Pakistani Taliban Attack Rival Commander

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday staged a suicide attack on a rival militant commander in northwestern Pakistan that killed at least 15 people but was reported to have left the commander only lightly wounded, Pakistani officials said. Such infighting between militant groups is rare but not unprecedented. Most often, militants who have inched toward reconciliation with the government or form anti-Taliban militias with the Pakistani military’s support are attacked by hard-core elements within the Taliban. Maulvi Nabi, the focus of Thursday’s suicide bombing, is a militant commander from the Orakzai tribal agency who has been fighting Taliban insurgents. Mr. Nabi survived an earlier assassination attempt by the Taliban in July 2012. He is thought to be close to the Haqqani network and the militant group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, seen as sympathetic to the government. Thursday’s attack occurred around 1 a.m., when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a compound in Speen Thal, a semiautonomous tribal region at the border of the Orakzai and Hangu regions. The explosion destroyed the compound and was followed by a gun battle between at least two attackers and loyalists of Mr. Nabi. “He survived the attack with minor injuries,” said a Pakistani security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said that Mr. Nabi was attacked because he supported the Pakistani government and was working against the Pakistani Taliban and their allies. “We will not spare him,” Mr. Shahid warned. Meanwhile, Pakistani officials and rescue workers continued their efforts to provide aid to the victims of last month’s earthquake in southwestern Pakistan. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 25 damaged vast areas of Baluchistan, the impoverished and remote province that has struggled with drought and continues to grapple with an insurgency by Baluch separatists. The greatest damage occurred in Awaran, Baluchistan’s poorest district, near the deep-sea port of Gwadar, which Pakistan built with Chinese help over the past decade in the hope of stimulating regional trade. A spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, the country’s official relief agency, said Thursday that the death toll from the earthquake stood at 376, with 824 people injured. The remoteness of the region, which lacks basic infrastructure facilities, adds to the difficulties of aid workers to provide quick relief. Security issues have further aggravated the situation, according to officials. Pakistani troops involved in the aid effort have come under regular attack, reportedly by Baluch separatists, particularly in Awaran. One Pakistani military official said that on Wednesday alone there were five separate attacks on troops, leaving one dead. No attacks were reported on Thursday.

Pakistan
Taliban
Maulvi Nabi
Assassination
Haqqani Network
Terrorism


Times Names New Editor for Outreach

Abstract: The New York Times named a new editor to its leadership team on Thursday, creating a role within the newsroom to oversee expanding the paper’s audience and deepening its engagement with readers. The new editor, Alexandra MacCallum, 33, was formerly an executive on the business side of the newspaper. She will become an assistant managing editor, according to a memo from The Times’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, and its editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal. She will “build a team devoted to using search, social and other strategies to draw more people to our news articles and editorials,” the memo said. Ms. MacCallum joined The Times last year and had been working with the food editor, Sam Sifton, on the paper’s new cooking app. A graduate of Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Ms. MacCallum was one of The Huffington Post’s first three employees. She worked there as a news editor and returned after law school to serve as its corporate counsel. She will report to both Mr. Baquet and Mr. Rosenthal as part of an audience development department that is intended to be a resource shared by the paper’s news and editorial sides, much like its photography and video departments. More changes to the paper’s masthead are likely, Mr. Baquet and Mr. Rosenthal said in the memo, “and this is a big step toward bringing in more editors with deep digital experience.” The New York Times recently completed an innovation report that concluded it should do more to ensure that its journalism reached a broader audience. Other publications, the report said, including The Huffington Post, were already using sophisticated web publishing techniques to engage their readers.

The New York Times
Appointments and Executive Changes
Alex MacCallum


Volunteers Fly Supplies In to Haiti’s Hard-To-Reach Places

Abstract: LÉOGÂNE, Haiti — On a good day, a stray cow might be the only obstacle to landing the small planes bringing oxygen, crutches, baby formula and other supplies that will be put to immediate use at a hospital set up in a nursing school dormitory here. On a bad day, like one recent Sunday morning, the pilots circled overhead, waiting while a Humvee towed an abandoned truck off the landing strip with a hastily borrowed chain. The landing strip, in fact, is actually a stretch of highway flanked by sugarcane and banana trees, currently the only way to fly into Léogâne, a city near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake. The flights, by volunteer pilots flying mostly at their own expense, are part of an unconventional relief mission to get supplies to some of Haiti ’s most remote areas. The planes have landed on a dirt airstrip in Jérémie, a 10-hour drive from the capital, Port-au-Prince, bearing the sole supply of X-ray film to an area deluged by earthquake victims with broken bones. They have spirited out the wounded and ferried in spaghetti and beans. The conditions vary from a paved runway and a control tower in Jacmel on the southern coast, to a gravel runway in Port-de-Paix in the north, where a man manages air traffic without the aid of radio or radar. The situation on the ground, where hungry Haitians sometimes crowd the tarmac, can be unpredictable. On Sunday, two Americans, Ryan Courtemanche, 26, and his co-pilot, Bernard Antonovich, 22, kept their cool as they barreled down in a Cessna Grand Caravan whose wings were 20 feet wider than the two-lane road. In preparation, United Nations troops had cordoned off the road, but the clearance was still so narrow that on an earlier flight, a wing clipped a tree, and rebar protruding from an unfinished wall had been bent back to clear the way. The runway is also shorter than normal, so the pilots braked hard. “Welcome to Léogâne,” Mr. Courtemanche said genially, as if he were doing his usual job of shuttling the well-heeled to Nantucket and St. Barts. The charter company he and Mr. Antonovich work for, Tradewind Aviation , based in Oxford, Conn., donated their time and the use of the Cessna for dozens of relief flights. “I never thought I’d be flying to Haiti,” Mr. Courtemanche said, “and I never thought I’d be flying on a road.” The flights go in and out of the Santiago airport in the Dominican Republic, using pilots of private and charter planes who have answered a call for volunteers from a loose consortium called Corporate Aviation Responding in Emergencies . Each day, as many as five pilots make three or four round trips to Haiti, mostly paying their own expenses of $1,500 to $3,500 per trip. The flights have high fuel costs and small loads, but fill a niche in a large-scale disaster. “This is quick and effective, but it’s not efficient,” said Richard Wood, an investment manager from Vancouver, British Columbia, flying his Swiss Pilatus. “We can’t solve the Port-au-Prince problem with this little plane.” But for smaller cities and towns, which normally depend on the distribution of goods from Port-au-Prince that has all but ceased since the quake, there was little doubt that the flights were a lifeline. Food is more expensive, fuel is scarce and medical supplies cannot be bought. At a clinic run by the Haitian Health Foundation in Jérémie, Dr. Royneld Bourdeau said: “We’ll use the last vial of insulin that’s in town today. We used up the antitetanus serum that we had, but if we get another patient, he will die.” In Léogâne, the supplies go to a hospital set up by the University of Notre Dame, which already had a presence there running a program to combat a parasitic disease called lymphatic filariasis . On Saturday, nurses monitored a child sipping on a tube from an oxygen tank — just delivered by a Tradewind flight — as he recovered from surgery, and helped another boy, Klavinsky Michel, 4, learn to use crutches as he recovered from a wound that left his heel bone completely exposed. Fuel siphoned from the Cessna’s tanks kept the generators going. “Two days ago,” said Jennifer McCracken, a nurse from Boston, “we didn’t have any oxygen.” Jean-Marc Brisseau, the administrator of the Notre Dame program, said that after the earthquake, offers of help poured in, but no one could figure out the logistics of delivery. Then he remembered that in 2001, a plane had landed on the road, Route 9. Local residents had gone running to watch, and had seen armed guards unloading cocaine from the plane into a waiting car. “If this plane could land there, illegally, why can’t we offer that?” Mr. Brisseau asked. The plan worked, and now the pilots relay requests for specific items like insulin to Ken George, who, as a field missionary in the Dominican Republic with G.O. Ministries , is coordinating the ground operation. At last count, there had been 320 round-trip flights carrying 370,000 pounds of cargo and 1,580 passengers (mostly doctors, nurses and missionaries on their way in and out, or American citizens and Haitians with visas wanting to leave). Sometimes the pilots have had to take on the role of diplomats. On Sunday, John and Kimberly Kirkendoll, both former investment bankers who live in Telluride, Colo., took in a planeload of food destined for an orphanage in Pignon, a small town northeast of Port-au-Prince. They were met, Ms. Kirkendoll said, by a cacophonous gaggle of people wearing official-looking badges and claiming that the food was for them. In the confusion, one particularly authoritative woman claimed the food, but as it was loaded onto a truck, it became clear that she, too, had lost control of it. “The minute they got outside the gate, they were bombarded with rocks by the townspeople who were outside the gate wanting the food,” Ms. Kirkendoll said. “It’s embarrassing. John and I were like: ‘They’re gone, there goes the food. We just got looted.’ ” At the same time, the mayor was trying to claim a cut of the food from the orphanage, saying he, too, had hungry refugees to feed. The deliveries to Pignon were suspended until another volunteer, John Matthews, flew in and, meeting on the tarmac with the mayor, worked out a deal to share the aid. He came back with a signed, typewritten document from the mayor. But Mr. Matthews, using a plane donated by the owner of BroadVoice , an Internet phone service company, said that over all, he had spent little time in Haiti and had not visited the orphanages, hospitals and other places receiving his help. “I would like to,” he said, “but I don’t want to take the time when I could be delivering another 2,700 pounds.”

