Chelsea Market

LONDON: There are some opinions that you never expect to change. Embarrassingly adolescent though it sounds, one of mine was fancying George Clooney. Clever, witty, politically correct and (last but not least) knee-knockingly sexy - what's not to swoon over? But that was before I spotted him in an advertising campaign, tapping an espresso capsule as if it were a casino chip in one of his “Ocean's Gazillion” movies.

It wasn't the fact that Gorgeous George had stooped to smirking in an advertisement that irked me, it was what he was selling. I am aware that the espresso capsule doesn't score highly in the ever-lengthening list of contemporary evils, but those tiny pods with all of their packaging, and the neurotically over-styled espresso machines that make coffee from them, sum up so much of what can go wrong in design today, when opportunism is dressed up as “innovation.”

Not that I have anything against innovation. Post-post-modernist though my generation of design obsessives may be, one opinion I'll never drop (unlike the Clooney crush) is an old-fashioned modernist belief in the power of design to change our lives for the better. But you can only improve the design of something if it needs to change; and not everything does, including lovely old espresso machines.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when espresso machines were things of beauty. Not all of them, I admit. Some were plug-ugly. Others didn't do their job properly. But there were some great ones. Take those gorgeous old Gaggias - spartan in style and unapologetically mechanical, with no superfluous details. They were proud, purist exercises in engineering, in which every component seemed to have been designed solely to fulfill its designated function (and what a noble function) of producing a delicious cup of espresso topped with bubbling crema. One glance at them reminded you of early Fellini movies, and lovely old cafés along Via Veneto in turn-of-the-1960s Rome.

Yes, those machines were heavy. Yes, they were expensive. Yes, they were messy. Yes, they took ages to crank out the coffee. Yes, they belched out scary noises and scalding steam. And yes, despite all of the above, they were worth it.

Can you buy them now? If only. Whatever's possessed Gaggia's design team in the past few years, it can't have been pleasant, judging from the ungainly Cape Canaveralesque control centers that have replaced those great old machines. And the competition's no better. Whoever designs and manufactures them, the current crop of espresso machines seems doomed to be blobby, bulbous and infuriatingly over-complicated.

What went wrong? In a word - Starbucks. It's already been blamed for so many things - from the death of the neighborhood coffee shop, to serving dodgy muffins - but I reckon it's guilty of this too. Starbucks's relentless expansion in the 1980s convinced the coffee industry that, if so many people could be persuaded to splash out on latte, macchiato, frappuccino and other fancy forms of caffeine outside their homes, they'd probably be willing to invest in swanky new machines to make them back at home too.

At around the same time, Nestlé came up with a way of making espresso without the mess by introducing the use-it-once-and-throw-it-away Nespresso system in 1986. Illy followed suit by launching the E.S.E. (that stands for Easy Serving Espresso) pod in 1989. Cue a flurry of design activity as manufacturers dreamed up new espresso machines to make coffee from them. Why didn't they stick with the old designs? Maybe they took them for granted? Maybe they suspected they wouldn't be promoted for doing the same as their predecessor? Who knows? But they seized upon the introduction of the new capsules and pods as an excuse to change the style of their machines.

Now, Nespresso and E.S.E. taste O.K., not least because the coffee is fresh from the throwaway packaging. But there is a downside - in fact there are three. One is the packaging. How can you justify chucking away so much junk for a single cup of coffee? The paper in most E.S.E. pods is biodegradable, but not the tin packaging they come in, nor most of a Nespresso capsule. Then there's the irritation of buying a nouveau espresso machine only to realize that you can only use it with a particular capsule or pod, and they're not inexpensive. Why else would Illy run so many ads for discounted Francis Francis! (E.S.E. pod-only) machines if not to hook us into years of pod-purchasing? It's the kitchen equivalent of games consoles, which are sold relatively cheaply in the confident expectation that we'll spend lots of money buying expensive games to play on them. And last but not least, the new espresso machines don't look as good as the old ones.

read more from " A shot of frustration at espresso machines "

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo “Melody,” a kimono decorated with stencil dying on silk, a pattern that resembles open fans.

