Multitouch Computing Is Here. Will Gorilla Arm Follow?

Abstract: Blame “Minority Report.” Or maybe the iPhone . Either way, multitouch computing is white-hot these days. There was just something so seductive about the way Tom Cruise could grab on-screen objects and toss them around — not with a mouse, but with his fingers. What’s so great about the mouse, anyway? How is it natural to drag a plastic box across a horizontal surface to move things on a vertical screen two feet away? How kludgy! How indirect! How Cro-Magnon! The iPhone brought multitouch to the real world. You want to push a button? So push it. You want to turn a page? Flick the screen like a real page. Move down a map by dragging with your finger, as you would a real map. Spread two fingers on the glass to zoom into a page or a photo, as if it’s printed on a sheet of rubber. Twist two fingers against the glass to rotate a photo. It’s direct, it’s logical, it’s addictive. But why should multitouch be confined to your phone? We should have multitouch screens on our computers, right? Microsoft has seen the writing on the glass. Right out of the box, Windows 7 recognizes all of those iPhonish finger gestures: pinch, spread, rotate, flick, tap, double-tap. You can even simulate the right-click of a mouse: hold your index finger on something on screen, then tap somewhere else on screen with another finger. All of this comes to life when you buy a computer with a multitouch screen. They’re just starting to appear. Now, making gestures on a small phone screen, perfectly angled in your hand, is one thing; making gestures on a big, immovable, vertical PC screen is quite another. Keeping your arm out at right angles, making tiny, precise movements on the glass — wouldn’t that be an exhausting, ergonomic nightmare? In fact, the aches and swelling that would supposedly result has earned itself a nickname online: Gorilla Arm. Fear of Gorilla Arm, we’re told, killed touch computing during its first wave in the early 1980s. But is Gorilla Arm for real? After all, as the Wikipedia article on touch-screen computing defiantly observes, “fine art painters and draftsmen have worked in similar postures with vertically mounted surfaces to draw on for millennia.” So what’s the truth? Is multitouch computing the wave of the future? Or just an expensive gimmick that will send us all to the physical therapist? I decided to try it out for myself. Toshiba lent me a touch-screen laptop, the Satellite M505 ($1,000); Hewlett-Packard sent me a touch-screen all-in-one desktop computer, the TouchSmart 600 ($1,170). The TouchSmart is an all-in-one PC (the computer itself is inside the screen). Snazzy features are everywhere: wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, tilting webcam, memory card slot, adjustable stand, even a slick light on the screen’s bottom edge to illuminate the keyboard. It has enough jacks to stock a RadioShack , U.S.B. ports by the handful, HDMI input so you can use the 23-inch hi-def screen for your home theater, and a jack for a TV cable so you can use Windows Media Center to act as a fancy TiVo . Unfortunately, the TouchSmart may be loaded, loaded, loaded, but it’s also slow, slow, slow. Slow to start up, to open programs and, tragically, to respond to finger taps. H.P. confirms that it’s made with “mobile components,” meaning laptop parts; in any case, it feels overwhelmed by the simplest tasks. When you spread two fingers to zoom a Web page, the zooming animation is jerky and therefore hard to control. You can swipe horizontally to go back or forward a page, but you’ll wait — no joke — nine seconds for the computer to respond. The Toshiba laptop is another story. It’s a rather thick, heavy laptop with flat, slippery keys and trackpad buttons — but the touch screen is fast and responsive. Here, you get giddy with the possibilities. A button on the screen? Just tap it. Reaching for the mouse and guiding the cursor all the way across the screen feels so much less natural. A menu or list? Just drive directly for the item you want, rather than passing through the whole list with the arrow keys or the mouse. Unfortunately, though, there are four obstacles to making multitouch work as well on a PC as it does on an app phone. First, it has to work every time. The H.P.’s touch response is so balky that you tap and wait to see if the PC “heard” you. (It doesn’t have the touch-sensitive surface of app phones and multitouch laptops because that would cost too much on such huge screen. Instead, it has tiny infrared cameras mounted at the edges of the screen. High-tech, but not sure-fire.) Second, there’s the finger-size problem. On an app phone, every tappable element on the screen is big and finger-friendly — not so on a PC. Now, Windows 7 helps out in all kinds of small ways. On a touch-screen PC, the Show Desktop button is double-wide; you can open jump lists (pop-up taskbar menus) by swiping a finger upward instead of right-clicking. If you’re clever, you can customize close boxes or scroll bars to make them larger. In Internet Explorer 8, you can tap with two fingers to zoom in, which is handy when you want to magnify the area of a link. The History and Favorites lists are more widely spaced. But the rest of Windowsland remains as it was: mostly too small to tap with your fingers. H.P. and Toshiba each compensate with special touch programs, like drag-your-photos modules and scribble-a-note apps. H.P.’s is especially ambitious. It’s a mini-world of mini-apps: Photo, Weather, Clock, Live TV, DVD, Calendar, R.S.S. Feeds, Browser, Video, Recipe Box, Twitter , Netflix , Canvas, Webcam, Hulu (great Internet TV) and so on. But H.P. and Toshiba can’t rewrite every app on earth. Until somebody does, you’re going to experience a mishmash of touch-appropriate and too-small software. The third huge problem: today’s programs don’t respond consistently to touch gestures. In Microsoft’s own Windows Live Photo Gallery, the right-click gesture works in thumbnail view, but not once you’ve opened a photo. In Adobe Reader, scrolling works and spreading works, but not two-finger-tap-to-magnify. The rotate gesture works in Photo Gallery, but not in Google ’s Picasa. (Even the swipe-to-scroll gesture doesn’t work in Picasa.) Touch is nearly useless when you’re word processing. You can zoom in, and you can double-tap to select a word, but precision dragging (for highlighting a passage) is nearly impossible. The final problem: our old friend Gorilla Arm. After an afternoon of using arm’s-length touch gestures, my wrist was tingly and sore. Millennia of draftsmen may have worked in that position, but they probably needed a lot of Advil. Now, when everything’s working — when you’re in an app that reliably responds to the gestures — it really works like magic. You flick, zoom, manipulate and wonder why anyone puts up with the mouse. The trouble is, those moments are far too infrequent. You never know when a gesture is going to work, so there’s a lot of trial, error and feeling foolish. Now, the iPad and its inevitable imitators are a different story. If you can hold the thing at any angle, if the hardware and software were designed for finger operation from the beginning, multitouch can be far more successful. Multitouch regular PCs, however, are a long way away from being usable or pleasant. Until the consistency and design problems go away, multitouch will only complement, not replace, the mouse. In other words, the depiction of a futuristic, mouseless, all-touch interface in “Minority Report” clearly skipped over a few important details. You never saw Tom Cruise making an appointment to see his doctor about Gorilla Arm.

Desktop computer
Computers and the Internet
Computer monitor


A New Verse in the Ballad of Ellis Island’s First Immigrant

Abstract: On the first day of January, Eighteen ninety-two, They opened Ellis Island and they let The people through. And first to cross the threshold Of that isle of hope and tears, Was Annie Moore from Ireland Who was all of fifteen years. For decades, Paul Linehan, a 47-year-old tenor from Narraghmore in County Kildare, Ireland, would sing those lines from the maudlin Irish ballad “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,” but last week, for the first time, he choked on the lyrics. Mr. Linehan, an adviser to primary schoolteachers, had visited Ellis Island in 2000. He had seen Annie Moore’s statue there and also her likeness in Cobh Heritage Centre (formerly Queenstown) in County Cork where she boarded the steamship Nevada in 1891, on her way to New York, where she became the first immigrant processed when Ellis Island opened. (She was actually 17 at the time.) But until this month, Mr. Linehan did not know he was Annie’s first cousin three times removed. “Two weeks ago no one was aware of this connection,” he said. “Annie Moore was just a statue to us.” On Wednesday, Mr. Linehan, an emissary of Ms. Moore’s Irish progeny, and Michael Shulman of Silver Spring, Md., a grandnephew representing her American descendants, met in New York for the family’s first trans-Atlantic reunion. “Stories of immigration in Ireland are 10 to a penny,” Mr. Linehan said. “But there was a strong push from my family to build a bridge between the Irish and American cousins.” The reunion was arranged by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, a genealogist who in 2006 was instrumental in debunking the decades-old myth that Annie Moore died in Texas in 1923. The Annie who died instantly when hit by a streetcar near Fort Worth that year was apparently born in Illinois, and her family had moved to Texas as early as 1880. For decades, history had the wrong Annie Moore. The story of the immigrant girl who went west became so commonly accepted that even descendants of the Annie Moore who died in Texas came to believe it. Several participated in ceremonies on Ellis Island and in Ireland. The Annie Moore who actually inaugurated Ellis Island first joined her parents, who had arrived several years earlier, in Lower Manhattan. January 2017 is the 125th anniversary of Annie’s arrival in New York, and to kick off the celebration Mrs. Smolenyak took Mr. Linehan and Mr. Shulman, both bearded and burly, to lunch this week at Annie Moore’s, a pub in Midtown Manhattan, and to the Irish American Hall of Fame awards ceremony at the Metropolitan Club, where Mr. Linehan sang “Isle of Hope.” “I’ve been looking for the Irish cousins for 10 years,” Mrs. Smolenyak said on Wednesday. Mr. Shulman visited Ireland in 1978, generally believing family legend about Annie Moore, but had no luck locating relatives. “I took my mother’s Bible,” he recalled, “but looking for Moore was like looking for John Smith in the United States.” The American Moores have become a melting pot. Mr. Shulman’s father is Jewish, and his full name is Michael James Patrick Shulman, an only-in-New York agglomeration. “People say, ‘Oh, you’re from New York, right?’” he said. Both he and Mr. Linehan were struck that more than a century after Annie Moore’s journey, Americans were still debating the influx of foreigners. “As a financial analyst I can say, Do you have any idea of what this country would be like without immigration?” Mr. Shulman said. “I go back to Annie Moore and the conditions she left in Ireland,” Mr. Linehan said. “ It’s the likes of Annie Moore coming that made this country what it is.” Mrs. Smolenyak found that the Annie Moore of Ellis Island fame lived the rest of her life within a few Manhattan blocks, married a bakery clerk, had 11 children and died at 99 Cherry Street of heart failure in 1924 when she was 47. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Calvary Cemetery in Queens. In 2008, with contributions from Annie’s newfound relatives and from Brian G. Andersson, the city’s commissioner of records, a limestone Celtic cross was dedicated at Calvary Cemetery during a ceremony at which the tenor Ronan Tynan sang “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears.”

