine published a fairly lengthy article challenging the isolated individual trope that seems to linger on in urban and online studies (even Louis’s Wirth’s 1938 classic essay “Urbanism as a Way of Life” makes an appearance.) If you can ignore the self-loving parts where the author reminds us how quintessentially urban and wonderful New York is, it’s a pretty good article. (Thanks to Arts and Letters Daily for posting this).

It’s Electrifying! Lorenz at antropologi.info has a great interview with Tanja Winther about her new book, The Impact of Electricity: Development, Desires and Dilemmas.

Ladies and Gents, the punchline: What would a news roundup be without some fun stuff? The first one comes from deathpower.
Cleverest Hegel joke this week: Most Hegel scholars agree there are 3 kinds of people: those who don’t really understand Hegel, and those who never liked arithmetic anyway.
The second is filed under ‘weird toys’ on Visual Anthropology of Japan. Enjoy!

Hey, Orson Scott Card wrote a new book in the Ender's Game series: Ender In Exile. How did I miss that?

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In conjunction with Prism Comics, the preeminent website for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) comics and creators, every day this month I will be detailing one good comic book/graphic novel with LGBT themes.

Here’s an archive of the featured works so far!

Today, for our last entry, we look at one of the most acclaimed works of all time that featured LGBT themes!

Love and Rockets is an amazing comic book series written and drawn by the Hernandez brothers, primarily Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez.

Both Gilbert and Jaime had their long-running stories through the original series, and it is Jaime’s series, Locas, that we’re really discussing here today (although Gilbert’s work is amazing on its own).

This hardcover collects pretty much the entire relationship between Maggie and Hopey between 1981 and 1996.

Maggie and Hopey are two of the most fascinating characters in comics, particularly when they are together, although it is notable how much time they spent APART during this story. Hopey is on the road a lot with her (bad) band, and yet we still get to see how much a bond the two share, even when not with each other.

The relationship between Maggie and Hopey began as best friends, but it soon evolved into something more than that, and more than a romantic relationship, too - their relationship is almost undefinable.

All we know is whether they are “with” each other or not, they are great together (Jaime’s brilliant, Archie Comics inspired artwork certainly does not hurt matters).

I think acclaimed comic artist José Villarrubia put it best when he said “The Defining book for Alternative comics in the Eighties, Maggie and Hopey are the most beloved on and off queer couple in comics.”

Well said, José.

I hope you folks enjoyed this month-long look at good LGBT comics! I hope you found some new books that you are interested in! There’s obviously a ton of books I have not mentioned, so keep your eyes peeled, and be sure to check out Prism’s website - they usually give folks a heads up when something cool LGBT-wise comes around!

In todays technological world we leave electronic traces wherever we go, whether shopping online or on the high street, at work or at play. That data is the raw material for a new industry of number crunchers trying to explain and influence human behaviour, as Stephen Baker explains in his new book The Numerati. pa href=http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0fZxx5NBYFWsnadyd7QpTrTB2pM/aimg src=http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0fZxx5NBYFWsnadyd7QpTrTB2pM/i border=0 ismap=true //a/pimg src=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digg/container/technology/popular/~4/IPk7l-j0rl8 height=1 width=1 /br[a href=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16162-what-the-data-miners-are-digging-up-about-you.html title=linklink/a] [a href=http://feeds.digg.com/~r/digg/container/technology/popular/~3/IPk7l-j0rl8/What_the_data_miners_are_digging_up_about_you title=moremore/a]