LONDON: The relationship between tradition and innovation in Japan is complex and often paradoxical to outsiders. Profound Japanese respect for tradition is combined with what often seems to be a mania for novelty. This dynamic has given rise over the last half century or so to art-craft pieces that are made using age-old techniques, sometimes even requiring the revival of lost techniques, but adapted in ways that unmistakably reflect the modern age.

Such pieces are uniquely Japanese, yet at the same time they can appeal to anyone who enjoys creatively conceived contemporary objects, made with exceptionally fine craftsmanship.

The giving of gifts is extremely important in Japanese culture. To give such art-craft object is a perfect way to demonstrate the giver's good taste while flattering the discriminating eye and refined sensibility of the receiver.

Last summer the British Museum, which has been collecting Japanese art works since it was founded in 1753, staged a revealing exhibition of these eminently give-able art-craft pieces. The show, “Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan,” was accompanied by a book of the same title, which remains a useful introduction and manual for those interested in acquiring pieces of this kind. The book also contains a listing, and biographical details, of some of the country's most prominent craft artists.

Following the devastation of World War II, there were fears that many ancient crafts were in danger of disappearing forever. Accordingly, along with efforts to conserve art, architecture and other cultural manifestations, a government initiative was launched to aid less tangible artistic assets - the artists and craft workers themselves, and the skills they exercised. This led to the designation by the state's cultural affairs department of what came familiarly to be known as “Living National Treasures,” who became eligible for state assistance to help them in the pursuit of their vocations.

Hardly less important was the organizing by the cultural affairs department of a show, The Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, which gave practitioners an opportunity both to display and sell their wares, and to nurture a wider public awareness of their work. The first was held in the spring of 1954 at the main Tokyo branch of Mitsukoshi, Japan's oldest department store, which first opened its doors in 1673 as a kimono shop, and has since earned a reputation as the go-to place for people buying gifts that may help to elicit a favor.

The show subsequently became an annual event. It now opens at Mitsukoshi in Tokyo in September and travels to nearly a dozen other cities around the country, receiving a great deal of media coverage.

Another annual show, the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, or Nitten, has roots dating back to 1907 and has been held under its present name since 1946. At the Nitten, the emphasis is more on individual expression, but it also includes art craft objects. A rivalry between the two, strong enough to split some families into opposing camps, means that artists typically will show at one or the other, but not both.

The 17th-century poet Basho defined the principle of haiku composition as “continuity and change,” and this has become the unofficial motto of the Traditional Art Crafts show.

“Keeping tradition alive does not mean simply mastering old techniques and adhering to them,” said the 1959 catalog, in a manifesto for the exhibition. “Tradition is living and always in flux.”

This philosophy has informed and stimulated the production of an amazing variety of ceramics, textiles, lacquer, bamboo- and woodwork, and pieces in other media.

Among the artists featured in the British Museum book is the ceramicist Tokuda Yasokichi III, who employs ancient techniques and secret color recipes handed down to him from his grandfather.

While the colors may go back to the Edo period, which ended in the 19th century, Yasokichi's use of them is innovative and thoroughly contemporary, giving full rein to chance to play a formative role. In 1991, for example, from an experiment with firing techniques emerged his startlingly modern “Genesis” bowl, of which later he said: “To my great surprise, these colored lines appeared on the surface.

“You could say it was a gift from God, or just an accident.”

Another ceramicist, Maeta Akiro, works only in monochrome white porcelain. In his classic “Jar with Faceted Body,” dating from 1996, a subtle arrangement of planes transforms an everyday object into a piece of pure sculpture.

Onishi Isao, an entirely self-taught artisan, builds large lacquered dishes from a core of bent strip hoops of wood, fitted painstakingly together, the materials perfectly handled, the finish exquisite. The results are the embodiment of a restrained and tranquil beauty, quintessentially Japanese.

read more from " Japanese art crafts mix continuity and change "

Courtesy of Librairie Lardanchet Jean Clarence Lambert's "Les Folies Françaises," illustrated, hand- bound and signed by the Italian artist Gianni Bertini, in a limited edition of just eight copies.