Ellis Island
Immigration
Annie Moore
Ireland
Irish American
NYC


Long Island Man Pleads Guilty in Fake Drowning

Abstract: MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A man who faked his drowning off a Long Island beach, prompting an extensive air and sea search, accepted a plea bargain on Thursday that included a 90-day jail sentence and a $37,000 bill. The man, Raymond Roth, 48, of Massapequa, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy. “The restitution Mr. Roth is ordered to pay ensures that the taxpayers won’t foot the bill for this scam,” said Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney. Prosecutors said Mr. Roth and his son, Jonathan Roth, 22, had plotted to collect about $400,000 in life insurance. The younger man’s case is pending. On July 28, Jonathan Roth told the authorities that his father had gone for a swim at Jones Beach and never came back. Responders searched for Raymond Roth for several days, while he was actually on his way to Orlando, Fla., prosecutors said. Raymond Roth’s wife found e-mails discussing the plot, and the authorities were alerted. Raymond Roth’s lawyer, Brian Davis, said on Thursday that he believed the plea bargain was fair, adding, “At this point, he wants to put it behind him.”

Long Island
Plea bargain
Raymond Roth
Drowning,drownings
Criminal Sentence


NASA to Try Again to Inflate a Balloon-like Pod for the Space Station

Abstract: NASA will try again on Saturday morning to inflate a new room for the International Space Station. During the first attempt on Thursday to pump air into the module known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module , or Beam, the bulbous, balloon-like structure did not expand as much as expected. Beam is a test of technology to construct soft-sided space habitats with walls made of fabric instead of metal. This fold-up, blowup approach would help solve the problem of how to build something spacious that can be packed into the narrow payload confines of a rocket. Beam was taken to the space station last month on a Falcon 9 rocket launched by the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX . The module was then attached to one of the station’s docking ports, and it remained folded up until Thursday. The first steps of closing valves, cutting straps and releasing bolts went without a hitch. But as the crew tried to inflate it, Beam moved out only five inches toward the fully expanded length of 73 inches. The diameter reached 103 inches, but fully expanded, Beam’s diameter is meant to be 127 inches. The process was halted as engineers took a closer look. “We ran into higher forces than our model predicted,” Jason Crusan , NASA’s director of advanced exploration systems, said in a telephone news conference on Friday. Officials at NASA and Bigelow Aerospace , the company that built Beam at a cost of $17.8 million, said there were no concerns about the module itself. Still, they said they wanted to take a slow, methodical approach to ensure that the module does not pop out suddenly, potentially shaking and twisting the rest of the station. They said the snag was most likely caused by friction between the layers of fabric. The launching of Beam was delayed after the loss of an earlier SpaceX cargo flight, and the additional months spent in the folded-up configuration may have added to the friction. Overnight, Beam expanded a bit more, adding another inch in length and eight inches in diameter. On Friday, air was taken out of the module, to be pumped back in on Saturday. Coverage by NASA Television on the web will begin at 8:45 a.m. Eastern time. If it runs into another snag, deployment would likely be delayed to late next week, as astronauts on the space station tend to other tasks like deploying small satellites known as CubeSats. Officials said that there was no rush to get Beam inflated, and that they were confident they would eventually succeed. “We have plenty of time to work this,” Mr. Crusan said. “Beam doesn’t expire. It’s perfectly safe.” Once inflated, it will be tested for leaks. Astronauts will then install sensors inside the module to measure its performance during the next two years. After that, Beam is to be detached and disposed, burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. On Friday, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket, this time not for NASA but to put the Thaicom 8 communications satellite in orbit. Once again, SpaceX was able to successfully land the booster stage of the rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic. That is the fourth time SpaceX has recovered the booster, part of efforts to cut the cost of launches by reusing rockets. The launch was postponed from Thursday because of a glitch with the second-stage engine. “Probably not a flight risk, but still worth investigating,” Elon Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive, reported on Twitter.

NASA
Space
Space station
International Space Station
Rocket
SpaceX
Bigelow Aerospace
Satellite


Would Detroit Sound Any Better in Italian?

