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Meek Mill Suffers Setback Judge Did Not Advocate Firing Roc Nation 1/29/2018 Meek Mill's legal team just suffered a big setback ... because TMZ just obtained a copy of the court transcript which Meek's lawyers claim proves the judge was trying to get him to dump Roc Nation for one of her friends ... but the transcript does not bear that out. Meek's team claimed Judge Genece Brinkley was trying to get Meek to fire Roc Nation and hire her friend, Charlie Mack, as his manager. If that were true it would be wholly inappropriate, but it's not the case. It was Meek's probation officer -- not the judge -- who was pushing during the in-chambers hearing for Meek to embrace Mack, arguing Mack was a good influence on Meek and was turning his life around ... this according to the transcript. The probation officer said, "What I like about Charlie, he is not invested in Meek Mills. He is invested in Robert Williams [Meek's real name]." Judge Brinkley did not advocate for Mack. To the contrary, she tried distancing herself, saying she was not going to get involved in terms of who should manage or advise him. The judge said, "I don't want the record to suggest who your management is or is not." Meek's lawyers had argued the judge was inappropriate and therefore Meek's 2 to 4 year prison sentence was tainted and should be thrown out. There is, however, another issue. TMZ broke the story ... a court clerk slipped Meek a note asking for money for her son's tuition, and our story has triggered a formal court investigation. | Entertainment |
Credit...Jared Soares for The New York TimesDec. 28, 2015The Christmas gifts have been delivered, and Secret Santa is done.Now, the work begins for Optoro, a start-up company that aims to reduce the financial and environmental costs of another great holiday tradition: returns.Americans returned $260 billion in merchandise last year, up more than 66 percent from five years ago, according to the National Retail Federation. And a quarter of that was during the holiday season.As e-commerce sales surge and free return shipping becomes the norm, shoppers are set to return even more this year a cycle that started in earnest on Monday, the first weekday after Christmas.Little known to shoppers, however, is that a majority of returned items never make it back to retailers shelves. Instead, the items wind their way through liquidators, wholesalers and resellers, many of the purchases ending up in landfills. According to some estimates, as much as two million tons of returned items most of it undamaged merchandise are thrown away each year, enough to fill over 200,000 garbage trucks.Returns, in short, are not just a big loss for retailers. They are a big and growing environmental burden.The way we consume right now isnt sustainable, said Tobin Moore, chief executive of Optoro, which offers retailers alternative ways to resell, recycle or donate returned merchandise. We cant keep throwing stuff away, he said. Theres a better way.Optoro is becoming a player in the reverse logistics industry handling returns in the United States, one that is growing together with the rise of online sales. And the space is attracting investors attention. Last December, Genco, one of the biggest operators, processing about 600 million returned items a year and raking in about $1.6 billion in sales, was acquired by FedEx. Optoro declined to disclose sales, but said it processed about 10 million returned items a year, and has raised $80 million in funding from Silicon Valley investors.To get shoppers used to buying without touching, web retailers have offered generous return policies. Almost half of e-commerce sellers surveyed by the retail federation including Amazon-owned Zappos, Macys, Target, Saks and Gap now offer free return shipping in many categories.ImageCredit...Jared Soares for The New York TimesFor a long time, returns was something retailers didnt really pay attention to, said Kevon Hills, vice president for research at Stella Service, which rates the customer service performance of online retailers. But its such a focus for companies now.The generous return policies have made it easier than ever to return the dress that arrived in an ill-fitting size or hue, or the drone that does not seem to work as advertised. At least 15 percent of e-commerce sales end up as returns, according to industry estimates, compared with an estimated 8 percent of purchases made at brick-and-mortar stores.Electronics, in particular, are a huge returns category. An oft-cited warning is that if a new device takes more than 15 minutes for a user to figure out, that item is highly likely to be returned, Mr. Moore said. To cope, electronics merchants have typically set far stricter return policies than other retailers. (Best Buy, for example, offers a return and exchange period of just 15 days for most products.) But by the time an item is returned by a consumer and makes its way through the returns process, a hot new device can cool quickly. And retailers are reluctant to stock older, discounted returned items at the expense of shelf space for higher-margin, new products. Moreover, it takes time and resources to test returned electronics, to make sure they work.In highly competitive apparel sales, longer return windows are the norm. Gap gives customers 45 days to return or exchange products; at Walmart, shoppers have 90 days to return or exchange clothing and other merchandise. Apparel retailers see an average of 10 percent of sales returned, according to a study on returns by the market research firm IHL.Retailers want to cut down the period of time that someone has to return the item, so they can more quickly turn it around and sell it to someone else, said Edgar Dworsky, founder of the advocacy site ConsumerWorld.com and a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general in consumer protection.Especially with electronics goods, a hot item becomes yesterdays goods so quickly, Mr. Dworsky said. And who wants to try to sell a returned winter coat in February?Still, Mr. Dworsky said, cutthroat competition in retail is forcing retailers to compete on return policies. Extending the holiday return period has been pretty common for the past several years, he said.Optoros approach to cutting waste is to offer retailers more direct and cost-efficient ways to sell their returned goods through a software platform that tracks returns, quickly assesses which channel is the most effective for each returned item, and routes products to those channels.For undamaged products that have a high resale value, like baby goods, power tools or tablet devices, Optoros software might direct products to its own discount site, Blinq.com, which sells open-box goods at discounts. (Optoro helps retailers test and grade those products.) For returns, or even excess inventory, that are available in bulk, products are routed to another site, Bulq.com, where discount stores and other off-price retailers can purchase merchandise by the pallet. And by amassing returns from retailers, Optoro is able to find takers for products with a lower resale value, like dented metal filing cabinets and other office furniture for scrap recyclers, which pay for goods or materials in bulk. Traditional retailers typically recover only about 20 to 40 percent of the retail cost of returned goods; Optoro helps companies recoup 50 to 70 percent of the cost.There always will be returns, but there will always be someone who wants them, Mr. Moore said. | Business |
Credit...Sam Hodgson for The New York TimesDec. 7, 2015The criminal case against three former leaders of the once-mighty Dewey & LeBoeuf law firm is shrinking fast.A Manhattan prosecutor on Monday moved to dismiss dozens of charges against the defendants related to falsified business records, meaning that a planned retrial of two of those defendants would be considerably shorter than an earlier six-month trial that ended with a hung jury in October.The prosecutor also confirmed in court that Steven H. Davis, the law firms former chairman, would not be retried along with his two former colleagues, and that the case against Mr. Davis would soon be resolved.Peirce Moser, an assistant prosecutor working for Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, declined to discuss in detail how the case against Mr. Davis would be settled.But a lawyer for Mr. Davis, speaking outside the courtroom, said he and prosecutors were negotiating a deferred prosecution agreement in which the former Dewey chairman would not admit any wrongdoing.Mr. Davis is relieved the people are agreeing to a deferred prosecution, said the lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, to reporters outside the courtroom in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. We believe he never should have been indicted in the first place.The defendants are scheduled to next appear in court on Jan. 8 before Justice Robert M. Stolz. The terms of the deferred prosecution agreement are expected to be disclosed at that time.The decision not to retry Mr. Davis, 62, is significant, given that he was an architect of the 2007 merger of Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, which created a firm with more than 1,200 lawyers. The law firm collapsed in bankruptcy in the spring of 2012.In announcing the filing of criminal charges against Mr. Davis and four others in March 2014, Mr. Vance said the defendants had overseen a massive effort to cook the books at Dewey & LeBoeuf. He added that the scheme contributed to the collapse of a prestigious international law firm, which forced thousands of people out of jobs and left creditors holding the bag on hundreds of millions of dollars owed to them.The charges against the Dewey defendants represent one of the most significant white-collar cases brought by Mr. Vance during his tenure in office.Now, there is even a chance that the two other former Dewey executives who were tried along with Mr. Davis this year Stephen DiCarmine, 59, and Joel Sanders, 57 may also never be tried again.ImageCredit...Michael Appleton for The New York TimesMr. Moser, in a move that surprised Justice Stolz and the lawyers for the defendants, said that Mr. Vance was prepared to offer plea deals to Mr. DiCarmine, Mr. Sanders and a fourth defendant, Zachary Warren, a former low-level employee at Dewey who has yet to go to trial.Mr. Moser said the office would allow Mr. DiCarmine to serve 500 hours of community service if he pleaded guilty to a single felony count of scheme to defraud, and would demand that Mr. Sanders serve a term of one year to three years in state prison in return for pleading guilty to a charge of scheme to defraud.As for Mr. Warren, prosecutors are prepared to let him plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in return for performing 200 hours of community service.Joan Vollero, a spokeswoman for Mr. Vance, said in a statement: The offers presented to the four defendants at this stage are fair and appropriate. The dismissal of some of the less serious charges in the indictments is an effort to streamline the cases, based, in part, on valuable feedback from jurors in the first trial.Lawyers for the three men indicated outside the courtroom that their clients were not willing to immediately accept the plea deals, which were offered by Mr. Moser just before the court hearing finished. But the willingness of prosecutors to resolve the matter with sentences that would not require jail time, at least for Mr. DiCarmine and Mr. Warren, may leave the door open to further plea negotiations.If the case against Mr. Warren, 31, goes to trial, it is scheduled to start on March 14. The case against him has been pared back considerably as well.Still to be resolved are pending motions from lawyers for Mr. DiCarmine and Mr. Sanders to dismiss the remaining charges of grand larceny, scheme to defraud, conspiracy and state securities law violations that the jury could not reach a verdict on after 21 days of deliberation.Justice Stolz told the lawyers that he had some questions about the grand larceny charges filed against the defendants, and whether Mr. DiCarmine and Mr. Sanders had the necessary intent to steal money from the banks and insurers that provided financing to Dewey.Prosecutors have argued that the Dewey executives had the intent to commit grand larceny because they knew the law firm could never pay back the hundreds of millions of dollars it had borrowed from lenders and creditors.Justice Stolz, however, wondered whether the knowledge that a debt could never be repaid was sufficient to establish larcenous intent.Lawyers for the defendants and the prosecutors are expected to file additional legal briefs on that issue in advance of the Jan. 8 hearing. If Justice Stoltz were to dismiss some of the grand larceny charges, it would further whittle down the prosecutions case at any future trial.Mr. Davis, Mr. DiCarmine and Mr. Sanders also face a separate Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit. | Business |
For researchers using delicate, one-of-a-kind equipment, the extreme conditions at the bottom of the planet pose special challenges.Credit...Geoff Evatt/University of ManchesterMay 2, 2020At the start of January, the same month the world marked the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica, scientists on snowmobiles were zipping across its diamantine ice, dragging a rig of metal detectors in their wake. Researchers were hoping to discover a hypothesized cache of iron-rich meteorites, the remnants of ancient asteroids and would-be planets, under the frozen wastes.But the unexpected roughness of the ice caused the rig to shake itself to pieces. Components were being shorn off, and the electronic circuitry quickly became unstable, with multiple points of failure. On the 18th day in Antarcticas Outer Recovery Ice Fields, the device collapsed. All the backup metal detectors had been used in earlier repairs. No more repair jobs could resuscitate the unit.It was death-by-vibration, but also death by a thousand cuts, said Wouter van Verre, an electrical engineer from the University of Manchester in England who helped build the system.This is no isolated tale. The history of the scientific exploration of Antarctica is riddled with tales of woe, most often loss of life for the continents earlier explorers. And while major technological advancements and vastly improved safety regulations mean that the risk to Antarctic adventurers has been greatly reduced, equipment malfunctions that freeze scientific discovery persist there, said Daniella McCahey, a historian of Antarctica at the University of Idaho.When a vital piece of kit fails, the research often can only continue with MacGyveresque engineering solutions. Or projects end, leaving the prospects of additional discovery uncertain.The Snow Cruiser was an early example of an ill-fated piece of equipment. Weighing 37 tons and built with pride in Chicago in 1939, it was designed to glide across the perilous Antarctic terrain with ease, allowing its crew to make scientific observations wherever they wished. But once it arrived in Antarctica, its massive and far-too-smooth tires were unable to power the wheeled beast across much of the ice. Eventually, after a particularly heavy storm, it was abandoned to a snowy grave.ImageCredit...Associated PressBut even far less complex technology can be vulnerable to Antarcticas viciousness: During the 1957-1958 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the explorers wristwatches vital for telling the time in a place with distinctly alien hours of light and darkness simply didnt work.Its remarkably easier to keep the human machine working than the physical machines, said James Lloyd, an astronomer at Cornell University who spent two years at the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole in the mid-1990s.Preparation only gets you so far. You can test your technology as many times as you wish in the laboratory, or in Antarctic-like wildernesses. Those iron meteorite hunters did both, and even conducted a successful trial run on a sliver of Antarctica. But until you try it at your eventual research site, you dont know how its going to work, Dr. McCahey said.I promise you, there are no projects in Antarctica where the equipment works perfectly, said Matthew Siegfried, a glaciologist at the Colorado School of Mines.There are no heavy-duty supply stops outfitted with abundances of gear at the icy end of the world, so expeditions bring as many spare parts as they can fly out, and hope for the best. Its only a very short step from what you can resource people with in space, said Liam Marsh, an electrical engineer from the University of Manchester who helped build the meteorite detection system.Dr. Siegfried recalled a time he drove his snowmobile 45 miles from base to a remote GPS station, bringing along fuel canisters. When he stopped to refuel, he realized that the hand-pump pipe that fed gas to the snowmobile had vanished, forcing him to transmogrify other parts of his kit into a fairly messy but ultimately effective fuel transfer system.This sort of ad hoc repair work is rarely enjoyable, Mr. van Verre said. You quickly miss the luxury of tables and chairs. Gloves are removed when fiddling with small components, leaving hands exposed to a painfully violent chill.Such difficulty can result in moments of posterior-clenching horror. Nelia Dunbar, director of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, remembers bringing a snowmobile back to camp after its drive chain snapped. Mid-repair, the snowmobile suddenly roared to life and reversed in full throttle, narrowly missing tearing up her teams tents.ImageCredit...Katherine Joy/University of ManchesterEven with perfectly functioning equipment, Antarctic malevolence can be remarkably inventive. Hank Statscewich, an oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, visited the continent in 2014 to study ocean currents near a biological hot spot. While there, an utter behemoth of an iceberg, pulverizing everything in its wake, improbably parked right on top of his small submerged scientific probe, severing its communication to the surface.Remarkably, months later, the probes mangled remains were found floating listlessly about, its violent encounter with the iceberg dutifully chronicled by its scientific instrumentation. Mr. Statscewichs experience epitomizes the surprising reality about scientific expeditions to Antarctica: many manage to recover from seemingly terminal technological tribulations.This includes Manchesters meteorite hunters, who managed to find more than 100 space rocks, including several iron-rich ones, on the surface during their Antarctic adventures. One meteorite was found while dragging the corpse of the detector rig back to camp. And, for 18 days, their bespoke rig gathered invaluable data. Like each troubled expedition before it, their quandaries serve as learning experiences that hopefully make the same setbacks less likely on future expeditions.But if the past is any indication, it will be a long time before Antarcticas wanton destruction of scientific equipment comes to a close.Its a remorseless environment, said Patrick Harkness, a space systems engineering expert at the University of Glasgow. If youve made any mistakes in your preparation, it will find them out. | science |
Credit...Danish Siddiqui/ReutersNov. 6, 2018HONG KONG For North Korea experts, virtually every detail in the authoritarian state is a potential window into the political priorities of its elusive leader, Kim Jong-un.A mass gymnastics performance that ended in North Korea on Sunday, after a nearly two-month run, was no exception: Unlike in previous years, this years edition was said to highlight recent changes in Mr. Kims posture toward China, South Korea and the United States.Jump Around Dept.: What Are the Mass Games? This years Mass Games gymnastics bonanza, which began in early September in the capital, Pyongyang, was the first edition of the event since 2013. Along with a military parade in September, it marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea.The performance, Glorious Country, featured about 17,000 schoolchildren who formed a human-pixel backdrop with colored cards in the stands, plus thousands of performers on the arenas floor, according to Andray Abrahamian, a fellow at Stanford University and the author of a book on North Korea who attended the show in September.A banner at the show also read, From now, a new history begins. Mr. Abrahamian said that was an apparent reference to an April declaration by Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, in which the two leaders agreed to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, pursue talks with the United States to declare an official end to the Korean War.ImageCredit...Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesTilting Toward Peace: Missiles Missing From GamesThe choreography of this years Mass Games presented the Kim regimes vision of its own history, in keeping with the style of previous years. Yet it also told a significantly more positive, forward-looking and less militaristic tale than the 2013 edition, Mr. Abrahamian wrote in a commentary on the website 38 North.And unlike previous shows, he added, it did not include a single image of a missile.Nancy Snow, a North Korea expert at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and a former State Department official in the Clinton administration, said the lack of militaristic symbols at this years event might reflect Mr. Kims growing awareness that reprising the missile tests of 2017 would probably not help his regimes international image.I dont think hes going to give up his weapons anytime soon, but slowly, surely, theyre going to introduce themselves more to the world, she said. And this is one way they do that.A New Face: Xi Jinping Depicted for the First TimeThis year represented the first time that a rendering of President Xi Jinping of China was featured at the games. His portrait appeared on the human pixel board at the shows finale on Sunday, when a delegation of well-known Chinese singers, actors and other artists were in the audience, according to NK News, an independent news site covering North Korea.Notably, Mr. Xi was depicted inside a gold-framed circle surrounded by red the same style previously used to depict Mr. Kims father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung.Given how inimitably serious the North Koreans are about their two prior leaders, framing Xi Jinping that way can only be read as a signal of extreme respect, Mr. Abrahamian said in an email. It is nearly reverent.Mr. Abrahamian said he read the gesture as a dramatic step in North Koreas assiduous fence-mending campaign toward China five years after relations between the neighboring countries were strained because of North Koreas 2013 nuclear test and its purge of Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-uns uncle, who had wielded significant influence over North Korean coal exports to China.ImageCredit...Pyongyang Press Corps PoolCheers for Peace: Moon Makes a CameoDuring a September performance of Glorious Country, Mr. Moon, the South Korean president, appeared beside Mr. Kim at the games and addressed the audience, according to the Yonhap news agency.I propose that we should completely end the past 70 years of hostility and take a big stride of peace to become one again, Mr. Moon said at one point in his speech, which was also broadcast live in South Korea.Mr. Abrahamian said the speech could be seen as a semiformal acknowledgment by North Korea of Mr. Moons authority, as well as a sign that Mr. Kim trusts Mr. Moon to deliver a message that was not too provocative and would keep the inter-Korean relationship moving forward in a way both leaders found agreeable.But it was also notable, he added, that Mr. Moons image was shown in a video as he stood with Mr. Kim and not in the same iconic portrait style reserved for Mr. Xi.Reading Between the Lines: A Message for Trump? Soo Kim, a former North Korea analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, said that the public display of support for China at the Glorious Country games was a signal to Washington that Beijing would probably take Pyongyangs side in negotiations over the Norths nuclear program when push comes to shove.Mike Pompeo, the United States secretary of state, is scheduled to meet with North Korean officials in New York later this week, and Ms. Kim, the analyst, said that the Kim regime was probably trying to express its dissatisfaction with how the nuclear talks have stalled.This is not only frustrating for the U.S. and South Korea; its also not where Kim Jong-un would like to be, she added. The U.S. and North Korea have been going back and forth, with neither side willing to budge over denuclearization, easing of sanctions or even a declaration to end the Korean War. | World |
Q&ACredit...Victoria RobertsJune 26, 2017Q. I read somewhere that the gravitational force exerted by Jupiter is so great that it makes the sun move in its direction. Is this true?A. All the planets in the solar system interact gravitationally with the sun, but Jupiters great mass nearly two and a half times that of the rest of the planets combined makes this interaction visible to astronomers as a kind of dance rather than just a minuscule wobble.Any two objects in orbit around each other are actually in orbit around an invisible point called the center of mass, or barycenter.Jupiter is the only planet for which this barycenter is outside the radius of the sun.The traditional picture of the planets in an ordered parade around their star is much more complex. | science |
Health|How Are Abortion Restrictions Affecting Medical Training? Tell Us.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/10/health/how-are-abortion-restrictions-affecting-medical-training-tell-us.htmlThe potential for limits on abortion, including a procedure that is used to treat uterine conditions other than pregnancy, will affect providers as well as patients.Credit...Joseph Prezioso/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMay 10, 2022With at least 22 states poised to drastically limit or end abortion procedures if Roe v. Wade is overturned, how will the training of doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants be affected?If you are a student or educator in a profession licensed to perform abortions, including dilation and curettage, or D. and C., we would like to hear your thoughts.We may contact you to learn more, and we wont publish any responses without your consent. If youd prefer an even more secure means of communication, you can send your responses (and any records, images or other information) to nytimes.com/tips. | Health |
Behind the Masks, a Mystery: How Often Do the Vaccinated Spread the Virus?The C.D.C.s new masking advice was based in part on data showing that the virus can thrive in the airways of vaccinated people. The findings are expected on Friday. Credit...Alex Welsh for The New York TimesJuly 29, 2021The recommendation that vaccinated people in some parts of the country dust off their masks was based largely on one troublesome finding, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.New research showed that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carry tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat, she said in an email responding to questions from The New York Times. The finding contradicts what scientists had observed in vaccinated people infected with previous versions of the virus, who mostly seemed incapable of infecting others.That conclusion dealt Americans a heavy blow: People with so-called breakthrough infections cases that occur despite full vaccination of the Delta variant may be just as contagious as unvaccinated people, even if they have no symptoms.That means fully immunized people with young children, aging parents, or friends and family with weak immune systems will need to renew vigilance, particularly in high-transmission communities. Vaccinated Americans may need to wear masks not just to protect themselves, but everyone in their orbit.There are 67,000 new cases per day on average in the United States, as of Thursday. If vaccinated people are transmitting the Delta variant, they may be contributing to the increases although probably to a far lesser degree than the unvaccinated.The C.D.C. has not yet published its data, frustrating experts who want to understand the basis for the change of heart on masks. Four scientists familiar with the research said it was compelling and justified the C.D.C.s advice that the vaccinated wear masks again in public indoor spaces.The research was conducted by people outside the C.D.C., the scientists said, and the agency is working quickly to analyze and publish the results. The agency expects to publish the research on Friday, one official said. Some of the research may be related in part to an outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., where Fourth of July festivities have led to 882 cases as of Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of those people were fully vaccinated. The agency also has tracked data from the Covid-19 Sports and Society Workgroup, a coalition of professional sports leagues that is testing more than 10,000 people at least daily and sequencing all infections.Its still unclear how common breakthrough infections are and how long the virus persists in the body in those cases. Breakthroughs are rare, and unvaccinated people account for the bulk of virus transmission, Dr. Walensky said.ImageCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesRegardless, the data that the C.D.C. is reviewing suggest that even fully immunized people can be unwilling vectors for the virus. We believe at individual level they might, which is why we updated our recommendation, Dr. Walensky said in her email to The Times.The conclusion also suggests that vaccinated people who are exposed to the virus should get tested, even if they feel fine. (In Britain, vaccinated people who are contacts of a known case are required to isolate for 10 days.)The new data do not mean that the vaccines are ineffective. The vaccines still powerfully prevent severe illness and death, as they were meant to, and people with breakthrough infections very rarely end up in a hospital.About 97 percent of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, according to data from the C.D.C. But scientists warned even last year that the vaccines might not completely prevent infection or transmission. (Immunity from natural infection may offer even less protection.)Previous versions of the virus rarely broke through the immunization barrier, which prompted the C.D.C. to advise in May that vaccinated people could go mask-free indoors. But the usual rules dont seem to apply to the Delta variant.The variant is twice as contagious as the original virus, and one study suggested that the amount of virus in unvaccinated people infected with Delta might be a thousand times higher than seen in people infected with the original version of the virus. The C.D.C. data support that finding, said one expert familiar with the results.Anecdotes of clusters of breakthrough infections have become increasingly frequent, with groups of vaccinated people reporting sniffles, headache, sore throat, or a loss of taste or smell symptoms of an infection in the upper respiratory tract.But the overwhelming majority do not end up needing intensive medical care, because the immune defenses produced by the vaccine destroy the virus before it can get to the lungs.Were still going to see a huge, huge, huge impact on severity of disease and hospitalization, said Michal Tal, an immunologist at Stanford University. Thats really what the vaccine was made to do.ImageCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesThe coronavirus vaccines are injected into muscle, and the antibodies produced in response mostly remain in the blood. Some antibodies may make their way to the nose, the main port of entry for the virus, but not enough to block it.The vaccines theyre beautiful, they work, theyre amazing, said Frances Lund, a viral immunologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. But theyre not going to give you that local immunity.When people are exposed to any respiratory pathogen, it may find a foothold in the mucosal lining of the nose without causing any harm beyond that. If you walked down the street and swabbed people, you would find people that had viruses in their mucosa who were asymptomatic, said Dr. Michael Marks, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Our immune system is mostly fighting these things off most of the time.But the Delta variant seems to flourish in the nose, and its abundance may explain why more people than scientists expected are experiencing breakthrough infections and cold-like symptoms.Still, when the virus tries to snake down into the lungs, immune cells in vaccinated people ramp up and rapidly clear the infection before it wreaks much havoc. That means vaccinated people should be infected and contagious for a much shorter period of time than unvaccinated people, Dr. Lund said.But that doesnt mean that in those first couple of days, when theyre infected, they cant transmit it to somebody else, she added.To stop the virus right where it enters, some experts have advocated nasal spray vaccines that would prevent the invader from gaining purchase in the upper airway. Vaccine 1.0 should prevent death and hospitalization. Vaccine 2.0 should prevent transmission, Dr. Tal said. We just need another iteration. | Health |
Credit...Amber Ford for The New York TimesThe New Old AgeThe approval of Aduhelm to treat Alzheimers disease has raised hope among older adults, but many doctors wonder if it is warranted.Joan and James Morehouse have been hoping for a treatment for Alzheimers since Mr. Morehouse, 71, received a diagnosis four years ago, and they delighted in the news of Aduhelms approval. I said, Oh, my God, my prayers have been answered, Ms. Morehouse said.Credit...Amber Ford for The New York TimesPublished July 7, 2021Updated Sept. 2, 2021July 8: This article was updated to note a change in the F.D.A.s recommended use for Aduhlem that was announced after it was first published.Dr. Kenneth Koncilja, a geriatrician at the Cleveland Clinic, saw the announcement from the Food and Drug Administration on June 7, on Twitter: The agency had approved Aduhelm (aducanumab), the first drug to treat Alzheimers disease to be approved in nearly 20 years.The calls from patients spouses and family members began within the hour, and have not stopped. I was shocked at how fast the word spread Hey, is this something we can use? When can we get it? Dr. Koncilja recalled. Theres a mix of excitement, anxiety and desperation.His first call that morning came from Joan Morehouse, 78, who has been caring for her 71-year-old husband, James, in their home in North Perry, Ohio, since his Alzheimers diagnosis four years ago. She has watched him get lost on familiar drives and forget their grandchildrens names.When her brother and her son both emailed her a news article about the F.D.A. action, she recalled, I said, Oh, my God, my prayers have been answered.It fell to Dr. Koncilja to explain the complexities: That Aduhelm is not yet widely available. That protocols determining which patients qualify have yet to be developed. That the clinical trial data was ambiguous and that the drug might bring no noticeable improvements in daily life. That its side effects include brain swelling and bleeding.And that its maker, Biogen, estimates the annual cost of monthly intravenous infusions at $56,000, plus expensive scans and tests.Its a more difficult question than Ive ever had before, Dr. Koncilja said. Patients ask him how their lives will change, and I dont know how to answer.In the weeks since the F.D.A.s action, which initially placed virtually no restrictions on prescribing the drug, geriatricians, neurologists and other doctors across the country have been fielding similar questions.Aduhelm has generated intense controversy. Biogen stopped two trials in 2019 because they demonstrated no benefit, then submitted an F.D.A. application after a later analysis of one trial showed slightly slower cognitive decline at high doses.In a letter to the F.D.A., the American Geriatrics Society argued that approval was premature given the lack of sufficient evidence. The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine later came to a similar conclusion.The F.D.A.s own advisory committee strongly recommended against approval, and three member scientists resigned in protest when the agency overrode its advice. A new survey of 200 neurologists and primary care doctors has found that most disagreed with the F.D.A. decision.Senators Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, have called for a hearing, concerned that spending billions on Aduhelm could undermine Medicare. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has announced an investigation into the drugs approval and pricing.On Thursday, reacting to widespread criticism, the F.D.A. narrowed the drugs recommended use to those with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimers disease, noting that there was no data on its safety or effectiveness in later stages of dementia.ImageCredit...Kayana Szymczak for The New York TimesGiven all that, should older adults consider Aduhelm? The F.D.A. has passed the determination along to the American family, said Dr. Jason Karlawish, co-director of the Penn Memory Center, who, with a number of other doctors, publicly opposed the drugs approval.Penn Memory doctors are receiving anxious inquiries, too. Geeta Simons, a musician in Philadelphia whose 80-year-old father has Alzheimers, messaged her fathers neurologist there. I wanted to believe that this was that magical save, she said.Such doctors face a dilemma, Dr. Karlawish said, a moment when theres no decision that resolves all the uncertainties and settles the ethical concerns.It puts us in a bad place, agreed Dr. Karina Bishop, a geriatrician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Ethically, she added, if this drug was available right now, I would not feel able to prescribe it.Even as individual doctors grapple with advising patients, hospitals and health systems are devising protocols for when Aduhelm becomes more widely available, probably within weeks.At the Mayo Clinic, said Dr. Ronald Petersen, a neurologist who directs the Alzheimers Disease Research Center there, were going to stick pretty close to the inclusion and exclusion criteria used in the trial.That means only patients with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimers disease would qualify, after an M.R.I. to rule out certain conditions and risks, and a P.E.T. scan or lumbar puncture to confirm the presence of amyloid. The Mayo protocols, like the clinical trials, would exclude people taking blood thinners like Warfarin or Eliquis.Its not like you come in and say, Im a little forgetful, and we say, Heres this drug, said Dr. Petersen. But not every provider, he acknowledged, will employ such safeguards.Dr. Eric Widera, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, expressed a similar concern: If doctors were extremely cautious and limited this drug to the very specific population included in the study, with very careful monitoring, it would be the first time in medicine that was ever done.He pointed out another consequence of federal approval: a rift between some doctors and the Alzheimers Association, the national advocacy group, which this spring mounted a campaign it called More Time. Intended to demonstrate public support for approval of aducanumab, the effort included newspaper ads and social media posts.Now Dr. Widera, who has worked with a local chapter to train medical students and residents, is seeking an alternate source of information to which to refer patients. He has come to mistrust the Alzheimers Association, calling it a big promoter, almost a marketer, for Biogen, which, like other pharmaceutical firms, helps underwrite the organization and contributed $275,000 to it last year.The association said in an email that history has shown us that approvals of the first drug in a new category will invigorate the field, increase investments in new treatments and generate greater innovation.One major unpredictable factor in Aduhelms future: insurance coverage. Medicare could decide to authorize coverage as reasonable and necessary, to deny or limit it, or to delay a decision. A spokesman at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it was reviewing the F.D.A.s decision and would have more information soon.Given the drugs announced price tag, a restrictive Medicare policy could put it beyond reach for most older Americans.ImageCredit...Amber Ford for The New York TimesEventually, the F.D.A. might also take action against Aduhelm. Its accelerated approval process requires Biogen to undertake a new clinical trial; if that shows no benefit, the agency could withdraw approval. But Biogen has until 2030 to report those results; by then, thousands of hopeful patients might already be taking Aduhelm.For now, doctors are wrestling with how to respond.One of my core principles is respect for patient autonomy, especially for this disease, which degrades a patients ability to exercise self-determination, said Dr. Karlawish. Slightly softening his published opposition to Aduhelm, he said that he now would prescribe it, after extensive discussions with patients, but Id be a reluctant prescriber.Several doctors described gently dissuading patients by noting the uncertainty that the drug would help, the potentially disabling side effects and the many unknowns. They have been open to waiting and getting more information, Dr. Bishop said.Ms. Morehouse, for instance, had heard nothing about Aduhelm before the F.D.A. acted. We are on a horrible journey, she said of her husband and herself. Perhaps with the new drug, we could have maybe not a normal life, but a better life.During their phone call, she listened as Dr. Koncilja noted that the science was exciting but that Aduhelm was no miracle drug. She heard for the first time about brain swelling or bleeding, and that scared me, she said. Would I ever want to put Jim through that? She was staggered by the price, which she cannot pay.Her excitement has abated. But Dr. Koncilja didnt take away all my hope, she said. He told me, Lets see the potential through the summer, and well confer again in the fall. | Health |
Our Coverage of the Coronavirus PandemicIn the United StatesEven with coronavirus cases on the rise, millions of Americans are expected to take to the skies and roads Memorial Day weekend, in what is likely to be one of the busiest travel periods since the start of the pandemic.White House officials said that they were introducing new models for distributing Paxlovid, the Covid-19 pill made by Pfizer, in an effort to get the treatment to more people and keep death rates relatively low even as cases increase.Around the WorldBeijing is not under official lockdown yet, but one can barely tell that thats the case. As the Chinese government enforces strict safety measures in the city to prevent a complete shutdown, its hard to find anywhere to go.Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain presided over a disorderly workplace in which there were widespread violations of coronavirus restrictions, according to a long-awaited government reporton lockdown parties at Downing Street.ResearchA large new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in five adult Covid survivors under the age of 65in the United States has experienced at least one health condition that could be considered long Covid.How safe really is it to go back to the gym right now? Research shows that people working out may expel a shocking number of the tiny aerosol particlesthat can transmit the coronavirus.Health GuidanceMasks: Does a mask protect you against Covid if others arent wearing one? This is what the evidence shows.Second Boosters: Should you get a fourth Covid shot? Older individuals and those with some health conditions may benefit from it.Long Covid: There is no universal definition of the condition, but clues about causes and potential treatments are beginning to emerge. Heres what we know so far.At Home: When someone in your house tests positive for Covid, there are some guidelines to follow.Covid Treatments in N.Y.C.: Antiviral pillsand monoclonal antibodies are available across the city. Here is how to get them. | Health |
Politics|South Carolina Democrat Who Admitted to Domestic Abuse Wins House Primaryhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/politics/archie-parnell-south-carolina.htmlCredit...Sean Rayford/Getty ImagesJune 13, 2018Archie Parnell, a Democratic House candidate who lost the support of his party after he admitted to physically abusing his ex-wife in the 1970s, handily won a primary in South Carolina on Tuesday.Mr. Parnell rose to national attention last year when he came within a hairs breadth of winning a special election to replace Representative Mick Mulvaney in the states deep red Fifth District. Mr. Mulvaney left Congress in 2017 to serve as President Trumps director of the Office of Management and Budget.On Tuesday, Mr. Parnell won 60 percent of the vote according to The Associated Press, easily beating three lesser known primary opponents with not as much name recognition. He will now mount another campaign against Representative Ralph Norman, the Republican who beat him in the special election last year.[Here are three key takeaways from Tuesday nights primaries.]Mr. Normans campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.In a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday morning, Mr. Parnell said the result had left him deeply honored and humbled.Tonight, the people sent a clear message to everyone, he wrote. You dont have to be defined by your worst mistake. You dont have to be cast aside. You are not alone. You can be better. And, together, we can be better.Mr. Parnells campaign for the Democratic nomination nearly went off the rails in May when The Post and Courier, the Charleston newspaper, published divorce records that alleged he had beaten Kathleen Parnell, his wife at the time, in October 1973 after using a tire iron to break into an apartment where she was staying. Their divorce was finalized the following year.The revelation quickly prompted the resignation of Mr. Parnells campaign manager, Yates Baroody, and a call from the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Trav Robertson, for him to drop out of the race.Michael Wukela, a spokesman for Mr. Parnells campaign, said they had not been contacted by the state or national Democratic Party since the primary victory. He also said they were receiving no financial support from the party.We have always felt that this election was never about the state party or the national party or the D.C.C.C., Mr. Wukela said, referring to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It is about the voters of the district, and that is who spoke last night.This month, Mr. Parnell admitted to the physical abuse in a campaign video and said he had not told his campaign staff about the episode. He also said he would not drop out of the race.If I withdraw, I would not be fully facing my past, he said. If I withdraw, I would be telling anyone who makes a terrible mistake that that one terrible mistake will define them for the rest of their lives.It is the voters of the Fifth district who should decide the outcome of this election, and not me or certain Democratic Party officers, he said. We all have the capacity to change and be better.The South Carolina Democratic Party did not respond to a phone message seeking comment on Wednesday. | Politics |
The state security ministry is recruiting from a vast pool of private-sector hackers who often have their own agendas and sometimes use their access for commercial cybercrime, experts say.Credit...Alex Plavevski/EPA, via ShutterstockAug. 26, 2021Chinas buzzy high-tech companies dont usually recruit Cambodian speakers, so the job ads for three well-paid positions with those language skills stood out. The ad, seeking writers of research reports, was placed by an internet security start-up in Chinas tropical island-province of Hainan.That start-up was more than it seemed, according to American law enforcement. Hainan Xiandun Technology was part of a web of front companies controlled by Chinas secretive state security ministry, according to a federal indictment from May. They hacked computers from the United States to Cambodia to Saudi Arabia, seeking sensitive government data as well as less-obvious spy stuff, like details of a New Jersey companys fire-suppression system, according to prosecutors.The accusations appear to reflect an increasingly aggressive campaign by Chinese government hackers and a pronounced shift in their tactics: Chinas premier spy agency is increasingly reaching beyond its own ranks to recruit from a vast pool of private-sector talent.This new group of hackers has made Chinas state cyberspying machine stronger, more sophisticated and for its growing array of government and private-sector targets more dangerously unpredictable. Sponsored but not necessarily micromanaged by Beijing, this new breed of hacker attacks government targets and private companies alike, mixing traditional espionage with outright fraud and other crimes for profit.Chinas new approach borrows from the tactics of Russia and Iran, which have tormented public and commercial targets for years. Chinese hackers with links to state security demanded ransom in return for not releasing a companys computer source code, according to an indictment released by the U.S. Department of Justice last year. Another group of hackers in southwest China mixed cyber raids on Hong Kong democracy activists with fraud on gaming websites, another indictment asserted. One member of the group boasted about having official protection, provided that they avoid targets in China.The upside is they can cover more targets, spur competition. The downside is the level of control, said Robert Potter, the head of Internet 2.0, an Australian cybersecurity firm. Ive seen them do some really boneheaded things, like try and steal $70,000 during an espionage op.Investigators believe these groups have been responsible for some big recent data breaches, including hacks targeting the personal details of 500 million guests at the Marriott hotel chain, information on roughly 20 million U.S. government employees and, this year, a Microsoft email system used by many of the worlds largest companies and governments.The Microsoft breach was unlike Chinas previously disciplined strategy, said Dmitri Alperovitch, the chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, a nonprofit geopolitical think tank.They went after organizations they had zero interest in and exploited those organizations with ransomware and other attacks, Mr. Alperovitch said.Chinas tactics changed after Xi Jinping, the countrys top leader, transferred more cyberhacking responsibility to the Ministry of State Security from the Peoples Liberation Army following a slew of sloppy attacks and a reorganization of the military. The ministry, a mix of spy agency and Communist Party inquisitor, has used more sophisticated hacking tools, like security flaws known as zero days, to target companies, activists and governments.ImageCredit...Ng Han Guan/Associated PressWhile the ministry projects an image of remorseless loyalty to the Communist Party in Beijing, its hacking operations can act like local franchises. Groups often act on their own agendas, sometimes including sidelines in commercial cybercrime, experts said.The message: Were paying you to do work from 9 to 5 for the national security of China, Mr. Alperovitch said. What you do with the rest of your time, and with the tools and access you have, is really your business.A grand jury indictment released last year charged that two former classmates from an electrical engineering college in Chengdu, in southwest China, marauded through foreign computer servers and stole information from dissidents and engineering diagrams from an Australian defense contractor. On the side, the indictment said, the two tried extortion: demanding payment in return for not revealing an unidentified companys source code on the internet.Under this system, Chinese hackers have become increasingly aggressive. The rate of global attacks linked to the Chinese government has nearly tripled since last year compared with the four previous years, according to Recorded Future, a Somerville, Mass., company that studies the use of internet by state-linked actors. That number now averages more than 1,000 per three-month period, it said.Considering the volume thats going on, how many times has the F.B.I. gotten them? Precious few, said Nicholas Eftimiades, a retired senior American intelligence officer who writes about Chinas espionage operations. Theres no way you can staff up to be able to contend with this type of onslaught.Though their numbers make them hard to stop, the hackers dont always try hard to cover their tracks. They sometimes leave clues strewn online, including wedding photos of agents in state security uniforms, telltale job ads and boasts of their feats.Hainan Xiandun was set up to recruit young talent and create a veneer of deniability, prosectors said. It posted job ads on the message boards of Chinese universities and sponsored a cybersecurity competition.The operations from Hainan an island jutting into the South China Sea sometimes reflected local priorities, like stealing marine research from a university in California and hacking governments in nearby Southeast Asian countries, according to the May indictment. Its job ad for Cambodian speakers was placed three months before Cambodian elections.While some targets had clear espionage goals, others appeared less focused. The hackers tried to steal Ebola vaccine data from one institution, prosecutors said, and secrets about self-driving cars from another.ImageCredit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesIn January 2020, a mysterious blog with a track record of exposing Chinese state security hackers picked up the scent. The blog, Intrusion Truth, was already known in Washington cybersecurity circles for naming Chinese intelligence officers well before they appeared in U.S. indictments.The operators of Intrusion Truth scoured job boards for Hainan companies advertising for penetration testing engineers, who secure networks by exploring how they could be hacked.One posting from Hainan Xiandun stood out. The ad, on a Sichuan University computer science hiring board from 2018, boasted that Xiandun had received a considerable number of government-secret-related business.The company, based in Hainans capital, Haikou, paid monthly salaries of $1,200 to $3,000 solid middle-class wages for Chinese tech workers fresh out of college with bonuses as high as $15,000. Xianduns ads listed an email address used by other firms looking for cybersecurity experts and linguists, suggesting they were part of a network.Chinese hacking groups are increasingly sharing malware, exploits and coordinating their efforts, the operators of Intrusion Truth wrote in an email. The operators have not disclosed their identities, citing the sensitivity of their work.Xianduns registered address was the library of Hainan University. Its phone number matched that of a computer science professor and Peoples Liberation Army veteran who ran a website offering payments for students with novel ideas about cracking passwords. The professor has not been charged.Other records and phone numbers led the blog authors to an email address and a frequent-flier account owned by Ding Xiaoyang, one of the managers of the company.The indictment asserted that Mr. Ding was a state security officer who ran the hackers working at Hainan Xiandun. It included details the blog did not find, like an award Mr. Ding received from the Ministry of State Security for young leaders in the organization.Mr. Ding and others named in the indictment couldnt be reached.Though trackable for now, Chinas state security apparatus may be learning how to better hide its footprints, said Matthew Brazil, a former China specialist for the Department of Commerces Office of Export Enforcement who has co-written a study of Chinese espionage.The abilities of the Chinese services are uneven, he said. Their game is getting better, and in five or 10 years its going to be a different story.Nicole Perlroth contributed reporting. | Tech |
Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York TimesApril 6, 2016In an effort to break the two-month deadlock over funding to fight the encroaching Zika virus, Obama administration officials announced on Wednesday that, as congressional Republicans had demanded, they would transfer $510 million originally intended to protect against Ebola to the Zika battle.Officials from the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State Department said they would move a total of $589 million to efforts to contain Zika.In addition to funds moved from the Ebola budget, an additional $79 million would come from several other accounts, including money previously allotted to the national strategic stockpile of vaccines and other emergency supplies for epidemics, said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.Despite the transfers, these repurposed funds are not enough to support a comprehensive Zika response and can only temporarily address what is needed, said Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and BudgetIn February, the Obama administration asked Congress for a more than $1.8 billion emergency appropriation for the effort to defeat the Zika virus. Congressional Republicans said that the administration should first spend the money previously allocated to the fight against Ebola in West Africa.The administrations emergency request still stands, officials said on Wednesday. Our $1.9 billion request remains our $1.9 billion request, Mr. Donovan said.We should not play with fire here, he added. We risk the disease getting out of control before Congress acts.In the United States and its territories, the mosquito-borne Zika virus has now infected 672 people, 64 of them pregnant women, who are considered the most at risk. The infection has been linked to birth defects and brain damage in infants born to infected mothers, and to paralysis in adults.About half of those cases involved local transmission within Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Almost all the remainder occurred in travelers who returned from countries where the Zika epidemic was raging.Until Wednesday, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services had been adamant that they could not spare any Ebola funds because they had already been spent or had been allocated to strengthening surveillance and health care systems in Africa to spot and suppress any new outbreaks.There have been more than 20 Ebola outbreaks since the disease was first described in 1976. The one that began two years ago in West Africa was by far the worst, and it was the first to reach the United States.Several doctors and nurses with the disease were brought back here to recover, and two nurses caught it from a Liberian man who died in a Texas hospital.Last week, at the Zika Action Plan Summit at the C.D.C. headquarters in Atlanta, Amy E. Pope, a White House deputy assistant for homeland security, said: Congress is asking the American people to choose what disease they want protection from when Ebola threatened, they didnt do that.A spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget declined to say whether a deal had been reached with Republicans who opposed funding for control of Zika in return for the administrations moving the funds.She pointed out that Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, had previously said that some Ebola funds might eventually be used for other things without impacting our critical efforts against Ebola.The West African Ebola outbreak, which has claimed more than 11,000 lives, has several times come close to being declared over, but a dozen new cases recently appeared in Liberia and Guinea.More than 1,000 contacts of those cases are being traced, and people close to them are being vaccinated with experimental Ebola vaccines. American funds are paying for many of those efforts.Alarms over the Zika virus were first raised in this country in late December, when its effects appeared to be spreading outward from Brazil.On February 1, because of the suspected connection to microcephaly in which babies are born with tiny heads and damaged brains the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency. | Health |
Mariah Carey's NYE Nails Rehearsal, Full Soundcheck 12/31/2017 Mariah Carey didn't cut any corners ahead of her NYE redemption performance in Times Square ... 'cause she just completed a full soundcheck and rehearsal. Mariah wrapped her rehearsal and soundcheck Sunday afternoon in NYC, where she's hours away from round 2 of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve." Eyewitnesses tell us she completed her run-through with no issues, and looks ready for tonight. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. It appears it was the real Mariah up there too, no stand-in like last year ... which, as you'll recall, didn't end great come showtime. It also sounds like you can hear her pretty well through the sound system now, which bodes well for her actual performance. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. Mimi left the stage in high spirits, so we hope that means she's all set. Fingers crossed! | Entertainment |
Technology|12 Accusations in the Damning House Report on Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Googlehttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/technology/amazon-apple-facebook-google-antitrust-report.htmlLawmakers said they found multiple problems with each of the four giant tech companies.Published Oct. 6, 2020Updated June 11, 2021House lawmakers released a scathing report on four of the worlds largest tech companies, accusing them of abusing their market power. The report, which was released on Tuesday and concludes a 16-month investigation into Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, recommended breaking up the companies and passing the most sweeping reforms to antitrust laws in decades.Here is a summary of the accusations against each company in the report, which was endorsed only by Democratic lawmakers.AmazonThe company uses its market power as both the largest online retailer and the leading e-commerce marketplace to its advantage and to hobble potential competitors. Amazon sets the rules for digital commerce. About 2.3 million third-party sellers do business on the Amazon marketplace worldwide, the report said, and 37 percent of them rely on Amazon as their sole source of income essentially making them hostage to Amazons shifting tactics.Amazon harvests the sales and product data from its marketplace to spot hot-selling items, copy them and offer its own competing products, typically at lower prices. One former Amazon employee told the House investigators, Amazon is first and foremost a data company, they just happen to use it to sell stuff.In cloud computing, where Amazon Web Services is the market leader, the company has dealt unfairly with some open source developers, whose software is often freely shared. One open-source engineer said, We develop all this work and then some large company comes and monetizes that.AppleApple has a monopoly on the app marketplace on iPhones and iPads, enabling the company to take an excessive cut of app developers sales and generate supra-normal profits. Apple has charged a 30 percent commission on many app sales since it introduced the fee more than a decade ago, forcing many developers to raise prices for consumers or reduce investment in their apps.Apple has used its control over the App Store to punish rivals, including by ranking them lower in search results, restricting how they communicate with customers, and removing them outright from the store. Apple is the sole enforcer of sometimes opaque App Store rules, leaving developers few options to complain.Apple favors its own apps and services on its devices by pre-installing them and making them the default options for a variety of actions. For instance, when iPhone users click a link to a webpage, a song or an address, their devices will typically open Apple apps. Such an advantage, combined with the services deep integration into Apples software, makes it difficult for third-party apps and services to compete.FacebookFacebooks monopoly power in social networking is firmly entrenched, and the company has snuffed out competitors through strategic acquisitions and copying products. Services like Onavo, a data analytics firm Facebook acquired, helped the company to spot early bird warning signals on would-be competitors rising quickly in the app store.The company has grown so overwhelmingly powerful that internal findings suggest its greatest competition exists within itself. Services like Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, grew so quickly that it threatened to overtake the popularity of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg shifted his strategy quickly, in what one employee called collusion, but within an internal monopoly.Because of the absence of competition, user privacy has been eroded while misinformation and toxic content have proliferated across all of the companys services, which are used regularly by more than three billion people.GoogleGoogle maintained its search monopoly by grabbing information from third parties without permission to improve search results. In other instances, it introduced changes in search to give a leg up to its own services and disadvantage competitors offerings.The committee found that the company goes to great lengths to keep Google search front and center for users. In the past, it has forced smartphone makers to install Google search in order to use its Android software and have access to its Google Play app store. It pays Apple billions of dollars to be the default search engine on iPhones and it takes steps to prevent users from switching search providers on Chrome.Google has nine products with more than one billion users. That provides the company with a trove of data that can be used as near-perfect market intelligence and reinforces its dominance because Google can track what new products or services people are using in real time to closely monitor competitors. | Tech |
