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20160709132324

The GOP insurgency barely laid a Mitt on him. Donald Trump eked out victories in Kentucky and Louisiana on Saturday, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz hot on his heels in those two delegate-rich states. Trump won 35 percent of the vote in Kentucky, edging out Cruz, who won 31 percent. The front-runner’s lead was slightly greater in Louisiana, where he won 42.1 percent over Cruz’s 37.5 percent. The wins show that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s attacks last week have done little to diminish Trump’s popularity. “If he would have devoted the same energy and time to winning the presidency four years ago as he is now trying to destroy our party, he would have won that election,” Trump crowed after the votes came in. “The establishment is out to get us,” Trump complained earlier in the day, in Wichita, Kan., adding, “The Republicans are eating their own.” But Cruz scored major upsets over Trump in the two other states holding GOP caucuses, Kansas and Maine. The Texas senator notched his fifth primary-season win as he more than doubled Trump, 48 percent to 23 percent, in the Kansas contest. Cruz won 24 of the state’s 40 delegates to Trump’s nine and narrowed Trump’s overall delegate lead. Trump now has 373 delegates to Cruz’s 291. Cruz was also declared the winner of the Maine GOP caucus, with 46 percent to Trump’s 33 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, appeared to be an also-ran, notching dismal third- and fourth-place finishes in all five contests. “I want Ted one-on-one,” Trump thundered after the results, urging Rubio to drop out. Rubio, who received Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s endorsement last month, stumbled to third place there with 17 percent. He added just six delegates to his 115 total. “God bless Kansas,” Cruz said after that race was called. “The scream you hear, the howl that comes from Washington, DC, is one of utter terror at what we, the people, are doing ­together.” Cruz also said the results demonstrate that Rubio — and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich — should quit the race to prevent Trump from running away with the party’s nomination. “We’ll continue to amass delegates but what needs to happen is the field needs to continue to narrow,” Cruz said. “If we’re divided, Donald wins.” Republicans in Kansas, and in Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine, were ­divvying up 155 delegates Saturday — with party insiders desperate to keep front-runner Trump from amassing the 1,237 votes he needs to clinch the nomination. Cruz pledged to a Bluegrass State crowd that if elected he would “repeal ­every word of ObamaCare” and pass a flat-tax system. “I will not compromise away your religious liberty,” he said, repeating his promise to stonewall an Obama-nominated Supreme Court replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. “We’re going to get rid of our debt, we’re going to balance our budgets and we’re going to have a country again,” Trump told raucous Kansas caucus-goers. Rubio didn’t stump Saturday in any of the five states that were in play, instead heading to Puerto Rico and to Florida for the first day of early voting for that state’s March 15 primary. The Florida senator’s White House aspirations depend on a resounding win in his home state. But Trump appeared there, too, holding an evening victory speech in West Palm Beach and an afternoon rally in Orlando, at which hurled more insults at party insiders. “We have leadership that’s almost nonexistent; incompetent leadership,” Trump said. “These eggheads, they call them elites. Half of them can’t tie their shoes.” And in a campaign first, he got the crowd to raise their right hands and swear to vote for him in the Florida contest. “I’ve never done this before. Can I have a pledge, a swearing? Raise your right hand,” he urged, as supporters followed his lead. Kasich, meanwhile campaigned in Michigan ahead of the state’s March 8 primaries. He said he would not resort to slinging mud at Trump. “I’m with Harry Potter — I’m not going to the dark side,” Kasich told reporters, mixing his pop culture metaphors. Trump appears to be drawing much of his support from independents and even disaffected Democrats, and is pulling them to the polls in which they are permitted to vote. But Trump’s losses Saturday are the first indication that rank-and-file Republicans are having qualms about his policies and persona. That’s fuel for the establishment’s efforts to push for a contested GOP convention. The bizarre “small hands” contretemps from Thursday’s GOP debate was still grating on Trump Saturday. “I didn’t bring it up — he brought it up,” Trump said of Rubio, who’d joked that Trump’s “small hands” reflected poorly on his manhood. “And I finished it,” Trump added of his debate rejoinder: “I guarantee you there is no problem.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20160709132324id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/03/06/ted-cruz-still-cant-thump-trump/

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Ted Cruz still can’t thump Trump

The GOP insurgency barely laid a Mitt on him. Donald Trump eked out victories in Kentucky and Louisiana on Saturday, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz hot on his heels in those two delegate-rich states. Tru…

20160709223655

Jewish American history books don't usually evoke images of the California Gold Rush. But among the waves of risk-takers flooding the Sierra foothills in the late 1840s and early '50s were masses of Jews from Germany willing to brave a rough-hewn life in order to stake their claim, pan for gold and hit the fiscal big time. "Much of (this California history) is omitted from most of what you'd call general history books of Jewish history, which really means New York Jews, " says Marc Dollinger, who holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman endowed chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. Dollinger and Ava F. Khan, a historian of western Jewish life who has served as a visiting professor of history at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, have edited a large-format book, "California Jews" (Brandeis University Press), which spotlights some of this hidden history. The book's 15 essays highlight other lesser-known aspects of Jewish history as well: the influence of women; the lives of ordinary people; the efforts of Jews to help the Japanese interned during World War II; and the denial by Jews of the Israel expatriates who settled in Southern California. It tells the story of how the Gold Rush adventurers settled down and worked at assimilating into Bay Area society. It also tells how, a half century later, Eastern European Jews settled in Los Angeles, some of them becoming prime movers in Hollywood. Both groups found a kind of speedy mobility in the Golden State that allowed members to achieve power, place and financial success that their spiritual brothers and sisters on the East Coast would take decades to accomplish. Dollinger says that he and Kahn conceived of the book as "the next generation's approach to California Jewish history." That meant building on the past 40 years of scholarship, yet not using a traditional top-down approach - highlighting movement leaders - but from a "social history" angle: telling the stories of ordinary people. It also meant, Dollinger says, ensuring the presence of women "both as writers and as subjects of study, and (examining) the influence of women in what has traditionally been seen as a man's world." That subject is covered in the essay "120 Years of Women's Activism," co- written by Kahn and Professor Glenna Matthews, a visiting scholar in the Institute of Regional and Urban Development at UC Berkeley. (Dollinger notes that California has two female Jewish U.S. senators: Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.) Dollinger and Kahn's modern approach also led them, Dollinger says, to tackle some formerly taboo subjects, such as the longtime - and controversial - presence of Israelis in California ("Kibbutz San Fernando"). Dollinger says that American Jews were reluctant to acknowledge the presence of large numbers of Jews who were born in Israel and lived in a kibbutz society but chose to live in Southern California. They didn't want to admit that Jews born in what was considered the Promised Land would leave Israel permanently. The organized Jewish community in California "spent a lot of time not reaching out to them, not involving them and not making them public," Dollinger said, adding that the Israeli expatriates faced a struggle "between the promised land of their birth and the promised land of their future." It is those issues of assimilation - within and without the Jewish community - and of establishing a presence in a new place that fascinated Kahn and Dollinger. "Ultimately, as historians we're interested in cultural interaction," Dollinger said, "how people mix elements of their Jewishness with their residence in the Golden State." According to Dollinger, one essay, "Jewish Space and the Place in Venice, " by Amy Hill Shevitz, discusses how Jews who worship at a synagogue at the beach in Venice (Los Angeles County) "combine the fact that they're all at the Pacific Ocean, at the beach and in sunny California and the way they practice their Judaism." Water, he adds, has "powerful qualities in Judaism as a ritual purifier." It is perhaps the story of the Jewish Hollywood moguls, covered in Felicia Herman's essay, "Jewish Leaders and the Motion Picture Industry," that is both most familiar to the general reader and especially compelling. Dollinger says that it was only in California that Jewish immigrants could move as quickly as they did into positions of authority. In the movie industry, that resulted in an odd juxtaposition as the moguls green-lighted Biblical epics. "Here we have California Jews defining what it meant to be a Christian to Christian Americans," Dollinger says with a laugh. That kind of assimilation had its price, however. Jews have a history of persecution and dislocation; questions of assimilation provoke sharp, sometimes wary responses from hard-liners in that community. The danger of assimilation, is that the original religious or group identity will be lost as its members become part of a larger adopted group. Some types of synagogue architecture imitated Protestant and Catholic church edifices. And Jews in California intermarried with Christians at the highest rate among urban Jews in the country. Dollinger points out that, in the case of German Jews who moved to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, California was their promised land. "Traditionally, they are criticized for being so assimilationist," he says, "but they were seeing something not seen in most of Jewish history - civil equality in a mostly Christian society." The Golden State has been good to Dollinger, 39, a fifth-generation San Franciscan. He lived in the city until age 4, when his family moved to Sherman Oaks in Southern California. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1986 with a history degree and taught at Pasadena City College for seven years before taking his current job at San Francisco State a year and a half ago. "My heart and soul has always remained in the Bay Area," says Dollinger, who lives in Mill Valley with his wife, Marci, and their two children: Rebecca, 7, and Shanya, 4. "My wife and I would travel up here every six weeks of our married life, and when we'd land we'd look at each other and say, 'When can we move?'" Like those who moved before him, Dollinger appears to appreciate how the Golden State gave Jews options - something that he hopes his and Kahn's book reflects. "California Jews have been given a level of choice that few other American Jews have enjoyed," he says. "Choice around where they live, how they pray, what job they want, how much education they'll receive." He adds, "It took 50 years for a generation of Jews on the East Coast to work through those issues."

http://web.archive.org/web/20160709223655id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/Mining-hidden-history-San-Francisco-professor-2548790.php

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Mining hidden history / San Francisco professor and other scholars unearth nuggets about Jews in the Golden State

[...] among the waves of risk-takers flooding the Sierra foothills in the late 1840s and early '50s were masses of Jews from Germany willing to brave a rough-hewn life in order to stake their claim, pan for gold and hit the fiscal big time. "Much of (this California history) is omitted from most of what you'd call general history books of Jewish history, which really means New York Jews, " says Marc Dollinger, who holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman endowed chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. Dollinger and Ava F. Khan, a historian of western Jewish life who has served as a visiting professor of history at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, have edited a large-format book, "California Jews" (Brandeis University Press), which spotlights some of this hidden history. The book's 15 essays highlight other lesser-known aspects of Jewish history as well: the influence of women; the lives of ordinary people; the efforts of Jews to help the Japanese interned during World War II; and the denial by Jews of the Israel expatriates who settled in Southern California. Both groups found a kind of speedy mobility in the Golden State that allowed members to achieve power, place and financial success that their spiritual brothers and sisters on the East Coast would take decades to accomplish. The organized Jewish community in California "spent a lot of time not reaching out to them, not involving them and not making them public," Dollinger said, adding that the Israeli expatriates faced a struggle "between the promised land of their birth and the promised land of their future." Ultimately, as historians we're interested in cultural interaction," Dollinger said, "how people mix elements of their Jewishness with their residence in the Golden State. According to Dollinger, one essay, "Jewish Space and the Place in Venice, " by Amy Hill Shevitz, discusses how Jews who worship at a synagogue at the beach in Venice (Los Angeles County) "combine the fact that they're all at the Pacific Ocean, at the beach and in sunny California and the way they practice their Judaism."

20160717153549

The man behind the Bastille Day truck attack that killed at least 84 people in Nice had recently been radicalised, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says. Thursday night's attack in the Riviera city of Nice plunged France into new grief and fear just eight months after gunmen killed 130 people in Paris. Those attacks, and one in Brussels four months ago, shocked Western Europe, already anxious over security challenges from mass immigration, open borders and pockets of Islamist radicalism. Authorities are yet to produce evidence 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, shot dead by police, had any links to Islamic State, which claimed the attack, but Valls said there was no doubt on the assailant's motives. "The investigation will establish the facts, but we know now that the killer was radicalised very quickly," Valls said in an interview with Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. "The claim on Saturday morning by Islamic State and the fast radicalisation of the killer confirms the Islamist nature of this attack." Officials said on Saturday that people questioned by police had indicated that he had undergone a rapid transformation from someone with no apparent interest in religion. Relatives and friends interviewed in Nice painted a picture of a man who at least until recently drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and according to French media even ate pork, behaviour that would be unlikely in a devout Muslim. Speaking from his home town in Tunisia, Bouhlel's sister told Reuters he had been having psychological problems when he left for France in 2005 and had sought medical treatment. As authorities were trying to better understand his motives, two more people, a man and a woman close to Bouhlel, were arrested in Nice early on Sunday, bringing the number of people in detention over the killings to seven. The Amaq news agency affiliated with the militant Islamist group said that Bouhlel "was one of the soldiers of Islamic State". Valls, who said security services had prevented 16 attacks over three years, indicated that at play on Thursday was the group's modus operandi of cajoling unstable individuals into carrying out attacks with whatever means possible. "Daesh gives unstable individuals an ideological kit that allows them to make sense of their acts ... this is probably what happened in Nice's case," Valls said, referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. The group, which is under military pressure from forces opposed to it, considers France its main target given its military operations in the Middle East, and also because it is easier to strike than the United States, which is leading a coalition against it. Despite mounting criticism from the conservative opposition and far right over how President Francois Hollande's Socialist government is handling security, Valls said there was no risk zero and new attacks would occur. "I've always said the truth regarding terrorism: there is an ongoing war, there will be more attacks. It's difficult to say, but other lives will be lost." With presidential and parliamentary elections less than a year away, French opposition politicians are increasing pressure and seizing on what they described as security failings that made it possible for the truck to career 2km through large crowds before it was finally halted. After Thursday's attack, a state of emergency imposed across France after the November attacks in Paris was extended by three months.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160717153549id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/07/17/02/59/police-arrest-3-in-nice-is-claims-attack

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French PM says Nice truck driver a radical

The family of the man who killed 84 people in Nice doubt his Islamic State links, but French authorities say he may have been radicalised very quickly.

20160722193239

It's been a good week for women in architecture in general, except for one female architect in particular. In the first instance, the Architect's Journal announced the finalists for its inaugural Women in Architecture awards. The magazine's recent championing of female architects, and highlighting of inequalities within the profession, is commendable. Among its findings was that the proportion of female architectural staff in the UK has actually declined since 2009, from 28% to 21% – this despite the proportion of female architecture students being roughly 50%. That work-life balance is evidently hard to strike in a profession many say is still inherently masculine, with its long apprenticeship, long working hours, and emphasis on competition rather than collaboration. No wonder they've called it the WAA – it sounds like a cry of despair, doesn't it? The shortlists aren't too depressing, though. Eight women are up for the award, including Amanda Levete (formerly of Future Systems, doing well on her own), Roisin Heneghan (of Heneghan Peng, designers of the new London Olympics footbridge) and Sarah Wigglesworth (whose fine Sandal Magna primary school gained her a lot of attention last year). There's also an award for emerging woman architect of the year. The prizes are announced on 20 April. There's a nice (if confusingly Anglo-American) infographic on women in architecture here, by the way. The woman for whom it has not been such a great week is the first female architect most people would name: Zaha Hadid. She's up for the WAA as well, but first she lost out on the competition to design the prestigious new Bauhaus Museum in Weimer, Germany, for which she was the only British architect in contention. Her absence was conspicuous, too, when it came to another architecture award: the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) announced the 23-strong shortlist for its inaugural national awards this week, and Zaha's Glasgow Riverside Museum for Transport isn't on it, despite being surely the highest-profile new building in Scotland of the past year. It wasn't a unanimously popular project, but its omission has baffled even its critics. Was it because Zaha has won the Stirling prize for two years running? Has she just become too big? Hadid can at least take consolation from her inclusion in the V&A's new exhibition on British design, which opens today. The exhibition's architecture component includes a model of her Aquatics Centre, the only female-designed building in the show, as far as I could see. There are plenty of the usual architectural suspects here: the postwar Festival of Britain generation; Basil Spence; Denys Lasdun; big models of Foster's Gherkin and Rogers's Lloyds building. One discovery for me was John Prizeman, about whom I'd known very little. He was an accomplished writer, and his work mainly focused on domestic interiors, particularly kitchens. There are illustrations of two small designs by him that caught my eye. One was his "Soft-Tech House for the 1980s" – an evocative, late-70s vision of "the future" that looks like a cross between Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House and a sort of Hobbit-style eco-dwelling. It's somehow simultaneously quaint and ahead of its time. The other, particularly pertinent in the context of women in architecture, is a cutaway illustration of a neat, compact family home Prizeman designed in 1959. It's bracingly modern, with fitted kitchens, free-flowing living areas and a new Mini in the garage, though its name wasn't exactly progressive: it's called Her House. It says it all that the woman in Prizeman's dream home is depicted bustling around indoors; the man is lounging on the back terrace. Finally, another new discovery this week was Architects of Invention, a practice that not only has one of the best names in the business but looks to be living up to it. It is headed by Niko Japaridze, a former senior architect at Rem Koolhaas's OMA, who has worked in the UK and also has offices in his native Georgia. Last year, the firm wove a snaking wooden staircase through the new headquarters it designed for Georgia's National Olympic Committee, and has recently finished an imposing new building in Tbilisi with an imposing name: The Prosecutor's Office. It looks like a giant black filing cabinet, with square, glass rooms projecting out like half-opened drawers. Seventy per cent of the building is hung off the ground. The interior is just as startling – its long central staircase with green glass walls looks like something out of The Matrix. Japaridze has a host of other promising-looking buildings going up in Georgia. He also claims to be Tbilisi's one millionth citizen. One to watch. • This article was amended on 4 April 2012. The original misspelled the names of Roisin Heneghan and Heneghan Peng architects as Roisin Peneghan of Peneghan Heng. This has been corrected.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160722193239id_/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/mar/30/constructive-criticism-women-in-architecture?CMP=twt_gu

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Constructive criticism: the week in architecture

It was a good week for women architects – except for the most famous one – while the British design exhibition reveals a couple of gems

20160723065050

It’s hard to remember a time when video games and comic books were enjoyed almost exclusively by people under the age of 18. But that was the case a mere couple of decades ago, before both began featuring violence, profanity, sex, and other material not appropriate for young children. Along the same lines, in recent times many other things long associated with kids are now being marketed to adult consumers. Here are a dozen examples: Gummy Vitamins. A string of studies indicating that vitamins appear to be largely a waste of money has resulted in flat sales for the once sizzling vitamin market. It looks like consumers are getting the messages spread by researchers in the field, who point out that while vitamin supplements are correlated with better health, there is little proof of causality because the people taking vitamins tend to healthier and take better care of themselves in the first place. But if consumers are dubious about the benefits of boring old-fashioned vitamins, they appear less skeptical about vitamins “disguised as candy,” a.k.a. gummy vitamins. Once popular only with children, colorful, chewable, sweet-tasting vitamins are now ubiquitous in stores’ adult vitamin sections, and makers of such adult vitamins say that the category has been enjoying “explosive growth” of late. Walt Disney World. In some ways, Disney World has always been marketed to adults—who often say they enjoy “feeling like a kid” while touring the theme parks sans children. Some even wish Disney would host child-free days when adults could hit the rides without having to deal with the young whippersnappers clogging up the parks. While that’s highly unlikely to ever take place, Disney has taken several steps over the years to appeal to adult-only clientele, including the introduction of booze for sale at the Magic Kingdom, as well as special events like $35 “After Hours” party with alcohol and tasting menus, and, most recently, a $79 “Food & Wine Late Night” at EPCOT. Pop Tarts. While interest in breakfast cereal has collapsed in recent years, sales of another kid favorite at the breakfast table, Pop Tarts, have risen each and every year for more than three decades straight. The Wall Street Journal noted that while Pop Tarts are most popular with teens and younger children, “adults reach for them as a retro snack.” It’s not just nostalgia that’s drawing adults to Pop Tarts, but that, “Shoppers increasingly want quick breakfasts they can eat with one hand on the go.” Over the years, Pop Tarts and its imitators have periodically tried out products more directly marketed to adults and foodies, such as “Toaster Pastries” in flavors like Cherry Pomegranate from Nature’s Path. Happy Meals. McDonald’s briefly tried to market a “Go Active Happy Meal” for adults a decade ago, with a salad and an exercise booklet instead of chicken nuggets and a plastic toy. It obviously didn’t catch on—very few healthy fast food items are successful—but this fall, the Happy Meal for Adults concept is back, bizarrely, in the world of high fashion. Nordstrom is selling a series of pop culture-themed items from Moschino, including an iPhone case that looks like a McDonald’s French fry container ($85) and a Happy Meal lookalike shoulder bag that retails for over $1,000. Backpacks. In what could be considered a sign that adults really don’t want to grow up, backpack sales are up dramatically among consumers ages 18 and up—including a 48% rise in backpack purchases by female adults over a recent time span. Valentino, Alexander McQueen, and Fendi are among the many fashion designers to feature posh leather and camouflage versions of the bag normally associated with high school and college kids, only theirs sometimes cost $2,000. Lunchables. OK, so neither Kraft nor its Oscar Mayer brand actually markets Lunchables to adults. But the Adult Lunch Combos look eerily like Lunchables only without Oreos or Capri Sun, and everyone is referring to the new protein-packed prepared lunches as “Lunchables for Adults” even though the real name is the Portable Protein Pack. Obstacle Courses. Kids have playgrounds in town parks and schools. What do adults have to help keep them in shape while also having fun? The gym doesn’t qualify because, for most people, working out is work, not fun. The exception is when the workout allows adults to swing, jump, get dirty, and challenge themselves on courses made specifically for them, like those on the popular TV show “American Ninja Warrior” and on Tough Mudder and other extreme obstacle course races. This fall, Las Vegas is even hosting an “Adult-Themed” course where the obstacles have names like the Dominatrix Dungeon and the Blue Balls Dash. Sugary Cereals. A big reason that cereal sales have dropped is that fewer kids are eating them for breakfast. Yet as parents try to sub in healthier fare as a replacement for kid-favorite sugary cereals, the cereal giants appear to be having some success reaching a different audience—the parents themselves. Baby Boomers and Gen X, who grew up craving the sugar rush provided by a bowl of neon-colored goodies on Saturday mornings, are now being fed heaping doses of nostalgia, in the form of cartoon-character cereals brought back from the dead and other adult-focused marketing efforts. The fastest-growing consumers of Trix and Lucky Charms are, in fact, older adults. Legos. “The Lego Movie” was certainly clever and entertaining enough to warrant an adult audience, especially among those who grew up building with the bricks. Lately, Lego has been making another appeal to adults. Several Legoland Discovery Centers—which normally attract families with children under the age of 10 or 12—have been offering special Adult Nights, where all visitors must be 18 or over. Fruit Roll-Ups. Many adults would probably be embarrassed if they were caught eating Fruit Roll-Ups, delicious though they may be. How can you avoid being kidded about your preference for what is a quintessential kid snack? Easy. Call them something more adult-sounding, such as Fruit Strips or Fruit Leather. Hot Pockets. Last year, Nestle attempted to broaden the Hot Pocket demographic—typically, teen boys and slacker college kids who don’t want to cook or even order pizza—by introducing gourmet versions featuring angus beef, hickory ham to appeal to adult foodies. Halloween. October 31 used to be about children trick-or-treating door to door in their neighborhoods. Now it’s the centerpiece of a whole Halloween season where the kids are invited to enjoy only some—but by no means all—of the fun. A year ago, adults spent roughly $1.2 billion on costumes, compared to $1 billion spent on costumes for kids. Roughly 7 out of 10 college-aged adults plan on dressing up for Halloween, which explains the sales success of oddly “sexy” costumes of pizza slices or corn fields. Or sexy nuns. Adults also tend to spend more on their costumes than they do on Halloween outfits for kids. So that explains why companies are marketing the holiday to adults more and more. Still, it’s hard to come up with a good explanation for the existence of the Sexy Pizza Costume.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160723065050id_/http://time.com:80/money/3419105/kids-marketing-adults-disney-vitamins-cereal/?

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Why They're Marketed to Adults

Who says kids should get to have all the fun? Not the forces behind a wide range of seemingly juvenile foods, products, and places that are increasingly being sold to adults—plenty of whom are happy to play along.

20160725140431

The teenager behind the deadly shooting rampage in Munich was a withdrawn loner investigators say, adding that he had planned the attack for a year. Law enforcement officials said on Sunday 18-year-old David Ali Sonboly was obsessed with playing "killer" video games in his bedroom and a victim of bullying who suffered from panic attacks set off by contact with other people. The German-Iranian was seeing a doctor up to last month for treatment of depression and psychiatric problems that began in 2015 with inpatient hospital care and then was followed up with outpatient visits. Medication for his problems had been found his room but toxicological and autopsy results aren't yet available, so it's not yet clear whether he was taking the medicine when he went on his shooting spree on Friday, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded. The attack came on the fifth anniversary of the killing of 77 people by Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, whose victims included dozens of young people. Investigators said the Munich shooter had researched that slaughter online and had visited the site of a previous school shooting in the German town of Winnenden last year. "He had been planning this crime since last summer," said Robert Heimberger, Bavaria's top official, citing a "manifesto" linked to the shooting found in the gunman's locked room in the apartment he shared with his parents and brother. Heimberger said he could not reveal details of the document yet because there were "many more terabytes" of information to evaluate, but described the gunman as a "devoted player" of group internet "killer games" pitting virtual shooters against each other. Weapons are strictly controlled in Germany and police are still trying to determine exactly how the shooter obtained the Glock 17 used in the attack. Heimberger said it's "very likely" the suspect purchased the weapon illegally online on the "darknet". The shooter's father saw a video of the start of his son's rampage on social media and went to police as it was taking place, Heimberger said, adding that the family was still emotionally not up to questioning by police. Witnesses say the gunman shouted slurs against foreigners, even though he himself was the German-born son of Iranian asylum-seekers Heimberger said the McDonald's restaurant were most of the victims died was a hangout for youths of immigrant backgrounds, and the dead included victims of Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, and Kosovo Albanian backgrounds and a stateless person. In the aftermath of the attack, Bavaria's top security official urged the government to allow the country's military to be deployed in support of police during attacks. Because of the excesses of the Nazi era, Germany's post-war constitution only allows the military, known as the Bundeswehr, to be deployed domestically in cases of national emergency. Munich deployed 2300 police officers to lock down the city Friday night, calling in elite SWAT teams from around the country and neighbouring Austria.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160725140431id_/http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/07/25/04/11/munich-shooter-was-bullied-loner

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Munich shooter was bullied loner

As German investigators piece together what was behind the Munich shooting, a picture of a withdrawn teenage loner, obsessed with violence, emerges.

20160728145327

TAMPA, Fla.— Hillary Clinton named Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine to be her running mate Friday night, turning to a seasoned politician from a battleground state and a figure long seen as the favorite to complete the Democratic presidential ticket. “Tim is a lifelong fighter for progressive causes and one of the most qualified vice presidential candidates in our nation’s history,” Mrs. Clinton said in an email to supporters a day after GOP nominee Donald Trump scorched her in a speech to the Republican National Convention. On Twitter, she called Mr. Kaine “a man who’s devoted his life to fighting for others.” Mr. Kaine, also on Twitter, said he couldn’t wait to hit the trail with her Saturday in Miami. The senator, 58 years old, is widely considered a safe choice befitting a cautious presumptive nominee, and people close to the campaign have seen him as the front-runner for months. He is broadly respected in the Senate, has a foreign-policy background and is seen by Mrs. Clinton and close aides as a potentially strong partner in governing. But his selection came as a disappointment to some in the liberal wing of the party. Some Democrats had hoped Mrs. Clinton would turn to a more populist leader, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, in an effort to unite the party following a tough primary fight with liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders. Mr. Kaine’s positions in favor of trade and other matters leave many progressives cold. Mrs. Clinton’s deliberations for a running mate began in earnest in April, after her win in the New York primary. Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, came to her house in Chappaqua, N.Y. and delivered binders filled with information about two dozen potential vice-presidential nominees. He carried the material in Duane Reade drug store bags. A little over a week ago, Mrs. Clinton campaigned with Mr. Kaine in Virginia. Afterward, the two went back to her home in Washington, D.C., for an unscheduled meeting, the campaign aide said. Mrs. Clinton had been impressed with Mr. Kaine’s campaign style, the aide said. The pair were first joined by other aides and then talked one-on-one. Mr. Kaine left her home at 10:30 p.m., after an hour and a half, the aide said. Mrs. Clinton met privately with other vice-presidential candidates at her home in Washington the following day. Later, she told her aides she wanted to meet again with Mr. Kaine. On Saturday, July 16, Mr. Kaine and his wife returned to Mrs. Clinton’s home in Washington for lunch. Also at the table were former President Bill Clinton, her daughter, Chelsea, and her son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky. Mr. Kaine was the only candidate she invited back for a second meeting, the aide said. Mrs. Clinton told aides she felt comfortable with Mr. Kaine and had confidence in his abilities. In making her choice, she gave weight to a piece of advice from Mr. Podesta, a former White House chief of staff to her husband. A vice president, Mr. Podesta said, should be someone who she’d be glad to see when he enters the room and want to be part of “any conversation.” The Clinton campaign late Friday released a video promoting the new team, showing Mr. Kaine campaigning with Mrs. Clinton last week. “Do you want a me-first president, or a kids-and-families-first president? Do you want a trash-talker president, or a bridge-builder president?” he says. “Hillary’s ready to be our leader. Hillary’s ready to make history.” Mr. Kaine was first elected to office—the Richmond City Council—in 1994 and went on to serve as mayor and then as Virginia’s lieutenant governor. In 2005, he was elected governor, and in 2012, he won his Senate seat. He has never lost an election. He also served a stint as chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was on then-Sen. Barack Obama ’s short list for running mate in 2008. Mr. Kaine is white, but he could help Mrs. Clinton with minority voters. He took a year off law school to help run a technical school founded by Jesuit missionaries in Honduras. In 2013, he delivered a speech in Spanish on the Senate floor in support of an immigration overhaul. He joined a predominantly African-American Catholic church in Richmond, a majority-black city. Virginia is also a battleground state, though many analysts predict he will only have a slight impact on the outcome there. Many Democrats have long assumed Mrs. Clinton would choose Mr. Kaine because of his credentials, her comfort with him and because choosing him comes with few risks. “I am boring,” he said on NBC in June, but then joked, “Boring is the fastest-growing demographic in this country.” When asked during a PBS interview this past week whether he was “too boring,” Mrs. Clinton replied, “I love that about him.” She added that Mr. Kaine has never lost an election and was a “world-class mayor, governor and senator,” and “one of the most highly respected senators I know.” Others on her list presented risks. For instance, some thought an all-women ticket with Ms. Warren could turn off potential backers. Mrs. Clinton also looked at a political novice, retired Adm. James Stavridis, who is an expert in foreign policy but who hasn’t faced the rigors of a political campaign. Some Democrats said her position heading into the fall was strong enough that she was free to choose whomever she liked. Runners-up for the job were said to be Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. If elected vice president, Mr. Kaine’s successor in the Senate would be appointed by a Democratic governor. That isn’t the case with other people Mrs. Clinton considered for the job, including Mr. Booker, Ms. Warren and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Under Virginia law, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton ally, would name Mr. Kaine’s temporary successor, and the remainder of his term would be filled in a special election in November 2017. One issue for Mrs. Clinton could be winning over liberal voters to the pick. Last year, Mr. Kaine voted to give the president “fast-track” authority to smooth passage of a 12-nation trade pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal opposed by the Democratic base. Mr. Kaine has said free-trade deals can help the economy if negotiated in ways that protect workers’ rights. “He does nothing for [Bernie] Sanders supporters. He does nothing for the young or people of color. He won’t help win the white workers devastated by our perverse trade policies,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of the liberal group Campaign For America’s Future. “He is the choice of a candidate confident of victory who wants a safe VP.” His position on abortion has drawn some attention as well. He says he is personally opposed to the procedure but has voted in favor of abortion-rights measures. With Mr. Trump running as the self-described law-and-order candidate, Republicans hope to tar Mr. Kaine for his opposition to the death penalty and cite his pro bono work to try to free two murderers convicted in the 1980s. The effort will echo Mr. Kaine’s 2005 campaign for governor of Virginia, when then state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore used the issue against him. What’s new is that GOP researchers have uncovered the argument used by Mr. Kaine as a lawyer: that the death penalty wasn’t warranted in one case because the suspect didn’t actually rape the 17-year-old victim but instead sodomized her. “We plan to use this to show his extreme position on criminal-justice issues,” an RNC official said. As governor, however, Mr. Kaine didn’t let his personal views stop death-penalty cases and didn’t intervene in 11 executions, including that of Washington, D.C.-area sniper John A. Muhammad. The senator has been one of Mrs. Clinton’s most dedicated supporters on the Hill, endorsing her for president in early 2014 before she even announced her candidacy. In the Senate, Mr. Kaine serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, in addition to panels that oversee the budget and aging issues. Mr. Kaine drew some early praise from across the partisan aisle late Friday. Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said on Twitter that he was “trying to count the ways” he hates Mr. Kaine. “Drawing a blank,” he wrote. “Congrats to a good man and a good friend.” Mr. Kaine grew up in the Kansas City area and worked in his father’s ironworking shop. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he met his wife, who serves as Virginia’s secretary of education. The lawmaker, who plays harmonica with bluegrass bands, has occasionally demonstrated his musical skills in the Senate. When the chamber was forced into a rare weekend session in December 2014, Mr. Kaine played his harmonica at dinner while Senate Democrats sang Christmas carols and ate Chinese food. —James V. Grimaldi, Kristina Peterson and Julian Routh contributed to this article. Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com and Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com

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Hillary Clinton Picks Tim Kaine for Running Mate

Hillary Clinton picked Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, turning to a seasoned politician from a battleground state and a figure long seen as the favorite for the slot.

20160805183559

The Murdochs are still in crisis mode at Fox News. The network was rocked yet again on Friday, this time by a devastating article in New York magazine by Gabriel Sherman, who reported that Fox News paid a $3 million settlement to a booker who said Mr. Ailes carried on an abusive 20-year relationship with her — at times using company resources and personnel to facilitate it. Mr. Ailes denied the charges through his lawyer. It immediately raised new questions about whether the Murdochs would be forced into a bigger house cleaning of Mr. Ailes’s remaining team of lieutenants at Fox News, where, it seems, sexual harassment payouts were not followed by the recognition that there just might be a problem, let alone by any obvious attempts to aggressively address the corporate culture that facilitated the behavior in the first place. Mr. Ailes’s departure from the network leaves a huge vacuum in its own right. He drove it to pursue the stories that helped define the strife of the Clinton, Bush (No. 43) and Obama eras. He made it a TV headquarters for the patriotism-infused Bush war marketing effort; the false accusations that Mr. Obama was a “socialist” of dubious citizenship, and, most recently, the Trump movement. Mr. Murdoch abided by it all, even when it conflicted with some of his own views, such as his support for a path to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants. But as often as not he seemed to be in line with Mr. Ailes, at least based on how he portrayed himself on Twitter — as a “climate change skeptic”; as a fan of Dr. Ben Carson, “a real black president who can properly address the racial divide”; and as one who believes: “Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.” Though executives who have worked with Lachlan Murdoch say they assume he shares some of his father’s conservatism, they also say he does not readily advertise his views, which is in itself a major departure from the elder Murdoch. As for James Murdoch, his leanings are in plainer view than his brother’s, and they are decidedly different from his father’s (with an important exception, friends say: free-market fiscal policy). James Murdoch’s wife, Kathryn, is a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund and a former director at the Clinton Climate Initiative. The couple started Quadrivium, a foundation that focuses on the “sustainable use of resources” and “scientific understanding.” James has spearheaded initiatives to make the company “carbon neutral.” In an essay in Time magazine in December, he wrote, “Entrenched and compromised interests spin the fiction that science is more divided than united, and they sow seeds of uncertainty on issues of unquestionable priority: namely, the survival of our species on this planet.” His views have heartened producers and executives at National Geographic, which 21st Century Fox took greater control of last year. Fox News’s reporting often tells a much different story. Its hosts don’t hesitate to report that “the science is still in question,” as Heather Childers recently did, or that warnings about climate change are emanating from “people aligned with the political left in the scientific community,” as the host Steve Doocy said in April while promoting a film purporting to debunk climate change. Even before Mr. Ailes’s ouster, climate activists were hopeful that James Murdoch would force changes to skeptical coverage of climate change at Fox News, as well as its corporate cousin The Wall Street Journal, whose editorial page has great sway with congressional Republicans. To nudge it along, one group, Partnership for Responsible Growth, has run ads with both outlets reminding Republicans that their leaders used to support market-based solutions to climate change — and calling on The Journal’s editorial page to acknowledge humankind’s role. David Fenton, a longtime strategist for progressive causes whose agency, Fenton, made the ads, said its main goal was to push a bipartisan solution in the form of a carbon pricing system. The Murdoch outlets have been standing in the way, he said, by creating a “false reality bubble denying science” that scares amenable Republican politicians away from the cause. “James knows better, and there’s no way that someone like that could be happy with the terribly negative role the Murdoch properties have played in slowing bipartisan action on climate,” Mr. Fenton said. None of the Murdochs would comment for this column. But it’s impossible to talk about the intersection of their political and business interests without lingering for a moment on the latter. Even if some of Fox News’s programming drives one or both of the brothers bananas, it is still a major cash generator for 21st Century Fox, with $1.6 billion in operating profit in fiscal 2015, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group. Fox News’s raison d’être was to fill a void that conservative-leaning viewers sensed in the mainstream media. That guiding philosophy has provided a steady compass, and a lucrative revenue stream, as its competitors have struggled with their own paths. That could provide a strong argument against drastic change, especially for the elder Mr. Murdoch, who is by all accounts enjoying his new role running the network and is saying he won’t rush into picking a successor to Mr. Ailes. It seems a near certainty that he will stay through the election. With Mr. Murdoch at the helm, the network covered Hillary Clinton’s convention in Philadelphia with all the skepticism you’d expect. It didn’t show the speech of Khizr Khan, the Muslim father of a fallen American soldier. Then, there was Bill O’Reilly’s aside that the slaves who built the White House, whom Michelle Obama referred to in her prime-time address, were “well fed” and adequately housed. That said, Fox News’s audience tends to be older, which is why executives there indicate that the family views its younger prime-time star, Megyn Kelly, as an important part of its future. Her appeal extends to the core Fox News viewer as well as to those with more mainstream news tastes. Ms. Kelly’s contract, like Mr. O’Reilly’s, comes up for renewal next year. Before Mr. Ailes left, Ms. Kelly seemed certain to leave. Now it’s a given that her decision will depend on how the Murdochs decide to proceed — as will so, so much else. A version of this article appears in print on August 1, 2016, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: With Ailes Out, and Murdoch In, What’s Next at Fox News?. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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What’s Next at Fox News, With Ailes Out and Murdoch In?

Rupert Murdoch as the network’s interim chief after Roger Ailes’s ouster is a smart move, but Mr. Murdoch’s sons may have a hand in the direction of the empire.

20160809144507

A couple of experts have just been on the radio warning against a dangerous growth in addictive behaviour among adults in western societies, much of it including internet gambling, porn and gaming, deliberately designed to be so. At the same time the Daily Beast is reporting excitedly that other experts are telling us not to drink more than three glasses of wine a week. Yes, that's not a misprint. Clever chaps at Oxford University have concluded that the optimum intake of alcohol to dent booze-related deaths should be around 5g a day – that's slightly more than half a "unit" (8g) as currently defined, half of one (125ml) small scotch, half a half pint of beer, half a mean glass of red wine. Muddled messages here? You bet. The experts who complain about the commercial fostering of dirty habits are surely right. It's obvious to anyone who has watched a small child adeptly playing on an iPad, a teenager – including those of 35 – game-playing on a PC screen, let alone a harassed housewife getting past the chocolate and junk food in the queue for the supermarket till. But half a glass of wine a day, what my father's generation would have dismissed as merely a dirty glass? As the saying goes, that sounds like a cure worse than the lurking diseases, public policy with little credibility which both contradicts other research that says that moderate drinking is good for most people – and undermines the Department of Health's (DH) official guidelines. The guidelines have themselves been shrinking safe drinking for years. Twenty-eight units a week for men? Or 21? Twenty-one for women – or 14? The DH has changed its mind. What's more the number of units in a bottle of wine or scotch seems to be changing too. Ah well, say the puritans, the stuff's getting stronger. They say that about pot, too. Tobacco? Well, that's more straightforward and is more a matter of liberty – the right to sell a legal (and tax-lucrative) substance using lawfully owned brand labels – than of health. Andrew Lansley is surely more right than wrong (I don't say this every week) to argue that alcohol, even crisps in moderation, are OK, but that in health terms the potential damage in tobacco always outweighs the pleasure of the drag. By coincidence, the papers also contain warnings from the Health Protection Agency that sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise again among those young people not totally addicted to Grand Theft Auto. Charities rush to blame government cuts in the health education budget – they would, wouldn't they? – though it's not father-of-five Lansley who is not taking the precautions that put young people at risk. It's the young people – and we all remember why. It didn't seem important at the time. The cost of all these bad lifestyle choices is considerable, both in terms of the battered NHS budget and the misery it causes, ill-health, premature death, infertility, domestic violence. Yet we struggle to get a handle on it. On one page of the Daily Beast, people who should know better complain that the nanny state interferes too much in our lives, on the next it demands more intervention to protect us from risks that most adults should be sensible enough to evaluate without having to be told. The struggle between liberty and 'elf 'n' safety is beautifully illustrated by Thursday's Guardian report about the German climber on Everest who took that now-famous shot of the traffic jam of those mostly romantic amateurs (one carrying his bike) queuing to try to climb the world's highest mountain. Some will die, he thought sadly, and four later did. Lethal places mountains, even for the experts. Yet the German climber, Ralf Dujmovits, encountered what he called "an overweight French journalist" – a woman weighing 80kg – who had used up all her oxygen long before she had reached the point where a proper climber would need it. Who let her climb? Who sold her the oxygen? It's not a self-regarding action that merely puts her own life at risk. Mountains aren't like that. Climbers are roped. Fast-forward to the Oxford report. Yes, we know that booze can kill and maim. We can see that every day – though in Fleet Street and Westminster I see rather less of it than I once did and admit to slightly mixed feelings: it was so much more fun in the old days before the new puritanism took hold, a puritanism that is, incidentally, hedonistic in its own way. But I can't believe any good is served for scientists to step in at a time when governments in London and Edinburgh are grappling with the most effective model of unit pricing (how to target the winos' tipple without being unfair to the sober poor) and suggest that virtual teetotalism is the answer. It just defies belief and as such is bad policy. My oldest friend still drinks four or five proper units a day every day – and he's pushing 85.

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Alcohol and other health risks: let's get our story straight

Michael White: The Everest deaths show it's hard to balance liberty and safety, but a report suggesting half a glass of wine a day goes too far

20160817053822

“Modern life,” Hemingway once wrote, “is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief.” It’s a pertinent observation if we remember that it was written in an age before other drugs had become widely available, but it’s also one of the premises of Olivia Laing’s charming and gusto-driven look at the alcoholic insanity of six famous writers, namely John Cheever, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver. Rather than simply weld their stories together into a kind of collective biography, Laing weaves portraits of each man into an overland journey she made between New York and Port Angeles, Wash., last abode of Raymond Carver. The idea is to bind together cities and landscapes in which these men were immersed. The alcoholism of writers is, of course, the stuff of legend and, a few rungs down the ladder, of cliché. It was perhaps sealed in the popular American imagination by Charles R. Jackson’s underrated 1944 novel “The Lost Weekend” and the subsequent overrated Billy Wilder film of the following year. But the connection between addiction and creativity remains as enigmatic and complex as it was for De Quincey exploring his opium habit almost 200 years ago. Whiskey turns Don Birnam, the writer in “The Lost Weekend,” into his own demonic alter ego, a raging, boorish doppelgänger of the talented and modest man who can quote Shakespeare at the bar, but who can both quote it and riff on it when he’s tanked. Laing’s six writers are not dissimilar. They suffer decline, dementia and paranoia at the hands of various combinations of vodka, Scotch, beer, gin and wine. But why did they drink at all? “Echo Spring” is the term Brick uses in Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” to describe booze to his father, Big Daddy. “I’m takin’ a little short trip to Echo Spring,” he says, and we all know he’s referring to a brand of bourbon stashed in the liquor cabinet. A secret, a compulsion, a private tragedy, and then again both a release and an ecstasy — alcohol is a catalyst for something difficult to categorize. “I was beginning to think,” Laing writes, “that drinking might be a way of disappearing from the world.” It’s a beautiful sentence and it hints at the torment she is trying to locate. That she locates it at all is a testimony to her ability to read these writers closely and with such unsparing empathy. She instinctively understands certain things: Hemingway’s “refined, ferocious attention on objects-as-they-are” or Williams’s deep attachment to New Orleans that reminds her, three-quarters of a century later, of the “rich confusion of Addis Ababa, especially at night.” In fact, I especially liked her chapter on New Orleans and Williams, following the playwright on his daily outing to Victor’s Bar for a brandy Alexander to the sound of the Ink Spots. Similarly, the delicate understandings brought to bear on the fantastical and furtive Cheever are strangely gripping. (Her reading of “The Swimmer” immediately inspired me to reread it.) We revisit, too, the famous car trip taken by Hemingway and Fitzgerald from Lyon to Paris, the two men stopping to drink themselves stupid under trees in the rain. “Unsurprisingly,” she writes, “the theories writers tend to offer lean more towards the symbolic than the sociological or scientific. Discussing Poe, Baudelaire once commented that alcohol had become a weapon ‘to kill something inside himself, a worm that would not die.’ ” Is drink, then, a kind of psychological salve? As Saul Bellow observed of John Berryman: “Inspiration contained a death threat. He would, as he wrote the things he had waited and prayed for, fall apart. Drink was a stabilizer. It somewhat reduced the fatal intensity.” The question is how to disentangle these dark and manic threads. The surest method, and the one that works best for Laing, is a meticulous respect for the suffering that alcoholism entails combined with a stern refusal to let moralizing trump her literary instinct. She never talks down to her subjects. Occasionally, however, Laing succumbs to the temptation to get science to do some of the heavy lifting, to illuminate the human mystery that often baffles the observer. This is understandable, but it causes her narrative to slip below the standard she has set for herself. Here, for example, is Hemingway getting on his rather rickety high horse about Fitzgerald’s ruinous drinking habits (“I am his alcoholic,” as Fitzgerald once wrote to Maxwell Perkins): “It was hard to accept him as a drunkard, since he was affected by such minute quantities of alcohol. In Europe then we thought of wine as something healthy and normal as food and also as a great giver of happiness and well-being and delight. . . . I would not have thought of eating a meal without drinking wine or cider or beer, . . . and it had never occurred to me that sharing a few bottles of fairly light, dry, white Macon could cause chemical changes in Scott that would turn him into a fool.” “Very little of this analysis is accurate,” Laing immediately comments. “For a start, alcohol is a poison. . . . Large amounts consumed rapidly can cause respiratory depression, coma and death.”

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‘The Trip to Echo Spring,’ by Olivia Laing

In “The Trip to Echo Spring,” Olivia Laing chronicles the alcoholism of six writers: John Cheever, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver.

20160817131134

WASHINGTON—Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a possible vice presidential pick for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, came out in favor of abortion rights on Sunday, taking a stand on a divisive issue that puts him sharply at odds with the majority of Republican officeholders, activists and voters. Lt. Gen. Flynn, a registered Democrat who most recently served in President Barack Obama’s administration as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an interview with ABC News that women “have to be able to choose” whether to get an abortion. “They are the ones that have to make the decision because they’re the ones that are going to decide to bring up that child or not,” he said. Lt. Gen. Flynn is reportedly being considered as a running mate for Mr. Trump, but his support for abortion rights could complicate a bid to win a spot on the GOP ticket. Mr. Trump has run against abortion rights during this election campaign but has said in the past he supports abortion. A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment. Lt. Gen. Flynn’s comments are the latest complication for Mr. Trump’s efforts to recruit a running mate after several prominent Republicans removed themselves from consideration or said they weren’t being vetted. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a rising Republican star, said she was focused on her job in the Senate, while one of the Senate’s top foreign policy experts, Bob Corker of Tennessee, removed himself from the running last week. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said she wasn’t being vetted. Candidates reportedly being considered include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Republicans have long included opposition to abortion rights in their official party platform, while social conservatives and religious voters remain an important constituency within the party. Mr. Trump’s vice presidential nominee would need to be approved by delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this month. Some Republicans opposed to Mr. Trump are pushing a last-ditch effort to force a vote on the convention floor that could see him replaced as the nominee. The selection of a pro-abortion rights vice presidential nominee could throw the convention into further chaos and divide the party in advance of the fall election. Lt. Gen. Flynn’s remarks quickly drew criticism from antiabortion groups and conservative activists. Lt. Gen. Flynn “has disqualified himself from consideration as vice president. His pro-abortion position is unacceptable and would undermine the pro-life policy commitments that Mr. Trump has made throughout the campaign,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony List. “Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is a war hero and an expert in foreign policy. He should stick with what he knows. Social conservatives would consider it a slap in the face if he is chosen as VP,” said Penny Young Nance, president and chief executive of Concerned Women for America, a social conservative group. Lt. Gen. Flynn held a number of top positions in the Army, including intelligence chief for the Joint Special Operations Command and United States Central Command. He was appointed by Mr. Obama as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012. He left the job and retired from the military in 2014. In an op-ed piece last week in the New York Post, Lt. Gen. Flynn said he was fired for his efforts to reform the nation’s military intelligence apparatus. “If our leaders were interested in winning, they would have to design a strategy to destroy this global enemy,” Lt. Gen. Flynn wrote about the broader fight against Islamic-inspired terrorism. “But they don’t see the global war. Instead, they timidly nibble around the edges of the battlefields from Africa to the Middle East, and act as if each fight, whether in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Libya or Afghanistan, can be peacefully resolved by diplomatic effort.” Write to Byron Tau at byron.tau@wsj.com

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Possible Donald Trump Vice President Pick Backs Abortion Rights

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a possible vice presidential pick by Donald Trump, came out in favor of abortion rights Sunday, putting him sharply at odds with the majority of Republicans.