Jamie Boyle, of the Duke Center for the Public Domain, has a new book out, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. Boyle ranks with Lessig, Benkler and Zittrain as one of the most articulate, thoughtful, funny and passionate thinkers in the global fight for free speech, open access, and a humane and sane policy on patents, trademarks and copyrights. A legal scholar who can do schtick like a stand-up comedian, Boyle is entertaining as well as informative. I've got a copy on its way to me, but while I'm waiting, I'm delighted to discover that Jamie talked his publisher, Yale University Press, into offering the book as a free, CC-licensed download. And right there, in the preface, I'm hooked: Each person has a different breaking point. For one of my students it was United States Patent number 6,004,596 for a “Sealed Crustless Sandwich.” In the curiously mangled form of English that patent law produces, it was described this way: A sealed crustless sandwich for providing a convenient sandwich without an outer crust which can be stored for long periods of time without a central filling from leaking outwardly. The sandwich includes a lower bread portion, an upper bread portion, an upper filling and a lower filling between the lower and upper bread portions, a center filling sealed be- tween the upper and lower fillings, and a crimped edge along an outer perimeter of the bread portions for sealing the fillings there between. The upper and lower fillings are preferably comprised of peanut butter and the center filling is comprised of at least jelly. The center filling is pre- vented from radiating outwardly into and through the bread portions from the surrounding peanut butter. “But why does this upset you?” I asked; “you’ve seen much worse than this.” And he had. There are patents on human genes, on auctions, on algorithms. The U.S. Olympic Committee has an expansive right akin to a trademark over the word “Olympic” and will not permit gay activists to hold a “Gay Olympic Games.” The Supreme Court sees no First Amendment problem with this. Margaret Mitchell’s estate famously tried to use copyright to prevent Gone With the Wind from being told from a slave’s point of view. The copyright over the words you are now read- ing will not expire until seventy years after my death; the men die young in my family, but still you will allow me to hope that this might put it close to the year 2100. Congress periodically considers legislative proposals that would allow the ownership of facts. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives content providers a whole array of legally protected digital fences to en- close their work. In some cases it effectively removes the privilege of fair use. Each day brings some new Internet horror story about the excesses of intellectual property. Some of them are even true. The list goes on and on. (By the end of this book, I hope to have convinced you that this matters.) With all of this going on, this enclosure movement of the mind, this locking up of symbols and themes and facts and genes and ideas (and eventually people), why get excited about the patenting of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? “I just thought that there were limits,” he said; “some things should be sacred.” The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind, Download The Public Domain, The Public Domain on Amazon...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=181ca271242f104de23847bae09d82b0p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=181ca271242f104de23847bae09d82b0p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=181ca271242f104de23847bae09d82b0" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

Doesn’t it just warm the cockles of your heart to flip through Previews and see what joyous stuff awaits you? And what exactly are the cockles of your heart? Ah, who cares! There are comics to pre-order!

Let’s get to it!

Dark Horse:

There’s another volume (the third) of Herbie Archives on page 35 (29 April). If that’s your thing.

On page 37 (1 April), we finally get a Turok: Son of Stone Archive edition that we’ve so desperately wanted and deserved! American Indians versus dinosaurs! How can you resist?

DC:

Okay, I don’t get the cover of Batman #686 (page 66; 11 February). All the villains are ceremoniously walking into the Dew Drop Inn (of “the dude dropped in at the Dew Drop Inn” fame)? What’s that all about?

I don’t really care all that much, but am I supposed to know something about the “Origins and Omens” tag that accompanies several DC books in this month’s Previews?

So Batman: Confidential brings us a story arc on page 69 (11 February) by four people who are very good at what they do: Christina Weir, Nunzio DeFilippis, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and Kevin Nowlan. So why am I not super-enthusiastic about it? King Tut? Really? Sheesh.

I wouldn’t want anyone to interpret this as a slight against Geoff Johns, who is of course the greatest writer - not just comics writer, but writer - in recorded history, but on page 78, we get text about “the orange light of avarice.” Are any of the other Lantern lights good ones? And if they’re not, why isn’t a Green Lantern always consumed by jealousy? I’m just wondering. In no way is this impugning the absolute genius of Mr. Johns, whose tears, I’m well informed, cure polio.

I have no idea if The Mighty (page 81; 4 February) is any good or not, but does the world really need another “bold new super hero epic”? Really?

On page 85, R.E.B.E.L.S. #1 debuts (11 February). Again, I have no idea if it’s good or not, but I like the text: “The future is now in this all-new monthly series!” “The future”? Isn’t this a deliberate evocation of a series from 15 years ago?

It’s certainly nice of DC to offer a softcover version of Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil (page 92; 4 March). I don’t understand DC’s policy of waiting decades before releasing things in softcover, but maybe I’ll finally read this!