Jesse Williams Alleged GF 'Mama C' Revealed ... She's Just a Friend 1/25/2018 Jesse Williams didn't violate a custody order by letting his kids hang out with a woman his kids call "Mama C" ... because she's not his girlfriend, according to sources close to Jesse. We broke the story ... Williams' ex, Aryn Drake-Lee, claims he violated their custody agreement by introducing their 2 kids to his new gf ... Ciarra Pardo ... well, at least Aryn thinks she's a gf. According to our sources ... Jesse and Ciarra, a visual artist, have known each other for a very long time, but are not a couple and don't ever hook up. In fact, we're told Ciarra's been a pal since the kids were born, and Aryn knows her. The two were recently on a trip together, joined by other friends, to Brazil. As we reported, Aryn says the kids call Pardo "Mama C" and claims Jesse's been taking them to her place since October. Our sources say the kids have always called Ciarra "Mama C" and also "Auntie C." | Entertainment |
on techThey should instead focus on the big question: Can satellites bring internet access to billions?VideoCreditCredit...By James Kerr / Scorpion DaggerPublished Jan. 29, 2021Updated Jan. 31, 2021This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.Small satellites could help bring internet access to more of the worlds citizens. Thats cool.You know whats uncool? Rich dudes fighting over whose space toys are better.Let me tell you about the satellite spat between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the technology theyre working on and the risks of over relying on tech to tackle complex problems.Here goes: Musks SpaceX rocket company, Amazon and other rich companies are working on networks of relatively small satellites that beam internet access to the ground. These networks orbit at lower levels than conventional satellites and are cheaper to make and launch.Proponents say that these networks can expand internet service, particularly in remote areas, to ships at sea and in other hard-to-reach spots. Similar small satellites are being used for other projects such as monitoring wildfires. There are drawbacks, but we should be excited about the possibilities.This weeks tiff started because SpaceX wants permission from the U.S. government to move some of its satellites to lower orbits. Amazon said that would interfere with its satellites. Musk got angry. Amazon said that SpaceX was trying to smother competition in the cradle. (Side note: Americas dominant online retailer probably shouldnt accuse others of smothering competition.)Usually I love to watch rich people squabble. The Kardashians! But this time ugh.I understand why SpaceX and Amazon want to persuade a U.S. agency. But I hope that the trash talking doesnt distract them from important questions: Is this satellite technology the best approach to help get billions of more people online? Or is this another potentially misdirected effort to throw complicated technology at a complex human problem?Put more simply: Is this a good idea?We should be excited by ambitious technology but not blinded by it. Compared with even thousands of satellites, the best existing internet pipes can carry far more web traffic. Satellite internet still typically requires specialized equipment on the ground, which isnt easy to build or pay for. These emerging internet projects might be a very helpful complement rather than a substitute for established internet infrastructure. Thats one reality.The other reality is that if you want technology to change the lives of billions of people, you also must think about whats that word? Ah yes: people.Even in a rich country like the United States, people dont lack internet access solely because the technology isnt up to snuff. There are also misguided government policies, structural inequalities, the need by many to spend money on more immediate essentials and more.That means bringing more people online in the United States not to mention the rest of the world cannot be done by technology alone. We also need to think holistically about the barriers to internet access among individuals and society.Look, billionaires can snipe at each other, obsess over rocket protocols, and think about government policies and human motivations. But even billionaires must prioritize. If they and the rest of us fixate on winning a space race, they risk failing to put people first. (Or they may be motivated by making money rather than bringing the world online. They can do both, I think.)The satellite back-and-forth made me reflect on this interview with Tracy Chou, who developed software to help filter out harassing online posts. She said that some companies want to believe smarter technology can solve everything. It cant.Im sure Bezos, Musk and everyone else involved in satellite internet projects know that. They just have to act like it.Robinhoods wild rideEveryone from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the right-wing personality Ben Shapiro declared the stock trading app Robinhood a villain on Thursday. Robinhood likes to say that it enables anyone to enter cloistered financial markets. Its critics said the company messed with the free markets to squash the little guy.But this weeks tale may have been simpler: A bumbling company was bad at money.What happened: Hordes inspired by a Reddit group have been helping to drive up the stock prices of GameStop and other companies. Robinhood and some other stock brokerages this week then limited customers transactions in the gyrating stocks. People got mad and said that Robinhood was trying to protect rich investors from losing to minnow online traders.But maybe Robinhood didnt have money? Stockbrokers like Robinhood are legally required to have enough cash to pay customers, cover losses and have a cushion if things go wrong. This week seemed to strain Robinhoods ability to do that, and my colleagues reported that the trading platform needed to raise $1 billion in emergency cash.Whats the lesson here? My colleague Andrew Ross Sorkin asked an important question: Is there something wrong with Robinhood that it didnt have enough cash without emergency funding or cutting off customers? My DealBook colleagues asked: Is Robinhoods business model broken?Also, maybe everyone should tweet less and ask financial regulators more questions.Pay attention to how Robinhood makes money: Its a good moment to reread my colleague Nathaniel Poppers article on the people hurt by rapid-fire stock trading and how Robinhood draws young Americans into risky financial transactions.And these no-fee stock trading apps may be less democratic than you think. Robinhood and its competitors get paid by Wall Street firms who do the actual stock trades, and try to squeeze a few pennies from the transactions over what Robinhood customers pay. This is a longstanding industry practice and not inherently bad. But getting paid by Wall Street giants doesnt match Robinhoods image of empowering the masses to beat the rich.Before we go The Twitter mob for a corporate agenda: My colleague Adam Satariano examines how one company harnessed the techniques of social media manipulation typically used by authoritarian governments to promote its policy goals.The mystery of Googles deleted paragraph: A human rights group criticized Google for opening computer centers in Saudi Arabia. The company then altered a blog post about its Saudi project. Protocol explained what happened.Warm weather, a Bitcoin-friendly mayor and (purely coincidentally) lower taxes: Please enjoy my colleague Nellie Bowles writing about the kite-surfing clubs and other cultural changes as titans from technology decamp to Miami. One relocation company is calling it Mass Techxodus.Hugs to thisA beautiful snowy owl was spotted in New Yorks Central Park this week for the first time in more than a century. Look at this owl staring down crows! (Alas, the owl seems to have left the park.)We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected] you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | Tech |
Europe|Artur Mas, Former Catalan Leader, Is Barred From Holding Officehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/world/europe/artur-mas-catalonia-spain-independence.htmlCredit...Manu Fernandez/Associated PressMarch 13, 2017Artur Mas, the former leader of Catalonia, was banned on Monday from holding public office, after being found guilty of disobeying a Spanish court when his government staged a nonbinding independence vote in Catalonia in 2014.The court ruled that Mr. Mas should be banned from holding public office for two years, as well as fined 36,500 euros, nearly $39,000, for organizing the 2014 vote even after Spains constitutional court had ordered that the vote be suspended. The prosecution had sought a 10-year ban.The ruling against a former regional government leader comes during an intense territorial conflict over Catalonia. The current political leadership of Catalonia has vowed to hold an independence referendum later this year this time, a binding one despite the strenuous objections of the conservative government in Madrid.Spains judiciary has maintained that the Constitution did not allow any region to secede, a position also taken by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.After the sentencing of Mr. Mas on Monday, Catalan separatist politicians immediately presented the ruling as the latest evidence of a Spanish judiciary working to stop Catalans from exercising their democratic right to vote.Carles Puigdemont, who succeeded Mr. Mas as Catalan leader, also drew an unflattering comparison with the situation in Scotland, whose own government leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said on Monday that Scotland planned to hold a second independence referendum between the fall of 2018 and the spring of the following year.What a mistake! Mr. Puigdemont wrote on Twitter. What a difference with consolidated and healthy democracies like that of Britain.Catalan separatists face an uphill struggle to hold an independence referendum in 2017. But they have been encouraged by the example of Scotland, where Ms. Sturgeon on Monday said she would seek a referendum on independence.Scots voted against separating from the rest of Britain in 2014, in a referendum held with the consent of the government in London. Ms. Sturgeon is arguing that another referendum is required because Scotlands prospects have been changed by Britains planned exit from the European Union, after last Junes British referendum. While British voters overall decided to exit the European Union, 62 percent of voters in Scotland voted instead to remain.Mr. Mas announced on Monday that he would appeal his sentence to the Spanish Supreme Court but he also indicated that he was ready to take the case as far as European courts, given that he did not anticipate any appeal in Spain to be successful. Besides Mr. Mas, two other Catalan officials were also found guilty of disobedience on Monday for their part in staging the 2014 vote.The law is not equal for everybody, Mr. Mas told reporters at a news conference in Barcelona. People are being persecuted for their ideas.In Madrid, however, government officials presented the ruling as proof that no citizen is above Spanish law. Pablo Casado, a government spokesman, promised that the government will ensure compliance with the law in Catalonia.In the 2014 nonbinding ballot, almost 81 percent voted for independence, but only one-third of eligible voters took part.Ms. Mas was replaced as government leader in early 2016, as part of a deal between the separatist parties that hold a majority of seats in the Catalan parliament. Since then, his party has also become entangled in major corruption cases over the payment of kickbacks for public works in Catalonia. | World |
Politics|On Politics: Mueller Objected to Barrs Description of His Findingshttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/mueller-letter-barr.htmlAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMay 1, 2019Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today._____________________ In March, Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter to Attorney General William P. Barr objecting to his early description of the Russia investigations findings, which left the impression that President Trump had been cleared of obstructing justice. The letter is another sign of the anger among Mr. Muellers investigators about Mr. Barrs characterization of their report. Pete Buttigieg is building a nationwide network of donors that is anchored by many wealthy and well-connected figures in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political circles. But relying on wealthy contributors carries political risk. We chatted with Raymond Buckley, the openly gay chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, about what Mr. Buttigiegs candidacy says about America in 2019. Joe Biden said this week that he took responsibility for the way Anita Hill was treated in the Senate in 1991. Heres a look at how his response has changed over the years. On the campaign trail, Mr. Biden is going after Mr. Trump. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is going after Mr. Biden. Stacey Abrams announced on Tuesday that she would not run for Senate in 2020, denying Democrats their favored recruit for the race in Georgia. A series of Trump family lawsuits to block House subpoenas has left Democrats steaming and revived an internal debate over impeaching the president. Democratic congressional leaders and Mr. Trump do agree on one thing: infrastructure. After a meeting in the White House on Tuesday, the president agreed to pursue a $2 trillion plan to upgrade the nations highways, railroads, bridges and broadband. Federal Reserve officers are poised to disappoint Mr. Trump at the conclusion of their two-day policy meeting today. Despite Mr. Trumps repeated calls for it to start cutting interest rates, the central bank is expected to leave them unchanged. Stephen Moores chances of being confirmed to the Fed dwindled as Republican senators began to publicly question whether he would get enough votes if nominated. The Trump administration is pushing to name the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group after a visit from Egypts leader, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Intelligence officials asked the National Security Agency to unmask the identities of Americans in surveillance-based intelligence reports 16,721 times last year a significant rise from a year earlier._____________________Todays On Politics briefing was compiled by Isabella Grulln Paz in New York.Were you forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox.Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] reading the main story | Politics |
New research explains how meteorites called aubrites may actually be shattered pieces of the planet closest to the sun from the early days of the solar system.Credit...NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/Carnegie Institution of WashingtonMay 23, 2022Mercury does not make sense. It is a bizarre hunk of rock with a composition that is unlike its neighboring rocky planets.Its way too dense, said David Rothery, a planetary scientist at the Open University in England.Most of the planet, the closest to the sun, is taken up by its core. It lacks a thick mantle like Earth has, and no one is quite sure why. One possibility is that the planet used to be much bigger perhaps twice its current bulk or more. Billions of years ago, this fledgling proto-Mercury, or super Mercury, could have been hit by a large object, stripping away its outer layers and leaving the remnant we see behind.While a nice idea, there has never been direct evidence for it. But some researchers think they have found something. In work presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston in March, Camille Cartier, a planetary scientist at the University of Lorraine in France, and colleagues said pieces of this proto-Mercury may be hiding in museums and other meteorite collections. Studying them could unlock the planets mysteries.We dont have any samples of Mercury at the moment, said Dr. Cartier. Gaining such specimens would be a small revolution in understanding the natural history of the solar systems smallest planet.According to the Meteoritical Society, nearly 70,000 meteorites have been gathered around the world from places as remote as the Sahara and Antarctica, finding their way into museums and other collections. Most are from asteroids ejected from the belt between Mars and Jupiter, while more than 500 come from the moon. More than 300 are from Mars.ImageCredit...Jonathan OCallaghanNoticeably absent from these documented space rocks are confirmed meteorites from our solar systems innermost planets, Venus and Mercury. It is typically hypothesized that it is difficult, although not impossible, for detritus closer to the sun and its gravity to make their way farther out into the solar system.Among a small number of meteorite collections are a rare type of space rock called aubrites. Named after the village Aubres in France, where the first meteorite of this type was found in 1836, aubrites are pale in color and contain small amounts of metal. They are low in oxygen and seem to have formed in an ocean of magma. About 80 aubrite meteorites have been found on Earth.For these reasons, they seem to match scientific models of conditions on the planet Mercury in earlier days of the solar system. We have often said that aubrites are very good analogues for Mercury, Dr. Cartier said.But scientists have stopped short of saying they are actually pieces of Mercury. Klaus Keil, a scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who died in February, argued in 2010 that aubrites were more likely to have originated from other kinds of asteroids than something that was ejected from Mercury, with some scientists favoring a group of asteroids in the belt called E-type asteroids. Among his evidence were signs that aubrites had been blasted by the solar wind something Mercurys magnetic field should have protected against.VideoA video by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory showing several views of Mercurys transit across the sun in 2019.CreditCredit...NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory, via Associated PressDr. Cartier, however, has another idea. What if aubrites originally came from Mercury?Following from the hypothesis that a sizable object collided with a younger Mercury, Dr. Cartier said a large amount of material would have been thrown into space, about a third of the planets mass. A small amount of that debris would have been pushed by the solar wind into what is now the asteroid belt, forming the E-type asteroids.There, the asteroids would have remained for billions of years, occasionally smashing together and being continually blasted by the solar wind, explaining the solar wind fingerprint seen in aubrites. But eventually, she suggested, some pieces were pushed toward Earth and fell to our planet as aubritic meteorites.Low levels of nickel and cobalt found in aubrites match what we would expect from the proto-Mercury, Dr. Cartier says, while data from NASAs Messenger spacecraft that orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015 supports similarities between Mercurys composition and aubrites.I think aubrites are the shallowest portions of the mantle of a large proto-Mercury, Dr. Cartier said. This could resolve the origin of Mercury.If true, it would mean that we have had pieces of Mercury albeit a much more ancient version of the planet hiding in drawers and display cases for more than 150 years.It would be fantastic, said Sara Russell, a meteorite expert at the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in Dr. Cartiers work. The museum has 10 aubrites in its collection.ImageCredit...Jonathan O'CallaghanOther experts have reservations about the hypothesis.Jean-Alix Barrat, a geochemist at the University of Western Brittany in France and one of the few aubrite experts in the world, does not think there is enough aubritic material in meteorite collections to work out whether their contents match with models of the super Mercury.The authors are a little bit optimistic, he said. The data they use is not sufficient to validate their conclusions.In response, Dr. Cartier said she removed possible contaminating rocks from her aubrite samples to get representative levels of nickel and cobalt, which she was confident are correct.Jonti Horner, an expert in asteroid dynamics from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, also was not sure whether material from Mercury could enter a stable orbit in the asteroid belt and hit Earth billions of years later. It just doesnt make sense to me from a dynamics point of view, he said.Christopher Spalding, an expert in planet formation at Princeton University and a co-author of Dr. Cartiers study, says his modeling shows the solar wind can push material away from Mercury sufficiently to link it to E-type asteroids.The young sun was highly magnetic and spinning fast, he said, turning the solar wind into a whirlpool that could send pieces of Mercury to the asteroid belt. Another possibility, yet to be modeled, is that the gravitational hefts of Venus and Earth scattered the material further out before some worked its way back to our planet.ImageCredit...Esa/ESA, via Associated PressDr. Cartiers proposal could be put to the test soon. A joint European-Japanese space mission called BepiColombo is currently on its way to orbit Mercury in December 2025. Dr. Cartier presented her idea to a group of BepiColombo scientists in early May.I was impressed by it, said Dr. Rothery, a member of the BepiColombo science team. He said their mission could look for evidence of nickel in Mercurys surface that would link the planet more conclusively to collected aubrites.It will not be straightforward, he notes, given that Mercurys surface today will only resemble what is left behind from the proto-Mercury. But he said the results would help feed into the modeling.Willy Benz, an astrophysicist from the University of Bern in Switzerland who first proposed the idea of a proto-Mercury, says that if aubrites do come from Mercury, they will add to evidence of an active and violent early solar system.It will show that giant impacts are quite common, he said, and that they play an important role in shaping the architectures of planetary systems.Dr. Cartier is further testing her ideas by melting some aubrite samples under high pressure. If these experiments and the data from BepiColombo bolster her hypothesis, aubrites may suddenly be promoted from an oddity in our meteorite collections into some of the most remarkable meteorites ever collected pieces of the solar systems innermost world. | science |
Technology|Facebooks Device Partnerships Explainedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/technology/facebook-device-partnerships.htmlCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesJune 4, 2018The New York Times on Sunday reported on deals between Facebook and device makers that allowed the manufacturers broad access to Facebook user data over the last decade.As the debate about Facebooks privacy practices unfolds, here is what we know about the companys partnerships with makers of phones, game consoles and other hardware:Why would Facebook allow device makers private access to user data?Facebook officials said the company began forming device partnerships in 2007. The social network wanted to ensure that its services were available to Facebook users not only on desktop computers, but also anywhere else people used the internet: mobile phones, smart TVs, game consoles and other devices.At the time, many phones could not run full-fledged Facebook apps. So Facebook allowed manufacturers to integrate elements of the social network like buttons, photo sharing, friends lists into their devices.Are we just talking about the Facebook app on my phone?No. Facebook has said that device partners use the private data access for both the Facebook app and other apps and integrations that it considers part of the Facebook experience. That varies depending on the device company. Some devices have apps that show Facebook messages in a social hub along with other messages. Others integrate Facebook status updates and friend information into the devices own news feed. In some cases, the device pulls Facebook data into its own address books.What does this have to do with Cambridge Analytica?In 2014, the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica sought to build psychological profiles of American voters by exploiting Facebook data, such as the kinds of content people liked on Facebook. Only a few hundred thousand people gave Cambridges contractor access to their Facebook information, many of them through a third-party quiz app.But under Facebooks policies at the time, the app could retrieve data on all of the Facebook friends of those people as many as 87 million in all, according to the social network. In what Facebook says was misuse of the data, the contractor sold it to Cambridge to build voter-profiling technology. The company went on to work for Donald J. Trumps presidential campaign.Facebook has said in recent months that a Cambridge-like abuse could not have happened after 2015, when it imposed restrictions so users could choose which of their data their Facebook friends could share with third parties.But The Timess reporting shows that Facebook continued to allow that kind of access to dozens of the worlds biggest tech and hardware companies and only began shutting down the data-sharing partnerships after the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted in March.So can I stop my information from going to device makers?Unless you keep close track of which devices all of your Facebook friends are using at any given time, you wont know which manufacturers have access to your data. You could adjust your settings to bar all outside apps from retrieving your data, but some device makers, including BlackBerry, can override even that restriction. Short of deleting your account, the only way you can be sure your data is not shared with device makers is to set all of your sharing settings to private which would also prevent your friends from seeing the information.Does this mean device makers are amassing giant stockpiles of Facebook data?Facebook has said that some of the device partners store Facebook users and their friends data on their own servers. But Facebook has also said that regardless of where the information is stored, its partners are bound by strict contracts regarding the use of the data. But that doesnt mean the data is necessarily safe. One of the lessons of the Cambridge Analytica scandal is just how hard it is to control what happens to user data once it has left Facebooks system.Facebook also said that it periodically audits partners use of the data. Some partners store Facebook data on their own servers, while others have said that the data is sent directly to each device. But Facebook, as well as some device partners contacted by The Times, acknowledged that there are several ways Facebook information could leave those devices, including when a device backs up its own data to cloud services or syncs with third-party apps.A third-party app is any app that is not made by the device maker itself: Think games, messaging or banking apps. Every time a newly downloaded game or other app requests access to your address book, information in the address book can be shared. | Tech |
Another ViewCredit...Andrew Harnik/Associated PressLucian A. Bebchuk and Robert J. Jackson Jr.Dec. 21, 2015Lucian A. Bebchuk, a professor at Harvard Law School, and Robert J. Jackson Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School, served as the principal drafters of the rule-making petition submitted to the S.E.C. by the Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending and are the co-authors of the study Shining Light on Corporate Political Spending.The omnibus budget agreement adopted by Congress includes a provision that prevents the Securities and Exchange Commission from issuing a rule next year that would require public companies to disclose their political spending.This unusual Congressional intervention in S.E.C. rule-making is a troubling development both for investors and for the agency.The S.E.C. has long had broad authority to decide what information public companies must disclose to their investors. When Congress first mandated such disclosure authority in 1934, it expressly chose to give the agency wide discretion to make such decisions.In the decades since, the agency has adjusted disclosure requirements to respond to the evolving needs of investors.In recent years, investor interest in receiving information regarding whether, and how, public companies spend shareholder money on politics has been growing. Shareholder proposals requesting disclosure of such information have been the most common type of shareholder proposal at public companies.In response to investor concerns, many companies in the Standard & Poors 500-stock index have begun to disclose information on their political spending voluntarily. Still, for investors to obtain information about the large number of existing public companies, and to receive such information in a uniform and consistent manner, an S.E.C. rule would clearly be necessary.In July 2011 we were co-chairmen of a bipartisan committee of 10 corporate and securities law professors that considered this issue and submitted a rule-making petition to the S.E.C. The petition urged the agency to develop rules requiring public companies to disclose their spending on politics.To date, the agency has received more than 1.2 million comments on the proposal far more comments than those submitted on any rule-making petition in the history of the agency.An overwhelming majority of comments, including from a large number of institutional investors, supported the petition.To be sure, some opponents of disclosure, such as the United States Chamber of Commerce, have provided the S.E.C. with detailed submissions in opposition to rule-making, but they have failed to articulate persuasive reasons for a lack of transparency.For example, the chamber has argued that requiring disclosure of corporate political spending would be unconstitutional. But in the 2010 Citizens United ruling, which said that the government may not ban political spending by corporations, the Supreme Court upheld the disclosure rules challenged in that case. In a recent article, we reviewed the full range of objections that have been raised in the S.E.C. file and concluded that, either individually or collectively, they do not provide an adequate basis for keeping investors in the dark about corporate political spending.Nonetheless, there has been political pressure to keep the commission from considering such rules on the merits.In 2013, the S.E.C placed the consideration of the subject on its regulatory agenda. But Mary Jo White, the commission chairwoman, encountered significant pressure to remove the petition from the agenda during her first major hearing on Capitol Hill. The S.E.C. subsequently delayed consideration of rule-making in this area. Now, opponents of transparency have succeeded in using the budget process to keep the S.E.C. from issuing such a rule for another year.The rider included in the omnibus budget bill reflects opponents interest in avoiding a debate on the merits of disclosure to investors. Although the S.E.C. file includes numerous detailed submissions, the rider was added in a quick, back-room move without any hearing or adequate consideration of these arguments.The rider also undermines the standing of the S.E.C. It reflects a judgment that the commission and its staff, which have served the investing public well for generations, cannot be trusted to reach an appropriate decision about whether and how to develop rules in this area. Legislators should not tie the hands of independent and expert regulators and prevent them from doing their job.And the rider undermines the critical premises on which the Supreme Court has relied in its Citizens United decision. In this consequential decision, the court reasoned that the procedures of corporate democracy would ensure that political spending by public companies does not depart from shareholder interests. Without disclosure to investors, however, such procedures cannot be expected to limit or prevent such departures.In a recent talk, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the author of the Citizens United decision, expressed a concern that disclosure of corporate political spending was not working the way it should.The omnibus agreements rider, however, seeks to maintain this sorry status quo, preventing the S.E.C. from issuing a rule ensuring that disclosure works the way it should. | Business |
The Dark Tower' Young Star Will Make Big Bucks IF He's in Sequels 1/22/2018 Tom Taylor -- the young actor who plays Jake in "The Dark Tower" -- got a nice payday for his work in the film, but the big bucks are (hopefully) yet to come ... TMZ has learned. According to the 16-year-old's contract ... Tom banked $125k for his role in the movie alongside Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey -- which is nice -- but will make double if he makes it into a sequel ... and $500k if there's a third installment. He'll also haul in $30k per episode if he lands the Jake role in a TV adaptation of Stephen King's story. Here's the problem -- the movie massively disappointed critics after its summer release and reportedly barely broke even at the box office, taking in $111 million worldwide. Since then, talk of a sequel's been muted, and even King has expressed concern about a TV project ... saying it would probably need to be a complete reboot. Guess that's just show business, kid. | Entertainment |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 18, 2018WASHINGTON Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller spent years on the political fringe in the nations capital as high-decibel immigration hard-liners, always warning about the dangers of open borders but rarely in a position to affect law or policy.Now, Mr. Sessions, the attorney general and former senator from Alabama, and Mr. Miller, the presidents top policy adviser and former Senate aide to Mr. Sessions, have moved from the edges of the immigration debate to its red-hot center. Powerful like never before, the two are the driving force behind President Trumps policy that has led thousands of children to be separated from their parents at the nations southern border.It was Mr. Sessions who ordered prosecutors to take a new zero tolerance attitude toward families crossing into the United States, part of his plans to reshape the countrys law enforcement priorities to limit immigration. It is Mr. Miller who has championed the idea inside the White House, selling Mr. Trump on the benefits of a policy that his adversaries have called evil, inhumane and equivalent to child abuse or the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.The U.S. government has a sacred, solemn, inviolable obligation to enforce the laws of the United States to stop illegal immigration and to secure and protect the borders, Mr. Miller said in a recent interview. Asked if the images of children being taken from their parents would eventually make the president back down, Mr. Miller was adamant.ImageCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesThere is no straying from that mission, he said.On Monday, as an audio recording became public of children crying for their parents after being separated at the border, Mr. Sessions vigorously defended his zero-tolerance policy. We cannot and will not encourage people to bring children by giving them blanket immunity from our laws, Mr. Sessions declared in a speech to law enforcement officers.The partnership between Mr. Sessions and Mr. Miller began in 2009, when Mr. Miller, a conservative rabble rouser and contrarian who emerged from the left-leaning Santa Monica, became a spokesman for the senator. He sported sideburns and skinny ties as he often delivered long and passionate lectures to reporters, and anyone else who would listen, about the dangers of granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.Mr. Sessions, 71, had strong views shaped by his experience as a young politician in rural Alabama, where he saw immigrants take jobs at a poultry plant away from poor, unskilled Americans.During more than a decade as a federal prosecutor and state attorney general, and 20 years in the Senate, Mr. Sessions came to believe that immigrants, whether here legally or illegally, posed a direct threat to the country by depressing wages, committing crimes and competing for welfare benefits. He was deeply influenced by the work of George Borjas, a Harvard economist who has said that immigrants have an adverse impact on the economy.Mr. Miller, 32, had gone from California to Duke University. While a student, he met David Horowitz, a right-wing provocateur and the founder of Students for Academic Freedom, which opposed progressive thought on college campuses. After Mr. Miller graduated, Mr. Horowitz helped him get a job with Michele Bachmann, then a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, and recommended him highly to Mr. Sessions.Together Mr. Miller and Mr. Sessions often drew on the work of anti-immigration groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies some of which are derided as hate groups by immigration activists and civil rights organizations.The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks white nationalists and other hate groups, describes FAIR as having a veneer of legitimacy that hides much ugliness.By 2013, Stephen K. Bannon, then the head of Breitbart News, invited Mr. Miller and Mr. Sessions to a dinner at the Capitol Hill townhouse that served as the headquarters for the conservative news outlet. The three bonded over an article titled The Case of the Missing White Voters, foreshadowing the case they would help Mr. Trump build during his presidential campaign.Later that year, Mr. Sessions and Mr. Miller worked tirelessly to defeat a bipartisan immigration bill. The senator spent hours on the floor arguing with his colleagues while Mr. Miller churned out a nonstop flurry of news releases. He cast the fight against immigration in dramatic terms, with the future of the nation at stake.The bill passed the Senate, but Mr. Sessions worked with conservatives in the House to ultimately defeat it.VideotranscripttranscriptHow Trumps Team Defends Zero ToleranceThe White House is responding to criticism of its policy against illegal border crossings in four very distinct ways.No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards, no more lawlessness. The United States will not be a migrant camp. What this administration is doing is inhumane. It is inconsistent with our American values. Its barbaric. This I do think ought to be addressed. And I say its very strongly the Democrats fault. We would like to fix these loopholes. And if Democrats want to get serious about it, instead of playing political games, theyre welcome to come here and sit down with the president and actually do something about it. We cannot and will not encourage people to bring their children or other children to the country unlawfully by giving them immunity in the process. I have not been directed to do that for purposes of deterrence, no. My decision has been that anyone who breaks the law will be prosecuted. Our administration has had the same position since we started on Day 1, that we were going to enforce the law. ... you to the apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.The White House is responding to criticism of its policy against illegal border crossings in four very distinct ways.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesIn 2014, Mr. Miller presented Mr. Sessions with an award at the Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the ceremony held by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Mr. Bannon was there as well.But it was Mr. Trump who pulled Mr. Miller and Mr. Sessions and their views about immigration out of the political shadows. In January 2015, when few were watching, Mr. Sessions wrote a 23-page memo that predicted that the next president would most likely be a Republican who spoke to the working class about how immigrants had stolen their jobs.Most mainstream politicians ignored the memo, but its contents influenced Mr. Trump. At a raucous 2015 rally in Mobile, Ala., he sensed the power of the immigration issue as a crowd of 30,000 supporters roared with approval at his promise to build a wall across the southern border and crack down on illegal immigration.By then Mr. Sessions and Mr. Miller were the architects of the immigration agenda of the long-shot Trump campaign. In 2016, Mr. Sessions endorsed Mr. Trump for president his first ever endorsement of a candidate in a primary and Mr. Miller did as well.Both men have something else in common: They are largely unfazed by criticism or bad press.Mr. Sessions is known for proudly holding opinions thought to be retrograde. Under his high school yearbook photo was the caption: He is a host of debaters in himself. While serving as Alabamas attorney general, he supported reviving chain gangs of volunteer inmates and tighter identification requirements for Alabama voters.ImageCredit...Michael Democker/The Times-Picayune, via Associated PressMr. Miller is similarly immune to critiques from establishment Republicans, who often view his immigration positions as far out of the mainstream and politically dangerous. In the recent interview, Mr. Miller dismissed as ignorant the hand-wringing of Republicans about the family separation controversy.You have one party thats in favor of open borders, and you have one party that wants to secure the border, Mr. Miller said. And all day long the American people are going to side with the party that wants to secure the border. And not by a little bit. Not 55-45. 60-40. 70-30. 80-20. Im talking 90-10 on that.On Monday, as Mr. Trump vowed that the United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility, he continued to falsely blame congressional Democrats for a policy driven by Mr. Miller and Mr. Sessions. He once again called for legislation that would crack down on immigrants and decrease the need to separate families at the border, even though there is no law that requires families to be separated.Echoing the president, Mr. Sessions urged lawmakers to pass legislation to build a wall along the southern border and impose new restrictions on immigration that he said would end legal loopholes that let illegal immigrants in.If we build the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, Mr. Sessions said, we wont face these terrible choices. | Politics |
Credit...Ben Curtis/Associated PressMarch 22, 2017BANGUI, Central African Republic The Pentagon is poised to significantly scale back a decade-long mission to capture or kill Joseph Kony, one of Africas most notorious warlords, in a sign that the United States and its African allies no longer see him as a regional threat.Mr. Kony and his violent guerrilla group, the Lords Resistance Army, gained worldwide attention after the social media video Kony 2012 was viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube. The L.R.A. is notorious for its use of child soldiers but has also carried out massacres, sexual violence, mutilations, pillage and abductions.The Pentagons Africa Command now wants to shift from a counterinsurgency operation against the guerrilla group to building African defense institutions and a more narrow pursuit of Mr. Kony, whose fighting force has dwindled to about 100 soldiers from a peak of 3,000. That change could free up perhaps dozens of the approximately 150 United States troops now assigned to the effort, allowing them to undertake other Special Operations missions.A decision on renewing the mission for six more months is scheduled for April, but the Trump administration, even before taking office, signaled its desire for change in a series of questions from its transition team to the State Department.The L.R.A. has never attacked U.S. interests, why do we care? the Trump transition team asked. I hear that even the Ugandans are looking to stop searching for him, since they no longer view him as a threat, so why do we?Mr. Kony and his militant force emerged in Uganda in 1987 to fight against President Yoweri Museveni. From 1987 to 2006, the armed group abducted more than 20,000 children to use as soldiers, servants or sex slaves, according to Unicef. The groups violence has displaced more than 2.5 million people, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center reports.ImageCredit...Adam Pletts/ReutersIn 2005, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet, for crimes against humanity and war crimes. In 2008, the United States government declared him a specially designated global terrorist.Yet, Mr. Kony, who is believed to be in his 50s, has avoided capture for three decades. His troops operate in small groups spread throughout 115,000 square miles of lawless territory in the border region of Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All of those, except Sudan, contribute forces to an African Union task force fighting against the L.R.A.Mr. Kony is widely believed to be hiding in the disputed, mineral-rich area of Kafia Kingi in Sudans south Darfur state. Sudans military has not participated in combating the guerrilla group and, in 2013, nonprofit organizations reported that Sudans military had been harboring and supporting Mr. Kony and his forces.Since 2008, the United States has provided support to military operations against Mr. Konys guerrillas. In 2011, the Obama administration went further, and deployed troops to the region to work with the African Union soldiers against the L.R.A., providing advisory support, intelligence and logistical assistance.Since then, the Defense Department has spent more than $780 million on the mission, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman, Maj. Audricia Harris. About 150 service members, including three teams of Green Berets, are deployed to the effort.The Africa Command is looking at transitioning to the next phase of the mission, according to Brig. Gen. Donald C. Bolduc, who oversees American Special Operations forces in Africa. He said it would probably be a phased decrease rather than a shutdown.Others in the American Special Operations community argue that a long-term United States presence on the ground in these countries is in Americas national security interest, and warn against a precipitous withdrawal.Persistent presence is the best way to help locals serve as an antibody to extremism, said retired Lt. Col. D. Scott Mann, a former member of the Green Berets who founded the nonprofit Stability Institute. Without long-term measures like this campaign, the threats always come back. A small footprint of well-trained and resourced advisers can make a big impact.However, Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of the Africa Command, said in recent congressional testimony that the L.R.A. does not currently threaten U.S. or western interests in the region.Senator Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who is the missions staunchest supporter in Congress, said that the hunt could continue effectively at smaller troop levels with an increased emphasis on intelligence.The military feels, and I cant argue, that they can cut back on some of their resources and still handle the part thats going to be necessary to ultimately bring him down, Mr. Inhofe said in a telephone interview. He is getting much older. He is not as energetic and frenetic as he had been. Hes reduced in his level of terror.Some policy analysts say the United States military should continue to focus on protecting local populations.The L.R.A. is a wounded tiger, said Paul Ronan, the director of research and policy at Invisible Children, which was founded in 2004 to increase awareness of its activities. But, even in a weakened state, it poses a severe threat.A premature withdrawal of U.S. and Ugandan troops from eastern C.A.R. would create a security vacuum there that could enable a surge of violence against civilians, both by the L.R.A. and by other armed groups, Mr. Ronan added, referring to Central African Republic.Last June, the Uganda Peoples Defense Force announced its troops would be withdrawn from the missions by the end of the year, but then reversed course. According to the African Union Commission, Uganda has provided the bulk of the African Union forces about 2,000 of 3,085 with most deployed in southeastern Central African Republic. A Ugandan military officer based in Obo, Central African Republic, said that Ugandan forces were likely to depart when the Americans did.A withdrawal of Ugandan troops would make the hunt for Mr. Kony even tougher, requiring much more direct cooperation with the Sudanese government, Mr. Ronan said. However, he added that he did not have any indication that the Sudanese are willing to cooperate at that level. | World |
Tech FixHow to Make Your Tech Last LongerIn a pandemic-induced recession, its more important than ever to take care of our smartphones and other gadgets.Credit...Glenn HarveyJuly 1, 2020With so many people becoming unemployed in the pandemic-induced recession, we have no choice but to handle our technology differently. Put another way: We need to make our tech last longer.We generally do a poor job of this. As soon as a device like a smartphone starts to feel slow or its battery deteriorates, we conclude that its time to buy a new one so we upgrade.People just like to spend, spend, spend they say, I dont want to fix it, Ill just get a new phone, said Shakeel Taiyab, who runs a business repairing phones and computers in South San Francisco. Its $200 to fix your phone, now you want to spend another $1,500? People dont do the math.The tech companies have generally helped nurture this behavior, of course. Many phone makers gave us incentives to buy new devices regularly, for example, while offering scarce education on steps to help our tech endure.But with so many people now dealing with shrinking funds, making our tech last longer makes common sense and is not so hard. Basic maintenance includes replacing batteries, cleaning out dust and purging unnecessary files that bog down our devices.If we put a small amount of time into caring for our gadgets, they can last indefinitely. Wed also be doing the world a favor. By elongating the life of our gadgets, we put more use into the energy, materials and human labor invested in creating the product.We dont have to do all this on our own, either. There are people out there willing to help. With retail stores for Apple and Microsoft shutting down in the pandemic and unable to service our gadgets, hiring a local fixer is now as good an idea as ever. It just takes some homework.So here are some of the most effective steps you can take to squeeze as much life as possible out of your phones, tablets and computers without breaking the bank.Check Your BatteryStart thinking about your device batteries as if they were car tires and replace accordingly. Because batteries can be charged only a finite number of times before they deteriorate, they will be one of the first things to go on mobile devices and laptops.For different types of gadgets, your battery mileage may vary. Generally, a smartphone battery will last about two years, and ones for a laptop or smartphone will last three or four years before needing to be replaced, said Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, a site that offers instructions on do-it-yourself gadget repairs.So how do you assess whether a battery needs replacing? There are various software tools you can use to check its health:Apple users with iPhones and iPads can open the Settings, then tap Battery and select Battery Health.Android devices have third-party apps like AccuBattery that can do a reading on your batterys health.Mac users can click on the Apple icon, then About This Mac and then System Report. Then click on Power to see a reading on battery health.Windows users can download the app BatteryInfoView to measure battery health.In general, pay attention to a batterys remaining capacity. The lower the capacity, the more short-lived your device gets. If your capacity is less than 60 percent, you should think about replacing the battery.Do a Deep CleanGadgets need regular cleaning. Dirt and debris clogging up our equipment can contribute to overheating, which shortens the life of our electronics.So Mr. Wiens recommended this regular cleaning routine:For mobile devices, look inside the ports. Dust and food crumbs easily get lodged inside the charging ports, which causes the phone to charge more slowly. Shine a flashlight into the port for a close look. Use canned aerosol or a sewing needle to remove any debris.For computers, blow out the fans once a year. Opening up the case of a laptop or desktop machine reveals its fans. The fans accumulate lots of dust and hair over time, and the dirtier the fans are, the hotter your device gets. Take a small vacuum cleaner or a can of aerosol to get rid of the gunk.Declutter Your DataThe more device storage you use up, the slower a gadget gets. So set a calendar reminder to do a data purge at least once a year.On iPhones, Apple offers the tool iPhone Storage, which shows a list of apps that take up the most data and when they were last used; on Android devices, Google offers a similar tool called Files. Use these tools to delete any apps that you havent touched in more than six months.To do a quick purge with computers, open a folder and sort the files by when they were last opened. From there, you can immediately eliminate files and apps you have not opened in years.If purging files is too cumbersome, there are shortcuts. Some Android phones have a slot for inserting a memory card, where you can load games and videos. Similarly, with computers you can plug in an external hard drive and store large files there. That will free up storage on the device so that the operating system runs faster, said Vincent Lai, director of the Fixers Collective, a social club in New York that repairs aging devices to extend their lives.Protect Your GearMost smartphone owners already know to wear cases to protect their devices from drops. Thats wise a good case protects your phone from scratches and absorbs impact in the corners, edges and the back of your device. Carrying a phone without a case is similar to driving a car without bumpers.Especially if youre accident prone, a screen protector is another safeguard. Small scratches on a screen can weaken the glass, increasing the likelihood for it to shatter the next time its dropped. Wirecutter, a New York Times site that tests products, recommends protectors from Maxboost and TechMatte, which cost $8 to $14.Find a FixerIf any of the above intimidates you, there are plenty of professionals who can help.A few weeks ago, I opened my iPhone camera app and noticed something odd: The image was shaky even though my hand was still. I concluded something had gone wrong with the hardware.So I went on Yelp and searched iPhone repair. The site loaded a tool for getting quotes from multiple fixers in my area. About a dozen repair shops all responded within a day, and I was surprised by how widely their responses varied. Some quoted $80 to $100 and said the repair would take one or two hours. Others said the job could take up to two days and cost $140 to $180.To cross-reference, I checked iFixits guide on replacing an iPhone camera, which said the repair should take about an hour and the part could cost $120.The response from Shakeel the iPhone Repair Guy, Mr. Taiyabs shop, was the most terse: I know exactly whats wrong with your camera. Please bring it by I can fix your phone within five minutes. His quote was $80.His repair shop had more than 1,000 Yelp reviews with an average of five stars. I scanned them and saw no warning signs of fakes. Above all, I liked the confidence in his response.I drove to his shop. There, Mr. Taiyab quickly opened up my phone with a screwdriver and said a moving part inside the camera, which controls the optical zoom, had broken possibly from a drop so the camera module had to be replaced. True to his word, he replaced it in a few minutes and charged $80. My photos now look as clear as they did when the phone was brand-new.The lessons? When collecting quotes, pay attention to the price and customer reviews, and do a web search on the repair to get a realistic idea of the true cost and difficulty of the task. (Just because a repair shop says it will take longer doesnt mean it will do a better job.)The most important lesson: When you find a good gadget repair shop, reward it with your loyalty. I took my wifes seven-year-old MacBook Pro to Mr. Taiyabs this week to replace the battery. It took him 15 minutes and cost $140 time and money well spent for a computer that should last us many years to come. | Tech |
Credit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesFeb. 7, 2014After a year of warring with Major League Baseball, Alex Rodriguez effectively ended his battle on Friday, dropping his lawsuits against baseball and the players union over his doping suspension.Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman, has accepted that he will be sidelined for the 2014 season and postseason the longest suspension in the sports history for the use of performance-enhancing drugs.Without admitting to the use of banned substances, Rodriguez, 38, quietly submitted papers in federal court in New York seeking to dismiss two widely publicized lawsuits he had filed in recent months. In one of the cases, Rodriguez sued M.L.B. and the union, seeking to throw out an independent arbitrators decision that upheld most of his 211-game suspension. In the other suit, filed in October, Rodriguez named M.L.B. and its commissioner, Bud Selig, as defendants, claiming they engaged in a witch hunt as they investigated his use of banned substances.But Rodriguezs energy for continuing to pursue his argument in the courts began to wane in recent weeks as legal experts looked dimly upon the suits prospects and as the public grew increasingly weary of the case. The arbitrators report in his case, which was made public as a result of the lawsuit Rodriguez filed in January, offered an authoritative account of Rodriguezs doping regimen.In mid-January, Rodriguez signaled while speaking with reporters in Mexico City that he might be moving to cut his losses; he said the coming season would give him a chance to rest physically, mentally and to prepare for the future and to start a new chapter of my life, according to a translation of a video on ESPN New York.M.L.B. and the Major League Baseball Players Association applauded Rodriguezs decision to drop the suits.We believe that Mr. Rodriguezs actions show his desire to return the focus to the play of our great game on the field and to all of the positive attributes and actions of his fellow major league players, Major League Baseball said in a statement. We share that desire.The union, in a statement, said: Alex Rodriguez has done the right thing by withdrawing his lawsuit. His decision to move forward is in everyones best interest.Rodriguez, who will be 39 when he is eligible to return, plans to rejoin the Yankees for the 2015 season and has shown no intention of retiring. He will not try to join the Yankees in spring training, his lawyer Joseph Tacopina said.Rodriguez plans to stay out of the limelight as he serves his suspension, and he will seek to mend his relationship with the Yankees, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking. It was unclear if Rodriguez planned to proceed with a malpractice suit he filed against a team doctor last year related to the handling of a hip injury.In 2007, Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $275 million contract with the Yankees, and appeared poised to chase many of baseballs home run records. He was the postseasons most valuable player during the Yankees 2009 run to a World Series title.But over the past few years he has been hampered by injuries and accusations that he has used banned substances. In 2009, he admitted to using steroids as a member of the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003, but he has denied using them since.Fridays developments came more than a year after a report in Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, tied Rodriguez to Biogenesis of America, a South Florida anti-aging clinic. The newspaper obtained records from Biogenesis, which was directed by Anthony P. Bosch, suggesting Rodriguez and a number of ballplayers had taken banned substances from the clinic.Initially, Bosch and Rodriguez denied the relationship, but Bosch later began cooperating with M.L.B. investigators. The information provided by Bosch, who is not licensed to practice medicine in Florida, led to 14 suspensions, including ones accepted by the All-Stars Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz. Rodriguez, who received a far longer suspension than the others, was the only player to appeal his suspension. He bolstered his legal team, bringing on a host of advisers, including Tacopina, a criminal defense lawyer known for taking on high-profile cases.As the weeks passed, Rodriguezs dispute with M.L.B. deepened. His lawyers claimed baseball officials had bullied witnesses in the case, and there were new reports about Rodriguezs use of banned substances. In November, The New York Times reported that Rodriguez had failed a drug test for stimulants in 2006, a point his lawyers denied.In mid-November, after 12 days of proceedings in front of an arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, Rodriguez stormed out of the hearing room at M.L.B. headquarters when his request to call Selig to testify was rejected. Less than two months later, Horowitz issued his opinion that Rodriguez had committed the most egregious violations of baseballs antidoping rules reported to date.Legal experts have questioned why Rodriguez and M.L.B. continued sparring for several months.There is no winning in these situations, said Steven G. Eckhaus, an employment law expert with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Eckhaus said Rodriguez finally did the smart thing by dropping his litigation. It was an intractable situation, Eckhaus said. M.L.B. didnt win they got tarred dramatically here. Their dirty laundry was exposed. The use of drugs was exposed.When one of its major stars was turned into a circus side show, M.L.B. lost just as badly. | Sports |
