Candidates Show G.O.P. Less United on Goals of War

Abstract: DERRY, N.H. — The hawkish consensus on national security that has dominated Republican foreign policy for the last decade is giving way to a more nuanced view, with some presidential candidates expressing a desire to withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible and suggesting that the United States has overreached in Libya . The shift, while incremental so far, appears to mark a separation from a post-Sept. 11 posture in which Republicans were largely united in supporting an aggressive use of American power around the world. A new debate over the costs and benefits of deploying the military reflects the length of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq , the difficulty of building functional governments and the financial burden at home in a time of extreme fiscal pressure. The evolution also highlights a renewed streak of isolationism among Republicans, which has been influenced by the rise of the Tea Party movement and a growing sense that the United States can no longer afford to intervene in clashes everywhere. The killing of Osama bin Laden has intensified questions about the need for prolonged American involvement in fighting Al Qaeda . The evolution of thinking inside the party is coming into view as Republicans begin sorting through their field of candidates to select a nominee to challenge President Obama , who faces a decision this summer about a troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. It could leave some of the party’s presidential candidates at odds with its most influential voices on foreign policy, like Senator John McCain of Arizona , who continues to call for an aggressive military effort to stabilize Afghanistan. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. , a former governor of Utah who just finished a two-year stint as ambassador to China in the Obama administration, said Tuesday that the cost of a continued military presence was a leading factor in his belief that a major troop drawdown should begin in Afghanistan. Mr. Huntsman, who has said he would make his candidacy official next Tuesday, said a force of about 15,000 troops should be left behind for anti-terrorism efforts, but added: “There’s the desire on the part of most Americans to begin phasing out as quickly as possible.” “This would mean that the very expensive boots on the ground may be something that is not critical for our national security needs,” Mr. Huntsman said in a brief interview. “Nor is it something we can afford at this point in our economic history. I think most Americans would say it’s probably a good transition point.” Mitt Romney , a former governor of Massachusetts , said in the Republican presidential debate Monday night that it was “time for us to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can,” consistent with the advice of commanders about their ability to hand off control of regions to Afghan security forces without risking a return of the Taliban . “But I also think we’ve learned that our troops shouldn’t go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation,” he said. “Only the Afghanis can win Afghanistan’s independence from the Taliban.” On Tuesday, Mr. Romney sought to draw a distinction between his thinking and that of Mr. Huntsman and others who say the financial cost should be a big factor in the calculation. “There will be some who argue it’s too expensive now, we’ve got to bring the troops home right now, or others will say, politically we need to make one decision or another,” Mr. Romney said here. “You don’t make a decision about our involvement in a conflict based on dollars and cents alone or certainly not with regards to politics.” Tim Pawlenty , a former governor of Minnesota , said that conditions on the ground and the advice of military commanders — not the cost — should guide decisions about Afghanistan troop levels. “We have to remember why we invaded the country in the first place,” Mr. Pawlenty said, adding that the security level was not yet sufficient for a full withdrawal. But he said, “Our mission in Afghanistan is not to stay there forever or to stay there for 10 more years to rebuild their country.” The array of Republican viewpoints, which have drawn new lines among neo-conservatives, Tea Party supporters, traditional hawks and other elements of the party, were on display during the first major presidential debate on Monday night, as the candidates started to mull the limits of American power at a time when some of the threats to the nation are less clear and its willingness to commit resources of all kinds is being looked at anew. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the decision by Mr. Obama to involve the United States military in the effort to dislodge Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from power in Libya was “substantially flawed” and did not meet the criteria of protecting the national interest. “We were not attacked,” Ms. Bachmann said. “We were not threatened with attack.” Newt Gingrich , a former House speaker, assailed American intelligence in the region, calling it “so inadequate that we have no idea what percent of the Libyan rebels are in fact Al Qaeda.” At the same time, Mr. Gingrich said “the price tag’s always a factor” when deciding to engage in military action. Four years ago, Representative Ron Paul of Texas was the only Republican presidential candidate raising concerns about the cost of the war and urging a drawdown in troops. His positions, embraced by libertarians, are still outside the mainstream of many Republicans, but he is no longer standing alone in his call for a new stance toward foreign policy. Small but growing numbers of House Republicans have registered opposition to the war. Republicans have also been challenging Mr. Obama’s decision to employ the military in the Libya conflict without Congressional authorization. Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday demanded from the president a legal justification for the engagement and set a Friday deadline for a response, escalating the clash over whether the White House is in violation of the 1973 War Powers Act . John Ullyot, a former Marine intelligence officer who served as a Republican spokesman on the Senate Armed Services Committee during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said Tuesday that the party’s unified approach to foreign policy is steadily shifting. “Republicans clearly sense fatigue among voters with our decade-long effort in Afghanistan, particularly after the killing of Bin Laden and the lack of a reliable partner,” Mr. Ullyot said. “There is no stampede yet, but more Republicans are willing to raise tougher questions when it comes to committing our forces and sustaining long-term and costly engagements.”

Republicans
Mitt Romney
Tim Pawlenty
US Foreign Policy
US Military
2012 Presidential Election
Jon M Huntsman Jr
Michele M Bachmann
Political Debates


Kansas Star Thomas Robinson Triumphs After Tragedy

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — Summers for Kansas Coach Bill Self mean leisurely mornings. Usually he arrives at his Allen Fieldhouse office in Lawrence, between 9:30 and 10 a.m., to the sound of players dribbling and shooting on the adjacent practice court. Self cannot monitor the players practicing — that would be an N.C.A.A. violation — but people around the building know who is out there and who is not. Most of the time, Self never ran into Thomas Robinson, his gifted 6-foot-10 power forward. And that was a plus. “I would say 60 percent of the days when I came to work when he was in town, he already worked out before I got there,” Self said. “That always shows me something.” Self had already seen plenty of emotional strength from Robinson. Several months removed from a heart-wrenching winter during which Robinson’s grandfather, grandmother and mother died within about a month, Robinson rededicated himself to basketball, developing in a short time from a valuable reserve into one of the best players in the country. Kansas was not supposed to be this good after losing the Morris twins, Marcus and Markieff, to the N.B.A., plus two other starters from last year’s 35-3 team that reached the Round of 8. Instead, Robinson rose to lead the Jayhawks into the Round of 16, winning the Big 12 Player of the Year award and topping Division I players with 25 double-doubles. A Naismith Award finalist, Robinson has averaged 17.7 points and 11.8 rebounds this season to join a stellar list of Jayhawks who have averaged a double-double, including Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Lovellette and Bill Bridges. North Carolina State (24-12), which faces the 29-6 Jayhawks in a Midwest Region semifinal on Friday, must contain Robinson even more than Purdue did on Sunday or its tournament run will end. “My whole motivation was proving to people outside the Kansas program that I am a good player, that I felt like I deserved to be named among the top players in the country,” Robinson said. The story of Robinson’s personal losses in 2011 still resounds in Lawrence. At Self’s suggestion, Robinson planted a tree outside Allen Fieldhouse in his mother’s memory. It was Lisa Robinson who called her son by his middle name, Earl, when she meant business. It was Lisa Robinson, a single mother, who demanded that he leave their crime-ridden neighborhood in Washington. So he transferred from Washington’s Eastern Senior High to Riverdale Baptist in Upper Marlboro, Md., and eventually Brewster Academy, a boarding school on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, N.H. Everywhere he went, Robinson worked hard. Last summer, when he was not at Kansas, Robinson starred at three summer skill academies in the Midwest — one in June and the others, run by LeBron James and Amar’e Stoudemire, in July. “He gets invited to those camps, and everybody reports back to us that he’s one of the two or three best players there,” Self said. “I think that right there gave him some confidence that he said, Hey, I can play with anybody. And that motivated him.” With the Morris twins gone, Robinson moved into the starting lineup and excelled. He had 18 points and 11 rebounds against Towson in the season opener, compiled 20 points and 12 rebounds against Georgetown 10 days later, and never let up. Although Purdue held him to 11 points and 2-for-12 shooting on Sunday, Robinson contributed 13 rebounds (5 offensive) and 2 steals to the Jayhawks’ 63-60 win. Robinson, a junior, is expected to declare for the N.B.A. draft , in part so he can try to gain custody of his 9-year-old sister, Jayla, who lives with her biological father in Washington. Whether the player will be able to or not, Self said he admired how Robinson has put himself in a position to do it. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had anybody that I respected more for how he’s taken an unbelievable situation and somehow spun it in a way that betters his life moving forward,” Self said. “Now, you can’t get back what he’s lost. But still, he hasn’t been a guy that has used anything as an excuse to keep him from going after it. And to me, that’s very difficult to do.”

Robinson Thomas
Self Bill
University of Kansas
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)
Basketball (College)
North Carolina State University


Haas and Barr Share Lead at Senior Open

Abstract: HUTCHINSON, Kan., July 6 (AP) — Jay Haas and Dave Barr played early, which helped them play well. Teeing off Thursday morning well ahead of most of their nearest pursuers, Haas and Barr took advantage of the light wind and soft greens and each shot a three-under-par 67 to share the first-round lead at the United States Senior Open. The heavy rough and tricky greens proved tough on the field, especially in the afternoon, when the wind strengthened, tightening the short-but-narrow Prairie Dunes course. "At times, it blew a little bit on certain holes," said Haas, who won the Senior P.G.A. this year and is trying for his second consecutive senior major title. "It kind of kicked up. But on the difficult holes, it seemed like it was mostly helping, or not really too bad." D. A. Weibring, Massy Kuramoto of Japan, Graham Marsh of Australia and Mark James of England each shot 68. Allen Doyle, the defending champion, had trouble with the 5-inch rough on a couple of holes and was a stroke further back, as were Bruce Lietzke, Lonnie Nielsen and Bruce Summerhays. Doyle had a double-bogey on the par-4 eighth after hitting into rough that Barr described as "like a wire brush."


