Drone Exemptions for Hollywood Pave the Way for Widespread Use

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — The commercial use of drones in American skies took a leap forward on Thursday with the help of Hollywood. The Federal Aviation Administration, responding to applications from seven filmmaking companies and pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America, said six of those companies could use camera-equipped drones on certain movie and television sets. Until now, the F.A.A. has not permitted commercial drone use except for extremely limited circumstances in wilderness areas of Alaska. Put bluntly, this is the first time that companies in the United States will be able to legally use drones to fly over people. The decision has implications for a broad range of industries including agriculture, energy, real estate, the news media and online retailing. “While the approval for Hollywood is very limited in scope, it’s a message to everyone that this ball is rolling,” said Greg Cirillo, chairman of the aviation practice at Wiley Rein, a law firm in Washington. Michael P. Huerta, the administrator of the F.A.A., said at least 40 similar applications were pending from companies beyond Hollywood. One is Amazon, which wants permission to move forward with a drone-delivery service. Google has acknowledged “self-flying vehicle” tests in the Australian outback. “Today’s announcement is a significant milestone in broadening commercial use,” Anthony R. Foxx, secretary of transportation, told reporters in a conference call. Under the six waivers granted on Thursday — a seventh, for a company called Flying-Cam, is still under review — the companies can use camera-equipped drones on outdoor movie and television sets that are closed to the public. The equipment must be inspected before each flight, fly no higher than 400 feet and be operated by a technician with a pilot’s license. The F.A.A. must be notified of filming. Image Flying-Cam, a filmmaking company, on a movie set in Dunhuang, China. Its application for a waiver to use camera-equipped drones on certain movie and television sets is still under review. Credit Flying-Cam Night use is prohibited, at least for now. Some aviation-safety advocates and other watchdog groups have opposed the waivers for Hollywood, worrying about air traffic situations like drone crashes in populated areas. Privacy has also been a concern. Mr. Foxx said on Thursday that he determined that the waivers did “not pose a risk to national airspace users.” Studios like Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures have already been using drones in overseas shoots for movies like “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and “Skyfall.” Filming in Bulgaria , Millennium Films and Lionsgate recently used a drone-mounted camera for portions of “The Expendables 3.” Studios, battling a severe slump at the domestic box office, are looking to unmanned flying cameras to create ever more dazzling footage. Hollywood has also cited significant cost savings from forgoing helicopter filming and improved safety; three people were killed last year when a helicopter crashed while filming a Discovery Channel show. Studios also say drone filming will keep production at home. “By creating a climate that further encourages more movie and TV production in the U.S., today’s decision also supports job creation,” said Christopher J. Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association. Mr. Dodd, a former senator from Connecticut, added that the decision was “a victory for audiences everywhere as it gives filmmakers yet another way to push creative boundaries.” The six film companies receiving approval are Aerial Mob, Astraeus Aerial, HeliVideo Productions, Pictorvision, Snaproll Media and Vortex Aerial. Among major companies, Amazon has perhaps been the leading proponent of drone use, but it is far from alone. On Friday, the German logistics company DHL is expected to begin using a drone to deliver supplies to residents of the island of Juist. It is the first time such a device has been authorized for regular use in Europe, the company said. And entertainment companies are racing to use drones in more than the movies. Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian operator of acrobatic shows, on Monday released a video that explores storytelling on stage using drones called “quadcopters.” The video depicts an electrician surrounded by 10 drone-powered floating lamps; he then appears to conduct their movement in the air — a bit like the way Mickey Mouse interacts with the dancing brooms in Disney’s “Fantasia.” In August, Disney applied for three drone patents related to outdoor theme park shows. Based on the applications, the company appears to want to use drones to fly projection screens into the air and to move huge marionettes. The company, which has declined to comment, submitted an example of a flying version of Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”


For a Fee, Trial Recordings

Abstract: Federal judges have voted to make available digital audio recordings of some trials and hearings for a small fee. The Judicial Conference of the United States, which sets federal court policies, said its actions Tuesday would improve public access. Audio files will cost $2.40 and will be available soon after court proceedings conclude, although judges may withhold audio in some cases. Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, said releasing audio of some criminal trials could raise security concerns.

Judges
Suits and Litigation
Recordings and Downloads (Audio)


NBC Rides ‘The Voice’ to First Place

Abstract: Could it still be true that even the worst performing television network is only one hit away from a turnaround? Apparently so, as long as the hit is on for more than 40 hours in four months. NBC has managed that unexpected turnaround from worst to first this fall, largely — competitors suggest almost exclusively — on the strength of the addition of a single show: “The Voice,” the singing competition that features swinging chairs and big-name musical artists as coaches. Yes, NBC also has “Sunday Night Football,” but that powerhouse was on the schedule last fall, when NBC had a 2.6 rating among the viewers preferred by many advertisers, ages 18 through 49. Each rating point in that age category equals 1.26 million people. With those 40-plus hours of “The Voice” added (as well as vastly improved ratings for adjacent shows), NBC is up 23 percent to a 3.2 rating. On Mondays, when the first of two weekly editions of the show plays, NBC is up a staggering 206 percent. “We built our strategy around ‘The Voice,’ ” said Paul Telegdy, the president of reality and late-night programming for NBC. “We wanted to use Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to build momentum, and we’ve successfully done it.” The show’s most recent edition started in February, coming out of a big introduction on the night of the Super Bowl. With its prime-time in tatters, NBC decided to insert the series twice this season, something its most similar antecedent, “American Idol,” has never done. But the show’s executive producer, Mark Burnett, has done it before with shows he produced. “I knew it would be a challenge, but it was a challenge to take ‘Survivor’ to twice a season and ‘The Apprentice’ to twice a season, and that all worked out,” he said. The pressing question for NBC is what happens after Dec. 18, when this edition of “The Voice” has its finale. (Or, for that matter, when the N.F.L. season ends.) Senior executives at two competing networks said NBC was taking a risk by being carried by one show. That immediately conjured comparisons to “Idol,” which for years lifted the Fox network almost single-handedly to first place, and — more ominously — to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” the game show phenomenon that blazed at ABC and then flamed out from overuse. “You do wonder if this is the NBC version of ‘Millionaire,’ ” said Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media. Mr. Burnett questioned that premise, noting that his “Survivor” has been on twice a season and is now in its 25th edition. Still, “The Voice” does occupy a singing genre crowded with Fox’s two entries, “The X Factor” and “Idol.” Both have had recent ratings declines for their latest editions. “The Voice” will also go through a test when it returns in March with two new coaches, the singers Shakira and Usher, replacing Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green, who are taking off that cycle. Blake Shelton and Adam Levine will remain in the four-coach mix. Preston Beckman, the longtime senior program executive at Fox, said, “I do think they will feel the loss in January and February, and it gives ‘Idol’ the sole ownership of the genre for a few months. The real test will be what it does when it returns, especially with the two new judges. That will determine what happens to the network next year.” Mr. Telegdy credited the success of “The Voice” to the power of the format, which was created by the Dutch producer John DeMol. It is now produced in more than 50 countries, and has been an explosive hit in many of them. “The finale of the Chinese version attracted 300 million viewers,” Mr. Telegdy said. But he and Mr. Burnett credited strategic tinkering for enhancing the show this season. “The Voice” had some falloff in previous editions when the blind audition segments, which feature the coaches with their backs to the contestants swinging their chairs around to select singers for their team, ended. This season, the show introduced an element it called “the steal,” which allowed the coaches to take singers from another coach. “It’s made it very sportslike,” Mr. Burnett said. “Like the N.B.A. or N.F.L. or soccer, where teams take away players or get them in trades.” Mr. Telegdy said the idea for the steal came from NBC’s top entertainment executive, Bob Greenblatt, though he acknowledged the entire network hierarchy is consumed with managing NBC’s most crucial asset. “You understand the importance of this show to this place. You can imagine how many bright minds lie awake at night staring at the ceiling wondering what to do next with it.” Mr. Telegdy said the show’s format was inherently strong enough to endure. “This is a thoughtful, quality music show,” he said. “No overblown production, no pyrotechnics, or air cannons. There are no back tracks or Auto-Tune or the audio manipulation that the other shows do.” The show accommodates the coaches with an intensely packed production schedule. The blind audition segments are shot in just five days. The battle round is shot in four days. “It takes us only nine days to capture fully the first 18 hours of the show,” Mr. Telegdy said. Beyond ratings increases, “The Voice” has let NBC break through with the drama “Revolution,” which follows it on Mondays, and the comedy “Go On,” which follows it on Tuesdays. Still, Mr. Adgate said CBS would almost surely end the season, which began in the fall and ends in May, on top, (it will have the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 to add to other assets) and NBC could fall well behind with “The Voice” off the air for three months. Mr. Telegdy acknowledged, “We’re prepared for, shall we say, a radically different rating for the period that ‘The Voice’ is off.” But that won’t change the result from this fall, he said. “We’ve rebuilt a very important quarter for us.”