[Enlarge this image]

A CUT ABOVE: GIFTS

PARIS: In 1994, Bill Gates gave himself a present. He bought at auction, at Christie's in New York, for $30.8 million, a text known as the Codex Leicester. It was the highest price ever paid in a public sale for a manuscript.

Named after Thomas Coke, the Earl of Leicester, who acquired it in 1717, the Codex, a manuscript in book form, consisted of 72 pages of scientific writings and diagrams by Leonardo da Vinci, handwritten in Renaissance Italian on both sides, backwards, making it legible only when read in a mirror.

The Codex Leicester is not the kind of book that makes it to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Yet for those looking for an exquisite gift, rare editions are a delight worth discovering.

For would-be buyers who are unfamiliar with the often esoteric bookstores that carry such editions, public auctions can be good places to find unusual volumes.

In 1998, Christie's New York sold the Archimedes Palimpsest, an extraordinary medieval vellum parchment prayer book in which can be traced, beneath a 12th century overlay of liturgical writings, the scraped-off remains of a 10th century collection of the scientific theories of Archimedes - including the only known copy, in Greek, of his treatise “On Floating Bodies.”

The Archimedes palimpsest sold for $2.2 million.

For those whose taste is less austere, rare and fine editions can offer more sensuous pleasures.

“While the market for books remains exclusive, today we see a growing interest in the modern illustrated book,” said Patricia de Fougerolle, a specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie's Paris. “These books speak not just to bibliophiles, but also to those looking for original illustrations by renowned artists like Picasso and Matisse.”

In the early 20th century, when Paris was the undisputed center of the art world, several local publishers engaged the talents of artists to illustrate limited editions of famous literary works, giving rise to a new art form. Examples of these books can still be found in specialized Parisian bookstores.

The Librairie des Arcades on the Rue de Castiglione, a neighborhood famed for its high-end jewelers, offers some gems of its own. There, you can find copy No. 1 of a 305-copy limited centenary edition of Honoré de Balzac's novel “Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu,” dated 1931, which is illustrated with 13 original etchings by Pablo Picasso and supplemented by two unbound sets of the same etchings. The book is signed by Picasso and bears the original monogram of Ambroise Vollard, a famous Paris art dealer and editor. The price tag is €80,000, or about $117,000.

“The art of the modern illustrated book, born out of the alliance between a writer and an artist, transformed the book into an 'objet d'art,' ” said Anne-Gaëlle Lebouc, owner of the Arcades bookstore, in an interview at the Great Antiquaries and Booksellers Fair in Brussels this month.

“It is an art form that is disappearing today because contemporary artists have abandoned book illustration, and digital publishing cannot produce the tactile quality of lead-letter printing,” she added.

If the illustrated Balzac seems a touch lacking in bells and whistles, the Librairie Lardanchet, on the Faubourg St.- Honoré, has an artist's copy of Jean Clarence Lambert's “Les Folies Françaises,” illustrated, hand-bound and signed by the Italian artist Gianni Bertini in 1966 in a series of eight. The book and its painted plexiglass binding are considered iconic works of pop art. An integrated electrical mechanism allows stars on the book's cover to light up. The piece is priced at €27,000.

“Relatively more discreet but no less of a conversation piece is 'Le Surréalisme en 1947,' a series of texts illustrated by the likes of Miró, Calder and Ernst,” said Bertrand Meaudre, co-owner of the bookstore. The book's cover, made by Marcel Duchamp in the shape of a woman's breast, comes with an invitation: “Prière de toucher” or “Please Touch.” The price tag is €16,000.

Stepping out beyond the traditional concept of a book, Les Argonautes, a bookstore on the Rue de Seine, proposes a book-sculpture - one of a limited edition of 30 - executed in 1966 by the Austrian artist Friedrich Hundertwasser.

An original color lithography was cut into multiple pieces and reconstituted as a series of stackable cardboard boxes that can be assembled into a representation of the ruined Inca city of Machu Picchu, in Peru, 45 centimeters, or 18 inches, high.

The whole serves as an illustration for the epic poem, “The heights of Machu Picchu,” which was written by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

read more from " Rare book editions are unique collector’s items "

Courtesy of U’Luvka Marketed as a celebration of “Friendship, Love and Pleasure,” the U'Luvka line includes a designer ice bucket and shot glasses.