No More Data From Pluto

Abstract: Most of the scientific investigations of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took place over the course of a single day, when it zipped within 8,000 miles of the dwarf planet in July of last year. Getting all that information back to Earth where scientists could study it took 15 months. The last bits of data — an infrared scan of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, that tells something about the composition of the two — arrived on Earth on Tuesday at 5:48 a.m. Eastern. “Well, you know, in our hearts, it’s still there,” Alice Bowman, the missions operations manager, said of Pluto, “but our data is on the ground.” In all, New Horizons made more than 400 scientific observations, most of them on July 14, 2015, when the spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto, passing within 8,000 miles of the surface. Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart The spacecraft beamed back the highlights the next day, July 15 — what the mission team cheekily called “The New York Times data set,” because they expected breathtaking images that would be splashed across the front page of The New York Times. ( They were right. ) But scientists had to wait for the bulk of the data — more than 50 billion bits — because the radio signal from two 12-watt transmitters on a spacecraft more than three billion miles away is tenuously faint. In modern-day computing terms, 50 billion bits is not much — 6.25 gigabytes, or what easily fits on a cheap USB flash drive. Spread over 469 days, the effective data rate was about 1,200 bits per second, on par with computer modems of the early 1980s. New Horizons was actually pushing the data at a somewhat faster pace, but it could not do so continuously, because it had to share NASA’s large radio dishes with other missions. Ms. Bowman said the scientists were checking one more time to make sure that they had everything, and then in a few weeks, a command would be sent to wipe the data memory banks clean. The New Horizons team is already planning for its next encounter on New Year’s Day in 2019, passing within 2,000 miles of a distant clump of rock and ice known as 2014 MU69. So far, astronomers do not know much about 2014 MU69 beyond that it is tiny and red — redder than Pluto though not quite as red as Mars — and that it is part of what is known as the classical Kuiper belt, a disk of icy bodies beyond Neptune whose circular orbits appear undisturbed since the beginning of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. (Pluto by contrast, has been bullied by Neptune’s gravity into an elliptical, tilted orbit with a travel time around the sun 1.5 times that of Neptune.) Image An artist’s conception of the New Horizons spacecraft flying past a distant Kuiper belt object. Credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Steve Gribben A Year After Pluto Spinnable maps of Pluto and Charon, one year after the NASA flyby. “We believe that they are the primordial remnants of the disk that formed the planets,” Amanda M. Zangari, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. working on the New Horizons mission, said during a news conference last week. S. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of New Horizons, declined to make predictions of what will be discovered. Based on Hubble Space Telescope observations, astronomers guess its diameter to be 20 to 30 miles. That would make its mass about a thousandth of Pluto’s, Dr. Stern said, yet 10,000 times the mass of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which was studied by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission. “We’ve never been to anything like MU69,” Dr. Stern said. Scientists will have to wait awhile. With the greater distance from Earth and slower transmission rates, it will take 21 months, until September 2020, for New Horizons to get the data from that encounter back to Earth.

Pluto
NASA
New Horizons
Alice Bowman
S Alan Stern


With a Strong Spring, Hughes Makes His Case

Abstract: PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Joe Girardi wants a difficult decision, and Phil Hughes is doing his best to accommodate him. Of the potential starters vying for one of five rotation spots — and there are seven, if you count Andy Pettitte and his expected return in May — it is Hughes who has perhaps pitched the best for the Yankees in spring training. And make no mistake, spring training performance is important. That is why, instead of using the cliché that March numbers do not really matter, Hughes was more forthright in acknowledging the situation he is in. “For me personally,” he said, “I want to go out and have some success. Throw up as many zeroes as I can.” He did not quite throw all zeroes Wednesday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays . But he was close. Aside from surrendering a mammoth two-run home run to Matt Joyce, Hughes was nearly flawless. He pitched five innings, yielded three hits and a walk, and struck out three. “I’m just trying to show the best stuff that I can,” he said, “and see where it takes me.” Statistically, it has taken him to the top of the rotation. To highlight just how strong Hughes has been, his outing Wednesday actually raised his earned run average — to 2.02 from 1.08. It made Girardi smile afterward. He likes the internal competition that starters not named C. C. Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda are facing. Sabathia and Kuroda are expected to be one-two in the rotation, with Pettitte likely at three when he joins the club. That leaves two rotation spots for Michael Pineda (who made the All-Star team last year), Ivan Nova (who was 16-4), the veteran Freddy Garcia (who has 145 career wins) and Hughes (an 18-game winner two seasons ago). “I keep saying, if you don’t want someone to take your job, then go out there and compete,” Girardi said. “You can’t ever take your job for granted in this business, so these are the things I want to see.” Hughes arrived at spring training out of shape last year, struggled with his velocity, went on the disabled list with shoulder issues, then muddled through a 5-5 season . He looks much different now, not just in body, but in his body of work. Girardi compared Hughes to the Hughes of two seasons ago, only better. Hughes continues to work at adding an improving changeup to his repertory, and feels comfortable enough to throw it in just about any situation, as he did against the Rays. “The changeup was very good,” catcher Russell Martin said. “He wasn’t as consistent with it early on. But as the game went along, he kept getting better and better.” Russell raved about Hughes’s entire repertory, and the difference he sees with him this year from last season. “It looks like it’s easier for him,” Martin said. “He’s not forcing the ball up there. It’s nice and easy. Simple mechanics. Fluid. It shows he came in camp in shape this year.” It also shows the decision the Yankees have ahead of them. Girardi said before the game that he might move one of the rotation candidates into a long relief role. He did indicate, though, that all things being equal, he will take into consideration which pitchers the Yankees expect to be around long term. Garcia is 35 and only signed through this season. In addition to Hughes, 25, Pineda is 23 and Nova is 25. “Any of these guys, these young kids, we feel they’re there long term, and that’s important to us,” Girardi said. “You want a group of starters you can rely on for more than just one year. We’re still going to do what’s best for this year, but that is important.” It is going to make Girardi’s decision difficult. As for Hughes, it is a bit different for him this season than last. “I feel a lot better,” he said. “It’s easier to sleep at night, for sure, compared to last year.” INSIDE PITCH Cesar Cabral got all six of his outs via strikeouts in two innings of relief in the Yankees’ 5-2 win. He has 11 strikeouts in eight and a third innings.

Hughes Phil
New York Yankees
Baseball
Girardi Joe


Small Stores See Google as Ally in E-Book Market

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Independent bookstores were battered first by discount chains like Barnes & Noble, then by superefficient Web retailers like Amazon.com . Now the electronic book age is dawning. With this latest challenge, these stores will soon have a new ally: the search giant Google . Later this summer, Google plans to introduce its long-awaited push into electronic books, called Google Editions. The company has revealed little about the venture thus far, describing it generally as an effort to sell digital books that will be readable within a Web browser and accessible from any Internet-connected computing device. Now one element of Google Editions is coming into sharper focus. Google is on the verge of completing a deal with the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstores, to make Google Editions the primary source of e-books on the Web sites of hundreds of independent booksellers around the country, according to representatives of Google and the association. The partnership could help beloved bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.; Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, Calif.; and St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York. To court the growing audience of people who prefer reading on screens rather than paper, these small stores have until now been forced to compete against the likes of Amazon, Apple and Sony. The Google deal could give them a foothold in this fast-growing market and help them keep devoted customers from migrating elsewhere. “Google has shown a real interest in our market,” said Len Vlahos, chief operating officer of the booksellers association, which has over 1,400 member bookstores. “For a lot of reasons, it’s a very good fit.” Google will probably face an uphill battle in its effort to enter the already crowded e-books field. The company has little experience as a retailer. It also has far fewer consumer credit card numbers in its database than either Amazon or Apple, and its online payment system, Google Checkout, has not been widely adopted. Nevertheless, Google is promoting its e-book plan as a fundamentally different and more “open” alternative to its rivals’ stores. Though it will act as a retailer and sell books from its own site, it will also behave like a wholesaler and allow independent bookstores and other partners to sell its e-books on their own sites. People who buy Google e-books will not be locked into any particular reading devices or book formats, the company said. Books bought from Apple’s iBookstore, by contrast, can be read only on Apple devices. “I don’t think anyone who has bought an e-reader in the last several years has really intended to only buy their digital books from one provider for life,” said Tom Turvey, Google’s director of strategic partnerships, who heads the Google Editions project. Mr. Turvey said that customers would be able to get access their books, or buy new ones, from anywhere in the world by entering their Google credentials. And he said Google would introduce the service with a broad selection of hundreds of thousands of books, including trade fiction, nonfiction and professional, scholarly and academic titles, including textbooks. Google already has two million books that publishers have made available as part of its Partner Program, which allows Web users to sample lengthy previews of books on Google’s site and other sites. A separate project to scan millions of out of print or hard-to-find library books has been tied up in litigation since 2005. As a wholesaler, Google will play a role similar to that of offline distributors like Ingram Book and Baker & Taylor, which buy books from publishers and resell them to bookstores. Those companies generally keep a single-digit percentage of each sale, and Mr. Turvey said Google would operate along similar lines. Independent bookstores seem to believe that Google is more interested in working through them than being a direct retailer. In fact, they are banking on it. The e-book wave has forced such bookstores to confront a complex and rapidly changing field. Back in 1999, Powell’s in Portland, for example, made a bet on selling e-books for the pioneering e-book company Rocket Book, only to see it go out of business. More recently, with the help of Ingram Digital, Powell’s has tried selling e-books on its Web site in a jumble of formats provided by the likes of Adobe, Microsoft and Palm. These efforts have yielded little in return, and devices like the Amazon Kindle , Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple iPad have captured readers’ attention. “Google would allow us to play completely outside the device-centric game,” said Darin Sennett, the director of Web development at Powell’s. Mr. Sennett acknowledged that Google would also be a competitor, since it would also sell books from its Web site. But he seemed to believe that Google would favor its smaller partners. “I don’t see Google directly working to undermine or outsell their retail partners,” he said. “I doubt they are going to be editorially recommending books and making choices about what people should read, which is what bookstores do.” He added, “I wonder how naïve that is at this point. We’ll have to see.” Google’s move toward selling digital books coincides with its broader overall shift into selling digital media. Since its inception, Google has made money almost exclusively by placing text advertisements alongside search results and on Web pages. But now rivals like Amazon and, increasingly, Apple are trying to ensconce themselves in people’s lives, and wallets, by storing customers’ movies, TV shows, music and books on their own servers. The companies hope that storing people’s media collections will generate further digital sales while also locking customers into the devices they sell, like the Kindle and iPad. Google has one advantage in these nascent media wars. It can count on a large number of people entering media-related search queries into its search engine — looking for John Irving’s latest novel, for example — and reflexively clicking on the first buying option that is presented. In an interview last week, Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said Google Editions was a “natural outgrowth of us being interested in books and information and working with publishers.” Asked about digital music, he said Google had long avoided the music business because it did not want to enable piracy. But more recently, as Google looks to offer customers more of what they are searching for without having to click elsewhere, he said, “it makes sense to have some sort of facility with music.”