Abstract: Turin, Italy BY the time Sergio Marchionne saw the other car, it was too late. Zipping down the highway, the chain-smoking, risk-loving chief executive of Fiat could only brace for impact as his red Ferrari plowed into the creeping Renault with an elderly driver at the wheel. Mr. Marchionne walked away from the accident, as did the other motorist, but what was a $265,000 sports car a moment before was now junkyard scrap. Fast forward 18 months. Instead of driving around in one of his company’s Ferraris, Maseratis or Alfa Romeos, Mr. Marchionne has been jetting back and forth among Turin, Detroit and Washington to make a deal for Chrysler , the near-bankrupt American carmaker that other auto executives consider a road hazard. And as Mr. Marchionne rushes to complete the Chrysler transaction by this Thursday, the deadline set by the White House, he’s also kicking the tires of that other troubled American car giant, General Motors , eyeing a stake in Opel, its European unit, and its Latin American operations. While industry watchers debate the merits of Mr. Marchionne’s maneuvers — and whether he can quickly complete and digest two megadeals — a bigger question looms: If Mr. Marchionne gets his way, will the combined company soon end up resembling his ill-fated Ferrari? After all, Fiat is a company that itself was near bankruptcy five years ago and whose poor reputation for reliability in the 1970s led American consumers to nickname it Fix It Again Tony. “It’s a huge management gamble,” says Max Warburton, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst who suggested that Mr. Marchionne wants to create a new Roman empire in the auto industry. “It will be enormously difficult to make it truly functional. It’s a moon shot.” The obstacles now facing Mr. Marchionne shouldn’t worry just Fiat shareholders, American assembly line workers or the big United States banks that are owed tens of billions by G.M. and Chrysler. American taxpayers also have plenty at stake. (Talks between Fiat and G.M. are still very preliminary, so the hard bargaining won’t start until after Chrysler’s fate is decided.) Assuming that fractious lenders, labor leaders, Chrysler executives and Fiat itself agree on concessions and strike a deal with the government by Thursday, the White House will pour an additional $6 billion into Chrysler, bringing the Treasury’s total contribution to $10 billion. Even if Chrysler ends up in bankruptcy, as seems increasingly likely, Fiat could still be in a position to acquire some of its assets. And how much cash will Fiat ante up in exchange for the 20 percent stake it is now seeking in Chrysler? None, Mr. Marchionne contends. Instead, the Italian automaker will offer technology that it says is worth $10 billion to enable Chrysler to make the kind of small, fuel-efficient but stylish cars that rescued Fiat from its own near-death experience in 2004. As for Opel, Fiat could end up getting help from the government of Germany, where Opel is based, akin to the federal aid being doled out in the United States. “Maybe, just maybe, he’s got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pick up car companies for free,” says Mr. Warburton. “It’s almost too good to be true.” Then again, Fiat executives argue that if they succeed in reviving Chrysler, it will be more likely that American taxpayers will get their money back. Mr. Marchionne declined to comment for this article. But in a conference call with analysts on Thursday afternoon, he acknowledged the risks he faces, as well as the industry’s consistent inability to cut capacity or make megadeals succeed. “Size managed well is good,” he said. “Size managed for empire-building purposes is nonsense.” OUTSIZE personalities and braggadocio are nothing new at Fiat. The Agnelli family, which helped found Fiat in 1899 and still owns nearly a third of the company, has always had both in abundance. Often compared to the Kennedys, “the Agnellis occupy a unique position in Italy,” says Henry A. Kissinger, who got to know and became a close friend of the patriarch of the family, Gianni Agnelli, after President Richard M. Nixon visited Italy in the early 1970s. “The Kennedys have some of the charisma and political impact, but not the economic and cultural impact of the Agnellis.” Besides, others say, the Agnellis bring an almost regal pride to their holdings. “It’s very much of a dynasty,” says Diane von Furstenberg, whose first husband was an Agnelli and who is close to the current leader of the family, John Elkann. “They are committed to the family and to keeping Fiat.” And in an industry facing the prospect of bankruptcies and downsizing on one continent after another, Mr. Marchionne and the Agnellis are a rare throwback to the brio that was once as much a part of making cars as gearboxes and carburetors. At Fiat headquarters, the top brass seem to relish the opportunity despite the awful experience of Daimler of Germany, which lost more than $10 billion after it bought Chrysler just over a decade ago and failed to turn it around. Detroit, longtime Fiat executives say, needs to take more chances, not fewer. “They don’t like risks at all; sometimes we like them too much,” said Nevio di Giusto, head of the Fiat Group’s research center. Of course, it’s easy to be bold if you’re not putting any money down, at least not right now. And that has angered lawmakers who aren’t thrilled about a foreign company getting what they see as a sweetheart deal. “The U.S., through its citizens, through its banks and through its workers, is delivering a company with a bow tied around it to Fiat,” says Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who has been critical of help for Detroit in the past but now says he does favor a more balanced deal to rescue Chrysler. “Fiat isn’t bringing much to the table,” he said. “I’d like them to have more skin in the game.” The negotiations are likely to go down to the last minute this week, and Mr. Marchionne has been playing his hand coolly. He already said the Chrysler deal has only a 50-50 chance of happening and is willing to walk away if the unions won’t make more concessions or the lenders demand a cash injection from Fiat. In the conference call on Thursday, he wouldn’t detail his interest in Opel, which was disclosed on Thursday by American government officials involved in the negotiations. “He’s unbelievably tough,” says one top government negotiator who spoke on condition of anonymity because of his direct role in the talks. “Marchionne is a larger-than-life character.” But more is at risk for Fiat than its poker-faced chief executive lets on. Getting the deals done is only the first step; if Mr. Marchionne fails to make them work, the cash drain could undo the turnaround he has engineered at Fiat. And if both Chrysler and Opel elude his grasp, Fiat, instead of being a driver, could end up a victim of the industry consolidation that just about everyone agrees is coming. AS audacious as Mr. Marchionne’s dual bids may be, this isn’t Fiat’s first waltz with Detroit, or even with Opel. In 2000, G.M., then in the driver’s seat, struck a deal to buy 20 percent of Fiat’s auto unit, which in turn would help Opel and G.M. develop diesel engines while gaining new designs for its product line. But in what could be an omen of the challenges ahead for Mr. Marchionne, Fiat’s own executives say that trying to blend the very different cultures of G.M. and Fiat was a disaster. “We saw them like bureaucrats,” recalls Rinaldo Rinolfi, vice president for power train research and technology. “It was a mess.” Though Opel eventually benefited from Fiat’s expertise with diesel engines, bitterness remains over G.M.’s unwillingness to collaborate on more-efficient gas engines that would pollute less yet have more power. “It was difficult for them to accept that these Italian guys had good technology,” Mr. Rinolfi said. “They said it’s too complex, too costly.” Eventually, the two companies parted ways, with G.M. handing Fiat $2 billion to extricate itself from the partnership, a payment negotiated by Mr. Marchionne after he became Fiat’s chief executive in 2004. The design for the innovative gas engine that Mr. Rinolfi pushed didn’t go to waste. With G.M. gone from the scene and with Mr. Marchionne’s backing, Fiat developed the engine on its own. Known as the Multi-Air engine, it will have its debut in September. It consumes 10 percent less gasoline and emits 20 percent less carbon dioxide than conventional gas engines, according to Fiat. Mr. Rinolfi said Fiat’s more recent encounters with Chrysler engineers and executives have been much smoother. Still, his frustration with the cautious Americans five years ago seems as fresh as ever. “We had it done then,” he said, pointing out the intricate valves and pistons of the new engine. “We could have been in production five years ago.” Although Fiat executives are confident now about their ability to profit from Detroit’s failings, it wasn’t long ago that Fiat itself was regarded the same way as Detroit is now. It wasn’t government-controlled like other European auto giants, but employees still referred to it as the “Ministry of Auto Production,” or simply the ministry. As long as Fiat dominated the Italian market, it could afford the bureaucracy, as well as the failures elsewhere — as in the United States. But by 2004, aging models, bloated costs and the new competition that came from a more open European market had brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. The financial problems, along with the death of Gianni Agnelli in 2003, led some people to conclude that the era of the Agnellis and Fiat as an independent company was over. “When my grandfather passed away, people thought we would sink and we didn’t,” said Ginevra Elkann, Mr. Agnelli’s granddaughter and the sister of John Elkann, 33, the current head of the family and Fiat’s vice chairman. Mr. Elkann, then 27, was chosen to lead the family, which in turn brought in Mr. Marchionne from SGS, a Swiss quality-control and testing company controlled by the Agnellis. Mr. Marchionne, a lawyer who was born in Italy and raised in Canada, quickly set about revamping the company and its culture. He also speeded up the introduction of promising smaller models like the Punto and the redesigned Fiat 500, which began to recapture lost market share, and made a hugely successful bet on Brazil, one of the world’s best car markets in recent years. Between 2006 and 2008, revenue rose to 59.3 billion euros ($76.8 billion) from 51.8 billion euros, while profit increased to 3.36 billion euros from 1.95 billion euros. But turning around Chrysler, and possibly Opel, will be much, much harder. Even if Fiat can retool Chrysler’s factories to produce appealing, smaller cars based on Fiat technology, it will be three years before they arrive on the market, warns Philippe Houchois, an analyst at UBS. Mr. Marchionne is more optimistic. He says that the first cars from the Fiat-Chrysler partnership could be rolling off the assembly line in 18 months. As for Opel, union leaders in Germany are already warning that they will oppose the job cuts and workplace changes that Fiat will need to make the deal pay off. Meanwhile, like just about every other big carmaker these days, Fiat is in the red. On Thursday, it reported that it had lost 410 million euros in the first quarter. So why would Mr. Marchionne want to take on such long odds? Aside from being remembered as the boldest auto executive of his generation, the answer is scale. He has long argued that Fiat needs to be far larger if it is going to be consistently profitable, producing 5.5 to 6 million cars a year rather than its current 2.2 million. Together, Fiat, Opel and Chrysler would churn out nearly six million cars a year, precisely meeting Mr. Marchionne’s goal, and making Fiat one of the top five automakers in the world. At an extraordinary moment when the global financial crisis has put governments, rather than auto executives, in the driver’s seat, Mr. Marchionne may have found a way to build an empire with — almost — no money down. “Never write off car companies,” Mr. Warburton said. “They do have a habit of coming back from the dead.”

Fiat SpA
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Marchionne Sergio
Chrysler LLC
General Motors Corp
Automobiles


F.D.I.C. to Set New Rules for Private Equity Acquisition of Banks

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to issue new rules that could make it slightly easier for private equity firms to buy failed banks, according to people familiar with the agency’s deliberations. Under a directive to be issued on Thursday, the agency is expected to demand that investment firms like the Carlyle Group or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts provide follow-up support to the banks they acquire if the banks get into more trouble and need additional capital. The new rules represent a difficult balancing act for the F.D.I.C, which is responsible for protecting depositors from losses. On the one hand, government officials have been eager to recruit private investors and stretch out the limited money that Congress has approved for bailing out troubled financial institutions. On the other hand, bank regulators remain leery about letting comparatively high-risk investor groups take control of banks with billions of dollars in government-guaranteed deposits. The F.D.I.C., which is responsible for insuring bank deposits, is eager to find buyers for insolvent banks and minimize the cost to taxpayers. The agency has seized 45 failing banks this year, and more than 60 since last fall. Private equity firms can tap into huge pools of capital and they have been yearning to buy banks at bargain prices. Federal regulators have allowed private equity investors to buy a handful of failing banks, notably the BankUnited Financial Corporation in Florida and IndyMac Bancorp in California. But the approvals have been made slowly, and on a case-by-case basis. Agency officials said the rules to be adopted on Thursday amounted to a clarification of their policy rather than a drastic change. Indeed, industry executives said on Wednesday evening that they were not sure if the new rules amounted to an easing or a tightening of longstanding restrictions that have kept most private equity investors out of the banking industry. Among the rules under discussion, according to industry executives and government officials, are higher capital requirements for private equity investors than for traditional banks. The agency will also demand that private equity firms document their sources of strength, a reference to their ability to provide follow-up financing. For investors that own several banks, the agency would require cross guarantees in which a strong bank owned by an investment group could be enlisted to shore up the capital of a weaker bank owned by the same group. Last but not least, the agency plans to include rules against flipping, to prohibit people from buying a bank and reselling it a few months later. Under the new rules, private equity firms would have to retain their investment in a bank for at least 18 months and possibly two years. H. Rodgin Cohen, a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell who represents some private equity firms, said he was not sure whether the new rules would speed up or slow down their investment in banks. “It’s always good to have an element of certainty,” Mr. Cohen said. “The question is whether this will put up barriers that are so discouraging economically that it will actually restrict private equity firms. We won’t know until the details are out.” Regardless of the details, the new rules are not expected to change the main regulatory obstacle for private equity firms buying banks. That obstacle is the Federal Reserve, which requires that institutions holding more than 24.9 percent of a bank’s voting shares be subject to regulation as bank holding companies. Except for a handful of private equity firms that specialize in banks, most firms are loath to fall under those regulations. To get around those restrictions, private equity firms have teamed up to form “club” deals in which no individual firm exceeds the Fed’s threshold for control. But that arrangement is often unwieldy and cumbersome, because none of the investment firms is supposed to be in “control.” “The F.D.I.C. does not control what happens,” said Joshua Siegel, managing principal at StoneCastle Partners, a private equity firm in New York. “The Fed is in charge.”