Haiti
Earthquakes
Humanitarian Aid
Airlines and Airplanes
Disasters and Emergencies


Blue Jays Sign Johan Santana

Abstract: The Toronto Blue Jays signed the two-time Cy Young winner Johan Santana to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training. Santana last pitched in the majors in 2012 with the Mets. He has undergone two operations on his left shoulder in recent years. Santana was in Baltimore’s minor league system last year and tore his left Achilles tendon in June. He’s made just one appearance since then, retiring six straight batters in January in the Venezuelan Winter League. Santana, a four-time All-Star, won American League Cy Young Awards with Minnesota in 2004 and 2006. He pitched the only no-hitter in Mets’ history and is 139-78 lifetime with a 3.20 E.R.A.


Add Nuts to Your Diet With Sauces, Not Snacks

Abstract: All fats are not created equal. That was a recurring theme at the recent Worlds of Healthy Flavors conference, an annual collaboration between the Culinary Institute of America and nutritionists at the Harvard School of Public Health. The conference, which brings together chefs from the food service industry and leading experts in nutrition and medicine, is intended to help food purveyors expand healthy meal choices for consumers. The message that not all fats are bad has been around for a while, but it’s proving difficult for many of us (myself included) to shake the low-fat message of the early ’90s. In fact, we do need to be aware of fats, because they are all high in calories . But by shunning all types, we do ourselves a disservice. Some fats, mostly polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids from plant sources, do not have an adverse effect on health if consumed judiciously — just the contrary. Nuts, for instance, are high in good fats, as well as excellent sources of vegetable protein, fiber, magnesium, calcium , and vitamins K, B6, E and folate . A diet high in nuts may protect against both heart disease and diabetes , and some nutritionists recommend that nuts be recognized in the next set of federal dietary recommendations to be put forth in 2010. If you simply snack on nuts, it’s easy to eat too many. A more sensible way to work them into your diet is to make some of the delicious Mediterranean and Mexican nut-based sauces and dips that I’ll be offering here this week. They keep well in the refrigerator and can be used to accompany fish, vegetables or poultry. Many serve as a spread or dip with pita or bruschetta — or just eaten on their own. Spanish Romesco Sauce This thick, pungent sauce is served with vegetables and fish in Spain. (Some Spaniards say that a grilled vegetable feast is just an excuse for eating romesco sauce.) 1 large red pepper, about 1/2 pound, roasted , peeled, seeds and membranes removed 3 medium tomatoes or 4 Roma tomatoes (about 3/4 pound) 2 thick slices (about 2 ounces) baguette or country-style bread, lightly toasted 2 large garlic cloves, peeled 1/2 cup toasted almonds, or a combination of almonds and skinned roasted hazelnuts 1 to 2 teaspoons pure ground chile powder or red pepper flakes, to taste (pepper flakes are hotter) 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley 1 teaspoon sweet paprika or Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton) Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste Freshly ground pepper to taste 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar 1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, as needed 1. Preheat the broiler and cover a baking sheet with foil. Place the tomatoes on the baking sheet, and place under the broiler at the highest setting. Broil for two to four minutes, until charred on one side. Turn over and broil on the other side for two to four minutes until charred. Remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and allow to cool. Peel and core. 2. Turn on a food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop in the garlic cloves. When the garlic is chopped and adheres to the sides of the bowl, stop the machine and scrape down the sides. Add the toasted almonds (or almonds and hazelnuts), bread and chile powder or flakes to the bowl and process to a paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the pepper, tomatoes, parsley, paprika, salt and pepper. Process until smooth, and with the machine running, add the vinegar and olive oil in a slow stream, beginning with the smaller amount of olive oil and thinning out as desired. Process until well amalgamated, then scrape into a bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt or chile as desired. If possible, allow the sauce to stand for an hour at room temperature before using. Serve with fish and/or grilled vegetables, or on crostini. Makes about 2 cups Advanced preparation: Romesco keeps for at least five days in the refrigerator; over time, the garlic will become more pungent.

Nuts
Sauces
Food
Cooking and Cookbooks
Medicine and Health


Ken Forsse, Who Brought a Toy Bear to Life, Dies at 77

Abstract: Talking toys have been around since Edison made a doll that recited nursery rhymes by means of a small hand-cranked phonograph. Now there are dolls that reply emotively to a child, by name. Ken Forsse, who died at 77 on March 19 at his home in Laguna Woods, Calif., advanced the field in the 1980s by inventing a plush bear that made appropriate facial expressions as it told stories or sang. His creation, Teddy Ruxpin , was almost impossible for harried parents to find when it burst on the scene in 1985, and it remained wildly popular through the next year. In 2003 the Toy Industry Association named it one of the most memorable and creative toys of the 20th century. His wife of 26 years, the former Jan Hornbeck, said he died of congestive heart failure. For Mr. Forsse (pronounced FOR-see), Teddy Ruxpin was not in the same class as other hit toys of the 1980s, like the Cabbage Patch Dolls, the Care Bears and the Pound Puppies. To him, it was more than just another toy. It was a mythical character with a fully developed fantasy world, one that Mr. Forsse had been dreaming up for 30 years. For 12 years he had worked for Disney, helping to develop “It’s a Small World,” “Jungle Cruise” and other attractions for Disney theme parks. He went on to work with Sid and Marty Krofft, the producers of “H. R. Pufnstuf” and other children’s television shows. But it was not until he started his own company, Alchemy II, in the early 1980s that Teddy came to fruition. (The name seems simply to have popped into Mr. Forsse’s head.) His technical breakthrough was coming up with electronic decoders to stuff in the faux animal’s plush head. They caused the bear’s face to yawn, frown and giggle in conjunction with the words emitted by a tape cassette implanted in its back. To create the effect, he used the same technology that produces music on a phonograph record in stereo, on separate tracks. In this case, one track carried sound and one track directed facial expressions and movements. The toy was a huge success. More than 41,000 dolls were sold for about $70 apiece (the equivalent of about $152 today) in the month after Teddy’s introduction, in September 1985; in the first year sales were at 1.4 million. Just as important to Mr. Forsse was the Tolkien-like story he created, “The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin,” a 65-episode syndicated television cartoon series, originally shown in 1987. It followed young Teddy as he and his best friend, a caterpillar named Grubby, traced an ancient map to find magical crystals. They battle the Monsters and Villains Organization, which wants to use the treasure for evil. The stories told by the toy, most of them written by Mr. Forsse, were similar to the stories on the show. Lost in the toy’s success was his original dream: presenting his fantasy vision in a show in which human actors would play the roles, with their facial expressions conveyed by robotic masks. ABC used this approach for a special, also called “The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin,” in 1985, but the idea of expanding the concept to a series was considered too expensive. The cartoon show became Teddy’s performance vehicle, and it increased sales. As the license to manufacture the doll passed through a succession of owners over the decades, tens of millions were sold. Image Teddy Ruxpin arrived in 1985. Credit PRNewsFoto/BackPack Toys It was last rereleased in 2005 by BackPack Toys, with digital song cartridges instead of analog cassettes. Though BackPack no longer makes the doll, Teddy Ruxpin toys and cartridges continue to be sold on eBay and other websites. Cuddly or not, Teddy Ruxpin has had its critics. In 1986, the syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman wrote: “It isn’t possible to ‘play’ with Teddy Ruxpin, the best seller which is essentially a stuffed tape recorder. You just listen to it.” Earl Kenneth Forsse was born on Sept. 17, 1936, in Bellwood, Neb., where his father ran a grain elevator. When he was 6 his family moved to Burbank, Calif., where he built furniture and toys and learned painting from his sister, Mary. He also learned to draw 3-D comics. He went to work in the Disney mailroom after high school and eventually joined the studio’s vaunted animation team. In 1959 he was drafted into the Army and assigned to decorate officers’ clubs. He returned to Disney and built models for amusement park attractions. Mr. Forsse never forgot his dream project. He initially wanted to make the lead character a monkey, in honor of the monkeys the United States had rocketed into space. By the early 1980s he had settled on a bear and created Alchemy II to produce it. The company had some successes beyond Teddy; one was producing the electromechanical puppet suits worn by human actors on two Disney Channel series in the mid-1980s, “Welcome to Pooh Corner” and “Dumbo’s Circus.” At its peak, Alchemy had 200 employees. A small firm, RKS Design, helped refine Teddy by devising a new eject mechanism for its cassette tape. But the 1988 bankruptcy of Worlds of Wonder, which marketed Teddy under a license agreement, hastened the toy’s decline. “It was disappointing when the adventure ended so quickly,” Mr. Forsse said in 1999. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two children from his first marriage, Theresa Eversole and Christopher Forsse, and three grandchildren. His first wife, the former Wendy Fuson, died in 1984. Mr. Forsse saw Teddy as a way to promote values and liked to tell emotional stories about the toy. One involved a child dying of cancer who requested a specific Teddy lullaby — written by Mr. Forsse — for her funeral. Accordingly, Mr. Forsse expressed discomfort with Seth McFarlane’s hit 2012 movie, “Ted,” about a gutter-mouthed Teddy bear obsessed with sex and alcohol. Ted’s owner, played by Mark Wahlberg, comes to understand the sentiment. “Sometimes I think back to that Christmas morning when I was 8 years old,” he says. “I wish I had just gotten a Teddy Ruxpin.”