Television
The Voice (TV Program)
Ratings (Audience Measurement)
National Broadcasting Co
CBS Corporation
Voice The (TV Program)


House Expected to Follow Senate’s Lead on Rush to Repeal Health Law

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The House is expected to give final approval on Friday to a measure that would allow Republicans to speedily gut the Affordable Care Act with no threat of a Senate filibuster, a move that would thrust the question of what health law would come next front and center even before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office. The House vote would come after the Senate narrowly approved the same measure, a budget blueprint, early Thursday morning. Americans woke up Thursday to the realization that a Republican Congress was serious about repealing President Obama’s signature domestic achievement — a move that could leave 20 million Americans unsure of their health coverage and millions more wondering if protections offered by the Affordable Care Act could soon be taken away. “This is a critical step forward, the first step toward bringing relief from this failed law,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said. Democrats said the rush to repeal was the height of legislative irresponsibility and would endanger the health of millions. “For the life of me, I can’t understand the need to take health care away from people, and why in the world anybody would even contemplate doing that without something to replace it,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter of New York. “Just snatching it out from under them and it’s gone. I think that there’s going to be a mighty rumble in this country, an outburst of anger and fear.” What comes next may be the most pressing problem facing Republicans, who may find that dismantling the health law is far easier than replacing it with one that can unite their fractious members — and win over some Democrats. After a marathon session, the Senate voted 51 to 48 to approve a budget measure that would clear the way for the health care law to be repealed with a simple Senate majority. As the House approached its vote, some Republicans remained reluctant to act without a clear strategy to replace the health law. “We’d like to see a little more flesh on the bone before we sign on the dotted line,” said Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, an anesthesiologist and a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Republicans skeptical of moving forward risked looking hostile to the repeal effort. And there was a prevailing sense of the importance of following through on a campaign promise upon which so many House Republicans had staked their political reputations. “This is an issue that really and truly, in some ways, put two-thirds of our conference here,” said Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, a member of the party’s leadership team. “Everybody wants to get it right,” he said. Republican leaders sought to reassure members that the House budget vote — procedurally important as it is — is only the first step in an exhaustive process to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Four committees in the House and Senate would then be tasked with drafting the legislation that would gut the existing health law. Image Senator Mitch McConnell, on his way to his office, said a Senate vote on Thursday was “the first step toward bringing relief” from the Affordable Care Act. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times The concerns fostered a remarkable alignment between some centrist Republicans and their counterparts in the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right group that is disposed to disagree with its own party’s leaders. Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin worked to soothe concerns even as he expressed the urgent need to get rid of a law that Republicans hate. Republicans would embark on “a thoughtful, step-by-step process,” he said, even though the law is “collapsing while we speak.” Mr. Ryan also said he was working with Mr. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Mr. Trump called this week for a near simultaneous repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. “We are in complete sync,” Mr. Ryan said. But Republicans face a significant challenge in passing the necessary legislation to replace the health care law. They can repeal major parts of the existing law without facing a filibuster, but they would not be able put in place a full replacement in the same measure, because arcane budget rules limit what can be included in such a filibuster-proof bill. Instead, they would almost certainly need to pass another bill or multiple bills with 60 Senate votes, and that would require at least some Democratic cooperation. Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, a prime target for Republican wooing, asserted on Thursday that Mr. Trump did not want to “repeal” Obamacare but “repair” it. He cited Mr. Trump’s stated support for popular provisions like requiring insurers to provide coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions. “We’re in a repair mode,” Mr. Manchin said. “They need 60 votes to repair. I’m actually happy to work with them.” Republicans in Congress have offered many replacement ideas, but it is not clear whether their most conservative members will ever be able to agree on legislation acceptable to the party’s moderates. A manifesto issued by House Republicans in June outlined a consensus proposal, produced by the chairmen of four House committees, including Representative Tom Price of Georgia, chosen by Mr. Trump to be secretary of health and human services. Mr. Trump and congressional leaders said they were counting on Mr. Price to help them write a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, most likely drawing from a bill that he introduced in July 2009 and has reintroduced several times since. “I think there’s an acknowledgment both by the administration coming in and people around here that his imprint needs to be on this,” Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said. Senate Republicans do not have a detailed plan. But Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the health committee, laid out a road map on the Senate floor this week that pointed to a measure potentially more expansive than House plans. How Republicans Can Repeal Obamacare Piece by Piece Peeling away pieces of the law could lead to market chaos. The major Republican proposals have not been analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office, so no independent or authoritative estimates exist of their costs or the number of people who might gain or lose coverage. On several points, the major Republican proposals agree. They would eliminate the requirements that most Americans carry health insurance and that larger employers offer it to employees. They would offer tax credits for health insurance and new tax incentives for health savings accounts; provide subsidies for state high-risk pools, to help people who could not otherwise obtain insurance; and make it easier for insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. They would also provide some protection for people with pre-existing conditions who have maintained “continuous coverage.” They could not be dropped by an insurer and could move from one plan to another, but a person with a pre-existing condition seeking insurance after a lapse of coverage could in some cases be charged higher rates. The protections would be weaker than those in the Affordable Care Act. Republicans also do not agree on how to pay for a replacement plan. In the House document, Republicans proposed limiting the value of tax-free health benefits that employers could provide to employees. Under the current law, employees do not have to pay federal income tax on contributions that employers make to their health insurance. House Republicans said this open-ended subsidy had encouraged people to select more expensive coverage, driving up premiums. But business groups, labor unions and some conservative lawmakers vehemently oppose that change, saying it amounts to a new tax on benefits and on working families. Senate Republicans have also not expressed support for the idea. Many House Republicans, including Mr. Price, would provide tax credits to help people buy insurance. But the amount of assistance would increase with age and would not be tied to income, as it is under the existing health care law. The subsidies would probably be smaller than under the Affordable Care Act. But insurance would be less expensive, Republicans say, because the government would impose fewer requirements. Mr. Alexander said he would “allow individuals to use their Obamacare subsidies to purchase state-approved insurance outside the Obamacare exchanges.” Under the health care law, such assistance can be used only in the insurance exchanges. Many Republicans say states should have much more power to define “essential health benefits.” On Medicaid, the federal insurance program for low-income people, House Republicans would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion and give each state a fixed amount of money for each beneficiary — or a lump sum of federal money for all of a state’s Medicaid program. But more than half the states, including some with Republican governors, have expanded Medicaid eligibility under Mr. Obama’s law, with large sums of federal money, and pragmatic Republicans are reluctant to snatch away the federal money that has allowed big increases in Medicaid enrollment.

Senate
Congress
Congress
Health Insurance
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Federal Budget
House of Representatives
US Politics


Fresh Questions Raised Over a Bank of America Settlement

Abstract: Bank of America has long rued its decision in 2008 to acquire Countrywide Financial, the subprime mortgage giant. To date, the bank has set aside some $40 billion to settle claims of mortgage misconduct that occurred before it acquired the freewheeling lender. It has been a regular refrain at Bank of America. Last month, Brian T. Moynihan, the bank’s chief executive, told Bloomberg television at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that carrying Countrywide was like climbing a mountain with “a 250-pound backpack.” But according to new documents filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan late on Friday, questionable practices by the bank’s loan servicing unit have continued well after the Countrywide acquisition; they paint a picture of a bank that continued to put its own interests ahead of investors as it modified troubled mortgages. The documents were submitted by three Federal Home Loan Banks, in Boston, Chicago and Indianapolis, and Triaxx, an investment vehicle that bought mortgage securities. They contend that a proposed $8.5 billion settlement that Bank of America struck in 2011 to resolve claims over Countrywide’s mortgage abuses is far too low and shortchanges thousands of ordinary investors. The filing raises new questions about whether a judge will approve the settlement. If it is denied, the bank would face steeper legal obligations. Lawrence Grayson, a spokesman for Bank of America, denied the bank was putting its own interests ahead of investors. “Modifying mortgages for homeowners in severe distress is critical to the ongoing economic recovery and is encouraged by the government at all levels,” he said. “It is difficult to see how federally regulated entities like the Federal Home Loan Banks would seek to attack that practice which helps families to stay in their homes and in no way violated the contracts at issue.” Among the new details in the filing are those showing that Bank of America failed to buy back troubled mortgages in full once it had lowered the payments and principal on the loans — an apparent violation of its agreements with investors who bought the securities that held the mortgages. Image A Bank of America branch in Boston. The bank has set aside billions of dollars for claims of mortgage misconduct. Credit Charles Krupa/Associated Press An analysis of real estate records across the country, the filing said, showed that Bank of America had modified more than 134,000 loans in such securities with a total principal balance of $32 billion. Even as the bank’s loan modifications imposed heavy losses on investors in these securities, the documents show, Bank of America did not reduce the principal on second mortgages it owned on the same properties. The owner of a home equity line of credit is typically required to take a loss before the holder of a first mortgage. By slashing the amount the borrower owes on the first mortgage, Bank of America increases the potential for full repayment of its home equity line. Bank of America carried $116 billion in home equity loans on its books at the end of the third quarter of 2012. The filing contains three examples of such modifications, all from 2010, well after the Countrywide purchase. One example shows investors suffering a loss of more than $300,000 on a $575,000 loan made in 2006. In May 2010, Bank of America reduced the principal owed on a first mortgage to $282,000, but at the same time, real estate records showed, Bank of America’s $110,000 home equity line of credit on the property remained intact and unmodified. Another example indicates that Bank of America kept its $170,000 home equity line intact on a property while modifying the first mortgage held by investors. In that case, the investors took a $395,000 loss. Bank of America, the filing noted, “may have engaged in self-dealing and other misconduct, including in connection with modifications to first lien loans held by the Trusts where BofA or Countrywide held second lien loans on the same subject properties.” Triaxx conducted the analysis by combing through the thousands of loans administered by Bank of America in 530 securities issued by Countrywide from 2005 through 2007. Triaxx then ran the loans through an extensive database it has created of every real estate transaction conducted across the United States during the last decade. “We’re confident that our approach will be successful for investors and that the facts speak for themselves,” said Thomas Priore, founder of ICP Capital, who is overseeing the Triaxx analysis. “These are just a few examples of the negligence we found.” Image Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America’s chief executive. Credit Win Mcnamee/Getty Images Triaxx’s loan analysis has been accepted in another mortgage suit involving claims against Residential Capital, the bankrupt mortgage company that is a unit of Ally Financial. Investor recoveries in that case, being heard in bankruptcy court in Manhattan, will be based in part on Triaxx’s work. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, investors in mortgage securities have had difficulty identifying improper loan modifications and other servicer abuses like those described in this filing. Servicers have kept under wraps the detailed loan data that could point to these kinds of practices and have forced investors to sue to get access to these files. Included in their court filing was a letter Triaxx and the other investors wrote to Bank of New York Mellon, the trustee that was hired to oversee the Countrywide securities to ensure that investors in them were treated fairly. The investors asked Bank of New York Mellon to explain why it had not pursued claims against Bank of America relating to the modifications on behalf of investors in the Countrywide securities. Kevin Heine, a spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon said in a statement: “As trustee, we have complied with our duties under the agreements and will follow any direction the court issues in connection with the letter.” The letter and the underlying analysis were filed in New York State Supreme Court where Justice Barbara R. Kapnick is overseeing the $8.5 billion settlement reached in June 2011 by Bank of America and a handful of Countrywide mortgage securities holders. That settlement, which covers the same 530 Countrywide securities examined by Triaxx, would generate roughly 2 cents on the dollar to the investors who agreed to it. When the securities were sold, they contained loans totaling some $425 billion. The investors include the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Pimco and BlackRock, two large asset management companies. Bank of New York Mellon has also agreed to the settlement, releasing Bank of America from any future claims by investors trying to recoup their losses. “Despite its knowledge of the Trusts’ Loan Modification Claims,” the letter said, “the Trustee agreed to release such claims in the Settlement, apparently without any investigation of the extent or merit of such claims, and without any compensation for the Trusts with respect to such claims.” Mr. Priore said: “We’re mystified how other managers would allow these institutions to ignore their responsibility when it has such a significant impact on investors.” Trustees have been reluctant to take action against servicers on behalf of the investors in mortgage securities. Such actions would be costly, according to those in the industry, and would reduce profits in what is already a low-margin business. But this has left investors to fend for themselves with little information.