Private Equity
Deposit Insurance
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
Banks and Banking
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Politics and Government
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry


Sumner Redstone Competency Case Will Go Forward

Abstract: The lawsuit challenging the mental competence of the ailing 92-year-old media mogul Sumner M. Redstone will go to trial in May because of a “plethora of disputed factual issues” over his capacity and current medical care, a California judge ruled on Monday. The decision puts an even brighter spotlight on a salacious personal court battle that could have major implications for Viacom and CBS, the two entertainment companies that Mr. Redstone continues to control. Philippe P. Dauman, Viacom’s chief executive, has been ordered to sit for a deposition in the case. Judge David J. Cowan of the Los Angeles County Superior Court outlined how the mountain of evidence presented by each side paints two strikingly different pictures of Mr. Redstone. At the top of the list: While Mr. Redstone’s primary physician stated that Mr. Redstone was mentally fit, a geriatric psychiatrist examined Mr. Redstone in January and found that he lacked mental capacity. “Suffice it to say, though not conclusive as to capacity, that those details are difficult to read in describing how this man is hanging on to life,” Judge Cowan said in the ruling. “It will therefore be the court’s primary task at trial to determine which of these physicians most accurately states Redstone’s mental status.” During a brief hearing Monday morning in Los Angeles, Judge Cowan remarked that it “seems sad” that Mr. Redstone is the subject of a trial at this point in his life. “At the same time, I have to follow the law,” he said. The legal battle has been going on since November, when Manuela Herzer, a former companion and one-time romantic partner of Mr. Redstone, filed suit. In the suit , Ms. Herzer claims that a confession of infidelity by an ex-girlfriend sent Mr. Redstone spiraling downward physically and mentally. She claims that Mr. Redstone was not mentally competent when he removed her from a directive that would have put her in charge of his health care and alleges that Mr. Redstone was under the “undue influence” of his daughter. Lawyers for Mr. Redstone called the suit meritless and had moved for it to be dismissed. While Ms. Herzer has said that she is concerned about Mr. Redstone’s well-being, his lawyers have said that Ms. Herzer is motivated by money. On the same day that Mr. Redstone changed his health plan, he also removed Ms. Herzer from his estate plan, in which he had planned to leave her $50 million and his $20 million mansion in Los Angeles. “As in many cases, there may be elements of truth to what both sides say,” Judge Cowan said. “Human nature is complicated. This is why courts hold trials.” A trial is scheduled for May 6. Gabrielle A. Vidal, a chairman of trust and estate litigation at the Loeb & Loeb law firm, which represents Mr. Redstone, said in a statement that Mr. Redstone should prevail after the court evaluates the evidence. “This decision is not a finding on the merits and it does not change the fact that Ms. Herzer’s motives are purely financial,” Ms. Vidal said. Much of the evidence presented in the case, including the medical examination of Mr. Redstone, nurses’ logs and other records, will remain confidential until at least March 18, when the judge is scheduled to consider a motion from Mr. Redstone’s lawyers to keep the documents under seal. Mr. Redstone was executive chairman of CBS and Viacom until February, when he ceded the titles. He remains chairman emeritus of both companies and continues to hold about 80 percent of the voting shares in CBS and Viacom. In the 21-page ruling, Judge Cowan listed several points of contention in the suit that require it go to trial, including Ms. Herzer’s motivation in bringing the suit. While Mr. Redstone’s lawyers claim that Ms. Herzer is after Mr. Redstone’s money, Ms. Herzer claims that Mr. Redstone was under the influence of his daughter, Shari. Redstone, who she alleges was seeking to avoid an obligation to pay Mr. Redstone’s estate taxes by giving money to charity instead of Ms. Herzer. Nancy Sterling, a spokeswoman for Ms. Redstone, said in a statement that the family had “no financial interest in the case and always understood and supported Sumner’s plan to honor his legacy by leaving his estate largely to charity.” She said that Ms. Redstone and her family were “well provided for by the multibillion-dollar company National Amusements Inc.,” the private theater chain company that holds the Redstone family shares in CBS and Viacom. One issue not in dispute, the judge said, is that Mr. Redstone needs someone to take charge of his care, regardless of the state of his mental capacity. The judge raised concerns about who — if anyone — was looking after Mr. Redstone. A declaration from Ms. Redstone in which she said that she had patched up past disagreements with her father and was available to help him at a moment’s notice “raises more questions than it answers,” the judge said. Judge Cowan pointed out that Ms. Redstone lives in Massachusetts. He added that it was perplexing that Mr. Redstone named Mr. Dauman, a busy New York-based executive, as his health care agent rather than his own daughter. “It has to be an unusual situation where a parent still at this late date puts his East Coast business colleagues ahead of an adult child, or for that matter adult grandchildren, in terms of his care,” Judge Cowan said. Ms. Sterling said in the statement that Ms. Redstone was a health care proxy for her father before Ms. Herzer, and had resumed some of those responsibilities after his relationship with Ms. Herzer ended, which she said was “reflective of the strong relationship that exists between Shari and her father.” Ms. Redstone attended Monday’s hearing, sitting silently through the proceedings. When it finished, she put on her sunglasses and walked out of the courthouse, surrounded by lawyers. During the hearing, Judge Cowan remarked on Mr. Redstone’s notable absence from the legal battle. Notoriously outspoken and combative at his prime, Mr. Redstone has not appeared before the court or submitted a statement of his own. “There are a lot of things that have been said about what Mr. Redstone wants,” Judge Cowan said, “but unfortunately I have no declaration from him.”

Viacom
CBS
Sumner M Redstone
Decisions and Verdicts


How to Win Friends and Influence People (on Fake Mars)

Abstract: Amid the craggy landscape near the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii, six researchers lived for a year as if they were on Mars. Confined to a 1,000-square-foot habitat inside and spacesuits outside, the researchers spent their time extracting water from dry rock, growing plants and crawling through gigantic lava tubes. But when members of the group were released from their habitat on Sunday, they emphasized one key takeaway: They had spent a lot of time trying not to drive themselves or each other crazy. Two significant obstacles for the researchers were the physical and the emotional isolation. They began living at the habitat in August 2015 as part of the NASA-funded Hi-Seas project . They were the fourth group to take up residence there, and stayed longer than any previous group. Experts say that travel to Mars may be possible by the 2030s , so if you’re among the many who hope to one day complete the approximately 33-million-mile journey to the red planet — or if you want to try your hand at a year living in Hi-Seas isolation — here are a few tips on how to get along with your colleagues at one of the most extreme workplaces in the solar system. Choose your boss wisely People who are not working on Mars or in a Mars-like environment usually do not have this luxury, but according to Christiane Heinicke, a 30-year-old German physicist and engineer, democracy was a part of the personnel process on fake Mars. “During the selection process, we were trekking together in the Rocky Mountains,” Dr. Heinicke said in an email. “Afterwards, everyone voted anonymously for their preferred commander, which turned out to be Carmel,” as in Carmel Johnston , a soil scientist from Montana. A bad day may bring you closer together Nobody wants to hear the words “emergency” and “Mars” in the same sentence, but in this case, a glitch in the workday helped temporarily repair group relations. “It really helps to have an emergency to work on together, because it reunites the group,” Dr. Heinicke told journalists after her group was released. “And everybody has new motivation to work together and make it through the whole year.” Image Members of Hi-Seas team celebrated after completing a year-long Mars simulation in Hawaii. Credit University of Hawaii News, via European Pressphoto Agency Make your own fun During their time in the habitat, the researchers had only small spaces to themselves, including a bed, a desk and some storage space. Aside from making sure you bring “good music” to drown out your colleagues’ noise in close quarters, it will help to nurture your own side projects and hobbies, Ms. Heinicke said. “Bring a lot of meaningful, stimulating projects to work, and be open to collaborate with others,” she said. “More generally: Be adaptable; the mission is very unlikely to be fully predictable.” Her colleague, Cyprien Verseux, echoed that sentiment: “Bring books,” he told journalists after he was released. If all else fails, start a band , make finger puppets , exercise or even do your taxes to pass the time. Know that you will become really annoyed with your colleagues This one is a universal truth on Earth as well as on Mars, but in the habitat, there were fewer opportunities to escape one another. Mr. Verseux said that “monotony, always in the same place, always with the same people” were among his biggest challenges while living in the domed research lab that the group called home, where the only respite from the cabin — going outside — required wearing a mock spacesuit. Another key takeaway from the mission, Ms. Heinicke said, is that not everyone is built to live in an extreme environment and in long-term isolation. “Some thrive and ‘infect’ each other with ideas and work on a large number of joint projects,” she said. “The others decay and progressively slip into a worse and worse mood. Obviously, if you want to send humans to Mars, you have to make sure your crew is composed of only the first kind.”


