Eating Junk Food May Help Stressed-Out Monkeys Cope

Abstract: The ladies who lunch do not obsess about their weight in the rhesus monkey compound at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Food is freely available, and the high-status females do not pride themselves on passing it up. They don’t seem to stigmatize obesity — there is no equivalent of a Kirstie Alley joke — and they certainly don’t turn themselves into Social X-Rays. In fact, the dominant females ordinarily eat a little more than the subordinates. The lower status monkeys can get as much food as they want but seem to have less of a desire to eat, perhaps because of the higher level of stress hormones in their brain. The anxiety of constantly toadying to their social superiors seems to curb their appetite, researchers suspect, at least when their regular high-fiber, low-fat chow is on the menu. But suppose you tempted them with the equivalent of chocolate and potato chips and ice cream? Mark Wilson, a neuroscientist at Emory University, and a team tried that experiment at Yerkes by installing feeders with a constant supply of banana-flavored pellets — not exactly Dove bars, but they had enough sugar and fat to appeal even to human palates. (In the interest of science, I sampled a few pellets.) Once these foods were available, the low-status monkeys promptly developed an appetite. They began eating significantly more calories than their social superiors. While the dominant monkeys dabbled in the sweet, fatty pellets just during the daytime, the subordinate monkeys kept scarfing them down after dark. These results may not surprise any stressed-out wage slave who has polished off a quart of Häagen-Dazs at midnight while contemplating the day’s humiliations. But the experiment intrigues scientists studying human junk-food binges, which are hard to understand because there are so many confounding factors. Monkeys’ cravings aren’t so complicated. The female monkeys weren’t dieters who tasted one forbidden food and then couldn’t stop themselves from binging. They were not rebelling against the thin mandate from tyrannical fashion magazines. They weren’t choosing junk food because they couldn’t find healthier fare. They weren’t seduced by commercials telling them they deserved a break today. For the monkeys the situation seems simple. They get some sort of comfort that is particularly appealing to the subordinate monkeys. One possibility is that the fatty foods help block the monkeys’ stress responses. Studies with rodents have shown that high-calorie foods cause a metabolic change that tamps the release of stress hormones like cortisol . Another possible explanation, the one favored by the Yerkes researchers, is that the snacks activated the reward pathways in the brain. They may have provided the same sort of dopamine reward as cocaine, which was studied in a previous experiment with monkeys by researchers at Wake Forest University. In that experiment, the dominant monkeys didn’t show much interest in pressing a lever that administered an intravenous dose of cocaine. But the subordinate monkeys, who started off with compromised dopamine receptors, kept pushing the lever to get more cocaine, just as the subordinates in the new study kept munching on the fatty pellets. Dr. Wilson suggests that the snackers are reinforcing the dopamine systems that had been diminished by stress. “Essentially, eating high-calorie foods becomes a coping strategy to deal with daily life events for an individual in a difficult social situation,” Dr. Wilson said. “The subordinates don’t get beat up, but they get harassed by high-ranking monkeys. If they’re sitting somewhere and a dominant monkey comes over, they give up their seat and move away. They’re always looking over their shoulders.” These results seem to jibe with the famous Whitehall study of British civil servants, which found that lower-ranking workers were more obese than higher-status workers. Even though the subordinate workers were neither poor nor lacked health care, their lower status correlated with more health problems. The new monkey data also jibe with an American study that looked at women’s snacking tendencies. After they worked on puzzles and recorded a speech, the women were tempted with an array of chocolate granola bars, potato chips, rice cakes and pretzels provided by the research team, led by Elissa Epel, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco. The women who seemed most stressed by the tasks, as measured by their levels of cortisol, ate more of the sweet, high-fat snacks, the same pattern observed in the subordinate monkeys with high cortisol levels. But as Dr. Wilson and others caution, there are plenty of other factors besides status and stress that affect humans’ diets and waistlines. Debra A. Zellner, a psychologist at Montclair State University, tested both men and women by putting bowls of potato chips, M&Ms, peanuts and red grapes on a table as the participants in the study worked on solving anagrams. Some of the people were given unsolvable anagrams, and they understandably reported being more stressed than the ones given easy anagrams. The stress seemed to affect snacking in different ways for each sex. The women given solvable puzzles ate more grapes than M&Ms, while the women under stress preferred M&Ms. The men ate more of the high-fat snacks when they were not under stress, apparently because the ones who got the easy anagrams had more time to relax and have a treat. Dr. Zellner says these gender patterns are probably because of a simple difference between the sexes: more of the women were on diets. Previous studies have shown that such “restrained eaters” are more likely than nondieters to keep scarfing snacks once they yield to temptation. This might be because they’re hungrier, but it might also be because all restraint disappears once a diet is broken — the “what the hell” theory of binging. Humans are not as lucky as monkeys in one way. “Female humans report that they eat high-calorie foods to make themselves feel better when stressed,” Dr. Zellner says, “but they actually don’t feel better after eating them. Instead, because they are restrained eaters, they feel guilt and actually feel worse. Female monkeys don’t have that cognitive baggage.” Only the monkeys, it seems, find comfort in comfort foods.

Food
Weight
Obesity
Monkeys and Apes
Psychology and Psychologists
Snack Foods
Cortisol (Hormone)


Tennis Channel Takes Its Feud With Comcast to the F.C.C.

Abstract: The Tennis Channel filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday accusing the cable giant Comcast of keeping it on a digital sports tier while making the Golf Channel and Versus, channels that Comcast owns, more widely available. In its filing, the Tennis Channel said that Comcast’s “discriminatory refusal” to treat it fairly “is harming the network’s ability to compete in the cable marketplace.” Comcast said in a statement that its 2005 contract with the Tennis Channel allows it to carry the network “on many different tiers, including the Sports Entertainment Package, where we currently offer it to our customers.” Comcast said it was “fully honoring the terms of our agreement” with the Tennis Channel, and called the complaint groundless. The sports tier also includes the CBS College Sports Network, Fox College Sports and the NFL Red Zone. The Tennis Channel’s complaint is similar to one filed with the F.C.C. by the NFL Network against Comcast in 2008 after the cable operator dropped it from a broadly distributed level to its sports tier. The case was dropped when the league and Comcast came to an agreement that made the network more widely available. Distribution on Comcast, which has about 24 million customers, is crucial for networks eager to maximize their revenue from monthly subscriber fees. The sports tier is bought by about 2.3 million Comcast customers who pay $5 to $8 a month while Golf and Versus, older networks, are distributed to virtually all of Comcast’s subscribers. The Tennis Channel wants to expand well past its full-time universe of 25 million subscribers, but does so substantially only during the Grand Slam tournaments. For the French and the United States Opens, special previews make the network available to more than 50 million people. For Wimbledon and the Australian Open, it is available to about 30 million. The complaint says that Comcast refused to broaden the Tennis Channel’s availability during negotiations last year despite having added coverage of all four Grand Slam tournaments and creating a high-definition channel since the original contract with Comcast was signed. In trying to prove its case of “differential treatment,” the network cited a statement by Stephen B. Burke, Comcast’s president, saying that Comcast views its own networks like “siblings” but networks it does not own as “strangers.” Last summer, a feud over the Tennis Channel’s distribution on Cablevision prevented the network from being seen by the cable operator’s customers during the United States Open . Cablevision won the acrimonious battle and carries the channel on its digital sports tier.

Tennis
Cable Television
Tennis Channel The
Comcast Corp


Democratic Commissioner to Leave S.E.C.

Abstract: Roel C. Campos, a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission who sparred with agency Republicans over how best to penalize companies for securities law violations, will depart in a month for the private sector, the commission said yesterday. Mr. Campos, 58, is one of two Democrats on the five-member panel. During his tenure, the S.E.C. presided over the biggest overhaul of market regulation since the 1930s, responding to scandals at Enron and WorldCom. President Bush will nominate Mr. Campos’s successor, who under law cannot be a Republican.

Securities and Exchange Commission
Appointments and Executive Changes
Democratic Party