Bank of America
Federal Home Loan Banks
Real Estate
Mortgage loan
Banking and Finance
Housing
Lawsuit
Thomas J Priore
Bank of America Home Loans


Film Photography’s Revival in a Digital World

Abstract: When is the last time you took a photo with an old-school camera — the kind that doesn’t have a wireless connection, needs to be loaded with finicky rolls of film and is too bulky to slide into a back pocket? Unless you are a professional photographer or an artist, it has probably been a while. Most people have abandoned film cameras for digital models or, more recently, smartphones outfitted with lens accessories and apps like Instagram that make photo-sharing extremely simple. But film photography is having another moment in the sun, thanks to some hip, quirky companies like Lomography and the Impossible Project, which are resurrecting this seemingly archaic art for enthusiastic hobbyists. These companies and their customers tend to embrace the imperfections of film, rejecting the cold precision of digital photos. It is important to bear in mind, of course, that film photography takes a little more effort than tapping a button on a screen. In my experience, the pros outweigh the cons, but both are worth considering before you invest a significant amount of time — and coin — into this hobby, particularly if you are new to the world of film. Let’s start with the cons. Analog cameras require a little more precision to operate than digital ones. It can take some time to figure out how they work and to learn how to reload them without dropping them on the sidewalk. The film itself is fairly delicate and often needs to be refrigerated and shielded from the sun. The pictures are rarely perfect. Certainly, the artsy streaks and blurring that some of the cameras mentioned below can give to images are part of the charm and overall appeal. But it can be frustrating to have a sprawling white smear blotting out the scenic vista you were hoping to capture. Cost is another factor; expect to part ways with a few bills at first, for getting set up with equipment, and then for buying the film and having it developed. Even finding a place to develop film can be challenging, although many chain drugstores and professional photography shops still do. Given all that, the upsides to working an old-school camera into your daily routine are numerous. Perhaps the most interesting benefit is how it shapes the way you interact with your surroundings. The luxury of documenting every meal, sun-soaked afternoon and live concert with a smartphone’s vast memory bank does not exist with film cameras. You have a limited number of frames to shoot with, forcing you to carefully weigh what you want to capture. That sounds like a drawback until you consider the advantages of being more present in the moment, since you aren’t constantly engrossed by the screen of your smartphone. There is also something refreshing about not immediately knowing what your image will look like. It instills a kind of patience that has all but disappeared as we surround ourselves with real-time technology. And when the prints show up, there can be wild variations in color and the sort of unpredictability that turns a photo into something that seems like a unique piece of art. As an added bonus, film cameras are the ultimate icebreakers. Spotting a Polaroid camera in the wild is rare, so if you walk into a party with one, you’re guaranteed to be the most popular person in the room. Here are some options available to those who want to try their hand at wielding an old-fashioned camera. LOMOGRAPHY This company manufactures and sells a line of quirky cameras online and in a handful of stores around the globe, including locations in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and London. Most of their offerings , which start at around $50, use 35-millimeter film. They include the simple Russian LC-A+, which produces whimsical, color-drenched pictures; cameras with a fisheye lens that create a bulging, surrealist perspective; and the Spinner 360, which comes rigged with a manual ripcord that whirls the lens around to capture a panoramic image. My personal favorites are the cute DianaF+ and La Sardina, stylish and compact machines that fit easily into a handbag and look like something you would see on the set of a chic Italian movie. For the ambitious, the company recently began selling a camera called the LomoKino that captures short movies on 35-millimeter film. It takes a while to get used to a Lomography camera when you’ve been shooting on an iPhone or digital camera. I never knew if the film was advancing properly, and once I accidentally yanked off the back panel, ruining at least five exposures by baring them to the light. But once you get past the initial awkwardness of the machinery, it’s so much fun to take photos of your friends on a crowded dance floor, flowering trees and lazy dogs lolling in the sun with a funky, old-looking camera. No one minds when you stick it in their faces to get a shot — making it an easier sell than the intrusive glowing screen of an iPhone. THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT When Polaroid announced it would cease production of its film and abandon its signature technology in 2009 amid flagging fortunes, a group of Polaroid fans leapt to attention and started campaigning to save the format . After raising money from backers, they began hiring former Polaroid engineers and buying the company’s equipment, determined to reverse-engineer its chemical formulas and production techniques. Those efforts were successful: The Impossible Project manufactures and sells a variety of instant film, online and in stores in New York, as well as through various art galleries and dealers around the world. The company’s film is designed to work in the Polaroid 600 and SX-70 cameras. If you cannot find one in your parents’ attic, you’ll have to scavenge your own from eBay, Etsy or a garage sale. Or you can buy a camera that the Impossible Project has salvaged and refurbished. A starter kit containing one Polaroid camera and a pack of film starts at $129. These neat machines generate gasps of awe when you pull them out. FUJI INSTAX Another company that still makes instant film, Fuji, recently released a small line of instant cameras that are available from a variety of online retailers, starting at around $100; a pack of 10 shots costs $10. Although I begged my sister for a Fuji Mini for my last birthday, thinking it’d be easier to lug around, I wound up preferring the larger 210 format, which my friend Alan brings along on all of our social outings. The photos that the Mini camera spits out are adorable, but tiny, and harder to hang on a wall or frame and give to a friend.