Now Circulating on Social Media: 4 Election FalsehoodsOct. 14, 2020, 6:00 a.m. ETOct. 14, 2020, 6:00 a.m. ETFalsehoods about election interference are swirling online, stoking calls for violence on Election Day. The rumors touch on everything from ballot boxes to how the deep state a so-called secret cabal of elites is involved.The misinformation is worrying researchers who track such content, and who said the volume of lies online had soared. Some of the individual lies are shared only dozens or hundreds of times each, but added together they have attracted millions of likes and shares across social media and are inflaming an already tense electorate, the researchers said.Election-related misinformation has been building up virality, using Facebook pages and groups as fertile ground, said Fadi Quran, a campaign director at Avaaz, a progressive human rights nonprofit that studied some of the rumors.Here is a sampling of some of the falsehoods making the rounds online ahead of Election Day.A Democrat-led CoupThe baseless idea of a Democrat-led coup against President Trump has gained the most traction among election-related rumors about violence, according to Avaaz. A New York Times analysis found at least 938 Facebook groups, 279 Facebook pages, 33 YouTube videos and hundreds of tweets spreading the falsehood, mostly in right-wing circles.On Sept. 14, Dan Bongino, a popular right-wing commentator and radio host, posted a Facebook video pushing the rumor. It was viewed 2.9 million times.In a text message, Mr. Bongino said the idea of a Democratic coup was not a rumor and that he was busy exposing LIBERAL violence.Blocked BallotsSome election-related lies are also circulating among left-wing groups. For instance, a left-wing Facebook page called The Other 98% posted in August that mailboxes were being blocked by unknown actors to effectively discourage people from voting. The post with the false claim collected 39,000 likes and comments on the social network and reached 18 million people, according to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool for analyzing social media.In total, voting-by-mail rumors have topped election misinformation this year, according to a September analysis by the media insights company Zignal Labs. Nearly a fourth of all the mentions last month about voting by mail on television, in print and in online news or 3.1 million mentions amounted to misinformation, Zignal Labs found.ImageThe Covid ScamdemicAnother election falsehood spreading on Facebook is the notion that an elite cabal, or deep state, was interfering with the vote by inventing the coronavirus pandemic.One post from August that got 795 likes and comments on Facebook was a meme with the caption, The Covid scamdemic was devised by the Deep State to promote the use of ballots by mail. This is the way the Democrats can create massive election fraud.This lie is representative of how the deep state is portrayed online as responsible for all sorts of ills against President Trump. In another rumor, the deep state is bent on destroying ballots voting for Mr. Trump. And the deep state is also represented online as being intent on falsifying votes in favor of Mr. Trumps Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr.A Civil War' on Election DayAnother widespread rumor is that a civil war is being planned and will erupt on Election Day. The baseless idea is showing up on sites like that of Glenn Beck, the former Fox News host and conspiracy theorist, according to a Times analysis. Mr. Becks Facebook page, which has three million followers, has also pushed the rumor.Mr. Beck did not immediately respond to a request for comment.If Trump wins the election BLM and antifa are going to burn this country down, said another post on a pro-gun Facebook page, referring to the Black Lives Matter racial justice protesters and antifa, a loose collective of far-left activists. If Biden wins they come for your freedom and your guns. Either way a War is coming. Are you ready?The posts about a looming civil war aim to create an atmosphere of fear so that voters are deterred from voting on Election Day, misinformation experts said. | Tech |
Global healthCanines can sniff out the socks worn by children carrying the mosquito-borne parasites, a study found. Credit...Matthew Stock/ReutersNov. 5, 2018Dogs have such exquisitely sensitive noses that they can detect bombs, drugs, citrus and other contraband in luggage or pockets.Is it possible that they can sniff out even malaria? And when might that be useful?A small pilot study has shown that dogs can accurately identify socks worn overnight by children infected with malaria parasites even when the children had cases so mild that they were not feverish.The study, a collaboration between British and Gambian scientists and the British charity Medical Detection Dogs, was released last week at the annual convention of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.In itself, such canine prowess is not surprising. Since 2004, dogs have shown that they can detect bladder cancer in urine samples, lung cancer in breath samples and ovarian cancer in blood samples. Some countries and regions that have eliminated the disease share heavily trafficked borders with others that have not. For example, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the island of Zanzibar have no cases but get streams of visitors from Mozambique, India and mainland Tanzania. And when a region is close to eliminating malaria, dogs could sweep through villages, nosing out silent carriers people who are not ill but have parasites in their blood that mosquitoes could pass on to others.Dog noses are 10,000 to 100,000 times as sensitive as human noses. Scientists are not sure exactly what dogs are smelling, but it is known that malaria parasites produce volatile aldehydes like those found in perfumes.The parasites may have evolved the ability to exude odoriferous chemicals in order to attract mosquitoes to carry them to new hosts. Studies have shown that mosquitoes prefer to bite people who have malaria.If just one chemical indicated cancer or malaria, wed have discovered it by now, said Claire Guest, who founded Medical Detection Dogs in 2008 and oversaw dog training in the study. Its more like a tune of many notes, and the dogs can pick it up.Most breeds have good noses, she said, but the best for this task are dogs bred to hunt like pointers, spaniels and Labradors and dogs with relaxed relationships with their owners.The initial trials were just to prove that detection was feasible, said Steve W. Lindsay, an entomologist at Durham University in Britain who said he was inspired by a dog sniffing luggage for contraband food at Washington Dulles airport.This preliminary study involved training just two dogs to sniff rows of jars containing bits of thin nylon socks that had been worn overnight by Gambian children.When the dogs, a Labrador-golden retriever mix named Lexi and a Labrador named Sally, recognized the telltale odors, they were supposed to stop and point at the jar.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]They were only about 70 percent accurate at spotting socks from children with malaria, but 90 percent accurate at not giving false positives.Their accuracy might have been higher under different circumstances, Dr. Lindsay said. Some children had probably shared beds with infected siblings, and the socks had to be stored in a freezer for a year while the dogs were trained and the study design approved.W.C. Fields said, Never work with children or animals, and here we are working with both, he said.Because some Muslims avoid dogs or their saliva as unclean, Dr. Lindsay worried that African Muslims of which there are millions would object to being sniffed. But the Quran permits dogs used for hunting or guarding homes, and after discussing the issue with Gambian imams, he brought dogs wearing red Medical Detection jackets into villages.Once we explained what we were doing, people were quite O.K. with it, he said.He was asked if smaller, cheaper or more local animals could be trained African giant pouched rats, for example, have been used to detect land mines and tuberculosis.Yes, I suppose, he said. But at ports of entry, I think people would rather see dogs running around than rats. | Health |
Credit...Gleb Garanich/ReutersMarch 29, 2016WASHINGTON As President Obama gathers world leaders in Washington this week for his last Nuclear Security Summit, tons of materials that terrorists could use to make small nuclear devices or dirty bombs remain deeply vulnerable to theft. Still, Mr. Obamas six-year effort to rid the world of loose nuclear material has succeeded in pulling bomb-grade fuel out of countries from Ukraine to Chile, and has firmly put nuclear security on the global agenda. But despite the progress, several countries are balking at safeguards promoted by the United States or are building new stockpiles.President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, where some of the largest stockpiles of civilian nuclear material remain, has decided to boycott the summit meeting, which begins Thursday night. Mr. Putin has made it clear he will not engage in nuclear cleanup efforts dominated by the United States.In addition, Pakistans embrace of a new generation of small, tactical nuclear weapons, which the Obama administration considers highly vulnerable to theft or misuse, has changed the way the administration talks about Pakistani nuclear security. While Mr. Obama declared early in his presidency that the United States believed Pakistans nuclear assets were secure, administration officials will no longer repeat that line. Instead, when the subject comes up, they note the modest progress Pakistan has made in training its guards and investing in sensors to detect break-ins. They refuse to discuss secret talks to persuade the Pakistanis not to deploy their new weapons.Pakistan, China, India and Japan are all planning new factories to obtain plutonium that will add to the worlds stockpiles of bomb fuel.And Belgium, where a nuclear facility was sabotaged in 2014 and where nuclear plant workers with inside access went off to fight for the Islamic State militant group, has emerged as a central worry. The country is so divided and disorganized that many fear it is vulnerable to an attack far more sophisticated than the bombings in the Brussels airport and subway system last week.For the first time, the Nuclear Security Summit will include a special session on responding to urban terrorist attacks and a simulation of how to handle the threat of imminent nuclear terrorism.The key question for this summit, said Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard and a former White House science adviser, is whether theyll agree on approaches to keep the improvements coming.ImageCredit...Gleb Garanich/ReutersThe nuclear initiative has been a signature issue for Mr. Obama: It is among the goals he campaigned on in 2008 and part of the reason he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize barely a year into his presidency. Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Tuesday that the administrations overall efforts had made it harder than ever before for terrorists and bad actors to acquire nuclear material.But the administrations budget for aiding global nuclear cleanups has been cut by half; some officials argue that less funding is needed with fewer nations willing to give up nuclear materials. A report Mr. Bunn helped write noted, The administration is now projecting lower spending year after year for years to come, postponing or canceling a wide range of nuclear security activities that had been included in previous plans.In a recent report, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private advocacy group in Washington that tracks nuclear weapons and materials, warned that many radioactive sources were poorly secured and vulnerable to theft. The report called the probability of a terrorists detonating a dirty bomb much higher than that of an improvised nuclear device.Ingredients for so-called dirty bombs, which use conventional explosives to spew radioactive material, are still scattered around the globe at thousands of hospitals and other sites that use the highly radioactive substances for industrial imaging and medical treatments. Less than half of the countries that attended the last nuclear summit in 2014 pledged to secure such materials, and they in turn represent less than 15 percent of the 168 nations belonging to the International Atomic Energy Agency. ImageCredit...Pool photo by Yves HermanAnd while the administration succeeded in getting more than a dozen countries to give up their civilian stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, a main fuel of atomic bombs, the Nuclear Threat Initiative said in another report that some 25 nations still had such materials enough for thousands of nuclear weapons.The report called highly enriched uranium one of the most dangerous materials on the planet, warning that an amount small enough to fit in a five-pound sugar bag could be used to build a nuclear device with the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of people.Still, that does not mean Mr. Obamas efforts have failed altogether. He is expected to announce a major achievement soon: the removal of roughly 40 bombs worth of highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium from Japan. Some of the uranium was fabricated in pieces the size of squares of chocolate that could be easily slipped into a pocket, a terrorists dream.And Ukraine was the site of a success that, in retrospect, looks even bigger than it did four years ago.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Alexander NemenovOn a bitterly cold day in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in March 2012, two years before Ukraine descended into crisis, a team of Americans and Ukrainians packed the last shipment of highly enriched uranium into railway cars, ridding the country of more than 500 pounds of nuclear fuel. It would have been enough to build eight or more nuclear bombs, depending on the skill and destructive ambitions of the bomb maker.We had vodka, recalled Andrew J. Bieniawski, then a United States Energy Department official central to the elimination. It was amazing.Yet there are signs that what began as a global effort to prevent terrorists from obtaining the worlds deadliest weapons is fracturing.In fact, there is a case to be made that even as vulnerable stockpiles have shrunk, the risk of nuclear terrorism has not.ImageCredit...Benn Craig/Belfer CenterThere is evidence that groups like the Islamic State are more interested than ever in nuclear plants, materials and personnel especially in Belgium, where the attacks last week killed more than 30 people.The Belgian police discovered last year that Islamic State operatives had taken hours of surveillance video at the home of a senior official at a large nuclear site in Mol, Belgium. The plant in Mol, a northern resort area, holds large stocks of highly enriched uranium. Laura Holgate, Mr. Obamas top adviser on nuclear terrorism, noted on Tuesday that the United States had worked with Belgium to reduce the amount of nuclear material at one key site. Asked about the Islamic States interest in obtaining nuclear fuel from Belgium, she said, We dont have any information that a broader plot exists.Ms. Holgate told reporters that this weeks meeting would address the question: How do you sustain the momentum to the summit after the summit ends?The results of previous summit meetings have ranged from treaty ratifications to the establishment of more than a dozen training centers around the globe where guards, scientists, managers and regulators sharpen their skills at preventing atomic terrorism.Near Beijing, one of the largest training centers opened this month. Its in our national interest to help foreigners secure their atomic materials, said Nick Winowich, an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, one of the American nuclear labs that helped in the centers development.The biggest wins have been the removal of all highly enriched uranium from 12 countries, including Austria, Chile, Hungary, Libya, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam. The material was mostly reactor fuel. But officials said terrorists could have turned it into least 130 nuclear weapons.Critics of the summit process point to vague communiqus that seem to have done little to drive hard decisions. A sense of summit fatigue now seems to prevail, the critics add, noting that Russias withdrawal evades some of the biggest security problems.The Obama administration has also presided over a steady drop in American spending on international nuclear security. Budgets fell from over $800 million in 2012 to just over $500 million in 2016. For 2017, the White House has proposed less than $400 million half the spending of the high point.The administration has defended the cuts, saying they reflect the completion of some programs and upgrades and the suspension of cooperative work with Russia after its invasion of the Crimean Peninsula.The summit process has achieved some very important objectives, said Kenneth N. Luongo, president of the Partnership for Global Security, a private group that advocates new nuclear safeguards. But it needed to aim higher. The world is not becoming any easier to deal with. Theres still a responsibility to think big. | science |
For the past year, scientists have been looking for the source of strange coronavirus sequences that have appeared in the citys wastewater.Credit...Jackie Molloy for The New York TimesPublished Feb. 3, 2022Updated Feb. 7, 2022Last January, a team of researchers searching for the coronavirus in New York Citys wastewater spotted something strange in their samples. The viral fragments they found had a unique constellation of mutations that had never been reported before in human patients a potential sign of a new, previously undetected variant.For the past year, these oddball sequences, or what the scientists call cryptic lineages, have continued to pop up in the citys wastewater.There is no evidence that the lineages, which have been circulating for at least a year without overtaking Delta or Omicron, pose an elevated health risk to humans. But the researchers, whose findings were published in Nature Communications on Thursday, still have no idea where they came from.At this point, what we can say is that we havent found the cryptic lineages in human databases, and we have looked all over, said Monica Trujillo, a microbiologist at Queensborough Community College and an author of the new paper.The researchers themselves are torn about the lineages origins. Some lean toward the explanation that the virus is coming from people whose infections arent being captured by sequencing. But others suspect that the lineages may be coming from virus-infected animals, possibly the citys enormous population of rats. Even then, the favored theory can change from day-to-day or hour-to-hour.Answers remain elusive.I think its really important that we find the source, and we have not been able to pin that down, said John Dennehy, a virologist at Queens College and an author of the paper.ImageCredit...Jackie Molloy for The New York TimesStrange sequencesThe researchers who also include Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri, Davida Smyth, a microbiologist at Texas A&M University and others have been sampling wastewater from 14 treatment plants in New York City since June 2020. In January of 2021, they began doing targeted sequencing of the samples, focusing on part of the gene for the viruss all-important spike protein.Although this approach provides a limited look at the viral genome, it allows researchers to extract a lot of data from wastewater, in which the virus is typically fragmented.Viral fragments with novel patterns of mutations appeared repeatedly at a handful of treatment plants, the researchers found. (They could not disclose the specific plants or areas of the city, they said.)To date we have not seen these variants among clinical patients in N.Y.C., said Michael Lanza, a spokesman for New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have found similar sequences in one California sewershed, said Rose Kantor, a microbiologist at the university.ImageCredit...Jackie Molloy for The New York TimesThe scientists continuing quest to figure out where the sequences are coming from highlights both the potential of wastewater surveillance, which can help scientists keep tabs on how the virus is evolving, and the challenge of making sense of any anomalies pulled out of the murk.We really struggled trying to understand what it was that we had, Dr. Trujillo said.The lineages could be coming from people whose infections have escaped detection or whose virus has not been sequenced.But the fact that they kept turning up at the same few wastewater plants makes this theory less likely, the researchers said, given that New Yorkers, and any variants they may be carrying, tend to move throughout the city without restriction.Still, Dr. Dennehy speculated that the sequences could be coming from people who are confined to long-term health care facilities in just a few areas of the city. But he has not been able to prove it.We were able to pin it down to a very small area of the sewershed, Dr. Dennehy said. And I emailed doctors and hospitals in those areas and never once got a response to my emails.Indeed, people who have compromised immune systems may have more difficulty fighting off the virus, giving it more opportunities to mutate. Many scientists theorize that Omicron emerged from an immunocompromised patient.Intriguingly, some of the cryptic lineages have some of the same mutations as Omicron, or mutations in the same locations. Laboratory experiments suggest that these lineages may also be able to evade some antibodies.The New York City lineages might be a result of the same kind of selective pressure to evade some of the bodys immune defenses, the researchers theorize.An animal origin?ImageCredit...Michael B. Thomas for The New York TimesOn the other hand, the lineages have been circulating for long enough now that they should have appeared in at least one sample sequenced from an infected person, some scientists said.To have something in a sewershed that youre detecting, you need a fair bit of it around, said Dr. Adam Lauring, a virologist at the University of Michigan, who was not involved in the research.Dr. Johnson, the Missouri virologist, agrees. He favors the hypothesis that the sequences are coming from animals, perhaps a few specific populations with limited territories. In May and June of 2021, when the number of human Covid-19 cases in the city was low, the mysterious lineages made up a greater proportion of the viral RNA in wastewater, suggesting that they may have come from a nonhuman source.The researchers initially considered a diverse array of potential hosts, from squirrels to skunks. This is a very promiscuous virus, Dr. Johnson said. It can infect all kinds of species.To narrow down the possibilities, they went back to the wastewater, assuming that any animal that was shedding virus might be leaving its own genetic material behind, too.Although a vast majority of the genetic material in the water came from humans, small amounts of RNA from dogs, cats and rats were also present, the scientists found.Dr. Johnson has been considering rats, which roam the city by the millions. In his lab, he created pseudoviruses harmless, nonreplicating viruses with the same mutations present in the cryptic sequences. The pseudoviruses were able to infect both mouse and rat cells, he found. The original version of the virus does not appear able to infect rodents, although some other variants, like Beta, can.So in and of itself, that isnt huge data, but it is at least consistent with the idea that its coming from rodents, Dr. Johnson said.Since last summer, the scientists have been working with Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to look for signs of the virus in blood and fecal samples from local rats. So far, theyve come up empty.Maybe were not hitting the right animals, Dr. Dennehy said.Or maybe rats arent the source of the mystery lineages. Scientists have repeatedly found that humans can pass the virus to animals, especially pets, zoo animals, farmed mink and others with which they are in frequent contact. That has raised concerns that the virus might establish itself in an animal reservoir, where it might mutate and get passed back to humans.But rats have not typically been high on the list of concern, and there has not been any evidence that the virus is circulating in wild rats. The pathway by which humans could have infected rats is also unknown.Nothing makes perfect sense, Dr. Johnson said.But some kind of animal origin remains a possibility, scientists said.Its just as plausible, if not more plausible, than a human origin, Dr. Lauring said.So the search continues. Dr. Johnson has developed a new technique that can amplify only non-Omicron sequences, which should make it easier to detect the lineages. He has also begun searching for similar lineages in sewage samples from other states, which might help provide further clues to their origins.We will know eventually, Dr. Johnson said. | Health |
Business BriefingDec. 7, 2015Consumers in the United States borrowed more heavily for auto and student loans in October, taking on debt to help them find jobs and commute to work. The Federal Reserve said on Monday that consumer borrowing rose $16 billion in October to $3.5 trillion. But the pace decelerated sharply from the $28.5 billion rise in September. Nearly all of the October gain came from the category that covers auto and student loans, while credit card borrowing edged up a mere $200 million. The increase suggests that more Americans are borrowing to improve skills and upgrade vehicles, instead of relying on debt to fund daily shopping and emergency expenses. Many economists expect that consumer spending will be relatively healthy in the coming months because of strong job gains that have bolstered auto and home sales for much of 2015. | Business |
Asia Pacific|After APEC Meeting, Police Storm Papua New Guinea Parliament, Demanding Payhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/world/asia/papua-new-guinea-parliament.htmlNov. 20, 2018Disgruntled police officers and other workers stormed the Parliament building in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, breaking glass and overturning furniture as they demanded to be paid for their work during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting.Harry Momos, a spokesman for Parliament, said about 300 people forced their way into the building in Port Moresby, the capital. The situation cooled down Tuesday afternoon after the group met with the speaker of Parliament and the government finance minister, he said.We dont expect any further damage or confrontation, Mr. Momos said.Papua New Guinea, the poorest of the 21 member economies in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, known as APEC, had a rare turn in the global spotlight as host of the groups annual summit meeting, which ended Sunday. The Parliament raid on Tuesday was an embarrassing footnote to the event.Mr. Momos said the officers would be paid on Wednesday.A video shared by Bryan Kramer, an opposition lawmaker, showed art ripped off the walls, toppled plants and an overturned X-ray machine and desk. The windows at the front of the building had been shattered.Mr. Kramer said that numerous staff of Parliament were assaulted during this confrontation. Mr. Momos said there were no serious injuries.The government of Papua New Guinea had been criticized for spending lavishly on the APEC meeting, including $7 million on 40 Maserati sedans to ferry world leaders around the capital. About 7,000 people attended, including Vice President Mike Pence and President Xi Jinping of China.Just north of Australia, the country of eight million people is riddled with crime and is in the midst of a national health crisis, including the return of polio. Less than a fifth of the population has access to electricity, and almost 85 percent lives on subsistence farming. | World |
Auto Racing|Judge Calls Ecclestone Deal Corrupthttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/sports/autoracing/judge-calls-ecclestone-deal-corrupt.htmlFormula OneFeb. 21, 2014LONDON A High Court judge ruled on Thursday that Bernie Ecclestone, the 83-year-old billionaire who has masterminded Formula One motor racing for decades, had paid a $44-million bribe to a German banker as part of a corrupt agreement that secured the bankers agreement to the sale of Formula Ones commercial rights in 2005.The ruling came as part of a judgment dismissing a $144 million damages suit against Ecclestone and other defendants by a German media company, Constantin Medien. The company claimed it had been defrauded as part of an Ecclestone-engineered under-valuation of the Formula One rights in the sale to CVC Capital Partners, a London-based venture capital firm that continues to hold a controlling stake in the sport, but the judge said Constantins lawyers had failed to show that the company suffered any loss in the deal.The victory for Ecclestone in the civil case, while potentially saving him a large chunk of his estimated personal fortune of about $4 billion, could prove to be pyrrhic, given the judges ruling that the Formula One chief had, in fact, paid the bribe to the banker.That is something that Ecclestone has denied in the run-up to his own criminal trial in the affair, which is set to begin in Munich in late April. He has maintained that the payments to the banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, were not a bribe but a response to blackmail by the banker after he had threatened to cause problems for Ecclestone with British tax authorities over the status of a $3 billion trust fund that Ecclestone set up for his former wife and his two daughters.The payments were a bribe, Justice Guy Newey said in a summary of his conclusions in the case, referring to the money paid to Gribkowsky, who played a central role in the CVC takeover as the chief representative of Bayerische Landesbank, the largest shareholder among a group of banks that owned Formula One and sanctioned the CVC sale after Ecclestone had negotiated details.ImageCredit...Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesThe CVC takeover has proved profitable for CVC and its partners, including Ecclestone, who retains a minority share of about 15 percent in Formula One.The judges ruling immediately raised questions about Ecclestones continuing viability in his post as Formula Ones chief executive. Reports in British newspaperson Fridayquoted sources said to be close to CVCs chairman, Donald Mackenzie, as saying that there was pressure on the CVC board to dismiss Ecclestone without waiting for the outcome of the Munich trial, which could run on for months.The new Formula One season begins in Australia onMarch 16, and the sport faces major challenges in adjusting to many new technical rules, including new turbocharged, 1.6-liter engines with complex energy recovery systems.Many in the sport are said to say that problems with the new engines that have shown up in preseason testing, combined with mounting financial problems for many of the competing teams, will require a steady hand from the Formula One management.But Ecclestone reacted to the outcome of the London case with assurances that he intended to remain in his job. I have no idea whether Ill be sacked, he told The Daily Mail. If the board believed I lied and told me to go, then that is what I would do. I would rather go on my own terms.But he added: I didnt lie to the court. I told the truth. The judge just didnt see it that way. But even if I did lie and was unreliable, I have been doing a reasonably good job for 35 years. So why shouldnt I carry on? Its business as usual. | Sports |
Credit...Christopher Gregory for The New York TimesDec. 18, 2015With a potential huge default on bonds looming and a new bankruptcy law for Puerto Rico to be weighed by Congress in the new year, bondholders have agreed to keep trying to reach a deal to restructure as much as an eighth of the islands $72 billion debt.The deal would involve debt issued in the form of revenue bonds by Puerto Ricos big public electric utility, known as Prepa. An agreement to pursue the restructuring plan was set to expire on Thursday, but the parties renewed it that evening, as they have done a number of times previously.Prepa is one of 13 governmental entities in Puerto Rico that have bond payments due on Jan. 1. The continuing talks make it likelier that Prepa, at least, will pass that date uneventfully, though it does not change anything for the other 12. Nor does it lower a series of dauntingly high hurdles that still stand in the way of closing the deal.The negotiations to restructure Prepas debt have been going on for more than a year, and a preliminary agreement last September was hailed by the head of the islands powerful Government Development Bank, Melba Acosta Febo, as an example of the promising results that can be achieved when the commonwealth and its creditors work together.If an agreement on the restructuring plan is reached, it would be the largest such deal to date in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market, and perhaps serve as a model for other branches of the Puerto Rican government.But the climate for debtors and creditors working together has turned harsh in recent weeks. Puerto Ricos cash has dwindled, debate has flared in Washington over whether and how to help the island, and the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garca Padilla, warned that the island was likely to default, either in January or May.In addition, the United States Supreme Court unexpectedly said it would consider Puerto Ricos case for enacting its own restructuring law, because it is ineligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which cities like Detroit and Stockton, Calif., have used recently to shed debt.Puerto Rico enacted its own quasi-bankruptcy law in 2014, but creditors sued, saying the law was unconstitutional; a federal district court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit agreed. Persuading the Supreme Court to reconsider has been widely seen as a surprise victory for the struggling island, and a setback for creditors, even though any ruling is still months off.ImageCredit...Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated PressThe prospect of a Supreme Court ruling has raised hopes that the island will eventually get the legal framework that it needs to restructure all of its debts, not just Prepas bonds, with the benefit of the automatic stay that keeps creditors from pursuing claims against debtors who take shelter in bankruptcy court.The Treasury Department has been pressing Congress to give Puerto Rico access to bankruptcy reorganization, or something similar, so that it can reduce its debts in an orderly fashion.Although no such provision was included in the omnibus budget bill, the Treasury secretary, Jacob J. Lew, issued a statement late Thursday acknowledging that the House speaker, Paul Ryan, had promised to direct the relevant House committees to draft a responsible solution for Puerto Rico by the end of March.Any solution must include both independent oversight and an orderly process to restructure the commonwealths debt, Mr. Lew said.As an alternative to Chapter 9, which explicitly excludes Puerto Rico, some lawmakers think that Congress could use its broad powers under the Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution to give Puerto Rico access to some other form of bankruptcy protection.Any such power should sunset within a short period of time after the restructuring is accomplished, Richard Ravitch, the former lieutenant governor of New York State, said in written responses to questions from Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and a member of the Judiciary Committee, which has been working on a possible restructuring framework.This would ensure that no future government would borrow as promiscuously and then be able to take advantage of the bankruptcy laws, said Mr. Ravitch, who has been advising the government of Puerto Rico.If some type of bankruptcy law is enacted for Puerto Rico in the coming months, Prepas creditors would presumably fare better if they already had a restructuring deal than if they were caught holding defaulted revenue bonds.I think the deal will be executed, Lisa J. Donahue, the AlixPartners managing director who is Prepas chief restructuring officer, said in an interview earlier this week. Everybody does want a deal. Were all motivated to get a consensual deal and to fix this utility. | Business |
DealBook|Barclays to Pay $13.75 Million to Settle Case Over Mutual Fundshttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/dealbook/barclays-to-pay-13-75-million-to-settle-case-over-mutual-funds.htmlCredit...Olivia Harris/ReutersDec. 29, 2015Barclays Capital failed to stop 6,100 unsuitable switches between mutual funds on behalf of its customers over a five-year period that ended in June, resulting in $8.6 million of customer harm, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said on Tuesday.The brokerage firm unit of the British bank will pay $13.75 million to settle Finras investigation into whether it improperly switched customers in and out of certain mutual funds in violation of suitability standards.The settlement includes $10 million in restitution to affected mutual fund customers and $3.75 million in fines. Barclays neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the findings.A Barclays spokesman had no comment.Broker-dealers have obligations under Finra rules to ensure that customers gain an advantage by switching mutual funds at the recommendation of their broker. Transaction fees associated with switching funds can undermine those advantages. Finra said that Barclays Capital did not have sufficient supervisory systems from January 2010 to June 2015 to prevent unsuitable switching.Barclays failed to act on thousands of alerts about potentially unsuitable transactions, Finra said. The regulator also said that Barclays did not provide adequate guidance to supervisors to ensure that mutual fund transactions for retail brokerage customers were suitable based on the clients objectives, risk tolerance and account holdings.A review of six months worth of transactions found that some 39 percent of mutual fund switches were unsuitable, Finra said, affecting 343 customers who had $800,000 of financial harm, including realized losses. | Business |
Stormy Daniels I'm Too Hot For Instagram Account Shut Down 1/22/2018 Stormy Daniels has just lost her lifeline, aka Instagram, because for some reason her account has been suspended. Stormy was on a roll after her performance at a South Carolina strip club this weekend, in which she celebrated Trump's 1-year anniversary as President with her "Make America Horny Again" performance. She's booked a bunch of new gigs and was using Instagram to get the word out, but not anymore. As for why the account was blocked ... Stormy's rep tells TMZ there was no evidence of profanity or nudity. In fact, the rep says the account was laced with inspirational quotes and professional photos, fully clothed. | Entertainment |
Credit...Saul Martinez/ReutersMarch 8, 2017GUATEMALA CITY Long before Wednesdays devastating fire claimed the lives of at least 21 young people, the Virgen de la Asuncin home for children was hardly a sanctuary. It was instead known for further damaging the broken lives within its walls.The 750 residents crammed into the aging structures were nearly all victims of abandonment and abuse and had been removed from families and guardians by the authorities for their own safety.But they found little respite at the state home, and in some cases more of what they fled. Members of the staff sexually abused residents, prompting criminal cases and a series of complaints with the countrys human rights commission, which had requested a judicial order to close the facility down a month ago.On Wednesday evening, volunteer ambulance crews took the bodies of dead children from the scene of the fire, which also injured at least 40.The president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, called for three days of national mourning and ordered all public activities canceled.The home quickly became a flash point of national tragedy. Family members of those trapped in the fire mourned from behind police cordons. A social worker came to the door of the home every 20 minutes to read a list of children who were safe. Those children were being delivered to the relatives who waited outside.I brought her because she doesnt follow my orders to do housework and because she was starting to go out on the streets, and I did not want to lose her, Marta Lidia Garca, 39, said of her 17-year-old daughter. She told me that they treated her badly and gave them food with worms and that the cops who take care of them sometimes bother them.What caused the fire, and why, remains the subject of investigation. Just two of the homes seven buildings were destroyed by the blaze, investigators said, which early reports suggest may have been caused by a resident who set her mattress on fire.The authorities said that the day before the fire, riot police were sent in to quell a disturbance at the home near Guatemala City, where nearly 750 youngsters lived in a space meant for 500. The disturbance is believed to have started when some of the residents clashed with staff in an attempt to escape, prompting employees to call the authorities.The police treated the kids like adults after a kind of mutiny, said Hilda Morales, the deputy attorney general of the human rights ombudsman.Escapes are a common occurrence at the home. Last year, 142 children tried to break out, and only one-third were recovered. In Tuesdays attempt, the authorities said 40 children managed to flee.Guatemala holds the dubious distinction of having Latin Americas highest child malnutrition rates. The nation is plagued by crime, violence, corruption and poverty, and its public institutions bear the scars of that heritage.The home was supposed to provide a refuge, but residents faced dangers there, too. A workman, Arias Prez, was found guilty of raping a teenage girl with mental disabilities in 2013. Dieguez Ispache, a former teacher, is awaiting trial on charges of aggravated sexual assault.The residents victimized one another, too. In 2014, a girl was found dead, hung by her own scarf. Two teenagers were later charged with homicide.Still, both the Congressional Commission on Children and the nations human rights body petitioned the courts to close the home, but the facility stayed open.We are going to issue a public censure, but above all that the Virgen de la Asuncin home, in compliance with the judicial order from several months ago, will be closed, Mrs. Morales said. | World |
11 Things Wed Really Like to KnowMoney is just the obvious obstacle. A few diseases, like H.I.V., so far have outwitted both the immune system and scientists.Credit...Jens Mortensen for The New York TimesNov. 19, 2018Vaccines are among the most ingenious of inventions, and among the most maddening. Some global killers, like smallpox and polio, have been totally or nearly eradicated by products made with methods dating back to Louis Pasteur. Others, like malaria and H.I.V., utterly frustrate scientists to this day, despite astonishing new weapons like gene-editing. We have a vaccine for Ebola that protects nearly 100 percent of its recipients, but we are lucky to get a routine flu shot that works half that well.We have childrens vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, chickenpox, polio, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, pneumococcus, haemophilus influenzae and meningococcal disease.They have changed our expectations of mortality and of parenthood. In 17th century England, one-third of all children died before age 15. Today, thanks largely to those vaccines, less than 1 percent of English children do.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]In tropical countries, there are vaccines against yellow fever, cholera, Japanese encephalitis, meningitis A, typhoid, dengue and rabies. But there is still despite 30 years of effort no AIDS vaccine. There is no universal flu vaccine. There are no vaccines with long-lasting protection against malaria or tuberculosis.None for parasites like Chagas, elephantiasis, hookworm or liver flukes. None for some viral threats that could become pandemic, like Nipah, Lassa and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. None for some that already have, including Lyme, West Nile, Zika and hepatitis C.None for respiratory syncytial virus, which kills infants, nor even for the dozens of causes of common colds.Vaccines are among the worlds greatest medical advances, like clean water, soap, bleach, sewage systems and antibiotics. In a rational world one where budgets are built on lives saved per dollar spending on vaccine research would rival that on defense research.And progress would be as rapid. When Louis Pasteur was born, soldiers carried muskets. Now, a Taliban fighter can be killed by a drone flown from a base in Arizona, but vulnerable Americans still have to rely on a flu-shot technology invented in 1931: growing vaccine in chicken eggs. And as with weaponry, fear changes everything. In epidemiologically quiet times, the anti-vaccine lobby sows doubts; when Ebola or pandemic flu strikes, Americans clamor for protection.There are two obstacles to faster progress, said Dr. Gregory A. Poland, director of the vaccine research group at the Mayo Clinic. One is scientific, and one is embarrassing, he said.The embarrassing part is the lack of investment. It takes 10 years and more than $1 billion to develop a vaccine a small fortune for a medical advance but a pittance for a weapons system.While defense research is driven by one mega-customer, the Pentagon, vaccine researchers face a confusing hodgepodge of potential backers.Private industry largely pursues high-priced vaccines for American children, militaries and adventure tourists. Potential bioweapons like anthrax, plague and rabbit fever attract bioterrorism funds.But vaccines meant to protect only poor people in faraway countries usually must wait for donor governments and philanthropies like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, even though we know these plagues cross borders.The scientific obstacles, though more intractable, are relatively rare. Many pathogens are genetically farther apart than rhinoceroses and bees: A defense against a horn does not protect against a sting, and vice versa.Most vaccines work by creating antibodies Y-shaped proteins that block the disease agents own proteins. While viruses have only handful of target proteins, bacteria have up to 6,000 and parasites even more, noted Dr. Paul A. Offit, director of vaccine education at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. And even some smallish viruses, including H.I.V., flu and hepatitis C, mutate so rapidly that their surfaces change shape before antibodies can lock onto them.As a rule, if a disease normally leaves even a few survivors who are completely disease-free and immune for life, a vaccine against that disease is possible. Natural infection is the mother of all vaccines, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Smallpox meets the criteria; H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis do not. H.I.V. mutates as fast in one day as flu does in a year; it also survives by splicing its DNA into the very immune cells that hunt it.TB bacteria can survive even when walled in by white blood cells.And malaria, a shape-shifting parasite, never triggers lifetime immunity. People who survive repeated bouts get less sick each time, but that immunity disappears if they move out of the malarial region. If they return, the first mosquito bite may kill them.ImageCredit...Jens Mortensen for The New York TimesOther diseases are complex, with many subtypes. For example, Pneumovax 23, the anti-pneumonia shot given to middle-aged people, negates 23 strains of one bacterium.Nonetheless, many diseases now rampaging at large are relatively easy targets, according to interviews with half a dozen experts. They could be beaten with vaccines if the world committed more money.Lengthy testing, though expensive, is crucial. Vaccines can have dangerous hidden flaws. A 2007 H.I.V. vaccine candidate appeared to increase infection risk among some gay men, though it remains unclear why. Earlier this year, the use of a new dengue vaccine was restricted to people who had earlier dengue infections because it may have triggered worse outcomes in some people who got dengue after receiving the vaccine.The relatively easy targets, experts said, include M.E.R.S., Nipah, Lassa, respiratory syncytial virus, Lyme disease, West Nile, Zika and the bacteria that cause strep throat and heart disease.The first three, not coincidentally, are the first targets of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which was launched with $500 million at last years World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Thus far, the coalition has raised about $630 million, but its ambitious plans including DNA and RNA platforms that will cut vaccine-making time to weeks instead of months will require billions of dollars.Recent advances in a new tuberculosis vaccine and a new use for an old one have encouraged experts. If youd asked me 18 months ago whether a TB vaccine was possible, Id have said no, said Dr. Penny Heaton, chief executive officer of the new Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. But I think the field is now very promising.A Lyme vaccine was licensed in 1998 but withdrawn four years later in what has been called a public health fiasco after rumors, lawsuits and alarmist media reports scared off customers. Now, with Lyme infecting an estimated 300,000 Americans a year, an improved vaccine is in the works. Dr. Peter J. Hotez, director of the Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, has vaccines against hookworm and schistosomiasis, a waterborne liver fluke, in clinical trials and is working on eight others. Some candidate vaccines rely on startling mechanisms for defeating the dizzyingly complex parasites including injecting humans with a gene that produces an antibody that destroys a worms gut when it sucks blood.But, like all the other projects in the works, that one needs more money and not just from the usual suspects (the United States, Britain and the Gates Foundation).In this multi-trillion-dollar economy, Dr. Hotez said, its a little discouraging that we cant raise the funding. | Health |
Ashanti Mom-Driven Ride Sideswipes Car 1/23/2018 TMZ.com Ashanti and her mom were involved in a car accident in Beverly Hills that left the other driver in tears. Ashanti's mother was behind the wheel of their SUV Monday as they pulled away from a parking spot, and apparently sideswiped a much smaller silver sedan. The damage was pretty obvious, and Ashanti's mom did stop ... momentarily. The other driver told us Ashanti got her number and info, but pulled off without sharing any of hers. She was pretty torn up about it, and she told us she plans on treating this like a hit and run. We've reached out to Ashanti's reps, but no word back yet. | Entertainment |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesAn American businessman who lives in Singapore took advantage of an unusual opening in an administration where matters of policy and business often seem to blur.President Trump and Kim Jong-un had a historic summit meeting at a colonial-style island hotel in Singapore.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesJune 17, 2018WASHINGTON An American financier approached the Trump administration last summer with an unusual proposition: The North Korean government wanted to talk to Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser.The financier, Gabriel Schulze, explained that a top North Korean official was seeking a back channel to explore a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, who for months had traded threats of military confrontation. Mr. Schulze, who lives in Singapore, had built a network of contacts in North Korea on trips he had taken to develop business opportunities in the isolated state.For some in North Korea, which has been ruled since its founding by a family dynasty, Mr. Kushner appeared to be a promising contact. As a member of the presidents family, officials in Pyongyang judged, Mr. Kushner would have the ear of his father-in-law and be immune from the personnel changes that had convulsed the early months of the administration.Mr. Schulzes quiet outreach was but one step in a circuitous path that led to last weeks handshake between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim at a colonial-style island hotel in Singapore a path that involved secret meetings among spies, discussions between profit-minded entrepreneurs, and a previously unreported role for Mr. Kushner, according to interviews with current and former American officials and others familiar with the negotiations.In reaching out to Mr. Kushner, the North Koreans were following the example of the Chinese, who had early on identified the 37-year-old husband of Ivanka Trump as a well-connected princeling, someone who could be a conduit to Mr. Trump and allow them to bypass the bureaucracy of the State Department.And in reaching out to the White House, Mr. Schulze was taking advantage of an unusual opening in an administration where matters of policy and business often seem to blur. The overture by Mr. Schulze, who had first met Trump family members several years ago when they were exploring business deals in Asia, came during a period of sharp division inside the administration over how to deal with North Koreas growing nuclear arsenal, with some officials even advocating a pre-emptive military strike.ImageCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesMr. Kushner did not play a direct role in back-channel negotiations with North Korean officials, according to people familiar with the matter. He instead notified Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director at the time, about Mr. Schulzes outreach and requested that the agency be in charge of the discussions.It is unclear why Mr. Kushner thought the C.I.A. rather than the State Department should take the lead, though he had an antagonistic relationship with Rex W. Tillerson, who was the secretary of state at the time, and a good rapport with Mr. Pompeo. It is also unclear whether Mr. Kushners lack of a permanent top-secret security clearance at the time was a factor in his decision not to have a direct role.The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment on Mr. Kushners contact with Mr. Schulze.For Mr. Schulze, the scion of a family that made billions in mining, a thaw in Americas relationship with North Korea would be potentially lucrative. His firm, SGI Frontier Capital, adopts a high-risk strategy of investing in so-called frontier markets Ethiopia, Mongolia and elsewhere. He did a number of small deals in North Korea before the Obama administration imposed new economic sanctions in 2016.I really believe that opportunity is found on the edge of our comfort zone, he told The Financial Times in 2013.In a statement, Mr. Schulze said, I do not discuss the nature of my business or personal relationships.ImageCredit...Korean Central News AgencyThe meetings between Mr. Kushner and Mr. Schulze briefly injected the presidents son-in-law into an issue in which he has otherwise had little involvement. But it was not the first time that Mr. Kushner became involved in a back channel on a delicate matter of national security.Early in 2017, he opened a private channel to Chinas ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai, to try to settle Mr. Trumps relations with the Chinese government, which had gotten off to a bumpy start after Mr. Trump spoke with Taiwans president. Mr. Kushner and Mr. Cui choreographed a two-day meeting that April, in which Mr. Trump played host to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Fla.Many saw the meeting as heralding Mr. Kushners role as a key player on China. But he stepped back to avoid antagonizing other senior officials, according to a White House spokesman, and amid a swirl of questions about his familys business dealings with a Chinese conglomerate, the Anbang Group, and his sisters offer to obtain preferential American visas for Chinese who invested in the Kushner familys real estate projects. The spokesman, Raj Shah, said those business issues had nothing to do with Mr. Kushners decision.Mr. Schulze is not the only person who has offered to act as a broker for talks between the United States and North Korea. More than a dozen people approached the State Department during the last year with claims to have connections to people high in the North Korean government, according to current and former officials. Most led nowhere, and some diplomats are doubtful that any were truly consequential.Over the past three administrations, the North Korean leadership has used intermediaries to try to land a summit with the American president and to bypass normal diplomatic channels, said Michael J. Green, who worked on North Korea during the George W. Bush administration. At other times, intermediaries who had connections to the North Korean government would make offers to help.Such freelance diplomacy is also not unique to North Korea. When President Barack Obama signaled an interest in talking to Iran in 2009, several people, among them a former Spanish prime minister and an Omani businessman, approached the State Department to offer to act as an intermediary. The administration later set up a secret channel to meet with Iranian officials in the Arab sultanate of Oman.During a trip to Beijing in September, Mr. Tillerson said the administration had a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang that he hoped might yield a breakthrough amid escalating tensions over North Koreas nuclear and missile programs. Mr. Trump scolded him on Twitter the next day, saying Mr. Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man, the derogatory nickname he used in the past for Mr. Kim.ImageCredit...Mike Segar/ReutersSave your energy Rex, he added, well do what has to be done.In fact, Mr. Pompeo was then exploring contacts with North Korean intelligence officials. He made two trips to Pyongyang this year, and after he replaced Mr. Tillerson as secretary of state, continued to lead negotiations for a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim. Mr. Pompeo communicated with Kim Yong-chol, a general who oversees inter-Korean relations and used to run North Koreas intelligence service.During those discussions, Mr. Pompeo has relied on Andrew Kim, a Korean-American C.I.A. official who is in charge of the agencys covert operations and analysis on North Korea. He was at Mr. Pompeos side when he traveled to Pyongyang, and on hand for Mr. Trumps meeting with Kim Yong-chol in the Oval Office two weeks ago after the president had called off the planned summit meeting a decision he quickly reversed.North Koreas motive for talking now, experts said, is linked to the progress it has made on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Having demonstrated the ability to strike the continental United States, the North believes it is in an advantageous position to strike a deal that would lift punishing sanctions.There was also a determined campaign by South Korea, under the progressive government of Mr. Moon. When Kim Jong-un expressed a willingness in a New Years Day speech to send North Korean athletes to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Mr. Moon seized on the moment to push for a broader diplomatic opening.The Games ended up being a striking display of Korean unity. Afterward, Mr. Moon sent the director of South Koreas National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, and his national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, to Pyongyang to meet with Mr. Kim. At that meeting, they said, Mr. Kim extended an invitation to meet with Mr. Trump, which they conveyed to the president a few days later.For all the role that spies played in arranging the summit meeting, it is hardly surprising that one of the earliest overtures came from an American investor with a history of doing deals in North Korea. Mr. Trumps blossoming relationship with Mr. Kim seems as much a business proposition as a diplomatic overture.In Singapore last week, Mr. Trump showed Mr. Kim a four-minute film that the American government had made, which depicted a thriving, modern future for North Korea, so long as it gave up its nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump enthused about the countrys idyllic beaches, which he said he could foresee being lined with luxury hotels and condominiums.Think of it from a real estate perspective, Mr. Trump said. | Politics |
Business|Valeant Chief Is Hospitalized With Pneumoniahttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/business/valeant-chief-is-hospitalized-with-pneumonia.htmlDec. 25, 2015J. Michael Pearson, the embattled chief executive of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, has been admitted to the hospital for severe pneumonia, a spokeswoman for the company confirmed on Friday.The spokeswoman, Laurie W. Little, declined to provide further details. She said that out of respect for the privacy of Mr. Pearson and his family, the company would update his condition only as appropriate. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to him returning to work when he is feeling better, Ms. Little said in an email.Mr. Pearson, 56, has been struggling to reassure investors about the future of Valeant, as the company comes under fire for its drug pricing and distribution policies. Valeants strategy of acquiring old drugs and sharply raising their prices, often by several hundred percent, has attracted attention from Congress. It also faces scrutiny for its secret relationship with Philidor Rx Services, a mail-order pharmacy that dispensed some of Valeants expensive dermatology drugs and took care of getting them reimbursed by insurance companies. Valeant severed its ties to Philidor in October, after questions were raised about the pharmacys practices.As concerns have mounted over the business model, the companys shares have plummeted. The companys stock has lost more than half its value since August. ImageCredit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesA lengthy incapacitation would probably worry investors. Mr. Pearson is the architect of the companys business model and has been strongly associated with the companys success.Some skeptics have wondered whether it was time for a management change given the companys recent problems. But Mr. Pearson appears to have the support of the board. A former consultant at McKinsey & Company, Mr. Pearson became Valeants chief executive in 2008 and oversaw a period of rapid growth and a meteoric rise in the companys stock price.Mr. Pearson largely shunned research aimed at discovering and developing new drugs, which he viewed as too risky. Instead, Valeant grew by acquiring other drug companies, keeping their products and dismissing most of their workers.Federal prosecutors are looking into Valeants pricing, distribution and financial assistance programs for patients, according to the companys regulatory filings. A committee of Valeants directors is investigating the relationship with Philidor.Mr. Pearson has said that in the future, Valeant will not rely so much on huge price increases on old drugs. And he has said for the next year at least, the company will use its cash to pay down some of the more than $30 billion in debt it has accumulated from its numerous acquisitions. That means it is likely to do far fewer deals.Valeant shares closed Thursday at $114.11. They have recovered from a 52-week low of just under $70 in November. But that is still well below a peak of above $260 in early August. | Business |