Afghan Ex-Militia Leaders Hoard Arms

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan , Oct. 27 — Many former militia commanders and residents in northern Afghanistan have been hoarding illegal weapons in violation of the country’s disarmament laws, giving the excuse that they face a spreading Taliban insurgency from the south that government forces alone are too frail to stop, Afghan and Western officials say. After years of moderate success for government disarmament programs, rumors of widespread defiance in the north have arisen recently among government officials and intelligence agencies in Kabul and elsewhere. Although there is little hard evidence that commanders are greatly enlarging their arsenals, officials say, some have been thwarting government programs, refusing to disarm and possibly even remobilizing militias. The talk of rearming underscores a deepening north-south ethnic divide that some diplomats and Afghan officials privately worry could lead the way toward a shift of power back to warlords — and toward a countrywide armed conflict — if left unchecked. And the situation poses a major challenge for President Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun from the south, whose administration has failed to win the confidence of many non-Pashtun leaders and northerners. Prices on the weapons black market in the north have skyrocketed as residents, governed by suspicion and foreboding, have kept their firearms, driving down the supply. “There is an environment of mistrust” in the government, Brig. Gen. Abdulmanan Abed, a Defense Ministry official who works with the government’s demilitarization program, said in an interview this month in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province. “There is a fear of the return of the Taliban.” A prominent political leader from the north, speaking on condition of anonymity, put it this way: “The Taliban are coming toward us. What should we do? Who will defend us? Who will protect us? This is in the minds of the people in the north.” Col. Mats Danielsson, the Swedish commander of a 450-man military unit helping to provide security in four northern provinces, said the Karzai administration and its international allies must find a way to roll back the Taliban threat and reassure northerners. “We have to keep the window of opportunity open, but I feel that the window is closing,” he said. The Taliban insurgency is strongest in southern and eastern Afghanistan. And while it has been able to bedevil Afghan and international troops in some other regions of the country, before this year its reach rarely stretched into the northern provinces. But government officials report an increase in Taliban activity in the north this year, particularly in the northwest. The number of Taliban attacks on Afghan and international security forces in Balkh and the other relatively peaceful provinces of north-central Afghanistan has risen from last year, the authorities say. Residents here in Balkh Province and elsewhere in north-central Afghanistan say they are beginning to feel encircled. “The Taliban is trying to start up its old networks here,” Colonel Danielsson said in an interview in early October at his headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif. “We have to figure out how to stop this influence.” Afghan and Western officials also say that in addition to an increase in Taliban activity, there has been an escalation in crime and, in some areas, tensions among rival northern political factions. These officials say it is often difficult to determine who is to blame for specific violent acts. The most apparent signs of rearming, officials say, are in Faryab Province, in the northwest, where commanders have organized an armed militia to fend off a growing Taliban presence in neighboring Badghis Province that has gone largely unchecked by Afghan and international security forces. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a recent interview in Kabul that he had received unconfirmed intelligence reports that small shipments of weapons had been smuggled across the border “from one or two countries to the north” and delivered “to receivers in some of the northern provinces.” But he declined to provide further details. Afghan government officials also say that in certain northern districts, militia commanders have evaded government weapons inspectors by breaking down their stockpiles of illegal firearms and redistributing them throughout their communities, making them harder to find. Afghan and Western officials say that weapons are hidden everywhere: in grain silos and closets, in mountain caves and in holes in the ground. And though the government’s demobilization programs have gone some way toward dismantling many of the hundreds of illegal militias, and have removed nearly all the heavy weapons from those factions, former warlords still hold considerable sway. “They have the power of a phone call to put hundreds, or thousands, in arms,” Colonel Danielsson said. “There are a lot of weapons up here.” All the weapons in Afghanistan were supposed to be in the government’s hands by now, all the private militias were to be a thing of the past. After the Taliban fell in 2001 and fighting erupted among rival warlords, the Afghan government began the first of two disarmament and demobilization programs that were principally intended to dismantle warlords’ militias and other illegal armed groups. In three decades of war, weapons had poured across the borders and authority was often established by the rule of the gun. The programs, which are voluntary, have dismantled at least 274 paramilitary organizations, reintegrated about 62,000 militia members into civilian life and recovered more than 84,000 weapons, including thousands of heavy arms that had fallen under the control of regional warlords. Afghan and NATO forces have confiscated and destroyed many other weapons, officials said. But Afghan and international officials acknowledge that hundreds of illegal armed groups still operate in Afghanistan. And hundreds of thousands — maybe millions — of weapons remain in private hands, although they are mostly small arms rather than heavy weapons, the officials say. Of the weapons that have been collected, they say, at least 40 percent were not functional. “There is at least one weapon in each house,” said General Abed, who was an officer in the anti-Taliban mujahedeen. Government officials note that the demilitarization programs were not intended to collect arms and were instead focused on disbanding armed groups. “I think it will take many, many years” to disarm the population, said Hameed Quraishi, manager of the government’s demilitarization program in the north. “It doesn’t matter how hard you try. It’s the level of confidence the people have in the government.” But the talk about rearming is not entirely military. It also appears to be a means of pressing the Karzai government, which many northern leaders have accused of favoring the south, a region mostly populated by members of his Pashtun ethnicity. “We selected Karzai to unify the country,” said a prominent politician from the north and former member of the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban. “But people who joined him have pushed him to being a Pashtun leader, not a national leader.” Disproportionate amounts of aid money and weapons have flowed to the south to prop up the regional leadership and battle the Taliban. As part of this effort, the government has been trying to build an auxiliary police force among southern Pashtun tribes to confront the insurgency. Many northern leaders say that they have been shortchanged in the distribution of development aid and worry about the militarization of the south as they are being asked to disarm. “Northern commanders are saying: ‘We can’t disarm. This guy is trying to unite all Pashtuns. We have to defend ourselves!’ ” a European diplomat said in Kabul. General McNeill doubts some of the northern claims. “There’s no question that there’s a hell of a lot of political posturing in the northern sectors,” he said. “Where they think they’re ignored in the reconstruction process, there often is a report: ‘They’re here! The Taliban! They got us surrounded!’ ” In interviews, northern Afghan leaders said that in spite of their concerns about the central government, they were standing by Mr. Karzai. And most of them denied that any stockpiling of weapons was occurring. “If we take up arms, it means the democratic process is defeated,” said Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, spokesman for the National Front, a political coalition mainly composed of non-Pashtun leaders from the north. “We want this government to survive its entire term because we don’t want the process to be defeated.”

Afghanistan
Taliban
Armament Defense and Military Forces


At De La Salle Academy, Tough but Tender Teaching

Abstract: It is 8:30 a.m. at De La Salle Academy , a private school in Manhattan for academically talented poor children, and classical music is humming through a boom box that harks back to the 1980s. Children are streaming up four flights of stairs and surrounding the school’s founder and principal, Brother Brian Carty, like moths fluttering around a light. They want to tell him something. They want one of his bearhugs. They want to be in his orbit for a few minutes. If the students’ attraction to Brother Carty suggests that he is a teddy bear of an administrator, consider a few of his rules. Gossip is an expellable offense. Makeup — even lip gloss — is prohibited. Dating is outlawed. Parents are instructed on rules regarding parties and cellphone and Internet use. Teaching fads are generally dismissed, memorization is encouraged and smart boards are nowhere to be seen. “I’m not going to spoon-feed them,” he said. “Taking notes is a skill.” At a time when everything about education seems to be in flux — the role of testing, the expectations for teachers, the impact of technology — Brother Carty is something of a throwback. For more than a quarter-century, he has been the guiding force and gatekeeper of one of the city’s most selective, if not most heralded, private schools. More than half of its students come from families with incomes of less than $35,000, and most move on to the city’s top private high schools or elite boarding schools in New England. De La Salle, a middle school on West 97th Street, is nonsectarian, but there is a faith component, including prayers at the beginning of the day and the start of each class. “I ask the parents to raise them in their faith and to practice it,” Brother Carty said. And though he holds an administrative role, he clearly views his position pastorally. “I was not so sure you had the soul to make it here,” Brother Carty wrote in the autograph book of a student who graduated from De La Salle in May, Cassandra Raimundi. She said she was into boys and into gossip when she arrived at the school. “Brother Brian had me sit in his office, and we had a long conversation and it was very emotional,” she said. “But that was the minute I decided to grow up.” His tough-as-nails attitude toward behavior that falls short of expectations — at a funeral for a student who drowned over the summer, he told some of the student’s friends that they risked a spiritual death — does not easily fit the image of a man who has more than 1,300 friends on Facebook, and whom children flock to hug. A towering figure, at 6-foot-4, with a deep belly laugh, he considers it his mission to be deeply involved in their lives. He chooses all of the students who are accepted, helps guide eighth graders through the high school admissions process and even consults with them four years later when they are applying to college. He seems to know everything about every one, about 150 each year, of his students, like whose father lost his job or whose mother is ill, and he still keeps up with students he had as early as the 1970s. He has set up volunteer counseling with social workers and psychologists to help students work through problems at home. “It’s O.K. to struggle, but they have to learn to cope,” he said. “Pity parties are not allowed here.” His graduates win scholarships to some of the city’s most prestigious schools that are eager to increase minority enrollment, including Dalton , Trinity and Fieldston , as well as boarding schools like Hotchkiss and Taft. (Brother Carty takes parents on a field trip to visit boarding schools since many of the parents, he said, have no idea what the schools are.) “He remembers every kid, details about their families and the areas where they need to grow,” said Stephen M. Clement, headmaster of the Browning School , which has taken many of Brother Carty’s students. Dorothy A. Hutcheson, head of the Nightingale-Bamford School , an all-girls school in Manhattan, said De La Salle alumnae come academically prepared and with a thirst for learning that stands out. “It’s a great way to get diversity without having to work for it because they come so prepared,” she said. Brother Carty, 66, grew up on the Upper West Side, the son of Irish immigrants. His father, a steamfitter, died when Brother Carty, the middle child of three, was 9, and he took on more family responsibilities. He attended parochial schools, taught by the De La Salle Christian Brothers in the Lasallian tradition, named after a French Roman Catholic saint who founded a system of Christian schooling for the poor in the 17th century. “I had fabulous teachers,” Brother Carty said. “They were good men.” He started teaching in 1965 at the Monsignor Kelly School, a private school whose enrollment was made up of academically talented children from public schools that could not focus on them. “I was suddenly in a group — they seemed like old guys; they were probably in their mid- to late-20s — of adult males who took you under their wing and nurtured you spiritually, academically and athletically,” said Michael Franc, vice president of government relations for the Heritage Foundation in Washington, and a 1971 graduate of Monsignor Kelly. “It was an across-the-board adoption in a positive way.” The school was shut in 1972 as a result of financial problems. In 1984, with a group of Kelly alumni, Brother Carty founded De La Salle. He soon noticed that girls were excelling, signing up for study-abroad programs, getting into top colleges and becoming doctors, but boys were not. He worried that the school was getting to boys too late — after they had been lured into a street culture where being smart was ridiculed. “We had to get to them sooner,” Brother Carty said. “This is their healing.” So he decided to intervene sooner. In 2003, he founded the George Jackson Academy in the East Village, again seeking academically talented, economically underprivileged children, but this time at the fourth- and fifth-grade levels. Both schools run on a shoestring budget. De La Salle, which admits about 60 students a year from about 450 applicants, has no air-conditioning, the students are the maintenance crew, Spanish textbooks are outdated enough to refer to loading film into cameras, and Brother Carty refers to himself as the chief plumber. While families must pay something, on average they contribute 15 percent of the $14,500 tuition. Most of the financing comes from foundations — which have generally cut back. Last year, De La Salle posted a deficit of about $150,000, and the projected deficit for this year is $450,000. For the first time, the school will have to dip into its $8.5 million endowment, Brother Carty said. Much of the endowment comes from the estate of a graduate who died in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and whose mother gave some of her settlement to the school. Mr. Clement, the Browning headmaster, said that with all Brother Carty’s fund-raising, he wondered how he slept at night. “I say it’s the Holy Spirit,” Brother Carty said. “I trust.” When they arrive in the fall, new students have a two-day orientation, after which they are required to take an oath to the community. “You are our business,” Brother Carty said at the orientation last month. “You go out as part of this family, and you represent me. I take this representation personally.”