Google Inc
Electronic Books and Readers
Books and Literature
Shopping and Retail
Book Trade and Publishing
Powell's Books


An Evolutionary Battle Against Bacteria

Abstract: Every disease has a history. Some of that history is written in books, and some is written in our DNA. The earliest records of meningitis — an infection of the membranes that line the brain — reach back to 1685. The British physician Thomas Willis described fevered patients, some of whom suffered from “continual raving” and others who suffered from “horrible stiff extensions in the whole body.” But meningitis was a threat long before Willis put quill to paper. In a new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, two University of Utah scientists have uncovered a 40-million-year struggle between our ancestors and the bacteria that cause meningitis: As our ancestors evolved new defenses, our enemies evolve counter-defenses. By understanding the history of this struggle, we may be able to fight meningitis more effectively in the future. A number of species of bacteria can cause meningitis, but two — Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis — are the top threats. Like all bacteria, these pathogens need iron to grow. But we don’t make it easy for them to find iron inside our bodies. To move iron atoms from one cell to another, we seal them inside a kind of molecular lockbox, called transferrin. A cell can load two iron atoms into a single transferrin molecule and deliver it to another cell, which draws the transferrin inside and then opens it. Transferrin lets us starve bacteria by making free iron atoms scarce. Simply withholding it from the bacteria “becomes an immune strategy,” said Nels C. Elde, an evolutionary geneticist and an author of the new study. A few years ago, Dr. Elde became puzzled by transferrin. Studies by other scientists suggested that it had experienced strong natural selection, changing its molecular structure over generations. But transferrin still does the same job it has been doing for hundreds of millions of years. It ferries iron atoms inside mammals, reptiles, amphibians and even fish. To understand what has driven transferrin’s evolution, Dr. Elde teamed with Matthew F. Barber, a postdoctoral researcher in his lab. They carried out an unprecedented study on the evolution of the gene that encodes transferrin, comparing our own version to those in 20 species of apes and monkeys. The two scientists confirmed that over the past 40 million years, our transferrin protein had undergone drastic changes. Transferrin is made up of two lobes, each of which grabs an iron atom. By far the most changes had occurred in only one of the lobes. The other one barely evolved. This finding gave Dr. Elde a clue as to what was driving the evolution of transferrin: meningitis-causing bacteria. Neisseria and Haemophilus can both steal iron from transferrin. They do so with a protein, TbpA, that pries open one of transferrin’s two lobes, exposing the iron atom inside. The lobe under attack is the one that has been evolving swiftly; the unmolested lobe has barely changed. As the two Utah scientists were studying these evolutionary changes, researchers at the National Institutes of Health published the molecular details of how TbpA grabs transferrin . When Dr. Barber and Dr. Elde compared their results with the molecular structure, they were shocked. Almost every point at which transferrin made contact with TbpA has evolved, while little has changed beyond them. “That was the moment it all snapped together,” said Dr. Elde. Dr. Barber and Dr. Elde were able to reconstruct the history of transferrin. Each time its shape changed, it became harder for the bacteria to grab it and steal its iron. The scientists wondered if the bacteria had evolved in response to these changes. To find out, they got strains of Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitis from patients. They looked at the bacteria’s TbpA genes to see where they had evolved new structures. It turns out they changed where they made contact with transferrin. “It’s basically a mirror image,” said Dr. Elde. He and Dr. Barber argue that our ancestors and meningitis-causing bacteria have been locked in an arms race for 40 million years. Each time we make it harder for the bacteria to steal our iron, the bacteria change their structure to get a better grip on our transferrin. The race isn’t over. A new variant of transferrin has evolved in humans, and it is found in 6 to 25 percent of people, depending on their ethnic group. The Utah scientists found that Haemophilus influenzae bacteria can’t steal iron from the new variant. “It’s basically invisible,” Dr. Elde said. Harmit S. Malik, an evolutionary geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who was not involved in the research, said that until he saw it, he doubted there were enough clues left in living primates to reconstruct the evolutionary arms race. But Dr. Barber and Dr. Elde proved him wrong. “It’s an extremely crisp result,” Dr. Malik said, adding, “Frankly, I didn’t think this could be done.” Despite all the defenses our ancestors evolved against these bacteria, they still pose a major threat to humanity. Haemophilus influenzae alone has been estimated to kill 371,000 people a year. Some researchers have investigated treating such infections by giving patients extra transferrin to starve bacteria. Dr. Malik suggested that this treatment would be even more effective if scientists used the evolutionary history of transferrin as a guide for designing transferrin that the bacteria can’t attack. “I suspect it could be a very, very important therapeutic,” he said. If he is right, our monkeylike ancestors could have a hand in saving the lives of our descendants.

Evolution
Meningitis
Medicine and Health


Times Square Painted Ladies Take a Pause

Abstract: On Friday afternoon, John and Kathie Watts of Hanover, Pa., were sitting at one of the tables on the pedestrian plaza on Broadway between 43rd and 44th Streets, drinking a soda and taking in what was the very ordinary tableau of Times Square on a summer day. What was noteworthy was who wasn’t sitting there: This was the spot where, most afternoons, a gaggle of men plant themselves in order to watch over a dozen or more women who, from 2 p.m. until midnight or later, parade around the plaza topless, except for body paint applied by those men, and take pictures with tourists in exchange for tips. But on Friday afternoon, just a day after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the formation of a high-level task force to restrict the women’s activities and even suggested he might rip out the entire pedestrian plaza, the ranks of the women and their male partners had thinned considerably. None were around when Mr. and Ms. Watts dropped by to celebrate their 40th anniversary (a good thing, too, since Ms. Watts said that the couple was Christian and “we think nudity is wrong.”) Three bare-breasted women did show up later, as well as two others dressed more modestly, in bikinis. But as for the rest, they seemed, at least for the moment, to have hung up their feathered headdresses and disappeared, without any handcuffs, lawyers or jackhammers being deployed. Robert J. Burck, better known as the Naked Cowboy, who plays his guitar and poses for pictures in briefs and cowboy boots, noted that, on Thursday, only one of the women had shown up, and quickly attracted all the attention. “It was like Michael Jackson was here, because everybody couldn’t wait to see a naked girl,” he said. He said that he tried to be amicable with everyone who worked on the plaza, but that his wife and sister-in-law, who wear bikinis and play guitars as the Naked Cowgirls, made more money when the topless women, known as desnudas (Spanish for naked), weren’t there. His sister-in-law Elizabeth Cruz was blunt. “Men prefer the topless women,” she said. One of the desnudas, Melissa, 24, a native New Yorker who did not want to give her last name, said by phone on Friday that she had been alarmed by the rash of negative publicity, which she felt depicted them as criminals, even though they were not breaking the law because female toplessness is generally legal . She said she was unsure if or when she would return to Times Square. She said her relatives had told her, “ ‘We don’t want you to be in the papers being called a prostitute,’ ” but added that her family otherwise approved of what she was doing. Mr. de Blasio, during a call-in appearance on NY1 on Friday, reiterated that the city was considering many options to curb the women’s presence, including ripping up the plazas. He said that the women were “a nuisance” and were “plying a business in a way that I certainly find inappropriate.” But Lourdes Carrasquillo, who was the lone topless woman out Thursday and returned on Friday, said she was undeterred. "I’m not afraid,” she said. “We’re not doing anything wrong.” Reactions to the women’s diminished numbers on Friday were mixed. Sam Kwon, 57, who works at a newsstand on the plaza, said that he had become friendly with the women and sometimes let them store their supplies in the stand or helped them make change. He said that some of the women had told him that they were planning to stay away, at least for a while, because of all the cameramen and reporters around. “I like them — people like them,” Mr. Kwon said. Diana Baronian, 42, from Suffolk County on Long Island, was sitting on the plaza in the midafternoon with her husband, Paul. She said she agreed with the mayor that women walking around topless in Times Square was inappropriate. Still, she said, she had been curious to see what the fuss was about and was therefore slightly disappointed that they had been scared away. “I guess they don’t like the spotlight to be on them as much as you would think,” she said.

