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20150824120145

GE's Software Center has the look and feel of a start-up on steroids. Based in the Bay Area, its glossy open-workspace building is stocked with food and buzzes with the energy of more than 1,000 software developers and engineers. There, the company develops its IIoT offerings, including an operating software platform called Predix, which caters to machines in a range of industries, helping companies to save billions. One application assesses oil and gas pipelines for environmental risks to prevent possible leaks, while another gathers flight data for GE jet engines in use, plotted out in colorful, easy-to-read dot graphs. There are apps to help freight railroad operators anticipate when trains may be blown over by a strong gust of wind. Meanwhile, low-flying drones keep track of locomotives' inspections. Within the center, researchers use consumer electronics as hardware platforms upon which they build software. Some of the newest projects center around augmented reality, equipping Google Glass, Oculus Rift, and Goldeneye headsets with software to make factory inspections easier and faster. Predix itself functions on laptops, tablets and mobile devices. According to Ruh, this type of increased efficiency has major import for energy companies in general, and oil refineries in particular. "In the energy space, it's quite clear," Ruh said. "If I can get to total efficiency, there's just so much upside in what they have, that small gains are big numbers." The savings can be notable in power generation, as well. One percent more fuel efficiency on a gas turbine fleet can result in upwards of $6 billion in fuel savings per year, according to GE data. Software-connected sensors in turbines on a wind farm can generate between 5 to 10 percent more power, translating into a 20 percent boost in profitability.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150824120145id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/02/26/ge-jumps-into-the-fray-of-industrial-internet-.html

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GE jumps into the fray of industrial Internet

The industrial Internet is using software to help streamline the lives of businesses. GE is one of the major firms looking to benefit.

20150824210702

The ISM service sector report, while just in line with expectations, was a bright spot after a parade of bad reports—like last week's soft ISM manufacturing data and personal consumption. Those data points were viewed as negative by a stock market that has seen bad economic news as a bad omen for stocks because of the parallel negative impact on corporate earnings, expected to be negative for the first time in six years. The March jobs report of just 126,000 nonfarm payrolls showed across-the-board weakness and raised concerns that the softness could extend beyond the first quarter. Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said it appears the dollar was propping up stocks, as well as the expectation of an easy Fed. Read MoreWeak jobs signals dovish Fed "I can't fully explain how we're 25 points off the lows from Friday. The S&P is less than 2 percent off all-time highs in light of what's going on. The addiction to the Fed just won't end," he said. Dudley said the economy is likely to speed up after the first quarter's sluggish growth of about 1 percent, a view shared by many Wall Street economists. Read MoreThis is when to worry about the stock market: Tom Lee Seen as a proxy for Fed Chair Janet Yellen, Dudley's comments carry more weight than other central bank presidents who have said recently that June was not off the table for the first rate hike. The markets, however, have pegged September or later as a more likely time frame for the Fed to move, particularly after the weak jobs report. The ISM nonmanufacturing survey Monday showed the service sector expanding, but at a slightly slower pace than last month. Both the new orders and employment components rose. The index came in at 56.5 in March compared with 56.9 in February. A reading above 50 signals expansion. The 10 a.m. EDT report was preceded by Markit's service-sector data which showed a sizeable improvement to 59.2 from 57.1, the highest since August. Read MoreWeek Ahead: Fed in focus after weak jobs JPMorgan economists point out that while the two service sector reports went in opposite directions, both look consistent with GDP growth above 2 percent, suggesting the slowdown in the first quarter is temporary. The economists said the reports make it appear the March employment report may also have overstated weakness. JPMorgan has said first-quarter growth was tracking at just 0.6 percent. Treasury yields were at their highs of the day late morning. The 10-year was at 1.90 percent after falling below 1.80 briefly when the jobs number came out Friday. "The fact the service sector indicators were solid is a bit of solace for those expecting the economy to grow at a reasonable clip," said Ian Lyngen, senior Treasury strategist at CRT Capital. "I think it was more an issue of people looking to opportunistically add to equity exposure following the pullback after the NFP (nonfarm payrolls) rather than something new this morning." He said some investors clearly look at weaker data as an excuse for the Fed to stay easy longer, a positive for stocks. O'Rourke said the stock market spring back could be temporary, and stocks could face new headwinds as the week progresses. The weak economic data have been a concern for stock traders, since earnings growth is expected to be negative for the first time in six years. The Dow was up 117 points to 17,880, and the S&P was up 13 at 2,080. A six percent rally in U.S. oil futures also helped lift stocks as the energy sector gained. Other commodities, like gold, also benefited from dollar weakness during the trading day. By late in the day, the dollar reversed course and was trading higher. "I think it's a tape with a lot of people still out. It's noise and the next week or so, we'll see how earnings shape up," said O'Rourke. "This market has largely been driven by policy. ... The risk is if earnings miss, stocks get more expensive not because prices are going up but because earnings are going down. That's what I'm watching. I think it will be hard for the market to make significant headway if earnings are not good because I think the policy peak has passed."

http://web.archive.org/web/20150824210702id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/04/06/bad-news-turns-good-for-fed-addicted-stocks.html

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Bad news turns good for 'Fed addicted' stocks

The promise of an easy Fed, a weaker dollar and service sector data that showed an expanding economy helped lift spirits and stocks Monday.

20150906123238

The second feature of the chart is the development of trading bands. Each band is around 1377 index points wide. It is difficult to set the correct place for the trading band lines. We set the first level near 14797 because this captures the majority of support and resistance behaviour between 2013 July and 2014 October. The position of Line 1 is a matter of judgement. The position of the upper line 2 in the trading band is near 16174. The line location is a matter of judgement. The line near 16174 captures the majority of the resistance behaviour between 2013 December and 2014 November. The width of the trading band is projected upwards to give the first breakout target near 17551. The index develops consolidation around this area so this confirms the original trading band calculations are correct. Read MoreWhy the Nikkei rally will carry on The next trade band projection level is near 18,928. This acts as a support and resistance level. Using the same method the ext target is near 20,305. This level is also a long term historical resistance level on the Nikkei. The target for the breakout above 20,305 is near 21,682. The combination of the long term trend line which acts as a support level, and the pattern of trading bands, confirm the continuation of the uptrend in the Nikkei and help to set potential upside targets. The projected target levels are not exact. A weekly chart is used as a guide in setting these targets. The targets are confirmed using a daily chart of the Nikkei.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150906123238id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/26/charts-nikkei-will-continue-to-rally-for-a-while.html

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Nikkei will continue to rally for a while

The Nikkei's relentless bull-run has raised concerns if a correction is on the pipeline. Chart analysis, however, suggests otherwise.

20150929002045

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has learned that TRC Capital Corporation has made an unsolicited “mini-tender” offer, dated August 27, 2015. TRC has offered to purchase up to 3 million shares of AT&T stock at $31.30 per share, or 4.3 percent below AT&T’s closing share price on August 26, 2015. AT&T is in no way associated with TRC Capital Corporation and recommends that shareholders reject this unsolicited offer. Mini-tender offers seek less than 5 percent of a company’s outstanding shares. This lets the offering company avoid many disclosure and procedural requirements the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires for tender offers. On its website, the SEC has issued an alert regarding mini-tender offers. This alert advises that mini-tender offers “have been increasingly used to catch investors off guard” and that investors “may end up selling their securities at below-market prices.” TRC has a history of mini-tender offers. Like its other offers, this one puts individual investors at risk because they may not realize they’re selling their shares at a discount. AT&T urges investors to get current stock quotes for their shares of AT&T, consult their financial advisors and exercise caution with respect to TRC’s offer. Shareholders who may already have tendered their shares may withdraw them by providing, prior to the expiration of the offer, the written notice described in the TRC offering documents. The offer is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on September 25, 2015, but TRC may extend this at its discretion. AT&T requests that a copy of this news release be included with all distributions of materials related to TRC’s offer for shares of AT&T common stock. AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, mobile, high speed Internet and voice services. We’re the world’s largest provider of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. In the U.S., our wireless network offers the nation’s strongest LTE signal and the most reliable 4G LTE network. We offer the best global wireless coverage*. And we help businesses worldwide serve their customers better with our mobility and secure cloud solutions. Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at http://about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att. © 2015 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. Reliability and signal strength claims based on nationwide carriers’ LTE. Signal strength claim based ONLY on avg. LTE signal strength. LTE not available everywhere. *Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; voice roaming; and world-capable smartphone and tablets in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150901006687/en/

http://web.archive.org/web/20150929002045id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/01/business-wire-att-recommends-shareholders-reject-mini-tender-offer-from-trc-capital.html

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AT&T Recommends Shareholders Reject Mini-Tender Offer from TRC Capital

DALLAS---- AT&T Inc. has learned that TRC Capital Corporation has made an unsolicited“ mini-tender” offer, dated August 27, 2015. TRC has offered to purchase up to 3 million shares of AT&T stock at $31.30 per share, or 4.3 percent below AT&T’ s closing share price on August 26, 2015. AT&T is in no way associated with TRC Capital Corporation and recommends that...

20150930154854

(Updates throughout, adds finance minister) ATHENS, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Greece expects to conclude a multi-billion-euro deal with international lenders within two weeks, officials said on Tuesday, and its finance minister said talks were going better than expected. A bailout worth up to 86 billion euros ($94.5 billion) must be settled by Aug. 20 -- or a second bridge loan agreed -- if Greece is to pay off debt of 3.5 billion euros to the European Central Bank that matures on that day. It will be the indebted nation's third bailout since 2010, designed to stave off bankruptcy and keep the country from toppling out of the euro zone. Negotiations have been tortuous in the past, bogged down in minutiae of reforms ranging from pensions to shop opening hours, but Greek officials were surprisingly upbeat on Tuesday. "Everything will be concluded this week," Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos told reporters after meeting representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, European Central Bank and the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. Government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili said drafting of the bailout accord, which requires approval from Greece's fractious parliament, would start on Wednesday. While acknowledging that target was "ambitious", European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has said that a deal is possible in August. A deal might bring closure to a traumatic six months where Greece came precariously close to tumbling out of the euro zone, imposed capital controls and saw equity prices on the Athens bourse crash after a five-week shutdown. Tsakalotos, who discussed privatisations and bank recapitalisation requirements with lenders, said there were "small divergences in views". "I don't think there will be a problem," he said, referring to the privatisation element of consultations. "Discussions have gone better than I expected." "If the terms of the (EU) summit are met, I think that we will have a deal by the 18th of this month," Gerovasili said. Greece and its EU partners clinched a last-minute deal in July on a reform programme including privatisations and pension reform and scrapping tax breaks for groups such as farmers. Those reforms, however, still need to be passed by the Greek parliament. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had to rely on opposition parties to pass a raft of so-called "prior actions" in parliament last month when about a quarter of his Syriza lawmakers rebelled, calling the deal a sell-out. Lenders want, for example, an increase in the retirement age to 67 from the nominal 62 that falls significantly depending on numbers of years worked and family status. On Monday, Greece and lenders agreed that any pension reforms would not affect individuals who retired before the end of June 2015. "One of the positives of this agreement is that it has a three-year horizon of steady financing," Gerovasili said. "This gives us some room to gradually phase them in ... because today we are in a difficult financial situation and there must be some time for a small recovery." (Reporting By Angeliki Koutantou Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt/Mark Heinrich)

http://web.archive.org/web/20150930154854id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/04/reuters-america-update-3-greece-upbeat-about-bailout-deal-sees-one-within-two-weeks.html

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UPDATE 3-Greece upbeat about bailout deal, sees one within two weeks

ATHENS, Aug 4- Greece expects to conclude a multi-billion-euro deal with international lenders within two weeks, officials said on Tuesday, and its finance minister said talks were going better than expected. A bailout worth up to 86 billion euros must be settled by Aug. 20-- or a second bridge loan agreed-- if Greece is to pay off debt of 3.5 billion euros to the...

20151003201227

These carnival queens, from Corby in Northamptonshire, have been selected to promote a positive image of the town – appearing at community events, funfairs, openings and so on. This shot was taken when they had an hour free from their schedules for some fun. Although it may look like an innocent photograph of carnival queens at a bowling alley, it is actually part of a project that, as a whole, intends to change government policy on land reclamation. Corby's stainless steel works began to close in the 1980s, but poor disposal of toxic waste led to several children being born with birth defects. A successful court case was brought against the local council by several families who became known as the Corby 16. I produced a book, called Deeds Not Words, of 60 images of the community, along with a summary of the court case and the science involved. Strong photography can communicate on a universal level: you don't need a degree in art history to understand it – or be affected by it. I'm interested in the social uses of photography and I like to challenge the ways shots are disseminated. This book was not made commercially available: instead, I sent copies to all 433 local authorities in the UK to raise awareness of issues around toxic waste and reuse of contaminated land. The photographs represent the community of Corby as a whole, not just families involved in the court case. They concentrate on body image and various manifestations of beauty. So you have images of people who were born with fingers missing alongside other members of the community – like these carnival queens – whose lives have been shaped by the same socio-economic factors. There's no differentiation between them: the whole town was affected by the case. Although the girls in the image are undirected and unstaged, the composition, lighting, mood and costumes make it seem like a Renaissance painting. This shot is typical of my work because it shows the relationship of the individual to the group. There's normally a central figure whom the viewer feels the picture is about – in this case, the blonde girl with the pierced eyebrow, looking down. That central figure is normally surrounded by a crowd. My hope is that the viewer identifies with this figure and starts to think about their relationship with the group as well. It raises the existential question about how much of you is defined by other people. Studied: BA in fine art from Reading; MA from Goldsmiths; self-taught as a photographer. Influences: Hans Haacke, Martha Rosler, and the ideas of Henri Lefebvre. High point: "Seeing my book about Port Glasgow hand-delivered to the town's 8,000 households by the local boys' football club in 2004." Low point: "A week later, when some residents set fire to my book because they felt there was a bias towards Catholic pubs and clubs. I was gutted." Top tip: "The way images are disseminated is intrinsic to their meaning."

http://web.archive.org/web/20151003201227id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/aug/14/mark-neville-best-photograph-corby/amp

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Mark Neville's best photograph - Corby carnival queens

'It may look like an image of carnival queens – but it's actually a comment on the dangers of toxic waste'

20151008205841

Abbot Hall's intimate but judiciously selected exhibition is the first significant UK retrospective of Kitaj's work since the artist killed himself in 2007. It's also the first proper reappraisal since the infamous debacle of the 1994 Tate retrospective that caused Kitaj to abandon Britain while accusing his critics of hastening his wife's death. Kitaj's problem (or his greatest virtue) was that he was always an outsider: an American in London, a figurative painter from a generation of abstract expressionists, a man with a deep reverence for the old masters amid the ephemera of Pop. Hardly any of his paintings fail to acknowledge the greats: The Rise of Fascism is a disturbing frieze in which an encroaching bomber casts a shadow over a Gauguin lagoon; Cecil Court, London WC2 twists the inhabitants of Kitaj's favourite alley of booksellers into Mannerist poses within a Tintoretto-style receding perspective. Many of the late self-portraits, shown here in public for the first time, adopt Kitaj's preferred square format: "Square paintings, I don't know why, maybe there's a reason among the secrets of Kabbala," he commented. Among them is a small piece of loose, liver-spotted Pointillism from which the artist's features emerge as if from the bark of a tree. Kitaj, who completed the work just days before his death, was proud of the painting and referred to it as his "Jewish Scream", though the expression he is wearing seems more of a wry smile. It becomes especially poignant given that the Los Angeles coroner recorded a verdict of suicide, though it was always Kitaj's fate to be a round peg in a square frame.

http://web.archive.org/web/20151008205841id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jul/26/kitaj-portraits-reflections-review

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Kitaj: Portraits and Reflections - review

Kitaj was always an outsider: an American in London, a figurative painter from a generation of abstract expressionists, a man with a deep reverence for the old masters amid the ephemera of Pop, writes Alfred Hickling

20151010185219

The deal that should get done in the media world is a merger of Time Warner and CBS, former CBS CEO Mel Karmazin told CNBC on Tuesday. In fact, he said, he would even invest his own money if such a deal were to materialize. "It just makes sense. What's the reason it wouldn't work?" he said in a "Squawk Box" interview. He said such a combination would have synergy: Time Warner has Warner Bros. Pictures, while CBS has no movie studio. The companies could also fit well together in sports and news. Timer Warner operates Turner Sports and CNN. Leveraging CBS' deal to carry NFL games could also help a combined company in negotiations with cable providers, he added. Read MoreNo 'significant' talks to buy AOL: Verizon CEO Media companies have no choice but to expand in today's business, he said. "If you take a look and you see all the consolidation that's gone on in the advertising agency world, you see that there is so much advertising inventory out there that there is far more supply than demand," he said. "In order to have the position to deal with advertisers, to deal with distributors, you need to be bigger." Two major deals—Comcast Cable's bid to buy Time Warner Cable and AT&T's offer to purchase DirecTV—will likely be approved, said Karmazin, who also held executive positions at Sirius and Viacom.. "It should get done. It's hard to find good reasons to stop it, and I believe at the end of the day it's not anticompetitive. I don't believe that there is any monopoly they're going to have. I don't think it's going to be harmful and I think that the competition doesn't like it," he said. Read More Streaming has put 'fear in the eyes' of old media: Levinsohn On the issue of "unbundling" television content—or offering it outside of traditional cable packages—Karmazin said it offers consumers greater choice, but the vast majority of people will still want the whole slate that cable subscriptions provide. "I don't believe this 'quote' little bundle is going to get a whole lot of people to not have the broadcast networks, to not have CNBC, to not have all of the great content out there," he said, referring to Dish Network's decision to unbundle certain channels, including ESPN. Read MoreDish's Sling TV launches $20, live, over-the-top service

http://web.archive.org/web/20151010185219id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/08/karmazin-i-would-invest-in-this-media-merger.html

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Karmazin: I would invest in this media merger

Former CBS chief Mel Karmazin also says media companies must get bigger in order to deal with advertisers and distributors.

20151104143940

Ablin is a bit more cautious with the S&P's average price-to-earnings ratio over 17. The P/E represents the price of a stock divided by its earnings per share, and that average is usually under 16. "I'm worried about a bubble," he said. "The metrics we track suggest the market is anywhere between 10 and 15 percent overdone if you pull the Fed out of the equation." The market has been flashing plenty of warning signs, and its selloff in the final hour Monday was not a surprise after the series of record-setting sessions last week. For instance, the defensive telecom sector was the best performer Monday, and commodities-driven materials and energy were among the biggest losers. Both sectors rely on global growth. (Read more: After getting crushed, this sector could be golden) "We're in this hot potato market right now, where momentum is driving it," said Peter Boockvar, chief market strategist at Lindsey Group. The small cap Russell 2000, off 0.8 percent, and Nasdaq, were again diverging on the downside, a negative sign to some traders who look for growth and small cap sectors to lead the market. Both are up more than 30 percent this year, while the Dow is up 22 percent and the S&P 500 is up 26 percent. "We're due for a rest here," Boockvar said. "There's no question about it, but the bull market doesn't end until interest rates move back to 3 percent. I'm getting more bearish here. Many things are lining up. I think this is the last phase of the bull market." But analysts agree that it's unlikely the stock market would see a pullback of more than several percent until next year—possibly around the time that Congress refocuses on the budget and debt ceiling, or if the Fed signals it will begin to reduce its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program. "The market hasn't cared about a mediocre economy. it hasn't cared about slowing earnings. It hasn't cared about Syria. The only thing I look for to reverse it is when the Fed becomes a factor, or the bond market does it for them," Boockvar said. Another red flag for stocks is that investors have also been taking on record amounts of margin debt. According to NYSE Euronext, margin levels, or the amount borrowed to purchase securities, climbed to a record $401 billion in September. (Read more: Larry Summers and the never-ending bubble economy) Barry Glassman, president and CIO of Glassman Wealth Services, says the individual investors he speaks with are concerned about the market's run. "The biggest challenge that I'm hearing from clients, as well as prospective clients, is they don't know what to do with their cash," he said, adding that they see bonds and stocks as pricey. "They don't want to be the people who plow money into the market at all-time highs. "They are going through what we call financial schizophrenia," Glassman said. "They're going to go through those kinds of challenges, and they're left sitting on the cash. No decision is their decision." One strategy he's recommending is to put some cash into long/short equity funds. "These are strategies that are going long stable, or value companies, and shorting the high fliers," Glassman said. There are plenty in the camp who believe the market can go higher until the Fed removes some of its stimulus, but there are also investors and money managers who expect to continue chasing performance into the year-end, fearful of losing out on potential gains. —By CNBC's Patti Domm. Follow here on Twitter @pattidomm.

http://web.archive.org/web/20151104143940id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/18/market-milestones-feed-fear-of-bubbles.html

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Market milestones feed fear of bubbles

The new records on the stock market are a sign that stocks are getting pricey but not necessarily of a big selloff anytime soon.

20160227022422

Sometimes, the true meaning of a work of art comes into sharper focus with the passage of time. In retrospect, Gustav Mahler’s grandiose Symphony No. 8 can be viewed as a desperate cry for personal redemption. The Eighth is a mammoth work, calling for an enlarged orchestra, multiple choruses and vocal soloists. He had written it in a flash in 1906, and for the debut in 1910 it quickly earned the label “Symphony of a Thousand.” Despite his objections, the name fit, since it called for 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists,... Sometimes, the true meaning of a work of art comes into sharper focus with the passage of time. In retrospect, Gustav Mahler ’s grandiose Symphony No. 8 can be viewed as a desperate cry for personal redemption. The Eighth is a mammoth work, calling for an enlarged orchestra, multiple choruses and vocal soloists. He had written it in a flash in 1906, and for the debut in 1910 it quickly earned the label “Symphony of a Thousand.” Despite his objections, the name fit, since it called for 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists, three choirs and eight vocal soloists. On Feb. 24 and 25 there will be a rare opportunity to experience the work, when it will be performed in New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, under the direction of the brilliant Kent Tritle. The symphony’s premiere was intended to be Mahler’s last conducting appearance in Europe, and he had hopes of a great triumph. “I have never written anything like it,” he told music historian Richard Specht. It was, he said, “something in comparison with which all the rest of my works are no more than introductions.” Beethoven ’s innovation in his Ninth Symphony of incorporating singers with instrumental performers was now to take a giant leap forward with an entire symphonic work in that mode. The performing forces would be breaking new ground in sheer volume. And the underlying textual material would boldly merge seemingly disparate elements, thrusting a stirring ninth-century Christian hymn (“Veni creator spiritus”—“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, Come!”), bedecked in masterly compositional splendor, onto the end of Göethe’s “ Faust ”—philosophically linking an early Christian belief in the power of the holy spirit to Göethe’s vision of salvation through eternal womanhood. In many ways it was Mahler’s deeply personal cry from the heart, a double plea—to both the woman in his life and the Christian world at large. Preparations for the performance did not go well. The piece required Munich’s chorus (which included 350 children) to add large groups from Vienna and Leipzig. Eight vocal soloists were rounded up from Munich, Vienna, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Wiesbaden. Mahler was concerned that the singers would not be able to learn their parts in time. He wrote to Bruno Walter, his friend and assistant at the Vienna Hofoper that he was prepared to “ruthlessly cancel the whole thing.” Mahler’s reputation was already formidable—even his most severe critics must have recognized that he was the best conductor of the day. But he had been under both professional and personal assault on a number of fronts. And he was searching for relief. That meant first, resolving deep divisions with his very unhappy wife, Alma, who had checked into a sanitarium and promptly started an affair with a young architect named Walter Gropius. Mahler famously sought help from Sigmund Freud. The composer’s other source of anguish was the anti-Semitism that constantly gnawed at his doorstep. Even though Mahler converted to Christianity, he was often subject to critical attacks like the one in 1909 by musicologist Rudolf Louis that called Mahler’s music repulsive “because it acts Jewish” and reduces itself to a “frank gratification of common seamstress-like sentimentality.” Might his new symphony help him overcome these personal and professional alienations? Though he lived under Wagner ’s shadow and could indeed write intensely sentimental music forged into disjointed mash-ups, Mahler was a brilliant harmonist whose slithering, sensuous lines explored the nether regions of the musical universe, producing meltingly aching phrases that spoke of yearning as almost no one else could. And the Eighth Symphony, an epic musical journey, is filled with enormous treasures. From the opening, the music stirs: A forceful statement of the hymn is bolstered by the presence of a majestic organ, with its huge resonance creating a staggering sound. It’s a theme that returns again and again to mark transitional points in the drama. Choruses enter, punctuated by cascading strings and brass, all in complex counterpoint. Expressions of heavenly bliss alternate with small instrumental combinations producing playful contrasts of timbre. Happy children’s voices and songs of praise give way to dramatic arias. There are transitions that draw you closer, and fanfares that blast you in your seat—joyful outbursts and dark laments. As the Göethe section begins, the piece becomes mournful, blossoming into a gorgeous love theme before giving rise to long episodes of passionate drama, in a rich tapestry for instruments and voices. The music is ever changing—celebratory, breathless, or solemn as the story unfolds. The work draws to a close touching on the materials and spirit that had come before, ending with moments of hushed beauty and soaring melody. And the “Symphony of a Thousand” did become the immediate success for which Mahler had hoped. But within a year of its performance he was dead at age 50. —Mr. Isacoff’s most recent book is “A Natural History of the Piano” (Knopf/Vintage).

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A Huge Force, for Love of God and Wife

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 came to be known as the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ because of the vast numbers required to perform it.

20160324103743

In the following necrological record we have not attempted to enter the names of all the officers of volunteers of the rank of Colonel and above, who have fallen to battle during the year, as it was manifestly impossible to do so; but have confined ourselves to those who have been, at the time of their death or wounding, in command of a brigade, or for some other reason had attained eminence: 1. -- HUBBARD, Hon. HENRY, editor of Berkshire Whig and ex-member of Massachusetts Senate, died at Pittsfield, Mass., aged 80 years. 2. -- BOWDEN, Hon. LEMUEL J., United States Senator from Virginia, died at Washington, D.C. He was a native of Eastern Virginia, and had attained a high position as an advocate and jurist before his election to the United States Senate. 2. -- HERRICK, JACOB B., an eminent merchant of New-York in the produce trade, died at his residence at Hunter's Point, Westchester County, N.Y., in the 64th year of his age. 3. -- HUGHES, JOHN, Archbishop of New-York, died at his residence in New-York. He was born in the north of Ireland in 1798, emigrated to this country in 1817, became Parish Priest in 1825, appointed coadjutor to Bishop DUBOIS in 1836, Bishop in 1842, and Archbishop in 1850. 3. -- MAYER, CHARLES F., a Maryland jurist, died in Baltimore, aged 67. 4. -- GAGE, Admiral Sir WM. HALL, died at Thurston, near Bury St. Edmunds, England, aged 86. 5. -- CAMP, Rev. AMZI, a missionary of the New-York City Tract Society, for about thirty years among the vicious and degraded poor, died in that city, aged about 60. 7. -- SMITH, Hon. CALEB BLOOD, for more than two and a half years Secretary of the Interior in Mr. LINCOLN's first Cabinet, and at the time of his death Judge of United States Circuit Court for Indiana, died at Indianapolis, Ind. He was born Boston, April 16, 1808; educated at Miami University, Ohio; admitted to the Indiana bar in 1828; member of Congress from 1843 to 1847; Commissioner on Mexican Claims in 1849; Secretary of the Interior 1861. 7. -- LOOMIS, Rev. W.F., Hospital Visitor U.S. Sanitary Commission; died at Nashville, Tenn. He was pastor of a church at Shelburne Falls, Mass., but had acted as Relief Agent of the Sanitary Commission at Nashville, Murfreesboro', Chattanooga, laboring with great assiduity and skill. 7. -- PURTON, Right Rev. Dr., Bishop of Ely, died in London, England. 8. -- STORER, Rear Admiral GEORGE WASHINGTON, died at Portsmouth, N.H., in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was born in Portsmouth; received as midshipmen's warrant in 1809, and in his more than 50 years' service had passed through all grades to the highest. 9. -- TOUSLEY, LORIN BAILEY, widely known as "The Children's Minister," died at Canandaigua. N.Y., aged 60. He was born in Sharon, Vt., in 1804. He had been a terrible sufferer for six years from an accidental injury, but though unable to speak publicly, wrote much for Sunday schools. 9. -- WOODS, JOSEPH, a distinguished English antiquarian, died at Lewes, England, aged 87. 10. -- GRANT, Sir JAMES ROBERT, chief officer of the Medical Department of the English Army at Waterloo, died at Basford Vicarage, Notts, England, aged 90 years. 15. -- LENNOX, Lord ARTHUR, son of the fourth Duke of RICHMOND, died at his residence, Ovington-square, Brompton, England, aged 57. His early life had been passed in the army, in which he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a Lord of the Treasury from May, 1844, to August, 1855, and M.P. for Chichester from 1831 to 1846. 12. -- ROSE, Col. EDWIN, an officer of the United States Army, a graduate of West Point, and Provost-Marshal of the First Congressional District of New-York, died at Jamaica, L.I., aged 47 years. 16. -- ATHOLE, GEORGE, sixth Duke of, died at Blair Castle, Scotland, aged 49. He was in early life in the army, and as Lord GLENLYON took part in the Eglinton Tournament. He was Grand Master of the Free Masons of Scotland. 16. -- HAMLIN, Admiral, a French naval officer, died at Paris, aged 67. He took a distinguished part in the Crimean War, and was French Minister of Marine from 1855 to 1860. 16. -- CLEVELAND the Duke of, died at Rub[???] Castle, Eng., aged 76. He was born in London in 1788; was member of the House of Commons from 1812 to 1842, when he entered the House of Lords, on succeeding to the title of his father. 19. -- FOSTER, STEPHEN C., an eminent musical composer and the author of most of the popular negro melodies, died in New-York city. He was born in Pittsburgh, July 4, 1826. His first song was published in 1842. 20. -- SAUNDERS, Capt. T.M., an officer of the United States Army, died at St. Paul, Minn. He was a native of Virginia, and a graduate of West Point. During the Crimean War he obtained a furlough, joined the British Army, and was twice wounded in the battle of Inkerman. He was heartily loyal during the present rebellion, and rejected with scorn an offer in writing from JEFF. DAVIS, to appoint him Brigadier-General in the rebel army if he would join the rebels. 20. -- WILEY, Rev. FREDERICK S., an Episcopal clergyman of New-York, died at Florence, Italy.

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THE DEAD OF 1864.

In the following necrological record we have not attempted to enter the names of all the officers of volunteers of the rank of Colonel and above, who have fallen to battle during the year, as it was manifestly impossible to do so; but have confined ourselves to those who have been, at the time of their death or wounding, in command of a brigade, or for some other reason had attained eminence:

20160530214710

Here comes the bride, all dressed in your white taffeta wedding gown, which you sold online. In years past, brides dry-cleaned and packed away their wedding gowns, keeping them for daughters they hoped would someday wear them down the aisle, too. These days, financially savvy brides are selling their wedding dresses online and using proceeds to, among other things, pay off the wedding that cost almost $30,000, on average, Pre-Internet, once- or never-worn wedding gowns were sold via sad newspaper ads and in consignment shops that often charged 50 percent commission. Now, sites that specialize in selling wedding dresses and reach prospective brides around the globe are becoming the go-to places to hawk gowns. On average, eBay sells between 1,000 and 2,000 new and used wedding gowns each week, with an average price tag of $127.34. On one recent listing, a bride asked $495 for a once-worn Vera Wang she bought at a trunk show for $6,000. "Listing your dress online maximizes the exposure of your wedding dress to future brides who are in the market," said Tracy DiNunzio, founder and CEO of , a site that sells thousands of preowned wedding gowns each week during the buying season, which she says runs from January through May. Although eBay and Craigslist list wedding dresses among their many wares, several sites specialize in selling preowned wedding gowns, including Comparison shop among the sites to make sure you select the one that fits your needs and budget -- and you accept its own listing and commission policy. Tradesy, for instance, charges a 9 percent commission, which you can spend on the site or pay a 2.9 percent transfer fee to place into PayPal, a banking account or debit card. Still White charges $19.95 or $29.95, depending on the listing promotion package you select. Nearly Newlywed only takes dresses selling for more than $500 and then grabs a 25 percent commission; if the dress sells for less than $500, the site takes $200.

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How to Get Top Dollar Selling Your Wedding Dress Online

Websites allow brides to easily sell wedding dresses. How about $495 for a once-worn Vera Wang that cost $6,000? Here's what you need to know.

20160602150056

Today, the goats -- Princess Leia and Yoda (the third goat, named Surprise, recently died) -- rarely make a sound like the one that unnerved the neighbors. There are no county codes that address allowable pets in Suffolk or Nassau. Most wild animals are prohibited by New York State law, but otherwise, pet ownership regulations are left to individual towns and villages. Many, like Smithtown, for example, have codes for horses and dogs but not for other farm animals. Some say there is greater interest these days in owning animals that were once seen only on farms. "I think there is a trend" toward owning farm animals, said Tabitha Haubold, the animal science program manager for Suffolk County Farm, part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County. "There's a conflict of interest with the loss of land," she said, referring to the fast pace of residential development on former farmland. "It's kind of like Long Island is trying to hold onto its heritage." Many pet owners come to see Ms. Haubold at the farm, where she counsels new owners of goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, pigs or chickens, among others, in caring for their animals. With 10 years of experience on the Suffolk educational farm and having grown up with horses in Manorville, Ms. Haubold knows a lot about animals. She herself owns 16 llamas. She shows them professionally and makes yarn from their fiber, she said. There are more than 100 llamas and alpacas, which are smaller, on Long Island, Ms. Haubold estimated, and many more pigs, goats, sheep, chickens and roosters living, often as pets, in residential neighborhoods. One Nassau County woman has two kangaroos, she said, and a Port Jefferson man has four reindeer. A Huntington couple has Shetland sheep, and a West Hills woman has an enormous pig. Complaining neighbors are an issue not only for residential pet owners, but for farmers as well. As luxury developments pop up adjacent to farmland, city folk who move to the country often find adapting difficult. Marsha Kenny moved from Brooklyn to a house that bordered a farm in the town of Southampton in the 1970's. A fire lane ran past her Brooklyn home, but she slept easily through the blaring sirens, traffic and city street noise, Ms. Kenny said. It was the East End farmer's rooster, crowing at the crack of dawn, that interrupted her sleep. "I think a lot of people go through the same experience," Ms. Kenny said. "And some adapt to it." Other farm neighbor complaints have arisen from fertilizer smells, pesticide spraying and the sounds than come from certain farming techniques. "The No. 1 complaint we get against farms is just the noise," said Stephen Frano, code enforcement officer for the Town of Southampton. "A lot of the crop farmers will use an air cannon -- it sounds like a shotgun. They set it off in the middle of the field, and it keeps the crows and birds away from the crops." Since the 1990's, developers have built homes on former small horse farms lost to the Island's soaring housing market. Now, a horse farm in Southampton must sit on at least 10 acres, and ordinances regulate how often manure must be carted away. Farther west, in Medford, Dianne Soja has operated Whispering Pines, a stable where she keeps 20 horses, gives riding lessons and trains horses for equestrian events, for 18 years. Ten years ago, the property she leased was sold to a developer, who then built a residential development. Ms. Soja moved her horses to a property five blocks away. But now, the owner of that property is also selling the land to developers, she said. Ms. Soja has offered to buy it but said another buyer had outbid her. Ms. Soja is not sure what she will do. It seems pointless to move elsewhere on Long Island, she said, with diminishing open space and such high returns for property owners who sell to developers. If Long Island's housing market continues to soar, it is likely that farms and animal owners will face more complaints from neighbors unaccustomed to country life. But suburbanites who want to own farm animals as pets may soften the trend. "I feel there are an increasing number of people who are trying to reconnect to their agricultural roots," Ms. Haubold, the Suffolk County Farm educator, said. "Parents who grew up in a farm-type atmosphere or grew up on Long Island when there were farms want to share that with their kids." Susan Goldstein grew up in nearby Deer Park. Her grandmother owned a chicken farm in East Islip, and her aunt and uncle had goats and chickens. For Ms. Goldstein, living in Suffolk County means having space to keep animals. Besides the goats, the family has two dogs, a cat and two parrots. Her daughter Rachel, 17, likes to feed the goats, and 7-year-old Iliza hopes to join a 4-H club and show the animals when she is older. Gary Goldstein said he understands his neighbor's frustration during the goat weaning. But he said he doesn't complain when a neighbor's barking dog wakes him in the middle of the night. "This is the suburbs," he said at the dining room table in the high-ceilinged house that he renovated himself. "People come out here to be in the country, to have space, to have trees, to have dogs. But if you're going to be in suburbia, you're going to hear barking dogs. If you don't want that, why do you come here?"

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Using the Backyard as a Barnyard

Suffolk and Nassau Counties, NY, have no codes that address allowable pets; New York State law bars ownership of most wild animals; all other pet ownership rules are left to towns and villages, which may be facing rise in interest in owning farm animals; complaining neighbors are issue for both residential pet owners and farmers; photo (In the Region/Long Island) (M)

20160612085733

Europe’s privacy regulators are still poring over the new “Privacy Shield” agreement that will keep the transfers of people’s data from the EU to the U.S. legal. But they’re not yet satisfied with what they see. That’s the message that came out of a Thursday hearing in the European Parliament’s civil liberties, justice, and home affairs committee. Many voices at the hearing predictably criticized the deal, such as Max Schrems — the activist whose complaint shot down the old Safe Harbor agreement and plunged the U.S. tech sector into panic over the possibility of losing access to European customers. If the deal doesn’t go through, there’s a strong chance American companies will no longer be able to legally serve European customers if that requires using their data, and multinationals will struggle to legally process information about their European employees. However, the EU regulators themselves—whose opinion is key to whether the deal goes through—also sounded unsure about whether Privacy Shield respects Europeans’ rights in the ways Safe Harbor did not. Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, the French privacy regulator who is spearheading her EU peers’ efforts, said the watchdogs had identified four key safeguards that Privacy Shield must provide: clear and comprehensible rules, assurances of proportionality in the way U.S. national security access Europeans’ data, independent control mechanisms for that access, and effective ways for Europeans to lodge complaints about how U.S. firms and agencies are treating their data. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. “We feel there is an absence of rules in the Privacy Shield [regarding] data retention,” Falque-Pierrotin said. She also said the regulators had not yet established whether the redress mechanisms in the deal are “really available to EU citizens.” Falque-Pierrotin and the other regulators are due to give their definitive opinion in mid-April. The proportionality issue is really about mass surveillance, which Europe’s top courts are gradually establishing is not proportionate at all, and therefore illegal. Falque-Pierrotin noted that more rulings on this subject are expected in the coming months, and this could have an effect on whether the Privacy Shield deal stays legal. After all, it does still allow a degree of mass surveillance by U.S. authorities, as long as that surveillance is for one of six national-security purposes. What’s more, the EU is currently preparing to roll out new privacy rules. At the moment, the regulators can only assess the legality of the deal under the existing rules, which date back to 1995. As Falque-Pierrotin suggested, the answer may lie in reassessing it a couple of years down the line, which is not what what businesses looking for certainty will want to hear. The view from the U.S. wasn’t terribly upbeat either. Marc Rotenberg, a Georgetown University professor and head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Privacy Shield represents a “step backwards” for privacy principles. Rotenberg particularly criticized the complexity of the redress mechanism described in the deal, which would see Europeans get new ways to complain in the U.S. But the process would take years to negotiate. He said earlier Safe Harbor’s enforcement process was so complex that he was “hardly surprised” when it turned out the Federal Trade Commission had received a mere four complaints from the E.U. in 15 years. For more on privacy and national security, watch: “This process even more complicated—it adds the Commerce Department as an additional step,” Rotenberg said. “This is not what redress is.” He also said the supposedly independent complaint ombudsman that the U.S. is promising to create would not have any real authority. Schrems, meanwhile, pointed out that companies could put tricky language in their terms and conditions that would effectively kill the protections that are supposed to come from Privacy Shield. This, he complained, would mean the deal doesn’t meet the requirements set out by European courts. “I have no clue how the [European] Commission can ever argue that this is in compliance,” he said. “We need a system that provides real protection [and] we need legal stability for businesses.”

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Big Hurdles Still Stand In Way of Future U.S.-EU Data-Sharing

The European Parliament just held a hearing on the new transatlantic Privacy Shield agreement, revealing many problems with the deal.

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ESPN served as the platform for Greg Hardy’s half-hearted apology — and not all of its employees are thrilled with the decision. Following his interview with the disgraced defensive end Tuesday, analyst Adam Schefter revealed on the “Dan Patrick Show” that he believed Hardy to be a changed man after serving a four-game suspension for allegedly assaulting then-girlfriend Nicole Holder in 2014. “I went in there with the idea that everybody had, that this guy’s a monster, OK? I went in there thinking that this is one of the scariest people in the NFL. And I came out there with a very different feeling about him,” Schefter said. Fellow ESPN personality Michelle Beadle didn’t agree with Schefter’s opinion. For the love of f&$@. Dude doesn't admit to wrongdoing. Dude has changed? I give the hell up. — Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) April 5, 2016 Hardy, who called himself an “innocent man” during the exchange, also questioned the authenticity of the photos Deadspin published last November of Holder’s bruises. The Ravens’ Steve Smith slammed Hardy’s claims, and Beadle blasted the network for providing him an outlet. “I feel dirty in that this guy has no job right now, and for some reason we’ve decided as a network that we’re going to give him the stage for his redemption tour as he basically goes out and tries to find some employment,” Beadle said on her own ESPN show, “SportsNation.” “I don’t understand why we’re doing that. If he wants to figure out a way to get his message out there — which by the way, he hasn’t said he did anything wrong, so how a man is supposed to convince anybody he’s changed and yet not admit to actually doing anything? I have no idea. But why we’re giving him the forum to go out there and tell anybody, that is where I’m a little bit confused.” This isn’t the first time Beadle has taken aim at ESPN. After Ray Rice received a two-game suspension for knocking out then-fiancée Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City elevator two years ago, she expressed disgust over colleague Stephen A. Smith’s comments suggesting women are sometimes responsible for domestic violence incidents. “Violence isn’t the victim’s issue. It’s the abuser’s. To insinuate otherwise is irresponsible and disgusting,” she tweeted. “I was in an abusive relationship once. I’m aware that men & women can both be the abuser. To spread a message that we not ‘provoke’ is wrong,” Beadle added.

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Beadle-Schefter ESPN infighting breaks out over Hardy interview

ESPN served as the platform for Greg Hardy’s half-hearted apology — and not all of its employees are thrilled with the decision. Following his interview with the disgraced defensive end Tuesd…

20160615111806

The drugs have a street value of almost half a billion dollars. Source: NZ Police Some bungling boating by a group of landlubber drug smugglers led to New Zealand's largest ever haul of methamphetamine, with their fumbling efforts arousing the suspicion of locals, police said Tuesday. The 494 kilogram haul, with a street value of $469 million, is the largest ever in New Zealand, eclipsing in a single swoop the entire amount of ice seized in the South Pacific nation last year (334 kilograms). Police said locals found an abandoned boat at remote 90 Mile Beach on Sunday and also reported a group of men had been acting suspiciously in the area in recent weeks. They said the men, whose nationalities were not given, had been unsuccessfully trying to launch boats off the beach, then offering locals large amounts of cash to help them. When police went to recover the boat, a vehicle used by the group drove past and was stopped after a brief chase. Two men, aged 26 and 31, were arrested. A short time later, a campervan driven by a third man, aged 19, was stopped and a search found multiple suitcases containing zip-lock bags full of drugs totalling 448kg. Police also found a handheld GPS device in the first vehicle which had coordinates leading to some sand dunes, where officers on Monday dug up a further 46kg of drugs. "What is so great about this is that it's not only the result of hard work by the Northland police, but it's the result of information we got from the community," Superintendent Russell Le Prou said in a statement. "We received notification of several cases of suspicious behaviour in the past few weeks, and that has allowed us to get to this point." Police said they were working with customs to determine where the methamphetamine came from. Many of the bags showed signs of salt water. The three men appeared in court today charged with importing and possessing class A drugs for supply.