Swedbank Raises $2.1 Billion in Offering

Abstract: Swedbank, one of the largest Nordic lenders, announced Monday that it was issuing preferred stock to raise about 15 billion kronor ($2.1 billion) as loan losses continue in the eastern Baltic. “The aim is to strengthen our competitive position in our four home markets; that is, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” Michael Wolf, chief executive of the bank, said in a conference call. Mr. Wolf said that the bank would be better able to support its main clients with the infusion and that the funds would help Swedbank return to independence. It currently depends upon a guarantee from the Swedish government to borrow money from other banks. Almost half of the offering was taken up by existing shareholders, with the rest guaranteed by its underwriters, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and the Credit Suisse Group. The capital increase, Mr. Wolf said, “means we have full control over our own fate, and can put capital where the need is greatest and where it can generate the most profit.” This is the second share issue Swedbank has made in the last year. Last fall, the bank issued 12.4 billion kronor. Swedbank invested heavily in the Baltic states during their years of heady growth, but now those economies are in trouble. The share offering will increase Swedbank’s Tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of fiscal health, to 12.1 percent from 9.8 percent at the end of June. “The financial system has stabilized to some extent,” Mr. Wolf said last month, “but the recession is now making itself more visible, and all signs are that the downward trend will continue for some time.” In its second-quarter earnings report, released in July, Swedbank said its bad loans totaled nearly 30 billion kronor, or $4 billion, of which the Baltic states accounted for 22 billion kronor. It also announced it would cut 3,600 jobs by next summer, most of them in the Baltics and Ukraine.


State of Oregon Sues OppenheimerFunds

Abstract: SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Officials in Oregon are seeking $36.2 million in damages from OppenheimerFunds, which managed an account responsible for steep losses in the state’s college savings plan. Officials said in a statement on Monday that risky “hedge-fund like” investments cost the Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund 36 percent of its value last year and 10 percent more so far this year. Comparable funds in a benchmark index posted a gain of about 5 percent for 2008, they said. The lawsuit, filed in Marion County against the Colorado-based OppenheimerFunds, includes allegations of negligence, breach of contract and violations of state securities laws. Oppenheimer officials did not respond to a request for comment. The treasurer, Ben Westlund, and the attorney general, John Kroger, said the lawsuit was filed on behalf of families and aims to recoup their losses.

Oregon
OppenheimerFunds
Stocks and Bonds
Tuition


Origami Inspires Rise of Self-Folding Robot

Abstract: An intricately cut sheet lies flat and motionless on a table. Then Samuel Felton, a graduate student at Harvard, connects the batteries, sending electricity coursing through, heating it. The sheet lurches to life, the pieces bending and folding into place. The transformation completes in four minutes, and the sheet, now a four-limbed robot, scurries away at more than two inches a second. The creation, reported Thursday in the journal Science , is the first robot that can fold itself and start working without any intervention from the operator. “We’re trying to make robots as quickly and cheaply as possible,” Mr. Felton said. Inspired by origami, the Japanese paper-folding art, such robots could be deployed, for example, on future space missions, Mr. Felton said. Or perhaps the technology could one day be applied to Ikea-like furniture, folding from a flat-packed board to, say, a table without anyone fumbling with Allen wrenches or deciphering instructions seemingly rendered in hieroglyphics. Mr. Felton’s sheet is not simple paper, but a composite made of layers of paper, a flexible circuit board and Shrinky Dinks — plastic sheets, sold as a toy, that shrink when heated above 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The researchers attached to the sheet two motors, two batteries and a microcontroller that served as the brain for the robot. Those components accounted for $80 of the $100 of materials needed for the robot. While the robot could fold itself, the sheet took a couple of hours for Mr. Felton to construct. Still, it was simpler and cheaper than the manufacturing process for most machines today — robots, iPhones, cars — which are made of many separate pieces that are then glued, bolted and snapped together. Mr. Felton’s adviser, Robert J. Wood , a professor of engineering and applied sciences, was initially interested in building insect-size robots. But for machines that small, “there really are no manufacturing processes that are applicable,” Dr. Wood said. Building small components on a flat sheet is easier, employing technologies from the computer chip industry, and Dr. Wood thought the complex, three-dimensional structures could be folded out of the flat sheet. Over several years, Dr. Wood’s team built on the idea, producing a printed robotic inchworm and a self-folding lamp. The earlier projects, however, required human assistance during construction. Video Using flat materials and a design inspired by origami, the art of paper folding, researchers have created a robot that can assemble without human intervention. Credit Credit Seth Kroll/Wyss Institute With the process now fully automated, robots could be efficiently packed for travel and deployed in places, like outer space, where there are no people. “It’s just an amazing feat of engineering,” said Michael Dickey , a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University who was not involved in the project but provided the inspiration for using Shrinky Dinks in self-folding structures. “It’s all programmed in, and you hit go.” Mr. Felton meticulously designed this particular robot, but the hope is that the mathematics of origami folding will allow computer software to figure out the cuts and folds needed to create complex robots capable of doing almost any task. Mr. Felton is now adapting the technique on a smaller scale to pursue Dr. Wood’s initial vision of insect robots. He said he had succeeded in folding structures, but had not yet created the motors to make them move. A second paper in Science this week describes how origami folding can alter the properties of a material. “That isn’t something that is really done in the material science community,” said Itai Cohen , a professor of physics at Cornell and the senior author of the paper. Dr. Cohen and his colleagues examined sheets with a particular pattern of repeating folds known as Miura-ori tessellation. By popping out some of the folds, the properties of the sheets changed, becoming stiffer or curved or able to swing like a hinge. “It becomes this kind of material you can transform on the fly, and that’s what’s really interesting,” Dr. Cohen said. For example, a folded-up sheet could be unfurled on top of a building and then made rigid, forming a roof. Or the technique could be incorporated into the surface of robotic limbs, floppy and flexible when reaching for an object and then stiffening to pick it up. “This is still all science fiction,” he acknowledged.