Ambush Bug gets a Showcase volume on page 95 (25 March). As Ambush Bug stories are largely gag reels, the fact that it’s uncolored shouldn’t be a big deal. The five issues in here that I’ve read are hilarious.

I probably won’t buy Bang! Tango (maybe as a trade) on page 110 (4 February), but the solicitation text cracks me up: “A passionate ex-gangster tries to make good in his second life as a tango dancer.” Good stuff! Joe Kelly seems to do better when he’s not writing superheroes, so this might be worthwhile.

100 Bullets comes to an end (page 114; 11 February), and you can get all twelve trades on page 115. I know some people are bored with this, but I think it’s fantastic. Azzarello better not screw up the ending, though!

Air #7 is a dollar (page 116; 18 March). I may not buy it based on what happens in the next few issues, but that’s nice of DC to try to goose sales in this way.

Image:

I saw a bit of Soul Kiss, Steven T. Seagle’s new book (page 140; 11 February), at San Diego this past summer, and it looks pretty cool. It’s the story of a girl who needs to save her boyfriend from the Devil, so she needs to find ten innocent souls and send them to Hell. Well, that can’t be pleasant. Seagle writes very good stuff quite often, so I’ll have to check this out.

Joe Kelly shows up with a new book on page 142 (4 February) called Bad Dog, which is a high-concept tale of two bounty hunters - one of whom is a werewolf. I still haven’t read Kelly’s Deadpool (I’m working on getting the back issues), but Image wants us to believe it’s in the same vein, so if that appealed to you, perhaps this will.

Another Man of Action guy, Duncan Rouleau, has a nifty-sounding book on page 144 (18 February). The Great Unknown is the story of a man whose thoughts become reality, although it sounds more complicated than that. I’m waiting for DC to release a softcover of Rouleau’s Metal Men, but even if that went off the rails (which I heard it did), I’m still looking forward to this.

You know, just after I finally pick up Codeflesh this year, Image decides to release a new, full-color collection with a brand new story (page 146; 25 February). Thanks, Image! Grrrr … Yes, it’s 35 bucks, but it’s pretty damned cool.

Jersey Gods (page 150; 4 February): a god of war marries a girl from the Garden State. What’s not to love?

Displaced Persons is re-offered on page 154 (4 February). I’m glad, because I was wondering where it had gone.

I wonder what happened to Elephantmen. Image keeps soliciting it (#21 is on page 157 for 11 February), but it’s been a while since an issue came out. Maybe they should stop soliciting it until it can get back on track. I hope it’s not in trouble, because it’s so freakin’ good.

A while back, commenters were wondering if Ted McKeever’s Metropol would ever show up in a collection. Well, on page 169, it has shown up in a collection! It’s the third volume of the Ted McKeever Library that Image is offering. I just read volume one (Transit), which wasn’t great, but is still pretty keen.

Marvel:

The only way I’m buying Black Panther #1 (page 10) is if T’Challa gets a sex change. That would be too awesome for words.

As much as I want to buy the Agents of Atlas ongoing (page 13), I wonder if Marvel is going to sneak a $3.99 price onto it with the “giant-sized” first issue at 4 bucks and then “regular-sized” issues at the same price. They wouldn’t be that sneaky, would they? Still, an Agents of Atlas ongoing is probably going to be super-duper.

It’s interesting that Marvel is killing Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men (pages 24-25). I really wish they would kill all the Ultimate books except that Spidey one and just let Bendis do his thing with that. The rest of the line is pretty worthless these days.

Page 26: Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, March 2009. Bwah-ha-ha-ha! (If you don’t know why this is funny, Mike Sterling explains it all!)

Marvel tries the anthology thing again with Astonishing Tales #1 (page 34). I remain convinced there’s a way to publish an anthology without charging 4 dollars for it, which will kill this book faster than my endorsement of it would! But we’ll see.

It’s somewhat stunning that Marvel is publishing a book called Models, Inc. (page 51). First, because it’s obvious that they’re trying to evoke the awesome television show by that name that we all hold dear in our hearts, but more because it’s just … weird. So weird I’m tempted to buy it!