De La Salle Christian Brothers
Endowments
Carty Brian
Education (K-12)
Private and Sectarian Schools


Saudi King Tries to Grow Modern Ideas in Desert

Abstract: JIDDA, Saudi Arabia , Oct. 25 — On a marshy peninsula 50 miles from this Red Sea port, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is staking $12.5 billion on a gargantuan bid to catch up with the West in science and technology. Between an oil refinery and the sea, the monarch is building from scratch a graduate research institution that will have one of the 10 largest endowments in the world, worth more than $10 billion. Its planners say men and women will study side by side in an enclave walled off from the rest of Saudi society, the country’s notorious religious police will be barred and all religious and ethnic groups will be welcome in a push for academic freedom and international collaboration sure to test the kingdom’s cultural and religious limits. This undertaking is directly at odds with the kingdom’s religious establishment, which severely limits women’s rights and rejects coeducation and robust liberal inquiry as unthinkable. For the new institution, the king has cut his own education ministry out the loop, hiring the state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco to build the campus, create its curriculum and attract foreigners. Supporters of what is to be called the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or Kaust, wonder whether the king is simply building another gated island to be dominated by foreigners, like the compounds for oil industry workers that have existed here for decades, or creating an institution that will have a real impact on Saudi society and the rest of the Arab world. “There are two Saudi Arabias,” said Jamal Khashoggi, the editor of Al Watan, a newspaper. “The question is which Saudi Arabia will take over.” The king has broken taboos, declaring that the Arabs have fallen critically behind much of the modern world in intellectual achievement and that his country depends too much on oil and not enough on creating wealth through innovation. “There is a deep knowledge gap separating the Arab and Islamic nations from the process and progress of contemporary global civilization,” said Abdallah S. Jumah, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco. “We are no longer keeping pace with the advances of our era.” Traditional Saudi practice is on display at the biggest public universities, where the Islamic authorities vet the curriculum, medical researchers tread carefully around controversial subjects like evolution, and female and male students enter classrooms through separate doors and follow lectures while separated by partitions. Old-fashioned values even seeped into the carefully staged groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday for King Abdullah’s new university, at which organizers distributed an issue of the magazine The Economist with a special advertisement for the university wrapped around the cover. State censors had physically torn from each copy an article about Saudi legal reform titled “Law of God Versus Law of Man,” leaving a jagged edge. Despite the obstacles, the king intends to make the university a showcase for modernization. The festive groundbreaking and accompanying symposium about the future of the modern university were devised partly as a recruiting tool for international academics. “Getting the faculty will be the biggest challenge,” said Ahmed F. Ghoniem, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is consulting for the new university. “That will make it or break it.” Professor Ghoniem has advised the new university to lure international academics with laboratory facilities and grants they cannot find at home, but he also believes that established professors will be reluctant to leave their universities for a small enclave in the desert. “You have to create an environment where you can connect to the outside world,” said Professor Ghoniem, who is from Egypt. “You cannot work in isolation.” He admitted that even though he admired the idea of the new university, he would be unlikely to abandon his post at M.I.T. to move to Saudi Arabia. Festivities at the construction site on Sunday for 1,500 dignitaries included a laser light show and a mockup of the planned campus that filled an entire room. The king laid a crystal cornerstone into a stainless steel shaft on wheels. Cranes tore out mangroves and pounded the swampland with 20-ton blocks into a surface firm enough to build the campus on. Inside a tent, the king, his honor guard wearing flowing robes and curved daggers, and an array of Aramco officials in suits took to a shiny stage lighted with green and blue neon tubing, like an MTV awards show. Mist from dry ice shrouded the stage, music blared in surround sound, and holographic projections served as a backdrop to some of the speeches. From a laconic monarch known for his austerity, the pomp, along with a rare speech by the king himself, was intended to send a strong signal, according to the team charged with building and staffing the new campus within two years. The king is lavishing the institution not only with money, but also with his full political endorsement, intended to stave off internal challenges from conservatives and to win over foreign scholars who doubt that academic freedom can thrive here. The new project is giving hope to Saudi scholars who until the king’s push to reform education in the last few years have endured stagnant research budgets and continue to face extensive government red tape. “Because Aramco is founding the university, I believe it will have freedom,” said Abdulmalik A. Aljinaidi, dean of the research and consultation institute at King Abdulaziz University, Jidda’s biggest, with more than 40,000 students. “For Kaust to succeed, it will have to be free of all the restrictions and bureaucracy we face as a public university.” Even in the most advanced genetics labs at King Abdulaziz, the women wear full face coverings, and female students can meet with male advisers only in carefully controlled public “free zones” like the library. Scientists there tread carefully when they do research in genetics, stem cells or evolution, for fear of offending Islamic social mores. Even in Jidda, the kingdom’s most liberal city, a status rooted in its history as a trading outpost, change comes slowly. This month the governor allowed families to celebrate the post-Ramadan Id al-Fitr holiday in public, effectively allowing men and women to socialize publicly on the same streets for the first time. The religious police were accused of beating a man to death because he was suspected of selling alcohol. Conservatives have fended off efforts by women to secure the right to drive or to run for office, although women have made considerable gains in access to segregated education and workplaces. Against this backdrop, said Mr. Khashoggi, the newspaper editor, the king has conceived of the new university as a liberalizing counterweight, whose success depends on how much it engages the rest of Saudi society. “Nobody wants to live in a ghetto, even a nice one,” Mr. Khashoggi said. “As a Saudi, I say, let’s open up.” Upon completion, the energy-efficient campus will house 20,000 faculty and staff members, students and their families. Social rules will be more relaxed, as they are in the compounds where foreign oil workers live; women will be allowed to drive, for example. But the kingdom’s laws will still apply: Israelis, barred by law from visiting Saudi Arabia, will not be able to collaborate with the university. And one staple of campus life worldwide will be missing: alcohol. The university president will be a foreigner, and the faculty members and graduate students at first will be overwhelmingly foreign as well. Generous scholarships will finance the 2,000 graduate students; planners expect the Saudi share of the student body to increase over the years as scholarships aimed at promising current undergraduates help groom them for graduate studies at the new university. The university’s entire model is built around partnerships with other international universities, and faculty members are expected to have permanent bases at other research institutions abroad. The university will also rely on a new free-market model. The faculty members will not have tenure, and almost all of them will have joint appointments. While the university will initially be awash in money, its faculty and graduate students will still have to compete with top international institutions for the limited pool of private money that underwrites most graduate research. Suhair el-Qurashi, dean of the private all-female Dar Al Hekma College, often attacked as “bad” and “liberal,” said a vigorous example of free-thinking at the university would embolden the many Saudis who back the king’s quest to reform long-stagnant higher education. “The king knows he will face some backlash and bad publicity,” Ms. Qurashi said. “I think the system is moving in the right direction.”

Saudi Arabia
Science and Technology
Colleges and Universities
Education and Schools