Origami
Robot
Samuel Felton
Harvard
Itai Cohen
Robert J Wood
Science Journal


Events in Westchester for Dec. 28, 2014 - Jan. 3, 2015

Abstract: A guide to cultural and recreational events in the Hudson Valley. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to westweek@nytimes.com. Comedy PELHAM Rockwells Leah Bonema, Sheba Mason and Kenan Weaver. Jan. 3 at 9 p.m. $10. Rockwells, 105 Wolfs Lane. 914-738-5881; rockwellsusa.net. WEST NYACK Levity Live Rich Vos. Dec. 28. $20. Tom Cotter. Dec. 31 at 7:30 and 10 p.m. $35 and $75. Gina Brillon. Jan. 2 through Jan. 4. $20. Levity Live, 4210 Palisades Center Drive. 845-353-5400; levitylive.com. Film HUDSON Time & Space Limited “Zero Motivation,” directed by Talya Lavie. Dec. 28 at 12:30 p.m. $6 and $8. Time & Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street. 518-822-8448; timeandspace.org. ROSENDALE Rosendale Theater “Rosewater,” directed by Jon Stewart. Through Dec. 29. $5 and $7. “National Theater Live: ‘John,’ ” screening of the play conceived and directed by Lloyd Newson. Dec. 28 at 3 p.m. $10 and $12. “Sunday Silents: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel,” with live accompaniment by Marta Waterma. Jan. 4 at 3 p.m. $5 and $7. “The Theory of Everything,” directed by James Marsh. Jan. 9 through Jan. 14. $5 and $7. Rosendale Theater, 408 Main Street. 845-658-8989; rosendaletheatre.org. For Children BRONX Wave Hill Family Art Project, create your own hanging calendar for the New Year. Dec. 27 and 28, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. “Family Art Project: Flip through The Seasons,” craft activities. Jan. 3 and 4, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free with admission to the grounds. $2 to $8; members and children under 6, free. Admission is free until noon on Saturdays. Wave Hill, 675 West 252nd Street. 718-549-3200; wavehill.org. KATONAH Katonah Museum of Art School’s Out/Art’s In, art activities. Dec. 30, 31, and Jan. 2. $5 and $8 for participating children. Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay Street. 914-232-9555; katonahmuseum.org. MAMARONECK Emelin Theater “Hot Feet!” Paper Bag Players. Ages 3 to 8. Dec. 27 and 28 at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. $15. Emelin Theater, 153 Library Lane. 914-698-0098; emelin.org. MAMARONECK The Westchester Sandbox Theatre “A Christmas Wizard of Oz,” performed by Jason Summers. Dec. 28. $15. The Westchester Sandbox Theatre, 931 C East Boston Post Road. wstshows.com; 914-630-0804. OSSINING Teatown Lake Reservation Holi-Daze Mini-Camp, crafts, hiking and more. Ages 4 and 5: 9 a.m. to noon. Ages 6 to 12: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 29 through 31. $105 to $220. Amazing Animal Senses, live animal encounters. Jan. 4 at 1 p.m. $7; members, free. Teatown Lake Reservation, 1600 Spring Valley Road. 914-762-2912; teatown.org. ROSENDALE Rosendale Theater “The Book of Life,” animated film directed by Jorge Gutierrez. Through Dec. 31. $5. Rosendale Theater, 408 Main Street. 845-658-8989; rosendaletheatre.org. WEST NYACK Levity Live Mark Calabrese, comedy and magic. Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. $14. Levity Live, 4210 Palisades Center Drive. 845-353-5400; levitylive.com. WHITE PLAINS Westchester County Center The Harlem Globetrotters, basketball and comedy. Dec. 31 at 2 p.m. $26.50 to $132.50. The New York Pet Reptile Expo. Jan. 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $5 and $10; children under 7, free. Westchester County Center, 198 Central Avenue. countycenter.biz; 914-995-4050. WHITE PLAINS White Plains Performing Arts Center Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” musical. Through Jan. 4. $25 to $55. White Plains Performing Arts Center, 11 City Place. 914-328-1600; wppac.com. YONKERS Alamo Drafthouse Cinema “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” starring Daniel Radcliffe. Dec. 29 through Jan. 1 at 11 a.m. Free. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 2548 Central Park Avenue. 914-226-3082; drafthouse.com/yonkers. Music and Dance BEACON Towne Crier Cafe Garland Jeffreys, rock. Dec. 28 at 7:30 p.m. $25 and $30. The McKrells, bluegrass. Jan. 2 at 8:30 p.m. $20 and $25. Red Molly, folk. Jan. 3 at 8:30 p.m. $25 and $30. Towne Crier Cafe, 379 Main Street. 845-855-1300; townecrier.com. MAMARONECK Emelin Theater Hermitage Piano Trio, classical. Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. $42. Emelin Theater, 153 Library Lane. 914-698-0098; emelin.org. MARLBORO The Falcon Rob Paporozzi, Pete Levin, John Tropea and Lee Finkelstein, jazz and blues. Dec. 28, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Larry Moses and the Latin Jazz Explosion. Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. Alpha Male Gorillas, Mazzstock All Stars and Das Super Gruppen, rock. Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. The Big Takeover, reggae. Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. Champian Fulton, jazz. Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. Rob Paporozzi, a Randy Newman tribute performer. Jan. 3 at 7 p.m. Alexis Cole Trio, jazz. Jan. 4, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Karl Berger’s “In the Spirit of Don Cherry,” jazz. Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. Donations accepted. The Falcon, 1348 Route 9W. 845-236-7970; liveatthefalcon.com. MOUNT KISCO Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco The New Baroque Soloists Concert. Dec. 31 at 4 p.m. $10 and $20 suggested donation. Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco, 605 Millwood Road. 914-666-7001; pcmk.org. PAWLING Daryl’s House Duke Guillaume and the Power of Praise Band, gospel and jazz. Dec. 28 at 8 p.m. $15. Daryl’s Rock ‘N Soul New Year’s Eve, Daryl Hall, Mutlu and others. Dec. 31 at 9:25 p.m. $225. Johnny A., rock. Jan. 3 at 9 p.m. $15. Daryl’s House, 130 Route 22. darylshouseclub.com; 845-289-0185. PEEKSKILL 12 Grapes Music and Wine Bar Jessi Mason, folk. Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m. No cover. The Jon Bates Band, R&B. Dec. 31 at 10 p.m. $35. $110 for meal and show. 12 Grapes Music and Wine Bar, 12 North Division Street. 914-737-6624; 12grapes.com. PEEKSKILL Bean Runner Cafe LA Soul, R&B. Dec. 31 at 8:30 p.m. $60 for meal and show. Tony Jefferson and Groovocity, jazz. Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. $10. Bean Runner Cafe, 201 South Division Street. 914-737-1701; beanrunnercafe.com. PIERMONT The Turning Point Tom Chapin, folk. Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 29 at 7:30 p.m. $35. Popa Chubby, blues. Dec. 31 at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. $25 and $49. Rhett Tyler and Early Warning, blues. Jan. 2 at 9 p.m. $20. The Robert Ross Band, blues. Jan. 3 at 9 p.m. $20. Izzy Howard, folk. Jan. 4 at 4 p.m. $10. The Turning Point, 468 Piermont Avenue. 845-359-1089; turningpointcafe.com. PORT CHESTER The Capitol Theater PhilRAD featuring Phil Lesh and JRAD, jam band. Dec. 29 at 8 p.m. $59.50 to $179.50. Turn Back the Cap: 1980s, Jessie’s Girl and Howard Jones. Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. $30 and $50. The Capitol Theater, 149 Westchester Avenue. 914-937-4126; thecapitoltheatre.com. TARRYTOWN Tarrytown Music Hall Tower of Power, R&B. Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. $39 to $65. The Madeleine Peyroux Trio, jazz. Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. $40 to $70. Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main Street. 877-840-0457; tarrytownmusichall.org. Image HUDSON A detail from “Jer Z Bois” (2014), oil on board, which will be on view in an exhibition of works by McWillie Chambers from Jan. 10 to Feb. 1 at the John Davis Gallery, 362 1/ 2 Warren Street. Further information: 518-828-5907 or johndavisgallery.com . Credit McWillie Chambers WOODSTOCK Bearsville Theater NRBQ and the Whole Wheat Horns, rock. Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. $20 and $25. Ed Romanoff, blues and country. Jan. 2 at 9 p.m. $10. Stevie Wonder Tribute: A Benefit For The Woodstock Day School. Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. $15 to $50. Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker Street. 845-679-4406; bearsvilletheater.com. Outdoors BRONX Wave Hill Garden Highlights Walk, guided tour. Sundays at 2 p.m. and Tuesdays at 11 a.m. Free with admission to the grounds. $2 to $8; members and children under 6, free. Admission is free until noon on Tuesdays. Wave Hill, 675 West 252nd Street. 718-549-3200; wavehill.org. OSSINING Teatown Lake Reservation Last Hike of the Year, guided walk. Dec. 28, 10 to 11:30 a.m. $7; members, free. Teatown Lake Reservation, 1600 Spring Valley Road. 914-762-2912; teatown.org. SCARSDALE Greenburgh Nature Center Nature in the New Year, guided walk. Jan. 3 at 2 p.m. $5 and $8. By the Light of the Moon, evening walk. Jan. 4 at 6:30 p.m. $5 and $8. Greenburgh Nature Center, 99 Dromore Road. 914-723-3470; greenburghnaturecenter.org. Seasonal BEACON RiverWinds Gallery “Buone Feste,” group holiday show. Through Dec. 31. Wednesdays through Mondays, noon to 6 p.m.; second Sundays, noon to 9 p.m. RiverWinds Gallery, 172 Main Street. 845-838-2880; riverwindsgallery.com. BEACON Towne Crier Cafe New Year’s Eve Celebration, Chris O’Leary and Simi Stone. Dec. 31 at 7 p.m. $42.50 to $125. Towne Crier Cafe, 379 Main Street. 845-855-1300; townecrier.com. BRONX The New York Botanical Garden “Holiday Train Show,” large-scale model trains and more than 150 New York landmarks re-created with nuts, bark, leaves and other plant parts. Through Jan. 19. $10 to $28; children under 2, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New York Botanical Garden, Southern Boulevard. 718-817-8700; nybg.org. BRONX Wave Hill Holiday Tea, with scones, sweets and more. Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. $20 to $30. Wave Hill, 675 West 252nd Street. 718-549-3200; wavehill.org. ELMSFORD Westchester Broadway Theater “It Happened One Christmas Eve,” holiday musical. Dec. 28. $54 to $85 for meal and show. Westchester Broadway Theater, 1 Broadway Plaza. 914-592-2222; broadwaytheatre.com. NEW ROCHELLE New Roc City Atrium Ring in the New Year at Noon, with a balloon release. Dec. 31, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Free. New Roc City Atrium, 33 Le Count Place. newrochelledowntown.com; 914-637-7575. PEEKSKILL Paramount Hudson Valley New Year’s Eve Party, Ali Isabella, Phineas and the Lonely Leave and more. Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. $65. Paramount Hudson Valley, 1008 Brown Street. 914-739-0039; paramounthudsonvalley.com. PLEASANTVILLE Jacob Burns Film Center “It’s a Wonderful Life,” (1946) film starring Jimmy Stewart. Dec. 28. $7 to $12. Jacob Burns Film Center, 364 Manville Road. burnsfilmcenter.org; 914-747-5555. SOMERS Lasdon Park, Arboretum and Veterans Memorial “Holidays on the Hill, train show,” wagon rides and more. Through Dec. 30. $3 to $7. Lasdon Park, Arboretum and Veterans Memorial, 2610 Amawalk Road. 914-864-7268; lasdonpark.org. TARRYTOWN Lyndhurst Estate “Mr. Dickens Tells A Christmas Carol,” M&M Productions. Dec. 28. $25 and $35. Lyndhurst Estate, 635 South Broadway. 