Photography
Cameras
Lomography
Impossible Project


Leaders Say They Expect Agreement on Aid for Spanish Banks

Abstract: BRUSSELS — European Union leaders said early Friday that legislation enabling rescue aid to be channeled directly to Spanish banks should be agreed by the end of the year, but they left open critical decisions on how soon it could go into effect. By leaving the start date vague, Germany could shape the legislation over the next three months to delay any use of a new bailout fund to directly recapitalize Spanish lenders until after national elections in September 2013. The legislation focuses on improving supervision of banks in the euro area by putting them under the aegis of the European Central Bank , and it is one of the tools developed by Europeans aimed at salvaging the euro. The leaders agreed at their last summit in June that the direct recapitalization of banks could go forward once effective supervision by the European Central Bank is in place. But such direct aid could be an election issue because German citizens have grown weary of paying most of the bill for bailouts, and they are wary of using more funds to help Spanish banks. At a news conference Friday morning, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany would not give a precise start date for the system nor for the direct recapitalization of banks. Mrs. Merkel said that Mario Draghi, the president of the central bank, had informed leaders that “it will take some time until this banking supervision is up and running.” Mr. Draghi “didn’t give us specific months, but it is not a matter of just one or two, it will take longer,” she added. The French government and the European Commission have sought to hasten that legislation in order to allow direct recapitalization of some of the euro zone’s most vulnerable banks to start on Jan. 1, 2013. But François Hollande , the French president, was also unable to give a date for the start of the system and instead said markets should be confident that direct recapitalization of banks would be able to go forward over the course of 2013. “Weeks or months will be needed for the mechanism to be implemented” once the legislation was completed at the end of 2012, Mr. Hollande told a news conference. “The worst is over,” he added, seeking to assure investors and citizens that Europe was keeping up momentum to emerge from its financial crisis. Mrs. Merkel arrived at a two-day summit here insisting that putting some of the bloc’s most vulnerable banks under the single supervisor by January was too ambitious. After about five hours of talks, the leaders tweaked language in their final report making it clear that they did not expect the new system of bank supervision to be up and running by Jan. 1. French leaders have also pressed for speedy adoption of European legislation to tighten budget discipline across the euro zone, as well as measures to pool at least some of the euro zone countries’ debt. Germany, by contrast, has emphasized a more cautious approach and is seeking even greater powers of intervention to enable the most solvent countries to enforce budgetary discipline in the euro zone. The differences between France and Germany matter. Agreement between governments in Paris and Berlin is seen as vital to any steps toward further integration in Europe and for ensuring the survival of the common currency for the 17 European Union countries using it. The creation of a single banking regulator for the euro area was supposed to be a relatively straightforward matter after leaders agreed at a summit meeting in late June to put all lenders in the region under the aegis of the European Central Bank. The idea was eagerly supported by Ireland and Spain, because it would be a precursor to letting weak banks in those countries tap Europe’s new bailout fund directly, without loading more debt on those countries’ governments. Since June, though, Germany has balked at proposals by the European Commission and France to put all 6,000 lenders in euro zone countries under the supervision of the regulator in a system that would be phased in starting Jan. 1. The government in Berlin wants to ensure that the central bank has the capacity to do that job, while some German regional leaders are opposed to greater scrutiny of state and local banks by the central bank. Last month finance ministers from Germany, Finland and the Netherlands set off new alarms with a joint statement proposing that any bank rescues from the bailout fund go only toward future problems. Non-euro Eastern and Central European countries have their own concerns about a potential run on their banks, which would not be part of the new central system or backstopped by the European bailout fund. And then there is Britain, which is a European Union member but has its own currency. The British are seeking to secure a voting system that would ensure that decisions cannot be imposed on Britain’s banks by the euro zone countries working together as a bloc. Amid the stalled progress on the banking rules, warnings have been growing louder of a creeping lack of urgency to tackle the most pressing problems still hanging over the euro zone. A pledge in September by the central bank to buy unlimited quantities of bonds has steadied borrowing costs in some of the most vulnerable euro zone countries like Spain. And while that decision has taken the edge off the crisis, it also could set the scene for a new outbreak of market jitters. “It is very important that the summit now maintains the momentum of reforming the economic and monetary union including the banking union,” Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said on Thursday. “Now the political will of member states is tested.” In the case of Greece, little was forthcoming at the summit meeting beyond a statement that appeared intended to paper over the slow pace of negotiations with Athens on the release of more rescue money, and that seemed aimed at lending support for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. “We welcome the determination of the Greek government to deliver on its commitments and we commend the remarkable efforts by the Greek people,” the leaders said. “Good progress has been made to bring the adjustment program back on track,” they said.

European Union
Germany
European Central Bank
Spain
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Hollande Francois
Merkel Angela
European Stability Mechanism
Banking and Financial Institutions


On Field and on Sideline, Changes Bring Same Result for Texans

Abstract: GLENDALE, Ariz. — The understudy Wade Phillips played an N.F.L. head coach on Sunday, and in some respects, it was as if nothing had changed since the last time he inhabited the role. Phillips, relieved of his lead position with a one-win Dallas Cowboys team three Novembers ago, was again at the helm of an underachieving Texas team, a Super Bowl contender gone bad. There were degrees of difference in the script this time as Phillips guided the two-win Houston Texans against the Arizona Cardinals (5-4) at University of Phoenix Stadium. Jason Garrett, a former N.F.L. quarterback who backed up the Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, was the midseason replacement in 2010 for Phillips, who was the temporary replacement for Gary Kubiak, a former N.F.L. quarterback who backed up the Hall of Famer John Elway. Phillips, the Houston defensive coordinator, was not on the hot seat, his future in the hands of a capricious owner like the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones. Phillips was on the warm seat, entrusted with holding Kubiak’s place as he recovers from the ministroke that felled him as he left the field at halftime of last week’s home game against the Indianapolis Colts. For the Texans this year, it seems not to matter who calls the plays, lines up under center, carries the ball or patrols the secondary. The more the personnel changes because of injuries, illness and ineptitude, the more the results stay the same. Missing Kubiak on the sideline and also the All-Pro Arian Foster in the backfield, the Texans frittered away a 3-point halftime lead on their way to a 27-24 loss. It was a franchise-record seventh consecutive defeat, during which the Texans have been outscored in the second half, 107-26. Their quarterback, Case Keenum, who tied a team record in his first start, against Kansas City, by completing six passes of 25 yards or more, threw for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns. But he was a combined 2 of 7 through the air on Houston’s final drives of the first and second halves. Keenum’s favorite target, Andre Johnson, made two acrobatic catches in the end zone, and J. J. Watt had a sack and a fumble recovery in the final minute of the second quarter to give the offense the ball on the Arizona 22. But the Texans (2-7) were unable to ride the momentum Watt had created, coming away from the series with no points after Randy Bullock’s 40-yard field-goal attempt was blocked by Justin Bethel. “A lot of teams can move down there and make the plays, but we didn’t do it,” Phillips said. He added that the losing streak “is obviously upsetting to all of us.” Safety Ed Reed, the Texans’ prized off-season acquisition who lost his starting job to Shiloh Keo, insinuated that the team was being outcoached and outplayed. “If you’re watching the game, it’s no-brainers,” Reed said. “Certain situations we have to get off the field. We need three and out. You have to also come out as an offense and move the ball. We can’t go three and out and put your defense on the field that quick.” He added, “A lot of soul searching needs to be done as coaches and players.” Foster is expected to have back surgery that will end his season, but Kubiak, the offensive play-caller, could return this week. “I think it’s too early to tell,” said Phillips, who is in his third go-round as an interim head coach. This time is especially bittersweet for Phillips because it comes less than a month after the death of his father, Bum, whose abrupt resignation from the Saints in 1985 resulted in Phillips’s first temporary promotion. In 2003, Phillips guided the Atlanta Falcons to a 2-1 finish after taking over for Dan Reeves. Kubiak, 52, fell to his knees as he walked off the field after experiencing a transient ischemic attack, a condition that causes stroke symptoms by temporarily stopping blood flow to the brain. The Texans, who were ahead by 18 points at the time, came out in the second half unsure of Kubiak’s condition and, perhaps not surprisingly, lost their lead and the game by 27-24. Kubiak made an appearance at practice Thursday, two days after being released from a hospital. He was there ostensibly to show his players he was on the mend but perhaps also to deliver the message, however subliminal, that he would not be easily pushed aside. After coaching the Texans to back-to-back A.F.C. South titles, Kubiak had lost the support of some fans who last month started calling for a paper-bag protest at home games. In the N.F.L., head coaches do get time off, often with pay. Their idea of vacation is what the rest of the working world would call being between jobs. By that measure, Phillips last enjoyed time away from football in December 2010, before his January 2011 hiring by the Texans. If the Texans cannot finish strongly, Kubiak may end up with more time to regain his health than his heart desires.

Wade Phillips
Houston Texans
Arizona Cardinals
Gary Kubiak
Arian Foster
Football


EBay Profit Off 3% as Revenue Climbs; Forecast Is Left Unchanged, and Stock Falls

Abstract: The shadow of the search engine Google loomed over eBay yesterday as eBay reported first-quarter results, sending its share price down in after-hours trading. EBay, the online shopping company, matched Wall Street's expectations for revenue and profit, but did not raise its forecast for 2006 results, leading some investors to worry that its growth is slowing. "The novelty has worn off," said Jordan Rohan, an analyst for RBC Capital Markets, noting that consumers are increasingly comfortable finding things to buy through search engines like Google, or on comparison shopping sites. "They are smaller and slightly less important than they used to be," he added. EBay earned $248.3 million, or 17 cents a share, down 3 percent from $256.3 million, or 19 cents, in the period a year earlier. Its earnings declined because the company has started to treat the cost of stock options granted to employees as expenses. Excluding charges for stock-based compensation and some acquisition expenses, the company earned $342.9 million, or 24 cents a share, matching Wall Street's estimates. The company reported revenue of $1.39 billion, up 35 percent. On a conference call with investors, Meg Whitman, eBay's chief executive, gave an upbeat assessment of the company's performance. "The future looks very bright," she said. "We have built the best e-commerce portfolio in the world." Shares of eBay fell nearly 5 percent, to $38.40, in after-hours trading, down from their regular-session closing price of $40.35. Mr. Rohan noted that the average price of products sold on eBay's core auction site is declining, which he said was a sign that the company was involved in less valuable, and thus less profitable, products. Ms. Whitman described some uncertainty as the company moves to offer more fixed-price products for sale. During the quarter, the company started showing fixed-price products from its eBay stores service as well as from its auctions when users searched for items to buy. That confused many users, leading to fewer purchases, and eBay rescinded the change in the United States. Ms. Whitman said that the company had high hopes for its new eBay Express service, which features fixed-price offerings, and that many merchants were setting up stores to sell through the service. But she said that it is hard to predict the financial effect of changes to eBay's market system. "You don't know what is going to happen because nobody has done it before," she said. EBay's marketplace business in the United States, which includes auctions, stores and its Shopping.com site, posted revenue of $527.2 million, up 30 percent from the period a year earlier. Marketplace revenue outside of the United States was $493 million, up 25 percent. The growth would have been 32 percent were it not for the rise of the dollar. The company's PayPal unit, which handles payments for merchants on its site and others, continued to be its fastest-growing division, posting revenue of $335.1 million, up 44 percent. Skype, the Internet telephone service it bought last October, had revenue of $35.2 million. Bob Swan, eBay's chief financial officer, predicted that Skype would have revenue of $200 million this year.