PARIS: Vodka takes its very name from the diminutive of the Russian word for water, voda. Traditionally popular as a versatile cocktail mixer, valued mainly for a pure absence of flavor, it is being reinvented for a new in crowd of drinkers as a luxury spirit to rival vintage cognacs and champagnes. A tipple of choice for people who drink Perrier at power lunches.

“Vodka has an understated elegance,” said Lavinia Schimmelpenninck, the artistic director of an online luxury shopping guide, myprestigium.com. “It's an easy drink - smooth, light - but retains a definitive and powerful kick.”

“Consumers of luxury goods want to purchase not only the product but also the experience, the impression and the image” said Michal Smolana, acting chief executive of Transborder Marketing, a U.S. company formed last year “to create, develop and market unique imported luxury products to sophisticated consumers throughout the world,” as the company's introductory press release said.

Transborder's first product is Diaka, a rye-based Polish vodka produced using a patented diamond filtration process that the company says uses nearly 100 cut diamonds, of as much as one carat in size. Diaka vodka is expected to hit the market next year, at a planned retail price of $100 per Swarovzki crystal-encrusted bottle.

Diaka, a cocktail of a name with two ingredients, diamond and vodka, is produced by the Polish company Polmos Siedlce, which also makes a potato-based Chopin Vodka.

In a similar spirit, Roberto Cavalli vodka, distilled from Italian grain and Italian alpine spring water, is filtered through layers of crushed Carrara marble before hitting the retail shelves in a graceful Lalique-style bottle designed by the Italian high-fashion designer, at a price of €60, or $90.

“I want there to be fun in everything that I do. I love to design, and sophistication, I like the purity of vodka, especially my vodka,” Cavalli said.

Happily for drinkers of these luxury vodkas, the attention paid to packaging and marketing seems to be matched by that paid to the product.

Mark Holmes, founder and chief executive of The Brand Distillery, in London, says that he started researching Polish vodka recipes and traditions in the early '90s, before bringing the company's U'Luvka brand to market in May 2005. The vodka is distilled in Poland from a blended mash containing 50 percent rye, 25 percent wheat and 25 percent barley.

“I wanted to take the different elements of these grains and meld them together to get a complexity of flavor that lingers on the palate,” Holmes said.

The result is a vodka with silken, subtle flavors that, unlike most, can be served at room temperature rather than chilled and can be drunk as a digestive as well as in a martini or a mixer.

The subtlety of the spirit extends to the marketing, with the name barely discernable on the bottle, which features an alchemical emblem referencing entwined male and female bodies, dancing together in a celebration of life.

“It is all about nobility and integrity, that is why we created the brand, to make a great spirit that has a luxury inside and out,” Holmes said. “The underpinning of the brand is a dance with life, a celebration, an embodiment of friendship, which is part of the ritual of a toast in Poland.

“The elements of the packaging reflect the quality of the liquid - the design of the bottle is male and female friendly, sensual and versatile.”

U'Luvka's designer bottle has a long, sinuous curved neck - a useful design as it fits neatly into the hand of a bartender - and comes in three sizes: a miniature (10 centiliters) at €15; the 70-centiliter signature bottle at €60; and a magnum (175 centiliters) at €120.

An U'Luvka “Friendship, Love and Pleasure” gift set, at €85, offers a 70-centiliter bottle, two shot glasses and a cocktail book.

For those seeking a richer, warmer glow of decadence, the French spirits company Louis Royer, traditionally producers of cognac, wanted to position themselves in a new market. “Gold is appreciated universally” said Anais Egre of Louis Royer, and through its U.S. importer Shaw-Ross International, in Miami, they introduced another luxury vodka to the U.S. market in September. Gold Flakes Supreme contains shavings of 24-karat gold inside each 75-centiliter bottle.