Russia Quickly Maneuvers to Capitalize on Iran Nuclear Deal

Abstract: MOSCOW — Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, lost no time in talking about the accord on Iran’s nuclear program. He was on television minutes after the deal was clinched, and even before the formal news conference had begun, announcing the landmark agreement to the audience back home and emphasizing the many potential benefits, strategic and economic, that it holds for Russia. The deal reopens the door for lucrative contracts to expand Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program, which Russia has been looking forward to for years. And it may neutralize a major reason the United States has offered for developing a missile defense system in Europe, a project that President Vladimir V. Putin and other Kremlin officials have said was a threat to Russian security. “We all probably remember how in April 2009, giving a speech in Prague, the U.S. president, Barack Obama, said that if Iran’s nuclear program is successfully regulated, then the aim of the European segment of the missile defense will be dropped,” Mr. Lavrov said straight into the cameras of state-controlled Russian television. “This is why today we drew the attention of our American colleagues to this fact. We will expect a reaction.” Of course, Iran’s nuclear program will not be declared “successfully regulated” anytime soon — certainly not by President Obama or by the many skeptics in Congress who will review and may vote on the nuclear accord. The White House is also likely to disagree with Mr. Lavrov’s characterization of Mr. Obama’s remarks in Prague. In his speech then, Mr. Obama said: “As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven. If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security, and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe will be removed.” Still, Mr. Lavrov’s lightning effort to capitalize on the deal underscored just how much Russia has invested in Iran’s returning to normal diplomatic relations. What Key Players Are Saying About the Iran Nuclear Deal A guide to international reaction to the historic accord. Mr. Putin himself issued a statement on Tuesday welcoming the deal, underlining Russia’s role and noting that his government would move ahead with its nuclear power agreements and with strengthening bilateral ties. He described the accord as “important for the implementation of large-scale plans of peaceful nuclear cooperation between Russia and Iran that got support in the documents approved today.” Russia possesses some of the world’s foremost expertise in atomic energy, and has helped build and operate atomic reactors in Iran for many years. Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy company, helped build and expand the Bushehr nuclear plant and already has contracts to build two more reactors there. Mr. Lavrov said Russia and Iran have “very ambitious plans for the development of Iranian nuclear power.” He also said Russia expected to have a major role in putting the accord with Iran into effect, including two areas specified in the agreement: the shipment of low-enriched uranium from Iran to Russia in exchange for supplies of natural uranium, and the modification of the Fordo enrichment processing plant to produce stable isotopes for medical and industrial purposes instead of bomb fuel. Beyond the energy sector, Russia expects to make substantial sales of conventional weapons to Iran. In the late stages of negotiations, Mr. Lavrov made a hard, dramatic push for an immediate and complete lifting of an international arms embargo against Iran, apparently helping set the stage for a deal. In the end, a compromise was reached that will continue the embargo for five to eight years. Still, Mr. Lavrov suggested that Russia stood to benefit even sooner from renewed arms deals with Tehran because exceptions would be allowed under new notification and United Nations approval procedures. Mr. Putin said this year that Russia intended to deliver to Iran some S-300 surface-to-air missile systems that Iran ordered in 2007, three years before the United Nations imposed the embargo. He said that the missiles were not covered by the ban because they were defensive in nature, and that because the contract predated the embargo, Russia’s suspension of it in 2010 was voluntary and could be lifted legally at any time. Russian officials have made great efforts throughout the nuclear talks to portray themselves as central to the decision-making. Not only did Mr. Lavrov make sure he was the first of the senior officials in Vienna to go on television, his ministry was also first to post the full text of the Iran accord on its website. The Iran Nuclear Deal – A Simple Guide A guide to help you navigate the deal between global powers and Tehran. In his televised remarks to Russian reporters in Vienna, Mr. Lavrov said Russia deserved credit for reviving the long-stalled negotiations with Iran three years ago. “We managed to bring the negotiations from a dead end, because it was Russian experts who proposed the step-by-step concept of reciprocity, in which every step of Iran to meet the demands of the international community would be accompanied by countersteps from the six and the United Nations to ease the pressure of sanctions.” The “six” referred to the powers that negotiated with Iran: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Mr. Obama, in an interview Tuesday with Thomas L. Friedman, an op-ed columnist with The New York Times, praised Mr. Putin and Russia for helping to clinch the deal, even amid the tensions over Russia’s policies in Ukraine. “Russia was a help on this,” Mr. Obama said. “I’ll be honest with you. I was not sure given the strong differences we are having with Russia right now around Ukraine, whether this would sustain itself. Putin and the Russian government compartmentalized on this in a way that surprised me, and we would have not achieved this agreement had it not been for Russia’s willingness to stick with us and the other P5-plus members in insisting on a strong deal.” Mr. Lavrov boasted that the final result “is fully consistent with the targets set out in the concept of Russia’s foreign policy, namely to achieve recognition of Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear activities, including the right to enrich uranium, with the formulation of this activity under the tight control” of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The prospect of resumed trade with Iran may also provide some relief to the Russian economy, which has been battered by international sanctions over the Kremlin’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. With many important Russian companies now cut off from business dealings with the West, Mr. Putin has been looking eastward to Asia for new economic opportunities. In his remarks, Mr. Lavrov expressed some bitterness toward the West over sanctions against Iran that he said “really hindered our companies, including carrying out financial transactions and realizing other projects together with our Iranian partners.” The lifting of sanctions may also have a downside for Russia, though: Iran’s full return to the global oil market is expected to reduce global oil prices, putting further strain on Russia, which depends heavily on oil sales. The Kremlin has said it is ready for that, but the Russian economy is in recession, and falling oil prices would sharpen the contraction.

Russia
Iran
Nuclear energy
International Atomic Energy Agency
Nuclear weapon
Sergey V Lavrov
US Foreign Policy
Vladimir Putin


3 Killed in Separate Attacks Within 4 Hours

Abstract: A 14-year-old boy and two men were shot to death in three separate attacks within four hours in the city on Monday afternoon, the police said. The police said the 14-year-old boy was fatally shot about 6 p.m. after a dispute with three men who approached him at East 219th Street and White Plains Road in the Bronx. The victim was found on the street with a gunshot wound to his torso, and the suspects had fled, the police said. About 10 minutes earlier, a man in his 20s was shot in the head and torso at 60 Summit Street, in Brooklyn, the police said. The police said they had no suspects. Around 2:45 p.m., a 25-year-old man was shot in the torso at 5509 Church Avenue, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The police said a suspect, a man in his 20s, shot the victim during an argument. The police are investigating all three shootings. No arrests have been made in any of killings, and the names of the victims were not immediately released.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Bronx (NYC)
Brooklyn (NYC)


Ledecky Gains Relay Gold; Lochte Wins 200 I.M.

Abstract: KAZAN, Russia — For four days at the world championships, Katie Ledecky hauled the weight of the United States’ sterling swimming reputation by herself. While New Zealand, Chile, Jamaica and Iceland put athletes in individual finals, the American team, which had won 182 gold medals in the previous 15 world championship meets, saw only Ledecky rise to the very top. How bittersweet it must have been for Ledecky, who values team success above her own, to return to the hotel night after night with another gold medal, another miniature stuffed animal and another floral bouquet, and join teammates who were empty-handed. On the fifth day, Ledecky won her fourth gold medal, and for the first time all week, she was not alone. Her victory came in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay, which meant Ledecky had three teammates eagerly waiting behind the blocks to embrace her as soon as she turned a 0.34-second deficit to Sweden into a 3.04-second victory over Italy. The United States team of Ledecky, Missy Franklin, Leah Smith and Katie McLaughlin was timed in 7 minutes 45.37 seconds to Italy’s 7:48.41. Ledecky’s relay split of 1:55.64 was slightly off her winning time of 1:55.16 in the 200 freestyle . And it was slower than the 1:54.31 that Sarah Sjostrom produced while leading off for Sweden. Ledecky described Sjostrom’s time, the best in the world this year, as amazing. A Ledecky duel against Sjostrom in the 200 final or down the stretch of the relay would also have been amazing, but it was not to be. Sjostrom, the gold medalist in the 100 butterfly, who will race in the 100 freestyle final Friday, bypassed the 200 free to get more rest. Asked if she had any regrets about it, she said, “No, I don’t.” Maybe Ryan Lochte was right when he said of Ledecky: “She’s already in people’s heads. She’s already won the race before it has started.” Lochte’s sixth world championships had a disappointing start: He faded badly on the final lap of the men’s 200 freestyle final and fell from first to fourth. Trading in his mellow mien for a territorial zeal, Lochte prevailed in his signature event, the 200-meter individual medley, to become the second American, after Ledecky, to win an individual gold medal. “Definitely really humbled,” said Lochte, who said the win meant as much to him as his victory in 2011, when he clocked a 1:54.00 to set the world record, which still stands. His winning time Thursday was 1:55.81. With the victory, his 16th at the world championships, Lochte carved out his own piece of history. He joined Grant Hackett, a 1,500-meter freestyler from Australia, as the only swimmers to win an event in four successive world championships. Lochte, 31, might also end up a historical footnote for a turn he made during the race that was much discussed by his competitors and is likely to be addressed by the sport’s rule makers. Trailing Thiago Pereira of Brazil going into the third turn, Lochte pushed off the wall and kicked on his back for 10 meters before twisting onto his stomach for the closing freestyle leg. Lochte introduced the wrinkle at this meet after realizing he could take advantage of a gray area in the rule book to exploit his dynamic dolphin kick on his back. “We’re going to have to call it the Ryan Lochte turn because this is getting a lot of buzz,” Lochte said, referring to the complaints his turn had generated from competitors. He added, “I’m going to keep doing this turn until I get disqualified, plain and simple.” Lochte also used the turn in the 200 freestyle and could get away with it because of the stroke’s name: freestyle. But in the individual medley, in which three other strokes are included, “there’s a very kind of gray area,” said Frank Busch, the United States national team director. He added: “They’ll wind up probably tightening that up. But Ryan didn’t break any rules.” Lochte said he had been spurred to victory by the reigning Olympic champion in the 200 individual medley, Michael Phelps, who is 6,000 miles away in Texas for the United States long course championships. Phelps, who was dropped from the world championships squad several months ago as part of the fallout from his second drunken-driving arrest, texted Lochte and told him he needed to be a leader. After all, there is only so much Ledecky can do. “The things that he said — You’ve got to be a team leader, You’ve got to put Team U.S.A. on your shoulders and carry them on through this meet and get them going — I definitely took that to heart,” Lochte said. Returning to Ledecky, he added, “Between my win tonight and her world records, hopefully it got Team U.S.A. on a roll.”