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'Bungling sailors' in record New Zealand ice bust

Some bungling boating by a group of landlubber drug smugglers led to New Zealand's largest ever haul of methamphetamine, with their fumbling efforts arousing the suspicion of locals, police said Tuesday.</p>

20160617001234

Returning to Philadelphia, he studied piano and composition under Olga Samaroff and at her suggestion audited a conducting class at Tanglewood one summtr. At • 18, ‘Mr.• Schippers was one of six finalists out of 40 entrants in a Philadelphia Orchestra conducting competition and as a result had a chance to lead that orchestra briefly. At this point, as Mr. Schippers recalled it later, his father, who had doubts about music as a career for his son, called him back to Kalamazoo. The aspiring musician showed his father a letter offering him a job as organist in the Village Presbyterian Church in New York. The job paid $10 a week, but Mr, Schippers told his father that it paid $5,000 a year, and returned to New York, where he was soon playing the piano for a company of equally youthful hopefuls called the Lemonade Opera, which performed in the basement of the same church in Greenwich Village. One day the conductor quit, and Mr. Schippers took his place. One of the Lemonade Opera's singers went to audition for Mr. Menotti, who was then casting his first full‐length opera, “The Consul,” and Mr. Schippers went along to play the piano for her. Mr. Menotti was more impressed with the pianist than with the singer, and hired him to coach the singers for “The Consul.” Luck once again tapped Mr. Schippers on the shoulder when shortly before the opera's New York premiere, in 1950, the regular conductor fell ill and the young conductor was asked to take his place. “If that isn't luck, what is?” Mr. Schippers later remarked. After conducting for three months in New York, Mr. Schippers was sent to Europe by Mr. Menotti to record the score for a film of “The Medium.” After service in the Army, with a tour of duty in Germany, he returned to the United States, where he found himself in demand. He led the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philharmonic and became a steady conductor at the New York City Opera. When he was chosen to conduct the premiere of Aaron Copland's “The Ter'er Land” there, Mr. Schippers was just 24 years old. The association with Mr. Menotti developed into one of the strongest links in his career. At 22, he conducted the first televised performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” which was destined to become a Christmastime classic, and he soon became known as an authoritative interpreter of many Menotti The Menotti connection, which resulted is their founding of the Spoleto Festival in 1958, continued until 1976, when composer and conductor fell out. Mr. Menotti told an Italian newspaper that Mr. Schippers had become too costly a performer for the festival to afford, a “Marron glace,” bather than a menu staple. Mr. Schippers retorted in another newspaper that big names had become irksome to Mr. Menotti, and that there was nothing more to say but goodbye. His many engagements with the New York Philharmoic included alternating with Leonard Bernstein on the podium during a visit of the orchestra to the Soviet Union. He made his debut at La Scala in 1954 and returned often to the Milan cpera house. It was there in 1962 that he conducted the world premiere of Falla's cantata “Atlnntida.” His debut at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany came in 1964, in Wieland Wagner's controversial new production of “Die Meistersinger.” Mr. Schippers became a Metropolitan Opera regular after his debut there in 1955, and his assignments outside the standard repertory included the world premiere of Menotti's “The Last Savage,” during the 1963‐64 season. He was also entrusted with the opening production of the Metropolitan Opera House on Sept. 16, 1966: Samuel Barber's “Antony and Cleopatra,” one of the unqualified disasters in the company's history. The trouble was generally attributed to Franco Zeffirelli's staging. of it. At the Metropolitan, Mr. Schippers held the record of having conducted more opening nights than anyone in the last 40 years. During a 1960 Metropolitan performance of “Forza del Destino” that Mr. Sohippers conducted, the baritone Leonard Warren fell dead on the stage. One of Mr. Schippers's greatest Metropolitan triumphs came in 1974, when he conducted a new production of “Boris Godunov” in Mussongsky's original version, a first for the company. In addition to his Cincinnati Symphony post, Mr. Schippers had been engaged as music director of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, and was to have conducted his first concerts with it last October. Last month the Cincinnati orchestra gave Mr. Schippers the title of Conductor Laureate. He is survived by his parents, Mr. and !Mrs. Peter Schippers of Richland, Mich.; a sister, Mrs. John Gideon of Kalamazoo, and a brother, Henry Schippers of KalaI mazoo. We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com. A version of this archives appears in print on December 17, 1977, on page 27 of the New York edition with the headline: Thomas Schippers Is Dead at 47; Conductor of Opera, Symphony. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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Thomas Schippers Is Dead at 47; Conductor of Opera, Symphony

Thomas Schippers, conductor laureate of Cincinnati Symphony Orch, dies in NYC of lung cancer at age 47; career revd; illus (M)

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This week, Google announced that it was reorganizing and changing the name of its company from Google GOOG to Alphabet. On the surface, this is a puzzling move. Why would the company embrace a new, unknown name instead of Google, a brand with remarkable awareness and presence? Many companies have done just the opposite. Blackberry BBRY , for example, abandoned the Research in Motion name. Target TGT dropped Dayton Hudson. A deeper analysis, however, reveals that this is a smart, strategic branding strategy for Google. By embracing the name Alphabet, Google is becoming a pure house of brands. The parent brand, Alphabet, will own a number of different brands, including Google, Android and You Tube. Alphabet apparently won’t be a consumer-facing brand; it will be the corporate parent. CEO Larry Page said in the announcement that “Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies.” This is true, but it might be more important to note that Alphabet is also a collection of great brands. More: Why Google changed its name to Alphabet This is the same structure used by many successful brand-oriented companies. Unilever UN owns hundreds of different brands including Dove, Axe, Lipton and Ben & Jerry’s. United Technologies UTX owns Otis, Pratt & Whitney and Carrier. FCA owns Jeep, Fiat and Chrysler. A house of brands strategy makes enormous sense. One notable benefit is that it creates flexibility. The firm can easily acquire new brands and spin off brands. With the new strategy, Alphabet can add brands to address growth opportunities and spin off or sell brands with less potential. The strategy can also lead to better brand building. A company with a house of brands strategy can have different brands, each with a distinct positioning. For example, one brand can stand for health while another owns indulgence. There is also an important organizational dynamic to the change. With a house of brand strategy, one brand isn’t necessarily more important than the others. Coke is clearly the most important brand at Coke. Target is the most important brand at Target. This is an important symbolic shift for Google. Google matters but now it isn’t the primary brand that matters at the company. Other brands can be important, too. More: Why Wall Street is wrong about Google’s Alphabet name change Google isn’t going away, of course. Instead, this move will make Google a stronger brand, because now people won’t be confusing the product with the company. Google can be Google, the world’s best way to find information. This will make the Google brand tighter and better defined. In many ways, the strategy change opens new opportunities for growth. Alphabet can now build different brands in different segments. If the firm wants to create a technology brand in health, for example, it can, without any connection to Google. The striking thing is how unique Google’s new brand portfolio strategy is in the world of technology. Many of the big technology companies focus on one primary brand, using a branded house strategy, or at least embrace the name of the most important product: Facebook FB is Facebook, Apple AAPL is Apple and Twitter TWTR is Twitter. There are two problems with this branded house approach. The first issue is that the strategy might lead to slower growth, because the firm can’t pursue opportunities that don’t fit with its brand. The second, more significant problem is that it tends to create weak brands. In a bid to be broadly relevant, the company embraces a positioning for that brand that is general and vague. The brand isn’t polarizing but it also doesn’t stand for anything specific. This is a problem. Just look at Hewlett-Packard Company HPQ and Yahoo YHOO , brands that have high awareness but lack a distinct meaning. One could argue that HP would be a much stronger brand if it wasn’t spread across quite so many products and categories. Google’s bold shift won’t lead to an immediate jump in profits. If anything, in the short-run, it will create confusion. It will also be costly; the firm will need to create new signs and establish a digital presence. Longer term, however, the change will open up growth opportunities. Google can be Google. You Tube can be You Tube. And the firm can acquire or create new brands that reach new opportunities in the market. So while Google’s corporate change is unexpected, it is a savvy move. I suspect other technology companies hoping to grow will make a similar shift in the years ahead. Tim Calkins is clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He teaches marketing strategy and biomedical marketing. He is author of the book Defending Your Brand.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160617030145id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/08/11/google-alphabet-name-change/

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Google's name change sounds crazy but it's been done before

Unilever and United Technologies are parent companies over some of America’s most popular brands, and the strategy has helped the companies grow.

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Steve Harvey is still distraught a month after he infamously announced the wrong winner of the Miss Universe crown — but the pageant's rightful winner believes it's time for him to move on. A remorseful Harvey spoke to Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach for the first time since his regrettable blunder — and while she says his gaffe was tough on everyone involved, she forgives the 59-year-old comedian. "Don't beat yourself up for this anymore," Wurtzbach said on "The Steve Harvey Show" on Monday. "Come on, let's move forward. Let's be happy." Harvey invited Wurtzbach on his nationally televised talk show as part of a two-day special. Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez, who had the Miss Universe crown literally removed from her head four minutes after she was mistakenly named the winner on Dec. 20, is set to appear on Tuesday. Harvey was moved to tears early on in his show Monday as he recalled the unwavering support he received from his wife throughout the ordeal. But he composed himself enough to have a spirited heart-to-heart conversation with Wurtzbach — who admits she had mixed feelings about receiving the crown moments after she was told she had lost. "I was very happy that I won," Wurtzbach said. "But I was also thinking about (Gutierrez). I couldn't help but think about how tough this must be for her." Wurtzbach, who represented the Philippines at the pageant, said she decided not to try and console Gutierrez in the immediate aftermath of Harvey's royal screw-up. "I tried to keep a safe distance from her as not to disrespect her," she said. "I didn't want her to feel bad. I was being sensitive to her feelings." The 26-year-old beauty queen says she did speak to the Colombian stunner later that week to wish her a Merry Christmas and a happy birthday. Gutierrez will tell her side of the story on Tuesday when she speaks to Harvey for the first time since the incident. In a clip for Tuesday's show, an emotional Harvey tears up once again as he apologizes to Gutierrez. "You're the one person that I really wanted to talk to," he tells her. "I just want to say how sorry I am. I'm beyond sorry for what happened that night." ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH VIDEO HERE.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160619133758id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/entertainment/tv/steve-harvey-pia-wurtzbach-address-universe-blunder-article-1.2500935

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Steve Harvey, Pia Wurtzbach address Miss Universe blunder

Steve Harvey is still distraught after he announced the wrong Miss Universe winner — but the pageant's winner says it's time he moves on.

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308 pp. Random House. $24.95. Any American with a big urge to write a book explaining France to the French should read this book first, to get a sense of the hazards involved. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French writer with a spatter-paint prose style and the grandiosity of a college sophomore; he rambled around this country at the behest of The Atlantic Monthly and now has worked up his notes into a sort of book. It is the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists for the past 50 years, with stops at Las Vegas to visit a lap-dancing club and a brothel; Beverly Hills; Dealey Plaza in Dallas; Bourbon Street in New Orleans; Graceland; a gun show in Fort Worth; a "partner-swapping club" in San Francisco with a drag queen with mammoth silicone breasts; the Iowa State Fair ("a festival of American kitsch"); Sun City ("gilded apartheid for the old");a stock car race; the Mall of America; Mount Rushmore; a couple of evangelical megachurches; the Mormons of Salt Lake; some Amish; the 2004 national political conventions; Alcatraz -- you get the idea. (For some reason he missed the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the adult video awards, the grave site of Warren G. Harding and the World's Largest Ball of Twine.) You meet Sharon Stone and John Kerry and a woman who once weighed 488 pounds and an obese couple carrying rifles, but there's nobody here whom you recognize. In more than 300 pages, nobody tells a joke. Nobody does much work. Nobody sits and eats and enjoys their food. You've lived all your life in America, never attended a megachurch or a brothel, don't own guns, are non-Amish, and it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title. In New Orleans, a young woman takes off her clothes on a balcony as young men throw Mardi Gras beads up at her. We learn that much of the city is below sea level. At the stock car race, Lévy senses that the spectators "both dread and hope for an accident." We learn that Los Angeles has no center and is one of the most polluted cities in the country. "Headed for Virginia, and for Norfolk, which is, if I'm not mistaken, one of the oldest towns in a state that was one of the original 13 in the union," Lévy writes. Yes, indeed. He likes Savannah and gets delirious about Seattle, especially the Space Needle, which represents for him "everything that America has always made me dream of: poetry and modernity, precariousness and technical challenge, lightness of form meshed with a Babel syndrome, city lights, the haunting quality of darkness, tall trees of steel." O.K., fine. The Eiffel Tower is quite the deal, too. But every 10 pages or so, Lévy walks into a wall. About Old Glory, for example. Someone has told him about the rules for proper handling of the flag, and from these (the flag must not be allowed to touch the ground, must be disposed of by burning) he has invented an American flag fetish, a national obsession, a cult of flag worship. Somebody forgot to tell him that to those of us not currently enrolled in the Boy Scouts, these rules aren't a big part of everyday life. He blows a radiator writing about baseball -- "this sport that contributes to establishing people's identities and that has truly become part of their civic and patriotic religion, which is baseball" -- and when, visiting Cooperstown ("this new Nazareth"), he finds out that Commissioner Bud Selig once laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, where Abner Doubleday is also buried, Lévy goes out of his mind. An event important only to Selig and his immediate family becomes, to Lévy, an official proclamation "before the eyes of America and the world" of Abner as "the pope of the national religion . . . that day not just the town but the entire United States joined in a celebration that had the twofold merit of associating the national pastime with the traditional rural values that Fenimore Cooper's town embodies and also with the patriotic grandeur that the name Doubleday bears." Uh, actually not. Negatory on "pope" and "national" and "entire" and "most" and "embodies" and "Doubleday." He worships Woody Allen and Charlie Rose in terms that would make Donald Trump cringe with embarrassment. He admires Warren Beatty, though he sees Beatty at a public event "among these rich and beautiful who, as always in America . . . form a masquerade of the living dead, each one more facelifted and mummified than the next, fierce, a little mutant-looking, inhuman, ultimately disappointing." Lévy is quite comfortable with phrases like "as always in America." Bombast comes naturally to him. Rain falls on the crowd gathered for the dedication of the Clinton library in Little Rock, and to Lévy, it signifies the demise of the Democratic Party. As always with French writers, Lévy is short on the facts, long on conclusions. He has a brief encounter with a young man outside of Montgomery, Ala. ("I listen to him tell me, as if he were justifying himself, about his attachment to this region"), and suddenly sees that the young man has "all the reflexes of Southern culture" and the "studied nonchalance . . . so characteristic of the region." With his X-ray vision, Lévy is able to reach tall conclusions with a single bound. And good Lord, the childlike love of paradox -- America is magnificent but mad, greedy and modest, drunk with materialism and religiosity, puritan and outrageous, facing toward the future and yet obsessed with its memories. Americans' party loyalty is "very strong and very pliable, extremely tenacious and in the end somewhat empty." Existential and yet devoid of all content and direction. The partner-swapping club is both "libertine" and "conventional," "depraved" and "proper." And so the reader is fascinated and exhausted by Lévy's tedious and original thinking: "A strong bond holds America together, but a minimal one. An attachment of great force, but not fiercely resolute. A place of high -- extremely high -- symbolic tension, but a neutral one, a nearly empty one." And what's with the flurries of rhetorical questions? Is this how the French talk or is it something they save for books about America? "What is a Republican? What distinguishes a Republican in the America of today from a Democrat?" Lévy writes, like a student padding out a term paper. "What does this experience tell us?" he writes about the Mall of America. "What do we learn about American civilization from this mausoleum of merchandise, this funeral accumulation of false goods and nondesires in this end-of-the-world setting? What is the effect on the Americans of today of this confined space, this aquarium, where only a semblance of life seems to subsist?" And what is one to make of the series of questions -- 20 in a row -- about Hillary Clinton, in which Lévy implies she is seeking the White House to erase the shame of the Lewinsky affair? Was Lévy aware of the game 20 Questions, commonly played on long car trips in America? Are we to read this passage as a metaphor of American restlessness? Does he understand how irritating this is? Does he? Do you? May I stop now? America is changing, he concludes, but America will endure. "I still don't think there's reason to despair of this country. No matter how many derangements, dysfunctions, driftings there may be . . . no matter how fragmented the political and social space may be; despite this nihilist hypertrophy of petty antiquarian memory; despite this hyperobesity -- increasingly less metaphorical -- of the great social bodies that form the invisible edifice of the country; despite the utter misery of the ghettos . . . I can't manage to convince myself of the collapse, heralded in Europe, of the American model."

http://web.archive.org/web/20160620231625id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-avec-m-levy.html

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On the Road Avec M. Lévy

Garrison Keillor reviews book American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Levy; photos (M)

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You have an idea for an app? Of course you do. Everyone has an idea for an app. Even my mum does, despite not having fully mastered the difference between a click and a double-click yet. So if you want to make a fortune with it, like 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio has by selling his app Summly to Yahoo for an estimated £18m, what next? This bit's really important: you need to work out very quickly whether or not your idea is rubbish. Find out if it already exists. Be very clear about who will use your app, other than you – ask people if they would find it useful. Generally speaking, successful apps are either a) really fun, like Angry Birds, or b) solve a problem, like Summly, which makes mobile-friendly summaries of news stories. If your app does neither, be concerned. Speak to someone who has built an app before, or knows how the process works. You need to quickly understand how easy your app is to make. If it involves complex 3D-augmented reality scratch'n'sniff (or similar), you're entering a world of pain, and will probably have to mortgage your children to even get a working demo together. If, however, it's relatively simple, you're on the right path. Proceed. Most startups kick off with "friends and family" funding – a mini pot of cash raised in return for small equity. If you can spin a good yarn and a shiny video, a Kickstarter campaign might help you to raise funds. Many hopefuls think cutting a developer into the company will solve all of their cash problems, but they forget a very simple rule: 10% of a thing that doesn't exist yet is worth precisely zero. As for big money, it's almost unheard of for bona fide investors – venture capitalists or "angel" funders – to invest in anything before, at the very least, seeing a proof of concept. This is the really tricky bit. Generations of rubbish IT teaching in the UK has created a skills vortex: developers – the computer engineers who actually make the apps – are in short supply and huge demand, and can comfortably charge up to a £1,000 a day for their work. And you need a specific type of developer: one who knows Objective-C, the default programming language for iOS (Apple's operating system), or Java, the language-of-choice for Android apps. The alternative, increasingly popular route is to make it yourself. A growing range of online and real-world code academies can teach you: look up General Assembly, Steer, or Code Academy. This option has a distinct edge: if your app fails, which it probably will, you'll still have the skills to make your next one. If possible, be 17 years old. This helps to create attention-grabbing headlines, such as: "The new Mark Zuckerberg", "Wunderkind Geek", and "Teenage Prodigy". Failing that the usual tricks pay off: bombarding the press and Twitter, teaser videos explaining how your app will change the world, incentivising sign up. But ultimately, the success of your app will fall back to the first principles: whether or not it's fun or useful.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160625120919id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/theguardian/shortcuts/2013/mar/26/how-to-become-an-app-millionaire

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How to become a mobile app millionaire

This week 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio hit the headlines by selling his app, Summly, to Yahoo for an estimated £18m. Here's a step-by-step guide to your own hi-tech fortune

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jetski_107_mac.jpg Alladio and Cahill on the edge of the Pillar Point where the surfing competition takes place. Jonathan Cahill and Shawn Alladio, run jet skis during the Marericks Surf Competition, off Pillar Point each year. They were riding jet skis towing surfers out to the break back in 2001 when a 100 foot wave came straight towards them. Unable to outrun the wave they decided to go up and over the hugh swell . Photographed in, San Francisco, Ca, on 1/30/07. Photo by: Michael Macor/ San Francisco Chronicle Mandatory credit for Photographer and San Francisco Chronicle / Magazines Out jetski_107_mac.jpg Alladio and Cahill on the edge of the Pillar Point where the surfing competition takes place. Jonathan Cahill and Shawn Alladio, run jet skis during the Marericks Surf Competition, off Pillar jetski_159_mac.jpg Shawn Alladio and Jonathan Cahill take to the surf during a portrait session with the Chronicle at the edge of the Pillar Point break where the Mavericks surfing competition takes place. Jonathan Cahill and Shawn Alladio, run jet skis during the Marericks Surf Competition, off Pillar Point each year. They were riding jet skis towing surfers out to the break back in 2001 when a 100 foot wave came straight towards them. Unable to outrun the wave they decided to go up and over the hugh swell . Photographed in, San Francisco, Ca, on 1/30/07. Photo by: Michael Macor/ San Francisco Chronicle Mandatory credit for Photographer and San Francisco Chronicle / Magazines Out jetski_159_mac.jpg Shawn Alladio and Jonathan Cahill take to the surf during a portrait session with the Chronicle at the edge of the Pillar Point break where the Mavericks surfing competition takes place. The Biggest Big Bad Wave. Chronicle graphic by John Blanchard The Biggest Big Bad Wave. Chronicle graphic by John Blanchard DESPERATE RACE FOR SURVIVAL / RIDING FOR THEIR LIVES: Two water safety patrollers on Jet Skis at Maverick's reef turned around to see deadly 100-foot waves crashing toward them. They had just seconds to figure out how to stay alive. The waves crashing into Maverick's reef towered twice as tall as they typically do at the annual surf contest there. Many of the world's top surfers had been driven from the sea, leaving safety patrollers Shawn Alladio and Jonathan "JC" Cahill alone on their Jet Skis on the roiling waters. It was Nov. 21, 2001, a day that would become known as One-Hundred-Foot Wednesday in the lore of Maverick's wave-riders -- who now await the call for this year's event. As monstrous sets of waves loomed, Alladio and Cahill were forced to make a life-or-death choice in a matter of seconds: Should they try to run from the onrushing mountains of water or charge at them, trusting their skills, instincts and machines to surmount the challenge? "That first wave was so huge, it was appalling," Alladio, a veteran watercraft racer and mother, recalled. "To the north I could see this huge hole of the barrel, like a tunnel in a cliff, sweeping down on us, roaring like a jet engine. I could see JC out of the corner of my left eye, and I remember thinking: 'I've got to survive, for my daughter. And he can't die; how could I ever explain that to his parents? So Jonathan, we can't make a mistake!' " In midwinter, the North Pacific can be a vast cauldron of swirling winds and colliding seas, and the big-wave surfers obsessively scrutinize satellite data and buoy reports as organizers of the Maverick's Surf Contest look for the most predictable series of big waves to stage the event. On that fabled Wednesday five years ago, two dozen surfers got all they could ask for -- and much more -- as the swells rising off the San Mateo County coast soared off the charts of the known. Waves that thundered against the cliffs of Pillar Point at the north end of Half Moon Bay steadily increased in thickness, height and power, shaking the ground and filling the sky with spume. First, the paddle-in surfers got their fill and left the water. Then the waves got too big and winds too troublesome even for tow-in surfers, who have partners on personal watercraft to boost them onto the largest rideable swells. By early afternoon, the only ones left on the violent sea were Cahill, 19, a surfer and natural athlete from San Mateo, and his mentor, Alladio, 40, of Santa Barbara. Cahill had helped Alladio provide safety patrols at Maverick's the previous week and she had asked him to come out again that morning. The pair idled their craft by the "green can" buoy about a quarter-mile to sea and hundreds of yards south of the spot where world-class waves wall up to provide expert surfers with some of the world's most thrilling rides. Since dawn, Alladio had pulled from the water a half-dozen hapless spectators who had been rinsed off jetties by the rising swell. By late morning, Cahill had joined her, retrieving boards for surfers who had snapped their leashes amid the tumult. At about 2:30 p.m., with the ocean bare of surfers, the water seethed with bubbles after the last set of waves -- with 60- to 80-foot-high faces -- had thundered through. Alladio and Cahill were fatigued and considering heading in. Looking north toward Devil's Slide, they saw a smooth, gray line resembling a fog bank hurtling toward them at an incredible rate of speed. "What is that?" they asked each other. Alladio saw a faint feathering of white along the top of the ridge. It could only be storm winds ripping spray off a gigantic mountain of moving water. Cahill saw it, too. "It's a wave!" they shouted. It filled the horizon. They knew this monster would begin to unload its power much farther out to sea than any wave had broken so far -- and they had to decide instantly what to do. The broad swath of aerated water that existed between them and shore could bog down their machines. A Jet Ski can't run on bubbles; it needs to pump solid water to move. Even if they turned and fled at top speed, there was no guarantee they could outrun this wave or that it would not catch them and gobble them into its hydraulic maw. If caught, they might be dribbled off the rocky bottom, be torn apart by surging tons of seawater or be held down within roiling foam with no chance to breathe. Alladio pointed her rig out to sea, at the onrushing wave. She looked at Cahill and screamed, "Go! Go! Go!" They cranked their watercraft throttles wide open. Their only chance to live meant going much farther out to sea within seconds and getting up and over the moving mountain before it crashed down upon them. Long before the sun had even risen that day, Maverick's fans had known in advance that the wave sets would go huge. "There already was a large, existing swell in the water," recalled Mark Sponsler, the marine weather guru who routinely assists Maverick's pioneer Jeff Clark in selecting the contest day. "Adding to that was another storm, only about 1,200 miles offshore. You had 60-knot winds pumping a lot more juice into those waves. It was incredibly strong, raw energy. That's the best way to describe it." That morning, Sponsler, Clark and two dozen other Maverick's habitues were out early for rides, including Brazilian big-wave buff Carlos Burle and his partner Eraldo Gueiros. "It came up like a machine," Sponsler said. "Around 9 or 10 o'clock, a 10- to 15-foot-high wave set swept through. Ten minutes later, a 17-foot set showed up. Then an 18-foot set. It just kept staircasing like that, up and up." "At Maverick's, even when height becomes hard to measure, you can get a sense of how powerful the waves are by how far the lip throws out as it breaks," regular Maverick's surfer Grant Washburn said. "That morning, you could feel the swell getting thicker and heavier under you. The lip started throwing further and further until it was landing 50 or 60 feet out in front of the wave face. So the barrels (tubes) of the waves weren't shaped like cylinders anymore. They were shaped more like a horseshoe, lying on its side. Pretty scary!" Washburn watched the riding zone move farther out to sea as the swell rose, and the surfers switched from paddling onto waves with their hands to being towed. By 11 a.m., a south wind rose, putting a chop in the water that made the tall wave faces lumpy and harder to ride safely. One surfer had a nasty wipeout and was pushed through the reef. "I saw Eraldo tow Carlos into the last wave ridden on that day," Washburn said. "It was very close to an 80-foot face, one of the biggest waves I've ever seen ridden. And it wasn't a smooth face; I could see him bouncing and catching air, and I thought, 'Omigod, he might die.' But he made it all the way across. There was a picture taken just before the end, and it measured out at 68 feet high at that point. Carlos still got smashed at the end of his ride. "After that, we all decided to go in." The surfers safely on shore, Cahill and Alladio were alone in the water, about a mile out, as an aquatic mountain rumbled toward them. "We were cranked up to top speed," Cahill said. "Normally, that would be 65 mph on those machines, but we were bouncing off the chop so much we were probably only going about 50. We were zigging and zagging together, about 25 feet apart, trying to locate a channel of deeper water where the wave might hold up a little longer." At that moment, as they charged up the looming wave together, Alladio thought about her daughter and glanced at Cahill -- not that she could have done anything to help him if he wasn't keeping pace with her. "Hitting that wave face felt exactly like hitting a steep hill climb on a motocross bike," Cahill said. "But the wave itself was moving so fast, it seemed like we were being thrown backward at the same time we were going up and up. The key was to let off on the throttle at the top. Otherwise you could overshoot right off the back of the wave and fall too far, land with too much impact way out in the next trough. You had to think about not landing nose down, or tail down, but just right." "We free-fell for about 50 feet before we landed on the back slope of the wave," Alladio said. "And those machines weigh about 900 pounds, so I went deep, down into the water almost up to my elbows. And that was the moment when I felt a little shot of panic." They bobbed back up to the surface astride their machines. Remarkably, both engines were still running. But in their brief view high up on the crest, they saw they were dealing with not one rogue wave but a set of huge swells. And the next one was even larger. Their desperate exercise began all over again, zigging and zagging on a parallel course, trying to keep near each other while finding a place they could make it over the top before the lip could pitch over their heads and swallow them. They made it over that one and landed more handily, having learned throttle timing on the first. Then the next and the next in a series of at least five waves and perhaps seven. They were running on pure adrenaline and instinct and had lost count. The ordeal -- from the first to the last wave -- lasted less than three minutes. "Normally, when you go over a big wave, you get pelted with the spray, like raindrops, on the other side," Alladio said. "But these clots of water were huge, the size of your fist, and they exploded like you were getting pounded by water balloons. And on the wave fronts, each time we went up I could see all these fissures or ravines in the surface, and there was some kind of crazy light energy vibrating inside the wave like electricity, and I remember thinking, 'Those are the fingers of God.' "And after we made it over the last one, we spun in circles for a moment. After that set, the whole ocean just strangely lay flat, just sort of heaving and undulating. I shut down the engine and grabbed my helmet in both hands and started to scream. "I looked to shore, and we were so far out that the land had just disappeared. There was so much spray and foam in the air that all of Half Moon Bay looked like a snowscape, and I remember thinking, 'Hey, you could snowboard on that powder.' " Cahill felt shocked. "I had enough adrenaline running in my body to last the rest of the week. But I knew I had just tested my skills as much as they could ever be tested, and I felt good about it. Shawn told me that we were likely the only two people in the entire world who could say they knew how everything looked after a set of waves like that." The sea remained so aerated, Cahill said, they could barely move back to Maverick's reef above an idle pace. He kept snapping glances over his shoulder to make sure another set of waves wasn't approaching. Alladio said the water was full of bright dots of sand, the dark confetti of shredded seaweed and parts of dismembered sea creatures. As they approached the reef, water safety patroller Paul Schulte roared up to them on his Jet Ski. "He ran around us in circles at high speed and kept yelling, 'What the f- was that?!' " Cahill said. "We later found out he had also seen that set coming and had run from the cove for the entrance of Pillar Point Harbor. He just made it inside around the jetty before it hit." They all made it in to shore virtually unscathed. Cahill's and Alladio's ankles remained sore for weeks from the impact of their harsh landings, and Alladio later found out that some of the engine bolts on the watercraft had been sheared off. Today, they remain friends with the organizers of Maverick's but usually don't work the event. Some doubt that the waves Alladio and Cahill surmounted did indeed reach a height of 100 feet. Wave expert Sponsler cautiously allows that "theoretically, it's possible." Washburn says he took film footage of gigantic swells nearby later that afternoon. When he shows them to other hydrology experts now, they say the waves seem to be at least that tall. Cahill, with five more years of experience under his belt, still thinks the second wave of that set reached between 90 and 120 feet tall. A deep ocean buoy the day before recorded seas higher than 40 feet going through at 20-second intervals that could have produced breakers of that size on the coast. And finally, a red channel buoy just south of the Maverick's impact zone was wrenched free of the ocean floor by the epic wave train and deposited on a beach 2 miles south -- an extremely rare occurrence. "On that day, Half Moon Bay was completely closed out (huge waves were breaking everywhere), all the way down to the Ritz," Washburn says. "You can't even hype it, it was so big. But I still don't think that's as big as it can get. I wouldn't be surprised if a 150-foot wave showed up there some day." The sixth big-wave contest at Maverick's reef in Half Moon Bay can occur any time until March 31 on 24-hour notice. Contest founder Jeff Clark and ocean weather guru Mark Sponsler will predict that a swell of the right size and shape is on the way. Twenty-four surfers and alternates, invited by the event organizers, will hit the water early on contest day, and a champion will be crowned. For more information about the contest, go to www.maverickssurf.com/home. The easiest way to watch is on the free, streaming video offered at cbs.sportsline.com or on big-screen TVs at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Spectators who drive to the contest site off Princeton-by-the-Sea will find traffic and crowd-control measures in place. Spectators also can watch the surfers from a tour boat nearby. For more information viewing the contest, go to www.sfgate.com. There are documentary films from Powerline Productions at mavfilm.com and surf photography by Frank Quirarte at www.mavsurfer.com. A new book, "Inside Maverick's -- Portrait of a Monster Wave," by photographer Doug Acton, surfer Grant Washburn and Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins, is available from Chronicle Books. Jenkins' surf columns are archived at sfgate.com/sports/outdoors/surfing. Editor's note: A correction has been made to the above story.

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DESPERATE RACE FOR SURVIVAL / RIDING FOR THEIR LIVES: Two water safety patrollers on Jet Skis at Maverick's reef turned around to see deadly 100-foot waves crashing toward them. They had just seconds to figure out how to stay alive. - SFGate

Two water safety patrollers on Jet Skis at Maverick's reef turned around to see deadly 100-foot waves crashing toward them. Many of the world's top surfers had been driven from the sea, leaving safety patrollers Shawn Alladio and Jonathan "JC" Cahill alone on their Jet Skis on the roiling waters. Should they try to run from the onrushing mountains of water or charge at them, trusting their skills, instincts and machines to surmount the challenge? In midwinter, the North Pacific can be a vast cauldron of swirling winds and colliding seas, and the big-wave surfers obsessively scrutinize satellite data and buoy reports as organizers of the Maverick's Surf Contest look for the most predictable series of big waves to stage the event. Waves that thundered against the cliffs of Pillar Point at the north end of Half Moon Bay steadily increased in thickness, height and power, shaking the ground and filling the sky with spume. [...] the paddle-in surfers got their fill and left the water. [...] the waves got too big and winds too troublesome even for tow-in surfers, who have partners on personal watercraft to boost them onto the largest rideable swells. By early afternoon, the only ones left on the violent sea were Cahill, 19, a surfer and natural athlete from San Mateo, and his mentor, Alladio, 40, of Santa Barbara. The pair idled their craft by the "green can" buoy about a quarter-mile to sea and hundreds of yards south of the spot where world-class waves wall up to provide expert surfers with some of the world's most thrilling rides. Since dawn, Alladio had pulled from the water a half-dozen hapless spectators who had been rinsed off jetties by the rising swell. Looking north toward Devil's Slide, they saw a smooth, gray line resembling a fog bank hurtling toward them at an incredible rate of speed. Even if they turned and fled at top speed, there was no guarantee they could outrun this wave or that it would not catch them and gobble them into its hydraulic maw. "There already was a large, existing swell in the water," recalled Mark Sponsler, the marine weather guru who routinely assists Maverick's pioneer Jeff Clark in selecting the contest day. "At Maverick's, even when height becomes hard to measure, you can get a sense of how powerful the waves are by how far the lip throws out as it breaks," regular Maverick's surfer Grant Washburn said. By 11 a.m., a south wind rose, putting a chop in the water that made the tall wave faces lumpy and harder to ride safely. [...] on the wave fronts, each time we went up I could see all these fissures or ravines in the surface, and there was some kind of crazy light energy vibrating inside the wave like electricity, and I remember thinking, 'Those are the fingers of God.' Alladio said the water was full of bright dots of sand, the dark confetti of shredded seaweed and parts of dismembered sea creatures. Cahill's and Alladio's ankles remained sore for weeks from the impact of their harsh landings, and Alladio later found out that some of the engine bolts on the watercraft had been sheared off. A deep ocean buoy the day before recorded seas higher than 40 feet going through at 20-second intervals that could have produced breakers of that size on the coast. [...] a red channel buoy just south of the Maverick's impact zone was wrenched free of the ocean floor by the epic wave train and deposited on a beach 2 miles south -- an extremely rare occurrence. Contest founder Jeff Clark and ocean weather guru Mark Sponsler will predict that a swell of the right size and shape is on the way. Twenty-four surfers and alternates, invited by the event organizers, will hit the water early on contest day, and a champion will be crowned. The easiest way to watch is on the free, streaming video offered at cbs.sportsline.com or on big-screen TVs at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

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NOT LONG AGO, A CLASS OF HARVARD GRADUATE students joined their distinguished professor in a study of public attitudes toward welfare. That is, they opened their notebooks and switched on a tape of ''Oprah.'' A white guy in polyester sprang from the studio audience to condemn his sister-in-law, the ''welfare lout'' who ''bilked'' taxpayers for ''new teeth.'' A white woman with beehive hair griped about food-stamp shoppers in ''an Eldorado Cadillac.'' A black single mother with a low-paying job screamed at a black single mother with no job at all. ''You have to show your children something better!'' For 60 long minutes, the halls echoed with working-class complaint. ''Why have all the babies?!'' ''Don't sit on your butt!'' As the insults mounted, the welfare mothers who had been invited on the show looked ever more angry and confused. One appealed her case to Oprah, complaining that the griping audience wanted her children to ''to look nasty and have dirty faces.'' But the doyenne of daytime TV, herself a working woman, did not seem sympathetic. She faced the camera, locked eyes with America and asked the country this question: ''Should you be going to work while someone on welfare's sitting at home with their feet up?'' The students scribbled, giggled, gasped and frowned, but none seemed more captivated than the man in the back row, a 43-year-old economist slouched low in his seat and nervously bobbing his knee. David T. Ellwood, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy and the academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, was studying this particular ''Oprah'' broadcast for the 10th time. ''Each time it's more painful,'' he whispered, jotting notes in the dark. ''Why so much anger? What's going on here?''' Perhaps no one has pondered those questions with more boldness, creativity and good intentions than Ellwood himself. And perhaps no one feels quite as unsettled at the nation's latest answers. To an uncanny degree, the story of the recent welfare revolution is a story of David Ellwood's ideas. Or, as he views it, a corruption of his ideas. More specifically, a corruption of his idea that cash assistance to poor women and their children should come with time limits. Now that those limits are the law of the land, Ellwood says, ''I do lie awake at nights, worried about what's going to happen to our children.'' The tale of Ellwood's journey has all the trappings of a Washington thriller -- tense meetings in the Oval Office and a triumphant ride on Air Force One -- yet the arc would be familiar to the ancient Greeks. The professor had an idea. But the idea gained a life of its own, to the profound dismay of the professor. As a young academic, Ellwood wrote ''Poor Support'' (Basic Books, 1988), an instant anti-poverty classic that called for time limits on welfare, but only as part of a much broader plan to shore up the lives of the poor. Ellwood envisioned universal health care, expanded training programs, wage supplements, guaranteed child support and last-resort Government jobs for those who could not find them. He pictured a system that ''ensures that everyone who exercises reasonable responsibility can make it without welfare.'' For a while, the ''Ellwood plan'' shimmered only as a distant nirvana for policy wonks. But by the 1992 Presidential campaign, a wonk none other than Bill Clinton was stealing Ellwood's lines, promising to ''make work pay'' and to defend the ''people who play by the rules.'' Soon he stole Ellwood too, bringing him to Washington to help fulfill Clinton's pledge to ''end welfare as we know it.'' But by the time Ellwood resigned from the Government last year, his proposal was in tatters, and Washington was converting the welfare debate into its own version of the ''Oprah'' show. Taking Clinton at his end-welfare word, the new Republican Congress pushed through unprecedented cuts in anti-poverty spending, and invited states to weave -- or to shred -- whatever safety nets they chose. Instead of time limits followed by a work program, Congress created time limits followed by . . . nothing. As Clinton went along, Ellwood, back in Cambridge, was fruitlessly urging him to resist. Like Ulysses on the isle of Corfu, Ellwood now finds himself marooned, on the foreign shores of the ''Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996,'' and he is picking his way through its 400 pages, searching for hope in the wilderness. But Ellwood also can't help looking back. When talking about the shipwreck that landed him here, he sounds more numb than angry -- as though he's studying his own emotions from the same perplexed distance that he studies the ''Oprah'' show. ''You do go over in your head all the things you might have done differently,'' he says. ''You can't help thinking, 'Oh my God, all that work, and this!'' He hesitates for half a second, then finishes the thought. ''And I do have some frustration and some anger and some guilt -- all those things -- all tied up about it.''

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Mugged by Reality

NOT LONG AGO, A CLASS OF HARVARD GRADUATE students joined their distinguished professor in a study of public attitudes toward welfare. That is, they opened their notebooks and switched on a tape of ''Oprah.'' Things got nasty fast.

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07/07/2016 AT 01:00 PM EDT Expressing outrage and demanding change, celebrities including are speaking out on social media after two African-American men, , were killed in officer-related shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier this week within a 48-hour span. Their deaths – both captured on cell phone video – have many celebrities comparing the incidents to , who also died while interacting with authorities. Castile, 32, was killed in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, during a traffic stop Wednesday. He was shot in front of his girlfriend and her child as he reached for his driver's license, his girlfriend said during an incident that was streamed on . Police are investigating the widely shared Facebook video. Sterling, 37, was shot Tuesday by police outside of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was selling CDs in the parking lot. A video taken by witnesses shows police telling Sterling to get on the ground, before being tackled by a second officer. One of the officers yells, "He's got a gun! Gun!" before apparently firing his weapon at Sterling. The officers have since been placed on administrative leave and the incident is under Taking to social media Wednesday and Thursday, Legend shared a series of emotional tweets, writing, "We should not have to jump through hoops to prove black people shouldn't be shot by police during routine traffic stops." Let's go NRA. I know y'all are for the 2nd amendment. Are you also for equal protection? https://t.co/PaKMcZ7ina We should not have to jump through hoops to prove black people shouldn't be shot by police during routine traffic stops. So many people work so hard to find a reason why executing a human being during a routine traffic stop is ok. IT'S NOT OK about racial issues, social justice and cultural appropriation at the BET Awards – also weighed in, presenting a series of points on Castile and Sterling's deaths. 1) In the interest of time, would ye noble patriots please provide a list of infractions punishable by spontaneous public execution? Thanks! 2) Upon receipt of this list, we'll return to our quarters and study up, eager to enjoy freedoms of white mass murders. #LIFEHACK 3) You chumps will NEVER provide this list... We see through you. 's Leslie Odom Jr., urged people to face the reality of the situation. "What's going on?" Hundreds of years. In America. This has been happening for HUNDREDS of years. Cell phones just make it harder to ignore. Watching two different people being murdered on camera by police is no way to wake up. #PhilandoCastile #AntonSterling Listen to how frightened the cop in the #FalconHeights video sounds. Why was he issued a gun? Why was he allowed to be a policeman? HAS. TO. STOP. Devastating. https://t.co/C9Q0YePRMr I can't wake up to another innocent black man gone. Police reform NOW. Please @potus. #blacklivesmatter #howmanymore #PhilandoCastille A photo posted by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on Jul 6, 2016 at 5:50pm PDT #PhilandoCastile had a permit to carry and was complying with police and still got shot! Where's outrage from gun rights advocates? #TeamDl David Grunfeld / NOLA.com / The Times-Picayune We need real criminal justice reform so that people can walk down the street without worrying about whether they'll get harassed or shot. This is so disturbing and wrong. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of #AltonSterling You can't just go on with your day, you must watch this & we must face this continual outrageousness #ALTONSTERLING https://t.co/NqW3aVSZ1j Make sure you hug your loved ones a little tighter this morning. There are so many broken, backwards issues at play here it's numbing to digest. #PhilandoCastile #AltonSterling #blacklivesmatter I can't sleep thinking about if my brother or dad or uncle will be okay tonight. #restless "Something's gotta give... We getting killed everyday," (contains NSFW language). "Us as a people, we have to start getting our voice heard."

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Celebrities React to Louisiana and Minnesota Police Shooting Deaths : People.com

Celebrities are speaking out in the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile this week

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Last Updated Oct 21, 2010 11:44 AM EDT Are you in loan modification hell? was in loan modification hell, courtesy of her lender, . In a story that's becoming so commonplace it's scary, she filed for bankruptcy to deal with her financial trauma (job loss and impending divorce). Even after months and months of waiting, and after submitting her paperwork three times, she never heard from Wells Fargo about her , was fed up and so Ms. Giguere could question someone face-to-face about her loan modification. Turns out, she was rejected because Wells Fargo said she failed to submit a financial worksheet - a document that Wells Fargo never requested, , senior vice president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Servicing, admitted under oath. story, Judge Haine says that he and his fellow bankruptcy judges are seeing more people file for bankruptcy to avoid foreclosure. But that isn't helping those who want to get their loans modified. (who asked that I not use her last name because she is continuing to try to negotiate a loan modification with her big box lender), has also been in loan modification hell for the past few months. She contacted me about a month ago, wondering if the "trial period" loan modification she had been offered was real. I told her that lenders only offer trial modifications - and after you've paid on time for three months, that trial modification is supposed to be made permanent. (I've been hearing from a reader who has been in a trial modification for five months and was been told to keep on making more trial loan modification payments because the big box lender is too busy to do make the trial loan mod permanent.) I told Martha to stay in touch with her lender, calling back daily if necessary to prod them into action. After hearing nothing for a month, she started calling her lender only to find out that her loan modification application had been canceled because of incorrect information (not supplied by Martha). They claimed she was no longer living in her property, which Martha says isn't true. I have been in touch with senior-level officials at the who acknowledge that the loan modification program isn't going exactly as planned. They suggest if you're having problems getting your lender to finalize your loan modification, you should contact the Treasury Department directly to complain if your lender is a national lender. You should contact your state banking and finance regulator for a state-chartered institution. If you want your case to get elevated, you'll need to provide them with the following: Be sure to stay in touch with your lender about your loan modification. Call daily or every other day. You need the lender to realize that you're not going to give up and that you expect action. And hopefully, if you're in loan modification hell, you'll find a way out. © 2009 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

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Are You in Loan Modification Hell? Join the Club.

UPDATE: New rules regarding HAMP loan modifications went into effect June 1, 2010, including new income requirements. And, the Loan Modification Hell Horror Stories continue. UPDATE 2: Check out my latest post: Loan Modification Hell: New Solutions To Avoid Losing Your Home. UPDATE 3: Let the ...