Priced at $60, the gold-infused vodka “will find its place with connoisseurs and people who appreciate the finer things” said Rod Simmons, marketing director for Shaw Ross.

read more from " Vodka repackaged and marketed as a luxury good "

Victoria Gomelsky

No country can claim a jewelry tradition more robustly entrenched than India's. On the Bollywood red carpet, and at any respectable Indian wedding, it is commonplace to see women staggering beneath lavish burdens of gold -22-karat bangles stacked along their arms, bell-like jhumka ear ornaments weighing down their lobes, chokers strung with gem-set triangles dangling from the neck.

At the turn of the past century, Western jewelers frequently adopted Indian motifs - peacocks, lotus flowers and other images redolent of mosques and Mogul treasures - as the Pax Britannica freed India's ruling elites from more pressing concerns, allowing them to indulge their penchant for baubles from the finest ateliers of Europe.

The trend reached its zenith in the 1930s with Cartier's extraordinary commissions for the maharajahs, for whom it fashioned extravagant parures incorporating antique stones from the royal treasuries. The jewels, assembled in Paris, ushered in a style that Cartier nicknamed “Tutti Frutti” for its exuberant combinations of ruby, sapphire and emerald beads set in floral compositions.

After India gained independence in 1947, however, the orders dried up and Western designers found new muses. For decades, the look was simply too ethnic to play on the postwar, postindustrial, postmodern fashion stage.

Until now.

Suddenly, inspired by India's star turn on the global scene, jewelry connoisseurs are again citing the country's 5,000-year-old design heritage, newly co-opted by a rising cohort of luxury jewelers besotted with traditional Indian craftsmanship and locally sourced precious stones.

Cartier, for one, has come full circle with its “Inde Mystérieuse” collection, introduced in September at a glitzy event in London, where 300 meters, or nearly 1,000 feet, of organza ribbon, 1,500 meters of Indian fabrics and 2,000 meters of wood helped to transform the neo-Classical Lancaster House into a sumptuous Rajput palace. So convincing was the decor that one could almost see Sir Bhupinder Singh, the maharajah of Patiala, strolling through the house adorned with the Patiala necklace, a platinum and diamond bib that he commissioned in 1928, the most impressive necklace ever made by Cartier.

Of 82 pieces in the new collection, a platinum and diamond neckpiece anchored by a 63.66-carat pear-cut diamond might be the Patiala's closest runner-up.

“It's worth about €10 million,” or $14.6 million, said Pierre Rainero, Cartier's image, style and heritage director.

Most of the unique pieces - although not the platinum and diamond collar - sold out within days, Rainero said. Cartier will reproduce 48 of the designs at prices ranging from €40,000 to €550,000.

In the rarefied luxury market of today, which prizes exclusivity above all, “style is about having fewer things and having those things be one of a kind and crafted by designers who don't belong to the mainstream,” said Paola De Luca, creative director of Trends Jewellery Forecasting, a consultancy and magazine based in Arezzo, Italy.

In search of authenticity, sophisticated clients are patronizing Indian jewelers who have built a reputation abroad. “So many of our customers are keen to embrace Indian jewelry,” said Nathalie Kabiri, owner of Kabiri, a jewelry boutique in the Marylebone district of London, “because it seems they're helping to keep a tradition alive.”

Kabiri's new concession at Selfridges department store devotes prime showcase space to Amrapali of Jaipur, a manufacturer based in the Rajasthani capital, the hub of the Indian colored stone industry. The company's ornate necklaces, encrusted with shallow rose-cut diamonds, and Bakelite cuffs studded with red spinels, a Mogul favorite, are a hit in Hollywood, Paris, Moscow and of course Mumbai.

“Indian consumers want 22-karat gold, but for the international market we do 18-karat and we make it daintier,” Tarang Arora, son of Amrapali's owner, Rajiv Arora, said. “We try to take old Indian ethnic designs and contemporize them.”

Synthesizing traditional motifs without sacrificing a 21st-century sensibility is Viren Bhagat's forte. The 50-year-old designer, favored by Mumbai's high society for his fusion of art deco and Mogul styles, is an auction house darling. “You look at it and you know Viren made it,” said Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christie's New York, where a pair of Bhagat earrings composed of diamonds cut to resemble lotus petals came up for sale in October.

Estimated at $50,000, they sold for $85,000.