Bill de Blasio
Nudity
Times Square and 42nd Street Manhattan
Women and Girls
Street Performers
Pedestrian Malls


Weaker Dollar Seen as Unlikely to Cure Unemployment

Abstract: A weakening currency traditionally helps a country raise its exports and create more jobs for its workers. But the declining value of the dollar may not help the United States increase economic growth as much as it might have in the past. Though a weakened dollar would help exports to some degree, business executives and economists said that because of the ways American multinational companies operated, it was uncertain whether it would cause much of an increase in hiring. The issue is crucial for President Obama , who made economic growth and job creation the main themes of his recent 10-day trip to Asia . He has also held out the prospect that a surge in exports would reduce the nation’s stubborn unemployment rate, currently 9.6 percent. Other world leaders have complained that American policies, especially the monetary easing the Federal Reserve announced this month, will depress the dollar and give American exporters an unfair advantage. Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner have repeatedly defended the central bank’s action as a move designed to encourage American businesses to borrow, invest and hire rather than one specifically aimed at lowering the value of the dollar. But even if the Fed’s action does end up weakening the dollar, American workers may not benefit much. For one, many big American manufacturers, from General Motors to General Electric , often make goods in the countries where they are sold rather than shipping the products abroad. This effectively takes exchange rates out of the equation, since they are using only one currency. What is more, companies that do send goods to other countries often buy components from abroad, so the advantage of a weaker dollar in selling is offset by the higher cost of buying. “There are very few corporations that would see this just in one way,” said Martin Regalia, chief economist at the United States Chamber of Commerce . “It cuts across a whole bunch of lines.” Even when a company enjoys a relative surge in foreign sales, it won’t necessarily lead to a hiring spree. That is because the largest proportion of American exports are still manufactured goods, which are no longer so labor-intensive. And many of the companies that still manufacture in this country are businesses that have not gone offshore because they are too small to justify setting up overseas operations. A weak dollar can help their businesses, but it may not prompt a wave of hiring. “The net export effect is going to be positive, but it won’t be the driver of jobs,” said Daniel J. Meckstroth, chief economist of the Manufacturers Alliance, a trade group. “You can replace people with machines.” According to Nigel Gault, chief United States economist at IHS Global Insight, the dollar fell by 31 percent against a basket of major currencies since 2001, as American exports increased by 45 percent. But manufacturing employment dropped by nearly a third in that time, to 11.7 million workers from 16.4 million. The dollar has already fallen by about 10 percent against a range of currencies since the beginning of June, and government figures show that American exports rose in September by $500 million, or 0.3 percent, to their highest level in two years. Despite the outcry from other world leaders after the Federal Reserve’s decision to inject $600 billion into the economy, the dollar strengthened slightly last week. But even if it does start drifting down again, most economists do not expect the devaluation to be steep. Some argue that most of the weakening has already happened because traders have anticipated the Fed’s action for some time. Gary C. Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said he expected the dollar to fall another 10 percent in coming months, based on a basket of currencies from countries that trade with the United States. He estimates that such a decline would lead to about a $100 billion increase in American exports over the next two years, which he believes could translate into about 500,000 jobs. Although Mr. Hufbauer said that number was “not bad,” he noted that it would not put much of a dent in the nearly 15 million people who are still out of work. Another reason increased sales abroad might not translate into American jobs is that American companies have moved steadily overseas in recent decades. The number of workers employed by American companies abroad more than doubled from 1989 to 2008, to 10.5 million, according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis. Companies mostly wanted to open up foreign markets, and in some cases take advantage of cheaper labor, studies show, but less vulnerability to currency movements was an important fringe benefit. With more companies building local factories, exchange rates matter less. General Motors and Volkswagen compete fiercely for business in China , a crucial market where both automakers build almost all their cars locally rather than ship units in from their home countries. Because the Chinese renminbi tracks the dollar — meaning that products from the United States should be cheaper than imports from Europe — G.M. would seem to be at an advantage. While G.M. has been gaining market share in China, “it has nothing to do with currencies,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Duisburg, Germany . Rather, he attributes G.M.’s gains to cars like the Chevrolet Sail that have found favor with local consumers. “The dollar is not a problem for VW or G.M.,” Mr. Dudenhöffer said. Experience suggests that currency movements alone are unlikely to correct trade imbalances or lift exports. A decline in the value of the dollar against the yen did little to correct the United States trade deficit with Japan during the 1980s, according to a study released last week by HSBC . Indeed, some American companies report that a weakening dollar does not enhance export volumes. Roger Sustar, president of Fredon Corporation, a Cleveland -based manufacturer of parts for the aerospace, defense, rail and medical industries, said that although the dollar had weakened against the British pound over the last two years, the company had not increased sales in Britain . Rather, Mr. Sustar said, existing clients “haven’t been beating the bejeebers out of us to lower our prices.” Some economists argue that if the dollar weakness lasts long enough it will have some effect on unemployment in the United States. A sustained increase in exports would create jobs throughout the economy as businesses that supported the companies selling abroad also started hiring. “There’s a multiplier effect,” said Steve Blitz, a senior economist for ITG Investment Research. Mr. Blitz said that, in fact, the United States economy should rely more heavily on export businesses to create jobs, rather than predominantly depending on American consumers, who account for an estimated 60 percent of the country’s economic activity. “The model of the last 30 years can no longer continue,” Mr. Blitz said. “The job creation has to come from the export sector.” Another potential for jobs will come from foreign companies who build operations in the United States, in part to avoid currency fluctuations going the other way. BMW , for example, broke ground on its first plant in South Carolina in 1992, and in September opened a second factory near Spartanburg, where it had already hired 1,000 workers, with plans to hire 600 more. “Currency hedging is definitely one piece” of the company’s rationale for building the plants in the United States, said Thomas Kowaleski, a spokesman for BMW North America . Currency fluctuations are just one part of what makes an American good or service more attractive to foreign buyers. Typically, a weaker dollar has provided a lift to American hotels and tourism destinations, as travelers from Europe and Asia suddenly find their money goes further at Disneyland or Bloomingdale’s. But these days, tourism officials say, travelers have so many locales around the world to choose from that currency moves don’t necessarily translate into travel booms. “Nowadays in the travel world, it’s such a competitive market to try and get people to come to your destination,” said Carol Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The value is a factor but there are many other factors, too.”

Unemployment
Currency
International trade
US Economy


West Virginia Beats Top-Seeded Kentucky

Abstract: SYRACUSE — After West Virginia’s loss at Connecticut on Feb. 22, West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins sat his team in a circle in the locker room. Huggins has broken a few chairs and made some power forwards blush with his language over the years, but that day he calmly reminded the Mountaineers of their potential. The theme of that speech was about “being special,” and what this team means to the state of West Virginia. Since that speech, West Virginia has played 10 games and the No. 2 Mountaineers still have not lost. They suffocated top-seeded Kentucky on Saturday night behind a mystifying 1-3-1 zone defense and a career-high 17 points from Joe Mazzulla, who was named the East Region’s most outstanding player. And as the West Virginia band blared John Denver’s, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” the Mountaineers were taking in the reality that they would be headed to Indianapolis for their first Final Four appearance since 1959, when a team led by Jerry West lost in the final. “I talk to these guys about being special,” Huggins said. “Two more, we’re going to be really special.” Duke is now the only No. 1 seed remaining in the N.C.A.A. tournament. The winner of the Blue Devils’ game against No. 3 Baylor on Sunday will play the Mountaineers in a national semifinal on Saturday. But with the way West Virginia has played since Huggins gave his motivational speech, it is hard not to consider them favorites to win the national title. “There was always Kentucky looming,” forward Wellington Smith said. “Now that we’ve played Kentucky, that basically was the national championship game. We have a chance at this, we could win going away.” Huggins will return to the Final Four for the first time since he led Cincinnati there in 1992. A devout follower of man-to-man defense, it was a bit odd that West Virginia got there behind the outstretched arms of its 1-3-1 zone. It took more than 36 minutes for Kentucky to make a 3-pointer after missing its first 20 attempts. The Wildcats finished the game 4 of 32 from 3-point range. Kentucky struggled to penetrate and settled for outside shots, a strategy that backfired. “The 1-3-1 bothered us,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. “We tried different things, and it bothered us more than I thought it would.” The central tension hanging over this talented but inexperienced Kentucky team was whether its lack of big-game tests would haunt it. John Wall, who will probably be the No. 1 pick in this year’s N.B.A. Draft , scored 19 points, but he was 7 of 18 from the field and had 5 turnovers. “It frustrated us a little bit, but I felt like we just couldn’t make shots,” he said. “If we could’ve made shots, it would’ve opened the game up a lot. But we couldn’t make shots tonight.” DeMarcus Cousins battled foul trouble all game, picking up his third two minutes into the second half after accidentally swiping the West Virginia star Da’Sean Butler in the groin. He was not the only one battling to keep his composure, as DeAndre Liggins drew a technical foul in the first half. The Kentucky sophomore Darius Miller looked overwhelmed all day, missing all six shots he took from the field. “They outplayed us,” Calipari said. “But I think there were times that the inexperience, you know, hurt us.” Butler led West Virginia with 18 points, but failed to make a field goal after halftime. Mazzulla, who started his first game of the season, led with his emotion and savvy, doing everything from taking charges to battling with Cousins while anchoring the bottom of the zone defense. His poise and leadership provided a sharp contrast with Kentucky, which could not muster any momentum. “He got some layups that were just back-breaking,” Calipari said of Mazzulla. “He just played so well and ran their team.” For Mazzulla, the game offered a culmination of a nearly two-year stretch in which he has battled a shoulder injury and off-court problems. Mazzulla’s left shoulder was in such disrepair after recovering from a rare growth plate surgery that he played about a third of the season without being able to shoot a jump shot. He shot free throws with his right hand, not easy for a left-handed player. But he credited Huggins for sticking with him and knew it would be his night when he hit a 3-pointer, his first of the season, early in the first half. “It was pretty amazing,” Mazzulla said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to have done it without this group of people, because they’ve been on my side through thick and thin. They’re probably 95 percent of the reason why I’m here today and they’re here today.” After the game, Huggins talked about how he promised a national title when West Virginia hired him three years ago. He sounded most excited in the postgame news conference when he talked about the radio broadcasts of the games being piped into the coal mines in West Virginia so the workers could listen. He said he would take the national title trophy through all the state’s small towns and back roads, giving people a chance to enjoy it. The Mountaineers are headed to the Final Four for the first time in a half-century, and the path is open for the program’s first national title. “We never win pretty,” Mazzulla said. “It never looks like we we’re supposed to do it.” Two more victories, and the trophy will look just fine back in Morgantown.

NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
West Virginia University
University of Kentucky
Basketball
College Athletics
Big East Conference
National Collegiate Athletic Assn
West Jerry
Huggins Bob
Wall John


Suspect Held in Shooting of San Diego Police Officers

Abstract: One suspect was in custody and a “second potential suspect’’ was arrested on Friday in the fatal shooting of a San Diego police officer and the wounding of another, the police chief said. The chief, Shelley Zimmerman , said the shooting occurred about 11 p.m. on Thursday, shortly after the two officers, members of the gang-suppression squad, reported that they had stopped a man in the southeast part of the city. Almost immediately, the officers called for emergency assistance. Officer Jonathan DeGuzman , a 16-year veteran of the department, was rushed to hospital in a police vehicle but later died, Chief Zimmerman said. Officer DeGuzman was married with two children. It is with a very sad heart that we announce the death of one of our Officers tonight. Pray for his family pic.twitter.com/3l9PXa1vuW — San Diego Police Department (@SanDiegoPD) July 29, 2016 The other officer, Wade Irwin, a nine-year veteran, underwent surgery. He was in serious condition but was expected to recover. Investigators had not been able to speak with Officer Irwin by Friday afternoon, and some of the circumstances of the shooting were still being investigated, including whether it took place during a vehicle or pedestrian stop. “It happened extremely quickly,” Chief Zimmerman said. The officers were in uniform, wearing bulletproof vests and body cameras, and were in a marked police car. The chief declined to release information about the ballistic evidence. One suspect, identified as Jesse Gomez, 52, was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to his upper torso. The police were investigating whether the man was a gang member, the chief said. A second man, Marcus Antonio Cassani, was arrested after police surrounded a nearby home, but Chief Zimmerman said investigators had not determined whether he was involved in the shooting. The shooting came as law officers around the country remained on alert after five officers were fatally shot in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge, La., this month. The attacks have set off a period of fear, anguish and confusion among the nation’s 900,000 state and local law enforcement officers. Shootings were the main cause of officer deaths in the first six months of this year, the first time in three years that traffic-related fatalities did not top the list, according to a report published this week by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. On average, two officers died on duty each week this year, half killed by gunfire. “It is tragic for everyone,” said Chief Zimmerman, speaking about the shootings in San Diego and the national toll. The United States attorney general, Loretta E. Lynch, mentioned the San Diego shooting on Friday in her opening remarks to a gathering of law enforcement and emergency personnel at a Methodist church in Baton Rouge. “I know that this community, more than most, knows exactly what those families are feeling at this moment, knows exactly what the San Diego Police Department is going through at this moment,” Ms. Lynch said. The mayor of San Diego, Kevin Faulconer, said in a statement that the city was grieving. ”Violence against the men and women who wear the badge is violence against us all,” Mr. Faulconer said. “I ask all San Diegans and all people across our nation to join together in support of our officers who courageously protect our communities. We need them and they need us.” He also asked for prayers for the wounded officer. Chief Zimmerman said investigators had no motive for the shooting. Early on Friday, yellow police tape marked off the scene of the shooting. A man and a woman, who had been at a 24-hour gym nearby, looked on from the perimeter, unable to reach the home where they have lived for two years. Chief Zimmerman described Officer DeGuzman as a loving husband who often talked about his family and cared deeply about his job. “Last night he lost his life trying to make a positive difference,” she said.

San Diego police
Attacks on Police
Murders and Homicides


Suffering Through, Rather Than Savoring, Summer

Abstract: In this month of record-contesting heat, a West Village epidemiologist has given up washing her clothes because her building’s ground-floor laundry room feels like a hot, stale dungeon. A former dancer who lives near Prospect Park has all but given up clothes, cooking dinner in her underwear though she knows the neighbors can see. And one couple near Union Square have given up cooking altogether, letting takeout containers stack up as their formerly busy oven sits idle. Margaret Bussiere and her husband moved to Ardsley, in Westchester County, last winter from Queens to give their two girls an outdoor childhood of grass and seesaws. But their once-loved bicycles languish in the garage, and a brand-new swing set, hot to the touch, collects bird droppings out back, as the girls have spent the month inside, doing crafts and, Mrs. Bussiere admits, watching more TV than they should. “We treat most of the days like rain days,” she said. “You have to stay inside and make the best of it.” The heat barreled through New York this July like a snarling bully, squashing picnics, ruining gardens, wiping social calendars clean and then, just for fun, mussing hairdos and filling subway cars with animal smells. The searing temperatures have reshaped summer for numerous New Yorkers, stealing the magic from the season that is supposed to be the most carefree. Summer, a cotton-candy puff of an idea, has become something to suffer through rather than savor. “This summer,” said Heather Collins, an animation student, “has completely deprived me of summer.” Through Friday, the average daily temperature in Central Park was 81.5 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, higher than the 81.4-degree average in July 1999 — currently the hottest month in the city since records began in 1869. But after a relatively seasonal week offered a break from the oppressive heat (the monthly average has already dropped from 81.7 on Monday), the welcome mildness on Saturday could keep 2010 out of the record books. The average needs to hit 77.5 — four degrees higher than the forecast — for this July to be the hottest. Even if history does not show it, though, let it be known that, across the region, the summer showdown between individual fortitude and sticky heat saw the merciless elements win out again and again. Flower beds were forsaken, relationships were neglected, home offices were abandoned — and in one Brooklyn apartment, clothes were stripped off before dinner. That former dancer, who is 31 and asked that her name not be published (and her face not be photographed), has found that cooking is only bearable these days if done in underwear. With the stove burning and the air-conditioner too weak to reach her kitchen, “it’s got to be over 100 degrees in that room,” she explained. So after work, she throws off her pants and shirt and dives into a menu heavy on vegetables and cold soups. This has earned her some new fans, though she does not think they are focused on her red pepper and fennel salads. “I sort of feel like saying, ‘You’re welcome, neighbors,’ ” she said. Across the East River, Suzy Parker, a 64-year-old epidemiologist, has let laundry pile up. “I am a great believer in dirt-colored clothing — anything that hides both dog hair and dirt,” she said. But fresh underwear is a must, so Ms. Parker has been buying three-packs from Duane Reade. “I possibly own the world’s largest collection of ordinary underwear,” she said. In Washington Heights, Ms. Collins, the animation student, wants friends to know that she is still alive, even if she has been too hot to call. She has barricaded herself inside her air-conditioned bedroom, and said goodbye to any semblance of a social life. “I feel like a troll,” she said. “Any kind of human contact at all right now is sticky and sweaty and smelly. It’s completely unappealing.” In a more innocent time, before the mercury began cartwheeling past the 90-degree mark, Lisa Gottheil and her husband, the Union Square couple, cooked dinner nearly every night. July, however, has been all takeout, all the time — “sushi, Italian, pizza, Chinese, Turkish.” After putting their 3-year-old daughter to bed, leaving her door open to keep air circulating, the couple goes downstairs in the air-conditioning. “We can no longer watch our TV or cook dinner or do anything,” Ms Gottheil, 43, a publicist, said. For many, outdoor exercise was an early summer casualty. Plans to run the path along the Hudson River were abandoned; hikes and bicycle excursions were canceled or cut short. Susannah Nevison, once an avid swimmer, has given up trips to the pool, along with “pretty much all forms of extraneous movement” because the weather has turned her pristine underwater escape into “a water-filled, people-packed subway car of a pool.” “There was no swimming,” she said. “There was just standing and hoping not to get kicked in the face.” The heat, Ms. Nevison noticed, has also turned many New Yorkers “into overgrown children.” “The mere thought of walking to the subway is enough to induce a minitantrum,” she said. When she sees howling, sweaty toddlers, she thinks: “You’ve got it right. You’re hot, miserable, you have no control, and that’s how I feel too.”