I like how the solicitation text on page 70 for X-Men Origins: Sabretooth reads, “Why IS he so vicious? Why IS he so brutal?” I emphasize the present tense just because Sabretooth is still dead, right? Marvel doesn’t even pretend that the death of a character means anything anymore, which is perversely satisfying.

Cloak and Dagger gets a hardcover on page 94. I’ve never read it, but come on - it’s Mantlo and Leonardi!

As we move to the dreaded back of the book, we come across page 205 and Ape Entertainment, which offers The Black Coat & Athena Voltaire One-Shot for two thin dollars. I’m really dying for new issues of The Black Coat and a new series of Athena Voltaire, but I’ll take this!

I honestly can’t recommend anything Banzai Girls, such as the Banzai Girls Annual 2009 from Arcana Studio on page 207, but the way the text describes creator Jinky Coronado is awesome: as a “fan-favorite FHM and calendar model/artist/writer.” Grant Morrison can’t even claim that!

Lots of trades from Avatar, if that’s your thing. Streets of Glory comes out on page 218, Doktor Sleepless gets the treatment on page 219, and just for the heck of it, you can get a five-issue pack of Anna Mercury on page 220. You might like them all in one shot instead of doled out slowly! Plus, you can order Aetheric Mechanics if you missed it the first time around. Dang, it’s good.

Bluewater Productions brings us Female Force: Sarah Palin (page 222). Yes, we’re in Hell. Isn’t this a tad late? Or did I miss an election? (To be fair, Bluewater is bringing out a Michelle Obama comic soon, so there’s that.)

More Humanoids on page 232, as Devil’s Due brings us The Zombies That Ate the World, with art by Guy Davis. I have never been into the zombie thing in movies or comics, but I’m sure this will look pretty cool!

Dabel Brothers Publishing brings us something on page 250 we’ve all been yearning for: The Warriors Official Movie Adaptation!!!!!! What better way to celebrate a 30-year-old movie?!?!?!? I never saw the appeal of The Warriors, to be honest. But at least the comic is here!

If you’ve been tossing and turning at night wondering where Greg LaRocque has been (and who hasn’t, really?), he brings us a new series on page 264 called The Dreaming from Exiled Studios. DC lawyers on Line One! This is 10 bucks for 54 pages, but it does sound interesting.

Look at IDW, releasing Whatmen, a Watchmen parody written by Scott Lobdell. It’s on page 277. Good to see Lobdell getting work!

IDW also has a full-color Next Men hardcover on page 283. It’s 50 bucks for 11 issues, and I have to say - the black-and-white softcover versions IDW has published are just dandy.

Hey, look what Oni Press has on page 296! It’s volume 5 of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s magnum opus, Scott Pilgrim! This time, he takes on the universe! You may like this. I, because I have no soul, do not.

Radical Publishing has a new title called Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead. It was created by Warren Ellis but is written and drawn by Steve Pugh. This is, I suppose, why Pugh is no longer doing Shark-Man. This new book better be the greatest book since the Bible to justify taking Pugh away from Shark-Man!!!!!!

If you like all your robotic awesomeness in one shot instead of in monthly doses, Red 5 Comics offers the trade of the second Atomic Robo series on page 301. It isn’t quite finished yet, but I certainly can recommend it based on the 80% of the series that has already seen the light.

Based on the sales figures, many people have been skipping The Straw Men from Zenescope. That’s too bad, because it’s quite good. If you’ve skipped it because it’s hard to find, the publishers helpfully offer the first three issues in one package for 3 measly dollars on page 334! Can you afford to pass on a bargain like that????

On page 340, Tripwire has a “Superhero Special” for 8 bucks. Tripwire is a wonderful comics magazine, and issues rarely appear, but they’re definitely worth it.

That’s it for this month. Have a grand time flipping through Previews! And, I ought to remind you, you have about a day to enter my contest!

2 Comments

• At November 29, 2008, Michael wrote:

  You don't recognize a wake when you see one, Greg?

• At November 29, 2008, Justin Hilyard wrote:

  "And what exactly are the cockles of your heart?"

  It's another word for ventricle, because they're sort of shaped like cockle ...