Business BriefingDec. 2, 2015American businesses increased hiring last month, led by strong gains in retail, finance and other service industries, a private survey found. The payroll processor ADP said on Wednesday that companies had added 217,000 jobs in November, the most in five months. Service sector firms added 204,000, while manufacturers hired just 6,000. On Friday, the government will issue its official jobs report for November. Economists forecast that it will show employers added 200,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained at 5 percent. | Business |
The spacecraft spent a year mapping Bennus rugged terrain, and next year it will touch down on the surface to collect a sample.Credit...NASA/Goddard/University of ArizonaPublished Dec. 12, 2019Updated Oct. 20, 2020[Follow the OSIRIS-REX missions attempt to collect samples from Bennu asteroid.]SAN FRANCISCO A landing pad fit for a visitor from NASA has been found on an ancient relic of our solar system.NASAs Osiris-Rex spacecraft left Earth in 2016, its sights set on an asteroid named Bennu that is as wide as the Empire State Building is tall. The robotic probes mission is to collect a sample from the surface of this space rock and bring it home to our planet, helping scientists understand more about the nascent days of our solar system, and possibly find clues to how life sprung up here on Earth.But first the spacecrafts controllers down here had to find a place for Osiris-Rex to land. On Thursday, after a difficult year of mapping its surface, they announced their target site at the 100th annual American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. Named Nightingale, the area is near Bennus north pole and lies inside a small crater within a larger crater.We made our final decision based on which site has the greatest amount of fine-grained material and how easily the spacecraft can access that material while keeping the spacecraft safe, said Dante Lauretta, the missions principal investigator and a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.Video3D flyover animation of Nightingale, the site where the Osiris-Rex spacecraft will attempt to land and collect a sample.Dr. Lauretta also said that the sites scientific value was high because of the northern latitude. Colder temperatures there mean more of the material the spacecraft collects could be preserved from when the asteroid first formed.Bennu is one of a class of near Earth asteroids known as carbonaceous, because they are rich in carbon, organic material like hydrated minerals. It is thought to be one of the oldest rocks formed during the earliest days of the solar system, some four billion years ago. There is a small chance Bennu could collide with Earth, but not until the 22nd century should that occur. (The asteroid is too small to extinguish most life on Earth, but it would be catastrophic where it struck.)Just over a year ago, after a journey of 1.2 billion miles, Osiris-Rex arrived at Bennu and quickly got to work examining the diamond shaped asteroid. As it sped closer, the team was hoping the surface would reveal large swaths of smooth terrain from which to collect a sample.However, in true space exploration fashion nothing went as planned.It turned out Bennu was covered in massive boulders stories high as well as other large rocks that posed a continuous challenge for site selection.ImageCredit...NASA/Goddard/University of ArizonaIt was kind of the worst case, Dr. Lauretta said in an earlier interview. When we were approaching the asteroid, we thought we were going to see the site from a thousand kilometers out and it was going to be this nice big patch. Its going to be pretty clear. Yes, thats where were going! There was nothing like that, it was just rock after rock after rock.Osiris-Rex will only land on the surface of Bennu for a split second next year, deploying an arm with its sample collection too, called Tagsam, to quickly snatch a sample before heading back to a safe distance. The asteroids diverse and rocky terrain posed risks to a safe landing. It also creates technical challenges for the Tagsam tool, which is only able to collect objects as big as about of an inch across.During the last year in orbit, the team have been working nonstop to analyze the entire surface, creating detailed maps of images, temperatures and nearly every single rock.We went through a massive campaign to globally map the asteroid and have been synthesizing all of that data to get down to our final sample site selections, Dr. Lauretta said.He added, We started out with 50 potential sites and then I kind of set it up like a tournament. We got down to the sweet 16 and then we got down to the elite eight and then the final four, which like Nightingale were all named for birds.While Nightingale is scientifically valuable, its also very risky. The spacecraft will have to maneuver around treacherous ground, including a three-story-high boulder nicknamed Mt. Doom.This is going to be very very challenging, we are pushing the spacecraft to do things it was not designed to do, said Lori Glaze, the director of NASAs planetary science division. To that end, she said the missions managers are improving Osiris-Rexs software so it can better navigate the terrain it will encounter during its close-up.Osiris-Rex has been orbiting Bennu at a snug distance of 2,230 feet above the surface. This cozy orbit has helped the team discover interesting things about this ancient asteroid, such as evidence of the asteroid shooting rocks into space. They also found water, hinting that asteroids like Bennu really could be the precursors for life in the solar system as well as our oceans.ImageCredit...NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed MartinEven though its turned out to be an operationally challenging target, it is absolutely the right science target, Dr. Lauretta said.In the coming months, the team will run what they call dress rehearsals with the spacecraft and its instruments, preparing for the real sample collection next July. The Nightingale site is also close to another location, Osprey, which will serve as a backup if problems emerge. If everything goes well and Osiris-Rex will collect some of Bennu, store it and head back toward Earth in March 2021.Before Osiris-Rex gets home, another spacecraft from Earth will return samples from a different near-Earth asteroid. Hayabusa2, a robotic probe built by Japan, spent much of the past year punching holes in a space rock called Ryugu while collecting multiple samples from its surface. The spacecraft left Ryugu earlier this month, and is journeying home to Earth where it will attempt to drop off its cache of specimens next November or December. | science |
Science|Why City Pigeons Are Worth Watchinghttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/science/pigeons-facts.html215AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story215By Rosemary MoscoApril 12, 2022ImageCredit...Illustrations by Rosemary MoscoImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageRosemary Mosco is the author and illustrator of A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story | science |
Oct. 13, 2020, 12:44 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2020, 12:44 p.m. ET | An overwhelming body of evidence continues to affirm that the coronavirus almost certainly made its hop into humans from an animal source as many, many other deadly viruses are known to do.But since the early days of the pandemic, experts have had to fight to combat misinformed rumors that the coronavirus emerged from a lab as part of a sinister scientific project.Last week, yet another piece of unfounded and misleading prose entered the fray: a study, posted online but not published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, contending that the virus is artificial and an unrestricted bio-weapon released by Chinese researchers.The manuscript also baselessly denounced several parties, including policymakers, scientific journals and even individual researchers, for censoring and criticizing the lab-made hypothesis, accusing them of deliberate obfuscation of fact and colluding with the Chinese Communist Party.Though scientists immediately condemned the study as disreputable and dangerous, it rapidly commanded a storm of social media attention, garnering more than 14,000 likes on Twitter and more than 12,000 retweets and quote-tweets within days of its posting. Shared on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, it reached millions of users, and was covered in at least a dozen articles written in several languages.The papers findings, however, have no basis in science.Its ridiculous and unfounded, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University who criticized the study on Twitter the day it was released. Its masquerading as scientific evidence, but really its just a dumpster fire.The publication is the second in a series from a team led by Li-Meng Yan, a Chinese scientist who released an initial paper on Sept. 14, also not peer-reviewed, asserting that the coronavirus was synthetic. Dr. Yans background is a little murky. She left her position as a postdoctoral research fellow at Hong Kong University for undisclosed reasons some time ago, according to a July statement from the institution, and fled to the United States. Both papers list Dr. Yan and her co-authors as affiliated with the Rule of Law Society, a nonprofit whose founders include Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, who has since been charged in an unrelated case of fraud.That alone should give people pause, Dr. Rasmussen said of the teams connection to Mr. Bannons nonprofit.Dr. Yan and her colleagues did not respond to a request for comment.Their original paper known as the Yan report was also seized upon by thousands online and reported on in The New York Post, even though experts rapidly debunked its findings. Researchers called it unscientific and said it ignored the wealth of data pointing to the viruss natural origins.Close relatives of the new coronavirus exist in bats. The virus may have moved directly into people from bats, or first jumped into another animal, such as a pangolin, before transitioning into humans. Both scenarios have played out before with other pathogens.We have a very good picture of how a virus of this kind could circulate and spill over into human beings, said Brandon Ogbunu, a disease ecologist at Yale University.It may take quite some time to pinpoint exactly which animals harbored the virus along this chain of transmission, if scientists ever do at all inevitably leaving some parts of the viruss origin story ambiguous. Like many other conspiracy theories, the lab-made hypothesis exploits the open questions in an ongoing investigation, Dr. Ogbunu said.But there is no evidence so far to support a synthetic source for the virus.Dr. Yans Twitter account was suspended in September 2020 for pushing coronavirus disinformation. She shared the second Yan report from a second Twitter account, which has gained more than 34,000 followers.Together, the papers written by Dr. Yan and her colleagues lay out what they identified as abnormalities in the genome sequence of the coronavirus. They suggested that those unusual features indicated that the viruss genome had been purposefully spliced together and modified, using the genetic material from other viruses a sort of Frankensteins monster pathogen, Dr. Yan told Fox News in September. The cousins of the coronavirus that had been identified in bats, they said, were also fake, human-made constructions, thus supposedly quashing the natural origin hypothesis.The authors also contended that the coronaviruss genome had been manipulated by scientists to enhance the viruss ability to infect human cells and cause disease.But outside experts have found no validity in either Yan report. The first was full of contradictory statements and unsound interpretations of genetic data from viruses, said Kishana Taylor, a virologist at Carnegie Mellon University.And the second Yan report was even more unhinged than the first, said Gigi Kwik Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an author of a response debunking the original Yan report.The supposedly strange features found in the genomes of the coronavirus and its natural relatives arent actually red flags at all, Dr. Ogbunu said. Viruses frequently move between animal hosts, changing their genetic material along the way sometimes even swapping hunks of their genomes with other viruses. And many of the purported abnormalities in the coronavirus are found in other virus genomes.The notion that the coronavirus was designed to be dangerous is also just nonsense, Dr. Ogbunu said. Scientists dont know enough about viruses to predict which mutations would increase their lethality, let alone engineer these changes into new pathogens in the lab.Building the coronavirus from such a mishmash of genetic templates, as described by Dr. Yan and her colleagues, would also raise herculean logistical hurdles for even the most dogged scientists. Part of this process would require researchers to laboriously tinker with thousands of individual letters in the alphabet soup that is a viruss genome an absurdly inefficient scientific strategy, Dr. Rasmussen said.Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, Dr. Rasmussen said. And this is not that. | Tech |
Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.Credit...via InstagramPublished Aug. 9, 2021Updated Sept. 27, 2021LOS ANGELES Last month, the singer Courtney Love, who is a keen observer of social media trends, posted a cryptic message on Instagram.Lots of people dont understand Gen-Z, she wrote. I think theyre funnier than any other generation Ive ever known.Accompanying Ms. Loves Instagram post was a blurry photo of herself and a gallery of unrelated and messy screen-shotted memes filled with nonsensical text overlaid on random photos. Ms. Love gave a shout-out to several accounts that had posted this type of content and highlighted even more of them on Wednesday, saying they had made me think in memes.Ms. Love was mimicking and complimenting a kind of social media post that is now sweeping through Instagram. Known in internet slang as shitposting, this style of posting involves people publishing low-quality images, videos or comments online. On Instagram, this means barraging peoples feeds with seemingly indiscriminate content, often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary.A growing ecosystem of Instagram accounts has embraced this text-heavy posting style, which has exploded in popularity among Gen Z users during the pandemic. The trend has transformed Instagram, the photo- and video-based app owned by Facebook, into a network of microblogs and a destination for written expression.Many of these Instagram accounts, with absurdist names like @ripclairo, @botoxqueen.1968 and @carti_xcx, may look haphazard to the casual observer. Yet there are similarities across accounts. Nearly all feature screenshots of text on top of photos, made using the anonymous confessions app Whisper, or Instagrams Create mode, which lets people design text posts on top of gradient backgrounds. The posts are also interspersed with uncredited images, viral videos and humorous content.You just post your thoughts, said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the @lifes.a.bender Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. Its like Twitter, but for Instagram. Its like a blog where youre airing personal thoughts and feelings.For years, Twitter served this very purpose, with the most engaging tweets repackaged and reposted by meme accounts and influencers on Instagram. Twitter, recognizing this shift, started its own Instagram account in 2017 and has made it easier for users to easily share tweets as Instagram Stories.But Twitter posts have a 280-character limit. And for Gen Z users, the combination of text, tools like the Whisper app and Instagram Create mode have mixed together into a viral alchemy that resonates with their age group.If you see someone following a meme page where they typically post tweets, they have a different sense of humor to what Gen Z would consider to be cool, said Faris Ibrahim, 18, who posts in this style on his Instagram page @puddle_boot. In one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page @life.is.not.a.soup, posted an image of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid. While the page only has 5,644 followers, the post racked up nearly 30,000 likes and thousands of comments.These pages have surged during the pandemic as young people have turned to Instagram to externalize their innermost id and seek connection, said Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends and the meme librarian at XX Artists, a social media agency. Theyre very representative of teenagers having to spend the last year solely communicating through the internet, she said.Creators who have adopted this posting style have had follower counts soar. The page @on_a_downward_spiral doubled to nearly half a million followers in the past six months, while the account @joan.of.arca grew 250 percent in the last two months to over 14,100 followers, according to Instagram data.Installations of Whisper, the app that emerged about five years ago as a way for people to anonymously share secrets, have also jumped, according to the analytics firm SensorTower.For Instagram, the shift has been a boon as it duels with TikTok, the short-form video app, for young users. While TikTok has seeded many memes into popular culture, more recent memes such as gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, a phrase meant to poke fun at millennial culture gained popularity early among text-heavy Instagram pages before going mainstream on TikTok.Instagram Create mode posts are definitely whats in right now for people around the ages of 18 to 23, said Shaden Ahadi, 21, who co-runs the Instagram account @mybloodyvirginia with several friends. People who were regular TikTok users are using Instagram more.The shift to text-heavy memes on Instagram began about a year ago, users said.In the early throes of the pandemic last summer, screenshots of peoples overly earnest Facebook status updates became popular on meme accounts, which poked fun at them. But many young users said they didnt like having to log into Facebook to create or find the status updates.Instead, some of them turned to the Whisper app, which lets anyone quickly post text over an image that can be automatically generated or uploaded from your phone. Others used Instagrams Create mode tools, which also make it easy to make a text post in a few clicks. Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony.The dissonance between the photo and the text on Whisper is what appeals to people, said Anna Mariani, 19, a creator who co-runs the Instagram page @this.and.a.blaernt.Whisper did not respond to requests for comment.Ricky Sans, Instagrams strategic partner manager for memes, said the Create mode tools hadnt been made for the purpose of text-heavy memes, but we love to see the creativity to reinterpret a tool to help expression and communication.Yet some meme creators said that as their pages have become more popular, Instagram has been absent. Jackie Kendall, 20, said she has had two meme accounts banned by the app she was not told why and is appealing a third ban.I couldnt tell if Instagram was just cracking down really hard or people were targeting my posts and reporting them, she said. I think Instagram needs to do a much better job of understanding meme pages and communicating with them.The relationship between meme creators and Instagram has long been fraught. In 2019, Instagram meme creators tried to unionize to force the company to better address their support requests and issues such as bans. (Mr. Sans was hired later that year.)In April, Instagram held a meme summit, where Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, answered questions from creators. Yet few popular text-heavy meme pages said they had heard from the company since, despite efforts to contact the platform.In a statement, Instagram said, We hear and sympathize with their concerns and aim to partner with as many meme creators as possible to ensure they receive quality support.Many text-heavy meme creators said they had banded together to support one another.We have meme families, said Misha Takeo, 16, who runs the account @kawaiicuteidols. Established creators, known as nepotism parents, form networks where they mentor and repost and tag smaller creators known as nepotism babies.Some users have also built their own audiences off cleverly written commentary beneath the posts on the meme pages. Known as mega commenters, they have added to the virality of the meme pages in Instagrams feed algorithm.Nate Robbin, 20, a college junior in Florida, said he has commented on text-heavy memes on Instagram for eight months and always gets the top comment on posts of the major players of every community. He called himself the niche internet micro celeb of the ironic posting community.Mr. Robbin was first to comment on Ms. Loves most recent Instagram post referring to that community. I said, Nurse, shes doing that thing again, he said. A good comment can not only drive up interaction to a post, but it can add to the joke itself and make the post funnier as a whole.His comment has over 3,000 likes.Ms. Brennan, the meme librarian, said the rise of Instagrams text-heavy meme pages was reminiscent of the early years of Tumblr, the blogging platform that was popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s.Gen Z is rediscovering the old internet and updating it, she said. | Tech |
Credit...Wong Maye-E/Associated PressFeb. 20, 2014SOCHI, Russia The conversations follow a wearying and familiar pattern. First, Troels Harry identifies himself as a curler, master of a sport many people know (if they know about it at all) as the thing that looks like shuffleboard on ice, with brooms.Then comes the question. They say, Oh, are you good at cleaning the house?' said Harry, who is on the Danish mens curling team here.Ha ha ha! Or not.Every job invites its share of inane, clichd questions, and being an Olympic athlete, at least in this respect, is like any other job.And so it is that Aidan Kelly, an American luger, is often asked if I feel ridiculous wearing a full spandex suit all the time.Marianne St-Gelais, a Canadian short-track speedskater, is frequently asked why skaters sometimes place their hand on the backside of the skater in front of them as they race.And when the American athlete Matt Antoine, who won a bronze medal over the weekend, says he is a skeleton racer, people simply say, What?ImageCredit...Tobias Hase/European Pressphoto AgencyWhen he explains that it is the sport in which the competitors lie on a sled and go down a track headfirst, Antoine said, people follow up with asking you if youre crazy.The sliding sports luge, bobsled and skeleton are particularly prone to misapprehension, particularly among casual observers who look at them and think of glorified sledding.What is the stupidest question? said the American bobsledder Dallas Robinson, the brakeman on a two-man team. The problem is that when I say stupidest question, Ive probably asked all those same questions, so Im admitting to my ignorance of the sport prior to becoming an athlete of the sport.Robinson, who is also the track and field coach for Georgetown College in Kentucky, said he often found himself answering basic questions about two-man bobsledding.A lot of people think the brakeman brakes throughout the track to help control the speeds, he said.That is not the case. That is not the case at all. No, my heads down between my legs and Im praying the whole time. When the tracks over with, I pull with the brakes, and thats it.ImageCredit...Leon Neal/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesRobinson and Nick Cunningham, the teams driver, finished 13th in the two-man event.Patrice Servelle, the driver on Monacos two-man bobsled, gets the flip side of the question. The first thing they ask me is if theres actually something to do in the bobsled like, Im called the driver but am I doing anything? he said.The answer is yes, the driver is driving. Thats why hes called the driver.At least he is not asked if he has watched Cool Runnings, the 1993 movie about the Jamaican bobsled team, which is the question people often put to the French bobsledder Romain Heinrich.This is the most stupid question, Heinrich said, because of course we saw it maybe 20 times.Luge and skeleton athletes are often asked about the differences between the two sports head or feet first?Kelly, the American luger (feet first), said he was often obliged to rebut the notion that his skeleton colleagues were more daring because they went down headfirst.It isnt like theres a brick wall in the middle of the track that you have to dodge, he wrote in an email. And also they get to see where theyre going.Short-track speedskating, in which a scrum of skaters races in tight circles around a track, often colliding with one another, is another sport that audiences can find mystifying.ImageCredit...Bernat Armangue/Associated PressNormally they ask, Why dont you just overtake them?' said Charlotte Gilmartin, a British short-track skater, using the British word for pass.As if thats an easy thing to do, she continued. But it has to be planned. It has to be thought out. Its a skill to overtake at the right point.Similarly, St-Gelais of Canada said she was asked why you didnt just go for it, like its so obvious.Well, you cant just go for it, she added.Curlers, of course, get the most generally clueless questions, starting with, Are you the sweeper or the thrower? (Answer: They do both.)Another question: Do you clean the ice? said Johnny Frederiksen, vice skip of the Danish team.The answer is no. Were trying to heat it up, which sounds stupid but were trying to get some friction going, Frederiksen said. This melts a thin layer of ice and helps direct the stone into the correct position.The first thing they normally say is O.K., if you want to practice, you can sweep my kitchen,' said Christopher Bartsch, a German curler, who held up his broom, made of carbon fiber, to demonstrate that it was not a regular broom. If you had to pick a household implement, it looks more like a sponge mop.Also, no one would sweep a floor the way curlers sweep the ice, with maximum side-to-side frequency and all of their body weight pushing down. It feels like an all-out sprint, said Harry, the Danish curler, holding up his hands covered in calluses and blisters to demonstrate the thoroughness of his grip on the broom.He has an answer for the clean-my-house question.I say, Yeah, yeah, Im pretty good at cleaning, but you should try curling its a lot harder than you think.' | Sports |
A new study of 129 countries found that the interruption of inoculation efforts could put 80 million babies at risk of getting deadly, preventable diseases.Credit...Arshad Arbab/EPA, via ShutterstockMay 22, 2020The widespread interruption of routine immunization programs around the world during the coronavirus pandemic is putting 80 million children under 1 year old at risk of contracting deadly, vaccine-preventable diseases, according to a report Friday by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.The groups surveyed 129 poor and middle-income countries and found that 68 had some degree of disruption of vaccine services through clinics and through large inoculation campaigns.Measles initiatives, for example, have been suspended in 27 countries, including Chad and Ethiopia, and polio programs are on hold in 38, including Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.Many public health experts say they are worried that deaths from diseases including cholera, rotavirus and diphtheria could far outstrip those from Covid-19 itself.The report highlighted warnings about polio, which had recently been all but eradicated, a hard-won victory that resulted from mass immunization programs that reached millions of children.Dr. Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, said that developing countries had made big gains in immunizations against numerous diseases in recent years. Before the pandemic hit, he said, more children in more countries had been protected against more vaccine-preventable diseases than ever before.Due to Covid-19, this immense progress is now under threat, risking the resurgence of diseases like measles and polio, he said.Restarting immunization programs is crucial not just for preventing more outbreaks of life-threatening diseases, he said: It will also ensure we have the infrastructure we need to roll out an eventual Covid-19 vaccine on a global scale. The problem of slipping vaccine rates is not limited to developing countries. This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that coverage rates among Michigan infants had dropped below 50 percent for all childhood immunizations. New York City announced that during a six-week period of pandemic lockdown, the number of vaccine doses administered to children dropped 63 percent, compared with the same period last year.According to health ministers and medical providers in the countries surveyed, there are a number of reasons for the disruptions.In late March, up to 80 percent of flights to Africa that deliver vaccines and syringes were canceled. The health care workers who administer vaccines have been afraid to proceed with the supplies they have on hand, because they lack sufficient protective gear. Parents have been afraid to take children to health clinics. Many areas are in lockdown altogether. And thousands of health care workers who might otherwise be engaged in vaccination are being diverted to respond to Covid-19.International public health experts, including the W.H.O., had initially recommended that mass vaccine programs in particular be halted while the pandemic raged to protect against further spread occasioned by long lines of children waiting for shots.But officials are now moving toward a cautious risk-benefit analysis. Noting that Covid-19 has flared inconsistently worldwide, varying not only from country to country but also within national borders, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a consortium of international organizations, is urging countries to evaluate their own situations closely and devise alternative, pandemic-safe vaccination strategies as soon as possible.Because of the pandemic, Nigeria, which had been well on track to be certified as free of wild polio virus, had to cancel two polio vaccine campaigns in targeted areas that would have otherwise immunized a total of 37.6 million children.The Nigerian campaigns required that health care workers go door-to-door. We couldnt expose vaccinators, explained Dr. Anis Siddique, the head of immunization for UNICEF in Nigeria, about why the programs were suspended.A similar report last month that focused just on the suspension of measles and rubella immunization campaigns already sounded an alarm.Before the coronavirus pandemic, measles cases were already rising. In 2017, there were 7,585,900 estimated measles cases and 124,000 estimated deaths, according to the World Health Organization. In 2018, the last year for which international figures have been compiled, there were 9,769,400 estimated measles cases and 142,300 related deaths.In 2019, the United States reported 1,282 measles cases, its highest in more than 25 years.Prior to Covid, measles was moving across the world as people flew, said Dr. Frank Mahoney, an immunization expert and medical epidemiologist with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. With more and more children becoming susceptible to it, it could be amplified and become a major international problem.Henrietta Fore, the executive director of UNICEF, addressed the terrible calculus countries must make in determining how to proceed. While circumstances may require us to temporarily pause some immunization efforts, she said, these immunizations must restart as soon as possible, or we risk exchanging one deadly outbreak for another. | Health |
Credit...Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 6, 2014Knicks Coach Mike Woodson has had an aggravating season that could soon cost him his job. But amid everything that is going wrong with his team, he has found time to admire how the Portland Trail Blazers go about their business.Woodsons reaction is similar to that of many N.B.A. fans and observers, who have been duly impressed by a club that remains the surprise of the N.B.A. with a 35-14 record, the third-best mark in the powerful Western Conference. If only the Knicks were, well, two-thirds as good. When Woodson watched film of the Trail Blazers in preparation for Wednesdays game at Madison Square Garden, which Portland won, 94-90, he noticed their conscientious shot selection, their consistent effort on defense, their toughness in the fourth quarter.Their first unit is as good as any first unit in this league, Woodson said. Theyve been steady all year. They havent had very many injuries out of their first unit, and they know each other. Theyre pretty nice to watch.Entering Wednesdays game, Portland had a net rating the difference between offensive and defensive ratings per 100 possessions of plus 3.8 points, the ninth best in the league, and each of Coach Terry Stottss starters has a positive net rating.LaMarcus Aldridge, Portlands best player and an All-Star this season, made the games biggest basket against New York. With Portlands lead down to 2 points late in the game, Aldridge backed in against Tyson Chandler with a few dribbles before turning for a fadeaway jumper that touched nothing but net.Aldridge (15 points, 12 rebounds) then celebrated in front of Spike Lee.I just stared at him and he was like, My bad, my bad, he said. That was fun for me.As for the other starters, Damian Lillard, an All-Star in his second season, was steady enough with the ball on offense. Wesley Matthews held Carmelo Anthony scoreless in the final quarter. Robin Lopez protected the paint for 34 minutes. And Nicolas Batum led Portland with 20 points on 14 shot attempts. He also had 10 rebounds and 3 assists.He just does a little bit of everything, Stotts said of the 6-foot-8-inch Batum, a French native in his sixth season with Portland. I know people like to see him be aggressive in scoring, but now hes taking the challenge of guarding point guards. Most nights hes flirting with a triple-double. Batum showed enough lateral movement to draw a charge on J. R. Smith with less than four minutes left in the game and the Trail Blazers leading, 85-80. A few possessions later, he shot over Tim Hardaway Jr. and made a 15-foot jumper to give the Trail Blazers an 88-81 lead.Just a season ago, the Trail Blazers finished with an awful 33-49 record while the Knicks were 54-28, their best regular-season mark in 16 years. But as much as Portland has figured things out and taken off, the Knicks have gone in the opposite direction, now saddled with a 19-30 mark that could keep them out of the playoffs. And Woodson seems to be coaching from game to game, not sure how long he will be around.To show how quickly fortunes can change in the N.B.A., Aldridge recalled Wednesday that one of the worst moments of his career came at the Garden in March 2011, when the Trail Blazers were embarrassed by the Knicks in a 121-79 blowout. Portland fired Coach Nate McMillan the next day. Aldridge said that he felt helpless, and that some of his teammates were playing with little effort.The Trail Blazers finished that season 28-38 and then brought in Stotts. Unlike Woodson, who had a strong winning record with the Knicks in his first season and a half in charge, Stotts needed a year to figure things out. But once he did, things changed dramatically. A part of a coach getting better is learning your players, Aldridge said of Stotts. From last year to this year, I definitely feel like hes learned us better. Hes figured out what guys can do and what guys want shots.It has also helped Stotts that his team has stayed relatively healthy and that the biggest injury for the Trail Blazers right now is Batums left middle finger. He sustained a minor fracture in early January but has played through the pain.Woodson has watched one player after another go down with significant injuries. After 49 games, he is still searching to find the right collection of players to put on the court to start games and, more important, finish them. The fact that he has rarely had a full complement of players has probably factored into his inability to find a decent formula.The Trail Blazers? We have no injuries right now, Batum acknowledged after Wednesdays game. He then paused for a second inside the visitors locker room, turned his head and knocked on a nearby wood panel twice with his recently injured left hand.If he were a Knick, he might have broken something right on the spot. But Batum is a Trail Blazer, and, right now, fortune is on their side. | Sports |
MatterCredit...P.C. Poulsen/Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesMarch 8, 2017Human skeletons and archaeological remains in Australia can be traced back nearly 50,000 years before the trail disappears. Before then, apparently, Australia was free of humans.So how did people get there, and when? Where did humans first arrive on the continent, and how did they spread across the entire landmass?Answers to some of these questions are stored in the DNA of Aboriginal Australians. A genetic study of 111 Aboriginal Australians, published on Wednesday, offers an interesting and, in some respects, unexpected view of their remarkable story.All living Aboriginal Australians descend from a single founding population that arrived about 50,000 years ago, the study shows. They swept around the continent, along the coasts, in a matter of centuries. And yet, for tens of thousands of years after, those populations remained isolated, rarely mixing.The DNA used in the new study comes from aboriginal hair collected during a series of expeditions between 1926 and 1963. The Board for Anthropological Research at the University of Adelaide sent researchers to communities across Australia, where they collected vast amounts of information about aboriginal languages, ceremonies, artwork, cosmologies and genealogy.Many Aboriginal Australians today no longer live where their ancestors did. During the 1900s, the countrys government forcibly removed many from their traditional lands and separated children from families. Many Aboriginal Australians moved to cities far from where they grew up.Thanks to the subjects age and detailed records, scientists suspected the hair samples might offer a glimpse of the pre-colonial past. It seemed obvious that this collection is perhaps the best way to reconstruct Australian history, said Alan Cooper, a pioneer in ancient DNA studies at the University of Adelaide.He and his colleagues first sought consent for the tests from the descendants of the people whose hair samples had been collected. They traveled to aboriginal communities, spending several days talking to family members to address their concerns. All but one of the families they visited gave them permission to run the study.Dr. Cooper and his colleagues knew extracting DNA would not be easy. Over the decades that the hair had been in storage, the genetic traces may have broken down beyond recognition.Making matters worse, the hair had been cut with scissors. The best way to get genetic material from a strand of hair is to pull it out at its DNA-rich root.Given these uncertainties, the scientists decided to increase the odds of success by searching for abundant mitochondrial DNA, which is situated outside the cell nucleus and is inherited solely from the mother. Eventually, the scientists managed to piece together all the mitochondrial genes in each of the hair samples.By comparing the aboriginal sequences to DNA from other parts of the world, the scientists determined that they all belonged to a single human lineage, indicating that all aborigines descended from a single migration to the continent.Mitochondrial DNA gradually accumulates mutations at a roughly regular rate, ticking like a molecular clock. By adding up the mutations in the hair samples, the scientists also estimated that their owners all descended from a common ancestor who lived around 50,000 years ago. That finding fits nicely with the estimated ages of the oldest archaeological sites in Australia.The mitochondrial tree also provided clues to how people spread through the continent.Fifty thousand years ago, sea levels were so low that Australia and New Guinea formed a single continent. Humans moved from Southeast Asia onto this landmass, some settling in what is now New Guinea, others traveling farther south into Australia.They kept to the coastlines until they reached southern Australia 49,000 years ago. But once this great migration was finished, the new study suggests, the ancestors of todays aborigines hunkered down in their new homes for tens of thousands of years.The mitochondrial DNA contains no evidence that these populations mixed in any significant way, surprising researchers. We were fully expecting a fully diverse mix of people in all places at all times, Dr. Cooper said.This is not the sort of migratory pattern documented by gene testing on other continents. In Europe, for instance, new populations have swept in every few thousand years, mixing with the societies they encountered.Farming explains the difference, Dr. Cooper suggests. Unlike Africa, Asia and Europe, Australia did not experience the rise of agriculture several thousand years ago. If you dont have cheap carbohydrates, you dont increase in population size, he said.Populations grew on other continents, but they often risked catastrophic crop failure. When that happened, Dr. Cooper said, theres only one response mass migration.In Australia, however, aborigines did not depend on crops and lived as nomads in discrete regions. They never needed to move across the continent.This is really very surprising, but also hard to doubt, said Stephan Schiffels, a population geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, who was not involved in the study. The data is what it is.Peter Bellwood, an archaeologist at Australian National University who was not involved in the study, said much of the new data fit with archaeological findings. But he found it hard to see how Aboriginal Australians could have remained so sedentary for so long.He pointed to tools shared by many aboriginal cultures across great distances, as well as to a family of languages spoken by many aboriginal groups. Dr. Bellwood doubted that they could have spread so far while individuals did not.If humans dont move, why should languages and tools move? he asked.Dr. Schiffels and other researchers raised the possibility that the mitochondrial DNA was missing important details of Australian history.DNA in the nucleus of each cell, coming from both parents, can offer clues to a wider range of ancestors.It turns out, however, that Dr. Cooper and his colleagues were too pessimistic about the hair samples. Skin cells stuck to the hair shafts turn out to contain rich supplies of nuclear DNA.We can do the entire genome for each of these samples, Dr. Cooper said. So were returning to these communities to ask for permission to get a far more detailed look. | science |
Credit...Laura McDermott for The New York TimesMarch 14, 2016Their websites show peaceful scenes young women relaxing by the ocean or caring for horses in emerald pastures and boast of their chefs and other amenities.One center sends out invitations to a reception with cocktails and hors doeuvres. Another offers doctors and therapists all-expense-paid trips to visit and experience their offerings, including yoga classes. Several employ staff who call mental health professionals, saying they would love to have lunch.The marketing efforts by these for-profit residential care centers are aimed at patients with eating disorders and the clinicians who treat them. The programs have proliferated in recent years, with some companies expanding across the country.The rapid growth of the industry there are more than 75 centers, compared with 22 a decade ago, according to one count has been propelled by the Affordable Care Act and other changes in health insurance laws that have increased coverage for mental disorders, as well as by investments from private equity firms.The residential programs, their directors say, fill a dire need, serving patients from areas where no adequate treatment is available. Only 15 to 30 percent of people have access to specialized care for eating disorders, which means there are a lot of people out there who have zippo, said Doug Bunnell, the chief clinical officer for Monte Nido, a program that began in Malibu, Calif., and now operates centers in five states.But the advertising and the profusion of centers, which typically cost $1,000 a day but can run much higher, is raising concerns among some eating disorders experts, who worry that some programs may be taking advantage of vulnerable patients and their families.In the companies rush to expand, they argue, quality of treatment may be sacrificed for profit. And they question whether the spalike atmosphere of some programs is so comfortable that it fosters dependency.For the most part, the people who are running and working in these programs believe theyre doing the right thing, said Dr. Angela Guarda, the director of the eating disorders program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.But its a slippery slope, she said. Money can cloud your view.Many eating disorders specialists agree that some patients require the supervision of residential programs and benefit from the treatment. But studies showing the programs effectiveness are scant, Dr. Guarda and other experts said. The methods of the handful of studies that exist have been criticized.The quality and form of treatment varies widely across centers, and in some cases includes approaches equine therapy, for example, or faith-based treatment with little or no scientific evidence behind them. Some programs have full-time psychiatrists and medical doctors on staff, but others lack the expertise to handle emergencies or treat patients with coexisting medical or psychiatric problems.The perks offered to outside clinicians who might refer patients, the experts say, include free trips, restaurant meals, educational seminars and small gifts like pens and key chains dispensed at professional meetings. Critics liken them to pharmaceutical industry tactics that led to laws and policies requiring financial disclosure, though on a smaller scale. Studies had shown that even small gifts from drug companies, like free medication samples, affected doctors prescription practices.In an article to be published Monday in the journal Psychiatric Services, Dr. Evelyn Attia, a professor of psychiatry and director of the eating disorders program at Columbia University Medical Center, and four colleagues called for more transparency about the financial relationships between residential centers and the professionals who send them patients, and urged clinicians to be mindful of efforts to influence their recommended treatment.The effect of these clinician inducements, which are aimed at building a programs patient referral base, may not be fully recognized by the professionals they target, wrote Dr. Attia and her colleagues, who included Dr. Guarda.Several industry representatives said that while they had not seen the journal article, they agreed that more data on patient outcomes and stricter standards were needed. But, they said, the trips and seminars offered to clinicians were primarily educational. I dont think anyone in the eating disorders world is giving out swimming pools and trips to Europe and things like that, Dr. Bunnell said.Jillian Lampert, president of the Residential Eating Disorders Consortium, a group that represents about 85 percent of the centers, said, Health cares always been a business, adding that quality and profit were not mutually exclusive. If there are concerns, she said, we are incredibly open to having those conversations.A Deadly Mental IllnessEating disorders are among the most difficult mental illnesses to treat.Anorexia, in particular, has stymied many of psychiatrys best treatment efforts. The illness has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder, with patients dying from the medical complications of starvation or from suicide. And patients often resist treatments that make them feel uncomfortable.The most severely ill patients the prognosis is grimmer the longer someone has anorexia, studies suggest require hospital treatment just to stay alive. But even after being stabilized, many patients need continual supervision for a time to regain weight and learn new behavior. The length of stay in residential centers ranges from two weeks to a year. A 2006 study found that the average stay was 83 days.In the past, health insurance companies placed strict limits on coverage for eating disorders, treating them differently from other medical illnesses. Few insurers were willing to pay for 24-hour care after a patient was out of immediate danger.But the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008 and the Affordable Care Act two years later mandated equal treatment. Lawsuits brought by the families of patients who were denied coverage added to the pressure on insurers. In 2012, a federal appeals court ruled that health plans must cover residential treatment for anorexia under Californias parity law. The higher reimbursement rates offered some relief to families, who had often mortgaged their houses or drained their savings to pay for critically needed care.They also attracted the attention of Wall Street investors, who saw profits in providing treatment for so-called behavioral health problems like eating disorders, alcoholism and drug abuse. The number of covered lives is growing faster than the availability of services to treat them, creating compelling investment opportunities, the accounting and consulting firm BDO noted last year in an article on its website, referring to the effects of the legal changes.As the industry has expanded, larger centers have acquired smaller ones and some programs, flush with private equity investments, have expanded across the country.For example, Monte Nido, a treatment program founded by Carolyn Costin, a former teacher who recovered from an eating disorder, began with a center in Malibu.But in 2012, with financing from Centre Partners, a middle-market equity firm, Monte Nido began opening new residential centers and day-treatment programs. The company now has centers in Oregon, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York, including one in a renovated mansion in Westchester County.Last year, noting that the investment had tripled the companys facility footprint during our ownership period, Centre Partners sold Monte Nido to another investment firm, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, for an undisclosed sum.I believe that the Monte Nidos [sic] approach to eating disorder treatment is what you and others like you have been waiting for, Ms. Costin wrote in a letter to potential patients on the companys website, which includes images of beaches, mountains and the Boston skyline on its home page.With a need to fill more beds, marketers for some centers make cold calls to psychiatrists, psychotherapists, medical doctors and others who treat eating disorders, offering to inform them about a programs advantages and inviting them to visit.The Denver-based Eating Recovery Center has a call center and employs 20 professional relations liaisons who contact clinicians across the country. The author and motivational speaker Jenni Schaefer, who recovered from an eating disorder, recently joined the programs outreach team. On its website, the company, which began with a single center, bills itself as the only national health care system devoted to serious eating disorders at all levels of care.Craig Johnson, a well-known eating disorders specialist, joined the company in 2010 and has seen it through its expansion to 24 treatment programs in seven states, including three residential centers. He said when therapists visit, the focus is education, not entertainment. Were delivering lectures, Dr. Johnson said.Some therapists see the offer of free trips as a chance to view the facilities that they might recommend to patients.Ann Jacob Smith, a family therapist in Chevy Chase, Md., said that last year, she accepted an invitation to visit the Oliver-Pyatt eating disorders center in Miami. (The center is now part of Monte Nido).It was absolutely promotional, she said, But it was actually really educational. They took us in depth into what they did.Her later referrals were not influenced by the visit, she added. Im not impressed by being romanced.But Adrian Brown, a psychiatrist in Virginia, said that therapists who had not gone through the battle phase with drug companies might not even realize they were being swayed by financial interests.Dr. Brown recalled being offered a V.I.P. trip to a treatment center, with the representative telling her, We will pay your way, put you up in a really nice hotel, all expenses paid, yoga and whatever.Dr. Brown responded, No, thats not ethical.The representative replied, What do you mean? Another invitation arrived the next year.ImageCredit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York TimesMixed ResultsProspective patients or family members searching for a treatment program sometimes turn to sites like edtreatmentreview.com or www.edtxreviews.com, where former patients describe their experiences at different centers, evaluating the staff, critiquing the food and noting whether cellphones are allowed.Many reviewers have spent time in more than one residential center and the opinions on any particular program vary widely, a range reflected in interviews with former patients over the last several months.Tina Klaus, a 51-year-old artist who has struggled with bulimia since she was 10, said residential care was initially useful.Residential treatment is vital when you are at your ultimate rock bottom she said. But once home, her illness worsened because youre going back into your life, youre going back into all the emotions you used your eating disorder to hide from.Melissa R., 28, who asked that her last name not be used for reasons of privacy, said after several hospitalizations for anorexia, beginning when she was 21, she found a residential center in the Southwest on the Internet and spent six weeks there. The center, which she described as more like a resort, was somewhat helpful, she said, but not worth the time and money.People were nice, and the food was really good, she said. I had fun, I enjoyed rock climbing and stuff, but thats not why I was there. Im paying a lot of money to get well, not to rock climb.Last year, she spent two months at Eating Recovery Center in Denver, moving from residential care to day treatment, and began to gain control of her illness. E.R.C. was the best place Ive been, she said about the center. They were very individualized.Ashley Bilkie, 29, had a different experience with E.R.C. When she returned home in February 2015 after about six months in the Denver program her fourth stay in an inpatient program for treatment of anorexia and her second at E.R.C. I was getting sicker and sicker, she said. She lost the weight she had gained back at the center. I had to buy childrens clothing, she said.She was evasive with her parents. At the recovery center, she said, It was kind of like they set up a battle between myself and my parents. For their part, Ms. Bilkies parents, who for years had watched their daughters health decline, grew frantic. Ms. Bilkie would disappear, her father, Robert Bilkie, said, and he would find her wandering the aisles at Kroger or Target. Driving through the neighborhood, he half-expected to see her hanging from a tree.Its a parents worst nightmare, he said.It was also expensive. Mr. Bilkie, a financial adviser in Michigan, calculated that over three years, he paid at least $350,000 for unreimbursed inpatient care for his daughter. The Eating Recovery Center, he said, sent him bills for $30,000 each month. Mr. Bilkie paid willingly he was desperate to see Ashley get well, he said but no program seemed to produce lasting results.We spent an outrageous amount of money for what really amounted to ineffectual treatment, Mr. Bilkie said.Last fall, Ms. Bilkie entered the eating disorder center at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center, a university affiliated program.ImageCredit...Laura McDermott for The New York TimesThe staff there gradually weaned her off some drugs she had been taking taking at the center in Denver, including high doses of Xanax, a tranquilizer, and Adderall, an attention deficit drug and a stimulant.In group therapy, other patients put pressure on her to change her behavior. It was a switch, she said, from previous groups, where patients talked about their problems. With the programs stress on weight restoration studies show that it is the best predictor of how anorexic patients will do once they leave, rather than, say, elevated mood her weight returned to normal.She was discharged in November and continues to do well.I hated every single solitary second of it, she said of the experience. But thats a good thing, because I was not comfortable, and it meant that something was working.Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, the chief clinical officer of Eating Recovery Center, said that other patients have fared poorly at academic centers and then done well at E.R.C. Despite Ms. Bilkies perception, he said, therapists at the program did not try to divide patients from their families. (Ms. Bilkie gave Eating Recovery Center permission to discuss her case.)We would have to filter this through 20/20 hindsight, Dr. Bermudez said. Its really hard to know what somebodys frame of mind is and the degree of fragility they bring to any treatment experience.Dr. Anne Marie OMelia, a psychiatrist at the recovery center, said Ms. Bilkie was on Xanax when she arrived and was fearful of reducing the drugs dosage, though the center tried. She was switched to Adderall from another stimulant at E.R.C., Dr. OMelia said, to treat significant impulsivity.Seeking StandardsMs. Bilkies history of ups and downs is not unusual for patients with eating disorders.In many cases, you see one step forward, two steps back, said Dr. Mark Friedlander, the chief medical officer for Aetna Behavioral Health.His company, Dr. Friedlander said, considers residential care essential for treatment of some patients. But, he said, a lack of outcome studies, an absence of industry standards and a patchwork licensing system across states make it difficult for Aetna or other insurers to evaluate care.We would love to see greater consistency and higher standards, he said.To that end, a group of eating disorder specialists from treatment centers, including Eating Recovery Center and Monte Nido, have developed a list of minimum requirements for accreditation of residential programs. The Joint Commission, an independent company that accredits health care facilities, has adopted the requirements, which go into effect July 1.Dr. Lampert, president of the consortium, said the centers in the organization were also collecting data on patient outcomes, lengths of stay and other variables, with each center collecting data on 15 consecutive admissions of adults and adolescents.In the meantime, many patients and families will continue to rely on word of mouth and any information they can find online.These are black boxes, Dr. Scott Hadland, an adolescent medicine specialist at Harvard Medical School, said of the residential centers. People get the idea that these are places that can heal just based on what they see on a website or in the photos. | Health |
Enzo Amore Fired By WWE In Wake of Rape Allegations 1/23/2018 The WWE has officially "released" superstar Enzo Amore in the wake of allegations he raped a woman in Arizona back in October. The company issued a statement saying, "WWE has come to terms on the release of Eric Arndt (Enzo Amore)." As we previously reported, the accuser went public with her story on Monday -- claiming Enzo and two friends got her "f*cked up" in a Phoenix hotel room and Enzo raped her. The woman filed a report with the Phoenix P.D. Cops are actively investigating. So far, no word from Enzo. Story developing ... | Entertainment |