A Spa Treatment to Clean the Car and Energize the Driver

Abstract: I WHIPPED my black-on-black 2007 Chevy TrailBlazer into the driveway of the Englewood Auto Spa in Englewood, N.J., in executive pursuit of vehicular purification. It was shortly before noon on a summer day with the treacherous trifecta of heat, humidity and haze foretelling afternoon thundershowers. The auto spa promised to give my S.U.V. the kind of complete body-to-soul makeover ordinarily associated with upscale health resorts. Lord knows, we both needed it. My TrailBlazer seemed to mirror the existential turmoil I had suffered in the wake of a marital breakup that had exiled me to Chateau Bow Wow, a k a the Doghouse, for the foreseeable future. White-streaked dents bruised the front and rear fenders and the driver’s side door. The interior reeked of stale cigars, spilled coffee and decomposing dreams. The hood was so caked with road dust that someone had finger-painted it with the exhortation, “Clean Me!” Leo Diaz, 28, the pony-tailed proprietor of the auto spa, greeted me with a persuasive sales pitch. This was no “10-minute slosh, slap, bust your antenna and scratch your paint” car wash, he declared. It was a detailing center that offered the automotive equivalents of manicures, pedicures, massages, facials and, of course, waxes. Prices ranged from $39.95 for a 30-minute job to $399 for a six-hour deluxe treatment. Celebrity clients included the actor John Travolta, the comedian Chris Rock and the singer Mary J. Blige, my idea of the ideal company to take on a cross-country road trip. “Once you detail your car, you get better gas mileage because the wind blows through smoother,” Mr. Diaz said. His deadpan expression dissolved into a mischievous grin, and I knew he had me. After noting with all due respect that my TrailBlazer was “an everyday car, not a Rolls or a Bentley,” Mr. Diaz recommended an intermediately priced $199 treatment called the Pebble Beach Detail, which takes about three hours. “People are always asking me why I charge so much, but you’ll see when it’s finished that it’s worth it,” he promised. As I watched Mr. Diaz steer my TrailBlazer through the garage door entrance of his detailing shop, I was overcome with postpartum depression. When I was growing up, cars were a source of freedom and joy. Now they seem to augur the death of the American way of life. The price of crude oil is about $145 a barrel, and gasoline is more than $4 a gallon. The price of General Motors stock is under $10 a share, and there are rumors the company may declare bankruptcy. Hey, I’d have to sell more than 20 shares of G.M. just to pay for my detailing. Along with gas stations, convenience stores and drive-through fast-food franchises, the car wash is a fixture on the nation’s roadways. It’s also one of the last industries still dominated by small businesses. In 2007, there were 54,030 car washes in the United States, and 75 percent of those had only one employee, usually the owner/operator, according to a report by the forecasting firm IBISWorld. All told, the car wash industry generated $8.16 billion in revenue and employed 176,790 people. Washing cars is still a predominantly do-it-yourself activity. The IBISWorld report estimates that 53 percent of car washes are either coin-operated self-service bays, where customers use wands, hoses and vacuums to clean their own vehicles, or the automatic rollover car washes where customers remain in their vehicles while a mechanical boom does the washing. An additional 39 percent of car washes are conveyor operations where vehicles are moved through tunnels equipped with mechanized brushes and finished by employees with hand towels. Detailing operations like the Englewood Auto Spa account for only 8 percent of the car wash industry, but there is no dispute that their hand-cleaning techniques do the most thorough job. Optional services often include minor dent repair and touch-up painting. Mr. Diaz said that he might add some human touch-up options. “I’m thinking about hiring a massage therapist,” he said. Although the Englewood spa’s customers are typically required to remain in the lobby area, Mr. Diaz agreed to let me participate in every phase of the detailing process in the name of research and emotional rescue. The most enjoyable part for me was the prep work. Under Mr. Diaz’s supervision, I soaped the tires of my TrailBlazer and scrubbed them with a wire-bristled brush until I could read the manufacturer’s logo. Then I sprayed the exterior and the door jambs with a high-pressure water gun. The power I felt as I blasted away grime was addictive. But any fantasies of replicating that feeling at home evaporated when Mr. Diaz informed me that the compressor for the water gun cost more than $600. To my chagrin, Mr. Diaz insisted that I also wash the engine. “One, it looks good,” he said. “And two, you can’t spot leaks or cracked hoses if your engine isn’t clean.” After half an hour or so, two employees and I mopped up the water dripping from my TrailBlazer with sponges and cloths that were made of microfiber, rather than cotton, so that they would not scratch the paint. Then Mr. Diaz drove my TrailBlazer to the rubber-matted detail area, where we spent the next two and a half hours going over virtually every inch of it at least twice. We sprayed more water on the exterior and rubbed the surface with a gray clay compound to remove imperfections from the paint. We used light sandpaper to take out little nicks. We used a nail polish brush to apply black touch-up paint to the white scratches on the front and rear fenders and the driver’s side door. We squirted out two complete layers of polish compound that cost $50 a gallon, and spread them with electric buffers that looked and sounded like buzz saws. Then we applied a premium brand Zymol wax that costs $49 a jar. We attacked the interior with air hoses, blowing out the seats seam by seam and excavating particles of petrified cream cheese, shredded Sweet ’N Low packets, the wings of one of my 10-year-old son’s Lego creatures and three pennies found face down. Then one of the employees layered the palms of his hands with a white leather conditioner and rubbed it into each seat. “You have to do it by hand because a towel will absorb the nutrients and they won’t go into the leather,” Mr. Diaz said. Around half past 2, I heard a rumble of thunder and saw raindrops falling outside. Mr. Diaz assured me that our efforts would not be in vain. “I have customers who come here to get their cars washed in the middle of a rainstorm,” he said. “The wax is so good that the water runs right off.” A few minutes later, the rain stopped, and the sun poked through the clouds. The formerly dust-caked exterior of my TrailBlazer was now so shiny that I could see my reflection in the body panels in microscopic detail. I climbed behind the wheel and beheld an interior more immaculate than the breeze after the storm. Then I inhaled the bittersweet aroma often referred to as new-car smell. It must have gone right to my head because I forgot all about my domestic difficulties and felt a rush that I can only describe as pure cleanliness. I thanked Mr. Diaz and his staff, and headed up the street to a gas station, where I paid a whopping $85 for a fillup. I figured on suffering additional economic and emotional shocks when I returned to Long Island. But even if I couldn’t afford to escape my existential blues by taking a cross-country road trip with John Travolta, Chris Rock and Mary J. Blige, I took solace in knowing that my TrailBlazer would sure look good in the driveway.


Kenyan Wins in Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta

Abstract: Peter Kirui of Kenya won the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. The defending men’s champion of the 10,000-meter race, Sammy Kitwara of Kenya, finished eighth.


Ezekiel’s Wheel Ties African Spiritual Traditions to Christianity

Abstract: African-Americans have long been among the country’s most fervent Christians, from the choir to the pulpit to the affirming voices from every “amen corner.” Their deep faith saw them through the trials of slavery and then a century of Jim Crow repression. Finally, it emboldened them to leave the sanctuary of their churches and join the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a quest, his “dream,” for their full freedom and equality. Just when and how their ancestors broke with traditional African spirit practices and adopted Christianity has never been fully resolved. Now archaeologists in Maryland have announced the discovery of an intact set of objects that they interpret as religious symbols — traditional ones from Africa, mixed with what they believe to be a biblical image: a representation of Ezekiel’s Wheel. Image A lithograph made in 1940 representing the “’Zekiel Saw the Wheel” spiritual. Credit Talbot Historical Society; Used with permission from The Estate of Ruth Starr Rose No one had found this combination of religious artifacts before, said Mark P. Leone, a University of Maryland archaeologist who led the discovery team. “Christianity had not erased traditional African spirit practices,” he concluded. ”It had merged with them to form a potent blend that still thrives today.” Two of Dr. Leone’s graduate students, Benjamin A. Skolnik and Elizabeth Pruitt, made the discovery and excavated the artifacts, which were just below the surface where a tenant farmer’s house once stood on land of a former plantation near Easton, Md. That was four years ago. Dr. Leone and others familiar with the religious history of African-Americans then sought to interpret what they had found. In the late 18th century, Methodist Episcopal and later African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) preachers carried the Christian message to the plantations on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. They seemed to have been successful converting slaves, in part by giving new meaning to traditional symbols. For example, a powerful symbol from the BaKongo belief system in West Central Africa, where many of the slaves came from, was the cosmogram, a circle with an X inside. African-Americans repurposed these materials because they had symbolic value as well in the form of Ezekiel’s blazing chariot wheel, Dr. Pruitt said. The wheel imagery is described in the Book of Ezekiel 10:9-10: “And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of aberyl stone. And as for their appearances, the four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.” The wheel-like image in the Book of Ezekiel and the cosmogram, Dr. Pruitt suggested, “represented the universe, and the path we travel through this world and the afterlife” and “it stands for the enduring connections between this world and the next, the power from above and below.” For the first time, the two circle images had been found together virtually side by side. It seems that the Christian preachers had discovered the powerful resonance the wheel image held for African-Americans. One of the most popular spirituals among people in A.M.E. churches and camp meetings on the Eastern Shore is “’Zekiel Saw the Wheel.” ‘ Zekiel saw de wheel, way up in the middle of the air ‘Zekiel saw de wheel, way up in the middle of the air De big wheel run by faith, little wheel by the grace of God Wheel in a wheel, way in de middle of de air.’ An A.M.E. bishop in the 19th century, Daniel Payne, wrote that the circle and wheel imagery extended the “Ring Shout,” in which participants move counterclockwise singing and dancing at camp meetings. This motion is in the same direction as the cycle of life in the cosmogram. It was said that “sinners won’t get converted unless there is a ring here, a ring there, a ring over yonder, or sinners will not get converted.” The artifacts gathered by Dr. Leone’s team are on display at a new exhibition at the University of Maryland’s Hornbake Library. The display , “Frederick Douglass & Wye House: Archaeology and African American Culture in Maryland” runs through July 2017, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Africa
Christianity
Slavery
Maryland
University of Maryland
Archaeology,Anthropology
Black People,African-Americans
Mark P Leone
Religion and Belief