914-631-4481; lyndhurst.org. TUCKAHOE Westchester Italian Cultural Center “Viva Viva La Befana!” Holiday musical. Jan. 3 at 3:30 p.m. $30 to $55. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Fridays, 2 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to noon. Westchester Italian Cultural Center, 1 Generoso Pope Place. 914-771-8700; wiccny.org. WOODSTOCK Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Center for the Arts The 15th Annual 5 by 7 Show, holiday show. Through Jan. 4. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, 36 Tinker Street. 845-679-2079; woodstockguild.org. Spoken Word MOUNT VERNON St. Paul’s Church New Year’s Day Commemoration, digital presentation and discussion about the history of New Year’s. Jan. 1 at 1 p.m. Free. St. Paul’s Church, 897 South Columbus Avenue. 914-667-4116; nps.gov/sapa. SLEEPY HOLLOW Hudson Valley Writers’ Center The Year of Your Book Round Table and Launch Party, discussion. Jan. 10, 4 to 10 p.m. Free. Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, 300 Riverside Drive. 914-332-5953; writerscenter.org. Theater BRONX Riverdale Repertory Company, at Riverdale YM-YWHA “A Chorus Line,” musical by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban, James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante. Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 4 at 3 p.m. $13. Riverdale Repertory Company, at Riverdale YM-YWHA, 5625 Arlington Avenue. riverdaley.org/chorus; 800-838-3006. ELMSFORD Westchester Broadway Theater “South Pacific,” musical by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Dec. 31 through Jan. 25. $54 to $80 for meal and show. Westchester Broadway Theater, 1 Broadway Plaza. 914-592-2222; broadwaytheatre.com. IRVINGTON Irvington Town Hall Theater “Boeing-Boeing,” comedy by Marc Camoletti. Jan. 3 at 7 p.m. $55 to $150. Irvington Town Hall Theater, 85 Main Street. 914-591-6602; irvingtontheater.com. Museums and Galleries BEACON Beacon Artist Union New works by Herman Roggeman. “The Lineage Series,” Josephine Bloodgood. Through Jan. 4. Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Beacon Artist Union, 506 Main Street. 845-440-7584; baugallery.com. BEACON The Lofts at Beacon Gallery Hudson Valley Artisans Guild Showcase. Dec. 28. Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Lofts at Beacon Gallery, 18 Front Street. loftsatbeacon.com; 845-202-7211. BEACON Theo Ganz Studio “In-Between,” paintings by Hiro Ichikawa. Through Jan. 4. Fridays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Theo Ganz Studio, 149 Main Street. 917-318-2239; theoganzstudio.com. BEARSVILLE Galerie BMG “Unlocking Whimsy,” photographs by Leah Macdonald. Through Jan. 4. Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m., and by appointment. Galerie BMG, 17 Cricket Ridge Road. 845-679-0027; galeriebmg.com. BETHEL Museum at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts “Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World,” group show. Through Dec. 31. Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 200 Hurd Road. 866-781-2922; bethelwoodscenter.org. BRONX Bronx Museum of the Arts “Michael Joo: Suture.” Through Jan. 4. “Beyond the Supersquare,” group show. “Rethinking the Garden Casita.” “In Print/Imprint: Works From the Permanent Collection.” “Here I Am: Photographs by Lisa Leone.” Through Jan. 11. Thursdays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse. 718-681-6000; bronxmuseum.org. Image GARRISON “Garrison’s Landing on Leaf” (2014), photo transfer on an actual leaf, is on view in “Bundles, Fragments and Clusters,” an exhibition of works by Stacey Farley, through Jan. 4 at the Garrison Art Center, 23 Garrison’s Landing. For further information: 845-424-3960 or garrisonartcenter.org . Credit Will Stafford BRONX The New York Botanical Garden “Flora Illustrata: A Celebration of Botanical Masterworks.” Through Jan. 19. $10 to $28; children under 2, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard. 718-817-8700; nybg.org. COLD SPRING Buster Levi Gallery Group show by gallery artists. Through Feb. 1. Fridays through Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Buster Levi Gallery, 121 Main Street. 845-809-5810; busterlevigallery.com. COLD SPRING Gallery 66NY “Transitions,” metal works by Cindy Booth and paintings by SuHua Chen Low. “Malleable,” steel works by Peter Homestead. Dec. 28. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Gallery 66NY, 66 Main Street. gallery66ny.com; 845-809-5838. COLD SPRING Open Concept Gallery Manya and Roumen jewelry show. Through Dec. 31. Thursdays through Mondays, noon to 6 p.m. Open Concept Gallery, 125 Main Street. 845-260-0141; openconceptgallery.com. DOBBS FERRY The Donald Gallery Photographs and prints by Chloe Sikirica. Through Jan. 18. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Donald Gallery, 343 Broadway. southpres.org/thedonaldgallery.shtml; 914-693-0473. ELMSFORD Greenburgh Public Library Hooked rugs by Mary Parker. Through Jan. 14. Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Greenburgh Public Library, 300 Tarrytown Road. 914-721-8200; greenburghlibrary.org. GARRISON Garrison Art Center “Bundles, Fragments and Clusters,” Stacey Farley. Through Jan. 4. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Garrison Art Center, 23 Garrison’s Landing. 845-424-3960; garrisonartcenter.org. HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON Upstream Gallery “From Memory,” paintings and drawings by Rachel Weatherford Whitlow. Dec. 28. Annual Small Works Show. Jan. 8 through Jan. 25. Thursdays through Sundays, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.; and by appointment. Upstream Gallery, 8 Main Street. upstreamgallery.com; 914-674-8548. HUDSON 510 Warren Street Gallery “Frigid Fractals,” photographs by H. David Stein. Jan. 2 through Jan. 25. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. 510 Warren Street Gallery, 510 Warren Street. 518-822-0510; 510warrenstgallery.com. HUDSON Carrie Haddad Gallery Group photography show. Through Jan. 25. Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Carrie Haddad Gallery, 622 Warren Street. 518-828-1915; carriehaddadgallery.com. HUDSON Curatorium “Recovered: The Remaining Work of Barbara White,” paintings. “Dancing with the Muse,” paintings by R. Godfrey. “Peopled,” installation by William Clements. Through Feb. 28. Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Curatorium, 60 South Front Street. 212-537-6029; curatoriumhudson.org. HUDSON John Davis Gallery Paintings by McWillie Chambers. Jan. 10 through Feb. 1. Thursdays through Mondays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. John Davis Gallery, 362 1/2 Warren Street. 518-828-5907; johndavisgallery.com. IRVINGTON Irvington Public Library “Visions of Europe,” oil paintings by Joseph Genova. Through Dec. 30. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Irvington Public Library, 12 South Astor Street. 914-591-7840; irvingtonlibrary.org. KATONAH Katonah Museum of Art “Lethal Beauty: Samurai Weapons and Armor.” Through Jan. 4. $5 and $10; members and children under 12, free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay Street. 914-232-9555; katonahmuseum.org. LARCHMONT Mamaroneck Artists Guild “Black, White, and Red,” group show. Jan. 7 through Jan. 24. Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Mamaroneck Artists Guild, 126 Larchmont Avenue. 914-834-1117; mamaroneckartistsguild.org. NYACK Edward Hopper House Art Center “Small Matters of Great Importance: En Route,” group show. “Wendell Minor: Original Illustrations From ‘Edward Hopper Paints His World.’ “ Through Jan. 4. $2 to $7; members and children under 16, free. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Edward Hopper House Art Center, 82 North Broadway. hopperhouse.org; 845-358-0774. OSSINING Ossining Public Library The Westchester Photographic Society Annual Exhibit. Through Dec. 30. Monday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Wednesdays, 1 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Ossining Public Library, 53 Croton Avenue. 914-941-2416; ossininglibrary.org. PEEKSKILL Paramount Hudson Valley “Brains, Boobs and Backbones: Women Artists/Women’s Issues,” group exhibition. Through Dec. 31. Tuesdays through Sundays, 1 to 6 p.m. Paramount Hudson Valley, 1008 Brown Street. 914-739-0039; paramounthudsonvalley.com. PELHAM Pelham Art Center “Triumvirate!” Site-specific fabric installation on the center’s facade. Through Jan. 3. “Craft-tastic: an Exhibition and Sale of the Handmade.” Through Jan. 3. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pelham Art Center, 155 Fifth Avenue. 914-738-2525; pelhamartcenter.org. PORT EWEN Duck Pond Gallery, at Town of Esopus Library “Catching the Light,” group show. Jan. 3 through Jan. 31. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Duck Pond Gallery, at Town of Esopus Library, 128 Canal Street. 845-338-5580; esopuslibrary.org. POUND RIDGE The Lionheart Gallery Paintings and works on paper by Claudia Mengel. Through Jan. 2. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m., and by appointment. The Lionheart Gallery, 27 Westchester Avenue. thelionheartgallery.com; 914-764-8689. PURCHASE Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College “This Leads to Fire: Russian Art From Nonconformism to Global Capitalism, Selections From the Kolodzei Art Foundation Collection.” “Key Frames: Contemporary Artists’ Animation,” group show. Through Jan. 11. “When Modern Was Contemporary: The Roy R. Neuberger Collection.” Through March 15. “Becoming Disfarmer,” photographs by Mike Disfarmer. Through March 22. $3 to $5. Tuesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road. 914-251-6100; https://www.neuberger.org/. RYE Rye Arts Center “Irving Harper: a Mid-Century Mind at Play.” Through Jan. 24. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Rye Arts Center, 51 Milton Road. 914-967-0700; ryeartscenter.org. SCARSDALE Madelyn Jordon Fine Art “Abigail Goldman: Oh So Sorry.” Through Jan. 24. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, 37 Popham Road. madelynjordonfineart.com; 914-723-8738. TUCKAHOE Westchester Italian Cultural Center “Presepio Napoletano,” depiction of a village near Mount Vesuvius. “Picturing Mary,” images of the Virgin Mary. Through Jan. 24. $5 and $10, suggested donation. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Fridays, 2 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to noon. Westchester Italian Cultural Center, 1 Generoso Pope Place. 914-771-8700; wiccny.org. WOODSTOCK The Center for Photography at Woodstock “Home Grown,” group show. Through Jan. 11. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. The Center for Photography at Woodstock, 59 Tinker Street. 845-679-9957; cpw.org. WOODSTOCK Woodstock Artists Association and Museum “Georges Malkine: Perfect Surrealist Behavior.” Through Jan. 4. Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, noon to 5 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, 28 Tinker Street. 845-679-2940; woodstockart.org. YONKERS Hudson River Museum “Strut: The Peacock and Beauty in Art.” Through Jan. 18. $3 to $6; members, free. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Hudson River Museum, 511 Warburton Avenue. 914-963-4550; hrm.org.