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An insider's guide to Sicily, featuring the island's best hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, attractions and things to do, including how to travel there and around. By Lee Marshall, Telegraph Travel's Sicily expert. Click on the tabs below for the best places to stay, eat, drink and shop, including the best things to do and what to do on a short break. Sicily has long been a crossroads and crucible of Mediterranean culture, and the island today is a fascinating palimpsest in which Greek temples, Norman churches and Baroque palazzos emerge from the rich fabric. But it also has natural wonders aplenty, from the smoking craters of Mount Etna to the still relatively undiscovered beaches of the southern coast. With parts of the island on the same latitude as the North African coast, Sicily has a mild climate that makes it an attractive destination for much of the year: spring and autumn are sheer delight and though high summer (July, August) temperatures really do soar, sea breezes in coastal areas take the edge off the heat. Bear in mind that Sicily has a much longer warm-weather season than northern and central Italy. If you’re lucky, it’s possible to sunbathe and swim in the sea well into November, and spring starts early: in many areas, the ground is carpeted with wild flowers at the end of February. You’re spoiled for choice: the historic cities of Palermo, Catania and Siracusa, the Etna region with its volcanic landscapes, fertile wine country and picture-perfect Taormina; Ragusa, Modica and the other honey-hued Baroque towns of the south; the Greek temples of Agrigento, Selinunte and Segesta; Roman sites like Piazza Armerina, miles of sandy beaches and secret rocky coves. And don’t get me started on the food – from the couscous of Trapani to the pastries of Noto, it’s a destination in itself. Set among subtropical gardens on its own private stretch of beach on the Bay of Mazzarò, this lux... Read expert review From £ 482 inc. tax This luxury hotel high up in Sicily’s stunning east coast town of Taormina has one of the world’s... Read expert review From £ 439 inc. tax A serene, romantic bolthole that offers fine dining, fabulous gardens and sea views. Staying at T... Read expert review From £ 389 inc. tax British embassy in Rome: 00 39 06 4220 0001; ukinitaly.fco.gov.uk Tourist offices and information: The official Regione Sicilia tourism website is at regione.sicilia.it/turismo. Tourist information offices can be found at all three Sicilian airports, at ferry ports, and in the main towns. Three of the more useful are: Palermo (00 39 091 605 8351;palermotourism.com), Piazza Castelnuovo 34; Catania (00 39 095 401 4070; turismo.provincia.ct.it), Stazione Centrale; and Taormina (00 39 0942 23 243; comune.taormina.it), Piazza Santa Caterina. Emergency services: dial 112 (Carabinieri); 113 (State Police) The basics Currency: Euro Telephone codes: From the UK, dial 00 39 plus the area code with the zero Time difference: +1 hour Flight time: From London to all three Sicilian airports is just under three hours. Drivers are required to keep a reflective yellow/orange bib inside the car, to be worn if they break down or have an accident and need to get out of the car (they come as standard with hire cars). When driving outside of built-up areas, you are legally required to keep your headlights on at all times, even during the day. Italians always say hello and goodbye in social situations – including when entering or leaving shops, bars etc. A simple “buon giorno” in the morning or “buona sera” in the afternoon or evening goes a long way (and it covers both hello and goodbye). If you’re invited to dinner, flowers or chocolates for the hostess are a more usual gift than a bottle of wine. More Telegraph Travel expert guides

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Read our insider’s guide to Sicily, as recommended by Telegraph Travel. Find expert advice and great pictures of top hotels, restaurants, bars and things to do.

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Read in Chinese | 点击查看本文中文版 Every foreigner living in China has his share of China Stories. Jonathan Kos-Read has more than his share. Here’s one: Not long ago, the 43-year-old American actor received a call with an offer to appear in “Ip Man 3,” the third in a series of biopics about Bruce Lee’s martial-arts master. The role was small, but his agent negotiated what Kos-Read considered an “outrageous” amount of money for it, and the producers agreed. Kos-Read was thrilled until he read the script and noticed another part for a foreign actor — a bigger and better role as a mobster named Frank. This was troubling. Kos-Read, who is known in China only as Cao Cao, is by far the leading foreign actor working in the country today, having appeared in about 100 movies and television programs since his career began in 1999. He is famous throughout the mainland, and his career has been on a steady upward trajectory. Last December he appeared in the action film “Mojin — The Lost Legend,” currently the fifth-highest-grossing movie in Chinese history. Who, Kos-Read wondered, would the producers have cast instead of him? Kos-Read sent panicked texts to the movie’s casting director, but they went unanswered. “I felt threatened,” he told me recently, only half kidding. A few days later, he boarded a plane from Beijing to Shanghai to begin filming. When he showed up to the set, the mystery was solved almost immediately: There, slouching on a stool surrounded by a scrum of people, was the former heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson. The retired fighter had been cast, perhaps misguidedly, as Frank. (The Village Voice later described Tyson’s performance in the film as “sadly unimpressive.”) Kos-Read introduced himself and over the next three days developed a bond with Tyson. “He was not at all what I expected,” Kos-Read says. The pair discussed their young daughters, Montessori schools and, inevitably, boxing. They also spoke about self-reinvention, something each man knows quite a bit about. “Ip Man 3” went on to gross $115 million at the box office in China, with more than half of that coming on the opening weekend. China’s booming movie market grew by nearly 50 percent last year and is expected to surpass North America’s as the largest in the world by next year. These days, Hollywood studios hardly greenlight a blockbuster without first asking, “How will this play in China?” The rewards are too vast. “Furious 7,” for example, earned $390 million in China — more than it made in the United States — and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever in the country. And just as Hollywood has begun to crack the market, Chinese cinema has come into its own. In recent years, Chinese studios have started shifting away from the agitprop that defined their cinematic output for generations and are instead focusing on genres that draw viewers to theaters in any country: action, adventure, comedy. In February, a sci-fi comedy called “The Mermaid” became the highest-grossing movie ever in China within 12 days of its release, earning more than $430 million. Increasingly, Chinese cinemagoers are opting to buy tickets for movies made specifically for them — like those in the “Ip Man” series — not those that pander to them or lecture them. It is in this sort of film that Kos-Read has finally had the chance to act, rather than portray a stand-in for Western imperiousness. If the Hollywood studios really want to understand how to succeed in China, Kos-Read’s journey makes for a kind of accidental guide. In January, I met Kos-Read at Beijing Capital International Airport to accompany him on a trip to Yiwu, a trading city in Zhejiang Province, 165 miles from Shanghai. From there we would take a van to Hengdian World Studios, the biggest back lot in the world, where he was filming a new TV series. Kos-Read was tired. He had flown in a few days before from the Bay Area, where his wife and two young daughters live; the actor now splits time between the United States and China, which he has called home for almost two decades. Kos-Read has wavy brown hair, a thick beard streaked with gray and the kind of broad face that looks good on camera. He curses a lot and often wears a look of deep contemplation that borders on exasperation. As we boarded the plane for our 10:30 p.m. flight, he sported a huge calf-length black parka, which he wears on set — Chinese sets are notoriously frigid in the wintertime — and carried a heavy backpack filled mostly with equipment for photography, a personal hobby. The airplane was only half full. Kos-Read lumbered through the center aisle until he reached the last row, where he heaved his backpack onto a seat and plopped down into another as if he were claiming a spot on a long-distance bus. During the two-hour flight, Kos-Read drank a few cans of Yanjing Beer and discussed his role in last year’s “Mojin.” In the film, he plays a lawyer to a cult leader. After the first act, he turns into a zombie. It was by far the biggest project of his career, with by far the biggest stars, and it increased his already-formidable exposure in China by degrees of magnitude. On our plane, a flight attendant recognized him from the film. (In California, by contrast, he is basically anonymous outside of Chinatowns.) Kos-Read was happy for the opportunity to appear in such a large movie but was disappointed with his performance, which he believes was adequate but not excellent. “In a lot of TV shows, you just have to spit out the lines, really. But in a big movie, you’ve really got to be good,” he told me. “In my first big movie, I stepped up into the big leagues and hit a single.” Still, acting in one of the biggest Chinese blockbusters of all time is a long way from where Kos-Read began. Raised in Torrance, Calif., he attended an arts high school, where he got interested in acting. He went on to study film and molecular biology at New York University. There, he took a Mandarin course and became determined to master the language. He moved to Beijing in 1997 and drifted, living for a period in a student dorm and forcing himself to speak nothing but Mandarin for a three-month stretch. “Like everybody else, I arrived and bummed around for two years, not knowing what I was going to do, trying to do a bunch of things, failing,” he says. “Teaching English.” Not long after he arrived, he began dating a Chinese woman named Li Zhiyin, a finance major in college who later became his wife. On one of their early dates, he picked up an English-language listings magazine and saw an ad seeking a foreign actor for a Chinese movie. Kos-Read had never lost his love for performing, and he thought it could be fun to act in China. He auditioned and got the part, which was supposed to pay the equivalent of about $400 for three months of work. In the movie, called “Mei Shi Zhao Shi” (“Looking for Trouble”), Kos-Read plays an American documentary filmmaker following around a group of disillusioned bohemians. He says it took the producers two years to pay him. But two weeks after the movie wrapped, he landed three months of work on a Chinese soap opera. There were only a handful of foreign actors working in China at the time, and Kos-Read quickly realized he offered filmmakers there a rare combination of traits. He spoke good Mandarin, was a decent actor and had a look that many Chinese consider typically “American”: six feet tall, square jaw, blue eyes. He was able to make a living in the industry, but his early roles weren’t great. At that stage of his career, most filmmakers still had limited exposure to foreigners and foreign cultures, and his early parts tended to reflect Chinese stereotypes of Westerners. He rarely played bad guys, because there are very few American villains in Chinese movies (those roles tend to go to the woeful cohort of Japanese actors working in China). Instead, Kos-Read was often typecast as a “dumb guy,” he says. Most frequently, he was an arrogant foreign businessman who falls for a local beauty, only to be spurned as she inevitably makes the virtuous choice to stay with her Chinese suitor. Sometimes he played the foreign friend whose presence onscreen is intended to make the main character seem more worldly; Kos-Read dubbed another stock character “the fool,” an arrogant Westerner whose disdain for China is, by the end of the movie, transformed into admiration. When he was studying Mandarin at N.Y.U., Kos-Read adopted a Chinese moniker, as many language students do. He took his, Cao Cao, from a historical general who is also a central character in one of the country’s most revered classical novels, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” Like a Chinese King Arthur or Davy Crockett, the original Cao Cao exists in fact and fiction and in between. Kos-Read chose the name because it was easy to remember and because he liked that Cao Cao was a wise, self-reliant man. Years later, the decision would prove wise indeed. To his Chinese audience, it showed that the American, despite his loutish onscreen personae, took an interest in their history and culture. Kos-Read acted in film and television for almost a decade before he truly found fame. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he landed his own segment on a Chinese news program called “Sunday.” Dubbed “Cao Cao Lai Le” (“Here Comes Cao Cao”), the weekly reality bit was designed to help increase the show’s ratings and give it a more international flavor by allowing Chinese viewers to experience their country anew through a foreigner’s eyes. The segment eventually devolved into Kos-Read more or less being goofy in front of the camera and enlisting Chinese people to cut loose with him. In one episode, for example, he trains to be a Hooters girl. (In China, the chain is known as “American Owl Restaurant.”) The show was enormously popular, and soon Kos-Read was being recognized on the street. “One of the reasons I liked ‘Cao Cao Lai Le’ — it was me,” he says. “Instead of playing stupid stereotypes on TV and in movies, I could go out and be me. It’s my personal prejudice that I’m more interesting than the characters I play.” In 2009, Kos-Read began writing a column called “Token White Guy” for an expat publication, Talk Magazine, in which he chronicled his on- and off-screen adventures. He wrote about the time an acquaintance enlisted him to act in an ad campaign, Kos-Read’s first. His friend told him the product was “some sort of medicine.” Then, Kos-Read showed up on set and read his line, which was written in English: “Do you want to be thicker, longer and harder? Then be like Cao Cao and use Strong Balls Hormone.” (He dropped the ad.) He wrote about the time he was cast to play an English Jew who falls in love with a prostitute and, riddled with guilt, drops to his knees and prays for forgiveness — from Jesus. And the time a Chinese magazine wrote a multi­page, entirely fictitious profile of him, and then emailed him a copy. “Cao Cao Lai Le” ran for about three years before the struggling “Sunday” dropped it (“Sunday” soon went off the air as well), but it led to better roles in film and TV and a long line of travel-show hosting gigs, which took him to virtually every region of China — from the deserts of the west to the grasslands of the north to the hilly metropolis of Chongqing. Hengdian World Studios is sprawling and surreal, covering 8,000 acres and featuring a one-to-one scale model of Beijing’s Forbidden City. “You walk around, and you can’t tell the difference,” Kos-Read told me as we drove past the complex on the way to the set the next morning. Around the lot, different shows were being filmed. Tourists are allowed on set for 199 yuan ($30) per person, and groups of them were huddled around as filming took place. It offered a considerably different experience from the one you might encounter at a Universal Studios theme park. “Instead of ‘Jaws,’ it’s, like, killing Japanese or hanging out with the emperor’s concubines,” Kos-Read said. China’s film industry has long been focused on propaganda-laden historical epics, hence the need for a full-size Forbidden City replica. Even as China became a global superpower in the late 20th century, big-budget Chinese movies were, by and large, treacly, patriotic fare. And though tastes were shifting, the studios used their connections with the government to ensure their own films succeeded. In 2010, for example, the behemoth state-owned studio and distributor China Film Group pulled “Avatar” from 1,628 screens and replaced it with its own film, a Confucius biopic starring Chow Yun Fat. These days, movies and television shows are still often historical in nature, but they’re less overtly nationalistic and more focused on pure entertainment. Kos-Read was in Hengdian to film a period show with the English title “Knight’s Glove.” In it, he plays the British ambassador to China, a close friend of the Chinese lead. The story surrounds a search for a lost treasure, and on this day the crew was filming the pair’s reunion after years spent apart. The scene was filmed at the entrance to a building made to look like the British Embassy. Cheap-looking plastic Union Jacks fluttered outside in the breeze. Inside, the building was numbingly cold, as Kos-Read had warned; there was no insulation or heating. Russian extras in wool military outfits carried fake rifles and shuffled from side to side trying to keep warm. In between shots, Kos-Read donned his parka and applied heating pads called Nuan Baobao (“Warm Little Buddies”) to his stomach, lower back and feet. There was no coffee or tea; at one point some cast and crew members were handed plastic cups of warm water. Because the Chinese government allows only 34 foreign movies to enter the market per year, and the officials’ criteria for selection are mysterious, many American studios have sought to lessen the uncertainty by co-producing films with Chinese firms, thereby sidestepping the import rules (which apply only when a movie’s producers want a share of the box-office receipts, which is to say they apply, effectively, to all major Hollywood films). And yet few co-productions have achieved anything resembling commercial or critical success. Not only have studios struggled to find ways to appeal to both audiences, they’ve also struggled to work well together on set. This is at least in part because of the collision of two vastly different moviemaking cultures. Whereas Hollywood film sets have rather rigid, union-determined rules, Chinese sets are decidedly unsystematic, ad hoc, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants operations. (I once reported on a film whose special-effects guy was also in charge of payroll.) On this set, there were dozens of people, mostly young men, standing around in the cold who didn’t seem to have any job at all. It’s exactly these sorts of differences that have made Chinese-American co-productions so difficult, and those problems follow them to the box office. Hollywood can also stack the deck somewhat by pandering to Chinese audiences, but that comes at a cost: It grants enormous leverage to the Communist Party over how China is portrayed. Chinese censors have forced studios to cut scenes that they believed made China look weak. A 2015 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission offered an enlightening selection of anecdotes: In “Skyfall,” Chinese audiences never saw James Bond kill a Chinese security guard, as he does in the original edit; in “Mission: Impossible III,” censors cut a scene shot in Shanghai that showed garments drying on a clothesline; “Men in Black 3” had a scene removed that showed secret agents using a memory-erasing tool, leading some to speculate that the censors didn’t want to invite the allusion to censorship. Often censors don’t even have to get involved, as studios have begun self-censoring their films to avoid the hassle. “Red Dawn” is perhaps the most infamous case. The 1984 original is about a guerrilla uprising against a Soviet invasion of America; in the 2012 remake, screenwriters updated the movie by casting China as the aggressor. MGM executives realized their error too late, and unwilling to risk offending the censors, they reportedly spent around $1 million in postproduction recasting North Korea as the invader. Despite the breadth of roles he has played in China, Kos-Read is passed over for most co-productions. Hollywood producers want to bring in their own talent, he says. And once, Chinese producers told him that because of the ubiquity with which he appears in Chinese cinema and television, he would make their production seem too local. He has acted in only two East-West movies: a deep-sea epic funded by a Chinese billionaire with a predominantly foreign cast, and a bigfoot movie shot in Shennongjia, a mountainous region in Hubei Province, where there have been hundreds of purported bigfoot sightings. Each film was plagued with on-set dysfunction, and neither has been released. Kos-Read says that the reason most co-productions fail is as much about the chaos on the Chinese side as it is the arrogance on the Hollywood side. “They come here and say, ‘We’re from Hollywood, we know better and whatever it is that you think is the right way to do it, it’s by definition not,’ ” he says. “You come in with an attitude like that, you will have a lot of problems. You will misunderstand the kind of stories they want to see.” And as Chinese filmmakers have figured out what sorts of stories Chinese audiences really want to see, the nature of Kos-Read’s work has changed for the better. Although his part in “Knight’s Glove” wasn’t groundbreaking, he is now often cast in increasingly complex parts. After the morning’s shoot, we drove across the lot to film another scene. In the back of the van, Kos-Read scrolled through photos on his phone of some of the roles he has played over the last two years, each with a distinct facial-hair style. They included: an American engineer who worked on the first locomotive in China; Gen. Douglas MacArthur; an “[expletive] lawyer”; a World War II radio announcer; a hip-hop dancer; a wisdom-dispensing alcoholic barfly; a Mafia boss; an antiquities expert; a sleazy Russian lounge lizard; a cowboy; a bisexual fashion designer; and a French detective. Kos-Read believes the growing variety of roles for foreign actors like him is a result of more Chinese exposure to outsiders. “There are more foreign actors now,” he says. “Chinese know some foreigners. So they write more interesting characters. I’m lucky because I usually get to do the better stuff.” This trend is likely to continue. The money coming from Chinese producers, and the spending power of Chinese audiences, is simply too great to ignore, and anyone venturing to China from Hollywood — whether producer, actor or cameraman — has to learn how to play by Chinese rules. That means adapting stories to the changing desires of film fans, and learning how to cooperate on China’s less regimented movie sets. Hollywood pros may be arrogant, says Jonathan Landreth, editor of the website China Film Insider, who has been covering the Chinese entertainment industry for more than a decade, but “in the melding of minds between China and Hollywood, there’s been a tipping in the balance of power. So much money is driving these productions that the folks in Hollywood have to listen.” In the afternoon, the director of “Knight’s Glove,” a young man with bleached blond hair, recruited me to play an extra in a scene with Kos-Read. I would be a driver. I wondered aloud who was supposed to have played the driver, but no one answered, and instead I was shepherded outside to a wardrobe truck and outfitted in a World War I-era military uniform with a Brodie helmet. As I dressed in the truck, Kos-Read approached with a Chinese crew member and said, “They asked me to make sure you knew that they weren’t actually going to pay you or anything.” I laughed. As absurd as it may seem to be yanked from the sidelines in an instant and thrown in front of the camera, this kind of thing happens with surprising regularity for foreigners in China, and moments like these become the kind of China Stories that keep people like Kos-Read around for so long. We filmed four or five takes of a short scene in the car. I pretended to drive, yanking the steering wheel back and forth with the kind of comical exaggeration you might see in “The Andy Griffith Show.” Two cameras glided on a track and crane outside the car while Kos-Read, sitting in the back, and a young Russian actor, who sat beside me, exchanged a few lines of dialogue. The Russian had until recently been a student in Jinhua, a nearby city, but was now trying his hand at an acting career. Maybe it would have worked out for him had he started a decade and a half ago, like Kos-Read, but his performance didn’t bode well. He struggled with the lines; his English was wooden, the delivery stilted. Kos-Read, on the other hand, naturally eased into character as soon as they started rolling. He said his lines in a British accent, smoothly and barely above a whisper, looking out the window as the camera swept by. Mitch Moxley is a writer based in New York. His articles have appeared in GQ, The Atlantic and The Atavist Magazine. He lived in Beijing for six years. Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of The New York Times Magazine delivered to your inbox every week.

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The American Who Accidentally Became a Chinese Movie Star

The journey of Jonathan Kos-Read, better known as Cao Cao, is a good guide for anyone seeking to make it in China’s budding, chaotic film industry.

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The Martin family in Deanna Jent’s “Falling” tries to lead a normal life: the father, Bill (Daniel Pearce), would like more time alone with his wife, Tami (Julia Murney); their teenage daughter, Lisa (Jacey Powers), wants to adopt a dog; Bill’s mother, the Bible-toting Grammy Sue (Celia Howard), is coming to visit for a few days. Their suburban home (convincingly conjured by the set designer, John C. Stark) reflects their seemingly mundane affairs. But everyone’s schedule (and patience) is strained by the 18-year-old Josh (Daniel Everidge), who is severely autistic. Josh has his pleasures: his marble collection, his toy truck, his video games. Tami indulges him with a box on a high shelf that, when tilted, rains feathers, bringing him great delight. But he has a disconcerting way of idly lifting his shirt or putting his hands into his pants. When things don’t go his way — when noises prove too loud, or the emotional temperature around the house grows too intense — he paces restlessly, puts his fist to his forehead and sometimes loses his temper, violently. He has frightened away therapists, and Tami’s composure, barely fortified with alcohol, is fraying. Grammy Sue, already frail, may be imperiled by his outbursts. Daniel Everidge, Julia Murney and Celia Howard in a scene from Deanna Jent’s drama about an 18-year-old boy with autism. The otherwise naturalistic script offers nifty theatrical sleight of hand when a child services employee, also played by Mr. Everidge, stops by. Grammy Sue’s proselytizing displays Ms. Jent’s acute ear for Christian zeal. But the playwright has stacked the dramatic deck: the petulant Lisa has a disdain for her brother that’s hard to believe, as is Grammy Sue’s ignorance about her grandson’s disorder. (To its credit, “Falling” is likely to prompt viewers to investigate autism further.) The actors, however, as directed by Lori Adams, largely bring it off. Ms. Howard doesn’t condescend to her character, and Mr. Everidge, as Josh, succeeds in a part susceptible to caricature. (His striking height underscores Josh’s outsize presence.) And as the tireless Tami, Ms. Murney, best known for roles in musicals, delivers a rounded portrait of maternal sensuality, resourcefulness, resilience and unwavering compassion. Category Off Broadway, Drama, Play Credits Written by Deanna Jent, directed by Lori Adams Cast Starring Daniel Everidge, Celia Howard, Daniel Pearce, Jacey Powers and Julia Murney Closing Date December 30, 2012 This information was last updated: June 30, 2015 “Falling” continues at the Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village; (800) 982-2787, ticketmaster.com. A version of this review appears in print on October 17, 2012, on page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: A Family Dynamic Dictated By Autism. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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‘Falling,’ at Minetta Lane, Looks at Autism’s Role in a Family

Deanna Jent’s drama “Falling” examines how an 18-year-old boy with autism disrupts the equilibrium of a family’s relationships.

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Kibera, Africa’s largest urban slum, is based three miles from Nairobi’s city centre - a city that will almost double in size in the next 10 years. Kibera is estimated to house up to one million of its people, most of whom earn less than $1 per day. Lydia - a young woman born and raised in the slum, who asked The Telegraph to withhold her surname - now lives in a house on its border. The social worker, who currently works with American exchange students, remembers how she began to see its limitations. Initially, there was comfort in Kibera's strong sense of community as she grew up in its Laini Saba village. "We took each others’ problems as our own, regardless of our inability to solve it. Kids required less to be happy. We had no need for expensive toys as we made stuff from whatever was available. I remember I would make dolls from thread and plastic bags." But as you grow up, "you are opened to the other sides of life and interact with other people. Then you begin to realise life has more and in order to have a fulfilling life you need an environment that is conducive for growth." It was dangerous at night due to the lack of lighting, and disease outbreaks were common as government rubbish collectors would not collect waste from the slums. She remembers that "it was easy to escape problems by engaging in drugs, and other substance use and other illegal activities." Increasing urban populations may make the matter worse, driving more people into slum housing. There are several initiatives, both government and community led, to help improve the quality of life for slum dwellers. The Kenyan government is building apartment blocks near Kibera to relocate residents, while projects such as Map Kibera - formed by young Kiberans - aim to open up slum space to the wider community and prevent slums from becoming a "blank spot" for outsiders. There are opportunities to come from such urban poverty. The African Population and Health Research Center has highlighted how residents of slums are younger than average and have higher birthrates. With the greater proportion of working age people that arises from this, there are better chances of economic sustainability. If this is combined with the right government intervention, providing education and health infrastructure, investment in poorer areas can increase, which can higher wages and better housing improvement. There has to be investment in slums, according to the UN, to prevent them from becoming no-go zones of informal development. "Slum upgrading" is a process promoted by its settlement programme, whereby local authorities work with communities to gradually improve living conditions. The UK’s International Development Minister, Justine Greening, has previously said: "Economic development needs to be hand in hand with lifting Africans out of poverty and bad jobs." Lydia agrees. She says poverty-related issues like unemployment and crime will continue as populations rise. According to her experiences of Kibera, she thinks a bottom-up approach is needed. "Lots of people in the slums, especially those that missed education, should be engaged in programs that allow them to get skills that could make them self-dependent or engaged in self-employment, since the current number of available jobs is less than the demand for jobs"

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What Africa will look like in 100 years

As Africa's population looks set to quadruple over the twenty-first century, The Telegraph digs into the data to reveal the opportunities - and challenges - facing a fast-changing continent

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Here is the hamburger you get in better taverns and bars, big and juicy, with a thick char that gives way to tender, medium-rare meat. Like all burgers, it’s best cooked in a cast-iron pan, though it also translates well to the grill. The pub- or tavern-style burger has a precooked weight of 6 to 8 ounces; two pounds of beef will yield four burgers. Avoid making patties that are larger than that, as they will be difficult to cook through. Use your hands to gently divide the ground beef into 4 piles about 8 ounces each, then lightly form each into a thick patty, roughly an inch thick and 3 ½ inches in diameter, like flattened meatballs. Take care not to handle the meat too much. Do not pack the meat tightly; the patty should just hold together. Use your thumb to create an indentation in the top of each patty, which will help it cook evenly. Season aggressively with salt and pepper. Add oil or butter to a large cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet and place over medium heat. When you’re ready to cook, turn the heat to high, place the burgers in the skillet with plenty of distance between them and allow them to cook, without moving them, for about 3 minutes. Flip them over and, if using cheese, lay the slices on meat. The burger is done 3 to 4 minutes later for medium-rare. Remove them from the skillet and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving. This is the traditional, griddled hamburger of diners and takeaway spots, smashed thin and cooked crisp on its edges. This style of burger can only be cooked on a flat surface, like a cast-iron pan; do not attempt it on the grill. The diner hamburger weighs around 3 to 4 ounces precooked, roughly an ice-cream-scoop’s worth of meat. Two pounds of beef will yield eight patties, enough for four to eight servings, depending on whether you choose to serve two patties on a single bun (not an outrageous option). Do not form the patties before cooking. Instead, leave the ground meat in a pile in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook. Then gently divide the ground beef into 8 small piles of around 4 ounces each, and even more gently gather them together into orbs that are about 2 inches in height. Add oil or butter to a large cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet and place over medium heat. When you’re ready to transfer the meat to the pan, turn the heat to high. Put half the orbs into the skillet with plenty of distance between them. Quickly, using a stiff metal spatula, press down on each burger, smashing it to form a thin patty that is around 4 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick. Season with salt and pepper. Cook without moving until patties have achieved a deep, burnished crust, roughly 90 seconds later. Slide your spatula under the patty, flip it over, add cheese if you’re using it, and cook the hamburger through, approximately a minute or so longer. Remove them to buns, and repeat with remaining burgers.

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How to Make Burgers

Anyone can make a good burger, inside on the stovetop or outside on the grill. Making a great one, though, requires a little planning. We’ve assembled all the information and instruction you need.

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Cold dishes sprinkled with Sichuan flavours are a good way to start a meal, two popular options are: liángbàn huángguā (diced cucumber covered in chillies and minced garlic) and liángfěn (cold glutinous strips covered in minced garlic and chilli). Some common stir-fried dishes are: qīngjiāo ròu sī (stir-fried pork with green peppers), pào jiāo niúròu (beef with pickled peppers), làzǐ jī (spicy chicken with red chillies), yú xiāng ròu sī (fish-flavoured pork and veggies – actually a very sweet and delicious dish) and tián pí yā (crispy, sweet duck). Other notable dishes include a local night-time favourite, mào cài (meat and vegetables cooked in cauldrons of chilli oil), a delicious vegetable dish, kōngxīncài (water spinach) and another local winner, féicháng fěn (pig intestines in chilli sauce). There are dozens of other dishes that one could order, but this is a good start. Although it’s hard to separate Sichuan cuisine into bite-size categories, there are a few options that deserve their own sections. The hot pot starts with a vat of oil cooked with chilli, Sichuan peppercorn (also known as the infamous “mouth-numbing spice”), star anise, and cinnamon sticks. In the “white”, non-spicy, version of the soup, you’ll find mushrooms, green onions and some Chinese herbs, whereas in the “red” spicy portion, there is just a crimson, bubbling froth of peppers and oil. After the pot starts bubbling, you select several small dishes from about 100 choices. These choices span the gamut of edible things on earth: cow stomach, duck intestines, chicken liver, bacon strips, beef chunks, potato slices, tofu skin, frogs and prawns, bamboo shoots, courgette, fresh river eel and so on. Pop your choices into the pot and make up your sauce while they cook in the cauldron. The sauce is an important part of the meal and people have their own style. You can fill your bowl with any combination of minced garlic, coriander, sesame oil, salt and pepper, soy sauce or vinegar and a few other sauces and spices that are specific to each hot pot restaurant. By the time you have your sauce figured out, the cold cuts and vegetables will be finished and you can fish them out, pop them into your bowl and slurp them down with a beer or a glass of soy milk, whichever helps you deal with the chilies best. At night the barbecue stands come out and perch on corners throughout the city, serving up skewers of meat and veggies until early dawn. Typical choices are sliced lotus root or potato, chicken, pork, and beef kebabs, small fish, tofu, quail's eggs, and cauliflower. But the average barbecue stand has upwards of 30 different options for the hungry night owl. There are always stands around the Sichuan University gates and on busy corners near bars, clubs or parks. Most stands spice their barbecue with chilli peppers, MSG and salt, so be aware of saying this before ordering: “bùyào wèijīng” which means “no MSG please”. For a real culinary and cultural feast, the imperial-style banquets are certainly something to try if you get a group of ten or so people together. Diners are treated to more than two dozen exquisitely presented dishes, evoking the banqueting days of emperors, concubines and eunuchs. At 300 Yuan (£28) or so per person it's not cheap; it's more of an event than a meal, and certainly a memorable experience. Meat eaters are often surprised to meet vegetarians in China – there is a misconception that Chinese cuisine is meat heavy. In fact, most meat dishes use just small portions of meat. Furthermore, Sichuan meat dishes can be altered to suit vegetarians; for example, tofu can be used in exchange for chicken in the world-renowned dish kung pao chicken. There are also more and more vegetarian restaurants around town that serve excellent dishes, as well as Sichuan classics with fake meat. Notable restaurants include Vegetarian Lifestyle and Lotus on the Water. Most local temples also house vegetarian restaurants. Enjoying an authentic Sichuan cuisine in Chengdu costs only about a fifth of the price you’d pay in the UK. Great or what? More from the Telegraph’s Chengdu travel and cuisine channel: Join the China tea set and stew in tradition » Ornate ancient towns and phenomenal national parks » Help save the giant pandas »

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Traditional Chengdu food offers spices to suit

From spicy hot pots for the adventurous, to tantalising street food or sumptuous banquets, sampling the range of Sichuan cuisine is a must

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Gay marriage advocates are being advised to stop fighting against the plebiscite and instead focus their energies on campaigning. But a former High Court judge who argues there's little point in a public vote and instead wants parliament to get on with its job has the backing of Labor. Michael Kirby, who has lived with his partner Johan since 1969, hopes the Senate will deny support for what he believes is an unnecessary and expensive exercise. In a 10-point take-down of the plan, Mr Kirby says a plebiscite defeated would effectively kill off the reform, possibly for decades. He believes Australia's record on successful constitutional referendums is abysmal and there is no reason to hope this vote, proposed to be held next year, would be an exception to the rule. "It would be better that nothing at all were done by the federal parliament on same-sex marriage than that a plebiscite was undertaken with a possibility of defeat," Mr Kirby writes in The Australian on Tuesday. He's got the backing of the federal opposition, which reckons he's right in arguing it's been almost a century since Australia held a plebiscite on a policy issue. Labor leader Bill Shorten said a taxpayer-funded opinion poll to give licence to hateful community debate was the second best option for marriage equality. But he still wouldn't commit to Labor opposing its establishment. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he told reporters in Melbourne. Liberal backbencher James Paterson says the issue has been extensively dealt with and debated in parliament. A plebiscite was a reasonable solution to what appeared to be a parliamentary deadlock. "If same-sex marriage advocates put their shoulders to the wheel early enough in the process then they'll have the outcome that they want," Senator Paterson told Sky News. "But continuing to fight the last war, trying to stop the plebiscite I think is not the right strategy for people who want to see same sex marriage legalised in Australia."

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Stop fighting gay marriage plebiscite: Lib

Former High Court judge Michael Kirby believes parliament - not a plebisicte - should decide the issue of same-sex marriage.

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BRUSSELS—The European Union’s executive body is set to propose more rules for so-called over-the-top telecommunications services such as Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.21 % ’s Skype or Facebook Inc. FB 0.87 % ’s WhatsApp, in a bid to level the regulatory playing field with the bloc’s big telecom operators. The European Commission plans to require internet communications companies to meet stricter privacy and security protections and make it easy for consumers to move their information when switching to other services, according to an internal document obtained by The Wall Street Journal. The document outlines the commission’s preferred policy options for its coming package to update the bloc’s telecom rules, expected in the fall. Carriers including Deutsche Telekom AG DTEGY -0.40 % and Spain’s Telefónica SA TEF -0.60 % have long asked the European Union to repeal some of the extensive regulations governing carriers, or to extend similar rules to internet-based text-message and voice-call services such as WhatsApp. Telecom companies have complained that the onus is on them to make costly investments to update the networks, while internet companies use those networks to offer free services such as WhatsApp or Alphabet Inc. GOOGL 0.53 % ’s Google Hangouts. In the document, the EU says the new obligations for over-the-top services “may entail some additional costs,” but it doesn’t have specific information about the size of the financial burden. Along with the privacy requirements, over-the-top providers that connect with traditional telephone numbers could face administrative charges, though these would differ among the member states. In Italy, for example, the charges could total roughly 0.2% of annual revenue, according to the document. Under the new proposals, some internet communications companies could also be required to provide emergency-call services. Traditional telecom operators, however, likely will be relieved of some administrative burdens, especially where rules overlap, such as those around compliance regarding contractual rights, according to the document. As part of the EU telecom package, the commission also aims to better coordinate the use of radio spectrum among the bloc’s member states. In its preferred policy option for spectrum, the EU says it wants to introduce common criteria, binding to all EU member states, around the timing of awards for spectrum allocation and the duration of the licenses. Once the commission makes its proposals, various EU institutions would then debate the draft legislation before it enters into law. The Financial Times earlier reported the commission’s plans to increase regulation for over-the-top competitors. Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

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EU Looks to Level Regulatory Playing Field With Apps, Telecoms

The EU’s European Commission looks to level the regulatory playing field between apps and telecoms by proposing stricter privacy and security rules on internet companies, aligning them with major carriers.

20160919063340

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Brandon Dawkins made the most of another start for injured Anu Solomon, especially in the first half. The Arizona redshirt sophomore ran for three touchdowns and passed for another, all in the first two quarters, and the Wildcats wrapped up nonconference play with a 47-28 victory over Hawaii on Saturday night. With Solomon out with a knee injury for the second straight game, Dawkins, completed 16 of 21 passes for 235 yards and carried 15 times for 118 more. "I've got to take advantage of my opportunity when I get it," Dawkins said, "and I feel like I did so these last couple of weeks." Wildcats Freshman J.J. Taylor, thrown into extra duty with an apparent ankle injury to Nick Wilson early in the game, rushed for 168 yards in 18 carries, including a 61-yard touchdown dash down the sideline. "Not surprised at all," Rodriguez said, "and obviously when Nick got hurt, he was the guy. He's a tough, competitive player. He's got a lot of shiftiness to him. He really is mature beyond his years at this level of football." Solomon, a three-year starter, might have a hard time getting his job back. "That's a fair question but it's not fair for me to answer," Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I think Anu's a really good quarterback when he's healthy. I'm hoping he's healthy so we have two starting quarterbacks." Dawkins said he felt much more comfortable than he did in his first start last week against Grambling State." "Just like I always preach, the more reps I get, the better I get," he said. Rodriguez said he didn't know how long Wilson would be out so Taylor "is going to get a chance to play a lot." Junior college transfer Dru Brown replaced Ikaika Woolsey at Hawaii quarterback in the second half and directed three touchdown drives. Much like Dawkins' situation, the question now is whether Brown keeps the job. "We were stale, we weren't doing anything," Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich said. "Dru went in there and played well. The bye week will be a good time for us to look at stuff. I think we are going to have a pretty good discussion, but I thought Dru was executing pretty well." The Rainbows (1-3) fell to 0-5 all-time against Arizona and have lost nine straight road games. Arizona (2-1) amassed 363 yards in the first half to lead 34-7. Dawkins rushed for 111 yards and completed 12 of 15 passes for 171 yard the first two quarters alone. The Wildcats scored TDs their first three possessions The drives of 88 yards in eight plays, 82 yards in six plays and 24 yards in one play used up a combined 5 minutes and 47 seconds. Dawkins scored on a 24-yard run for the first Arizona touchdown and a 14-yard run for the second. On Hawaii's next possession, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles intercepted Woolsey's pass at the Hawaii 24. Tyrell Johnson scored on an end around on the next play and it was 20-0. Hawaii (1-3) got on the board with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Woolsey to freshman John Ursua with 1:10 to go in the first. But the Wildcats pulled away with two second-quarter scores. Dawkins connected with Shun Brown on a 56-yard touchdown pass play and scored again on a six-yard run. Penalties hurt the Rainbows all night, none more than the holding call that negated Woolsey's 48-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Colie. The score would have cut Arizona's lead to 20-14 in the second quarter. Hawaii also had a touchdown pass called back in the fourth quarter due to an illegal formation call but eventually scored on the drive. In all, Hawaii was penalized 12 times for 95 yards. With a flurry of late penalties, Arizona was just as bad. The Wildcats were penalized 11 times for 105 yards. One of six crewmen still living who were on the USS Arizona when it sank, 93-year-old Lauren Bruner, was on hand when the University of Arizona commemorated the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Among other activities, the university auctioned off three No. 75 jerseys, three helmets and two helmet-jersey combinations, with profits going to the USS Arizona Mall Memorial. Hawaii: Rainbows have a week off before opening Mountain West Conference play at home against Nevada. Arizona: Wildcats open Pac-12 play next Saturday night at home against Washington, a team currently at No. 8 in the AP Top 25.

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Brandon Dawkins, J.J. Taylor lead Arizona to rout of Hawaii

With Solomon out with a knee injury for the second straight game, Brandon Dawkins, completed 16 of 21 passes for 235 yards and carried 15 times for 118 more.

20160930164837

Harvard University said Thursday that it recruited a veteran investment manager from rival Columbia University to take over its struggling endowment. The Cambridge school named N.P. “Narv” Narvekar chief executive of its $35.7 billion fund, the largest endowment in the higher education world. Narvekar, 54, has run the $9.6 billion Columbia endowment since 2002. He’ll take the reins at Harvard on Dec. 5. Harvard’s endowment, once the envy of the academic world, has scuffled in recent years. On Narvekar’s watch, Columbia produced an annualized return of 10.1 percent over the 10 years through June 2015, Harvard said. Harvard’s gain over that period was 7.6 percent. After a 2 percent loss in 2016, Harvard’s 10-year return has slumped to 5.7 percent. Columbia has not yet released its return for the most recent fiscal year, a challenging period for most endowments, though its assets have dipped. Harvard’s investing model may be under fresh scrutiny with the new boss. Unlike most of its rivals, Harvard has a large staff of more than 200 and manages about 40 percent of its money internally. Most schools hire outside firms to manage their money. At Columbia, Narvekar oversaw a staff of 20. “Narv is a highly successful endowment manager with an outstanding 14-year track record heading a large endowment, providing steady leadership and delivering strong returns,” Paul Finnegan, chairman of Boston-based Harvard Management, the school’s investment arm, said in a statement. The board has been under pressure to find a permanent chief executive for the endowment since July, when Stephen Blyth stepped down after a brief and unexplained medical leave. Blyth had held the job for just a year-and-a-half. Narvekar will be the endowment’s fourth CEO in 10 years. Before Columbia, Narvekar worked in the investment office at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had earned his MBA at the Wharton School in 1991. Prior to joining the endowment world, Narvekar worked for Wall Street’s J.P. Morgan for 14 years, ultimately rising to the position of managing director for equity derivatives. In a statement, Narvekar said, “It is an honor to join such a prestigious investment organization and help support the mission of Harvard University.” He also said HMC has an “unparalleled investment platform among endowments.” At the University of Pennsylvania, Narvekar was focused on building hedge fund and private equity portolios. Among the boards he currently serves on, he is a member of the Soros Foundations Investment Committee. Narvekar grew up in Chevy Chase, Md., and attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where he majored in economics. Harvard University president Drew Faust, who has expressed concern over Harvard’s lagging investment results, in a statement said, “We are pleased to welcome Narv to Harvard and are confident that his leadership skills and deep experience at the highest levels of investment management will position HMC for long-term success.” Wall Street bond rating agency S&P Global Ratings on Thursday affirmed Harvard’s AAA rating on roughly $5 billion in debt, citing “significant cash and investments compared with outstanding debt.” Harvard has cut its debt down from a high of $6.3 billion in 2011, after investment losses in the financial crisis. It’s about to refinance $2.5 billion in outstanding bonds next week, or about half its total debt.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160930164837id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/09/29/harvard-hires-new-endowment-chief/BAOnlLOh3craakscDa8fjO/story.html

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Harvard hires new endowment chief

N.P. “Narv” Narvekar, currently head of Columbia University’s endowment, will take over Harvard’s $35.7 billion fund in December.

20161118132642

Kate Upton is not accepting voting results…for the Cy Young Award. The model is the fiancée of Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, winner of the 2011 AL Cy Young Award. Verlander was a finalist for this year's award, but he fell to Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello, a former Tiger. Verlander actually had more first-place votes than Porcello, but lost in total points: Here's the crazy breakdown of the AL Cy Young voting, via @officialBBWAA, Justin Verlander had six more 1st place votes than the winner. pic.twitter.com/xnQBcUnVbC — Big League Stew (@bigleaguestew) November 16, 2016 Upton expressed her distaste for baseball writers with a NSFW Twitter rant: Hey @MLB I thought I was the only person allowed to fuck @JustinVerlander ?! What 2 writers didn't have him on their ballot? — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016 He had the majority of 1st place votes and 2 writers didn't have him on their ballots?!! can you pick more out of touch people to vote?@MLB — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016 Sorry Rick but you didn't get any 1st place votes? you didn't win. #ByeFelicia @MLB keep up with the times and fire those writers — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 16, 2016 She even dished some attitude to some fans: @WillBrabrook @MLB he got less 1st place votes then justin. Your the only idiot here buddy — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 17, 2016 @Pete_BBS oh your cute... check the stats boo justin won in first place votes — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 17, 2016 @LAPatriot @MLB how many 2nd place votes? huh? he lost to Justin in 1st place votes. If Tampa bay writers weren't paid off... — Kate Upton (@KateUpton) November 17, 2016 Upton retweeted Verlander's brother, Ben, a Tigers minor leaguer: Are you kidding me? Most first place votes and doesn't win? #SaltyYoungerBrother Explain this.. pic.twitter.com/RpEb4PPrME — Ben Verlander (@Verly32) November 16, 2016 There is a lot to digest here, but one important point: Verlander and Porcello used to be teammates. Porcello pitched with the Tigers from 2009-2014. Verlander was the team's ace, as he has been since his first full season in 2006. On top of that, the NL Cy Young Award winner was Max Scherzer, another former Tiger, who pitched in Detroit from 2010-2014. Scherzer also won the AL Cy Young Award in 2013. Could Upton be extra salty because two former teammates who used to pitch in Verlander's shadow won Cy Young Awards Wednesday? It's certainly something to think about. P.S. For reference, Upton tweeted this about NFL players kneeling in September. -- Follow Jeff Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband. Like Jeff Eisenband on Facebook. Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Cy Young, Cy Young Award, Detroit Tigers, Justin Verlander, Kate Upton, Max Scherzer, MLB, model, Pitcher, Rick Porcello, SI Swimsuit Issue, Twitter, Washington Nationals

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Kate Upton Twitter Defense For Verlander Cy Young

Kate Upton raged on Twitter with a NSFW rant after Justin Verlander lost Cy Young Award voting to Rick Porcello.