20160829115603

DALLAS -- The day after five Dallas officers were killed by a sniper, the city’s police chief described the men as “guardians” of democracy, praising them for protecting the freedom to protest at a large demonstration against police brutality. President Barack Obama later eulogized the slain officers, saying they died while defending essential constitutional rights. But nearly two months after the shootings, Dallas police have moved to silence critics and squelch lingering questions about the attack. Officers in riot gear have been told to ticket protesters who block or disrupt traffic, and Police Chief David Brown has refused to meet with demonstrators unless they agree to end their marches through downtown, which he says pose a threat to officers. Authorities have also refused to release even the most basic information about the slayings, including any details about the weapons used, the autopsy findings and ballistics tests that could establish whether any officers were hit by friendly fire. Police have indicated that such information could be withheld almost indefinitely. In addition, the police department’s most vocal, visible critic -- a 27-year-old self-styled preacher with a criminal history -- has been arrested multiple times in the last month on warrants that include unpaid traffic tickets and attempts to revoke his probation from a 2009 felony. On Friday, Dominique Alexander was ordered to prison. “Why all of a sudden are we the target?” asked Damon Crenshaw, vice president of the Next Generation Action Network, which organized the July 7 protest. “We’re not protesting because we’re mad at them. We’re protesting because the problems still exist and they won’t talk to us.” Crenshaw said Alexander was targeted because of his protest activities and that the shooter, Micah Johnson, was not affiliated with their group. Dallas has a history of cracking down on protesters. During the Occupy Dallas demonstrations in 2011, the city tried to require protesters to have a $1 million insurance policy, strengthened rules against camping in the city and eventually evicted campers from City Hall in a midnight police raid. In 2013, the city cited a decades-old rule prohibiting holding signs within 75 feet of major roadways to stop a group that planned to protest the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The city settled a lawsuit from that group before changing the law to prohibit protests on overpasses and other areas near highways. Another group sued over that law leading to another settlement, and the city repealed the rules all together. Alexander, the founder of the protest network, believes he was targeted because he refused to stop the demonstrations. “They try to hush and silence people,” he said. “It would be a failure to the lives lost if we don’t continue. The issues still exist, and they can act like they want to heal, but then they ignore the issues.” The police chief has support from City Hall. Mayor Mike Rawlings said in a statement that he trusts Brown’s “judgment in how he communicates with protest organizers.” Alexander, whose record includes convictions for forging a check, evading police and theft, was on probation for a 2009 conviction for causing injury to a child. He said the 2-year-old he was watching had fallen off the couch, but hospital staff said the child’s injuries were more consistent with abuse. Alexander denied injuring the child and said he pleaded guilty because he could not afford a good attorney. His uncle was killed by police in 2010 after firing on officers. But it was the 2014 death of a woman he knew in high school that prompted his involvement in police protests, Alexander said. The woman was missing for a week before being found dead in an abandoned building. Her family complained that police ignored their initial pleas for help. Alexander spent the past two weeks under house arrest, wearing an ankle monitor and awaiting a judge’s determination of whether his probation would be revoked. “No new crime has been committed to warrant this kind of action,” said Kim Cole, one of Alexander’s attorneys. “And the timing does appear suspicious.” Just days after a July 29 silent protest -- the first following the sniper attack -- authorities asked that Alexander’s probation be revoked for a variety of violations, including twice leaving the state without notifying his probation officer, once to attend the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Court records show the judge admonished Alexander and added 30 hours of community service to his sentence. Then on Aug. 10, following a confrontational appearance at a city council meeting, Alexander was cited for trespassing and escorted out of City Hall, where officers were waiting to arrest him on nine outstanding traffic ticket warrants. He spent the night in jail and, within an hour of his release, another arrest warrant was issued in a new attempt to revoke probation. That request rehashed clprevious allegations from the past year, including missed meetings with his probation officer, for which Alexander had already served 10 days in jail in December. At Friday’s hearing, the judge considered all of Alexander’s probation violations and sent him to prison for two years. With credit for time served, that comes to about six months, his attorneys said. Prosecutor Douglas Millican denied that politics were behind the efforts to revoke Alexander’s probation. But Cole said Alexander got extra scrutiny because of his protest activities, noting that police and sheriff’s officers had provided the judge with social media posts and other photos and video of Alexander to show he had left the state. In addition to the protest crackdowns, city and police officials have also succeeded in suppressing questions about the shooting, including details about the law enforcement response and the motive of the gunman, who was killed when police deployed a bomb-carrying robot. It was the first time law enforcement in the U.S. had used a robot to deliver and detonate an explosive to kill a suspect. Authorities have refused public records requests for police reports, 911 calls, audio and video recordings, autopsy documents, crime scene photos and evidence gathered at Johnson’s house, which police initially said held an arsenal of weapons and bomb-making material and a journal of combat tactics possibly indicating plans for a larger attack. Other officials have told The Associated Press that Johnson did not have a large stockpile of bomb-making materials. The Associated Press was informed by Dallas police late Friday that a portion of the records it requested would be made available, but the content was unclear. Brown told the City Council earlier this month that much of the information about the attack could be withheld for an indefinite period during an investigation into whether the use of force was justified. He declined to estimate how long that investigation might take, but said his office’s findings would be reviewed by the district attorney and a grand jury. The police chief did acquiesce to one of the protest network’s top demands, agreeing to eliminate a 2013 policy allowing officers 72 hours to give a statement after being involved in a shooting. The move, announced in a nighttime post to the department’s blog, said officers “will be provided the same legal rights as any other citizen who is the subject of a criminal investigation.”

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Dallas police squelch critics, questions about deadly attack on officers

Nearly two months after the shootings of five officers, Dallas police have moved to silence critics and lingering questions about the sniper attack

20161117092715

Another Massachusetts shoemaker is being challenged for making health claims about its footwear. A Florida woman, Valerie Bezdek, has sued Vibram USA Inc., based in Concord, accusing the maker of the FiveFingers running shoe of making misleading claims about health benefits. Designed to mimic the act of barefoot running, the minimalist running shoe has a shaped sole and a mesh top, with individual sleeves for each toe. In its advertising, Vibram says the shoe improves posture and strengthens leg muscles. But the lawsuit says that using FiveFingers may be risky for runners. “Indeed, running in FiveFingers may increase injury risk as compared to running in conventional running shoes, and even when compared to running barefoot,’’ according to a copy of the suit, filed in US District Court in Boston. Get Business Headlines in your inbox: The Globe's latest business headlines delivered every morning, Monday through Friday. The Vibram suit follows several recent cases against Massachusetts shoe companies about how they market sneakers. Last year, Canton-based Reebok International Ltd. refunded $25 million to customers after the Federal Trade Commission found it made deceptive claims that its toning shoes improved muscle tone. A suit filed in January 2011 alleged that New Balance, of Boston, also overstated the benefits of its toning shoes. FiveFingers shoes have gained in popularity. Still, according to SportsOne Source, which tracks the sporting goods industry, barefoot-style footwear represents only 8 percent of the $6.5 billion running shoe market in the United States. “This is a totally different manner of running,’’ said Matt Powell, an analyst with SportsOne Source, “and you need to be pretty dedicated to it.’’ There are similarities between the Vibram lawsuit and the Reebok case, but the Vibram claims differ, he said. While Reebok promised firmer butts and toned legs as a result of wearing its toning shoes, he said the Vibram claims are more about the benefits of barefoot running, which Vibram claims are supported by scientific evidence. “And there is ample evidence that training without shoes allows you to run faster and farther with fewer injuries,’’ the company says on its website. Vibram, with corporate headquarters in Italy, is a 70-year-old company known for pioneering the use of rubber soles for footwear. It introduced its line of FiveFinger shoes in 2005. Janine Pollack, one of the lawyers who filed the suit against Vibram, would not comment on the case. She was also involved in the case against Reebok. Vibram did not return a call for comment.

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Concord maker of FiveFingers running shoe faces suit over health claims

Vibram USA Inc., which is based in Concord, is facing a class action lawsuit that challenges the company’s health claims about its minimalist FiveFinger running shoes. sneakers have grown in popularity along with the recent rise in “barefoot’’ running. The lawsuit challenges the shoemaker’s claim that its footwear helps reduce risk of injuries, improves posture, and strengthen leg muscles. The lawsuit follows a record-setting settlement paid by Reebok after the Federal Trade Commission complained that it was making false assertions about a brand of its shoes.

20161209170132

Peter Overton has penned a personal tribute to friend and legendary sports broadcaster, Ken Sutcliffe. (9NEWS) Ken Sutcliffe came from the bush and after 37 years at the Nine Network returns to the bush to enjoy his retirement. What I love and admire so much about Ken, is those authentic bush values have never left him in the nearly four decades he has reigned supreme as the voice, the face, the fabric of sports broadcasting in this country. Since announcing his retirement, I have been bowled over by complete strangers all wanting to tell me how much they will miss Ken. It’s his voice, his sparkling eyes, his familiarity, his realness...that’s what they have told me in the supermarket aisle, car line at school, on the street. You see, strangers feel completely comfortable with Kenny coming into their lounge rooms every night. He is like a friend or a family member and that recognition doesn’t come easily in this game. And let me tell you, that’s the Ken that lights up our newsroom every day. Away from the studio lights and cameras he is a mentor, a friend, an advisor and one of the hardest working journos you could meet. When it comes to work ethic, Ken sets the gold standard. None of us - viewers and workmates - want him to go, but he is and we wish him happiness, health and bucket loads of good times exploring the world with his wife Anne and cheering on his grand kids in life. Every night when Ken throws back to me on the Sydney 6pm news desk I respond with “see you tomorrow” ... And now I won’t. I am going to miss him, and so are you. Sydney viewers can watch 9NEWS at 6PM tonight as we farewell Ken Sutcliffe. © Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

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Peter Overton: ‘A farewell to my mate Ken Sutcliffe’

9NEWS Sydney anchor Peter Overton has penned a touching tribute to “his mate” and beloved sports presenter Ken Sutcliffe, who retires tonight.

20161213001427

TEMPE, Ariz. -- David Johnson's NFL career is only 28 games old, and already he is being compared to some of the great running backs of the game. Statistics bear those comparisons out, and his performance in the Arizona Cardinals' 31-23 victory over Washington on Sunday did nothing to diminish such talk. Johnson's multi-purpose skills were on full display when he rushed 18 times for 84 yards and a touchdown and caught nine passes for 91 yards and a score. With those statistics, the second-year player and third-round pick out of Northern Iowa, became the second player in NFL history to top 100 yards per game in the first 12 games of a season. Hall of Famer Edgerrin James did it in a record 13 games to start the 2005 season. Johnson joins another Hall of Famer, Marshall Faulk, as the only players to have 1,000 yards rushing and 700 yards receiving through 12 games. Faulk did it in 1998, scoring six touchdowns in the process. Johnson has an NFL-leading 15 TDs. Arizona coach Bruce Arians was an assistant coach at Indianapolis when first Faulk, then James were there. Johnson, Arians said, "reminds me a lot of those guys." The lofty comparisons are nothing new to the quiet Johnson. "It's a great achievement just to hear that," he said. "to be talked about amongst those great players." Johnson mostly just smiles on the field when he's doing his damage. There's no chest-thumping over his success. "I think it's the past, growing up, not getting looked at (by big colleges)," he said of his humility, "still not getting looked at going into the pros. I think those are the main things. Also, I'm a Christian and reading the Bible and God is letting me know to be humble amongst men." Johnson caught a 25-yard touchdown pass and scored on a one-yard run against the Redskins, but it was a play late in the game that was most crucial. Late in the fourth quarter and leading 24-23, the Cardinals had the ball fourth-and-one at their own 34-yard line and Arians called for one of his characteristic gambles, going for it. Arizona went with its bread-and-butter play, giving the ball to Johnson behind left tackle D.J. Humphries. Johnson ripped off a 14-yard gain and, moments later, Carson Palmer threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to J.J. Nelson to make it an eight-point game "He's going to make you right most of the time," Humphries said of his young running back. "He was really just supposed to cram that for a yard. We only needed a yard. He saw a little seam right there and said `Let me hit that.'" After the game, Palmer called Johnson "the best player in the NFL -- point blank." "I think he's proven that," Palmer said. "Our wins and losses have affected some of the hype that he has not gotten and other guys have gotten because they are on winning teams. He's the best player in the NFL." Larry Fitzgerald called the fourth-and-one play "a gutsy call that I knew coach would make." "I mean, what do we have to lose at this point," Fitzgerald said. ". ... I just knew that getting the ball in the -- I think the National Football League's MVP in David Johnson -- getting the ball in his hands and let him do what he does. He delivered as he always does." Johnson wasn't the only one mentioned among the game's greats after Sunday's contest. With his 10 catches and 78 yards, Fitzgerald moved past Cris Carter and Marvin Harrison into third on the NFL's career receptions list (1,106). He has caught a pass in 191 consecutive games, third-longest streak in league history. Fitzgerald also became the youngest player to reach 1,100 receptions -- from 16 different quarterbacks. Sunday was his 13th double-digit reception game.

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Young Cardinals back David Johnson joining elite company

Johnson joins Hall of Famer, Marshall Faulk, as the only players to have 1,000 yards rushing and 700 yards receiving through 12 games.

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WASHINGTON — Republicans poised to control the Federal Communications Commission next month said they will revisit the Net neutrality regulation “as soon as possible,” laying out plans to address a rule they’ve opposed and that Democrats support. The statement Monday from commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly indicates that opponents of the rule such as top broadband providers AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. may not need to wait for Congress to grapple with the regulation that requires equal treatment of Web traffic. Web companies such as Netflix Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have supported the rule backed by President Obama. The FCC’s Democratic chairman, Tom Wheeler, is leaving office as Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20, and his departure adds to vulnerability for the rule passed with only Democratic votes last year. The Net neutrality rule forbids Internet service providers from blocking or slowing rivals’ content. Companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and the cable industry sued to block the rule, saying it gave the agency too much authority. Get Breaking News in your inbox: Find out about important news stories as soon as they break They lost that case but some Republicans have vowed to take up the cause and overturn the regulation when they have control of Congress, the White House, and the FCC. Pai and O’Rielly laid out their plan in a letter Monday to trade groups concerned with shielding small businesses from portions of the Net neutrality rule that require Internet service providers to divulge details about network performance, including speed, delays, and dropped information. The businesses said it takes expensive equipment to meet that demand.

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Republicans poised to control the Federal Communications Commission next month said they’d revisit the net neutrality regulation “as soon as possible,” laying out plans to address a rule they’ve opposed and that Democrats support.

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BY LLOYD GROVE WITH HUDSON MORGAN Tuesday, October 18th 2005, 6:46AM Note to Lil' Kim video director Kirk Fraser: You can say "The check's in the mail" only so many times before your pants catch on fire. Fraser repeatedly promised to make things right after the Daily News reported a month ago that he bounced more than 18 checks to crew members who toiled furiously on the last-minute music video shoots in September, before Kim went to jail. "I'm prepared to pursue whatever legal road necessary to solve this problem," producer Heidi Tannenbaum told Lowdown yesterday. "This morning I called the whole crew, including the vendors - probably 50 people altogether - and only three people have gotten new checks." A second production staffer, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, added: "It's been a complete run-around. It's double-talk! They need to pay us. In this business, people will let things go for 30 days, but after that, you owe us the money." Fraser, who owns the Washington-based production company May 3rd Films, didn't respond to repeated phone calls yesterday. Yesterday, a spokesman for Kim - who's serving a year-and-a-day sentence at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia on a perjury and conspiracy conviction - said his client isn't to blame. "She has no first-hand knowledge of any debt and has nothing to do with the situation," Ronn Torossian insisted OLIVER STONE'S KILLER SENSE OF HUMOR SURFACES. Oliver Stone sure has a funny sense of humor - funny ha-ha and funny strange. Years ago, I was having lunch with the provocative movie director in his Santa Monica kitchen when he started cooing over his then-toddler daughter Tara, who was dangling her feet over a tile counter and giggling. "Isn't she adorable?" Daddy Stone asked me. "She looks good enough to eat. To put in the microwave." So I'm sure it was in that same antic spirit that the 59-year-old Stone - who's been spending time in Manhattan working on his 9/11 opus starring Nicolas Cage - threatened the life of Jada Yuan of New York mag. When Yuan asked the Oscar-winning auteur about the recent flap over the canceled International Freedom Center at ground zero, Stone retorted: "I won't answer that. It's too controversial." According to the new issue of New York, Stone then got Yuan's name and warned: "Good to know. If you write anything, I'll kill you." Yesterday, Hollywood PR doyenne Pat Kingsley assured me that she'd checked with her client and he was, indeed, joking. "Oliver remembers that he said something like, 'If I talk to you, I'll have to kill you.' That's a Hollywood slogan. We say it here at least once a day." For my money, not enough. SWEPT OFF HER FEET - BY FRENCHMEN! That was New York Times Magazine ace Lynn Hirshberg falling head over heels - literally - at the big Lanvin show in Paris the other day, in front of the entire global fashion establishment. I'm told Hirshberg arrived late and was milling about on the runway when some French maintenance workers pulled the rug out from under her. Hirshberg went splat, as a stunned hush fell over the crowd. The apologetic French guys - but not Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, sitting placidly a few feet away - came to Hirshberg's aid. A nearby Lowdown spy overheard Vanity Fair fashion director Elizabeth Saltzman commenting: "Fashion is so cruel." Hirshberg, for her part, told me she skinned her knees and bruised her ego, but was otherwise unhurt. "I'm just glad I didn't rip my Lanvin dress," she said. "It's the most expensive thing I own." ON HER OWN, BUT ON THE MARKET? For the past 7 1/2 years, glam L.A. businesswoman Patricia Kennedy has been inseparable from auto industry icon Lee Iacocca, the former chairman of Chrysler who's currently starring with Snoop Dogg in a commercial for his favorite car. Two years ago, Iacocca slipped an engagement ring on her finger - and marriage loomed. But now, the former model and actress and her 81-year-old fiancé are no longer an item, and Kennedy is stepping out by herself to chair next Monday's $1 million- fund-raising gala for the Career Transition of Dancers, hosted by Liza Minnelli at the City Center and the New York Sheraton. "I'm going unescorted," Kennedy told me yesterday, "but there will be a lot of single men at my table."

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Note to Lil' Kim video director Kirk Fraser: You can say "The check's in the mail"only so many times before your pants catch on fire. Fraser repeatedly promised to make things right after the Daily News reported a month ago that he bounced more than 18 checks to crew members who toiled furiously on the last-minute music video shoots in September, before Kim went to jail.

20100831095627

BY MARISA GUTHRIE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, August 9th 2004, 9:35AM Jane Pauley and the folks behind her new daytime talk show are trying to lure female viewers by addressing a highly sensitive issue - hair styles. Pauley's, not theirs. In fact, one of the promo spots for "The Jane Pauley Show," premiering Aug. 30 at 11 a.m. on WNBC/Ch. 4, is a comical montage of the longtime newswoman's many different hair styles. See Jane with long, ironed hair in the '70s. See Jane with a pouf of streaked hair in the '80s. See Jane with a short shag in the '90s. "The deal was, I didn't want to surrender to the little anchorwoman helmeted look," Pauley told the Daily News, "so in not wanting to surrender to that ubiquitous helmet, I had stranger hairdos." Nevertheless, women - the key audience for daytime talkers - can relate to the hair promos on many levels. What woman hasn't endured a series of embarrassing hair permutations? They also remind viewers that Pauley is human, just like them. Pauley began her national news career in 1976 when she became co-host of NBC's "Today." "I was 25 on the 'Today' show, and I had precocious broadcast skills," said Pauley. "But as a person, I probably had a pretty fragile grasp on who I was because I was often told I sounded like Barbara Walters and I was apparently the only one in America who didn't think that was true." In February 2003, Pauley said she would leave NBC News, where she was then co- anchoring "Dateline." Then in June 2003, she revealed plans for the new talker. Pauley has since found herself, and a flattering hair style. And her new show, she says, will simply be Jane unfiltered. "It's not 'The Jane Pauley Interprets Daytime Television Show,' it's just me," she said. "I think of myself as life-size. And having interviewed both Oprah and Dr. Phil, I am fully cognizant of the fact that there are people who are bigger than life. I am not." Pauley has her work cut out for her. In New York, her show will be up against Walters' "The View" on WABC/Ch. 7. But in many parts of the country, she'll face even more outsize competition - Oprah Winfrey, the champ of daytime talk. "Being a known personality does not guarantee success," said Bill Carroll, vice president of programming for Katz Television Group, a firm that advises stations on programming choices. "What helps is being relatable and having the core skills, and certainly with Jane Pauley you'd have to check both of those columns." There will be celebrity guests and there will be makeover segments, said Pauley. As for the celebrities, the show won't be the usual promotional stop for their latest movies or TV shows. "I invited Matt Damon on the show about two seconds after we were introduced," said Pauley. "I'd been talking about using celebrities with some care. I want to know how they became the person that we see and how they navigate the life they find themselves leading. I would want a celebrity to arrive as a celebrity and leave as a person." So Damon will appear on Pauley's show with his mom. It's all part of Pauley's stamp of individuality. "The only show I'm going to do that is successful," said Pauley, "is one that is quite specific to me. My reputation, to the degree that people do know who I am, is based on a perception of being genuine. That's what I've seen from research. That pleased me because apparently I am most liked for being myself; so that means I don't have to do anything but be myself." Bad hair days and all.

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By MARISA GUTHRIE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER J ane Pauley and the folks behind her new daytime talk show are trying to lure female viewers by addressing a highly sensitive issue - hair styles. Pauley's, not theirs. In fact, one of the promo spots for "The Jane Pauley Show,"premiering Aug. 30 at 11 a.m. on WNBC/Ch. 4, is a comical montage of the longtime newswoman's many different hair styles. See Jane with long,

20101205103016

By DAVID HANDSCHUH DAILY NEWS photographer Sunday, September 8th 2002, 2:11AM Don't worry, Brother. We'll get you out." Buried in chunks of rubble and debris, my legs crushed, I first heard those words - my introduction to the men and women I now know as my guardian angels: Fire Lt. Tom McGoff, Firefighters Tommy Michel and Jimmy Hart, who found me, dug me out and went in search of others. Firefighters Phil McArdle and Jeff Borkowski, who carried me to a deli minutes before the north tower collapsed. Emergency Medical Service Chief Charlie Wells and Police Officer Jim Kelleher, who led me to an NYPD harbor boat. And police Lt. Terri Tobin, herself badly injured, who held my hand as we crossed the Hudson. These are my heroes. In the months after the attack, I tracked them down through photographs and my memory. I needed to thank them, because I owe them my life. I started Sept. 11, 2001, with the most unimaginable assignment in my 15-plus years as a photographer for the Daily News. I followed Fire Department Rescue 1 down to the World Trade Center after spotting the massive black cloud over lower Manhattan while driving to a class I taught at NYU. I snapped photographs of the truck as it sped downtown, carrying 11 men unknowingly to their deaths. I called the paper, told them I was on my way, then dialed NYU to say I'd be late. I called my wife in New Jersey. At 8:53 a.m., I parked at Vesey and West Sts. It was eerily quiet, like someone had hit a mute button on the city. As I walked around the towers' perimeter, I saw West St. was covered in debris and body parts. A blizzard of papers poured down from above - and then came the bodies, some landing just a few feet away. I snapped about 180 frames, of barefoot women running away with heels in hand, of fleeing hotel guests covering their heads with metal serving trays and of the fireball overhead after the second plane slammed into the south tower. I kept shooting, never considering the towers might fall. Even as the south tower of the World Trade Center crumbled in a horrid cracking of steel and black cloud of flying debris, I instinctively raised my camera to make one more shot. The voice in my head told me to run, run, run - something I'd never done in all those years of capturing New York through my lens. The black cloud from the south tower's collapse tossed me the length of a city block. Pinned beneath a fire chief's truck, my legs crushed, I reached for my cell phone. But it was gone, along with my glasses and pager. I'd kept my grip only on my cameras. Another voice welcomed me back to life. "Don't worry, Brother. We'll get you out." Michel and Hart of Engine 217 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, which lost two men in the collapse, spotted me after leading others away from the Trade Center. They had escaped with their own lives as the building fell. They saved mine by digging me out before rushing back to the rubble. Borkowski and McArdle saw me moving and started to carry me away from danger. They ignored my pleas to be left behind. "This is like combat," McArdle told me. "We'll have to move you because you're not safe here." They carried me into Battery Park City, placed me on the floor of a deli and stopped for two minutes to grab water. Those minutes spared them. As they crossed West St. to return to the Trade Center, the second building started to crumble. They did a U-turn to safety at the World Financial Center. Inside the deli, Kelleher covered me with his body as the second building fell and a wave of hot, burning air filled the store. "It sounded like a subway train coming at you in a station, full speed with its wheels broken," is how Wells remembered the roar. After the roar slowed and the dust cloud settled, Kelleher, Wells and a still unidentified firefighter carried me past the store's collapsed facade to an NYPD harbor boat. I handed my cameras to a co-worker, Todd Maisel, knowing I wouldn't be making it to the office. I was strapped onto a backboard and placed at the front of the boat. The boat headed toward Ellis Island, where I was put into an ambulance for a ride to Bayonne Hospital. Tobin, her ankle broken and glass lodged in her back, held my hand and comforted me. Nearly a year after the attack, I returned to work. I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I'm back at a job that I love and carrying my cameras. There aren't words enough to offer adequate appreciation for what my flock of guardian angels did for me one year ago. They allowed me to live. 'I OWE THEM MY LIFE' News photographer recounts his narrow escape TODD MAISEL DAILY NEWS News photographer David Handschuh, his legs crushed by rubble, is carried to safety by Officer Jim Kelleher (l.) and EMS Chief Charlie Wells. Police Officer Jim Kelleher covered Handschuh with his body when the tower fell. EMS Chief Charlie Wells (center) said it sounded "like a subway train coming at you." Even with a broken ankle and glass in her back, NYPD Lt. Terri Tobin comforted Handschuh. DAVID HANDSCHUH DAILY NEWS Among those who helped treat Handschuh at Bayonne Hospital were (l. to r.) emergency room manager Patricia Carey, and nurses Pattie Spuma and Susan Reyes.

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By DAVID HANDSCHUH DAILY NEWS photographer Don't worry, Brother. We'll get you out."Buried in chunks of rubble and debris, my legs crushed, I first heard those words - my introduction to the men and women I now know as my guardian angels: Fire Lt. Tom McGoff, Firefighters Tommy Michel and Jimmy Hart, who found me, dug me out and went in search of others. Firefighters Phil McArdle and Jeff Borkowski, who carried me to a

20110521080006

STEAMER NIAGARA, MISSISSIPPI RIVER July 6, 1863. On the cloudy 3d, at 7 A.M. a flag of truce was shown on the right of the left wing, General ORD's corps at which signal firing ceased except at the extrence left, where the signal was seen. As you are aware, the country is a succession of hills and ravines, down one of which came two men blindfolded in charge of one of our captains. The two who bore the flag of truce proved to be the rebel General BOWEN and Colonel MONTGOMERY. They were led to the tent of General BURBRIDGE, where for two hours they awaited their answer from General GRANT. The message was from General PENDERTON to General GRANT, requesting a cessation of hostilities for -- hours, that commissioners might be appointed to confer on terms of surrender, to prevent further effusion of blood and loss of life. He stated that he could hold out indefinitely, nevertheless. To this Gen. GRANT answered: You can save all effusion of blood when you wish. I have no co???. We can testify to your course and endurance, and will treat you with the respect due prisoners of war. Gen. P???ERTON murmured at this as did the children of Israel at manna. His men, too, longed for the ???-pots. At 4 P.M. an interview was arranged for the two chieftains. On the hills around, that frowned with heavy artillery, and opened with rifle-pits, stood thousands who had fought each other for weeks in secret, but not in silence, now looking upon each other for the first time, since driven into their intrenchments. It was a scene to inspire patriots, to depress traitors and to baffle the moralist. Men here stood ready to share water, coffee or bread, who a day before could slay and boast of it. All cruelty seemed banished, horrible war seemed a picnic, and this terrible Golgotha a holiday. Note it. Peace dates from that day and that meeting. From the slope of one bill came the traitor and his Staff. From the other Gen. GRANT advanced. When but a few feet intervened, both halted. Col. MONTGOMERY advanced and said. "Gen. GRANT -- Gen. PEMBERTON" The traitor seemed ill at ease. After a few words between them, the Generals withdrew a few feet apart, and arranged that the rebels should be paroled there. The officers were allowed to retain a horse each -- the men four days' rations. This was merely expediency on the part of GRANT, as he had not transportation for them, nor could he pare men to guard them -- he has immediate use for all his men. I have been here through all this, and believe that all Mississippi and Louisiana men will return home to stay. The Texans say they are tired of fighting for the Confederacy, and are willing to go home. The number of prisoners are about 25,000; a great number of them are invalids. There has been a great deal of suffering from want of medicine. The city is much injured by our shells, and the caves into which the women fled for shelter were not always a protection, as some shells have been known to penetrate forty feet in the ground. We captured over 40,000 small arms and a number of fine pieces of artillery, among them Brooks, Blakely and Whitworth guns of heavy calibre, and Na???oleons and Parrotts of lighter. The guns on the celebrated water batteries are about thirty-six in number, and very heavy. It is the victory of the war, ??? the??? There ???regement among the rebels ??? and Louisianians, the ??? say their part is ??? the victor has granted will ??? others to desist. The victory was ??? humiliation, but its com??? at all. They demonstration of the Fourth. The ??? night would call to the foe, "Look ??? for the ???,"etc. This had a tender, ??? to discourage their men. Among the officers captured is one Lieutenant-General, PEMBERTOM; four Major-Generals, namely, SMITH, STEVENSON, FORNEY and BOWEN; about fifteen Brigadier-Generals, over seventy Colonels, Lieutenant-Colonels and Majors, and company officers in proportion. Among the Brigadier-Generals IS STEPHEN D. LEE, of South Carolina, only thirty years of age, and the Idol of the whole army. It was he who repelled SHERMAN at Chickasaw Bayou last winter. He is quiet, modest, handsome, and a dangerous traitor. At 10 A.M. on the Fourth STEELE's Division entered the city, and placed Freedom's Banner on steeple-spire and dome, so that its bright colors now inspire the beholder. The war is nearly over in this valley. Port Hudson will be yielded ere you receive this. Mobile will be evacuated or captured in a month. That reduces the war to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazette. MISSISSIPPI RIVER, Saturday, July 4, 1863.

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THE FALL OF VICKSBURGH.

On the cloudy 3d, at 7 A.M. a flag of truce was shown on the right of the left wing, General ORD'S corps at which signal firing ceased except at the extrence left, where the signal was seen.

20120111051131

Updated 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time A group of protesters seemingly affiliated with the "Occupy" movement interrupted President Obama's speech in Manchester, New Hampshire on Tuesday, engaging in a call-and-response protest for about 20 seconds before being drowned out by Mr. Obama's supporters. "Mic check!" yelled a voice from the crowd as Mr. Obama was giving a speech calling on Congress to pass and extend a payroll tax cut. Other protesters repeated "mic check," in the style of the Occupy protests, as Mr. Obama halted his speech and looked out into the crowd. "Mr. President, over 4,000 peaceful protesters," the lead protester began, his words then repeated by the other protesters. They then made reference to those protesters being arrested, though their words became difficult to hear. At this point those in the crowd began booing and chanting "Fired up, ready to go," prompting Mr. Obama to say, "no, no, no, it's ok. It's ok." "All right, OK guys," he continued, trying to calm the crowd as supporters started chanting "Obama" over the protesters. "I'm going to be talking about a whole range of things today, and I appreciate you guys making your point, let me go ahead and make mine," he said. "All right? And I'll listen to you, you listen to me." The comment prompted applause from the audience. He went on to reference the movement twice more in his remarks. "A lot of the folks who've been down in New York and all across the country in the 'Occupy' movement, there is a profound sense of frustration, there's a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American dream, which is that if you work hard, if you stick to it that you can make it, feels like that's slipping away," said the president. "And that's not the way things are supposed to be, not here, not in America. This is a place where your hard work and your responsibility's supposed to pay off, it's supposed to be a big, compassionate country where everybody who works hard should have a chance to get ahead, not just the person who owns the factory, but then men and women who work on the factory floor." The protesters handed out their full message on paper to the assembled press. "Mr. President, over 4000 peaceful protesters have been arrested while bankers continue to destroy the American economy," it said. "You must stop the assault on our 1st Amendment rights. Your silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out." Obama: $1,000 tax hike if Congress won't act

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"Mic check": Occupy protesters interrupt Obama

Protesters interrupt speech to say "silence" on Occupy arrests "sends a message that police brutality is acceptable" Read more by Brian Montopoli on CBS News' Political Hotsheet.

20120324185547

LOS ANGELES — The 17th annual , the largest and most prestigious public literary event in the country, today announced its 2012 . Returning to the beautiful University of Southern California campus on April 21-22, the Festival is an L.A. institution known for its celebration of the written word in all its forms and is expected to draw more than 150,000 attendees. Beloved American icon Judy Blume will mark the 40th birthday of her cherished "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" with an appearance, alongside such authors and artists as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julie Andrews, Reza Aslan, Michael Ian Black, T.C. Boyle, John Cusack, Ben Fong-Torres, John Green, Florence Henderson, Ricki Lake, Sugar Ray Leonard, Anne Rice, John Scalzi, Molly Shannon, Wil Wheaton, Betty White and Henry Winkler. Lively panel discussions will be held covering a broad range of thought-provoking and culturally significant topics, from the upcoming presidential election to the anniversary of the Rodney King trials to the future of reading, many involving appearances and moderating by writers and editors. The Times' , the go-to for all things super-heroic, fantasy and sci-fi, will expand to include screenings of genre films at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and Q&As with prominent comic book publishers. Celebrity appearances, live music, cooking demonstrations, book signings and much more will be held on eight outdoor stages surrounded by hundreds of exhibitors and a variety of dining options. Please check the Festival's official Twitter stream for programming updates. To join in the Twitter conversation, use the hashtag. The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is presented in association with USC, presenting sponsor Target and major sponsor Chevrolet. was created in 1996 to promote literacy, celebrate the written word, and bring together those who create books with the people who love to read them. More than 140,000 people attend the event annually. General event information is available online at or by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 7BOOK. Detailed speaker and event information is available in the official festival program online. is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a readership of 1.9 million Monday through Saturday and 2.9 million on Sunday, more than 17 million unique latimes.com visitors monthly and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4.4 million. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Times has been covering Southern California for more than 130 years. (LATMG) businesses and affiliates include the Los Angeles and reach approximately 5.1 million or 38% of all adults in the Southern California marketplace. LATMG also owns and operates 's west coast division and is part of , one of the country's leading media companies with businesses in publishing, the Internet and broadcasting.Additional information is available at is one of the world's leading private research universities. The university is the largest private employer in Los Angeles -- with more than 22,700 employees, and an annual economic impact of nearly $5 billion. USC enrolls 38,000 students at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels, and hosts more international students than any other U.S. university. With a strong tradition of integrating liberal and professional education, USC fosters a vibrant culture of public service and encourages students to cross academic as well as geographic boundaries in their pursuit of knowledge. There are more than 240,000 living alumni in the Trojan Family. While nearly three-quarters of them live in California, USC alumni can be found in positions of leadership all over the world. John Conroy | Los Angeles Times | 213.237.4791 | Jessica Erskine | Rogers & Cowan | 310.854.8129 | Carl Marziali | USC | 213.740.4751 |

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Los Angeles Times Announces Festival of Books 2012 Program Schedule

LOS ANGELES — The 17th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books , the largest and most prestigious public literary event in the country, today announced its 2012 program schedule . Returning to the beautiful University of Southern California campus on April 21-22, the Festival is an L.A. institution known for its celebration of the written word in all its forms and is expected to draw more than 150,000 attendees.

20120414215012

Those who think that if a little vitamin C is good, more must be better should think again, says a team of British researchers, who found that a supplement of 500 milligrams a day could damage people's genes. Many Americans take that much, or more, in hopes of preventing colds and reaping the widely celebrated antioxidant benefits of vitamin C. Antioxidants, which block cellular and molecular damage caused by the highly reactive molecules called free radicals, are believed to protect against heart disease, cancer, eye disorders like cataracts and macular degeneration, and other chronic health problems. But the British researchers, chemical pathologists at the University of Leicester, found in a six-week study of 30 healthy men and women that a daily 500-milligram supplement of vitamin C had pro-oxidant as well as antioxidant effects on the genetic material DNA. The researchers found that at the 500-milligram level, vitamin C promoted genetic damage by free radicals to a part of the DNA, the adenine bases, that had not previously been measured in studies of the vitamin's oxidative properties. The finding, published in the current issue of the British journal Nature, corroborates warnings that have been issued for decades by an American physician, Dr. Victor Herbert, professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Herbert has shown, primarily through laboratory studies, that vitamin C supplements promote the generation of free radicals from iron in the body. ''The vitamin C in supplements mobilizes harmless ferric iron stored in the body and converts it to harmful ferrous iron, which induces damage to the heart and other organs,'' Dr. Herbert said in an interview. ''Unlike the vitamin C naturally present in foods like orange juice, vitamin C as a supplement is not an antioxidant,'' Dr. Herbert said. ''It's a redox agent -- an antioxidant in some circumstances and a pro-oxidant in others.'' In contrast, vitamin C naturally present in food, he said, has no oxidizing effects. Vitamin C supplements in large doses have been linked to genetic damage as far back as the mid-1970's. In a study then, Canadian researchers found that use of the vitamin in doses larger than in the British study, but not much larger than the amounts some people take to ward off colds and the flu, damaged genetic material in three systems: bacterial cells, human cells grown in test tubes, and live mice. The lead author of the new study, Dr. Ian Podmore, said that at 500 milligrams, vitamin C did act as an antioxidant on one part of the DNA, the guanine bases. Oxidation of guanine to oxoguanine is what is usually measured to determine the degree of DNA damage through oxidation. As expected, when the volunteers took a daily 500-milligram dose of vitamin C for six weeks, oxoguanine levels indeed declined, ''which is why vitamin C is generally thought to be an antioxidant,'' Dr. Podmore said. But when they measured a second indicator of DNA oxidation, oxoadenine, the researchers found that it had risen rather than declined, ''indicating genetic damage to this DNA base,'' Dr. Podmore said. A colleague, Dr. Joseph Lunec, said that at the 500-milligram level, vitamin C's ''protective effect dominated, but there was also a damaging effect.'' ''There should be caution about taking too much vitamin C,'' Dr. Lunec said. ''The normal healthy individual would not need to take supplements of vitamin C.'' In the United States and Britain alike, the recommended daily intake of vitamin C for healthy adults is 60 milligrams, which can be easily obtained from foods -- by drinking about six ounces of orange juice, for example. Larger amounts are recommended for smokers and for pregnant and lactating women, but even these amounts can be readily obtained from foods. Dr. Lunec took issue with the late Dr. Linus C. Pauling, the Nobel laureate chemist who took 12,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily and suggested that people could take as much of it as they wanted with no ill effect. ''We think that's not the case, to say the least,'' Dr. Lunec said. ''You can have too much of a good thing.'' The research team is now studying the effects of lower doses of vitamin C, ''to see if we can maximize the protective effect and minimize the damage,'' Dr. Lunec said. Given the new finding, he said, ''it would be unethical to test higher levels.''

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Taking Too Much Vitamin C Can Be Dangerous, Study Finds

Those who think that if a little vitamin C is good, more must be better should think again, says a team of British researchers, who found that a supplement of 500 milligrams a day could damage people's genes. Many Americans take that much, or more, in hopes of preventing colds and reaping the widely celebrated antioxidant benefits of vitamin C. Antioxidants, which block cellular and molecular damage caused by the highly reactive molecules called free radicals, are believed to protect against heart disease, cancer, eye disorders like cataracts and macular degeneration, and other chronic health problems.

20130302215159

Want to know how fast the 903bhp supercar will go/cost? Step this way. Plus, first official production pics. This is the moment quite literally some of you have been waiting for. You've seen the camouflage development mules. You've seen the interior. You've learned about its hybrid drivetrain and how much power its packing. Today, you will learn that the McLaren P1 supercar will accelerate from 0-62mph in "less than three seconds" and on to a limited top speed of 218mph. Fast, no? That's not all. McLaren has revealed more acceleration details with which you can arm yourself in the inevitable Discussing Which Supercar Is Best In The Pub On Friday Night With Friends game (deluxe edition). The P1 will sprint from 0-124mph (0-200km/h) in less than seven seconds, and go from 0-186mph (0-300km/h) in 17 seconds. McLaren rightly informs us that last benchmark is some nine seconds quicker than the old McLaren F1. To provide you with some perspective, the Porsche 918 Spyder is estimated to hit 62mph in under three seconds and 124mph in around eight seconds, while a Bugatti Veyron SS – the 1,183bhp orange merchant of speed – hits 124mph from rest in 7.3 seconds and 186mph in 15 seconds dead. So despite McLaren's claims that the P1 was never meant to be the fastest outright, it's clearly no slouch. Production is limited to 375 models only, combining – as you know – a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 to an electric motor to provide 903bhp. And because it's a hybrid, emissions (combined) sit below 200g/km of CO2. There are also DRS and IPAS technologies on board to ally it closely with the company's Formula 1 activity. This is good. Pirelli has been working with McLaren on the tires too, and has developed a special compound for the P1, probably something a little bit less rubbish than the F1 tire TopGear.com made in Turkey. Ahem. And here's one of the best bits about the P1. We're told the brakes are akin to those on a GT3 racer, developed by Akebono and featuring a new kind of carbon ceramic disc, previously used in space. Space! Sadly, for us mere mortals, the price is equally cosmic. Because McLaren has confirmed that this limited run, 903bhp rear-wheel-drive hypercar that we estimate will weigh around 1,500kg (3,305lbs), will cost £866,000 ($1.3 million). That's quite a chunk of change, but then the upcoming Porsche 918 Spyder and new Ferrari Enzo aren't going to be cheap. This story originally appeared on TopGear.com.

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McLaren reveals P1 performance stats

A week before its formal unveiling at the Geneva motor show, the British manufacturer’s hybrid hypercar comes, finally, into focus.

20130803181233

So if they can help reduce injury, shouldn’t they be mandatory, just like motorbike helmets? Australia tried it in the early 90s and the result was a 15 to 20 per cent drop in the number of hospital admissions for head injuries. That would have been great, but it also reduced the number of cyclists by around 35 per cent. The hassle and, for teenagers, embarrassment of wearing one steered people away from bikes and towards public transport and cars. And that, counter-intuitively, could have been bad news for their health. A recent study in the British Medical Journal showed that cycling has a positive health impact around 77 times larger than the potential for serious injury; essentially, there’s a small chance that you’ll come a cropper, but a very large chance that you’ll reduce your likelihood of suffering mental illness, heart disease and obesity. That means the laws were hugely counterproductive; they reduced cycling injuries, but only by reducing the number of cyclists, and those people then became more likely to come to some other kind of less-dramatic and tangible harm. Clearly, if this was an acceptable approach then we could easily slash injuries by 100 per cent simply by banning bicycles. The CTC, the UK’s largest cycling charity, has long argued against mandatory helmet laws for a similar reason. It claims they would make cycling seem more dangerous than it actually is, putting people off. “The evidence on this question is complex and contradictory, providing as much support for those who are deeply sceptical of helmets as for those who swear by them,” it says. Then there’s the problem of enforcing new laws. In the first year after the Australian State of Victoria made helmets mandatory there were 19,229 Bicycle Offence Penalty Notices issued. Do we want to tie up that much police time on a crime which has no negative impact on a third party? South Africa made helmets mandatory, then couldn’t agree on exactly how to enforce it, so never did. There's even evidence that wearing a helmet can put you at more risk. A 2006 study by Jeff Brewster from the University of Bath found that drivers passed closer to cyclists wearing a helmet when overtaking than they did those without them. The driver's subconscious sees them as less vulnerable and therefore less worthy of a wide berth. It’s undeniable that mandatory safety devices such as motorbike helmets and seatbelts in cars have been lifesavers on a huge scale. But neither had the same potential for harmful side-effects: dissuade motorcyclists from riding and they’ll buy a car, which is actually far safer (if less fun). Meanwhile, there is virtually nothing that will discourage drivers. Personally, I believe that wearing a helmet has more pros than cons, even though cycling is not as risky as many would have you believe. But there are those out there who would rather not ride than be made to wear a helmet, and for that reason the idea is a non-starter.

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Should cyclists be forced to wear helmets?

Bare-headed cyclists are often branded reckless and there are regular calls for helmets to be compulsory, as politicians in Jersey are currently demanding. But is it a practical way to keep riders safe?

20131029023744

Lou Reed was one of rock music’s great cranks, a man so irascible that he was openly feared by most journalists. He didn’t especially care for them, either. For every story written about his music, there’s at least another one about the hell and shot nerves that went hand in hand with interviewing him. He was uncompromising and visionary, chasing his muse through a haunted house of topics that were still taboo when he emerged with the Velvet Underground in the mid 1960s. Rock music had never quite addressed the seedy underbelly that Reed explored with such candor and compassion. His songs were a flashlight in the dark, grappling head on with spirituality, drug addiction, and sexual appetites and behaviors that went well beyond the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” His native New York City was his palette, and he painted its more unsavory characters — like the junkies, hustlers, and renegades mentioned in “Walk on the Wild Side,” his most famous song — in broad strokes and vivid hues. If you felt like an outsider, Reed was your bard. We already knew all of that about Reed, who died on Sunday at 71, reportedly from causes related to a liver transplant he received a few months ago. He often got less credit for another sterling achievement. He wrote some of popular music’s most unabashedly beautiful songs, stories so tender that it was hard to fathom how they sprang from the same mind that conjured “Heroin,” a seven-minute drone and ode to the rush it gave him. (“ ’Cause it makes me feel like I’m a man/ When I put a spike into my vein”). On the page, his love songs read like poems. From “I’ll Be Your Mirror”: Reflect what you are, in case you don’t know I’ll be the wind, the rain, and the sunset The light on your door to show that you’re home Sung by the damaged chanteuse Nico, that song came from “The Velvet Underground & Nico,” the group’s 1967 debut. Reed’s early work, in particular, was flush with such gentle sentiments amid the band’s more avant-garde leanings. John Cale suggested that divide between experimental and sentimental had contributed to his departure from the group in 1968. “The problem with the Velvets was always a conflict between doing revolutionary songs, like ‘Venus in Furs,’ and pretty songs,” he told New York magazine in January. Those pretty songs are also the ones that pierced the heart and transcended genres and generations. “Perfect Day,” from Reed’s 1972 masterpiece, “Transformer,” was cited across social media when news of Reed’s death spread. “An imperfect day,” many remarked. That song, too, was a paean to the joy we all feel when the stars align and you’re with the one you love: “Oh, it’s such a perfect day/ I’m glad I spent it with you” goes the chorus in a swell of strings and emotion. Reed was not all snarl. His most loving moments weren’t always sugarcoated, either. “Candy Says” chronicled the sadness and tribulations of Candy Darling, the transsexual icon who was a star among Andy Warhol’s Factory crowd: “Candy says/ I’ve come to hate my body/ And all that it requires in this world.” And when Reed was down and out, few songwriters could match his penchant for expressing that in such elegant terms: “Who loves the sun/ Who cares that it makes plants grow/ Who cares what it does/ Since you broke my heart,” he wondered aloud on “Who Loves the Sun.” He also had a dry sense of humor, a fact overshadowed by his more trenchant work. “I’m just a gift to the women of this world,” he sang with nary a trace of sarcasm on “A Gift” from 1975’s “Coney Island Baby.” For someone who once claimed to exist beyond the mainstream, his reach was vast. In 1997, Reed rerecorded “Perfect Day” as a charity single for the BBC. Bono, David Bowie, Elton John, Tammy Wynette (!), Dr. John, Shane McGowan, and Emmylou Harris were among the strange cast of musicians who sang a snippet of the song. If anything aligned those artists with Reed, it was that they recognized his devotion to his craft. Yes, he was sour and suffered no fools, but it was because he cared so much about his music. He was chameleonic to the end, too, including 2011’s “Lulu,” a collaborative album with Metallica. It was widely panned, but it was perhaps the perfect swan song for a maverick who was so ruled by his heart and indifferent to expectations. Talking to Spin magazine in 2010, he made himself sound ordinary, which, of course, he was not at all. “I write whatever shows up,” he said. “That’s good enough for me.”