Plan to Verify Delhi Pollution Data Raises Suspicions

Abstract: NEW DELHI — This megacity’s modest effort to warn residents about unhealthy spikes in air pollution levels in real time may soon end, after a decision to first send the data to be authenticated by the central government. Some experts and activists immediately questioned the need for such checks, accusing the government of trying to hide — or worse, alter — data that shows Delhi’s air to be the world’s most toxic at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for greater industrialization. Recent high readings, which consistently exceed Beijing’s pollution readings, have alarmed the city’s Indian elites and expatriate community. Although the government says it will release the checked data daily, at least one official questioned whether that would happen consistently. Any delay in the release of the information, critics say, deprives people of the opportunity to protect themselves against bad air by limiting their time outdoors. Five officials contacted by telephone on Wednesday refused to answer questions about the new policy. Image A man covered his face to protect himself from smog in New Delhi in January. Credit Manish Swarup/Associated Press A statement issued on Tuesday by India ’s environment ministry said, “The unified system, expected to be in position in maximum two weeks’ time, will ensure authentic air quality information of Delhi to public at large.” The change is intended to ensure that the many government departments monitoring Delhi’s air “follow a uniform scientific calibration protocol and validation process.” But B. Kumar, who retired in 2013 as an official of the Delhi pollution committee and who helped create the present monitoring method, said on Wednesday that the system had worked well. “It’s totally automatic, and the data is transferred directly from the machines to the website, so there’s nothing to authenticate,” said Mr. Kumar, who like many Indians uses an initial for his first name. “If they feel there is a problem, they could just check the equipment and see what needs to be solved.” The new policy requires that Delhi’s data be sent for authentication to the Central Pollution Control Board, overseen by the national government, Mr. Kumar said. “They just don’t want people to see the actual data,” he said. Mr. Kumar said no one works at the central board at night or on weekends, which he said would result in long delays before the information was made public. Sarath Guttikunda, director of Urban Emissions, an independent research group based in Delhi, also criticized the government’s decision, saying that instead of taking measures to improve Delhi’s air, officials are trying to suppress information about it. The city’s data is “not that reliable to begin with,” Dr. Guttikunda said. “And blocking that data from coming out in real time and somehow correcting it in some back office will only make it even more unreliable.” Among the existing problems, Dr. Guttikunda said, are frequent, unexplained gaps in the data. During a visit in January by President Obama, India signed an agreement that would bring to the country a system called AirNow, which is used in the United States to measure and quickly disseminate data about air quality. The United States Embassy in Delhi publishes information on its website from an air monitor on embassy grounds, although the data is averaged over a 24-hour period and does not provide a good snapshot of the air quality at any given moment. An estimated 1.5 million people die annually in India, about one-sixth of all Indian deaths , as a result of outdoor and indoor air pollution, a problem caused in part by the widespread use of cow dung as cooking fuel. The country has the world’s highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases , and more deaths from asthma than any other nation, according to the World Health Organization. Air pollution also contributes to both chronic and acute heart disease, the leading cause of death in India. “People have the right to know whether the day’s air quality is good enough to go outside,” said Dr. Sundeep Salvi, director of the Chest Research Foundation in Pune. “If they don’t trust their monitors to provide good data, they should get new monitors. What they shouldn’t do is stop releasing the data.”

Air pollution
India
Respiratory disease
Delhi India


Walmart Vice President Forced Out for Lying About Degree

Abstract: David Tovar, the vice president for corporate communications at Walmart, was forced to resign after the retailer discovered that he had lied about receiving an art degree from the University of Delaware. A spokeswoman for the school, Andrea Boyle, confirmed in an email that Mr. Tovar had attended the university for four years but did not graduate. “It’s my mistake. I own it,” Mr. Tovar, who had been with the company for eight years, said in an interview. “I definitely didn’t disclose that I didn’t have a degree, and there were times where it was probably an error of omission.” Mr. Tovar said he had thought he had the necessary credits to graduate from the University of Delaware with an art degree in 1996 but discovered months after participating in the graduation ceremony that he was “a couple of credit hours short.” Years later, when people asked about his educational background, he would say that he had attended the university, but would not disclose that he had not graduated. He said in the interview that he did not remember what his résumé stated. Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, confirmed Mr. Tovar’s departure in an internal announcement on Friday. “During his time in the company, Dave has made many contributions to build our brand and to help make Walmart a better business,” he wrote. Mr. Tovar’s departure over the résumé discrepancy was first reported by Bloomberg News. Mr. Tovar has handled much of the company’s publicity after accusations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids American companies from greasing international trade wheels by bribing foreign officials. The New York Times reported in 2012 that Walmart, the United States’ largest retailer, had routinely bribed Mexican officials to accelerate its expansion in that country. Mr. Tovar was known to push back at media coverage that he considered critical of his employer. In June, he mocked an article by the Times columnist Timothy Egan on Walmart’s blog by posting a copy of it marked up in red outlining what he viewed as errors. On Tuesday, Mr. Tovar said that Walmart had planned to promote him to a senior vice president position and discovered his education history during a routine background check that was more rigorous than the one conducted when he was hired. “I suppose the irony here is that I was about to be promoted and now a couple weeks later I’m going to be leaving the company,” he said. Mr. Tovar is not the first high-level executive to be accused of misrepresenting his education history. In 2012, Yahoo’s chief executive, Scott Thompson, resigned under pressure after it was revealed that he had lied about receiving a computer science degree. Mr. Tovar said that he had contacted the University of Delaware to determine which credits he was missing. “I’m in the process of trying to figure out what I need to finish up the last class in order to get my degree,” he said. “And then I plan to resume my career.”

David Tovar
University of Delaware
Walmart Stores
Appointments and Executive Changes


Uniting Neighbors, in Fun and Sorrow

Abstract: There are buildings in New York where residents typically exchange little more than token pursed smiles every time they find themselves on the elevator at the same time, lest anyone suffer the imposition of an unwelcome friendly overture. Then there are the buildings where the lobby is a great sinkhole of sociability, a liminal space where 20 or 40 minutes of time vanish in pleasantries and catching up and invitations to dinner parties that require no more of a commute than an elevator ride or a walk down the hall. What makes one building a communal home and another a place where people merely share adjacent walls? Is it something about the lighting in the hallways, or the height of the ceilings or the size of the lobby? Sometimes, all it takes is one powerful person to set the tone. At 85 Eighth Avenue, a wide, six-floor building between 14th and 15th Streets, that person was Michele Hyams, who rented there for more than 30 years. Ms. Hyams believed strongly in rules for communal living, and wasn’t afraid to share them with her neighbors, many of them, like her, single, and living in a small studio apartment: If you don’t work and you’re home all day, for God’s sake, don’t hog the laundry machines at night; if your big bag of garbage doesn’t fit in the chute, bring it down to the basement, don’t just leave it there to stink up the place. (If she saw such an offending bag, she might well sort through the contents for telltale identification, and return it to its owner with a friendly but pointed note.) But those were substatutes of Ms. Hyams’s code for apartment life, which mostly celebrated and mandated intrabuilding socializing. Ms. Hyams, the doting owner of a gray poodle (“she wore it like a brooch,” said one neighbor), organized pet play dates on her floor. She believed in parties, lots and lots of parties, and the virtues of a good Asiago cheese and boxed white wine, which flowed freely at her apartment almost every Friday night for years on end, a building tradition that neighbors could count on. Usually dressed in her hot-flash-friendly building uniform (a running bra and short shorts), she’d urge her neighbor Richard, whom she eventually nursed through prostate cancer, to tell his Korean War stories, and would listen raptly as her friend Lauren Asher, who lived upstairs, rehashed her latest dating disaster. “She was your best audience,” Ms. Asher said. “You never felt boring when you told Michele a story.” She also believed in the free exchange of information, in sharing delicious morsels, confirmed or not, about the ever-fascinating world of the building’s inhabitants: “I’ve heard she was an actual witch,” or “Nope, he claims he’s not gay!” “Michele was a huge gossip, but everything was done with such fun,” said Laura Strandhoy Amin, who lived on Ms. Hyams’s floor. “She’d invite you in, get you liquored up, and the next thing you knew your own stories came out. Once it was out in the wine den, it was fair game.” Where you were getting married, how much you’d paid for your last apartment, what you did for a living and how it was going — you could assume that once Ms. Hyams knew, everyone knew. “And maybe that’s what brought people together in the building,” Ms. Strandhoy Amin said. “There were common threads that allowed people to talk to each other more.” Ms. Hyams’s role in the building started to change a few years ago, when a new boyfriend moved in with her. The parties grew infrequent, and sometimes neighbors heard fights, loud ones, coming from the apartment. Ms. Hyams was as upbeat as ever when people saw her in the lobby, but somehow, they didn’t see her as often. Someone mentioned that she’d been wearing sunglasses a lot. To hide crying? Something worse? She started reaching out to old high school friends, telling them she was thinking about making a move, leaving her beloved nest in New York to start over. Ms. Hyams, who knew so much about everyone else, managed to keep one secret from most of the building, which was just how troubled her own life had become. On June 9, not long past midnight, Ms. Asher got a call from a neighbor saying something was going on at Ms. Hyams’s apartment. The police were there, and an ambulance, and Ms. Hyams’s boyfriend. But not Ms. Hyams. Ms. Asher and some neighbors she’d met — through Ms. Hyams, of course — stood on the fourth floor watching the detectives mill around. Then the neighbors congregated in one apartment; they traded impressions, bits of information, morsels of insight they’d gathered from the police. It was the darkest possible version of Ms. Hyams’s greatest passion, and none of it felt idle. There were a lot of detectives, so many it didn’t look good. And the detectives wouldn’t let anyone know which hospital was treating their friend. And finally, it came out, someone had seen a body leaving the apartment. It was covered with a white sheet. Eventually, they’d learn, she’d been brutally assaulted and murdered. As of Friday, no one had been arrested. “You overhear things, you pick up little bits,” Ms. Asher said. “Finally, you know more than you want to.”