Credit...Fernando Rodriguez for The New York TimesDec. 7, 2015Many Fed watchers have warned about the upsetting effect Ben S. Bernankes aggressive central bank actions have had on emerging markets around the globe.But when the recently retired chairman of the Federal Reserve came to the International Monetary Fund last month to deliver a vigorous defense of how his bond-buying spree played out abroad, Mr. Bernanke directed his remarks not at prominent critics in Brazil and India but at a 45-year-old French economist living in London.Hlne Rey, a professor at the London Business School, contends that the impact of Fed policies on global markets has become so potent that emerging markets have become largely powerless in terms of coping with the large investment flows that pour into and out of their economies.Mr. Bernankes speech largely focused on his own legacy, but the issue of how mindful the Fed should be regarding the effect that rate changes have on other countries has become critically important.This fall, Fed governors surprised many by deciding not to raise rates; one of the factors cited was the impact that Chinas currency devaluation would have on already fragile emerging markets. Many economists have been warning that a rate increase combined with uncertain exchange rates in China and other countries would weaken global growth.Now, with all indications pointing to a rate increase this month the first in more than nine years the fear remains that emerging markets will get hit by another round of capital volatility and currency devaluations as investors exit risky assets in favor of higher yielding prospects in the United States.All of which makes Ms. Reys research particularly relevant, not least her recommendation that policy makers in the United States and abroad put in place regulations that reduce the intensity and speculative fervor of these flows. That could mean capital controls in emerging markets or new rules for investment funds that would punish short-term trading by investors.Hlne has pushed the notion that there is a global financial cycle and that countries are exposed to it independently from the exchange rate regime they use, Olivier Blanchard, the former chief economist of the I.M.F., said in an introduction to a lecture Ms. Rey gave at the fund in 2014. And she has suggested that the only way to deal with it is through capital controls. This is quite a different position and likely to be quite influential.In a widely discussed paper that she presented two years ago at a central bank conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Ms. Rey described what she called a global financial cycle whereby financial firms, often using borrowed money, swoop into Malaysian, Brazilian and Turkish markets when rates in the United States are low and swoop out when rates rise frequently leaving wreckage in their wake.Ms. Rey is not the first economist to propose that volatile capital flows, especially those that cause real estate bubbles, may be harmful for countries that absorb them.Hyun Song Shin, a former Princeton professor who is the head of research at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, has been talking for a number of years about how Fed policies have spurred speculative investment flows globally.But by highlighting how new exchange rate policies intended to help countries handle these money streams have not worked, Ms. Reys research offers a provocative new twist.In previous emerging market crises, most countries got into trouble because their exchange rates were tied to the dollar, making them vulnerable to the ups and downs of interest rate policies in the United States.To better insulate themselves from these external policy shocks, the I.M.F. and most economists advised these countries to let their exchange rates float freely, which most have done.What Ms. Rey found, however, was that countries like Brazil, Turkey and South Africa were just as exposed to the whipsaw effect of rate-driven capital flows with flexible rates as they were when currencies were pegged to the dollar.ImageCredit...Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesThis conclusion suggests that what ails countries like Turkey and Brazil is less their troubled economies (high inflation and lots of debt) and more the volatile investment flows coming into their countries.And it questioned what has long been seen as a core principle for emerging economies: that the free flow of capital into and out of these markets is a force for good that should be encouraged.There is no doubt that Hlnes work carries with it important policy implications, said Mr. Shin, the economist at the Bank for International Settlements, whose work on global capital flows Ms. Rey has drawn upon.Ms. Reys paper, delivered in the summer of 2013, could not have been better timed. Just months earlier, global markets had been roiled by the so-called taper tantrum when global investors pulled billions of dollars out of emerging economies based on the news that the Fed would taper its bond purchasing program.Suddenly, she was very much in demand fielding calls from central bankers, policy makers and global investors alike, all of whom were searching for a framework to help them analyze this sudden bout of market volatility.It has been a nice surprise life has definitely gotten busier, Ms. Rey said in a telephone interview from Santiago, Chile, where she was talking to the central bank there about how best to respond to capital flows. This is an important debate. We have to decide which flows are beneficial and which are speculative.Her ascent has been rapid. A gift for crunching numbers lifted her from the small town of Brioude in central France to a Grande cole in Paris, a scholarship at Stanford University and a doctorate from the London School of Economics.In 2000, she was recruited to Princeton University by none other than Mr. Bernanke, who was the chairman of the universitys economics department at the time.She is married to Richard Portes, a prominent economist also at the London Business School.Ms. Rey has been the co-author of several papers of note, but it has been her work on capital flows that has drawn attention. In 2014, she was asked to deliver the Mundell-Fleming lecture at the I.M.F., one of the most prestigious invitations available to an internationally minded economist.Indeed, it would be from this very platform that Mr. Bernanke would offer up his deconstruction of Ms. Reys thesis one year later.To be sure, he took care to laud the quality of her work, but there was also a hint of defensiveness in his remarks. After all, Mr. Bernanke was the one holding the monetary reins during this period and he questioned whether Ms. Reys definition of a swarm of investors chasing risky assets when rates in the United States are low might not be overly simplistic.And wasnt it also true that those experiencing the most turbulent capital flows Turkey, Brazil and South Africa, for example were already on edge as a result of their own economic problems?These were countries that were vulnerable, Mr. Bernanke said in his speech. Their policies made them riskier.Unlike many rising economists, Ms. Rey has a humble air about her, and she takes pains to say that her research is not meant to be critical of Mr. Bernankes time at the Fed.But she stands firmly by her claim that the Feds propensity to spur speculative and at times damaging investment flows remains underappreciated and that more aggressive steps need to be taken to mitigate them.I think Ben has a very good point, even if we do recognize a global financial cycle, how do we know it is excessive, she said. Still, my evidence points to additional risk-taking not only in emerging markets but Europe as well. | Business |
Credit...Youssef Badawi/EPA, via ShutterstockJune 7, 2018WASHINGTON An American citizen detained by the military in Iraq as a suspected Islamic State member will be released back into Syria, the Trump administration has told a judge a plan that his lawyers called a death warrant.The move would avoid a fight in court over the high-stakes question of whether the government has the legal authority to put Islamic State suspects in indefinite wartime detention as enemy combatants. If a judge were to rule against the government on that question in the detention case, it would jeopardize the underpinnings of the entire war effort against the Islamic State.But lawyers for the man, whose name has not been made public, vowed to fight the planned transfer in court. The plan was the latest twist in a habeas corpus case that has raised novel legal issues about the rights of individual Americans and the governments wartime powers.The American Civil Liberties Union planned to file an emergency request for a temporary restraining order against the military on Thursday, said Jonathan Hafetz, an A.C.L.U. lawyer who is the lead attorney for the man.In its filing late Wednesday disclosing the governments Syria release plan, the Justice Department said the military intended to release the man in an unidentified Syrian city after at least 72 hours had passed.The Pentagon, it said, had decided that releasing the man in Syria would be consistent with traditional military practice and with the departments obligations under the law of war. It had given the man two options release either in a town or outside an internally displaced person camp but the man had balked at both, so the Pentagon picked the town option for him.In a declaration that was partially unsealed on Thursday afternoon, Mark E. Mitchell, a senior Pentagon official, provided further details about the plan. The man, he said, would be given a new cellphone in its original sealed packaging, enough food and water to last for several days, his legal papers, and $4,210 in cash the same amount he had when captured.Mr. Mitchell further said that the Pentagon would notify the Syrian Democratic Forces, military allies of the Americans, that the man would be released and was likely to be traveling through its checkpoints, and tell them that the United States is not seeking and/or requesting that the man be detained again.It is not clear whether the man would have a right to a court order requiring some safer outcome. Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the habeas corpus case, has already made clear that she does not think he has a right to be brought back to the United States.The man is a dual citizen of the United States, where he was born, and Saudi Arabia, where he was raised. He was captured by a militia in Syria in September and turned over to the American military, which has been holding him at a base in Iraq as an enemy combatant for nearly nine months.The man said he went to Syria to be a journalist and was arrested by the Islamic State, then worked for the group as a condition of being freed from prison. But the government has said that Islamic State records show he registered with the group as a fighter, and his social media postings indicate he sympathized with the group. It has not accused him of fighting for the group.What to do with the man has been a dilemma. Prosecutors have deemed his case difficult to charge in civilian court; much of the evidence against him may not be admissible under courtroom standards. As an American, he is also not eligible for charges before the troubled military commissions system. But security officials have wanted to keep him locked up, or at least out of the United States.This spring, the government struck a deal with another country apparently Saudi Arabia to take custody of him. But the man balked at the proposed arrangement, and Judge Chutkan blocked the military from carrying out the transfer to that country against his will a decision upheld last month by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.It has not been clear how or where the man would be released if he won his lawsuit. There is no evidence the man was in Iraq before the American military brought him there, and it would apparently require the consent of the Iraqi government to release him on its soil. Moreover, he would risk being immediately rearrested there, and the Iraqi courts have been giving 10-minute trials and death sentences to Islamic State members.Mr. Hafetz maintained that if the government wanted to release his client, it must do so to a location that is not a war zone, and he has to be provided with some identity documents or something that establishes that he is in the territory legally and he has to not be subject to physical harm and basically almost automatic re-detention.He added, They have to find a safer place, and if they cant, they have to release him in the United States.The court rulings blocking the mans forcible transfer to apparent Saudi custody had seemed to clear the way for a hearing later this month on the most important issue raised by the case: whether it is lawful for the government to indefinitely detain the man without charges as part of a wartime enemy force.The Obama and Trump administrations argued that the government needed no new authorization from Congress to fight the Islamic State. But that claim is contested.The government has sought to throw up one roadblock after another to avoid the basic question of whether they are holding this man legally, Mr. Hafetz said. If they are not, or if they dont want to charge him or hold him, the answer is to release him in a way that guarantees his safety and doesnt condemn him to danger or possible death. | Politics |
Credit...Mark Metcalfe/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 23, 2018SYDNEY, Australia Indias president, Ram Nath Kovind, on Friday began wrapping up his visit to Australia after several days of meetings as the two countries move to tighten their economic and political bonds at a time of worsening tensions between China and the United States.The visit came four months after the quiet release of a 500-page report by Australias former top diplomat, Peter Varghese, on the need to enhance the countrys economic and security ties with India over the coming years.Australias prime minister, Scott Morrison, endorsed that report on Thursday, calling it a road map for our economic future with India. He and other officials said the Australian government had agreed to work on strengthening ties between the two countries education, resources, agribusiness and tourism sectors.The relationship is on an upward trajectory and this visit is likely to give it positive momentum, said Ajay Gondane, Indias high commissioner to Australia.Although the leaders conversation focused on economic partnerships, their meeting and the Varghese report have pointed to growing concerns in both countries about Chinas aggressive rise, experts said, and the efforts needed to counter it.The report did not specifically say that India and Australia need to work together to balance China it was much more sophisticated and nuanced, said Amitabh Mattoo, a professor at the University of Melbourne and the founding director of the universitys Australia India Institute. But anyone who reads between the lines would recognize that its China, China and China.Mr. Morrison emphasized shared values between Australia and India, drawing an implicit contrast with Chinas authoritarian approach.Our cultures might be different, but we believe in similar things we believe in the supremacy of the ballot box in our national life; in the rule of law, Mr. Morrison said at the India Business Summit in Sydney on Thursday. And we believe in the rights of nations to live free and not under the controlling hand of others.President Kovind echoed that point, speaking of the peace and prosperity of a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific Region, as well as a shared passion for cricket.After unveiling a statue of Mohandas K. Gandhi and addressing members of the Indian diaspora in Sydney, Mr. Kovind spoke to students at the University of Melbourne before heading to a cricket game between India and Australia.The visit came as the two countries have become increasingly interwoven through trade and immigration.Two-way trade between Australia and India hit $27.5 billion last year; 700,000 people of Indian descent call Australia home, making it the fastest growing immigrant community in Australia; and more than 87,000 Indian students are enrolled at Australian educational institutions, Mr. Morrison said in his speech Thursday. He added that we welcome more skilled migrants from India than any other nation.India has also been a major investor in Australias mining industry. Mr. Morrison said that coal was Australias largest export to India, worth more than $9 billion in 2017.But one of those investments has drawn intense scrutiny: the effort by the Indian company Adani to open one of the worlds largest coal mines, which opponents say would harm the Great Barrier Reef because of potential damage from coal shipments. The plan still awaits final approval.But this week, the focus has been on strengthening economic ties and broadening the two countries strategic alignment.The talks came a year and a half after Malcolm Turnbull, Mr. Morrisons predecessor, met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on a visit to India. At the time, Mr. Turnbull put a proposed free-trade agreement between the countries on the back burner. Now there is a greater sense of urgency to build ties in order to counter China, Professor Mattoo said.The economic relationship will happen in any case, he said. It is the strategic alignment that is important to ensure that the relationship really takes off. | World |
Credit...Mark Humphrey/Associated PressFeb. 8, 2014PHILADELPHIA It was 12:30 p.m. last Thursday, and the Wells Fargo Centers janitorial staff was mopping the concourses and seating areas before that nights game between the Flyers and the Colorado Avalanche. A few of the workers noticed a pickup game on the arenas ice.Although many team officials would have been using that time to prepare for the game, the Avalanches Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic were immersed in a game of shinny with some members of the training staff. Roy, the coach, and Sakic, the executive vice president for hockey operations, could stuff a trophy case with mementos from their Hall of Fame playing careers, yet their competitive spirit and good nature prompted this light moment.Joe is on the road trip, so we took advantage of him, Roy said of the impromptu game. It is fun. It is also is good to lose a bit of weight and get in better shape.In their first season, Sakic and Roy have altered the team culture. The Avalanche, who have missed the postseason four of the past five seasons, were firmly in playoff position as they visited the Islanders on Saturday. Roy says he hopes Denver hockey fans will reinvest in the team.They want to make the playoffs; they want to see a change, Roy said. At the end of the day, everything is in the hands of our players. Im proud of them, and they deserve a lot of credit.Fun has become the watchword in Colorados dressing room. I think the biggest difference has been the coaching staff, the fifth-year forward Matt Duchene said. I think the biggest thing is we have a more relaxed, more fun atmosphere.Sakic, a former Avalanche captain, has been in the front office since 2011 but was promoted last May to his current position. His first assignment from Josh Kroenke, the team president, was to find a coach to replace Joe Sacco. One name came to mind.I heard enough that I knew he was ready to make the next step, Sakic said of Roy. He added, I played with him, and I know the competitor he is.Roy was the goalie who helped the Avalanche reach six Western Conference finals and win two Stanley Cups from the time he joined them in the 1995-96 season until his retirement in 2003. He interviewed for the head coaching position in 2009 but wasnt ready, Sakic said. Last May, Sakic and Kroenke offered Roy the job while golfing in Florida. Roy, who was co-owner, general manager and coach of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, could not refuse his former teammate. Hes the main reason why I am here, Roy said. I didnt want to go into an adventure like this with someone I dont trust. I have a lot of confidence and respect for Joe. I know that he wants the same thing that I do.ImageCredit...Steve Babineau/Getty ImagesRoy is still a co-owner of the Remparts and said his time coaching in the Quebec league had helped prepare him for the Avalanche job. I learned a lot from my tenure in juniors, Roy said. It helped me a lot in confidence. I made my share of mistakes. I realize there are things that you cannot do at the N.H.L. level.Many Avalanche players, including the clubs seven Quebecers, said they were star-struck upon hearing that Roy would be their coach. Hes a guy that I watched growing up, said forward P. A. Parenteau, a native of Hull, Quebec. It was special for me, but after a while, you dont even think about it.I dont see him as Patrick Roy the goalie. I see him as Patrick Roy, my coach.The Avalanche won 14 of their first 16 games this season. In the competitive Western Conference, their 77 points entering the weekend were good for fifth place.When I got here, I was talking about a partnership with my players, Roy said. I want to base my relationship on respect and hard work every day. I thought if we respect each other and trust each other, that goes a long way.Among those who have earned Roys trust is goaltender Semyon Varlamov. With a career-high 28 wins in 46 starts, Varlamov, 25, entered the weekend on a pace to set career marks in goals against average and save percentage. Roy gave credit for Varlamovs success to Franois Allaire, his former goaltending coach, and the backup goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. But Giguere, 36, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2003 with Anaheim, said he had seen Roys presence pay off.Franois and Patrick have focused a lot on Varly, Giguere said. Hes a young guy, and I think the talent that he has, I think he needed some good coaching.Colorados roster is full of young talent, led by Duchene, who is 23; Nathan MacKinnon, 18; and Gabriel Landeskog, 21, the leagues youngest captain ever. Such youth allows Sakic and Roy to focus on the future, but it will not keep them from trying to compete now.We know whatever we want to do is right for two or three years down the road, Sakic said. We have good, young players who are learning how to win, and they expected that.Were happy to be where were at; points-wise, we are probably higher than we thought wed be. But the guys have bought in and are expecting more of themselves. | Sports |
Media|MSNBC to Add Bloomberg TV Political Showhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/business/media/msnbc-to-add-bloomberg-tv-political-show.htmlDec. 6, 2015With All Due Respect, Bloomberg Medias flagship political television show, will also be shown on MSNBC, weeknights at 6 p.m., after a deal between the two. The show, featuring the political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, will continue to be shown on Bloomberg at 5 p.m. The deal, which takes effect in January, follows recent efforts at MSNBC and Bloomberg Media to revamp their offerings. The deal resulted from an inquiry to Bloomberg from MSNBC, said Justin B. Smith, the chief executive of Bloomberg Media. He declined to specify its terms.Andrew Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC, said in a statement: Ive known and respected Mark and Johns work for many years. Collaborating with them on our air will strengthen our already deep and experienced political lineup as MSNBC heads into a pivotal election year. In response to questions about recent criticism of the show, Mr. Smith said the company was proud of the show. He added, I think there has been a lot of scuttlebutt about people not liking the show, but our owner has gone definitively public, and has put a lot of this gossip to rest, referring to a statement of support from Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and former mayor of New York.Mr. Smith also noted that the show had been expanded to an hour from 30 minutes.Earlier this year, Mr. Halperin apologized for an interview with Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, in which he questioned Mr. Cruz on his Cuban heritage and asked him to speak Spanish. The announcement of the deal confirmed discussions first reported by New York magazine. | Business |
Bucks 101, Knicks 98Credit...Benny Sieu/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 3, 2014MILWAUKEE The fourth-quarter scenes played out in a way that could only make Knicks Coach Mike Woodson shudder. Amare Stoudamire dribbled into a lane crowded with Milwaukee Bucks and lost the ball. Out of the pack came Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, his long limbs churning upcourt on the way to a dunk that pushed the Bucks lead to 10.Then, after the Knicks gamely trimmed the deficit to 1, Carmelo Anthony shot-putted the ball from the baseline and off the side of the backboard. Antetokounmpo was off again, finishing a length-of-the-court drive with a layup. Finally, it was Brandon Knights turn. After Anthony had nailed a 3-pointer that appeared to rescue the Knicks from disaster and tie the score, 98-98, Knight calmly dribbled to the 3-point line and buried a shot over the outstretched arm of Raymond Felton with 1.4 seconds left.When Anthonys desperation shot bounced off the backboard, the Knicks had been beaten, 101-98, by the lowly Bucks. Anthony, with 36 points, and J. R. Smith, with 30, were the bright spots on an otherwise forgettable night.Not to take anything away from them, Woodson said, but this is a game I thought we should have won. Of Knights winning basket over Felton, he added: Ray kind of backed off a little bit. I thought he could have been a little more aggressive.The Knicks identity has been a mystery all season. As if looking at a Rorschach test, optimists have viewed them as an unlucky team striving to get healthy, while others have seen expensive players ill suited for one another. Highs like Anthonys franchise-record 62-point game have been matched by lows like Novembers nine-game losing streak.Recently, the Knicks (19-29) have turned inconsistency into an art form. In January, they won five in a row, then lost five straight before reeling off four more consecutive victories. We played on a roller coaster tonight, Woodson said. When we needed to secure it at the end, we couldnt do it.To figure it out what the Knicks are, it is becoming more appropriate to examine their body of work rather than consider what might be. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine the Knicks as anything other than the below-.500 team they are, stuck on the outside of a playoff race between the also-rans of the Eastern Conference.After an eight-game homestand during which the Knicks went 4-4, their one-game trip to the Milwaukee seemed more adventurous than it should have been. The Bucks, who improved to 9-39, jumped to an 11-3 lead before Woodson turned to the enigmatic Smith, who provided the spark he did so often a season ago.It was never very pretty for either team. They combined to shoot 13 for 41 (32 percent) from the field in the first quarter, but the Knicks 3-point shooting kept them afloat.The Knicks, playing without Andrea Bargnani (elbow) for the sixth consecutive game, went repeatedly to isolation plays for Anthony in the third quarter. He was effective, shooting 13 of 25. Thats been a nightmare for most fours in the league because they have to chase it, Woodson said before the game, referring to power forwards matching up with Anthony. Its a tough guard.But the efforts of Anthony and Smith could not stop a determined Bucks team that looked to be playing at a faster speed than the older Knicks. Knight scored 25 points. Khris Middleton added 19, and Antetokounmpo had 15.We are New York, we represent New York, we play with New York on our chest, Anthony said. Every time we step on the court, no matter where were at, guys want to beat us. Its a tough situation to be in, as far as myself and J. R. providing 66 points and still coming up short. Iman Shumpert returned after missing three games with a sprained right shoulder. He started but scored only 5 points in 24 minutes.The Knicks will return home this week for matchups against the Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets. The Denver game will be their 50th of the season. Of the remaining 32 games, 20 are on the road.In a somber locker room after the loss, voices were muted. Tyson Chandler sat in front of his locker, staring at the games box score printed on a sheet of paper. He shook his head.I felt like if it was going to go into overtime, we probably would have got the win, he said. | Sports |
Science|How Does an (English) Garden Grow?https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/science/english-gardens.htmlQ&AJune 5, 2017Credit...Victoria RobertsQ. How can the famous English gardens grow so well with the cloud cover that always seems to be hanging over them?A. Contrary to popular myths, England is not constantly shrouded by rain clouds, said Rowan Blaik, the director of living collections at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. As an English gardener in New York, Id say theres not an awful lot of difference between the opportunities to successfully garden here and in England.As for the hours of solar radiation needed to power photosynthesis, the Met Office, Britains government weather and climate recorders, keeps a national record of sunshine hours, Mr. Blaik said.Their most recent long-term average climate data, spanning 1981 to 2010, found a considerable range of sunshine durations. Ventnor Botanic Garden on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England, received a long-term daily average of 8.3 hours of sunlight in July, compared with 5.4 hours for Cragside, Northumbria, in the northeast.Britain has one big advantage in that it has only one climate zone, temperate, Mr. Blaik said, which is ideal for growing plants.This is especially fortunate, Mr. Blaik said, as the United Kingdom as a whole has just over 1,400 native plant species. Plant introductions from other temperate zones around the world helped give the nation such a rich horticultural history, he said.Todd Forrest, the vice president for horticulture and living collections at The New York Botanical Garden, agreed that for much of Britain throughout the year, climate conditions are ideal for a remarkable range of temperate zone garden plants.There is enough sunshine, warmth and water to support steady plant growth and flowering but not so much to spur the sort of rank growth found in warmer, wetter climates, Mr. Forrest said. Winter temperatures are cool enough to promote dormancy, but not so frigid as to cause massive winter kills. | science |
DealBook|Barclays to Sell Retail Banking Business in Italyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/business/dealbook/barclays-chebanca-mediobanca.htmlDec. 3, 2015LONDON Barclays said on Thursday that it had agreed to sell its retail banking business in Italy to CheBanca, a unit of Mediobanca Group of Italy.It is the latest retail banking exit by Barclays in Continental Europe as the British bank seeks to reshape itself by selling underperforming businesses and focusing on what it considers its core operations.The restructuring began under Antony Jenkins, the lenders former chief executive who was ousted in July, and is continuing under its new top executive, James E. Staley, who officially joined Barclays on Tuesday.The sale includes a network of 89 branches in Italy with about 220,000 clients, Mediobanca said in a news release. It also includes a portfolio of 2.9 billion euros, or about $3.1 billion, in residential mortgages. The deal is expected to strengthen Mediobancas asset management operations.CheBanca, which began in 2008, would have about 146 branches in Italy and about 1,500 employees after the transaction, Mediobanca said.Barclays said it would continue to operate its investment banking and corporate banking businesses in Italy and manage its remaining retail mortgage portfolio.This transaction is further evidence of the reshaping of Barclays Group to focus on our core businesses, Mr. Staley said in a news release.Barclays said that it expected to book an after-tax loss of 200 million pounds, or about $300 million, on the sale in the fourth quarter.The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.As part of its restructuring, Barclays is focused on four core businesses: its corporate and retail bank in Britain; its investment bank; its Barclaycard credit card operations; and its African banking businesses.Barclays sold its retail banking operations in Spain to CaixaBank last year and its retail bank and other noncore businesses in Portugal to Bankinter of Spain in September.Barclays and Lazard acted as advisers to Barclays on the transaction. | Business |
Bulls 92, Nets 76Credit...Kamil Krzaczynski/European Pressphoto AgencyFeb. 14, 2014CHICAGO At the close of 2013, less than two months ago, the Nets seemed to be on the brink of implosion. They had dealt with issues of futility (losing 12 of 15 games during one stretch), absurdity (their first-year coach, Jason Kidd, was fined for spilling a soda on the court on purpose) and personality (Kidd banished his top assistant, Lawrence Frank, from the bench).A blistering pace this calendar year had pushed aside those bad feelings and put the Nets, after all the bumps and bruises, in position for a playoff spot.Their march into the All-Star break hit a stumbling block Thursday night, though, as the Chicago Bulls interrupted the good vibes with a 92-76 win at United Center. In a game played in the rough-and-tumble style favored by Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau, the Nets were outrebounded, 45-27, and had no effective response to Chicagos physical presence. Double technical fouls were assessed when Nets guard Joe Johnson and the Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler had to be separated by teammates after exchanging words in the third quarter. Paul Pierce later received a technical for arguing an offensive foul.Pierce led the Nets (24-27) with 15 points and kept them close but never close enough. The Bulls (27-25), who led for almost the entire game, built a 14-point edge in the first half and led by 8 at halftime. The Nets closed the gap to 3 on an Andrei Kirilenko 3-pointer with 6 minutes 28 seconds left in the game, but a 9-0 run by the Bulls pushed the lead back to double digits. We didnt get a couple stops when we needed them, the Nets Deron Williams said. Definitely defense was the problem tonight.Taj Gibson had 16 points to lead the Bulls, who dispatched the Nets from the playoffs a season ago and thumped them on Dec. 25 in Brooklyn. Even without Luol Deng, who was traded away, and the injured Derrick Rose, Chicago remains a kind of kryptonite for the Nets.Williams had 13 points and Johnson 11 for the Nets, who fell to 2-10 this season when playing the second game of a back-to-back.It has to do with being mentally tough, Pierce said. We cant look at it and say we played last night. Every team has that schedule.Thursdays game acted as a prelude to a stretch of six games on the road after the All-Star break, five of them against Western Conference teams. The Nets will not play at Barclays Center again until March 3, also against the Bulls.But even a hard-fought loss cannot dim the Nets turnaround in 2014 as they leave for a few days of rest and relaxation. A season-ending injury to Brook Lopez has forced Kidd to rely on a smaller lineup, and the leadership of Kevin Garnett and Pierce, who had sluggish starts after they were acquired during the off-season, has shown.A talkative and reflective Kidd said he would use the break to assess his and his teams first-half performances. Then they will get ready for the seasons final 31 games.It being my first year, just understanding what it entails, he said of his coaching development. Ive been trying to absorb and learn and make mistakes, but learn from the mistakes.And in a nod to the winter weather New York has dealt with, he smiled and said of the second half, Hopefully it will be sunny and warm. | Sports |
Credit...Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 14, 2017PARIS The French center-right presidential candidate Franois Fillon was charged with several counts of embezzlement on Tuesday, further hobbling a campaign that he has nonetheless said he will continue.Mr. Fillon becomes the first major candidate to seek the presidency under Frances Fifth Republic while under formal criminal investigation. The accusations against him center on the employment, at public expense, of his wife and two of his five children as parliamentary aides.He had been leading the race after winning center-right primaries in November, but his campaign was upended when Le Canard Enchan, a weekly newspaper, reported in January on allegations that his wife had what amounted to a no-show public job as a parliamentary aide.Since then, although Mr. Fillon, 63, has stabilized his standing in the polls, new revelations in the news media of possible financial shenanigans have kept him down. Pundits have repeatedly declared his candidacy dead, but he has hung on grimly, beating back challenges from within his party.Mr. Fillon, who had sold himself as the image of rectitude, promised after the scandal first broke that he would withdraw from the race if he were criminally charged. But he later reneged on that pledge, prompting many supporters in his party and his campaign staff to desert him.Since the first revelations, polls have shown Mr. Fillon likely to be eliminated in a first round on April 23. That would leave two candidates outside the major parties, including Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front, to battle it out in the decisive second round on May 7. That unprecedented development, coupled with Ms. Le Pens newfound status as a contender against a former economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, has deeply unsettled political life here.Mr. Fillons problems were compounded over the weekend by revelations of his alleged extravagant sartorial tastes. Reports, not denied by him, have said nearly 48,500 euros, or about $51,500, has been paid to a tailor since 2012 for fine suits, although it was unclear who made the payments. The newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, which first published the reports, added on Sunday that an anonymous benefactor paid in February for two suits worth about $13,800 for Mr. Fillon, prompting Parliaments ethics ombudsman to open an inquiry.The new charges were expected, but they were announced a day ahead of schedule after Le Canard Enchan leaked the development over Twitter. Mr. Fillon had been summoned by investigative judges for Wednesday, but his lawyer said Tuesday that he had asked that Mr. Fillon meet with them a day earlier to avoid a large news media stakeout.Mr. Fillon read a statement to the judges that was obtained by the newspaper Le Figaro. In it, the newspaper said, Mr. Fillon denied any wrongdoing, as he has done consistently before.My wifes job as parliamentary aide was not fictitious, and it is not up to the judicial authority to assess the quality or content of this work, Mr. Fillon was reported to have said in the statement. I am asking neither for exemption nor favor, only for respect of the law.Though his standing has plummeted, Mr. Fillon has vowed to press on with his campaign. His party, the Republicans, has few good alternatives.Ms. Le Pen and the National Front are also targets of several investigations, but that has not seemed to affect her poll standing.Mr. Fillon experienced a slight reprieve last week, when one of his main rivals on the center-right announced that he would not challenge Mr. Fillons candidacy, and the Republicans closed ranks and agreed to continue backing him.Some of Mr. Fillons supporters who had dropped out of his campaign or expressed doubts about his chances have since returned to the fold, including the Union of Democrats and Independents, a centrist party.Mr. Fillon had been trying to steer the news medias attention away from the corruption allegations and toward his platform of pro-business policies, including lengthening the standard 35-hour workweek and raising the retirement age to 65 from 62.Still, French journalists seem to find new examples of suspected wrongdoing nearly every day.On Monday, for example, Le Parisien reported that the son and daughter Mr. Fillon hired as aides transferred large sums to him during that time, furthering suspicions that their jobs and Ms. Fillons were enrichment schemes.A lawyer for Mr. Fillons daughter said she was merely repaying money her father had spent on her wedding. Mr. Fillons lawyer said the son was repaying rent and pocket money.Mr. Fillons opponents have been frustrated that the scandal has dominated coverage of the campaign, drowning out all but the best-known candidates, and that Mr. Fillon did not keep his promise to drop out.I regret the confiscation of the democratic debate, Jrme Guedj, a spokesman for the Socialist presidential candidate Benot Hamon, said in an interview on BFM TV on Tuesday. But the main person responsible for this confiscation is Franois Fillon, with this obstinacy and failure to respect the word he gave. | World |
TrilobitesA trove of fossilized eggs and skeletons in Argentina revealed that some dinosaurs likely traveled in herds and socialized by age.Credit...Universal Images Group/DeAgostini, via AlamyOct. 21, 2021Paleontologists have found the earliest known evidence that dinosaurs lived in herds unlike reptiles, and more like penguins and other birds do today and socialized with each other by age groups.The scientists, working a rich deposit of fossils at a site in Argentinas province of Santa Cruz, at the southern tip of South America, found more than 100 eggs and the skeletons of 80 individuals ranging in age from embryos to adults.All of the fossils, including the embryos inside the eggs, are of the species Mussaurus patagonicus. These dinosaurs were about 10 feet high and 26 feet in length when fully grown, with a long tail balanced by an equally long neck that ends in a head that seems too small for the enormous animal it is attached to. This is the only place Mussaurus remains have ever been found.Little is known about the behavior of dinosaurs, but this large number of fossils, and their distribution at the site, has given scientists new information about their social lives. The study appeared in Scientific Reports on Thursday.The bones and eggs are spread over about 250 acres a small area for finding so many fossils of the same species. Most of the eggs were found in clutches of eight to 30 in nests close together, which suggests that the animals used a common breeding ground. Within the nests, the eggs are arranged in trenches that the animals apparently excavated for the purpose.The scientists found eggs, neonates, juveniles and adults clustered close to each other, which indicates that the animals lived in socially cohesive groups, rather than gathering only temporarily to breed and lay eggs. Age groupings like this, the authors write, suggest that the animals maintained social connections with each other across their life spans.Among the specimens are 11 one-year-olds, and an analysis of the bones suggests that they were probably members of a single brood, buried together. The researchers also found many adults close to each other, in natural resting poses, suggesting that the animals lived and died together.ImageCredit...American Museum Of Natural History, via ReutersOften fossils are found in large numbers at one location not because the animals died together, but because a stream or river transported bones of different ages and species, piling them up and burying them under the silt. But these Mussaurus bones were found in deposits made from windblown dust, and the authors conclude that they probably died simultaneously in periodic droughts. There were at least three episodes of mass death at the site.The sediments also have evidence that the animals still had soft tissue when they were buried, said the lead author, Diego Pol, a researcher at the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio in Trelew, Argentina. This indicates a simultaneous death.The Latin name for the species is clearly a misnomer. The site had been examined by other researchers in the late 1970s, but they found only a few juveniles, small enough to hold in the palm of one hand. They named them Mussaurus, which is Latin for mouse lizard. These new excavations, which began in 2012, have revealed a much more extensive assemblage of bones, and an animal considerably larger than a mouse.It has been known for some time that dinosaurs sometimes lived in herds, but the behavior was found only in dinosaurs that lived, at the earliest, about 150 million years ago. But the long-necked, plant-eating Mussaurus flourished 193 million years ago, meaning that dinosaurs likely lived in herds earlier than previously thought.X-ray analysis by the researchers of the growth patterns in the bones indicates that the animals did not reach adult size until they were at least 15 years old.During all this time young individuals were vulnerable and subject to predation, Dr. Pol said. This adds to the interpretation that herd behavior was beneficial for the species, to protect the young during their growth.Body shape the long neck and tail that come to mind immediately when picturing a dinosaur may also be a factor in Mussauruss evolutionary success.Once it appeared, that body became the dominant form for millions of years, Dr. Pol said. So were very interested in the evolution of that form. Behavior was, maybe, another element in that successful evolutionary recipe. | science |
Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 1, 2014A supersize smile that revealed a wide gap between his two front teeth made Michael Strahan appear to be a friendly giant roaming the fields of the N.F.L. in his 15 seasons with the Giants. But to opposing quarterbacks, he was far more menacing, registering 141 sacks, including a single-season record 22 in 2001.On Saturday night, Strahan was recognized as one of the greatest to play the game. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with Derrick Brooks, a linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Walter Jones, an offensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks; Andre Reed, a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills; and Aeneas Williams, a defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals. Also elected were the senior candidates Ray Guy, a punter for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, and Claude Humphrey, a defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons.Strahan, who spent part of his childhood in Germany, did not play football until his senior year of high school, but he took to the game quickly and was drafted by the Giants in the second round of the 1993 draft. A versatile end who could defend the run as well as he rushed the passer, Strahan was the heart and soul of the Giants defense that upset the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.Still an effective player, Strahan retired after the Super Bowl victory, choosing instead to purse what became a successful broadcasting career. In 2012, he replaced Regis Philbin as Kelly Ripas co-host on the morning show now called Live With Kelly and Michael.Citing a previous commitment, Strahan declined to speak with the news media after Saturdays announcement.While Strahans election, in his second year of eligibility, was somewhat expected, the announcement of the Hall of Fame class was a relief to Guy, who waited 23 years before being elected.Nearly universally regarded as the games greatest punter, Guy had become a cause clbre among the games specialists. In 1973, he became the first pure punter to be drafted in the first round, and now he is the first to make the Hall of Fame. Historically averse to enshrining specialists, the Hall has only three placekickers: Lou Groza, Jan Stenerud and George Blanda, Guys former teammate with the Raiders.A six-time All-Pro in 14 seasons, Guy led the league in punting three times averaging more than 40 yards a punt in all but one season and was a vital member of three Super Bowl-winning teams.You just dont know what the feeling means at this time, Guy, 64, said. Its been a long time. Its been a lot of frustration.He said that John Madden would present him at his induction and that he hoped his election would be a good thing for all specialists.Now what I think is going to happen is its going to give the younger generation of punters and kickers and snappers hope, Guy said.Humphrey, 69, who like Guy was a senior candidate after falling off the regular ballot, was a five-time All-Pro and had an unofficial 122 sacks in 14 seasons. He was in his 28th year of eligibility.Brooks did not have to wait nearly as long as Guy or Humphrey, gaining election in his first year on the ballot. In 14 seasons, all for Tampa Bay, Brooks was named an All-Pro nine times. He was the N.F.L.s defensive player of the year for the 2002 season, when he helped guide a ferocious defense to a win in Super Bowl XXXVII. He finished his career with 1,715 tackles in 224 games and was a member of the N.F.L.s All-Decade team for the 2000s.Jones, also elected in his first year on the ballot, was one of the most versatile and reliable tackles the game has seen. Named to seven All-Pro teams partly for his work clearing paths for Ricky Watters and Shaun Alexander, Jones was brutally efficient as a pass blocker for Seattle. He was beaten for a sack only 23 times and was called for holding only nine times in 12 seasons.When I came into the league, all I wanted to do was get here, Jones said. For me to be here now, and for the team that I started with and finished with to be in the Super Bowl, is icing on the cake.Reed, overlooked in recent seasons as modern offenses have made his statistics seem more humble, was a linchpin of the K-Gun offense led by Jim Kelly that took the Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls from 1991 to 1994. He finished his career with 951 receptions for 13,198 yards and 87 touchdowns. Williams, who played for the Cardinals and the Rams for 14 seasons, recorded 55 interceptions, returning nine for touchdowns, and once returned a fumble 104 yards for a score.Finalists who failed to gain election included Morten Andersen, Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Edward DeBartolo Jr., Tony Dungy, Kevin Greene, Charles Haley, Marvin Harrison, John Lynch, and Will Shields.The inductions will take place at a ceremony at the Hall in Canton, Ohio, in August. | Sports |
Politics|Lawyer leaves firm after her work on Trumps baseless election claims is revealed.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/lawyer-leaves-firm-after-her-work-on-trumps-baseless-election-claims-is-revealed.htmlCredit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York TimesJan. 5, 2021A lawyer advising President Trump in recent weeks has resigned from her law firm after it was revealed that she participated in the call where Mr. Trump pressured Georgia officials to help him reverse the states election results, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.The lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, has been advising Mr. Trump despite a policy of her firm, Foley & Lardner, that none of its lawyers should be representing clients involved in relitigating the presidential election.Cleta Mitchell has informed firm management of her decision to resign from Foley & Lardner effective immediately, the firm said in a statement. Ms. Mitchell concluded that her departure was in the firms best interests, as well as in her own personal best interests. We thank her for her contributions to the firm and wish her well.Foley & Lardner had begun to distance itself from Ms. Mitchell shortly after the call was first reported by The Washington Post on Sunday. As Mr. Trump has made increasingly specious claims about the election, he has been unable to attract high-profile, establishment lawyers to back his cause.Ms. Mitchell was among several Trump aides who joined the call on Saturday in which the president threatened Georgias secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, with a criminal offense if he failed to find enough votes to change the states presidential results.Ms. Mitchell has been involved in representing far-right groups and conservatives for many years. She served on the board of the National Rifle Association and represented Tea Party groups that claimed they were illegally targeted by the I.R.S. | Politics |
Credit...Pierre Terdjman for The New York TimesNov. 11, 2018SAINT-SEINE-SUR-VINGEANNE, France As mayor of this postage-stamp village deep in Burgundy, France, Louis Gentilhomme presided over a small but seemingly idyllic patch. The loudest noise on a recent day was the autumn breeze whistling in the trees. There were a few streets of stone houses, a 13th-century church, one baker and not much else.So it may come as a surprise that late last year, Mr. Gentilhomme wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron telling him that the stress was too much and that he was quitting. He could not stand watching his village of 400 wither anymore.After 30 years, Ive had enough, wrote Mr. Gentilhomme, a vigorous 77-year-old former French Navy SEAL diver. The compromises, the unkept promises and the states withdrawal have used me up, morally and physically.His letter speaks to a broader anxiety in Frances heartland. This year, like him, more than 150 of the countrys mayors, mostly rural, have quit. The number of mayors quitting their posts may be at an all-time high, up anywhere from 32 percent to 50 percent over the previous electoral cycle, according to the French news media.The resignations provide an echo of the larger clash taking place in France today between Mr. Macrons drive to shake up the countrys sometimes archaic institutions, untouched for centuries, and a way of life that may no longer be sustainable.[Read about Mr. Macron warning this past week of the dangers of nationalism as he hosted world leaders to commemorate the end of World War I 100 years ago on Sunday.]It is in villages where the presidents ambition to pare back the government most squarely runs up against French traditions and expectations one of which is that the state provides services and should make its authority felt in even the quietest corners.That has long been the role of the village mayor, as much a French specialty as the 17th-century castle that graces Mr. Gentilhommes tiny territory, and almost as anachronistic.Mayors have been a mainstay of French life since the revolutionaries of 1789 decreed that wherever a church steeple arises even if only a few houses are clustered around it there should be a mayor.It has remained this way ever since. No country on the Continent surpasses Frances 35,502 mayors, who make up 40 percent of all the mayors in the European Union. Twenty thousand of these towns have fewer than 500 inhabitants.But even before Mr. Macron came to office in May 2017, France was confronting the question of whether it could still afford so many little fiefs, which were already straining under cost cutting and administrative regroupings.Under a 2015 law, small towns were ordered to combine into administrative units of at least 15,000 people, where 5,000 had been the previous benchmark. Real power to handle economic development, to manage water, even to raise taxes passed to the new clusters.ImageCredit...Pierre Terdjman for The New York TimesNow the young president has accelerated that drive toward even more administrative efficiency.In the era of the internet, fast transport and cuts in local funding, it makes sense for these towns to group themselves together to confront these new challenges, said Jean-Ren Cazeneuve, a Macron deputy in the French Parliament who is studying why so many mayors are resigning.Its Emmanuel Macron who wants to speed things up, who wants to reform, Mr. Cazeneuve said. And that could make local officials feel uneasy about their future.No doubt it has. More mayors are shedding the sash that denotes their authority, as the appeal of presiding over the tricolor flag that flutters outside every mairie, or town hall, is not what it used to be.Theres something going on, said Christian Le Bart, an expert in local government at Sciences Po university in Rennes. They have the impression of being abandoned by the state, and of being more and more criticized by their citizens.The departures a small fraction of the total, to be sure reflect the struggle of villages in rural France to remain alive while trapped in a spiral of shrinking revenues and declining populations.But the cure, the mayors say, has steadily left them with less money and less authority, but with no fewer burdens. We do everything, said Jean-Claude Bellini, who recently quit as mayor of nearby Chaux. Its always, call the mayor, call the mayor.Indeed, experts say, even with the regroupings and the cuts, there is a logic a very French logic in keeping the mayor in city hall. Their reason for being is proximity, said Matthieu Leprince, an economics professor and expert on local finance at the University of Western Brittany in Brest. They know the turf.That has made the quiet revolt among Frances mayors whose ears are closest to the citizens mouth an important measure of grass-roots resistance to Mr. Macrons reform drive.The resistance comes at a time where Mr. Macron is looking to position himself as the leader of Europe and the chief defender of its liberal values, as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany prepares to exit the stage.National polls show his support dwindling, most strikingly in the deep France of the provinces. Mr. Macron is considered the president of Frances thriving big cities, not its left-behind periphery.But money has its own logic, too, and funds from Paris have dropped sharply over the last two years, Mr. Gentilhomme said. Overall, the states contribution to Frances towns has dropped to 30 billion euros, or about $34 billion, in 2017, when Mr. Macron was elected, from 42 billion euros in 2014.At the same time, Mr. Macron has vowed to cut a main source of local revenue, the lodging tax, which brings in a total of 22 billion euros annually, or about $25 billion, and makes up 10 percent of the average villages budget.The tax is paid by anyone who owns, rents or lives in a home or apartment just about everyone in France and Mr. Macrons pledge to get rid of it was one of his most popular campaign promises.ImageCredit...Pierre Terdjman for The New York TimesWhile that promises to lighten the tax load on local residents, it has made the mayors who booed Mr. Macron at their meeting last year particularly furious.The president has said he will make up the shortfall, but mayors are distrustful that he will. Theres a real threat to the financial autonomy of these towns, said Ludovic Rochette, who heads the mayors association in the Cte dOr department in Burgundy. The mayors, he said, had long felt disrespected by the authorities in Paris, but they had hoped for a change with Mr. Macron.We thought that with him, finally, there would be dialogue between Paris and the territories, Mr. Rochette said. But cutting out the lodging tax was the last straw. And weve all cut and cut, and now were down to the bone.Aware of the frustration, Mr. Macron last month beefed up his local affairs ministry, vowing more attentiveness. But that was too late for mayors like Mr. Gentilhomme.Where he lives in the Cte dOr, the heart of Burgundys legendary wine country, the local mayors association says resignations have increased 52 percent over the period from 2008 to 2014.My struggle for the survival of our countryside was misunderstood, and barely supported, Mr. Gentilhomme wrote the president.The short letter back from Mr. Macron was signed, but that was the only human touch. It spoke dryly of institutional stability and promised to simplify the administrative regroupings.But that consolidation was exactly what Mr. Gentilhomme had fought against, as he was pushed from a regrouping of 11 villages into one of 26.Mr. Cazeneuve, the parliamentary deputy, thinks the consolidations could be a prime reason behind the resignation wave an end to the distinctive French dream of being king of ones own small domain.Its better to be first in the village than second in Rome, he said.But second, even in the village, is another thing entirely.I walked to the mairie every day, Mr. Gentilhomme said. And they didnt hesitate to call out to me, or even to come to the house. They think the mayor can do everything.Theres no water, theres no electricity, so, its got be the mayor, he said, mimicking the complaints that came piling down.On your own turf, people think you are the good Lord, Mr. Gentilhomme said. But in reality, you cant do much of anything. | World |
Dolly Parton Someone (Dressed) Like You 1/30/2018 Adele did her best Dolly Parton impersonation ... and it's now Dolly approved. The "Hello" singer played dress up to virtually become the iconic country star -- blonde wig, pantsuit, and lots of cleavage ... while clutching a guitar. Adele gave Dolly major props with the caption ... "The effortless queen of song, Dolly Parton! We love you! We wish We could possess an ounce of your ability." Unclear why exactly Adele's shouting her out right now -- although it was Dolly's birthday a little over a week ago. Whatever the occasion ... it caught Dolly's attention. She responded to Adele's post with some love, saying ... "And I will always love you!" Yes, that's Dolly's. | Entertainment |
TrilobitesThis tasty treat is additive free, and it turns iridescent with a little help from physics.VideoA Swiss research teams iridescent chocolate. Video by ETH Zurich / Giulia MarthalerMay 21, 2020Earlier this month, Samy Kamkar shared his latest creation on Twitter: chocolate that shimmers like a rainbow.Mr. Kamkar is not a chocolatier. Hes a founder of the internet security company Openpath, and gained early internet notoriety in 2005 for releasing a virus on the Myspace social network. He also has a 3-D printer and a penchant for experimenting with his food.A few years ago, he had seen a similar iridescent effect on black plastic at a maker meet-up in Los Angeles this object provided the first taste of inspiration.I wondered what else I could do this on, he said.Mr. Kamkar first considered making the iridescent effect on hard candy, but then decided that would be too easy. Chocolate, with its melty gooeyness, seemed like a bigger challenge. After two months of playing around, Mr. Kamkar created a repeatable technique.Anyone can do this at home, he said. Theres no coating. Theres no special ingredient. Its the surface texture of the chocolate itself thats producing it.He designed a 3-D model for casting that included, at its base, a saw-tooth wave pattern. Each of the grooves is a few micrometers wide. The chocolate, when poured inside, adapted the inverse of this pattern on its surface.To prepare the chocolate for this mold, Mr. Kamkar tempered it melting and cooling the chocolate in a calibrated sequence, with each step allowing certain crystalline structures to form and give the chocolate its optimum properties.Next, Mr. Kamkar pressurized the chocolate in a vacuum chamber to prevent air bubbles from forming, though he says this step might not be necessary. He chose to create a mushroom-shaped mold because mushrooms are magical.The principle behind this chocolaty magic is diffraction when light interacts with a surface and is drawn or pulled apart. Its similar to refraction, which occurs when white light is broken into a rainbow through a prism.On an object with many uniform lines and edges, like Mr. Kamkars cast chocolate, diffracted light becomes the dominant light that you see, creating iridescence. This same process parallel reflective grooves in spacing comparable to the wavelength of light creates rainbows on the surface of a compact disc. Dr. Weitz noted that many insects and butterflies use a similar phenomenon of closely spaced, parallel lines to show off iridescent wings or bodies.Its the best tasting diffraction grating youll ever see, said David A. Weitz, a professor of physics and applied physics at Harvard, of the chocolate. Its a simple idea. And to me, when I say something is simple, it is the best compliment Ill pay.ImageCredit...Giulia Marthaler/ETH ZurichDr. Weitz, who studies structural color and teaches a class on science and cooking, added that the saw-tooth pattern Mr. Kamkar used isnt all that important. As long as the lines are uniform, parallel and spaced in proximity to the wavelength of light, any pattern will do, from straight lines to curves.The basic fundamental physics will be the same, he said.Mr. Kamkar is not the only person who has had this idea. Swiss researchers have been collaborating to create a marketable iridescent chocolate for two and a half years. Using the same technique as Mr. Kamkar, they can produce small batches of iridescent chocolates. The scientists next goal is to start a company, make more of the chocolate and sell it.Their main obstacle right now is market acceptance. Although the chocolate contains no additives, many consumers find it hard to believe. Maybe the surface is actually too shiny, said Patrick Rhs a food scientist who became involved in the research with a group of colleagues while studying at the Swiss university ETH Zurich. People think that there is a plastic foil on top, which is not the case.For Mr. Kamkar, business is not a priority. He is working on a how-to video to share with people who want to make iridescent chocolate at home. For him, the process of creating and playing in the kitchen is just super fun. | science |