In Connecticut, Lamont Muses Over a Gubernatorial Run

Abstract: THREE years after an unlikely quest for the United States Senate established Ned Lamont as a national Democratic figure, he said he is weighing another electoral adventure: a challenge to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, one Republican whose political fortunes have not fallen with the Dow. With the same bluntness he once directed at Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and the war in Iraq, Mr. Lamont said Mrs. Rell and the General Assembly have failed to tame Connecticut ’s deficit. He said he would have offered a a more urgent budget address. “To me that was the opportunity to stand up and say, ‘We’re confronted with a $4 billion deficit,’ “ he said during a telephone interview from his office in Greenwich on a snowy morning. “This is the time for Connecticut to change the way we do business. And I have to tell you I’m going to bring labor to the table, and they are going to be part of this solution.” He is months away from a final decision, but after previously disavowing any interest in the job, Mr. Lamont said that a gubernatorial campaign grows more intriguing as the economy worsens and the deficit deepens, all harbingers of a protracted budget fight in Hartford. Mrs. Rell has not yet said whether she will seek another term. “Hartford can nickel and dime around the edges,” said Mr. Lamont, the founder of a cable-television company, Lamont Digital. “They can add 3 percent here, take off 4 percent there,” But you worry whether they can make the big differences that we need to do. Mr. Lamont said Mrs. Rell and the Democratic-controlled legislature are more intent on gamesmanship than confronting what even some Republican legislators privately concede: in addition to the budget cuts proposed by the governor, tax increases and labor concessions must be part of the mix. “I think she punted,” Mr. Lamont said of the governor’s two-year budget proposal, which the legislature’s nonpartisan budget office says may be out of balance by more than $2 billion. “Frankly, the legislature hasn’t stood up and come forward with anything very cogent. To me, both the legislature and the governor are playing a game of cat and mouse.” Rell administration officials said that they are in talks with public employee unions about the state budget. Mr. Lamont’s comments are unlikely to endear him to Mrs. Rell or legislators, whom he has been trying to influence on finance issues as part of a new nonpartisan group of labor, business and political leaders. Led by William J. Cibes Jr., a former legislator, state budget chief and chancellor of the Connecticut State University system, the members describe themselves as “a working group of civically involved citizens.” They have produced a short-term plan to close the deficit and also issued a long-term “Blueprint for Connecticut’s Future.” The group hopes to be a continuing presence in the budget debate, but if Mr. Lamont runs for governor, his role in the effort could be compromised. “He can’t help himself,” said Thomas J. D’Amore Jr., a former campaign adviser who said that Mr. Lamont’s occasional impolitic statements are a virtue. “He is so absolutely and disarmingly refreshing.” Mr. Lamont insisted he was rooting for Mrs. Rell to succeed on the budget, despite his criticism and musings about opposing her. “I’d love her to call me,” said Mr. Lamont, who described the labor and business contributors to Mr. Cibes’s group as ready to help build a consensus for tax increases and labor concessions. “I’d love to be right there. They just need somebody to convene ‘em and bring ‘em together. If I could help, I’d love a chance.” Even Mr. D’Amore described that hope as unrealistic: Mr. Lamont can offer himself as a candidate or an honest broker on the budget, not both. “You cannot have that both ways,” he said. Unlike 2006, when Mr. Lamont was the only Democratic alternative to Mr. Lieberman, he could face a four-way battle if he seeks the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year. James A. Amann of Milford, the former state House speaker, declared his candidacy last month. Mayor Dannel P. Malloy of Stamford and Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of Middletown have exploratory committees. They already have promised to abide by Connecticut’s new voluntary system of publicly financed campaigns, which limits participating gubernatorial candidates to $4.5 million over a primary and general-election campaign. In 2006 Mr. Lamont spent nearly $17 million of his own money in a $20 million effort to unseat Mr. Lieberman. “I believe in public financing,” Mr. Lamont said. Waiting a beat before dropping his voice to a stage whisper, he added, “Now I do.” Mr. Lamont, who challenged Mr. Lieberman over his support for the war and President George W. Bush, won the Democratic primary and the allegiance of liberal bloggers, but the senator was re-elected as a petitioning candidate. Mr. Lamont was co-chairman of the Obama campaign in Connecticut, the same title Mr. Lieberman held in John McCain’s campaign. Mr. Lamont’s friends say he has been vetted for a possible post in the Obama administration, but nothing has materialized. His role models for chief executive include the president, but also Mayor Michael R. Bloombergof New York, who drove to the Stamford train station in 2006 to endorse Mr. Lieberman. Despite the slight, Mr. Lamont said he admired the mayor, whom he recently encountered. “I said, ‘Why in God’s name would you want to bend the rules, end term limits, run for re-election in New York City during this extraordinary headwind, where all you can do is struggle?’ “ Mr. Lamont recalled. “And he said, ‘This will be my opportunity to lead. During the good times, I didn’t have that opportunity. Now I will.’ I love that response.”

Connecticut
Senate
Lamont Ned
Governors (US)


Nets Make Knicks Look Like a Long-Term Project

Abstract: The Knicks and the Nets share a city, three bridges and deep pockets. About $180 million in player payroll was on display Friday night at Barclays Center, which was treated to the renewal of an embryonic rivalry — if it can be considered that — between two teams that were merely hoping to take a step toward respectability. The Knicks made sure it was not going to be them. With Deron Williams in firm control, the Nets sank more than enough shots to ease their way to a 110-99 victory. Amid the Knicks’ public struggles adapting to the triangle offense, they reinforced just how much work they have ahead of them. “Our guys are struggling a little bit right now,” Coach Derek Fisher said. The turnovers and missed shots were already accumulating midway through the second quarter when Amar’e Stoudemire took an inbounds pass and rifled the ball past Shane Larkin. It landed in the general vicinity of the Nets’ bench, where it dislodged a drink from someone’s hand. It was that kind of night for the Knicks (2-4), who trailed by as many as 22 and lost their third straight. They shot 41.1 percent. Fisher emptied his bench with more than six minutes remaining. Carmelo Anthony typified his team’s problems by scoring 19 points the hard way. He shot 5 of 20 from the field, each errant jumper part of a trend. Over his last three games, Anthony has shot 18 of 64 from the field (28.1 percent). “I’m still trying to find that comfort zone,” he said. “It starts with me, but it’ll trickle down to everybody else.” Williams led the Nets (3-2) with 29 points, and Brook Lopez finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds — an improved effort for him after he took the blame for the Nets’ loss Wednesday to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Against the Knicks, the Nets were 14 of 24 from 3-point range. “Great shooting by any stretch of the imagination,” Coach Lionel Hollins said. Unlike the 2012-13 season, when the Nets were new to Brooklyn, and unlike the start of last season, when all the talk — mostly among fans and the news media — was about how these teams were vying for city supremacy, the latest iteration of the rivalry lacked much pregame oomph. The Nets were coming off an ugly home loss to Minnesota, and the Knicks were laboring to re-establish their offense. In other words, neither team could have cared less about the opponent. Each was simply searching for a win. Video Phil Jackson has brought his famous triangle offense to New York, and the Knicks. Now everyone — including both players and fans — has to learn it. For the fourth time, Fisher altered his starting lineup. With Pablo Prigioni (right ankle) and Jose Calderon (right calf) out because of injuries, Fisher was down to one and a half serviceable point guards. Iman Shumpert, who has been a wing for the vast majority of his professional career, got the start at point guard, with Fisher opting to bring Larkin off the bench. Fisher said he was seeking balanced rotations. Hollins, meanwhile, wanted Williams to guard against the urge to attack the Knicks’ depleted backcourt by himself. Instead, Hollins said, he told Williams to “just play basketball.” Without forcing anything, Williams took what was available to him — which turned out to be a lot. “I felt like we needed somebody to step up,” Williams said, “so I just took that upon myself.” After the Knicks trimmed the Nets’ lead to 14 in the third quarter, Williams took over by going straight at Shumpert, regarded as the Knicks’ best perimeter defender. Late in the quarter, Williams made two free throws, hit a midrange jumper and connected on a runner in the lane. The Knicks folded. “He had his way with me,” Shumpert said. The Knicks’ search for early offense was futile. After shooting 5 of 21 from the field in a loss to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, Anthony tried to get going against the Nets by going to one of his old standbys: the weakside isolation. The misses piled up. The Nets, on the other hand, made their first five 3-point attempts. Bojan Bogdanovic drilled two in a row, and Mirza Teletovic closed the first quarter with another for a 30-20 lead. The Nets were shooting 61.1 percent, which was the result of strong offense and porous defense — and not necessarily equal parts of both. With the exception of the Nets’ hot shooting, the game did not feature the most pleasing brand of basketball. The teams combined for 16 turnovers in the opening 16 minutes. Drinks were spilled. Stoudemire accidentally set a screen on Shumpert. By the late stages of the second quarter, Fisher had gone to every player on his bench. No solutions were forthcoming. The Nets took a 55-42 lead into halftime. Given the Knicks’ dysfunction, the margin could have been larger. “We’re letting the learning process of the offense affect us defensively,” Stoudemire said. “We have to stop that.” J. R. Smith, who scored 8 points, rejoined the Knicks after serving a one-game suspension for striking the Washington Wizards’ Glen Rice Jr. in the groin on Tuesday. Smith claimed the contact was incidental. But given his adventurous history with the N.B.A.’s disciplinary czars, Smith said he was not surprised he had been suspended. Forced to sit out the Knicks’ loss to the Pistons, Smith said he had watched the game in his hotel room with the assistant Rasheed Hazzard, who told Smith that the players looked like “robots” in the triangle: too careful and too predictable, which was no way to play. Little changed against the Nets, who took full advantage.