New York City
Murders and Attempted Murders


In Turmoil of ’68, Clinton Found a New Voice

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — In September 1968, Hillary Diane Rodham, role model and student government president, was addressing Wellesley College freshmen girls — back when they were still called “girls” — about methods of protest. It was a hot topic in that overheated year of what she termed “confrontation politics from Chicago to Czechoslovakia.” “Dynamism is a function of change,” Ms. Rodham said in her speech. “On some campuses, change is effected through nonviolent or even violent means. Although we too have had our demonstrations, change here is usually a product of discussion in the decision-making process.” Her handwritten remarks — on file in the Wellesley archives — abound with abbreviations, crossed-out sentences and scrawled reinsertions, as if composed in a hurry. Yet Ms. Rodham’s words are neatly contained between tight margins. She took care to stay within the lines, even when they were moving so far and fast in 1968. While student leaders at some campuses went to the barricades, Ms. Rodham was attending teach-ins, leading panel discussions and joining steering committees. She preferred her “confrontation politics” cooler. “She was not an antiwar radical trying to create a mass movement,” said Ellen DuBois, who, with Ms. Rodham, was an organizer of a student strike that April. “She was very much committed to working within the political system. From a student activist perspective, there was a significant difference.” As the nation boiled over Vietnam, civil rights and the slayings of two charismatic leaders, Ms. Rodham was completing a sweeping intellectual, political and stylistic shift. She came to Wellesley as an 18-year-old Republican, a copy of Barry Goldwater’s right-wing treatise, “The Conscience of a Conservative,” on the shelf of her freshman dorm room. She would leave as an antiwar Democrat whose public rebuke of a Republican senator in a graduation speech won her notice in Life magazine as a voice for her generation. Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s course was set, in large part, during the supercharged year of 1968. “There was a sense of tremendous change, internationally and here at home which impacted greatly how I thought about things,” Mrs. Clinton said in a telephone interview about that period, which encompassed the second half of her junior and first half of her senior years. It was a time at once disorienting and clarifying, a period that would reinforce the future senator and presidential candidate’s suspicion of “emotional politics” while stoking her frustration with what she considered the passivity of her classmates. Her political itinerary that year resembles a frenzied travelogue of youthful contradiction. She might have been the only 20-year-old in America who worked on the antiwar presidential campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire that winter and for the hawkish Republican congressman Melvin Laird in Washington that summer. She attended both the Republican National Convention in Miami (bunking at the Fontainebleu Hotel, ordering room service for the first time — cereal and a daintily wrapped peach) and the Democratic donnybrook in Chicago (smelling tear gas at Grant Park, watching a toilet fly out the window of the Hilton hotel). The day after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain, she joined a demonstration in Post Office Square in Boston, returning to campus wearing a black armband. “People become experiences,” Ms. Rodham wrote about all the ferment in a Feb. 23 letter to John Peavoy, a friend from high school. She added later, “The whole society is brittle.” Looking back, it is easy to see that ambitious political science major in the first lady, United States senator and, now, presidential candidate she would become. She campaigned meticulously in student elections, going door to door and dorm to dorm. She wrote thank-you notes to professors who helped her. In the bustle of her excursions, she showed the zeal of an emerging political junkie. And, while outspoken and often blunt, Ms. Rodham was hardly a bomb-thrower. She was, then as now, dedicated to cerebral policy debates, government process and carefully calibrated positions. “Her opinions are mature and responsible, rather than emotional and one-sided,” Alan Schechter, a political science professor at Wellesley, wrote in a law school recommendation that year for Ms. Rodham. A Goldwater Girl Ms. Rodham had arrived at Wellesley in the fall of 1965, a decorated Girl Scout and teacher’s pet from a Republican household in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Ill. She had distributed leaflets for Mr. Goldwater’s presidential campaign the previous fall and was determined to rise quickly through the moribund ranks of Wellesley’s Young Republicans chapter. As a go-getter freshman, Ms. Rodham was elected president of the group, dutifully recruiting students to help Massachusetts candidates including Edward Brooke, the future United States senator whom she would chastise in a 1969 commencement speech as being out of touch with the concerns of the new graduates. In 1966, her public words were less audacious. “The girl who doesn’t want to go out and shake hands can type letters or do general office work,” Ms. Rodham told The Wellesley News in an appeal for Republican volunteers. Soon, though, Ms. Rodham’s views began veering leftward. She became opposed to the Vietnam War, putting her increasingly in conflict with her conservative father, Hugh Rodham. “My opinions on most human conditions are being liberalized,” Ms. Rodham wrote in 1965 to Don Jones, a progressive Methodist minister from back home who had influenced her thinking. “The combination of bleeding heart liberal and mental conservative is the inevitable conclusion one arrives at after following and pondering political events,” she wrote. Around campus, Ms. Rodham wore industrial-thick glasses and a uniform of the times — clunky boots, ratty jeans, a Navy blue pea coat and a succession of turtlenecks, sweater vests and work shirts. (“I look like hell and I could care less” she wrote to Mr. Peavoy.) She was prone to capricious fashion choices. A suitemate, Connie Hoenk Shapiro, recalled asking why she had bought a particularly dreadful pair of muddy-colored shoes (with clunky 2-inch heels and a square toe) and Ms. Rodham explaining, “I felt sorry for them and wanted to give them a home.” Friends say she had a playful streak, was game for road trips to Vermont and Cape Cod, and liked to call people by goofy nicknames. “She would sometimes refer to herself in the third person as “the Hill,” or “the Hill woman,” said her Wellesley classmate Nancy Pietrafesa, whose childhood moniker, Peach, sometimes became Peacharoo or Peacharooni in Hill-speak. Unlike many of her peers, she never experimented with illegal drugs, Mrs. Clinton said. She embraced collegiate social rituals, attending mixers, showing up to Harvard football games (often with a book, a friend recalls) and planning a strawberries-and-cream bridal shower atop the Wellesley Bell Tower for a roommate, Johanna Branson. Still, she was something of a sponge for all the angst and argument engulfing her generation. Ms. Shapiro recalled going to do errands one afternoon when Ms. Rodham handed her an unopened bottle of perfume she had bought and asked her to return it to the store. “I asked why,” Ms. Shapiro recalled. “Her answer was that it was an extravagance she felt guilty about indulging in when there was so much poverty around us. We were increasingly sensitive to issues of what we now call white privilege. ” When Dr. King was killed on the balcony of a Memphis motel on April 4, 1968, Ms. Rodham was devastated. “I can’t take it anymore,” she screamed after learning the news, her friends recalled. Crying, Ms. Rodham stormed into her dormitory room and hurled her book bag against the wall. Later, she made a telephone call to a close friend, Karen Williamson, the head of the black student organization on campus, to offer sympathy. Ms. Rodham, who met Dr. King after a speech in Chicago in 1962, had admired his methodical approach to social change, favoring it over what she considered the excessively combative methods of groups like the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, or S.N.C.C., pronounced snick. “Just because a person cannot approve of snicks’ attitude toward civil disobedience does not mean he wishes to maintain the racial status quo,” Ms. Rodham wrote as a freshman to Mr. Jones, the Methodist minister. After Dr. King’s assassination provoked riots in cities and unrest on campuses, Ms. Rodham worried that protesters would shut down Wellesley (not constructive). She helped organize a two-day strike (more pragmatic) and worked closely with Wellesley’s few black students (only 6 in her class of 401) in reaching moderate, achievable change — such as recruiting more black students and hiring black professors (there had been none). Eschewing megaphones and sit-ins, she organized meetings, lectures and seminars, designed to be educational. “I was rooted in a political approach that understood that you can’t just take to the streets and make change in America,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview. “You can’t just give a speech and expect people to fall down and agree with you.” Even so, the killing of Dr. King created “a sense of disorder that was both unsettling and catalyzing” to Ms. Rodham, recalled Mr. Schechter, the political science professor and a mentor to her. Friends observed that she was less restrained and less deferential after Dr. King’s death. At a panel discussion for a group of Wellesley alumni in mid-April, Mrs. Clinton bemoaned the “large gray mass” of uninvolved students. At another meeting, she argued with an economics professor who suggested that the strike take place on a weekend. “I’ll give up my date Saturday night, Mr. Goldman, but I don’t think that’s the point,” Ms. Rodham told the professor, Marshall Goldman, according to the April 25, 1968, Wellesley News. “Individual consciences are fine but individual consciences have to be made manifest. Why do these attitudes have to be limited to two days?” Ms. Rodham had traveled to New Hampshire several times that winter to volunteer for Mr. McCarthy, the Minnesota Democrat challenging President Lyndon B. Johnson for the Democratic nomination . Mr. McCarthy’s message — that the antiwar movement should operate within the system, not on the streets — appealed to Ms. Rodham. The candidate urged his supporters to be respectful, prompting the young activists to cut their hair, shave their beards and be “Clean for Gene.” That summer, Ms. Rodham took to the streets herself, albeit as a safe observer. While home in Park Ridge, she and a friend, Betsy Johnson, kept hearing about all the commotion downtown at the Democratic Convention. They drove Ms. Johnson’s parents’ station wagon into Chicago to view the spectacle. “We thought we had seen all there was to see in our sheltered neighborhood,” recalled Betsy Johnson Eberling, another former Goldwater Girl. “It was a radicalizing experience for us, to some extent.” Mrs. Clinton has said repeatedly how “shocked” she was at the brutality she witnessed — protesters throwing rocks, police officers beating protesters — but describes the bedlam with almost scholarly detachment. In her memoir, “Living History,” she recalls spending hours that summer arguing with a friend over the “meaning of revolution and whether our country would face one.” Even if there was a revolution, the two friends concluded, “we would never participate.” Keeping a Toe in the G.O.P. For all her leftward movement, Ms. Rodham still kept a toe in the Republican Party, working as an intern in Washington that summer. Mr. Schechter, who supervised the Wellesley internship program, sent her to work for the House Republican Conference, then headed by Mr. Laird, the Wisconsin congressman who would later become President Richard Nixon’s defense secretary. “My adviser said, ‘I’m still going to assign you to the Republicans because I want you to understand completely what your own transformation represents,” Mrs. Clinton recalled of Mr. Schechter. “I remember her being very bright, very aggressive and not very Republican,” said Ed Feulner, who managed the summer interns in the office and now heads the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. Ever diligent, Ms. Rodham did “a fine job,” said Mr. Laird, citing a “very thorough and well-researched” speech she wrote on the financing of the Vietnam War. At the end of the internship, Ms. Rodham proudly posed for a photo with House Republican leaders, including Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan. The photo hung in her father’s bedroom when he died in 1993. Along with other interns, Ms. Rodham was invited by Representative Charles Goodell, a moderate New York Republican, to help Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s last-ditch campaign to defeat Mr. Nixon for the Republican nomination. At the party’s convention in Miami, she met Frank Sinatra, shared an elevator with John Wayne and decided to leave the Republican Party for good. “She was particularly furious at how she felt Rockefeller had been trashed by the Nixon people,” Mr. Schechter said. “I’m done with this, absolutely,” Mrs. Clinton recalled thinking upon hearing Mr. Nixon’s acceptance speech. She characterized the Republicanism of her youth as one of fiscal conservatism and social moderation, and at odds with what she viewed as the intolerance of Miami. “All of a sudden you get all these veiled messages, frankly, that were racist,” Mrs. Clinton said of the convention. “I may not have been able to explain it, but I could feel it.” Back at Wellesley that fall, Ms. Rodham immersed herself in campus matters. She reveled in her role as student government president, which offered both the visibility and social validation she craved. (“I think I enjoy winning elections as a tangible proof of respect and liking,” she wrote to Mr. Peavoy.) She won the post in the spring, after campaigning for two weeks “spouting the usual platitudes,” as she said in her letter. When she learned of her victory, she was stunned and thrilled. “Can you believe this?” she said over and over, recalled a professor, Steve London, who received a thank-you note from Ms. Rodham soon after her election. “I think it was a form letter that went out to all the faculty,” Mr. London said. As the year was ending , Ms. Rodham was working on a 92-page honors dissertation on Saul Alinsky, the antipoverty crusader and community activist, whom she described (quoting from The Economist) as “that rare specimen, the successful radical.” Power and Activism Beyond Mr. Alinsky, the treatise yields insights about its author. Gaining power, Ms. Rodham asserted, was at the core of effective activism. It “is the very essence of life, the dynamo of life,” she wrote, quoting Mr. Alinsky. Ms. Rodham endorsed Mr. Alinsky’s central critique of government antipoverty programs — that they tended to be too top-down and removed from the wishes of individuals. But the student leader split with Mr. Alinsky over a central point. He vowed to “rub raw the sores of discontent” and compel action through agitation. This, she believed, ran counter to the notion of change within the system. Typically, the paper, which received an A, was neatly typed, exhaustively footnoted and even included a page of acknowledgments. “Although I have no “loving wife” to thank for keeping the children away while I wrote,” Ms. Rodham said, “I do have many friends and teachers who have contributed to the process.” In a listing of primary sources, Ms. Rodham reported that she met three times with Mr. Alinsky and that he offered her a job. “After a year trying to make sense of his inconsistency,” she wrote, explaining her demurral, “I need three years of legal rigor.”