20161224144817

Queensland's opposition claims the state government could have prevented October's train timetable meltdown amid reports Deputy Premier Jackie Trad was warned one year before the crisis unfolded. A staff member anonymously contacted the Transport Department warning of the "disastrous situation" in October 2015 when Ms Trad was the responsible minister, the Seven Network has reported. The network's Right to Information request revealed the staff member warned there was a large number of services without the necessary drivers. They also highlighted the disbanding of a training section, a blowout in training times, a lack of training staff and a bulk retirement of experienced drivers. "There will be major damage: massive cancellations," notes from the call said. The notes were reportedly forwarded to two senior advisors of Ms Trad, but the department ruled that no further information was required. It has previously been revealed current Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe's department was warned of the looming problems in March. "It's unforgivable that not one but two ... transport ministers could have prevented the timetable debacle but chose to do nothing," opposition transport spokesman Andrew Powell said. "It's an insult to Queenslanders and quite frankly, it's bad governance." A spokeswoman for Ms Trad said following the anonymous call, a Queensland Rail briefing informed both Ms Trad and Treasurer Curtis Pitt 100 new drivers and 100 new guards were being recruited. This was to meet the requirements of projects like the Moreton Bail Rail Link, the opening of which triggered a major timetable meltdown in October when widespread service cancellations caused commuter chaos. "At no stage did Queensland Rail (QR) provide any advice to the Deputy Premier that train crew availability was a risk to the opening of the new Moreton Bay Rail Link," the spokeswoman said. The saga resulted in the resignations of senior QR bureaucrats, but Mr Hinchliffe has resisted multiple calls for him to resign or be sacked as the train network runs on a scaled-back timetable.

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Trad 'warned' of looming Qld train saga

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad was warned of a looming shortage of train drivers one year before the Queensland Rail timetabling saga unfolded, RTI documents show.

20101117160037

Jovan Collier was able to keep a dark secret: He had killed his adoptive parents and younger brother when he was 14 years old. For years, he lived under another name and led a seemingly normal life, until his deep-seated rage was awakened. Collier began to aggressively stalk his ex-fiancee -- vandalizing her home, allegedly threatening her, even sending her a dead piglet. Collier is now serving time in a Florida prison for aggravated stalking. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner, who has not treated Collier, offers an expert perspective on the case, and answered viewers' questions about Collier's strange behavior. Welner, M.D., Chairman of The Forensic Panel, is an ABC News Consultant. He is an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and has worked in some of the most sensitive cases in America in recent years. Click here for more on Welner. Cal asked: Based on his reported behavior, would you say that Jovan Collier aka Peter Zimmer is clinically a psychopath? Do you believe his claimed "abandonment issues" from childhood had any profound influence on the way he turned out, or is he exaggerating those issues to excuse his behavior? Dr. Welner answered: You cannot tell Collier's diagnosis from the murder alone. Still, the brazenness of his sense of entitlement to the estate of the family he murdered, and the schemes of setting her up with unsuspecting sex website partners makes it realistic to ponder whether he actually is a psychopath. Brazenness is an exceptional "quality." When in the quality of lying or and having two wives unbeknownst to one another, when brazen in action, should inspire greater scrutiny. Adolescents who kill have conflicts at home. Some have been abused; some are merely destructive characters who will not tolerate limits being set. Abandonment issues plague many, including those from intact homes. The choice of violence relates to how someone deals with abandonment or other life priorities and stressors, not adoption per se. Emotional abandonment is not a trigger to familicide as much as material abandonment is, although issues ranging from abuse and threats to antisocial explosiveness to substance intoxication are all realistic possibilities. When adolescent killers return to the community, it should surprise no one that they conceal their past as best they can. For every person willing to give them a second chance, there are many who are horrified at the notion that they, as killers, can be free to enjoy the simple pleasures their victims cannot. When questions come from those who discover the frightening truth, and those questions are inevitable, killers often have rationalizations for explanations to put their behavior in a more understandable light. Not just for the rest of us – but if they have a conscience, sometimes for themselves. Jean asked: How, after committing such a heinous crime at age 14, could he remain free from violent crimes (as far as we know) for 25 years? I'm sure during those years he experienced rejection or anger at some points, which should have triggered some sort of similar reaction. Why didn't these violent actions surface before now? Dr. Welner answered: We don't know enough of Collier's movements for 25 years. Clearly he is effective at compartmentalizing the people in his life from others, such that the killings were only one of his important secrets. If he had remained non-violent for all of that time, and there are numerous cities, relationships, and stops along the way, he is an adult with a more fully developed sense of anticipating consequences and impulse control for example. The mistaken choices adolescents make would not necessarily be repeated in adulthood -- especially if a person is horrified by what he had done and punishment is strong enough to be a deterrent. But Collier's readiness to arm himself with a knife, even in public yet, and menacing Candy demonstrates that he has no qualms revisiting his destructive potential.

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Understanding Teen Killer's Mind: Your Questions

Jovan Collier was able to keep a dark secret: He murdered his adoptive parents and younger brother when he was just 14 years old. For years, he lived under another name and led a seemingly normal life, until his deep-seated rage was awakened.

20110124230539

BY MICHAEL SAUL in Albuquerque and DAVE SALTONSTALL in New York DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Sunday, March 11th 2001, 2:20AM The long-lost son of a Long Island couple will fly to New York today to defend the only father he has ever known - the man who allegedly kidnapped him 22 years ago. Matthew Propp said yesterday he hopes to stand behind his "dad," Bennett Propp, 56, as the elder Propp faces a Queens Supreme Court hearing tomorrow on criminal charges of kidnapping. "I'm nervous about the outcome," said Matthew Propp, 22, from near his home in Albuquerque. "I obviously don't want to see my dad end up in jail. Hopefully, everything will turn out good in the end." The emotional appeal came as the elder Propp was being held early yesterday on $25,000 bail at the Queens House of Detention, where he landed Thursday after turning himself in to authorities. If convicted on the kidnapping charge, he could face 25 years in prison. The maneuverings were the latest twist in a contorted, adoption case that began in March 1979, when Matthew Propp was born to Anthony Russini and his future wife, Debbie Gardner, of Westbury, L.I. At the time, the little boy was named Anthony Joseph Russini Jr. Three days later, however, Gardner signed adoption papers that granted custody of the boy to Barry and Judith Smiley of Jamaica Estates, Queens, both solid citizens who at the time worked for New York City. Things became complicated after Gardner sued to overturn the adoption, which she said she signed in a bleary, postpartum haze. Rather than comply with a court order to return their son, who was then 15 months old, the Smileys packed up their Jamaica Estates home and disappeared. The couple eventually surfaced in Albuquerque, taking on the aliases Bennett and Mary Propp. They renamed their son Matthew Propp and carved out a peaceful life selling silver trinkets from a vending cart at a plaza in nearby Santa Fe. All was quiet for more than 20 years, except for the Russinis. For years, they knew only that their baby had been kidnapped. They bought the missing boy Christmas presents. They posted a $10,000 reward and chased leads as far away as Florida. And the Russinis, now divorced and not available for comment yesterday, always wondered if the son they had held for only three precious days was dead or alive. The mystery finally unraveled about a year ago when Propp - then a 21-year-old high school grad, living what he thought was a normal life - applied for a job as a cop. The department asked to see his birth certificate. And when Propp asked his parents for a copy, the whole story came spilling out. The Propps hired a lawyer and turned themselves in. By last week, the elder Propp - the former Barry Smiley, deputy director of personnel for New York City - was back in Queens facing charges of kidnapping. His wife, who has remained in New Mexico recovering from knee surgery, will face the same charges. Yesterday, friends of the Propps expressed shock over the family's dark secret. They recalled a dad who was so proud of their son he named his jewelry stand Matt's Silver Works. "It's terrible that this happened for both parties - the Propps and the biological relatives," said Carmelita Houtman, who worked with Propp in Santa Fe. "It's just kind of hard to believe, because the Propps are nice people. But I guess everyone has a dark side - or a gray side."

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STANDING BEHIND 'DAD' L.I. couple's son backs alleged abductor

By MICHAEL SAUL in Albuquerque and DAVE SALTONSTALL in New York DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS The long-lost son of a Long Island couple will fly to New York today to defend the only father he has ever known - the man who allegedly kidnapped him 22 years ago. Matthew Propp said yesterday he hopes to stand behind his "dad,"Bennett Propp, 56, as the elder Propp faces a Queens Supreme Court hearing tomorrow on criminal charges

20130715040228

There have been cases, warn police, of bike thieves targeting specific houses: tipped off to the location of expensive machines by rides logged on sites like Strava. It's better to be safe than sorry, and Strava makes it very easy to be safe. Go to the privacy tab on the settings page and you can create a "privacy zone" around your house, office or favourite lock-up spot. Rides that start or finish in one of those zones will then be clipped so thieves can't work out exactly where your bike lives. The distance and average speed of your rides remain unchanged. 3. Get a little boost One for the unscrupulous, which we don't condone and include here purely for educational purposes... Upload your rides to Digital EPO before logging them on Strava and you can "juice" them to make it appear that you rode faster than you actually did. Bump the average speed up one per cent for a subtle advantage, or go the whole hog and steal all the KOMs in your county - but you're only cheating yourself. It's not wise to keep all your digital eggs in one basket; if Strava ceases to exist you could lose a treasure trove of bragging rights fond memories. Garmin Connect is a great option if you want to diversify. The only problem is that uploading your GPS files to both sites takes twice as long - unless you use Garmin Sync to automatically do half the work. Email signatures are normally functional affairs reserved for job titles, phone numbers and addresses. But wouldn't it be great if you could somehow use yours to show off the fact that you hold the King of the Mountain across the local Tesco car park? VeloViewer will compile a small graphic (see above) concisely listing all of your Strava achievements. Segments can be a great motivator, but that's just one element of Strava. The site also runs regular challenges that last from a single day up to a month. They normally involve running or riding a certain distance, or climbing a certain height. Whatever the challenge, it can be the difference between taking a long weekend lie-in or getting out and putting in some miles. Sometimes GPS computers can have a momentary wobble in the presence of tall buildings or when satellite reception is weak; SNAP (Segment Needs A Polish) helps you to correct those errors. You can drag wayward waypoints in your ride back onto the path you actually took. David Millar came back from a broken collarbone early last year to win stage 12 of the Tour de France. One fan took to Strava to pay tribute, using San Fransisco's grid layout as a guide to virtually etch "Millar Time" across the city. This might not be as easy if you live in the UK with its higgledy-piggledy road networks, but that just adds to the challenge. What is Strava for if not competing mercilessly with friends and colleagues? This tool makes squaring up to one another easy, even if you don't ride together: enter your "athlete number" (which is in the address bar when you view your profile) and that of one or more other riders. It then searches through the archives and finds segments that you've all recorded times for, laying out the results out for all to see. 10. Drop off the grid Perhaps the best Strava tip I can recommend is to take a day off, leave the GPS at home and enjoy a ride at your own pace with nobody peering over your shoulder: sometimes it's nice to take it easy.

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Top 10 Strava tips and tricks

Strava has forever changed cycling, for better or worse. The website tracks you via GPS and publicly ranks your best time on "segments" of road along with other users. Now even a short trip to the supermarket has an element of competition. We look at ten of the best tips and tricks to get the most out of it.

20131023071734

British Transport Police arrested four men as part of a crackdown on alleged graffiti artists before the Olympics. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP When Adidas wanted to create a mural to illustrate the launch of its new football boot last year, it turned to "professional graffiti artist" Darren Cullen for help. Cullen, 38, runs a firm providing spraycan artwork and branding to major international companies, and says he has never painted illegally on a wall or train. But despite having worked with one of the Games's major sponsors, on Tuesday Cullen was arrested by British Transport Police (BTP) and barred from coming within a mile of any Olympic venue, as part of a pre-emptive sweep against a number of alleged graffiti artists before the Olympics. BTP confirmed that four men from Kent, London and Surrey, aged between 18 and 38, had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage, two of whom were also further arrested on suspicion of incitement to commit criminal damage. They were bailed until November under strict conditions restricting their access to rail, tube and tram transport, preventing them from owning spray paint or marker pens, and ordering them not to go near any Olympic venue in London or elsewhere. None has been charged. The arrests were in connection with "a live and ongoing criminal investigation into linked incidents of criminal damage between January 2007 and July 2012", said a BTP spokesman. But Cullen, who says he has never painted illegally and whose firm Graffiti Kings has worked with major blue chip firms including Microsoft and NPower and the Royal Shakespeare Company, said he was not questioned over any alleged incidents of criminal damage. Instead, he said, he was asked about a website he had set up two years ago on behalf of a client, frontline-magazine.co.uk. The website was "all about the history of graffiti", Cullen said, but did not promote it. "I don't condone or promote illegal graffiti," he said. "I always say to young people: 'Don't do it. It's no good for you.'" The arrests come as the Metropolitan police's strategy of halting potential disruptive action in advance of major public events was given high court endorsement. The tactic is a key plank of police planning to ensure the Games are not disrupted. In the high court on Wednesday, Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Openshaw ruled the police did not operate an unlawful policy by carrying out pre-emptive strikes before Prince William's wedding last year. The judges dismissed applications for judicial review from 20 people among scores who were arrested or subjected to searches in the days before and during the wedding. "We find nothing in the various strands of the claimants' case, whether taken individually or cumulatively, to make good the contention that the policing of the royal wedding involved an unlawful policy or practice, with an impermissibly low threshold of tolerance for public protests," said the judges. Human rights activists had argued the case had major implications for the policing of other major events, including the Olympics. In addition to his previous work for Adidas, Cullen said he was in discussions to provide artwork with another major Olympic sponsor and had been commissioned to spraypaint a London taxi to be used by a leading broadcaster at the Games. His computer equipment, phone, iPad and his son's laptop had been confiscated. The four men's bail conditions also forbid them from entering "any railway system, including tubes and trams, or [being] in any train, tram or tube station or in or on any other railway property not open to the public" unless in limited circumstances including attending a written appointment with a solicitor. They are also barred from possessing "any spray paint, marker pens, any grout pen, etching equipment, or unset paint". One graffiti blog claimed that among those arrested, some "had stopped painting graffiti without prior permission over a decade ago … while others haven't touched a spray can at all in many years". It accused police of attempting to "sanitise" London before the Games.

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Graffiti artist who worked for Adidas is banned from Olympic Games venues

Darren Cullen is also barred from owning paint or using most public transport as part of pre-emptive police crackdown

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Their last movie grossed more than $306 million, but now the makers of "Independence Day" want a real monster hit. Brace yourself for the new "Godzilla. " Still arthritic and carbuncular and damned with breath so bad it could burn through Japanese trade barriers, the 40-year-old dragon is due for a makeover. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the directing/writing duo responsible for last summer's alien invasion of America's theaters, mean to give Godzilla a special-effects update that could annihilate all other mindless entertainment in its path. Sony studios, which is marketing the movie, also promises to make the reptile a formidable foe. "In Japan, Godzilla is like a deity," says executive producer Cary Woods. "For Sony to do it well, it's going to be earth-shaking over there. " For years, the monster's rights were tied up by Toho, a Japanese theater chain/movie company that cranked out a half dozen sequels (in which Godzilla grappled with Mothra, Gigan, Megalon and the Smog Monster a creature born of waste and factory fumes). Then Sony made an offer Toho couldn't refuse. The new version was orginally budgeted at around $100 million; Sony now hopes to bring it in for closer to $80 million. Woods, who produced the new Wes Craven thriller, "Scream," says "Godzilla" probably won't rear his ugly head until summer of 1998. Beyond that he won't say much. "We want it to be a complete surprise," he adds. ANGELS WITH STARING FACES Meanwhile, how about a sequel called "Godzilla vs. the Guardian Angels"? The other day Curtis Sliwa was telling us how his red-bereted street commandos were once invited to Tokyo to help combat crime. Sliwa put his 128-man squad through some grueling martial arts training. Even so, he recalled, "some guys were worried about the Yakuza mafia cutting off fingers while others were concerned about stories that Japanese criminals never surrender. Did we need gas masks in case we were attacked with poisonous fumes in the subways? " Tokyo politicians welcomed the Angels there with endless speeches. But then they were given their assignments. Says Sliwa: "We all got separate street addresses and were told to stand on the corner and catch . . . jaywalkers. " Even worse, said Sliwa, "when we caught the perp, we were told to just stare at him. In Japan, that is some kind of horrible punishment. We used to nab these drunk Japanese businessmen who had taken one step against the light. When we stared, they would just cower in shame. " Sliwa has decided not to apply these disciplinary techniques in New York. SURVEILLANCE The bar at L. 's Mondrian Hotel was buzzing when George Clooney and Elle Macpherson walked in looking cozy. But it turns out they were meeting fellow Bat-star Chris O'Donnell. Macpherson appears to be hanging tight with financier Arky Buisson, who had been there with her the night before . . . Carre Otis and hubby Mickey Rourke used to be regulars at L. 's Gold's Gym that is until Rourke pummeled actor Jeff Kober for chatting with Otis. Rourke, who later claimed self-defense, has never returned to the fitness mecca. But Los Angeles magazine reports that Otis was recently spotted on the Stairmaster while trying to curb her Mickey habit by reading "Women Who Love Too Much. " . . . That was Jennifer Grey, ex-girlfriend of Matthew Broderick, sizing up his current girlfriend, Sarah Jessica Parker in "Once Upon a Mattress. " . . . Did "21" run out of Champagne? Joan Rivers sent over Diet Cokes to Claudia Cohen when she celebrated her birthday with Regis Philbin, Bob Colacello, Ron Silver and boyfriend Bob Batscha. . . . ITEMIZING Gold in the Heights: Matt Dillon's 1993 movie "The Saint of Fort Washington," about homeless people living in the Fort Washington Armory in Washington Heights, couldn't be made today. Nearly all the homeless are gone. In their place Saturday was the Bishop Laughlin Games, the oldest high school track meet in the country. Afterward, nine Olympians who've competed in the Armory including Bob Beamon, Al Oerter, Derrick Adkins and Cheryl Tousaint-Eason were honored around the corner at Coogan's Restaurant, the atmospheric Heights hangout. . . . Actress Bonnie Hunt, who stars with Tom Cruise in "Jerry MaGuire," scoffs at those stubborn rumors that Cruise is gay. Hunt insists: "It's so absurd. This man is so heterosexual. "The perky 33-year-old blond admitted, "Every time he touched me in in the movie we had to do a reshoot because I blushed. One scene even had to be redone 20 times. " Hunt's other co-star, Renee Zellweger, meanwhile, is onto her next gig. In Miramax' "Price Below Rubies," she plays a Hasidic woman who goes against her religious-scholar husband to take a job in New York's diamond district. . . . "Big Bad Bill": Billy Norwich, born William Goldberg, is undergoing another name change. The style counselor has told staffers at the New York Observer that he would prefer to be called "Bill. " Says Norwich: "When one gets to a certain age, a diminutive of a name is less preferable. But I don't really care.

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'GODZILLA' GETS `ID4' TEAM'S GARGANTUAN STOMP OF APPROVAL

Their last movie grossed more than $306 million, but now the makers of "Independence Day" want a real monster hit. Brace yourself for the new "Godzilla." Still arthritic and carbuncular and damned with breath so bad it could burn through Japanese trade barriers, the 40-year-old dragon is due for a makeover. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the directing/writing duo responsible for last summer's alien invasion of America's theaters, mean to give Godzilla a speci

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Gerald Roy bought his first quilt 52 years ago. He was a Worcester kid who had headed west to study art in Oakland, Calif., fallen in love — with Paul Pilgrim, another art school student — and found himself drawn to the endless patterns found at craft fairs, in closets, and on clotheslines. Over the years, the couple’s hobby turned into a profession. They collected more than 1,200 quilts, helped design the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky., and co-curated exhibits throughout the country. Pilgrim died of cancer in 1996, but their collection lives on. On April 6, the Museum of Fine Arts opens a show featuring 58 pieces from the collection. The show runs through July 27 in the Gund Gallery. Roy, 74, spoke with the Globe recently while walking through “Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection.” A. Why not? They were made as utility, they were made to provide warmth. They were made by poor people. But they were also made by rich people. There is nothing you can pinpoint as to who made quilts. They celebrated every single milestone in a person’s life. You could be conceived under a quilt, be born under a quilt, die under a quilt. A. People walked into the door yesterday. And every face said, ‘This is not what I had in mind.’ There was a man who approached me and said, ‘I was not prepared for this. My whole attitude and history and knowledge of quilts is not what’s on these walls.’ I said, ‘I know that. I know that because there are quilts and then there are these.’ Q. When you started, did you imagine building a collection? A. The first time we saw an Amish quilt hanging on a clothes line in Pennsylvania, we asked, ‘What is a Josef Albers doing hanging on a clothes line?’ We started thinking, we can’t afford Albers paintings as much as we’d like to, but we can afford to buy an Albers quilt. Q. How much did those first quilts cost? A. We were paying $350 for a quilt in 1969. Remember, for $25,000, you could get a pretty nice house back then. In the ’90s, the market boomed and became terribly inflated. And it just dropped instantly. The only thing that has made a significant difference is not only has the market dropped, but the opportunity to buy quilts I’m interested in happens very seldom nowadays. A. We’re not interested in quilts after, say, 1940. Quilts became big business and professional designers began making quilting patterns and making them easy. Everything started looking the same. The only difference between a quilt that comes from a kit is the degree of difficulty or degree of craftsmanship. Other than that, 10 paces away, they all look the same. . . . Most of the good quilts are in major collections, and the only way they come back on the market is when collectors die. Q. Tell me an interesting story about one of these quilts. A. There’s one time we bought a quilt at an outdoor fair or market, the woman leaned over and said to her husband, ‘I just sold the Edsel.’ Another time, a woman in Iowa got in touch with me. I had just written an article on orange and how we found orange such a wonderful color to work with. She called me and said, ‘Would you be interested in buying an orange quilt from us. I can guarantee you it’s never been used.’ The quilt came, we negotiated the price, we purchased it. She said, ‘It’s called the ‘ugly quilt.’ No one ever wanted it. Therefore no one ever used it.’ It’s not ugly, is it? Look at it right there on the museum wall. But it’s ugly if you have a prejudice of orange. Q. How much did the orange one cost? A. Well, we negotiated a price. She actually threw out a price to me and I said, ‘It’s worth much more than that.’ And I paid her more than it was worth. A. I know if she comes across something like this again, I’m the first person she’s going to call. To buy it for that, I would have felt I was a thief. I don’t particularly care about paying somebody what it’s worth. I don’t want to have the reputation of stealing things from people. Q. So how much was it? A. I’m not going to say that. Q. How about just a ballpark? It’s such a great story. A. Let’s just say she wanted less than $5,000 and more than $500. I’ve never heard of a collector who gets a deal — an amazing deal — and then says, ‘That’s too good of a deal for me, let me give you a little more.’ I want people to respect me, and I also don’t want them to say, gee, you know I just found out that quilt I sold him for $500 is worth $5,000. Q. This is such a beautiful collection. What will happen to it? A. Museums have suddenly realized how popular quilt exhibitions are. So between gift and purchase, these things need to go somewhere. I’m going to die someday. Museums go on.

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Gerald Roy’s quilt collection covers the spectrum

Gerald Roy bought his first quilt 52 years ago. He was a Worcester kid who had headed west to study art in Oakland, Calif., fallen in love — with Paul Pilgrim, another art school student — and found himself drawn to the endless patterns found at craft fairs, in hope chests, and on clothes lines. Over the years, the couple’s hobby turned into obsession. They collected more than 1,200 quilts, helped design the National Quilt Museum in Kentucky, and co-curated exhibits throughout the country. Pilgrim died of cancer in 1996, but their collection lives on. On April 6, the Museum of Fine Arts opens a show featuring 58 quilts in the couple’s collection, running through July 27 in the Gund Gallery. Roy, 74, spoke with the Globe recently while walking through “Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection.”

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“In opera, it is the singing that moves one to tears, that causes horror, that inspires death. Good drama has nothing to do with good sense.” Librettists, take heed. This was the sound advice seasoned composer Vincenzo Bellini gave to Carlo Pepoli, librettist for his final opera, “I Puritani” (“The Puritans”). Tonight, Boston Lyric Opera unveils a new production of this bel canto masterpiece, a fiery tale of religious mania, royal duty, and nearly thwarted love set around 1650 against the evocative military background of the English Civil War. Considered by many to be Bellini’s finest score, the rarely performed opera (completed in 1835) contains numerous bravura arias and duets for the two principals, the maiden Elvira and her conflicted suitor Lord Arturo Talbot. Like Romeo and Juliet, Elvira (coloratura soprano) and Arturo (lyric tenor) are star-crossed lovers. Elvira is a Puritan, daughter of the commander of the fortress at Plymouth. (The one in Devon, not the one on the South Shore of Massachusetts named after it a few decades earlier by the Pilgrims, a radical Puritan group.) Arturo is a Cavalier, a supporter of the Stuart dynasty briefly overthrown by the anti-royalist insurgency led by Oliver Cromwell. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, however, this story ends happily with the lovers reunited — somewhat abruptly, it’s true. But not before plenty of dramatic and vocal fireworks, including several celebrated mad scenes for Elvira, who believes (wrongly) that she has been jilted at the altar by her bridegroom Arturo. In fact, he has only been fulfilling his duty by helping Queen Henrietta, widow of the freshly executed Stuart monarch Charles I, escape to safety during a brief window of opportunity. Although both Sarah Coburn and John Tessier, the singing actors who are taking the leading roles in the BLO production, admit that the opera’s plot strains credibility at times, they find it a “compelling story,” as Tessier observed in a recent joint interview conducted at Coburn’s temporary home in a high-rise near Haymarket. As we talked, Coburn’s two young daughters (Ruby and Katie Rose) vied for opera mom’s attention. “What I do with an opera like this,” said Coburn, as Ruby played on her lap, “is to read the libretto and try to think how would I have lived through this story if I had lived at that time. How would it have affected me, all of my senses? I think it’s a mistake when we try to apologize for this repertoire because it’s not ‘realistic’ enough. It is storytelling, and it’s our job to tell it well.” For Coburn, raised and trained in Oklahoma, Elvira’s trademark mad scenes are the “easiest part. Because madness on stage really frees you — you don’t have to stand still, you don’t have to look pretty. You can act inappropriately. In rehearsals we have been talking about how madness was a form of liberation for women in the society of this time, a way to escape from the oppression they felt, from all the expectations. In her music, she’s a little bit off from the very beginning. You can hear this kind of strangulation that a woman would likely feel at this time — especially if she’s the only female living in a fortress surrounded by men! She’s just a pawn, under pressure to be pure and perfect.” As it happens, Coburn is the daughter of one of the US senators from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, who is retiring from the Senate at the end of the current session. Her father was not originally an opera fan, she admitted (“I have taught him what he knows”), but is “very supportive and comes to my performances when he can.” Tessier, a Canadian from Alberta, describes Arturo as “a slave to duty. When he recognizes the queen, he has to follow through and help her, even though to do so he has to temporarily abandon Elvira without explanation. So he is a very” — he hesitated while searching for the right words — “miserable guy! But what matters is establishing strong relationships between the characters on stage and making those relationships believable.” Coburn and Tessier are appearing together on stage for the third time. In 2007 they starred in Bellini’s Romeo-and-Juliet opera, “I Capuleti e I Montecchi” at Glimmerglass Opera, and in 2012 made their BLO debuts together in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville.” Both have also worked previously with David Angus, BLO’s music director, who will conduct “I Puritani.” In recent years, the soprano and tenor have been heard in such prestigious houses as the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, and English National Opera. Over the years, some of opera’s greatest stars have made their mark in the showy roles of Elvira and Arturo: Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti. The soprano soars to a high E-flat, and the tenor to a high F. “But I try not to think of what other singers have done, or of the high notes,” said Coburn. “It can’t be only about the high notes or it will be a boring evening.” Tessier agreed. “I don’t want the audience to close their eyes and only listen to beautiful singing. I want them to see how much I love her and how much pain we are in when we meet again at the end.”

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Boston Lyric Opera tells the tale of two other star-crossed lovers

The Boston Lyric Opera unveils a new production of Bellini’s “I Puritani,” a fiery tale of religious mania and nearly thwarted love set around 1650 against the evocative background of the English Civil War.

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UPDATED 05/19/2014 at 06:15 PM EDT • Originally published 05/19/2014 at 04:00 PM EDT James Maslow and Peta Murgatroyd Last week was rather stressful for both of us. In our Michael Jackson number, everything was sort of coming together, but then on the day we were doing our walkthrough with the band and our dress rehearsal, they took our stage away. We had a catwalk and a round stage and they took that away because they realized they couldn't get it up in time. So all week long, we were practicing and had marked out the floor and width and depth and stuff and used choreography that would fit the catwalk. I was freaking out because we had to now do the cha cha on the floor and it wouldn't look as good, but we got through it and ! We were so excited about that because we had gone through a rough day. That was awesome. We were so stoked. I thought James really pulled off those Michael Jackson moves too, like Carrie Ann said. I was so proud of him, I thought he was so good. Our rumba was great too. We got all 9's for that and I thought it was beautiful. I definitely took into consideration his hands that the judges were talking about and so we're going to fix those, but actually this week we have the freestyle and the tango, so we don't have to concentrate on the fluidity of his hands. This week, we're aiming for high energy. Freestyle is all about the last dance. It's the last chance to show America what he can do. It's about your journey and it has to be one big party. I'm so psyched to show you what we've got. We have a cute story line to go with it and it's just going to be really badass. It's going to be hard-hitting, and I want everybody to get off their feet and dance to this. It's going to be really awesome. I love the freestyle dance. It's just a massive send off that really encompasses the partnership. I want to rock the house on Monday night. The nerves just sunk in this morning when I woke up and finished our pro rehearsal. I got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about the finals on Tuesday. If we make it on Tuesday, I haven't been in the finals since I was with Donald Driver and won, so I haven't had this feeling in such a long time. It's crazy but I'm super excited as well. I can't wait to be there. I'm sure James will be super nervous on the day, but we've this week. We're trying to put so much in there and I've given him quite a difficult tango to do as well, so there's a lot of content in the tango. He's pulling out all the tricks and stops for the freestyle. It's coming together but we've definitely had that frustrating moment like, "Are we doing too much?" But at the end of the day, it's about us and our journey. We're just so psyched to be in the finals. James is the last man standing, so it's a pretty cool opportunity for him to go up against three girls in this finale. A guy celebrity hasn't won in season 14. I think it's about time that a guy won!

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Peta Murgatroyd's DWTS Blog: Tonight's Dance Is One Big Party

"It's just a massive send off that really encompasses the partnership," the pro says of Monday night's finale dance

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FORTUNE – Following the collapse of U.S. home prices in 2007, analysts and economists have been eager to spot the next big bubble. There’s been talk of a bond bubble. And as U.S. stocks hover near a five-year high, many have wondered if a bubble is in the works. There have also been worries over the market for student loans in which defaults have recently risen. Then there’s apparently a new bubble that few have ever heard about: America’s farmlands. Thanks to higher crop prices, the costs for farmland nationwide have risen rapidly, particularly across the Midwest’s Corn Belt. Demand for corn soared as the use of ethanol in the U.S. and abroad has risen. Because higher prices for crops means farmers could make more on their land, many are using their growing profits to buy more land. Investment firms have caught on — they’re buying too. The Kansas City Federal Reserve said irrigated cropland in its district rose 30% in 2012, while the Chicago Fed reported a 16% increase. And despite the drought in Iowa last year, farmland prices have nearly doubled since 2009 to an average of $8,296 an acre. Prices in Nebraska have also doubled during the same period. MORE: Stocks are too expensive Analysts and economists have quietly warned of a bubble in farmland since 2011. The latest comes this week — a group of bankers advising the Federal Reserve warned prices aren’t justified and have entered bubble territory, according to records obtained by Bloomberg of meetings of the Federal Advisory Council. As investors shy away from bond markets and search for bigger returns, members say they’ve opted for farmland. They blame the central bank’s super-low interest rate policies. “Agricultural land prices are veering further from what makes sense,” according to minutes of the Feb. 8 gathering of the Federal Advisory Council. “Members believe the run-up in agriculture land prices is a bubble resulting from persistently low interest rates.” True there’s some bubbly behavior going on, but that doesn’t mean the market for farmlands has entered bubble territory, at least according to Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who first warned of a housing bubble back in 2003. The most obvious sign: Nobody has ever really heard about it. Even if prices went belly up, it likely won’t cause nearly the kind of financial havoc that sub-prime loans did onto the housing market and the nation’s financial system. As Shiller wrote in 2011 in Project Syndicate, an online opinion forum featuring leading economists., the market for farmlands isn’t nearly as big as the housing market or stock market, for that matter. Whereas farmland had a total value of $1.8 trillion in 2010, the U.S. stock market’s value was $16.5 trillion, and the housing market was $16.6 trillion. MORE: 20 companies that made the most Plus farmland bubbles are rare, he adds. While prices in the Midwest declined dramatically in the 1980s, Shiller notes that there has only been one farmland bubble in the U.S. during the 20th century, when there was a fear of overpopulation in the 1970s. True, farmland prices could fall if interest rates rise and if crop prices decline in big ways, making it difficult for farmers to repay loans. But unlike America’s latest housing market bubble, which saw the supply of new homes rise rapidly as investors banked on new mortgages, there is no increase in the supply of farmland. Admittedly it’s hard to say if there is indeed a bubble, and if so, when might it pop. Corn futures have been on a steady decline for the past nine months. Nonetheless, there are plenty of reasons why farmland is still the “bubble” many have never heard of.

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The market 'bubble' you've never heard of

Some economists are worried that farmland prices are nearing bubble territory. How bad can it be if no one's heard of it?

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The name of German writer Wilhelmine von Chézy might have been lost to history had one play, “Rosamunde,” not provided Schubert with a vehicle for one of his many attempts at success as a composer for the stage. By all accounts the play was a debacle in its 1823 debut, yet it lives on, if only as an afterthought, in Schubert’s incidental music. Bits of the score have popped up over the years on Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, starting in its very first season, in various configurations. Rarely, though, has it been so thoughtfully programmed as by the German conductor and pianist Christian Zacharias in his current BSO series. Skipping the overture, Zacharias opened Thursday’s concert with the first Ballet Music, followed by the second and third Entr’actes. This little suite began with a stern minor-key march, a piece seemingly inapt for a dance episode. As it progressed, the music became slower, dreamier, less immediately tethered to reality. But shadows always lurk nearby in Schubert, and even the third Entr’acte — featuring one of the composer’s simplest and most unaffected melodies — carried hints of unease. Zacharias, who had a score on his music stand all evening yet seemed never to turn a page, led a perfectly shaped performance with gestures that were demonstrative but never exaggerated. He deployed a full complement of strings onstage, including no fewer than nine basses; their prominence heightened the melancholy atmosphere. The rhythms were surprisingly nimble for the ultra-refined sound he achieved. There is conjecture that the first Entr’acte of “Rosamunde” might have been intended as the finale of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, the “Unfinished.” Zacharias, though, put it before the symphony on the second half, creating a tempestuous prelude while also recalling the concert’s opening. Barely had the B-major ending of the Entr’acte faded away before the basses and cellos began the grim, lonely melody that begins the “Unfinished.” In few other Schubert works do darkness and light enact such a pitched struggle, which has made the symphony a kind of emblem of the anguished Romantic imagination. Thursday’s performance was intense and deliberate, painted on an almost Mahlerian scale. It was also slow and in the first movement almost static, robbing some of the climaxes of their power. I wish that the BSO’s glorious wind playing had been able to emerge more clearly from the mass of strings. The Andante, though, was gripping, and its ending has rarely felt so anxious and unresolved. Before intermission, Zacharias led Mozart’s G-major concerto (K.453) from the keyboard. Here was an airier, more precise sound, and Zacharias’s graceful, restrained style was a model of eloquent dialogue with a reduced orchestra. The slow movement, faultlessly paced and gorgeously played, has an unusually somber episode in an otherwise contented musical expanse — proof that, as in Schubert, the shadows are never all that far away.

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Zacharias leads suave, moody BSO program

The German pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the soloist in an elegant Mozart concerto, and the leader of thoughtful, pensive Schubert accounts.

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When Angela Hicks first met venture capitalist Bill Oesterle in 1994, she was a frumpy, introverted economics major at DePauw University who wore Coke-bottle glasses and showed up for a summer internship interview wrapped in a baggy sweater. Oesterle brought her on as an intern anyway because he thought the quiet youngster had a spine. When she graduated a year later, Oesterle persuaded Hicks to turn down a job at Arthur Andersen to work for him. Her job involved compiling a list of reputable plumbers, electricians and roofers in Columbus. Today, Hicks is a celebrity who is lauded on TV alongside the likes of Sandra Day O’Connor and Condoleezza Rice. Her list — Angie’s List — has morphed into a publicly-traded company with 1,300 employees, more than 2 million members in 200 markets who pay to access reviews of home improvement professionals, mechanics, doctors, and dentists. While Hicks, 40, is the company’s public face, her erstwhile mentor, Oesterle, 47, is its behind-the-scenes CEO. And the company owes its success to the unusually strong bond that the two forged over nearly 20 years working side by side through ups and downs. “I trust Angie implicitly with anything,” says Oesterle. Of his mentorship, Hicks says: “As a young person, I was afraid of my own shadow and had never thought of being an entrepreneur. He taught me that, he taught me to be a manager.” MORE: Ben and Jerry – Ice cream’s sweetest pair The teaching went both ways. In the early days, there was nothing certain about Angie’s List ANGI . Hicks worked around the clock on a card table in a rented 100-square-foot office she shared with an accountant and a builder. Members were slow to join, and Hicks did whatever it took to get the word out: from borrowing Oesterle’s neighbor’s Christmas card mailing list, to selling door to door on weekends, and even sitting on the back of a car during a 4th of July parade to wave at the crowd. With some regularity, she would break down in tears in front of Oesterle, then immediately promise not to quit. By 1998, the company was operating in four markets, and Hicks went off to Harvard Business School. After she graduated, it was Oesterle’s turn to have doubt about the company’s viability. “I said, ‘I don’t care, I’m coming back,’ ” Hicks says. With Oesterle in charge of charting the vision and strategy for the business, Angie’s List began gathering momentum around 2004, raised tens of millions from venture capitalists, and went public in 2011. The company is expected to become cash-flow positive this year, and its stock is trading near an all-time-high. Though Wall Street may have warmed to Angie’s List only recently, thanks to Hicks, the company has been a darling of Main Street for years. On a recent trip, Hicks and Oesterle were eating at LaGuardia Airport while waiting for a plane when a fellow passenger recognized Hicks. “Hi Angie! I love you, Angie,” the man yelled. Then he turned to Oesterle and said: “Who the hell are you?” Oesterle was unperturbed by the slight. “My chest was bursting with pride,” he says. A shorter version of this story appeared in the July 22, 2013 issue of Fortune.

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Meet the duo who created Angie's List

How Angela Hicks and Bill Oesterle created one of the web's most trusted sites for reviews of local services.

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Sunday, Composer Focus Concerts, a monthly series at the Lilypad in Cambridge, turns its attention to music by Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-98), including Schnittke’s 1978 violin-and-piano version of the familiar carol “Stille Nacht.” The arrangement is hardly orthodox: The violin’s simple, double-stop-harmonized rendition veers into abrasive wrong notes, the piano layers in a deep, distant, dissonantly tolling bell, the duo ticks through the remaining verses like damaged clockwork. Though only a miniature — Schnittke wrote it as a Christmas card for violinist Gidon Kremer — it epitomizes Schnittke’s most prevalent manner: mixing old and new into an intuitively biting stylistic bait-and-switch. Schnittke’s polyvalent style coalesced in the late ’60s and early ’70s. His musical straight man was, frequently, Viennese classicism: Haydn, Mozart. (Schnittke’s journalist father was stationed with the Soviet Army in Vienna after World War II; that musical culture became Schnittke’s touchstone.) But those age-old cues, whether allusions, pastiches, or outright quotations, were subjected to Schnittke’s imaginative musical graffiti: 20th-century modernist tropes transformed into a saboteur’s toolbox. Much of it, certainly, was Schnittke’s way of implicitly protesting the privations of Soviet life, and a power structure that often targeted Schnittke and his increasing celebrity. (This writer once saw the late Ukrainian-born pianist Alexander Slobodyanik deftly characterize Schnittke’s aesthetic by extending his middle finger while casually sliding his hand into his pocket.) But the satire and serious inquiry were thoroughly mixed. Schnittke was, perhaps, interrogating how routines — bureaucratic, political, musical — exert control, and he was pushing back. Comedy and horror, it is often said, are flip sides of the same coin; Schnittke’s horror was surrendering one’s soul to an imposed conformity. We laugh at his provocations because they make us anxious, the way they disrupt expectations comfortably met: a reminder that the desire for comfort can be as insidious as any threat. Schnittke was a late, devout convert to Christianity, but even that, in his eyes, had its pitfalls. “All the formal routine of religious faith — constantly followed every day in a virtuously literal interpretation — has, for logical reasons, lost its value for me,” he said, in an interview with Alexander Ivashkin. (Both musically and spiritually, Schnittke took refuge in direct, immediate experience: “In naivete,”,” he told Ivashkin, “something infinite is preserved.”) As Christmas, that most insistently traditional of holidays, bears down, Schnittke’s acidic take on that silent night serves as a warning of how traditions endanger even as they elevate. Composer Focus Concerts presents music of Alfred Schnittke, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m., at the Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. Tickets $10.

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With ‘Stille Nacht,’ Schnittke couched protest in tradition

In his slight, short, and dissonant “Stille Nacht,” the Soviet-era Russian composer Alfred Schnittke used a familiar Christmas carol to express tacit dissent against a stifling system.

20150208082143

Economists use statistics to pinpoint when recessions start and end. It’s much tougher to measure the stages and health of a recovery in progress. The start of the Great Recession can be traced to December 2007, and the economy began to slowly expand again by June 2009. Until recently, most economists simply agreed that the recovery, marked by excruciatingly slow job growth and little or no wage gains, was frustrating and disappointing. But it’s getting harder to miss America’s increasingly strong economic signals now. The most recent US jobs report showed an impressive 321,000 new positions created in November, and average American wages are finally starting to rise substantially. That seemed to jolt many economists into believing the current expansion has entered a new phase. These might not be boom days. But the economy is definitely strong now — and getting stronger. The November jobs report marked the 10th straight month of net job gains exceeding 200,000. It pushed total US employment to about 140 million workers, just above its pre-recession high. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.8 percent. And last month’s wage gain of 0.4 percent — twice as high as most economists had expected — suggests that workers are finally gaining enough leverage with employers to demand higher salaries. “At some point, the steadiness of the improvements has to be taken into account and it becomes the story,” said Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. “So, yes, I’d say this has now become a strong recovery. Just the sheer number of months of solid private-sector jobs growth has been impressive.” Other economists agree that the recovery seems to have entered a new stage in recent months. “We’re finally off and running,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, a research subsidiary of the rating agency Moody’s Corp. “Obviously, there are still problems and risks out there. But we seem to have kicked into a higher gear, and that’s good.” Besides jobs gains and wage growth, Zandi points to other signs showing major improvements in the economy since the dark days of the Great Recession. He noted that automobile sales recently hit an annualized rate of 17 million vehicles, roughly where they were before the recession and significantly up from a low of 9 million sales during the depths of the recession in 2009. Inflation remains low at about 1.7 percent, meaning any wage gain above that is extra money in the pockets of consumers to spend. With annualized wage increases now running at about 2.4 percent, workers are finally starting to make real, if small, gains in their incomes, Zandi and others said. Meanwhile, the price of crude oil has fallen by more than 40 percent since June, driving down gasoline prices to a national average of $2.62 last week, from about $3.25 a year ago. That’s about $90 billion in annual savings for consumers, economists said. And US stock markets have more than recovered from the brutal beatings they took in 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for instance, was hovering around 17,500 last week, up from a low of about 8,400 in 2009 and well above its pre-recession high of about 13,930 in 2007. The federal government’s annual budget deficit, the subject of much political debate and controversy in recent years, also fell to about $483 billion as of the third quarter. That was its lowest level since 2008 and represented the sharpest turnaround in the government’s fiscal position in 46 years, according to Bloomberg News. But the economy still faces serious problems and challenges. About 7 million workers who want full-time jobs are still involuntarily stuck in part-time positions, often without health care insurance and other benefits. The so called “U6” unemployment rate — which measures people without work, those in involuntary part-time positions, and discouraged workers who have recently given up on finding jobs — stands at just under 12 percent, a historically high figure compared with past recoveries, economists noted. In addition, the nation’s housing market hasn’t fully recovered, despite historically low mortgage rates. Median home prices are still about 10 percent below their prerecession highs, meaning many Americans are living in homes that aren’t worth the price they paid last decade. Significantly, new home-construction starts have recently risen to an annualized 1 million, up from only 500,000 housing starts in 2009. But that’s still down from 1.7 million housing starts during typical economic recoveries, Zandi said. Joseph Brusuelas, a New York economist at the consulting firm McGladrey LLP, said he’s impressed with the current economy, considering the severity of the recent recession and the lingering aftershocks of last decade’s housing market and financial crashes. “There are reasons to be optimistic,” he said, noting the US economy is currently outperforming the economies of other industrial nations. He predicts more growth next year but notes the economy still struggles in some key areas. “It’s lagging compared to past recoveries,” he said. “Still, compared to where we were a few years ago, it’s definitely improved. Definitely.”

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Economic recovery, long considered slow and frustrating, starts gaining steam

Economists have long described the current recovery as slow and frustrating. But it’s getting harder to miss America’s increasingly strong economic signals.