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Appreciating Lou Reed, whose music was haunting, vivid, and unforgettable

Lou Reed was uncompromising and visionary, chasing his muse through a haunted house of topics that were still taboo when he emerged with the Velvet Underground in the mid 1960s. Rock music had never quite addressed the seedy underbelly that Reed explored with such candor and compassion. His songs were a flashlight in the dark, grappling head on with spirituality, drug addiction, and sexual appetites and behaviors that well beyond the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” His native New York City was his palette, and he painted its more unsavory characters – junkies, hustlers, renegades – in broad strokes and vivid hues. Reed, who died on Sunday at 71, often got less credit for another sterling achievement. He wrote some of popular music’s most unabashedly beautiful songs, from “I’ll Be Your Mirror” to “Femme Fatale.”

20131113014318

Gene-splicing technology is capable of revolutionizing important areas of agriculture, but such applications are hampered by a shortage of Federal money and trained scientists, according to an independent survey of the field by two consulting concerns. The long-range potential for gene-splicing technology in agriculture is far greater than in medicine, spokesmen for the concerns said in announcing the publication of their report yesterday. Yet the Federal Government spends only about one-tenth as much, they said, in relevant basic agricultural research as it does in health-related studies. They estimated that the total Federal support of basic gene-splicing research related to agriculture was currently $6 million a year. The two concerns, the Policy Research Corporation of Chicago and the Chicago Group Inc., made the results of their survey public yesterday at a briefing. Growth Predicted for Market The survey was made from November 1980 to January 1981, according to the presidents of the two concerns, Lester Teichner of the Chicago Group and Dr. James R. Murray of Policy Research. The groups, which have had Government agencies, health-related organizations and industrial concerns as clients, said that the gene-splicing study was done as a joint venture without outside support. The consulting concerns have published the details of their report in a 457-page volume entitled ''An Assessment of the Global Potential of Genetic Engineering in the Agribusiness Sector,'' which will be sold for $1,250 per copy. The concerns' spokesmen said that the worldwide market resulting from the application of gene-splicing technology to agriculture might be as large as $50 billion to $100 billion a year by the end of the century, while estimates for the market from medical and pharmaceutical applications of gene-splicing have been in the $5 billion to $10 billion range. The field of research and development known technically as recombinant DNA technology is sometimes described as genetic engineering, or gene-splicing, because it depends on selective transfer of genes from one type of organism to another to give the recipient desirable new characteristics. Among its therapeutic benefits, the technology has begun to result in the production of human hormones in large quantity. Discussing the potential of the field at the seminar yesterday, Dr. Richard Meagher of the University of Georgia said that the first agricultural products of gene-splicing were likely to be available in three to five years. He said the first of these would probably be a single crop plant that has been genetically altered to make it resistant to a particular herbicide so that it can be grown in the presence of the herbicide.

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GENE-SPLICING IS SAID TO BE KEY TO FUTURE AGRICULTURAL ADVANCES

Gene-splicing technology is capable of revolutionizing important areas of agriculture, but such applications are hampered by a shortage of Federal money and trained scientists, according to an independent survey of the field by two consulting concerns. The long-range potential for gene-splicing technology in agriculture is far greater than in medicine, spokesmen for the concerns said in announcing the publication of their report yesterday. Yet the Federal Government spends only about one-tenth as much, they said, in relevant basic agricultural research as it does in health-related studies. They estimated that the total Federal support of basic gene-splicing research related to agriculture was currently $6 million a year.

20131121163928

It's been hailed as the new wonder-material, set to revolutionise everything from circuit boards to food packaging, a magic super-strength membrane that is barely there at all. Now, thanks to the unlikely sex champion Bill Gates, graphene could be used to make the thinnest, lightest, most impenetrable condom ever conceived. “The common analogy is that wearing a condom is like taking a shower with a raincoat on,” says Dr Papa Salif Sow, senior program officer on the HIV team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has awarded $100,000 (£60,000) to scientists at the University of Manchester's National Graphene Institute to aid their pursuit of the ultimate super-sheath. “A redesigned condom that overcomes inconvenience, fumbling or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty.” At only one atom thick, an all-graphene condom would put the Durex Ultra Thin to shame – although the fact that the material is barely visible to the naked eye could lead to some awkward moments between the sheets. A slight ruffle of the duvet and could it just float away? Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan, who will lead the research team, explains the focus is on developing a composite material, with latex, “tailored to enhance the natural sensation during intercourse while using a condom, which should encourage and promote condom use.” It will be achieved, he says, “by combining the strength of graphene with the elasticity of latex to produce a new material which can be thinner, stronger, more stretchy, safer and, perhaps most importantly, more pleasurable.” But Vijayaraghavan and his colleagues are not alone in their pursuit. The Gates Foundation has declared it will give out a total of $1m in grants to secure a next-generation condom that “significantly preserves or enhances pleasure” – and there is no shortage of competitors. Researchers at the University of Oregon are using their grant to develop an ultra-thin polyurethane polymer condom with “shape memory” properties, that would vacuum-seal around the penis as it heated up during intercourse. The body heat generated during sex would make the condom’s molecules retract, creating a snug fit twice as thin as the normal latex variety. If shrink-wrapping your manpiece isn't enough, it comes embedded with antimicrobial nanoparticles, to guard against sexually transmitted diseases. If this all sounds too techy, then perhaps Mark McGlothlin, of Apex Medical Technologies in San Diego, has the answer. “A lot of people are trying to get stronger and thinner material – that was always my focus,” he told the New Republic. But why innovate, when the material already exists – in the form of collagen fibrils from cow tendons. After all, didn't people manage for centuries with sheep intestines? “The texture of collagen is very much like the mucous membrane,” he said. “The feel of it, the heat transfer of it, and to the touch, it feels very much like skin.” McGlothlin plans to source his beef tendon from a Chinese food store in California, but he says that slaughterhouses, or even fish markets, are other potential sources. Next time you're at the butchers, you might think twice before turning your nose up at that bag of offal.

http://web.archive.org/web/20131121163928id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/21/bill-gates-graphene-super-condom-sex

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Meet the designers behind Bill Gates's super-condom

Using everything from atom-thick graphene to the humble beef tendon, designers are competing to make a next-generation condom that 'significantly enhances pleasure'

20140510014244

We swim in an ocean of feedback. It’s not just those performance reviews at work. It’s your reflection in the mirror, the comment your spouse made at breakfast, or the accusatory note you just found in your mailbox from your neighbor. Recent research that suggests that how you react to that feedback — whether you take it in stride or get flattened by it — is due at least in part to your wiring. When it comes to sensitivity to feedback, individuals can vary up to three thousand percent in terms of how far they swing, emotionally, and how long it takes them to recover. And that has profound implications for their ability to hear the feedback they get, and to learn anything from it. Take Alita. She has been highly sensitive to criticism since she was a child. Now an accomplished obstetrician, her skills and confidence have matured, yet her sensitivity to feedback is just as strong as it was when she was young. “Three years ago we did patient satisfaction surveys,” Alita explains. “My patients love the attention I give them, and my reviews were largely positive. Yet there were a few comments from patients frustrated that I sometimes run late.” She adds, “I haven’t felt the same way about my practice since.” While Alita knows intellectually that these are a few negative comments among many, and that, in fact, it’s the attention that she gives each patient that causes her to run late, this doesn’t change her emotional reaction to the feedback itself. Sound familiar? If you’re like Alita, you’ve probably been hearing the same advice for much of your life: “Don’t be so sensitive,” “You’re overreacting.” “You need to get a thicker skin.” Yet new research suggests that this is far harder for some than others. Three factors can be used to measure our sensitivity to feedback. The first is Baseline, which measures your general state of happiness or contentment. In the wake of positive or negative events (or feedback), we all tend to gravitate back toward our baseline. Some people have a relatively high baseline – like Elaine in the next cubicle who always seems so (gratingly) cheerful no matter how much pressure the team is under. Others — like Mortimer down in purchasing — may have a relatively low happiness baseline, perpetually dissatisfied with their lives (and with you), regardless of how well things may be going. The second variable is Swing — how far up or down you go as a result of positive or negative feedback. Someone with small swing is “even keeled”: Nothing excites them much, and few things really get them too upset. If you swing wider emotionally, your ups and downs will be more intense and you’ll require less stimulation to move you off your baseline. And finally, Sustain or Recovery, which measures how long it takes you to return to your baseline. How long do you sustain a bounce in your step in the wake of an appreciative email from an important customer? How long does it take you to recover from the public dressing down you got from your boss on the newsroom floor? Recent findings from neuro-imaging show that positive and negative swing and recovery can operate independently. If you have small swing and short sustain on positive feedback, and wide swing and long recovery on the negatives, that’s a tough combination. Positive feedback disappears quickly, while negative feedback hits you hard and keeps you down for a good long while. This is Alita’s profile, and it’s why she finds critical feedback – even well-intended “suggestions” from patients about how to better manage her time – so upsetting. Rather than prompting her to improve service or better manage her appointments, it paralyzes and demotivates her. Her head delivery nurse, Toni, has the opposite profile; she’s unflappable in the face of stressful events, and she can shrug off even angry attacks within minutes. The good news for Alita is that wiring is only part of the equation. Researchers estimate that it accounts for about 40% of how we react, and whether it’s a little more or a little less doesn’t matter. The bigger point is that a significant part of how we react to negative feedback is not from wiring, but rather, results from the story we tell ourselves about what the feedback means. In other words, our own upset can cause us to distort the feedback we receive. For example, say someone tells you that you were singing off-key — it’s about your singing, of this song, this time. But through the lens of upset, the feedback is supersized: “I must always sing off key and no one tells me. I can never do anything right. I’m a loser and everyone knows it.” Alita is doing a version of this when she dwells on the one or two complaints about keeping patients waiting and ignores all the comments from patients who adore her. Given her wiring, she is easily upset, but she’s compounding the problem by telling a story that incapacitates her. Her reaction to the feedback is blocking her ability to learn from it. We can all learn to manage feedback more skillfully by learning how to see the feedback at “actual size.” Feedback should be bound in time (feedback about right now is not about the future) and by specificity (feedback about one thing is not about everything) and by size (needing to improve by 10% is different from needing to improve by 80%). Understanding our own triggered reactions to feedback can help us all regain our footing, and turn even upsetting feedback into something we can work with, and use to grow.

http://web.archive.org/web/20140510014244id_/http://time.com/13564/feedback-sensitivity-brain-wiring/

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Feedback: Emotional Wiring Determines Our Sensitivity to Input

Your emotional wiring plays a critical role in how you react to feedback -- both good and bad -- from others. But you can override those instincts by learning how to frame the input you receive.

20140516180208

Detail from Artemisia Gentileschi's Susanna and the Elders (1610). Click for full image Revealing the history of female artists on television may sound an easy project, a delightful exercise in heritage tourism. Haven't we moved beyond a worthy roundup of forgotten heroines, hidden from history? After all, feminist art history has been investigating the female gaze since Linda Nochlin asked "Why have there been no great women artists?" in 1971. Magisterial surveys and text books have come since, from Germaine Greer's The Obstacle Race (1979) to Griselda Pollock and Rozika Parker's Old Mistresses (1991), enabling art history degrees to offer courses on gender and "ways of seeing" for the last 20 years or so. Engaging TV on the subject of this debate would be easy, I blithely presumed, until I embarked on the simple but fundamental task of seeing female art for myself. Is art male? Most institutions would have us think so. The disparities are startling. In 1989 the feminist Guerrilla Girls discovered that fewer than 5% of the modern works in the Metropolitan Museum in New York were by women, but 85% of the nudes were female. It is usually possible to see works by one or two women in an entire museum, but you could spend hours looking. I was relieved to find Judith Leyster's tiny but spell-binding Proposition (1631) and Clara Peeters' genre-defining Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels (1621) in the Hague's Gemeentemuseum. Even Artemisia Gentileschi's masterpiece Judith Beheading Holofernes (1620) has only been exhibited in the Uffizi since 2000. A Medici duchess had banished Gentileschi's assassination scene to a dark corridor, finding her "blood work" too grisly for display. Weeks of negotiation and an Italian fixer got me into the Vasari corridor to film. This kilometre walkway snakes from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace, crossing the Arno over the Ponte Vecchio. Built in 1564, it allowed the Medici to travel unmolested between their palace and government offices. It is lined with self-portraits by artists, a pantheon of art history from the 16th century onwards. But of the 1,700 self-portraits only 7% are by women. Did women not paint, sculpt or craft? Or were female efforts so third-rate they did not earn the wall space? The absence of a celebrated female pantheon contrasts starkly with women's success in literature. But the requirements of authorship were far easier to fulfil than the demands of art. Writing required only literacy, access to a library and a desk. Even the risky exposure of publication could be offset by anonymity. By contrast, art demanded complex training, public production and was enmeshed in a well-guarded infrastructure. Unyielding social prejudices, prohibitions on formal training and legal restrictions on female commerce hobbled the woman artist. I was prepared for a hunt, but nevertheless the near invisibility of women's art was shocking: I was forced into storage facilities and basements. The Advancing Women Artists Foundation estimates that 1,500 works by women are currently stored in Florence's various deposits, most of which have not been on public view for centuries. To the question "Are all of these works of a high artistic standard?" Jane Fortune, head of the foundation, answers: "We'll never know unless they are seen." Public galleries seem tacitly to endorse the conservative view, exemplified by Brian Sewell's assertion that "only men are capable of aesthetic greatness". But painters and sculptors were artisans working within family-based workshops, just like tailors, locksmiths, goldsmiths and cabinetmakers. Art was a trade. Few paintings were the product of a single hand – only the face and hands might be the work of the "master". The male artist's brand was a fiction. Marietta Tintoretto worked alongside her father in Venice, Barbara Longhi beside her brother in Ravenna, their labour a vital constituent of the family economy, but unrecognised outside the workshop. A deep belief in the impossibility of female genius is at work. Many of Leyster's sunny canvases celebrating the social life of the Dutch golden age were so skilful they were attributed to Frans Hals, despite her signature. The Bolognese Elisabetta Sirani produced more than 200 pieces in a 13-year career, garnering international acclaim for her smooth religious art. She ran the family workshop that embraced her sisters, supported her father when he could no longer paint and established an art school for young girls. The very accomplishment, speed and fluency of her art, however, laid her open to the accusation that she could not have created it – a man must have helped her – an accusation she saw off by staging live demonstrations of her painting. Gentileschi could match the men of counter-reformation art, but chose to dramatise the struggles of women. She depicted the same heroines, even repeating the scenes of her father Orazio, but she charged hers with a pungent critique of male possession of women. The violence of voyeurism is palpable in her Susanna and the Elders (1610), when the cowering woman is victim to the lecherous gaze of two old men. They will accuse her of the capital crime of adultery unless she agrees to sleep with them. Her strong twisting body is displayed, but her horror is uppermost, and her arms are raised in resistance. "What are YOU looking at?" the painting says to us. Compare this with Tintoretto's titillating version in which Susanna seems to know she is being watched and exhibits her white nakedness in an obliging soft performance. The episode becomes a pretext for erotica, and as the woman is complicit in her own subjugation, the dirt of sexual oppression is whitewashed away. Gentileschi will have none of it. It is not my purpose to suggest that we have yet to discover a female Michelangelo, but it is misleading to look at the past through the eyes of men alone. What women saw was different. Let's remember that. • The Story of Women and Art continues on BBC2 on 23 and 30 May.

http://web.archive.org/web/20140516180208id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/16/bring-women-artists-out-of-storage

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Bring women artists out of storage

Why are there so few paintings by women in public galleries? Amanda Vickery goes on a shocking hunt to unearth more masterpieces

20140519191906

PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge has struck down Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban, saying it is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Michael McShane threw out the voter-approved ban Monday. State officials have said they’d be prepared to carry out same-sex marriages almost immediately, and couples lined up outside the county clerk’s office in Portland in anticipation of the decision. Four gay and lesbian couples brought suit arguing Oregon’s marriage laws unconstitutionally discriminate against same-sex couples and exclude them from a fundamental right. State officials refused to defend the ban, and McShane earlier denied a request by the National Organization for Marriage to intervene on behalf of its Oregon members. An appeals court Monday morning refused the group’s request for an emergency stay of McShane’s decision. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. A federal judge was expected to make Oregon the latest state to allow gay marriage Monday after state officials refused to defend its constitutional ban in court. Gay couples were poised to tie the knot immediately after a federal appeals court denied a last-minute request to block the judge’s impending ruling that could strike down the state’s same-sex marriage ban. Officials in Oregon’s largest county, Multnomah, said they’ll begin issuing marriage licenses immediately if U.S. District Judge Michael McShane’s decision allows it. McShane hasn’t signaled how he’ll rule, but both sides in the case have asked that the voter-approved ban be found unconstitutional. The judge last week denied a request by the National Organization for Marriage to defend the law on behalf of its Oregon members. On Monday morning, the group appealed that denial to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking an emergency stay of the decision. But the appellate court quickly denied the group’s request, clearing the way for same-sex marriages to begin immediately if a McShane’s ruling allows it. In Portland, couples lined up outside the county clerk’s office in anticipation of a favorable decision. Laurie Brown and Julie Engbloom arrived early Monday at the Multnomah County Building to form the line for marriage licenses. The two have been a couple for 10 years. Engbloom proposed in April, when they celebrated their anniversary by climbing Smith Rock in Central Oregon. “We always knew we wanted to spend our whole life together,” Brown said. “This opportunity has come, it feels right, everything has fallen into place.” Seventeen states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage. Federal or state judges in Idaho, Oklahoma, Virginia, Michigan, Texas, Utah and Arkansas recently have found state same-sex marriage bans to be unconstitutional. Judges also have ordered Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. But opposition remains stiff in many places. Critics point out that most states still do not allow gay marriage and that in most that do, it was the work of courts or legislatures, not the people. Four gay and lesbian couples brought the Oregon cases, arguing the state’s marriage laws unconstitutionally discriminate against them and exclude them from a fundamental right to marriage. In refusing to defend the ban, Democratic Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said there were no legal arguments that could support it in light of decisions last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. She sided with the couples, asking the judge to overturn the ban.

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Judge Strikes Down Oregon Gay Marriage Ban

PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge has struck down Oregon's same-sex marriage ban, saying it is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Michael McShane threw out the voter-approved ban Monday.

20150109213129

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday issued permits to use drones to monitor crops and photograph properties for sale, marking the first time permission has been granted to companies involved in agriculture and real estate. The exemptions to the government’s current ban on flights of commercial drone were granted to Advanced Aviation Solutions in Spokane, Wash., for ‘‘crop scouting’’ and to Douglas Trudeau of Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson, Ariz. Advanced Aviation Solutions plans to use its 1.5-pound, fixed-wing eBee drone to make photographic measurements of farm fields, determine the health of crops, and look for pests. The aim is to save farmers time on walking through fields. The drone also can carry sensors that pick up information invisible to the naked eye, which can help determine which fields need watering. Trudeau’s exemption authorizes him to fly a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter to ‘‘enhance academic community awareness and augment real estate listing videos,’’ the FAA said. Real estate companies have been eager to gain permission to use drones to photograph and make videos of pricey properties. The permits require that drone operations include both a ground ‘‘pilot’’ and an observer, that the pilot have at least an FAA private pilot certificate and a current medical certificate, and that the drone remain within the line of sight of the operator at all times. Before these approvals, the FAA had granted just 12 exemptions to 11 companies in the oil and gas, filmmaking, and landfill industries. As of Tuesday, the FAA had received 214 requests for exemptions from commercial entities. The agency is under pressure from Congress, the drone industry, and companies that want to use drones to provide broader access to US skies. FAA officials had said they hoped to propose regulations to permit general commercial use of small drones by the end of 2014, but that deadline has passed.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150109213129id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2015/01/07/faa-grants-permits-for-agriculture-real-estate-drones/UuXRA3x4jTQYpDnDzJOAsK/story.html?

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FAA grants permits for agriculture, real estate drones

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday issued permits to use drones to monitor crops and photograph properties for sale, marking the first time permission has been granted to companies involved ­agriculture and real estate.

20150113062814

A few investors look at the Arab Spring — the wave of protest and revolution that began last December when a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire to protest his harassment by police — and don’t see a particularly big deal. Franklin Templeton emerging markets guru Mark Mobius, a longtime bull on the economies of the Middle East, has called the tumult just a “bump” in the road towards more democracy and freer markets in the area. The rest of the investing world is not so sure. Khaled Abdel Majeed runs a small London-based hedge fund that invests in the countries of North Africa, and he says his clients, mostly U.S. and European pension funds and endowments with plenty of trouble in their home economies, are nervous. These institutional investors worry about what kind of post-Qaddafi government might emerge in Libya and about the elections and ongoing violence in Egypt. They worry about tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Egypt and between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia. They worry about the how long the brutal Assad government can hang on in Syria and at what cost. They worry about a nuclear Iran and what Israel may decide to do about it. “There is no appetite for risk and we are in a part of the world that has historically been thought of as risky,” Majeed says. Majeed started his MENA Admiral fund in 2004 with $22 million and then built it up to $120 million by June 2008. Now he’s down to $15 million. “It’s been a round trip and then some,” he says. Indeed, foreign capital has been fleeing the region since December 2010 when protests began in Tunisia. The Dow Jones MENA index (“MENA” is an acronym for Middle East-North Africa and usually means the Arab countries and sometimes Turkey) plummeted from 558 in late 2010 to a low of 460 in March. Lately it’s been around 470. The S&P Pan Arab Composite Index is down about 13% on the year. The stock market of Egypt, the region’s most populous country, was closed for 55 days during tumult there early this year. The EGX 30 stock index has fallen about 40% on the year from about 7000 to 4000 currently. The index had stabilized around 4500 before crowds returned to Tahrir Square late in November to protest moves by the Egyptian army to consolidate its control in advance of the first round of parliamentary elections. Roubini Global Economics estimates foreign direct investment in Egypt, only about $6 billion in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, has dropped by 68%. A bet on oil or on people? For the hardy investors who have stayed in the region, their investments in MENA countries boil down to either a bet on the price of oil and natural gas produced mainly by the Persian Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates), or a bet on the demographics of the more densely populated countries of north Africa – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, several of which (Egypt, for instance) are net oil importers. The World Bank expects the MENA region to grow 3.6% in 2011, mostly from gains by big oil producers of the Gulf. (Before the fall of longtime governments in Tunisia and Egypt the World Bank had predicted 5% growth.) Javier Cervino, a partner in Isthmus Partners, a financial consultancy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, says the Gulf economy has stabilized over the last year or so. Real estate investment in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. has stabilized and telecoms like Saudi Arabia’s Mobily and Qatar’s Qtel have done well lately. “From our point of view the events in Syria and Egypt seem as far away as they would to someone in New York,” Cervino adds. Less explosive but still simmering political conflict in Bahrain, he says, was more urgent to Gulf investors. Oil roars back to $100, but does anybody care? The investment argument for the North African countries is based on their large, youthful and in many places well-educated populations. This huge pool of workers, consumers and entrepreneurs wants jobs and income to spend on themselves and their families. That means economic growth and thus opportunity for investors who can supply the capital — and are willing to take the risks that come with investing in “frontier” markets, many of which lack stock exchanges or trustworthy legal systems. The big problem is that the despots and monarchs who have long dominated Arab politics (recent moves toward economic liberalization over the last few years aside) don’t want to give up either political or economic control of their countries. Neither do the countless bureaucrats and officials who rely on payoffs and kickbacks from business people. One of the initial sparks for the Arab Spring was the leak of a cable in which a U.S. diplomat commented that “seemingly half “ the business elite of Tunisia were members of President Ben Ali’s family. The Arab Spring began in earnest when the old politics of governments being able to buy off their populations with public sector jobs and subsidies finally collapsed. Egypt is the test case for the Arab Spring, politically and economically. It is the Arab world’s most populous country and it has the most diversified economy and most mature financial institutions. Other North African economies that have had their own revolutions this year are either too small (Tunisia) or too badly damaged (Libya) to be candidates for much outside investment any time soon. Egypt is the largest Middle Eastern economy where it is comparatively easy for outsiders to invest; in Saudi Arabia, by contrast, foreigners from outside the Gulf cannot directly own publically traded Saudi equities. Not that the Egyptian stock exchange is anywhere as large or liquid as London or Tokyo’s. Brian Bandsma, a senior analyst with the investment management firm Vontobel, went to Cairo to scope out possible investments in 2010. He saw a few public companies that impressed him but the firm decided not to buy any of them because they were too thinly traded. Ali Tarhouni: A Libyan leader speaks out Western investors, who cheered the revolution, have yet to embrace Egypt as an investment opportunity, largely because of political uncertainty that is, in turn, paralyzing the country’s economy. Even before clashes between protestors and the army broke out in November, tourism, a crucial industry, had ground to a halt. When revolution broke out in neighboring Libya, the many Egyptians who worked in that country’s oil industry either came home or stopped sending money to their families. Egyptian unemployment, already high before the Arab Spring, has risen to about 40%. Efforts by the Egyptian Central Bank to support the Egyptian pound and head off inflation had the side effect of making it possible for skittish investors to liquidate their Egyptian investments and take their money out of the country without getting killed on the exchange rate. Meanwhile, the bank’s reserves have been nearly depleted and it was widely expected that Egypt, which rejected an International Monetary Fund loan in June, would have to make some kind of deal with the IMF within the next few months. And those are the things investors know about; what’s really keeping institutions out of Egypt are countless unknown factors: What role will the military, which controls a sizable chunk of the country’s real estate, ultimately play in the governing of Egypt? How will the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood and other parties fare in major elections? (Elections for the lower house of parliament began in late November to be followed by elections for the upper house and for a new president in spring 2012.) Michael Daoud, head of Middle East equities at Auerbach Grayson, a New York brokerage specializing in the Middle East, says given all the uncertainty there’s just no way to know when foreign capital will return to Egypt and other parts of the region that have been thrust into turmoil by the Arab Spring. He’s more bullish on Egypt than many: he is tracking stable companies such as Juhayna Food Industries, which dominates the Egyptian market for milk and dairy products; energy products and services supplier Elsewedy Electric, and Cairo-based CIB Bank. Still, he can’t recommend that an interested foreign investor rush out and buy stakes in those companies. Not now, Daoud says. Things won’t start to get clearer until the election returns start to come in. “I’d rather be a little late,” he says, “than too early.” More Fortune Investor’s Guide 2012 10 best stocks for 2012 The triumph of Blackstone on Wall Street New global hot spots for investors Ramit Sethi: The new finance guru on the block Where to put your money now The best and worst of Wall Street 2011 Being a boring investor … and loving it Can Wall Street thrive again?

http://web.archive.org/web/20150113062814id_/http://fortune.com/2011/12/13/investing-after-the-arab-spring-unfinished-business/

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Investing after the Arab Spring: Unfinished business

The ongoing revolutions across the Middle East would seem to be good news for markets. But so far they’ve scared most foreign investors away.

20150407012344

Detlev Guenzel was found guilty of "murder motivated by sexual lust and disturbing the peace of the dead". (AAP) A German former police officer has been sentenced to eight years and six months in jail for killing a willing victim he met on a website for cannibalism fetishists. In the macabre case which captured international headlines, presiding Judge Birgit Wiegand said the defendant, Detlev Guenzel, was guilty of "murder motivated by sexual lust and disturbing the peace of the dead". The defendant, wearing a bright pink dress shirt and cargo trousers, sat impassively with his arms folded as the verdict was read out to the packed courtroom in the eastern city of Dresden yesterday. Guenzel, 57, went on trial in August over the killing in November 2013 of Polish-born Wojciech Stempniewicz, a business consultant, at the defendant's home, a bed-and-breakfast inn in a mountain town near the Czech border. The court found that Guenzel had cut the body into small pieces in a slaughter chamber he built in his cellar and buried them in his garden. But there was no evidence that he ate any part of his victim. State attorneys had sought 10 and a half years in prison for the defendant, a trim, soft-spoken father of three adult children whom neighbours described as friendly, generous and unfailingly polite. He smiled briefly at his daughter before taking his seat in the courtroom to hear the verdict. Lawyers representing the family of Stempniewicz, 59, had requested a 15-year sentence, usually the maximum in a murder case. But prosecutors said they stopped short of this demand because Stempniewicz had long harboured a sexually charged death wish, a line of argument that Wiegand said the court had accepted. "He wanted to be killed to make his fantasy come true," she said during a two-hour-long reading of the verdict. The men came across each other in October 2013 on a website for slaughter and cannibalism fantasies billed as the "#1 site for exotic meat" and boasting more than 3,000 registered members. A click on a box allows participants to say if they would like to go beyond the realm of the imagination. Guenzel, a three-decade veteran of the police force, retracted a confession he made to detectives soon after Stempniewicz's death in which he said he killed him by cutting his throat. His defence team argued that Stempniewicz had hanged himself in Guenzel's custom-designed "S&M studio" before Guenzel took a knife, then an electric saw, to the gagged-and-bound man. Investigators testified that they could not definitively determine the cause of death due to the state of the corpse. However Wiegand sharply rejected the notion Stempniewicz had suddenly changed his mind about wanting to be killed. "You don't change such preferences from one day to the next," she said. "The notion he would have said, 'then I'll just kill myself -- the main thing is that I'll be slaughtered' is simply improbable." Guenzel was married to his male partner for 10 years in a civil union at the time of the events, but said they divorced before the trial. The case exposed a murky online scene of gory sexual kinks that usually remain pure fantasy. Guenzel and Stempniewicz had had extensive contact online and by telephone before finally arranging the fatal date on November 4. Their emails bore the title "Schlachtfest", the German word for a country feast after the slaughter of a pig. Guenzel called himself "Caligula 31", Stempniewicz logged on as "Heszla-Longpig". A 50-minute video Guenzel made was played during the trial and showed him at one point covered in blood as he mutilated the corpse, muttering, "I never thought I would sink so low." He reportedly broke down in tears when the footage was shown, telling Wiegand: "I don't claim I'm entirely innocent -- it was the biggest mistake of my life. But I am not a murderer." Wiegand said the court found the expression of faint regret seen in the video made it unlikely Guenzel would repeat such an act. She said this differed from the infamous case of German cannibal Armin Meiwes, who admitted to killing, mutilating and eating the flesh of a lover in 2001 after meeting him on the Internet via an advertisement looking for a "slaughter victim". He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006. Do you have any news photos or videos?

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German ex-cop jailed for killing willing victim he met on cannibal website

A German former police officer has been sentenced to eight years and six months in jail for killing a willing victim he met on a website for cannibalism fetishists.

20150524080200

Nowadays, when liability claims can be substantial, even bankrupting, consumers have a greater need to understand what they are buying. This is especially true since insurance can now be ordered over the telephone as easily as pizza and since agents are often too busy to explain the fine print on the policies, which yield relatively low sales commissions. (By July 1, however, homeowner polices must be written in ''plain English'' according to New York State law.) One of the biggest personal risks is a liability claim that you or a member of your family has negligently injured someone or damaged his property. Most basic homeowner policies contain $25,000 personal liability coverage, but many experts call it inadequate in view of the potential risks and current court awards. This basic coverage also has a few odd exclusions, such as accidents occurring on sailboats over 26 feet long or motorboats with more than a 25 horsepower engine. One of the best incentives for increasing liability coverage is that it costs very little. Five or $10 will usually raise the coverage to $300,000 or $500,000, the normal limits on homeowner policies. On top of that, an ''umbrella'' policy can be added that costs $100 for the first $1 million protection and $10 for each additional $1 million. The umbrella policy applies world-wide and covers many items excluded on the homeowner's policy, such as liability claims resulting from accidents in rented or private cars, big boats, and private planes and even for claims involving libel and slander. 'Gambling a Few Dollars' ''It's one of the best bets in the insurance business,'' said Bert J. Leavitt, president of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, a trade group. ''You're gambling a few dollars to avoid paying hundreds of thousands.'' Mr. Leavitt said he automatically writes $300,000 worth of liability insurance for his clients in both homeowner and automobile policies. ''Most people don't understand their legal or moral responsibilities, but the courts do,'' he said. Here are several cases illustrating the long arm of liability: - $1.4 million was awarded to a 17-year-old girl in Denver who tripped on a wire lying across a homeowner's property and suffered multiple skull fractures and a blood clot that led to quadriplegia in 1976. (The award was reduced from $1.7 million because the teen-ager was found to be 22 percent negligent.) - Last May, an insurance company paid $150,000 in damages on behalf of a New Jersey policyholder who gave a party, after which an inebriated guest, on his way home, struck two highway maintenance workers with his car, killing one and injuring the other. - A schoolboy baseball player broke his leg during a slide and won a ''substantial'' damage case against his coach, contending that the coach had not taught him to slide properly. The dollar amount of the award was not revealed by the insurance company. - Another insurance company paid $11,500 for a Chinese vase that a tourist broke while browsing in a Mexican antique shop. (Basic homeowner policies only cover up to $500 for such accidents, but luckily, the tourist had umbrella coverage.) - In Miami, $700,000 was awarded to the parents of 23-month-old girl who drowned in swimming pool after wandering through an ungated opening. According to Jury Verdict Research Inc., a Cleveland company that monitors liability claims, plaintiffs who were invited to the insured person's residence win their cases 36 percent of the time, and uninvited guests, principally passers-by who fall on sidewalks on the property, win their cases 50 percent of the time. Statistics on the awards themselves were not available, but some insurance experts said that awards often approximate the insurance coverage, since shrewd lawyers are able to subtly inform juries of the policy limit, even though it is not legally admissable testimony. ''It's unorthodox, but juries perform a sort of social welfare by awarding large sums to people who are hurt and thus spread the cost among all people who take out insurance,'' said Paul Dudey, a spokesman for the National Underwriter Company, a publisher of industry newsletters. The cases themselves can drag on for years, which can mean years of anxiety for un-insured persons or those with limited coverage, he added. Theoretically, a burglar who slips on a banana peel specifically placed to trip him up could win damages from a homeowner, according to Richard Simpson, secretary of the Hartford Insurance Group. (But few juries would be sympathetic to the burglar's case, he added.) More common trespassers are neigborhood children who may injure themselves while taking a short cut through your property. Even though ''no trespassing'' signs may be posted, the homeowner may be liable if he or she took no definite action to stop the practice. Likewise, homeowners harboring ''attractive nuisances'' such as swimming pools must take special precautions, such as fences, which most local ordinances require. Mr. Simpson said the Hartford Group encourages agents to write a minimum of $50,000 liability coverage ''to reflect the inflationary environment.'' Louis Runge, vice president of Kemper Group of Insurance Companies, said that the wealthier people are, the more coverage they need since they ''tend to be targets for high claims.'' Professionals, including architects, lawyers and even insurance agents, ususally take out separate ''errors and omissions'' policies to cover liability claims. It is also becoming common for boards of directors in co-operative apartment buildings to carry up to $1 million ''errors and omissions'' coverage against claims that they failed to replace a faulty boiler that later exploded or that they were discriminatory in refusing someone admission to the co-op, according to Jay Saifman, director of insurance at Sulzberger-Rolfe Inc., the Manhattan management firm. In addition, he said that even small buildings were carrying a minimum of $1 million, and usually $5 million, against general liability claims. People who employ regular household help may also need to purchase a worker's compensation policy through their insurance agent. Regulations vary from state to state. In New York, for example, any person (such as a housekeeper or baby sitter) who works for more than 40 hours a week is not covered by the homeowner's policy. In Connecticut, the cutoff is 26 hours and in New Jersey, even temporary workers are not covered. Other exclusions from the basic policy include claims associated with business activities, automobile accidents and most claims that result from deliberate actions. Children under 13, however, are covered for up to $500 worth of deliberate damage. The complexity of the homeowner policy, in ''plain English'' or not, clearly calls out for the professional guidance of a qualified broker in a reputable firm.

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LIABILITY INSURANCE - BEYOND BASIC COVERAGE - NYTimes.com

Nowadays, when liability claims can be substantial, even bankrupting, consumers have a greater need to understand what they are buying. This is especially true since insurance can now be ordered over the telephone as easily as pizza and since agents are often too busy to explain the fine print on the policies, which yield relatively low sales commissions. (By July 1, however, homeowner polices must be written in ''plain English'' according to New York State law.) One of the biggest personal risks is a liability claim that you or a member of your family has negligently injured someone or damaged his property. Most basic homeowner policies contain $25,000 personal liability coverage, but many experts call it inadequate in view of the potential risks and current court awards. This basic coverage also has a few odd exclusions, such as accidents occurring on sailboats over 26 feet long or motorboats with more than a 25 horsepower engine.

20150524082019

As part of an agreement designed to save thousands of jobs, Conrail employees in the Transport Workers Union have voted to accept deferrals of wage increases over the next three years, union leaders announced yesterday. The union, which represents 4,000 of Conrail's 71,000 employees, was the first of 13 unions that are party to the accord to report its ratification by members. A spokesman for the union said that two-thirds of the members voted to accept a 12 percent deferral of wage increases for the next three years, but that specific sums had not been negotiated. Speaking for the railroad, Saul Resnick said yesterday that this was Conrail's method ''to keep the greatest number of jobs for the greatest number of people.'' He added, ''We are hopeful that other unions will follow the pattern established by the T.W.U.'' Trying to Reverse Losses The management of the railroad, whose official name is the Consolidated Rail Corporation, proposed in April a program to reverse the line's losses and avert a Reagan Administration plan to dismember the 17-state system. At the time, officials feared that as many as 50,000 jobs would have to be eliminated. Part of Conrail's proposal called for a wage-increase deferral to spare about 40,000 jobs. On May 5, it was announced that the leaders of 13 unions had agreed to the plan. The unions were to devise their own formulas to arrive at an equitable distribution of the deferrals - ''whatever it takes to get $200 million across the board,'' said Mr. Resnick. Three unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, did not agree to Conrail's plan. There are 65,000 union-affiliated workers and Mr. Resnick said that the 6,000 nonunion employees would be asked to make concomitant sacrifices.

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T.W.U. VOTES A DELAY IN RAISES IN AN EFFORT TO SAVE CONRAIL JOBS

As part of an agreement designed to save thousands of jobs, Conrail employees in the Transport Workers Union have voted to accept deferrals of wage increases over the next three years, union leaders announced yesterday. The union, which represents 4,000 of Conrail's 71,000 employees, was the first of 13 unions that are party to the accord to report its ratification by members.

20150524083145

BREMEN, West Germany— When the space shuttle Columbia thundered off its launching pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., earlier this month, a small circle of German engineers, eyes fixed on a television screen here, were particularly excited. The engineers were sitting across a field from the metal buildings that house the assembly line for Spacelab, a reusable orbiting laboratory scheduled to go into space in the shuttle's voluminous cargo bay in late 1983. ''Columbia is America's dream,'' said Manfred Fuchs, director of project development at Erno Raumfahrttechnik, the West German aerospace company that is Spacelab's prime contractor. ''If that dream doesn't work, ours won't either.'' Spacelab proved in the last seven years to be not only Europe's biggest, most ambitious space undertaking, costing nearly $1 billion, but also a curiously complex experiment in industrial and management cooperation. The shuttle's success gave the project a much-needed lift, after delays in America's orbiter threatened to sap the interest of European governments and industry. Rising Costs a Concern The increasing costs of sending the Spacelab into orbit, however, are causing some concern. Without considerable government aid, officials fear, Spacelab may be priced out of business before it takes off. With Europe's economies in deep recession, and most governments pushing austerity measures, budgeting for space has been frozen or reduced. The concept of Spacelab was born in the early 1970's, when 10 European countries pooled their space research resources in the European Space Agency, the equivalent of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States, and cast around for ideas to complement America's space shuttle program. Since West Germany paid 53 percent of Spacelab's costs of roughly $833 million, it got a lion's share of the work. AEG-Telefunken, the German electrical company, designed and built power systems, and Dornier G.m.b.H., a transport systems manufacturer, installed lifesupport equipment. Italy financed 18 percent, thus Aeritalia S.p.A., the Italian aerospace company, built the module's steel cylinders. France was the third-largest contributor, with 10 percent, so Engins Matra S.A., a French company, received contracts for the electronic command system. In all, some 35 contractors and subcontractors were involved in the work. Contract Awarded in 1974 The reusability and versatility of the design won Erno the contract from the European Space Agency in 1974, ahead of a single competing bid from Germany's other big aerospace concern, Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm, or MBB. British Aerospace withdrew a design early in the bidding. Ironically, MBB absorbed Erno's parent company, Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke, or VFW, earlier this year in an effort to mold a large German aerospace company capable of competing with other European giants such as British Aerospace or France's Aerospatiale, for major civilian and military contracts. But MBB executives say the takeover will not affect Erno's future role in Spacelab. The idea for Spacelab, according to Ants Kutzer, Spacelab's project manager at Erno, grew out of America's Skylab and the Soviet Union's Soyuz space stations. But, like the shuttle, Spacelab would be reusable. To add versatility, Erno designers developed a modular system of space-age building blocks that could be assembled in various configurations according to the needs of its future commercial, scientific or even military applications. Spacelab's keystone is a large, drum-like instrument-packed compartment, roughly 9 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. Ordinarily, Mr. Kutzer said, two such drums would be joined end to end to form a compartment that would accommodate up to four researchers. They would live in the shuttle's forward quarters, enter Spacelab through a tunnel, and work there in what Erno engineers like to describe as a ''shirt-sleeve'' environment. Tests Conducted at Canaveral Last November Erno delivered a version of Spacelab to Cape Canaveral, where it is undergoing tests and will be used to train mission personnel. An operational version is expected to be delivered before the end of the year. Spacelab accounts for about two-thirds of Erno's activities. The company also builds the second stage of Ariane, the European rocket launcher, designs and builds communications satellites, and builds Texus, a West German commercial rocket system used largely for scientific experimentation in weightlessness. In 1980, the company's sales totaled $171.2 million, compared with $153.6 million in 1979. Erno, which has a work force of 1,160, publishes no profit figures since it is a wholly owned subsidiary of VFW, and its results are included in that company's profits. VFW reported after-tax profits in 1979, the latest year in which figures are available, of $5.3 million, compared with $1.25 million in 1978, on consolidated sales of $585 million, compared with $500 million in 1978. Erno officials say the company operates with a thin profit. Analysts say that Erno has a good cost-effectiveness record. Most of its work is financed either by the European Space Agency or West Germany's Ministry for Research and Technology. Most of its programs are financed up to the middle 1980's. Using Environment of Space The company's Spacelab, its engineers say, will enable researchers to exploit the opportunity to work in the minimal gravity of the shuttle's earth orbit and the hard vacuum of space. Mr. Fuchs of Erno said interest in the Spacelab in Germany centered on tests of the behavior of materials, such as chemicals and metals, that could lead to production of new alloys or the manufacture of new types of crystals for the production of electronic chips, and in experiments in the control of fluids, essential for processes such as the production of glass. Illustrations: photo of Spacelab prototype

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EUROPE'S STAKE IN SPACE SHUTTLE

When the space shuttle Columbia thundered off its launching pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., earlier this month, a small circle of German engineers, eyes fixed on a television screen here, were particularly excited. The engineers were sitting across a field from the metal buildings that house the assembly line for Spacelab, a reusable orbiting laboratory scheduled to go into space in the shuttle's voluminous cargo bay in late 1983. ''Columbia is America's dream,'' said Manfred Fuchs, director of project development at Erno Raumfahrttechnik, the West German aerospace company that is Spacelab's prime contractor. ''If that dream doesn't work, ours won't either.''