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/68864?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+UK+house+prices+%27to+plunge+like+US%27ch=Businessc3=The+Observerc4=Housing+market+%28Business%29%2CUS+housing+and+sub-prime+crisis+%28Business%29%2CRecession+%28UK%29%2CBusiness%2CHouse+prices+%28Money%29%2CRepossessions+%28Money%29%2CMoney%2CObserverc5=Personal+Finance%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Rates%2CUS+Economyc6=Heather+Stewartc7=2008_11_30c8=1126210c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Housing+marketc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FHousing+market" width="1" height="1" //divpRobert Shiller, the Yale economist who forecast both the bursting of the dotcom bubble and America's property crash, is warning Britain's homeowners to expect things to get every bit as bad on this side of the Atlantic./ppIn London to promote his new book, The Subprime Solution, Shiller told The Observer that consumers should be wary of the comforting excuses many analysts find for explaining why Britain's housing market will be hit less hard than America's, where prices have already fallen by more than a quarter, and repossessions are rife./pp'A lot of people say that in the UK we haven't seen so many defaults on mortgages - but we're just earlier in the cycle,' he said. /pp'These housing cycles go for a long time. Real estate markets are very different from liquid financial markets, in that they have a lot of momentum, and they continue in the same direction for a long time.' He pointed out that during the last housing boom and bust, in the 1980s and early 1990s, prices in London more than doubled, in inflation-adjusted terms, 'and then they came almost all the way back down again. That's certainly a possibility now, and that would be huge. Think of all the balance-sheet problems that would cause, for banks and for households.'/ppIn his 2000 book Irrational Exuberance, Shiller warned that share prices were dangerously overvalued, and foretold the subsequent crash. He used the second edition, in 2005, to issue a timely warning about the ill-fated American housing boom, which, as in the UK, had spawned thousands of property speculators, and driven prices to once-unthinkable levels./ppRaising the spectre of the Great Depression of the 1930s, when it took many years for the world's major economies to recover, Shiller added that the government would probably have to carry out more bail-outs before the downturn is over, to help restore the public's faith in financial institutions./pp'Northern Rock was the first bank run since the 1860s. Once that happens, and you have these photographs of people lining up outside banks, there's a shock to confidence, and a loss of trust in financial institutions,' he said./ppShiller was invited to Downing Street last week to share his analysis of the crisis with Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown. He is calling for much better financial education for the public, and new standardised mortgages which adjust to suit changes in borrowers' personal circumstances./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/housingmarket"Housing market/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/subprimecrisis"US housing and sub-prime crisis/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/houseprices"House prices/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/repossessions"Repossessions/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/fzUVTeMMdqvmTmN_Qf2GTkJ2KaQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/fzUVTeMMdqvmTmN_Qf2GTkJ2KaQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/31884?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+Heed+the+visionaries+who+can+ease+the+pain+of+recessionch=Comment+is+freec3=The+Observerc4=Economics+%28Business%29%2CRecession+%28UK%29%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CMarket+turmoil%2CEconomic+policy%2CPolitics%2CBusiness%2CObserverc5=Credit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Markets%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Will+Huttonc7=2008_11_30c8=1126411c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divpThis recession is terrifying because it's assuming the character of an economic black hole. Property prices and economic activity slide, so that soon the problem becomes not the banks refusing to lend but the borrowers' worries. That creates a further downward spiral. The banks become even more cautious. Unless this cycle is broken, the economy is sucked away./ppStandard economics and standard policy responses are useless because gloom creates its own rationality. A herd effect created the bubble. Now a herd effect is creating the opposite. A solution requires finding economics and policies that break the bearish psychology./ppStep forward Robert Shiller, a softly spoken and mildly eccentric Yale professor, who specialises in studying the psychology of booms and busts. Financial markets, left to themselves he says, reliably mismanage risk. They get carried away in booms. And in busts there's a collective hysteria in which all we see is risk, uncertainty and loss. Letting 'financial markets work', as happened in Britain and America from the 1980s to today, has been disastrous. Instead, we need to devise interventions that help the markets