Pulp

The main acts in a pop craze always spawn imitations. The "Britpop" movement of the mid-1990s was no exception with a succession of bands, seemingly using either Blur or Oasis as a template. But one band that could not be copied was Pulp, fronted by the irrepressible Jarvis Cocker. The songs on their two best albums "His 'n' Hers" and "Different Class," were rich in nostalgia, adolescent sex and northern English humor -- as well as great songwriting -- and seemed a world away from the macho strutting of other mainstream bands of the time.

When Charles Ardai and Max Phillips, both lovers of pulp fiction, decided to form a new paperback imprint dedicated to resuscitating the golden age of pulp paperbacks, they did so in the time-honored manner of pulp characters through the ages -- over drinks. "Alcohol was involved, of course, and this is the sort of idea you generally expect will fade as sobriety returns, but the next day we both still loved the idea," said co-founder Ardai in an interview. "We knew how much work it would be, but the more we thought about it, the more irresistible it seemed.

Could insanity be contagious? Marooned on an island with only the criminally insane for company, how long before you doubted yourself? Certainly something is not right on Shutter Island. Some miles off the Massachusetts coast, this is a barren slab of gray rock, home to a hospital that is also a prison. U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive to look into the disappearance of a patient. According to head psychiatrist Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley)

In the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, some of the community's poorest women are taking part in project that is spreading the true meaning of the holiday season. In 2001, an Anglican missionary from Australia started the Kibera Paper Card Project to help disadvantaged women in the sprawling Kibera slum. The initiative began with a group of six women making greeting cards from recycled paper. Nine years later and it has expanded to employ 26 local women. "It's for women who are widowed, some of them are orphaned, some of them are abandoned by their husbands, so they make cards to meet their needs," said Kibera Paper Card Project coordinator Emma Wathura.

Sumatra's last lowland forests are being destroyed by economic forces, the Indonesian branch of the World Wildlife Fund says. Mills producing palm oil and pulp and paper, both growth industries, are being blamed for an annual loss of forest area equal to the size of Belgium. "If the existing situation is carried on, the lowland forests in Sumatra will be gone within the next five years," said Nazir Foead from WWF. The industries rely on plantations producing palm fruit for the oil factories and fast-growing acacia trees providing wood chips for the pulp mills.

;;Back to Asiaweek621630;;Jump To11001012002013003014004015005016006017007018008019009011000601610 | 611620 | 621630 | 631640 | 641650 | 651660 | 661670 | 671680 | 681690 | 691700 ;;scroll down for more dataRankRankCompany nameCountry Main businessSales19981997nnn Millions change621769ASIA PULP a PAPERSINGAPOREPulp, paper 1,996.9 23.3622619BENESSE CORP.JAPANPublishing 1,996.6 4.5623586TOYO INK MFG.JAPANInk 1,994.8 2.4624579NICHIRO CORP.JAPANFishing 1,994.4 2.9625613NISSHINBO INDUSTRIESJAPANTextiles 1,985.

The brawl is not over. ThaiIndian tycoon Shah, 44, accuses Davison of irregular business practices, including buying equipment without board authorization. For his part, Davison alleges that Shah is fronting for politicians eager to partake of Phoenixs riches and gain the votes of more than 60,000 families in Thailands northeastern Isarn region, the countrys most populous and impoverished. They either work for Phoenix, the regions major employer, or supply it with eucalyptus, bamboo and kenaf a jutelike plant.

What best represents the Asia of the 20th century What most convincingly captures the zeitgeist of the region Indeed, what products, objects or even ideas would you put into a time capsule that would be opened by our descendants, say, a century or so from now That was the question we put to a range of personalities across the region. Their responsesnn MILLENNIUMThe MillenniumAsias golden age of the past and if the region gets its act together of the future as well;1000Life, times and scenes of the continent a thousand years ago;MementosCelebrities fill a time capsule for the 2000s with icons of the present ageISHIHARA SHINTARO, 67 Governor of Tokyo and coauthor, with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, of the controversial bestseller The Voice of Asia 1994.

The main acts in a pop craze always spawn imitations. The "Britpop" movement of the mid-1990s was no exception with a succession of bands, seemingly using either Blur or Oasis as a template. But one band that could not be copied was Pulp, fronted by the irrepressible Jarvis Cocker. The songs on their two best albums "His 'n' Hers" and "Different Class," were rich in nostalgia, adolescent sex and northern English humor -- as well as great songwriting -- and seemed a world away from the macho strutting of other mainstream bands of the time.