20150807022150

The headquarters of Koch Industries isn’t exactly the first place you’d expect to find an information technology evangelist. It’s about 1,600 miles away from Silicon Valley and even more distant culturally and politically. Located on the northeast fringe of Wichita, where the city streets give way to open expanses of prairie grass, the campus of one of America’s largest private companies has grown over the years to support an expanding oil and gas empire. But when Koch CFO Steve Feilmeier was asked recently about the future of the U.S. economy, he launched into a spirited monologue about the bright prospects for the nation’s high-tech industry. “It’s the little things, like these BlackBerrys that didn’t exist eight or 10 years ago,” said Feilmeier, holding up his distinctly last-century smartphone and growing animated in his modest office along executive row. “These technologies have improved the quality of our lives tremendously. That’s going to continue, very rapidly.” In early December, Koch Industries put some serious money behind that belief when it closed on its $7.2 billion acquisition of Molex, a global electronic components manufacturer headquartered in Lisle, Ill. Molex makes parts for a wide variety of gadgets, including iPhones, and was traded on Nasdaq before the buyout. Koch sees huge potential for Molex to benefit from the so-called Internet of Things revolution that’s on the horizon. (See “Everything Is Connected.”) “Think about sensors and connectors and how [they’re] proliferating right now,” says Feilmeier, a stout 52-year-old who has the rah-rah intensity of a high school football coach. “As technology becomes more user-friendly and machines become wired to be more proactive — whether that be industrial robotics and automation, or you have automobiles doing more for you and telling you more and keeping you out of accidents — we think Molex is really well positioned to capture that growth.” Feilmeier envisions Molex growing from today’s $3.6 billion in revenue to $10 billion within a decade and says there are hundreds of smaller tech companies that could be acquisition targets. “They just weren’t out acquiring those companies or those technologies to enter new markets, and we’ll really be able to help them with that,” he says. To the degree that most people have heard of Koch (pronounced “coke”), it is likely because of the political activities of the company’s primary shareholders — the brothers Charles and David Koch. Thanks to the tremendous growth of the family company founded by their father, Fred, more than 70 years ago, the Kochs are among the very wealthiest people in the world today. Each brother has a net worth estimated at $36 billion or more, and as their fortunes have grown, they have been aggressive about using their money to influence the political conversation in the U.S. The Kochs are staunch libertarians — David ran for Vice President on the Libertarian Party ticket back in 1980 — with a distaste for big government and, some would argue, regulation that might infringe on the profitability of their businesses. Money from the Koch brothers helped fund groups that spawned the Tea Party movement. One of the prime vehicles for their efforts is the Koch-sponsored political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which has taken on an array of political fights — from repealing Obamacare to fighting the power of public sector unions in Wisconsin. According to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity, AFP spent $122 million in 2012 alone. But that is hardly the extent of the Kochs’ political spending. They have given tens of millions to help support a network of other conservative organizations. As a result, the brothers have become outsize figures in America’s partisan political narrative — all-purpose bogeymen to those on the left. All the attention on the Koch brothers’ politics, however, obscures the story of how their sprawling conglomerate has become one of the most important companies in America. If Koch Industries were eligible, its $115 billion in revenues would be enough for it to rank No. 17 on the Fortune 500, with sales larger than those of Google, Goldman Sachs, and Kraft Foods combined. It has doubled in size in the past decade. But Koch isn’t important just because it’s big. As Koch grows, it is reaching into new areas of business and becoming more closely entwined with more consumers. Koch owns well-known brands such as Stainmaster carpet and, thanks to its $22 billion purchase of Georgia-Pacific in 2005, Quilted Northern toilet paper, Brawny paper towels, and Dixie cups. While it began as an oil company, Koch today operates more like a giant private equity fund. It is essentially a massive pool of cash that is looking to invest wherever it sees the potential for long-term profits. When the company moves into a new industry, it does so strategically and patiently. Just 10 years ago, for example, Koch was a minor player in the fertilizer business. Then it made a series of quiet investments that turned it into the third-largest maker and distributor of fertilizer products in the U.S. Now Koch occupies a crucial role in the world’s food system — a position that the company is using as a beachhead for further investments in agribusiness. To better understand Koch’s strategy and its methodology, Fortune spent months interviewing current and former executives of the company, poring over available documents on the private company, and talking to competitors. What emerged was a picture of a highly disciplined organization that plans to play a critical and growing role in delivering electricity, food, technology, and, one day, maybe even tap water. It all revolves around the mind of one man: Charles Koch. People tend to refer to the Koch brothers as a single entity, but David, 73, the younger of the two, is clearly the junior partner inside the company. David retains the title of executive vice president, but he has long lived in New York City and spends much of his time involved in public-facing roles like philanthropic giving. In 2008 he pledged $100 million to Lincoln Center and got a theater named after him. Charles, 78, lives in Wichita and has held the titles of CEO and chairman since his father, Fred Koch, died in 1967. Charles and David Koch declined to be interviewed for this article. Based on Koch’s growth, there is a strong case to be made for Charles as one of the elite business executives of the past half-century. When he took the reins of the company nearly 50 years ago, Koch had around $200 million in revenues (vs. $115 billion today). He has steadily built on the foundation left by his father. Fred Koch, the son of a Dutch immigrant, studied engineering at MIT and invented a new method of converting oil to gasoline in the late 1920s. He worked in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin for a time before returning to the U.S. to found his own refining company in 1940. One of the original members of the John Birch Society, Fred imparted his conservative values to his four sons. Yes, four. David’s twin, Bill, is a businessman and sailor who won the America’s Cup back in 1992 and more recently made news by leading the fight against wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod. The eldest Koch brother, Frederick, 80, is a collector and philanthropist. In 1983, Charles and David bought out Bill’s and Frederick’s shares in the company for just over $1 billion — spurring a long-running family feud that in the 1990s led to a contentious lawsuit by Bill and Frederick claiming that they had been underpaid and ended in 2001 with an undisclosed settlement. The structure of Koch Industries today would probably be unrecognizable to Fred. There is a central group, officially called Koch Equity Development, which reports directly to Charles and other senior executives and which operates like a high-level think tank, evaluating potential deals, sometimes on a 10- to 15-year horizon. The company also has smaller development groups in its different divisions, such as Koch Fertilizer and Koch Minerals. These groups constantly scan the landscape of their respective industries for potential deals, feeding information back to the central group. Koch spends roughly $100 million a year to fund the research in its development groups, according to Feilmeier. The company also leverages other means of intelligence gathering — for instance, its massive commodities trading operation. Koch is the world’s fourth-largest commodities trader, according to a 2011 ranking by Reuters, with trading floors in Houston, New York, Geneva, Singapore, and Wichita. Koch’s traders buy and sell contracts on a wide range of commodities, from oil to silver to orange juice. In addition to generating profits, Koch’s traders act as scouts in the marketplace, according to current and former senior employees in the trading division. This helps Koch as it looks for new deals and new companies to buy. For example, Koch’s trading unit began buying and selling petrochemicals called olefins in the late 1990s because the market was undertraded and attractive, according to a former senior trader. In 2007, Koch bought a group of olefin plants from Huntsman Corp. as part of a $770 million transaction. The deal relied, at least somewhat, on analysis of the olefin market developed by the traders. Each of Koch’s major divisions reports to Charles Koch and other top executives at least every quarter with an update on their business. These meetings are not perfunctory. Every business unit of Koch is potentially up for sale all the time, and executives know it. They don’t dare fudge numbers or gloss over shortcomings when they stand in front of Charles Koch. He is known to pierce weak arguments with a single question. “It is intense,” said Jeremy Jones, who from 2007 until 2009 was vice president of Koch’s internal venture capital fund, which worked closely with Koch’s central development group. Jones learned the hard way when he pitched an investment in biofuels to Charles. After Jones made his case, Charles began grilling him in his no-nonsense style. Had Jones considered the fact that ethanol delivers only 66.7% of the energy of gasoline? Did his forecasts incorporate the fact that there was a government mandate for ethanol use, which could change? “My analysis was built on faulty assumptions,” Jones recalls. “He was really quick to figure that out. If you don’t know something, you’d better say you don’t know. Do not try to dance.” Once Koch commits to an investment, the company employs a rigorous approach to running the business that Charles has refined over decades. He has codified this approach into a philosophy that he calls Market-Based Management®. (Yes, he uses the registered symbol when writing about it.) In 2007, Charles published a book called The Science of Success, explaining how the system works at Koch. MBM, as Koch employees call it, lies at the heart of how Koch operates every day. There isn’t a lot of art on the walls in Koch’s headquarters, but everywhere you turn there is a copy of MBM’s 10 guiding principles hanging from the wall. When employees get a free cup of Starbucks coffee in the break room, the principles are printed on the disposable cup. The influence MBM has on Koch employees cannot be overstated. “It’s your life, man,” says one former senior Koch executive who worked closely with Charles Koch for many years. This executive said that the importance of MBM doesn’t lie just in its concrete advice. MBM is critical because it unites Koch’s employees, giving them a common language and a common goal. It can be maddening to try to understand MBM from the outside. The belief system can seem like little more than a grab bag of management consulting clichés. For example, the 10 guiding principles of MBM include malleable terms such as value creation, integrity, change, and principled entrepreneurship. But there is something very real at the heart of MBM, and in turn at the heart of Koch Industries’ corporate culture. And the only way to understand how Koch really works is to delve into specifics. There is no better case study for this than Koch’s fertilizer business. In 2002 a company named Farmland Industries, which owned a network of nitrogen fertilizer plants, was forced to declare bankruptcy and began selling off its divisions. The following year Farmland held an auction for its fertilizer plants in a conference room at its headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. The room was lined with glossy posterboard photos of the plants, designed to entice a bidding war. But only two companies showed up: the fertilizer giant Agrium and Koch Industries. Koch’s presence was puzzling to outsiders. Why was an oil company interested in buying fertilizer factories, at the very moment when those factories were least profitable? What outsiders didn’t know at the time was that Koch had been studying Farmland for years, in just the same way that Koch is studying other industries and companies today. This kind of analysis happens inside Koch’s central development group. When evaluating a deal, Koch executives focus on three key criteria: 1. The business in question must be in trouble. When a company is humming along, there’s not a lot of upside. If it has some sort of huge problem, there’s a better chance that Koch can reap profits from its recovery. 2. The deal must be a long-term play. Most public companies need to show good results on a quarterly basis. Even private equity funds need to show their senior investors that investments are paying off in at least a few years. Koch doesn’t. Being privately held means the company can think in terms of decades. 3. Koch needs to have key skills (or “core capabilities” in MBM lingo) that will benefit the company. Koch doesn’t just bring money to the table. It brings knowledge. And if Koch doesn’t already know something important about running the business in question, it will pass on the investment. Koch’s development group pores over the details of any possible deal and conducts a series of futures studies, gaming out what might happen in any given industry over the next 10 to 15 years, according to current and former Koch executives, including Brad Hall, who ran the group in the late 1990s. The development group then charts out the possible outcomes into a kind of bell curve, with highly likely scenarios in the middle and unlikely, “black swan” scenarios on the edges. If a deal is profitable under enough of the likely outcomes, Koch will make a move. In the early 2000s Koch’s small fertilizer business was doing just this kind of analysis. Steve Packebush, a young employee in the unit, was on the team that started analyzing global supply and demand trends for fertilizer. At the time Koch owned only a small plant and some pipelines that transported fertilizer ingredients. Then, in 2002, natural-gas prices shot up, dramatically increasing the manufacturing costs for nitrogen fertilizer makers and putting companies like Farmland under duress. Nitrogen fertilizer may sound like an agricultural commodity, but it’s actually an energy product because the main input in the manufacturing of nitrogen fertilizer is natural gas. Packebush’s group saw an opportunity in the price spike and recommended that Koch take advantage of the market turmoil and buy more fertilizer factories. At the time the U.S. fertilizer industry was in a deep hole, and about 40% of U.S. production had been knocked out of business. That meant the surviving factories were the most efficient and would benefit when the industry rebounded, Packebush said. Farmland’s fertilizer plants were particularly attractive because they were located in the U.S. Cornbelt, stretching from Oklahoma to Iowa. That gave the plants a slight price advantage over imported fertilizer, which had to be shipped in from the Gulf Coast. Charles Koch and the board gave their approval for the fertilizer business to invest when the right opportunity appeared. So in 2003, Packebush went to the auction at Farmland’s headquarters and outbid Agrium. Koch walked away with the fertilizer plants for pennies on the dollar in a deal valued at $293 million. Koch soon began applying its “core capabilities” to the business by investing about $500 million over a decade to upgrade the fertilizer plants and other infrastructure, running the operation with the same eye for efficiency Koch uses at its oil refineries. Then Koch Fertilizer was given a big boost by a scenario that almost no one saw coming. Beginning around 2008, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” technology opened up enormous reserves of natural gas in the U.S. Supplies jumped and prices plummeted. Koch was suddenly buying its primary feedstock at about half the cost that Farmland paid when it went bankrupt. But retail fertilizer prices remained high, because record-high corn prices incentivized farmers to buy as much fertilizer as they could use. The spread between cheap natural gas and expensive fertilizer translated into pure profit for Koch. The mix of luck and skill has made Koch Fertilizer one of the company’s largest divisions, and one of its most important. Koch CFO Feilmeier said agribusiness is one of the top areas where Koch will be looking to expand in coming years, and many of the deals could be made through the fertilizer unit. “The fertilizer business is right in the center of agriculture,” Feilmeier says. “Here’s the problem the world has: We’re at [a population of] 7 billion people today, 9 billion by the year 2030, okay? How are we going to feed them?” Koch is not particularly bullish about the economy right now. Feilmeier says the company is expecting sluggish growth in the near future. But there will be bright spots. Constant innovation in electronic devices will boost demand for high-tech manufacturing. The Molex deal, of course, is a means of capitalizing on that trend. Another long-term trend that Koch has identified is the need for utility companies to reinvest in the electricity grid. One surprising way Koch plans to benefit from this is by entering the steel business. It recently invested in a $1.1 billion mill being built in Osceola, Ark., by Big River Steel. Koch won’t say how much money it invested, but steelmaker Nucor estimates that Koch is getting a 40% equity stake in the plant by putting in a mere $125 million. The investment is relatively small for Koch, but that’s how the company often enters a market — making small deals at first, the kind of low-stakes experiments that allow it to learn and fail on the cheap. For example, Koch got into the forest products business cautiously in 2004 when it bought pulp mills and other holdings for $610 million from the timber company Georgia-Pacific. After briefly operating those mills, Koch suddenly bought all of Georgia-Pacific the following year. Feilmeier said Koch was attracted to the Big River Steel deal because the mill will be the only large-scale producer in the U.S. of electrical-grade steel used to make transformers, power lines, and other equipment used in the specialty grids of tomorrow. “What we see is an opportunity to help the U.S. retool itself on the electrical grid, and this plant is being positioned to do that,” says Feilmeier. “So we learn a lot. We bring a lot. And it potentially puts us into new markets 10 and 20 years from now that we’re not in today.” Does that mean that Koch could eventually make a multibillion-dollar bid to take a steelmaker like Nucor private, as it did with Georgia-Pacific? “Maybe so, if they have a problem that we can help them solve!” says Feilmeier. Koch’s investments in steel and electronics are plainly visible. But the company is also making quieter deals in the background. One of the most intriguing of these investments has to do with the most precious natural resource on the planet — water. Koch is among a handful of companies that are building the foundation of a privatized water industry. The investment thesis is simple: Fresh, clean water is increasingly scarce, and demand is growing. Booming populations in the developing world are outstripping freshwater supplies, creating strong demand for machines that can desalinize seawater or purify polluted streams. The market to desalinate water is expected to grow 9.5% year over year between 2012 and 2016, according to the market research firm TechNavio. “I think it could be a great business,” says Jones, the former vice president at Koch’s venture capital fund. He says he pushed water investments during his time there. “Fresh water, pure water, usable water: It’s not an asset that’s growing right now.” Koch is making a quiet push into the water business through a unit called Koch Membrane Systems, based in Wilmington, Mass. The division was originally founded to sell equipment that purified wastewater at industrial sites like Koch’s oil refineries. Scientists at Koch Membrane Systems became experts at making high-tech water plants that could fit in a small amount of space. In the 1990s the group started buying technology that opened the door to purifying water supplies for consumers rather than oil refineries, says Steven Iannelli, who worked for Koch Membrane Systems from 1991 until 2000 and left as vice president of the division’s development group. Today Koch offers a range of water products and services. It is selling its water-purifying systems to U.S. cities like Franklin, Mass., and pushing to expand overseas. Koch has sold desalination systems to a power plant in China and a mine in Chile. It has also supplied, to U.S. Department of Defense contractors, technology for portable water plants that can make drinking water out of saltwater or other sources that are polluted by chemicals and even nuclear waste. Then there is Koch’s Puron Plus system, a prefabricated water plant that can be made to order for cities or factories to install. Koch makes Puron “packaged plants” that can be quickly built to order, with the filtration systems set up in different floor plans designed to fit into small spaces. Products like this could help overcrowded cities that need new wastewater-treatment plants but don’t have a lot of space to house them. Koch’s water business is still tiny compared with the company’s oil refineries and fertilizer plants. But the company sees potentially huge profits down the road. Feilmeier says that Koch has been offered “many hundreds of millions of dollars” for the group of patents it has developed around water technology. “We’re not willing to do it, because we think we can take that technology and get it commercialized in the markets,” he says. One aspect of Koch’s long game that remains unclear is who will run the company after Charles Koch. The energetic 78-year-old doesn’t seem ready for retirement anytime soon, but succession plans are important for a company that invests with 20-year horizons. Nobody interviewed for this story suggested that David Koch would take over the company. Speculation tends to focus on the small coterie of lieutenants who work closely with Charles, including CFO Feilmeier and the company president, 51-year-old David Robertson. But there is one young up-and-comer at Koch who generates more speculation than anybody: Charles Chase Koch. Charles Koch’s son, known as Chase, inherited his father’s sense of fierce competition, say those who know him, and was a nationally ranked tennis player by the time he was 12. Now 36, Chase studied business at Texas A&M and joined Koch Industries in his mid-twenties. It appears that he is being groomed for leadership. Chase has shadowed senior executives and other employees in different divisions of Koch since being hired. He is now a vice president of Koch’s agronomics division, and in early 2014 he will be promoted to president of Koch Fertilizer, helping to guide the company’s expansion efforts. The company declined to make Chase available for an interview for this story. Whoever becomes the next CEO of Koch Industries must prove that the company is more than just the product of Charles Koch’s business acumen — in some ways similar to the challenge handed to Apple CEO Tim Cook and his executive team after Steve Jobs’ death. And the next leader of the company will be working with a transformed portfolio of businesses. As Feilmeier puts it, “When we buy something, it’s with an intention of holding it forever.” Someday, maybe people will talk about Koch Industries as a tech company. This story is from the January 13, 2014 issue of Fortune. Update 12/20/13 — Response from Charles Koch: Your story “The New Koch” (Jan. 13) was overall an accurate and honest portrayal of our company but one aspect of it fell far short of being accurate — that is your characterization of my brother David Koch’s role in Koch Industries, Inc. David has played and continues to play an active and significant role in governing and leading Koch Industries. He is an equal shareholder in Koch Industries with me. He serves as an executive vice president of the company and has been a member of its board of directors since 1967. David also serves as chairman and CEO of Koch Chemical Technology Group. Since joining KCTG in 1970, he has led and built that company to record levels, far beyond what was ever imagined. Steve Feilmeier’s quote in the story that we have been offered “many hundreds of millions of dollars” for Koch Membrane’s valuable water technology patents is just one piece of evidence of how significant David’s leadership has been. Charles G. Koch Chairman of the Board & CEO Koch Industries, Inc.

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Inside Charles and David Koch's Business Empire

Koch Industries may be known as an oil company. But the vast private business empire run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch is expanding into vital industries like food, water, and personal technology.

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A few companies and their peers are leading the way in solving the world's water crisis, while focusing on their bottom line. Consolidated Water has created a profitable business with its industry-leading technology for desalinated water. The company is experiencing exciting growth in the Caribbean and has made great traction in Mexico. MagneGas Corporation has focused on the sterilization of waste water while producing a usable gas by-product. Through their patented Plasma Arc Flow technology, the company is able to completely sanitize waste water by reaching flame temperatures of over 10,000 degrees. The company is currently pursuing numerous global contracts focused in the emerging markets. Abtech Holdings has had success in sterilizing flood waters and other contaminated water sources in the U.S. The company has a patented filtration technology with numerous applications. Read MoreWhy Matt Damon went on a toilet strike The world finds itself in a promising situation with the traditional methods of addressing its water being outdated in the wake of an ever-expanding population and shift in climate. New innovations as to how we are accessing and treating water are leading the way for how we will progress and thrive as a global society. Failing to adapt and embrace these new technologies will only leave us in a weakened position. It has been estimated by the WHO that, for every US$1 invested in providing clean water and sanitation, an economic return of between US$3 and US$34 would be achieved, depending on the region. The benefits would also include an average global reduction of diarrheal episodes of 10 percent and a total annual economic benefit of US$84 billion. Now that is a real return on investment that goes beyond the bottom line. Commentary by Jack Brewer, a former NFL safety who played for the Vikings, Giants, Eagles and Cardinals. He is also the founder and CEO of the Brewer Group. He has a master's degree in sports management from the University of Minnesota. He serves as an ambassador for peace and sport for the United States Federation of Middle East Peace at the United Nations. Follow him on Twitter@JackBrewerBSI. Disclosure: Jack Brewer and the Brewer Group have invested in MagneGas. Read MoreMarket correction coming? Ask these college kids

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Investing in the world's water crisis

The world is facing a serious water crisis. Former NFL star Jack Brewer highlights a couple of companies investing in solutions.

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Everybody likes a well-planned and well-executed heist. As proof, take a look at “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” which is closing in on half a billion dollars in worldwide grosses. Now that’s a heist. What’s the appeal of the genre? Even the most law-abiding citizens feel, at times, that the system owes them something. Maybe if they figure out a system of their own, they can beat the system in control, or at least a small part of it, and take what is rightfully theirs. To all those who are criminals at heart — and if the cynical police chief in Jean-Paul Melville’s “Le cercle rouge” (1970) is correct, that means everyone — the Harvard Film Archive is offering a chance to indulge forbidden desires next weekend. Their “Heist Night” movie marathon starts Friday at 7 p.m. and ends around 12 hours later. Here’s what the stalwart viewer can expect to see. (Note: John Woo’s 1991 “Once a Thief,” was not available for pre-screening.) As in war movies, the crews in these films usually constitute a microcosm of society, or rather of social outcasts, and the occasional respectable citizen who feels he deserves more than he has been getting. (It is very much a male-bonding kind of genre.) Both types are represented in “Kansas City Confidential” (1952), directed by unsung B-movie master Phil Karlson and starring a rogue’s gallery of some of Hollywood’s best character actors, including Lee Van Cleef, Neville Brand, and Jack Elam. They play a trio of desperados who need money and a ticket to get out of the country (an inversion of sorts of the scenario for William Friedkin’s 1977 “Sorcerer” and an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 “Reservoir Dogs”). “Mr. Big” enlists them in an armored car robbery that involves framing another hard-luck guy, Joe Rolfe (John Payne), a war hero with a criminal record trying to work his way back to society. Thuggish cops nab him, and he’s cleared after a brutal interrogation. But Joe seeks payback and vindication, and poses as one of the criminals (conveniently deceased) to infiltrate the group, retrieve the loot, and unmask “Mr. Big.” There’s no Mr. Big in Italian director Mario Monicelli’s “Big Deal on Madonna Street” (1958), a heist movie with debts to opera buffa and neorealism (it is not “Bicycle Thieves,” but there is a thief on a bicycle). The film would establish its own genre, Commedia all’italiana. In lieu of a mastermind, “Big Deal” offers a bunch of amateur sadsacks, a cross section of Roman proletariat society. There’s a dad with a crying baby (Marcello Mastroianni), a boxer with a glass jaw, and a pedantic safecracker (Toto), among others. They get a tip on an easy job that should fix them up for good. Through careful planning, they screw it up, demonstrating that the best part of a heist is when all the preparation falls apart. Professionals take over in Jules Dassin’s “Topkapi” (1964), a light-hearted variation on his classic “Rififi” (1955). Like Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall in Ernst Lubitsch’s “Trouble in Paradise” (1932), Melina Mercouri and Maximilian Schell play a larcenous pair who plan to score a priceless treasure, in this case a jewel-encrusted dagger exhibited in the reputedly impregnable Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul. They enlist a crew of specialists and craft a fool-proof scheme. Or so they think. A victim of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating the film industry for suspected Communists in the 1950s, and of the subsequent Hollywood blacklist, Dassin could not resist including covert government activities, in this case from the Turkish secret police, who co-opt a member of the team (a Falstaffian Peter Ustinov). Don’t expect easy resolutions from Melville’s “Le cercle rouge” — the guy didn’t take the name of the author of “Moby-Dick” because he was a fan of Agatha Christie. After a made-up Buddhist quote that explains the fatalistic meaning of the title, the first scene shows two people shackled together — Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte) and his captor, police Commissioner Mattei (Bourvil) — in a train sleeping-car compartment a-la Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” by way of “North by Northwest.” Vogel manages to slip out of the cuffs and smashes through the train window to escape. But fate hasn’t finished with Vogel yet. By chance he hides in the trunk of a car driven by Corey (Alain Delon, the French Tom Cruise of his day) and ends up a key player in Corey’s larcenous plans. Unlike Melville’s “Bob le Flambeur” (1956), the details of this heist are not specified until it unfolds in the last half hour of the film. Nor does it matter. Instead, Melville ponders the nature of good and evil, of loyalty and duty, not through dialogue but through mise en scène and montage. For example, why is the film framed by a scene of Vogel jumping through a window? Could it be that he embodies the repressed transgressor in Mattei’s soul? The circle closes in Sidney Lumet’s “The Anderson Tapes” (1971), a warm-up of sorts to his 1975 Oscar-winner “Dog Day Afternoon.” After 10 years in the clink without ratting on his mob buddy, the title safecracker (Sean Connery) wants some restitution. In a farewell speech to the prison shrink, he tells him how he really feels: angry. Angry at a world where the rich and powerful commit crimes far worse than those of the losers they put behind bars. “If a businessman steals a bank he’s a big success and they put his picture on a magazine cover,” he says. “If a guy steals the magazine they put him in jail.” He doesn’t know the half of it. A lot has happened in the country since Anderson was put away (a portrait of President Nixon on the wall of a federal law enforcement agency partly explains why). Security cameras, wired informants, phone taps, and bugs are everywhere, and in no time Anderson is under the surveillance of several legal and illegal parties. They pick up his plan to rob every unit in the posh building in which his girlfriend, Ingrid (Dyan Cannon), has been put up by a sugar daddy. According to the genre rules, Connery too recruits a crew. It includes the Kid, played by an incredibly young but unmistakable Christopher Walken, and a mob goon who might embody Anderson’s own inner psychopath. Good luck to them. More than four decades later, we’re used to it all. The ones in the movies still entertain, but the real heists are of our privacy, integrity, and souls.

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From the heist to the depths at Harvard film marathon

To all those who are criminals at heart, the Harvard Film Archive is offering a chance to indulge forbidden desires next weekend. Their “Heist Night” movie marathon starts Friday at 7 p.m. and ends around 12 hours later.

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Out-of-pocket maximums include deductibles as well as co-pays and co-insurance, but not premiums or cost-sharing when you get care out of network. Maximums for private plans are often lower than $6,600—sometimes by a lot—they just can't be higher. Christian and Jaycee Garcia of Silver Spring, Md., have been hard hit by medical bills, even with their out-of-pocket maximum of $6,350 a year for each family member. Their 20-month-old son, CJ, was born with the rare genetic disorder Eagle Barrett Syndrome and severe scoliosis. He will have his 13th surgery in August, with two more to follow in September, all to rebuild his digestive system and urinary tract and to insert metal rods next to his spine so he can sit up without a brace. Read MoreObamacare prices kept in check in 2015: HHS Although Christian Garcia earns $60,000 a year as a restaurant manager, the more than $700 monthly insurance premiums for his work plan and another privately purchased plan for his wife and kids plus other monthly bills make paying the family's share of the hospital bills impossible. The couple have $11,000 in medical bills they are paying $270 a month on, and bills from two other hospitals have gone to collections. Monthly expenses, including the payment on his medical bills, are about equal to his take-home pay of about $3,000 a month. They have sold their wedding rings and moved out of their apartment into Christian's stepfather's home, where they pay $500 a month for rent and share a bedroom with CJ and their baby, Jeremiah, who is 5 months old.

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Obamacare reduces maximum out-of-pocket costs, but not enough for some

Despite a $6,600 per-person, per-year cap on out-of-pocket health costs, Obamacare might not be doing enough, reports USA Today.

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GCHQ's involvement in the mass collection of citizens' data was revealed when former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked explosive top secret documents to the media in 2013. A steady stream of those files has continued to leak. Snowden's revelations sparked a fierce debate in Britain and the U.S. about the legality of the activities carried out by the countries' spy agencies. In February, the U.K.'s Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that the laws around the sharing of electronic communications between GCHQ and the NSA collected as part of the mass surveillance programs of both agencies breaches human rights regulations. But another inquiry in March by the U.K. parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) found that the bulk collection of communications by GCHQ "do not seem to circumvent the law" but are "unnecessarily complicated" and "lacks transparency". The U.K. is looking to strengthen the powers of security agencies through a new communications bill - labelled by critics as as the "snooper's charter" - which would require internet and mobile phone companies to keep data such as a call and text message history for a year. In the U.S., the Patriot Act which was passed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and allows the collection of Americans' phone data, expired on Sunday. But many of the rules allowing this surveillance could be retained in the Freedom Act which will be voted on in Senate on Tuesday. But two British companies – privacy app ind.ie and software company Eris Industries – have said they would leave the country because of GCHQ's mass surveillance and the proposed extension of powers in the latest bill. However, Martin denied that GCHQ's policies were driving firms out of the U.K, when asked about the topic. Skirting around the question, Martin referred to an answer given by BT Group chairman Mike Rake last year which was supportive of the intelligence agency. "It was put to Sir Mike Rake...whether he thought the government and GCHQ in particular...was having any impact on U.K. tech and the answer was no," GCHQ's cyber chief said.

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GCHQ: We don’t have the manpower to spy on you

The U.K.'s top intelligence agency doesn't have enough people to carry out mass surveillance, its cyber chief claimed.

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SAN DIEGO, Sept. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to help customers lower their energy bills, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has launched a new online store, SDG&E Marketplace, for customers to quickly and easily shop for energy saving products offered by third-party retailers. "SDG&E is among the first utilities in the nation to launch this type of online tool," said Caroline Winn, SDG&E's chief energy delivery officer. "We are a national leader in renewable energy and leading efforts to reduce energy consumption. The marketplace tool is another leadership opportunity to use technology to better serve and inform our customers about energy products available. Choosing the energy efficiency products that are right for you can take time and be confusing. The SDG&E Marketplace makes it easy and empowers our customers to choose the products that help them save electricity and money." At the SDG&E Marketplace, customers will be able to shop for rebate-eligible products, such as high-efficiency appliances, smart thermostats, and water conservation products. The SDG&E Marketplace also offers an option for personalized energy-saving tips based on a customer's home profile and smart meter data. To explore the new SDG&E Marketplace, visit sdgemarketplace.com. SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and 868,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility's area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to creating ways to help customers save energy and money every day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego. Connect with SDG&E's Customer Contact Center at 800-411-7343, on Twitter (@SDGE) and Facebook. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sdge-launches-new-energy-efficiency-marketplace-website-300137030.html SOURCE San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)

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SDG&E Launches New Energy Efficiency Marketplace Website

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 2, 2015/ PRNewswire/-- In an effort to help customers lower their energy bills, San Diego Gas& Electric has launched a new online store, SDG&E Marketplace, for customers to quickly and easily shop for energy saving products offered by third-party retailers. At the SDG&E Marketplace, customers will be able to shop for rebate-eligible products, such as...

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On the living room mantelpiece of Yinka Shonibare's house in east London sits another house. It is a scale, doll-sized model, although the décor - diminutive dining table and chairs, four-poster bed, and a framed print of an old master painting – differs from the real version, which Shonibare has filled with works by fellow artists. A painted sign by Bob and Roberta Smith hangs on one wall, alongside a work by Hew Locke – a sinister, floor-length photograph of what looks like a south-east Asian tribesman wielding an array of knives. Shonibare has more in common with Locke than simply owning his work. Both artists are previous recipients of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation award for visual arts. The awards carry big money – currently £45,000, spread over three years – significant enough to change the lives of its recipients. Yet, compared with higher-profile, headline-grabbing prizes such as the Turner (this year's winners of which will be announced a week today), the Paul Hamlyn - named after the late publisher and philanthropist - is barely ever talked about outside the art world. The awards were originally set up in 1994 to provide composers with enough cash to allow them to concentrate on developing their ideas over a three-year period. They were expanded in 1998 – the year Shonibare was a winner – to include those working in the visual arts. Since then, they have been awarded to some of the best-known artists around today, from Shonibare and Locke to Jeremy Deller, Gustav Metzger, Mike Nelson and Tomma Abts. The Turner, for which Shonibare was himself nominated in 2004, may exceed the Paul Hamlyn in terms of sheer, brassy glamour, but those who have benefited from the Paul Hamlyn are almost evangelical about its value to their career and confidence. In 1998, Shonibare was working three days a week as a development officer for the disability arts organisation, Shape; the rest of his time was devoted to delivering a rapidly increasing number of commissions, and demands for shows. He felt, he says, "that it was a sort of catch-22 thing. If you still have a part-time job you can't really throw yourself in fully. While I liked the job, my art career was also building. So it was really hard - like pulling myself between the two things." When he won the award, however, Shonibare was able to resign and concentrate on his art full-time. It was in the very fact of being able to stop worrying about money that, somewhat ironically, he began to make some. "Not only did the award give me confidence," he says, "it just took away the worry of money, because that can be very distracting. And actually, being able to switch to the [art] work then subsequently produced more money." Performance artist Rose English, who won a Paul Hamlyn award the year after Shonibare, agrees. Her multidisciplinary work is difficult to quantify, which meant she had, she says, been finding it very difficult to secure funding – especially to work on ideas. Public funding tends to require the applicant to create a particular, tangible project (such as a stage show or exhibition), while an award such as the Turner retrospectively recognises a successful show or body of work; the aim of the Paul Hamlyn is to give the artist the breathing space to develop fresh ideas. "The fact that there were no strings attached was very valuable," English says. "There was no specific play or performance to get together." English did, nonetheless, use the three years financed by the award both to stage a musical performance, Standing Room Only, in London (she had been planning it for years, but had not yet secured funding); and to research a longer-term project. Called Lost in Music, it's a performance piece using acrobatics, singing, fire, and, intriguingly, glass, and it will be produced and performed next year in China. "I was able to just batten down the hatches," English says of those three years, "and get on with it." English also found her confidence boosted by the knowledge that other artists had been involved in making the decision, rather than the distant, grey-suited bureaucrats more readily associated with public funding. This year among the art world luminaries who helped to choose the shortlist were artist Rachel Whiteread, Serpentine director Hans Ulrich Oberst, and Whitechapel Gallery curator Anthony Spira. The winners are then chosen by a smaller team of judges (this year, the Guardian's Adrian Searle; Paul Hamlyn's daughter, gallery owner and chair of the foundation Jane Hamlyn; and Baltic director Godfrey Worsdale). To win, therefore, is to gain a vote of confidence from the people whose opinion matters most – curators, gallerists and, most importantly, other artists. "To know that these people whose opinion I valued had actually chosen me," English says, "made me feel such a connection with them." Shonibare goes even further: "Paul Hamlyn has something that the Turner doesn't have … It has peer respect." Where Hamlyn also differs from the Turner is in age criteria: the Turner is only open to artists under the age of 50, but artists of any age are eligible for the Paul Hamlyn. Gustav Metzger was 80 when he won the award in 2006; the film-maker and photographer Horace Ové was 69. The Trinidadian-born Ové is using his award to transfer his career-long archive of works between the Caribbean and the UK, and to focus on his photography (planned projects include a trip to Congo). "Winning the Paul Hamlyn has been very, very helpful to me," he says. For Shonibare, there is nonetheless a tangible correlation, at least among the younger artists, between Paul Hamlyn winners and Turner prize nominees. "If you look up all the artists who've been nominated for the Turner in the last 10 years," he says, "you will find that prior to the Turner nomination, a lot of them actually received the Paul Hamlyn." So did Shonibare actually find winning the Paul Hamlyn as significant as being nominated for the Turner? "They're two very different things," he says tactfully. "Paul Hamlyn is very low-key; it's very discreet, publicity-wise. You have to have really thick skin when you do the Turner, because people will just hurl abuse at you from every corner. Even cab drivers have an opinion. You wouldn't get into a cab and find the driver discussing the Paul Hamlyn." Although Shonibare won the popular vote at the time of his nomination (64% of visitors to the BBC website said they wanted him to win), he says he still suffered his fair share of abuse. "The Turner is great," he says, "but it has all other kinds of agendas attached to it. It's more about popular culture, more about the media opportunity to dislike contemporary art. The press love to rubbish art - with the Turner they do it every year. The Paul Hamlyn doesn't get into any of that. It's a serious award. It's not being dragged into the gutter." • This article was amended on Tuesday November 25 2008. We confused Paul Hamlyn's daughter Jane with the potter Jane Hamlyn. This has been corrected.

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Laura Barnett talks to winners of the Paul Hamlyn award

The glamorous Turner prize may catapult artists into the spotlight, but the Paul Hamlyn award is equally life-changing. Laura Barnett talks to former winners

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The company plans to add significant functionality to private messaging: The company is calling it key to long-term growth. It sounds like Twitter wants to take the fact that people text each other all the time and bring that texting communication inside its system. Plus, it's making it easier to share Tweets privately, rather than having to send an email when you want to share a tweet with someone. Read More One year after IPO, Twitter investors are wary Twitter's working to launch a range of new services and apps: For developers, that means new tools like its 'Fabric' developer toolkit. For users, that means totally stand-alone apps like 'Vine.' (Here Twitter seems to be taking a page of Mark Zuckerberg's strategy to build out a portfolio of apps around Facebook). The more tools it gives developers, the more distribution its ads and Tweets will get. The more apps it offers, the more opportunity to generate ad revenue. Expect a range of improvements to the product: Twitter will make it easier to watch video on Twitter. Users will be able to record, edit and share video within Twitter. It's investing in improving search and new location-specific experiences. Plus, Twitter's working on some curation—so when you come back to the app after being away, instead of seeing just the latest tweets, it'll feature the most important tweets from "While you're away." Why? If every time you open Twitter you see something really great, rather than just the latest, you'll be more likely to share it. Read MoreTeen: Facebook isn't cool but we still use it CFO Anthony Noto is bullish on revenue growth: Noto admitted that his plans are "aspirational," but he laid out a couple of scenarios that would enable the company to scale to the kind of revenue that the largest Internet companies have.

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Why Twitter’s stock soared 7.5% on analyst day

CEO Dick Costolo provided a clear picture of his vision for Twitter, and the company's stock soared following his presentation.

20151203162814

* Dollar/yen coasts up after Japan lawmaker stirs BOJ easing hopes * Sterling supported by optimistic BOE * Aussie briefly hits 9-day high of 71 U.S. cents TOKYO/SYDNEY, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The dollar extended gains against the yen on Friday on increased prospects of more easing by the Bank of Japan, while the Aussie stood tall after catching a lift from upbeat employment data. The greenback was up 0.2 percent at 120.82 yen after scaling a 10-day high of 121.38 overnight. The dollar was headed for a 1.5 percent weekly gain. The U.S. currency coasted on a boost received Thursday on a media report quoting Japanese ruling party lawmaker Kozo Yamamoto as saying that the Bank of Japan's Oct. 30 policy meeting would be a "good opportunity" for further monetary easing. This was not the first time the outspoken Yamamoto, an adviser to Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, has openly expressed his views on monetary policy. But the timing appears to have struck a cord in the markets which have recently seen a soft Japanese data and equities engulfed in volatility. "Foreign market participants' views on the yen hinge on whether the BOJ will ease further or not, and such comments from an official naturally spark selling of the yen," said Daisuke Karakama, market economist at Mizuho Bank in Tokyo. "But we also need to keep in mind that the Abe administration may not exactly welcome further easing right now, as that could cause the yen to depreciate and depress real wages," he said. The yen was also on the defensive against the euro. The common currency rose to a two-week high of 136.45 yen, having gained 2.7 percent so far this week. The euro was firm at $1.1248 and on track for a 1.3 percent weekly rise. The Australian dollar was steady at $0.7067 after surging 0.8 percent overnight. The Aussie sank after suffering collateral damage early on Thursday as the New Zealand dollar plummeted on easing by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), but it struck a 9-day peak of $0.7100 later in the day as focus shifted to the much better-than-expected August Australian employment data. A 1.2 percent overnight jump in offshore yuan against the dollar, after suspected rare intervention by Chinese state-owned banks, also provided a lift to the Australian dollar - often used as a liquid proxy for China plays. Offshore yuan stabilised and was little changed on Friday. "This (offshore yuan jump) drove a sharp narrowing of the gap between onshore and offshore yuan, suggesting official discomfort with the yuan trading at a discount offshore," wrote Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney. "This reinforces risks that the USD/CNY (onshore yuan) fixings tilt to the downside until further notice and presumably into China President Xi's state visit to the U.S. later this month, where he would not want CNY to be a hot topic." The People's Bank of China set the onshore midpoint rate at 6.3719 per dollar on Friday prior to the market's open, firmer than the previous fix of 6.3772, and firmer than the previous day's closing quote 6.3772. Beijing maintains an onshore and offshore currency regime as a means of capital control. A month ago, markets took fright after China unexpectedly depreciated the yuan against the dollar, sparking talk of a global currency war. The move also added to worries about its slowing economy at a time when Beijing was trying to contain a stock market meltdown. Sterling enjoyed a positive session after Bank of England policymakers felt the threat to the world economy from China's stock-market slump did not signal a slowdown for Britain. The pound, which scurried to a two-week high of $1.5476 on the bank's optimistic outlook, last stood at $1.5443. (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro and Ian Chua; Editing by Richard Pullin and Eric Meijer)

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FOREX-Dollar up vs yen on increased BOJ easing prospects, Aussie stands tall

TOKYO/ SYDNEY, Sept 11- The dollar extended gains against the yen on Friday on increased prospects of more easing by the Bank of Japan, while the Aussie stood tall after catching a lift from upbeat employment data. The U.S. currency coasted on a boost received Thursday on a media report quoting Japanese ruling party lawmaker Kozo Yamamoto as saying that the Bank of...

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Manet was the last French painter to love black for a very long time. The museum habit of placing him among the Impressionists has a curious effect. In New York's Metropolitan Museum, stepping from the interminable Renoir rooms into the Manet room produces a shock; stepping back produces another one, not quite in reverse. Renoir, who believed and said that black did not exist, that all shadows had a colour, apparently succeeded a painter who loved the knife-edge contrasts of black. The intense matadors of Manet give way to the smiling pastel matrons of Renoir; dramatic costumes, as if for a stage performance or a last appearance in the arena, are succeeded by a natural sincerity. Black disappeared after Manet, not to reappear until Matisse. Pleasingly, the aged Renoir lived to be deeply shocked by the black horizontal bar in Matisse's Intérieur à Nice, now in Philadelphia. Visitors to the Royal Academy's new blockbuster Manet exhibition will be immediately struck by the glowering, Spanish-flavoured black, which separates him so strongly from the next generation. But on the other hand, there are aspects of Manet's painterly practice that root him powerfully in his own time, and strongly influenced the generations that followed – not just in painting. The age was one that was fascinated by what Gerard Manley Hopkins was to call "dappled things" – the effect of coupled light and dark in flecks and movement under trees and in urban shade. "All things counter, original, spare, strange; whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) with swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim"; Hopkins' catalogue starts to surface elsewhere, in Manet's first mature paintings, and maintains a powerful presence in the art, music and above all painting of the rest of the century. Dapplement surfaces in the great Musique dans les Jardins des Tuileries of 1862, somehow both epic and domestic in scale, and is the thing that saves it from direct comparison with the social panoramas of William Powell Frith, across the Channel. An all-enveloping rippling light turns it into a study of atmosphere. Dapplement, with its unpredictable emphases and shadows, its world of half-glimpses and dramatic clarity, determines what meaning Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe might possess. Dapplement had occasionally interested earlier painters, and Le Linge of 1875 pays some homage to the great series of laundress paintings of Fragonard, a century before, where the figures are almost lost in bursts of light falling on steam. A subsequent generation, including Renoir in the Bal du Moulin de la Galette, which recapitulates Musique dans les Jardins des Tuileries, used dapplement to create a rippling uniformity in a diverse scene. Manet's fascination was rather different. It is used to demonstrate the unpredictable object, the startling contrast, the grotesque event with the unexpected fall of direct light amid shade. It combines the detailed passage with a grand sweep of crepuscular shade, the closely observed with the mysteriously vague. Dapplement was a tool for him, like the sudden emergence of a social group into the light from deep shade, like the curious group in Le Balcon at the Musée d'Orsay, or the great Dejeuner dans l'Atelier in Munich. It froze a moment in all its curious combinations, as photography was one day to do. Dapplement in Manet is much more like the dappled observations of his friend Chabrier's piano piece "Sous-bois" – a work so strange I remember repeatedly stopping while learning it as a boy, unable to believe that a composer of the 1870s could intend these sounds. Manet's late Un Bar aux Folies Bergère hung over Chabrier's piano; it is nice to think of the mercurial musician looking up as he played. Manet's dapplement resembles the gorgeous and unpredictable shifts between soloist, septet, chorus and orchestra, between foreground and sweeping backdrop, which Berlioz found for the end of the fourth act of Les Troyens in the late 1850s. It resembles, too, the bizarre juxtapositions in Madame Bovary, such as the declarations of love against the cries of an agricultural auction, and, much later, the freakish shifts of direction in the poetry of Manet's friend Mallarmé – his early "L'Après-midi d'un Faune", like the Debussy orchestral prelude, is an ode to dappled light and the bizarre, erotic contrasts it produces. Manet's art is devoted to the wrong thing in the wrong place, unpredictably caught out and spotlit by the fall of light or the pitiless gaze. Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, with its outrageous combination of clothed male figures and nude, or deshabillé women, was defended by Zola on the grounds of classical precedent. (Not quite as much as Zola claims, however.) There are Giorgione landscapes and Titian interiors that exploit the same contrast. But Manet's point is the indecency of the contrast in a contemporary context – the very fashionable little tassled cap on the head of one of the men is the most obscene thing in the painting. Similarly, in the sumptuous Olympia, what turns the nude into a shocking study of a prostitute? It is the clothes – the clothes the maid wears, the orchid in the hair, the black ribbon about the neck, the pearl earrings and the bracelet, and above all, the slippers – that transform the nude. There are franker 19th-century studies of the female form, such as Courbet's Origine du Monde, but none so ingeniously obscene. Dressing up is the source of much joy and bizarre contrast in Manet. Go back to the incomparable Manet room in the Metropolitan, and look around. The beautiful Mlle V en Costume d'Espada has the face of a handsome boy, and would pass as a matador but for one thing – the painter's voluptuous enjoyment of her unmistakably feminine bottom and swelling belly. Next to that, an absurdly upright 1866 matador with showy, excessive sideburns seems to be dressing up as a man, too, as does the little boy with a serious expression carrying a sword that is far too big for him. And then the limp Christ with the angels, their expressions not sweet and generalised, but very much studies of hard-faced Parisian women, perhaps women whose trade is the laying out of corpses – what to make of that? Was Manet quite serious? Manet retained a detached relationship to the subject matter of paintings that challenged even the most sympathetically inclined of his contemporaries. Gautier was alarmed by the combination of realism and topic in Le Christ Mort et les Anges. Zola, in the course of his spirited defence of Manet, was not quite right to say:"Feeling that he was making no progress by copying the masters, or by painting Nature as seen through the eyes of individuals who differed in character from himself," Manet "came to understand, quite naturally, one fine day, that it only remained to him to see Nature as it really is, without looking at the works or studying the opinions of others." The detachment from artistic tradition comes not through complete freedom, but from a willingness to examine and break the rules of presentation. This urge has, it turns out, resulted in a series of cunning traps laid for the oversophisticated. There is a large body of critical work about Manet's last major painting, Un Bar aux Folies Bergère, either decrying its impossible depiction of a reflection, or talking about the subtle fantasy that results from this impossibility. It took until 2001, and the reconstruction of the image by an Australian art historian, Malcolm Park, before the scene was shown to be perfectly plausible. Manet had just taken the greatest care to make the scene look as impossible, and indeed ineptly constructed, as he knew how. Portraiture, which is the focus of the Royal Academy's show, had become still more hidebound by the advent and influence of photography. As one of the great early photographers, Nadar, remarked in his autobiography, the advent of the carte de visite type of photographic portrait "spelled disaster. Either you had to succumb – that is, follow the trend – or resign." Carol M Armstrong reminds us in the RA catalogue that Manet's friend Baudelaire had been similarly scathing about photography's impact on society in his Salon of 1859, speaking of the moment when "our squalid society rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gaze at its trivial image on a scrap of metal". Manet's portraiture is devoted to the image that is controlled not by the conventions of the form, still less of the acceptable conventions of emerging photography portraiture, but by the gaze of the artist. If some of the portraits, such as the famous one of Zola, follow the conventional format established by Ingrès, others, such as the portrait of Mallarmé or La Dame aux Eventails in the Musée d'Orsay, return to the fantasy portraits of Fragonard, and seem to draw inspiration from a blurred photographic print. Others revel in the momentary impression, even of a face glimpsed in the street in a dumpy, unconsidered posture in mid-movement, as if thinking that painting could achieve through imaginative action what photography, as yet, was not technically capable of. In the portrait Berthe Morisot au Bouquet de Violettes she is caught between poses, slowly moving into an amused smile. There are curious urban scenes to make Diane Arbus wonder; the grouping of the balcony, or the marvellously awkward and grumpy mother and daughter against the strangest of geometric backdrops in Le Chemin de Fer, now in Washington DC. These are moments that might have been glimpsed in the street, from the window of a moving hansom cab, by a device not yet perfected. Or alternatively, by an unresting and ceaselessly inventive eye, with a perfect visual memory, apparently in need of little mechanical help. It is difficult to tell. Zola was quite right to base his defence of Manet on the painter's perfect eye. It was an eye of great purity, and one that came to an ironic and undermining position after the long years of argumentative apprenticeship in the studio of Manet's master, the salon painter Thomas Couture. (The scholar Beatrice Farwell remarks, surprisingly, that Manet was "the last great French painter to receive a long and academic training".) What the eye saw, however, was not completely unprejudiced. It was the observation of the visual moments that would most offend, most alarm, most bewilder; a face in a street, a line of railings and a suggestion of rising steam, a momentary pattern of dappled light that reveals, of all things, a naked woman sitting with two well-off young men in a forest glade, turning and smiling. What do these things mean? The startled eye closes; turns away; turns to something else, with amusement, but no certain claim to be making any kind of statement about anything but the fall of light.

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Manet's portraits: the artist on the knife-edge of photography

With his snatched street scenes and glimpses of private moments, Manet's portraits are snapshots seen through the gaze of the artist, as a new exhibition at London's Royal Academy reveals. By Philip Hensher

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An Oxford English Dictionary. (AAP) Words most commonly heard on the streets of Hong Kong and Singapore like "yum cha" and "wah" have entered the linguistic mainstream, with the Oxford English Dictionary including them in its latest update. The terms -- a type of Chinese breakfast and an expression of delight, respectively -- enter along with phrases like "dai pai dong", "ang moh" and "chilli crab" (an open-air food stall, a light-skinned person, and a regional delicacy). Other new entries are "compensated dating", a Hong Kong phrase that refers to a relationship provided in return for cash or gifts, and "Chinese Helicopter", a Singaporean who was educated in Mandarin and has little knowledge of English. The March update to the OED, which styles itself as the definitive record of the English language, includes some 500 new words and phrases from around the world, such as "vlog", "bro-hug" and "Dad's Army". The update brought an "alphabet of newly added terms from World English to explore," said OED senior assistant editor Jonathan Dent. He cited "killer litter" -- a Singaporean phenomenon of rubbish falling from a height -- and "guanxi", the Chinese term for personal connections that help facilitate business dealings. The dictionary records southeast Asian influences on English stretching back to 1555. Char siu - barbecued pork Compensated dating - relationship in return for cash Dai pai dong - open-air food stall Guanxi - personal connections that aid business Lucky money - cash given in red envelopes Sandwich class - squeezed middle class Milk tea - local speciality Siu mei - type of dim sum Yum cha - type of breakfast Wet market - market for fresh fish, meat and other produce Ang moh - a light-skinned person, Westerner Chilli crab - regional delicacy Chinese helicopter - person who speaks little English Hawker centre - food market with individual vendors HDB - public housing estate Killer litter - lethal falling rubbish Lepak - to loiter aimlessly Sabo - to harm, make trouble Sabo king - a troublemaker Sotong - squid or cuttlefish Teh tarik - sweet tea with milk Wah - an expression of delight

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Wah! East Asian words enter Oxford English Dictionary

Words most commonly heard on the streets of Hong Kong and Singapore like "yum cha" and "wah" have entered the linguistic mainstream, with the Oxford English Dictionary including them in its latest update.