Jason Varitek, Who Will Be a Free Agent, May Not Return to the Red Sox

Abstract: BOSTON — Jason Varitek was booed for popping out at Fenway Park on Monday, and he is still waiting to collect his first hit against the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series. As time runs out on the Red Sox , it may also be running out on Varitek. When Varitek, Boston’s fading team captain, crouches behind the plate to catch in Game 5 on Thursday night, it could be his final game with the Red Sox. Unless they extend their season by defeating the Rays , Varitek’s season will end, too, and he will soon become a free agent. Varitek, 36, is valuable in handling a pitching staff, but he had a brutal offensive season this year, and that has created uncertainty about whether he will return to Boston. With the Red Sox trailing Tampa Bay, three games to one, in the best-of-seven series, Varitek dismissed a question about potentially playing his last game at Fenway. “That’s totally irrelevant right now to what this team is facing,” Varitek said Wednesday. “Sorry about that.” Varitek has been in Boston full-time since 1998. He has two World Series rings and is desperately hoping the Red Sox can continue competing for a third. Still, regardless of how the rest of Boston’s postseason unfolds, this has been a frustrating season for Varitek. He started the season as a defending champion and is ending it as a proud player who looks a lot older than he ever did. On the field, Varitek hit a career-low .220 with 13 homers and 43 runs batted in. Manager Terry Francona considered pinch-hitting for Varitek, who had a .157 average in June and July, during the regular season, but waited until the playoffs to do so. Off the field, Varitek filed for divorce from his wife, Karen, whom he married in 1996. After the Rays humiliated the Red Sox on Tuesday night, 13-4, Varitek noted how the Red Sox had rallied from daunting deficits in the postseason twice since 2004, so that should tell them they can do it again. But, a few seconds after Varitek’s remarks, he was asked if he said the Red Sox could use their previous comebacks as motivation. Instead of repeating himself or expanding on his comments, Varitek offered an interesting qualifier. “I was asked that question,” Varitek said. “I didn’t state that.” The Red Sox rebounded from a 3-1 deficit to thwart the Cleveland Indians in the 2007 A.L.C.S., and stunned the Yankees by climbing out of a 3-0 ditch to win the 2004 A.L.C.S. Once Varitek supplied his qualifier, he said the past could help Boston. “It always leads to a sense of belief,” Varitek said. The Red Sox had an optional workout Wednesday that lasted about an hour. David Ortiz would not discuss being 1 for 14 in the A.L.C.S., but he mentioned how “I got two rings in my house.” Varitek, who is 0 for 10 against the Rays, strengthened his words from Tuesday. “Once you’ve been able to do it, it leaves an overriding belief,” Varitek said. “And I believe. I believe that, if we execute what we can do, we’re going to present ourselves with a great chance to win.” Varitek has blue binders containing scouting reports on each team aligned in his locker. Not surprisingly, the Rays’ binder was in a prominent position on Tuesday. For the Red Sox to stop the Rays, Varitek said, “We have to pitch,” and stop an offense that has scored 22 runs in the past two games. The Red Sox had a 3.66 earned run average when Varitek caught this season, the third lowest for a catcher in the A.L. In the opener of this series, winning pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Even Matsuzaka, who will start Thursday, dipped into history while recalling how Josh Beckett went 4-0 to help guide the Red Sox to the 2007 title. “I’m not Beckett, but if I can pitch like he did last year and hand the ball off to the guys behind me, that would be great,” Matsuzaka said. Before Varitek’s disappointing season, Scott Boras, Varitek’s agent, could have tried to use Jorge Posada’s four-year, $52.4 million contract with the Yankees as a barometer for his client. Both catchers have been important pieces on championship teams, and both were 36 in their free agent year. But, even if the Red Sox somehow win another title, it is doubtful that Boras would be bold enough to pursue a four-year deal at that price. Varitek, who is finishing a four-year, $40 million contract, could receive a two-year offer from Boston. Since Posada required season-ending shoulder surgery this year, the Red Sox could cite that injury as another reason not to sign an aging catcher for four years. Every time Varitek flashes his fingers and gives a sign, Francona said the pitchers threw the pitch “with conviction.” Because of Varitek’s preparation and knowledge, Francona said, pitchers trust him and rarely second-guess him. Varitek will be giving signs for Boston on Thursday, perhaps for the last time. “I’ve given no thought to this being his last game, not out of disrespect for Tek,” Francona said. “But we don’t want this to be his last game.”

Tampa Bay Rays
Varitek Jason
Boston Red Sox
Baseball
Playoff Games


Co-Founder Is Bullish on Grand Prix in Texas

Abstract: Bobby Epstein is the chairman of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, the new track where the U.S. Grand Prix was staged on Nov. 18. Epstein attended his first Formula One race at the age of 19 in 1984, in Dallas, where he was living with his family. He is now the majority owner of Prophet Capital, a private investment company based in Austin that he founded in 1995. He is also the promoter and co-founder of the U.S. Grand Prix, having signed the 10-year deal to bring Formula One to Austin this year. Despite a decades-long history in the United States, the U.S. race had not been run since 2007, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where it had been held since 2000. The first race in Austin, won by the British driver Lewis Hamilton, was a public success, with 117,000 fans attending. Epstein spoke recently with Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune. Q. What was the biggest challenge to being ready for the U.S. Grand Prix? A. The construction guys did a phenomenal job. They built everything in less than eight months. We owe so much to the work that they did. The amount of time was not a worry. They hit every deadline when they said they would. The challenges were in gathering support from so many different entities, so many moving parts to put together when you are simultaneously working with F.O.M. [Formula One Management] and with Bernie [Ecclestone, promoter of the series] and obtaining the proper contracts and at the same time balancing that with the local politics and the dynamics of working with the city, the county and the state — they operate very independently of each other — as well as keeping the investment teams together to get this project through. Q. How does the city of Austin feel about the event? Has there been resistance? A. This is where I think we have a terrific platform to build and, maybe, I think, we have the opportunity to create a better experience here than many other places, from the experience of the city standpoint. Austin is small enough to embrace the event in its entirety, citywide. And the economic impact on the city here — if you think about bringing $200 million to $300 million to a community, when you bring it to a community this size it’s a tremendous impact. If you are in a city of 3 million to 5 million or larger, it may be one of many other big events happening that weekend. We don’t have any other pro sports in Austin. This is one of the big reasons why I think Austin is really excited. I think sports are really part of the fabric of the community. Q. When was the first time you heard of Formula One? A. It might have been when Mario Andretti drove, when I followed IndyCar as a kid. Then I grew up in Dallas. We had an event there that was less than ideal, in 1984. Then I disconnected for a long while, until it was brought to my attention that it was possible that Formula One was looking at Austin. That was less than three years ago. Q. Can Formula One succeed in Austin, having failed in Indianapolis? A. That is one of the first questions I asked. Why is Austin on the radar to have an event like that ? Why does it make sense for us as a city? Why would people come here? But most of all, I think the answer to the question is in why would people come back ? Why will the sport be embraced? And I think there are a multitude of reasons. I think there are a number of qualities that you need to possess and that have to work together well, and I think one without the other doesn’t make a complete experience. This track is the first one purpose-built for Formula One [in the United States]. We are not modifying a street or street circuit or an existing facility. This was built for cars and bikes of this variety. One of the things that makes racing exciting is overtaking, and we have at least four obvious areas to pass. So from the driver’s standpoint, we had to say, “Let’s make a course, use the topography here, make it something unique that the drivers will walk away and say, ‘That was challenging, that was exciting, I look forward to coming back.”’ And it makes for great competition. From the other standpoint — and I think equally important — is the fan experience. One does not come at the expense of the other, the driver and the fan experience are not mutually exclusive. I think both can have the best experience. So we’ll have some diehard, huge fans. Particularly because of our proximity to Latin America, and the influence that Latin America already has on our state. We were once Mexico, where we stand here, right now. So I think we have some amount of fans who visit; but how do we convert more into F1 fans? The on-site fan experience. I would say one of my criticisms in my previous experience is that I couldn’t see a lot. At a Nascar race, you are elevated and you see so much of the racing. Clearly, the American fan is used to being able to see a race. Here, from the seats you will see 5 to 10 turns out of our 20 turns. This has been one of the most intentional parts of the design process, so that the diehard race fan comes and says, “This is the greatest experience in the world.” And the one who is the casual fan, who doesn’t recognize how great it is, comes but they are engaged by the sport because of their experience. And beyond that, the race is part of a festival of the whole weekend. So we have really tried to create a campus here of experiences. Q. To popularize Formula One in the United States, some problems look insurmountable, such as the fact that most of the season’s races held elsewhere in the world run in the middle of the night or early morning U.S. time. And you really need a winning American driver to fire people’s imaginations, don’t you? A. I heard that about this circuit even existing and getting built last fall: People said there are insurmountable problems. I saw Alexander Rossi out on the track a little while ago. I would hope that we see an American driver whether it is Alexander or others. But [the Mexican driver] Sergio Pérez, we certainly embraced him — and if you look at the Hispanic population in Texas alone... I’m very happy for him to be — as you call it — an American driver, or as I might think, a North American driver. We certainly think Mexico counts. We are not far down the road. San Antonio is an hour away.

Formula One
Austin (Tex)
Automobile Racing
National Assn of Stock Car Auto Racing
Indianapolis 500 (Auto Race)


An App Offers Up-to-Date Schedules for Bus and Train Lines

Abstract: If you’re lucky, you’re reading this somewhere other than Manhattan. For all that it’s been celebrated in song, summer in the city is often a miserable affair. (The lyrics of that Lovin’ Spoonful hit are worth a second listen.) Best to get away, and any app that can help you do that as quickly as Wanderu is worth the space it takes up on your home screen. Not unlike travel websites like Kayak, Wanderu is a service for finding buses and trains to get you from here to there. It was launched two years ago in the Northeast, then gradually expanded its range before releasing iPhone and Android apps earlier this year. The service is now available in most of the United States. The Wanderu app’s home screen asks “Where to?” and the temptation to type in all your dream destinations (New Orleans! Arches National Park!) is strong. You can enter the name of a city, but also an exact address or even a landmark. Wanderu is set up to find you a travel option that will get you as close as possible to a specific place. Results can be sorted by time (earliest and latest buses and trains on a given day) and price. Every time someone purchases a trip on Wanderu, the company takes a percentage of the sale from the bus or train company. It doesn’t charge users or use advertising. Buses are plentiful on the East Coast. But comparison-shopping has long been difficult: There are so many bus lines and their schedules and prices seem to shift constantly. According to Wanderu’s chief executive, Polina Raygorodskaya, a major difficulty was building a middle layer of technology that could gather all the separate companies’ schedules and keep them up-to-date. Now that Wanderu has that data, and can track user demand, it can actually help companies update and optimize their planning. “We’ve had some partners add schedules and additional stops because of demand that was brought by our users,” Ms. Raygorodskaya said. Train schedules, which are far more predictable, are also available through Wanderu. Given the differences between the two modes of travel, it can be a little odd to see a comfortable Amtrak regional train to Boston listed between bus lines. Even the travel experiences between companies — say, the BoltBus and Greyhound — can be vastly different. So it’s somewhat frustrating that Wanderu doesn’t rank trips based on comfort, either by sourcing that information from users or by applying its employees’ knowledge of different companies. Ms. Raygorodskaya said that because people aren’t prone to leaving positive reviews for bus companies, Wanderu has been loath to incorporate ratings from sites like Yelp. She said that Wanderu plans to solicit feedback from its users, and that it may start offering more information on the quality of trips with specific services. But even if you can’t quite be sure of how comfortable you’ll be while on the road, Wanderu ensures that you can make a quick getaway. And in the summer, that’s what matters most.