Knicks
Carmelo Anthony
Basketball
Brooklyn Nets


Olympus Fined by Tokyo Exchange, but Not Delisted

Abstract: TOKYO — The Tokyo Stock Exchange said Friday that it would allow Olympus , the Japanese camera maker that has admitted hiding $1.7 billion in losses, to remain listed after paying a small fine for its false accounting. A delisting probably would have destroyed its share price, which has fallen by half since the scandal began. The decision also makes the company less vulnerable to being dismantled and sold for its parts. Still, the move to keep the company listed brings into sharp relief the inconsistent way Japanese authorities and financial institutions have policed and censured white-collar crime in recent years. Analysts have warned that the inconsistencies are confusing foreign investors and undermining confidence in Japanese equities. The Tokyo exchange, which exercises considerable leeway in deciding whether to keep a troubled stock listed, said that the fraud at Olympus had been “the sole work of a number of participants” and that their actions “had no direct relation to the core business.” The exchange “cannot deem that investor judgment was considerably distorted to the extent of warranting delisting,” it said. Olympus, which also makes medical and industrial endoscopes, will be fined 10 million yen, or $130,000, the maximum penalty set by the exchange. The company will also be placed on a “security on alert” list and will be required to report to the Tokyo exchange, over a period of three years, ways that it is improving its corporate governance. The issue contrasts with a case in 2005, when the Internet start-up company Livedoor was accused of manipulating its earnings by more than $40 million and was quickly delisted. Its top executives were arrested and sentenced to jail terms. The next year, financial regulators accused Nikko Cordial, a Japanese brokerage firm, of padding its books by almost $350 million. But like Olympus, Nikko Cordial avoided a delisting, fueling accusations that the Japanese authorities coddled established players while punishing newcomers. The perception of arbitrary outcomes, and the message it sends about Japan’s tolerance for bad corporate governance, is hurting investor confidence, analysts say. “Would I give the car keys to the drivers of Japanese equities?” Nicholas Smith, a strategist at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, wrote in a research note. “On the basis of this sorry story, it is hard to find a reason to give them the remote for the video game of the car.” Olympus said it “solemnly accepted” the Tokyo exchange’s decision and promised to improve its commitment to corporate governance. “We understand that this decision is based on the view that there is a strong need for us to improve our internal supervision,” it said. Top Olympus executives admitted in November that the company had conducted an effort, which spanned decades, to cover up $1.7 billion in investment losses. In December, Olympus accounted for some of the losses by revising five years of statements. The accounting showed shareholders’ equity falling to just 42.9 billion yen ($557 million) and cast a shadow over the company’s long-term viability. The admissions came after Olympus fired its former chief executive, Michael C. Woodford, who had questioned the company’s board over a series of unusually large acquisition payouts that were later found to be part of the company’s false accounting. Mr. Woodford, who is British, blew the whistle on those payouts, helping to uncover a global scheme that led to public investigations in Japan, Britain and the United States. Mr. Woodford later started a campaign to return to Olympus with fresh directors who were untainted by the scandal. Despite backing from foreign investors, however, he abandoned his bid this month, after the company’s biggest institutional investors in Japan stood by the current management. This week, Olympus said a panel of lawyers hired by the company had found that its outside auditors, KPMG Azsa and Ernst & Young ShinNihon, had not been complicit in the false accounting, though those firms remained under investigation by the Japanese authorities over their possible roles in the scandal. The report, instead, blamed five former and current Olympus internal auditors for allowing the company to misstate its finances.

Tokyo Stock Exchange
Olympus Corp
Woodford Michael C


Microsoft Battles the Botnets

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A customer in Shenzhen, China, took a brand new laptop out of its box and turned it on for the first time. But as the screen lit up, the computer began taking on a life of its own. The machine, directed by a virus hidden in its hard drive, started searching the Internet for another computer. The laptop, supposedly in pristine, direct-from-the-factory condition, had instantly become part of an illegal global network capable of attacking Web sites, looting bank accounts and stealing personal data. For years, online investigators have warned consumers about the dangers of opening or downloading files sent by e-mail from unknown or suspicious sources. Now, they say, malicious software and computer code could be lurking on computers before the bubble wrap even comes off. The shopper in this case was part of a team of Microsoft researchers in China investigating the sale of counterfeit software. They suddenly had been introduced to malware called Nitol. The incident was described in court documents unsealed Thursday in a U.S. court in Virginia. The records describe a new front in a legal campaign against cybercrime being waged by Microsoft, the maker of the Windows operating system, which is the biggest target for viruses. The documents are part of a computer fraud lawsuit filed by Microsoft against a Web domain registered to a Chinese businessman named Peng Yong. The company says that domain is a focal point for illicit Internet activity. It is home base for Nitol and more than 500 other types of malware, making it the largest single repository of infected software that Microsoft executives have ever encountered. Mr. Peng, the owner of an Internet services company, said he was not aware of the Microsoft lawsuit and denied the allegations, saying his company did not tolerate improper conduct on the domain, 3322.org . Three other unidentified individuals accused by Microsoft of establishing and operating the Nitol network are also named in the suit. What emerges most vividly from the court records and interviews with Microsoft officials is a disturbing picture of how vulnerable Internet users have become, in part because of weaknesses in computer supply chains. To increase their profit margins, some computer manufacturers and retailers may use counterfeit copies of popular software products to build machines more cheaply. Plugging the holes is nearly impossible, especially in less regulated markets like China, and that creates opportunities for cybercriminals. “They’re really changing the ways they try to attack you,” said Richard Boscovich, a former U.S. government prosecutor and a senior attorney in Microsoft’s digital crimes unit. And distance does not confer safety. Nitol, for example, is an aggressive virus found on computers in China, the United States, Russia, Australia and Germany. Microsoft has even identified servers in the Cayman Islands controlling Nitol- infected machines. All these compromised computers become part of a botnet — a collection of compromised computers — which is one of the most invasive and persistent tools of cybercrime. Nitol, meanwhile, appears poised to strike. Infection rates have peaked, according to Patrick Stratton, a senior manager in Microsoft’s digital crimes unit who filed a document in the court case explaining Nitol and its connection to the 3322.org domain. For Microsoft, pursuing cybercriminals is a smart business. Its Windows operating system runs most of the computers connected to the Internet. Victims of malware are likely to believe their problems stem from Windows instead of a virus they are unaware of, and that damages the company’s brand and reputation. But more than Microsoft’s image is at stake when counterfeit products are tainted by rapidly spreading malware, Mr. Boscovich said. “It’s more than simply a traditional intellectual property issue,” he said. “It’s now become a security issue.” The investigation by Microsoft’s digital crimes unit began in August 2011 as a study into the sale and distribution of counterfeit versions of Windows. Microsoft employees in China bought 20 new computers from retailers and took them back to a home with an Internet connection. They found forged versions of Windows on all the machines and malware preinstalled on four. The one with Nitol, however, was the most alarming because the malware was active. “As soon as we powered on this particular computer, of its own accord without any instruction from us, it began reaching out across the Internet, attempting to contact a computer unfamiliar to us,” Mr. Stratton said in the document filed with the court. Mr. Stratton and his colleagues also found Nitol to be highly contagious. They inserted a thumb drive into the computer and the virus immediately copied itself onto it. When the drive was inserted into a separate machine, Nitol quickly copied itself onto it. Microsoft examined thousands of samples of Nitol, which has several variants, and all of them connected to command-and-control servers associated with the 3322.org domain, according to the court records. “In short, 3322.org is a major hub of illegal Internet activity, used by criminals every minute of every day to pump malware and instructions to the computers of innocent people worldwide,” Microsoft said in its lawsuit. Mr. Peng, the registered owner of 3322.org , said he had “zero tolerance” for the misuse of domain names and worked with Chinese law enforcement whenever there were complaints. Still, he said, his huge customer base made policing difficult. “Our policy unequivocally opposes the use of any of our domain names for malicious purposes,” Mr. Peng said in a private chat via Sina Weibo, a service like Twitter that is popular in China. “We currently have 2.85 million domain names and cannot exclude that individual users might be using domain names for malicious purposes.” But past warnings by other online security firms have been ignored by Mr. Peng, Mr. Boscovich said. The 3322.org domain accounted for more than 17 percent of malicious Web transactions worldwide in 2009, according to Zscaler, a computer security firm in San Jose, California. In 2008, the Russian security company Kaspersky Lab reported that 40 percent of all malware programs linked, at one point or another, to 3322.org . Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of U.S. District Court, who is presiding in the case, granted a request from Microsoft to begin steering Internet traffic that has been infected by Nitol and other malware away from 3322.org to a special site called a sinkhole. From there, Microsoft can alert affected computer users to update their anti-virus protection and remove Nitol from their machines. Since Judge Lee issued the order, more than 37 million malware connections have been blocked from 3322.org , according to Microsoft.

China
Peng Yong
Microsoft Corporation
Computer Malware
Suits and Litigation


Missouri Names Coach

Abstract: Missouri has hired Central Missouri’s Kim Anderson, a former star player and longtime aide to Norm Stewart, as its men’s basketball coach. The decision came shortly after the school’s board of curators met in Columbia, Mo. A news conference to introduce Anderson, 58, was set for Tuesday morning.

Kim Anderson
Norm Stewart
College basketball
University of Missouri