CBS Reports Lower Earnings but Beats Analysts’ Expectations

Abstract: CBS on Thursday reported profit that decreased by 7 percent in its second quarter, but beat analysts’ expectations. The New York-based company said earnings decreased to $439 million, or 76 cents a share, from $472 million, or 76 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 78 cents a share. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 72 cents a share. The company said revenue fell 5 percent, to $3.19 billion from $3.37 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.


Apple Zooms Past Rivals, With 88% Profit Growth

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, April 25 — Apple Inc. surpassed even the most optimistic forecasts for its usually tepid second quarter, delivering an 88 percent increase in profit on strong sales of Macintosh computers and iPod music players. The company said on Wednesday that its profit rose to $770 million from $410 million in the comparable quarter last year. Apple sold 1.5 million Macs in the quarter, a record for the company. In an interview, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, called the quarter a “blowout,” and noted that the strong sales and market share gains came even though the company had not made any major upgrades to its lines of portable and desktop computers. “The Mac is clearly gaining market share, with sales growing 36 percent — more than three times the industry growth rate,” Mr. Jobs said. Overall personal computer sales increased only about 11 percent during the quarter, according to the market researcher IDC. Apple’s strength was particularly notable in that it came during the quarter in which Microsoft finally released the long-awaited Vista version of its Windows operating system, an event that the PC industry was counting on to spur a wave of computer upgrades. Mr. Jobs noted that Dell had recently returned an earlier version of Windows to its product line, which he said was an indication that demand for Vista had not been overwhelming. Apple reported revenue of $5.26 billion, an increase of more than 20 percent over the $4.36 billion in the same period last year. Profit increased to 87 cents a share from 47 cents. On average, analysts were expecting earnings of 64 cents a share on sales of $5.17 billion for the quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. Apple executives said the company benefited from lower component costs, as well as surging demand for notebook computers. Of Apple’s total computer sales, 59 percent were notebooks. The earnings report sent shares of Apple up more than 7 percent to $102.40 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, topping the $100 mark for the first time. The shares rose $2.11 to close at $95.35 in the regular trading session. It was Apple’s profitability during the quarter that most impressed Wall Street analysts. Its gross profit margin reached 35.1 percent, up from 29.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. Company executives said it was the company’s most profitable second quarter ever. Sales typically slow in the second quarter as it comes between the holidays and buying for school in the fall. “They’re defying the laws of gravity when it comes to profitability,” said Eugene A. Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief finance officer, told analysts that he expected gross margins to decline during the third quarter, to about 32 percent. Apple tends to sell lower-margin computers to school districts in the third quarter, and component prices are also expected to be higher, he said. In the third quarter the company expects revenue to climb to about $5.1 billion and earnings to reach about 66 cents a share, slightly lower than analysts’ forecasts. Mr. Munster said the appeal of the Macintosh was clearly expanding beyond its traditional niche. “There’s a global shift in how people see personal computers — for entertainment, creativity and good looks,” Mr. Munster said. “Apple has found that sweet spot, and with almost no competition.” Apple said Mac sales accounted for 56 percent of revenue during the second quarter, with music-related products, including iPod and iTunes sales, accounting for the other 44 percent. Apple sold 10.5 million iPods during the quarter. Earlier this month Apple said it had sold a total of 100 million iPods. Apple had earlier said it was delaying the release of the next version of its Mac operating system, called Leopard, because it needed to divert resources to its iPhone project. The iPhone is scheduled to ship in late June, through an agreement with Cingular, and cost between $500 and $600. Mr. Oppenheimer said Apple planned to regularly add new software features to iPhones after they are sold, at no charge, and would alter its accounting policies to make this possible. In the interview, Mr. Jobs said he believed these upgrades would give the company an advantage in a market where the software in phones generally remains unchanged once they are in use. Apple said it ended the second quarter with $12.6 billion in cash.

Apple Inc
Company Reports
Computers and the Internet


U.S. Corn Reserves Hit Lowest Level in More Than 15 Years

Abstract: Reserves of corn in the United States have hit their lowest level in more than 15 years, reflecting tighter supplies that will lead to higher food prices in 2011. Increasing demand for corn from the ethanol industry is a major reason for the decline, according to federal officials. The Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday that the ethanol industry’s projected orders this year rose 8.4 percent, to 13.01 billion bushels, after record-high production in December and January. That means the United States will have about 675 million bushels of corn left at the end of the year. That is about 5 percent of all corn that will be consumed, the lowest surplus level since 1996. The report , which measures global supply and demand for grains, oilseeds and other crops, said its projections for wheat and soybean stocks remained unchanged at historical low levels for reserves. Corn prices have already doubled in the last six months, rising from $3.50 a bushel to more than $7 a bushel. The price of corn affects most food products in supermarkets. It is used to feed the cattle, hogs and chickens that fill the meat case, and is the main ingredient in Cap’n Crunch in the cereal aisle and Doritos in the snack aisle. Turned into corn sweetener, it sweetens most soft drinks. The decline in reserves caused corn futures to surge, and analysts expect the price increases to continue in coming months. “I think we have a chance to test the all-time high” price of $7.65 a bushel, a Telvent DTN analyst, John Sanow, said. The tight level of reserves leaves little margin for error if there are production problems this year, which could send prices higher quickly, he said. Major food makers and some restaurants have already said they will be raising prices this year because they’re paying more for corn, wheat, sugar, coffee and chocolate, all of which are at historically high prices.

Corn
Ethanol
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)


Abduction Case Shows Limits of Sex Offender Alert Programs

Abstract: In all 50 states, registries of sex offenders have grown sophisticated and accessible in recent years, a response to high-profile attacks on children. People can search their neighborhoods for former convicts on state-run Web sites, sign up for private services that alert them if an offender moves nearby, even download an iPhone application, “Offender Locator.” But the case of Phillip Garrido , the California man accused of kidnapping a young girl and holding her captive for 18 years, is reigniting a debate about the usefulness of the government-managed lists and whether they might create a false sense of public safety. Mr. Garrido, who had been convicted of kidnapping and rape in the 1970s, was listed, as required, on California ’s sex-offender registry (complete with a description of the surgical scar on his abdomen and his 196-pound weight) and had dutifully checked in with the local authorities each year for the past decade — all while, officials say, his victim and the two children he is accused of fathering with her were living in his backyard. Sex offender lists have made far more information readily available to the public and the police than before, but experts say little research is available to suggest that the registries have actually discouraged offenders from committing new crimes. And some experts say that the lists may lead people to presume that anyone registered must also be elaborately monitored, when, in truth, monitoring ranges enormously from place to place and state to state. In some cases, it amounts to little more than an offender mailing a postcard with his address to a police department once a year. “We’ve come to see these registries as a panacea that is going to resolve all sex offender problems,” said Richard Tewksbury, a professor of justice administration at the University of Louisville who has written extensively about the effects of registries. “That’s just not realistic.” In some jurisdictions, officials tend to focus much of their attention on the estimated 100,000 former offenders nationally who fail to register, give false addresses or disappear, and less on the hundreds of thousands, like Mr. Garrido, who comply. And while some authorities have extensive contact with their registered offenders ( Illinois has special monitors who follow those deemed most dangerous for life, looking for even subtle signs of crimes), those in some other states spend little time with offenders once they have filed an address. Federal efforts to create a single, consistent registration system have been slowed by states’ concerns about mounting costs, legal challenges and other issues. Deadlines for states complying with a federal plan approved by Congress in 2006 have been delayed a year, until July 2010. The sheer numbers of sex offenders on the registries in all 50 states — an estimated 674,000 across the country — are overwhelming to local police departments and, at times, to the public, who may not easily distinguish between those who must register because they have repeatedly raped children and those convicted of nonviolent or less serious crimes, like exposing themselves in public. Keeping track, for instance, of the home addresses of the 80 offenders who live in Dubuque County, Iowa , keeps law enforcement officers there “plenty busy most every day,” a sheriff’s official there says. In more populous places like the San Francisco Bay Area — and other places that draw large numbers of offenders — the challenges are far more significant: 1,700 registered sex offenders live in Contra Costa County, where Mr. Garrido lived, including 100 in his ZIP code alone; more than 65,000 are registered statewide. “The thing that is hard to remember is that all people on a registry are not the same, and we need to distinguish between them,” said Patty Wetterling, whose son was kidnapped in Minnesota 20 years ago and who now works for a state sexual violence prevention program. “At the end of the day, the registry is just one tool out of a bunch of tools, and it’s only as good as its users. I worry that people want simple solutions to a very complex problem.” Certainly, no one is blaming registries for Mr. Garrido’s alleged crimes’ escaping notice for so long, and many defended their broader usefulness. “Look, nobody ever suggested that registering sex offenders is going to remove sex offenders from the planet,” said Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “But let’s at least make sure they’re not working in your elementary school or coaching the soccer team.” If anything, Mr. Garrido was getting far more attention than the average offender listed on a state registry. For years and until his arrest last week, he was on parole from the earlier kidnapping and rape in Nevada , and, California authorities said, met several times a month with a parole officer and wore a GPS device that tracked his whereabouts. Three years ago, he was visited by a sheriff’s deputy after a neighbor complained that he had a “sexual addiction” and that children were living in his yard. Although Mr. Garrido was listed on the state’s public registry , the deputy, the sheriff said, had not known he was a sex offender and did not search the house or yard, where primitive tents were housing his captives. Mr. Garrido’s case has also renewed concern that policies regulating offenders may inadvertently be driving them to live in more remote, out-of-the-way places, where crimes can go unnoticed. Nine other registered sex offenders live within a mile of Mr. Garrido’s home on the outskirts of Antioch, in a dusty neighborhood on the outer reaches of the Bay Area. New rules in many states have barred offenders from living near schools, parks and bus stops, and that has led some offenders, unable to find other alternatives that meet the rules, to live in rural areas, in their cars and, in at least one case in Florida , under a bridge. But because he was released on parole for his earlier crimes decades ago, Mr. Garrido was exempt from a California law enacted in 2006 that bars offenders from living within 2,000 feet of places where children congregate. Still, at least one neighbor said the unincorporated area was “loaded” with offenders, in part because no schools are around, meeting the current rules. No Link Found to Killings The authorities in Pittsburg, Calif., said Tuesday that they had found no concrete evidence linking Mr. Garrido and his wife, Nancy, the couple charged in the abduction of Jaycee Dugard, to a string of unsolved killings in the area. A collection of law enforcement agencies had searched the Garridos’ house and a neighbor’s backyard in Antioch, Calif., which neighbors Pittsburg, looking for clues in nine homicides, mostly of prostitutes, committed from 1998 to 2002. Several of the victims’ bodies were dumped in industrial areas near places where Mr. Garrido, a printer, had sometimes worked. But in a news release on Tuesday, the Pittsburg police seemed to be backing away from that theory, saying their search had come up empty, barring a “few items that will require further forensic examination.” On Monday, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department said that a bone fragment had been found, but that it was not clear whether it was human.