Bus
Amtrak
BoltBus
Mobile Apps
Travel,Tourism
Public Transit
Railroads
Transportation
Greyhound Lines


U.S. Pushes U.N. Sanctions on Zimbabwe and Mugabe

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — Seeking to force President Robert Mugabe into negotiations with the opposition, the United States on Thursday formally proposed United Nations Security Council sanctions on Zimbabwe . The proposed sanctions include an international arms embargo and punitive measures against the 14 people the United States deemed most responsible for undermining Zimbabwe’s presidential election through violence. Aside from Mr. Mugabe, those singled out in the draft resolution to be subject to an international travel ban and a freeze on personal assets include the chiefs of the various branches of the armed forces, the governor of the central bank, the head of the Justice Department and the presidential spokesman. “We want to respond to the situation and respond in a way that encourages a move towards resolving the legitimacy crisis without negatively impacting the people of Zimbabwe, who are suffering a great deal at the hands of the regime,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador to the United Nations. The United States expects to bring the resolution to a vote as early as next week, he said. The mood around the Council chamber was noncommittal, with even previously outspoken opponents to further United Nations interference, particularly South Africa, saying they would have to consult with their governments. Although passage is not assured, the United States has apparently mustered enough support to garner the 9 of 15 votes needed to approve the resolution. China and Russia, which have generally supported the position that this is an African problem that ought to be dealt with locally, could still veto it. Russia is considered unlikely to do so, diplomats noted, and China may feel pressured to avoid vetoing sanctions because criticism of its own human rights record in the prelude to the Olympics. Mr. Mugabe won election to his sixth term last week after his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, dropped out of a runoff election because state-sponsored enforcers were beating and killing his followers. Mr. Tsvangirai had won 48 percent of the vote to Mr. Mugabe’s 43 percent in the March 29 election. Even if the United States does not press a final vote, supporters believe having the threatened sanctions on the table serves as a useful prod. “Let’s have it out there as a cloud over the situation which people have to take into consideration as the mediation goes forward,” said one Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity according to his ministry’s rules. The resolution also seeks to force the resumption of humanitarian aid work, which Zimbabwe’s government ordered suspended during the runoff campaign, and calls for the appointment of a special representative to Zimbabwe by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The representative would be expected to assist in mediation efforts between the opposition and the government and to monitor human rights. Mr. Ban is expected to discuss the possibility of a United Nations official participating in mediation efforts with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on the fringe of the Group of 8 summit meeting of industrialized nations in Japan next week. Mr. Mbeki, the sole mediator thus far, has been criticized as being overly indulgent of Mr. Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s United Nations ambassador, Boniface G. Chidyausiku, bristled Thursday at the idea of sanctions. The resolution “is undermining the efforts of the African Union and President Mbeki,” he said. The 13 people identified for sanctions along with Mr. Mugabe include key military and security chiefs: Constantine Chiwenga, the overall military commander; Perence Shiri, the head of the air force; Augustine Chihuri, the police commissioner; Happyton Bonyongwe, the director of central intelligence; Didymus Mutasa, the national security minister; and Sidney Tigere Sekeramayi, the minister of defense. Also on the list are: Patrick Chinamasa, the minister of justice; Gideon Gono, chief of the Central Bank; and George Charamba, the president’s spokesman.

Zimbabwe
Security Council
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
Mugabe Robert


The Winning Strategy in Oakland: Concentrate on Being 2nd or 3rd Choice

Abstract: As cameras flashed Wednesday night, Jean Quan stood on the steps of Oakland City Hall and studied the results from the mayor’s race. “She’s checking to make sure it’s real,” said Ms. Quan’s husband, Floyd Huen. Ms. Quan had just pulled off an upset of the heavily favored Don Perata, 51 percent to 49 percent, a margin of 2,058 votes. The results — on the 31-column spreadsheet that Ms. Quan held in her hands — testified to the power of finishing second in a ranked-choice election. Mr. Perata, the former State Senate president, received 40,224 first-place votes but fell 16 percentage points short of the majority needed to win outright. Ms. Quan, a city councilwoman, received 29,206 first-place votes. She surged to victory behind 24,572 second- and third-place votes that were distributed to her when other candidates fell out of the race. Campaign strategists said Ms. Quan had taken advantage of a ranked-choice system that was used in Oakland for the first time. She singled out Mr. Perata, a conservative Democrat who had outspent everyone, and aligned herself with the other nine candidates, particularly the other major challenger, Rebecca Kaplan. She came to be seen as the leader of the “anybody but Don” coalition, appealing to voters who were wary of Mr. Perata. “We talked to everybody, and if you had a sign for Joe Tuman or Rebecca Kaplan or Don Perata, we wanted their No. 2” or to convince them to switch, said Ms. Quan, who will become Oakland’s first woman and Asian-American mayor. Jim Ross, a consultant for Ms. Kaplan, the councilwoman who finished third, said Ms. Quan’s strategy had worked well. “She ran a very focused campaign to be the second-place candidate for a lot of candidates,” Mr. Ross said. “She never spoke ill of anyone except Don Perata, and she really became the leader of the ‘not Don Perata’ sentiment in Oakland, and that’s how she became everybody’s second choice.” In contrast, Mr. Ross said, Mr. Perata’s campaign did not seek out second- and third-place votes as aggressively, using the traditional strategy of a front-runner. “He ran a very focused campaign on voting for him,” Mr. Ross said. Mr. Perata’s campaign manager, Larry Tramutola, attacked the ranked-choice voting system as causing confusion and accused Ms. Quan and Ms. Kaplan of “colluding” and “gaming the system.” In a short concession speech Thursday morning in East Oakland, Mr. Perata took a more measured tone, saying, “If this were a normal election, I would’ve won in a landslide.” Mr. Perata said he would not contest the results of the election. When asked if he would support any efforts to do so, he said, “I won’t be leading the charge.” Ranked-choice voting is still in its infancy in the Bay Area and around the country. The system here allows voters to rank their top three choices. If no candidate wins a majority, the candidate who received the fewest first-place votes is eliminated and second and third choices are counted to determine the winner. San Francisco adopted ranked-choice voting in 2004. Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro used it for the first time this year. Proponents argue that ranked-choice voting saves money by eliminating the need for expensive primary and run-off elections. The system also evens the playing field, they say, by helping candidates who are not as well known or well financed. In most cases, winners of the first round go on to win the election, even if they fall short of a majority. But in Oakland — and in two San Francisco supervisor races — the first-round leaders fell behind. That result concerns some political experts who say it underscores a flaw in the system. The system exposes the possibility of someone who’s leading the first round not being elected, said Francis Neely, a San Francisco State University political science professor who has studied ranked-choice voting. “It’s feasible that a third-place candidate in the first tally can win the whole thing, and when that happens people will have a good complaint to make.” Steven Hill, a co-founder of FairVote, a nonpartisan organization that promotes proportional voting and helped implement ranked-choice voting in San Francisco and the East Bay, said the system worked to limit the strength of a “polarizing candidate” like Mr. Perata. “When it comes time to win the majority, those types of candidates can’t broaden their base,” Mr. Hill said. “Candidates who can build a coalition using those ranked ballots are going to do well.” Critics cite voter confusion as a main problem. An analysis by FairVote found that out of 106,000 ballots cast in Oakland, 72 percent of voters ranked three candidates, 13 percent voted for two candidates and 15 percent voted for one candidate. Only a tiny percentage of ballots were thrown out because voters had failed to follow the instructions. Mr. Perata’s camp pointed to the 28 percent who did not cast ballots ranking three candidates as a sign of confusion. “The chaos of R.C.V.: We knew it was bad; we didn’t know it was so bad,” Mr. Tramutola said. But Mr. Hill said voting for one or two candidates did not necessarily mean voters were confused. It could be a preference, he said. And some candidates in the race asked their supporters to vote only for them. Ms. Quan said: “I’ve been seeing the snarky remarks about ranked-choice voting. People in Oakland are not stupid. It was very, very clear in this race that people understood it.” The first time that San Francisco used ranked-choice voting, 59 percent of voters used all three choices, according to a study co-written by Mr. Neely, the political science professor. The system played out differently in various districts in San Francisco. In District 6, where two progressive candidates, Jane Kim and Debra Walker, battled Theresa Sparks, a moderate, Ms. Kim was able to widen her lead over Ms. Walker through successive rounds of elimination. But the result was different in a crowded field like District 10, where 21 candidates vied to succeed Sophie Maxwell as supervisor. The current leader, Malia Cohen, initially received only 1,757 first-place votes, placing her fourth. Ms. Cohen picked up dozens of second-place votes during several elimination rounds, eventually putting her in first place. Ms. Quan’s camp said it believed she would have won even if ranked-choice voting had not been used. The conventional wisdom was that Mr. Perata would have been able to outspend Ms. Quan in primary and run-off elections, but Ms. Quan countered that in a head-to-head race with him, she would have received votes from Ms. Kaplan’s supporters — as the ranked-choice results suggested. As of mid-October, Mr. Perata — and the independent committees that supported him — had spent nearly $1 million compared with the $275,000 that Ms. Quan had spent. Ms. Quan said ranked-choice voting helped her in an election in which she was outspent. “This is going to be a race that people are going to be studying for a long time,” she said. “It gives hope to people who are outspent. It gives hope to people as long as you can organize your neighborhoods and you get volunteers that you can win. “And in a democracy if you win by one vote, you win.”