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, has fired off a cease and desist letter to the publicist who claimed Chrystal demanded he leak nude photos of her eldest daughter -- however she does admit sending him scantily clad pics. TMZ obtained a copy of the letter sent to ... in which Chrystal's attorney warns him to stop "making false and defamatory statements" because, "Ms. Workman never represented to Mr. Hay that nude pictures existed of her daughter Shanelle." But in the same letter Workman admits sending Hay 2 photos of , which she says she found on the Internet -- and while they're not fully nude ... they are very revealing. But it turns out the photos were NOT private or secret in any way ... they were taken at a cast party for "One Life to Live" by a professional photographer. FYI -- Shanelle was in the cast when the pics were taken. In the cease and desist letter Workman's attorney says, "The attached email contains pictures which raise the question, to Ms. Workman, whether Shanelle is fit to be the guardian of a teenager." As we previously reported, Hay had claimed Ariel's mother sent him photos which she wanted leaked to the public -- presumably to smear Shanelle ... who's taken guardianship of Ariel in the wake of allegations Chrystal was abusing the "Modern Family" star. Hay has responded to Chrystal's letter with a letter of his own in which he claims Chrystal herself "described these photos to me as 'nude photos' before I even saw them." He also points out the photos "expose intimate parts of [Shanelle's] body." Hay closes his letter with a major jab at Chrystal, saying ... "I feel terrible that a 14-year-old child has to suffer the consequences of her own mother's unfortunate decisions."

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Ariel Winter's Mom -- Threatens to Sue Publicist Over Nude Photos Claim

Ariel Winter's mother, Chrystal Workman, has fired off a cease and desist letter to the publicist who claimed Chrystal demanded he leak nude photos of her…

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Correction appended Nov. 18, 2011: A previous version of a caption in this slideshow incorrectly stated that a house had toxic drywall. TIME regrets the error. In 2010, more Americans lived below the poverty line than at any time since 1959, when the U.S. Census Bureau began collecting this data. Last January, TIME commissioned photographer Joakim Eskildsen to capture the growing crisis, which now affects nearly 46.2 million Americans. Traveling to New York, California, Louisiana, South Dakota and Georgia over seven months, Eskildsen’s photographs of the many types of people who face poverty appear in the new issue of TIME. Eskildsen, who last visited America in 1986, says the poverty crisis was a side of the country he’d rarely seen in the media in Berlin, where he is based. “For Europeans living outside of America, it’s a mythical place because we’re breastfed with all those images of Coca-Cola and American culture,” Eskildsen says. “It was very heartbreaking to see all kinds of people facing poverty because many of these people were not only economically poor, but living in unhealthy conditions overall.” Eskildsen was also surprised by how pervasive poverty is in America. “Once you start digging, you realize people in poverty are everywhere, and you can really go through your life without seeing them before you yourself are standing in the food stamp line,” he says. “So many people spoke about the disappointment of the American Dream—this, they said, was the American Reality.” In the accompanying magazine story, Barbara Kiviat argues that “there is no single archetype of America’s poor,” and that “understanding what poverty is in reality—and not in myth—is crucial” to efforts to erase the situation. Perhaps equally as crucial is the effort to put a face to the statistic, which Eskildsen has done here in haunting detail. Joakim Eskildsen is a Danish photographer based in Berlin. He is best known for his book The Roma Journeys (Steidl, 2007). More of his work can be seen here. The project was done in collaboration with Natasha Del Toro, reporter for TIME. Feifei Sun is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @Feifei_Sun or on Facebook.

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Photographs of American Poverty by Joakim Eskildsen

Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen traveled to five states to document the growing crisis. His photographs appear in the new issue of TIME.

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Treasurer Joe Hockey has urged first home buyers to get “a good job that pays good money” if they want to enter the property market. When asked at a press conference on Tuesday if residential property in Australia’s biggest city was out of the reach of many, Hockey said: “If housing were unaffordable in Sydney, no one would be buying it.” Related: Sydney and parts of Melbourne are 'unequivocally' in a house price bubble “The starting point for first home buyers is to get a good job that pays good money,” he added. The comments were slammed on social media, with many users criticising the treasurer for being simplistic and out of touch with the difficulties Generation Y faces in enter the property market. Mr Hockey, next time you're in hospital getting seen to by a nurse, are you going to insist that s/he gets a job that pays good money? Opposition leader Bill Shorten was scathing of the treasurer’s comments. “What planet is Joe Hockey living on?” Shorten asked. “This isn’t just another Joe Hockey gaffe; this is proof he just doesn’t get the pressures families are facing.” Joe Hockey must be the only person in Australia who doesn’t think housing affordability is an issue. As far as he’s concerned, if Joe Hockey’s doing OK then everyone else is too,” Shorten said. “How are Australians supposed to find the ‘good jobs that pay more’ when unemployment is at its highest levels in more than a decade under his government?” Greens leader Richard Di Natale labelled the treasurer’s comments “fantasy land stuff” from a man charged with the “nation’s purse strings”. “That’s right out there, that sort of language, that’s let them eat cake sort of stuff,” Di Natale told reporters in Melbourne. “Go and get a job that pays more money? We are just going to magic these jobs up out of thin air?” Hockey continued to deny that parts of Australia were experiencing a housing bubble, saying that housing affordability would become easier as supply increased. “I say again in relation to what is reasonably expensive entry costs for first home buyers into housing in Australia, the best response is to build more housing,” he said, adding that there is a greater role for both state and local governments in accelerating the building process. The comments come just days after the treasury secretary, John Fraser, warned that parts of Sydney and Melbourne are experiencing a housing bubble, and the head of the financial systems inquiry, David Murray, said a sharp fall in property prices could be detrimental to the economy. In August, Hockey came under fire for being out of touch after suggesting Australia’s “poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases”. The treasurer admitted on Tuesday that measures to restore integrity in foreign investment would not result in a drop in residential prices. Related: Joe Hockey forces Chinese investor to sell $39m Sydney mansion The Foreign Investment Review Board is investigating nearly 200 cases of suspected unlawful purchases of property. Foreign investors can buy new property in Australia, but must seek approval before purchasing existing residential property. Temporary residents who buy property must sell it when they leave the country. “I am not suggesting this is going to represent thousands and thousands of homes. But what it is going to do is provide reassurance that people are complying with the law when they engage in the purchase of a property,” Hockey said. “We welcome foreign investment in new real estate because it adds to the stock.” A new set penalties for foreign investors who buy existing stock will come into play from 1 December. The government wants members to dob in suspicious foreign property owners via a new telephone hotline. Concerned citizens can call the hotline on 1800 050 377. But Hockey warned against racially profiling investors. “They may look like foreign buyers, but they’re not,” he said, pointing to the fact that some Chinese families have been in Australia longer than his own family.

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Joe Hockey tells aspiring first home buyers: 'Get a job that pays good money'

Asked whether Sydney’s property prices are out of reach for many, the treasurer responded: ‘If housing were unaffordable in Sydney, no one would be buying it’

20160614201301

The owners of nearly half a million polluting Volkswagens in the U.S. will be given the option of selling them back to the company or getting them repaired at VW's expense, under a deal announced by a federal judge on Thursday Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who is overseeing a tangle of litigation over the VW emissions scandal, gave no details on how much car owners would be paid but said the tentative agreement between the automaker, the U.S. government and plaintiffs' attorneys would include "substantial compensation." However, a person who was briefed on the matter but asked not to be identified because the deal had not been made public said Wednesday that Volkswagen would spend just over $1 billion to compensate owners. The judge also did not say how the vehicles would be repaired. He said the terms of the agreement were still being worked out and ordered all sides to keep them confidential during negotiations. "I am extremely pleased to report that the parties have come up with a concrete plan by today's date," said Breyer, who had set Thursday as the deadline for an agreement. The deal affects the owners of about 482,000 Volkswagens with 2-liter, four-cylinder diesel engines, most of them VW Jetta, Golf and Passat models dating to the 2009 model year. Drivers will be able to choose repairs or buybacks, or, if they lease their vehicles, will be able to give them back. No agreement has been reached yet on Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3-liter, six-cylinder engines — an additional 90,000 or so vehicles. Experts say fixing older-model diesels will be complicated and costly and will probably cut their performance and fuel mileage — two main reasons customers bought them. Volkswagen said in a statement after the hearing that the agreement was "an important step on the road to making things right." The automaker said it "intends to compensate its customers fully and to remediate any impact on the environment from excess diesel emissions." Breyer said the agreement will include a fund for corrective efforts over the pollution, and Volkswagen will be required to commit other money to promote green automotive technology. Details of the agreement must be made public by June 21. After that, owners will get the chance to comment before Breyer signs off on any deal. The agreement does not settle lawsuits by state and local governments, which are seeking billions from the automaker. In addition, some Volkswagen dealers have sued over financial losses from diesel cars sitting on their lots that can't legally be sold until the emissions problems are resolved. Car owners and the U.S. Justice Department sued VW after it acknowledged in September that it installed software to fool emissions tests and put dirty vehicles on the road. Analyst Marc-Rene Tonn at Warburg Research estimated the direct financial impact on Volkswagen from the scandal worldwide at $32.3 billion. In the U.S., the company faces as much as $20 billion in fines for Clean Air Act violations alone, before paying to fix the cars or compensate their owners. The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency also are weighing potential criminal charges against the company and senior executives. Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said the investigation remains "active and ongoing."

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VW gives consumers options of buybacks, fixing rigged vehicles

The owners of nearly half a million polluting Volkswagens in the U.S. will be given the option of selling them back to the company or getting them repaired at VW's expense, under a deal announced by a federal judge on Thursday

20160624120342

A couple's sexual escapades on a Las Vegas Ferris wheel have landed them in jail after the man and woman refused to stop their tryst, even after security guards warned the pair to get a hold of themselves. Chloe Scordianos, 21, of Hicksville, New York, and Philip Frank Panzica III, 27, of Houston, Texas, were allegedly spotted having sex in a glass-enclosed cabin on the High Roller Ferris wheel on the Las Vegas Strip about 3 p.m. Friday. Caesars security officers told the couple over an intercom to "put out the cigarettes and to put all their clothes back on," according to court documents obtained KSNV. They allegedly stopped what they were doing, but resumed their activities and ignored a second warning and stop what they were doing during the 30-minute ride. Read: Prospective Jurors Surprised to Find Summons Directed Them to Call Sex Hotline The two were arrested when the ride was finally over and were charged with committing sex acts in public, a felony. Scordianos—who had turned 21 that day—and Panzica allegedly told police "they were just having a good time and didn't think anyone would notice," according to the arrest report. It is unclear how or when the pair met. Police reported that surveillance footage showed the pair engaging in various sex acts and that other people on the 550-foot Ferris wheel also recorded the encounter. Police watched the video and "clearly saw Scordianos laying on her back in the center of the cabin. Panzica was on his knees over Scordianos and removed her dress. He also removed his clothes while standing up, exposing his penis and bare buttocks, allowing anyone in public to see." Read: A Duggar Cousin Says She Had Premarital Sex, 'Never Lived Up' to the Family Standard Several security officers and managers told police "sex acts and public indecency on the High Roller are happening more often which they fear will impact the reputation and business operations of the High Roller." The pair was released on $3,000 bail and is due in court in March. Scordiano's lawyer Christopher Rasmussen told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that: "people who ride the Linq believe they have an expectation of privacy in the individual cars." "The cabins on the high roller are round and have glass walls from floor to ceiling allowing no privacy in the public place; the High Roller is also a visible tourist landmark at the center of the Las Vegas Strip," the arrest report said. Public sex is a class D felony in Nevada, punishable by between one and four years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. Watch: Man Can't Explain Why He Was Pulled Over In Clown Costume

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Couple arrested for allegedly having sex in glass-encased cabin on ferris wheel

A couple's sexual escapades on a Vegas ferris wheel landed them in jail after the pair refused to stop their tryst, even after security guards intervened.

20160702045855

Ever since the European Union’s top court ruled in May that individuals have a “right to be forgotten,” Google has been working to abide by the new rules. The company has received over 70,000 takedown requests from individuals who want 250,000 webpages removed from Google’s search results. Google’s team individually reviews each application, and the company plans to hire more employees to handle the extra workload. Changing the way people think about the Internet is an overwhelming task. But Google is not the only company scrambling in the wake of the E.U.’s decision. As Internet users begin requesting that unsavory parts of their pasts or personal contact information be erased from Google’s search results, so-called reputation management companies are seeing a flood of new business. Traditionally confined to creating new web content about their clients—laudatory blog posts, celebratory articles, swooning social media updates—these companies are now trying to help their clients erase content as well. “Online image management has long been in the business of producing new content so you have a better persona online,” says Cayce Myers, a professor at Virginia Tech and legal research editor for the Institute for Public Relations. “Here they’re doing the reverse.” Online reputation management is a growing business that is now being boosted by the E.U. ruling. For a fee that can amount to thousands of dollars a month, companies take on clients and scrub clean their search results by creating search engine-optimized content that hog up the first few pages of search results on Google. Clients ranging from CEOs, major corporations, celebrities down to doctors and restaurateurs who use the services to whitewash their online presence. Media consultant BIA/Kelsey forecasts that small and medium-size businesses will spend $3.5 billion managing their online reputations in 2014. Now, the E.U.’s court ruling has changed the dynamics of the industry, expanding these businesses’ client base and making it easier for them to delete content rather than just create it. “The number of our inbound leads”—new referrals—“has gone up about 50 percent since the beginning of May,” says Simon Wadsworth, managing director of the U.K.-based online reputation management firm Igniyte. The E.U. ruling “has raised awareness of the industry. You can change how you do things online.” Bertrand Girin, the founder of a France-based reputation management company, Reputation VIP, has created a spin-off service that specifically to designed to help people make “right to be forgotten” requests to Google. Aptly named Forget.Me, it lets users choose from one of 40 boilerplate requests in nine separate categories in order to send Google a pre-formulated request. The service, which is free, allows users to bypass some of the thorny legal questions and the difficulty of properly structuring a request. “When Google put its form online, we looked at the demand from the public and we saw a gap,” says Girin. “We said, ‘let’s help people understand what their problem is.’” Forget.me has 17,000 registered users who have submitted over 2,500 applications to Google. The boilerplate response responses, which were written by lawyers, can be modified by users to address more specific claims. Girin is promoting the service as one that makes it easy for regular people to be forgotten on the internet. Dealing with Google is a “bureaucratic hassle,” says Myers, the legal research editor for the Institute for Public Relations.”You can technically do it yourself for free, but navigating the bureaucracy is in a state of flux.” “I can see where it could be cumbersome,” he adds. The buzz around right to be forgotten has given these companies much-wanted attention. Andy Donaldson, the CEO of the reputation management company Hit Search, has invested heavily in building and marketing a search software that allowed users to monitor their own online personas over multiple platforms. But Donaldson said that since the E.U. ruling, the number of his company’s new client leads has increased by “upwards of three or four hundred.” “We invested in post-graduate doctors in computer science and mathematics to help us build our algorithm,” Donaldson said, “But it ends up being something like this that triggers the market that’s really totally out of our control.” Donaldson gave an example of how the E.U. ruling has been a boon for business. (He couldn’t disclose the names of his clients.) The CEO of a large U.K.-based company was involved in a dispute during a friendly rugby match with a well-known journalist. The journalist wrote a damning story about the incident, blaming the CEO. The CEO’s wife, having just read about the E.U. ruling, sought out Hit Search to get the story removed from Google’s search results. The request is unlikely to be successful—Google is reticent about removing news stories on public persons—but Donaldson won a client lead. Google has taken a hard-nosed stance toward many of the requests reputation management firms have made, with the overwhelming number of takedown requests coming back with refusals. Donaldson said he has sent hundreds of requests for his clients to Google; of the requests Google has responded to, under ten percent have been accepted, he says. That’s because Google isn’t likely to take down a search result like a newspaper story about a public figure, for instance, or a negative review about a roofing company. “People think we’ve got some magic button in Google and we press delete,” says Wadsworth, the CEO of Igniyte. His clients often ask for links to be removed that won’t pass Google’s bar. “We’re telling the majority of people, ‘you’ve got no chance,’” Wadsworth says. Their success rates aside, the right to be forgotten ruling is going to drive business growth for some time to come. “This is a first step into a general public market. It’s a big market,” said Girin. “I think there’s a real demand here.”

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There’s a "Right To Be Forgotten" Industry and It's Booming

The E.U.'s decision requiring search engines to remove some links from search results has spawned a nascent market

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Gordon Parks is one of America’s most celebrated photographers. He is also one of the most misunderstood. Museums and galleries around the world have celebrated him as the creator of some of the 20th century’s most iconic images. Yet to appreciate only his achievements as an artist is to underestimate his importance as a documentary photographer and journalist. The photo essays Parks produced, primarily for LIFE magazine from the 1940s to the 1970s, on issues relating to poverty and social justice, established him as one of the era’s most significant interpreters of American society. His peers were writers like Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin as much as they were LIFE photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and W. Eugene Smith. Visual Justice: The Gordon Parks Photography Collection at Wichita State University, an exhibition at the Ulrich Museum of Art (for which I served as senior project advisor), examines photographs from six of his most powerful photo essays, enriching our understanding of his work in its historical context. In interviews and in his memoirs, Parks, who passed away in 2006, always emphasized that there was “no special black man’s corner” for him at LIFE. He was as comfortable photographing celebrities, Paris fashions and Benedictine monks as he was an impoverished family in Harlem and Black Panther Party members in Oakland. Photographs which are far removed from pressing social concerns make up part of Visual Justice. Yet, as its title suggests, the photo essays that grapple with social justice are at the heart of the exhibition. “Harlem Gang Leader,” from 1948, was Parks’ second major assignment for LIFE. Parks spent a month with 17-year-old Red Jackson, the teenaged gang leader of the story’s title, and other members of the Midtowners gang. His goal, he once said, was to show that juvenile delinquents were teenagers whose lives could be turned around if the right social service agencies intervened. As Russell Lord, a curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art, has shown, Parks discovered that when he turned in his film to LIFE’s laboratories, he ceded control of his story to the magazine’s editors. While the tone of the published photo essay was generally sympathetic to Jackson and the other gang members, it emphasized violence and slighted the potential for rehabilitation. Parks learned his lesson. His eagerness to write the text that accompanied his future photographs reflected his desire to assert more control over their message. Parks was one of LIFE’s best known and most admired photographers by the time that “The White Man’s Day Is Almost Over,” his photo essay about the Black Muslims, appeared in 1963. His star status allowed him to exert more control over his story than he had over previous stories. The result was a nuanced and finely textured photo essay that challenged conventional wisdom about the group. Visual Justice contains 30 of the photographs that Parks made, most never before published or exhibited, during the three months he worked on the assignment, traveling from New York to Los Angeles, with stops in Chicago and Phoenix. They portray a religious community that is far different from the dangerous collection of fanatics that television and the press usually depicted. They emphasize the importance of family, faith and disciplined, peaceful protest. Many of the images show Malcolm X, who was Parks’ guide through the world of the Black Muslims, in a variety of roles—spokesman, prayer leader, amateur photographer. In 1968, Parks’ editors challenged him to show them (and LIFE’s readers) the roots of the anger and frustration that were then so evident in the African American community. In “A Harlem Family,” his subjects were the Fontenelles, a family whose lives were battered by menial jobs, poor schools and wretched living conditions. Their plight tortured Parks, who often found himself buying food for them. Darkness and despair pervade the photographs. Plaster peels from the walls of the family’s apartment; children huddle under blankets for daytime warmth; the father stares blankly into a void. In the pages of LIFE, “A Harlem Family” began not with a photograph, but with a prose-poem by Parks. Speaking in the voice of black America, he asked his readers, whom he understood to be white, to “Look at me. Listen to me. Try to understand my struggle against your racism.” Parks hoped to provoke a response, and he got it. Hundreds of letters, now preserved in the Gordon Parks Papers at Wichita State University, poured into the magazine’s offices. Some were hostile, blaming the Fontenelles for their own misery. Many were sympathetic, however, expressing concern and asking how to help the family. Readers sent money. Their contributions were enough, in fact, that when LIFE topped them off, the Fontenelles were able to move out of Harlem and into a new apartment in Queens. But tragedy followed them. In the spring of 1969, LIFE reported that a fire had broken out in the family’s new home and that the father, Norman, and a son, Kenneth, had died. In his memoirs, Parks described the overwhelming guilt he felt for their fate. He stayed in touch with them until the end of his life, offering them a hand whenever they needed it. Parks was a man of many pursuits—photographer, novelist, poet, memoirist, filmmaker, composer. But he is most remembered as a photographer. And while some of his images live on because they delight the eye with their beauty, others endure because of the way that they touched the hearts and minds of millions of LIFE’s readers and changed, if only just a little, the course of American history.

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How LIFE Photographer Gordon Parks Documented Black Humanity

The LIFE photographer's work, on view at the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, made the struggle against racism more relatable to the magazine's mostly white readers

20160715002113

 Identical twins Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers have shared everything from clothes to toys over the years, but never did the sisters think they would give birth on the same day – let alone at the exact same time. The 35-year-old women both welcomed their firstborn children into the world on June 30 at 1:18 a.m. in their respective cities. Rodgers gave birth to Reid Joseph in Denver, Colorado, one hour before her sister's baby, Samantha Lynne, was born in La Jolla, California. "It's that magical twin connection I suppose," Mariuz tells PEOPLE. "There have just been certain things in our life where things just match up – it's odd." She adds, "We didn't plan being pregnant at the same time. But our journeys aligned, even giving birth! Twins have a special bond, it's hard to explain." Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers at their joint baby shower Courtesy Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers The sisters told each other they were pregnant at a Thanksgiving family get-together. "I wanted it to be a surprise, but when she showed up at the door – it was the funniest thing – I opened the door, welcomed her into the home, but as soon as I saw her, I knew she was pregnant too," Rodgers tells PEOPLE. "I can't explain it, I just knew. My prediction was that she was five days behind me, and it turned out her due date was four days after me." When Mariuz and Rodgers exchanged ultrasounds they "laughed so hard." "I was like 'Oh my gosh, shut up!' " says Rodgers. "We stood there and giggled and our family was in complete shock. It's just one of those things that's totally possible, but when it's confirmed, it's so crazy." Leah and Kyle Rodgers after their son was born. Courtesy Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers Sarah Mariuz and husband Nick Mariuz with their newborn daughter, Samantha Lynne Courtesy Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers The sisters also celebrated their pregnancy months together – giving each other daily text updates and phone calls – and even had a joint baby shower with pink and blue cakes. "It's a really cool thing to be able to share," says Rodgers. "The adventure will only continue as our babies share the same birthday like we did! We can't wait for them to grow up together." Rodgers' newborn son, Reid Joseph Courtesy Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers Rodgers says her family started a group text thread when the two women went into labor around the same time. "When my sister's husband got the text about Reed being born at 1:18 a.m. he apparently shouted at the doctors, he couldn't believe it!" Rodgers says with a laugh. "It was literally the exact same time." Leah Rodgers (left) and Sarah Mariuz (right) Courtesy Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers "It's just really special," says Mariuz. Courtesy Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers Reid Joseph and Samantha Lynne haven't met yet, but the sisters can't wait to bring their kids together. "I'm sure they will have a deep bond because of their birthday timing," says Mariuz.

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Identical Twins Give Birth at the Same Time on the Same Day: 'We Can't Wait for Them to Grow Up Together'

"There have just been certain things in our life where things just match up – it's odd," Sarah Mariuz tells PEOPLE

20160729221547

He led millions of voters to feel the Bern. On Monday night in Philadelphia, the Democratic Party needed Bernie Sanders to keep the blaze under control. By the end of the night — well, the house was still standing. But it was a journey to get there, and the acrimony played out on television before the convention even started. Days ago, you might have guessed this convention would be smooth — or boring — compared with the raucous smack-down festival that emerged in Cleveland from Donald J. Trump’s smoke machine. That changed with the release of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, which showed members of the committee plainly taking sides with Hillary Clinton and against Mr. Sanders, the senator from Vermont, during the campaign. Carefully bandaged wounds were ripped open, delegates were in open revolt and one of the first targets of hostility from Sanders backers was Senator Sanders himself. When he reiterated his endorsement of Mrs. Clinton to the delegates early Monday afternoon, the room erupted, and to paraphrase “The Simpsons,” they were not shouting “Feel the boo-erns.” Democrats who may have felt smug when Republicans booed Senator Ted Cruz during prime time for not endorsing the party’s nominee were now worried their runner-up would be booed in prime time for endorsing. It was real-time couples’ counseling in public. The Democrats scrubbed the departing committee chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, from the program, yet delegates booed Mrs. Clinton’s name and chanted “Bernie! Bernie!” during the opening invocation prayer. Would the room explode every time someone named the nominee for four days? It was devolving into a total shout show. The room cooled a bit as the cable networks went into prime time, and the first hour focused on emotional, personal stories from nonpoliticians, pointedly including undocumented immigrants, mostly cast at the Republican convention as murderous invaders. But there was still an unsettled tone — outbursts and competing chants in the hall, the sense that one wrong word could set everything off. The comedian Sarah Silverman, who supported Senator Sanders in the primaries, spoke with Senator Al Franken of Minnesota (formerly a comic himself) and united the crowd against Mr. Trump, whose behavior Ms. Silverman described as “I’m still emotionally 4 and calling people names from my gold-encrusted sandbox.” But as Mr. Franken and Ms. Silverman were asked to vamp for time before the next act, Paul Simon, the crowd turned restive. The duo tried to counter more “Bernie” chanting (Mr. Franken went with “Hillary,” Ms. Silverman with “unity”; neither worked). Then Ms. Silverman went into dealing-with-hecklers mode. “Can I just say to the ‘Bernie-or- bust’ people,” she said, pausing to shoot a look, “You’re being ridiculous.” Finally, Mr. Simon sang “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Maybe “The Sound of Silence” would have seemed like wishful thinking. But Mr. Simon’s lullaby felt like more than crowd control. The protests were noisy, but the first night’s planned program had a distinctly different tone from the Republican convention, which exhorted the faithful to embrace their anger. (“Guilty!” “Lock her up!”) It was going after different emotions and using different rhetoric: tear-jerking rather than raging grief, mockery rather than prosecution. The tone seemed to be part of a larger argument, a kind of recasting of Republican attacks against political correctness. In Mr. Trump’s worldview and his convention’s, mealy-mouthed P.C. Democrats refused to call things the way they saw them and name dangers for what they are. The Democrats argued back that the way you say things is a mark of character. Footage of Mr. Trump mocking a disabled reporter played over and over. Speakers repeatedly called out Mr. Trump’s insult-comic campaign, calling him a bad role model for children. “You can’t love your country,” said Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, “without loving your countrymen and countrywomen.” Michelle Obama, the first of three headline speakers, was emotional, valedictory and hopeful as she described watching her daughters — “two beautiful, intelligent black young women” — playing with their dogs on the lawn of the White House, which was built by slaves. She rebutted Mr. Trump without using his name, playing against his slogan, “Make America Great Again”: “This, right now, is the greatest country on earth.” Speaking at the Democratic National Convention, the comedian Sarah Silverman told delegates continuing to back Bernie Sanders that they were “being ridiculous.” She seemed to delight Bill Clinton, the former president and political maven, whom the CNN camera presented in split-screen as a human, partisan applause-o-meter through the night. At times he seemed to zone out, but when he’s engaged, Mr. Clinton consumes a speech the way Guy Fieri does a sandwich. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts served the red meat, in a scathing keynote that redeployed many attacks she’s goaded Mr. Trump with on the campaign trail. Still, you could hear Bernistas chanting “We trusted you!” It was time for Senator Sanders to enter the lion’s den he helped build. He has been one of the memorable figures of 2016, but you would not describe him as a calming one. Compared with past movement leaders — Barack Obama, say — he’s a forceful rather than lyrical speaker, his voice a Brooklyn-style poke in the chest, his music power chords rather than soaring arpeggios. But in the moment, that was what brought the room together: a pugilistic, greatest-hits speech that framed his near-win as a historic and practical victory for the left. He collected protracted cheers and led his followers through catharsis — there were a lot of tear-stained faces on camera — to, if not acceptance, some later stage of grief. He declared that “Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president” and lived to tell the tale. Mrs. Clinton herself was an offstage presence, unlike Mr. Trump, who made a the-mothership-has-landed appearance the first night of his convention. She was talked about (adjectives like “tenacious” were popular) and seen on video. She’ll have to get onstage eventually, and that will test how much healing Monday’s talk therapy really achieved. But by the end of prime time, the Democrats looked and sounded happier than they did that afternoon, their discord, if not totally assuaged, at least politically corrected.

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Boos, Cheers and Talk Therapy for the Democrats in Philadelphia

Wounds were ripped open, but a slate of speakers led by Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders steadied the first night of the Democratic National Convention.

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Tim Tebow is finally hanging up the football cleats, only to dust off his baseball spikes. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported this week that the former professional quarterback, who has not played in an NFL regular-season game since 2012, is set to attempt a second pro sports career in baseball. Tebow, who turns 29 this month, has been refining his outfield skills for the past year. He worked with former MLB catcher Chad Moeller, who said in a statement: "I am beyond impressed with Tim's athleticism and swing, and it goes without saying that he has shown a high level of discipline and strong work ethic. … I truly believe Tim has the skill set and potential to achieve his goal of playing in the major leagues. … It could happen relatively quickly." Tebow last played organized baseball in 2005 as a high school junior. He hit .494 with four home runs, earning All-State recognition in Florida. He was pursued heavily by scouts and could have been drafted had he not quit baseball to focus on football. "This may sound like a publicity stunt, but nothing could be further from the truth," says CAA baseball agent Brodie Van Wagenen, who will represent Tebow in his MLB pursuits. "I have seen Tim's workouts, and people inside and outside the industry--scouts, executives, players and fans--will be impressed by his talent." All 30 MLB teams have been invited to a workout Tebow is hosting at the end of the month. The Yankees have a roster spot opening up this week, so who knows what could happen. More MLB: -- Chris Sale: How Tony Gwynn Inspired Me To Quit Chewing Tobacco -- 12 Athletes Who Look Like Pokémon Characters -- Wrigley Field To Clog Arteries With 'Deep Dish Pizza' Hot Dog Follow Jack Minton on Twitter @jackminton95. Alex Rodriguez, Baseball, Catcher, Chad Moeller, Florida Gators, Football, MLB, New York Yankees, NFL, Quarterback, Tim Tebow

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Tim Tebow Will Try To Make Jump To MLB

Tim Tebow says he wants to play baseball and former MLB player Chad Moeller says he can make it.

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Three University of Texas Professors have filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to block a state law that would allow those 21 years of age and older with concealed handgun licenses to bring their weapons into classrooms on campus. The law is set to take effect on Aug. 1. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Austin on Wednesday, requests a federal judge block license holders from bringing their guns to one of the nation’s largest campuses, Reuters reports. The Texas law allows university presidents to enact their own rules regarding concealed handguns as long as those rules don’t generally prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons on campus, and a 19-member task force at the University of Texas in Austin voted to recommend that concealed handguns be allowed in classrooms in December. The task force recommended concealed handguns be kept out of dormitories, however. Advocates of the law argue that it could protect students in the event of a mass shooting on campus. In the suit, which named the state’s attorney general, the university president and the university’s board of regents as defendants, the professors argue that allowing students to carry concealed guns in classrooms “chills their First Amendment rights to academic freedom” by making it difficult for professors to discuss controversial or emotional subjects without fearing gun violence. The law has already incited protest on the campus, with students staging a fake mass shooting in December, and an economics professor quitting over the “risk that a disgruntled student might bring a gun into the classroom.” University officials are reviewing the lawsuit. The university president, Greg Fenves, approved properly licensed and concealed handguns in classrooms once the law takes effect earlier this year, though he has said he does “not believe handguns belong on a university campus.”

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Texas Professors Sue to Block Concealed Guns on Campus

Three University of Texas Professors have filed a lawsuit to block a law allowing those with concealed handgun licenses to carry on campus.

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Russian antitrust officials fined Google $6.8 million on Thursday, a relatively small penalty that nevertheless represents the latest in a growing list of global regulatory problems for the American search giant. Russian authorities ruled last year that Google had abused its market position with Android, its mobile operating system, by favoring some of its digital services over those of rivals, including the Russian company Yandex. As part of its ruling, the Federation Antimonopoly Service said that Google’s rivals had not been able to include their own offerings, like digital maps or search, in the Android operating system that powers a majority of smartphones and other mobile devices in Russia. In a statement on Thursday, the agency said that Russia’s competition rules applied to all companies operating in the country, including foreign ones. Google denies breaking Russian competition rules. The Silicon Valley company is still appealing the Android case in Russia, which was opened last year after Yandex complained that its services for Android were being treated unfairly. “We have received notice of the fine from F.A.S. and will analyze closely before deciding our next steps,” Google said in a statement on Thursday. Google dominates its service areas in much of the world, but it has failed so far to do so in Russia, where Yandex retains more than 50 percent of the market for internet search, according to industry statistics. While the Russian fine is akin to a rounding error compared with Google’s $75 billion in annual revenue, the ruling against Android is the newest setback for the company at a time of mounting global competition investigations into the search giant’s activities. Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s top antitrust official, charged Google in April with unfairly using Android to promote its own services — like Google Maps and Google Search — over those of its rivals. European Union officials have also charged the company in a separate competition case, accusing it of favoring some of its search services over those of rivals. They filed a third set of charges in July linked to Google search services offered to third-party websites, like newspapers and online retailers. Google denies wrongdoing in those cases, saying that it competes on equal terms with companies like Yelp and Microsoft, among others. It also says that cellphone makers are free to use Android-based services provided by rivals. Google does not make money directly from licensing the mobile operating system to companies, but it takes a cut from advertisements displayed on online searches. The company’s antitrust woes have also spread to the United States, where the Federal Trade Commission is considering claims that Google’s activities linked to Android are uncompetitive. American officials previously investigated whether the company had unfairly favored some of its services over those of rivals within its search engine, but they eventually decided not to bring charges. And in India, one of Google’s fast-growing markets, the national antitrust authority sent the company a report last year outlining its concerns about search dominance and anticompetitive behavior. The Indian officials suggested that the company was abusing its dominant market position by ranking its services ahead of those of competitors in Google search, according to people with knowledge of the report, which has not been made public. Follow Mark Scott on Twitter @markscott82. A version of this article appears in print on August 12, 2016, on page B5 of the New York edition with the headline: Fine in Russia Is Reminder of the Obstacles at Google. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

http://web.archive.org/web/20160814102310id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/08/12/business/international/google-fine-russia-antitrust-android.html?_r=0

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Google Fined for Breaking Russian Antitrust Rules With Android

The search giant’s mobile operating system was found to have unfairly favored digital services like Google Maps over those of Russian rivals.

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On Saturday, the Australian freestyler Mack Horton was in the warm-down pool before the competition when Sun, his main rival, vigorously splashed him, as if to get his attention. Sun served a three-month suspension in 2014 for taking a banned stimulant. “I ignored him,” Horton, 20, said, “because I don’t have time or respect for drug cheats.” That night, Horton out-touched Sun for the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle. Horton did not acknowledge him in the water and later called it “a win for the good guys,” although he and Sun did shake hands during the medal ceremony. Members of the Chinese swimming team expressed outrage about Horton’s actions, with the team manager Xu Qi calling for an apology. None has been forthcoming. “Mack obviously has very strong views about the need for clean sport, as every single one of us does,” said the Australian delegation’s chef de mission, Kitty Chiller. “He has every right to express his views and his displeasure in that sense.” The current Olympians Dana Vollmer and Cody Miller and past winners weighed in on the doping controversy at the Rio Games that has resulted in tiffs between Lilly King and Russian swimmers who were booed. Sun went on to win the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle Monday night. “They don’t belong in a sport,” Camille Lacourt, a star French swimmer, said Monday night in comments reported by the French newspaper L’Équipe. “They should make up their federation of dopers and have fun among themselves. It disgusts me to see people who’ve cheated standing on podiums. Sun Yang, in the 200 free, he pees purple.” That night, the American swimmer Lilly King, 19, cited Horton as an influence when she spoke out about Efimova. King entered the Rio Games with the top time in the world this year in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke. The next-fastest swimmer in the lead-up to the competition was Efimova, a 24-year-old Russian whose place at these Olympics was not confirmed until Saturday. Efimova, the reigning world champion, had served a 16-month doping suspension handed down by swimming’s global governing body, known as FINA, a ban that ended in early 2015. Early this year, Efimova failed a test for the newly banned drug meldonium, but the result was overturned when she appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing that she had already served her penalty. Every time Efimova has raced inside the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, she has been booed. King demonstrated her disapproval in another way. After posting the fastest time in qualifying on Sunday afternoon, King wagged her finger to remind everyone who was No. 1. As King looked on from the ready room, where swimmers gather before they race, Efimova won the first semifinal and mimicked King’s move. King went out and won the second semifinal and shook her finger again. A spokesman for the International Olympic Committee said that fans want “fair play” from athletes amid tensions over doping and that the I.O.C. president, Thomas Bach, wants a life ban for serious doping. In a postrace interview with NBC, King said, “You wave your finger No. 1, and you’ve been caught drug cheating?” She added, “I’m not a fan.” In a group interview in the mixed zone, King defended her actions. “I’m not this sweet little girl,” she said. “That’s not who I am.” All the finger wagging set the stage for the final on Monday night, when their score was settled in the pool. King occupied Lane 4. Efimova was in Lane 5. It was a duel at 100 meters. King turned first at the 50 and hung on to win with a time of 1 minute 4.93 seconds. It was her best time and an Olympic record. Efimova was second in 1:05.50, 19-hundredths of a second ahead of King’s American teammate Katie Meili. After the race, King hung on the lane line that separated her from Efimova and splashed twice in Efimova’s lane. King said she had not done it on purpose. But she also studiously avoided contact with Efimova. “I don’t think she really wants to be congratulated by me,” King said. The news conference featuring the medal winners felt more like a trial than a triumphant review. King sat at the opposite end of the table from Efimova. Meili was in the middle seat, normally reserved for the gold medalist. Neither King nor Meili looked at Efimova, who was on the verge of tears from the opening question about the boos directed at her. “I’m just happy I’m here and racing,” said Efimova, who looked miserable. She appealed to people “to try to understand me,” but King, who sat stone-faced through Efimova’s answers, did not appear moved. Sam Manchester will guide you through the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Hey. It’s Sam from the NYT Sports desk. I’m at the Olympics in Rio (so you don’t have to be :)). Grab a limited spot and I’ll text you updates, answer your questions and share the behind-the-scenes stuff nobody else gets. Thanks! Talk to you soon. U.S. numbers only. Standard messaging rates may apply. Your information is used only to deliver messages about the Rio 2016 Olympics. At one point, Efimova switched from English to Russian. The moderator nudged a pair of headphones toward King and told her she could use them to listen to the English translation. King declined, as did Meili. What is striking is that the antidoping chorus in Rio has consisted of newcomers and veterans alike, with Olympic rookies like Horton, of Australia, and King joining the 31-year-old Lacourt and Michael Phelps, who is also 31 and is the most decorated athlete in Olympic history. “I think what you’re seeing is the desire of Olympic athletes to uphold the values of the Olympic Games without exception,” Adam Nelson, an American shot-putter and activist for athletes’ rights, said in an email Monday. Nelson was named the winner of the 2004 Olympic shot-put competition eight years after it was contested when the original champion, Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine, retroactively tested positive for a banned substance. “These athletes know, when an athlete cheats, he or she will experience a residual physical benefit for many years,” Nelson added. “But there’s also a residual sentiment that negatively impacts the sport moving forward. The clouds of suspicion that linger over doped athletes who return to competition continue to take a toll on the value of the clean athlete.” There is not yet conclusive evidence on the long-term benefits to performance for athletes who took banned substances earlier in their careers. And as Thomas Bach, the I.O.C.’s president, has repeatedly pointed out, lifetime bans from sports for doping offenses have not proved legally defensible. In the cases of men like Sun and Justin Gatlin, the once-barred American sprinter who has been another target of athletes’ criticism since his return, they are being called out even though the system in place gives them every right to resume competing. King said Monday night that she believed any athlete with a doping offense — including Gatlin — should not be allowed to compete. The national governing body for track and field, U.S.A. Track & Field, issued a statement on Tuesday rejecting that notion. “The WADA code indicates that when an individual has completed their suspension, they are eligible to re-engage in the sport,” the statement said. “The Amateur Sports Act stipulates that if an athlete is eligible to compete, they cannot be prevented from being on a national team. So in the United States, it is a matter of law. If you are not under a ban, regardless of what you may have served in the past, you are fully eligible to be on the team.” Still, Nelson defended the right of athletes to criticize once-barred competitors. “It’s not undermining the system,” he said. “It highlights a major flaw in the system. Ms. King could have lost out on an Olympic gold medal future had the events turned out differently yesterday, and she would have had to accept the fact that a known doper beat her. Where’s the spirit of Olympism in that outcome?” A version of this article appears in print on August 10, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Rio Pool, Disdain for Dopers Is Bubbling Over. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

http://web.archive.org/web/20160819014746id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/08/10/sports/olympics/doping-swimming-russia-lilly-king-yulia-efimova.html?WT.mc_id=2016-KWP-AUD_DEV&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&kwp_0=198755&kwp_4=780634&kwp_1=391972&_r=0

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In the Olympic Pool, Contempt for Drug Cheats Rises to the Surface

Swimmers at the Rio Games who once served suspensions for doping have been openly vilified by their rivals, creating plenty of awkwardness.

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allegedly spent 36 years illegally married to two women. star filed for divorce from his first wife, Andrea, whom he married 52 years ago and separated from shortly thereafter. The estranged couple appeared at Brooklyn Supreme Court on Thursday morning, where a judge urged the pair to settle their dispute outside of court, according to the defendant's attorney, Harold Mayerson. A rep for Vereen tells PEOPLE that the actor originally filed for divorce from Andrea back in 1972 – and that she filed her own divorce paperwork two years later in 1974. According to the rep, Vereen believed the divorce had been finalized, and notes the confusion could be a result of bad record keeping or an oversight by Vereen's attorneys at the time. Vereen's attorney, John P. DiMascio, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier on Thursday, he told , "This is a personal matter, and nothing has been proven yet." Mayerson, who is representing Andrea, tells PEOPLE that his client believed she had been divorced for decades, and only learned that the marriage was not legally dissolved recently when she went to collect Social Security. "Mr. Vereen told her years ago they were divorced," Mayerson explains. "But when she applied for Social Security, she found out that not only are they not divorced, but that some other woman is collecting under his name." That woman, Nancy Bruner, married Vereen in Los Angeles in 1976. They ultimately divorced in 2012. However, according to Mayerson, Vereen would have had to mention the date of his divorce on his California marriage certificate. "That's what's fishy about this," says Mayerson. The attorney adds that after Andrea discovered she was still married, he contacted Vereen's team to work out a solution. "We were negotiating with them, and they really didn't want to give much of anything," he explains. "And then they, inexplicably in my opinion, filed this lawsuit [for divorce]." While Mayerson does not believe that Vereen is "a bad guy," he hopes that the singer/dancer "will respect the fact that this woman raised his son and do the right thing." He adds, "He left this young girl – she was 14 and pregnant at the time – to raise a child by herself in New York City, which was not easy at the time for an African-American woman, and life was tough." The attorney says that Vereen has a union pension, has not collected Social Security yet and earned as much as $400,000 last year alone. "It's not as though he's impoverished," Mayerson explains. Andrea, one the other hand, he says, "has lived exceptionally modestly her whole life. She's a religious women, was a pastor, worked in churches, sang in choirs and was scraping everywhere along the way with virtually no help from him." While Andrea's lawyer is confident that the judge will rule in her favor, he is still hopeful the parties will reach a settlement outside of court. "We're hopeful there will be a settlement before we go to trial and that Mr. Vereen will come to his good senses and get this settled and have a great twilight to his career." Vereen, now 69, won best actor in a musical at the 1973 Tonys for his portrayal of and has also appeared in numerous films and television series.

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Ben Vereen Allegedly Spent 36 Years Married to Two Women

The Pippen star is now divorcing his first wife, Andrea, with whom he has been married for 52 years

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Vin Scully was impressed with me as a broadcaster … at least that's what he told me. It has been 23 years since I shared a booth with the Dodgers' legendary broadcaster, who's calling it a career this week after 67 years on the job. But when you were in the presence of greatness, you tend to remember all the details. On May 19, 1993, I was part of a team that delivered the first Mandarin Chinese broadcast from a Major League Baseball game. When the Dodgers faced the Cincinnati Reds that day at Dodger Stadium, four radio booths were occupied to air the game -- in English, Spanish, Korean and Chinese. I was just out of college at the time, working at the Pasadena Star-News. When a press release announcing the game would be broadcast in Chinese made its way to our newsroom, I jumped at the chance. I lobbied the radio station to bring me on (pro bono, of course) to be part of the announcing team, selling my ability as a fluent speaker of both English and Chinese as well as my "expertise" in baseball. It worked. Thomas Kao, the original announcer who was a local talk show host, graciously asked me to be his sidekick. I bounded into Dodger Stadium that afternoon with unbridled enthusiasm. It wasn't that I hadn't covered a Dodgers game before, but this occasion was much different. It was historic, and I knew I'd get to share a booth with the Hall of Fame voice of the Dodgers. As the game went on, I took over more of the play-by-play duties as Kao did the scene-setting. S.C. Chao and Jerry Sung, famous baseball players from Taiwan, were also in the booth as our color analysts. For a first-time group that's never worked together before, I thought we had pretty decent chemistry. Then Scully walked in at the end of the third inning. The way the Dodgers radio broadcasts were set up at the time, Vin did the first and last three innings of the game, with him taking a break in the middle innings. He'd spend the fourth inning with us. I was thrilled and nervous at the same time. I remember telling myself: "Do not stutter!" But Scully was as gregarious and gracious in person as his listeners have come to know during a career that began in Brooklyn in 1950. He sat down between Kao and me and immediately put us at ease. He asked us some questions (with me translating for our Chinese audience) and I did some in return. At one point, I asked him to call a few pitches and plays for our listeners, and he happily obliged. As the inning went on, I had the occasion to describe a near double-play ball started by Reds shortstop Barry Larkin. When I finished, Vin was effusive in his praise, telling me my call was "terrific," even though he didn't speak Mandarin and probably didn't understand what I said besides "Larkin." But his reaction was so enthusiastic and genuine, if I had died at that moment it would've been a life well lived. That call ended up on an NBC News feature and was part of the highlights package on that night's ESPN SportsCenter. We also were visited in the booth by then-Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley. The team was delighted with the broadcast and invited us back for a few more that season. I returned for five more games, doing the broadcasts solo, including the season finale in which the Dodgers denied the 103-win San Francisco Giants a postseason berth with a 12-1 victory. My radio broadcast career ended after that season, though I had agreed to a deal to do both Dodgers and Lakers games in Mandarin Chinese in 1994, even appearing at a joint press conference attended by both franchises. The radio station I worked for folded a few months later, and I took a newspaper job in San Francisco and headed north. But I'll always have the rare honor of having shared a booth with the great Vin Scully, with memories flooding back as he wraps up his incomparable career this weekend in San Francisco. I've probably heard thousands of his broadcasts in my life, but of course I'll treasure that one inning while he sat side-by-side with me above all others. As Scully was departing the booth after that inning, he flashed his familiar toothy grin and said to me, "Mr. Chi, it's been a pleasure!" No, Mr. Scully, the pleasure was all mine. -- Samuel Chi is the managing editor of RealClearSports.com and proprietor of College Football Exchange. Follow him on Twitter at @ThePlayoffGuru. Baseball, chinese, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB, Radio, Vin Scully

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Vin Scully Liked My Radio Broadcast At Dodger Stadium

Columnist Sam Chi remembers the time he worked a broadcast at Dodger Stadium and got ultimate compliment from Vin Scully.