Hosni Mubarak Sentenced to Life Term by Egyptian Court

Abstract: CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced former President Hosni Mubarak to life in prison as an accomplice in the killing of unarmed demonstrators during the protests that ended his nearly 30-year rule. But a conviction that once promised to deliver a triumph for the rule of law in Egypt and the Arab world — the first Arab strongman jailed by his own citizens — instead brought tens of thousands of Egyptians back into the streets. They denounced the verdict as a sham because the court also acquitted many officials more directly responsible for the police who killed the demonstrators, and a broad range of lawyers and political leaders said Mr. Mubarak’s conviction was doomed to reversal on appeal. Presiding over a three-judge panel, Judge Ahmed Rafaat said that prosecutors had presented no evidence that either Mr. Mubarak or his top aides had directly ordered the killing of protesters. Instead, the judge found that Mr. Mubarak, 84, was an “accessory to murder” because he failed to stop the killing, a rationale that lawyers said would not meet the usual requirements for a murder conviction under Egyptian or international law. The judges also sentenced Mr. Mubarak’s feared former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, to the same penalty for the same reason. But they dismissed corruption charges against Mr. Mubarak and his deeply unpopular sons, Alaa and Gamal, on technical grounds. By nightfall, demonstrators filled Tahrir Square in a protest that matched the size and ideological diversity of the early days of the revolt, with Islamists and liberals once again protesting side by side. Protesters poured into the streets of Alexandria, Suez and other cities to rail against what they saw as a miscarriage of justice. “It is all an act. It is a show,” said Alaa Hamam, 38, a Cairo University employee joining a protest in Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the uprising. “It is a provocation.” For many Egyptians, the court’s handling of the case was the latest disappointment in a 16-month-old transition that has yielded some major accomplishments, but has not yet delivered the ratification of a constitution, the election of a president or the hand-over of power by interim military rulers. Against an opaque backdrop of military rule, in which the generals, prosecutors and judges were all appointed by Mr. Mubarak, the degree of judicial independence is impossible to know. Demonstrators slammed the decision as a ruse designed to placate them without holding anyone accountable for the violence or corruption of the old government. The ruling immediately became a political battleground in Egypt’s first competitive presidential race, expected to be decided this month by a runoff between the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Shafik , Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister. Most analysts called the decision a blow to Mr. Shafik because of his close ties to Mr. Mubarak, but any further protests could increase public receptiveness to Mr. Shafik’s law-and-order message. Mr. Mubarak’s conviction and court appearance — on a hospital gurney in the metal cage that holds criminal defendants in Egypt — offered the kind of vivid example of the humiliation of their once-invincible ruler that thrilled Egyptians with a feeling of liberation. Mr. Mubarak, in dark glasses and a light-colored track suit, showed no reaction to the verdict. Both sons stood in front of their father to try to shield him from the cameras. Alaa Mubarak appeared to recite verses from the Koran as the verdict was read. And after the ruling, both sons had tears in their eyes. They remain in jail while they face charges in an unrelated stock-manipulation case announced last week. During the trial, Mr. Mubarak was housed in a military hospital, where he enjoyed visits from his family and a daily swim, according to news reports. After the verdict, a helicopter flew him to a Cairo prison. State news media reported that after complaining of a “medical crisis,” Mr. Mubarak was treated in the helicopter on the ground, then refused to leave it and enter the prison for two and a half hours, complaining that he needed the support of his family. The court session had opened with unusual promptness at 10 a.m. Judge Rafaat pronounced that “defendant Mohamed Hosni Mubarak be sentenced to a life term for the allegations ascribed to him, being an accessory to murder” in the killing of more than 240 demonstrators during the last six days of January 2011. He called Mr. Mubarak’s tenure “30 years of intense darkness — black, black, black, the blackness of a chilly winter night.” And he said officials had “committed the gravest sins, tyranny and corruption without accountability or oversight as their consciences died, their feelings became numb and their hearts in their chests turned blind.” “The peaceful sons of the homeland came out of every deep ravine with all the pain they experienced from injustice, heartbreak, humiliation and oppression,” he added. “Bearing the burden of their suffering on their shoulders, they moved peacefully toward Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, demanding only justice, freedom and democracy.” But if Judge Rafaat hoped the people would cheer the verdict, he was soon disappointed as scuffles and chaos broke out in the courtroom. “The people want to cleanse the judiciary,” chanted an angry crowd of lawyers for the victims and other supporters. The ruling appeared for the first time to bring together a broad spectrum of both liberal and Islamist political leaders in united opposition to Mr. Shafik. By Saturday afternoon, protesters were tearing down Mr. Shafik’s billboards and burning his campaign posters. “Shafik, you disgrace, the revolution continues,” protesters chanted. Early Sunday morning, protesters in the town of Fayoum invaded a Shafik campaign office, Reuters reported. As Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, Mr. Shafik presided over the cabinet when the police failed to protect unarmed protesters in Tahrir Square from a deadly assault by a mob of Mubarak supporters known as the “battle of the camels.” In a statement, Mr. Shafik said the next president should “comprehend the historic lesson” of the decision. “This means that nobody in Egypt is still above punishment or accountability,” he added. The other lesson, he said, was that the police must respect human rights, which he said that in its new form most of the “security apparatus already wants to do.” His opponent, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, pledged that if elected, he would assemble a team of top prosecutors to determine who was responsible for the killings and press new charges against Mr. Mubarak and his aides. Around 9 p.m., Brotherhood members formed two long rows so Mr. Morsi could safely walk into the Tahrir Square crowd, and then cheering supporters carried him on their shoulders. “The verdict means that the head of the regime and the minister of interior are the only ones who have fallen, but the rest of the entire regime remains,” the Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group, said in a statement.” It added, “The Egyptian people have to sense the great danger that threatens their revolution and their hopes, and wastes the blood of the martyrs and the sacrifices of their children.” Ayman Nour , a liberal candidate who had opposed both Mr. Shafik and Mr. Morsi, announced that “after this flimsy verdict” he was endorsing Mr. Morsi. In the parking lot outside the makeshift courthouse in a police academy, some initially celebrated the verdict. “I am so happy — this is the greatest happiness I have ever felt,” said Rada Mohamed Mabrouk, a 60-year-old retiree. “The martyrs are all of our children.” But the elation soon gave way. “They are all innocent? Gamal and Alaa are innocent?” asked Hanan Mohamed el-Rifai, 28, of Alexandria. She said that during protests, the police killed her younger brother, Kareem, 15, with a bullet to the heart. “We will turn the world upside down,” she said. Other demonstrators brandished nooses to symbolize the sentence they sought. The credibility of the Mubarak trial was in many ways compromised from the start. It took place under the rule of the generals who seized power at Mr. Mubarak’s ouster rather than under a permanent constitution guaranteeing judicial independence. Instead of a sweeping examination of the corruption and political repression of the Mubarak government, the prosecutors rushed the case toward trial last spring in an apparent attempt to soothe protesters. Prosecutors charged Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Adly with directing the police to shoot unarmed protesters during just the first six days of the uprising. Although Health Ministry officials said that about 840 civilians were killed during the protests and thousands of others injured, prosecutors narrowed the case to only about 250 deaths that took place in public squares and under other circumstances in which it is hard for the police to argue self-defense. The prosecutors also charged Mr. Mubarak and his two sons with just one instance of profiting from their positions. The prosecutors charged that Mr. Mubarak and his sons had received steep discounts on several luxurious vacation homes near the Red Sea from a crony, Hussein Salem. Mr. Mubarak later allowed companies controlled by Mr. Salem to make profitable deals to resell Egyptian natural gas to Israel and buy public land on the Red Sea for development. The judge dismissed the corruption charges against Mr. Mubarak and his sons on the grounds that a statute of limitations had expired since the three Mubaraks were said to have received the vacation homes. Prosecutors had evidently hoped to date the crime from the subsequent favors Mr. Mubarak did for Mr. Salem. It was unclear why the judge had not raised the statute of limitations issue earlier. Lawyers said the final legal verdict on Mr. Mubarak would await not only lengthy appeals but most likely further trials as well. “The trial is far from over,” Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said from outside the courthouse. “We will be in this for years.”