20150524081257

MOSCOW, March 12— Yuri Stepanov, the ballet dancer who repudiated a Soviet press account of his life as a defector in the United States, was seized on the street today while on his way to an appointment with an American reporter. ''I saw them grab him and force him into a car and drive away,'' said the correspondent, Anne Garrels of ABC News, who was waiting in a driveway outside a housing complex reserved for foreign diplomats, journalists and businessmen. ''It happened 20 feet away from me,'' she said. ''It was all over in a minute.'' Mr. Stepanov, who is 33 years old, defected in January 1980 while on tour in Italy with the Moscow Classical Ballet and went to the United States. Two and a half months later, he returned voluntarily to Moscow. On April 10, 1980, the Government newspaper Izvestia published an article giving a lurid account of the life Mr. Stepanov supposedly found in the United States. The article alleged that Americans had tried to make a spy out of him, that his American church sponsors served as a front for the Central Intelligence Agency, that Soviet immigrants in the United States were reduced to alcoholism and degradation, and that his own stay there had been a ''nightmare.'' In recent days Mr. Stepanov has been getting in touch with American correspondents, denying that he made the allegations when interviewed by Izvestia and charging that he had been exploited by the K.G.B., the state security police, in an effort to discourage other Soviet dancers from defecting. It is fairly common for the Soviet press to run articles about Soviet citizens who return home after having emigrated or defected to the West. In the articles, they tell how they repented their action once they came face to face with the evils of capitalist society. It was startling to have Mr. Stepanov disown a published recantation and explain that he had returned to the Soviet Union only because he feared reprisals against his wife, mother and brother. Mr. Stepanov was the first to agree that his rebellious act here - undertaken, he said, so that the Americans who befriended him abroad would not think ill of him - was unlikely to go unpunished. He thought at times that he was being followed. His telephone was mysteriously disconnected and just as mysteriously reconnected. This morning Mr. Stepanov called an American correspondent with word for Miss Garrels - that he might be forced to miss an appointment with her because the K.G.B. had called for him at his apartment. He had refused to let the security officers in, he said, but did not know if they were still outside his door. Two and a half hours later he telephoned Miss Garrels to report that he was now ''out in the street'' and could meet her in front of her housing complex. Walking toward the appointed place, Miss Garrels said she was conscious of a number of men ''of indeterminate appearance, standing in the freezing cold, not waiting in line for anything.'' ''In Moscow,'' she said, ''that could mean only one thing.'' Waiting, Miss Garrels went on, she heard a cry - ''Anya!'' - a Russian diminutive of ''Anne.'' Then, she said, she saw Mr. Stepanov being forced into a car. ''As the Volga drove off, he looked at me and waved goodbye,'' Miss Garrels said. ''The bizarre thing was his expression. He looked utterly calm. He even smiled, as though to say: 'I told you it would happen and now it's done.' Almost as though, in a way, he was relieved.''

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RUSSIANS SEIZE BALLET DANCER WHO FLED AND RETURNED

Yuri Stepanov, the ballet dancer who repudiated a Soviet press account of his life as a defector in the United States, was seized on the street today while on his way to an appointment with an American reporter. ''I saw them grab him and force him into a car and drive away,'' said the correspondent, Anne Garrels of ABC News, who was waiting in a driveway outside a housing complex reserved for foreign diplomats, journalists and businessmen. ''It happened 20 feet away from me,'' she said. ''It was all over in a minute.'' Mr. Stepanov, who is 33 years old, defected in January 1980 while on tour in Italy with the Moscow Classical Ballet and went to the United States.

20150524082348

THE Orion Capital Corporation, which emerged from the ashes of the scandal-ridden Equity Funding Company to become a highly profitable multiline insurance company, is one of the hottest acquisition candidates around. Wall Street sources say investment banking firms have five potential white knights ready to pay $26 to $30 a share for Orion if the Charter Company makes an unfriendly bid for Orion today, as expected. Charter is an oil, insurance and broadcasting conglomerate based in Jacksonville, Fla. It is said to own more than 5 percent of Orion already. If so, it will have to notify the Securities and Exchange Commission of its intentions. Orion shares closed Wednesday at 18 7/8, up 1 3/4, with 203,500 shares traded. Charter reportedly was the main buyer Wednesday and again yesterday, when the stock rose 5/8, to close at a new high of 19 1/2 on 274,800 shares. The Wall Street sources said the potential rescuers included Ashland Oil Inc., which recently acquired the Integon Corporation, a Winston-Salem, N.C., life insurance company; Shearson Loeb Rhoades Inc., which was rebuffed by Orion in two previous bids, the last at $20 a share; the NLT Corporation, a Nashville-based insurance holding company that Ashland tried to acquire last summer, and the USLife Corporation, which has acquired eight life insurance companies since 1966. (Gordon E. Crosby Jr., chairman of USLife, was reached by telephone on the West Coast, and he denied that his company was trying to acquire Orion.) The identity of the fifth white knight could not be learned. Orion's popularity is based partly on a scarcity of well-run, independent, medium-size life and casualty companies after a wave of recent takeovers. Coveted for their investment portfolios, which can help a purchaser make further acquisitions, such companies also offer a good hedge against inflation. Claims paid years in the future will be worth less than the policy premiums being paid in today's dollars. Adding to Orion's appeal is its tax-loss carry-forward of $45 million, which could be worth $2.80 a share against the purchaser's current earnings in a tax-free transaction. Orion's chairman, Alan R. Gruber, reportedly has been approached lately by a number of investment banking firms in behalf of would-be acquirers. Under a proxy-contest settlement with a shareholder, Martin J. Whitman, who heads his own brokerage concern, Mr. Gruber has agreed to refer acquisition overtures promptly ''to each member of the board of directors as received without prior screening.'' There are nine outside directors on the 13-member board, many of them placed by Equity Funding's creditors. But Mr. Gruber has justified turning down all takeover overtures, Wall Street sources say, on the ground that he is obliged only to refer written offers to the board, not oral offers. Asked for comment, Mr. Gruber said: ''We do not solicit acquisition proposals, but if responsible parties make them we will consider them in good faith. No one yet has made one at a high enough price.'' He acknowledged an approach by someone from the brokerage house of Dean Witter Reynolds, but he said there had been no written offer. Shearson Loeb Rhoades is reported to have approached the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company in January, asking the bank to serve as an intermediary with Mr. Gruber to negotiate a friendly takeover, again to no avail. A Shearson spokesman denied this yesterday, saying, ''Our contacts with Orion were always direct.'' Morgan owns 542,000 shares, or 7.4 percent, of Orion and is the largest shareholder. Like the BankOhio Corporation and the Bankers Trust Company, Morgan got some of its holdings out of claims against the bankrupt Equity Funding. Altogether, the three banks own 18 percent of Orion and have a fiduciary obligation to recoup their losses. A takeover between $26 and $30 a share would go a long way toward salving the damage, Wall Street sources said. Salomon Brothers is said to have accumulated more than 350,000 shares, or nearly 5 percent of Orion during the period of Feb. 25 through March 6. Ironically, as a result of the Equity Funding scandal, which cost the firm tens of millions of dollars on shares positioned prior to bankruptcy, Salomon Brothers will not buy Orion stock for its own account. One of the unfriendly players in this game, a Wall Street source said, is Mr. Whitman, the Orion stockholder, who is threatening to resume his proxy contest. Mr. Whitman could not be reached for comment yesterday. None of the Charter Company's top three executives was available for comment yesterday, according to a key official's secretary. About 5 percent of Orion stock is owned by the American Financial Corporation, but no one there would comment on the intentions of Carl H. Lindner, its chairman and president.

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Market Place - The Popularity Of Orion Capital - NYTimes.com

THE Orion Capital Corporation, which emerged from the ashes of the scandal-ridden Equity Funding Company to become a highly profitable multiline insurance company, is one of the hottest acquisition candidates around. Wall Street sources say investment banking firms have five potential white knights ready to pay $26 to $30 a share for Orion if the Charter Company makes an unfriendly bid for Orion today, as expected. Charter is an oil, insurance and broadcasting conglomerate based in Jacksonville, Fla. It is said to own more than 5 percent of Orion already. If so, it will have to notify the Securities and Exchange Commission of its intentions.

20150524082957

The sounds of ''Strange Music'' will shortly be heard rising from the stage of the City Opera. No, not the rude cacophony of a contemporary opera - far from it. ''Strange Music'' is the hit love ballad from ''Song of Norway,'' a musical that triumphed on Broadway in 1944 and receives its first New York City production since that date at the City Opera on Sept. 3. This will be the second offering in the company's now traditional pre-season series of operetta revivals, which opens on Thursday night with ''The Student Prince'' with Elizabeth Hynes, Henry Price and Dominic Cossa. A sigh of recognition will undoubtedly greet the lulling strains of ''Strange Music'' for it was a popular juke-box staple during the last days of World War II, right up there with ''Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive,'' ''Rum and Coca Cola'' and ''Irresistible You.'' Will New York take ''Song of Norway'' to its heart with the same fervor it did 37 years ago? Even then, before the show opened at the Imperial Theater on Aug. 21, 1944, people were dubious. How could there be, in this day and age, an audience for an operetta of unabashedly cloying sentimentality written around the singularly undramatic life of Edvard Grieg, Norway's leading composer, and with a score that transforms his popular Piano Concerto, ''Peer Gynt'' Suite and other favorite scores into tin-pan-alley songs? Yet in the face of all odds, ''Song of Norway'' found an enthusiastic audience, and it delighted Broadway theatergoers for two and a half years. The story of how it came to be created and went on to achieve even greater success is a tale that in itself seems almost as incredible as any operetta plot. When Beverly Sills decided to revive the operetta at the City Opera, she felt that a new generation of New Yorkers was ready to discover the charms of ''Song of Norway'' as performed by her company with a cast that includes Sheryl Woods, Susanne Marsee, David Eisler and Stephen Dickson. ''The public is very much into musical nostalgia,'' she says. ''We have the luxury today of enjoying a period piece like 'Song of Norway' without feeling embarrassed by its sweet, simple, sentimental tone - in fact, that has now become one of its prime attractions. Besides, it is ideally suited for the City Opera's young American singers who can show yet another aspect of their versatility. We will not update or modernize the material. Our production will, I trust, be an affectionate recreation of a classic American operetta that has never lost its basic appeal.'' Miss Sills's confidence is not misplaced, for ''Song of Norway'' has long proven its staying power. When the show finally closed in New York after 860 performances, it took to the road for three years, grossing $30 million before being released for provincial production. Since then it has traveled the length and breadth of the land on the summer music circuit, in every conceivable form and under all sorts of performance conditions, from Guy Lombardo's extravaganza version at Jones Beach in 1958 and 1959 to humble high school presentations with a cast of 12 and piano accompaniment. The show has even been performed with all-male and all-female casts. In whatever guise it appears, ''Song of Norway'' continues to lead a charmed life, and there seems little reason why the City Opera's new production should break the pattern. Indeed, Robert Wright and George Forrest, the two men responsible for the music and lyrics of ''Song of Norway,'' maintain that the show has finally found its natural habitat. ''The City Opera,'' says Mr. Wright, ''has the orchestra and singers that you bleed for on Broadway. 'Song of Norway' is best heard sung by operatically trained singers - acting is nowhere near as vital as singing because the piece is all music, music, music, much more of an operetta than a Broadway musical.'' Mr. Wright has a point. In its heart-on-sleeve sentimentality and melodious music, obviously of classical origin, ''Song of Norway'' possesses all the characteristics of a European-styled operetta, and it may well be the last gasp of the Herbert-Friml-Romberg tradition that dates back to the turn of the century. Even the Wright-Forrest 1953 success, ''Kismet,'' based on the music of Borodin, is more closely in tune with contemporary musical comedy tastes. Viewed in that light, ''Song of Norway'' was pure nostalgia even when brand new, a work that people came to see again and again because of the pretty music, lively dancing and picturesque settings rather than the creaky plot and cliche-ridden dialogue. Even the operetta's first critics had nothing but scorn for the book. One of the most outspoken of them was Wolcott Gibbs, who summed up the action this way: ''The great composer, as he appears at the Imperial, is an exceptionally tiresome and objectionable young man, who forsakes a childhood sweetheart from his native Bergen to go traipsing around Europe with an Italian prima donna, collaborates on 'Peer Gynt' with a character comedian named Henrik Ibsen, and experiences at the end a spiritual rebirth, very edifying and very dull.'' Yet despite all this, Mr. Gibbs appeared to enjoy the enchanting music, George Balanchine's attractive dances and the excellent singing just as much as the audience. Condemning anything as naively sentimental and eager to please as ''Song of Norway,'' it seems, was tantamount to kicking a puppy.

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CAN 1944-STYLE SENTIMENT MAKE IT TODAY?

The sounds of ''Strange Music'' will shortly be heard rising from the stage of the City Opera. No, not the rude cacophony of a contemporary opera - far from it. ''Strange Music'' is the hit love ballad from ''Song of Norway,'' a musical that triumphed on Broadway in 1944 and receives its first New York City production since that date at the City Opera on Sept. 3. This will be the second offering in the company's now traditional pre-season series of operetta revivals, which opens on Thursday night with ''The Student Prince'' with Elizabeth Hynes, Henry Price and Dominic Cossa. A sigh of recognition will undoubtedly greet the lulling strains of ''Strange Music'' for it was a popular juke-box staple during the last days of World War II, right up there with ''Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive,'' ''Rum and Coca Cola'' and ''Irresistible You.''

20150524083602

Celebrities whose public behavior and domestic arrangements are frequently the subjects of articles in The National Enquirer would like to stop the paper from publishing what they say are exaggerated or fictitious articles about them. Indeed, some would like to stop the weekly tabloid from publishing altogether. ''It is about time that we got in there and scraped out some of the abhorrent leeches that are hiding in the great broad shadow of the First Amendment,'' said Marty Ingels, the Hollywood agent, whose wife, the actress Shirley Jones, is among several show business people suing The Enquirer for libel. That kind of attack would normally draw protests from editors and publishers concerned with protecting press freedoms. But there has been a lack of outrage in recent weeks over the first lawsuit against The Enquirer to go to trial, that of Carol Burnett, which culminated yesterday in a $1.6 million libel award for the actress. According to journalists and lawyers specializing in First Amendment cases, the lack of outrage stems primarily from a deep ambivalence about The Enquirer and its methods. While most reporters acknowledge its First Amendment rights and would presumably not want the publication driven out of business, many say they think the paper has no social value. Although some were upset by the size of yesterday's verdict, many applauded the Burnett lawsuit as an appropriate way to punish what they see as reckless and mischievous journalistic behavior that could speed changes under way in libel law and contribute to an erosion of legal protections now accorded the press. The Enquirer itself, which adamantly defended its practices in the trial of the Burnett lawsuit, expressed similar concerns. William Masterson, an attorney for the paper, predicted yesterday that the verdict would have a ''chilling effect on news gathering'' by making it more difficult to report on the actions of public figures. A Mix of Articles The Enquirer, which is sold primarily at supermarkets, has built its circulation to five million a week with articles whose topics range from so-called medical ''cures'' and astrology to the impending breakups of celebrity marriages. The Enquirer says it carefully checks the accuracy of the tips it gets from its 1,200 freelance contributors and requires verification from at least two sources. Arthur B. Hanson, who directs the libel pool insurance program for the American Newspaper Publishers Association, said The Enquirer had had proportionately fewer cases filed against it than the average for the pool. Nevertheless, many journalists say they cannot be comfortable riding in the same First Amendment boat with The Enquirer. Reg Murphy, publisher and editor of The San Francisco Examiner, has called The Enquirer ''a disgrace to journalism'' that should not be defended because it ''has not played with the same rules with everybody else in the country.'' The press has never been monolithically protective of all its elements. Few editorial voices were raised in 1977 in defense of Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, when he faced obscenity charges, and newspapers split sharply two years ago on whether the Government should be allowed to restrain The Progressive magazine from publishing an article about the hydrogen bomb. Enormous Sympathy But the Burnett case has aroused enormous public sympathy and it comes at a time when changes are occurring in libel law as it affects people in the public eye. In 1964 the Supreme Court ruled that, to win a libel suit, a public official has to prove that an article about him or her was published either with the knowledge that it was wrong or in a reckless disregard of the truth. Later decisions expanded that press protection to include ''public figures.'' Courts have ruled in more recent cases, however, that a person suing for damages need not be a public figure in all of his or her actions, a definition that lawyers say could mean that there are areas of a celebrity's life that are out of bounds as far as the libel rules are concerned. Floyd Abrams, the New York lawyer who has specialized in First Amendment cases, said there was a developing body of law on privacy that could conflict with press rights because ''in privacy cases, unlike libel cases, you can be held responsible for telling the truth about people.'' He cited in particular a 1979 California case in which a psychologist noted for his nude encounter sessions sued the author of what was supposed to be a work of fiction and successfully contended that the work had damaged his reputation. Charles Bailey, editor of The Minneapolis Tribune, chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, said yesterday of the Burnett verdict that ''a decision by a single jury in a single case in a single court'' would not by itself change the libel laws, but that the appeals process could. That possibility is what worries reporters the most. Should the Burnett case get to the Supreme Court, they fear, it could be the vehicle for a shift that would profoundly affect The Enquirer and every other publication.

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DOUBLE-EDGE CHALLENGE TO PRESS FREEDOM

Celebrities whose public behavior and domestic arrangements are frequently the subjects of articles in The National Enquirer would like to stop the paper from publishing what they say are exaggerated or fictitious articles about them. Indeed, some would like to stop the weekly tabloid from publishing altogether. ''It is about time that we got in there and scraped out some of the abhorrent leeches that are hiding in the great broad shadow of the First Amendment,'' said Marty Ingels, the Hollywood agent, whose wife, the actress Shirley Jones, is among several show business people suing The Enquirer for libel. That kind of attack would normally draw protests from editors and publishers concerned with protecting press freedoms. But there has been a lack of outrage in recent weeks over the first lawsuit against The Enquirer to go to trial, that of Carol Burnett, which culminated yesterday in a $1.6 million libel award for the actress.

20150524084602

The point of your editorial of Sept. 16 on sacrosanct farm price supports is certainly well taken. The taxpayers must indeed pay higher taxes in order to pay higher prices for food while the United States Government sits on a great hoard of cheese and butter rather than distribute it to a hungry world. Why? Is the reader invited to infer a sellout to an agribusiness lobby or a cr aven capitulation to the farm vote? Or are there better reasons? Our legislators, like the rest of us, are human and fallible, but we should not stand ready to convict them of malfeasance on so bareboned and circumstantial a case. We may regret the unwisdom of a policy adopted long ago for reasons which then seemed good and at the same time consider the injurious consequences of a cold-turkey solution. The Midwestern banking system has invested heavily in farm mortgages valued according to the earning power of the mortgaged land. Abrogation, or even prospective curtailment, of farm price supports would produce chaos in the market for farm real estate and threaten the banking system. The banking system is not so secure, nor are the reserves of the F.D.I.C. so great, that disaster could be avoided without some novel form of Federal intervention, such as nationalization of the banking system or even of farmland. Is the malady as bad as that kind of cure? Distribution of accumulated surpluses would, to the extent that it would satisfy existing demand, depress prices worldwide and aggravate the problem of today. Our friends in Europe would, with much justice, raise the cry of dumping. The effects of a temporary improvement in the diet of the world's poor might be bad, very bad, rather than wholly good. Destruction of those surpluses would be seen as criminal. It is right to condemn the Administration's inconsistency in preaching a market-system cure for evils perceived and yet shrinking from the plunge in this case. Most Americans want their Congress to act on considerations of equity and human need. Even so, the structures that well-motivated Congressional actions create, the permanent nature of temporary, expedient legislative decisions, have proved troublesome enough to create a mandate to the Reagan Administration to employ marketeconomy measures and make things right. This mandate is perhaps narrower in scope and likely sooner to be revoked than the Administration believes. But if the best course is not the resolute pursuit of the President's absolutes, as marred by the inconsistency you note, neither is it the adoption of another set of simple imperatives. The problem you cite is serious. So are those of Social Security, energy, deregulation and many other domains of Federal concern. But the problem is not sim ple, and I am sure The Times does not wish to suggest that it is. FRANCIS E. HOLAHAN, Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Sept. 18, 1981

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Letter - On a Reagan Mandate No Easy Cure for Price Supports - NYTimes.com

To the Editor: The point of your editorial of Sept. 16 on sacrosanct farm price supports is certainly well taken. The taxpayers must indeed pay higher taxes in order to pay higher prices for food while the United States Government sits on a great hoard of cheese and butter rather than distribute it to a hungry world. Why? Is the reader invited to infer a sellout to an agribusiness lobby or a cr aven capitulation to the farm vote? Or are there better reasons?

20150524102446

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 31— In a rare encounter, executives and news reporters from the three television networks, politicians, academics and image-makers met at Harvard University this weekend to appraise their roles in Presidential elections, from the early primaries to election eve. In the three-day conference at the Institute of Politics, the participants were not able to agree on significant ways to change television coverage of the nominating and election process. But the sessions were rare occasions in that each of the networks opened itself to public, occasionally critical, self-examination before its two major competitors and those who are hired by candidates to manipulate television coverage. Discussions ranged across a variety of topics, from the networks' ability to control a candidate's access to the electorate, to the strategists' ability to use the fast-moving format of television news to create an image for a candidate. At one point, the dialogue resembled a political strategy session for the Democrats. David Garth, the New York political consultant, said the party could benefit from a hard-hitting attack on President Reagan sure to fit neatly into network news broadcasts. David Gergen, the President's assistant for communications, responded that instead the Democrats should ''sit back and the media will do it for them.'' The political strategists engaged in little self-criticism. Gerald Rafshoon, who directed President Carter's 1980 television strategy, said that the strategist's role was simply ''to bring the issues into sharper focus, and point out differences between candidates.'' But Robert MacNeil, executive editor of the MacNeil-Lehrer Report on PBS, complained that ''the manipulators got away with tremendous oversimplification of their roles.'' Some of the harsher criticisms of television came from one of its own. Roger Mudd, the chief Washington correspondent of NBC News, complained of a growing conflict for televi si on correspondents ''between being an honest reporter and being a member of show business.'' ''Over the last 15 years, as competition has sharpened between the networks, none of us is content to let an event be an event,'' Mr. Mudd told the conferees yesterday. ''We have to fix it. We have to foreshorten the conclusions, hasten the end, predict before anyone else does who's going to win. We have to take an issue on our own terms, and we won't let the candidate lay out the issues on his terms.'' As a result, he added, the craft of television news is ''less honorable'' than it was 10 years ago. Supported Time Rule Mr. Mudd was also the only representative of a network to say that he did not favor the repeal of Section 315 of the Federal Communications Code, which requires television stations to grant equal time to all candidates who have met certain Federal standards. If the rule were repealed, he contended, ''the networks would concentrate on the leading two candidates, and others would never appear on the air.'' But nearly all of the network executives disagreed. ''The practical effect of a law that says that everyone gets on,'' William Leonard, president of CBS News, said this morning, ''is that nobody gets on.'' Mr. Leonard also defended the use of projections to predict the outcome of elections, sometimes several hours before the polls close on the West Coast. But at the conclusion of the conference, he suggested that the networks would do well to redirect much of the approximately $15 million that each spends on convention and election night coverage ''to put a greater emphasis on the coverage of issues and the primaries.'' Covering the 'Issues' The political strategists and scholars were particularly critical of the networks' perceived failure to examine ''issues,'' itself a source of som e definitional debate. Television executives expressed hopes that if the Federal Communications Commission allows the networks to e xpand evening news programs to one hour, the result willbe more in-de pth analysis. However, Mr. Gergen expressed concern that ''60 minutes would just be twice as much of what we have now,'' a reference to the increasing trend toward news stories limited to one to two minutes. Earlier in the session Tom Brokaw, an NBC correspondent, said that correspondents were ''tempted to be very judgmental at the end of that one minute.'' Mr. MacNeil added that such brief stories underlined the shallowness of television news coverage. ''In the anxiety to keep the maximum audience,'' he said, ''a lot of effort goes into retaining the attention of the uninterested.'' Illustrations: Photo of David Garth

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JOURNALISTS AND POLITICAL ADVISERS TRADE CRITICISMS ON CAMPAIGNING

In a rare encounter, executives and news reporters from the three television networks, politicians, academics and image-makers met at Harvard University this weekend to appraise their roles in Presidential elections, from the early primaries to election eve. In the three-day conference at the Institute of Politics, the participants were not able to agree on significant ways to change television coverage of the nominating and election process. But the sessions were rare occasions in that each of the networks opened itself to public, occasionally critical, self-examination before its two major competitors and those who are hired by candidates to manipulate television coverage. Discussions ranged across a variety of topics, from the networks' ability to control a candidate's access to the electorate, to the strategists' ability to use the fast-moving format of television news to create an image for a candidate.

20150529032335

Queensland prison counsellor Peter Nash has evaded a lengthy sentence in the US, with a judge deciding he has served enough jail time for his part in the global drug-trafficking website, Silk Road. US District Court judge Thomas Griesa sentenced Nash, 42, to a time-served sentence for his role as the website's moderator. Nash was facing a life sentence when he was arrested by the FBI and Australian authorities in Queensland in December, 2013. Prosecutors had asked for between 10 and 12.5 years' jail. Nash has been in Australian and US jails since his arrest and his lawyers asked for a time-served sentence. "Mr Nash is hardly the sort of predatory large-scale drug trafficker that policy makers had in mind when formulating the severe penalties in whose cross-hairs he now finds himself," Nash's lawyers, Andrew Frisch and Jeremy Sporn, wrote in a sentencing memorandum. Prosecutors admitted Nash played a relatively minor role in Silk Road, had entered guilty pleas to drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering charges and had an impressive history helping people with physical and intellectual disabilities. An undercover operation by US authorities shut Silk Road down on October 2, 2013. "The website was designed to make conducting illegal transactions on the Internet as easy and frictionless as shopping online at mainstream e-commerce websites," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing submission. Nash worked as a senior manager of the Forensic Disability Service in Wacol, Queensland, where he helped intellectually-disabled adults in or facing jail and in his off hours was paid $US1,000 ($A1,293) a week as a Silk Road forum moderator. He didn't sell drugs on the site, but bought cocaine to feed his own addiction. Silk Road, which used digital bitcoins as currency, had $US17.3 million in sales of cocaine, $US8.9 million in heroin and $US8.1 million in sales of methamphetamine. San Francisco-based site creator Ross Ulbricht, known as Dread Pirate Roberts, was convicted in February of seven charges, including conspiring to commit drug trafficking and money laundering, and faces a life sentence. Do you have any news photos or videos?

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Aussie Silk Road employee avoids jail over role with drug-trafficking site

A New York judge has sided with Queensland Silk Road website moderator Peter Nash and sentenced him to time already served.

20150712111939

Facebook declined to comment on its video plans, which were first reported in detail by Billboard. But the company directly denied another report from Music Ally, a news site, that said Facebook was working on a streaming service comparable to Apple Music or Spotify. "We have no plans to go into music streaming," a Facebook representative said. Review:No Song Left Unsung, Grateful Dead Plays Its Last ReinventingGoogle for a Mobile World Yahooto Enter Fantasy Sports Market Facebook's plans are said to still be in an early stage. But its talks with record companies highlight the company's eagerness to expand its video offerings and compete more aggressively with YouTube, the online video giant whose most popular content is music videos. Given Facebook's vast size — it has 1.4 billion users around the world — it is one of the few online outlets that could seriously challenge YouTube's dominance, media executives say. Facebook has offered the music labels better revenue-sharing deals than YouTube, according to one of the people briefed on the talks. In another enticement to the labels, Facebook is also promising to police the platform more thoroughly for unauthorized content, this person added. Read MoreTaylor Swift decides to put '1989' album on Apple music Music is just the latest video-related frontier for Facebook. For months, the company has been urging outside publishers like BuzzFeed, Vice, CNN and ESPN to publish original videos directly to its platform, and it has been satisfied with letting those publishers post the clips on sites like YouTube and Vimeo and then link to them on Facebook. It has also encouraged its users to upload their own videos. But by building up its own video platform, Facebook could keep users within its system and also capture more advertising revenue. So far, its strategy seems to be working: Facebook had an estimated 315 billion video views in the first quarter of 2015, according to Ampere Analysis, an independent video analytics firm. If Facebook were able to build a stronger presence for music videos, it would put pressure on YouTube, which is owned by Google and has long had a complex relationship with the music industry.

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Facebook Said to Seek Music Video Licensing Deals

Facebook has held preliminary discussions with the major record companies, seeking music video licensing deals, according to sources. NYT reports.

20150818044648

Expectations for a rise in U.S. rates this year, which would lift the opportunity cost of holding gold while boosting the U.S. dollar, pushed the metal to a 5-1/2-year low of $1,077 last month. A rate increase will be dependent on the strength of U.S. data. The dollar briefly retreated and gold strengthened after a report on Monday showed manufacturing activity in New York state plunged in August to its weakest since 2009. "The likelihood of a September hike has dropped to roughly 40 percent from almost 50 percent in the morning," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said. "We expect gold to remain capped before the first rate hike, which we expect for September. Not too far after the first rate hike, gold should start to rise." Minutes from the Fed's July 28-29 meeting to be released on Wednesday will offer clues about its plan to boost rates for the first time since 2006. Read MoreListen up, gold bugs: HSBC predicts a year-end recovery Relief over stability in China's yuan exchange rate helped European stocks bounce back from their worst week in six, though concerns over the implications continued to support gold. "We are of the view that this latest bounce is merely a counter-trend move inside a larger bearish cycle," said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst for Forex.com. "Indeed, gold is heading towards some key resistance levels where the metal may resume its long-term bearish trend." A filing showed on Friday that hedge fund Paulson & Co cut its stake in the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund in the second quarter. Hedge funds and money managers cut their net short position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Aug. 11 but short positions remain "crowded", Barclays Capital said in a note.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150818044648id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/16/gold-steady-as-focus-returns-to-us-rate-hike-view.html

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Gold firms on weak US data, China caution lingers

Gold firmed on Monday, building on its biggest weekly rise in three months, buoyed by weaker-than-expected U.S. data and uncertainty over China.

20150824050114

Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne tries to break a tackle attempt by Dallas Cowboys' Chris Jones during 1st quarter punt return during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne tries to break a tackle attempt... San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne returns a punt in 1st quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne returns a punt in 1st quarter... San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne watches scoreboard during 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jarryd Hayne watches scoreboard during 4th... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula and Bruce Miller (49) during National Anthem before 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula and Bruce Miller (49)... San Francisco 49ers' Ahmad Brooks leads the team onto the field before 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Ahmad Brooks leads the team onto the field... San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 1st quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 1st quarter of 23-6 win over... San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' L.J. McCray in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Patton celebrates after his punt block for a touchdown in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Patton celebrates after his punt block... San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead watches 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead watches 4th quarter of 23-6 win... San Francisco 49ers' Anquan Boldin enjoys 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Anquan Boldin enjoys 4th quarter of 23-6 win... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of Niners' 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of... San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick enjoys himself during 4th quarter of Niners' 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick enjoys himself during 4th... San Francisco 49ers' Jerome Simpson, Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin watch Quinton Patton's punt block for a touchdown in 4th quarter of 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Jerome Simpson, Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of Niners' 23-6 win over Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula during 3rd quarter of... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula has words with Vance McDonald in 1st quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula has words with Vance... San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead and Nick Moody (54) team up to stop Dallas Cowboys' Joseph Randle in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead and Nick Moody (54) team up to... San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald is brought down by Dallas Cowboys' Andrew Gachkar in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Vance McDonald is brought down by Dallas... San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead is double teamed by Dallas Cowboys in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Arik Armstead is double teamed by Dallas... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter... Line judge Catherine Conti works San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys' NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. Line judge Catherine Conti works San Francisco 49ers and Dallas... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert scrambles as Dallas Cowboys' Randy Gregory in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert scrambles as Dallas Cowboys'... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in... San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Blaine Gabbert looks to pass in 2nd quarter... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Davis rushes against Dallas Cowboys in... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde stiff arms Dallas Cowboys' Orlando Scandrick in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde stiff arms Dallas Cowboys' Orlando... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde rushes against the Dallas Cowboys in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde rushes against the Dallas Cowboys... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) celebrate their sack of Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58)... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) celebrate their sack of Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58)... San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick looks to pass while rolling out against Dallas Cowboys' Jack Crawford in 1st quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick looks to pass while rolling... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) celebrate their sack of Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58)... San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) team up to sack Dallas Cowboys' Brandon Weeden in 2nd quarter during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Quinton Dial (92) and Eli Harold (58) team up... San Francisco 49ers' Craig Dahl celebrates his 2nd quarter interception against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Craig Dahl celebrates his 2nd quarter... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Quinton Dial after Purcell's 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter against the Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Quinton Dial... San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula in 1st quarter against Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' head coach Jim Tomsula in 1st quarter against... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter as Dallas Cowboys' Mackenzy Bernadeau fails to make a tackle during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Eric Reid (35) and Quinton Patton (11) after Purcell's 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter against the Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell (64) celebrates with Eric Reid... San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in 2nd quarter as Dallas Cowboys' Mackenzy Bernadeau fails to make a tackle during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Mike Purcell during a 37-yard interception... San Francisco 49ers' Vernon Davis points to the crowd before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Vernon Davis points to the crowd before... San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick (7) and Blaine Gabbert take the field for warm ups before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick (7) and Blaine Gabbert take... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde before playing Dallas Cowboys... San Francisco 49ers' offensive line prepares to play Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' offensive line prepares to play Dallas Cowboys... San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde (28) and Trey Millard take the field to warm up before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Carlos Hyde (28) and Trey Millard take the... San Francisco 49ers' Kendall Gaskins (40) and fellow running backs huddle before playing Dallas Cowboys during NFL preseason game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. San Francisco 49ers' Kendall Gaskins (40) and fellow running backs...

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49ers’ rookie Jarryd Hayne plays like he’s here to stay

The 49ers head coach insisted the running back who had a 53-yard run on his second carry was hardly guaranteed to make the final 53. The former Australian rugby league star had three first-quarter touches, all on punt returns. In the second half, he appeared at running back and had 54 yards on eight carries, including 34-yard gain down the left sideline in which he stiff-armed safety Jeff Heath to the turf near the line of scrimmage. In two preseason games, Hayne is averaging 9.0 yards on 13 carries, 21.6 yards on five punt returns and returned his only kickoff 33 yards. Inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman, playing in his first game in 19 months, stopped running back Darren McFadden on a one-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. Leading 16-0 in the fourth quarter, wide receiver Quinton Patton capped the 49ers’ scoring by blocking a punt, recovering the loose ball in the end zone and jumping into the stands to celebrate with the first Levi’s leap.

20150824174754

Soeren Stache | AFP | Getty Images Manuela Schwesig (R), German Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a session at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) on March 5, 2015 in Berlin. BERLIN -- Germany's lower house of parliament passed legislation on Friday requiring major companies to allot 30 percent of seats on non-executive boards to women, as a new survey found females remain grossly under-represented in business life. Although Germany has been led by a woman, Angela Merkel, since 2005, there is not a single female chief executive among the 30 largest firms on Germany's blue-chip DAX index. The new quotas, due to come into force from 2016, will affect more than 100 listed companies which have employee representation on their supervisory boards. A further 3,500 medium-sized companies will have to determine their own quota for executive and supervisory board seats. Read More Commentary: Smart businesses put women at the top Family Affairs Minister Manuela Schwesig called it an "historic step" for equal rights, saying women needed to have a voice at the level where decisions on working conditions and pay are taken. Companies not meeting the quota will be required to fill vacancies with women or leave the positions empty. A survey published in the Handelsblatt newspaper on Friday said 59 percent of mid-size companies in Germany did not have a single woman in a leadership position, compared to the European Union average of 36 percent. At DAX companies, women occupy only 7 percent of executive board seats and barely 25 percent of non-executive board seats, according to the DIW think-tank, although that is above the 20 percent European average for women, according to EU data. The law was championed by the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in Merkel's left-right coalition. Read MoreCommentary: The No. 1 reason women are not getting promoted "The quotas for women are the biggest contribution to equal rights since the vote for women was introduced," said SPD Justice Minister Heiko Maas, adding that the legislation would give impetus for cultural change in Germany. In 2003, Norway became the first country in the world to impose a gender quota requiring at least 40 percent of public limited company board members to be women. Other countries, including France, Spain and the Netherlands, followed suit. Some companies have already moved to bolster female leadership in recent years as the issue gained traction. Deutsche Telekom, Munich Re and Adidas are among firms where at least 30 percent of their supervisory board seats are already occupied by women. Still, the move has met criticism from business groups and some conservatives who say it will increase bureaucracy without addressing the real culprit behind female under-representation in business -- a lack of childcare and a short school day.

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German parliament approves legal quotas for women on company boards

Germany's parliament passed legislation on Friday requiring major companies to allot 30 percent of seats on non-executive boards to women.

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If you simply can’t wait to read the book that spawned an executive shake-up and Hachette Book Group has moved up the publication date of “Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble,” a forthcoming memoir from longtime tech-industry writer Dan Lyons. According to the publisher’s website, Lyons’ book is now expected to go on sale Feb. 2, rather than in April, as previously advertised. In late July, the marketing software company HubSpot disclosed it had fired chief marketing officer Mike Volpe for violating the company’s ethics policy in connection with an attempt to get ahold of the unpublished manuscript of Lyons’ book. A second executive, vice president of content Joe Chernov, resigned before the company could determine whether he should be fired. HubSpot also fined CEO Brian Halligan for failing to tell the company’s board soon enough when he found out about the incident. HubSpot has refused to discuss the details of what Chernov or Volpe may have done in pursuit of the unpublished book, but Halligan has said that the incident involved “fishiness” and “really aggressive tactics.” Chernov, who declined to comment on the incident, was hired Thursday as the marketing vice president at Cambridge sales-software startup Insight Squared. Attempts to reach Lyons and Volpe were unsuccessful Thursday. Lyons has covered the technology industry for many years, with stints at publications including Newsweek and Forbes. He gained notoriety as the author of “Fake Steve Jobs,” a blog that poked fun at the late Apple CEO’s demanding persona. Lyons’ satirical style was also employed as a writer on the HBO series “Silicon Valley,” which lampoons tech industry culture. Lyons worked at HubSpot for less than two years as a “marketing fellow,” writing articles about marketing, advertising, and the tech industry. Lyons has said that his book would be “scathing,” and the blurb promoting it says Lyons found “the office vibe was frat house meets cult compound.” HubSpot has said it notified legal authorities about the matter. In its latest quarterly earnings report, the company said that it was working on a new training and certification program to reinforce its ethics code. HubSpot declined to comment on Lyons’ book publication date. Hachette declined to comment beyond confirming the new publication date.

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HubSpot book to hit stores 2 months earlier

If you simply can’t wait to read the book that spawned an executive shake-up and corporate ethics scandal at HubSpot, you’re in luck. Hachette Book Group has moved up the publication date of “Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble,” a forthcoming memoir from longtime tech-industry writer Dan Lyons.

20150831164422

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” premieres Sept. 8 at 11:35 p.m. on CBS, the TV audience will be getting its first full picture of a man who thoroughly inhabited the “Stephen Colbert” character on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” for a decade. If this man is anything like the Colbert presented at the recent Television Critics Association press tour, it will be a funny show indeed. As he emerged from backstage to chat with roughly 200 reporters, he served as his own hype man, his disembodied voice booming over the speakers: “Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Our next contestant hails from South Carolina by way of Chicago, Ill., and basic cable news parody. Weighing in at 181 pounds, the next host of ‘The Late Show,’ please welcome Stephen Colbert, the man talking into the mike right now.” He then proceeded to rule the room with a nearly balletic combination of lightning-fast quips, deeply considered answers, and a warmth that will surely go a long way toward winning over those suspicious that he will be bereft without his shtick. Colbert may be leaving the conservative bloviating behind on his Emmy-winning satire, but he says viewers can expect similar absurdity as he settles into the Ed Sullivan Theater, former home of hero David Letterman. After all, an elegant elevation of inanity is a hallmark for Colbert, a 51-year-old comic actor who considers himself culturally a South Carolinian and comedically a Chicagoan, where he studied improv at Second City. Colbert worked the room with glee as he live-tweeted mid-press conference, joked with reporters, and made evident his anticipation of sharing his true face. Q. How much have you and CBS discussed format? Would the network give you the freedom to reinvent the wheel, or do you want to do a fairly traditional late night show? A. CBS has asked nothing of me other than I fill an hour every night Monday through Friday. So the format hasn’t changed. There are certain things that happen perforce. There are six commercial breaks. There are seven acts. I love the grind of a daily show. I love a live audience. I like meeting the guests, and I like telling jokes. But that’s it. They haven’t asked me to change or do anything. They like the show I used to do, and they said, “Would you mind adding another 120 hours a year?” Honest to God. Q. Some of the funniest parts of “The Colbert Report” were when you broke character. Do you think that’s more or less likely to happen now that you’ve retired that character? A. I promise you, if you’re wondering who the real Stephen Colbert is, there’s a super cut online of me laughing, me breaking character the entire time. That’s me. I’m laughing at our jokes. . . . We do the show for each other all day, and it’s my job and my privilege and my responsibility to translate to you, the audience at home, what we already did for each other. That guy who can’t stop laughing, that’s the real Stephen Colbert. I can’t wait for him to be the only guy you see. Q. The Colbert character used absurdity as an interview tool to get reactions out of guests. Will your interview style change now? A. Well, I’m a comedian, but I have to say very quickly that my favorite thing on the show became doing the interviews because I got into comedy through improvisation. And when we’re doing the jokes, which I love writing, and I love producing, and I like doing them straight down the pipe, I can only get those wrong, you know? I’ve been one of the composers of the music, and I might play the notes wrong. But when you’re interviewing people, you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s much closer to how I learned my craft. And you can have big stars or important politicians or impressive thinkers, but it’s sometimes the people you don’t expect to impress you who can be your best guests. Naquasia LeGrand, who was the head of the fast food workers’ strike in New York, was one of my favorite guests of all time. She was fierce. She was funny. She was energetic. She didn’t back down at all. All I really want from a guest is somebody who has something to say so I can play with them. We have some common topic to be talking about. My character was actively ignorant about them. I think one of the reasons why I most wanted to drop the character is that I felt I had done everything I could with him or everything I could do with that show, other than have my honest interest in my guest, which is almost constant. And so now I feel actually more freed up. That was, in some ways, the most energetic, the most exciting part of the show, to me. And now I don’t have to hold back at all. Q. Who have you gone to for advice in launching the show? A. Well, I went to Dave [Letterman], you know. About 10 days before Dave went off the air, I asked if I could come hang out with him just to spend a little time with him up at his office. And he was really gracious. I went up. We spent about an hour and a half together, had a couple bottles of water: the hard stuff, two hydrogen, one oxygen. And I asked him questions for about a half an hour, and at one point I said, “Do you mind me asking you these questions?” And he said, “I don’t mind at all. No one’s ever asked me these questions.” And I said, “Really? No one’s ever asked you these questions?” And he goes, “Who would know to ask, and who would care what the answer was?” And that felt great. That was a very gracious way for him to say, “Only the person sitting behind that chair cares about the conversation we’re having right now.” Q. When other hosts like Jimmy Fallon started, no one said “We are finally going to see the real Jimmy Fallon.” Is it a strange expectation for you that this is supposed to be some confessional and revelatory thing about you? A. Yeah, a little bit. You know, it feels a little bit like therapy. “Who is the real Stephen Colbert? Why did you wear a mask? What were you running from? Let it out. It’s a late-night comedy show. Cry.” You know, I don’t think anybody would have watched that old show if they didn’t know who I was because that guy was a tool, and we did our best from the very beginning to peek around the mask. Not to get too erudite right now, but Oscar Wilde said something along the lines of “Do you want to see somebody’s real face? Give them a mask.” I was able to piggyback on the back of that character and be extremely intimate with the audience because I had the excuse that I didn’t mean it, but I’m here to tell you I meant a lot of it. I even agreed with my character sometimes. But we tried to establish a really intimate relationship with the audience. My hope is that when you see me on the new show, you’ll go, “Oh, wow. A lot of that was him the whole time.” But I won’t know how much of it is until I go do it, honest to God. It’s an act of discovery for me, too. All I know is it’s the same creative team. So I’m just as excited about the jokes. Q. Any Donald Trump jokes you’d care to share? A. I just want to say that every little boy grows up believing that they could be president of the United States, and I’m so happy that that little boy is Donald Trump. I just hope he’s taking his vitamins. Please stay healthy until I get on the air. Don’t do anything dangerous. Don’t ride any motorcycles, because every night before I go to bed, I light a candle and pray that he stays in the race, and I also pray that no one puts that candle anywhere near his hair. Q. Now that you have dropped the character, are you still America’s foremost Catholic? A. I am a Catholic. We’ll see where I rank. It’s like NASCAR. You don’t have to win every race. You just have to get your points up by the end of the season. Q. You tweeted that George Clooney would be your first guest and that you would like someone to let him know. Does he know, and why George Clooney? A. I wish I could have done better than George Clooney, but he’ll do for the first guest. I hope somebody has let him know. It’s going to be very awkward if he doesn’t show up on Sept. 8. I like George Clooney because, I mean, he’s a brilliant actor, a great director, and he cares about the world. How many celebrities have their own spy satellite? I’m going to ask him if I can have the keys. Q. Do you have a personal connection with him? A. We’re very tight. I’m at Lake Como all the time. Someone please let him know that as well, because he will not open the gate.