In the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, some of the community's poorest women are taking part in project that is spreading the true meaning of the holiday season. In 2001, an Anglican missionary from Australia started the Kibera Paper Card Project to help disadvantaged women in the sprawling Kibera slum. The initiative began with a group of six women making greeting cards from recycled paper. Nine years later and it has expanded to employ 26 local women. "It's for women who are widowed, some of them are orphaned, some of them are abandoned by their husbands, so they make cards to meet their needs," said Kibera Paper Card Project coordinator Emma Wathura.

Could insanity be contagious? Marooned on an island with only the criminally insane for company, how long before you doubted yourself? Certainly something is not right on Shutter Island. Some miles off the Massachusetts coast, this is a barren slab of gray rock, home to a hospital that is also a prison. U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive to look into the disappearance of a patient. According to head psychiatrist Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley)

An inmate wrestles with his fear, boredom and remorse. He is subjected to random strip-searches as a fellow inmate espouses conspiracy theories about the jailhouse food and another is busted with a hidden ball of black-tar heroin. The alternately bleak, wry and amusing scenes, described in a series of journal-like entries, would fit comfortably in the work of Academy Award-winning screenwriter and director Roger Avary. But they may be based on fact, not fiction. These 140-character snippets have been popping up for more than a month on what friends acknowledge as the Twitter account of Avary, who is serving a year in a California jail for vehicular manslaughter.

Are comics made to be read on cell phones, Kindles and iPods the new pulp of pop culture? While mobile manga has become increasingly popular and lucrative in Japan, in recent months start-ups have been mushrooming around the world to bring comics and graphic novels to both loyal fans and new audiences -- all in the palm of your hand. "I wanted to break all the barriers between comics and their potential readers," said Hermes Pique, director of Robot Comics, a company that produces and publishes comics for mobile devices.

When Charles Ardai and Max Phillips, both lovers of pulp fiction, decided to form a new paperback imprint dedicated to resuscitating the golden age of pulp paperbacks, they did so in the time-honored manner of pulp characters through the ages -- over drinks. "Alcohol was involved, of course, and this is the sort of idea you generally expect will fade as sobriety returns, but the next day we both still loved the idea," said co-founder Ardai in an interview. "We knew how much work it would be, but the more we thought about it, the more irresistible it seemed.

Video-store clerks have good reason to hate Quentin Tarantino -- and not just because he's one of the few in their ranks ever to make it on the other side of the counter. Ever since the director's guns-and-gore debut, "Reservoir Dogs," your local tape jockey has been forced to find space for dozens of subpar crime capers, replete with artificially offbeat gangsters and obvious pop-culture conversations. But a new batch of two-disc DVD editions proves all the straight-to-shelf knockoffs in the world can't diminish the thrills of "Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," and "Jackie Brown.

Sumatra's last lowland forests are being destroyed by economic forces, the Indonesian branch of the World Wildlife Fund says. Mills producing palm oil and pulp and paper, both growth industries, are being blamed for an annual loss of forest area equal to the size of Belgium. "If the existing situation is carried on, the lowland forests in Sumatra will be gone within the next five years," said Nazir Foead from WWF. The industries rely on plantations producing palm fruit for the oil factories and fast-growing acacia trees providing wood chips for the pulp mills.

He may not be faster than a speeding bullet or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but there's one thing Pope John Paul II has in common with Superman, Batman and their superhero brethren: His biography is being presented in a series of comic books. A religious publisher in Italy, with the Vatican's consent, is serializing the pope's life story for children and young readers. The first issue follows little Karol Wojtyla's childhood in prewar Poland, where the pope-to-be played soccer and acted in a theater troupe.

What best represents the Asia of the 20th century What most convincingly captures the zeitgeist of the region Indeed, what products, objects or even ideas would you put into a time capsule that would be opened by our descendants, say, a century or so from now That was the question we put to a range of personalities across the region. Their responsesnn MILLENNIUMThe MillenniumAsias golden age of the past and if the region gets its act together of the future as well;1000Life, times and scenes of the continent a thousand years ago;MementosCelebrities fill a time capsule for the 2000s with icons of the present ageISHIHARA SHINTARO, 67 Governor of Tokyo and coauthor, with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, of the controversial bestseller The Voice of Asia 1994.