Another guru of Indian craftsmanship is Munnu Kasliwal - the eighth-generation designer behind the Gem Palace, a gem wholesaler and retailer in Jaipur, founded in 1852.

Kasliwal employs uniquely Indian techniques like “kundan,” in which gems are encased in ribbons of pure 24-karat gold, to fashion golden jhumkas strung with Burmese rubies, like tiny gem-set parasols, and navratna turtle brooches with nine gemstones, evoking the Hindu belief that the world rests on the back of an elephant standing atop a turtle.

read more from " Jewelers find inspiration in India "

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

read more from " Hello world! "

Presidential contender Barack Obama on Tuesday called for a $18 billion education plan that he said would fix mistakes his chief Democratic rivals made when they approved President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” effort.

The Illinois Democrat criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards for not fully funding No Child Left Behind. While outlining his own education proposal to prepare students for college and to train teachers to lead in classrooms, Obama said the two rivals haven’t done enough to protect students.

“It’s pretty popular to bash No Child Left Behind out on the campaign trail, but when it was being debated in Congress four years ago, my colleague Dick Durbin offered a chance to vote so that the law couldn’t be enforced unless it was fully funded,” Obama said. “A lot of senators, including Senator Edwards and Senator Clinton, passed on that chance. And I believe that was a serious mistake.”

Obama’s plan would encourage universal pre-kindergarten programs - but not require them - expand teacher mentoring programs and reward teachers with increased pay not tied to standardized test scores. Failing teachers would be moved from classrooms and replaced with ones who are competent, Obama said.

“In this election, at this defining moment, we can decide that this century will be another American century by making a historic commitment to education. We can make a commitment that’s more than just the rhetoric of a campaign, one that’s more than another empty promise made by a politician looking for your vote,” the Illinois senator said.

Obama’s plan would cost $18 billion. His campaign said he would pay for it by delaying NASA’s Constellation Program, which is developing the vehicle and rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars, by reducing costs by buying in bulk, by auctioning surplus federal property and by cutting down erroneous payments identified by the Government Accountability Office.

Obama said families also have to be part of the solution.

“We can spend billion after billion on education in this country. We can develop a program for every problem imaginable and we can fund those programs with every last dime we have. But there is no program and no policy that can substitute for a parent who is involved in their child’s education from day one,” he said.

Obama said he would accredit college programs, remove poorly performing teachers from classrooms and increase time spent on math and science instruction. He said mentoring programs are key to keeping good teachers involved and improving struggling ones.

He said he also would establish 40,000 new scholarships for potential teachers, pay for continuing education programs and invest in new schools.

read more from " Obama Unveils $18B Education Plan "

Secretary of State Debra Bowen sued a major voting machine company Monday, accusing Election Systems & Software of selling unauthorized machines to San Francisco and four counties.

The lawsuit seeks nearly $15 million in penalties and reimbursements. Bowen contends that ES&S sold 972 of its AutoMark A200 voting machines to San Francisco and Colusa, Marin, Merced and Solano counties in 2006 even though the state had not tested and certified the machines.

“ES&S ignored the law over and over again and it got caught,” Bowen said in a statement. “California law is very clear on this issue. I am not going to stand on the sidelines and watch a voting system vendor come into this state, ignore the laws and make millions of dollars from California taxpayers in the process.”

The suit was filed for Bowen by the attorney general’s office in San Francisco Superior Court. It seeks $9.7 million in penalties and asks the court to order ES&S to reimburse San Francisco and the four counties for the nearly $5 million cost of the machines.

Some of the AutoMark A200s apparently were used in the November 2006 election along with a previous version of the machines, Bowen said. Local election officials reported some problems with the AutoMarks, but Bowen said her office had no way of knowing if the problems were with the new machines or the older ones.

Omaha-based ES&S, which bills itself as the “world’s largest and most experienced provider of total election management solutions,” said the AutoMark A200 included only “minor hardware modifications” from an earlier model that was certified by the state.

The company said it followed an “established practice” in which California relied on federal testing to decide if it would allow minor modifications to existing voting systems without new state certification.