Yunhua Lin and associates had turned Malawi into an ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scale trafficking hub. His prison sentence could aid the fight against poaching.Credit...Frank Weitzer/African Parks, via Associated PressOct. 18, 2021Hundreds of poachers are arrested each year for killing elephants, rhinos, pangolins and other animals in Africa. Yet the problem persists, because there is always a ready supply of desperate men to take the place of those put behind bars. Higher-level criminals, on the other hand those who really drive the international illegal wildlife trade almost always evade justice.Malawi, the southern African nation bounded by Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia, once fell prey to this lax law enforcement and became one of the biggest wildlife trafficking hubs in Southern Africa, said Dudu Douglas-Hamilton, head of counter wildlife trafficking at the Elephant Crisis Fund, a nonprofit group that supports conservation projects across Africa.But significant efforts on the ground to combat the countrys difficulties with poaching and trafficking have started to pay off, and the example Malawi is now setting may show other African nations how they can do the same.On Sept. 28, a judge in Lilongwe, the countrys capital, sentenced Yunhua Lin to as much as 14 years in prison for a variety of charges he was previously found guilty of: rhino horn possession and dealing, and money laundering. Investigators say Mr. Lin, a 48-year-old Chinese citizen, played a central role in turning Malawi into a wildlife crime hot spot. After he serves his concurrent sentences, he will be deported to China.Malawi had become a low-risk, high-reward location for wildlife criminals. But in recent years, it has taken such crimes more seriously. In 2017 policymakers amended the countrys wildlife legislation, making it some of the strongest in Africa. Previously, most wildlife criminals if they were prosecuted at all were sentenced to a $40 fine. Now, prosecutors have conviction rates of 91 percent for elephant and rhino crimes, and 90 percent of convicts serve time in prison, with an average sentence of four and a half years. No international ivory seizures have been linked to Malawi since early 2017.A number of factors have driven this shift, including international pressure, national efforts to combat corruption, greater support for tackling wildlife crime and a more strategic, intelligence-led approach to investigating trafficking networks, said Mary Rice, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a nonprofit group in London.Lin is only one of many who have been targeted through this approach, resulting in arrest, prosecution and conviction, Ms. Rice said. This was definitely not a blip.The sentencing of Mr. Lin the highest-ranking wildlife criminal prosecuted to date in Malawi, and one of the few individuals of his rank brought to justice in any African country represents a major victory. Hearing it read in court, Andy Kaonga, one of the lawyers who prosecuted the case, said he experienced a feeling of elation.For Malawi, this shows that theres no sacred cow, Mr. Kaonga said. Money cannot save you, and theres a limit to what corruption can actually get you.The Chinese embassy in Malawi did not respond to questions about the case.Eighteen other members of Mr. Lins network including four close relatives have also been prosecuted for crimes including possession of ivory, pangolin scales, rhino horn, illegal firearms and explosives. Additionally, Mr. Lins daughter and another alleged associate have been charged with money laundering.Many of Mr. Lins affiliates were Chinese, but he also worked closely with a number of Malawians. One man, Aaron Dyson, a fluent Mandarin speaker, is now serving 15 years in prison for possessing and dealing in ivory.Youre looking at an entire Chinese-led network that is being dismantled, Ms. Douglas-Hamilton said. Its a huge win for wildlife.The Malawi police began investigating Mr. Lins network in early 2015. In December 2017, they caught his wife and son-in-law buying ivory from a Zambian national and arrested them. Mr. Lin, however, continued to evade detection, and the case against his family members went cold.A major break came in May 2019, when the police pulled over Mr. Lins driver and found three live pangolins in the trunk of his car. As they questioned the driver, Mr. Lin was calling incessantly, leaving voice notes asking, Where are you? Mr. Kaonga said. He wanted to eat the pangolin meat, and thats what put him in trouble.This gave the police grounds to conduct simultaneous raids on several of Mr. Lins commercial and residential properties in Lilongwe. Sniffer dogs led them to ivory, pangolin scales, pieces of rhino horn and illegal firearms. They made a number of arrests, including the rearrest of Mr. Lins wife and son-in-law. But Mr. Lin was nowhere to be found.Several months later, intelligence led the police to an enclosed estate in the city, where they found Mr. Lin. He was trying to jump over the fence, running from the police, Mr. Kaonga said.With Mr. Lin finally arrested, Mr. Kaonga and his colleagues began building a case. They sent the rhino horns from Mr. Lins home to a laboratory at the University of Pretoria in South Africa for genetic analysis. The tests revealed that the horns came from five different animals, one of which had been poached in Malawis Liwonde National Park in 2017. Adding to the genetic evidence, the poacher who killed the Liwonde rhino testified that he had sold the animals horn to Mr. Lin.At one point during the trial, Mr. Lin became so enraged that he charged at Mr. Kaonga and had to be restrained. He was shouting, What do you want from me? You got my whole family! Mr. Kaonga said.In terms of prosecutions for wildlife criminals, Mr. Lins conviction represents perhaps the most significant case that theres been in Africa, said Rodger Schlickeisen, executive director of the Wildcat Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Texas that focuses on conservation in Africa.Theres been an unfortunate history of African countries not enforcing the law against big, international wildlife traffickers who are citizens of other countries, Dr. Schlickeisen said. Its an important step forward for Malawi to prosecute, convict and sentence Lin.The severity of the prosecutions of Mr. Lin and his colleagues sends a strong message to other criminals that Malawi now takes wildlife trafficking very seriously, Ms. Rice said. This makes it unlikely, she added, that another syndicate will step up to fill the void left by the removal of Mr. Lins cartel.The hope, now, is that other countries will see from Malawis example that it is possible to dismantle criminal networks, said Brighton Kumchedwa, director of Malawis Department of Parks and Wildlife. We wish to encourage others in Africa and beyond to take the same stance.Malawi is no longer a playground for kingpins, but we dont want to just create a shift, Mr. Kumchedwa continued, with criminals simply moving their operations to other African countries. We want to deal decisively with wildlife crime. | science |
Reporter's NotebookCredit...Christophe Ena/Associated PressFeb. 15, 2014SOCHI, Russia I nearly missed my tea with a Cossack.He had scheduled, then canceled, four times, citing meetings he was obliged to attend. On Tuesday morning, I waited an hour for him in a restaurant not far from my hotel. He canceled again. Then on Tuesday afternoon, my interpreter, Nikolay, called.Hes here! Nikolay said. Where are you? I was about a mile away. There was not a taxi or a bus in sight, so I sprinted as fast as I could. As I huffed down the side streets of this newly bustling town, I wondered, Am I the first Jew in history to ever run toward a Cossack.When I learned that these people tribe? ethnicity? are an official part of the security detail here at the Olympics, it was like hearing that organizers had hired the Huns. The Cossacks never vanished, but to me, they are figures out of history, one that is grim and violent.If youre Jewish and your ancestors hail from Russia, Ukraine, parts of Poland or the Baltic States, there is a good chance you heard tales about the Cossacks. They were men who in the Old World rode on horseback with swords and whips, pillaging Jewish villages and ghettos. They stole, killed, burned houses and terrorized during pogroms, a Russian word meaning to smash.My great-aunt Celia, whom I met only once, had her own Cossack horror story, which she told my father time and again. Cossacks would gallop through her village in Lithuania and run riot. She and her family huddled in the cellar, under a trapdoor, until the looting was over.As she described it to me, my father said, it was like sport to the Cossacks, a polo match. She said the czar needed to keep the Cossacks occupied so they wouldnt turn on his government.I wanted to meet a Cossack, mostly to learn about the accounts he had heard of the same history.Also, to be honest, I wanted to meet a Cossack simply because I could.We got together at a Cossack-run restaurant, with a Cossack menu, and Cossack waiters dressed in traditional outfits. The place was decked out to look like a cut-price rendering of an old Cossack village, with an outdoor AstroTurf middle, a fake windmill and plastic geese and chickens next to a fake well. Thatched huts lined the perimeter, and each held rooms with wooden tables covered with tablecloths, the walls lined with folk art.It was like a tiny Cossack version of Colonial Williamsburg.The Cossack I had come to meet, Konstantin Perenizkho, 36, looked disappointingly conventional. There are Cossacks wandering Olympic Park wearing traditional outfits: black jackets, black pants, white epaulets and furry, Bundt cake-shaped hats. Some of the older Cossacks also wear what look like war medals.But Perenizkho, whose official title is deputy chief of the Kuban Cossack Army, looked very much like a Russian tourist, with a Sochi Games zip top and a large camera slung over his shoulder. He has slightly jugged ears, sunken eyes and a cellphone that never stops ringing. There are 1,000 Cossacks in town, and he seems to be in charge of them all.He assured me that he also had all the standard accouterments of a Cossack, including a horse, which he had been riding since childhood.I also have a saber and a dagger, which is part of our uniform, he said through Nikolay. But we realize that these weapons, they are more part of a tradition.Perenizkho had ordered tea and lunch for the three of us. He had also ordered a carafe of vodka, or what looked like vodka.Its actually moonshine, Nikolay said, smiling. Be prepared.So lets start with an easy one: What is a Cossack, exactly?In the law of the Russian Federation, Perenizkho said, Cossacks are referred to as a cultural-ethnic group, and that is probably the most accurate description, in my opinion.Anyone can ride a horse and wear a Cossack uniform, he said, but that wont make him a Cossack.There are also certain traditions, ways of life and mentalities, he said.It was time for the first toast, Perenizkho said, filling three shot glasses. And by Cossack tradition, the first was always delivered by the oldest person at the table, which would be Nikolay.As strange as this may sound, Nikolay said, glass raised, to a Cossack-American friendship.Perenizkho downed his glass in a gulp, and we did the same. The stuff had little flavor but plenty of burn and an emboldening aftermath.Perenizkho was dismayed by the idea that if youre raised in a Jewish home, Cossacks are basically one notch above barbarian.ImageCredit...James Hill for The New York TimesI dont understand why such a stereotype developed, he said calmly. Its really difficult to turn a Cossack into a state of rage, actually, because they are hospitable people, people who would give you their last shirt. But if a Cossack is treated badly, when hes enraged, there is no stopping him.He then went on to mention a story by Nikolai Gogol, about a settlement of Jews near a Cossack camp, and the harmonious relationship between them. It was economic the Cossacks needed boots and clothing and traded amicably with the Jews.There was a peaceful coexistence between them, he said.I was about to dig out some of my notes on pogroms, but Perenizkho wasnt finished.But when the Cossacks were in action, when they were losing comrades in arms, of course, after the combat, they would come back and they had violence in them, he said. They were hurt by the death of their friends, they were fighting the stress with this stuff he pointed to the moonshine and its true that after that, they had to turn their rage and pain on somebody, and they turned it on these Jewish quarters, and there were pogroms.He didnt seem particularly bothered by this unprovoked cruelty. Perhaps because he didnt regard it as unprovoked.You know, the idea was that while were fighting, the Jews were making money off us, he said. Plus, the Jews had their own techniques, you know. They would put in the front of their shops a lot of cheap merchandise, which was smashed by the Cossacks.Time for another toast. This one mine.To meeting my first Cossack, I said, now a bit tipsy.Lets fast-forward to the early 20th century, I suggested, an era that produced the pogroms that people like my great-aunt Celia would endure.The Cossacks were pulled in and involved in political games, Perenizkho said. Some politician would say, I will clean Russia of the Jews. And they would play on the feelings of the Cossacks, knowing first of all that Cossacks always follow orders from superiors. And the politicians would say: What are you? You have only one horse. Or two horses. Who has the mill? Who has the factory? Why dont you go take it? But historians say it isnt true that when Cossacks led pogroms, they were always coaxed by the military or politicians.Sometimes, it was actual instructions from the military, and sometimes, it was the Cossacks taking advantage of a permissive environment, said Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University.Sometimes, they were just intuiting what they thought the czar would want: Well, the czar cant know every bunch of Jews. If he did, hed want us to do this.Galeotti stressed that the Cossacks werent any more anti-Semitic than the average Russian. But they regarded themselves as the czars own storm troopers, and the czar was a leader chosen by God in particular, God as conceived by Christians. The Jews had a different theology, so they couldnt be good Russians, could they?That said, it seems to me that blaming Cossacks for the torments of the Jews in Russia is like blaming ammunition for a gunshot wound. The whole country, it seems, despised Jews. When the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem wrote to Tolstoy for a little help in denouncing the pogroms, the great and saintly author would not give him the courtesy of a reply.I asked Perenizkho if he thought Cossacks were anti-Semites.Im not a scholar, and this would make a good subject for a thesis, he said. In the village where I grew up, there were no Jews, and I know if you met someone who was tight with money, he might be called a Yid. Now, I dont know if that was an ethnic reference, whether there is a difference between a Yid and a Hebrew. I dont know. But you would hear that.Personally, he could not fathom anti-Semitism, and saw no reason to dislike Jews.Traditionally, the third toast is for those who were killed in action, Perenizkho said. For this toast, we dont clink glasses.It seemed like a good moment for an addendum to that toast. I had been thinking that the ruthlessness of the Cossacks spurred the Jews to migrate. Because the fates are incomprehensibly twisted, I could be raised in the United States because the Jews were driven from their country by the time the Nazis arrived.Perenizkho chuckled, then said: My ancestors were scared, too. Thats why some of them left the country.Scared of Jews?Yes, he said. Many of the Bolsheviks who led the revolution of 1917 were Jewish, and as part of the communist campaign to wipe out any vestige of czarist Russia, the Bolsheviks persecuted Cossacks, forcing them to abandon, or at least hide, their heritage.Wouldnt you know it? The collective memory of contemporary Jews and Cossacks mirror each other. This, though, was no time to argue the legitimacy of grievances or to compare suffering.Nikolay soon raised a glass and offered a toast of his own.From a guy who was born Jewish in Russia, he said, but in a family that was scared neither of the Bolsheviks nor the Cossacks. I wish they had been scared, so I could have lived in the United States.A little giddily, we all drank to that. | Sports |
June 12, 2018Five states are holding primaries on Tuesday: Nevada, Virginia, Maine, South Carolina and North Dakota. Heres what you need to know about key races in each state.NevadaImageCredit...Richard Brian/Las Vegas Review-Journal, via Associated PressThe Democratic race for governor has been bitterly fought, and a recent poll showed the top two candidates Christina Giunchigliani and Steve Sisolak, both Clark County commissioners separated by only three points. Their contest has been vicious at times: Mr. Sisolak claimed in a recent ad that Ms. Giunchigliani had single-handedly protected perverts by weakening a sex offender bill years ago, to which Ms. Giunchigliani responded by revealing that she was sexually abused as a child.Each hopes to be Nevadas first Democratic governor since 1999.Attorney General Adam Laxalt is widely expected to win the Republican nomination for governor. A son and grandson of former senators, Mr. Laxalt is a supporter of President Trump and has the backing of Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers.A House race worth watching is in the Third District. Representative Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, is vacating the seat to run for the Senate. Its a traditional swing district and has crowded primary fields on both sides. Among the Republican candidates is Danny Tarkanian, who agreed to run for the House instead of the Senate at the urging of Mr. Trump. That removed a primary challenge to Senator Dean Heller, who is among the most vulnerable Republicans this year. Mr. Heller is expected to face Ms. Rosen in November in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.[Democratic women are running for governor. Men and money stand in their way.]VirginiaImageCredit...Steve Helber/Associated PressVirginia Republicans have an interesting Senate primary on Tuesday. Three Republicans are hoping to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Tim Kaine, in November: Corey Stewart, a Prince William County supervisor; Nick Freitas, a member of the Virginia House; and E.W. Jackson, a lawyer and minister.Mr. Stewart is the best known, having narrowly lost a bitter Republican primary for governor last year, and he is leading the polls. An outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump, he has a similarly bellicose style. But he has been tarnished by his past praise for the white nationalist Paul Nehlen, as well as appearances with the organizer of last years Unite the Right rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. (He has since distanced himself from both men.)Keep an eye, also, on the Second and 10th Districts. In the Second District, Representative Scott Taylor, a Republican, has a conservative primary challenger, and two Democrats are vying to face him as well. In the 10th District, six Democrats are seeking to challenge Representative Barbara Comstock, a two-term Republican who could be vulnerable in November.ImageCredit...Robert F. Bukaty/Associated PressFor almost eight years, Maine has been governed by Paul R. LePage, a famously controversial Republican. Now, four candidates are jostling to be his heir apparent. But the Republican nominee may face an uphill battle, both because it is shaping up to be a strong year for Democrats nationwide and because Maines governorship has traditionally swung back and forth.The Democratic field is led by Attorney General Janet Mills and Adam Cote, a lawyer and longtime National Guard member. Emilys List, the national group devoted to electing Democratic women, is backing Ms. Mills and has poured $300,000 into the race.For the first time, Maine voters will use an instant runoff, or ranked choice, system. Voters will rank the candidates in order of preference, and if no one receives a majority of the first-place votes, the last-place candidates votes will be redistributed to his or her voters next choices until someone breaks 50 percent. For good measure, voters will also be voting on whether to continue using ranked-choice voting.[Learn more about Maines instant runoff system here.]South CarolinaImageCredit...Michael Holahan/The Augusta Chronicle, via Associated PressGov. Henry McMaster, who took the job last year after Nikki Haley joined the Trump administration, is facing a competitive Republican primary as he seeks his first full term. His opponents include his own lieutenant governor, Kevin Bryant, as well as Catherine Templeton, a lawyer whose website calls her a conservative buzzsaw. While polls show Mr. McMaster ahead, it is not clear that he will break the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.Tight races are also expected in the First and Fourth Districts. In the First District, Representative Mark Sanford, once expected to win re-election with little trouble, is in danger of losing to State Representative Katie Arrington, who has attacked Mr. Sanford for his criticism of Mr. Trump. The Republican primary in the Fourth District which is being vacated by Representative Trey Gowdy, perhaps best known for leading the House committee that investigated the Benghazi attack is tremendously crowded, with 13 candidates.The contest between Mr. Sanford and Ms. Arrington highlights a counterpoint to the dominant trend of the 2018 midterms. While Democrats hope to ride a wave of opposition to the president, an overwhelming majority of Republicans support him 90 percent, according to the most recent weekly average by Gallup and the partys anti-Trump members, like Mr. Sanford, could suffer for their stand.North DakotaImageCredit...J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressSenator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat in one of the nations most conservative states, is facing a tough re-election campaign, and her Republican challenger will be chosen on Tuesday. Representative Kevin Cramer, who holds North Dakotas only House seat, is running against Thomas ONeill, an anti-immigration Air Force veteran. The state Republican Party has endorsed Mr. Cramer.[For Heitkamp, a lift from an unlikely source: the Koch brothers.]Voters will also choose Mr. Cramers replacement in the House. State Senator Kelly Armstrong is seeking the Republican nomination against two candidates with little to no political experience: Tiffany Abentroth and Paul Schaffner. On the Democratic side, former State Senator Mac Schneider is running unopposed. | Politics |
Politics|Facebook bans a page used to coordinate pro-Trump protests after calls for violence.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/facebook-bans-a-page-used-to-coordinate-pro-trump-protests-after-calls-for-violence.htmlCredit...Laura Morton for The New York TimesJan. 6, 2021Facebook banned a page that was being used to organize pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington on Wednesday after direct calls for violence surfaced on the page.The company said it removed the page, called Red-State Secession, on Wednesday morning. It did not provide any further details on what prompted the action.In the days leading up to the protests in Washington, members of the group had asked its roughly 8,000 followers to share addresses of perceived enemies in the nations capital. Those included home addresses of federal judges, members of Congress and other prominent progressive politicians.Comments left on the page often featured photos of gun and ammunition, along with emoji suggesting that members of the group were planning for violence. One post on Tuesday said people should be prepared to use force to defend civilization.Several comments below the post showed photos of assault rifles, ammunition and other weapons. In the comments, people referred to occupying the capital and taking action to force Congress to overturn the election results.Before it was removed by Facebook, the page directed followers to other social media sites like Gab and Parler that have gained popularity in right-wing circles since the election in November. | Politics |
Jermaine O'Neal Nate Robinson Should Be in NBA ... BIG3's His Audition 1/20/2018 TMZSports.com Jermaine O'Neal's got a fool-proof plan to getting Nate Robinson back into the NBA ... and it all starts with ballin' out in Ice Cube's BIG3 league!! TMZ Sports spoke with the ex-NBA All-Star about the newest addition to his Tri-State squad ... and J.O. reveals he personally recruited Robinson because he knows the 33-year-old still belongs in the pros. O'Neal says the NBA scouts should have their eyes on Nate throughout the season ... 'cause his team is gonna feed him the ball the whole time!! BONUS -- O'Neal hints at another acquisition and former teammate he's super stoked to play with again ... so start guessing. | Entertainment |
Diagnostic tests for Alzheimers disease are already here. But the results may raise as many questions as they answer. Credit...Amanda Lucier for The New York TimesPublished Dec. 20, 2019Updated July 28, 2020Not long ago, the only way to know if someone had Alzheimers disease was to examine the brain in an autopsy. That is changing and fast with brain scans and spinal taps that can detect beta amyloid, the telltale Alzheimers protein. There is a blood test on the horizon that can detect beta amyloid, and researchers are experimenting with scans to look for another protein, called tau, also characteristic of Alzheimers.As this sort of diagnostic testing becomes widespread, more people who fear their memories are slipping will face a difficult question: Would I really want to know if I were getting Alzheimers disease?This is a new era, and we are just at the precipice, said Dr. Gil Rabinovici, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco.A positive test could help you get your affairs in order and plan your future. And a drug company, Biogen, claims to have the first treatment that may slow the course of the disease if begun early enough. Health insurers are prohibited by law for now, at least from denying coverage if you have Alzheimers. But there is nothing that prevents long-term-care and life insurers from denying you. Will your friends stay with you? How about your spouse? What would it be like to live with the knowledge that you will eventually be unable to recognize your family, or even to speak? For some who have been given diagnostic tests, those questions are all too real. When Dr. Daniel Gibbs, 68, a neurologist in Portland, Ore., noticed his memory starting to slip, he wanted to know if it was Alzheimers. He had seen its damage all too often in his patients. So he received brain scans for beta amyloid and took cognitive tests. He knew that in people like him with mild memory problems, the combination can cinch a diagnosis.The result? He was in the early stages of Alzheimers disease.Now he worries about his future. Alzheimers is an ugly way to die, he said. He has told his family that if he gets something like pneumonia, they should withhold treatment.The sort of testing Dr. Gibbs had can be expensive, and diagnostic brain scans usually are not covered by insurance. The tests are not for the worried well whose memories are intact. But they are available at some medical centers to those with mild memory problems.Generally, even people without memory problems who have amyloid plaques in their brains are more likely to progress to Alzheimers, said Dr. Ronald Petersen, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.But not everyone does progress. Even when they do, it can be years before there are symptoms.Outside of research studies, Dr. Petersen said, we do not do amyloid scans on clinically normal people, because we dont know what to tell them.Dr. Rabinovici, of U.C.S.F., sees people who are distressed by their memory problems, knowing something is wrong and unable to get an answer from their doctors.Often doctors cant definitively tell them if their memory loss is related to aging, he said. A lot of times, doctors dismiss it and tell patients: You are fine, its normal. You are 75 or 89 and depressed. Why not try an antidepressant?Before he offers diagnostic testing, Dr. Rabinovici sits down with patients and their families and asks how will they feel if the test is positive or negative.Most who receive positive diagnoses have told him that after the initial shock, they did not regret being tested. It ends the diagnostic odyssey, he said. It ends the uncertainty.ImageCredit...Matt York/Associated PressDr. Jason Karlawish, an Alzheimers researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, did a formal study to gauge patients responses to learning that they had elevated levels of amyloid in their brain. He did not see catastrophic reactions to the bad news. No one died by suicide. Instead, many said they were taking steps to slow Alzheimers, putting their faith in healthy diets and exercise although no lifestyle measures have been shown to have an effect. But some were not so sure getting a diagnosis had helped them. Youve now told me something about my future, Dr. Karlawish recalled one patient telling him. I cant unlearn this.For some, the diagnosis has unleashed a storm of emotions.Wallace Rueckel, 75, of St. James, N.C., worries about what will happen as his disease progresses. He has been reluctant to let people other than relatives know he has early Alzheimers disease.I dont want people to feel sorry for me, he said.Jay Reinstein of Raleigh, N.C., 58, learned he had early-stage Alzheimers disease in March of 2018. He stepped down from his job as an assistant city manager in Fayetteville, N.C., later that year. I was numb, Mr. Reinstein said. I loved working. Work was my life. That was my identity. And he was not the only one left reeling by the diagnosis. My wife is not doing well with this, Mr. Reinstein said. It has really taken a major toll on our family. I have become depressed.He worries what his life will be like in a few years. He worries that friends will fall away.Mr. Reinstein has changed his diet, and now he exercises. He and his wife have made a will. He decided to become active in the Alzheimers Association and to do what he can to destigmatize the disease.He is trying not to let the diagnosis take over his life. I dont want to be defined by the disease, he said. | Health |
2021 Has Been a Bad Year for ManateesJohnny DiazReporting from South Florida 2021 Has Been a Bad Year for ManateesJohnny DiazReporting from South Florida Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel, via Associated PressFlorida manatees are dying at an alarming rate. The state lost about 10 percent of its population in just a year, the Center for Biological Diversity said.Here are some reasons for the worrisome decline | science |
Katy Perry Obsessed Fan Guilty of Stalking ... Getting Deported 1/25/2018 Katy Perry can breathe a sigh of relief -- the 37-year-old man who said he'd "do whatever it takes" to be with the singer is getting booted from the country ... TMZ has learned. We broke the story ... Pawel Jurski from Poland was arrested in Miami last month after trying to bum-rush the stage at Katy's concert. Cops determined he'd been to at least 6 of Katy's shows over 20 days, and tried to contact her at each show. Jurski was found guilty of felony aggravated stalking, misdemeanor loitering and resisting arrest ... according to prosecutors in Miami-Dade County. We're told he's now being processed for deportation. | Entertainment |
Credit...Miikka Pirinen for The New York TimesJune 9, 2017OLKILUOTO ISLAND, Finland Beneath a forested patch of land on the Gulf of Bothnia, at the bottom of a steep tunnel that winds for three miles through granite bedrock, Finland is getting ready to entomb its nuclear waste.If all goes well, sometime early in the next decade the first of what will be nearly 3,000 sealed copper canisters, each up to 17 feet long and containing about two tons of spent reactor fuel from Finlands nuclear power industry, will be lowered into a vertical borehole in a side tunnel about 1,400 feet underground. As more canisters are buried, the holes and tunnels up to 20 miles of them will be packed with clay and eventually abandoned.The fuel, which contains plutonium and other products of nuclear fission, will remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years time enough for a new ice age and other epochal events. But between the two-inch-thick copper, the clay and the surrounding ancient granite, officials say, there should be no risk of contamination to future generations.We are pretty confident we have done our business right, said Timo Aikas, a former executive with Posiva, the company that runs the project. It seems the Olkiluoto bedrock is good for safe disposal.ImageCredit...Miikka Pirinen for The New York TimesThe repository, called Onkalo and estimated to cost about 3.5 billion euros (currently about $3.9 billion) over the century or so that it will take to fill it, will be the worlds first permanent disposal site for commercial reactor fuel. With the support of the local municipality and the national government, the project has progressed relatively smoothly for years.That is a marked contrast to similar efforts in other countries, most notably those in the United States to create a deep repository in Nevada. The Yucca Mountain project, which would handle spent fuel that is currently stored at 75 reactor sites around the country, faced political opposition from Nevada lawmakers for years and was defunded by the Obama administration in 2012.Now, with the backing of the nuclear power industry and with the retirement of Yucca Mountains chief nemesis, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada the Trump administration wants to take the project out of mothballs. But its fate remains uncertain.Experts in nuclear waste management say the success of the Finnish project is due in part to how it was presented to the people who would be most affected by it. Each community under consideration as a repository location was consulted and promised veto power should it be selected.In the United States, Congress in 1987 pre-emptively directed that only Yucca Mountain be studied as a potential site, effectively overruling opponents in Nevada who were worried that the project might affect water supplies or otherwise contaminate the region.When you look at the Finnish repository, its natural to admire the technical accomplishment, said Rodney C. Ewing, a professor at Stanford and former chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent federal agency that reviews Energy Department programs, including Yucca Mountain. But of equal importance has been the social accomplishment.Mr. Aikas, who was involved in the Finnish site selection process beginning in the 1980s, said he and his colleagues learned early lessons about the need to consult with local residents.We ran into difficulties because we tried to behave as industry did back then wed decide and announce, he said. Invariably, he said, by presenting decisions as unreviewable, they ran into local opposition.Very soon we learned that we had to be very open, Mr. Aikas added. This openness and transparency creates trust. When five sites were selected for further study in 1987, offices were opened in each community to provide information.The approach proved so successful that when it came time for the national government to make a final decision on a repository in 2000, officials in Eurajoki, the municipality that includes Olkiluoto Island, agreed to host it on one condition: that Posiva not present the government an option to choose any other site.ImageCredit...Miikka Pirinen for The New York TimesEurajoki officials had concerns early in the process, Mr. Aikas said, but eventually came to see that the repository would provide property tax revenue and jobs.The municipality also had experience with nuclear power: Two of the countrys four operating nuclear power reactors are on Olkiluoto, less than two miles from the repository, and a third plant is under construction nearby.You have a community that is familiar with nuclear issues, said Dr. Ewing at Stanford.Nevada, by contrast, has no nuclear power plants. What it does have is a history of government testing of atomic weapons, both in the air and underground, for four decades until the early 1990s.You have to expect that a community with that experience will be a little skeptical, Dr. Ewing said.Finlands success also has its roots in an early decision by the national government. In 1983, it established the principle that the companies creating the waste TVO, which owns the reactors at Olkiluoto, and Fortum Power and Heat, which owns the other two are responsible for disposing of it. The government had only approval and regulatory roles.It has always been important to resolve this spent-fuel issue and keep it in the hands of the power company, Mr. Aikas said. Posiva, the company developing the repository, is a joint venture of the two utilities.In the United States, spent fuel became the responsibility of the federal government, specifically the Energy Department, subjecting the issue to more political pressures.At the Onkalo site, workers drill into the bedrock down near the 1,400-foot level, taking cores to study the characteristics of the granite. Above ground, near the curving entrance to the tunnel, construction has begun on a building where the spent fuel, currently cooling in pools at the Olkiluoto reactors, will be readied for burial, handled by remote-controlled machinery since radiation levels will be high. Spent fuel will also eventually be shipped here from Fortums reactors, on the countrys southeastern coast.Kimmo Kemppainen, research manager for the project, said that in characterizing and mapping the rock, it was important to locate, and avoid, fractures where water could flow, since the disposal site was below the water table. But even if water gets near a canister, he said, the clay should form a barrier and keep corrosion of the copper which could result in a radiation leak to a minimum, even over tens of thousands of years.Mr. Kemppainen has worked on the project for 14 years. My personal opinion is that for this generation that has used nuclear power, at least we should do something about the waste, he said. Its not safe to store it on the surface.ImageCredit...Miikka Pirinen for The New York TimesIn the United States, more than 80,000 tons of spent fuel are currently stored on the surface, in pools or dry steel-and-concrete casks, at operating nuclear reactors and at other sites near now-closed plants. The original deadline to have a repository operating by 1998 is long past.The project at Yucca Mountain, in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been studied for years at a cost of more than $13 billion. In 2008, the Energy Department began the process of obtaining a construction license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the Obama administration moved to withdraw the license application two years later.With the election of President Trump, advocates for Yucca Mountain saw a chance to revive it.This is a very important national project, said Rod McCullum, a senior director at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group. If we can do this safely, we would be ashamed of ourselves if we didnt do it.The Trump administration is seeking $120 million to reopen the licensing process. And in a symbolic gesture, in his first official trip as energy secretary, Rick Perry toured the site, where little exists beyond a five-mile-long exploratory tunnel.Congress rejected the licensing funds in its deliberations on the 2017 budget, and the 2018 budget process is just starting. Even if the $120 million is allocated, it could take a half-decade or longer, and much more money, to complete the licensing, which would involve a lengthy hearing before administrative judges on hundreds of environmental and safety issues raised by opponents.ImageCredit...Miikka Pirinen for The New York TimesEven without Mr. Reid, most members of Nevadas congressional delegation are still vowing to fight the project, arguing that there are concerns about the long-term safety of drinking water supplies unlike the Finnish repository, the Nevada site sits above the water table and that above all, Nevadans do not want it.The decision to put the repository there was based on bad politics, not good science, said Representative Dina Titus, a Democrat who represents a Las Vegas district.The main issue is consent, she said. She and other members of the delegation have introduced a bill that would require the host states approval before the repository could be built.In a 2012 report, an expert panel established by the Obama administration to develop a new strategy for managing spent fuel recommended a similar consent-based process. It had another Finland-like recommendation as well: that responsibility for nuclear waste be taken from the Energy Department and put in the hands of an organization created solely for that purpose.Those recommendations have not been acted upon. But it is also unclear whether Yucca Mountain, if revived by the Trump administration, would succeed under the current approach.It could be that the federal government could prevail and after some decades we would have a repository, Dr. Ewing said. It could be that after several decades the federal government could fail and we would be where we are at today.Theres a lot to be said for how Finland handled its situation, Dr. Ewing added. If you treat people fairly and present them the information, if the repository is safe, you should be able to get some communities to respond positively, he said. | science |
DealBook|Conviction of Former Jefferies Trader Is Overturnedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/dealbook/conviction-of-former-jefferies-trader-is-overturned.htmlCredit...Mike Segar/ReutersDec. 8, 2015A federal appeals court has overturned the 2014 conviction of a former Jefferies Group trader, Jesse C. Litvak, striking a blow to the governments efforts to crack down on abuses in bond trading.The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in an 84-page decision on Tuesday that there was a lack of evidence that misstatements made by Mr. Litvak were material to the government and that the lower court erred in excluding expert witness testimony. Mr. Litvak was accused of lying about mortgage bond prices to bolster profits.The case was returned to the Federal District Court in New Haven for a new trial on securities fraud charges.In a statement on Tuesday, Deirdre M. Daly, the United States attorney in Connecticut, said the government would proceed with a retrial.Todays opinion affirms the governments ongoing efforts to investigate and prosecute fraud in the fixed-income markets, she said.In September, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused three former bond traders at Nomura Securities of misleading customers about bond prices. Those traders also face criminal fraud charges from Ms. Dalys office.Bond prices are not always clear, and brokers who facilitate trading between parties make money off differences in the prices when they are bought and sold.In March 2014, a federal jury in New Haven found Mr. Litvak guilty of deceiving his customers about the prices of mortgage-backed securities he sold to them in the years after the 2008 financial crisis. Prosecutors said the trades generated more than $2 million in revenue for his firm, where he worked until December 2011.In October 2014, the appellate court, in a ruling that determined that the former Jefferies trader could be free pending his appeal, said Mr. Litvak had raised a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in a reversal.Were very pleased with the decision this morning in Jesses case, Kannon K. Shanmugam, Mr. Litvaks lawyer and a partner at Williams & Connolly, said on Tuesday. | Business |
Science|Alaskan Volcano Eases After Eruptionhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/science/earth/alaskan-volcano-eases-after-eruption.htmlCredit...Colt Snapp/Associated PressMarch 29, 2016A volcanic eruption in Alaska that sent a cloud of ash more than seven miles into the atmosphere and forced the cancellation of more than 40 flights appeared to ease late Monday, officials said.Pavlof Volcano, 625 miles southwest of Anchorage near the tip of the remote Alaska Peninsula, began erupting on Sunday afternoon, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said, bringing heightened seismic activity with it.Lava could be seen spewing from its mouth by local mariners, pilots and residents of the town of Cold Bay, about 40 miles to the southwest, the observatory said.Strong winds carried the ash hundreds of miles into the interior of the state. A nearby village, Nelson Lagoon, was blanketed in a thin layer of it on Monday morning, The Alaska Dispatch News reported.Any danger posed by the volcano appeared to have dissipated by Monday night when the observatory downgraded its alert level from red, meaning a hazardous eruption was underway, to orange, a signal that its hazards appeared to be limited.The ash cloud created a headache for 3,300 Alaska Airlines passengers on Monday after the airline canceled 41 flights to and from six cities in Northern Alaska, the observatory said.We simply wont fly where ash is present, John Ladner, the airlines director of operations, said in a statement. | science |
Ewan McGregor Files for Divorce After 22 Years of Marriage 1/19/2018 Ewan McGregor has filed for divorce from his wife of 22 years. Ewan cites irreconcilable differences as the reason he wants to end his marriage to Eve Mavrakis. McGregor, repped by attorney Fahi Takesh Hallin, wants joint custody of the couple's 3 minor children. Eve, whose lawyer -- disso queen Laura Wasser -- filed her answer at the same time, is asking for sole physical custody with visitation going to Ewan. McGregor says in the docs he's willing to pay spousal support. As for property ... our sources say there is no prenup so the assets should be evenly divided. The date of separation is listed as May 28th of last year. News of Ewan and Eve's split hit in October ... with reports saying the two had separated as early as May. The announcement came shortly after pics surfaced of Ewan kissing his "Fargo" co-star, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, at a London cafe. | Entertainment |
Politics|Trump Exaggerates Trade Deficit With European Union by $50 Billion https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/us/politics/fast-check-trump-trade-deficit-european-union.htmlFact Check of the DayThe president claimed that the European Union had a $151 billion trade surplus with the United States. Its $101 billion. June 7, 2018THE FACTS This is exaggerated. Mr. Trumps numbers are off. The European Union had a $153 billion trade surplus in goods with the United States in 2017 and a total trade surplus of $101 billion when trade in services is included. This means that the European Union exported more goods to the United States than it imported. Put another way, the United States had a total trade deficit of $101 billion with the European Union.Mr. Trump often ignores trade in services like finance, technology and law when making claims about the trade balance. He has done so against the advice of most economists and his own economic report, as The New York Times reported in March: Mr. Trumps preoccupation with trade in goods contradicts his own White House economic report, which he signed and was released in February.The United States economy has shifted away from manufacturing and toward service provision industries in recent decades, according the report. Focusing only on the trade in goods alone ignores the United States comparative advantage in services.Mr. Trumps post on Twitter on Thursday evening followed one from President Emmanuel Macron of France, who accused the American leader of isolationism. The dueling Twitter posts previewed a two-day meeting in Canada with the Group of 7 industrialized nations. Sources: Census Bureau, Twitter, The New York Times | Politics |
DealBook|Former R.B.S. Bond Trader Pleads Guilty to Securities Fraudhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/business/dealbook/former-rbs-bond-trader-pleads-guilty-to-securities-fraud.htmlDec. 21, 2015A former top trader at the Royal Bank of Scotland pleaded guilty in federal court in Connecticut on Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud as part of the governments investigation into Wall Street bond sales practices.Adam Siegel, the former co-head of securitized bond trading at R.B.S., waived his right to indictment and agreed to cooperate. He admitted to conspiring to increase the banks profits by lying to customers about the prices of securities they were buying or selling. Mr. Siegel worked in R.B.S.s office in Stamford, Conn.The plea comes after the cooperation of Matthew Katke, a former R.B.S. corporate bond trader, who pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit securities fraud in the Connecticut federal prosecutors investigation.Regulators have been scrutinizing debt sales practices on Wall Street. In September, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused three former Nomura Securities bond traders of misleading customers on bond prices. They also face criminal charges brought by Deirdre M. Daly, the United States attorney for Connecticut, who announced Mr. Siegels guilty plea on Monday.Broker-dealers do not have a license to lie to their customers, Ms. Daly said.Certain types of bonds are bought and sold through brokers who facilitate trading and make money on the difference between the price paid to buy securities from one customer and sell them to another.Ms. Daly has not won every case, however. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court overturned the 2014 conviction of Jesse C. Litvak, a former Jefferies Group head trader. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said there was a lack of evidence that Mr. Litvak made material misstatements to the government, sending some of the charges back to the lower court to be retried.Mr. Siegel was a trader in R.B.S.s Stamford office from 2008 to 2014, supervising trading in residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.The scheme happened in two ways, prosecutors said. The traders misrepresented the sellers asking price to the buyer, and vice versa, keeping the difference for R.B.S. The traders also told customers who wanted to buy bonds that a fictitious third party was selling them, rather than telling them the securities were coming out of R.B.S.s holdings. That allowed the traders to charge an unearned commission. The scheme targeted 35 victims, Ms. Daly said. | Business |
matterWastewater could provide early, painless and localized data about the rise or fall of coronavirus levels.Credit...Douglas Magno/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPublished May 1, 2020Updated May 13, 2020The world is eager to come out of lockdown. But if countries simply return to business as usual, new outbreaks of Covid-19 will follow. The only solution that public health experts see is to keep careful track of the coronavirus and clamp down on new flare-ups.The trouble is that the most obvious way to monitor the virus testing person by person has already proved to be a huge, expensive challenge. Experts say were nowhere near the scale we need to get a good picture of the pandemic.Now some scientists are looking for the virus not in our noses, blood or spit, but somewhere else: in our sewers.Its the signature of a whole community, said Krista Wigginton, an environmental engineer at the University of Michigan who has been finding the coronavirus in wastewater around the Bay Area in California.Water authorities and governments are in discussions with scientists and companies about tracking the pandemic through the detection of viruses in the sewer. Wastewater monitoring could provide early warnings of outbreaks. It could potentially give governments some of the data they need about when to end lockdowns and when to ratchet them back up.Measuring viruses in wastewater in effect tests an entire city or region at once. While only some people may get tested for the coronavirus on a given day, everyone uses the toilet.Its a great leveler, said Christobel Ferguson, chief innovation officer of the Water Research Foundation.This week, the foundation sponsored a virtual research summit, during which Dr. Wigginton and other experts shared their early results and developed a road map for improving their surveillance.For decades, public health workers have looked in sewage for signs of viral outbreaks. The World Health Organization has monitored polio viruses this way, to assess how well its vaccination campaigns have worked.In the early days, researchers had to run painstaking tests to find viruses in wastewater. They had to mix the water with cells so that the viruses could infect them. Then the researchers had to wait for the new viruses to emerge.Later, researchers were able to skip these experiments. They could simply fish out genetic material from the water, read its sequence, and determine what kind of virus they were dealing with. Even newer technology has made it possible to estimate the number of viruses by counting up the viral genes in a water sample.ImageCredit...Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesIrene Xagoraraki, an environmental engineer at Michigan State University, uses this method to detect viruses in wastewater in Detroit. In a recent outbreak of hepatitis A, she found that the virus increased in the water about a week ahead of the rise in confirmed cases. You can predict the outbreak, she said.When the coronavirus began spreading from China, Dr. Xagoraraki and other experts began wondering if they might see it turn up in wastewater.The early reports about the coronavirus made the idea seemed plausible. Although the virus infects peoples airways first, it can eventually get into the intestines.The coronavirus has been detected in some infected peoples feces. Some early studies suggest that the virus becomes inactive by the time it gets to the sewer system. But it still carries genes that researchers can detect.We started before the virus entered our country, said Gertjan Medema of the KWR Water Research Institute in the Netherlands. He and his colleagues created a test for the coronavirus and began using it in wastewater in early February.They didnt get any positive results, which was reassuring. They could be confident that their test was specific enough not to be fooled by other viruses.After the Netherlands saw its first confirmed case on Feb. 27, Dr. Medema and his colleagues went back out to run more tests. They found the virus in the sewers of cities like Amsterdam and Utrecht.The researchers then went to remote towns without any known cases of Covid-19. They discovered the coronavirus up to six days before the first confirmed cases were found there.Since then, Dr. Medema and his colleagues have continued to track the viruses in the sewer systems. As the confirmed cases of Covid-19 have gone up in Amsterdam and Utrecht, they have found more virus genes in the wastewater.Researchers have reported similar results from countries including Australia, France, Spain and the United States.At the meeting, the consensus of experts was that its not yet possible to use viruses in wastewater to estimate how many people are infected.For one thing, researchers are still trying to figure out the average number of viruses that infected people shed in their feces. For another, its not clear how many viral genes survive the journey from a toilet to a wastewater treatment plant.I dont feel like were at a point where we can say, This is the concentration in the wastewater and this is the number of people with illness, Dr. Wigginton said.Nevertheless, the experts who attended the meeting agreed that sewers have a lot to tell us about the pandemic.The studies of Dr. Medema and others suggest that a weekly test of wastewater could serve as an early warning system for outbreaks.When cities or states come out of lockdown, they could check the sewers to follow the virus trend. An increase would tell them that people were infecting each other. Then you need to go back into quarantine, said Eric Alm, a M.I.T. microbiologist and the scientific director of BioBot, a company that tracks pathogens in wastewater.Previous experience with other viruses has taught researchers to be careful about making sense of these apparent trends. If a huge crowd comes into a city to watch a football game, for example, the wastewater system may see a spike of viruses that has nothing to do with a new outbreak.It requires good information, Dr. Medema said, but its a doable thing.As their testing becomes more reliable and precise, Dr. Medema and other researchers hope to zoom in on future outbreaks. Instead of looking at a wastewater treatment plant that handles an entire city or county, they may go down into manholes to monitor changes in individual neighborhoods.Conceivably, they might be able to zero in on nursing homes, factories and other places that have seen intense outbreaks.If we see a hot spot arising, Dr. Xagoraraki said, we can close down a particular area for a while, so you dont kill the whole economy of a whole state.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.] | science |
In an important book, he challenged the widely held Freudian notion that same-sex attraction was curable, finding it instead rooted in biology.Credit...via Sue MatorinMay 4, 2020In the 1980s, when marriage and adopting children seemed impossible dreams for gay men, the psychoanalyst Richard C. Friedman became their champion.His 1988 book, Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective, showed that sexual orientation was largely biological and presented a case that helped undermine the belief held by most Freudian analysts at the time that homosexuality was a pathology that could somehow be cured.I felt an ethical obligation to find the reasons for anti-homosexual prejudice, he once told an interviewer. His wife, Susan Matorin, a clinical social worker at the Weill Medical College of Cornell, put it more plainly: Straight people had the same personality issues, and they got away with murder, but gay people were stigmatized, and he didnt think that was right.Dr. Friedmans motivation wasnt political. He very much felt like you followed the science, and it didnt matter what the political backdrop was, his son, Jeremiah, a screenwriter in Los Angeles, said in a phone interview.Although the American Psychiatric Association, the dominant mental health organization in the United States, changed its diagnostic manual in 1973 and stopped classifying homosexuality as an illness, psychoanalysts continued to describe homosexuality as a perversion, and many believed it could be cured.Dr. Friedman, using studies of identical twins and theories of developmental psychology, made a scholarly rather than ideological case that biology rather than upbringing played a significant role in sexual orientation.It was a direct challenge to popular Freudian theories and thrust him into the center of debates among the more established heavyweights of psychoanalysis. It led to a model in which analyst and patient simply assumed that homosexuality was intrinsic, said Jack Drescher, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who knew Dr. Friedman and would later offer his own critiques of Dr. Friedmans theory as new approaches to working with gay and lesbian patients emerged.Given that he was a younger colleague, it was brave of him to take older experts on, Professor Drescher said. But it was in keeping with who he was. He had an edge and wasnt afraid of anybody, he said.Dr. Friedman died on March 31 at his home in Manhattan. Though the specific cause was not clear, Ms. Matorin said, he had for years been grappling with a number of health problems, including cardiac and metabolic conditions. He was 79.Richard C. Friedman was born on Jan. 20, 1941, in the Bronx, the oldest of three sons of William Friedman and Henrietta Fuerstein. His father was a food inspector for the city; his mother a teacher.His parents instilled in their sons a deep love of learning all three would go on to become doctors and of music, insisting on violin and piano lessons. Dr. Friedman would help pay for medical school by playing the accordion at events, and he remained an excellent pianist.At the time, a child could still get beaten on the streets of the Bronx for being, like Richard, Jewish, and his family was deeply affected by genocide in Europe during World War II.While he was at the Bronx High School of Science, he received a National Merit Scholarship and used it to attend Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., graduating in 1961. Five years later he graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and became a psychiatric resident at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, both in Manhattan.Although he was best known for his work on human sexuality, Dr. Friedman was equally proud of a study he did at the medical center that showed that medical interns performed poorly when they were sleep-deprived. The work helped change how medical schools trained up-and-coming doctors.After enlisting in the United States Army Medical Corps, he became chief of inpatient psychiatry at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, where he treated traumatized young men returning from the Vietnam War. It was there, his son said, that his suspicion of ingrained authority deepened.Dr. Friedman would go on to become a clinical professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and a faculty member at Columbia University. He published more books and numerous articles on human sexuality, working with Dr. Jennifer Downey, a Manhattan psychiatrist and Columbia professor. He was also the longtime editor of the journal Psychodynamic Psychiatry.Intellectually restless, Dr. Friedman was a civic-minded student of history who was well-versed in Shakespeare, a devoted reader of biographies and a fan of opera, not to mention the New York Knicks.He was also a methodical man with distinct tastes, his family said. He always carried a copy of the United States Constitution, and without fail he would slip on gaberdine pants, an oxford shirt, a tie and a blue blazer when he went to his office on Manhattans Upper West Side. Saturdays were more casual. He left off the tie.In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by two daughters from a previous marriage, Heidi Friedman and Carla Greene; two brothers, Daniel and Joseph; and two grandchildren.Although his critics found him to be unyielding in his views, coming off as if he thought he was the smartest person in the room (and often he was), he had a thriving private practice and devoted patients.One was the author Andrew Solomon, whose book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2001. He was Dr. Friedmans patient for 25 years. Without him, Mr. Solomon said, he might never have understood that as a gay man he could be married and have a family, or that he was capable of professional accomplishment.What was most striking was just his confidence and clarity, Mr. Solomon said. | science |