Hosni Mubarak
Egypt
Alaa Mubarak
Arab Spring
Decisions and Verdicts
Gamal Mubarak
Habib el- Adly


Lezly Ziering, Dancer Who Rescued Roller-Skating in Central Park, Dies at 82

Abstract: Lezly Ziering, a professional dancer who in midlife set his art on wheels, reinventing himself as a skater, teacher, coach and promoter and achieving the fame of a guru within New York City’s roller-skating subculture, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 82. His wife, Robbin, said that she did not know the precise cause, but that his health had declined after an accident in 2012 when a skater on a women’s roller derby team he was coaching bowled him over and broke his femur. Mr. Ziering’s graceful mastery of dance steps on skates — he favored the old-fashioned four-wheelers known as “quads” over in-line skates — was legend in Central Park; at the Roxy, the Manhattan roller disco and nightclub that closed in 2007; and at other venues in New York. He could no longer leap the way he could as a younger man, but he had a variety of moves — spins and hockey stops, shifts of direction, balletic poses and funky hip-hop steps — that reflected his eclectic dance background, and he was known for his charismatic and seductive personality. “He was a master of the social style,” said Steve Love, a professional skater and skate choreographer who was a teenager when he met Mr. Ziering in the late 1970s or early 1980s. “He could skate backwards so gallantly, and if you were a woman he could take you in his arms and sweep you off your feet.” But more than just a near-mythical practitioner of skate dancing, Mr. Ziering was perhaps the city’s leading skate advocate, a Pied Piper of the enterprise. As a private teacher and the proprietor of the Lezly Dance and Skate School, he taught innumerable New Yorkers to skate — in a 2005 interview he said he had taught more than 15,000 — and helped prepare performers for skating roles on Broadway and Off Broadway stages. His choreography credits included a love duet on skates for “Faith Healing,” a theater-dance piece based on the Tennessee Williams play “The Glass Menagerie,” staged at Performance Space 122 in 1993. From 2008 to 2014, a time when indoor roller rinks had virtually disappeared from the city, Mr. Ziering ran the Crazy Legs Skate Club, a weekly party on skates at a Salvation Army gymnasium in Brooklyn. But he may be best remembered for his role in rescuing skating in Central Park, where by now thousands, maybe millions, of visitors, both tourists and denizens of the city, are familiar with the skate dancers who commandeer a swath of asphalt (sometimes called the Dead Road) just south of 72nd Street on weekend afternoons. The skaters — dozens at any one time, diverse in ethnicity and age and apparel, single or in pairs, on in-line skates or quads — swoop and swing in hectic, colorful array to music provided by volunteer D.J.s. A tradition that dates to the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was nearly quashed in the mid-1990s by city officials who objected to the amplified music and occasionally unruly crowds of spectators. In 1995, to save what was known as the skate circle, Mr. Ziering and a fellow skater, Bob Nichols, founded the Central Park Dance Skaters Association, organizing the skaters and working with the mayor’s office to establish hours and regulations. Those efforts kept the tradition alive and established the skate circle as a sanctioned city attraction. “Lezly was the glue that held everyone together,” Mr. Nichols said in an interview. “He was Mr. Roller Skating in New York.” Leslie Sanford Ziering (he changed the spelling of his first name as an adult) was born in Brooklyn on March 11, 1933, and grew up in Manhattan. His father worked for an insurance company, his mother for an airline. He skated and danced as a boy, beginning his career as a dancer and dance teacher after graduating from Stuyvesant High School. By many accounts, Mr. Ziering had a long and accomplished career as a dancer. In the 1950s he performed in the Geoffrey Holder company and other ensembles, and he later ran a successful dance school in Manhattan, where he was known as a charismatic and gifted teacher of a variety of dance styles, from classical ballet to tango. Other substantial elements of his résumé that were provided by friends as well as his wife — among them that he trained in ballet at the Paris Opera, that he appeared with Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood as an uncredited dancer in the film “Marjorie Morningstar” and that he helped train performers who appeared in the Broadway roller-skating musical “Starlight Express” — could not be easily confirmed. In any case, it was in the late 1970s that Mr. Ziering seized on what was little more than a whim and returned to an activity that he had pursued as a teenager. “I got a book, it had 20 lessons in it,” he recalled about his rebirth as a skater in a 2005 interview with the website gothamist.com . “It was a good book. It really taught me what I needed to know. And I learned the 20 lessons in a couple days. Oh, and I had a girlfriend, an ex-girlfriend who taught me how to skate backwards. That wasn’t in the book. A month and a half later I was teaching. I still am.” Mr. Ziering, who was twice divorced, was a skilled scuba diver whose second wedding was conducted underwater. He married Robbin Axelberg, whom he met in Central Park when she asked him to teach her to dance on skates, in 1997. In addition to her, he is survived by a son, Stephan. “We got married on skates,” Ms. Ziering said. “The rabbi was on skates, too. And all the guests were on skates.”

Lezly Ziering
Central Park
Roller skating
Obituary
NYC


LeBron James’s Hunger Game

Abstract: The moment called for it, certainly, and LeBron James has the talent for it — but there have often been moments that called for it, and LeBron James has always had the talent for it. It has been the N.B.A.'s longest running psychological study when you string these moments together and chart how James has responded. Thursday night's 45-point performance to bury the Celtics' chances of clinching the Eastern Conference finals will register as one for the upper echelons, but it was made only more interesting by all of those that have fallen far below. James fashioned himself a superhero in Game 6, swooping in and saving the foundering Heat from elimination, and perhaps that is what he found hidden between the lines of "Mockingjay," the latest "Hunger Games" book James has made a show of reading. We get only clues of what is going on in the world of James, who lives in a sort of self-imposed exile from the rest of basketball, as Ian Thomsen writes on SI.com , until he takes the court and adds another dot to the psychological chart. In this one, Billy Witz writes on Foxsports.com , James seemed coolly detached as he lifted the Heat's dreams on his shoulders and carried them forward, writes Greg Cote in The Miami Herald . It was the kind of game James always has in him, Brian Windhorst writes on ESPN.com , and why he is so riveting. It wasn't about the Big Three, or James's dream that these games wouldn't be necessary because he had teamed up with two buddies to remove some of his burden, this was about him. This time, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo.com writes , he responded with an epic game, although as Ken Berger points out on CBSSports.com , this was only Game 6 of the conference finals, so much more of it is going to be necessary before a championship is won. It did also require the Celtics to cooperate by reducing themselves to mere foil, Steve Buckley writes in The Boston Herald , and while there was no doubting James's greatness, the Celtics' lethargic start could be given an assist. As Jackie MacMullan writes on ESPN.com , there was nothing acceptable about the way the Celtics responded to a chance to advance to the finals at home. So, now there's a Game 7, which there should be for any good psychological study to be complete. And then there's the N.B.A. finals, which also seem necessary and quite likely. The bad news for James is, those moments will never stop coming. The one incongruous thing is, Game 7 will come on Saturday night in Miami, which interrupts the vibe of the entire sporting universe revolving around the New York metropolitan area on that day (the Belmont, Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, a major track meet, a Yankees-Mets game, a major soccer friendly). In the Cup finals, the Kings will be looking for their transcendent moment of glory after flubbing it in Game 4 at home, Helene Elliott writes in The Los Angeles Times , but if you need a little hockey fix to get you through to Saturday, check out the flukiest possible goal — in overtime — that put the Norfolk Admirals up, 3-0, in the Calder Cup finals over the Toronto Marlies. Also awaiting you this weekend are the French Open finals, which Maria Sharapova and Sarah Errani are participating in largely because they had better control of their nerves in the semifinals, Jon Wertheim writes on SI.com . If European soccer is your thing, Euro 2012 is kicking off in Poland, where fears of overt racism have been realized with the Dutch team serenaded with monkey noises and loud jeers at a practice in Krakow, The Guardian reported . It is hoped that soccer will become the story there, with Germany firmly lodged as the favorite to win, writes Martin Rogers on Yahoo.com . The Mets-Yankees series has more than its usual charm, writes Johnette Howard on ESPN.com , with the Mets having morphed into lovable mutts. It will also feature Johan Santana's first start since his 134-pitch no-hitter, which will show what impact that had, Bob Klapisch writes on Foxsports.com . You may count the fact that the Mets are selling reprints of the tickets to the no-hitter for $50 (so people who weren't there can have fake tickets and pretend they were?) as a possible karma cramp. If anyone's karma should develop a major cramp, it's the country club in Moraga, Calif., that barred Cal assistant swim coach Kristen Cunnane from speaking at a clinic, apparently because one of her teachers sexually assaulted her when she was in school. The teacher was convicted and controversy swirls over the actions of the principal, but somehow Cunnane became persona non grata in all that. The club did reverse course after people responded angrily to the ban, but well, geez. Even James would have gotten that right, no matter what his psychological state at the moment. Follow Leading Off on Twitter: twitter.com/zinsernyt

Basketball
Stanley Cup
National Basketball Assn
Miami Heat
Boston Celtics
Los Angeles Kings
James LeBron
Sharapova Maria
French Open (Tennis)
Hockey Ice