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US inmate Thomas Arthur. (Supplied) An inmate set to die by lethal injection in the southern US state of Alabama was granted an 11th-hour reprieve, his latest stay of execution. The late-night order by the Supreme Court in Washington was the seventh time that Thomas Arthur, 74, has seen his scheduled execution called off. Arthur had been scheduled to die at 6pm at the prison in Altmore, following decades-long imprisonment for his conviction in the 1982 murder of his mistress's husband. But officials delayed the timing of the execution as they waited for the court's decision. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued an order about 10.30pm on Thursday temporarily halting the execution until he or other justices made another decision, a court document said. Just before midnight, the Supreme Court granted Arthur's request to stay the execution, the Washington Post reported. It would remain in place until the full court decides whether it will consider the case. "We are greatly relieved by the Supreme Court's decision granting a stay and now hope for the opportunity to present the merits of Mr. Arthur's claims to the Court," Suhana Han, Arthur's lead counsel, told AFP. If the Supreme Court decides not to take on the case, the stay would be terminated, the Washington Post said. Lawyers for Arthur had argued that a drug in Alabama's lethal injection cocktail, the sedative midazolam, would have "torturous effects," after having been used in three botched executions elsewhere, the newspaper said. The lawyers had also filed an appeal based on Arthur's being sentenced to death by a judge following a non-unanimous jury recommendation. In January, the US Supreme Court ruled that Florida's death sentencing process, which was similar to Alabama's, was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges to the detriment of juries. The pace of executions is declining in the United States, due to a combination of factors including a shortage of the drugs used to carry out lethal injections.

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US inmate dodges execution for seventh time

An inmate set to die by lethal injection in the southern US state of Alabama was granted an 11th-hour reprieve late Thursday, his latest stay of execution.

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Western Australia's greyhound industry regulator says it is focused on increasing adoptions, with revelations in state parliament that 371 animals were put down in the past year. The greyhounds were euthanised for several reasons - 96 because they were not suitable for racing, 88 because they were deemed unfit for re-homing and 187 due to training or track injuries. Racing and Wagering WA said on Friday their focus was on "investing in strategies and programs to further improve rates of re-homing and continue to reduce euthanasia rates of the industry". "When a greyhound retires from the racing industry, at any age, RWWA will aim to achieve every healthy and behaviourally sound greyhound being rehomed," the statement said. More than 600 greyhounds were rehomed in the past year and RWWA said it had increased its investment in the Greyhound as Pets adoption program from $120,000 in 2014-2015 to almost $500,000 this year. Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren said the industry remained cruel, with 860 greyhounds dying between 2013-2015. She said the only change in the past two years was that inhumane practices were exposed by whistleblowers. "This kind of dismissive response to the outrage people feel when they learn the numbers of animals killed as 'wastage' of the sport or after incurring painful track injuries is precisely why the investigation in NSW concluded that greyhound racing must be stopped," Ms MacLaren said. "The industry claims it can do better but what happens when the whistleblowers aren't there or the media turn to another hot topic? "Business as usual in the greyhound racing industry is no longer acceptable."

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WA euthanised greyhound figures revealed

It has been revealed in WA Parliament that 371 greyhounds were euthanased in the past year, prompting the industry regulator to note the need for improvement.

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The Queensland government will prioritise passing laws to replace the state's anti-bikie legislation in the final sitting week of the year. Debate on Labor's Serious and Organised Crime Legislation Amendment Bill began earlier this month, however the Liberal National Party opposition has long argued its existing framework is in no need of reform. Among the Palaszczuk government's altered provisions are harsher sentences for fraud and child sex offences and a NSW-style consorting offence to replace the current law against bikie gathering in a group of three or more. With the opposition against the changes, Labor will need the support of cross benchers in the hung parliament for its bill to pass. LNP leader Tim Nicholls urged the cross benchers to think about their positions prior to Tuesday's sitting. "The message, very clearly, to Katter party members and independents is if you support this government's legislation to wind back our tough anti-gang laws, you will be opening the door to the crims coming back into Queensland," he said. Labor is aiming to introduce seven bills across the three final sitting days of the year, including proposed legislation on mental health, water and dam safety and child protection. The government will also introduce a bill to scrap the state's so-called "gay panic" defence, which murderers can use to argue for a downgrade in their charge to manslaughter if they claim the violence was motivated by an unwanted homosexual advance. That change has already taken place in every state but Queensland and South Australia - some as far back as 2003. A Change.org petition calling for reform has attracted more than 289,000 signatures.

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Bikies, gay panic in last Qld sitting week

The Queensland government will attempt to pass legislation to replace the state's anti-bikie laws during the final sitting days of the year.

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Edgeio, the online classifieds service that has appeared on Mashable a few times, are announcing today that they’ve raised $5 million in Series A financing in a round led by Intel Capital - other investors include Transcosmos Investments and Business Development Inc. The angel investors have had their investments converted to A round stock. The company, you might remember, launched in March 2006 with a plan to aggregate listings from around the web in one place. The most talked about feature was the ability to post a classified listing on your blog, tag it with “listing” and have it show up on Edgeio - if you added more tags, these would also be included in your listing. This angle has since been played down, however, with more focus on aggregating from existing classifieds sites. As such, they’re bound to argue that they’re not a “Craigslist competitor”, or in fact a competitor to any classifieds site, provided that site agrees to have their listings aggregated. Currently more than 3000 publishers upload their listings via the “edgedirect” service and they claim to have more than 100 million listings in total. Like Flock, the company began at the top of the hype curve, and seemed to tumble from that lofty position over the first few months. But now it seems they’re making some real headway, with eBay, Cafepress, and Amazon agreeing to have their listings included: this always seemed like a more solid business plan that aggregating blog entries, and perhaps the “listing” tag served more as a way to get bloggers talking than as a core strategy. Another major problem in the early days was that Edgeio had thought deeply about the experience for the bloggers publishing to the site, and about all the content they could aggregate from other sites, but not so much about making a great search experience: in other words, it’s useless having more listings than everyone else if no one actually goes there to search for stuff. According to VentureBeat, they’re now working on that element. More Edgeio news: they’ve just launched a Chinese language version at mulu100.com. The reason? They saw a lot of Chinese listings and searches on Edgeio, and wanted to provide a better service to those users. They’ve also filed for patents covering distributed marketplaces. Edgeio was one of those sites where it was difficult to see the beyond the launch hype (and anti-hype). Now that’s died down, they seem to be building a decent service - it’s just going to take a while.

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Edgeio Raises $5 Million For Craigslist Competitor

Edgeio, the online classifieds service that has appeared on Mashable a few times, are announcing today that they've raised $5 ...

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Women's groups expressed disgust yesterday over plans by Tupac Shakur's record company to help bail the gangsta rapper and convicted sex abuser out of prison while he appeals his conviction. "That's shocking," said feminist Betty Friedan. "It certainly confirms the impression that rap is very, very anti-woman and lethal to women." "It sends the message that violence against women isn't serious," said Charlotte Watson, executive director of My Sister's Place, a battered women's shelter in Yonkers. "It doesn't seem to me a record company would want to be known as the company that's not serious about ending violence against women." Shakur, 23, is serving a 11/2-to-41/2-year sentence for sexually abusing a fan in a midtown hotel in November 1993. Atlantic Records a subsidiary of Time Warner agreed to put up $850,000 of the $1.4 million bail set on Shakur by an appellate court judge Tuesday. The bail would allow Shakur to stay out of prison while he appeals his January conviction. A spokeswoman for Interscope Records, the Atlantic subsidiary that Shakur records for, maintained that the bail was nothing more than an advance of money owed to the rapper. "This is really [Tupac's] money, and we're directing it where he would like it to go," said spokeswoman Lori Earl. "It's an advance against royalties. "He sold over 1.5 million copies of his current album ['Me Against the World'], " she said. "So at his request, they're putting it toward his bail." The explanation meant little to some. "The guy's a violent rapper who has been convicted of a violent crime," said Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a writer and co-founder of Ms. magazine. "It all leads to selling more records, and says that money talks louder than women's safety." Shakur may not be sprung anytime soon, however. The Manhattan district attorney's office won a stay of the Appellate Court decision and is seeking another hearing on the matter.

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TUPAC BAIL AID RAPPED

Women's groups expressed disgust yesterday over plans by Tupac Shakur's record company to help bail the gangsta rapper and convicted sex abuser out of prison while he appeals his conviction. "That's shocking,"said feminist Betty Friedan. "It certainly confirms the impression that rap is very, very anti-woman and lethal to women.""It sends the message that violence against women isn't serious,"said Charlotte Watson, executive director of My Sister's Place, a battered women's

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By TIM SMITH and DAVE SALTONSTALL DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Sunday, July 29th 2001, 2:22AM Many men have died in battle aboard the Intrepid, the towering aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River. But Beethavean Scottland, a boxer who was beaten to death aboard the ship during a state-sanctioned fight last month, shouldn't have been one of them. That's the conclusion of a Daily News investigation into the June 26 fight - a tragedy that many believe underscores serious problems with the New York State Athletic Commission, the state's boxing watchdog. A review of state records reveals that the agency, the commissioners of which are appointed by Gov. Pataki, remains a stronghold of Republican patronage, where whom you know is more important than what you know about boxing. The result, critics charge, is an agency incapable of policing the sport. The 26-year-old Scottland, a light heavyweight whose musician father named him after the great composer, left behind a wife and three young children. He was pummeled before a crowd that included some 55 athletic commission "inspectors" and guests, all of whom were given free tickets or credentials to see the bout - 45 of them at ringside. He was allowed to keep fighting even though the commission's neurosurgeon was concerned about the fighter's fitness after the seventh round. "The kid shouldn't have died," said Tom Hoover, a former deputy commissioner for the commission, who now runs a truancy program for the Brooklyn district attorney's office. "The whole point of having the commission is to have someone in charge, to control and rule over every aspect of the fight, but they don't know what they are doing anymore." Assemblyman Joe Morelli (D-Rochester), chairman of the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports, is considering holding public hearings on the commission this fall. "The commission has been accused of being a place for the relatives and friends of highly placed officials in the state Republican Party," Morelli said. "If that's true, it brings into question not only the safety of fighters, but the integrity of the sport itself." Records showed these links between the commission and the GOP: The father of Commissioner Marc Cornstein, Off-Track Betting chairman David Cornstein, has over the years contributed more than $75,000 in campaign cash to Pataki, including two checks totaling $26,000 since last April. The former law firm of Mel Southard, the commission's $101,600-per-year chairman, kicked in approximately $5,600 to Pataki's campaign or the state Republican Party while he was still at the firm. Larry Mandelker, the commission's attorney, doubles as an attorney for the state Republican Party. The Katonah attorney donated $5,000 to the state Republican Committee just four weeks ago. James Polsinello, a $76,217-per-year special assistant to the commission, has contributed more than $27,000 to Pataki's inaugural fund and his campaigns since 1994. Meanwhile, NYSAC Commissioner Jerry Becker has contributed nearly $2,000 since 1999 to the Conservative Party, a key backer of Pataki in his 1994 and 1998 campaigns. "It's a disgrace," said Bob Duffy, a registered Republican who quit the commission in disgust last September as its director of boxing. "There were people there who were concerned with interests other than boxing. "Their only concern," added Duffy, "was, 'Is it HBO?' and 'Where can we sit ringside so we can be on TV?' " Southard, a former attorney for the New York Yankees who acknowledged that he had no direct experience in boxing before joining the commission in 1995, defended the agency as hardworking and "It's a blue-collar, trying-to-do-the-right-thing office," said Southard. "I came here more as a guy with a sports background, but I think in three or more years I have learned a lot." Becker, a former Bronx criminal court judge, also dismissed the notion that the agency was politicized or unqualified. "I believe that everything the commission has done has been done correctly," said Becker. "The death, was that our fault? "It's a risky sport," he said. "A subjective decision was made by an excellent referee and an unfortunate accident ocurred." Pataki's office defended the agency last week. "These are accomplished, qualified professionals with a wide array of experience," said Pataki spokeswoman Mollie Fullington. "We are confident they are doing a good job." But the commission's recent history has been marked by episodes of incompetence. Few can forget the post-fight melee that consumed Madison Square Garden in 1996 after the bout between Riddick Bowe and Andrew Golota. Last year, a disputed weigh-in before the Arturo Gatti-Joey Gamache bout led to a $5 million lawsuit after Gamache suffered a career-ending knockout by Gatti, who weighed nearly 20 pounds heavier the day of the fight than his weigh-in the day before. And the commission's last chairman, famed boxer Floyd Patterson, had to be relieved of his duties in 1998 after the former champ - a victim of boxing-induced memory loss - could not remember under oath what he had eaten for breakfast that day. Last week, the commission overturned Hector Camacho Jr.'s July 7 technical decision over Jesse James Leija at Coney Island's Keyspan Park, saying the bell to begin the sixth round was improperly rung. But not since Isidro (Gino) Perez suffered a fatal knockout during a lightweight bout at the old Felt Forum in 1983 has a boxer died in New York from injuries in the ring. And a review of Scottland's 10-round brawl shows what many regard as a woeful lack of concern for his safety. Only once, for instance, was Scottland examined by Dr. Rufus Sadler, the commission doctor assigned to his corner. That was in the fourth round, for a minor cut. Then, when Scottland was knocked unconscious in the 10th round, emergency medical technicians had trouble fitting his stretcher into the elevator of the World War II-era Intrepid. "It all goes to the issue of planning," said Cliff Stern, an attorney for the firm of Johnnie Cochran, who has been retained by Scottland's widow. "When you have a boxing match, it should be assumed that someone might be seriously injured and might need a hospital. And we know now that he had a brain bleed, where every second counted." The night certainly began full of promise. The stately Intrepid had never before hosted a sanctioned boxing match, but the ship's grandeur, with its shimmering views of Manhattan's skyline, seemed a perfect backdrop for the TV audience. Scottland made it there by chance. The evening was supposed to feature George Khalid Jones against David Telesco, but when Telesco pulled out with a broken nose at the last minute, promoter Dino Duva had a gap to fill. He found Scottland in Maryland, where the 170-pounder had just had an opponent back out on him, too. It was clear from the first roundhouse right to Scottland's head that he was overmatched. By the end of the fourth round, CompuBox punch stats showed Jones landing 64 more blows than Scottland, many of them three- and four-punch combinations that snapped Scottland's head back. Then in the fifth round, during one savage 42-second span, Jones landed 43 shots, to Scottland's feeble three. Some in the crowd cried for the fight to be stopped, including ESPN2 commentator Max Kellerman. "That's enough!" Kellerman screamed. "That's it, that's it, that's it! This is how guys get seriously hurt." But the beating continued into the seventh, after which Dr. Barry Jordan, the commission's $44,500-per-year chief neurosurgeon, stepped to a neutral corner and told referee Arthur Mercante Jr.: "Don't let him take many more blows." "The implication was to stop [the fight]," said Jordan, a respected ringside physician with 18 years of experience. "But you have to understand that the ref is in charge in the ring." Many longtime observers expressed the opinion that Scottland would not have died had the bout been in Nevada, where doctors are considered much more proactive in protecting fighters during matches. Dr. Margaret Goodman, a physician for the Nevada State Athletic Commission, emphasized that fighters are always best served when doctors, commissioners and referees all work together to control a bout. "If that communication is not going on, it is like Russian roulette," said Goodman. Never did any doctor examine Scottland's pupils with a penlight to look for signs of potential brain injury, or question him in order to determine his mental state. Mercante has said that he considered stopping the fight at the end of the seventh. But because Scottland was defending himself, he let the bout continue. And sure enough, Scottland narrowly won the eighth and ninth rounds. But when Scottland hit the canvas with 45 seconds left in the 10th round, Mercante didn't even bother to count. Jordan, Sadler and another commission doctor, Gerard Varlotta, jumped into the ring for the first time. Scottland responded to some questions, all incorrectly. The doctors asked him to raise one arm and one leg and he did. His condition quickly deteriorated and he became nonresponsive. "It did happen quickly," Jordan told The News. "Our basic conclusion was that he had suffered a routine concussion. He was disoriented, but he was able to follow one-step instructions. But then he became unresponsive. The pressure and the bleeding must have been building in his brain quickly at that point." After Scottland lay on the canvas for two minutes, Jordan summoned the EMTs into the ring. After another five minutes on the mat, he was taken from the ring. Six days later, after three unsuccessful surgeries to reduce the bleeding in his brain, Scottland died. Ferdie Pacheco, the former ringside physician for Muhammad Ali, said the physicians should not have deferred to the referee. "If the doctor allowed the fight to go on without going into the ring, that is criminal," said Pacheco. Now the sense of frustration in New York's boxing world is palpable. Even promoters, who depend on the commission for their licenses, are speaking out. "I have seen too many people get seriously hurt in this sport," said Tony Paige of Duva Boxing, the promoters of the Intrepid fight. "And everyone just shrugs their shoulders and moves on."

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THE ANATOMY OF A FIGHTER'S DEATH Critics slam state's panel and oversight

By TIM SMITH and DAVE SALTONSTALL DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Many men have died in battle aboard the Intrepid, the towering aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River. But Beethavean Scottland, a boxer who was beaten to death aboard the ship during a state-sanctioned fight last month, shouldn't have been one of them. That's the conclusion of a Daily News investigation into the June 26 fight - a tragedy that many believe underscores serious problems with

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It would be good if a scrape with death were not in the headline. That was just part of my story, not nearly as big as the size of my dreams. Do you know that Yeats poem that ends, “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams’’? That was my background music growing up. Lesley Koenig The sun beams into a rehearsal room at the Calderwood Pavilion as Lesley Koenig reaches for a pencil. Opera Boston’s production of Berlioz’s “Béatrice et Bénédict’’ opens in 10 days, and the company’s new general director is taking notes. Her concerns, at the moment, are considerably minor. The soprano should start her part with more confidence. Why is Don Pedro chewing gum? Should the mouthed chatter by characters be in English or French? She talks with director David Kneuss during a break. He’s glad to listen. Kneuss knows Koenig’s background. In her previous life, at the Metropolitan Opera, they worked together as directors. “Usually, general directors are fund-raisers or peacemakers,’’ says Kneuss, who directed Opera Boston’s 2010 production of “La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.’’ “The difference with Lesley is that I don’t need to explain how I do my job. It’s built into Lesley’s system. I can concentrate on the stuff I like to do, working with singers and creating the product.’’ A few minutes later, Koenig sits for an interview at a cafe outside the Calderwood. It is lunchtime, but the wiry opera boss, 54, rarely eats lunch. Over a cup of coffee, she’s asked about her unorthodox path to Boston. This is a woman who directed at the Met in her 30s, served as San Francisco Ballet’s general manager for six years, and then interviewed at a half-dozen opera companies for new jobs, everywhere from New York to Covent Garden. She speaks fluent Italian, German, and French and has a business degree from Stanford. “Could I run the Met? Sure,’’ she says. “Do I want to? Today, no.’’ This isn’t cockiness. Back in 2004, Koenig was on the Met’s short list for the top job along with record company executive Peter Gelb, opera star Plácido Domingo, and current Los Angeles Philharmonic president Deborah Borda. Gelb got the job. The headhunters kept calling, sometimes three a week. The jobs, though, would never be as good as they seemed. “It’s important to look at a title and company and say, ‘That’s what it really means,’ ’’ Koenig says. “It sounds good on paper - director of opera at Covent Garden - but you don’t know what it was. They have an organizational structure, all these people are separate line reports to the [chief executive] Tony Hall. The only thing you’re doing is production and casting along with the artistic director. I know how to do that.’’ I realized I wanted to pilot a bush plane, not another 747. And there was Opera Boston. I could run a nimble, cool, edgy company. And who doesn’t like Boston? Gregory E. Bulger, Opera Boston board president, had his doubts. Not about Koenig, one of nearly 70 candidates considered to replace Carole Charnow, who left to become president and chief executive officer of the Boston Children’s Museum. Bulger had doubts that Koenig, with her experience, would be really interested in Opera Boston’s top post. “The fact is, looking at her resume, I was thinking, ‘Jeez, she’s really overqualified,’ ’’ says Bulger. “When I called, I made it very clear to her that we are a $2.5 million company and we don’t have a few hundred thousand dollars to pay our director.’’ Money wasn’t the point. Koenig loved opera. As a girl, she and her sister would listen to Met radio broadcasts, feeling the vibrations of the music through the rug they were lying on. At 8, she caught rehearsals at San Francisco Opera, where her mother volunteered. At 23, after earning a degree at Harvard, she started at the Met, a job as a producer and director that would run from 1981 to 1998. The post is not as glorious as it sounds, the equivalent of being an assistant conductor at a symphony orchestra. The staffers usually work with the big-name directors brought in to originate productions. But Koenig impressed her bosses and, in 1996, she was given a rare chance to originate a new production of “Cosi fan Tutte.’’ With music director James Levine in the pit and Cecilia Bartoli making her Met debut, the opera was praised. “A staff director would not normally be given a new production,’’ says Joe Clark, the technical director and then assistant manager at the Met for 31 years. “I can’t think of a time that happened. But she was obviously very capable and had ambitions, and James Levine and Joe Volpe saw that.’’ I felt that I had done what I set out to do. It’s pretty important to ask yourself more than once in life, and not too late, is there anything else I want to do? Every year about 265,000 people take the Graduate Management Admission Test, generally a requirement for business school applicants. Of that total, just 3,500 of the GMAT-takers are women over 40. That’s 1.3 percent. Koenig was one of them. She had done directing. Now she wanted to run her own company. So at 42, Koenig applied to graduate school and started at Stanford. She didn’t know how to use a computer at the time. During one marketing class, she answered a question calling for her to do something called regression analysis on minivans. A week later, the professor passed around the two best solutions. One was a complicated spreadsheet with no words. The other was hers - all words, no numbers. The key to success, the professor said, was to play to one’s strengths. “I’ve seen 500 students over 14 years, and she may as well have been the best student I’ve ever had,’’ says Bill Meehan, a faculty member at Stanford who was once a high ranking executive at McKinsey & Company. ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE In 1992, Koenig took her first onstage bow at opening night of “Jenufa’’ at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Did my experience with pulmonary emboli influence my decision to come here? It has influenced almost every decision I have made since it happened. My lung injury happily helped influence why I would want to work in an amazing company like this and not in a huge behemoth where a board allowed a predecessor to make an enormous mess of things and then would want me to clean it up (and all the stress that would necessarily entail). Here I could make a difference, build the company, put it on a higher level, work with a supportive board, and inherit relatively few issues to untangle. So the story is a positive one, and yes, I am perfectly fine. It’s not really a secret. It’s just something she doesn’t dwell on. But it can help explain why she, someone with a rare blend of artistic experience and business training, decided to come to Boston. The Met has a $325 million annual budget and 1,000 employees. Opera Boston has $2.5 million budget and eight staffers. Eight. But Koenig makes her decisions based on more than numbers. The pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in her lungs, made her think differently about her goals, her lifetime, her plan. It was 2000, the end of her first year at Stanford, when Koenig fell ill. After repeated misdiagnoses, the doctors eventually found the problem. By then, the pain had become unbearable. The heparin and Coumadin kept her out of danger. The experience changed her approach. After graduating, she took a job as general manager of San Francisco Ballet, even though she admits ballet is not her first love. In San Francisco, Koenig balanced budgets, led fund-raising campaigns, and negotiated union contracts. She also longed for the right opera job. A short stop back to the Met in 2008 convinced her she didn’t want to stay there. Priorities had shifted. At one point, Koenig wanted to take five days off to visit her mother in San Francisco. She couldn’t. Opera Boston, she realized, would be different. The folks on the search committee were smart. The company had a reputation for putting on dynamic, edgy, and unexpected performances. And it was small enough that she could actually have some time to herself. “I had never thought about quality of life before,’’ Koenig says. “I was having so much fun doing what I was doing. Now, I’m like, wait a second. I’d like to have a guy in my life. I’d like to have my friends. I want to work and sometimes not work.’’ That’s not to say her new gig is a vacation. Since starting in January, Koenig has already made changes. The company, which had only been planning nine months ahead, now has the schedule set through the 2015-2016 season. Having that much lead-time, Koenig says, makes it easier to raise money, recruit top-notch talent, and control costs. They will do more operas. They will partner more with other local organizations. Four members of Boston Ballet II will be part of an upcoming production of “The Midsummer Marriage.’’ Koenig plans to bring in new talent, directors she’s had her eye on, to expand Opera Boston’s family. She won’t let slip the name of singers who will be participating or the operas set to be staged. But she does mention Met mainstays Tomer Zvulun and Sarah Meyers. Will she stay here forever? Koenig says she doesn’t know. But she’s excited to be here now. “I don’t live my life looking for the next thing,’’ she says. “The next thing just happens. I’m here now. I’m happy. I have no idea if I’ll be here for 10 years or fewer. Let me just say there are very few places that could lure me away.’’

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Lesley Koenig takes over at Opera Boston

Opera Boston’s production of Berlioz’ “Beatrice et Benedict’’ opens in two weeks and Lesley Koenig, the company’s new general director, is taking notes. She talks with director David Kneuss during a break. He’s glad to listen. Kneuss knows Koenig’s background. In her previous life, at the Metropolitan Opera, they worked together as directors. She also served as the San Francisco Ballet’s general manager for eight years. She speaks fluent Italian, German and French, and has a business degree from Stanford.

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It could simply be that the country is desperately in need of a laugh these days, but the situation comedy is showing renewed signs of life. Just when the sit-com scene was threatening to disintegrate into endless imitations of ''The Dukes of Hazzard,'' crammed with shapely bodies and screeching automobile tires, producers apparently have decided to venture in less mindless directions. ABC's ''The Greatest American Hero'' is not a situation comedy in the strictest sense of that label. For one thing, it runs for 60 minutes instead of the standard half-hour. For another, in blending fantasy with action-adventure, producer Stephen J. Cannell is using the character of an idealistic teacher in his late 20's to illustrate cleverly the serious thesis that it's not easy to be a superhero. During a recent panel discussion about video art at Manhattan's Anthology Film Archives, a member of the audience wondered, quite legitimately, if Mr. Cannell, whose credits also include ''The Rockford Files'' and ''Baretta,'' might not be considered a video artist. In any event, ''The Greatest American Hero'' is a refreshingly offbeat, and evidently successful, weekly series. CBS has been especially active on the sit-com front. Four new series were launched recently in a single week. The network's Thursday prime-time schedule now begins, at 8 P.M., with ''Checking In,'' a spin-off from ''The Jeffersons.'' Florence the wisecracking maid (Marla Gibbs) is now the head housekeeper at a New York hotel. Her insufferable boss this time around is the snobbish manager. Put together by something of an Irish Mafia - Jay Moriarty and Mike Milligan are the producers, Jack Shea directed the premiere - ''Checking In'' got off to a competent but hardly spirited start, despite the best efforts of a ''sweetened'' laugh track to make the studio audience sound deliriously happy. ''Park Place,'' immediately following at 8:30, fared considerably better with the questionable premise of a comedy set in a legal-aid clinic. Devised and produced by Rheinhold Weege, the program deftly juggles a number of colorful characters in the style of ''Barney Miller'' and ''Taxi.'' The secretary is a ''Jesus loves you'' person. The male receptionist approaches the onslaught of clients as a cattle call. The office opportunist yearns for a Constitutional case that will lead to a lucrative private law practice. And overseeing this slightly bizarre collection of types with demonic unflappability is the pleasant and distinguished boss, played by Harold Gould. Under the neat direction of Peter Bonerz, formerly of ''The Bob Newhart Show,'' this daffy view of one part of the special New York workplace managed to be funny enough on its initial outing to fall into the most-promising category of new shows. The revised Monday lineup is even stronger for CBS. At 8 P.M., ''Private Benjamin,'' limited to four episodes for the time being, continues the adventures of the character created by Goldie Hawn in the hit movie. For television, Judy Benjamin, the rich and spoiled young woman who is seeking security in the U.S. Army, is being portrayed by Lorna Patterson. Re-creating their movie roles are Eileen Brennan as tough Captain Lewis and Hal Williams as harried Sergeant Ross. The situation translates easily to television formula, with the adorably dizzy private constantly driving the disbelieving captain to a slow burn. There was, for instance, the good officer planning an exercise that would demonstrate the best personal skill of each recruit. ''She's going to send me out shopping,'' giggled Judy. ''Private Benjamin'' has a generous quota of such nicely silly moments. By far the most winning of the new shows, though, is ''The Two of Us,'' which comes on at 8:30 on Monday evenings. If there is any truth to the contention that talent will out, this series is a choice candidate for television longevity. In the manner of ''All in the Family'' and ''Sanford and Son,'' it is another of those productions based on a British original, in this instance one called ''Two's Company.'' With Martin Starger, once ABC's programming chief, as the executive producer for Marble Arch Productions, the Americanized version is being overseen by Charlie Hauck, whose producing and writing credits include ''Maude'' and the short-lived but classy ''The Associates.'' The plot of ''The Two of Us'' is not exactly complicated. Nan Gallagher, living in a Manhattan townhouse, is the co-host of a morning talk show on television. She is divorced, has a 13-year-old daughter, Gaby, and is thoroughly disorganized. Enter the terribly British Robert Brentwood, a gentleman's gentleman, a valet, a butler for all occasions. Reluctantly, proper Brentwood agrees to work for breezy Nan. The rest, at least as glimpsed in the first couple of episodes, is situation comedy at its diverting best. The casting is flawless. In the role of Brentwood, Peter Cook, the British actor, playwright and director, continues to display the superb timing and wicked humor that brought him international fame in ''Beyond the Fringe,'' the satiric revue he wrote with Dudley Moore. Wielding the deadest of deadpans, the tall Mr. Cook can make the word ''taco'' sound like an especially insulting epithet. He is very much the professional, a remarkably gifted comic. Keeping up with him all the way is Mimi Kennedy as Nan. Miss Kennedy has been on the verge of big-time stardom for several years. In the theater, she has toured in ''The National Lampoon Show'' and appeared on Broadway in ''Grease.'' On television, she has added comic sparkle to such series as ''3 Girls 3'' and ''Just Friends,'' with Stockard Channing. Brandishing a sincerely reassuring smile, Miss Kennedy has a gift for being witheringly funny. And, once again, the timing is incredibly sharp. Together, Mr. Cook and Miss Kennedy are one of the best teams to hit television since Lucy and Desi. Solidly establishing the two key characters -haughty but thoughtful servant, brash but slightly cowed boss - ''The Two of Us'' can get into the most improbable situations with totally convincing aplomb. The first episode managed to conclude with a visit to the house by a busload of Chinese tourists. Short on her Chinese vocabulary, Nan greeted the throng with a hearty ''buenos dias.'' As it turned out, of course, Brentwood speaks fluent Chinese and quickly saved the situation by promising the guests a meal of tacos. For last Monday's installment, the domestic crisis involved a plumbing breakdown being fixed by a Irish workman given to lusty renditions of ''Danny Boy'' at the mere mention of ''the pipes, the pipes.'' Brentwood was not amused, particularly when forced to share his bathroom temporarily with Nan and Gaby. At the same time, Nan was afraid to tell him that Gaby was having a ''slumber party'' for several of her girlfriends. Giving him the menu for the evening, she ticked off such items as potato chips, Cheezits, Mallomars and hot dogs. Obviously aghast but without blinking, Brentwood asked, ''Might I suggest a red wine?'' Later, Nan was running off to interview a Polish hero who was passing through town. ''How long can it take?'' asked her consoling agent. ''He doesn't speak English.'' ''The Two of Us'' has other assets, most notably the supporting performances of Dana Hill as Gaby and Oliver Clark as the agent Cubby. But Mr. Cook and Miss Kennedy are the indispensable drawing cards. They are responsible for that rare commodity: television to look forward to each week. Illustrations: photo of Peter Cook and Mimi Kennedy

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TV View - SIGNS OF LIFE FROM THE SIT-COM - NYTimes.com

It could simply be that the country is desperately in need of a laugh these days, but the situation comedy is showing renewed signs of life. Just when the sit-com scene was threatening to disintegrate into endless imitations of ''The Dukes of Hazzard,'' crammed with shapely bodies and screeching automobile tires, producers apparently have decided to venture in less mindless directions. ABC's ''The Greatest American Hero'' is not a situation comedy in the strictest sense of that label. For one thing, it runs for 60 minutes instead of the standard half-hour. For another, in blending fantasy with action-adventure, producer Stephen J. Cannell is using the character of an idealistic teacher in his late 20's to illustrate cleverly the serious thesis that it's not easy to be a superhero. During a recent panel discussion about video art at Manhattan's Anthology Film Archives, a member of the audience wondered, quite legitimately, if Mr. Cannell, whose credits also include ''The Rockford Files'' and ''Baretta,'' might not be considered a video artist. In any event, ''The Greatest American Hero'' is a refreshingly offbeat, and evidently successful, weekly series.

20121012030516

By Anne Dolce The Daily Meal These days, you can get any kind of chicken wing your heart desires. Whether you're craving honey-glazed barbecue, teriyaki sesame, or Jamaican jerk, there's probably a wing recipe for that, and it's most likely being served at your local sports bar. We’re starting to see new and exotic variations of the beloved bar snack popping up everywhere -- ranging in taste, style, and heat. With so many renditions available, we reminisced about the simpler days when a wing was just a buttery red mess known as a Buffalo wing. While others are out trying to break the mold with an innovative twist, we got to thinking, how do you make the perfect Buffalo wing? Invented in 1964, the Buffalo wing hails from, you guessed it, Buffalo, N.Y., and its history contains a mishmash of facts and various claims. The facts: The wings, which were usually just thrown out or used for making chicken stock, were transformed into a sticky finger food by Teressa Bellissimo, co-owner with her husband Frank of Anchor Bar in Buffalo. This is where the story gets messy (excuse the pun), because why and how Bellissimo came up with the idea of the Buffalo wing is up for debate. Frank claimed the creation was the result of the restaurant receiving an accidental shipment of wings, while their son, Dominic, argued that his mom whipped them up after being asked to make a late-night snack for him and his friends. There are even people who say the wings were created to be served as a gift to Catholic patrons late on a Friday night when they were able to eat meat again. Since the members of the Bellissimo family have since passed away, we may never know the exact origin of the famed bar food. We hate to be the ones to say this, but who cares about how or why they were created -- just tell us what makes them so delicious. After The Daily Meal reported on an annual wing competition that takes place in New York City every fall, Wingfest, we became wing-obsessed and were inspired to explore the art of making a Buffalo wing. Once we finished grilling our friends and the executive chefs of hallmark New York City wing spots such as Wildwood BBQ, Duke's, and Tribeca Taphouse about this year's competition, we digressed into a conversation about what makes the perfect wing and obsessed over every little detail. Our sources had some pretty good hints to share, and they coached us into crafting the Ultimate Buffalo Wing Recipe. Enjoy, and, don't forget the wet naps. "The chicken does most of the work," says chef Big Lou of Wildwood BBQ. Your Buffalo wing will only be as good as the chicken it came from, so make sure to only use fresh and all-natural chicken wings. Never, and we mean never, start with frozen chicken. While we're familiar with brining, we had never thought about doing it with Buffalo wings until chef Shamel Moorehead of Tribeca Taphouse told us he puts his in a brine for just an hour before making them. Any brine recipe will do, but it's usually a solution of sugar, water, spices and vinegar. We don't do this in our recipe, but wanted to mention that Big Lou does. If you’re lucky enough to have a smoker on hand, it wouldn’t hurt to throw your wings in for an hour or two. First things first, you have to cook the wings before doing anything else. Anyone in Buffalo, N.Y., will tell you that a Buffalo wing is not a Buffalo wing unless it’s fried, and that explains the unmistakable crispy skin that everyone attributes to a Buffalo wing. If you’re looking for the real deal, frying is the way to go. Deep-fryers are a nice toy to have, but we crafted a recipe that will require nothing more than a skillet. If it's summertime and the living's easy, why not go outside and fire up the grill? You won't get the same skin we were talking about earlier, but you will get a smoky taste and a nice char on your wings. Because they're so tiny, they only take about 15 minutes to grill up. And if it's not summertime and you can't stand hot oil, there's always the oven. Baking is a bit of a slower process, but your golden, crispy wings should be ready in about an hour in the oven at 375 degrees. Click here for Ultimate Buffalo Wing Recipe. More Stories At The Daily Meal: -- How To Make Signature Ballpark Foods -- How to Make Your Own White Castle Slider at Home -- America's Most Popular Recipes -- 11 Essential Tailgating Tools From Your Kitchen: ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to read them first!

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How To Make The Ultimate Buffalo Wing

By Anne Dolce The Daily Meal These days, you can get any kind of chicken wing your heart desires. Whether you're craving honey-glazed barbecue, teriya...

20121127131313

Nearly 4,000 Massachusetts borrowers have received some kind of housing-debt relief this year as part of a national mortgage settlement involving five major lenders, with each homeowner getting an average of $67,457 in assistance, according to federal report released Monday. Massachusetts borrowers received $266 million of the more than $21.92 billion disbursed nationally as part of a settlement over improper foreclosure proceedings, the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight said in its preliminary assessment of the program. Across the United States, about 278,000 borrowers received an average of $78,730 through various forms of assistance, including mortgage loan modifications, balance writedowns, and short sales. The report comes nine months after a multistate group of attorneys general came to a $25 billion accord with the country’s top lenders to settle allegations about so-called robosigning: claims that mortgage company employees routinely signed foreclosure documents without reading or properly reviewing the paperwork. The lenders include Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citibank, and Ally Financial Inc., owner of GMAC Mortgage. Joseph A. Smith Jr., monitor of the national mortgage settlement, said the numbers submitted to him by banks look promising, but that his office must confirm the data over the next few months. “The relief the banks have reported is encouraging,’’ he said. But Smith added that some of the financial aid that lenders offer borrowers does not count toward the national accord, so it is too soon to determine how close the banks are to meeting the required $25 billion in mortgage assistance. In Massachusetts, 2,001 homeowners received $123 million in principal reductions between March 1 and Sept. 30, the report said. Another 1,115 borrowers received $108 million in help selling their properties in a short sale, a process through which a home is sold for less than the size of the mortgage, with a lender’s consent. Brad Puffer, a spokesman for state Attorney General Martha Coakley, said Massachusetts home­owners are receiving a higher percentage of assistance through loan modifications and principal reduction than borrowers in other states. He said the average amount of relief for borrowers in the state appears to be smaller than nationally because the overall numbers are skewed by a high volume of short sales in Florida and California. Coakley’s office is helping local borrowers through its HomeCorps program, which was established with settlement funds. “Struggling homeowners in Massachusetts are beginning to receive concrete benefits from the national settlement, and we intend to keep pushing for more progress,’’ Coakley said. The federal report comes as foreclosures in Massachusetts are on the rise. There were 6,486 homes seized by lenders between January and September, a 3.5 percent increase compared with 2011, according to Warren Group, a Boston company that tracks local real estate. Petitions, the first step toward a property seizure, increased to 13,876 during the first three quarters of the year, 47.3 percent more than during that period in 2011. Lewis Finfer, director of Massachusetts Communities Action Network, a Boston nonprofit, said the report indicates that a small number of US homeowners have benefited from the settlement with lenders. But Finfer warned that the country’s foreclosure crisis will be hard to quell as long as mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to oppose principal reduction. “The good news is that some homeowners are getting relief, but the bad news is a much greater number are not able to get help,” he said. Grace Ross, coordinator of the nonprofit Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending, said too much of the settlement money is still going toward short sales. “They are meeting obligations by things that are least helpful of homeowners,’’ she said of lenders.

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4,000 Massachusetts homeowners have benefited from US mortgage settlement with major lenders

Nearly 4,000 Massachusetts borrowers have received some kind of housing-debt relief this year as part of a national mortgage settlement involving five major lenders, with each homeowner averaging about $67,457 in financial assistance, according to federal report released Monday. Massachusetts borrowers received $266 million of the more than $21.92 billion disbursed nationally as part of the settlement over improper foreclosure proceedings, according to the preliminary report by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. Across the US, some 278,000 borrowers got an average of $78,739 through various forms of assistance, including mortgage loan modifications, balance writedowns, and short sales.

20121129040049

Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday on the now infamous trading loss that has reached about $3 billion. A preview of the testimony reveals that he will again apologize for letting “a lot of people down” but will say that traders in Chief Investment Unit “did not have the requisite understanding of the risks they took.” He will defend the bank’s multibillion-dollar loss saying: In his prepared remarks, Dimon also will answer, in his own words, questions about what happened and what went wrong. What Happened? In December 2011, as part of a firmwide effort in anticipation of new Basel capital requirements, we instructed CIO to reduce risk-weighted assets and associated risk. To achieve this in the synthetic credit portfolio, the CIO could have simply reduced its existing positions; instead, starting in mid-January, it embarked on a complex strategy that entailed adding positions that it believed would offset the existing ones. This strategy, however, ended up creating a portfolio that was larger and ultimately resulted in even more complex and hard-to-manage risks. This portfolio morphed into something that, rather than protect the Firm, created new and potentially larger risks. As a result, we have let a lot of people down, and we are sorry for it. What Went Wrong? We believe now that a series of events led to the difficulties in the synthetic credit portfolio. Among them: CIO’s strategy for reducing the synthetic credit portfolio was poorly conceived and vetted. The strategy was not carefully analyzed or subjected to rigorous stress testing within CIO and was not reviewed outside CIO. In hindsight, CIO’s traders did not have the requisite understanding of the risks they took. When the positions began to experience losses in March and early April, they incorrectly concluded that those losses were the result of anomalous and temporary market movements, and therefore were likely to reverse themselves. The risk limits for the synthetic credit portfolio should have been specific to the portfolio and much more granular, i.e., only allowing lower limits on each specific risk being taken. Personnel in key control roles in CIO were in transition and risk control functions were generally ineffective in challenging the judgment of CIO’s trading personnel. Risk committee structures and processes in CIO were not as formal or robust as they should have been. CIO, particularly the synthetic credit portfolio, should have gotten more scrutiny from both senior management and the firm wide risk control function. It’s sure to be an interesting day for Dimon, who will be the sole witness at the hearing. Here is an excerpt of Chairman Tim Johnson’s (D-S.D.) prepared remarks for the hearing, titled, “A Breakdown in Risk Management: What Went Wrong at JPMorgan Chase?” “Today marks the two-month anniversary of Mr. Dimon’s ‘tempest in a teapot’ comments where he downplayed concerns from initial media reports of the company’s Chief Investment Office trades. We later learned, however, it was an out-of-control trading strategy with little to no risk controls that cost the company billions of dollars. “I have said before, no financial institution is immune from bad judgment. In Mr. Dimon’s own words, he later explained, ‘We made a terrible egregious mistake. There’s almost no excuse for it…. We know we were sloppy. We know we were stupid. We know there was bad judgment…. [I]n hindsight, we took far too much risk. The strategy we had was badly vetted. It was badly monitored. It should never have happened.’ “So what went wrong? For a bank renowned for its risk management, where were the risk controls? How can a bank take on ‘far too much risk’ if the point of the trades was to reduce risk in the first place? Or was the goal really to make money? Should any hedge result in billions of dollars of net gains or losses, or should it be focused solely on reducing a bank’s risks? As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. “Again it has been two months since he first publicly acknowledged the trades, so I expect Mr. Dimon to be able to answer tough, but fair questions. A full accounting of these events will help this Committee better understand the policy implications for a safer and stronger financial system going forward.”

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Jamie Dimon’s Testimony: Traders Didn’t Understand Risk

Jamie Dimon,  chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday on the now infamous trading loss that has reached about $3 billion.  A preview of the testimony reveals that he will again apologize for letting “a lot of people down” but will say that  traders in Chief Investment Unit “did not have the requisite understanding of the risks they took.” He will defend the bank’s multibillion-dollar loss saying:  The Chief Investment Unit, where the loss happened, did something it shouldn’t have done and, “as a result, we have let a lot of people down, and we are…

20130629020238

By Jason Notte The Street Just because a company shelled out billions to become a National Football League sponsor doesn't mean it won't take a beating from rivals the day of the Super Bowl. The NFL has an official soup sponsor, a tire sponsor, a hot cereal sponsor and even a grooming products sponsor. What it doesn't have is sponsor exclusivity for Super Bowl ads, which allows 2013 Super Bowl broadcaster CBS to let any advertiser in on the game that it wants and open the door for non-sponsor "ambush" advertisers. It also puts a whole lot of pressure on the NFL's official sponsors to shell out even more cash to maintain their association with the league. According to Kantar Media, the Super Bowl has generated $1.9 billion in ad sales since 2003. Total ad spending climbed from $130.1 million a decade ago to $262.5 million just last year. The cost for a 30-second ad also skyrocketed to $3.5 million from $2.2 million during that span. Anheuser-Busch InBev paid the NFL $1 billion a couple years ago to wrest the league's official beer sponsorship from MolsonCoors. It's also spent $248.6 million during the past decade to not only air ads for Budweiser and other brands during the Super Bowl, but to buy exclusivity deals from CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC that prevent all other beer companies from buying big-game airtime. If it seems a bit paranoid on A-B's part, it's just an indication of how high the stakes have become. While the amount of Super Bowl commercial time has increased from 40 minutes and 35 seconds in 2003 to 47 minutes and 25 seconds last year, the number of commercials aired has fallen from 83 to 78 during that same period. With commercials of a minute or more making up 19 percent of all ad purchases last year, there's far too much cash on the table for a company to risk losing its Super Bowl advantage. Despite their best efforts, however, NFL sponsors are seeing their rivals steal their game day spotlight. Here are just five examples of companies who can't get a moment's peace on Super Bowl Sunday: Oh, did we forget to mention that sometimes there are loopholes in those little exclusivity deals A-B signs? MillerCoors couldn't buy national ads during the Super Bowl thanks to A-B, but it scooped up 15 seconds of regional commercials for its Redd's Apple Ale malt beverage that's launching in February. According to AdAge, MillerCoors bought time in the Great Lakes and Southeast regions to tout its answer to Mike's Hard Lemonade, Boston Beer's Twisted Tea brand and the growing hard cider market. The MillerCoors spot doesn't call out A-B, but just getting it on air is a coup after Coors Light dethroned Budweiser as the nation's No. 2 beer brand last year. Anheuser-Busch InBev still controls roughly 47 percent of the U.S. beer market, according to Beer Marketers Insights. MillerCoors is second with 28.4 percent of the market. Their grip on the market is slipping, however, as each saw production decrease by 3 percent between 2010 and 2011. Budweiser, in particular, slid from 9.3 percent of the market in 2009 to just 8.4 percent today as Coors Light jumped to an 8.7 percent share -- trailing only Bud Light's 19 percent stake. MillerCoors's Super Bowl buy isn't big, but it's the little things that are keeping it alive in its battle with A-B. General Motors spent $97.2 million within the past decade on Super Bowl ads alone and found itself in bankruptcy and government hands for its trouble. Now that it's returned and is preparing to get the government out of its shareholder meetings, the rest of the auto industry has jumped on Super Bowl Sunday as their ad day of choice. Exactly two auto manufacturers bought Super Bowl ads back in 2003. Last year, seven car companies and 12 brands in all joined the fray, This year, Audi has spent nearly $8 million on a 60-second spot, Ford's Lincoln brand (pictured) has a 60-second spot, Mercedes-Benz has an ad in the fourth quarter and its name on the Superdome host stadium in New Orleans. Volkswagen, Audi, Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler and Toyota will all have ads as well. GM, meanwhile, is playing with taxpayer money and the last thing Washington wants to do after the fiscal cliff fiasco and amid the debt ceiling debate is spend millions on a Super Bowl ad. GM will sit out the Super Bowl yet again this year while its competition races away with the spoils. Not only is Pepsi the NFL's soda sponsor, but its Gatorade brand is the league's isotonic beverage sponsor. Also, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division is the league's salty snack sponsor. In the past decade, PepsiCo has dumped $182.7 million into Super Bowl ads. Think the NFL thanked PepsiCo for its generosity by keeping hated rival Coca-Cola out of the game? Not a chance. Coca-Cola's also a frequent NFL advertiser and has spent $81 million within the past decade to make sure its polar bears get the star treatment on Super Bowl Sunday. This year, Coca-Cola is spending nearly $12 million on three 30-second spots in an effort to steal as much as possible of Pepsi pitchwoman Beyonce's halftime spotlight. Not only did Papa John's owner John Schnatter rub a whole lot of folks the wrong way with his comments about cutting employee hours to avoid the new health care mandate, but his company's big money NFL sponsorship is about to get a tough test on Super Bowl Sunday. Once again, Papa John's is going without a commercial in favor of game day pizza specials. Yum Brands saw its opening and instead of countering with its own Pizza Hut brand, it's shelling out nearly $8 million on a spot for Taco Bell. Though the Super Bowl has long been considered more of a beer-and-pizza event, Taco Bell's been making inroads by advertising its $5 Big Box deal during the game in 2010 and making Super Bowl mainstay Doritos the shell of its new Doritos Locos tacos. Oh, and Yum Brands has wisely not said word one about "Obamacare" or any other politically charged issue this election cycle. That may be enough for Taco Bell to pick off Papa John's portion of the holiday spread in several households. The conglomerate has worked so hard and paid so much to establish its Old Spice as the NFL's deodorant of choice that it would be tragic if some other underarm product beat it to the punch. Especially if that product is pubescent America's masking agent of choice. Sadly for P&G, Unilever picked this year to give Axe deodorant its first Super Bowl commercial and wasn't exactly subtle about it. For its $4 million, Unilever is both pitching the favored odor fighter of high school locker rooms across America and offering customers 23 seats aboard a private spacecraft for a trip beyond the atmosphere to promote its new Axe Apollo brand. P&G, meanwhile, has grounded its ad department for this year's Super Bowl and seems content to gaze up at the stars and dream of what could have been. Never mind that faint smell of awkwardness and changing vocal ranges in the background. More From The Street -- 10 Craft Beers That Aren't -- 5 Strangest College Bowl Game Sponsors -- 10 Iconic American Products Still Made Here This text will be replaced

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5 NFL Sponsors Being Upstaged At Super Bowl

By Jason Notte The Street Just because a company shelled out billions to become a National Football League sponsor doesn't mean it won't take a beatin...