Wellesley College
Republican Party
Presidential Election of 2008
Clinton Hillary Rodham
Democratic Party
Politics and Government


F.B.I. Criticized Officer’s Role in Terror Case

Abstract: The undercover New York police detective at the heart of a case against a Queens man accused in a terror plot came under criticism from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his handling of an earlier terrorism inquiry, according to a legal document. The document was released to reporters on Tuesday after a hearing for the Queens man, Ahmed Ferhani, an Algerian immigrant who was arrested last year on charges of planning to attack a synagogue . His lawyer, Lamis J. Deek, alluded to the criticism, involving a separate 2009 terrorism investigation, earlier in the day during the State Supreme Court hearing in Manhattan. In 2009, the detective, identified in court documents as UC 242, was investigating a group of Turkish men who discussed sending money to Gaza to buy guns for Palestinians , according to the document, a letter that the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed in court recently. The office said on Tuesday that it would not comment on the letter. When the New York Police Department informed federal terrorism investigators about the inquiry, a task force led by the F.B.I. was “reportedly critical” of one detail of the police investigation: that during a meeting with the men, the detective “raised the subject of Hamas before anyone else did,” according to the letter, written by a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The investigation involving the Turkish men had not been previously disclosed. The letter hinted at the friction between the Police Department and the Joint Terrorism Task Force as each pursues terror investigations, sometimes jointly and other times separately. In the case of Mr. Ferhani and his co-defendant, Mohamed Mamdouh, the task force chose not to participate in the Police Department inquiry. The task force also did not join a case last year against a Hamilton Heights man whom the local authorities accused in a bomb plot . The investigation into the Turkish men fizzled: one man absconded with the money, according to the letter, which was written by a prosecutor, Gary J. Galperin, adding that the man used it “for personal expenditures.” Mr. Galperin, in the letter, added that the detective’s involvement in the 2009 investigation had no relevance to the case against Mr. Ferhani. “We have uncovered no information that we believe would tend to exculpate defendant,” he wrote. Ms. Deek said at a news conference that the F.B.I.’s concerns bolstered her claim that Mr. Ferhani, 27, was later entrapped by the same detective.

Terrorism
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Synagogues
Police Department (NYC)
Ferhani Ahmed
New York City
Police Brutality and Misconduct


Wizards Overcome Derrick Rose and the Bulls

Abstract: Paul Pierce had 22 points, and the visiting Washington Wizards beat the Chicago Bulls, 105-99, on Wednesday, even as Derrick Rose had a season-high 32 points. John Wall scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. Bradley Beal finished with 17, and the Wizards knocked off the Bulls, the leaders of the Eastern Conference’s Central Division, for the second time in six days. The Bulls played the second half without Joakim Noah after he injured his right ankle. HAWKS 105, CELTICS 91 DeMarre Carroll and Jeff Teague each scored 22 points to help Atlanta win its 10th straight, at Boston. Paul Millsap added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks, who are on their longest winning streak since they won 11 in a row early in the 1997-98 season. SPURS 98, HORNETS 93 Manu Ginobili had 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting, and visiting San Antonio ended Charlotte’s five-game winning streak. Tim Duncan had 14 points and 10 rebounds to help the Spurs beat the Hornets for the eighth straight time. NUGGETS 114, MAVERICKS 107 Ty Lawson had 29 points and 12 assists, and Denver beat Dallas at home. Kenneth Faried had 22 points and 14 rebounds to help the Nuggets extend their winning streak to five. Dirk Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler and Rajon Rondo rested while Raymond Felton, Richard Jefferson and Greg Smith started for Dallas. Image Carmelo Anthony with Britain’s Prince Harry at a ceremony Wednesday in London, where the Knicks will play Thursday. Credit Chris Jackson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images PELICANS 105, PISTONS 94 Anthony Davis had 27 points and 10 rebounds as visiting New Orleans defeated Detroit. The Pistons entered the game having won of nine of 10 but were never competitive with New Orleans, which led by 20 with 3 minutes 15 seconds to play. RAPTORS 100, 76ERS 84 Kyle Lowry had 18 points and 12 assists, DeMar DeRozan scored 8 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter in his return from a groin injury, and host Toronto never trailed against Philadelphia. Amir Johnson had 10 points and a season-high 16 rebounds to help Toronto win its sixth straight over Philadelphia and improve to 7-0 against Atlantic Division opponents. MAGIC 120, ROCKETS 113 Victor Oladipo had 32 points, Nik Vucevic added 25 points and 12 rebounds, and host Orlando rallied to beat Houston. The Rockets led, 85-84, entering the fourth quarter but were outscored, 36-28, in the final 12 minutes. James Harden had 26 points and 10 assists to lead the Rockets. SILVER SPEAKS FROM LONDON N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said he thought it was “inevitable” that the league would one day take after European sports and have sponsor names on jerseys. The N.B.A. is back in London for its annual regular-season game, which will be played Thursday as the Knicks face the Milwaukee Bucks.

Wizards
Chicago Bulls
Atlanta
Adam Silver
Basketball
Atlanta Hawks