COMPANY REPORTS
EBAY INC
GOOGLE INC
WHITMAN MEG
COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET


A Clam Cancer Outbreak, Spread by One Set of Cells

Abstract: The idea that infectious cancer cells are drifting in the ocean, spreading a devastating leukemia-like disease may sound like a dystopian fantasy. But scientists say that is exactly what is happening — in clams. It is no surprise that clams suffer from the disease. For at least 40 years, outbreaks of the clam equivalent of leukemia have been hammering populations of soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria), also called steamers and little necks, along the East Coast from Maine to the Chesapeake, causing declines in harvest and loss of jobs. But the cause of the disease and how it spread were unknown. Investigations had pointed to environmental factors — at least affecting the susceptibility of the clams — and researchers had recently come to suspect the disease was transmitted by a virus. When American and Canadian researchers looked into that possibility, they ended up sequencing the genes of the cancer cells, much as a forensic expert would sequence DNA at a crime scene. And they found that the cancer cells in clams from waters from different locations — Prince Edward Island, Maine, and New York — pointed to the same culprit. “We realized that maybe this was a clone of cells that had spread,” said Stephen P. Goff at Columbia University. One original cancer in one clam had escaped its host, and spread from one clam population to another. Cancers usually arise in an animal when its own cells start growing out of control. That is why cancer cells have the same genes as the person or animal suffering from cancer. But, Dr. Goff said, he and his colleagues found that none of the cancer cells had DNA matching the clams they were found in. Instead, the cancer cells were like one another; except for minor differences, they all had the same DNA. That meant they all came from one original case of cancer in one clam. As Dr. Goff and his colleagues, Michael J. Metzger at Columbia and Carol Reinish and James Sherry at Environment Canada, reported in the journal Cell , it was not a virus hopping from clam to clam but the cancer cells themselves. They may last only hours in seawater, but that is long enough to reach other clams and infect them. This is the third such cancer known in nature. A devastating facial tumor in Tasmanian devils spreads by biting, and a tumor in dogs spreads by sexual contact. Elizabeth Murchison, of the University of Cambridge, who studies these transmissible cancers, said in an email that she was not that surprised that a third transmissible cancer had been discovered. But, she added, “I would not have guessed that it would be clams!” Dr. Goff said that he and Dr. Metzger were approached by Dr. Reinish because of their expertise in mouse leukemia viruses. They started out looking for evidence of viruses but quickly came to suspect that the cancer cells themselves were spreading, and further tests confirmed that conclusion. It may be, say the authors, that contagious cancers may be more common in nature than had been thought. Cockles, mussels and oysters have similar diseases, and Dr. Goff and his colleagues will investigate them next. There are so few cancers that spread in this way, Dr. Murchison said, because to do so, the cancer cells must escape the host, survive long enough to reach another host, and overcome the reaction of the immune system to reject foreign tissue. Dr. Goff said the way cancers make such a transition may be connected to how cancers spread within a body from one organ to another, called metastasis, a step that makes cancers turn deadly. But there is nothing to suggest anyone should avoid swimming or worry about eating clams because of cancer fears. Cancers are adapted to individual species, and the human immune system would block such foreign tissue.

Clams
Cancer
Cell Journal
Oceans and Seas
Science and Technology


Hosting the Games, Just Not All of Them

Abstract: Now that the International Olympic Committee is allowing potential host cities to share bids with other cities as a cost-saving measure, the door has opened to some wondrous possibilities. Imagine: the London Winter Games, featuring skiing events in Italy. A Summer Games in landlocked Bolivia, with its sailing events in Brazil. Every future Summer Games holding their taekwondo events in Athens. (The taekwondo venue there cost tens of millions of dollars to build and has sat virtually empty for the last decade. Might as well put that white elephant back to work.) O.K., so maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. But in one of the 40 reforms it approved Monday , the I.O.C. made it clear that an event now could be moved from an Olympic host city and sent to a far-off place “in exceptional cases.” Those cases, left to the discretion of the committee, include situations when a city’s geography isn’t conducive for an event, or even an entire discipline. Basically, Olympic officials are finally trying to get out of the white elephant business, at which they have thrived for many decades. Their newest quandary is Pyeongchang, South Korea, which was awarded the 2018 Winter Games but does not have a facility to hold the luge, bobsled and skeleton events — or a particularly strong interest in building one. Sliding centers, you see, aren’t cheap. They’re essentially 4,500 feet of refrigeration. That’s a lot of Frigidaire. In light of the reforms, there is talk that the Pyeongchang Games will back out of their commitment to host every Winter Olympics event and that they will send the sliding sports to Japan, the United States, Canada or Europe. Any place, really, that already has a sliding facility. The rationale is that the sliding center — with a price tag of about $100 million — would be too expensive to build and would be useless after the Games because luge, bobsled and skeleton are not especially popular in South Korea. (If anyone has any bright ideas for repurposing a curving, almost-mile-long sheet of ice, there might be a job for you every four years.) Didn’t anyone think about this problem earlier? Pyeongchang previously lost bids for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games, so it has been shaping its plan — including the fantasy of a sustainable sliding site — for more than a decade. The I.O.C. has had the same amount of time to examine Pyeongchang’s bid. Yet no one ever had the courage to say, “Whoa, what about the lugers?” Instead, the I.O.C. overwhelmingly chose Pyeongchang over two cities that are relative hotbeds for winter sports: Munich and Annecy, France. Thomas Bach, the I.O.C. president, has great intentions to revamp his organization and the Olympics — the addition of language regarding sexual orientation to the Olympic Charter’s anti-discrimination clause on Monday was long overdue — but kicking the sliding events into another time zone in 2018 seems a bit harsh for the athletes who will compete in them. Congratulations, you’ve won a gold medal in four-man bobsled. To reach the medal ceremony, you’ll have to connect through Frankfurt and San Francisco, then catch a taxi from the airport. One of the best parts of competing in the Olympics, as many athletes have told me over the years, is being a part of the Olympic Village and seeing the world converge in one place. The community that forms in the athletes’ village at the Games is inspiring. It’s a gaptoothed hockey player from Latvia bumping into a teeny South Korean figure skater in line at the salad bar. It’s a 55-year-old curler checking his email next to a 17-year-old ski jumper. Such chance encounters are difficult when the bobsled track for the Pyeongchang Olympics is in, say, a city that is at least 600 miles from Pyeongchang — and maybe even 6,000-plus miles from Pyeongchang. The organizers of the Pyeongchang Games and the I.O.C. might look back to the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics for inspiration to keep the sliding track local. (I propose that they split the cost for it because, after all, both entities are at fault here.) Building that track — the first refrigerated bobsled and luge track in the United States — was one of the biggest hurdles for the organizers of the Lake Placid Games. Those Games wound up costing triple the original estimate, and many griped about the money. But when the Games began and the transportation system to more remote events broke down, fans clamored to luge because of its proximity. The athletes competing were rock stars. If they had been shipped off to Buffalo, everyone would have lost a little something. The international federations for luge, bobsled and skeleton said they hadn’t been contacted by the Games organizers or by the I.O.C. about the issue of moving their site in 2018. “It was premature to enter into any form of speculation,” they said Monday in a statement. So for now, the sliding sport athletes are not complaining, at least publicly. They are somewhere training and competing, with their eyes on the 2018 Winter Olympics, wherever that may take them.

International Olympic Committee
Olympics
Pyeongchang
Thomas Bach
2018 Winter Olympics