Ken Fields, an ES&S spokesman, said the AutoMark A200 modifications were submitted to federal labs in late 2005, when former Secretary of State Bruce McPherson was in office.

Under established protocol at that time, the state allowed equipment to be modified if the federal labs determined the changes didn’t alter the “fit, form or function” of the equipment, he said.

The changes were intended to make the AutoMarks easier to service and manufacture, Fields said.

“The penalties sought by the secretary of state bear no relationship to the claimed violations, particularly given that the claimed violations resulted from ES&S adhering to the state’s established practice,” the company said in a statement.

But Bowen said it wasn’t up to ES&S to determine if the hardware modifications were minor and that the AutoMark A200s had to be submitted to her office as well as to federal labs for testing and certification.

“California law does not ask the manufacturer if the changes to a voting system are big or small or medium size,” she said in a conference call with reporters. “That’s a matter for California’s chief elections officer to decide.”

A spokeswoman for Bowen, Nicole Winger, said the independent labs used by the federal government “clearly do not test these systems to the depth and breadth that California expects and the standards that California has.”

The AutoMarks are designed to be used by voters with disabilities to mark ballots that are then read by scanners.

Bowen said the secretary of state’s office became aware of the sale of the AutoMark A200s to San Francisco and the four counties when an ES&S employee accidentally mentioned the changes in the system during a conference call in July with members of the secretary of state’s staff.

But Fields said examiners for the secretary of state’s office saw the AutoMark A200 in 2006 as part of testing and certification of voting equipment used by San Francisco.

“I don’t know if (the examiner) marked it A200, but that was the equipment that was there,” Fields said.

Winger said local election officials were unaware they were getting modified equipment when they bought the AutoMark A200s. State officials also didn’t know of any changes until the July conference call, she added.

Bowen said her office is now testing the AutoMark A200s to make sure they work as they should. She hopes to have results by early December.

If her lawsuit is successful, ES&S could be required to reimburse the five local governments for the AutoMark A200s, even if Bowen’s office subsequently certifies the machines and they resume using the devices.

read more from " Calif. Sues Voting Machine Maker For $15M "

Turmoil in housing continued to reverberate Tuesday across several parts of the industry.

Freddie Mac, the big mortgage finance compamy, posted a $2 billion loss for the third quarter and warned that it might not have enough capital on hand to cover the mandatory reserves for its mortgage commitments. The company has been battered by a rising wave of foreclosures tied to subprime mortgage defaults and is now “seriously considering” cutting its stock dividend.

Shares of the company plummeted 26 percent in early trading, to $27.83.

“Without doubt, 2007 has been an extremely difficult year for the country's housing and credit markets,” Richard Syron, the chairman and chief executive of Freddie Mac, wrote in a statement.

Syron was not alone in his lament. R. Horton, the nation's largest home builder, reported a $50.1 million loss in its fiscal fourth quarter as the housing downturn pummeled its inventory, goodwill and land-use contracts. Lower demand and tighter lending standards have cut back the company's business and caused many clients to cancel contracts.

“We expect the housing environment to remain challenging,” Donald Horton, the company's chairman, said in a statement.

The subprime debacle also claimed another high-profile casualty: H&R Block's chairman and chief executive, Mark Ernst, who said Tuesday he would resign amid the company's exposure to risky loans. Richard Breeden, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will take over as chairman. The chief executive slot will be temporarily filled by Alan M. Bennett, a former top executive at Aetna, the insurance company.

Home building data released by the government Tuesday suggested the troubles in the housing sector will continue. Permits for residential groundbreakings fell 6.6 percent in October to their lowest level in over 14 years. They have dipped nearly 25 percent since last October, to a seasonally adjusted 1.18 million annual rate, the Commerce Department said.

Meanwhile, new residential construction grew slightly last month, rising 3 percent, to a 1.23 million annual pace. It was the first increase in four months, but housing starts remain near the lowest level since the recession of the early 1990s.

Investors will also be focusing on Tuesday's economic forecast from the Federal Reserve. Central bankers have warned that housing problems will continue unabated into next year.

read more from " Housing Turmoil squeezes Freddie Mac "