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Ready to reveal the real Colbert

Stephen Colbert discusses plans for his upcoming CBS show “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” premiering Sept. 8.

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* Cheaper copies of biotech drugs promise big savings * Zarxio priced at 15 pct less than Amgen's Neupogen * Amgen unsuccessful in attempt to block Zarxio launch LONDON/ZURICH, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Novartis kicked off a new era in U.S. medicine on Thursday with the launch of the first "biosimilar" copy of a biotechnology drug approved in the United States, at a discount of 15 percent to the original. The Swiss drugmaker's generics unit Sandoz said Zarxio, its form of Amgen's white blood cell-boosting product Neupogen, would increase access to an important treatment by offering a "high-quality, more affordable version". U.S. biotech group Amgen had tried to stop the sale of Zarxio, also known as filgrastim-sndz, but the Washington-based appeals court rejected its attempt to block the launch. The potential for copycats to take business from original biotech drug brands is increasingly grabbing investors' attention, although uncertainties remain as to how quickly so-called biosimilars will win business. Biosimilars have been on the market in Europe since 2006. However, the U.S. regulatory pathway for biosimilars, which are made in living cells and can never be exact replicas of originals, was only established by a healthcare reform in 2010. The arrival of biosimilars threatens companies heavily reliant on biotech drugs, such as Amgen, AbbVie and Roche, and Citigroup analysts have predicted a transfer of at least $110 billion of value from innovator companies to copycat producers in the next decade. Novartis said the U.S. wholesale list price for a 300 microgram syringe of Zarxio was $275.66, with the 480 mcg version costing $438.98. That represents a discount of 15 percent to Amgen's list price and is the same price gap set when Zarxio was launched in Europe in 2009. The discount in Europe has since widened to an average of around 20 to 30 percent. Insurers hope biosimilars will eventually cost the public 40 percent to 50 percent less than the original brands. Neupogen is a $1.2 billion-a-year medicine for Amgen that boosts white blood cell counts to fight infections in cancer patients. The majority of its sales are generated in the United States. An even bigger prize lies in the development of copies of multibillion-dollar antibody drugs for the treatment of diseases like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, where Sandoz and rivals are also working to bring products to market. Express Scripts, the largest manager of drug benefit plans for U.S. employers and insurers, has estimated the United States could save $250 billion between 2014 and 2024 if 11 of the likeliest biosimilars reach the market. (Editing by Anand Basu and David Holmes)

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UPDATE 2-Novartis launches first U.S. 'biosimilar' drug at 15 pct discount

*Zarxio priced at 15 pct less than Amgen's Neupogen. *Amgen unsuccessful in attempt to block Zarxio launch. The arrival of biosimilars threatens companies heavily reliant on biotech drugs, such as Amgen, AbbVie and Roche, and Citigroup analysts have predicted a transfer of at least $110 billion of value from innovator companies to copycat producers in the next...

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The staggering part of this situation comes from how many people at Urban Outfitters had to have poor judgment to get that item to market. Between the design team, the merchandising team, the preproduction (and possibly full-production personnel), the photographers, the Web team and anyone else in the approval process, how did so many people view this item and continue to sign off on it, to the point where it was actually released to the public on its website? Common sense seems to have become quite uncommon and there seems to be a vacuum in many corporations where bad decision-making goes unchecked. The NFL is another recent example where either there are far too many "yes men" unwilling to challenge bad ideas and decisions or a lack of people with the sense to know that they are bad decisions in the first place. Read More Urban Oufitters' blood-spattered sweatshirt stirs outcry Businesses are run by humans and humans make mistakes. In the desire to be socially relevant, sometimes brands make real-time errors. DiGiorno Pizza recently found this out the hard way, when a social media manager jumped on the #WhyIStayed Twitter hashtag with the response "#WhyIStayed You Had Pizza", not realizing the hashtag was from victims of domestic abuse who were sharing their very serious and personal stories. This case was a bona fide mistake, which was quickly caught and authentically apologized for. However, there is a colossal difference between a mistake and a deficiency in leadership of the kind that was demonstrated by Urban Outfitters letting a sweatshirt design making a joke out of a tragedy. Perhaps, as some have suggested, this was a publicity stunt. Bad behavior is often rewarded and/or forgiven in our culture and there's a pervasive belief that being talked about at all trumps the context of why you are being talked about. However, consumers are getting less tolerant of such acts. Moreover, as a company, particularly a publicly traded company, it is important to stand for something and have a mission. What kind of culture do you develop when you think it's OK to sell a "massacre sweatshirt?" What kind of customer are you trying to attract? I can't imagine many consumers or investors want to be associated with the brand that appeals to those who find humor in shootings. Read MoreNo such thing as bad publicity: 10 controversial businesses Since this has happened far too many times recently to count, here's a handy-dandy guide to when your product, service or marketing strategy is not considered fashion, funny or appropriate: Should I Produce this Product or Marketing Campaign? Here's when to say "no": Does it reference a time when people died or make light of victims? Example: Kent State "massacre" sweatshirt (Read about it from USA Today)

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Urban Outfitters' Kent State massacre sweatshirt is bad

After Urban Outfitters's apparently faux-bloody Kent State sweatshirt, Carole Roth draws the line between humor and bad taste.

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The returns of the election in Virginia, as given in the Petersburgh Express, of Feb. 6, present some interesting features. Out of 44 Counties then reported 32 had elected conservative candidates, -- some of them for the Union in any event. Among those best known to the country at large who have been returned, are Hon. Timothy Rives, who defeated Edward Ruffin, Jr., by an overwhelming majority; Messrs. Baldwin, Baylor, and A.H. Stuart, elected from Augusta County; Hon. Wm. Ballard Preston, from Montgomery County; Hon. W.L. Goggin, from Bedford County, and Hon. Sherrard Clemens, from Ohio County. Then it is settled that Ex-Secretary Floyd has been defeated in Washington County, and that Campbell and Grant, conservatives, have been returned. Ex-Governor Wise had a Methodist clergyman to contend with in Princess Ann County, and it is by no means certain that he has defeated him. In commenting on the result the Richmond Dispatch insists on people at the North making a distinction between Unionists and Submissionists, and expresses a belief that Virginia will be content with no settlement that does not restore the whole Union. If that cannot be accomplished, she will, of choice, as well as from the necessity of her position, go with a Southern Confederacy. The Petersburgh Express concludes a leader with these lines: "Let the Republicans do their duty, and Virginia will do hers. Let them show justice and equality -- honor and honesty -- good faith and patriotism, and all may yet be well." On the Saturday night preceding the election in Virginia a large meeting was held at Wheeling, which was addressed by both the secession and anti secession candidates for the State Convention. The former were compelled by the crowd to make their remarks rather brief, but Hon. SHERRARD CLEMENS was greeted with applause which indicated the emphatic indorsement his course received last Monday. In his address he said that it had been charged that the workingmen who nominated him were Republicans. Candidates were the servants of the people, and Republicans had a right to vote for who they pleased, but he denied that they were Republicans, and referred to the gentlemen themselves. Another charge was that all his interests were in Louisiana, a seceding State. What little he had was here -- every dollar of it. He then appealed to the naturalized citizens to stand by the Constitution to which they had sworn allegiance, and exhorted them to vote for no man whose fidelity to the Union was not above suspicion. He had thrown off party shackles, and party maledictions were being showered upon him thick and fast because he did so. He then made a convincing argument showing the disasters and dangers and taxes that must inevitably follow secession. His hearers would get no benefit from the opening of the African Slave-trade. The niggers would leave Virginia quicker than cream would curdle under a thunder-storm. He was in favor of the Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws. He had been called a Republican, and his votes in Congress this session had been pointed to as evidences of it. He had voted for a resolution of thanks to the gallant Major ANDERSON, who with his gallant little band had nobly upheld the flag of his country. He had voted for HOWARD's resolution to appoint a Committee of Five to inquire into the doings of traitors who sought to take forcible possession of the Capital of their country. If that was Republicanism, he stood by it. He defied any honest Democrat to put his finger on the place where he had departed from the creed of that party as it was. Mr. CLEMENS spoke for nearly two hours. The Wheeling Intelligencer says of Messrs. CLEMENS and HUBBARD: "Neither of them will ever, under any circumstances, vote for an Ordinance of Secession, and they will never, never sign one if passed over their votes." The Philadelphia Press publishes the appended extract from a letter written by one of the garrison in Fort Sumter, to a friend in that City: FORT SUMTER, S.C., Sunday, Jan. 27, 1861. Our present status may be described as the lull before the storm. The papers will tell you many things about us that are utterly and entirely false. We are yet receiving no fresh provisions of any kind from Charleston. A quantity of beef was sent some days ago, but as no arrangement had yet been made with the authorities, we sent it back, saying to Gov. PICKENS, that if we were to be furnished as a right, we would make the customary arrangements in town, but if it was sent as a civility, or courtesy, we declined to receive anything. The papers here publish falsehoods every day. That we are receiving fresh provisions is false; that our boat was fired into by a battery on Sullivan's Island is also false; and that Maj. ANDERSON is a Secessionist is equally so. And thus it goes on. We have no way of making known our position, except through Washington. We are, to all intents and purposes, in as perfect a state of siege as if actual war prevailed. No boat leaves our fort for town, or approaches it, without a white flag. All communication, except our mails, is cut off, as it has always been since we occupied this fort. Our provisions are running short, and we have now no sugar or coffee for the officers, and the men are on half rations. We have not enough of anything but flour and pork to last any length of time. Our women and children leave for New-York on Wednesday. It is better they should be away. Our guns are all up, and we are waiting the progress of events. If the Crittenden resolutions or their equivalent do not pass, the entire South is gone. This fort is cold and damp. We have insufficient fuel and food, and nothing but salt air to breathe, which I despise. But "a soldier's life is always gay," you know. This is the manner in which the Chicago Tribune, of Feb. 4 reads Hon. Mr. KELLOGG, of Illinois, out of the Republican Party:

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GENERAL POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE. - THE RESULT IN VIRGINIA HON. SHERRALD CLEMENS BEFORE HIS CONSTITUENTS. THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN FORT SUMTER. A COMPROMISE OSTRACISED. A SUCCESSFUL DODGE. SENATOR GREEN FOR COMPROMISE. SUICIDE OF AN OLD SOLDIER. REINFORCEMENT OF SUMTER. PREPARATIONS IN VIRGINIA. MR. LINCOLN OBJECTS TO PARADE. WHAT IS IN THE WIND? POSITION OF MR. JOSEPH LEGAR. A SENSIBLE PROTEST. - NYTimes.com

The returns of the election in Virginia, as given in the Petersburgh Express, of Feb. 6, present some interesting features.

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(For more Reuters DEALTALKS, double click on ) May 18 (Reuters) - TPG Capital LP may have helped its own campaign to go public after pulling Par Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc's IPO. TPG was preparing to begin an IPO investor roadshow for Par Pharmaceutical Holdings before it agreed to sell the generics drugmaker to Endo International Plc for around $8 billion. TPG bought Par for $1.9 billion in 2012. TPG, an alternative asset manager with more than $67 billion in assets under management, has aspirations to go public, and sees it raising a new $10 billion global private equity fund as a prerequisite to that, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. Par's outright sale to Endo, which was announced earlier on Monday, provides an immediate boon to that fundraising. TPG had previously registered Par with regulators for an IPO, and it would have taken months, possibly years, for it to sell down its stake in Par once it had gone public. TPG and its co-investors now stand to make seven times their $868 million equity investment in Par over just three years, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. "This will have a significant impact on TPG's performance as well as the deliberations of some potential investors sitting on the fence. For TPG, it's like saying, yes, we may have had some problems in our last fund, but we got our mojo back," said Kelly DePonte, managing director at private equity advisory firm Probitas Partners LLC. Founded in 1992 by David Bonderman and James Coulter, San Francisco and Fort Worth-based TPG has been trying to raise $10 billion for its flagship fund, TPG Partners VII, for close to two years. Some investors were skeptical because a few of TPG's company bets have gone sour, most notably bankrupt Texas power utility Energy Future Holdings Corp, casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp and floundering bank Washington Mutual Inc. In response, TPG raised a $2 billion "bridge" fund last year to tidy it over until it raises the new flagship fund. It has also exited some of its portfolio companies and returned cash to its fund investors at a big profit. For example, it sold another drug maker, Aptalis, to Forest Laboratories last year for $2.9 billion, equivalent to three times TPG's $401 million equity investment, according to TPG documents. Indeed, the sale of Par far exceeded TPG's own expectations. In fundraising documents for TPG Partners VII, Par was marked at just 2 times TPG's money as of the end of June 2014, rather than the 7 times multiple it subsequently agreed to sell Par at. Now with the firm more likely to meet its fundraising target for TPG Partners VII, it has stepped up its preparations to follow peers such as Blackstone Group LP, KKR & Co LP and Carlyle Group LP in going public, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media. TPG took Par private in 2012 for $1.9 billion, at a time when the stock market was punishing generics drugmakers that lacked scale. Par had been pressured to explore a sale by activist hedge fund Relational Investors LLC. Three years later, Par has grown significantly and become one of the industry's darlings, which made Endo Chief Executive Rajiv De Silva hungry for a transformational deal after his company lost out earlier this year to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc in its bid for Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. He made multiple offers to TPG over the last two weeks until he clinched a deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The rise in Par's popularity is partly due to its industry's consolidation, as a wave of dealmaking has left fewer players in some sectors of the market with high barriers to entry. Some generic drug manufacturers have also been able to boost margins by charging more for their products in recent years. Based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, Par has increasingly focused on drugs that are difficult to formulate and manufacture, or face complex legal and regulatory challenges. These include digestible capsules, injectable drugs and nasal sprays. With the acquisition, Endo will now have one of the largest generic drug businesses in the world. TPG also helped grow Par. It promoted Par Chief Operating Officer Paul Campanelli to CEO when it acquired the company. He gained a reputation as a savvy executive who quickly brought new products to market. He will now lead Endo's generic business. TPG also tripled research and development spending at Par and also grew it through acquisitions. As a result, Par had more than 200 products in its pipeline as of the end of December. It reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization in 2014 of $433.8 million, up from $306.9 million a year earlier. (Additional reporting by Nadia Damouni in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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DEALTALK-Abandoning Par IPO for $8 bln sale could help TPG with its own

May 18- TPG Capital LP may have helped its own campaign to go public after pulling Par Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc's IPO. TPG was preparing to begin an IPO investor roadshow for Par Pharmaceutical Holdings before it agreed to sell the generics drugmaker to Endo International Plc for around $8 billion. Founded in 1992 by David Bonderman and James Coulter, San...

20150923141223

Add signature confirmation: For a small fee you can require that someone signs for your package before the delivery person drops it off. It's not foolproof, but it increases the odds of a safe delivery. At FedEx, either the shipper or recipient can make that request. Use premium package control programs: For $5-$10 per request, you can get access to power delivery tools at UPS at FedEx that allow you to reschedule times or specify delivery windows. For a $40 annual fee, UPS My Choice members can make as many requests as they want. FedEx Delivery Manager also has some free options, like a 14-day vacation hold or specifying that you want it delivered to a specific area, like tucked behind a grill or planter. Get it delivered to your local mail facility: All the major carriers will allow you to re-route packages to your local mail office. "These centers can serve as a "mailroom receiving agent" and offer a real street address, secure 24-hour access (at participating locations) and email or text notification when you have a package waiting," said UPS's McGowan. At FedEx, this is free, UPS and USPS charge a fee. UPS also accepts packages from all carriers. Enroll a friend: If you can't be home, have a trusted friend or family member pick up your package and hold onto it. Get presents at work: Have the package mailed to you or your giftee's workplace. Read MorePop-up shops prep for winter sales lift Keep your eyes peeled: "Neighbors protect neighbors by flagging suspicious activity to each other and the police," Sheriff Anthony Wickersham of Macomb County in Michigan told TODAY. If it does get stolen... check your credit card: Many issuers offer theft protection. If your package gets stolen, file a police report immediately and send it to your credit card company. They'll refund your purchase, up to $500 or $1,000, depending on your credit card company's policies.

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How to protect holiday packages from doorstep thieves

Police report disturbing incidents of brazen package theft from people's doorsteps. Today show reveals how to protect your holiday packages. TODAY show reports.

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Once again, Skechers has crushed the competition with a monster earnings beat. Jim Cramer considers it one of the most well-managed footwear companies, and it has been on an epic multiyear run. Quarter after quarter, somehow it continues to trample Wall Street's expectations and send the stock higher. Read MoreClick here to watch Cramer's interview with Skechers Skechers reported a huge earnings beat on Wednesday night, posting $1.55 a share when the analysts were only looking for $1.01, and higher than expected revenue that increased 36.4 percent, year-over-year. It also posted double-digit increases in all three of its main business channels and 12.9 percent same-store-sales growth in company-owned stores. Additionally, management provided bullish commentary; CEO Robert Greenberg confirmed that the present has never looked as colorful, comfortable and successful due to its product and marketing. To hear more about the quarter, Cramer spoke with Skechers' chief operator and chief finance officer, David Weinberg. "We think comfort rules, and we are working very hard to bring comfort to the game," Weinberg said. Already the No. 1 walking brand in the country, Skechers also became the No. 2 athletic footwear brand in the U.S. in the past year. With its rapid growth in the U.S., Weinberg confirmed that the company is looking to gain more territory worldwide. ---------------------------------------------------------- Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer Cramer Remix: This is hurting Whole Foods Cramer: Twitter & Yelp blew it! It's their fault Cramer: What's really behind explosive earnings ---------------------------------------------------------- In fact, even with all of the turmoil recently in China, the Skechers executive says the company has struggled to meet the demand of the buyers in China. "We are a small player there, but it is starting to be very, very big for us, and it will be our biggest market outside of the United States," Weinberg said. He added that the question will not be whether Skechers can meet the demand in China; it will be how big the demand is and how fast it will come. Skechers recently moved to a franchise model, which will allow it to grow with the rapid demand. "We talk about Nike, we talk about Under Armour. This is the best one," Cramer said.

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Cramer: It's up 169% this year-with room to run

Jim Cramer speaks to the chief operator of Skechers, fresh off a monster earnings beat, to find out how it continues to run higher.

20150929040404

It is seeking candidates with more than five years of "newsroom experience" able to "recognize original, compelling stories unlikely to be identified by algorithms". Apple declined to comment beyond the job ad. Read MoreFitBit raises IPO price range to $19 per share One publisher that has had negotiations with Apple over the news service said the hiring of journalists was "jaw-dropping" and "a real surprise". Ken Doctor, an analyst with Newsonomics, pointed to other examples of technology companies hiring journalists, such as Flipboard and Yahoo. "Apple hasn't done it so it's a departure but it's not a surprising departure," he said. "To do curated distribution you either use algorithms, like Google News, or you use people." Read More Number of women in tech 'disastrous': Wikipedia founder The launch of the Apple service comes weeks after Facebook unveiled its own deal with a group of publishers to publish some of their content directly through the social network rather than simply hosting it on their own sites. Apple's news recruitment drive is the latest example of a steady uptick in traffic from Fleet Street to Silicon Valley. In the last few years, social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have hired reporters and editors from the likes of News Corp and NBC to help broker relationships between media groups and their distribution platforms. Within the past six months, Snapchat has hired reporters from CNN and tech site The Verge. Read MoreUber has a mobile game to stop drivers getting lost Apple itself has brought on journalists in the past to help select apps and games to be featured on the homepage of its App Store. The launch of Apple News comes as the company tries to introduce more of a human element to its other services. Apple Music, which was unveiled last week, includes personally selected playlists and Beats 1, an international radio station staffed by newly hired DJs—including Zane Lowe, formerly of BBC Radio 1. The publishers participating in Apple News will supply Apple with a few stories each day, which will be served as a stream from an icon on the home screen of connected Apple devices. The publishers will keep any advertising revenue they generate from ads sold around these stories; if they want Apple to sell the ads the iPhone maker will keep a 30 per cent cut of any revenues. Apple's job ad was first reported by 9to5Mac.

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Apple News service to hire team of journalists

Making a broader push to provide personalized news content, Apple is searching for journalists to run its Apple News service.

20150929232502

Tom Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, was found guilty of charges of conspiracy to defraud on Monday as a jury delivered its verdict in the first trial of a defendant accused of Libor interest rate rigging. Hayes, a 35-year-old former yen derivatives trader, faces up to 10 years in jail for each count of conspiracy over the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate (Libor), a crucial benchmark for around $450 trillion of financial contracts and consumer loans, between 2006 and 2010. The London trial that kicked off on May 26, marks a new phase in a seven-year, global inquiry that has seen 21 people charged and some of the world's most powerful banks and brokerages pay around $9 billion in regulatory settlements. Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) alleged Hayes set up a network of brokers and traders that spanned 10 leading financial institutions and cajoled and at times bribed them to help rig rates, designed to reflect the cost of inter-bank borrowing, for profit. The prosecution said he simply ignored "red flags" as a global investigation into Libor rigging allegations, instigated by U.S. regulators at the height of the credit crisis in 2008, gathered momentum in 2009 and 2010. Hayes, who has been diagnosed with mild Asperger's Syndrome, said during his trial he had been transparent about trying to influence rates and that his managers were aware of and condoned trading methods that were common industry practice. He said he received no training, that Libor was at the time unregulated, his requests for rate levels fell within a "permissible" range and that he left a trail of emails and computer chats because he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. "(I was) either the stupidest fraudster ever because I wrote everything down, or there was an element of me that genuinely didn't think about it," Hayes has said in documents shown to the court. "I might be a lot of things, but I'm not stupid." During 82 hours of interviews with SFO investigators in the months following his arrest in December 2012, Hayes admitted dishonesty. But he told the court he had only confessed because he was desperate to be charged in Britain to avoid extradition to the United States, where he also faces fraud-related charges. Hayes subsequently withdrew from a cooperation agreement with the SFO and pleaded not guilty in December 2013.

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Former trader Hayes found guilty in world's first Libor trial

A former trader was found guilty of charges of conspiracy to defraud in the first trial of a defendant accused of Libor interest rate rigging.

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But there is one inescapable truth that is unfolding before the eyes of the world right now. "It" never happens — until "it" does. With Scotland's independence referendum now over, the world has had a wake up call. In a country where 10 years ago, most Scots believed that a vote on independence would never happen in 2014 — it did. Read MoreOp-ed: Shocked by the Scotland vote? You shouldn't be And it's been happening around the world in places where the general consensus was that it would not or could not happen. At the end of the Second World War, there were 54 recognized countries on the globe. At the end of the 20th century, there were 192. And in the 21st century, the number has grown even larger. Attention is now on the number of nations where independence movements have been steadily, and often silently, growing for years. And no place is getting attention like Texas. In Texas, as part of our work with the Texas Nationalist Movement, we've heard "it'll never happen" more times than we can count. But, just like in the rest of the world, it is happening right now. Regardless of the incessant arguments from those opposed to Texas independence that center around "can't" and "won't," Texans are coming to the realization that it "can," it "will" and it "must." Prior to the Scottish referendum becoming major global news, there were more websites, polls, blogs, and discussions dedicated to the issue of Texas independence than about Scottish independence. Read MoreSeparatists around the world draw inspiration from Scotland Texas independence sentiment has been steadily rising over the last decade. This was highlighted in a recent Reuters poll. The question was asked, "Do you support or oppose the idea of your state peacefully withdrawing from the USA and the federal government?" In Texas, the numbers were surprising to some. In a state where the majority of the electorate is comprised of Republicans and Independents, among those groups, 51 percent support the independence of Texas.

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Texas independence MUST happen

The Scotland vote on independence was a wake-up call for the world, says Texas Nationalist Movement President Daniel Miller.

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That makes for facile comparisons with 2008, the most recent example of a credit-fuelled bubble. But there was no trigger like U.S. authorities' shock decision to let Lehman Brothers, at the heart of the global banking system, collapse in 2008. "If you look at the extremes in the equity market they are almost comparable with the Lehman days. In those days we had a trigger, a real event, something clearly defined," said Christian Lenk, rate strategist at DZ Bank in Frankfurt, on Tuesday. "What we saw yesterday was ongoing fears about China ... but there was no trigger, so we see a bit of normalisation today." And it was no surprise that China's stock bull run, like its property bubble a year earlier, came to an end, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said this week. The anatomy of the Asian financial crisis was also quite different, as hot money deserted a region with high foreign debt and trade deficits and currencies they couldn't support. Read MoreJapan cautions China against frequent yuan manipulation "There are few similarities to the Asian crisis in 1997 and 1998, which was driven more by large deficits in trade accounts," said John Vail, chief global strategist at Nikko Asset Management in New York. "What we're seeing now is more of a rapid change in sentiment around the world," he said. The comparisons between China now and Japan in the 1990s, however, are striking. Like Japan then, China was trying to cool frothy property and equity markets. Both economies were powered by massive investment, huge trade surpluses and overvalued currencies and were liberalising their financial sectors. China's share of the global economy now is roughly the same as Japan's was in 1990, about 12 percent. Japan's real GDP growth averaged 5 percent in the run-up to the crash, while China's averaged 10 percent over the past decade. Credit growth was explosive in both, and the market crashes were triggered in part by efforts to temper exuberance. Policy response was stop-and-go in both cases, with China seesawing on IPO policies, market liquidity operations and its treatment of shadow banking loans. Chinese policymakers fear falling into the trap of deflation and stagnation that has gripped Japan ever since. "They aren't a single bit interested in Japan's successes. Their biggest interest is in Japan's mistakes," one China-based Japanese source in touch with Chinese regulators told Reuters in March. "Japanese and Chinese economies do share many similarities, so I assume there is quite a lot to learn from our experiences." Global investors will also see some threatening differences. Global growth is weak, and China accounts for two fifths of that. It also accounts for most of the growth of many multinationals. As the largest consumer of commodities, its slowdown is hammering the price of fuel resources and metals, unleashing deflationary pressure across the world. Japan's woes coincided with robust global growth and had fewer international consequences. Read MoreClock ticking for BOJ's Kuroda as inflation stalls "Japan's collapse in the 90s was very much reflected into itself with just some knock-on effect into the rest of Asia," said Adam Slater, lead economist at UK-based Oxford Economics. "The impact of China's slowdown will ... leave us in a very disappointing growth phase for the next year or two for the world as a whole." Some important differences, and lessons learned from Japan's experience, will be welcome to global investors and Chinese policymakers alike. China's stock market is much smaller relative to GDP than Japan's was - 40 percent versus 140 percent - so should have less economic impact. Per capita it is still a middle-income nation with only 55 percent urbanisation, so has plenty of scope for infrastructure spending to support the economy. While Japan was slow to act - monetary easing came too little, too late, fiscal stimulus was withdrawn early - and its capital markets at the mercy of international flows, while China, with tight control of its capital account, has been proactive to a fault. Its frequent monetary interventions and constant regulatory tinkering, whether in the stock or housing markets or in local government lending, are not always effective and sometimes counterproductive, but it rarely fiddles while Beijing burns.

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China's troubles like Japan's 1990s bust, not GFC or Asian crisis

China's troubles are more akin to the abrupt end of Japan's boom in the 1990s than the global financial crisis.

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It’s been three and a half months since Microsoft AAPL put owners of Apple AAPL computers on the defensive with the first (and perhaps the best) “Laptop Hunters” ad — the one featuring a perky actress named Lauren who does a price comparison and decides she’s “just not cool enough to be a Mac person.” Lauren, you may recall, started with a $1,000 budget but ended up with a $699.99 Hewlett Packard HPQ machine. Someone in Redmond must have liked the way that $700 price point played in the focus groups because a cut-down version of the original Lauren ad was back in heavy rotation last week, and this week it was joined by a new TV spot in which an equally photogenic laptop hunting family starts with a $700 budget, rejects the $999 white MacBook, and ends up, like Lauren, with an HP Pavilion dv7. Brace yourself for another round of Pavilion dv7 bashing (“It is the epitome of what people dislike about PCs,” wrote Computerworld ’s Seth Weintraub when Lauren bought hers) and statements of the obvious: if you start at $700 you’ve already priced yourself out of the Apple notebook market. More to the point, perhaps, is that none of this seems to have put a dent in MacBook sales, as All Things Digital‘s John Paczkowski pointed out earlier this week. The 13-inch MacBook Pro, starting at $1,199, seems to be selling particularly well. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster called around and found that it was out of stock in 7 of the 10 stores he telephoned (see here). Here, in case you missed it, is the latest Laptop Hunters ad. The original “Lauren” spot is pasted below the fold.

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Mac vs. PC: Microsoft lowers the bar to $700

It's been three and a half months since Microsoft put owners of Apple computers on the defensive with the first (and perhaps the best) "Laptop Hunters" ad -- the one featuring a perky actress named Lauren who does a price comparison and decides she's "just not cool enough to be a Mac person." Lauren, you…

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The news comes days after Google forged a separate deal with MTV networks to syndicate content from the music video station to websites and blogs. Under the terms of the deal, Google will pay News Corporation, which owns MySpace, at least $900 million in revenue-sharing payments over nearly four years. News Corporation's Fox Interactive Media unit said it will add Google search boxes to MySpace and other sites with the aim of discouraging people from leaving the website. Fox executives said that the main reason users left the MySpace site was to conduct searches on Google. The new deal would let MySpace users enter search queries directly on the site, allowing it to retain visitors longer and boost its advertising potential, they said. Google in turn will provide search results and keyword advertisements targeted to people's search terms, probably by the end of the year. Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation, said that the deal would probably be the first of several between the two companies. "We're very committed to moving our traditional content on to the web" Peter Chernin, president of News Corporation "We're very committed to moving our traditional content on to the web." MySpace is the second most popular internet site in the US. Worldwide the site has about 100 million users, 90% of whom are US based. Meanwhile, Google's separate deal with MTV Networks would provide videos supported by adverts to website publishers, Google and Viacom, which owns MTV Networks, said in a joint release.  Tom Freston, chief executive officer of Viacom, said the deal would syndicate some of the most popular shows on MTV and enable the company to distribute its content in "a seamless and targeted way".  Tom Freston, chief executive officer of Viacom, said the deal would syndicate some of the most popular shows on MTV and enable the company to distribute its content in "a seamless and targeted way". Both companies said that a test version of the service should be running by the end of August.

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Google forges MySpace search deal

Google, the internet search engine, has signed a deal to handle search and advertising facilities for MySpace, the world's largest social networking website.

20160313202542

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Dodgers scored two runs on five hits off Diamondbacks starter Shelby Miller in the first two innings Saturday en route to a 7-2 victory. Afterward, Miller, acquired in the December blockbuster trade that delivered him from Atlanta, admitted to some nerves in his first spring appearance with Arizona. "We're pros, but at the same time we're kids doing this as well," said Miller, who worked on his curveball in the outing. "If we weren't getting butterflies it wouldn't be as fun. I know every guy is excited to get back out there and anxious. It's nice to get that first one out of the way. Personally I have butterflies. I like pitching with them." Overall, Miller was pleased with his first spring start. "I was working on my curve ball," he said. "I threw them for strikes. It felt sharp." Kenta Maeda threw two scoreless innings in his debut with Los Angeles, striking out two and giving up one hit. Maeda, who signed a $25 million, eight-year deal in January after eight seasons in Japan, exhibited good command in throwing 28 pitches in his first spring training start. "Maybe I was a little nervous before," Maeda said through an interpreter. "But once I was on the mound, not so much. "I was able to add and subtract to my velocity and I was able to command my pitches well." The right-hander, who had a 2.09 ERA in Hiroshima last year, is projected to be a starter for the Dodgers, who are scrambling to fill their rotation following Zack Greinke's offseason move to the Diamondbacks and the loss of Brett Anderson to injury on Thursday. Anderson underwent back surgery and could be sidelined for three to five months. Diamondbacks: Arizona is at home in Scottsdale with left-hander Patrick Corbin set to start against Cubs right-hander Adam Warren. Dodgers: Los Angeles travels to the Giants spring home in Scottsdale. Zach Lee gets the start. Right-hander Jeff Samardzija will start for the Giants.

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Dodgers get to Shelby Miller early, put away Diamondbacks

Kenta Maeda threw two scoreless innings in his debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers, striking out two and giving up one hit in a 7-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

20160528211101

Before you go, we thought you'd like these... Chelsea Handler just gave her friend Reese Witherspoon a birthday gift she'll surely never forget. Naturally, the comedian took to Instagram on Tuesday to with the actress a happy birthday by sharing a completely nude mirror selfie. Something tells us that Witherspoon, who turned 40 on Tuesday and performed with Keith Urban at her birthday party over the weekend, will greatly appreciate Handler's snap, in which she's wearing knee-high black socks and nothing else. SEE ALSO: Hilarious phone call Miley Cyrus made to a DJ The "Chelsea Does" star has made it her mission over the last year or so to become a fierce advocate for the #FreeTheNipple campaign, so it may come as a surprise to some people that Handler opted to cover her private areas in this shot. Regardless, there's no getting around the fact that the best-selling author's bod looked incredible in the picture, which looks to have been taken in her bathroom. See more photos of Chelsea Handler through the years: Chelsea Handler gives Reese Witherspoon a birthday present she'll never forget Chelsea Handler at Netflix's FYC "Orange is the New Black" Emmy Panel on Monday, August 4, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Alexandra Wyman/Invision for Netflix/AP Images) Get on my level, Sarah Silverman! Check out our #SB49 #ad for @TMobile on their YouTube. NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Chelsea Handler arrives for the 'Late Show with David Letterman' at Ed Sullivan Theater on October 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 06: (L-R) Actress Mary McCormack, author Arianna Huffington, and comedian Chelsea Handler attend as Arianna Huffington hosts a special lunch at home for Jennifer Aniston to celebrate CAKE on January 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for LTLA) LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 06: (L-R) Comedian Chelsea Handler, author Arianna Huffington and actors Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux attend as Arianna Huffington hosts a special lunch at home for Jennifer Aniston to celebrate CAKE on January 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for LTLA) Chelsea Handler arrives at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) Chelsea Handler speaks on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Inglewood, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) Comedian, actress and author Chelsea Handler poses for photos at Book Expo America, Thursday, May 30, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 06: TV personality Chelsea Handler attends the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 06: Actress Sandra Bullock (L) and tv personality Chelsea Handler attend the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 06: TV personality Chelsea Handler (L) and actress Mary McCormack attend the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 05: TV personality Chelsea Handler attends the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for AFI) AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 30: Chelsea Handler signs copies of her new book 'Uganda Be Kidding Me' at Book People on March 30, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images) GLENDALE, CA - MARCH 11: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chelsea Handler attend an Evening With Chelsea Handler at Alex Theatre on March 11, 2014 in Glendale, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) Chelsea Handler speaks at the Ms. Foundation for Women Gloria Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler, Gabourey Sidibe, Gloria Steinem, Amy Schumer, and Kathy Najimy attend the Ms. Foundation for Women Gloria Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP) FILE - In this May 2, 2013 file photo, Chelsea Handler arrives at "An Unforgettable Evening" benefiting EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund at The Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, Calif. Handler has set the date for ending her E! network comedy-talk show. "Chelsea Lately" will come to a close on Aug. 26, the network said Wednesday, May 28, 2014. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File) Chelsea Handler arrives at the "Stand Up For Gus" Benefit at Bootsy Bellows on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler at An Evening with Shameless, on Tuesday, June, 4, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Showtime/AP Images) EXCLUSIVE - Sandra Bullock, Chelsea Handler and President of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures Sue Kroll at Sandra Bullock Hands and Footprints Ceremony, on Wednesday, September, 25, 2013 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Warner Bros./AP Images) Chelsea Handler arrives at the LA private screening of "Shameless" at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre on tuesday, June 4, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler arrives at "An Unforgettable Evening" benefiting EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund at The Beverly Wilshire on Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP) Strange: Ellen DeGeneres and Chelsea Handler Have an Awkward Shower Fight http://t.co/OstTX2IAAQ via @mashable http://t.co/HIO0PQl9Fl NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: TV personality Chelsea Handler arrives at 'Late Show with David Letterman' at Ed Sullivan Theater on October 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic) Chelsea Handler hosts the Women in Film Crystal Lucy Awards on Friday June 12, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) Comedian Chelsea Handler arrives at the Chelsea Handler "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" book launch party in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg) Chelsea Handler speaks at the Ms. Foundation for Women Gloria Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP) Host Chelsea Handler is seen backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Comedian Chelsea Handler inside at the Chelsea Handler "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" book launch party in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg) Chelsea Handler, a cast member in "This Means War," poses at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. The film opens in theaters on Friday, Feb. 17. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Chelsea Handler from the shows "Chelsea Lately" and "After Lately" attends an E! Network upfront event at Gotham Hall on Monday, April 30, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini) Chelsea Handler from the shows "Chelsea Lately" and "After Lately" attends an E! Network upfront event at Gotham Hall on Monday, April 30, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini) Comedian Chelsea Handler, right, and boyfriend hotelier Andre Balazs attend the TIME 100 gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at the Frederick P. Rose Hall on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini) TV host Chelsea Handler attends the "Stand Up to Cancer" event at the Shrine Auditorium on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 in Los Angeles. The initiative aimed to raise funds to accelerate innovative cancer research by bringing new therapies to patients quickly. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP) Chelsea Handler attends the premiere of "Movie 43" at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) Talk show host Chelsea Handler attends the E! Network 2013 Upfront at the Manhattan Center on Monday April 22, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) Sandra Bullock, left, poses with Chelsea Handler at Bullock's hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 06: (Exclusive Coverage) Dave Grohl and Chelsea Handler at SiriusXM Studio on October 6, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SiriusXM) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 05: TV personality Chelsea Handler attends the 2014 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Jane Fonda at the Dolby Theatre on June 5, 2014 in Hollywood, California. Tribute show airing Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT on TNT. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for AFI) RIDGEWOOD, NJ - MARCH 08: Chelsea Handler promotes 'Uganda Be Kidding Me!' at Bookends Bookstore on March 8, 2014 in Ridgewood, New Jersey. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage) Chelsea Handler ends her cable run on a high note - in the shower with Ellen! http://t.co/yafutBcDu1 via @decider http://t.co/L7LipNKbkg More from AOL.com: Margot Robbie set to play figure skater Tonya Harding in 'I, Tonya' film Stars react to devastating Brussels terrorist attacks Paul Qui, 'Top Chef' winner, arrested for allegedly assaulting girlfriend

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Chelsea Handler gives Reese Witherspoon a birthday present she'll never forget

Chelsea Handler took to Instagram to wish her pal Reese Witherspoon a happy birthday with a naked mirror selfie.

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The trouble is there is just not that much out there to buy. Home construction is still recovering at a slow pace, and prices for newly built homes are far higher on average than for existing homes.The number of homes for sale is rising slightly but is still well below historical norms across most markets. "Even after a wrenching housing recession, this data shows that the dream of homeownership remains very much alive and well, even in those areas that were hardest hit," Zillow's chief economist Stan Humphries said in the report. "But these aspirations must also contend with the current reality, and in many areas, conditions remain difficult for buyers. The market is moving toward more balance between buyers and sellers, but it is a slow and uneven process." Homeownership aspirations among renters were actually highest in some of the hardest hit markets of the housing crash, such as Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas, according to Zillow. That may be because so many renters there are former homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure. They are now seeing these markets recover, as investors bought up the distressed properties, pushing prices higher far faster than anyone expected. These renters are seeing market resilience, and likely want back in. (Read more: What happens to prices when Wall Street is your landlord) Foreclosure activity, in fact, fell 10 percent in February from January and is down 27 percent from a year ago to the lowest total since December 2006, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. (Read more: Foreclosure falls to lowest in 7 years: Report) "Cold weather and a short month certainly contributed to a seasonal drop in foreclosure activity in February, but the reality is that new activity is no longer the biggest threat to the housing market when it comes to foreclosures," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. (Read more: Google to invest $50 million in real estate site Auction.com) The report, however, does note that more than 152,000 properties that are in the foreclosure process but not yet bank-owned have been vacated by their former owners, likely due to the long foreclosure timelines. These so-called "zombie foreclosures" have been in process an average of 1,031 days, according to RealtyTrac. These homes sit untended and are a blight to the neighborhoods around them, often reducing nearby property values.

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4 million renters want to buy. Can they?

A new study says 10 percent of all renters want to buy a home this year, but face considerable hurdles like tight credit and higher prices.

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Seth McConnell | The Denver Post | Getty Images A marijuana themed hat during the 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado, April 19, 2014 "The fact that you can take too much too easily, and everything kind of looks like a candy bar," Bollich told "Squawk Alley," "Almost certainly what we're going to see is more regulation, and that's what's needed." Read MoreUnholy smoke: Pope condemns legalization of pot Bollich has turned his attention from social gaming to cannabis technology as CEO of Surna, a company on a mission to manufacture disruptive technology and equipment for the legal marijuana industry, according to its website. Bollich was one of the featured speakers at a marijuana conference hosted by The ArcView Investor Network in Denver, Colorado—the Mile High City—where more than 200 high-net-worth investors eager to get in on the expanding industry listened to pitches from select entrepreneurs. "At Surna we're really focused on tackling the really big problems," Bollich said, noting climate, power and water as major topics. "We're an engineering firm at the end of the day, so we're going to attack those first." The legal marijuana market value in the United States is projected to grow 68 percent this year to $2.57 billion, according to research by ArcView Group. "Gains will come in the form of increased demand in existing state markets, as well as from new state markets coming online within a five-year horizon," according to the research, which values the five-year national market potential at $10.2 billion. "This was exactly the way it was at Zynga," said Bollich. "It was an evolving industry that we get to be at the ground floor."

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Zynga co-founder: More pot regulation needed

Though Zynga co-founder Tom Bollich is out to disrupt the legal marijuana industry, he feels more regulation is needed.

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Labor and the crossbench have passed a motion making it harder for the government to call a double-dissolution election by limiting its ability to recall the Senate. On Friday afternoon the government senator leader, Mitch Fifield, proposed a motion that the Senate rise until Tuesday 10 May “or such other time as may be fixed by the president”. Related: Explainer: Malcolm Turnbull's options for the budget and double dissolution Labor, the Greens and five independent and minor party senators joined forces to pass an amendment to that, saying the president or deputy president could recall the Senate only with the “absolute majority of senators where the leader or deputy leader of a party in the Senate can concur on behalf of every senator in that party”. The amendment was passed 31 votes to 22. The last day the government can call a double-dissolution election, which is when both houses are dissolved and all members and senators seek re-election, is 11 May. That is one day after the federal budget is due be handed down, giving the government very little time to pass crucial money bills. The tight timing led to speculation the government would recall the House and Senate for an early budget. Both Labor and the Greens have previously shot down this notion for the Senate, but as the Coalition has the majority in the House of Representatives, there is nothing stopping the government from recalling the lower house to convene an early budget. The Senate passed legislation on Senate voting changes on Friday, after a mammoth 40-hour debate. The changes make it harder for minor parties and independents to be elected. The changes need to be in place for at least three months before an election, paving the way for the government to use them in a July double dissolution.