Musharraf Sets No Date to End Emergency Rule

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan , Nov. 11 — Gen. Pervez Musharraf , the Pakistani president, appeared to yield to intense American pressure on Sunday by restoring parliamentary elections in early January, but he said his emergency decree would last at least through then, immediately raising new questions about the vote’s legitimacy. American officials and General Musharraf’s most important political rival, the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, endorsed his announcement as a small step. Still, any election held when basic civil liberties have been scrapped could create new credibility problems for General Musharraf, who has become increasingly isolated politically, and for Ms. Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan from a life in exile to participate in the electoral process. At a combative news conference where General Musharraf sweated visibly, he defended his Nov. 3 emergency decree as the tough decision-making of a selfless leader intent on saving his country from anarchy. “I found myself between a rock and a hard surface,” said General Musharraf, who mostly spoke in English. “I have no egos, personal egos and no personal ambitions to guard.” He also said he was committed to holding elections by Jan. 9. But many opposition politicians and Western diplomats called the election date a ruse to ease the outcry against General Musharraf’s seizure of additional power. They questioned how Pakistan could have fair elections when his security forces have arrested 2,500 civilians, suspended the Constitution, blocked independent news channels and banned public gatherings. “It’s an attempt at a sop,” said one Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol. “He’s looking to see whether simply announcing an election date will placate people.” In another expansion of power, the government announced Saturday that it had amended an army law so that civilians could be prosecuted by military courts. The last time Pakistani civilians faced courts-martial was during the 11-year military dictatorship of Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, which ended in 1988. In Baluchistan, the government said two politicians from the province, Mir Hasil Bizenjo and Yusuf Mastikhan, would be charged with treason for protesting emergency rule. Muhammad Ali Saif, a government legal adviser, said the burning of army uniforms by protesters would be prosecuted in military courts. General Musharraf’s news conference was his first since proclaiming emergency powers, a move that has created global alarm about the political stability of Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country where Islamic militants have been expanding their reach. But General Musharraf rejected demands at home and abroad to set a date for ending the emergency decree, which has effectively placed Pakistan under martial law. Defiant and increasingly authoritarian, General Musharraf said the decree was precisely what was needed to fight the growing Islamic terrorism threat and “ensure absolutely fair and transparent elections.” Raising his voice at times and showing flashes of anger, the normally poised general, who seized power from the last democratically elected government in a military coup eight years ago, spoke a day after President Bush described him as an ally America needed in the fight against Al Qaeda. Some Pakistanis felt General Musharraf was emboldened by President Bush’s embrace. The general insisted that he remained popular in Pakistan. But he refused to specify a time when he would end the state of emergency, a step that American officials, including Mr. Bush, have repeatedly asked General Musharraf to take. “I cannot give a date,” General Musharraf said. “We are in a difficult situation, therefore I cannot give a date.” He also declined to give a date for stepping down as chief of the military, a move that the United States and other Western countries have requested as a sign of his seriousness about a transition back to democracy. In Washington, American officials said that General Musharraf should be given more time. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the announcement of an election date but called for an end to the state of emergency. “The key is to take this in steps,” she said on the ABC News program “This Week.” “And the first step is to make certain that the state of emergency ends, to make sure that people can compete for free and fair elections for the Parliament.” Ms. Bhutto, who is supported by Washington in her return to politics here, echoed Ms. Rice’s tone. She called General Musharraf’s announcement a “first, positive step” at a news conference in Lahore, the eastern city where she has threatened to lead a protest march on Tuesday. Ms. Bhutto also said that holding fair elections under the state of emergency “seems to be difficult.” But she said she had “not shut the door” to talks with the Pakistani leader, perpetuating speculation that she and General Musharraf may be privately negotiating a power-sharing agreement. The events on Sunday appeared to again place in jeopardy a troubled effort by American officials to unite General Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto in an alliance to combat members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban who operate out of the country’s rugged northwest area adjoining Afghanistan. Pakistani analysts say that General Musharraf’s popularity is plummeting and that a review of that idea is urgently needed. “The U.S. administration is not willing to accept that Musharraf has messed up,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a leading political and defense analyst based in Lahore. “They don’t want to do any new thinking on Pakistan. At the highest level, they stick to their own framework.” The analysts also warned that Ms. Bhutto, who has been advised by American officials not to rule out an agreement with General Musharraf, might taint herself by associating too closely with him. If she were elected under emergency rule, they said, she too would likely lose popular support. “Over time, this simmering resentment and cynicism about her and her deal will undermine whatever elections results there are,” said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist at the Lahore University of Management Studies. “The new generations want some respect for the country, a Pakistan that is in the mainstream of modern civilization.” Western diplomats and Pakistani analysts questioned several aspects of General Musharraf’s performance at the news conference. Many of his statements, they said, were inaccurate or contradictory, and his demeanor was unusually tense. “It was a pure defense of all his actions,” said Ikram Sehgal, a retired military officer and friend of General Musharraf’s who flew the helicopter used by the general’s commando unit. “He was not the same confident general I used to know.” Dressed in a blue blazer and gray slacks instead of his customary military uniform, General Musharraf insisted throughout the news conference that he had not violated the Constitution. Instead, his declaration of emergency and suspension of the Constitution put the “derailed part of democracy back on the rail.” He called the emergency decree “a bitter pill to swallow” and “no doubt that this was the most difficult decision I have ever taken in my life.” But his sole motivation, he said, was to save Pakistan from continued “turmoil and shock and confusion.” The Pakistani leader spent 10 minutes giving a detailed accounting of corruption and abuse of power allegations against the chief justice of the country’s Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who became highly popular in recent months for challenging General Musharraf’s authority. “Nobody is above the law, ladies and gentlemen,” General Musharraf said. He said he had replaced Mr. Chaudhry after the emergency declaration to regain control of a court whose decisions left the country’s police forces “totally demoralized and shattered” and terrorists “encouraged.” Knowing that the move would lead to international condemnation, he said he went ahead with it anyway. “I needed to take a decision in the interest of this nation, to preserve this nation, to safeguard it,” he said. “And risk myself.” Opposition politicians have said the president acted because the Supreme Court was days away from ruling on the legality of his re-election last month. The verdict had been widely expected to declare General Musharraf ineligible to serve another term. The country’s election commission, whose chairman General Musharraf appointed, will provide “absolutely aboveboard” election rules, he said, and opposition figures detained over the last week would be released and allowed to run in elections. But no one would be allowed to “disturb law and order,” he said, or “create anarchy in Pakistan in the name of election, in the name of democracy.” Resigning his military post would sharply reduce General Musharraf’s power, according to Pakistani analysts. And many believe he will delay giving up the post as long as possible. Defending the closing of independent television news stations, General Musharraf said he favored an independent press, but wanted safeguards on “defamation by design, distortion of facts, projecting nontruths, humiliation.” “If the media is going to make heroes of terrorists,” he said at one point, “God save our battle against terrorism.” Raising his voice, General Musharraf lectured journalists seated in the presidential building, complaining that the West did not understand Pakistan. He said foreign journalists overestimated Ms. Bhutto’s political support in Pakistan and that you “cannot impose sudden change.”

Pakistan
Elections
Martial Law
Musharraf Pervez
Politics and Government


Trump Weighs Letting Veterans Opt Out of V.A. Medical Care

Abstract: WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald J. Trump is considering a plan to allow military veterans to opt out of medical care at Veterans Affairs hospitals and instead see private doctors of their choosing, a senior transition official told reporters here on Wednesday. Mr. Trump met with several executives of private hospital systems at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Wednesday. After the meeting, Mr. Trump called out to reporters, saying he wanted to describe his ideas for changes to the Department of Veterans Affairs, but then quickly directed one of his senior aides to describe the proposals under consideration. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, provided no details about how the plans would work, how much they would cost, or the possibility of unintended consequences from privatizing part of the V.A.’s sprawling medical system. As a candidate, Mr. Trump repeatedly seized on reports of long waits for doctor visits at V.A. hospitals to criticize Hillary Clinton and President Obama. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump told reporters that he was concerned about the impact on veterans’ health. “We’re working on something to make it great for the veterans,” he said, adding: “People are dying. We’re going to fix it properly.” The ideas described by the transition aide on Wednesday echoed vague promises Mr. Trump made on the campaign trail that veterans would get timely care from either a V.A. facility or a private doctor. The transition official said that Mr. Trump had discussed the possibility of a “public-private option” with the hospital executives. “Some vets love the V.A.,” the official said, and “some vets want to go to the V.A.” The official added that “the idea is to come up with a solution that solves the problem.” Asked whether the president-elect was “advanced” in his thinking on how to confront the V.A.’s problems, the official said, “Of course.” The official then added, referring to the possibility of private care: “It’s one of the options on the table. Definitely an option on the table to have a system where potentially vets can choose” to receive a combination of public and private care or simply opt to go to private doctors. The Department of Veterans Affairs has struggled to provide timely care to many veterans, and even its supporters say it needs an overhaul. News reports in 2014 said that dozens of veterans had died while waiting for care at a V.A. hospital in Phoenix, and that leaders of the agency had hidden delays and collected bonuses. Eric Shinseki, Mr. Obama’s first secretary of veterans affairs, resigned after a White House investigation found similar manipulations at dozens of hospitals. But veterans groups and Democrats strongly oppose any move toward privatization. In an August speech to the Disabled American Veterans, Mr. Obama warned that ideas like the ones floated by Mr. Trump should be rejected. “We cannot outsource and privatize health care for America’s veterans,” Mr. Obama said to applause. “Now, there are folks who keep pushing this. They don’t always come out and say the word ‘privatize,’ but you read what they say, that’s what they mean. And these radical proposals would begin to dismantle the V.A. health care system that millions of veterans depend on every day. And that would hurt veterans.” Mr. Trump met on Wednesday afternoon with John H. Noseworthy, the president of the Mayo Clinic; Paul Rothman, the chief executive of Johns Hopkins Medicine; David Torchiana, the chief executive of Partners HealthCare; Delos Cosgrove, the chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic; and several others. The transition official said Mr. Trump was considering asking members of that group to form an advisory committee to help him reshape the V.A.