manage risk better, which they will not do of their own accord. This, he thinks, is practical Keynesianism. I agree./ppHe was in London last week, promoting his new book The Subprime Solution and between events he met the Chancellor, the Governor of the Bank of England, the Secretary of State for Business and Regulatory Reform and even - for a few minutes - the Prime Minister. One reason for taking him seriously is that he's the only prominent economist who can claim to have predicted today's bust./ppBut his solutions are so non-standard and outside conventional thinking, and his manner so self-deprecating and academic, that it takes a while to get the radicalism of his message. Minds seemed to wander last week - and it took me a good few meetings before I understood./ppIf we are going to get banks to lend and borrowers to borrow, argues Shiller, we have got to reduce decisively the risks they confront. He starts with the mortgage market and the collapse in house prices because they are at the centre of this crisis. /ppMortgages, he thinks, always unfairly contained too much risk for ordinary borrowers. Now they are a disaster. Who in their right mind would pledge hard-earned savings as a deposit for a house in a falling property market and, on top, take responsibility for repaying a big mortgage over 25 years when they may lose their job? It is far too much risk and reflects an unfair balance of power between borrower and lender. A left-of-centre government should insist that mortgages are redesigned so they contain far less risk for ordinary borrowers./ppHis radical 'Shiller' mortgage has two components. The first is that repayments automatically adjust to the economic circumstances of the borrower over the life of the mortgage. Repayments rise in line with your growing income, but fall or stop if you lose your job./ppAt a stroke there are no more repossessions or fear of repossessions. In any case, banks hate repossessions because of the terrible PR and the irrationality of crystallising a loss on their mortgage books. For the borrower, a mortgage becomes less daunting./ppThe second component is that the borrower should be able to insure their down payment - and their housing equity - against loss. Shiller does not stop there. He thinks that the government should launch 'livelihood insurance', so that people can insure themselves against the risk of their wages being reduced. And he advocates a massive boost to the Citizens Advice Bureau network so there is an infrastructure of trusted advisers who can help citizens understand the case for better mortgages and insurance and take up the new financial packages./ppThese measures will help make the world safer for borrowers. The next step is to do the same for lenders./ppI persuaded Robert Shiller to read the Crosby report on the British mortgage market released last week by the Treasury, along with the pre-Budget report. In my view, it is one of the most alarming reports published by the Treasury in my working life./ppJames Crosby, deputy chair of the Financial Services Authority and former chief executive of HBOS, believes that without intervention in 2009, new net mortgage lending in Britain is very likely to fall below zero, spelling calamity for house prices and the wider economy./ppLike Shiller, he thinks that essentially there is too much risk for the market. Every available penny of new savings has already been earmarked, leaving none left over for new mortgages. Lenders are shellshocked. Even if the banks were nationalised, they would face the same problem./ppCrosby has a Shiller-style solution. The government must reduce the risks that are terrifying the mortgage markets. It should offer a pound;100bn guarantee so creating a pound;100bn flow of new credit to home buyers./ppThe Chancellor has promised to do something, but perhaps not this. Shiller, unsurprisingly, wholeheartedly backs Crosby. The two ideas together - Shiller mortgages and Crosby insurance - would break the gloom, take the risk out of the markets and bottom out the recession./ppThese principles could be extended to other areas of lending. The trouble is that it is not just ordinary borrowers who don't understand finance. Neither do many bankers, committed to keeping their power and offering the same old mortgages where the borrower assumes all the risk. Nor do officials, who understand the pros and cons of measures like last week's cut in VAT, but are outside their comfort zone when it comes to banks./ppIt can't go on; the risk of a deep recession is too great. We need the state to take the risks out of finance./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics"Economics/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketturmoil"Market turmoil/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/economy"Economic policy/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ajVoUO1XoFUP5VvGMgBBMWIGPgU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ajVoUO1XoFUP5VvGMgBBMWIGPgU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/273?ns=guardianpageName=Life+and+style%3A+In-law+tensions+hit+women+hardestch=Life+and+stylec3=The+Observerc4=Women+and+women%27s+interests%2CFamily+%28Life+and+style%29%2CRelationships+%28Life+and+style%29%2CLife+and+style%2CUK+news%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CWomen%2CFamily+and+Relationshipsc6=Amelia+Hillc7=2008_11_30c8=1126374c9=articlec10=GUc11=Life+and+stylec12=Womenc13=c14=h2=GU%2FLife+and+style%2FWomen" width="1" height="1" //divpMother-in-law