Credit...Clarence Tabb Jr./Detroit News, via Associated PressNov. 21, 2018More than two decades ago, Congress adopted a sweeping law that outlawed female genital mutilation, an ancient practice that 200 million women and girls around the world have undergone. But a federal court considering the first legal challenge to the statute found the law unconstitutional on Tuesday, greatly diminishing the chances of it being used by federal prosecutors around the country.A federal judge in Michigan issued the ruling in a case that involved two doctors and four parents, among others, who had been criminally charged last year with participating in or enabling the ritual genital cutting of girls. Their families belong to a small Shiite Muslim sect, the Dawoodi Bohra, that is originally from western India.The case, the first to be brought under the 1996 law that criminalized female genital mutilation, has been closely followed by human rights advocates and communities where cutting is still practiced and whose members have moved in growing numbers to the United States and other western countries.On Tuesday, Judge Bernard Friedman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled that Congress did not have the authority to pass the law against female genital mutilation and he dismissed key charges filed against the doctors and removed four of the eight defendants from the case.As laudable as the prohibition of a particular type of abuse of girls may be, he wrote, prosecutors failed to show that the federal government had the authority to bring the charges, and he noted that regulating practices like this is essentially a state responsibility. He rejected arguments that the law allowed for such a federal prosecution because Congress has a right to regulate commerce or health care or can enact laws to support international treaties that the United States has signed.Federalism concerns deprive Congress of the power to enact this statute, Judge Friedman wrote. He added in the 28-page ruling, Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM because FGM is a local criminal activity which, in keeping with longstanding tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress.Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for United States Attorney Matthew Schneider in Detroit, said, We are reviewing the Judges ruling and will make a determination on whether or not to appeal.Lawyers for the defendants have argued that the Dawoodi Bohra practice is a protected religious procedure and is not mutilation but rather a ritual nick that doesnt remove the clitoris or labia as do some forms of cutting.Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and former federal prosecutor, said the judges ruling appeared to be solid and that, while 27 states have their own laws criminalizing the practice, other states would need to pass laws or use existing assault or abuse laws if they wanted to bring charges.Given how this statute is written I think hes correct, Professor Henning said. I hate to say Congress whiffed, but they whiffed on this law. There isnt a federal police power, so they cant just adopt anything they want. It has to be located in one of Congresss express powers and this wasnt.Advocates fighting to end female genital cutting were dismayed by the ruling. Shelby Quast said her group, Equality Now, is urging federal prosecutors to appeal the decision. We are confident that Congress had the authority to pass this FGM law, she said.Mariya Taher, a co-founder of Sahiyo, a group representing members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect who oppose cutting, said she appreciated that the ruling was not condoning female genital mutilation and that states still have options to bring cases. But she added that she is concerned about the message those who believe in cutting might draw from the decision.Is this something that proponents will use as a reason to say that what we do isnt harmful, almost giving them permission to do this? she wondered. The U.S. is looked to as a leader, so this could definitely have repercussions globally.In the Michigan case, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, an emergency medicine physician and a member of the Dawoodi Bohra sect, is accused of cutting the genitals of nine girls. Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, an internist, is accused of letting Dr. Nagarwala use his now-closed Burhani Medical Clinic in Livonia, a Detroit suburb. His wife, Farida Attar, the clinics office manager, and another woman, Tahera Shafiq, were accused of assisting the doctors.Judge Friedman dismissed charges against Ms. Shafiq, as well as mothers of two girls from Minnesota and one girl from Michigan. Dr. Nagarwala, the Attars and a fourth mother remain charged with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Dr. Nagarwala is also charged with conspiracy to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.Molly Blythe, a lawyer for Dr. Nagarwala, said Wednesday that while pleased with the ruling, Dr. Nagarwala remains under home confinement and still has to face the other charges, which could carry a sentence of years in federal prison.Legal experts said Congress could supersede the law with one that could pass muster, particularly by tying the cutting practice to aspects of interstate commerce, because Congress is allowed to make laws enforcing the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.There are ways that Congress could write a different statute that would be more closely connected to conduct that has an effect on interstate commerce, said Michael Rosman, general counsel for the Center for Individual Rights, although he said he believed such a law would still be vulnerable to claims it violated equal protection or religious freedom.Federal prosecutors argued that the law was linked to congressional authority to enforce the commerce clause, but Judge Friedman rejected that.If there is an interstate market for FGM, why is this the first time the government has ever brought charges under this 1996 statute? he wrote, adding FGM cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be classified as an economic or commercial activity.The judge also disputed prosecutors argument that the law fell under a constitutional clause that allows Congress to enforce treaties, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Judge Friedman said the covenants language was too general, calling for nondiscrimination and civil and political rights. It is not rationally related to the FGM statute, which prohibits the mutilation of girls genitalia. | Health |
Charlie Walk 'The Four' Judge Accused of Sexual Harassment 1/29/2018 Walk says, "There has never been a single HR claim against me at any time during my 25+ year career, spanning three major companies. He told Deadline, I have consistently been a supporter of the womens movement and this is the first time I have ever heard of this or any other allegation and it is false. One of Charlie Walk's former employees claims "The Four" judge repeatedly groped her, and sent her vulgar, sexually charged text messages ... ultimately forcing her to quit the music biz. The accuser, Tristan Coopersmith, claims Walk -- currently prez of Republic Records -- harassed her while they worked together at Sony Music. In an open letter, Tristan wrote, "For a year I shuddered at the idea of being called into your office, where you would stealthily close the door and make lewd comments about my body and share your fantasies of having sex with me. I was 27." She says she repeatedly reminded Walk, her boss at the time, he was married with kids, but claims it had no impact. Tristan claims Walk would grab her leg under the table dinner meetings ... sometimes while his wife was sitting across from them. She detailed one alleged encounter ... "And then there was that event at your swank pad when you actually cornered me and pushed me into your bedroom and onto your bed. The bed you shared with your wife your wife who was in the room next door. You being drunk and me being 6 inches taller was my saving grace." Tristan quit the music biz 8 years ago, and is now a psychotherapist. She posted the letter on her website. Tristan says she's forgiven Walk and hopes he can change his ways. It's unclear if the allegations will have effect on Walk's job on "The Four" ... we've reached out to FOX. | Entertainment |
Credit...Mark Harris; photographs by Dado Ruvic/Reuters, Lauren Withrow for The New York TimesThe Silent Partner Cleaning Up Facebook for $500 Million a YearThe social network has constructed a vast infrastructure to keep toxic material off its platform. At the center of it is Accenture, the blue-chip consulting firm.Credit...Mark Harris; photographs by Dado Ruvic/Reuters, Lauren Withrow for The New York TimesPublished Aug. 31, 2021Updated Oct. 28, 2021In 2019, Julie Sweet, the newly appointed chief executive of the global consulting firm Accenture, held a meeting with top managers. She had a question: Should Accenture get out of some of the work it was doing for a leading client, Facebook?For years, tensions had mounted within Accenture over a certain task that it performed for the social network. In eight-hour shifts, thousands of its full-time employees and contractors were sorting through Facebooks most noxious posts, including images, videos and messages about suicides, beheadings and sexual acts, trying to prevent them from spreading online.Some of those Accenture workers, who reviewed hundreds of Facebook posts in a shift, said they had started experiencing depression, anxiety and paranoia. In the United States, one worker had joined a class-action lawsuit to protest the working conditions. News coverage linked Accenture to the grisly work. So Ms. Sweet had ordered a review to discuss the growing ethical, legal and reputational risks.At the meeting in Accentures Washington office, she and Ellyn Shook, the head of human resources, voiced concerns about the psychological toll of the work for Facebook and the damage to the firms reputation, attendees said. Some executives who oversaw the Facebook account argued that the problems were manageable. They said the social network was too lucrative a client to lose.The meeting ended with no resolution.ImageCredit...Greg Kahn for The New York TimesFacebook and Accenture have rarely talked about their arrangement or even acknowledged that they work with each other. But their secretive relationship lies at the heart of an effort by the worlds largest social media company to distance itself from the most toxic part of its business.For years, Facebook has been under scrutiny for the violent and hateful content that flows through its site. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, has repeatedly pledged to clean up the platform. He has promoted the use of artificial intelligence to weed out toxic posts and touted efforts to hire thousands of workers to remove the messages that the A.I. doesnt.But behind the scenes, Facebook has quietly paid others to take on much of the responsibility. Since 2012, the company has hired at least 10 consulting and staffing firms globally to sift through its posts, along with a wider web of subcontractors, according to interviews and public records.No company has been more crucial to that endeavor than Accenture. The Fortune 500 firm, better known for providing high-end tech, accounting and consulting services to multinational companies and governments, has become Facebooks single biggest partner in moderating content, according to an examination by The New York Times.Accenture has taken on the work and given it a veneer of respectability because Facebook has signed contracts with it for content moderation and other services worth at least $500 million a year, according to The Timess examination. Accenture employs more than a third of the 15,000 people whom Facebook has said it has hired to inspect its posts. And while the agreements provide only a small fraction of Accentures annual revenue, they give it an important lifeline into Silicon Valley. Within Accenture, Facebook is known as a diamond client.Their contracts, which have not previously been reported, have redefined the traditional boundaries of an outsourcing relationship. Accenture has absorbed the worst facets of moderating content and made Facebooks content issues its own. As a cost of doing business, it has dealt with workers mental health issues from reviewing the posts. It has grappled with labor activism when those workers pushed for more pay and benefits. And it has silently borne public scrutiny when they have spoken out against the work.Those issues have been compounded by Facebooks demanding hiring targets and performance goals and so many shifts in its content policies that Accenture struggled to keep up, 15 current and former employees said. And when faced with legal action from moderators about the work, Accenture stayed quiet as Facebook argued that it was not liable because the workers belonged to Accenture and others.You couldnt have Facebook as we know it today without Accenture, said Cori Crider, a co-founder of Foxglove, a law firm that represents content moderators. Enablers like Accenture, for eye-watering fees, have let Facebook hold the core human problem of its business at arms length.The Times interviewed more than 40 current and former Accenture and Facebook employees, labor lawyers and others about the companies relationship, which also includes accounting and advertising work. Most spoke anonymously because of nondisclosure agreements and fear of reprisal. The Times also reviewed Facebook and Accenture documents, legal records and regulatory filings.Facebook and Accenture declined to make executives available for comment. Drew Pusateri, a Facebook spokesman, said the company was aware that content moderation jobs can be difficult, which is why we work closely with our partners to constantly evaluate how to best support these teams.Stacey Jones, an Accenture spokeswoman, said the work was a public service that was essential to protecting our society by keeping the internet safe.Neither company mentioned the other by name.Pornographic PostsMuch of Facebooks work with Accenture traces back to a nudity problem.In 2007, millions of users joined the social network every month and many posted naked photos. A settlement that Facebook reached that year with Andrew M. Cuomo, who was New Yorks attorney general, required the company to take down pornographic posts flagged by users within 24 hours.Facebook employees who policed content were soon overwhelmed by the volume of work, members of the team said. Sheryl Sandberg, the companys chief operating officer, and other executives pushed the team to find automated solutions for combing through the content, three of them said.ImageCredit...Jessica Chou for The New York TimesFacebook also began looking at outsourcing, they said. Outsourcing was cheaper than hiring people and provided tax and regulatory benefits, along with the flexibility to grow or shrink quickly in regions where the company did not have offices or language expertise. Ms. Sandberg helped champion the outsourcing idea, they said, and midlevel managers worked out the details.By 2011, Facebook was working with oDesk, a service that recruited freelancers to review content. But in 2012, after the news site Gawker reported that oDesk workers in Morocco and elsewhere were paid as little as $1 per hour for the work, Facebook began seeking another partner.Facebook landed on Accenture. Formerly known as Andersen Consulting, the firm had rebranded as Accenture in 2001 after a break with the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. And it wanted to gain traction in Silicon Valley.In 2010, Accenture scored an accounting contract with Facebook. By 2012, that had expanded to include a deal for moderating content, particularly outside the United States.That year, Facebook sent employees to Manila and Warsaw to train Accenture workers to sort through posts, two former Facebook employees involved with the trip said. Accentures workers were taught to use a Facebook software system and the platforms guidelines for leaving content up, taking it down or escalating it for review.Honey BadgerWhat started as a few dozen Accenture moderators grew rapidly.By 2015, Accentures office in the San Francisco Bay Area had set up a team, code-named Honey Badger, just for Facebooks needs, former employees said. Accenture went from providing about 300 workers in 2015 to about 3,000 in 2016. They are a mix of full-time employees and contractors, depending on the location and task.The firm soon parlayed its work with Facebook into moderation contracts with YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and others, executives said. (The digital content moderation industry is projected to reach $8.8 billion next year, according to Everest Group, roughly double the 2020 total.) Facebook also gave Accenture contracts in areas like checking for fake or duplicate user accounts and monitoring celebrity and brand accounts to ensure they were not flooded with abuse.After federal authorities discovered in 2016 that Russian operatives had used Facebook to spread divisive posts to American voters for the presidential election, the company ramped up the number of moderators. It said it would hire more than 3,000 people on top of the 4,500 it already had to police the platform.If were going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly, Mr. Zuckerberg said in a 2017 post.The next year, Facebook hired Arun Chandra, a former Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive, as vice president of scaled operations to help oversee the relationship with Accenture and others. His division is overseen by Ms. Sandberg.Facebook also spread the content work to other firms, such as Cognizant and TaskUs. Facebook now provides a third of TaskUss business, or $150 million a year, according to regulatory filings.The work was challenging. While more than 90 percent of objectionable material that comes across Facebook and Instagram is removed by A.I., outsourced workers must decide whether to leave up the posts that the A.I. doesnt catch.They receive a performance score that is based on correctly reviewing posts against Facebooks policies. If they make mistakes more than 5 percent of the time, they can be fired, Accenture employees said.But Facebooks rules about what was acceptable changed constantly, causing confusion. When people used a gas-station emoji as slang for selling marijuana, workers deleted the posts for violating the companys content policy on drugs. Facebook then told moderators not to remove the posts, before later reversing course.Facebook also tweaked its moderation technology, adding new keyboard shortcuts to speed up the review process. But the updates were sometimes released with little warning, increasing errors.As of May, Accenture billed Facebook for roughly 1,900 full-time moderators in Manila; 1,300 in Mumbai, India; 850 in Lisbon; 780 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 300 in Warsaw; 300 in Mountain View, Calif.; 225 in Dublin; and 135 in Austin, Texas, according to staffing records reviewed by The Times.At the end of each month, Accenture sent invoices to Facebook detailing the hours worked by its moderators and the volume of content reviewed. Each U.S. moderator generated $50 or more per hour for Accenture, two people with knowledge of the billing said. In contrast, moderators in some U.S. cities received starting pay of $18 an hour.Psychological CostsWithin Accenture, workers began questioning the effects of viewing so many hateful posts.Accenture hired mental health counselors to handle the fallout. Izabela Dziugiel, a counselor who worked in Accentures Warsaw office, said she told managers in 2018 that they were hiring people ill prepared to sort through the content. Her office handled posts from the Middle East, including gruesome images and videos of the Syrian war.ImageCredit...Zuza Krajewska for The New York TimesThey would just hire anybody, said Ms. Dziugiel, who previously treated soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. She left the firm in 2019.In Dublin, one Accenture moderator who sifted through Facebook content left a suicide note on his desk in 2018, said a mental health counselor who was involved in the episode. The worker was found safe.Joshua Sklar, a moderator in Austin, who quit in April, said he had reviewed 500 to 700 posts a shift, including images of dead bodies after car crashes and videos of animals being tortured.One video that I watched was a guy who was filming himself raping a little girl, said Mr. Sklar, who described his experience in an internal post that later became public. It was just awful.If workers went around Accentures chain of command and directly communicated with Facebook about content issues, they risked being reprimanded, he added. That made Facebook slower to learn about and react to problems, he said.Facebook said anyone filtering content could escalate concerns.Another former moderator in Austin, Spencer Darr, said in a legal hearing in June that the job had required him to make unimaginable decisions, such as whether to delete a video of a dog being skinned alive or simply mark it as disturbing. Content moderators job is an impossible one, he said.ImageCredit...Lauren Withrow for The New York TimesIn 2018, Accenture introduced WeCare policies that mental health counselors said limited their ability to treat workers. Their titles were changed to wellness coaches and they were instructed not to give psychological assessments or diagnoses, but to provide short-term support like taking walks or listening to calming music. The goal, according to a 2018 Accenture guidebook, was to teach moderators how to respond to difficult situations and content.Accentures Ms. Jones said the company was committed to helping our people who do this important work succeed both professionally and personally. Workers can see outside psychologists.By 2019, scrutiny of the industry was growing. That year, Cognizant said it was exiting content moderation after the tech site The Verge described the low pay and mental health effects of workers at an Arizona office. Cognizant said the decision would cost it at least $240 million in revenue and lead to 6,000 job cuts.Internal DebateMore than one Accenture chief executive debated doing business with Facebook.In 2017, Pierre Nanterme, Accentures chief at the time, questioned the ethics of the work and whether it fit the firms long-term strategy of providing services with high profit margins and technical expertise, three executives involved in the discussions said.No actions were taken. Mr. Nanterme died from cancer in January 2019.Five months later, Ms. Sweet, a longtime Accenture lawyer and executive, was named chief executive. She soon ordered the review of the moderation business, three former colleagues said.Executives prepared reports and debated how the work compared with jobs like an ambulance driver. Consultants were sent to observe moderators and their managers.The office in Austin, which had opened in 2017, was selected for an audit as part of Ms. Sweets review. The city was also home to a Facebook office and had large populations of Spanish and Arabic speakers to read non-English posts. At its peak, Accentures Austin office had about 300 moderators parsing through Facebook posts.But some workers there became unhappy about the pay and viewing so much toxic content. Organizing through text messages and internal message boards, they called for better wages and benefits. Some shared their stories with the media.ImageCredit...Lauren Withrow for The New York TimesLast year, a worker in Austin was one of two from Accenture who joined a class-action suit against Facebook filed by U.S. moderators. Facebook argued that it was not liable because the workers were employed by firms like Accenture, according to court records. The social network reached a $52 million settlement with the workers in May 2020.For Ms. Sweet, the debate over the Facebook contracts stretched out over several meetings, former executives said. She subsequently made several changes.In December 2019, Accenture created a two-page legal disclosure to inform moderators about the risks of the job. The work had the potential to negatively impact your emotional or mental health, the document said.Last October, Accenture went further. It listed content moderation for the first time as a risk factor in its annual report, saying it could leave the firm vulnerable to media scrutiny and legal trouble. Accenture also restricted new moderation clients, two people with knowledge of the policy shift said. Any new contracts required approval from senior management.But Ms. Sweet also left some things untouched, they said.Among them: the contracts with Facebook. Ultimately, the people said, the client was too valuable to walk away from. | Tech |
His method of boosting immune protection in babies helped save seven million lives. But he never profited from it. Credit...NIH photographyPublished Dec. 17, 2019Updated Dec. 19, 2019Dr. John B. Robbins, a pioneer in vaccinology and one of the inventors of the first effective defense against a form of meningitis that once killed more than a thousand infants a day worldwide, died on Nov. 27 at his home in Manhattan. He was 86.The cause was prostate cancer, his son Robert said.By some estimates, Dr. Robbinss vaccine against the illness, called Hib meningitis, has saved seven million lives since it was licensed in 1989. Pediatricians who worked in the pre-vaccine days remember feeling their hearts sink when they saw Hib bacteria under a microscope in a babys spinal fluid. It meant that, even with antibiotics, the child was at risk of permanent brain damage, deafness or death.Before the vaccine, Hib meningitis killed about 400,000 children a year, according to the World Health Organization.Since then, the disease has been largely relegated to the medical history books. The vaccine is now given in more than 180 countries; in the United States there is now only about one case of Hib meningitis a year for every million children under age 5, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chief discovery made by Dr. Robbins and his longtime collaborator, Dr. Rachel Schneerson, is also now used to strengthen vaccines against typhoid fever, whooping cough, lethal E. coli bacteria, Clostridium difficile and anthrax.That discovery, known as conjugation, involves attaching proteins to the polysaccharides complex sugars on the bacteriums outer capsule. Conjugated pairs of proteins and sugars are much more visible to infants immature immune systems and help them generate protective antibodies. Two weeks before Dr. Robbins died, the first large rollout of a conjugate typhoid fever vaccine, which he had also helped invent, began, with 10 million children in Pakistan inoculated, according to Dr. Anita Zaidi, an expert on intestinal diseases at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded research on that vaccine. Dr. Robbins and Dr. Schneerson also conceived of an unusual vaccine for stopping malaria outbreaks: Instead of attacking malaria parasites in a persons blood, the vaccine would be picked up from recipients by mosquitoes that bit them. The vaccine would then attack the parasites in the mosquitoes midguts, making them unable to infect anyone else.Unlike some vaccine researchers, Dr. Robbins and Dr. Schneerson never got rich from their inventions. We had a notion a wrong notion, maybe that public money went into making it, so it should be free to the public, Dr. Schneerson said in a phone interview. Why wrong? Because immediately someone else did a little modification and applied for a patent.Also, she added, in the days when they did their breakthrough research, the N.I.H. had only one single lawyer, who was not interested in vaccines. Now, she said, theres lots of lawyers who say every day, What can we patent?Dr. Robbins conducted research on the Bethesda, Md., campus of the National Institutes of Health from 1970 until his retirement at age 80 in 2012, either for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or in the Food and Drug Administrations biologics laboratories there.He won many awards jointly with Dr. Schneerson, including the 1996 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award, the 2006 Pasteur Award from the World Health Organization and Thailands 2017 Prince Mahidol Foundation Award for Public Health. (Some were also shared with Porter W. Anderson and Dr. David H. Smith, who developed the polysaccharide components of the Hib vaccine.) Until the 1980s, vaccines against bacterial diseases were often made from whole bacteria or their toxins that had to be killed or weakened. They could be dangerous: Some occasionally induced high fevers that could trigger convulsions. Worse, if a manufacturing failure left any full-strength bacteria alive, children could die.The next generation of vaccines, made of just the surface polysaccharides, were safer. But they rarely worked in children under age 2, who were the most at risk. Dr. Robbinss conjugate Hib vaccine protected babies as young as 2 months old. Hib stands for Haemophilus influenzae type b. Hib bacteria got their name because they were first isolated during the 1889 flu pandemic; until 1933, they were believed to be the cause of influenza. Flu is actually a virus; Hib is a common secondary infection that may be lethal if it reaches the bloodstream or brain.John Bennet Robbins was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 1, 1932, to Harry Robbins and Matilda (Bender) Robbins, owners of the Cornell Paper and Box Company in the boroughs Red Hook section. His paternal grandfather, Philip Rabinowitz, who emigrated to America, was the last of a line of prominent rabbis from Minsk, in what is now Belarus. However, Robert Robbins said, he lost his American rabbinical post for publicly supporting labor unions, which some members of his congregation opposed.My grandfather was one of eight children of an out-of-work rabbi, so he dropped out of school to work, Mr. Robbins said. He took a job in the Brooklyn dockyards. Harry changed his surname to Robbins, Dr. Schneerson said, because at 16 he was beaten up by co-workers after winning a promotion.Its O.K. to be Jewish, but you dont have to die for it, she said Dr. Robbins had quoted his father as saying. Robert Robbins said that the familys box company survived until 2012, when Hurricane Sandy flooded Red Hook, wiping out much of its inventory. Dr. Robbins received his undergraduate and medical degrees from New York University and did his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. While trained as a pediatrician, he soon gravitated toward research, working at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and teaching at Albert Einstein Medical School in the Bronx before joining the National Institutes of Health.In 1956 he married Joan Cannon, who survives him. Besides his son Robert, he is also survived by two other sons, Daniel and David; a daughter, Ellen Taxman; a brother, Marc; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.Ms. Taxman said that Dr. Robbins had been such an advocate of vaccines that he made sure his children received every new one to be invented. I felt like a human pincushion, she said.During the 1976 swine flu scare, she remembered, when an experimental new vaccine was scarce, he brought vials of it to the annual staff holiday party he gave at his house.Every attendee was offered an injection and a T-shirt with a picture of Porky Pig saying I got my shot! on it.That was his idea of a holiday gift, she said.On one important ethical issue for vaccinologists, so-called challenge trials, friends remain divided on Dr. Robbinss position. In those trials, healthy volunteers are given an experimental vaccine and then challenged by being deliberately infected with the target disease to see if the vaccine works. Challenge trials can speed up vaccine approval, but of course they may be done only with curable diseases.Dr. Schneerson and another former colleague, Dr. Roger I. Glass, the director of the N.I.H.s Fogarty International Center, said that Dr. Robbins had always been morally opposed to challenge trials. Why take people and put them in a position of potential harm? Dr. Schneerson said. Besides, a challenge is not exactly what happens in nature, and what you want to prevent is what happens naturally.But Dr. Myron M. Levine, a former Robbins protg now at the University of Maryland Medical School who has conducted many clinical trials, said that at one time Dr. Robbins had supported challenge trials, and that he had twisted his arm to do one such trial of a struggling predecessor of what ultimately became the typhoid vaccine now being used in Pakistan.I explained to John how complicated it was, he said. You couldnt let people walk around excreting typhoid, so it would have meant monthlong stays in the hospital for them. It wasnt something we could do. He changed his mind later. | Health |
on techThe most useful technology doesnt have to involve flying cars. Sometimes, its really easy.VideoCreditCredit...By Annie JenOct. 19, 2020Michael Pipe, the chair of the board of commissioners for Centre County who oversees elections, said he heard from his peers in other counties about U.S. Digital Response and contacted the group in early September.Within weeks, about five volunteers helped the countys staff create the elections website from scratch, plus a database to organize the countys poll workers and an online form for voters to schedule appointments at a satellite election site.It felt like it was too good to be true, Pipe said when he heard about U.S. Digital Response.In the past, the roughly 160,000 county residents looking online for information to register to vote, check a sample ballot or find their polling station had to hunt on the countys main website to find the relevant information. Often, Pipe said, people couldnt find answers to their questions and called or emailed local election officials. That was usually fine until this year.The pandemic, new state laws and extensive lawsuits over Pennsylvanias election plans have made voting more confusing.Centre County knew the status quo wasnt good enough, and Pipe said officials hunted for commercial vendors to create a new website devoted to election information. He was quoted costs of up to $40,000, he said. The county paid nothing for the election services that U.S. Digital Response volunteers helped create.Now, about 1,000 people a day visit Centre Countys election website, Pipe said. Its been about saving personnel time and a better customer service experience for our residents, he said.You cant do public policy if you cant make the damn website work, is how Robin Carnahan, a former Missouri secretary of state who is helping lead U.S. Digital Responses election projects, put it to me.Pipe said this is his 18th election as a county commissioner, and its a doozy. He said the new website, with clear information and election returns, is also a way for officials to build faith among voters in a year with lots of misinformation and mistrust about the election process.Pipe is working long hours ahead of the election the day I spoke with him, he said he returned home from work at 4 a.m. and was back at 9 a.m. but he said he feels like its worth it. I enjoy this stuff too much, he said. Its like every day is Christmas.If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.Tip of the WeekHow to silence robocallsThe automated calls to our smartphones are out of control, and The New York Times personal tech columnist, Brian X. Chen, has a brute-force suggestion to quiet them.The robocallers have won.Phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile said more than a year ago that they would start to squash these annoying, computer-generated phone calls at the network level. And yet our phones keep ringing with robots purporting to have important information about your student loans or even an upcoming tax audit. Sometimes its a message recorded in another language.Im usually the person giving you solutions, but the truth is we dont have great tools to combat the scam calls. Sorry.Ive tried robocall-blocking apps, but they dont work well because they rely on a database of phone numbers that have been flagged as robocallers. Scammers can dodge this by making it look as if their calls are coming from any phone number, even your moms.The best fix Ive found is an imperfect one: Block all numbers that you havent yet saved in your smartphone from calling you. In my experience, its the best option.To stop calls from unknown numbers, do the following:On iPhones, open the Settings app, scroll down and click on Phone and then tap on Silence Unknown Callers. Toggle the feature on.On some Androids (such as Google Pixels and Samsung devices), open the Phone app, tap the three dots in the upper-right corner and select Settings. Tap Blocked numbers and toggle on Block calls from unidentified callers.This fix isnt ideal because you could miss some legitimate calls if you stop anyone you dont know from calling. But in my experience, the pros outweigh the cons. The vast majority of calls I get from unknown numbers are from bots. Until the wireless phone companies get their act together, good riddance to the scammers. (If you want to reach me, try email.)Before we go When the news is not really the news: My colleagues Davey Alba and Jack Nicas write about a network of websites that appear to be local news outlets but in reality are a collection of paid spin from businesses or political vendettas disguised as news.I am exceedingly pleased that Fleetwood Mac is cool again. An incredibly popular TikTok video featuring a Fleetwood Mac song has helped push the bands 43-year-old Rumours album back into the Top 10 sellers, Billboard reported. (Related: Its lead singer Stevie Nicks has made a great TikTok video homage to this.)The internet hot air balloon was a matchmaker: Googles project to beam internet coverage to rural areas by hot air balloons hasnt worked very well. But in Uruguay, a retrieval of a downed Google balloon led a couple to meet and fall in love, reported the international tech publication Rest of World.Hugs to thisFor a dose of Monday extreme cuteness, check out the baby panda at Smithsonians National Zoo getting measured. (Thanks to my colleague Rich Barbieri for alerting us to this video. We support bundles of fluff.)We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at [email protected]. If you dont already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | Tech |
Oct. 13, 2021, 2:57 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 2:57 p.m. ETA slew of private spaceflights are planned for the months ahead.ImageCredit...Space Adventurea, via ReutersMore private space missions are scheduled in the coming months, an indication of how the wealthy are increasingly able to buy trips into orbit, or just to the edge of space.Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese fashion mogul, plans to spend 12 days at the International Space Station, and document the experience, starting on Dec. 8. The trip was arranged by Space Adventures, a company that facilitates private jaunts to space, working with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.Mr. Maezawa and his production assistant, Yozo Hirano, will travel to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Mr. Maezawa has long had extraplanetary aspirations. In 2018, he signed up for a flight with SpaceX, Elon Musks company, in the hope of one day traveling around the moon, a flight that may be years from occurring. In February, 2021, three private astronauts will also fly to the space station in a Crew Dragon capsule made by SpaceX and booked by the company Axiom Space. Michael Lpez-Alegra, a retired NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president, will join them as the missions commander.The three passengers will stay aboard the station for 10 days, and have each paid $55 million for the opportunity.Another forthcoming private spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, Blue Origins main competitor in suborbital space tourism, will carry passengers who are not relying on their private wealth for tickets. Instead, the customers work for the Italian government.Two are officers from the Italian Air Force and a third is an Italian scientist. The purpose of the trip, which is billed as Virgin Galactics first commercial research mission, is to study the effects of the transition from gravity to microgravity on the human body and other payloads. Oct. 13, 2021, 2:32 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 2:32 p.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe crew took questions from reporters and television crews for roughly 20 minutes before posing for photos with Blue Origin employees on the launch pad.Oct. 13, 2021, 2:26 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 2:26 p.m. ET Joey RouletteBezos has ambitious plans for Blue Origin beyond tourism.ImageCredit...Blue OriginBlue Origin wants to go to the moon, build larger rockets and, according to Mr. Bezos, eventually move all polluting industries off Earth and into space.The company is developing New Glenn, a reusable rocket that will be able to send nearly 100,000 pounds of satellites and other spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. The rockets debut launch, planned for late next year, has been delayed for roughly two years.It is producing engines, known as BE-4, that will power New Glenn. And as another line of revenue, the company is selling those engines to its potential rival, United Launch Alliance, a rocket company co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin that has contracts to launch many NASA and Pentagon spacecraft to orbit and beyond.Blue Origin is also developing a moon lander in a partnership with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper, a company that worked on flight software for the Apollo missions. The lander, called Blue Moon, is designed to ferry astronauts to and from the lunar surface. Blue Origin pitched Blue Moon to NASA for a $6 billion contract, but the agency, facing a funding shortfall, decided it could only afford to select a lower bid pitched by Elon Musks SpaceX instead. Blue Origin is suing NASA to overturn the decision.Oct. 13, 2021, 2:22 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 2:22 p.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteI wish I had broken the world record in the 10-yard dash, but unfortunately it was how old I was, Mr. Shatner said, responding to a question from a BBC reporter on how it felt to be the oldest person to go to space.Oct. 13, 2021, 2:17 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 2:17 p.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteDuring a live TV interview with a CNN reporter on the landing pad, Mr. Shatner said he felt his trip was more than tourism and something much deeper. Everyone needs to have the philosophical understanding of what were doing to Earth, he said.Oct. 13, 2021, 2:09 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 2:09 p.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteAt a brief press conference at the pad where the New Shepard booster landed, Glen de Vries, one of the paying customers, said the crew had a moment of camraderie when they reached space. We actually just put our hands together, he said. Ms. Powers said we wanted to memorialize being together, there. And then we enjoyed the view as much as we can, Mr. de Vries said Oct. 13, 2021, 1:44 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 1:44 p.m. ETBack on Earth, Shatner and Bezos have a Kirk-Spock moment.VideotranscripttranscriptWilliam Shatner Is Brought to Tears Describing His Trip to SpaceThe actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek told Jeff Bezos his visit to the edge of space in the Blue Origin rocket was the most profound experience he could imagine.Just unbelievable, unbelievable. I mean, you know, the little things but to see the blue color whip by, and now youre staring into blackness, thats the thing. The covering of blue is this sheet, this blanket, this comforter, this comforter of blue that we have around, we think, Oh, its blue sky. And then suddenly, you shoot through it all of the sudden as though youre whipping a sheet off you when youre asleep. And youre looking into blackness, into black ugliness and you look down, theres the blue down there and the black up there. And its just there is Mother Earth, comfort. And there is is there, death? I dont know was that death, is that the way death is? Whoop, and its gone. Jesus. It was so moving to me. What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine. Im so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just its extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I dont want to lose it. Its so so much larger than me and life. And this is now the commercial, everybody it would be so important for everybody to have that experience.The actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek told Jeff Bezos his visit to the edge of space in the Blue Origin rocket was the most profound experience he could imagine.CreditCredit...Blue Origin, via EPA, via ShutterstockA half-century ago, a television show told young people that space travel would be the coolest thing ever. Some of them were even inspired to work toward that goal. Science fiction met reality on Wednesday as one of those fans, now one of the richest people in the world, gave the shows leading actor a brief ride up into the ether.The mission went according to plan. The aftermath appeared unscripted, and all the better for it.William Shatner, eternally famous as Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek, returned to Earth apparently moved by the experience beyond measure. His trip aboard Jeff Bezos rocket might have been conceived as a publicity stunt, but brushing the edge of the sky left the actor full of wonder mixed with unease:It was unbelievable To see the blue cover go whoop by. And now youre staring into blackness. Thats the thing. The covering of blue, this sheet, this blanket, this comforter of blue that we have around us. We say, Oh thats blue sky. And then suddenly you shoot through it and all of a sudden, like you whip the sheet off you when youre asleep, youre looking into blackness.Mr. Shatner was talking to Mr. Bezos immediately after exiting the capsule with the three other passengers. The others greeted their family and friends. Champagne corks popped. There was lots of laughter, high-spirited relief. But Mr. Shatner, a hale 90 standing in the West Texas dust, talked about space as the final frontier:You look down, theres the blue down there, and the black up there. There is Mother and Earth and comfort and there is Is there death? I dont know. Was that death? Is that the way death is? Whoop and its gone. Jesus. It was so moving to me.Mr. Bezos listened, still as a statue. Maybe he was just giving Mr. Shatner some space, but it was a sharp contrast to his appearance after his own brief spaceflight in July when he flew the same spacecraft as Mr. Shatner. Then, he held forth from a stage, rousing condemnation from critics of the vast company he founded as he thanked Amazons employees and customers for making it possible for him to finance his private space venture.Or maybe Mr. Bezos was just acting naturally. His role model has always been the cool, passionless Mr. Spock rather than the emotional, impulsive Captain Kirk. Amazon, which prizes efficiency above all, was conceived and runs on this notion.When he played at Star Trek as a boy, Mr. Bezos has said, he would sometimes take the role of the ships computer. Amazons voice-activated speaker Alexa was designed as a household version of the Star Trek computer, which always had the answer to every question.The word death, repeatedly mentioned by Mr. Shatner in his post-flight monologue, is rarely thought of as a selling word for space tourism, which is after all what Blue Origin is promoting. But the actor did supply a positive endorsement.Everybody in the world needs to do this, he said.Oct. 13, 2021, 12:59 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 12:59 p.m. ETAstronauts and space agencies congratulate William Shatner on his trip to space.ImageCredit... Blue Origin, via EPA, via ShutterstockAfter Blue Origins latest launch, much of the initial reaction focused more on William Shatners introduction to outer space than the particulars of the flight or issues with the company behind it.Space agencies, celebrities and astronauts said they were thrilled to see Mr. Shatner, who is 90 and known to generations of science fiction fans as Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek television series, become the oldest person to enter space. Twitter accounts for the U.S. Space Force and NASA both congratulated Mr. Shatner, in messages that included emojis of the Vulcan hand gesture that means Live long and prosper.You are, and always shall be, our friend, NASAs message said, paraphrasing what Spock, Captain Kirks longtime first officer, said to Mr. Kirk as he died in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.Sue Nelson, a science journalist who wrote a book about Wally Funk, the woman who became the oldest person in space on Blue Origins first crewed launch in July, wrote on Twitter that she initially had mixed feelings about today because William Shatner is about to break my friend Wally Funks short lived record.Ms. Nelson, a Star Trek fan, later said that she loved Mr. Shatners emotional reaction upon landing.Hes right of course, she said on Twitter. The Earths atmosphere is fragile. Space travel is extraordinary.Astronauts congratulated Mr. Shatner, too. Garrett Reisman, a retired NASA astronaut, shared a photo of himself dressed as Captain Kirk. This is a picture of a guy who went to space pretending to be a guy who pretended to be a guy who went to space who has now gone to space, Mr. Reisman said.Another retired NASA astronaut, Nicole Stott, thanked Mr. Shatner on Twitter for sharing his feelings of awe and wonder after he left the capsule.Mr. Shatner was emotional, and loquacious, after he returned to Earth. He embraced Jeff Bezos, who owns Blue Origin and flew on its voyage in July, and tried to capture the experience in words. What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine, Mr. Shatner said, adding that I hope I never recover from this, I hope that I can maintain what I feel now. I dont want to lose it.Joey Roulette contributed reporting.Oct. 13, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ET Joey RouletteHow many tourists have made it to space?ImageCredit...Spacex, via ReutersAlmost 600 people have been in space, and before Wednesday, 48 of them were private individuals who were not government employees, according to data compiled by Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer and spaceflight data tracker. A little over a dozen of those 48 were tourists, while the rest included researchers or employees of space companies, like Ms. Powers, the Blue Origin executive flying with Mr. Shatner on behalf of the company.The NS-18 crew has increased the number of private spacefarers to 52.The first space tourist was Toyohiro Akiyama, a Japanese television journalist who launched to Mir, the Russian space station, in 1990. He spent seven days aboard. Picked among 163 candidates, the Tokyo Broadcasting Service paid for Mr. Akiyamas seat aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, which until this year was the only vehicle that carried tourists to space.Dennis Tito, an American engineer and businessman, became the first person to fund their own trip to space in 2001, launching to the International Space Station for an eight-day stay.Other private individuals have gone to space, but they generally wouldnt be construed as tourists because they were traveling on something like an official business trip. That includes the Russian film crew that launched to the space station last week. Yulia Peresild, a Russian actress, and Klim Shipenko, a film director and producer, are shooting scenes on the orbital laboratory as part of the first full-length feature film made in space. The crew is backed by Channel One Russia and Roscosmos, Russias space agency.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:53 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:53 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteBlue Origin says the crews capsule reached a peak altitude of 65.8 miles after ascending atop New Shepard at speeds of up to 2,235 miles per hour. In all, the mission lasted 10 minutes and 17 secondsOct. 13, 2021, 11:51 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:51 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe crew is expected to drive to the pad where the New Shepard booster landed to speak with reporters about their flight.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:29 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:29 a.m. ET Jim McKinleyMr. Shatner told Mr. Bezos, What I would love to do is to communicate as much as possible the jeopardy, the vulnerability of everything. He added, This air which is keeping us alive is thinner than your skin.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:28 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:28 a.m. ET Joey RouletteBlue Origin says its passengers are astronauts. The F.A.A. is not sure.ImageCredit...Mario Tama/Getty ImagesBlue Origin considers the customers who fly aboard the New Shepard spacecraft to be astronauts, but the Federal Aviation Administration, which formally grants governmental recognition to astronauts, has yet to say it agrees.Since 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates how space companies run their launch sites, has awarded private crews aboard private spacecraft Commercial Space Astronaut Wings small gold pins that officially designate a passenger as a commercial astronaut.The pins are akin to the badges awarded to military pilots who reached space in the 1960s, and only a handful of private citizens have received the wings. Beth Moses, Virgin Galactics chief astronaut instructor, was the most recent recipient after her SpaceShipTwo flight to space in 2019.But all the private activity in space lately has spurred adjustments to the F.A.A.s pinning process.On the day Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, launched to space in July, the agency revised its criteria for awarding the wings, requiring individuals who go to space to be classified as a crew member, rather than just a spaceflight participant.To be a crew member, the person must have completed training before their mission on how to carry out his or her role on board or on the ground so that the vehicle will not harm the public, the rules state. Crew members also must have demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.Still, the head of the F.A.A.'s commercial space office also has discretion to grant an honorary astronaut status to anyone who flies to space and demonstrates extraordinary contribution or beneficial service to commercial spaceflight.Blue Origin calls its New Shepard passengers astronauts and awarded its first crew Mr. Bezos, his brother Mark, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen its own company-branded pins in a ceremony hours after their flight. The crews of Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic flight in July and SpaceXs Inspiration4 orbital mission in September received similar pins from those companies.Blue Origin has submitted applications to the F.A.A. for a formal designation of the passengers as commercial astronauts, but it has yet to receive a determination, a company spokeswoman said. The F.A.A. declined to say whether Mr. Shatner or any of his fellow passengers could be classified as commercial astronauts.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:26 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:26 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteAfter celebrations around the capsule, the crew lined up to get custom astronaut pins from Blue Origin. Mr. Bezos fastened the pins to each passenger. OK, guys, we have four astronauts before you, he said.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:17 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:17 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch Site"I'm so filled with emotion with what just happened, Mr. Shatner said to Mr. Bezos on the ground, breaking into tears. "I hope I never recover from this," he added.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:14 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:14 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteMr. Shatner was next to exit the capsule and began describing his experience to Mr. Bezos, Its indescribable, he said.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:14 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:14 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteFamily and friends met the passengers outside the capsule as they exited. Ms. Powers, the Blue Origin vice president, emerged first, hugging her sister.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:12 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:12 a.m. ET Joey RouletteHow much does a ticket to space on New Shepard cost? Blue Origin isnt saying.ImageCredit...Blue OriginBlue Origin has declined to publicly state a price for a ticket to fly on New Shepard. The company is nearing $100 million in sales so far, Mr. Bezos has said. But its unclear how many ticket holders that includes.We dont know quite yet when Blue Origin will publicly announce a price, Mr. Bezos told reporters in July after his flight to space. Right now were doing really well with private sales.Oliver Daemen, the Dutch teenager aboard Blue Origins first crewed flight in July, was occupying a seat that the company auctioned off for $28 million, a steep number that even shocked some company executives. Of that total, $19 million was donated equally to 19 space organizations.Mr. Daemen, 18, wasnt the winning bidder. His father, a private equity executive, was the runner-up in the auction and was next in line after the actual winner. That individual, who has not been named, plunked down $28 million before postponing their trip over a scheduling conflict, Blue Origin said at the time.Tickets to the edge of space on Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo were hiked to $450,000 in August, from $250,000, when the company reopened ticket sales after a yearslong hiatus.Flights to orbit a much higher altitude than Blue Origin or Virgin Galactics trips go are far more expensive. Three passengers to the International Space Station next year are paying $55 million each for their seats on a SpaceX rocket, bought through the company Axiom Space.Many wealthy customers and space company executives see the steep ticket prices as early investments into the nascent space tourism industry, hoping the money they put down can help lower the cost of launching rockets.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:11 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:11 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteMr. Bezos, dressed in the same flight suit he wore to space in July, joined recovery teams at the capsule and gave double thumbs-up to each crew member through the spacecrafts windows. Recovery personnel set up steps by the hatch door to help the passengers exit.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:09 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:09 a.m. ET Daniel SlotnikShatner scheduled a philosophical message to appear on Twitter as he soared into the skies. I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now & then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. pic.twitter.com/ZY2Ka8ij7z William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 13, 2021 Oct. 13, 2021, 11:06 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:06 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe crew, waiting to be helped out of the capsule, have all given the thumbs up that they are doing A-okay, said Blue Origin's Ariane Cornell.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:03 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:03 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteRecovery teams are racing toward the capsule while the crew waits inside.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:01 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:01 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe capsule has landed on the desert floor, kicking up a plume of dust and sand. "That was unlike anything they described," Shatner said on the way down.Oct. 13, 2021, 11:00 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 11:00 a.m. ETAt 90, William Shatner becomes the oldest person to reach the final frontier.ImageCredit...Steven Senne/Associated PressWhen William Shatner, 90, traveled to the edge of space aboard Blue Origins New Shepard on Wednesday he became the oldest person ever to reach such heights.Mr. Shatner, whose name has been synonymous with space exploration since he played Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek series more than half a century ago, became the first nonagenarian to cross the Krmn line, the widely recognized boundary between the atmosphere and space about 63 miles above the Earth.Mr. Shatner became emotional when he emerged with three other passengers from the spacecrafts capsule after it set down in West Texas and was met by the Blue Origins owner, Jeff Bezos.The actor spoke of how the experience of seeing the blue earth from space and the immense blackness of outer space had profoundly moved him, demonstrating what he called the vulnerability of everything. The atmosphere keeping humanity alive is thinner that your skin, he said.Im so filled with emotion with what just happened, Mr. Shatner said to Mr. Bezos, breaking into tears. I hope I never recover from this, he added.Mr. Shatners voyage came hot on the heels of one by Wally Funk, who at 82 was the oldest person to travel to space when she took part in a Blue Origin flight in July with Jeff Bezos, the companys owner.Ms. Funk excelled at tests for astronauts in the space program in the 1960s, before Mr. Shatner played Captain Kirk, but NASA did not allow women to become astronauts at the time.John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, also became the oldest person to reach space when he flew aboard a space shuttle mission more than 35 years later at the age of 77. Unlike Mr. Shatner or Ms. Funk, Mr. Glenns trip went to orbit, which requires a much more powerful rocket than the one powering Blue Origins New Shepard spacecraft.The youngest person ever to travel to space also flew on Blue Origins July flight. He was Oliver Daemen, 18, of the Netherlands.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:59 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:59 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe capsule is descending from space under three big parachutes. How about that, guys?, Audrey Powers was heard saying on the live stream.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:57 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:57 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe booster has touched down successfully, emitting a thunderous sonic boom across the desert.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:56 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:56 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteAbout five minutes into the mission, the crew should have unbuckled from their seats and floated freely around their capsule in the weightlessness of space. So far, Blue Origin has not released audio or video from inside the spacecraft.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:53 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:53 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe crew is in space. The capsule has separated from the booster, continuing its ascent toward a peak altitude of around 66 miles above the Earth.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:52 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:52 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteNew Shepard has reached Max Q, or the maximum aerodynamic pressure during its ascent to the edge of space. The capsule will soon separate from the booster.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:49 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:49 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteNew Shepard lifts off, carrying William Shatner, Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president, and two paying customers, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries, to the edge of space.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:48 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:48 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteLess than two minutes from launch, and the bridge that connects the tower to the crew capsule has retracted.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:42 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:42 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteMission personnel just checked off a laundry list of confirmations needed before proceeding with the launch. All of the rockets systems are good for liftoff, which is about seven minutes away. "I guess that's it, huh?" Shatner was heard saying from the capsule.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:40 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:40 a.m. ET Joey RouletteBlue Origin faces competition for space tourism flights.ImageCredit...Virgin Galactic, via ReutersMr. Shatner probably wont be the only celebrity flying to the edge of space on a privately built spacecraft. Virgin Galactic, the space tourism firm founded by Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group, has a waiting list of hundreds of wealthy customers who want a trip on the companys SpaceShipTwo space-plane.Like New Shepard, Virgin Galactics suborbital ship flies to the edge of space. But it begins its trek attached to a larger carrier plane that takes off from a runway like a commercial airliner. Once it reaches the right altitude, SpaceShipTwo drops from the carrier plane and fires its rocket engine, launching the rest of the way toward the brim of Earths outer atmosphere, giving tourists a few minutes of weightlessness in space before free-gliding back to land.Mr. Branson flew to space aboard SpaceShipTwo in July, earlier than originally planned and nine days before Mr. Bezos flew New Shepard. His SpaceShipTwo flight, with two pilots and three company employees also on board, was seen as a move to beat his rival billionaire entrepreneur to space.While Blue Origins commercial tourism business is underway, Virgin Galactic is largely pausing flights with paying customers until late next year. It may complete one more flight this month carrying passengers from the Italian air force.The two companies also face competition, at least for the most well-heeled passengers, from Elon Musks SpaceX. For a much higher price, around $55 million in some cases, customers can launch to low-Earth orbit for a few days inside SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule, an acorn-shaped pod that is also being used to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX launched its first fully private mission to space in September, sending four citizens on a three-day trip orbiting Earth. One of the passengers, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, bought the seats for his three crewmates.