Elections
Voting and Voters
Quan Jean
Perata Don
Politics and Government
Oakland (Calif)


Texas Culture Roundup

Abstract: Our quirky, discerning picks for the most interesting things to do around the state this week. AUSTIN Duly Noted At the heart of the Texas Music Roadtrip exhibition is the holy grail of electric guitars: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s No. 1 Stratocaster. The guitar — the one with the SRV sticker on it — has not been in the public eye since Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in 1990. It joins more than 200 other items in what is billed as the largest-ever exhibition on Texas music, including a notebook from a 10-year-old Willie Nelson that is filled with love songs, the accordion Flaco and Santiago Jimenez learned to play on, and old Scott Joplin piano rolls. “I’ll bet 90 percent of Texans don’t know Joplin’s from Texas,” said Gary Hartman, the author of “The History of Texas Music” and the exhibition’s curator. “Yet here’s a guy who was a leading figure in ragtime, which laid the foundation for jazz.” Travel to five different regions — perhaps the east, with its melting pot of blues and Cajun, or the south, with its hybrid of conjunto and polka — and learn how Texas became an incubator for many of the genres that we now take for granted. “You can stand in the middle of Texas,” Mr. Hartman said, “and look around and see all these ethnic groups who have retained their culture through music.” The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, March 17-Oct. 14, various times thestoryoftexas.com DALLAS The Weary One Returns Ryan Bingham represents a new wave of country musicians who operate out of the Americana genre, purveying a twangy mix of folk, blues and rock ’n’ roll. Mr. Bingham, who rode bulls in Texas before winning an Oscar in 2010 for his song “The Weary Kind,” from the “Crazy Heart” soundtrack, now lives in Los Angeles, where he is working on a new album built on great expectations. To get him to drop what he is doing and trek to Texas for a one-off show, as The Dallas Observer has done for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Greenville Avenue, must mean he is itching to test some new material live. And what better place to shred his raspy voice than in front of a crowd of people who will already be in high spirits? The songs may be untested, but it’s easy to excuse Mr. Bingham’s rough drafts in return for a scorching take on, say, the song “Bread & Water,” during which audience participation is required in name-checking various Texas cities. Energy Square Parking Lot, March 17, 12 p.m., binghammusic.com HOUSTON Watercolor World Norm Wigington prefers watercolors because of their spontaneity. “There are accidents that happen that are much more exciting than what you could plan for,” he said. “A watery wet spot can be fractured like a piece of marble and a damp spot can be spread like a hairy tail.” While watercolors may seem like a medium for a Sunday afternoon artiste, their proper application on a canvas requires great skill. Mr. Wigington demonstrates this through his assemblage of the Watercolor Art Society-Houston ’s 35th International Exhibition. The display of 100 paintings selected from almost 400 submissions includes a score of landscapes, portraits and Oriental works. “Watercolors have always been considered the secondary format to oil,” Mr. Wigington said, “but everyone did watercolors to learn how to paint oil.” Watercolor Art Society-Houston, March 16-April 20, 10 a.m., watercolorhouston.org SHAMROCK Seeing Green Shamrock, like Marfa in West Texas, is one of those far-out destinations that make our state distinctive. This tiny town, on old Route 66 in the Panhandle, has become a cultural touchstone: the movie “Cars” used the likeness of its Art Deco Tower Conoco Station and U-Drop Inn Cafe, left over from the oil boom in the 1920s and ’30s. And its Donegal beard contest inspired a documentary, “Growin’ a Beard,” with songs by the Gourds, the popular Austin junkyard band. Not surprisingly, however, Shamrock is best known for its St. Patrick’s Celebration (with the beard contest at the center). Since 1938, this weekend affair of a parade, music and free golf has grown into an event where a leprechaun would feel at ease. Various locations, March 16-18, various times, shamrocktexas.net SAN ANTONIO Potential Hat Trick Jeb Bush, son of George Herbert Walker and brother of George Walker, may one day want to get back into politics to complete his family’s presidential hat trick, so use his talk “Leading in Climate of Change” to find out how he would do things differently if he were in charge. Trinity University, March 22, 7:30 p.m., trinity.edu FORT WORTH The Keys to Peace Van Cliburn won over the Russians during the cold war with his piano stylings, birthing the Van Cliburn Foundation, whose 50th anniversary you can toast with the first show in the Cliburn Concerts series . Bass Performance Hall, March 20, 7:30 p.m., cliburn.org

Texas
Art
Music
Parades
Bingham Ryan
St Patrick's Day


Matt Kenseth Wins Pole

Abstract: Matt Kenseth won the Nascar Sprint Cup pole in Brooklyn, Mich., and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards finished second and third. The team nearly swept the top four spots, but Kyle Busch qualified sixth.

Matt Kenseth
Joe Gibbs Racing
Car Racing
Sprint Cup Series
Michigan


Democrats Back Third Parties To Siphon Votes From the G.O.P.

Abstract: ORLANDO, Fla. — Seeking any advantage in their effort to retain control of Congress, Democrats are working behind the scenes in a number of tight races to bolster long-shot third-party candidates who have platforms at odds with the Democratic agenda but hold the promise of siphoning Republican votes. The efforts are taking place across the country with varying degrees of stealth. And in many cases, they seem to hold as much risk as potential reward for Democrats, prompting accusations of hypocrisy and dirty tricks from Republicans and the third-party movements that are on the receiving end of the unlikely, and sometimes unwelcome, support. In California, Republicans have received recorded phone calls from a professed but unidentified “registered Republican” who says she is voting for the American Independent Party’s candidate for a House seat, Bill Lussenheide, not for the incumbent Republican, Mary Bono Mack. The caller says she is voting that way because “it’s time we show Washington what a true conservative looks like.” The recording was openly paid for by the Democratic candidate for the seat, Mayor Steve Pougnet of Palm Springs. In Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate for a suburban Philadelphia House seat, Bryan Lentz, admitted this week that his volunteers helped Jim Schneller — a prominent skeptic of President Obama’s citizenship — collect petitions to run against Mr. Lentz and his Republican opponent, Pat Meehan. In Nevada, conservative radio listeners have heard an advertisement promoting the Senate campaign of a “Tea Party of Nevada” candidate, Scott Ashjian . The ads criticize Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee and favored candidate of the actual Tea Party movement in the race against Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader. The ad was sponsored by a group backed by unions and casino and mining companies supporting Mr. Reid. Nevada is one of several states, including Florida, where “Tea Party” political committees have appeared on ballot lines without the knowledge or support of leading Tea Party activists, who have generally chosen not to support third-party candidacies. In most of those cases, local bloggers, reporters and lawyers have traced connections to local Democrats, drawing lawsuits, complaints and, in a couple of cases, admissions of involvement. “It is one of the dirtiest moves,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, a vice chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It’s not as though the Democrats are playing to compete against the third party — they’re helping to build the third party up to make those votes not count.” Calling it “a concerted effort,” Mr. McCarthy added, “In Congressional races, it could steer the tide for the majority.” In response to questions about whether the efforts were being coordinated on a national level, the Democratic National Committee said in a statement, “Republicans have no one to blame but their own ideological intolerance for the bloody civil war on their side.” Stealth support for third-party candidates who have the potential to cut into the other side’s votes is a time-tested political tradition for both parties . But this year’s efforts are striking for the potency of the grass-roots movement that Democrats are trying to use to their advantage — that is, the Tea Party — and for the sometimes brazen nature of the attempts. Mr. Pougnet, the Democrat running for Ms. Bono Mack’s House seat in Palm Springs, openly discloses his sponsorship of the telephone calls and mailings he is directing to conservative voters labeling Mr. Lussenheide as “the Tea Party candidate” and Ms. Bono Mack as a “raging liberal” by comparison. “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ms. Bono Mack said. “It’s desperate, and I think the voters see right through it.” Mr. Pougnet’s campaign manager, Jordan Marks, said, “There’s nothing wrong with pointing out to voters who are more conservative that there’s a more conservative alternative on the ballot.” In other efforts, Democrats have tried to keep a lower profile, though they have not always succeeded. In Michigan, local Republicans and Tea Party activists were immediately suspicious when a “Tea Party” ballot line appeared with candidates running for two competitive House seats and several state offices. The ballot line was thrown out on a technicality last month, but only after a series of blog and newspaper reports uncovered the hidden hand of two Oakland County Democratic officials. Both men resigned. Mr. Lentz’s admission this week that his supporters had a role in placing Mr. Schneller on the ballot in the Pennsylvania House race followed months of suspicion that Mr. Lentz was somehow involved. He had avoided questions until this week, when he told the editorial board of The Delaware County Daily Times , “If somebody’s already made the decision to run, I didn’t think that ‘helping’ with the process of signature petitions was improper.” Here in Florida, local Republicans and grass-roots Tea Party activists continue to press the case that “Tea Party” candidates on the ballot are stalking horses for Democrats, an assertion denied by Democrats. Polls and independent analysts suggest that the incumbent Democrat in Orlando, Representative Alan Grayson, a firebrand liberal whose defeat is eagerly sought by conservatives, faces an uphill fight to keep his seat in what has been a bitterly fought campaign against his Republican rival, Daniel Webster. But the candidate running on the “Tea Party” ballot line in Orlando, Peg Dunmire, could prove pivotal if Mr. Grayson is to pull off a squeaker. The “Tea Party” in Florida was formed and registered with the state in 2009 by an Orlando-area lawyer, Frederic B. O’Neal, with help from a longtime client, Doug Guetzloe, an activist, radio host and Republican operative in a running feud with his party, who has earned a reputation as a political trickster. (On Friday, Mr. Guetzloe was sentenced to 60 days in prison for a misdemeanor campaign violation relating to an anonymous political flier he sent four years ago, but his sentence does not start until after the election.) Tea Party activists in the state said they were flabbergasted to learn of the existence of a “Tea Party” ballot line and Mr. Guetzloe’s involvement with it. “I didn’t know who the heck these people were,” said Everett Wilkinson, a grass-roots activist who has tangled with Mr. Guetzloe and Mr. O’Neal in separate lawsuits. The grass-roots Tea Party activists and state Republicans, have homed in on a number of connections between Mr. Grayson and Mr. Guetzloe that have become fodder in the local news media, especially in reports on the CBS affiliate, WKMG-TV. Mr. Guetzloe serves on two business advisory boards set up by Mr. Grayson. A son of Mr. Guetzloe worked as an intern in Mr. Grayson’s Congressional office last year. Federal Election Commission filings show that Mr. Grayson has paid nearly $50,000 to a polling firm that was incorporated in late 2008 by an on-and-off employee of Mr. Guetzloe, Victoria Torres, who is now herself running as a state candidate on the “Tea Party” ballot line that Mr. Guetzloe helped create. In his most recent campaigns, Mr. Grayson advertised on Mr. Guetzloe’s local radio program before it was canceled this year, with some proceeds going directly to Mr. Guetzloe’s company, including, at least in June, a modest commission, station records show. Mr. Guetzloe played down his connections to Mr. Grayson, saying that he is one of scores of people on Mr. Grayson’s advisory panels and that his son secured his internship at Mr. Grayson’s office through his school. “This has nothing to do with the Democratic Party ; it has nothing to do with Alan Grayson,” said Mr. Guetzloe in an interview. In an interview outside his house, Mr. Grayson dismissed as “conspiracy theories” suggestions that he had any contact with Mr. Guetzloe regarding the “Tea Party” ballot line. “The Republican Party of Florida wants people to think that there’s something here,” he said. “The old saying where there’s smoke there’s fire? Here there’s not even any smoke.” Late last month, in a legal battle between Mr. Guetzloe and grass-roots Tea Party activists who accuse him of hijacking their movement, Wade C. Vose, a local election lawyer representing them, issued a subpoena for Mr. Grayson to sit for a deposition. Mr. Grayson was also ordered to share all written or electronic communications he had had with Mr. Guetzloe, members of the registered “Tea Party” and others. That deposition was to take place on Thursday. Last week, however, Mr. Guetzloe dropped his defamation suit, filed in May, citing procedural wrangling with Mr. Vose — scuttling the order for Mr. Grayson to answer questions.