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Labor and crossbenchers make double dissolution option harder for Coalition

ALP, Greens and five independents form bloc to limit government’s ability to recall the Senate before 10 May

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Fox News host Bret Baier grilled Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server during her first appearance on the network in more than two years on Monday. SEE ALSO: TV host: Voters may make unlikely choices in Clinton-Trump faceoff In a network town-hall event, Baier pressed Clinton at length about her use of a private email server while she was the US secretary of state. "The FBI investigation is still hanging over your campaign, and there are some Democrats who are worried about the other shoe dropping," Baier said. The former secretary of state vigorously refuted claims that her past statements about sharing classified information on her private server were inaccurate. See photos of Clinton on the campaign trail: FOX News anchor grills Hillary Clinton on her email scandal BALTIMORE, MD - APRIL 10: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a campaign rally at City Garage April 10, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. Voters will head to polling places for Maryland's presidential primary April 26. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton laughs as she listens to Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) speak on a gun control panel in Port Washington, New York April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 09: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a Latino organizing event on April 9, 2016 while campaigning in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. The New York Democratic primary is scheduled for April 19th. (Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images) SPRINGFIELD, MA - FEBRUARY 29: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a 'Get Out The Vote' rally at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History on February 29, 2016 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Massachusetts and Virginia ahead of Super Tuesday. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) BOSTON, MA - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at the Old South Meeting Hall during a rally in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday February 29, 2016. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MARCH 01: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets patrons at Mapps Coffee on March 1, 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Minnesota as Super Tuesday voting takes place in 12 states. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters as she arrives at a rally at Abraham Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Abraham Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by her daughter Chelsea Clinton, reacts to applause as she arrives for a rally at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, hugs Annette Bebout, 73, of Newton, during a campaign event at Berg Middle School, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 in Newton, Iowa. Bebout told her story of how she lost her home to the audience. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by former President Bill Clinton, right, and their daughter Chelsea Clinton, left, arrives to speak at a rally at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at BR Miller Middle School in Marshalltown, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton makes a point during the Brown & Black Forum, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, right, and high school teacher David Swaney laugh about their colorful outfits before Swaney asks Clinton a question during a town hall at NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts to applause from the audience while standing with Brenda Bouchard, an Alzheimer's research advocate, during a town hall style campaign event, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, at South Church in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks about her counterterrorism strategy during a speech at the University of Minnesota Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets local residents at Apple Orchard Cafe Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Hillary Rodham Clinton reacts as she talks to supporters after a Democratic presidential primary debate, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton greets supporters before speaking at a campaign rally in Boulder, Colo., Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles as she arrives to speak at a town hall meeting Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015, in Clinton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks from a gymnasium side porch to people who weren't able to fit in to hear her speech at Fisk University Friday, Nov. 20, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton shakes hand with a supporter during a town hall meeting Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, in Coralville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to customers at the White Mountain Cafe & Bookstore, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, in Gorham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a meeting of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Clinton tells black Alabama Democrats that she'd champion voting rights in the White House. She says Republicans are dismantling the progress of the civil rights movement. (AP Photo/Mark Almond) MOUNT VERNON, IOWA - OCTOBER 7: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to voters during an outdoor town hall meeting at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa on Wednesday October 7, 2015. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton reacts to a supporter before speaking at a community forum, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) MUSCATINE, IOWA - OCTOBER 6: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to a voter before leaving a farm in Muscatine, Iowa on Tuesday October 6, 2015. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MANCHESTER, NH - OCTOBER 05: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a town hall meeting at the Manchester Community College on October 5, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Clinton spoke about the need for gun control on the wake of a mass shooting at another community college in Oregon. (Photo by Alfredo Sosa/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures as she speaks at Human Rights Campaign gathering in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) DAVIE, FL - OCTOBER 02: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks about gun control during her campaign stop at the Broward College à Hugh Adams Central Campus on October 2, 2015 in Davie, Florida. Hillary Clinton continues to campaign for the nomination of the Democratic Party as their presidential candidate. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a grassroots organizing meeting at Philander Smith College Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson) WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 19: Hillary Clinton attends the Phoenix Awards Dinner at the 45th Annual Legislative Black Caucus Foundation Conference at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on September 19, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images) MANCHESTER, NH - SEPTEMBER 19: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claps on stage during the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention at the Verizon Wireless Center on September 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Challenger for the democratic vote Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been gaining ground on Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images) PORTLAND, ME - SEPTEMBER 18: Hillary Clinton brings her Democratic presidential campaign to Maine for the first time, speaking at King Middle School. Clinton is welcomed as she is introduced at the event. (Photo by Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images) CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - SEPTEMBER 7: Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton takes time to meet supporters and take photos at the Annual Hawkeye Labor Council AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic on September 7, 2015 at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clinton spent a busy Labor Day weekend in Iowa, meeting supporters throughout the state while trying to maintain a lead over Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. (Photo by David Greedy/Getty Images) US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes part in a discussion after speaking about the Iran nuclear deal at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2015. Clinton expressed firm support for the nuclear accord with Iran, calling it flawed but still strong. Clinton added that the agreement must be strictly enforced and said that if elected president next year, she would not hesitate to use military force if Iran fails to live up to its word and tries to develop a bomb. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) PORTSMOUTH, NH - SEPTEMBER 5: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen take an off the schedule stop in the River Run Bookstore before shaking hands with onlookers on September 5, 2015 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Photos by Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post via Getty Images) PORTSMOUTH, NH - SEPTEMBER 5: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton receives an endorsement from U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) September 5, 2015 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Clinton attended a Women for Hillary event at Portsmouth High School. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images) PORTSMOUTH, NH - SEPTEMBER 5: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks downtown Portsmouth and takes pictures with people September 5, 2015 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Clinton attended a Women for Hillary event at Portsmouth High School earlier in the day and received an endorsement from U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - AUGUST 18: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answers questions from journalists after speaking to north Las Vegas voters at a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, on Tuesday, August 18, 2015. The former Secretary was answering questions about emails sent and received a private server system, now in question, while she was the Secretary of State. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) UNITED STATES - August 15: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton greets fairgoers as she tours the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, August 15, 2015. (Photo By Al Drago/CQ Roll Call) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton tours the Des Moines Area Rapid Transit Central Station with general manager Elizabeth Presutti, left, and building superintendent Keith Welch, Monday, July 27, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) CARROLL, IA - JULY 26: Democratic presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to guests gathered for a house party on July 26, 2015 in Carroll, Iowa. Although Clinton leads all other Democratic contenders, a recent poll had her trailing several of the Republican candidates in Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton greets supporters after a campaign event, Thursday, July 23, 2015 in Columbia, S.C. Clinton talked about what she said was a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and a criminal justice system that treats blacks more harshly than whites. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) Chelsea Galinos, 21, left, who painted a picture of the democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, greets Clinton after a campaign event in New York, Monday, July 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at the Iowa City Public Library, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) FILE - In this June 20, 2015, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors 83rd Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Clinton’s presidential campaign jumped on the Supreme Court decision, changing its red campaign logo to a rainbow colored H, releasing a gauzy video of gay wedding ceremonies, and blasting out supportive tweets aimed at building its campaign list. But like President Barack Obama, such expressions of support mark a remarkable shift for Clinton, who opposed gay marriage for more than two decades as a first lady, a U.S. senator and a presidential candidate. (AP Photo/Mathew Sumner, File) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally, Sunday, June 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Seeking an army of volunteers, Clinton is trying to build an organizational edge in Iowa as some of her lesser-known Democratic rivals clamor for attention in the state that tripped up her first presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally, Sunday, June 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Clinton's campaign has signaled Iowa will be the centerpiece of its ground game. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to supporters as her husband former President Bill Clinton, second from right, Chelsea Clinton, second from left, and her husband Marc Mezvinsky, join on stage Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the "Hillary For America" official campaign launch event at Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island on Saturday, June 13, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP) Supporters watch as democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers a speech at Texas Southern University in Houston, Thursday, June 4, 2015. Clinton is calling for an expansion of early voting and pushing back against Republican-led efforts to restrict voting access, laying down a marker on voting rights at the start of her presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) CHICAGO, IL - MAY 20: Democratic presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for a meeting with parents and child care workers at the Center for New Horizons on May 20, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Clinton arrived in Chicago after campaigning Monday and Tuesday in Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton greets a local resident while visiting local shops on main street in Independence, Iowa, Tuesday, May 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 05: Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) poses with students and faculty after speaking at Rancho High School on May 5, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Clinton said that any immigration reform would need to include a path to 'full and equal citizenship.' (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Hillary Rodham Clinton, a 2016 Democratic presidential contender, steps to the podium to speak at the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23: Hillary Rodham Clinton (L) and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal attend the 2015 DVF Awards at United Nations on April 23, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Stewart/FilmMagic) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 29: Democratic presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum at Columbia University April 29, 2015 in New York City. Clinton addressed the unrest in Baltimore, called for police body cameras and a reform to sentencing. (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with employees at Whitney Brothers during a campaign stop, Monday, April 20, 2015, in Keene, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) Hillary Clinton announced her campaign for president on Sunday April, 12, 2015 with a video on YouTube. "There's a lot of misinformation going on around here, so let me start with the facts," Clinton said. Last March, facing criticism for exclusively using a private server during her time as secretary of state, Clinton handed over about 30,000 work-related emails for the State Department to make public. She deleted about 31,000 more emails she says were personal in nature. Since then, many of the released emails have been marked classified upon their release. Clinton reiterated that she believed she made a "mistake" in using a personal email account instead of an official government account. But she argued that none of the emails she sent or received were marked classified at the time. SEE ALSO: Jury reaches big verdict in Andrews nude tape scandal "I have said it wasn't the best choice to use a personal email. It was a mistake," Clinton said. "However, I am not alone in that. Many people in the government, past and current, have on occasion or in practice have done the same." Baier then confronted Clinton about the classification process itself, asking whether she believed the since-redacted emails even needed to be classified. "So your contention now is the 2,100 or so emails should not have been classified at any time, now or then?" Baier asked. Clinton, disagreed, but called for the emails to be released. "Release it, and once the American people see it, they will see how absurd this is," Clinton said, spurring applause in the audience.

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FOX News anchor grills Hillary Clinton on her email scandal

FOX News host Bret Baier grilled Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server during her first appearance on the network in more than two years.

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Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Commuters are funneled into a single lane past a construction site at Folsom and Fremont streets in downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction projects and the improving economy. Commuters are funneled into a single lane past a construction site at Folsom and Fremont streets in downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous Traffic is backed up on the Fremont Street off-ramp exiting the Bay Bridge into downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction projects and the improving economy. Traffic is backed up on the Fremont Street off-ramp exiting the Bay Bridge into downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction projects and Traffic squeezes through a choke point at the Transbay Transit Center construcion site coming into downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction projects and the improving economy. Traffic squeezes through a choke point at the Transbay Transit Center construcion site coming into downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous Traffic squeezes through a choke point at the Transbay Transit Center construcion site coming into downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction projects and the improving economy. Traffic squeezes through a choke point at the Transbay Transit Center construcion site coming into downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous Southbound traffic on Fremont Street is forced to detour around a construction project in downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction projects and the improving economy. Southbound traffic on Fremont Street is forced to detour around a construction project in downtown San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2015. Traffic has gotten worse due partly to numerous construction S.F. traffic: Numbers don’t show why it really is bad Surely, it’s indisputable: Traffic in San Francisco, especially downtown, is miserable, worse than ever, barely bearable. That’s what everybody says. Just how bad it’s become, however, is tough to quantify — statistics from a variety of sources don’t paint a clear-cut picture. What they show is an uneven — and confusing — mix of measurements, some confirming the widespread belief that gridlock is getting worse, others suggesting — counterintuitively — that congestion is actually easing. Figures show that the number of drivers pouring into San Francisco from both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge is up — but only slightly — while traffic volumes on many busy city streets have declined. Traffic speeds have increased at most key intersections, but the time it takes to drive a couple of blocks has also gotten longer. Even in the age of plentiful data, statistics don’t always tell the full story, especially to drivers creeping through South of Market toward the Bay Bridge on weekday evenings, pounding their steering wheels as they sit through yet another red light. “It’s undeniable traffic is getting worse,” said Joe Castiglione, deputy director for technology, data and analysis for the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. “It may vary from location to location, but there’s little debate traffic is higher.” Ed Reiskin, director of transportation for the Municipal Transportation Agency, said complaints about congestion have been increasing. One of those complaints was directed at Mayor Ed Lee from Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “We’ve been hearing from a lot of people,” Reiskin said. ‘A lot more’ cars now The word on the street is the same. “I feel like there’s a lot of cars,” said Winta Gebreslasse, who’s been making deliveries for SpoonRocket for the past year. “A lot of cars — a lot more than there used to be.” Some of the most damning statistics come from Inrix, a traffic information company. At The Chronicle’s request, Inrix analyzed driving times from January through March on four frequently backed-up stretches of street, repeating an analysis Inrix did for the newspaper in early 2014. With just one exception, Inrix found times creeping up during the morning and evening commutes: •On the Embarcadero at Harrison Street, the time to get through the intersection increased anywhere from six seconds to a minute and 12 seconds, depending on the direction and time of day compared to 2014. •Drivers traveling on Market Street between Third and Seventh streets saw a rush-hour increase of four seconds to 34 seconds. •On Montgomery Street, from Bush to Market streets, the time rose from 28 seconds to a minute and five seconds. •And on Mission Street, between Fourth and Sixth streets, trip times increased between one and 11 seconds, except in the southwestern direction in the evening commute, when they improved by 32 seconds. And, apparently, we’re not alone. “What we had through the recession was a bit of a traffic holiday,” said Jim Bak, a spokesman for Inrix, referring to national studies. “What we’re seeing now is growth in traffic that’s three times the economic growth.” San Francisco traffic in the middle of the day is also getting worse, Bak said, noting that travel times and traffic volumes downtown are nearly as high between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. as during the morning commute. While the Inrix data show that traffic is on the rise, other figures are not nearly as clear-cut. To monitor and manage congestion in San Francisco, the County Transportation Authority studies traffic speeds at clogged intersections every odd-numbered year. Between 2011 and 2013, commute speeds at half of the intersections measured — all on Van Ness Avenue or Mission Street — increased, while half decreased. Downtown, for instance, the average speed on Mission between Third and Ninth streets, heading southwest in the morning, dropped 3.4 miles per hour. On the stretch between the Embarcadero and Third, however, it picked up by 5.5 mph. In the evening, speeds on Mission, between Third and the Embarcadero, heading northeast, slowed by 3.9 mph, but sped up by 5.5 mph on the same stretch in the other direction. Another authority study found that the number of vehicles passing through busy intersections in 2014 mostly dropped compared with averages from 2009-12. It found declines as high as 31 percent at Mission and Fourth streets, 20 percent at Broadway and Van Ness Avenue and 16 percent at McAllister and Leavenworth streets. Only Columbus Avenue at Broadway saw an increase in traffic volume. While it would seem that traffic volumes would grow as congestion worsens, at some point, the opposite becomes true. When congestion causes backups, fewer vehicles can squeeze through an intersection, resulting in lower traffic counts. More people are driving into the city, figures show, though the increases are relatively small. The Bay Bridge, among the nation’s busiest toll spans, is carrying about 2.2 percent more vehicles into San Francisco than it did a year ago, according to the Bay Area Toll Authority. Traffic into the city on the Golden Gate Bridge is up less than 1 percent over last year, according to the bridge district. All that seemingly conflicting information could leave drivers scratching their heads, but the reality seems clear to drivers. Richard Rome, 32, a Coca-Cola merchandiser, said traffic congestion starts earlier and lasts later during both the morning and evening commutes. Anywhere South of Market from Sixth Street to the Embarcadero is bad, particularly in the evening. “It’s really getting bad,” he said. “It’s been getting worse and worse for a couple of years now.” There are other factors — the changing transportation scene, the surge in construction and the frustration of harried drivers facing time pressures — that could help make congestion seem even worse than it is. The transportation revolution that brought ride services like Uber and Lyft has added thousands of vehicles to the streets — estimates range as high as 15,000 — and many of those cars double park to pick up or drop off passengers. The city cannot regulate the ride services and the state Public Utilities Commission doesn’t restrict their numbers. “They’ve put a lot more vehicles on the streets,” Reiskin said. “They’re all contributing to the increased traffic.” Something else that’s increased: construction, as evidenced by the forest of cranes South of Market. Work on the Transbay Terminal and Central Subway, as well as city sewer and street repairs, and office and residential tower projects, obstructs lanes and frequently alters lane configurations, leading to traffic tangles that can change daily. “Construction just makes the roads smaller and traffic becomes more congested,” Gebreslasse said. According to the Municipal Transportation Agency, permits allowing contractors to block traffic temporarily have been climbing steadily since the first half of 2010. During that six-month period, the MTA issued 669 permits. This year, through April, 1,128 permits have been issued, on a pace to hit nearly 1,700 for the same six months. Construction is one of many frustrations that drive motorists to feel that the pain of driving in the city is increasing. Leon James, a psychology professor at the University of Hawaii, has studied the psychology of traffic for the past two decades and is known as “Dr. Driving.” He says the stress of driving — which can be exacerbated by hassles like lane closures, construction, new bike or transit-only lanes and aggressive drivers — leads to the perception that traffic is worse even when numbers don’t back that up. “It has to do with the experience of being in stuck traffic and getting home because it’s getting less manageable and the stress is increasing,” he said. “It’s more about the drivers than the number of cars.” A recent study by Here, a traffic information service, found that driver perception of other drivers, changing road or weather conditions, and their position in a backup can affect whether they view traffic as congested. So can time pressure. When you’re in a hurry, traffic always seems worse. James, in true Hawaiian fashion, said the solution is for drivers to mellow out, let go of the negative thoughts and give themselves more time. “We have to change the concept of driving,” he said. “Right now it’s in a very low spot. It it has to do with aggression and competition. It leads to the emotional use of the gas pedal.” San Francisco officials hope to ease the stress and negativity with a mix of technology and stepped-up enforcement. Ben Matranga, a senior aide to the mayor, said a congestion management plan to start Monday will use real-time data from the MTA’s new transportation control center to deploy parking control officers to direct traffic and crack down on scofflaws more effectively. Parking control officers, working with police, will continue — and increase — their crackdown on drivers who “block the box,” stopping in the middle of intersections or crosswalks when traffic lights change, or double park. Officers will also cite drivers who stop in bus and tow-away zones or obstruct transit-only lanes. They’ll be especially on the lookout for delivery trucks that block traffic or bike lanes. Tom Maguire, the MTA’s sustainable streets director, said the efforts will focus on intersections and streets that are congested, heavily used by transit, and dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. They include Pine and Bush streets in the Financial District, Fell and Oak streets through the Panhandle, Haight-Fillmore and Hayes Valley neighborhoods, and Folsom and Harrison streets South of Market, especially near the Bay Bridge. Other targeted streets will include Geary Boulevard, Geneva Avenue, Van Ness Avenue and 19th Avenue. Law-breaking drivers are already getting more citations, he said. Officers have issued 82 percent more “don’t block the box” tickets through spring compared with last year, and the number of double parking citations is up 53 percent. While the mayor is aware of Sen. Feinstein’s dissatisfaction, Matranga said, the congestion crackdown has been a year in the works and isn’t due to any single complaint. “The mayor hears it from a lot of folks,” he said. “He wants us to get out there and take a proactive stance so that traffic flows, is predictable, is safe.” Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan

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S.F. traffic: Numbers don’t show why it really is bad

What they show is an uneven — and confusing — mix of measurements, some confirming the widespread belief that gridlock is getting worse, others suggesting — counterintuitively — that congestion is actually easing. Figures show that the number of drivers pouring into San Francisco from both the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge is up — but only slightly — while traffic volumes on many busy city streets have declined. Traffic speeds have increased at most key intersections, but the time it takes to drive a couple of blocks has also gotten longer. Even in the age of plentiful data, statistics don’t always tell the full story, especially to drivers creeping through South of Market toward the Bay Bridge on weekday evenings, pounding their steering wheels as they sit through yet another red light. “It’s undeniable traffic is getting worse,” said Joe Castiglione, deputy director for technology, data and analysis for the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Ed Reiskin, director of transportation for the Municipal Transportation Agency, said complaints about congestion have been increasing. Some of the most damning statistics come from Inrix, a traffic information company. To monitor and manage congestion in San Francisco, the County Transportation Authority studies traffic speeds at clogged intersections every odd-numbered year. Between 2011 and 2013, commute speeds at half of the intersections measured — all on Van Ness Avenue or Mission Street — increased, while half decreased. When congestion causes backups, fewer vehicles can squeeze through an intersection, resulting in lower traffic counts. All that seemingly conflicting information could leave drivers scratching their heads, but the reality seems clear to drivers. There are other factors — the changing transportation scene, the surge in construction and the frustration of harried drivers facing time pressures — that could help make congestion seem even worse than it is. The transportation revolution that brought ride services like Uber and Lyft has added thousands of vehicles to the streets — estimates range as high as 15,000 — and many of those cars double park to pick up or drop off passengers. The city cannot regulate the ride services and the state Public Utilities Commission doesn’t restrict their numbers. Work on the Transbay Terminal and Central Subway, as well as city sewer and street repairs, and office and residential tower projects, obstructs lanes and frequently alters lane configurations, leading to traffic tangles that can change daily. According to the Municipal Transportation Agency, permits allowing contractors to block traffic temporarily have been climbing steadily since the first half of 2010. Construction is one of many frustrations that drive motorists to feel that the pain of driving in the city is increasing. A recent study by Here, a traffic information service, found that driver perception of other drivers, changing road or weather conditions, and their position in a backup can affect whether they view traffic as congested. San Francisco officials hope to ease the stress and negativity with a mix of technology and stepped-up enforcement. Ben Matranga, a senior aide to the mayor, said a congestion management plan to start Monday will use real-time data from the MTA’s new transportation control center to deploy parking control officers to direct traffic and crack down on scofflaws more effectively. Parking control officers, working with police, will continue — and increase — their crackdown on drivers who “block the box,” stopping in the middle of intersections or crosswalks when traffic lights change, or double park. Tom Maguire, the MTA’s sustainable streets director, said the efforts will focus on intersections and streets that are congested, heavily used by transit, and dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. While the mayor is aware of Sen. Feinstein’s dissatisfaction, Matranga said, the congestion crackdown has been a year in the works and isn’t due to any single complaint.

20160605151056

Anyone who says America's European allies have no stomach for action has never flown with Norway's defense minister, Kristin Krohn Devold. I might give her this compliment, if only the helicopter we're in weren't plummeting backward. Moments later, we are racing at treetop level toward a Norwegian military base, from which a contingent of mine-clearing troops is about to be dispatched to Iraq, and Devold encourages her pilots to show me what they can do. The chopper banks wildly, veering to the right and left, so that in one instant I am looking straight down at the ground and, in the next, straight up at the sky. The trees are never more than a few yards beneath us. In military jargon, this form of flying is known as terrain masking, and it is extremely dangerous because the margin for pilot error is measured in a few feet. The tactic is used in hostile territory to fly below radar and avoid enemy fire. That the Royal Norwegian Air Force -- 36 helicopters, 57 F-16's and a half-dozen C-130 cargo planes -- is even practicing offensive maneuvers with the defense minister on board says a lot about the aspirations of both this tiny nation and its ambitious defense chief. After all, Norway has a population no bigger than those of Brooklyn and Queens put together; its 20,000 soldiers couldn't fill the ranks of the New York City Police Department. So why do top Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, spend so much time conferring with Devold, praising her initiatives and quietly promoting her candidacy to take over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? As it happens, small nations like Norway have been assuming disproportionately large roles in global affairs since 9/11, one of the many unexpected consequences of the new new world order. ''During the cold war, when there was a bipolar massing of vast military establishments, the contribution of small nations was negligible,'' explains Loren Thompson, a military observer at the Lexington Institute in Washington. ''But today the nature of the threat is so different and diffuse that a country with special competencies or positioning can have huge leverage.'' Put more simply, size doesn't matter as much in today's localized and technologically driven armed conflicts. What does matter is speed and the ability to bring narrowly defined skills to the front lines. And this is where small countries like Norway or the Netherlands or future NATO members like Latvia come into the geopolitical picture. The evolving nature of conflict presents opportunities for Davids to fight alongside Goliaths, if they bring the right slingshot. Devold was among the first Europeans to spot this trend, and the openings it presents to motivated, if marginal, powers. ''We want to be relevant,'' she declares, as our chopper swoops over a wheat field, startling a herd of cows. To make Norway as attractive a Pentagon partner as possible, Devold has spent heavily and cut radically; hence her insistence that our airborne taxi do double duty as a tactical training exercise to save fuel and pilot time. ''We have some of the best pilots,'' she shouts appreciatively over the roar of the chopper's turbocharged engines. It's an American-made Bell 412, a modern version of the venerable Huey popularized during the Vietnam War. I nod weakly, trying not to encourage any further demonstrations of the craft's maneuverability. As if on cue, the pilots oblige us with a series of harrowing missile-avoidance moves known as tail-ons, during which the chopper's airframe shudders violently and we find ourselves suddenly falling -- actually falling -- backward. The civilian official next to me has turned green. Devold, meanwhile, gazes dreamily out the window, her paratrooper boots propped leisurely on the chopper's deck, a huge smile on her face. All across Europe, heavy armored divisions, air-wings, artillery, infantry and naval flotillas are still largely deployed to repel Red Army invaders. On both sides of the old Iron Curtain, outdated military equipment turns to rust. Moscow can't afford to maintain its forces or to pursue imperial ambitions. And the Europeans are too preoccupied with pressing issues like European Union expansion. To make matters worse, these great idle armies were never designed to fight anywhere but the European theater. The non-American part of NATO has virtually no transport capacity to get to distant wars, rendering the firepower it does have almost useless in the current threat environment. ''NATO's challenge,'' says Michele Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official who now follows military affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, ''is to transform itself into an alliance that can project power.'' Devold, one of only two female defense ministers among the 19 NATO nations (Michèle Alliot-Marie of France is the other), has been determined to do just that, initiating a shake-up of the Norwegian military establishment shortly after taking over the armed services in late 2001. The timing was right. Sept 11. had woken many Europeans from their post-cold war torpor, oil prices were high and Norway, one of the world's major exporters of crude, was flush. Her first major battle was to sell officers and politicians on the ideas that the best defense is a good offense, that military spending must be stepped up and that Europe needs to embrace the notion that security is no longer just about territorial defense.

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Who's Afraid of Norway?

Anyone who says America's European allies have no stomach for action has never flown with Norway's defense minister, Kristin Krohn Devold. I might give her this compliment, if only the helicopter we're in weren't plummeting backward. Moments later, we are racing at treetop level toward a Norwegian military base, from which a contingent of mine-clearing troops is about to be dispatched to Iraq, and Devold encourages her pilots to show me what they can do. The chopper banks wildly, veering to the right and left, so that in one instant I am looking straight down at the ground and, in the next, straight up at the sky. The trees are never more than a few yards beneath us.

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Wildlife officers have captured and put down a 4.3 metre-long crocodile believed to have killed the New Zealand-born tourist Cindy Waldron in far north Queensland. Officers from Queensland’s environment department removed the estuarine crocodile from the near the beach in the Daintree national park where Waldron was taken on Sunday night, before killing it “humanely”. “Wildlife officers believe the 4.3m crocodile is the target animal due to its size and location,” Queensland police said on Friday. Related: Australian woman feared dead after being grabbed by crocodile “The 4.3m estuarine crocodile was humanely euthanised. It is being transported to a secure facility in Cairns.” Police wanted to examine the remains of the crocodile to determine if it was responsible for the fatal attack. It was the second crocodile removed as part of the investigation into the death of the 46-year-old, who lived in New South Wales but was holidaying in Queensland. She was dragged underwater at Thornton beach on Sunday night after venturing into the waist-deep water with her friend Leeann Mitchell. Police had earlier requested the remains of a 2.5m-long crocodile trapped in one of three caged devices be examined. The animal’s stomach contents were “unidentifiable” and required further analysis. A police spokesman said investigators believed the crocodile was not the one responsible but were not able to conclusively rule it out until the results of tests were returned. Waldron’s father, Pat, and sister flew to Cairns from New Zealand earlier this week to be closer to where she spent her final days. They made an emotional visit to Thornton beach to say goodbye after expressing gratitude for the massive search effort. “We need to be here and cry on the beach,” said Mr Waldron, who did not want the crocodile harmed. “There’s signs everywhere – don’t go swimming with the crocodiles. She’d do crazy things. And what she did there is a crazy thing, absolutely.” The fatal attack has prompted the state government to allocate an extra $5.8m over three years for comprehensive population surveys and crocodile management.

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Crocodile suspected of deadly Queensland attack is captured and killed

Wildlife officers euthanise 4.3m estuarine crocodile believed to have killed New Zealand-born tourist Cindy Waldron in far north Queensland

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Premier Will Hodgman announces financial aid for Tasmanian flood victims. (AAP/9NEWS) Tasmanians who've lost homes and belongings in the state's worst floods in 40 years will be able to get immediate financial assistance, the government says. Emergency aid of up to $750 per family, comprising $200 per adult and $100 per child, will be made available to help flood victims buy clothing, food, transport, shelter and personal items. The Tasmanian government is also examining other support measurers and has officers on the ground supporting farmers with stock management. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the three people missing - a man from Ouse, a woman from Latrobe and a man at Evandale - for whom police hold grave fears," Premier Will Hodgman said in a statement. The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the event a catastrophe with at least 200 homes and businesses inundated, including 50 at Newstead, 35 at Latrobe, seven in Wynyard and five in Ouse. Many others in outlying rural areas are also under water. Authorities are warning people not to put themselves in danger to rescue stranded animals, as the search continues for an elderly Tasmanian man swept away by flood waters while feeding his sheep. Tasmania Police say the 81-year-old man, named by the ABC as Trevor Foster, was swept into the rising Ouse River from his backyard following heavy rainfall. "I want to reinforce that there should be no attempt by owners or members of the public to attempt to rescue those stranded animals," SES acting director Nick Wilson told ABC TV. "You're simply putting yourself in danger - and certainly those lives of the responders." Two other people remain missing in what the premier says are the state's worst floods for 40 years. More than 100 people have now been rescued by helicopter across Tasmania. The Spirit of Tasmania ferry service which runs between Melbourne and Devonport has been suspended until further notice because of the dangers posed by sunken vessels in the Mersey River. Authorities are advising people to stay at home and not attempt to drive in flood-affected areas. More than 100 roads are closed but some of the road-closure signs have been swept away. Major flood warnings are current for five Tasmanian river systems.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160608134012id_/http://www.9news.com.au/wild-weather/2016/06/07/10/29/tasmania-s-premier-announces-financial-aid-for-flood-victims

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Tasmania's premier announces financial aid for flood victims

Tasmanians affected by the state's worst floods in 40 years can get up to $750 per family to buy clothing, food and shelter, Premier Will Hodgman says.

20160609065356

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 5— In 1981 the Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar published ''Max and the Cats,'' the tale of a Jewish youth who survives a shipwreck and ends up sharing a lifeboat with a panther. Last month Yann Martel won the $75,000 newly renamed Man Booker Prize, Britain's top literary award, for ''Life of Pi,'' the story of an Indian youth who survives a shipwreck and finds himself occupying a lifeboat with a tiger. The plot similarities are not a coincidence, since Mr. Martel readily admits that he was inspired by the Brazilian book. But nonetheless, the literary press here is suddenly awash in indignant accusations that Mr. Martel, a 39-year-old Canadian enjoying his first commercial and critical success, is guilty of improperly ''copying'' or ''borrowing'' from the work of one of Latin America's most distinguished novelists. Dr. Scliar (his name is pronounced mo-uh-SEER SKLEER), a 65-year-old physician descended from a family of Jewish immigrants, confesses that he is perplexed by the situation and by Mr. Martel's behavior. ''My reaction is one of mixed feelings, as you might imagine,'' he said in a telephone interview from his home in Porto Alegre in the far south of Brazil. ''In a certain way I feel flattered that another writer considered my idea to be so good, but on the other hand, he used that idea without consulting me or even informing me. An idea is intellectual property.'' Mr. Martel indirectly acknowledges his debt to Dr. Scliar in an author's note in ''Life of Pi'' in which he thanks him for ''the spark of life.'' In an interview with The Guardian, the British newspaper, late last month, he said, ''I remember thinking, man, that's a brilliant premise'' when he came across a critique of Dr. Scliar's book, which he recalled as having been written by John Updike in The New York Times Book Review. There are no articles in the digital archives of The Times, however, in which Mr. Updike comments on the book, and in a phone interview Mr. Updike said he had never heard of ''Max and the Cats'' or of Dr. Scliar. The only review in The Times was published in July 1990, after the book, now out of print, was issued in paperback in the United States. In it Herbert Mitgang describes ''Max and the Cats'' as ''a brilliant novella'' and praised Dr. Scliar for ''expanding the horizons of South American literature.'' Such comments do not have the flavor of the review Mr. Martel remembered. In an essay published on the Web site of Powell's City of Books, an independent bookstore (www.powells.com), Mr. Martel wrote that even though the review he recalled ''oozed indifference,'' Dr. Scliar's concept had ''the effect on my imagination of electric caffeine'' because of its ''perfect unity of time, action and place.'' But because he also felt a ''mix of envy and frustration'' that he had not thought of the idea himself, he decided initially to stay away from ''Max and the Cats.'' ''I didn't really want to read the book,'' Mr. Martel wrote. ''Why put up with the gall? Why put up with a brilliant premise ruined by a lesser writer. Worse, what if Updike had been wrong? What if not only the premise but also its rendition were perfect? Best to move on.'' Dr. Scliar himself said: ''I get all of my reviews from my publishers, and I do not have one by John Updike. So that is another strange aspect of this story.'' Mr. Martel's publicist, Jennifer Gilmore of Harcourt, said today that he was about to travel from a home he owns in Berlin and was unavailable for a phone interview. She added, however, that Mr. Martel now believed that the review that originally caught his eye appeared in The New York Review of Books rather than in The Times. ''Because he doesn't live in New York, he confused the two and misremembered where he read the review,'' she said. ''He is not sure the review was by John Updike. But he has never read the other book.'' But today both The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker said they were unable to locate a review of that description in their records. Dr. Scliar's agent, Thomas Colchie, said that ''Max and the Cats'' had received no negative reviews in the United States or Canada and had received glowing notices in Canadian publications. It is unclear if anyone has yet read the two novels side by side to see if they are alike beyond their shared plot line. Mr. Martel's book focuses more on religion, while critics have regarded Dr. Scliar's novel as a political allegory in which the black panther is a symbol of Nazism or of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil when ''Max and the Cats'' was first published. Beyond any similarities between the two books, any suggestion that Dr. Scliar, who has written 16 novels as well as several books of essays and dozens of short stories, is somehow a ''lesser writer'' than a Canadian neophyte has rankled here. He has won many literary prizes in Brazil and abroad and next week will travel to New York to receive an award from the National Yiddish Book Center, which has included his 1980 novel ''The Centaur in the Garden'' on a list of the 100 best Jewish novels.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160609065356id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2002/11/06/books/tiger-in-a-lifeboat-panther-in-a-lifeboat-a-furor-over-a-novel.html

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Tiger in a Lifeboat, Panther in a Lifeboat

In 1981 the Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar published ''Max and the Cats,'' the tale of a Jewish youth who survives a shipwreck and ends up sharing a lifeboat with a panther. Last month Yann Martel won the $75,000 newly renamed Man Booker Prize, Britain's top literary award, for ''Life of Pi,'' the story of an Indian youth who survives a shipwreck and finds himself occupying a lifeboat with a tiger. The plot similarities are not a coincidence, since Mr. Martel readily admits that he was inspired by the Brazilian book. But nonetheless, the literary press here is suddenly awash in indignant accusations that Mr. Martel, a 39-year-old Canadian enjoying his first commercial and critical success, is guilty of improperly ''copying'' or ''borrowing'' from the work of one of Latin America's most distinguished novelists.

20160612133638

Just after 8:30 last night in Los Angeles, CEO Elon Musk took to the stage and presented the Tesla Model 3 - the fourth model his company has produced and the hotly anticipated Tesla for the masses. Before beginning his shpiel, he asked how many members of the crowd in attendance were owners of Models S and X. The crowd whooped and applauded. "Thank you for paying for Model 3!" Musk said. Revenue from the two existing models was key to developing a mass-market Tesla, he argued. The crowd didn't dispute it. Instead, they enthusiastically applauded. He was speaking to his base. And like any politician or celebrity with a massive, unwavering following, Musk was cheered on through his short, uninterrupted presentation. This was no April Fools Day joke, despite convenient timing. FOLLOW THE DAILY NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK. 'LIKE' US HERE! We traveled to Los Angeles-based headquarters for the first look at the Model 3, a vehicle that has been developed and such secrecy that no one really knew what it was going to look like, and you people outside the development process knew any details at all. Musk had promised a vehicle that was about the size of an Audi A4, would cost $35,000, and might resemble the Models S and X. Here's what we know.The base Model 3 will have a range of 215 miles per full charge and will come equipped with hardware for Autopilot active driving systems. (Whether the software will make it standard is unclear.) Musk referenced a 0-to-60 figure of 6 seconds for at least one of the Model 3 variants - an interesting reference for such a future-focused company - but didn't talk about top speed. Some Model 3 sedans will be dual-motor and all-wheel drive, just like Models S and X, but it's unclear how many and if they'll be available from launch. Lest you worried about Model 3 not being a rocket ship, Musk put that fear to rest: "At Tesla we don't make slow cars," Musk said. In terms of design, you can draw your own conclusions. From our close-up look, we saw shades of Porsche and Ferrari in the front clip, while the back end was much more normal-looking. The Model 3 is a sedan, not a hatchback, as Musk averred that "half the market wants a sedan and half wants an SUV." Now, he sells a traditional sedan for the first time. The crowd roared when he mentioned that you'll be able to carry a 7-foot surfboard inside, but was quieter when he mentioned that Model 3 has "more cargo capacity of any gasoline powered car of similar dimensions." What did we learn in a quick ride-along loop around a closed course in desolate Hawthorne? The Model 3 prototype actually runs. Two prototypes were in Hawthorne, and one was customer-only. One Tesla representative estimates that as many as 1000 attendees filled the SpaceX building for the event. From the rear perch, which is elevated stadium-style, the view is expansive, thanks to a glass roof and a relatively low belt line. The cabin, which lacks a traditional dashboard feels wide and uncluttered; a digital screen in landscape orientation that juts out of the center is the only sort of instrumentation. It's a visual trick that does the opposite of the tall screen in Models S and X—like the chunky, ovoid steering wheel's shape. The short course began like a Disney World ride, replete with purple flashing lights, potholes, and the chance to show off the car's air suspension at all four corners. (There is some calibration work probably yet to be finished, as it was less than smooth.) We exited the anteroom to the course and made a hard right turn on suing on obstructed stretch of concrete runway. This was, presumably, designed to show off the Model 3's acceleration capability. We had no idea what kind of battery and motors were on the test car, aside from the fact that ours was a dual-mode vehicle. Take-off was fast, but not "rip a hole in your pants" quick. The electric characteristics were still there, but something seemed to be missing. Maybe it was the sense of wonderment that Model S brings about, and that Model X replicates completely. It was clear that this was not a Model 3 P90D. At the end of the very short course, which was surrounded by a fence, we were thankful that the Model 3's brakes were operational. A quick slalom didn't offer much feedback to us about the Model 3's steering, other than its relative smoothness of operation. Our test driver claimed that steel and aluminum were used to compose vehicle, but it was left unclear whether carbon fiber was also used for weight savings. Less clear in their execution were the integration of a third brake light, a super wide B-pillar, a traditional trunk instead of a hatchback, and ultrawide Michelin tires. Regardless of how we felt, having driven both recent Tesla models already, we have a feeling that test drivers of the Model 3 are going to be impressed by the experience. If you've been driving anything in this category that's a gas powered and made in the last decade, the Model 3 is a complete departure. Of course, we'll have to wait for a chance to have a full valuation of the vehicle before rendering any kind of judgment. For a first impression, we surely walked away impressed that Musk and his team have pulled this off in what appears to be record time, but we are still among the skeptics in terms of how all of this will translate to production, when all of the flashing lights are gone and the crowds have dissipated. We left with a lot of questions about how the Model 3 specs will work out. How will Musk get to the magic $35,000 figure, as the tax credits for Tesla will soon run out? Will his company be able to keep up with battery production, assuming full capacity at the Fremont facility—once a Toyota/General Motors cooperation—at 500,000 units? If this had truly been Tesla's first product, and proof of concept of an electric car for everyone, who knows with the reaction would've been. If my tone sounds skeptical about the car that we saw tonight, it's only because I can't believe it's true. What Tesla did with its first major products, the hatchback and the SUV, with startling from the car company that had zero products except for the ill-faded roadster. That $35,000 figure is all speculation at this point. All of the Tesla people I spoke to would not tell me about any suppliers that they've locked down, and I can't imagine it's going to be cheap to build those batteries especially at the in the infancy of the gigafactory. All of this, without any mention of what overproduction might do for Tesla, what commoditization of their product is going to do, and whether anybody will actually qualify for the credits to make this product semi-affordable. But all in all, it was a fabulous night. And a long one too! Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.

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Tesla Model 3 'shocks' car world in LA premiere

Elon Musk is at it again with the Tesla Model 3, the company's most affordable and revolutionary model yet.

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Online used car sales startup Vroom has raised $95 million in equity and is using some of those funds to acquire Texas Auto Direct, a competitor known for developing software that significantly reduces the time it takes to process and recondition used vehicles. Vroom didn’t disclose the acquisition price. Vroom’s success hinges largely on speed. Unlike other online car retailers that create a marketplace for people to sell cars to each other, Vroom handles the entire transaction. The company takes possession of the used car from the seller, reconditions it and then delivers it to the buyer’s door. One of it’s primary goals is to ship cars to customers throughout the U.S. within 48 hours of purchase. Those cars, however, have to be in tiptop condition since Vroom also provides a seven-day money back guarantee, has a no-questions-asked return policy, and a 90-day bumper-to-bumper warranty. The New York-based startup has managed to speed up delivery times by hiring staff and expanding its footprint. The company now has two facilities in Dallas and Houston—where cars are reconditioned and warehoused before they’re sold. Vroom is also opening a new 500,000-square-foot facility in Indianapolis in early 2016. However, the process of reconditioning the cars it buys from consumers has remained a challenge. Vroom CEO Allon Bloch told Fortune that Texas Auto Direct, or TDA, has developed software to turn this highly complicated task—some cars have as much as $1,000 of work put into them before resale—into an efficient, fast process. “The faster you can get the car in shape, the faster you can sell it, and deliver it to customers,” Bloch says. “And you need to do it without cutting corners because otherwise the customer will end up sending the car back. “Texas Direct has developed a workflow that allows you to efficiently route these cars. I don’t think there’s anyone even close in capability of the reconditioning software and services they’ve built.” TDA’s software will shave two to three days off the process, says Bloch, who estimates that about 100 cars are reconditioned each day between the two companies. Houston-based TDA was founded in 2002 by Mike Welch and Richard Williams, two tech entrepreneurs who previously started software company Medianet together. If the deal is approved by regulators, the two brands will co-exist at Vroom’s New York headquarters and operate separately online. Once combined, the company will have 500 employees. The remaining funds from this latest venture round will be used to accelerate growth and expedite delivery, according to Vroom. The company wants to buy more trucks to ship cars. It also plans to open several more reconditioning facilities to better serve customers on the two coasts. In terms of sales and software expertise, TDA is the leader. The company says it has more than $500 million in annual sales. Meanwhile, Vroom hopes to crack $300 million in sales this year. But Vroom has some high-profile backers. This latest equity round brings Vroom’s total venture funding to $168 million—and about $35 million in debt funding—since it launched in 2013. Vroom didn’t name the investors in the Series C round. Catterton, which backed Restoration Hardware and P.F. Chang’s, led the Series B round in July. General Catalyst Partners, T.Rowe Price Associates, Jeffrey Boyd, the chairman and former CEO of The Priceline Group, and Bob Mylod, former CFO of The Priceline Group also invested in the last round. About 15 to 20 wealthy individuals, including former pro football player John Elway and former Autonation and Blockbuster CEO Steve Berrard, invested in Vroom during a Series A round of funding that raised $19 million in equity. Vroom has a number of rivals in the online car sales space, including Beepi, Carvana, and Shift Technologies—each one putting its own spin on white-glove or concierge-style service. Make sure to subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.

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Online Used Car Sales Startup Vroom Just Raised $95 Million

The company is buying Texas Auto Direct using some of the $95 million it raised in its latest funding round.

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A US criminal trial nearly two years in the making alleging FedEx knowingly delivered illegal prescription drugs to dealers and addicts has ended suddenly when prosecutors moved to dismiss all charges against the shipping giant. US District Court Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted the request in a two-page order that did not indicate why prosecutors were dropping the case. FedEx was indicted in 2014, and the trial began on Monday. In court on Friday, Breyer said FedEx was "factually innocent". He said the company repeatedly asked the US Drug Enforcement Administration to give it the name of a customer shipping illegal drugs so it could stop working with the person, but the agency was either unwilling or unable to do so. "The dismissal is an act, in the court's view, entirely consistent with the government's overarching obligation to seek justice even at the expense of some embarrassment," he said, according to a transcript of the hearing. Prosecutors claimed Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx began conspiring with two internet pharmacy organisations in the early 2000s to ship powerful sleep aids, sedatives, painkillers and other drugs to customers who had not been physically examined by a doctor. The trial was unusual because of the government's decision to bring drug charges against a package delivery company and the lack of a settlement. Rival UPS Inc paid $US40 million ($A54.13 million) in 2013 to resolve similar allegations that arose from a government crackdown on internet pharmacies that ship drugs to customers without valid prescriptions. FedEx lawyer Cristina Arguedas said the company did not reach any monetary settlement with the government in exchange for ending the case. The crux of the government's case was that FedEx knew the drugs were illegal and headed for dealers and addicts, some of whom died. FedEx Corp was charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to launder money and other counts. FedEx said it only shipped what it believed were legal drugs from licensed pharmacies and that it helped investigators crack down on two pharmacies prosecutors say were involved in the scheme.

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US prosecutors drop FedEx drug case

All charges against FedEx is a case alleging it knowingly delivered illegal prescription drugs to dealers and addicts have been dismissed.