Veteran
West Palm Beach
Veteran Affairs
Hospital
Donald Trump
Health Insurance


Here to Stay, at the Neuberger

Abstract: So much attention is focused on temporary exhibitions throughout the region that we often forget that many museums are constantly collecting wonderful things. Every now and then we get an opportunity to sample the best of these acquisitions through collection shows like the two currently at the Neuberger Museum of Art . The Neuberger received its first donation of African art when it opened back in 1974. Since then, further significant donations and occasional acquisitions have turned the museum into a major repository of African art. To reflect this, in 2007-8, the museum reinstalled 83 of the most beautiful works from its collection, along with 17 long-term loans, in a larger space with specially designed display cases, cabinets and columns. For those who have not yet seen the exhibition, here’s some encouragement: It looks spectacular. The works are grouped according to geographical areas from northern to southern Africa, or the other way around depending on which end you enter the show. But within that arrangement the museum’s African art consultant-curator, Marie-Thérèse Brincard, has brought out certain subjects and themes, including masks and headdresses; symbols of political office; and the human figure. Lots of wall labels and text help you identify what you are looking at. The virtue of thematic groupings is that they help illustrate connections between art and artists across the continent. For instance, several headdresses, masks, amulets and other ritualistic objects here represent animals believed to have symbolic powers in African cultures, among them the antelope, snake and the crocodile. Two undated headdresses from Mali — each of which represents an antelope and is made of wood and fiber — are especially evocative and beautiful. But just as importantly, the thematic groupings remind us of something else: that in Africa, with almost 1 billion people speaking more than 1,000 languages spread across 57 countries, culture and art differ from place to place. Compare, for instance, about two dozen tiny wooden figures, each carved by a different artist, representing ancestors, family members and gods from various regions of Africa. An extraordinary diversity of styles and facial features is evident among the figures, which are installed together in a pyramidlike display toward the end of the show. Elsewhere in the exhibition is an unusual, beautifully carved wooden equestrian figure from Mali, dating from the late 19th or early 20th century. Horse-owning was a sign of privilege and power in West Africa, suggesting that this sculpture might represent a wealthy village priest, headman or possibly even a foreign invader, warrior or emissary. Either way, it is a visually striking work of art. IN further tribute to the depth of the museum’s permanent collection, the large back gallery is devoted to “Great Women Artists: Feminist Art From the Permanent Collection.” The show is fun and eye-catching and well worth a visit, but the title is slightly misleading, for not all of this art can rightly be classified as feminist — that is, art that reflects on women’s lives and experience. It would be more accurate to say this is simply a show of the work of 50 women artists. Titles and terminology aside, this exhibition has the distinct virtue of showing off some very impressive works in the museum’s collection, some of which have never — or rarely, at best — seen the light of day. Among the painting highlights are Bridget Riley’s “Untitled” (1966), a masterpiece of optical art. Meanwhile, in sculpture, feast your eyes on Yayoi Kusama’s “Silvery Sea” (1981-82), a fiberglass rowboat covered with silver-painted work gloves. It is a signature work. Around half of the pieces in the show are listed as being promised gifts to the museum from the Vance-Waddell Collection in Cincinnati. In some ways, the show celebrates this gift, putting the new acquisitions in the context of artworks that are already in the collection. It is a smart idea, illustrating to art students and visitors how the new acquisitions augment the museum’s holdings in particular areas. Much of the work from the Vance-Waddell Collection is from the 1990s, and nicely complements a strong selection of works from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s (Georgia O’Keeffe, Lee Krasner and Eva Hesse, among others) donated by the museum’s founder, Roy Neuberger. Mr. Neuberger actively collected works by women at a time when it wasn’t fashionable. Holdings from the mid-’70s through the late ’80s, core years for the feminist art movement, are still a little patchy, though many of the marquee artists are represented with minor work. Despite the lack of a clear chronology, or perhaps because of it, viewers can simply make their way through the show enjoying whatever catches their eyes. I was drawn to several pieces, including sculptures by Beverly Pepper, Jessica Stockholder, Nancy Graves and Polly Apfelbaum, and photographs, drawings and paintings by Susan Rothenberg, Agnes Denes and Donna Dennis. Some of these pieces are so good that they should be permanently on view.

Neuberger Museum of Art
Art
Africa
Feminist Movement
Westchester County (NY)


Travelers, Your Tour Bus Is Boarding for Basra

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Jo Rawlins Gilbert, a 79-year-old retired probation officer from Menlo Park, Calif., started traveling, as she put it, “as most people do.” First England . Then Europe . Eventually she and her husband, who died in 2004, made it to Tibet for his 80th birthday. She became, late in life, an adventure traveler, visiting Syria , Yemen , Bosnia and even Afghanistan . What could top that? Well, here she was in the lobby of a Baghdad hotel, ending a 17-day tour around one of the world’s ultimate danger destinations. “It had always been on my list,” said Ms. Gilbert, wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with a cartoon cat and the phrase “Life Is Good. ” “ If it opened up, I wanted to go.” Whether Iraq can be described as open is debatable. But Ms. Gilbert is a member of a group, mostly middle-aged and older, that has the honor of being on the first officially sanctioned tour of Westerners in Iraq since 2003 (outside of the much safer enclave of Kurdistan). Her guide is Geoff Hann, 70, the owner of Hinterland Travel , a “specialist adventure travel company” based in England. The trip has not been nearly as perilous as most expected. On Friday night — six years after the American invasion began — a white-haired British man and woman bought big bottles of cold Heineken in central Baghdad, walking home in the dark. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which helped arrange the tour, had provided armed guards for the trip, but Mr. Hann said they were too restrictive. So the group had driven around, in a minibus, with little or no security. They have been to Babylon and Basra, Ur and Uruk, the Shiite shrines in Karbala and Najaf, places where, not so long ago, a visit would have made the return ticket unnecessary. They made a disappointingly brief visit to the Askariya Shrine in Samarra, whose bombing in 2006 propelled an already violent Iraq toward all-out civil war. “The police didn’t want us to stick around at all,” said Mr. Hann, an unassuming man shod in socks and sandals. Iraq is far more stable and secure than it was two years ago. But the daily episodes of violence continue. On Wednesday night, a Sunni politician was killed in Baghdad when a bomb exploded under his car. On Thursday, an American military spokesman said, allied forces called in airstrikes against insurgent hide-outs in Diyala Province, killing at least 11. On Friday, the loud thumps of explosions could be heard not far from the hotel. It is not a trip for the squeamish. Just about everyone in the eight-person group has been to Afghanistan. (Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone is single.) Insurance , which is not provided by the company, is nearly impossible to come by. For that reason, the tourists on these trips tend to be older because they have financial support networks and, Mr. Hann said, “because in the end you’ve been to places and you don’t really worry as much, if you know what I mean.” The youngest is David Chung, 36, a cheerful vice president at an asset management firm in Manhattan . Mr. Chung has been to Algeria , Nepal , Sri Lanka , Saudi Arabia , Sudan , Eritrea , Pakistan — the list goes on. “I get my best travel ideas from the State Department’s travel warning list ,” he said. His impression of Iraq? “The surge has worked,” he said, describing the safety and ease of travel in most places and the startlingly widespread BlackBerry coverage. Not that there haven’t been snags. First, the group arrived in Baghdad on a national holiday, so most sites were closed. Checkpoints have eaten up hours of the tour. Some trips that seemed feasible, like a visit to Assyrian ruins in the north, were declared too dangerous by the government. Others, namely the Shiite sites, were made rather easy by the Shiite-led Iraqi government. On Friday night Mr. Hann, who first came to Iraq in the mid-1970s and has been back dozens of times since, was nearly apoplectic when ministry officials suddenly told him that the next day’s trip to the Iraqi museum would not work. It was not like last time. That was in October 2003, well after the war started and as the insurgency was gaining steam. His tour group then saw a man beaten to death by a crowd in Mosul, and heard a bomb explode just up the street at the Turkish Embassy. On the other hand, with war raging and the structures of civilization falling, it turned out to be his best trip: telling tourists where they could and could not go was not a high priority in the country. Over the next five years he was repeatedly contacted by eager tourists, but the situation was too unpredictable. Religious tourism, mostly Shiite pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, has never really stopped, and there have been a few stray Western tourists, notably a Canadian and an Italian, who ended up being detained. But there were no Western group tours. In November 2008, Mr. Hann finally returned to Iraq for a tourism conference. He was just about the only Westerner there, except for some Spanish architects. He soon began discussions with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities about a trip, and on March 8, the group arrived. He is planning future tours. “At the moment, I’ve got an American group in October from California ,” Mr. Hann said. “And I’ve got a lot of odd people who want to go individually. That I dissuade.”


The Living Museum, on the Creedmoor Campus in Queens, Puts Patients’ Work on Display