Elections
Democratic Party
Republican Party
United States Politics and Government
Third-Party Moves (US)


How Tongues Taste the Carbonation in a Fizzy Beverage

Abstract: Aside from the natural and artificial flavors and sweeteners, soda and other fizzy beverages have a distinct carbonated taste. It is difficult to describe, but you know it is there when tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide go crazy all over your tongue. Scientists once thought that all the bubble popping, in fact, is what accounted for the tingly taste of carbonation. But that idea was disproved by studies in which carbonated beverages consumed in a pressurized environment, in which no bubbles formed, produced the same taste. So the mystery of carbonation remained, until now. In a paper in Science, researchers report that carbonation is tasted on the tongue by the same receptors that detect sourness. Jayaram Chandrashekar of the University of California, San Diego, Charles S. Zuker, formerly of U.C.S.D. and now at Columbia, and colleagues used mice in their studies, implanting electrodes in a nerve leading from taste receptor cells in the tongue. When the tongue was exposed to club soda or even just to gaseous CO2, there was a measurable response in the nerve. This suggested that taste receptors were responsible. But there are receptors for five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (sometimes termed savory). They repeated the experiment using mice that had been genetically engineered without one type of receptor. Those without sour receptors showed no response to the carbonation, indicating that those receptors were responsible. The researchers also looked at the genes in sour taste receptors, and identified one, called Car4, that encodes an enzyme that is known to be involved in sensing carbon dioxide in the body. The enzyme helps convert CO2 into bicarbonate ions and free protons. Since bicarbonate does not stimulate taste receptors, the researchers said, it is probably the protons that are responsible. But the researchers note that carbon dioxide doesn’t really taste sour. So the ultimate perception of carbonation may involve other senses as well, including the mechanical stimulus of all those popping bubbles.

Taste
Carbon Dioxide
Soft Drinks
Science and Technology


Drawing On a Hobby During Flight Delays

Abstract: I HAVE a lot of solitary interests. I like to listen to music . I like to read. And I love to draw. So if there is a two-hour flight delay, that means I get to indulge my passions. I’m kind of like a kid when it comes to travel. I like everything about it. I’m still amazed planes fly and that people actually pay me to go to their businesses and tell them how they can capitalize on their brands. I don’t care where they are located, since I could find something interesting to do anywhere. I always laugh when colleagues say it’s too bad that I have to travel to some small town out in the middle of nowhere. I say it’s good for business, so bring it on. I studied the trumpet and play in two bands in my spare time. But I don’t travel with my trumpet. I travel with about a dozen harmonicas. I can blame my love affair with the harmonica on business travel . A friend gave me some harmonica music, and then later, when I was in Charlotte, N.C., waiting for a plane I wandered into a small gift shop and found a harmonica instruction book that was packaged with an actual harmonica. The price was right, so I figured why not give it a try? When I do speaking engagements, I tape a harmonica under each audience member’s seat. I ask them to look under the seat, and most people think they are going to get a winning ticket for a car or something. Instead, they find a harmonica. It’s a great little instrument even if you don’t have a musical bone in your body. Everybody can do something with it. I’ll even invite people up on stage to play since it’s a great way to get people to interact. When I was in Heathrow recently, I actually had a little jam session with two fellow travelers who were playing guitars. I whipped out the harmonica and asked if I could join them. I think we sounded pretty good. But even if we didn’t, it was still a lot of fun. I’m an artist by training. So when I’m not playing the harmonica, you can find me sketching my fellow travelers. Actually, these drawings are more caricatures than portraits. I look for interesting faces or people interacting, like a mother trying to entertain her children while they are waiting for a plane. I always travel with a sketchbook, but sometimes I draw on the back of napkins or whatever I can find. I usually give my drawings away. Often subjects are thrilled. But it’s not unusual for some people to say things like, “Hey, my nose isn’t that big.” Or “Hey, I’m not that round.” My favorite is, “Hey, I’m not that bald.” People, relax. It’s a caricature. But even if someone is an art critic, that person usually wants the doodle as a keepsake. Sometimes I post some of them on my blog, www.turkeldoodles.com . My drawings have some good side benefits, too. Recently, I did a quick caricature of a flight attendant. I got free drinks the rest of the trip. I think my colleagues were a little jealous. Some people contact me later to see if I could do their caricatures on a quality paper stock, rather than on a napkin. I always say sure, if they cough up $500 for a charity of their choice. I don’t check to see if they actually send a check to their favorite charity. I don’t think people would lie about it. And if they do, well, I wish I would have made their noses bigger.

Hobbies
Business Travel
Airlines and Airplanes
Turkel Bruce


A Suspect Leaves Clues at Every Turn

Abstract: Here is a quest for the invisible life, rendered in less than 50 words. Buy a used Nissan Pathfinder with cash; decline a bill of sale or any other paperwork; communicate about the deal on a prepaid cellphone, registered to no one. Then strip the vehicle identification number, or VIN, from the dashboard. Add a stolen license plate. Tint the windows. And here, it seems, is the very definition of futility. These were the tactics that prosecutors say were used by Faisal Shahzad , the man pulled off a plane late Monday night and charged with trying to blow up the Pathfinder in Times Square on Saturday evening, when tens of thousands of people were jammed into the streets. It was the precise map of the fanatic heart drawn by Yeats: Great hatred, little room. At virtually every turn, the evasive steps Mr. Shahzad took left digital footprints, a trail that ultimately led to his seat on an Emirates flight that was bound for Dubai, the authorities say. Mr. Shahzad did not make it into court on Tuesday; he is said to be talking, and the authorities seemed unwilling to interrupt the stream of his consciousness. If Mr. Shahzad is indeed responsible, he would not be the first car-bombing suspect arrested in a matter of days because of the things he left behind. With every breath of modern life, people leave a vast series of markings that are unseen and, usually, unnoticed. Nearly two decades ago, the first — and so far, only successful — car bomb in the modern history of New York was planted in the basement garage of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993. Six people were killed. The explosion left an immense crater. Climbing through the rubble a few days later, Joe Hanlin, a federal explosives investigator, and Donald Sadowy, a detective with the Police Department’s bomb squad, found bits and pieces of a vehicle that had been torn apart, including a severely twisted section of the frame. That section appeared to have been quite close to the explosion. As they began to swab it for chemical residue, a series of raised dots emerged. They formed letters and numbers. “We couldn’t read all the numbers,” Mr. Hanlin testified later that year, “but we knew they were numbers and could be used to trace the vehicle.” It turned out that particular fragment had been stamped with the vehicle’s 17-digit VIN, the automotive equivalent of DNA. Each vehicle is assigned a unique series of numbers that shows where it was manufactured and when, and describes in code its body type, make, model, options. The VIN showed that the demolished vehicle had been a Ford Econoline van, owned by the Ryder Truck and Rental Company, which reported that it had been rented a few weeks earlier in Jersey City by a man named Mohammed A. Salameh. In fact, by the time the van was linked to the bombing, Mr. Salameh had already reported it stolen. While others who were part of the bomb plot had fled the country, Mr. Salameh was left behind, nearly penniless. As federal investigators descended on the rental company, Mr. Salameh was haggling with Ryder for the return of a $400 deposit. ON Saturday, when police seized the Nissan Pathfinder left in Times Square, the VIN plate on the dashboard had been removed. But the VIN is also stamped on engine parts and on the frame, and these were intact. That identification quickly led to a 19-year-old Connecticut woman who had sold the Pathfinder a few weeks ago to a man for $1,300 in cash. The man who bought it had declined the offer of a bill of sale. He had, however, called the seller several times from the prepaid cellphone to arrange the purchase, according to a criminal complaint made public on Tuesday. That same phone had been used for calls to and from a “Pakistani telephone number associated with Shahzad,” the complaint said. With Mr. Shahzad’s name, investigators searched his home in Connecticut on Monday, and solved another tiny mystery: The police had found keys in the Pathfinder, and one of them opened the door to Mr. Shahzad’s home. In his garage, they found fertilizer and fireworks, similar to what had been left in the Pathfinder in Times Square. Later that night, in a seat on board Emirates Flight 202, they found Faisal Shahzad. Another invisible man, thwarted by a VIN.