20130811021103

Sunday night’s episode of “Breaking Bad” unfolds like a symphony, with show creator Vince Gilligan as the maestro. Every instrument is playing at its peak under Gilligan’s control – the soft-to-loud soundtrack, the camerawork that exquisitely frames every single shot, the unerringly authentic acting, the suggestive and laconic scripting. Even the costuming chimes in effectively, with slimeball lawyer Saul Goodman’s sickly green shirt making him into a twisted villain out of “Dick Tracy.” As the hour moves forward from long scene to long scene, it goes from strength to strength. And yes, I completely realize that the kudos for “Breaking Bad” sometimes veer into hyperbole, that my opening paragraph could probably double as a parody of a fawning “Breaking Bad” review. And yet, if I want to be honest, I can’t do anything but lavish praise on the show, which returns Sunday night at 9 for the final eight episodes. “Breaking Bad” actually may become one of the rare prestige TV dramas that doesn’t falter in its later seasons. If Sunday’s episode is any indication of the quality of the last seven hours of season 5, the show may ultimately have a close-to-perfect run. By the way, in this review I will reveal only a few of the setups and scenarios from the episode. So there are spoilers here, but they’re only from the first episode – I haven’t seen the rest of the season – and I don’t make mention of a number of twists. Still, as always, proceed at your own risk. Gilligan has generally not been coy in his storytelling, by withholding answers or tricking us with false leads, and so the premiere gives us exactly what we want and expect, and what we’ve earned after years of close viewership. Following one of the show’s trademark opening flash-forwards, the action picks up right where it left off last summer, with Hank (Dean Norris) realizing that Walt (Bryan Cranston) is Heisenberg. It’s the next moment, and yet the story line has taken a full U-turn and the world of the show is completely changed. The Hank-Walt endgame is here, now, and I imagine it will form the backdrop for much of the juiciest material across the entire half-season. The post-revelation tension is thick. Hank is merely walking out of the Whites’ bathroom, but it comes across like a climb out of hell. Listen to the building soundtrack, with Squeeze’s “If I Didn’t Love You” sidling in and out, culminating in a mass of unearthly sounds that recall “Insect Fear,” a nickname for the Grateful Dead’s most nightmarish and jumbled LSD jams. Watch Norris stumble, breathless – Hank’s off-kilter on all levels, as if he just stepped off a roller coaster. The acting is consistently strong, but Norris deserves extra credit here. We’ve been waiting for years to see how Hank would react to knowing about Walt, and Norris does not disappoint. Hank’s first response is contained in a masterful extended sequence, and it rhymes with another toilet-related scene later in the hour. “Breaking Bad” continually harks back to earlier scenes, rewarding viewers who pay attention. Note the door-knocking in the premiere, which, ominously, recalls Walt’s declaration in season 4 about his own dangerousness: “I am the one who knocks.” It must be a thrill for Gilligan, to know that everyone he has hired is operating at full bore. Everything on the screen and coming out of the speakers seems to have significance and resonance, even when nothing big is happening, When we first see Jesse (Aaron Paul), he is sitting silently in a chair with a light show on the TV behind him, a powerful externalization of his internal turmoil. His two friends engage in a passionate stoned rap about “Star Trek,” while he fumes. It’s a throwaway scene, to some extent, but it is so artfully put together that it’s indelible. Later on, watch how, while Jesse and Walt talk about their recent past, the camera focus leaves Walt blurry, a specter that seems to be sitting on Jesse’s shoulder. The image perfectly coincides with Walt’s advice to his younger friend, “You need to stop focusing on the darkness behind you.” As usual, “Breaking Bad” moves slowly and relatively quietly. Generally speaking, there isn’t a lot of dialogue, and there are many silent scenes and characters of few words. And yet the episode seems to fly by, because the handiwork and the psychological dynamics are so fine along the way. If you watch the episode twice, you’ll pick up more the second time around. It’s the opposite of a show such as Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” which is overstuffed with words and fast movements in order to hold your attention. The quieter “Breaking Bad” gets, the more we hear.

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‘Breaking Bad’ loses no steam

As the premiere of “Breaking Bad” moves forward from long scene to long scene, it goes from strength to strength. I realize that the kudos for “Breaking Bad” sometimes veer into hyperbole. And yet, if I want to be honest, I can’t do anything but lavish praise on the show, which returns Sunday night at 9 for the final eight episodes. “Breaking Bad” actually may become one of the rare prestige TV dramas that doesn’t falter in its later seasons. If Sunday’s episode is any indication of the quality of the last seven hours of season 5, the show may ultimately have a close-to-perfect run.

20130904043040

05.25: Waiting in departure lounge of RAF Brize Norton. After wake up call at 04.00, breakfast at 04.30, I have successfully checked in for my C17 transporter flight to Kandahar. I am the only passenger. Dressed in combat trousers, desert boots, body armour and with a 20kg bag as hand-luggage, I am relieved to be ready and in the right place. [...] At 06.30, I am called to board the RAF C17. A small woman appears, looking flustered, and suggests I follow her ... The crew are already aboard. I am led up the steps of the squat plane and motioned toward one of the canvas jump seats fixed to the side of the fuselage ... Half a million rounds of palletised ammunition is cargo netted around me. 04/11/07 Arrival at Camp Bastion I find myself sitting among a squad of Royal Marine Commandos. They appear incredibly young. One of them, who looks like a teenager, is wearing a commando knife in his chest webbing. It is hard to reconcile my recognition of this student-aged man with the 8in blade fastened at the ready on his armour. After a strange, propeller-powered 45 minutes I wake to realise that we had all been lulled into a fitful sleep by the drone of the engines. [...] The ramp opens to reveal the orange light of Bastion. The sun is setting and vast amounts of dust have been thrown into the air by the landing. The diffused glow of the sun appears to ignite the sky. In the distance I see a burning plume of smoke (apparently the 24-hour waste fires). At 07.00, the lights in the tent crackle to life. I am surrounded by activity. The shower block "ablutions", like everything else, are semi-communal. I feel conspicuously unfit and I try to pretend that my ponytail is not noticeable. [...] I have an invitation to attend the "ops" briefing at the MED GRP CP. Acronyms describe all units, events and places. I imagine the briefing is confidential, but even if it weren't, I would need a code book to decipher the language of common usage. "Enhanced threat of VBIED reported by RC FOB Delhi" = Enhanced threat of vehicle-bourne improvised explosive device reported by regional command, forward operating base Delhi. [...] An insurgent has been captured and MERT [the medical emergency response team] have brought him for treatment. It seems that he was a suspected mortar commander and has been shot in the leg. We photograph the helicopter approaching and find ourselves coated in dust as the Chinook "wheels down" (WD). The suspected Taliban fighter is blindfolded and searched carefully with metal detectors before being allowed entrance. A team of about 10 people is waiting. Notes are taken in triplicate as x-rays are taken digitally and he is stripped and prepared for surgery. The wound is not life-threatening and within 10 minutes he is being wheeled, already sedated, into theatre. The MASH-style theatre is an amazing venue. Under canvas like the rest of the hospital, the theatrical lighting of the operating spotlights adds to the incongruity of surgeons with blue gowns over Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) camouflage uniforms. We stand well back beyond a striped line on the floor, attempting to understand from a distance what is happening in the bubble of intensity at the far end of the dome tent.06/11/07 First operation At 10.00, a nine-liner starts to come through the "Jchat" system: a T1 casualty (meaning evacuation needed within an hour or less - life threatened). I rush to my tent to assemble a selection of lenses. I feel a little vulgar; my role is sinister, an ambulance chaser with a camera. I am here [sent by the Wellcome Collection] to consider "War and Medicine" - the role of healthcare in combat. I have never been in the military and have never seen an operation. I am a trauma tourist desperately trying to justify my role - to others but, more difficultly, to myself. By 11.00, the helicopter has not returned. I begin to hear little bits of news. The casualty may be in a minefield. It will take at least another hour for the other soldiers and engineers to inch their way toward him. He has self-administered morphine and is conscious. I find it impossible to imagine: two hours with a mine injury awake and unable to move. At 13.00, the Chinook finally arrives. As it swings on to the HLS [helicopter landing strip], the sand washes over the waiting Land Rover ambulances, and medics run from both vehicles to meet and make the exchange. The soldier is wheeled across. I watch from a distance with a telephoto lens. By the time I have walked past the quartermaster's office to the entrance, the ambulances have arrived. As always, a crowd of some of the NHS's most highly paid and skilled consultants are waiting in DPM clothing. He is taken to Resus. Awake, in pain and bloody. The doctors adopt varying roles. One doctor stands with a nurse and an administrator at a lectern taking notes of every observation. Others direct the x-ray team, manage the unwrapping of the field dressings, check the vital signs, look for internal bleeding and try to calm the soldier. He is young; I suspect, a Commando. His right leg has been bandaged in three field dressings - each one can absorb a litre of blood. His foot is unwrapped and clothes are cut away. It strikes me that all the kit fetish that follows the FOB [forward operating base] postings is discarded. The boots, the webbing, holsters and DPM are cut into pieces, and deposited into a black plastic bag for incineration. The most obvious injury is to his foot. Bone and flesh hang from its centre. The heel protrudes about 2in below the base of his sole. The x-ray explains. There are no fragments of shrapnel. The force of the blast has travelled through the armoured vehicle into his foot and, with devastating effect, has forced the bones from the base of the foot upwards. The neat lattice of bone and tendon has been rotated and pushed away from his heel. The anaesthetist is beginning his work. The soldier keeps shouting "Sir!" as he deliriously looks around "Don't take my legs," he appeals. "Have I got my legs?" He doesn't believe the doctor who reassures him. I find myself cold and sweating profusely. I struggle to stop myself fainting. I must not faint. His right leg has multiple fractures and the knee is crushed. His left leg is also broken. He is still conscious as they wheel him to theatre. The surgeons wear gowns over their DPM and plastic covers over their desert boots. The soldier is put to sleep, and intense but unhurried activity takes place to untangle the mess of bone and skin. Pieces of bone come off the base of his feet in the surgeon's hands. He cuts away the last bits of muscle and skin symbolically attaching the bone fragments to the soldier and places them in a steel tray. The foot is emptied of dead tissue and takes on the form of a near empty bag of skin. The toes are still attached and have the appearance of some remaining circulation. I pray that the surgeons will decide that the foot will survive. Despite their appearance, the surgeon suspects that they are no longer salvageable. One of the doctors suggests to me that the best case for him will be to lose the lower part of his right leg. I listen quietly but am horrified. By 15.30, the operation is nearly complete; the wounds are left open and packed with gauze. No amputation will happen here. They will allow the soldier to return to Britain as he is. The decision will be made in Selly Oak. Two more injured patients are waiting for theatre. I feel dislocated and aimless. I am not certain if my anxiety comes from my ethical fears of delivering a facile response or from the thwarting of adolescent fantasies. I am not certain of my own intentions.08/11/07 Two Afghan children and their dignified elderly-looking father appear from the ambulances. I am struck by how beautiful they are. The son has shrapnel to his face and is in pain. The daughter has a wound to her leg and looks like aliens have abducted her. She is wide-eyed and confused. All three are covered in a thick layer of desert dust. I leave them as they are stabilised in Resus, unable to face another operation so soon. At about 16.00, the hospital fills. Clerks are rushing to don surgical gowns. Rumours are spreading. Hell at Inkerman (commonly renamed as "Incoming"): 2 T1s, 2 T2s + 1 T3. A "major" incident is declared. Eight more wounded may also be on their way. There are only two theatre teams. This is the first major incident "mass casualty" for the hospital squadron. It is what they have trained for, but there is some uncertainty as to the point at which capacity will be reached. In Inkerman, the landing zone is still hot. The Apaches have spent 20 minutes attacking fire points before the Chinooks can land. Eventually, we hear the sound of the helicopters and in less than a minute, ambulances begin ferrying patients. Leg and chest wounds. I notice two men's chests displaying the flutter of Asherman chest seals rhythmically rising as air escapes their collapsed lungs. One of the soldiers is wearing two CAT (combat application) tourniquets and has had his boots tied together, trapping an improvised splint. The beds in Resus fill. X-rays, clothes cut away. Cleaning away the dirt of battle and consultants comparing notes. MERT medics arrive, covered in dust and in full body armour, to brief the Resus staff. They appear as if parachuted into A&E. Periodically, the senior medics pause and convene to compare priorities. I am impressed by this restraint. A scene of violent injuries is dealt with in a strange, professional way. Any one of the cases would be life-threatening. Here they seem to be received as routine. The first priority becomes visible. As the clothes are cut away, the bizarre and gory scene is unwrapped. There is a gap in his legs. His thighs appear missing. I feel sick, as I mistakenly fear his groin may have also been destroyed. Bloody rags and gauze are piled around his legs and in the distance I see figures frantically attending to his mangled body. I withdraw to meet the surgeons grabbing one last cigarette before the casualties become their charge. Captain Paul Britton is scheduled [for surgery] later that morning. He was wounded at Inkerman and evacuated with shrapnel embedded in his shoulder and hand. He had been injured at the same time as last night's casualties, but had refused to leave his squad. A fire-support commander, he had been in charge of a small (now depleted) team controlling mortars, air-strikes, artillery and Javelin surface-to-air missiles. Britton has a shaved head and full beard. [The surgeon] asks him if he minds being filmed. The response causes hilarity among the nurses: "Just make sure he gets my good side." I set up the camera and step back. I can't face another operation and leave as the camera observes for me. I pass the tent chapel and a padre jumps out. "I've been looking for you," he says. "I believe you came to see me earlier when I was out." It is true that I had found myself wandering in to the church a few hours earlier. In a slightly maudlin moment I had heard music and followed it inside. It is a cliche to seek redemption and faith in times of fear or trauma. I was feeling both and had found myself enacting the stereotypical route to religion. The mass of lines and tubes almost conceals the mummified soldier. The bulk of the equipment fights against the confined space of the ambulance. Five medics gingerly slide Fletcher's life-support equipment past the snags and handles of the Land Rover ambulance. I sit in the front and we move off at the regulation 15mph. [...] During take-off and the flight, I am struck by the kindness displayed by the nurses in armour. Even Fletcher is reassured and comforted in his fitful sleep. We descend in darkness to Kandahar and as the ramp opens we feel the aircraft spinning around. A majestic sight comes into view. The open ramp of a C17 is waiting, framing an illuminated strategic team. The C130 backs up to its larger sibling until 50 yards of ashphalt separates the two worlds of tactical and strategic care. [...] Standing on the runway between these two great transport aircraft, I watch the stretchers being ferried across, illuminated by an honour guard of ambulances and Toyota pick-up trucks. I feel a strange sense of calm as the patients, strapped into the stretchers and protected by an assortment of Day-Glo equipment, are received by the C17 strategic CCAST [combat medical technician] team. I feel that some of the tension has passed away. They are crossing a threshold on the runway between combat and care. Their guilt about leaving the friends and duty, which appears so present at Bastion, seems to be left in the Hercules. As the stretcher crosses the halfway point between craft, it crosses a threshold. The gravitational pull of home overtakes the longing for the immersive FOB community. Powerless to resist, there is no shame for the soldiers. Their injuries answer any inquiries. The comfort, care and cleanliness of the civilian world beckons. The CCAST envoys welcome their cargo, outnumbering the patients three to one, and envelop them in the warm light of the C17 cathedral. During my month-long stay in Helmand, two British soldiers died, 29 were wounded in action and there were 74 admissions to the field hospital. Seventy-one Aeromed evacuations were recorded and an undisclosed number of civilian, insurgent and Afghan National Army soldiers were treated. I arrived back in Britain feeling a great sense of anger. I was frustrated by my previous ignorance of the frequency of injury. Soldiers are surviving wounds that would often have been fatal in previous conflicts. Body armour, medical training and the proximity of advanced surgery to the front line have led to a "disproportionate" number of casualties surviving. In the media, we hear only about the deaths, with occasional reference to the wounded. I came home assuming the violence I had witnessed in Afghanistan would be the focus of the news. But reality television, local politics and other less dramatic events occupied the headlines. For me, the incongruity between what I had seen and what was presented as the public face of conflict was, and continues to be, profound and irreconcilable. • War and Medicine is at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 until February 15. Details: www.wellcomecollection.org

http://web.archive.org/web/20130904043040id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/nov/25/war-afghanistan-health

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Bloody reality: David Cotterrell's diary and photographs are a harrowing reminder of the cost of war

Artist David Cotterrell's diary of his visit to a military field hospital in Afghanistan are a harrowing reminder of the cost of war

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BY JOHN H. FENTON; SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMESJUNE 28, 1964 BOSTON, June 27—A Metho­dist minister from Boothbay Harbor, Me., has suggested that the John Birch Society may well be “on the road to respect­ability if its money holds out.” The minister is the Rev. Dr. J. Allen Broyles. He said, how­ever, that such “respectability” tvas “still quite a distance clown the street.” In the meantime, he said, others might just as well learn to manage the prob­lem of coexistence with the ul­tra‐conservative organization. The minister expressed his views in “The John Birch So­ciety; Anatomy of a Protest,” ($4.50), recently published by the Beacon Press. It was a re­vision of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the department of sociology and social ethics of the Boston University Graduate School. In defining respectability, Dr. Broyles said that Robert H. W. Welch Jr., the founder of the society, had always maintained that his members were made up of “real, solid citizens.” The minister did not interview Mr. Welch in compiling his mate­rial. “Most of the members I in­terviewed were in the middle or upper‐middle class, but most of them were ‘fringe’ within their communities, due partly, of course, to their outlandish views which are part and par­cel of the ideology of the socie­ty,” said Dr. Broyles. “Their socio‐economic status qualified them for ‘respectability,’ but their politics did not.” The minister saw the soci­ty's executive council exerting a continuing moderating in­fluence on Mr. Welch. He ex­pected that this would lead to Mr. Welch's views and interests becoming “somewhat more re­strained and conventional.” The Birch Society, Dr. Broy­les contended, would begin a “rapid downward spiral” if a An Arizona member told the minister that he thought the conservative movement, of which the Birch Society was a part, “is basically a protest by people over the loss of individ­uality.” In addition to its purported mission of fighting Communists, the Birch Society also professes to fight “big government.” About the time Dr. Broyles's book was being displayed in book stores, a report filed with the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, Edward W. Brooke, showed the society had ended 1963 with a deficit of $210.952. The report, required by law, showed gross income of $1,043,­656 and expenses of $1,169,997 in 1963. There also was a carry­over deficit of $84,612 from 1962. The membership of the Birch Society remains a secret. When he organized it, Mr. Welch set a goal of 1 million members. Some estimates have placed the mem­bership at about 100,000 at the most. Twice in recent years, Mr. Welch has acknowledged that attacks on the society have slowed its growth. But he has vigorously disputed any sug­gestion that the slowing rate indicated a substantial loss of membership. Dr. Broyles found that the average distribution rate of American Opinion, the society's monthly magazine, was 27,000 copies. Dr. Broyles said that most of the society members he in‐ Since attempts to reform the society from the outside were “fore‐doomed,” Dr. Broyles said. that coexistence with such ex­tremist groups had to be faced. In the process, responsible citi­zens should not let inflamma­tory charges by the extremists go unchallenged. he asserted. Members of the Birch Society, saki Dr. Broyles, “do not spend all their time making accusa­tions against uersons.” “Some of them touch upon real issues and problems in many areas of our national life,” he declared, “but the most that could be said for the great majority of the members and leaders would be that where they are scratching there was an itch, but that their scratch­ing was only broadening the inflammation.” Dr. Broyles saidhe had talked with a member of the Birch staff in the Belmont na­tional headquarters about two weeks after President Ken­nedy's assassination. And while there had been no “dropouts” from the society as a result, Dr. Broyles said he found the atmosphere of the place more restrained. The staff inembers, said Dr. Broyles, commented that it seemed “a time when people need to speak the truth with prudence.” Calling for a spirit of ra­tionality, Dr. Broyles com­mented: “It is sobering to remind our­selves and to remind even the Birchers that, if we do not de­fend freedom and rationality as the norms of political conflict, we ought not to be surprised to find ourselves caught in a to­talitarianism not only from the left or from the right, but per­haps even from the center.” This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send comments, questions and feedback to archive_feedback@nytimes.com

http://web.archive.org/web/20140502005552id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1964/06/28/birch-society-believed-on-road-to-moderation-minister-expects-welch-to-revise-his-interests-money-woes-cited.html?

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Birch Society Believed on Road to Moderation ; Minister Expects Welch to Revise His ‘Interests’ -Money Woes Cited

Rev Dr J A Broyles's book John Birch Society: Anatomy of Protest discussed; he finds exec council continuing to exert moderating influence on Welch; holds efforts to reform soc from outside are 'fore-doomed' because of 'logic-tight and closed-mind ideology' of soc; advises coexistence; soc's money difficulties noted

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PHOENIX -- When the Diamondbacks acquired shortstop Didi Gregorius, general manager Kevin Towers compared Gregorius' defense to that of "a young Derek Jeter." It might have been an undersell. D-backs bench coach and four-time Gold Glove winner Alan Trammell is not given to hyperbole, but he could not help but rave about Gregorius' scoop and throw from deep in the hole in the seventh inning of a 5-1 victory Friday. To balance things, Gregorius used his bat to make a difference Saturday. His three-run home run broke a 2-2 tie in the last of the eighth inning, giving the D-backs' a 5-2 victory over San Diego and assuring a series victory against a team they could catch for third place in the NL West. Gregorius drove an 0-2 fastball into the front row of the right field seats to break a 2-for-39 slump. As his fielding play Friday showed, Gregorius has no trouble separating his offense from his defense. As his homer Saturday showed, his constant work in the batting cage can have its rewards. Gregorius has been retooling his swing since spring training, and the process has included the expected stops and starts. At the same time, he has been an eager, attentive student. There were Gregorius and Jake Lamb, who hit his first major league homer Saturday, taking extra batting practice with hitting coach Turner Ward hours four hours before the game Saturday. "I would say, about time," Gregorius said of his home run. "I've been working, getting better, going down in the cage every day, just trying to make improvements. Luckily, I got one right there." He has not let the dry spell bring him down. "Just go at-bat by at-bat, don't worry about it. I can't change it. I don't really think about it. Just go out and play the game. Don't drag one at-bat to the next one," Gregorius said. His perseverance has not gone unnoticed, so much so that the shortstop battle won by Chris Owings last spring is beginning to look like another open competition entering the 2015 season. "He's worked very hard. He hasn't had instant gratification or instant results, and it is good to see that happened to him tonight," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. "He's made some changes and he hasn't been rewarded much, but tonight it came through for him." One of Gregorius' major selling points is his glove, the part of his game that was evident when he was promoted to the D-backs early last season after a hand injury sidelined second baseman Aaron Hill for 10 weeks. It is one of the reasons the Yankees, among many others, have had scouts watching him this season as Jeter finishes up. Gregorius is most proud of the diving, full-extension stop and throw from his backside to start a double play against Tampa Bay here last season, and those who saw that still smile when they remember it. "Everybody in the bullpen jumped out of their chairs, screaming and going nuts. It was unbelievable," D-backs reliever Brad Ziegler said. The play Friday was similar. Gregorius went far into the hole at shortstop, almost behind third baseman Lamb, to field a sharp grounder by Jedd Gyorko. Gregorius gloved the ball and in one motion, without stopping or planting his feet, whipped a throw to that hit first baseman Mark Trumbo's glove chest-high. "I was astonished," Trumbo said. When looking at the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Gregorius, Trammell sees the evolution of the position. "These guys, including Didi, it's a different breed now," said Trammell, who won who Gold Gloves in Detroit in 1980-81 and 1983-84. "They're better. They're more athletic. The plays on the run that we are seeing like Didi's, that's definitely one of the best plays I've ever seen, especially with the amount of velocity (on the throw). It wasn't a balloon over there. He is going full speed the opposite direction, not stopping, throwing the ball on the run, on a line. It was an incredible play. "I don't know if I've ever seen one better." When Gregorius was a teenager at a tryout camp in the Dominican Republic, his velocity was registered at 94-95 mph on a throw from right field to third base. When he saw the throw heading right at Trumbo's mitt Friday, he just kept running toward the D-backs' dugout. When he got to the dugout, his teammates made jokes. "The guys say funny things. Yesterday they told me at least make it look a little bit harder," Gregorius said. It has been that kind of weekend. The D-backs dugout gave rookie Jake Lamb a 45-second silent treatment following his first major league home run in the second inning. Lamb played along with it nicely, putting up some air high-fives as he entered the dugout and made his way to a seat at the far end of the bench. "I went in there and saw nobody was around," Lamb said. "I like to have fun. I started giving high fives to nobody." A short while later, everyone on the bench crowded around him to celebrate. 99 -- Career saves by Addison Reed *Again, Vidal Nuno deserved better. He allowed five players to reach base in 7 1/3 innings -- two singles, two walks and a hit batsman -- but was left with a no-decision when two of his inherited runners scored in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at 2. Despite a 3.54 ERA, he is 0-3 and winless in nine D-backs' starts, extending a franchise record for starters. "It's part of the game. I just try to go deep in ball games. I've just been unlucky," Nuno said. "I'll keep on fighting, and one day I'll get it." *Chris Owings started at second in his rehab game at Triple-A Reno on Saturday and will see occasional time at second base when he returns to the major leagues in a week or so, manager Kirk Gibson said. "I just have a curiosity," Gibson said. "I know he can play short. We have some games left here in the last month. Why not put him over there at second as well? We played him over there in spring training as well. You're looking ahead at who might be where (in 2015). It is a possibility." Owings, Gregorius, Aaron Hill, Cliff Pennington and minor leaguer Nick Ahmed give the D-backs deep depth in the middle infield, furthering the notion that an offseason trade with come from there. *Addison Reed pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 30th save and is on a good run. He has converted his last 10 save attempts, tying a career high set with the Chicago White Sox from Aug. 6-27, 2013. The D-backs seem more and more likely to go to a six-man rotation in September, and Randall Delgado could make some starts down the stretch, Gibson said. Delgado has made progress on his third pitch, a breaking ball, and has shown flashes. "If you gave him a chance to start, would it help him be able to work his way through and have more consistency?" Gibson said. "That question hasn't been answered yet. but those are things we think about." Follow Jack Magruder on Twitter

http://web.archive.org/web/20140829101859id_/http://www.foxsports.com:80/arizona/story/d-backs-didi-does-it-all-082314

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D-backs' Didi does it all

Diamondbacks shortstop Didi Gregorius hits a key three-run homer Saturday one night after making a breathtaking play in the field that left former Gold Glove shortstop Alan Trammell astonished.

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The real estate story of Sonos Inc., a maker of slick, wireless hi-fi systems, starts with the kind of setting you might expect — four employees toiling in a cramped office in Cambridge’s tech-dominated Kendall Square. But as the company grew, the story took an unusual turn. Instead of expanding in Kendall Square with the Googles and Amazons of the world, Sonos recently signed a lease to move into 170,000 square feet in Lafayette City Center, a downtown Boston office complex that long served as back-office space for State Street Corp. “Once we saw Lafayette, it was clear to me that it was the best place for us,” said Andrew Schulert, vice president of quality at Sonos, which employs 375 people. What Schulert saw was a resurgent real estate market in Downtown Crossing, where hip technology companies are joining new retail shops, restaurants, and upscale residential buildings. The interest among tech firms has benefited downtown landlords who are trying to replace dated department stores and other tenants that have left the area. “We’ve really been able to take advantage of a the complete transformation of downtown and the perception of downtown,” said David Epstein, president of the Abbey Group, which owns Lafayette City Center. In addition to Sonos, Abbey Group has signed a lease with Carbonite, a maker of IT protection software for businesses that is expected to move into Lafayette City Center next month. That company will occupy about 53,000 square feet. Danielle Sheer, vice president and general counsel for Carbonite, said she has not been around long enough to remember the old Combat Zone, a crime-infested collection of bars and strip clubs that once operated on streets near Lafayette City Center. Most of those businesses have been replaced by new restaurants and upscale residences. “It feels like Tribeca in Manhattan now,” she said. “It’s gotten much cooler.” Down the street, the advertising company Arnold Worldwide has moved into the former Filene’s department store at the corner of Washington and Summer streets, where 600 employees have brought a welcome burst of activity to the long-dormant property. The property’s developer, Millennium Partners, is also building a 60-story condominium and retail tower that will create a new center of gravity in the district. The area’s revival has occurred in fits and starts over the years, as it steadily attracted redevelopment activity. First it got new theaters, residences, and retail stores. Now, with the office market making a comeback, it is getting attention from a wide array of technology companies that are looking for alternatives to Kendall Square and Boston’s Innovation District. Many have been priced out of those areas or simply couldn’t find enough space to meet their needs. Among the technology companies to move to the area recently are the online gaming company WorldWinner, digital marketer Localytics, and SS&C Technologies, a maker of software for financial services companies. Sonos is by far the largest of those tenants. It will occupy two floors of the six-story building, with an option to expand in coming years. Schulert said the building offered easy access to the subway’s Red Line as well as the size and flexibility to accommodate a 50,000-square-foot hardware lab. “We’re trying to retain and attract the best people, and providing a great environment will help us do that,” he said. “Kendall Square and the Innovation District are both great, but they are getting kind of full, and Downtown Crossing was just an obvious place for us to go.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20140925041515id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2014/09/16/sonos-moves-resurgent-downtown-crossing-real-estate-market/XqOwRXu2gTXzSVlzvm6iwL/story.html

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Sonos moves to resurgent Downtown Crossing real estate market

The real estate story of Sonos, a maker of slick, wireless hi-fi systems, starts with the kind of setting you might expect — four employees toiling in a cramped office in Cambridge’s tech-dominated Kendall Square. But as the company grew, the story took a most unusual turn, moving to Boston’s Downtown Crossing area.

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NEW YORK — Some changes could be in store for Olive Garden, including how the restaurant chain prepares its soups and pasta. An activist investor succeeded Friday in its bid to take control of the board of Olive Garden’s parent company, Darden Restaurants Inc. Starboard Value’s nominees were elected to fill all 12 of Darden’s board seats, according to preliminary voting results. The unusual handover in control comes as Darden has been struggling to turn around Olive Garden’s declining sales with new marketing and menu items, including ‘‘small plates’’ like crispy risotto balls. Earlier this year, the company completed its sale of Red Lobster — despite objections from Starboard and other shareholders — saying it wanted to focus on fixing the Italian-themed chain. At the meeting in Florida, Starboard chief executive Jeff Smith stood to introduce himself and the new board members before voting results had been announced. Smith noted Starboard has begun ‘‘to work with the management team to ensure a seamless transition.’’ In a statement, Smith praised Darden’s ‘‘incredibly strong foundation that reflects its iconic and growing brands.’’ In addition to Olive Garden, Darden owns smaller chains like LongHorn Steakhouse, the Capital Grille, and Yard House. It is not clear what changes Starboard will push for right away, but the hedge fund issued a 294-page presentation last month saying Darden should spin off its real estate holdings. It criticized Olive Garden for having an overly complicated menu and its failure to salt its pasta water. ‘‘If you google ‘‘how to cook pasta,’’ the first step of Pasta 101 is to salt the water,’’ Starboard wrote. Starboard also pointed out numerous ways Darden could slash costs, including reducing its ranks of full-time workers, being more disciplined in how it hands out breadsticks, and using an outside supplier to help make soups. It is not clear how many people stand to lose their jobs or see their hours scaled back. The restaurant workers group Dignity at Darden, which demonstrated outside Starboard’s office in New York City Thursday, has estimated the firm’s proposal would result in the loss of up to 1,600 workers.

http://web.archive.org/web/20141014094913id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2014/10/10/olive-garden-changes-likely-with-board-turnover/5qf2SKR5YOXqFdfOoBhIMM/story.html

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Olive Garden changes likely with board turnover

NEW YORK — Some changes could be in store for Olive Garden, including how the restaurant chain prepares its soups and pasta. An activist investor on Friday succeeded in its bid to take control of the board of Olive Garden’s parent company, Darden Restaurants Inc. Starboard Value’s nominees were elected to fill all 12 of Darden’s board seats, according to preliminary voting results.

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A warning was passed along to me from the Better Business Bureau about a website that has a lot of complaints from consumers who pay for products and get nothing in return. But this is less about the site, which is supposedly based in Massachusetts, than it is about what these experiences can teach about shopping online. The business is called “Hello Gorgeous Hair Extensions.” The folks who run it could not be reached for comment. Phone calls to the business went unanswered, as did e-mails. The Better Business Bureau has logged about five dozen complaints, mostly from consumers who placed orders — and even paid for expedited shipping — and never received a product. Letters sent to the business come back as undeliverable, according to the Better Business Bureau. For anyone who shops online and strays from the major retailers, which you have to do sometimes to buy niche products, it’s important to examine the site for red flags and see what other people have to say on third-party review sites. Raving endorsements posted to the site itself are of little or no value. Often, the tip-off is what’s missing on the site. A retail site should let you know some specifics about the business, including its location, telephone number, and perhaps a name or two of people to contact. When none of that is there, it’s a problem. A quick search on Google of the company name shows a laundry list of similar complaints as well as the review by the Better Business Bureau. When consumers are frustrated, they have places to vent and quite often do. It takes just a minute or two to see if you’re about to make a purchase from a company that has a line of dissatisfied customers. Even if there are no complaints, you want to find some evidence that a business has been around for a while and people get what they order. The Better Business Bureau is a good place to start. If you don’t do your due diligence, you could pay your money and end up with nothing but disappointment.

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Online buyers beware - and check out websites before a purchase - Business - The Boston Globe

A warning comes from the Better Business Bureau about a website that has a lot of complaints from consumers who pay money for products and get nothing in return

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has been described in troubling detail by those close to him as a man who rarely showered, wore shirts with holes in the armpits, drove a car with no brakes and dreamed of starting a lawn-mowing business that would use goats to do the work. Routh, standing trial in Stephenville, Texas, for the murders of and his friend Chad Littlefield, was so quirky, his family and ex-girlfriend testified, that they'd often sum things up with, "That's just Eddie being Eddie." But things took a chilling turn on Feb. 2, 2013, when, as his sister, Laura Blevins, told jurors on Wednesday, she was standing outside her home when Routh showed up driving Kyle's black Ford truck. "I stood on the porch and looked into his eyes," Blevins recalled. "I told him, 'I love you, but I hate your demons.' " Much of the day's testimony came from Jennifer Weed, 26, who was Routh's girlfriend from the spring of 2012 until after his arrest on Feb. 2, 2013, for the murders. Weed, who has a psychology degree, said the two met on the dating website Plenty of Fish. Within a couple of months, they'd decided to see each other exclusively. But the relationship was not without its drama. In September of 2012, following a Routh family gathering during which the former Marine threatened to kill himself and others, Weed got a voicemail from him late that night. He had been admitted to Green Oaks, a psychiatric hospital in Dallas. "He was upset and tearful," she testified, recalling the next time she saw him after he'd been transferred to the Veterans Administration hospital. "He asked if he could come stay with me at my apartment." Weed agreed. Routh also had another question. Weed recalls that he asked her to marry him, but she turned him down at the time: "I told him not until he was allowed to have shoelaces." The couple began living together at Weed's apartment, but after less than a month, "we'd begun to get on each other's nerves," she said, adding that they took a break from the relationship until late November. January of 2013 proved to be a volatile month for the couple. Weed testified about several incidents in which she was called by Routh or a family member, asking her to come help him. On one occasion, she arrived at his house to find him "sitting on the couch, just staring at the wall for several hours." Another time, he called and asked her to pick him up from his house. When she got there, he ran toward the car with his dog Girlie in tow. "He jumped in the car, screaming, 'Go, go, go!' " she recalled. On another night at her apartment, "he started calling me names, accusing me of drug usage and that I was trying to steal his soul. He kept insisting that I take him back to Lancaster because he was gonna die that night and wanted to say goodbye to his mom." The following morning, on Jan. 19, Routh, Weed and her roommate were all at the apartment. The couple had made plans to visit his attorney about a DUI charge, but as they approached the front door, he grabbed one of their decorative ninja swords and said, "We're not going anywhere." "He thought people were out to get us and we had to stay in the apartment, because the apartment was safe," Weed said, adding later that she didn't feel threatened. Routh then traded the ninja sword for a large knife he pulled from a butcher's block in the kitchen. Weed texted her roommate that "Eddie's in a mood," and that she shouldn't leave her room. Eventually, police arrived and the roommate escaped by running out through the back patio door and jumping over a fence. Routh was again taken to Green Oaks and transferred to the VA hospital. He was released six days later. The week following his release was full of arguments between the couple, mostly about his marijuana habit and tobacco use. On the night of Feb. 1, following a fight, "he got a legal pad out and started writing things down," she says. "I tried to speak, but he covered my mouth because he said he didn't want them to hear what I was saying." Assistant District Attorney Jane Starnes noted that one of the things he'd written on the legal pad was "that y'all should make pot cupcakes to make a lot of money." "Do you want to have a career making pot cupcakes?" she asked Weed. "No," she replied, adding that she also didn't want to go into the goat lawn-care business or have a bunny rabbit farm, both of which had been brought up by Routh in the past. Before they went to bed that night, Weed asked if he'd taken his medication that day. He said he hadn't, and that he also hadn't eaten anything. "We were in the kitchen and I was getting his medication for him," she said. "I turned back around to see him on his knees, and he asked me to marry him. I said yes, and he got up and wrapped his arms around my stomach and started crying. "We ate some of Jodi's spiced crackers and we went to bed," she added. The next morning, the two had another bad argument, this time over chewing tobacco that Eddie was using. She texted Routh's uncle, James Watson, saying, "You'd better get here quick. I'm about to kill your nephew." When Watson arrived, Routh kicked Weed out of the house. "He was washing dishes and he did have a knife when he told me to leave," she confirmed to Starnes. Hours later, Chris Kyle would arrive at the house, walk up the gravel driveway and say, "You must be Eddie." According to testimony from Routh's mother, Kyle was in the dark about any specifics of Routh's recent behavior. Kyle, Littlefield and Routh left for the Rough Creek Lodge shooting range in Kyle's black pickup truck. That afternoon, Routh showed up at his sister's house in the truck, alone. "Hey, what's up," Routh said to his sister and her husband, Gaines Blevins. The three sat at the dining room table, "and he said he'd killed two guys," Blevins recalled. "I didn't believe him, because he's said crazy stuff before." But then Routh went into more detail: He mentioned Kyle by name. He said they'd gone to a gun range. He told them he sold his soul for a pickup truck. "I said, 'If this is true, you've got to turn yourself in,' " Blevins testified. "You can't just go around killing people." She then said she was calling the police. As they walked toward the front door, Blevins got her first look at what he was driving. "I felt like I was about to throw up," she said, "because this could be a real possibility." That afternoon, "the person who came in that house was not who I knew as my brother," she told the court. After she told him she loved him but hated his demons, "for a moment, he was my little baby brother. I could tell he needed me. But it switched back so quickly." The trial continued on Thursday, as the defense makes its case for the jury to find Routh . The prosecution rested on Tuesday.

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Killer's Bizarre Behavior : People.com

"I love you, but I hate your demons," Eddie Ray Routh's sister testifies she told him after Chris Kyle's murder

20150414020412

A trilogy of films curated by a maverick writer-director, unfolding in nine-year installments and starring the same actors playing the same characters. No, it’s not Richard Linklater’s celebrated “Before” project, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy living out the long arc of a relationship, but the much less heralded “Henry Fool” trilogy from Hal Hartley. A major indie auteur in the 1990s, Hartley has been nigh invisible the past decade, but he has kept plugging away in his signature style: attractively mordant characters delivering deadpan seriocomic monologues about philosophy and romance. With “Ned Rifle,” Hartley brings to a close the family saga begun in his biggest hit, “Henry Fool” (1997), and continued in the fairly bewildering “Fay Grim” (2006). The new film is a return to form after that sagging midsection, and the coterie of Hartley admirers still paying attention will find frustrations, rewards, a few darkly intelligent laughs, and an ending that unexpectedly haunts. Added bonus: more stuff for Aubrey Plaza to do. As the latest recruit to Hartley-land, the “Parks and Recreation” star seems born to the mannerisms, and her way with a fetching glower fits right in. When “Ned Rifle” opens, Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is still serving a life sentence on a framed-up terrorism charge (don’t ask), and her 18-year-old son, Ned (Liam Aiken), has emerged from witness protection with a profound belief in God and a burning anger toward Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan), the reprobate father he never met. Bidding farewell to his Reverend foster father (Hartley regular Martin Donovan), Ned packs a Bible and a gun and sets out to make amends. First, he has to visit his Uncle Simon (James Urbaniak), the onetime garbage man turned prize-winning poet-reclusive literary legend of “Henry Fool.” Fame is wearing on Simon, who has started a stand-up comedy video blog out of boredom; it’s pretty terrible. Pointing his nephew in the direction of Seattle, he also inadvertently throws Ned together with Susan (Plaza), a possibly unhinged graduate student-stalker whose secrets involving the other characters take most of the movie to surface. For all that, you probably don’t need to have seen the first two movies to get on this one’s offbeat road-movie wavelength. Aiken, who was 7 when “Henry Fool” was made, has aged into a lean, charismatic center of stillness, and you want to see Ned come out all right if only to make good on the actor’s two-decade investment. He and Plaza make an arresting team, the child of God and the damaged sexpot, and it’s fascinating (if a little bizarre) to see the actress push her gloomy persona into more erotic territory. “Ned Rifle” isn’t Plaza’s break-out role — that was “Safety Not Guaranteed” in 2012 — but it does indicate that she’s more than the Millennial Eeyore ingénue she can be typed as. The movie gets a real lift when Ned and Susan finally track down Henry Fool, who’s being held against his will in a pharmacological mental institution after drug experiments have convinced him he’s Satan. (This qualifies as a normal development in a Hal Hartley movie.) As before, Ryan breaks through the glass wall of the film’s style with energetic cynicism; Henry is a Bukowski bad boy whose acid brilliance shines only in person, never on paper. Posey is in only a handful of scenes, which is fine: Stiff and unconvincing, she seems to have lost interest in her character. Can you blame her? I’m not sure what Hartley’s larger game plan is, other than to explore the way sins ricochet and deepen through a family over the years. The tension in his movies comes from the collision of hot emotions and cool behavior; the filmmaking is deadpan, too, as though Jim Jarmusch had gotten stranded in Middle America. But Hartley lacks Jarmusch’s visual invention, not to mention his interest in a world outside his characters. At its worst, “Ned Rifle” is a self-involved movie about self-involved people. When it clicks, though, we’re in a pared-down moral universe that carries unsettling echoes of our own.

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Hal Hartley returns to form

“Ned Rifle” review: The third and final installment in writer-director Hal Hartley’s family tragicomedy, after “Henry Fool” (1997) and “Fay Grim” (2006). It’s a mannered but real return to form.

20150419114951

A worker prepares vehicle assembly parts for shipping to a Nissan Motors assembly plant at the automaker's 1.5-million-square-foot integrated logistics center in Canton, Miss. WASHINGTON — US industrial production edged up in February, as a big surge by utilities due to a cold winter offset a third straight decline in factory output. Overall industrial production rose 0.1 percent in February following a revised 0.3 percent fall in January, the Federal Reserve reported Monday. The January retreat had initially been reported as a small 0.2 percent gain. The key category of manufacturing fell 0.2 percent following declines of 0.3 percent in January and 0.1 percent in December. The weakness stemmed from a 3 percent drop in output of motor vehicles and parts, the third straight decline in this category. Production of machinery and primary metals such as steel and appliances fell as well. Manufacturing growth has slowed over the past six months. US producers have had to contend with a rising dollar, which makes their goods more expensive in foreign markets. Analysts also blamed some of February’s weakness to supply disruptions from the labor dispute at West Coast ports. The dispute was settled in the third week of February, but analysts said it could take months to work through a massive backlog of containers at the port. The 7.3 percent surge in utility output reflected unusually cold weather in many parts of the country. Output in mining fell 2.5 percent in February after a 1.3 percent drop in January, in part reflecting a cutback in drilling operations because of the big fall in energy prices. Oil prices have tumbled by about half since last summer. That has led drilling companies to hold off on digging new wells and has limited oil and gas extraction. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group for purchasing managers, reported that its index of manufacturing activity slipped to a reading of 52.9 in February, marking the fourth straight drop and the lowest reading since January 2014. The ISM index showed that orders, hiring and production all slowed last month. While factory growth is still boosting the US economy, manufacturing growth has been more sluggish in recent months. The ISM manufacturing index hit a three-year high in August. The rising dollar is expected to contribute to bigger trade deficits this year. The trade deficit widened in the October-December quarter, subtracting 1.1 percentage points from the economy’s growth rate during the period. Growth slowed to a rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, and many analysts believe the pace will be similar in the January-March quarter.

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Industrial output edged up in February

US industrial production edged up slightly in February, as a big surge by utilities due to a cold winter offset a third straight decline in factory output.

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Sam’s Club is offering a new service to help its small business members gain access to loans of up to $350,000 — its latest effort to shore up business from a key constituency for the warehouse club operator. Working with partners such as loan marketplace Lending Club and SmartBiz Small Business Administration, Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores WMT will launch the online service it’s calling a “business lending center” in two weeks. Sam’s Club members will get a 20% discount on fees related to the loans, and executives said that discount, coupled with other new services that will soon be introduced, could save members up to $2,300 a year. The lending service is one of five new ones the company is offering to better serve its business members, which account for as much as one-third of Sam’s Club’s membership, according to Kantar Retail estimates, but who have proven to be a softer part of its business compared to non-business members of late. The services range from helping to protect members’ personal data to offering access to a network of accountants. The new services “are not aimed primarily at generating revenue for Sam’s Club,” said CEO Rosalind Brewer on a media call Wednesday. “We’re focused on increasing the value of Sam’s Club membership.” And that is important, given the ongoing challenges of that part of the Sam’s Club business. In its most recent fiscal quarter, Brewer said she saw “continued shortfalls in our business member segment, driven primarily by convenience store consolidation and a declining tobacco business” leading to a drop in the number of visits by business customers. Sam’s Club, which generates about 12% of Wal-Mart’s revenue, had sales of $58 billion last year, enough to be the 8th largest U.S. retailer. But its comparable sales were unchanged last fiscal year, compared to 5% growth at larger rival Costco Wholesale’s COST U.S. stores. Brewer had told Fortune in November that rather than diminish its exposure to its business members, Sam’s Club planned to redouble its efforts to cater to them. Recent efforts have included a pilot of a curbside order pick-up service, help providing small business owners’ employees with discounted health insurance, and offering services such as helping to submit a patent application.

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Sam's Club adds new lending service for small biz

The Wal-Mart-owned warehouse club operator has added a suite of new services aimed at small businesses, a major part of its membership, but one which has been soft for Sam's Club for some time.