20160620205504

BISECTED by the approach road of the Lincoln Tunnel, Union City, N.J., has waited more than a quarter-century for a boom like the ones that have revitalized the neighboring communities of Hoboken and Secaucus. Its housing prices are moderate, its crime rate is low -- 11th among the state's 15 largest cities -- its schools have been recognized nationally for their commitment to technology and it is minutes from Midtown Manhattan by bus. Yet, large pieces of property with commanding views of the New York skyline remain undeveloped in the city, whose area is only 1.27 square miles. ''It puzzles me that we have not been discovered yet,'' said the city clerk, Michael Licameli. Mayor Brian P. Stack says that the 2000 census figures will show a population of 58,000, when at least 70,000 people actually live in the city, which has a large concentration of illegal aliens. Union City, which is solidly blue collar and 80 percent Hispanic, has also been plagued by governmental problems. Mayor Stack took office in October after leading a petition drive that forced his predecessor, Raul Garcia, to resign after raising the real estate tax rate by a whopping 26 percent in the last year. Officials say the property taxes in Union City are by far the highest in Hudson County relative to the market value of the property. The city is currently awaiting a vote by the New Jersey Legislature on a proposal by former Gov. Christie Whitman for $11 million in Distressed Cities Aid to help close a $15 million gap in its $71 million budget for the year 2001. The state Division of Municipal Finance is now auditing the city's books at the mayor's request. ''The former administration was giving away the store -- including a lot of jobs -- to its supporters,'' Mayor Stack said. ''If we want to attract investors, increase our ratables and reduce taxes, we must send out a clear signal that we now have clean, efficient government.'' AMONG his first acts in office, the new mayor dismissed the city's business administrator and its chief financial officer, both of whom had been appointed by Mr. Garcia. He eliminated 10 percent of the city's 500 jobs, instituted a hiring freeze, cracked down on overtime and shifted 30 police officers from desk jobs onto the streets. The mayor also met with developers, one of whom has already drawn up plans to build a 429-apartment complex on the site of a closed soap factory overlooking Manhattan on Palisade Avenue. ''We collect just $130,000 a year in taxes on the site,'' Mayor Stack said. ''When complete, the complex will pay at least $3 million annually.'' The most prevalent housing consists of two-to-four-family turn-of-the-century frame or brick dwellings. According to Carl J. Mucciolo, a sales associate and appraiser at the Avanti Group, a real estate agency on Summit Avenue, most of the houses are 21 feet wide on 25-foot-wide lots. ''It's always been a blue-collar town and home buyers have always wanted that extra apartment to help pay their mortgages,'' he said. Union City's early housing stock dates to the mid-19th century, when a group of German printers from New York City built homes in what is now the Union Hill section, stretching from 32nd to 49th Streets. Soon, the city's basalt bluffs -- part of the Palisades that overlook the Hudson River -- attracted German embroidery manufacturers, which required shallow bedrock as an anchor for their oscillating machinery. By the mid-1920's, the city was known as ''the Embroidery Capital of the World'' and its population of 60,000 made it the nation's most densely populated urban center. By the early 1960's, manufacturing jobs began moving overseas and Union City slipped into a decline. But it was rescued by refugees from the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba, who bought up the empty houses and reopened vacant storefronts along the business corridor, giving Union City its Hispanic character. They were followed by waves of immigrants from Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. According to Mr. Mucciolo, single-family home prices climbed by 36 percent last year while prices of two- to eight-family dwellings rose 20 percent. At the end of January, Multiple Listing Service offerings included 15 single-family houses ranging from $95,000 to $199,000, 43 two-families at $135,000 to $399,000 and 25 three- and four-families at $179,000 to $749,000. Because the city developed before modern planning, homes are cheek by jowl with businesses. For instance, on one block of Sip Street, an auto body shop and a car mechanic occupies the two corners, with residential housing in between. On Central Avenue, a prime residential street, a row of two-family houses stands next to a sausage factory. Among the city's most expensive areas are Mountain Road and Palisade Avenue, which have excellent views of Manhattan. One of the newer residents is Susan Murray, a teacher at the Robert Waters School, one of eight public elementary schools in Union City. In February 1999, she bought a brick two-family house on Palisade Avenue for $90,000 and then renovated it.

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If You're Thinking of Living In/Union City, N.J.

BISECTED by the approach road of the Lincoln Tunnel, Union City, N.J., has waited more than a quarter-century for a boom like the ones that have revitalized the neighboring communities of Hoboken and Secaucus. Its housing prices are moderate, its crime rate is low -- 11th among the state's 15 largest cities -- its schools have been recognized nationally for their commitment to technology and it is minutes from Midtown Manhattan by bus. Yet, large pieces of property with commanding views of the New York skyline remain undeveloped in the city, whose area is only 1.27 square miles.

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Down a dingy alley way in San Francisco sits a row of bright red scooters marking the entrance to the headquarters of a transportation experiment. This is where startup Scoot Networks runs its growing fleet of what will soon be close to 400 electric scooters available to Bay Area residents willing to pay a couple bucks to ride them. After three years, $5 million in funding, and various iterations on its scooters and pricing plans, Scoot Networks has started to have a real presence in a city with an almost ridiculous amount of alternative transportation options. San Franciscans can now choose from dozens of new choices for how to traverse the city, from Uber and Lyft to private buses, to various car and bike sharing networks. And that’s not counting traditional public transportation and taxis. Amidst this sea of services, Scoot Networks now has thousands of active users driving its red electric scooters across the city to work or across the neighborhood to the grocery store. The company says its customers collectively drive about 50,000 miles a month. Anecdotally that means if you live or work in San Francisco, odds are you’ve spotted the red scooters zipping by. In Scoot Networks’ office a few blocks south of Market Street, CEO and co-founder Michael Keating shows Fortune a video of a sped-up, birds-eye view of a real day with the scooters overlaid on a map of the city. Because the scooters all get connected to the driver’s smart phone, they’re easy to monitor. Early in the morning, commuters start to pick up the scooters and head downtown. By 9AM there’s dozens of the scooters on the roads as drivers race to work. Around noon a handful of customers take them out for lunch meetings. Meanwhile a few stragglers are playing hooky, driving them around Golden Gate Park and out to the beach. If the grand experiment hasn’t officially concluded, it’s getting closer to success, which wasn’t always the case. The company’s growth early on was slow, given it launched with only a couple dozen scooters and getting new customers to ride a two-wheel vehicle can be more difficult than it sounds. But after winning over that early trickle of users, Scoot Networks has been rapidly expanding across San Francisco, and now has a plan to launch its service in another (as-yet-to-be-named) city down the road. Keating says this week the company added 150 new larger electric scooters with cargo trunks big enough to hold 6 bags of groceries or a stack of 5 pizzas. The new scooters will enable customers to better run errands, like picking up groceries, and will also provide more storage space for a growing group of couriers that use the scooters to deliver goods for San Francisco’s booming on-demand economy. A courier with Instacart could fill the storage space with food to deliver, while a Shyp driver could pop by and pick up your shipping package. When all of these new Scoot “cargo” scooters are rolled out, the company will have close to 400 vehicles available to zoom around the streets. The cargo scooters cost an extra dollar more per half hour compared to the smaller more nimble original scooters. The secret sauce of the entire system is the smart software, mobile app, and user interface that the team built. Customers pay via credit card when they create an account and reserve a scooter, similar to the model Zipcar uses for its vehicles. Customers can opt to pay a monthly subscription for a lower hourly fee, or no subscription for a higher hourly fee. Users plug their smart phone into the dashboard of the scooter to enable it, and to learn how much charge is left on the battery or what’s the best scooter-friendly route to the office. The app lets customers reserve parking spaces, extend their reservation, and connect with Scoot if there’s any trouble. The smart software is the brains, while the electric scooters are the relatively low cost hardware. The original scooters in the network are made by a Chinese company, and have been upgraded to use lithium ion batteries. The new larger cargo scooters are made by a German scooter maker and also use lithium ion batteries. While lithium ion batteries have historically been expensive, the costs of these batteries has been dropping dramatically in recent years. While Tesla was the original company to bet on this trend, there’s many companies that are now building businesses around low cost lithium ion batteries, like Stem and Advanced Microgrid Solutions, who focus on the power grid, and Gogoro, which is building an electric scooter company in Taiwan. Scoot Networks can capitalize on the dropping costs of the batteries, as well as the rise of the bubbly on-demand economy, and the alternative transportation craze in San Francisco. It’s at the intersection of a lot of new movements, many of them dependent on the city’s tech economy. Keating, a Harvard Business School grad, explains Scoot Networks’ place in San Francisco’s alternative transportation world as: “fitting the big open space in the market between slow and cheap at one end, and fast and expensive on the other.” Slow and cheap would be the muni, while fast and expensive would be more akin to Uber. Scoot Networks can get as low as $2 per ride. That’s as cheap as the bus, and cheaper even than Uber and Lyft’s new carpool services Uber Pool and Lyft Line. “We can’t be beaten on price,” says Keating, pointing out that when the customer is driving him or herself, there’s no cost of paying a driver. Price isn’t a big concern, but getting more riders willing to drive a scooter in downtown San Francisco is a bigger concern. It can be a little scary, if you aren’t a regular two-wheel rider. The same barrier exists to getting people on bicycles in the city. But Scoot Network’s scooter doesn’t require a motorcycle license, only goes up to 30 miles an hour and the company offers tutorials for any new users who want it. Now that Scoot Networks has a broad network of scooters around the city, it’s looking to bring in more riders. While much of the world outside of the U.S. is eager to jump on a scooter, Americans have long been slower to embrace the two-wheel rides. To that end, Scoot Networks also plans to roll out other types of vehicles in the future. One of the remaining questions around Scoot Networks is if it would be able to recreate its network in another city, beyond the early adopters of San Francisco. The company is in the process of raising more funding to try to answer that question, and Keating is quiet on what city Scoot Networks would be focused on next. Whatever city the company chooses to expand into, it will be able to bring everything it’s learned over the past three years to a new environment. When I asked Keating what are some of the biggest lessons he’d bring to a new city, he says: “go big and launch big from the get go.” Austin, Portland, Seattle, and other techie cities of the world—watch out. Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.

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The Zipcar of electric scooters grows up and out

In a sea of alternative transportation options, San Franciscans are renting bright red electric scooters to traverse the city. Here's why.

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Tons of plain-H2O haters are getting fizzy with it, but rumors abound that carbonated waters could harm your health. We investigated — and the truth is quite refreshing. Last we checked, sparkling water was still wet. Its buzz comes from carbon dioxide, which does deliver that telltale bite — but doesn’t prevent your body from absorbing moisture, says Susan Yeargin, Ph.D., a hydration expert at the University of South Carolina. In fact, one study found that after an intense workout, carbonated water replaced participants’ fluids just as well as still. Carbonic acid, formed when H2O meets C02, may erode tooth enamel in very high concentrations, but despite what you’ve seen on your Facebook feed, relax: As long as you don’t down a six-pack per day (and your seltzer’s not loaded with acidic fruit juice or cavity-causing sugar), your smile’s safe, says Timothy Chase, a dentist in New York City. And in a study that looked at whether bubbly bevs are linked to lower bone-mineral density in women, all types of sparkling water got the all-clear. It’s true that gulping down so many mini air pockets may be temporarily bloating — but that’s a good thing for your scale in the long run. Seriously: Researchers found that carbonated water may be significantly more filling than still, especially on an empty stomach. And the fuller you feel, the less likely you’ll be to succumb to mindless munching. Just avoid versions loaded with artificial sweeteners, which may actually ramp up sugar cravings. Researchers have debunked the idea that chugging effervescent water can cause acid reflux. That said, if you’re already prone to heartburn (blurg!), you might want to stick with the plain stuff, especially with meals. Evidence suggests that bubbles may aggravate preexisting reflux issues by relaxing the lower opening of the esophagus, making it easier for acid to creep up your gullet, says Melina Jampolis, M.D., author of The Doctor on Demand Diet. To find out which good-for-you fizzy drinks WH staffers can’t stop sipping, pick up the April issue of Women’s Health, on newsstands now. This article originally appeared on Women's Health.

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Here’s the truth about carbonated water

Tons of plain-H2O haters are getting fizzy with it, but rumors abound that carbonated waters could harm your health. We investigated — and the truth is quite refreshing. The rumor: Bubbly’s not as …

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Replacing a director, even a first-timer, during production is rare in Hollywood. John Badham took over for Martin Brest two weeks into filming on MGM's ''WarGames,'' in 1983. And Brian Levant grabbed the directing reins from Steve Rash on Universal's ''Beethoven'' in 1992. On Aug. 6 Warner Brothers booted Ted Griffin as director of his original story inspired by the 1967 classic ''The Graduate'' and replaced him with Rob Reiner 12 days into shooting. The script, about a young woman from Pasadena who discovers that her grandmother was the inspiration for the Mrs. Robinson character in ''The Graduate,'' was strong enough to lure a cast of top-notch actors, led by Jennifer Aniston. But you have to go back to 1980, according to the Motion Picture Academy Library, to find another instance of Warner booting a director off a project (''Superman II''). What has raised eyebrows about the case of the ''untitled Reiner/Griffin comedy,'' as it is now known, is that Mr. Griffin, hot off his scripts for Ridley Scott's ''Matchstick Men'' and Steven Soderbergh's ''Ocean's Eleven,'' had been putting his personal stamp on the original, quirky screenplay for more than three years. And Mr. Soderbergh agreed to produce Mr. Griffin's directorial debut project with his partner in the production company Section Eight, George Clooney, who had starred in ''Ocean's Eleven'' with Ms. Aniston's husband, Brad Pitt, who also recently starred in Warner's ''Troy.'' The film, also stars Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo and Mena Suvari. It no longer stars Charlie Hunnam, Leslie Ann Warren, Tony Bill and Greta Scacchi. They were scratched by the new director, Mr. Reiner (''When Harry Met Sally''). None of the principals involved in the production were available for comment, and studio spokesmen declined to discuss the changes except to confirm that Mr. Griffin had been replaced by Mr. Reiner. ''It's highly unusual, especially at the level of major studio pictures,'' said Mr. Bill, who took over directing the 1990 film ''Crazy People'' in midstream. ''It's bad corporate P.R. But it's also very tough to do. It would be a challenge for anyone to step into someone's original movie. The studio went to an experienced director who had done this kind of movie before.'' Soon after the movie started shooting on July 21 in Los Angeles, one Paramount producer (who would not comment for attribution) was waiting to set his next film's start date based on the availability of a key cast member of the Griffin comedy, he said, when he learned that the production had fallen several days behind in the first week. ''It was going incredibly slow,'' said Ms. Aniston's manager at Brillstein-Grey, Mark Gurvitz. On Aug. 5, Mr. Griffin fired his cinematographer, Ed Lachman, who has a reputation for hand-holding rookie directors like Sofia Coppola (''The Virgin Suicides''). ''You don't fire a director over the look of a film,'' Mr. Lachman commented. At that point, apparently, the ax was also hovering above Mr. Griffin's head. The studio president, Alan Horn, who was a partner with Mr. Reiner at the now-defunct Castle Rock Entertainment, had already asked his old friend, who hasn't had a hit since ''A Few Good Men'' in 1992, to rescue the troubled movie. Mr. Gurvitz said the studio informed Ms. Aniston, who had contractual approval of the film's director, that Mr. Griffin was leaving the project. She was introduced to Mr. Reiner and gave him her blessing. On Aug. 6, Mr. Soderbergh called Mr. Griffin into his office anddismissed him, the studio confirmed. Ms. MacLaine, who plays the grandmother who had an affair with the young Mr. Costner, said she was surprised when she heard of the director change. She said of her experience with Mr. Griffin, ''I certainly wasn't unhappy.'' On Aug. 9 the studio shut down production while Mr. Reiner made script, cast and crew changes and prepared to start filming again on Aug. 18. The director swiftly replaced Ms. Warren with Kathy Bates (who won the best actress Oscar for his 1990 film ''Misery''), Mr. Hunnam with Mike Vogel (''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'') and Mr. Bill with the screen heavy Chris McDonald (''Thelma and Louise''). Warner is expected to scrap Mr. Griffin's footage, the usual practice in such situations. The studio declined to comment. As news of Mr. Griffin's replacement by Mr. Reiner spread, industry publications and Internet sites picked up the story. While Variety reported that Ms. Aniston was said to have been unhappy with the film's look and tone, Mr. Gurvitz responded that the actress had never looked at dailies and had never called the studio. ''She voiced her concerns,'' he said, to the film's on-site producer, Paula Weinstein. (She was on the set and did not return calls.) One Internet blog called ''A fly on the wall'' detailed crew reports that Mr. Costner was leading a cast mutiny against the young director. But Steve Rabineau, Mr. Griffin's agent, said Mr. Costner had not yet started filming his scenes and was the first cast member who called to console Mr. Griffin. Mr. Costner also gave him the use of his Santa Barbara house, Mr. Rabineau said. ''Ted's writing got this great cast,'' he added. ''It's a shame he can't see it out. It was a traumatic thing for everyone.'' There's also the possibility that Mr. Griffin's old role as ''Ocean's Eleven'' writer was a complicating factor. Mr. Rabineau said that when Section Eight asked Mr. Griffin to write ''Ocean's Twelve,'' he passed. He did one rewrite before production, but demurred, Mr. Rabineau said, when asked for another polish, in order to prepare his own movie. Mr. Rabineau said Mr. Soderbergh was not happy with the early footage and expressed his concerns to the studio. Mr. Soderbergh declined to comment while he was editing ''Ocean's Twelve.'' ''If you put a director on a set with a talented producer, cast and crew and plenty of money available, it's pretty hard not to do a decent job directing,'' Mr. Bill said. ''If an actress isn't lit right, you don't fire the director. If there's a conflict between the director and an actor, the big dog wins in our business. That dog is the star. Every movie is a shotgun wedding between director and actors. It doesn't always work out."

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A Film Studio Fires a Director, Raising Eyebrows in Hollywood

Warner Brothers, in unusual move, fires Ted Griffin as director of his original story inspired by 1967 film classic The Graduate and replaces him with Rob Reiner after 12 days of shooting; photo (M)

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The perennially ponytailed Ronald L. Kuby, who says he hasn’t had a haircut since 1989, is the counsel of choice for alternative types; five protesters from the Occupy Wall Street encampment retained him after tangling with the New York Police Department. From 1999 to 2007 he was a host of a radio show on WABC-AM with Curtis Sliwa. On Sundays, Mr. Kuby, 55, works a bit but mostly relaxes by cooking, walking or biking, and watching TV. He lives in Chelsea with his wife, Marilyn Vasta, 60, a psychotherapist, and their bichon frisé, Lily; they are sometimes joined by their daughter, Emma, 19, who attends Wesleyan University. The couple also owns a country house in the Poconos. HORIZONTAL VS. VERTICAL My wife and I always talked about how changed our weekends would be after our daughter left for college, but once it happened, we realized our visions were dramatically different. She saw us walking, hiking, riding bikes, going to museums, the theater, the gym. I’d imagined a horizontal horizon: lots of sitting on the couch watching TV, drinking coffee and napping. WILL WAKE FOR COFFEE We get up between 7 and 8; after spending eight years on a morning radio show that had me up at 4:30 a.m., it’s hard to sleep much past sunrise. I cannot function without coffee, so the first challenge of the day is making a cup of coffee before I’ve had a cup of coffee. Marilyn doesn’t make or drink coffee. Then we walk the dog, get the papers and come back home. Our co-op is a fourth-floor walk-up: 62 steps. I’ve counted. DECK GARDENING In decent weather, Marilyn immediately starts gardening when we get back; on the front deck, we grow all sorts of herbs we use for cooking, like parsley, sage, oregano and rosemary. I help out by sitting in the hammock reading the papers, drinking coffee, snacking on cheese, making suggestions; and also I get to move large pots around, and in the winter, I fetch the firewood. OFFICE OR JAIL Marilyn goes to her yoga class at 11, so I either go to the office or head out to Rikers Island to meet with clients; unfortunately, that’s where too many of them reside. Sundays at Rikers is far more relaxed than other days; there’s no waiting, and the security level is somewhat calmer. Otherwise it’s like going to hell, if hell was a lot of steel buildings designed by a 20th-century architect and smelled of disinfectant. I can go there, see who I need to see and be back in a couple of hours. If there’s time to sneak it in, I’ll watch the BBC version of “Battlestar Galactica”; Marilyn will not sit through that. AFTERNOON ACTIVITY We both have bicycles, so we’ll go down to the Battery, grab a sandwich or something and sit on a bench and look at the Statue of Liberty, or go over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We might walk on the High Line — without the bikes or dog. I like matinees, so if it’s not a day for being outside, we’ll see a play or movie. We saw my friend Alan Dershowitz’s daughter make her acting debut Off-Broadway in “A Splintered Soul.” DINNER WITH FRIENDS We make it an early evening and cook a big meal and have friends from the neighborhood over, or friends from out of town. The menu is seasonal, so these days we’re doing soups and mushroom risottos. I’m a big meat guy, so we might have grilled sausage and broccoli rabe, some red wine, and we’re set. HIS AND HER SHOWS After dinner we watch “Walking Dead,” which has more depth than your average zombie movie; it’s a meditation on what it means to be alive and human. That’s my show. And then we watch Marilyn’s, “Masterpiece Classic.” But if our daughter is home, it’s reruns of “Friends,” “Gossip Girl,” “Pretty Little Liars” and “Brothers and Sisters,” which we’ve thoughtfully taped for her. NIGHTCAP That’s seasonal, too. Now it’s a Smuttynose winter brewery ale or a wee tiny nip of Macallan. I get to bed by 11, do the crossword puzzle or read myself to sleep on my Kindle. A version of this article appears in print on January 22, 2012, on page MB2 of the New York edition with the headline: Coffee, Couch Time and a Trip to Jail. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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The New York Times

The perennially ponytailed defense lawyer Ronald L. Kuby spends his Sundays relaxing on the couch, in the garden or on a bike, but sometimes he slips off to Rikers Island to visit clients.

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A mother accused of murdering three of her children by driving them into a Melbourne lake allegedly said she'd "rather take her own life and that of the kids" than see them live with her lover and his wife. A woman, who cannot be named, claims she overheard Akon Guode make the comments before she drove into a Wyndham Vale lake last year. She also says she saw Guode a few months later and asked her: "Did you really do it?" "She said, yes I did it," the woman said in a statement, tendered in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday. "What I understood that to mean was that she had taken her kids' lives." The witness claims Guode told her she "didn't expect to still be alive". Mother-of-seven Guode is charged with murdering her 1-year-old son, Bol, and twins Hanger and her brother Madit, 4. The 37-year-old is also charged with attempting to murder her 6-year-old daughter Alual, who survived after being pulled from the water on April 8 last year. All four kids were fathered by Joseph Manyang. He and Guode began an affair after she immigrated to Australia from Sudan and Mr Manyang left his wife in 2010. The witness says she overheard Guode claim Mr Manyang's wife was threatening her. "I could see that Akon was stressed and scared," the woman's statement says. "Akon said she would rather take her own life and that of the kids. "She said in a jealous kind of way that she didn't want the kids to go to (Mr Manyang) and the wife, that she wanted herself and the kids to go together, to end it." The woman, who lives interstate, claims she has been pressured by the Sudanese community not to testify. She was arrested on a warrant on Friday after she failed to appear at a video link facility to give evidence. She was eventually cross-examined briefly by Guode's barrister, Julian McMahon, and was bailed to appear again on Wednesday, when her claims will be tested. The court heard the woman suffered some mental health issues. After initially claiming she couldn't remember, she also admitted she had previously been jailed over a serious assault in which a person was stabbed. The woman didn't want to answer questions about herself. "The evidence here, that's what I'm here for. It's not about my personal life," she said. Guode says a dizzy spell caused the lake tragedy and Mr Manyang believes the crash was an accident.

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Vic lake mother allegedly admitted murders

An arrest warrant has been issued for a witness in the case of a Melbourne mother accused of murdering her three youngest children.

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President Obama made a surprise appearance at the Grammys on Sunday night – in the form of a powerful PSA for the White House’s sexual violence awareness campaign, “It’s On Us.” In the ad, President Obama tells viewers that nearly one in five American women will be raped, and nearly one in four will experience some form of domestic violence. He then urges viewers to take responsibility for ending rape and sexual assault, saying: “It’s not okay – and it has to stop.” Obama also called on artists at the Grammys to get involved, telling viewers, “Go to itsonus.org and and take the pledge. And to the artists at the Grammys tonight, I ask you to ask your fans to do the same too.” “It’s on us – all of us - to create a culture where violence isn’t tolerated, where survivors are supported, and where all our young people – men and women – can go as far as their talents and their dreams will take them,” Obama said. The ad is part of the White House’s ongoing sexual assault awareness campaign, “It’s On Us.” The White House launched the campaign in September as part of an effort to fight the campus sexual assault epidemic. Their first PSA, released in September, featured dozens of celebrities, including actors John Hamm, Kerry Washington, Joel McHale, and Rose Byrne, musicians Common and Questlove, and Vice President Joe Biden, urging Americans that “it’s on us” to end sexual assault. The ad has over 2.7 million views on YouTube. Immediately following Obama’s PSA, Brooke Axtell, a survivor of domestic violence took the stage and delivered a moving spoken word piece about surviving domestic assault at the hands of her partner, and eventually leaving him. “Authentic love does not devalue another human being. Authentic love does not silence, shame, or abuse. If you are in a relationship with someone who does not honor and respect you, I want you to know that you are worthy of love. Please reach out for help. Your voice will save you,” Axtell said. After Axtell’s performance ended, singer Katy Perry took to the stage to perform her song “By the Grace of God.” In an interview with Slate, Axtell said she had been contacted by Ken Ehrlich, executive producer of the Grammys, who told her that the producers of the Grammys wanted to highlight the issue of violence against women at this year’s awards show.

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Obama delivers sexual assault message at the Grammys: 'It has to stop'

President Obama and other White House officials starred in an anti-rape PSA that aired during the Grammys on Sunday night.

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The man who lost his voice was a gentle man who didn’t ask terribly much of life. He lived in a miniature space in a single-room-occupancy residence on the corner of 74th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan, above J. G. Melon, the popular restaurant and bar known for succulent hamburgers. And he was a New York story. He was a New York story because he didn’t have a lot and yet he gave a lot. And in return he got what New York for all its busyness so often offers those who could use a good dose of it — kindness. The city can be cold and aloof and you can live crunched amid its population and remain lonely and overlooked. You can also be someone unremarkable and be made to feel like Mr. Big Shot. The name of the man who lost his voice was Bernhardt Wichmann III. Sounds like an old-money name for sure, but any money ever attached to it was no longer visible. His story revolves around a pair of doormen. In 1994, Jorge Grisales became a night doorman at the Mayfair, an apartment building at 207 East 74th Street. His shift began at midnight, when the city slows down but keeps breathing. When you are a doorman, you notice things. You especially notice recurring people. Mr. Grisales became aware of a man who almost nightly ambled past the building. He had a glistening face with a trimmed beard and he sported a big smile. Six-foot-something. As he walked, he would bend down and dutifully scoop up litter, tidying up the neighborhood. One sweaty summer evening, the smiling man waved at the doorman and paused. Mr. Grisales said, “How are you?” The man clutched scraps of paper. He wrote something down and handed it over. It said: “Hi, my name is Bernhardt but call me Ben. I can’t talk, but I can hear.” Something instantly clicked between them. There was a delicious spirit about Ben. Two years later, Juan Arias joined the door staff, and Mr. Grisales introduced him to Ben. They, too, clicked. They talked. He wrote. On his notes, he always drew a smiley face. Over time, the two doormen learned some blurred snippets about Ben Wichmann. That his parents came from Germany to Davenport, Iowa. That he was born in 1932. That he had served in the United States Army and was in the Korean War. That he came to New York and became an architectural draftsman. That, among other things, he worked on closets as well as decks and porches for houses in the Hamptons. That he loved opera and classical music. That he was gay. That he had a sister. That his parents and sister were dead and he had no family. And that in 1983 he had polyps removed from his larynx, and that he had not been able to speak since. He wasn’t entirely sure why. They discovered that since 1991, Ben had lived in that tiny third-floor room down the block that cost $10 a day. He had few possessions and eked by on Social Security. In a city where so many have so much, he had practically nothing. Yet it was enough, always enough. And inside him beat a heart bigger than a mountain. He seemed unrelievedly happy. That happiness bounced off him and settled on others. People up and down the block came to know Ben. He always petted people’s dogs. Admired the flowers. His cheery presence made East 74th Street brighter than it would have been without him. “He charmed people,” Mr. Grisales said. “He always smiled. He never complained. He was just wonderful.” Mr. Arias said: “He had plenty of reasons to be unhappy. But I never saw him unhappy.” Now and then, he would stop in at J. G. Melon, plant himself at the bar and have a glass of wine and maybe a salad and converse through his written expressions with customers and the staff. He would bring the doormen coffee and a Spanish newspaper. And they would fall into meandering exchanges — spoken words from the doormen, scribbling from Ben. Oh how they relished one another’s company. Mr. Grisales was shaky with his English. That was why he worked the midnight shift. Ben tutored him. If Mr. Grisales mispronounced a word, he would write out how to say it, which syllables to emphasize, what words it rhymed with. Mr. Grisales polished his English and graduated to an earlier shift. The doormen gave Ben gifts — shirts or shoes, things he needed. So did others on the block. Joan Gralla, a reporter at Newsday who lives near the Mayfair, gave him sweaters, hats, a yellow rain slicker. For years, she got him a ticket to the Metropolitan Opera. He would dress up in his best clothes and have the time of his life. She would tell him the ticket was from her dog, Clementine. Once, when the seat was exceptional, he wrote that Clementine must have some pull. “Ben was just magical in bringing out the best in people,” Ms. Gralla said. Ben had many medical issues. He came to rely on the doormen to make — or cancel — doctor appointments. If something was urgent, he would write out the note to them in red ink.

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Mute and Alone, He Was Never Short of Kind Words or Friends

Bernhardt Wichmann III, a Korean War veteran, possessed little except a big heart, and he spread kindness up and down his street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

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The Georgetown Company, the real estate firm based in New York that is Easton’s master developer and financial partner, just completed a three-story, 240,000-square foot office building for Alliance Data. Two more Alliance Data projects, an 86,000-square-foot building to be completed this year and a second 240,000-square-foot office complex, are scheduled to be finished in 2017. Construction of a 215,000-square-foot building for Abbott Laboratories is scheduled to be completed early next year. The total cost of the four buildings is $135.6 million. Last August, the nearby 54-acre, 600,000-square-foot Easton Gateway opened. The $150 million shopping center, anchored by Whole Foods Market and Dick’s Sporting Goods, also includes restaurants. Over the next decade, about 2,000 residential units are expected to be built within the district. Developers and architects say Easton has contributed to several influential turn-of-the-21st-century trends in land use and community design. It helped to reintroduce density as an attractive and profitable real estate design principle. All of the clusters in Easton are tightly aligned outdoor districts. The dominant structure is the $50 million, 600,000-square-foot Station building, with a towering ceiling, space for dozens of stores and a cinema complex. It copies the scale and open-air design of a 19th-century train station shed and adjoins the 90-acre Town Center, the hub of the development, which features 240 retail stores and restaurants, a grid of sidewalks and narrow streets, fountains and a central square. The Town Center breached the dominance in retail of indoor malls, with its emphasis on storefronts and pedestrians, instead of vehicles and parking. And such town centers nationwide are adapting Americans’ buying habits and entertainment patterns. A number of town center developments with similar design principles were constructed in or near major cities in the early 1920s. The most durable, said Mr. Leinberger of George Washington University, is Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. Most of the initial mixed-use developments, though, succumbed to the advent of suburban indoor shopping malls, starting in the mid-1950s, which were built along major boulevards, and elevated climate control, retail uniformity and acres of parking to top shopping priorities. “You could say that the period from 1950 to 1990 was an urban planning aberration,” said Yaromir Steiner, the chief executive of Steiner and Associates in Columbus, who moved to the area to help design and develop Easton Town Center. “We are finally correcting all of this.” Mr. Steiner was the developer from Istanbul with whom Mr. Wexner worked on the Easton concept. He had developed CocoWalk, a popular open-air shopping and restaurant district in Coconut Grove, Fla. The other developer was Marshall Rose, chairman of the Georgetown Company. The shift in urban planning turns out to have robust financial returns. To date, Easton’s districts have cost $1.7 billion to build, including $235 million in road, water, and other infrastructure expenses. According to the Georgetown Company, the development attracts 30 million visitors a year and generates over $1 billion annually in total retail sales. More than 32,000 people work at the various stores and offices. Over all, Easton returns $138 million annually in state, city, county and school tax revenue. “This development generates $150 million annually just in food sales,” said Adam R. Flatto, Georgetown’s president and chief executive. “People respond to Easton as a social experience. They enjoy being here.” Lee Peterson, an executive vice president at WD Partners, a national design consultancy based in Columbus, estimated that after the development of Easton, roughly 120 other mixed-use town centers have been built across the country. Town centers, he said, are defying the trend of declining retail store sales nationwide. “Town centers fit the scale that people like,” Mr. Peterson said. “Bigger isn’t better. Better is better.” One of the newest projects taking a cue from Easton Town Center is Liberty Center, north of Cincinnati. Constructed on 64 acres, where Interstate 75 and State Route 129 converge, the $300 million project opened late last year and encompasses 800,000 square feet of retail space, 75,000 square feet of office space and 240 residences. Liberty Center was developed by Steiner and Associates and Bucksbaum Retail Properties. Steiner and Associates collaborated with Olshan Properties, formerly Mall Properties, to also develop the $300 million Bayshore Town Center in Glendale, Wis., north of Milwaukee. Bayshore opened in 1954 as a strip mall. In 1974 it was rebuilt as an indoor mall. Sold in 2004 for $40 million to Mall Properties, Bayshore Town Center opened in 2006 with a one-acre central square, 1.2 million square feet of retail space, 180,000 square feet of offices and more than 100 apartments. Though the town center has proved to be profitable and durable, the idea of building such districts was just an experiment when Mr. Wexner, chairman and chief executive of L Brands, began thinking about it a generation ago. Mr. Wexner was among the first retailers to note flagging interest among mall shoppers at his L Brands stores. In a speech in 1989 to a trade association, Mr. Wexner examined how American malls were boring to shoppers. He projected the approaching end of the mall era and called for a fresh approach. “The novelty was gone,” Mr. Wexner said in an interview this spring. “Going to the mall ceased to be an event. Life occurs in cycles. I understood that there had to be something next.” With 400 acres still undeveloped, Easton’s planners are focusing on more residences close to the development’s office and retail centers. The concept, said Mr. Flatto of the Georgetown Company, fits “the live-work-play evolution occurring throughout the country.” A version of this article appears in print on August 3, 2016, on page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Before Automobiles, This Is How America Was Built’. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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The Town Center Regains Significance

Easton, a mixed-use project in Columbus, Ohio, that began construction in 1993, was inspired by principles that distinguish American towns built before 1900.

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At school in the library, all oak panels and stained glass, we used to “read” Playboy surreptitiously wrapped in the covers of The Economist to dignify our puerile voyeurism. Now that money has replaced sex as our chief preoccupation, that subterfuge would today be reversed. The conservative and genteel Playboy might disguise our reading The Economist, a paper that lasciviously deals in real-world venery, dirty politics and lust of a coarsely material sort. Hugh Hefner with bunnies Holly Madison, left, and Bridget Marquardt Photo: AP Playboy was always exceptionally decent. Hugh Hefner was helped by a start-up loan from his mother, not Satan. And Playboy had an impeccable record of literary publishing. Ray Bradbury’s epochal Fahrenheit 451 was serialised in 1954 and the magazine hosted, at various times, Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, P.G. Wodehouse, Kurt Vonnegut, Doris Lessing, John Le Carre and John Updike – not at all a shabby list. Presumably, they did not think themselves slumming. • 12 iconic Playboy front covers Photographers at work on Playboy included Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts and Annie Leibovitz. The magazine interviewed major political figures including Martin Luther King and President Carter. It was the latter who mournfully explained in 1976 that he had “committed adultery in my heart many times”. I think he must have meant “head”, because the big truth about erotica is that the real action takes place above the collar, not below the belt. Hence, Playboy’s late decision to cover-up its nudes does very little to defuse eroticism. In the contest between concealment and display, concealment is almost always more sexy: this is why classic Playboy nudes are actually so deliciously chaste. Playboy front cover August 1968 Photo: Playboy There were critics. In 1963, Gloria Steinem published “A Bunny’s Tale”, exposing the dehumanisation of Playboy’s working women. Less sophisticated feminists ritually damned the magazine’s nudes for “objectifying” females, which is just another way of saying what Playboy did was to perfect their image. What you are looking at in a nude centrefold of the sixties and seventies with big hair, clear eyes, perfect skin, airbrushed flesh, serious make-up and an engagingly vacant smile with no hint of lubricity is the exact equivalent of an automated American dream kitchen: something designed as a slick package to be enjoyed. Before any feminist accuses me of debasing womankind by equivalence with a waste disposal unit, that is not my point at all. It is simply that, at its peak, American civilisation wanted everything to appear squeakily clean and plastically perfect. It is idealism, not sexism. "Internet porn is a poor replacement for a magazine that sponsored literature and art" Similarly, Detroit cars of the period were never seen dripping oil, belching smoke or rusting, and were always presented with an other-worldly sheen, so Playboy’s nudes never had spots, poor dental hygiene or needed a manicure. Realism has its place, but not in the imagination. You’d be stupid to deny it was all a fiction, but why is fiction a bad thing? So much of Playboy culture was a harmless dream world. Hugh Hefner’s calling card was a striking black DC-9 with Art Paul’s “bunny” logogram painted on the tail. Except it wasn’t a calling card at all, it was a presentational device. With great artifice, Hefner had chartered the plane, painted it for the photo shoot and the world’s media dutifully reported that Playboy had acquired an aviation division. On the ground, Playboy elevated “low” culture into something rather finer. In 1960, the architectural historian Reyner Banham published an article called “I’d crawl a mile for … Playboy”, drawing attention to its dignified typography and layout. Playboy championed great designers including Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen. And in 1966, London’s Playboy Cub opened at 45 Park Lane. Two years later, tracking the Zeitgeist, the Club hosted the wedding reception of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. The Playboy Club building, in one of the great and glorious incongruities of architectural history, was designed by the austere Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus. It was one of the great man’s last buildings, and it amused him to say so. Which is more damaging to the women’s cause, the highly conceptualised and meticulously edited Playboy, or the atrociously lively and totally amoral internet? True, Playboy venerated a simplistic and limiting idea of womanhood, but it was never unkind. Pornography involves violence and coercion: there was none of that here. I doubt anyone was ever inflamed to gross anti-social beastliness by close scrutiny of Playboy. Internet porn is a poor replacement for a magazine that sponsored literature and art. Playboy taught those with eyes to see that the world should be full of pleasure and great writing.

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The death of the Playboy nude is a tragedy of our times

As Playboy covers up its pictures of naked women, Stephen Bayley defends the magazine's superb writing and fundamentally decent view of beauty

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Ready to kick your Craigslist game up a notch? Maybe you're a regular seller on the site or maybe you want to get started. Either way, we'll cover the basics of how to make money on Craigslist so you can start using the site as your side hustle and make your listings stand out from the crowd. If you don't already have a Craigslist account you'll need to make one if you want to make money on Craigslist. On your local Craigslist site, (e.g. newyork.craigslist.org) you'll see a link in the top left that says "post to classifieds." Click on that link. Then in the top right you'll see an option to log in to an existing account or create an account. To create a new account you'll go through the usual steps to getting set up with a new site (providing your email, etc.). Once you have an account set up you can create your first listing. The first thing you'll do is select the type of posting you're creating. If you're selling an item you can choose "for sale by owner." Then you'll choose the category of the good from a long list that includes things like "antiques," "appliances," "bicycles," "furniture," "jewelry," "tools" and more. Depending on your area, once you select a category you may be asked to narrow down your location. For example, in New York you'll be asked which borough you're in. Finally, you'll create the item listing. You'll enter your email address and indicate whether you'll allow Craigslist users to email you directly in response to your listing (this is not recommended by Craigslist). You'll also indicate whether users can contact you by phone or text and provide your number if applicable. You can select how you want the location of your item to be displayed in the listing, too. You'll create a posting title for your item, pick a price and indicate the postal code of your listing. Then you'll have space to write the "posting body" (where you describe the item you're selling) and add images to your listing. Follow the steps until your first listing is live. You can always edit a listing. If you're cleaning out your home or storage unit and you find items you'd like to sell, Craigslist can be a great resource. You can turn unwanted items into money in your emergency fund or 401(k) by selling them on Craigslist. To sell successfully, it's a good idea to follow some basic rules. First off, you should make the item title catchy. You want it to be informative but not too wordy. You can use popular descriptors like "NWT" (for new with tags) when applicable. Feel free to use descriptors like "antique" but resist the temptation to pack your item titles with adjectives. A title like "Beautiful Like-New Amazing Lamp" probably won't be as effective as a title that says the brand name of the lamp, for example. You'll also want to pair that catchy, honest and descriptive title with appealing images. It's worth taking the time to get this right. At the very least you can take your photos in daylight and make sure the background isn't too busy and that there isn't a glare on your items. Craigslist gives you the chance to write a description of your items, and it's a good idea to use that space to include information that won't fit in the title that you think a buyer would want to know. This is also where you can include any flaws in the item so your customers know what they're getting. Keep the description upbeat and succinct and don't dwell on flaws such as scratches or stains. Finally, you'll want to pick a price for your items that will help them sell. This is where doing research on Craigslist can come in handy. You'll see the prices that comparable items are commanding on the site. Still, competitive research isn't a perfect tool on Craigslist, since there are non-price factors that influence potential buyers. For example, an item that's within an easy drive of a potential buyer's home may be more likely to appeal to that buyer than a cheaper item that needs to be shipped or picked up from a distant location. If you offer delivery yourself you increase your chances of success, but you'll have to factor in the cost of your time if you're considering offering delivery. Related Article: How to Make Money on Etsy Another way to make money on Craigslist is to buy items on the site and then re-sell them for a higher price. There are two ways to maximize your profit with this strategy. First, you can make sure you're paying a low price for the items you're buying. You can buy only items that offered for free, or for a low price. If you feel comfortable doing so it's smart to negotiate with sellers. Prices on Craigslist aren't set in stone and you may be able to get a better deal by negotiating, particularly on items that have been on the site for a while without attracting a buyer. The second way to maximize your re-sale profits is by commanding a high price for the items when you re-sell them. How do you manage this? You can improve on the item's original listing by writing a better title, taking more appealing pictures and offering better customer service or even delivery. Another way to boost the price of the item is to put some work into refreshing or restoring it. You can sand and repaint old tables, polish silver or otherwise work to add value to an item before re-listing it on Craigslist. As always it's a good idea to keep track of your time and materials cost to make sure that you're actually making money and that your restoration work isn't canceling out any profit you make on the sale. You don't have to confine yourself to re-selling items bought on Craigslist. You can buy items at garage sales, flea markets or online and then sell them on Craigslist for a profit. The more you know about what you're selling the more likely you are to pick winners. If you're familiar with, say, porcelain you can start out re-selling porcelain items before branching out into an area you know less about. Making money on Craigslist is a matter of listing items that people want to buy, at a competitive price and with appealing listings. While you should never misrepresent an items you're selling, making that item look and sound desirable to potential customers is a must. If you want to be able to charge more for the items you list on the online classified site, consider upping your image game and experimenting with different titles and keywords. The post How to Make Money on Craigslist appeared first on SmartAsset Blog. More from SmartAsset: Top 4 Financial Tips for Retirees Starting Businesses How Interest Rate Hikes Affect Personal Loan Investors How to Make Money on Tumblr Now, check out ways you can save money at Target: How to make money on Craigslist Look at what number price of an item ends in It may seem overly attentive, but it's worth it. If the price of an item ends in $0.06 or $0.08, the item will be marked down again at some point in the future. If the price ends in $0.04, the item is marked for final clearance and the price will not change again. Trade in electronics for gift cards If you bring your old electronics to the electronics department, they'll quote you on how much your stuff is worth and compensate you in Target gift cards to spend around the store. Be aware of the weekly markdown schedule Different departments in Target mark down items depending on the day of the week: Monday: Electronics, accessories, kids' clothing, books, baby, and stationery Tuesday: Domestics, women's clothing, pets, and market Wednesday: Men's clothing, health and beauty, lawn and garden Photo credit: Getty Thursday: Housewares, lingerie, shoes, toys, sporting goods, decor, and luggage Friday: Auto, cosmetics, hardware, and jewelry Strategically utilize holiday clearance sales Target has consistently scaled markdowns on themed items after the holidays: Day after holiday: 50% off Three days after holiday: 75% off One week after holiday: 90% off Sign up for mobile coupon alerts By signing up, a new set of coupons will be sent to your phone each month (you can even specify the exact time you want them delivered.) The coupons are scannable and can be redeemed at the register. Shop the end caps The end caps are the shelves that sit at the end of each aisle, seeming somewhat misplaced. However, most clearance items are usually placed here--make it your go-to place to check if you're looking for discounted items. Check online for current deals Each week, Target updates its current promotions and weekly sales pages--you'll be able to scout out deals you want to take advantage of and know how much you can save before you even get in to store. BYOB (bring your own bag) Target offers a five-cent discount for every reusable bag you bring in to use at checkout. Every cent adds up! Opt for store-brand items A general rule of thumb when shopping at any major retailer, but its especially worthwhile at Target. Target has several top-quality store-brands that produce everything from food to beauty products at a much lower price than name brands. Hit the dollar section first Target's dollar aisle is like no other--you never know what you can find when you really look! Utilize "Target Cartwheel" Cartwheel is a social coupon program that Target created that allows you to set up an account to earn and receive deals. You can use each deal up to four times, as well as stack your deals with other coupons.

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How to make money on Craigslist

These are the basics of how to make money on Craigslist so you can start using the site as your side hustle and make your listings stand out from the rest.