jokes are the staple and cliched diet of comedians but they mask the real family battles between a woman and her daughter-in-law, according to new research that reveals the domestic conflict being waged between women with the husband and son somewhere in the middle /ppAccording to the study of hundreds of families over two decades, more than 60 per cent of women admitted the relationship with their female in-law caused them long-term unhappiness and stress. /ppDr Terri Apter, a psychologist and senior tutor at Newnham College, Cambridge University, who carried out the research for her new book What Do You Want From Me?, found that two-thirds of daughters-in-law believed that their husband's mother frequently exhibited jealous, maternal love towards their sons. The behaviour ranged from that experienced by 26-year-old Jenny from north London, whose mother-in-law began emailing her two months before her wedding with messages saying, 'What you don't realise is that my son thinks about me every day, every minute of the day, every second of every minute of the day', to more common behaviour, such as making demands, being critical or intrusive, sulking and eliciting pity./ppA similar proportion of mothers-in-law, however, complained of being excluded and isolated. 'My daughter-in-law is so cold towards me,' said 64-year-old Annie from Yorkshire. 'She begrudges any time or attention my son gives to me and takes every opportunity to minimise the importance and depth of the bond he and I have.'/ppApter has spent the past 20 years interviewing hundreds of families across the world for her book. She found that, while 75 per cent of couples reported having problems with an in-law, only 15 per cent of mother-in-law/son-in-law relationships were described as tense. /ppThe typical 'in-law' jokes are told in a male voice and directed towards a mother-in-law. For example: 'Two men were in a pub. One says to his mate: "My mother-in-law is an angel." His friend replies: "You're lucky. Mine is still alive."' However, Apter says that the in-law problem is almost always between the two women. 'As they struggle to achieve the same position in the family as primary woman, each tries to establish or protect her status, each feels threatened by the other,' she said./pp'Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflict often emerges from an expectation that each is criticising or undermining the other, but this mutual unease may have less to do with actual attitudes and far more to do with persistent female norms that few of us manage to shake off completely,' she added./ppFor example, although a daughter-in-law is an adult in her own household, a mother-in-law's maternal expertise is already established and she may expect deference. 'There then arises that tricky question about who is "mother" in the family, with final say over all those things women still assume charge over: housework and child care, meal times and children's manners,' said Apter./ppThe range of tactics admitted to by female in-laws harks back to squabbles in girls' cliques in primary-school playgrounds: long-term, low-key, and indirect attacks are used to exclude and criticise. 'I pity the young woman who will attempt to insinuate herself between my mamma's boy and me,' admitted author Ayelet Waldman. 'I sympathise with the monumental nature of her task. I sympathise with how much work she faces, but not with her. In fact, the very thought of this person, imaginary though she is, sends me into paroxysms of a kind of envy that is uncomfortable to admit.'/ppWomen in Apter's survey often admitted they were stunned by the impact and influence of their female in-laws. 'Much has been made of the decline of the family but the bonds between parent and child have not weakened,' she said. 'The reality and persistence of the extended family is one of the best kept secrets of modern times. The only realistic way to approach marriage is to accept that there will be six people in the marriage bed.'/ppSo why is the most difficult in-law tension that between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law? Part of the conflict has its roots in the mother/son relationship, which contains an element of romance in a way that a mother and daughter bond does not, said Apter. 'This unique dynamic can trigger competition when another woman becomes the new closest kin,' she said./ppBut tension also arises from the new wife's expectation that not only will she be the most important woman in her husband's life but that, as daughter-in-law, she will be embraced, supported and left alone, all at the same time. The man, meanwhile, must try to maintain and differentiate - or twin-track - the two relationships as son and as husband./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women"Women/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/family"Family/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/relationships"Relationships/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/BNbnc3IIeOWbkEHOewTIYJuPqCg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/BNbnc3IIeOWbkEHOewTIYJuPqCg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p