Times Square and 42nd Street (NYC)
Bombs and Explosives
Shahzad Faisal
Terrorism


In Need of Cash, Arizona Puts Offices on Sale

Abstract: PHOENIX — Here in one of the most embattled real estate markets in the country, 1700 West Washington Street stands out, even beyond its nearly $40 million price tag. It has 205,901 square feet, terrazzo floors, a big chunk of chrysocolla displayed in the lobby and a long-term tenant who wants to stay put for 20 years — leasing the building back from a buyer for more than its assessed value. Bonus feature: There is a nifty gun locker for any potential buyer or their guests who arrive packing heat. The office building houses most of the State of Arizona’s government and was recently put on the market to help this broke state close its budget deficit. It is looking like a pretty good deal, if the state can prove it is credit worthy. “People are calling from all over the country,” said Alan Ecker, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Administration, who estimates that his office has taken 60 calls of inquiry since Gov. Jan Brewer approved the sale on Sept. 3 as part of a still-unresolved budget plan. “The balls are rolling.” Selling a building that the owner wishes to continue to occupy — known as a sale and lease-back — is an oft-used strategy for businesses looking to shore up cash flow, but it is less common for governments to do so. But these are uncommon times for states gasping under piles of Medicaid bills, unemployment claims and pension payouts, and fewer tax dollars rolling in. “Everything is on the table for a lot of states right now,” said Robb Willis, a lobbyist for H&W Development, a developer in Mableton, Ga., that is considering buying the executive office building here. “Arizona just seems to be a hotbed right now.” If the people of the proudly independent state of Arizona would be the least bit despondent to have the owners of their state buildings hail from the Peach State, that may just be the cost of doing business right now. To help close a $3.2 billion revenue shortfall, lawmakers allowed the sale and lease-back of the executive office tower, the buildings that house offices for both chambers of the State Legislature, as well as 10 prison complexes, a state mental hospital and other buildings. (For now, the historic Capitol, with its grand dome and aging interior, is not for sale, though state officials continue to ponder the possibility.) All told, the assets are valued at $735 million. They are expected to cost the state $1.5 billion in lease-back fees over the next two decades, after which ownership of the buildings would revert to the state. It is sort of like renting to own new furniture. Except the state already owns the furniture. For a state looking to preserve its credit rating and in need of a quick infusion of cash, and for an investor looking for a modest but easy return on an investment — better than treasuries, say, but not as exciting as equities — it could be a convenient marriage. “There are a lot of empty buildings around these days,” said Lee Hunter, a principal of H&W, the Georgia firm. “So a fully leased building in this environment is attractive, and it is going to be extremely competitive.” The centerpiece of the sale plan is the executive office tower, which holds the executive functions of government as well as the secretary of state, the state treasurer and the state mine inspector, and is valued at $39,511,240. State lawmakers have cut their way through the rest of the budget, which remains unsolved months after the fiscal year ended because of an impasse over a sales tax increase sought by the governor but disliked by her fellow Republicans, who are a majority in the Legislature. Yet more cash is still desperately needed to get through this year and next. So prisons, historical societies, a visitor’s center at a revered state park and the Legislature building all must go. Democratic lawmakers have little fondness for any of it. “It’s a bad loan that makes no fiscal sense for the state,” said Kyrsten Sinema, the ranking Democrat on the State House Appropriations Committee. “We have to start paying interest in the very next fiscal year, when we’ll still be stuck in a massive deficit. So it’s definitely a penny-wise, pound-foolish plan.” As real estate goes, the property surrounding the executive office tower is not quite as exciting as the visitor’s center attached to Kartchner Caverns, the state’s famous limestone caves at the base of the Whetstone Mountains near Tucson, which is also on the market. But a buyer of the building would get a display box of the state’s minerals, including the big chunk of chrysocolla, and that might beat an extra half-bath.

Office Buildings and Commercial Properties


Boxing Injuries Neglected

Abstract: To the Sports Editor: I am saddened and frustrated that boxing is being neglected and forgotten in relation to the head injuries that happen in the Kid Gloves, Golden Gloves, collegiate and professional ranks. Unlike players in the N.F.L., the N.H.L. and Major League Baseball, the average boxer has no agent, no advocate and no money for medical advice and treatment. Anthony Parisi Gloucester City, N.J.


Drummer Defends Stanford Student Convicted in Rape Case. Her Band Pays a Price.

Abstract: Good English is a small-time band from Oakwood, Ohio, three sisters with a garage rock vibe. In Brooklyn, this week, they became pariahs. The women have found themselves at the center of a debate about sexual assault after a pre-sentencing letter written to a judge a few months ago by one of the sisters, Leslie Rasmussen, involving the case of a Stanford University student who was convicted of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman, was made public. Ms. Rasmussen, in her letter, described the student, Brock Allen Turner, as a childhood friend and an elementary school classmate, and defended him. In rapid succession, Good English has been dropped from several Brooklyn venues where they were scheduled to play, as well as the Northside Festival, a weeklong music festival that began on Monday. Other festivals have also announced that the band will no longer be performing. “When people choose to defend something, then I think they should be held accountable for it,” said Daniel Stedman, a founder of the Northside Media Group, which runs the Brooklyn festival. After Mr. Turner’s sentencing last week, Mr. Stedman said he found himself moved to tears as he read the graphic courtroom statement from the woman whom Mr. Turner sexually assaulted. The statement has been widely distributed since, describing the attack and what followed. “How does the average person who is really upset and troubled about the Brock story, how does somebody participate in that, making right of a wrong?” Mr. Stedman said. “We are really just one tiny, infinitesimal part of that puzzle, but I think it was a no-brainer for us.” In her letter, Ms. Rasmussen, 20, says that there was a distinction between rape and Mr. Turner’s case, and suggested that alcohol was to blame for his actions. Mr. Turner, 20, a swimmer at Stanford, was found by two passers-by, partially clothed behind a trash bin on campus, on top of the 23-year-old woman, who was incapacitated by alcohol, according to the authorities. The passers-by stopped the assault and held Mr. Turner down as he tried to flee. “I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him,” Ms. Rasmussen, who plays drums in the band, wrote. “But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campus isn’t always because people are rapists.” Mr. Turner was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault for the attack, which took place in January 2015. This week the judge in the case, Aaron Persky of Superior Court in Santa Clara County, Calif., came under withering criticism from the public for the sentence he imposed: six months in jail and probation. Ms. Rasmussen’s letter was part of a package of letters sent to the judge on behalf of Mr. Turner before his sentencing, a standard practice in which people seek to influence a sentencing decision by sharing their experiences of the defendant. His father also sent a letter that had an even more explosive effect when it was made public this week; he said that the episode had affected his son’s appetite and that, in particular, he no longer enjoyed rib-eye steaks. Following the firestorm her letter provoked, Ms. Rasmussen said that her words were being twisted and that she was being unfairly stigmatized. “This appeal has now provided an opportunity for people to misconstrue my ideas into a distortion that suggests I sympathize with sex offenses and those who commit them or that I blame the victim involved,” she said in a statement. Ms. Rasmussen also believed that the letter to the judge was private. But a spokesman for the court said she was wrong — such letters, like most documents entered into the court, are a matter of public record. Within hours of Ms. Rasmussen’s letter being made public by New York magazine, Good English was removed from a roster of Brooklyn venues where they were scheduled to perform in the coming days, including Rock Shop in Gowanus, Industry City Distillery in Greenwood, Gold Sounds in Bushwick, and Bar Matchless in Greenpoint. “We don’t want to be affiliated with anyone that’s going to try to victim-blame or even just downplay rape,” said Larry Hyland, an owner of Bar Matchless. Mr. Hyland said he had received over 50 emails and posts on the bar’s Facebook page demanding that the band’s show be canceled. Some of the messages, he said, included threats to confront the band members if they did perform. “We didn’t cancel the show because of censorship,” he said, adding that while he disagreed with the content of Ms. Rasmussen’s letter, he understood the impulse to want to help a childhood friend. “I wanted to avoid an unsafe environment.” On Tuesday, the Dayton Music Art and Film Festival near the band’s hometown announced that it, too, was removing the band from its September lineup. “Such actions should not be defended, friend or not,” the festival wrote on its Facebook page . On Wednesday, Behind the Curtains Media, the public relations firm that represented Good English, dropped them from its client roster. In her statement, Ms. Rasmussen attributed the fallout from her initial letter not to what she wrote, but to “the overzealous nature of social media.” In particular, she lamented the “uproar of judgment and hatred unleashed on me” and the effect it was having on her musical aspirations.

Stanford
Rape
Good English
Brooklyn
Leslie Rasmussen
Brock Allen Turner
Northside Festival
Music
Aaron Persky
College


Undermanned Sevilla Salvages a Tie

Abstract: Sevilla tied host Málaga, 0-0, despite losing Steven N’Zonzi in a mistake-filled match that opened the Spanish league season. N’Zonzi, a former Stoke City midfielder, had a forgettable Liga debut, being needlessly booked for impeding a throw-in before being sent off with a second yellow card for a foul in the 69th minute. ■ Werder Bremen claimed its first point of the Bundesliga season when a goal by Anthony Ujah gave it a 1-1 draw at Hertha Berlin. ■ Paris St.-Germain, seeking a fourth successive title, eased to a 1-0 win at Montpellier in the French league. Blaise Matuidi scored the only goal just after the hour mark to make it three wins out of three for P.S.G.

Soccer
Paris St-Germain FC Soccer Team
Sevilla Soccer Team
Malaga Spain