20150524075248

More than 400 films and videotapes will be screened at the 23d annual American Film Festival, which the sponsoring Educational Film Library Association calls ''the largest and longest running documentary festival in the U.S.A.'' Films and tapes are on the arts, children's entertainment and social issues. Some are informational, some experimental. The festival runs today through Saturday. Included in the program are special events, two of which take place today: ''Censorship: Selection and Challenge of Educational Films'' and ''Music for Documentaries.'' The first, a discussion by Edward B. Jenkinson, author of ''Censors in the Classroom,'' will be held from 3 to 5 P.M. The second event, the opening night's program, is a panel discussion among Virgil Thomson, who composed film scores for ''The Plow That Broke the Plains'' and ''The Louisiana Story''; Willard Van Dyke, former director of the Museum of Modern Art's film department; D.A. Pennebaker, a film maker, and Irwin Bazelon, Amy Rubin, and Daniel M. Schreier, composers. Joseph Duffy, director of ''Meet the Composer,'' will moderate. Time: 8 P.M. At the Grand Hyatt Hotel, East 42d Street and Lexington Avenue. Admission: Full registration, $85; one day, $15; opening night program, $5. Information: 883-1234, extension 3679. Some of the most creative improvisational choreography in this metropolis has been produced for years at the Empire Rollerdrome in Brooklyn - a roller disco before the phrase ''roller disco'' was coined. The rollerdrome has been having Jazz Mondays for adults, probably to keep adults from being shamed by the high-rolling youngsters usually on the rink floor. Instead of the regular thumping disco beat, Monday's accompanying tunes are jazz - recorded and live. The live group is Jasmine. Empire Rollerdrome, 200 Empire Boulevard, between Rogers and Bedford Avenues. Skating from 8 P.M. to midnight. Admission: $7, including skates. Information: 462-1570. FESTIVAL BENEFIT The eight-year-old Annual Avant-Garde Festival of New York aims at ''the innovative use of public spaces for the creation/presentation of the newest work in every medium available to the cointemporary artist.'' The festival has presented video, holography, computer art, electronic music as well as dance, drama and pure concepts. Events were presented in nontraditional locations: Shea Stadium, the Alexander Hamilton day liner, Penn Central baggage cars and Floyd Bennett airfield, among others Tonight, a festival benefit is being held in a new but traditional performing space, Ohio, at 64 Wooster Street, in SoHo, two blocks north of Canal Street between West Broadway and Greene Street. On the program are Eiko and Koma, the dance team; Bob Carroll, who is described as a shameless stand-up and lie-down performer, and Akio Suzuki, who plays stones, pieces of wood, and homemade instruments, Admission: $5 or Theater Development Fund voucher; friends, $10; sponsors, $15; and patrons, $30. Food and drink available. Time: 8 P.M. Information: 675-2824. EAST SIDE BARGAIN New York-born Carmen McRae is a superb singer. In her early days she worked with Ellington, Benny Carter, Count Basie and Earl Hines. She worked at Minton's Playhouse on Harlem's 118th Street when it was the fountainhead for the new musical development - bebop. And when she began solo work in the mid-1950's Down Beat critics selected her the best new female singer of 1954. She has an aura of supersophistication; she gives the impression of being somebody's wise and worldy aunt and she is partial to ballads. Tonight, off her usual track, she will perform on the Lower East Side, in the ''Spring Concerts 1981'' series at the Henry Street Settlement Arts for Living Center, 466 Grand Street. Time: 7 P.M. Admission: $2. Information: 598-0400. Incidentally: Mongo Santamaria, Odetta, Jimmy and Percy Heath, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and the Henry Street Settlement Symphony Orchestra will also perform during the next 13 days. Information: 598-0400. For Sports Today, see page C3. C. Gerald Fraser

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GOING OUT GUIDE - NYTimes.com

RED EYE SPECIAL More than 400 films and videotapes will be screened at the 23d annual American Film Festival, which the sponsoring Educational Film Library Association calls ''the largest and longest running documentary festival in the U.S.A.'' Films and tapes are on the arts, children's entertainment and social issues. Some are informational, some experimental. The festival runs today through Saturday. Included in the program are special events, two of which take place today: ''Censorship: Selection and Challenge of Educational Films'' and ''Music for Documentaries.'' The first, a discussion by Edward B. Jenkinson, author of ''Censors in the Classroom,'' will be held from 3 to 5 P.M. The second event, the opening night's program, is a panel discussion among Virgil Thomson, who composed film scores for ''The Plow That Broke the Plains'' and ''The Louisiana Story''; Willard Van Dyke, former director of the Museum of Modern Art's film department; D.A. Pennebaker, a film maker, and Irwin Bazelon, Amy Rubin, and Daniel M. Schreier, composers. Joseph Duffy, director of ''Meet the Composer,'' will moderate. Time: 8 P.M. At the Grand Hyatt Hotel, East 42d Street and Lexington Avenue. Admission: Full registration, $85; one day, $15; opening night program, $5. Information: 883-1234, extension 3679.

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A State Supreme Court justice in Albany has upheld the awarding of diplomas to two mentally handicapped students in Suffolk County in 1979 although they had not passed the state's basic competency test. The State Education Department had ordered the diplomas invalidated. But the justice, Robert C. Williams, said last week in a 21-page decision that the rights of the students had been violated because they had not been given adequate notice that they would be required to pass the test. Justice Williams did not specify how much time would constitute an adequate notice. He said, however, that the two years the students had been given by the Northport-East Northport District since the basic compentency test requirement was imposed in 1977 were inadequate. ''The denial of a diploma could stigmatize the individual petitioners and may have severe consequences on their future employability and ultimate success in life,'' the justice said. A Statewide Effect Predicted The ruling could affect handicapped students throughout the state who successfully complete the high school programs designed for them but who are unable to pass the competency tests. ''The decision is important and will have an impact on handicapped students throughout the state even though it was not a class-action suit because the state agreed that the outcome of the decision would apply not just to the Northport students but all handicapped students,'' said John Gross, the lawyer who represented the school board. ''It seems to us that the decision would have the effect of removing the requirement of the tests for handicapped students who are in the system now.'' A spokesman for the State Education Department said that an appeal of the ruling was being considered. ''We are looking at the decision and trying to determine how narrow the ruling is and exactly what the court has asked us to do,'' the spokesman said. The Long Island school board's position had been that the school district had the right to award diplomas to handicapped students who had fulfilled requirements of the educational programs designed for them. But the State Education Department maintained that only those who passed the competency tests were entitled to high school diplomas.

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L.I. DISTRICT IS UPHELD ON DIPLOMAS FOR HANDICAPPED

A State Supreme Court justice in Albany has upheld the awarding of diplomas to two mentally handicapped students in Suffolk County in 1979 although they had not passed the state's basic competency test. The State Education Department had ordered the diplomas invalidated. But the justice, Robert C. Williams, said last week in a 21-page decision that the rights of the students had been violated because they had not been given adequate notice that they would be required to pass the test.

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UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., March 2— The new team running the American mission here resembles an extended family whose lineage extends from Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the chief delegate. There is Carl Gershman, a counselor who sits in the office directly across from Mrs. Kirkpatrick. Like her, he made his mark urging a stern, anti-Communist stance in Commentary magazine, the neoconservative bible. They first met at a gathering of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, a group aimed at rescuing the Democratic Party from the George McGovern liberals. Another key appointee is an old family friend, Charles M. Lichenstein. He fills one of the five posts that have ambassadorial rank and will deal mostly with press affairs and with the security and other problems of the 153 foreign missions here. Like Mr. Gershman, Mr. Lichenstein is a Phi Beta Kappa from Yale. A onetime officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and a ghost writer for Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Lichenstein regularly vacations with Mrs. Kirkpatrick and her husband in Europe. Jose S. Sorzano, 40 years old, presently ranked as a counselor, is a protege of the new mission chief. He studied political science under her at Georgetown University and she was one of three professors who read his doctoral thesis. Mr. Sorzano was a research assistant in the preparation of Mrs. Kirkpatrick's book on Argentina under Juan D. Peron, and, most recently, a colleague on the Georgetown faculty. Career Diplomat in No. 2 Post The Commentary-Georgetown-friendship network does not embrace Marshall Brement, the second-ranking member of the delegation and a career Foreign Service officer. But in a mission whose directors often echo each other, he said, ''I am compatible.'' The 39-year-old Mr. Brement is fluent in seven languages, including Russian and two Chinese dialects, and comes here from a post in the National Security Council. The sense of common purpose binding her group is Mrs. Kirkpatrick's design. She has the tidy mind of a professor whose lectures are easy to outline. ''The President has said he wants to staff the Government with those who share his philosophy,'' Mrs. Kirkpatrick said. ''What I've tried to do is add on people who share the orientation of this Administration.'' She and her aides stress what Mrs. Kirkpatrick calls their intention ''to speak here with greater clarity.'' But precisely what they will be clear about is still obscure. At her first news conference, held last week, Mrs. Kirkpatrick said that the Administration was still reviewing every foreign policy question, from the global economic bargain that poorer countries are seeking to a Western plan for independence of South-West Africa, also known as Namibia. No 'Communications Gap' Seen Even so, the new mission cannot imagine falling into the sort of pit dug for Donald F. McHenry, Mrs. Kirkpatrick's predecessor, who voted in the Security Council against expanding Israeli settlements last March and was promptly disavowed by President Carter. A ''communications gap'' was blamed. Mr. Lichenstein, a 54-year-old specialist in communications, said, ''When in doubt, we'll be on the secure telephone and telex requesting guidance.'' The guidance, he and the rest of the team make clear, will come from Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. Mr. Lichenstein ran his own consulting firm on policy analysis and mass communications in Washington. He wrote the first drafts for four of the ''Six Crises'' of Mr. Nixon's book. He also served as a special assistant in the Nixon White House, taught political science briefly at Notre Dame University and was a vice president for public relations for the Public Broadcasting Service. ''This will be an effective team, more so than in the past,'' said Mr. Brement, the deputy. It will be marked, he said, by ''consistency'' and ''reliability.'' Mr. Gershman, who is 37, has a master's degree in education from Harvard to go with his Yale diploma. Last year he was a resident scholar at Freedom House, a private organization in New York, writing on totalitarian threats to American democracy. For six years, he ran Social Democrats, USA, a political action group supporting liberals concerned with Soviet power. 'Conceptual Clarity' Sought Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who is 54, is particularly uncomfortable with common United Nations terms like ''the third world,'' ''North-South'' and ''nonaligned.'' These terms, she said, cover groups of nations ''that are not a monolithic, integrated whole'' but ''disparate nations with disparate interests.'' What she seeks, she said, is ''conceptual clarity.'' What will she do with the six Security Council members from Latin America, Asia and Africa who typically work out common positions as members of the third world? ''We bargain with them,'' she replied briskly. But this will not stop her from seeking to deal with the six separately, through the United States embassies in their capitals. ''I will use all the legal, morally acceptable tools at hand,'' she said. ''The notion that I will be less concerned with the so-called third world than my predecessors is absurd.'' ''Speaking is action,'' Mr. Brement said. ''Words matter. This team is united in feeling that.'' The mission, he said, resists the notion ''that it doesn't matter what you say here.'' It will not accept unwanted phrases in resolutions simply to accommodate others, ''cynically going along to influence people,'' he declared. Veto to Be Used 'If Needed' Mr. Brement, who graduated from Brooklyn College and has a master's degree from Maryland, has served in Spain, South Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and twice in the Soviet Union. His other languages are Indonesian, French, Spanish and Hebrew. To avoid appearing obdurate, the five permanent members of the Security Council usually hesitate to invoke their power of veto. But Mr. Brement suggested that ''there will be a willingness'' to use the veto ''if it is needed.'' ''The practice will be to represent U.S. interests,'' he said. ''If it leads to confrontation or vetoes, there will be confrontation or vetoes - although that is not our intention.'' Mrs. Kirkpatrick and her aides slip easily into the patriotic language of an earlier era. The new chief delegate deliberately made her first speech in her new post before the American Legion and spoke of ''a new determination to restore United States strength and influence in the world, a determination to regain self-respect and the respect of others.'' Mr. Gershman said that for 10 years he had quarreled with those on the Democratic left who believe that ''anti-Communism is conservative or reactionary, which presumes that Communism is progressive.'' ''I fell on the side I considered pro-American,'' he said. ''I recognized the nature of totalitarianism.'' Even a professional like Mr. Brement talks in a similar fashion. The new team, he said, shares ''a basic feeling that the United States is the best hope of the world, and what we do in the U.N. should reflect our vision of the world.'' Illustrations: 5 Photos of U.N. leaders

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NEW TEAM AT U.N.

The new team running the American mission here resembles an extended family whose lineage extends from Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the chief delegate. There is Carl Gershman, a counselor who sits in the office directly across from Mrs. Kirkpatrick. Like her, he made his mark urging a stern, anti-Communist stance in Commentary magazine, the neoconservative bible. They first met at a gathering of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, a group aimed at rescuing the Democratic Party from the George McGovern liberals.

20150524083058

MURMURS of the coming Stravinsky centenary are already audible, even though the full roar of the 1981-82 season is still several months away. In late fall, CBS Masterworks will issue a 31-record extravaganza documenting its long relationship with the composer. This release might be subtitled ''Stravinsky on Stravinsky,'' since the composer either directly participated in or supervised all of these performances. The collection was made possible a generation ago when Goddard Lieberson as head of Columbia Masterworks (now CBS Masterworks) decided to record everything the composer had written or was to write. Lieberson died in 1977, Stravinsky in 1971. The earliest item here is the ''Piano-Rag Music'' recorded by the composer himself for Columbia's French affiliate in the 1930's. During his European years, Stravinsky did record intermittently on other labels. The CBS collection, however, embraces his recording history after he came to this country. There were 44 releases during this 25-year period, and they show Stravinsky in many guises. Most of the orchestral pieces are conducted by him, though some are in the hands of his colleague, Robert Craft. One segment eavesdrops on Stravinsky in rehearsal, and two others - one an interview, the other a comment on ''Le Sacre du Printemps'' - let us hear the composer talk about himself. We are also given a glimpse of Stravinsky the performer - playing the piano with Joseph Szigeti, the violinist. Stravinsky was not a great virtuoso, and the accompaniments to an arrangement of the ''Russian Maiden's Song'' from the opera ''Mavra,'' for example, are not very challenging. A Neat Package of 100 There are 98 separate pieces here, which, with the two spoken items, add up to 100 inclusions - a neat centenary figure. The package will be broken down into 14 two-record ''interpacs'' and one three-record presentation of ''The Rake's Progress.'' A 40-page booklet will also be included. The project has assembled, moreover, some important and familiar faces from Stravinsky's years in America. Supervisor for this CBS Masterworks project is Vera Zorina, a distinguished dancer and wife first to George Balanchine of the ballet world and then to Lieberson. Her narration for the recording of Stravinsky's ''Persephone'' is part of this issue. Miss Zorina first knew Stravinsky through Mr. Balanchine, a collaborator on many of the composer's projects, but she especially remembers working with him. ''Stravinsky was wonderful,'' she said the other day in her offices at CBS. ''As a conductor, he breathed with you. You never felt rushed. In rehearsal, however, he was very exacting. He wouldn't let something go. He would go at it again and again. ''Then he was so funny in how he used the English language,'' she remembered, ''like the time he waved goodbye to John and Jackie Kennedy at the White House one evening and turned to us and said, 'Nice kids.' '' Craft Not Involved Robert Craft, Stravinsky's longtime associate and prolific recorder of his wit and wisdom in many books, ''has been in touch'' with Miss Zorina and is ''happy about the project,'' she reports. The continuing litigation involving Stravinsky's children, the second Mrs. Stravinsky and Mr. Craft over the composer's estate has precluded his active participation, however. In a New York interview this week, Mr. Craft talked of his justcompleted three-volume collection of the composer's correspondence entitled ''Chapters from a Life.'' The letters include Stravinsky's dealings with artistic as well as everyday problems, documentation of his shrewd ventures into the business world and comments on the world at large. Mr. Craft is also preparing a photographic look at the ''50-year love affair'' between Stravinsky and his wife, Vera. It will be called ''Igor and Vera Stravinsky, a Photograph Album, 1921-71'' and features especially pictures taken by the Stravinskys of each other. Both were amateur photographers. Mrs. Stravinsky is now 93 and still active and able to travel, says Mr. Craft. Mr. Craft will also be active during the centenary - conducting, lecturing and acting as consultant to various projects. There is probably a Stravinsky biography in Mr. Craft's future, he admits, but material - particularly about the early Russian years - is still lacking. He looks with favor on the CBS recording project. ''Stravinsky's own recording of 'Le Sacre,' for example, is the best available, even though it is full of mistakes,'' said Mr. Craft. ''He was 78 at the time, and he became tired during the taping. He just couldn't keep on doing the necessary retakes.'' Lili Boulanger's Music One of Nadia Boulanger's last living acts was to pass on music written by her sister, Lili, 50 years ago to the publishing company of G. Schirmer. The celebrated French teacher of music, who died in 1979, is known mostly for her influence on the many prominent musicians and composers who at one time or another studied with her. She was also, however, an ardent advocate of her sister's music. G. Schirmer is in the process of publishing 17 of these pieces. Lili Boulanger died at the age of 24 in 1918. She was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for composers and was particularly drawn to choral music. Schirmer has just released five of these choral works and plans soon to issue two trios for violin, cello and piano never before published. They are called ''D'un Matin de Printemps'' and ''D'un Soir Triste.'' Nadia Boulanger was blind at the time of her death, and the final proofreadings of her sister's music were made possible by a secretary reading the music to her line by line. Lili also lost her sight as she was dying, and her last composition was dictated - to her sister, Nadia. Weatherproof Music As summer music festivals multiply, so must the places to put them. Three outdoor facilities, all built by Jaffe Acoustics, are being completed in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Kansas City this month. Baltimore's Pavilion is situated on a pier extending into the city's harbor and the Chesapeake Bay. The structure is in the form of a tent, and the pier has been formed from rubble created by Baltimore pier fire of a year ago. The Pittsburgh installation is a shell in the city's downtown Point State Park, while the Kansas City structure is tentlike but vinyl coated to protect it against the weather. It is a temporary installation and can be taken apart and moved to other locations. Illustrations: Photo of Igor Stravinsky

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NEWS OF MUSIC - RECORDINGS TO MARK STRAVINSKY'S 100TH - NYTimes.com

MURMURS of the coming Stravinsky centenary are already audible, even though the full roar of the 1981-82 season is still several months away. In late fall, CBS Masterworks will issue a 31-record extravaganza documenting its long relationship with the composer. This release might be subtitled ''Stravinsky on Stravinsky,'' since the composer either directly participated in or supervised all of these performances. The collection was made possible a generation ago when Goddard Lieberson as head of Columbia Masterworks (now CBS Masterworks) decided to record everything the composer had written or was to write. Lieberson died in 1977, Stravinsky in 1971. The earliest item here is the ''Piano-Rag Music'' recorded by the composer himself for Columbia's French affiliate in the 1930's. During his European years, Stravinsky did record intermittently on other labels. The CBS collection, however, embraces his recording history after he came to this country.

20150613210353

LEVERETT — When people think of the Massachusetts tech economy, they probably don’t think of this town of 1,900 built into the woods about 10 miles north of Amherst. Since April, this Western Massachusetts community has steadily connected homes, businesses, and town offices to a municipal fiber-optic network offering broadband services that have long bypassed this part of the state. Today, software developer Al Nutile can video-conference and write code simultaneously with a project team scattered across three continents from his hillside home. Carter Wall, who lives on a dirt road, can download big data files from the solar power installations she monitors. At the local cafe, people can bring iPads and get blazing-fast Wi-Fi instead of waiting their turn to surf the net at a dusty, old desktop with a satellite connection that cuts out in bad weather. By the end of this month, Leverett will have linked every home in town to broadband. Nearby communities are not far behind in bringing broadband to their residents; they see high-speed Internet as an economic boon akin to rural electrification in the 1930s, one that could bring higher home values, better business climates, and easier access to the modern economy. These new connections are the culmination of an eight-year, $90 million effort by the state to build a “backbone” of fiber-optic data transmission lines across Western Massachusetts. The network, financed with state and federal stimulus money, will extend broadband to 45 isolated towns where 40 percent of homes have no Internet access and the rest are relegated to dial-up, DSL, and satellite connections operating at a fraction of speeds available in Eastern Massachusetts. State and federal economic development officials view access to high-speed Internet as a way to boost rural economies, where traditional industries such as farming, forestry, and paper making have declined, and connect them to 21st-century services, such as online education and telemedicine. With private telecommunication companies unable to profitably extend their networks to sparsely populated areas, state, federal, and local governments have stepped in. In Leverett, for example, voters in 2012 approved borrowing $3.6 million — nearly $1,900 per resident — for the town to lay fiber lines to 800 premises and connect to the main trunk built by the state. “More and more communities understand that high-speed wired Internet access represents critical infrastructure right up there with telephone and roads,” said David Talbot, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. “Community networks are often seen as a way to advance economic development, attract high-tech businesses, cut municipal costs, and bring competition to the market.” The Massachusetts Broadband Institute, a quasi-public agency overseeing the Western Massachusetts project, estimates that completing the so-called last mile of fiber that connects end users will cost an additional $112 million. About $50 million will be funded by the state, and the rest from local funds. About 32 towns have banded together in a group called Wired West, which is working with the broadband institute to build and operate fiber lines to individual buildings. In recent months, about 19 of Wired West’s towns have approved borrowing a total of $30 million, according to Monica Webb, chairwoman of the collaborative. About five more will vote in few months, she said. All the local funding must be approved by June 2016 to qualify for state money. Before construction starts in each town, 40 percent of its residents must sign up for service, which starts at $49 a month for speeds similar to Comcast’s basic offering in Boston and rises to $109 for a version that is 40 times faster. When the fiber networks are completed in the next two to five years, the towns will own them and Wired West, a municipally owned entity, will operate them. Leverett has contracted a private company to provide Internet service, which will cost subscribers $65 a month. That’s about same as Comcast and Verizon FIOS customers pay in Greater Boston, but the speeds in Leverett are about 10 times faster. Residents already are witnessing the economic potential of broadband. Now that her Leverett home is hooked up to the fiber network, Wall has sold her house in Medford, where she lived half the time because her job as a solar energy consultant often required higher speeds than she could get in Leverett. She’s taking the $170,000 gain she made from the sale and splitting it between her retirement fund and a nonprofit she recently cofounded, the Future Face of American Energy, which will match women and people of color with internships in the energy industry. In New Marlborough, a Wired West town, filmmaker Douglas Trumbull has already hooked up to the fiber backbone, paying the cost of laying fiber from his studio. Trumbull is developing a high-resolution, high-frame-rate-viewing technology called Magi, which has required him to build his own server farm to process the images and send hard drives in the mail to studios and other clients because Internet connections were too slow. He now expects to cut his costs by using cloud computing services to produce and share video. Gerald Jones, the owner of Jones Group Realtors in Amherst, sells houses in the communities targeted by the state’s broadband initiative. He said he has given financial support to the broadband committee in Shutesbury and his agents have advised clients in Shutesbury and elsewhere to vote in support of building the networks. He said a growing number of homebuyers refuse to consider properties that can’t get high-speed Internet. “It’s gotten more and more important as time has gone on,” Jones said. “It’s as if you had a town with no school system and you were trying to sell a house to someone with kids.” The completion of the broadband “backbone” may also spur private investment. Adam Chait, the owner of a small Internet service provider in Monterey, in the southwest corner of the state, said he is raising money to build a network connecting 1,000 homes in Berkshire County as a test to show that private companies can profitably serve remote areas. He declined to estimate how much he’ll need. Local officials admit the work of building broadband networks has been complicated, and some benefits, such as new businesses, could take years to appear. Leverett has created Web pages and information packets to help educate residents about key parts of their new system. Eric Nakajima, the head of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, said his group’s priority is making sure that towns’ broadband systems were well-maintained and won’t run out of money. “It is definitely early days,” Nakajima said. “There isn’t really a test case right now in the region or in the state where we can look and say, ‘Let’s evaluate.’ ”

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Fiber backbone bringing broadband to Western Massachusetts

A fiber-optic network, financed with state and federal money, will extend broadband to 45 isolated towns in Western Massachusetts.

20150816143911

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Germany-based Allianz, told CNBC on Tuesday that his worst-case scenario could spark a correction in the stock market. In a "Squawk Box" interview, El-Erian stressed he's not predicting a correction—calling it a "risk scenario, not the baseline." The former Pimco co-CEO warned it all comes down to whether there's a paradigm shift away from investors believing in a low volatility environment, against a backdrop of an improving U.S. economy and manageable European problems. "If all that changes, then you a looking at at least a 10 percent correction," he said. El-Erian also predicted a Greek exit from the euro would cause "short-term chaos," but it would not bring the global economy to its knees. He expects short-term losses and a lot of volatility. "The reason it would not be a major catastrophe is because Europe has done a lot to navigate a Grexit [Greek exit]." Debt talks between Greece and its euro zone creditors broke down late Monday, raising concern ahead of the expiration of Greece's current bailout loan later this month. Read MoreGreece: The final countdown On one side of the standoff, Greece sees the euro zone as a house of cards, in which a Greek exit would bring down the rest. Germany, on the other, considers the 19 single currency nations as climbers held together by a rope, with Greece as a weak link that may need to be cut loose. El-Erian said the truth lies somewhere in the middle if not "more to the 'climbers' characterization than the 'house of cards,' ... [but] not decisive enough to make one side feel that strong."

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Worst-case-scenario may spark correction

Mohamed El-Erian also tells CNBC a Greek exit from the euro would cause "short-term chaos," but it would not bring the global economy to its knees.

20150824000942

Crude has been on a volatile streak in recent days, and fell nearly 9 percent Wednesday amid reports of a multi-decade high in U.S. oil supplies. Just the day before, oil had experienced a huge rally, leading some traders and analysts to think that the bear market was fizzling. And on Thursday, the domestic oil market rallied again, crossing the psychologically significant $50 mark. Brent crude, the global benchmark, closed at near $57. Read MoreOil expert: This is a 'dead cat bounce' Oil traders and analysts have differed on where crude is likely to go this year, with some saying price could fall substantially further as the global markets face considerable oversupply in the first half of the year. The London-based Merchant Commodity Fund co-founder Doug King, for instance, told CNBC recently that oil prices could pierce the $30 floor and trade into the high $20s before recovering. Even so, exchange-traded funds that track the West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude markets have seen money pile in so far this year, suggesting that smaller investors are betting on a nascent recovery. Oil-related stocks, like drillers and oilfield equipment companies, have suffered huge declines since last summer. But, like current market commodity prices, those stocks could be close to their nadir, Hall wrote in his investor letter. "Oil-related equities have been trying to find a bottom," he stated. "It's not clear whether they have found it yet, but we think it's probably close…. Well-positioned shale oil operators and other domestic producers could prove to be attractive investments."

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Crude will go to $40 or lower: Oil trader Hall

Oil could bottom around $40 a barrel but if it does, it won't linger there long, oil trader Andrew Hall said in an investor letter.

20150908030528

Investment tips: Why not look into New York state muni bonds? They are exempt from federal and New York state income tax and pay pretty competitive rates for high-income earners. Why not invest some of the money in dividend-producing stocks? The S&P 500 has a yield of 2.01 percent and that yield is taxed at capital-gains rates vs. ordinary income. What this means is that their tax rate would drop to 32.62 percent from 52.22 percent. That is a significant reduction in their tax liability, plus the yield is four times what they're getting on their cash! Business income: In reviewing the Schedule C (which reports business income) there are a few things that could have a big impact on their income. Read MoreWhen to file for Social Security retirement benefits early Charitable contributions: Cash is probably the least effective asset to give to charity and they gave around $3 million last year. So this is how it works using the $3 million that they gave to their foundation in 2014. To give away $3 million, they would've had to have earned at least $6 million —and pay taxes on that, which we've already established is at a rate of almost 50 percent for the Clintons. Sure, they can deduct the charitable donation, but that would only save them about $1.5 million. If they'd used appreciated securities, they would not have to pay capital gains on the gain and would get the same tax deduction on the value of the gift. That would save them around 33 percent, or $2 million, on the gain in their investments. With some proactive planning, the Clintons could save hundreds of thousands of dollars. For most people, tax planning is collecting receipts, putting them in a shoe box and giving them to their CPA. If they get money back, their CPA is great. If they have to pay, they yell at their CPA and threaten to fire them. That is not tax planning…that is scorekeeping. Proactive tax planning means that you review your tax situation today, and develop plans to be proactive, during the tax year. You have 5 months left in the tax year. What is your proactive tax strategy? Read MoreWhy taxing Wall Street won't work Commentary by Jerry Lynch, a certified financial planner, chartered underwriter and chartered financial consultant (CFP, CLU, ChFC). He is president of JFL Total Wealth Management, a registered investment-advisory firm. Follow him on Twitter @JFLJerry.

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Are Bill and Hillary Clinton paying too much?--commentary

Financial advisor Jerry Lynch took a deeper look at the Clintons' recently released tax return and found several ways to save them money.

20150928180655

TORONTO — After many hours of being interviewed about “The Martian” at the Toronto International Film Festival, Matt Damon still looked thrilled to talk about the movie, even its early reviews. “I’ve heard they’re good,” he said, grinning. Critics had managed their expectations for the film, after director Ridley Scott’s more recent sci-fi takes — including “Prometheus” — perplexed fans despite being visual stunners. But when “The Martian” had its big premiere at the start of the festival, the movie was almost universally adored. Variety called it an “epic homage to the nerd.” The Wrap wrote, “it’s hard to deny filmmaking this adept and this thrilling.” Most critics praised Damon, who anchors the film as Mark Watney, a cocky astronaut who is stranded on Mars after his crew unintentionally abandons him when it appears he’s died in a dust storm. The movie, which opens theatrically on Friday, is adapted from the best-selling novel “The Martian” by Andy Weir, whose Watney is a modern-day MacGyver who uses his NASA intelligence and botany degree to sustain his life day by day. It seems our eyes are looking back while we try to figure out exactly how we got to where we are now. “Andy said, when he wrote the book, he kind of started with that proposition of ‘All right, could one person who is really highly trained — and got somewhat lucky as well — could they actually survive?’ And then he said he let the science tell the story,” Damon said. “Basically, the guy’s gotta figure out air, water, and food, and keep it coming. If he can do that, he can make it.” Damon says the project was a labor of love from the start. Filmmakers adored the book, which started out as a self-published hit. The tale was more of a western and, at times, a comedy than a philosophical space odyssey, setting it apart from hits such as “Gravity” and another Damon film, “Interstellar.” “The writer of the screenplay, Drew Goddard, I don’t think he even had the rights — he read the book and he just started writing the screenplay because he loved it so much. When I met with him originally about it, he said he wanted it to be a love letter to science.” “The Martian” represents what Damon is looking for as an actor, now that the film industry has changed and it’s harder to make a “Good Will Hunting.” Movies are either superhero-size or tiny. “It’s just that the movies that really were my bread and butter aren’t getting made anymore,” Damon said of the state of film and why he hasn’t found his own project to direct. “There’s not the $25 million to $60 million movie about people talking to each other. They’re just gone.” Damon uses “Behind the Candelabra” as his lesson. The 2013 HBO hit, in which Michael Douglas and Damon star as Liberace and his longtime partner Scott Thorson, was adored by critics. Damon said it was movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, executive producer of “Good Will Hunting,” who explained why a project like that now winds up on cable. “He was really gracious about ‘Behind the Candelabra’ — he loved it,” Damon said of Weinstein. “And I said, ‘Well, why didn’t you buy it, man? Like why didn’t you fund it? It would have been great to put the band back together and do this.’ And he really kind of calmly walked me through the numbers. . . . He goes, look, if I spent $25 million . . . if I make it for that, I have to put that much in to market it. Now it’s at $50 [million]. Now I gotta split my money with the exhibitor, so do I think this movie about this relationship kind of falling apart is going to make $100 million so that I can break even? It’s just a brutal business.” That hasn’t stopped Damon from trying to create his own opportunities. He looks for big films that will also be good. The next Jason Bourne movie will team him again with director Paul Greengrass. Damon credits fans with getting the film made. “It was a real factor in doing it — that people really wanted to see it. . . . Building an audience that’s really loyal and really loves it — that’s nothing to kind of turn your nose up at.” Aidan Monaghan/Courtesy Twentieth century fox Matt Damon in the “The Martian.” Weir, who said he was thrilled when Damon signed on to play Watney, says Damon brings integrity to these blockbusters. “People think of him as an action-movie star. People forget that he’s a really good actor.” Damon also has Pearl Street Films, the production company he founded with Ben Affleck. Under Pearl Street, Damon co-wrote the drama “Promised Land” with John Krasinski, and produced the locally made “Manchester-by-the-Sea,” starring Casey Affleck, which is due out next year. They have also revived the “Project Greenlight” series, now on HBO, which follows a new filmmaker on the road to production. Damon has so far been the controversial figure on the show. After the first episode aired — hours after Damon concluded his press interviews for “The Martian” — he was criticized for cutting off “Dear White People” producer Effie Brown while she was talking about the diversity of filmmakers competing on the show. Damon told her that diversity is handled in the casting of the winning film, not in the selection of the winning filmmaker. He later released an apology. Damon’s career has been largely devoid of controversy, but the actor has occasionally found himself answering questions about Affleck, whose fitful personal life sometimes overshadows his work on screen. “As his friend and as somebody who was not only his friend but his writing partner, I knew intimately how talented Ben was and is, and I felt like I was defending him. . . . At press junkets, I spent a lot of time trying to set that record straight, which of course you can never really do. Ultimately, he just did it himself by doing such wonderful work, and now it’s just kind of accepted that he’s wonderful and talented and all the things I know him to be.” Lately, there have been questions about Affleck and his divorce from wife Jennifer Garner, which was announced in June. “People’s ideas of what they’re owed is kind of incredible,” Damon said, referring to reporters and fans who have more access to celebrities because of social media. Damon and Affleck faced questions together when they announced their intention to make a movie about James “Whitey” Bulger. The project appears up in the air since the release of director Scott Cooper’s “Black Mass.” Damon wouldn’t reveal much about the film he and Affleck hoped to make, but said their narrative about the infamous Boston gangster would be different from the film starring Johnny Depp. “Ben and I had an idea that we would do it more like ‘Unforgiven’ — which was the anti-western. We wanted to do the anti-gangster movie. I got a letter from somebody — from a writer in South Boston when [Bulger] got caught and we announced that we were going to do this story. He sent me this letter and he was like, ‘Don’t glorify this guy anymore. Just stop. Please. He caused so much damage to so many people.’ And so it didn’t sit well with me. And then as I thought more about it, and Ben and I talked about it, what we realized was there was a way to do a movie that really explored all of our complicity in the raising up of this guy. . . . And, look, I was in ‘The Departed,’ so I’m not knocking anybody. I’m just saying what our way in was going to be, and I think it’s very different than anything that’s been done before and I was really excited about it.” Despite obstacles, Damon seems to do what he wants. Maybe that’s why he had no problem talking about the project in the present tense. “If we make it about our own complicity — like why do we celebrate this sociopathy,” he said, “then that’s a place that hasn’t been mined . . . and it’s really interesting.”

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Matt Damon, space cowboy

TORONTO — After many hours of being interviewed about “The Martian” at the Toronto International Film Festival, Matt Damon still looked thrilled to talk about the movie, even its early reviews. “I’ve heard they’re good,” he said, grinning.

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1. Follow the flows.New research from Stanford Graduate School of Business found evidence that many mutual managers were skilled, but highlighted the importance of finding low-fee active managers. Professors Jonathan Berk and Jules H. van Binsbergen, who has since moved to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, looked at a universe of 5,974 mutual funds from 1969 to 2011 and compared the funds' results to comparable Vanguard index funds. They found evidence of skill—outperformers continued outperforming over time. The researchers also found that the skilled managers attracted more assets—and, in fact, very quickly. If you have a pot of money to invest and are seeking an actively managed fund, one basis you could use to pick is the fund flows, if you're on top of the latest data on at least a quarterly basis, said Berk. 2. Look for fees under 1 percent on actively managed U.S. equity funds. The research also showed that one of the reasons it's been so difficult for experts and investing services to find skilled mutual fund managers is that they charge so much in fees. But at least you know they're out there. On average, actively managed equity funds charged investors 1.37 percent in expense ratios in 2013, according to the Investment Company Institute. That's down from 1.6 percent in 2000. On an asset-weighted basis, the decline has been even more significant, because investors have been pouring money into the lowest-priced funds. It is possible to find good money managers charging less than 1 percent. In fact, that's what individual investors should look for, suggested Ram Lee, president at New York City-based Seven Bridges Advisors, which has $3.8 billion in assets and offers CIO services to institutions, individuals and families. A lower fee gives you a much better chance of beating the market and is also a sign that a fund company and a manager are aware of the way the wind is blowing: toward lower-priced funds. Rekenthaler's list of five active funds worth a look (included below) all have expense ratios substantially under 1 percent, except for the American Funds' New World Fund, which comes in right above 1 percent. 3. Understand that it's progressively harder for good managers to deliver good returns. In his first five years managing Fidelity's Magellan Fund, according to Berk's paper, famous fund manager Peter Lynch had a 2 percent monthly gross alpha on average assets of about $40 million. In his last five years, his outperformance was only 20 basis points per month on assets that ultimately grew to more than $10 billion. Lynch still had the same level of skill; he just was spreading it thinner. "As the capital flows in, the alpha goes down," said Berk. As their funds become larger, managers cannot always find the amount of stock they need in all the right companies to build stellar portfolios for all their clients. That leads to the next idea: You need to know how much money the manager is managing. The prospectus will include the total in the fund in which you're investing. But according to Lee, many managers use the same strategy to invest assets outside the fund. So you'll probably want to email the mutual fund company and ask if the manager is also managing assets for institutions. "Anything above $25 billion is a lot," he said. 4. Don't expect the game to be easy. Investors such as Lee personally interview managers and hone their analysis and instincts. Lee, for instance, looks for managers who try to beat the market by understanding downside risk and those who have a system for how they pick the companies they invest in. "We focus a lot on repeatability of their process," Lee said. You won't be able to interview managers, but you can look for detailed letters that describe fund holdings and the manager's strategy. Rekenthaler said it's only in some bear markets that active managers ability to control downside risk has a benefits. "In 2008, active managers did not do better than indexes. But in 2000 to 2002, the market dropped a lot, led by high-priced tech stocks. A lot of active managers that outperformed substantially avoided the one big market sector, technology." One thing Lee doesn't look at: labels, like growth vs.value. Those labels are determined by a fund's holdings and thus can easily change even within a year. 5. Finally, don't forget the taxes. Many professional investors look for managers who aim to buy and hold companies for the long term, so take a look at the fund turnover, too. "On taxable portfolios, the tax consequences of a high-turnover approach" could erase any of the returns you've earned above the market, said Jonathan Blau, CEO of Fusion Family Wealth.

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How to find an active manager in an unsafe bull market

This bull market run has been great for index funds but terrible for active managers trying to beat them. That trend may soon change.

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(New throughout, adds details from announcement and background) BRASILIA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Brazil will sharply pare back the number of government ministries after years of expansion, the administration said on Monday, in a move to show wary markets President Dilma Rousseff's commitment to an unpopular austerity plan. Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa said the government will cut 10 of its 39 ministries to make the state more efficient, but did not specify how much the government could save. He said the government will reveal more details on Aug. 31. The reduction of the cabinet posts could further complicate Rousseff's relations with political parties of her unwieldy alliance in Congress. The president has used top posts to help form her coalition. Economists have said reducing ministries would save little at a time when Rousseff is scrambling to meet already-reduced fiscal targets and avoid losing Brazil's investment-grade credit rating. Opponents have called for deeper budget cuts after years of heavy spending during her first term in office. It was "clearly designed to demonstrate commitment to austerity to financial markets," said Neil Shearing, chief emerging market economist with Capital Economics in New York. "The problem is that trimming ministries means trimming ministers, so the political obstacles will be high." Brazil's ruling Workers' Party has been criticized for bloating the size of government. Since it took office in 2003, the number of ministries in Brasilia has ballooned from 26 to 39. That is more than double the 15 the Cabinet-level departments used to govern the United States. The distribution of ministry jobs has been crucial for the Workers' Party to secure coalition partners needed to govern. The reduction in the number of ministries will likely deepen dissatisfaction among Rousseff's allies, mainly the PMDB party which is preparing to abandon the coalition to launch its own presidential candidate in 2018. Lawmakers, including members of Rousseff's own Workers' Party have resisted her unpopular efforts to cut government spending and raise taxes. Congress has watered down belt-tightening bills that reduce the fiscal cost of pensions and unemployment benefits. While Brazil's spending with personnel is considered high among emerging market peers, most of the government's budget goes toward obligatory outlays tied to education, health, pensions and social programs. (Additional reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Alonso Soto; Editing by W Simon and David Gregorio)

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UPDATE 2-Brazil austerity plan will cut number of ministries

BRASILIA, Aug 24- Brazil will sharply pare back the number of government ministries after years of expansion, the administration said on Monday, in a move to show wary markets President Dilma Rousseff's commitment to an unpopular austerity plan. The reduction of the cabinet posts could further complicate Rousseff's relations with political parties of her...

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First Reserve Corp. and SK Capital Partners have agreed to acquire specialty chemicals company TPC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: TPCG). The deal is valued at approximately $850 million (including debt), or $40 per share in cash (20% premium to closing price on July 24, the last day before published reports of a possible buyout). Leveraged financing commitments have been made by BoA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding and Jefferies. Perella Weinberg Partners is advising TPC Group. www.tpcgrp.com Abraaj Capital, Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group and KKR have moved into the second round of bidding for Indonesian healthcare operator Siloam, according to Reuters. PT Lippo Karawaci is selling the company, which could be valued at upwards of $300 million. Billabong (ASX: BBG) said that it has opened its books to TPG Capital. TPG currently holds around a 12.45% stake in the struggling Australian sportswear company, and last month offered to buy the remaining shares for A$1.45 a piece. Back in March, TPG had offered A$3.30 per share. www.billabong.com Galatyn Private Equity and Vspeed Capital have acquired Fortress Solutions Ltd., a Plano, Texas–based repairer and refurbisher of back-office equipment for telecommunication and cable service providers. No financial terms were disclosed. www.fortresssolutions.com Wind Point Partners has agreed to acquire Shearer’s Foods, a Bewster, Ohio-based maker of kettle chips and other private-label salty snacks, from Mistral Equity Partners. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which is expected to close in October. Following the deal, former Sara Lee-North America CEO C.J. Fraleigh will become chairman and CEO of Shearer’s. www.shearersfoodsinc.com Thoma Bravo has agreed to acquire Deltek Inc. (Nasdaq: PROJ), a Herndon, Va.–based provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and government contractors. The deal is valued at approximately $1.1 billion, or $13 per Deltek share (7% discount to Friday’s closing price and a 24% premium to June 11 price, after which there were news reports of the company’s sale process). Sellers include New Mountain Capital. www.deltek.com Sign up for Dan’s daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers: GetTermSheet.com

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Private equity deals

First Reserve Corp. and SK Capital Partners have agreed to acquire specialty chemicals company TPC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: TPCG). The deal is valued at approximately $850 million (including debt), or $40 per share in cash (20% premium to closing price on July 24, the last day before published reports of a possible buyout). Leveraged financing…

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Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said in a statement: "AstraZeneca is completing its transformation, and now has the right size, focus and team to deliver on one of the most exciting pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry." On Tuesday morning, AZ announced that Epanova, which treats a condition called hypertriglyceridaemia that involves having high levels of fatty molecules in your blood, had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Read MoreWhy Pfizer is intent on another dose of AstraZeneca Epanova is unlikely to be the only shot in the arm AZ needs to fend off Pfizer. The drug is forecast to have annual sales of $200 million in 2018 by Deutsche Bank analysts, a respectable figure but far below the $1 billion annual sales commanded by some "blockbuster" drugs. This is reflected in the U.K. company's share price, which fell in early London trading. Read MoreWhy Pfizer's bid is 'inadequate': AstraZeneca AZ has also released an update on its pipeline, focusing on development of immuno-oncology drugs, a relatively new way of treating cancer. While medicines from this pipeline are not forecast to become part of AZ revenues until 2017 or later, they are expected to deliver even more in sales than analysts forecast, according to AZ. For example, MEDI4736, one of the drugs bought when AZ acquired MedImmune in 2007, is now expected to fetch around $6.5 billion annually, compared to analyst estimates of $2-$7 billion. The announcement came after Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read said he was "very disappointed" by the AstraZeneca board's refusal to engage with Pfizer over its improved $106.5 billion bid for the company. Last Friday, the U.S. company raised its January offer of £46.61 a share to £50 and increased the cash component to around 32 percent from 30 percent earlier. Read MorePfizer sales way off mark as company pursues AstraZeneca Pfizer now has less than three weeks to come back with a higher offer. Read and Soriot are both expected to be grilled by U.K. lawmakers next week over the potential takeover and its consequences for U.K. science jobs.

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AstraZeneca shores up defenses against Pfizer's takeover attempt

AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company fighting off repeated approaches from larger rival Pfizer, has boosted its defense against the raid.

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For the past 16 months, the rapper Future has been entirely too consumed by a love-stoned, codeine-induced, break-up fueled Icarus ride toward renewed stardom to even consider Newton’s first law: Eventually, ball-of-fire momentum has to burn out, doesn’t it? The breakneck pace that the Atlanta trap-presario’s been working at for a little over a year shouldn’t be sustainable, right? In theory, Future was in the valley two years ago, when his sophomore album, “Honest” dropped and landed like a tree in the woods. But a trilogy of emotionally-destructive mixtapes he released between October 2014 and March 2015 turned him into a freight train departing from heartbreak, making stops at every step in the stages of grief until he came across numb to it all. Sheer will forced Future into a conversation with Drake and Kendrick Lamar as the most important rappers of 2015. His gravitational pull was so strong that even Drake had no choice but collaborate with him on the summer release “What a Time to Be Alive.” When Future sat down with DJ Khaled Friday night on the first episode of Khaled’s new Beats 1 Radio show, the agenda included more than just mutual back-patting for newly-signed, presumably lucrative deals with Apple Music (“When I got the deal, I said, ‘Sensational!’ ” Future said, embodying his own meme.) Future was also set to unveil what would be his seventh project in barely over a year. Khaled, whose talent as a DJ has been overshadowed lately by his SnapChat phenomenon, had Future’s latest album, “EVOL,” in his hands, and it was as if they both were admiring bottled lightning. The album, which was made available to preorder for release at midnight, comes three weeks ahead of his Purple Reign Tour stop in Boston on Feb. 26. It also comes barely three weeks after Future no-so-coincidentally dropped off the 13-track surprise tape, “Purple Reign,” just hours before his ex-fiancee Ciara’s new flame, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, opened up the NFL playoffs. (The Seahawks lost; memes ensued.) Future and Khaled talked about the meaning of the album title – “Love” backward, as well as evolution. But with Future’s tip-toeing on the fine line between harnessing bottled-lightning inspiration and clutching onto short attention spans while he knows he has them, they also talked about how much Future music was flooding the market. Future explained the logic behind constantly feeding fans and clubs alike. “I don’t want to sit and have them wonder if I love them; I want to show them immediately,” he said. At that moment it was clear that for Future, oversaturation doesn’t matter if he could defy it. He wasn’t DMX in the late ’90s, dropping three albums in 20 months (all hit No. 1), but then eventually crashing into a wall. He wasn’t millennial machine Curren$y, putting six albums a year into the air like a running stream of consciousness. Future was dictating his own terms. “When you look back at Future and his career,” he said, “I want you to be like, he set the tone, he set the vibe for his own career.” He was more than aware that last year’s “Dirty Sprite 2” was his tipping point. On the strength of next-generation trap beats that morphed and mutated into something both sinister and soulful, “DS2” was unlike anything else. But in terms of narration, it was the climax of a story Future had been weaving for months. “Where Ya At” was exquisite because of the way producer Metro Boomin managed to contort the strings from Stan Getz’s sensuous 1960 slow-burner “Goodbye” into an absolute earthquake. But it was also gripping, one of the flashpoint moments when Future wasn’t binging on drugs but purging the feelings of abandonment and loss that he was trying to escape. “‘Dirty Sprite 2,’ I feel like they got me,” he told Khaled. “I marked my territory with ‘DS2.’ ” “EVOL” keeps listeners in the same frame, even if the emotions aren’t as driven. At one point, on the album opener “Ain’t No Time,” he admits to the push and pull of his music’s infectiousness and indecipherability: “We don’t know what we be saying / We just be yelling out, ‘bon jour.’ ” There’s less distress, more hedonism. The only leftover trace of whatever bitterness he may still feel shows up on “Low Life,” featuring the Weeknd. How Future’s love-stoned spiral hasn’t intersected with the Weeknd’s walk-of-shame sensibilities until now is hard to fathom, but he raps shamelessly, “If she catch me cheating, I won’t ever tell her sorry.” Future’s still comfortable in the zone he fell into 20 months ago, so much so that he told Khaled he doesn’t even remember how many albums he’s released. “I forgot,” he said. “I’ve got to continue to build. I’ve got to continue to move on.” The thing about momentum, though, is that as exciting as it is to watch it build, the inevitable question is: When will it eventually run out?

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Atlanta rapper Future unveils new LP ‘EVOL’

Maintaining a breakneck creative pace, the rapper Future previewed his newest album, “EVOL,” on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio Friday night, then released it immediately.