Abstract: The rambling campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center , where Lou Reed was treated and Woody Guthrie died, is home to an unbridled collection of contemporary art, though finding it among the nearly century-old buildings takes some mettle. Once you enter the gates at 80-45 Winchester Boulevard, ask someone to direct you to a faded-brick edifice framed by beribboned trees and ghostly white sculptures. THE LIVING MUSEUM , founded in 1983 by Bolek Greczynski , an artist who died in 1995, and Dr. Janos Marton, 65, who still directs it, feels like a beehive of beautiful, sometimes unfiltered minds. Housed in what was the Creedmoor kitchen hall, it has a crumbling, gothic quality and nurtures scores of mostly outpatient artists who can be hard to distinguish from the counselors who work with them. The relaxed environment feels nothing like a locked psychiatric ward; visitors are welcome by appointment (718-264-3490) Monday through Thursday at no cost. Some artists sell their work; others won’t part with it. A huge soup pot, used as a vase for a forest of branches, is a remnant that shows how many once ate here. Notoriously overcrowded, Creedmoor held up to 7,000 patients at its peak in the 1950s. Today, it treats 1,600 outpatients and has 325 residents, the decline owing to the effectiveness of new medications and the movement to deinstitutionalize, which began in the 1960s. In John Tursi’s art studio, bins are stacked with wire hangers that he twists into Picasso-inspired sculptures. Mr. Tursi’s mighty, mythological horse family was built from a mind-boggling number of hangers. “I never counted how many,” Mr. Tursi, 53, said with a sly smile. “That would make me go crazy.” Another artist, James Kusel , 49, is rightly proud of his wild, old-school graffiti lettering. A walking history of graffiti art’s early days, Mr. Kusel said he and the artist Keith Haring had been friends. “I crashed his show in February of 1983 and was really high and told him his work sucked and we got along ever since,” he said, adding that his days of drugs, alcohol and run-ins with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are long past. “I don’t like things that interfere with my creative process. I found my way to become a good artist here and stay out of trouble.” Perhaps the most articulate of the artists is Issa Ibrahim , 49, a former patient who works as a peer counselor and comes to the Living Museum to rehearse with his band, DSM5, named for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition). The group’s songs include “Shock Value” and “Christmas in Creedmoor.” Mr. Ibrahim’s subjects range from icons of the civil rights movement to pop culture superheroes and villains, which he calls “a metaphor for a bankrupt culture.” “Save yourself and save each other,” Mr. Ibrahim said. “Don’t wait for Superman because he’s not going to come. We can be our own superpeople.” Evidence of the Living Museum’s ability to empower was found in a trove of straitjackets that have been given to the artists to use as canvases. “We outgrew them,” Mr. Kusel said, smirking. On the second floor, past a riotous garden room, is the studio of Christine Nicholas, 66, an art counselor. In addition to bright, ordered mosaics of crosses textured with thread was a straitjacket she had painted in magenta, green and gold. Across it she had appended sayings like “Be anxious for nothing,” transforming the jacket into a garment of liberation rather than bondage. “Dr. Marton likes to say this is a vocational rehab place,” she said, “where people re-identify themselves from a crazy mental patient to a crazy artist.” Frank Boccio, 63, another artist and volunteer, had upholstered a child’s chair with dozens of tiny, pink doll hands. “They’re reaching toward something more, something better,” he said. There is no easy way to get to the Living Museum. Google Maps suggests subway and bus routes that take about 90 minutes from Manhattan. Only the most intrepid rider would make the trip by bicycle, but the advantage of doing so is the nearby, tree-lined LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY TRAIL , first built by a Vanderbilt family scion as a racetrack and now flush with songbirds. It is possible to take a bike on the No. 7 train to its last stop, and carefully make your way from there. Along Hillside Avenue in Queens Village is a parade of Indian restaurants. RAJDHANI (206-08 Hillside Avenue; 718-464-9100) coaxes extra flavor from tender halal meats and fresh vegetables by lavishing them with herbs and spices and showing restraint with cream. Relish the goat bhuna imbued with garlic and ginger, lusty chicken tikka masala and lamb korma in an almond-rich sauce. Two can eat for $25. Regulars include Indian cabdrivers from Jackson Heights, which says it all.

Living Museum
Museum
Queens
Creedmoor Psychiatric Center
Art
Queens Village
Restaurant
Rajdhani


F.D.A. Unveils New Rules About Sunscreen Claims

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After 33 years of consideration, the Food and Drug Administration took steps on Tuesday to sort out the confusing world of sunscreens, with new rules that specify which lotions provide the best protection against the sun and ending claims that they are truly waterproof. The F.D.A. said sunscreens must protect equally against two kinds of the sun’s radiation, UVB and UVA, to earn the coveted designation of offering “broad spectrum” protection. UVB rays cause burning; UVA rays cause wrinkling; and both cause cancer . The rules, which go into effect in a year, will also ban sunscreen manufacturers from claiming their products are waterproof or sweatproof because such claims are false. Instead, they will be allowed to claim in minutes the amount of time in which the product is water resistant, depending upon test results. And only sunscreens that have a sun protection factor, or SPF, of 15 or higher will be allowed to maintain that they help prevent sunburn and reduce the risks of skin cancer and early skin aging. The rules have been under consideration since 1978, when “Boogie Oogie Oogie” was a hit on the radio and most beach lotions were intended to encourage tanning, not protect against it. But federal regulators said they had yet to decide whether to end an SPF arms race in which manufacturers are introducing sunscreens with SPF numbers of 70, 80 and 100 even though such lotions offer little more protection than those with an SPF of 50. Still, dermatologists said they were thrilled. “Now, we’ll be able to tell patients which sunscreens to get,” said Dr. Henry W. Lim, chairman of dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology. The rules will transform the $680 million domestic market for sunscreens, which has been growing rapidly because of an aging population and growing worries about skin cancer. And the final regulations are a stark change from a proposal the agency released in 2007, which would have created a star-based system for UVA protection. Under that system, sunscreens would have provided an SPF number for UVB protection and one to four stars for UVA protection. The agency received more than 3,000 comments on that proposal, with many asserting that allowing products to offer differing levels of protection against UVB and UVA rays would be confusing. So the agency ditched the stars and instead will tell manufacturers that if they wish to label their products as offering “broad spectrum” protection they must make their defense against UVB and UVA radiation proportional. “We think this is going to be much easier for the consumer to understand,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A.’s drug center, said in an interview. “All they’re going to need to do is pick an SPF number and then make sure that it’s broad spectrum.” Any product that fails to offer proportional protection or has an SPF of 2 to 14 must include a warning that the product has not been shown to help prevent skin cancer or early skin aging. The new rules will standardize the testing that manufacturers must conduct for UVA protection. The agency had proposed allowing manufacturers to use SPF numbers no higher than 50, but that remains only a proposal for which the agency will seek further comment. In particular, the government is asking whether there are special groups of people who would somehow benefit from having a product with an SPF of more than 50. “Right now, we don’t have any data to show that anything above 50 adds any value for anybody,” Dr. Woodcock said. Dr. Warwick L. Morison, a professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University and chairman of the photobiology committee for the Skin Cancer Foundation, said he was disappointed that the F.D.A. failed to ban SPF numbers higher than 50 because such products expose people to more irritating sunscreen ingredients without meaningful added protection. “It’s pointless,” Dr. Morison said. More than two million people in the United States are treated each year for the two most common types of skin cancer, basal cell and squamous cell, and more than 68,000 receive a diagnosis of melanoma , the most deadly form of the disease. Sunscreens have not been shown to prevent the first case of basal cell carcinoma , but they delay reoccurrences of basal cell and have been shown to prevent squamous cell and melanoma. The F.D.A. announced that it was re-examining the safety of the roughly 17 sunscreen agents approved for use in the United States, although it has no information to suggest that they are not safe. Tuesday’s announcement will do nothing to speed the approval of more sunscreen agents. There are roughly 28 such agents approved in Europe and 40 in Japan , and some in the industry complain that the best ingredients have yet to reach American shores. Some consumer and environmental groups have expressed concern that the ingredients in some sunscreens have been made so microscopic that they could be absorbed through the skin into the body, but Dr. Woodcock said that the F.D.A.’s own tests had found no cause for such concerns. The agency is also asking for more information about sunscreen sprays to ensure that consumers get adequate quantities from spray bottles and to explore what happens when those products are inhaled. “You could imagine a child getting a sunscreen sprayed on and turning their face into the blast and breathing it in,” Dr. Woodcock said. “It’s a question of safety.” The new regulations will do nothing to prevent the most common problem with sunscreens lotions, which is that consumers fail to use enough of them. The rules become effective in one year, although manufacturers with less than $25,000 in annual sales will have two years to comply. Senator Jack Reed , Democrat of Rhode Island , said the new rules were important. Mr. Reed proposed legislation mandating that the F.D.A. finally adopt the sunscreen proposals it floated in 2007. “The F.D.A. has been sitting on these proposals for many, many years,” Mr. Reed said. “This is a major step, and I’m glad they’ve done it.”

Sunscreen
Skin cancer
FDA
Consumer protection


Do Pretty-Boy Quarterbacks Make More Money?

Abstract: When Brett Favre “retired,” he held the records for most career touchdown passes and most career passing yards. He also ended 2007 with another record: most attractive starting quarterback. We tend to think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Research, though, has indicated that what we think of as facial attractiveness is really just facial symmetry. And of all the faces of starting quarterbacks from 2007, Favre’s, as measured by a computer, is the most symmetrical. In other words, he’s the most attractive. In football, prettiness shouldn’t matter — just ask Johnny Unitas. Players are evaluated solely on their ability to contribute to wins, right? Not entirely. The economists Rob Simmons, Jennifer VanGilder and I collected data on 121 N.F.L. quarterbacks who played from 1995 to 2006. We looked at the factors that determine player pay — career statistics, experience, Pro Bowl appearances and draft position — as well as the symmetry of each quarterback’s face. Sure enough, symmetry had a positive impact on a quarterback’s salary. Specifically, an increase of one standard deviation in facial symmetry led to a nearly 8 percent increase in pay. To put this result in perspective, we found that a “good-looking” quarterback like Kerry Collins or Charlie Frye earned approximately $300,000 more per year than his stats and other pay factors would predict. Meanwhile, quarterbacks like Jeff George and Neil O’Donnell , who, sadly, were not found to have very symmetrical faces, suffered an equivalent penalty. But it’s not the Brett Favres — the guys often referred to as “the face of the franchise” — who receive the greatest return on their handsome faces. It’s the QBs clinging to the bottom of the roster who get the biggest pay bump from good looks. What this indicates is that when teams are scouting backups, they may be looking for just another pretty face. This is good news for Dan Orlovsky, who is battling Drew Stanton for the backup position with the Detroit Lions. No offense to Stanton, but the computer has spoken: Orlovsky is the better-looking prospect.

Football
Wages and Salaries
Favre Brett
O'Donnell Neil
National Football League
Unitas Johnny
Collins Kerry