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:35 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:35 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe hold on the launch countdown clock is lifted, now ticking down to a liftoff time of around 10:50 a.m.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:28 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:28 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe countdown clock remains paused at T-15 minutes. The last mission in July also paused at the same time before liftoff for about eight minutes.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:24 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:24 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteWally Funk, the July missions oldest passenger, told the crew I hope this flight will be the most fantastic experience of your life as it was mine." Mark Bezos, Jeff's brother who also flew on the first crewed flight, said You lucky bastards, eliciting laughs from Mr. Shatner and his fellow crew.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:21 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:21 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteBlue Origin's CapComm, or the capsule communicator who talks to the passengers from mission control, read messages from New Shepards first crew in July. Oliver Daemen, the debut missions 18-year-old passenger, wished the crew well on their flight and said I can assure you that it will be better than your best imagination.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:19 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:19 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe launch countdown clock is now paused again, 15 minutes before New Shepards planned liftoff. The four would-be astronauts remain inside the capsule.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:18 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:18 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteMr. Bezos, who followed the crew all the way up the launch tower in his own Blue Origin flight suit, bid farewell to the crew inside the capsule, then closed the pods hatch door before leaving the pad.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:07 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:07 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe passengers walked across a bridge atop the launch tower that took them to the crew capsule, each ringing a bell before boarding the spacecraft.Oct. 13, 2021, 10:01 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 10:01 a.m. ET Joey RouletteHow safe is the New Shepard spacecraft?ImageCredit...Blue Origin, via ReutersBlue Origin has test launched New Shepard 15 times without anyone on board. During each flight, the capsule, where passengers sit, has landed safely.The booster, which carries the astronauts to space, crashed on its first launch. The crash occurred during its attempt to land, but the booster rockets stuck clean landings on every flight that followed.In case things go awry during New Shepards ascent to space, the capsule is equipped with thrusters capable of jetting itself away from the booster rocket should a disaster like an explosion occur. Blue Origin tested this system in 2016, launching New Shepard to demonstrate the capsules abort system. Solid-fueled thrusters exerted 70,000 pounds of force for less than two seconds, swiftly distancing the capsule from its booster. The capsule then deployed a set of parachutes and landed softly.For the companys first crewed flight in July, the rocket carried Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, to the edge of space along with his brother Mark, a Dutch teenager, Oliver Daemen, and Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot who was denied entry to NASAs astronaut corps in the 1960s because of her sex.That four-person mission was a crucial marketing opportunity for Blue Origins space tourism business and a display of Mr. Bezos confidence in the rockets safety record if it can fly the worlds richest man, as well as the youngest and oldest people to go to space and back, Mr. Bezos has indicated, the rocket is ready to fly anyone.While Blue Origin says its equipment is safe, the federal government doesnt regulate the safety of rocket and capsule systems like New Shepard. The Federal Aviation Administration signs off that a rocket launch site is safe to the surrounding public, but the government agency does not have a say in how safe space vehicles have to be for their passengers. Passengers like Mr. Shatner must sign agreements before their flights acknowledging the risks associated with launching on top of a rocket to the edge of space.In 2004, Congress put a moratorium on federal safety regulations for space tourists, giving the space industry a learning period in which companies can innovate without worrying about regulatory hurdles. That period is set to expire in 2023.Though New Shepard and its capsule have a clean safety record, its safety culture has come under criticism. Earlier this month, 21 current and former Blue Origin employees said in an essay that the companys work culture was rife with sexism and that safety concerns about New Shepard were often dismissed by management. Working quickly amid a race to launch Mr. Bezos on New Shepard took priority over focusing on safety matters, the employees said.Blue Origin disputed those allegations, saying the company had an internal hotline for sexual harassment complaints and that New Shepard was the safest space vehicle ever designed or built.Oct. 13, 2021, 9:58 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 9:58 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe crew has arrived at the launch pad in a pair of electric pickup trucks, stopping in front of the rocket for a photo opportunity before heading to the base of the launch tower. Theyll climb about four flights of stairs to board the capsule sitting on top of the New Shepard rocket.Oct. 13, 2021, 9:48 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 9:48 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe launch countdown clock has resumed after a roughly 30-minute pause, which gave mission personnel some more time to monitor winds in the area and get the rocket ready for launch. Jeff Bezos is driving Shatner and the crew toward the launch site.Oct. 13, 2021, 9:42 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 9:42 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe pause in the countdown clock has lasted 25 minutes so far, gradually pushing the liftoff time back. But a late launch isnt a big deal for suborbital New Shepard flights as it is for rockets that go into orbit or to the International Space Station. New Shepard reaches an altitude just short of entering orbit and returns less than 10 minutes later.Oct. 13, 2021, 9:23 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 9:23 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteThe launch countdown clock is paused at T-45 minutes, giving mission teams time to analyze winds in the area around the launchpad. The mission was originally scheduled to launch Tuesday, but heavy gusts pushed liftoff back to Wednesday.Oct. 13, 2021, 9:11 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 9:11 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteJeff Bezos is in Texas and will guide the crew as it prepares for the launch, staying with the passengers all the way until they board the capsule.Oct. 13, 2021, 9:03 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 9:03 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteBlue Origins New Shepard, a 60-foot-tall rocket, was launched without humans 15 times before flying its first crewed mission in July. Jeff Bezos, Blue Origins billionaire founder, blasted off with his brother Mark and two others for that flight.Oct. 13, 2021, 8:54 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 8:54 a.m. ET Jacob MeschkeMany Star Trek fans are eager to see William Shatner boldly go to space.ImageCredit...CBS via Getty ImagesThe voyages of Captain James T. Kirk and the starship Enterprise in the 1960s created a fandom that has expanded exponentially over the decades, much like the cute but deadly tribbles of the original Star Trek television series. Now many Trek fans are excited as William Shatner, the man who embodies that role, readies himself to venture into space for real.I think this is fantastic for the Star Trek mythos, to have the guy who really started it all to go into space, said Russ Haslage, who co-founded the fan organization The Federation, also known as the International Federation of Trekkers, with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, in the 1980s.Through the lens of Star Trek, human space travel has typically had a rosy tint. Much of the shows universe takes place hundreds of years in the future, with humanity venturing into the Milky Way after surviving a brutal 21st century. Homo sapiens expand from our solar system under the flag of United Earth, a founding member of the United Federation of Planets, an egalitarian alliance of intelligent species. That vision, started in Mr. Roddenberrys original TV series, is a culmination of the events set in motion by Yuri Gagarin in 1961, when he became the first human to travel to space.Captain Kirk is arguably the most extreme incarnation of the shows high-minded, moralistic vision.Hes the guy whos at the center of all of this, said Mr. Haslage, whos planning to offer live commentary on the launchs livestream via The Federations YouTube and Facebook pages. There wouldnt be any of this without Captain Kirk.Carly Creer, a moderator for a Star Trek Facebook group with over 150,000 members, grew up watching the original series with her father. Mr. Shatner is a regular at an annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas that she often attends.If we didnt have Captain Kirk and that awesome force that he created, we wouldnt have the amazing fandom that weve got, Ms. Creer said.The involvement of billionaires like Jeff Bezos selling private spaceflight experiences to wealthy customers has generated considerable criticism. But among fans like Ms. Creer there is a fascination with what both NASA and private companies are working to accomplish.Ive really appreciated how SpaceX and Blue Origin have stepped in, she said. I really think its just amazing. Its been so wonderful to watch, because as a fan of Star Trek all you want is to see that future that Gene Roddenberry created so well.Oct. 13, 2021, 8:45 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 8:45 a.m. ET Joey RouletteReporting from Blue Origin's West Texas Launch SiteIn a live video stream, Blue Origin's astronaut sales director, Ariane Cornell, emphasized the companys safety record, saying safety has been baked into the design of New Shepard from day one. Earlier this month a group of current and former employees criticized Blue Origins safety culture in an online essay.Oct. 13, 2021, 8:05 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 8:05 a.m. ET Joey RouletteA backdrop of turmoil at Blue Origin.ImageCredit...Mike Blake/ReutersThe New Shepard tourist rocket has been a bright spot for Blue Origin, but other areas of the company have recently faced turmoil and difficulties.In September, Alexandra Abrams, the former head of employee communications at Blue Origin, published an essay with 20 unnamed current and former employees of Blue Origin saying the companys work culture was rife with sexism and that internal safety concerns were often dismissed by management. Working quickly to launch the company owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos into space on the New Shepard took priority over focusing on safety matters, the employees said.Since publishing the essay, Ms. Abrams said in an interview that she had received supportive messages from current Blue Origin employees and engineers. She said she also had heard from employees at other companies describing their workplace difficulties. That response surprised her, as she had expected an onslaught of attacks from others in the small aerospace industry. I personally was very heartened to see the responses, from everyone but Blue Origin, Ms. Abrams said.Blue Origin disputed the allegations in the essay, saying in a statement that the company has an internal hotline for sexual harassment complaints and that New Shepard was the safest space vehicle ever designed or built. The company also said Ms. Abrams was fired over repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations.Ms. Abrams said that was false, and that she was fired in 2019 over her disagreement with a new policy that she was asked to help rollout to prohibit workers from banding together to take legal action over workplace issues and force them to settle disputes in private arbitration with the company. Her decision to speak out about Blue Origins work culture, she said, came after hearing complaints and troubling stories from friends still at Blue Origin. The essays release made the current and former employees nervous, and resurfaced trauma from the sexual harassment some had experienced, Ms. Abrams said, but they knew it was the right thing to do.Even if there are absolutely zero issues with all of Blues programs, which is absolutely not the case, a toxic culture bursting with schedule pressure and untrustworthy leaders breeds and encourages failures and mistakes each and every day, she added.One immediate challenge Blue Origin is facing concerns its bigger, more powerful rocket, New Glenn, whose debut launch has been delayed by about two years. And development of the engines that power New Glenn, called BE-4, has been marred by technical hurdles. The company is selling those engines to another company, United Launch Alliance, which needs them to power its next-generation Vulcan rocket. The Pentagon picked Vulcan last year to launch the majority of its satellites to space through 2027, and a forthcoming NASA mission will use it to send a robotic lander to the moon.Delivery of Blue Origins BE-4 engines to U.L.A., though, is months behind schedule, worrying Pentagon officials who fear the Vulcan rocket might not be ready in time to launch its first national security satellites in 2022. Blue Origin had pitched its New Glenn rocket to the Air Force for that contract but lost to U.L.A. and SpaceX, the company led by Elon Musk and whose Falcon rockets will also launch some Pentagon satellites.Blue Origin was hit with another loss in April on a lucrative NASA program to send the first American astronauts to the moon since 1972. The company partnered with three seasoned aerospace companies Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop and pitch its Blue Moon lunar lander to NASA. But the agency, facing a funding shortfall, decided it could only afford to select a cheaper bid pitched by SpaceX.Blue Origin protested NASAs decision to pick SpaceX with the Government Accountability Office, which adjudicates contract disputes, but lost. The company then sued NASA to overturn SpaceXs award in federal court, where litigation is expected to wrap up sometime in November.Oct. 13, 2021, 7:01 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 7:01 a.m. ET Joey RouletteWhat is New Shepard and where will it fly?ImageCredit...LM Otero/Associated PressNew Shepard is the centerpiece rocket of Blue Origins space tourism business. A booster rocket at the bottom stands six stories tall, with a capsule sitting on top that can seat up to six crew.The suborbital rocket is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space in 1961 and one of the astronauts who walked on the moon. It takes off from Blue Origins Launch Site One, a launchpad in rural West Texas about 100 miles from of El Paso.The full mission lasts about 10 minutes. New Shepard launches to an altitude of roughly 63 miles, a widely recognized marker of where space begins and known as the Krmn line.At peak altitude, the booster rocket releases its crewed capsule. The booster then begins a descent back toward the ground, reigniting its single engine to land vertically on a slab of concrete five miles from where it launched.Back in space at the same time, the crew capsule is suspended in a free fall some 63 miles high. The passengers experience roughly four minutes of weightlessness in microgravity as well as views of Earths slightly curved horizon where its atmosphere meets space. Each seat has its own window of 3.5 feet by 2.3 feet.Im thrilled and anxious, and a little nervous and a little frightened, about this whole new adventure, Mr. Shatner said during an interview on NBCs Today show on Monday.During Blue Origins first crewed flight in July, passengers unbuckled and floated throughout the 530-cubic-foot capsule, amused by the weightlessness. They tossed candies to one another and did somersaults before getting back in their seats.During the capsules free fall toward land, it deploys an initial set of parachutes to brake its speed, then another set of three bigger parachutes to carry the capsule softly to land at about 15 miles per hour. Milliseconds before landing in the desert also not far from the launchpad the capsule releases a burst of air from its underside to cushion the touchdown. The seats inside are supported by a scissor-like mechanism that further limits the impact.Blue Origin had boasted that the windows on New Shepards crew capsule are the biggest to fly in space, but Elon Musks SpaceX snatched that superlative in September when it launched its Crew Dragon capsule to low-Earth orbit with a new glass dome that stretches 46 inches wide and 18 inches deep, covering 2,000 square inches in all.Oct. 13, 2021, 6:01 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 6:01 a.m. ET Jacob MeschkeWilliam Shatner adds space tourist to his long and varied career.ImageCredit...Bennett Raglin/Getty ImagesThe star name in the four-person crew that Blue Origin will launch to the edge of space on Wednesday is William Shatner.For those who havent been paying attention since these voyages of the star ship Enterprise began more than 50 years ago: Mr. Shatner, now 90, played the indomitable Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek television series that debuted in 1966. The show aired for three seasons, and Mr. Shatner returned as Kirk with members of the original cast for six films from 1979 to 1991. Captain Kirk perished in 1994s Star Trek: Generations.As the Trek media empire expanded since the original series (it now encompasses a growing multiverse of films and shows, as well as video games, merchandise, conventions and more), Mr. Shatners place as a bona fide science-fiction celebrity has only strengthened.It looks like theres a great deal of curiosity in this fictional character, Captain Kirk, going into space, Mr. Shatner said in a promotional video posted on Twitter by Blue Origin. So lets go along with it. Enjoy the ride.But his life in the public eye is far from limited to Star Trek.For years, Mr. Shatner played a hyperbolized version of himself as The Negotiator in commercials (some with a Trek twist) for the travel agency Priceline.He won two Emmy Awards and snagged nominations for his roles in the interconnected legal dramas The Practice and Boston Legal in the 1990s and 2000s (his Star Trek work never received Emmy or Oscar nods). He also received an outstanding guest actor nomination for a series of cameos as The Big Giant Head in 3rd Rock From the Sun.His age has not halted his work. Earlier this year, he was the lead actor in the romantic comedy Senior Moment alongside Jean Smart, 20 years his junior at 70.Offscreen, Shatner has released several albums that straddle the line between music and spoken word poetry (a style that produced a particularly memorable performance of Elton Johns Rocket Man at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards). In 2012, he came to Broadway with a one-man show that traversed his life and career. And even as a nonagenarian, hes kept up with the kids and brought his distinct personality to Twitter, which has served as an ideal platform to hype his latest adventure.Mr. Shatner, in an interview with CNN last week, said hes bringing along on his jaunt to space a little blue satchel of mementos that includes three or four little trinkets from family and friends.But during the flight, he intends to stay focused on looking back at planet Earth.I plan to be looking out the window with my nose pressed against the window, he said during a chat last week with Blue Origin employees, clips of which the company posted on Twitter.He then added, The only thing I dont want to see is a little gremlin looking back at me. Are you sure thats not going to happen?Joey Roulette contributed reporting.Oct. 13, 2021, 6:01 a.m. ETOct. 13, 2021, 6:01 a.m. ET Joey RouletteWhen is the launch and how can I watch it?ImageCredit...Paul Ratje/ReutersLiftoff is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, and Blue Origin will stream it live on its YouTube channel. The video will begin about 90 minutes before the flight.The launch was initially scheduled for Tuesday morning, but windy conditions over West Texas prompted Blue Origin to push the launch back 24 hours. If more strong winds pop up on Wednesday, the company could choose to delay the flight by another 24 hours, to Thursday. | science |
MisconceptionsCredit...Zohar LazarApril 3, 2016Misconception: Spree killers must be mentally ill.Actually: These lone killers usually dont fit into an existing category of mental illness, and theres usually little evidence that early treatment would have helped.Their crimes are so repulsive that the assumption is automatic: Mass killers must be severely mentally ill. How else could someone slaughter schoolchildren or gun down college students apparently at random. (Terrorists like those in Belgium, who murder random, unarmed strangers, too, are even less likely to be mentally unstable; on the contrary, suicide killers are vetted for diligence and reliability. Its their radical ideology that is bloodthirsty.)In fact, the sort of young, troubled males who seem to psychiatrists most likely to open fire in a school identified because they have made credible threats often dont fit any diagnosis, experts say. They might have elements of paranoia, deep resentment or narcissism that are noticeable but dont add up to a specific disorder, according to strict criteria. And theres no good evidence that mental health treatment would have made a meaningful difference.The college student who killed six people before shooting himself in Isla Vista, Calif., in May 2014 saw multiple therapists; they disagreed whether he had emotional problems or high-functioning autism. The Sandy Hook shooter, who killed 26 people in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. in 2012, had seen numerous psychiatrists and psychologists for years before his mass murder, including therapists at Yales renowned Child Study Center. After details of the young mans childhood and home life emerged, some experts saw evidence of early psychosis or obsessive compulsive tendencies. But the only official diagnosis Adam Lanza, the shooter, had received was Aspergers syndrome, a mild form of autism that by itself does not dispose people to violent acts.Dr. Michael Stone, a New York forensic psychiatrist who created a database of about 200 mass murderers, including spree and serial killers, has determined that about half had no clear evidence of mental illness before their crimes. About a quarter showed signs of depression and psychopathy that is, hopelessness combined with a lack of remorse.The spree killers in particular are odd types: moody, unpredictable, inhabiting an internal world that is not easily put into any category, Dr. Stone said.The really scary ones, you have a gut feeling right away when you talk to them, said Dr. Deborah Weisbrot, the director of the outpatient clinic of child and adolescent psychiatry at Stony Brook University. She has interviewed about 200 young people, mostly teenage boys, who have made threats. What they have in common is a kind of magical thinking, odd beliefs like they can read other peoples minds or see the future, or things that happen in their dreams come true.Intervening early to address the resentments and fantasies of this group an approach called threat assessment is thought to reduce the risk that the boys will act out. But spree killings are rare enough that it has been difficult to know how well such preventive measures work.The remaining 25 percent in Dr. Stones database form the groups that most possibly could respond to treatment, he and other experts say. These killers were likely to have had paranoid schizophrenia, he has determined. This group includes Jared Loughner, the Arizona man who shot then-Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in 2011. In these cases, early treatment and a commitment to taking antipsychotic drugs, which blunt the paranoid delusions and hallucinations that can cause people to lash out, could have made a critical difference, many experts say.Questions about mental disorders inevitably follow mass killings. Those questions are appropriate to ask but often a distraction; urges to destroy the world and everyone in it are just as often rooted in the darkest corners of minds that, if warped, are not disabled. | Health |
Technology|Coinbase rides cryptomania to a $1.6 billion quarterly profit.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/technology/coinbase-q2-earnings.htmlCoinbase has shown that a large, profitable and legal business can be built to service the growing groups of people who want to use the digital currencies.Aug. 10, 2021Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, said on Tuesday that its quarterly revenue soared by more than 1,000 percent and profits skyrocketed nearly 4,900 percent from a year earlier, in its second earnings report as a publicly traded company.Revenue totaled $2.2 billion in the three months ending in June, up from $186 million a year ago. Profit was $1.6 billion, compared with $32 million a year earlier.Coinbase went public in April, around the time the price of a single Bitcoin topped a record $60,000. The digital currency has since slumped and now hovers at around $45,337. In its earnings report, Coinbase warned of volatility and said it expected trades, its main source of revenue, to fall in the coming months.Coinbases listing served as a validating moment for cryptocurrencies, which have often been dismissed as a tool for criminals and speculators. But the company, which trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange and is valued at $70 billion, has shown that a large, profitable and legal business can be built to service the growing groups of people who want to use the digital currencies. Alongside Coinbases public listing, the run-up in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies sparked a wave of mainstream interest in the digital assets. Tesla and Square have bought a stockpile of the tokens. Wall Street banks have expanded their crypto offerings. El Salvador has even said it will accept Bitcoin as legal tender.That also has prompted more regulatory scrutiny. China has cracked down on cryptocurrency mining operations. U.S. regulators are investigating ways to tax and control the assets. This week, the Senate approved an infrastructure spending bill that included new taxes for digital assets, which industry leaders opposed for being too vague and broad.In a letter to shareholders, Coinbase cited data that said 13 percent of Americans have traded cryptocurrencies in the last year, compared with 24 percent who have traded stocks. These adoption trends paired with recent government attention on crypto as a revenue source suggests we have reached an inflection point, the company said. Crypto has arrived. | Tech |
Credit...Ross Mantle for The New York TimesLi Jin, 31, began backing creators years ago. She has raised her own fund to invest in influencer-related start-ups.Everything I invest in is a creator-focused company, said Li Jin, founder of Atelier Ventures.Credit...Ross Mantle for The New York TimesSept. 1, 2021Cody Ko, a YouTube star with 5.7 million subscribers, found himself in a pickle in May. Two different start-ups wanted to give him stock, and he was concerned that they were potentially competitive deals.So Mr. Ko called someone he trusted for advice: Li Jin.Ms. Jin, a venture capitalist, suggested that Mr. Ko, 30, be honest and upfront with the founders of both start-ups about the potential conflict of interest. He agreed and ended up pursuing just one of the deals.Id never hesitate to reach out to her if I needed something, he said of Ms. Jin.If there is such a thing as an It Girl in venture capital these days, Ms. Jin, 31, would fill the bill. She sits at the intersection of start-up investing and the fast-growing ecosystem of online creators, both of which are red hot. And while she formed her own venture firm, Atelier Ventures, just last year and has raised a relatively small $13 million for a fund, Ms. Jin was among the first investors in Silicon Valley to take influencers seriously and has written about and backed creators for years.A Harvard graduate who was inspired by the ideas of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, Ms. Jin is also aggressively pro-worker. She has made it clear in podcasts and her Substack newsletter that creators should get the same rights as other workers. Among the ideas she has championed is a universal creative income, which would guarantee creators a base amount of money to live on.Now as large venture capital firms flock to influencer start-ups, and as Facebook, YouTube and others introduce $1 billion creator funds, Ms. Jins track record has made her a go-to business guru for many digital stars who are trying to navigate the fast-changing landscape.Hank Green, 41, a top creator on YouTube and TikTok, said he often tossed ideas back and forth with her by phone. Markian Benhamou, 23, a YouTuber with over 1.4 million subscribers, credited her with understanding what creators go through. Marina Mogilko, 31, a YouTube creator in Los Altos, Calif., said Ms. Jin started the whole creator economy movement in Silicon Valley.She was talking about the creator economy years and years and years before anyone else was, said Jack Conte, a co-founder and the chief executive of Patreon, a crowdfunding site for content creators. She really sees the future before other people do.Ms. Jin, who has invested in Substack and Patreon, said that although her fund was small, she planned to put all the money into companies transforming online work. Everything I invest in is a creator-focused company, she said. I think the impact I have is outsized relative to the dollar amounts.Her credibility has been enhanced because she also operates as a creator. Ms. Jin posts frequently on her Substack newsletter, leads an online course teaching creators how to invest in start-ups and has created Side Hustle Stack, a free resource to help influencers find and evaluate platforms to leverage.Ms. Jin, who was born in Beijing, immigrated at age 6 with her family to the United States, where her father pursued a doctorate in economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Their early years in the country were lean, she said, until her father left school and got a job. Her family eventually moved to Upper St. Clair, a town of about 20,000 outside Pittsburgh, where Ms. Jin attended public school and enjoyed painting and writing.At Harvard, she studied English and continued her creative pursuits. But at the urging of her family, who she said wanted financial security for me, Ms. Jin switched her major to statistics and did banking and corporate marketing internships. After briefly working for Capital One after college, she moved to Silicon Valley at age 23 to work at Shopkick, a shopping rewards app, as a product manager.In 2016, Ms. Jin landed at the Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. At the time, the firm was focused heavily on investing in marketplaces like Airbnb and Rappi, the Instacart of Latin America.ImageCredit...Ross Mantle for The New York TimesMs. Jin became fascinated with how different marketplaces worked and wrote prolifically about them for the Andreessen Horowitz blog. She also began thinking about how different marketplace systems could evolve to help people build businesses on the internet.That led Ms. Jin to champion the influencer industry. Watching creators struggle to earn a living online felt personal, she said, while she also saw big potential in online work and creators as a business.Her affirmation was meaningful, influencers said. Her being at that big storied firm and saying these things felt like, ahh, finally someones saying it, said Mr. Green, the YouTube star.When the coronavirus pandemic hit last year and the world was increasingly pushed online, Ms. Jin recognized an opportunity.I felt like Covid would be such an accelerant to online-based work and people wanting to be entrepreneurs, she said. I realized I had an opportunity to start an entirely new fund that was devoted to this thesis and that would be on the forefront of evolving the nature of labor and work on the internet.In May 2020, she quit Andreessen Horowitz and started Atelier Ventures. She has since invested in creator-related start-ups such as PearPop, which lets influencers profit off their social interactions, and Stir, which helps creators manage their finances. She is one of the few investors whom large influencers know by name.If you talk to anyone who works in the creator economy, they all say, Oh, you have to talk to Li Jin, said a creator who goes by Jasmine Rice, 23, a former OnlyFans influencer who started a platform called Fanhouse, which Ms. Jin invested in last year.Ms. Jin has also publicly criticized the funds that YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat offer influencers to make content for their platforms. She has implored the tech industry to stop celebrating the funds, calling them bread and circuses, and argued that creators needed ownership over the platforms that made money off them.Without ownership, creators are ultimately enriching and empowering *someone else* platform owners with their work, Ms. Jin tweeted in June. Ms. Jin said the platforms had to take care not to recreate a ton of the economic disparities that exist in the broader economy rather than truly empowering a new generation of online entrepreneurs. She has named a podcast that she co-hosts Means of Creation, a play on Marxs means of production.Her views have made her a subject of fascination in the tech industry and in leftist political spaces. Replies to her social media posts are full of memes insinuating shes a socialist. Ms. Jin said she was mostly amused by the hubbub.Im very careful to not use that word, the S word, she said of socialism. Its unnecessarily polarizing in the U.S.Ms. Jin said she had also become a believer in crypto networks because they are decentralized and aim to turn over control and ownership to their users. She has begun investing in crypto-related platforms, recently backing Mirror, a decentralized publishing platform, and Yield Guild Games, which is building a gaming guild for the metaverse to help people in developing countries make money by playing video games. She has also teamed up with creators to mint and sell artwork as NFTs, or nonfungible tokens.Theres been a simmering awareness for my entire life, she said, that the world is unfair and we need to push it in the direction of justice and fairness.Since starting Atelier Ventures, Ms. Jin has moved away from Silicon Valley and run her fund out of her childhood bedroom in Pittsburgh. This summer, she was nomadic, traveling around the world surrounded by a changing cast of internet stars, artists, Gen Z tech founders and crypto pioneers.In July, she co-hosted a packed happy hour on a New York City rooftop attended by a whos who of internet culture and techies, including the founders of the NFT platform OpenSea, product people from TikTok and Twitter, and other investors. From New York, she jetted to Paris for a crypto conference and hosted a creator salon at a cafe on the Left Bank.She then flew to Greece on an invitation from Daniel Ek, the chief executive of Spotify, and later attended a dinner on the beach with Emma Watson, Nicky Hilton and others, which was organized by the Brilliant Minds Foundation.She has since headed home to Pittsburgh to regroup and reflect.Its just so improbable that Im here, Ms. Jin said, that I was born in Beijing speaking Chinese as my first and only language and something happened to bring me to the U.S. and now I have the tools to be able to have a voice and influence. | Tech |
Tommy Chong Hey, XFL ... Legalize Weed 1/26/2018 TMZSports.com One big change the XFL can have over the NFL? Let the players use marijuana -- so says Tommy Chong! Chong's argument is simple ... weed's good for athletes dealing with pain and concussion issues. He also claims since so many states have legalized marijuana (either medically or recreationally), allowing players to use cannabis wouldn't really go against Vince McMahon's strict no-lawbreakers rule. Of course, Vince has vowed to ban any player with a whiff of a criminal record -- but he didn't speak specifically to marijuana use ... at least not yet. | Entertainment |
The China Factor | Part 4Credit...Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesDec. 4, 2015BEIJING As top leaders met at a lush Bali resort in October 2013, President Xi Jinping of China described his vision for a new multinational, multibillion-dollar bank to finance roads, rails and power grids across Asia. Under Chinese stewardship, the bank would tackle the slow development in poor countries that was holding the region back from becoming the wealth center of the world.Afterward, the United States secretary of state, John Kerry, caught up with Mr. Xi in the corridor. Thats a great idea, Mr. Kerry said of the bank, according to Chinese and American aides briefed on the encounter.The enthusiasm didnt last long, as the Obama administration began a rear-guard battle to minimize the banks influence.The United States worries that China will use the bank to set the global economic agenda on its own terms, forgoing the environmental protections, human rights, anticorruption measures and other governance standards long promoted by its Western counterparts. American officials point to Chinas existing record of loans to unstable governments, construction deals for unnecessary infrastructure, and villagers abruptly uprooted with little compensation.But the administration suffered a humiliating diplomatic defeat last spring when most of its closest allies signed up for the bank, including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea. Altogether 57 countries have joined, leaving the United States and Japan on the outside.The calculation for joining is simple. China, with its vast wealth and resources, now rivals the United States at the global economic table. That was confirmed this week when the International Monetary Fund blessed the Chinese renminbi as one of the worlds elite currencies, alongside the dollar, euro, pound and yen.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Wang ZhaoCountries are finding they must increasingly operate in Chinas orbit. And backing the new bank would bring financial advantages, as well as curry favor with Beijing. While many countries had similar doubts as the United States, they figured they could just shape the organization from the inside.The new bank is an instrument for China to lend legitimacy to its international forays and to extend its sphere of economic and political influence even while changing the rules of the game, said Eswar Prasad, former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund and a professor at Cornell University. And it gives the existing institutions a kick in the pants.The Chinese-led institution, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, is now in the process of picking its first projects. The choices, expected to be announced in coming months, will provide insight into how China plans to wield its power.Either China is serious about taking a leadership role in the global economy and prioritizing projects that broadly benefit Asia, or it plans to use the bank as a conduit to further its own ambitions.So far, China appears to be navigating the two extremes. It is assuaging critics by compromising on issues like board makeup, project oversight and procurement. But China is hardly yielding control, raising concerns about where the bank will land on issues like climate change and labor rights. The bank, for example, is still weighing whether to approve coal-fired power plants.China is taking direct aim at the current development regime, the Bretton Woods system established under the leadership of the United States after World War II to help stabilize currencies and promote growth.Beijing officials say they want to take a faster approach than their counterparts at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank. The new bank, China promises, will not be bogged down in oversight.ImageCredit...Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThe Chinese-led bank will also focus solely on infrastructure. To China, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank failed to deliver on big projects meant to transform backward parts of Asia, resulting in an estimated $8 trillion of needed investment in rails, ports and power plants.As a complement to the new bank, China is rolling out the One Belt, One Road program for the construction of a network of roads, rails and pipelines along the old Silk Road route through Central Asia to Europe. A maritime equivalent calls ports from Southeast Asia to East Africa to the Mediterranean.The U.S. risks forfeiting its international relevance while stuck in its domestic political quagmire, Jin Liqun, the president-designate of Chinas bank, wrote in a chapter for a recently released book, Bretton Woods: The Next 70 Years. He added, in reference to the United States, History has never set any precedent that an empire is capable of governing the world forever.At the signing of the agreement for the bank in June, Mr. Jin and Mr. Xi posed for a photo alongside officials from the other 56 founding member nations in the Great Hall of the People.An unexpectedly large group, it included countries as diverse as Iran and Israel, Russia and Poland, and an array of American friends. The total capital commitment, $100 billion, was double the amount originally envisioned.Having underestimated the interest, the Obama administration is now starting to soften its stance. Three months after the signing, Mr. Xi met with President Obama at the White House, in the Chinese leaders first state visit. At the summit meeting, Mr. Obama urged the existing banks to cooperate with the new institution. The United States, though, would still not join.Birth of the BankIn late 2007, an influential Chinese official visited remote villages along the Mekong River in Laos.The official, Zheng Xinli, a senior figure in the policy research office of the Communist Partys Central Committee, noticed communities pockmarked with stilted huts and fertile ground that failed to produce. Any crops were difficult to sell, since farmers were far from markets and transportation was scarce.Mr. Zheng saw an opportunity for China, which has faced similar infrastructure issues. Economically, it was complementary to China, said Mr. Zheng, who is referred to as the banks godfather.He initially proposed the bank plan to aides of Hu Jintao, the president then. But they were not interested and the idea languished. Mr. Zheng left the party committee for an economic think tank.When Mr. Xi was named president in 2013, Mr. Zheng and his new colleagues saw a chance to revive the plan. The think tank, the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, thought the bank played to Mr. Xis nationalistic strategy.A newly assertive Beijing felt that it had been unfairly treated for years by the United States. President Obama did not invite China to join the American-driven Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, insisting that Beijing should not be allowed to write the rules for 21st-century commerce.During the 2008 financial crisis, Chinas economy had continued to perform well, serving as a stabilizing force for the world when the United States was on the verge of a collapse. Yet Congress blocked an I.M.F. proposal, backed by the Obama administration, to make China the third-most-powerful country at the fund after the United States and Japan.The U.S. Congress was delaying its approval of the I.M.F. reform, and we had a different view, said Xu Hongcai, head of the economic studies department at the China center. The U.S. agreed to the conditions when the economy was in the downturn, but it backed down on its words when things got better.To corral vastly disparate countries, China knew it needed to look beyond its usual slate of Communist officials, an often-insular group.They turned to Mr. Jin, an economist fluent in English who had worked at the World Bank in the 1980s and served as Chinas first vice president at the Asian Development Bank. A former chairman at Chinas sovereign wealth fund, Mr. Jin had a passion for Shakespeare and the Australian novelist Patrick White.Courting Chinas Asian friends was easy, with smaller countries like Singapore readily signing up. The major developed countries were a little more reluctant.In May 2014, the grandees of British and European capitalism gathered in London, where Mr. Jin spoke to representatives of several hundred wealth funds. We all thought it was pie in the sky, said David Marsh, managing director of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, an advocacy group for public-private finance.Mr. Jin also tried to woo the Japanese, calculating that the Europeans would be impressed if the country, a Group of 7 member, joined. But the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had his own plans to promote development.Undeterred, Mr. Jin decided to tackle Washington instead.A Skeptical WashingtonBy the time Mr. Jin arrived in Washington in September 2014, the administration was already wary of the bank.The deputy national security adviser for international economics, Caroline Atkinson, who headed a series of high-level meetings on the bank, was known as a strong defender of the existing system. A graduate of Oxford and a former journalist, Ms. Atkinson had worked at the I.M.F., the Bank of England and the United States Treasury.Although Washington recognized the bank would go ahead, Ms. Atkinson and others wanted to influence the membership, according to a participant in the meetings. Important allies Australia and South Korea, in particular were discouraged from signing up, and G-7 countries were advised that the United States wanted a united front.Ms. Atkinson declined to be interviewed. A press representative for the National Security Council referred to earlier comments by President Obama about the need for more infrastructure in Asia, albeit with high standards.Behind the public argument lay deep suspicions about Chinas real goal. Chinas economic clout in Asia was strengthening yearly, and there were fears that Beijing would use the bank as another tool to project its influence.The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China already financed big-ticket projects in Asia and Africa. By Chinese estimates, their combined overseas assets stood at $500 billion, more than the combined capital of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.Also, the Treasury secretary, Jacob J. Lew, the figure who would normally drive this agenda, knew little about the country. Mr. Lew had not visited China until he became secretary in 2013. His predecessors Timothy F. Geithner and Henry M. Paulson Jr. were steeped in China before joining the Treasury Department.Mr. Lew was not really involved in the administrations deliberations about the bank. In a sign the bank was not a priority for him, a cabinet meeting was never called on whether the United States should consider joining, said officials with knowledge of the discussions.During his visit to Washington, Mr. Jin tried to soften the Americans objections. He suggested that the administration wait to see how the bank defined its standards before passing judgment.ImageCredit...Rolex Dela Pena/European Pressphoto AgencyHe was encouraging us to be more positive, the official involved in the administrations deliberations said. He was saying, You can be an ombudsman on transparency, meaning that the United States could measure the bank on its standards and make its findings public.But the National Security Council hung tough. I am not going to buy the cake you have cooked, Evan S. Medeiros, the councils senior adviser on China, said, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.To which Mr. Jin replied: You are always welcome into the kitchen to help with the baking.Finding an AllyWith a March 31 deadline for membership fast approaching, Mr. Jin started courting other G-7 countries in earnest. He concentrated on Britain, a country he knew and liked, and where his daughter was an assistant professor of economics at the London School of Economics.His timing was serendipitous.China had put Britain in a diplomatic deep freeze after Prime Minister David Cameron met with the Dalai Lama in 2012. By early 2015, Britain was trying to claw its way out of the doghouse by adopting a mercantilist approach to China.As a practical matter, George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, wanted London to be a prime center for trading in the renminbi. He also thought that Chinese investment was paramount for the nations health.There are some in the West who see China growing and they are nervous, Mr. Osborne said in a speech at Peking University in 2013. I totally and utterly reject that pessimistic view.The British government kept the negotiations quiet. After deciding to join the bank in early March, the British gave Washington 24 hours notice, a senior administration official said.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Kim Kyung-HoonTo Washington, it was a major affront. The British were supposed to be Americas most steadfast ally, but now they had chosen to side with China. Days later, other European allies rushed in. Australia and South Korea eventually followed.A deeper relationship with China is already paying dividends. During a four-day state visit by Mr. Xi to Britain in October, the two countries signed commercial agreements worth 40 billion pounds, or about $60 billion, including one for a major stake in the British nuclear industry. Mr. Osborne said Mr. Xis visit had ushered in a golden era between the two countries.For China, British membership in the bank was a defining moment. Back in Beijing, Mr. Jin reached for his copy of Shakespeares drama Cymbeline.The play takes place in Roman-occupied Britain and part of the action revolves around the British refusal to pay tribute. Mr. Jin read two lines by the character Cloten, who tells the Roman ambassador: Britains a world by itself. We will nothing pay for wearing our own noses.Mr. Jin realized that just as ancient Britain had refused to pay Rome in an earlier age, contemporary Britain had defied the United States and joined the Chinese bank.Shaping Chinas VisionWhen Mr. Jin sat down with the Japanese head of the Asian Development Bank in May, he had some criticism.The banks board, 12 officials from member countries who all live and work in Manila, was intended to provide direct supervision over loan disbursements, and is actively involved in the banks management. But Mr. Jin considered it expensive patronage that justified its existence by demanding extra work on overanalyzed projects.ImageCredit...Kim Kyung-Hoon/ReutersAt their meeting, the head of the Asian Development Bank, Takehiko Nakao, noted that the Chinese-led institution would not have a similar board. Mr. Jin responded: Your board is a disaster, according to a participant in the meeting.Mr. Jin now faces a balancing act between Chinas vision and critics concerns.To speed up project approval, China had originally suggested that a technical panel would make final decisions, rather than a board of senior officials from member countries. But the setup, the British complained, was not transparent enough.By the time of a two-day workshop in Beijing attended by several hundred people, there was a compromise. The Chinese agreed to establish a 12-member board. Unlike the Asian Development Banks board, however, members will not be involved in day-to-day management and will not live and work in Beijing.The bank adopted an Australian idea that procurement should not be limited to member countries, a pledge that would distinguish the bank from the existing institutions. That means companies in the United States and Japan can compete for contracts.Staff members could also be hired from nonparticipant countries. Two American veterans of the World Bank are working with the new bank: Stephen F. Lintner, a former senior adviser on quality assurance, and Natalie Lichtenstein, who recently retired as assistant general counsel.As the host of the workshop, Mr. Jin said he wanted the bank to be part of an orchestra working with other development banks, not a solo player. To allay fears that China would dominate, he sat at the end of the head table, letting delegates from other countries take the limelight. United States Treasury officials attended as observers.At the outset, China will have slightly more than 26 percent of the total votes, far short of the 50 percent the Americans understood to be in the proposal. China will not exercise veto power on day-to-day operations. But Beijing retains enough votes to block decisions on the matters it really cares about, like membership and the president.ImageCredit...Leon Neal/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMr. Jin promised a bank that would be lean, green and clean. There will be zero tolerance on corruption, he says.Still, concerns remain. The new bank, for example, is deciding whether it will give the go-ahead for highly polluting coal-fired power plants, which the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have effectively stopped financing.Mr. Jin suggested that the bank might make exceptions for poor places where people have no access to power. Do you leave these people in the dark? Its a human rights issue, he said.When Mr. Xi met President Obama in September, the administrations icy resolve over the bank had thawed, at least publicly.Washington has started encouraging the Bretton Woods banks to finance jointly with the Chinese institution. The Chinese, in turn, have pledged to increase their contributions to the World Bank, a sign they will continue to support the existing system.The Asian Development Bank has already agreed to finance a project or two with the Chinese-led organization. On an October visit to Washington, Mr. Jin was finishing a similar deal with the World Bank.He is not giving up on the United States, even if the chances are remote.We have a standing invitation for the United States to join the bank, Mr. Jin said, during an appearance at the Brookings Institution. Anytime you think you are ready, pick up the phone, give me a ring.UPDATE: After this article was published, Evan S. Medeiros, a former senior adviser on China for the National Security Council, disputed the account of his conversation with Jin Liqun of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Mr. Medeiros, who originally declined to be interviewed for the article, said the exchange involving the analogy of buying a cake did not take place. The original source who described the conversation stood by the account. | Business |
Global SoccerCredit...Juan Carlos Cardenas/European Pressphoto AgencyFeb. 2, 2014LONDON If ever a picture served as the perfect epitaph to a life, it was the one in Austrias national stadium in Vienna after Spain became the champion of Europe in 2008.The young players rounded up their old trainer. They lifted him, and threw him into the air above their heads five, six times. Their many hands were ever careful, treating the Mister as if he were porcelain.This was sport in its essence: The tutor in the hands of pupils he had shown the way to win.Mister Luis Aragons died in Madrid early Saturday morning. He was 75. He had, typically, kept his serious illness to himself. The tributes came like confetti from Spain, from royalty down to the people on the streets. The ones that would have meant the most to the thoroughly old-fashioned Aragons came in the modern form of instant communication, from the Facebook and Twitter accounts of his players.And not just from those Spaniards who went on to become world champions in 2010 before they defended their European title in 2012. Samuel Etoo, a Cameroon international whose career might never have been fulfilled but for the personal mentoring of Aragons, messaged from London where he is now a Chelsea player.My heart is in deep pain, Etoo wrote, in Spanish. A great man has left us. More than a trainer, Luis Aragons was like a father to me. I keep wonderful moments of our relationship and my experience at Mallorca.Dear Papa, thank you for all you taught us, in football and in life. Aragons and Etoo had much in common. Both were goal scorers. Both suffered rejection early in their careers at Real Madrid, when the impatient club bypassed young men who still were in the awkward phase of needing time to grow into their talents. Real instead went out and bought the finished product. Aragons did not have to move far. He became Atltico Madrids record striker, known as Zapatones, or Big Boots, for his mighty free kicks. He scored 172 times in 372 games for the red and whites. His pursuit of the main goal converting ability into trophies was single-minded, inexhaustible, and at times as rough as he felt he needed to be to get there.Between 1965 and 1974, he won three La Liga titles and two Copa del Generalsimo titles with Atltico.One might think that the rivalry that divides Madrid would fester. But there is no reason to doubt the words from Reals president, Florentino Perez: Luis Aragons, said Perez, ennobled this sport, and all Spanish fans owe him gratitude and respect. Today is a day of mourning, but it should also be a day of recognition for a legendary figure who was vital in giving us a glorious period with our Spanish national team. There was no trick, no magic wand from Aragons.He did not create the talents of an Andrs Iniesta, a Xavi Hernndez, an Iker Casillas or a Sergio Ramos. He merely selected them for the red national jersey. He took the pattern of play, the tiki-taka short-passing rhythm that the Barcelona players in particular were comfortable with, and instilled in the players the concept of hard work, perseverance and self-confidence. In Samuel Etoo, the kid from Cameroon, and in the Spanish players who time and time again succeeded in youth soccer but trembled in the mans game, Luis Aragons gave the same thing.He cajoled, nurtured and bullied them across the threshold of believing they could be world-beaters.For 44 years, Spains senior national team had not won anything. It was always promising, ever easy on the eye, but somehow it was a team, a nation, that did not have that final push, that arrogance perhaps, to cross the line ahead of the Germans, Brazilians, Italians, French and English who made the trophies their own.Aragons believed. He could kick the backsides of players, officials and journalists. Some of us probably deserved it, in particular the English who seized upon an insulting term the coach used when trying to goad a player on the Spanish national team.It was picked up on a TV microphone, a reference to Thierry Henrys black skin in a phrase barked out by the coach to a player who lived in Henrys shadow when the two both were Arsenal employees.For that one remark, Aragons was branded a racist. The message from Etoo, Africas finest center forward, and from Brazilians who served on Aragonss teams is crystal clear.After observing Aragons on the training fields of some of the 15 career stops he made as a coach, I never saw a man of prejudice in any way, shape or form.An elderly, slightly portly figure, not unlike an irritable professor, he could be rude, irascible and uncompromising.He shed two core players, the striker Ral and the defender Mchel Salgado, from the Spanish team he inherited. He was a man of Madrid who unashamedly took the Barcelona style that had been inculcated in Catalonia by the Dutchman Johan Cruyff.Aragons built on it, rehearsed it and loved it, and he was as coarse and impatient at converting it into victories as he once was in putting his foot so forcefully behind his free kicks.So, yes, he made enemies along the way. Winners do.But what no one else did in 44 years and what nobody can take away, at least, until the World Cup in Brazil later this year was that he handed over men who could take on, beat, and adorn the global game. Vicente Del Bosque, another man of Madrid, succeeded Aragons as the national trainer after the triumph over Germany in Vienna.Del Bosque, as serene as Aragons could be gruff, paid his tribute on the Spanish federations website ahead of Sundays funeral in the capital.Without a doubt, Del Bosque stated, he marked the road in this final successful phase. I felt a great deal of appreciation toward him.The final tribute is that nothing had to change. Aragons made Spain believe. | Sports |
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/sports/ncaabasketball/ohio-state-wins-after-scuffle.htmlSports BriefingFeb. 19, 2014LaQuinton Ross scored 16 points before being ejected because of a scuffle, leading No. 24 Ohio State (21-6, 8-6Big Ten) to a 76-60 win over visiting Northwestern. The scuffle late in the game delayed play while the officials considered penalties. Nikola Cerina of Northwestern (12-15, 5-9) was also ejected. Patric Young made two free throws with 19 seconds left to help No. 2 Florida beat visiting Auburn, 71-66. The Gators win was the their 18th in a row, a record for Florida (24-2, 13-0). Breanna Stewart scored 23 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked 7 shots to lead the top-ranked Connecticut womens team to its 33rd straight win, an 83-35 rout of Central Florida.Bria Hartley had 20 points and 4 rebounds for the Huskies (27-0, 14-0 A.A.C.), becoming the third player in school history to record 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists in her career. | Sports |
Ventilators have become the single most important piece of medical equipment for critically ill coronavirus patients whose damaged lungs prevent them from getting enough oxygen to vital organs. The machines work by forcing air deep into the lungs, dislodging the fluid and accumulated pus that interfere with the exchange of oxygen, a process orchestrated by tiny air sacs known as alveoli. Its still not clear how lungs are affected by Covid-19. Lungs are complex organs that deliver oxygen to the bloodstream and keep organs functioning. Human lungs are spongy vessels made up of millions of microscopic, balloon-shaped air sacs called alveoli, the workhorse of the respiratory system where the exchange of gases takes place. A ventilator can help patients get the oxygen they need to stay alive Ventilators are not a cure for Covid-19 patients, but mechanical breathing assistance can keep patients alive while they battle the infection. Critical care ventilators are more than just air pumps. They are finely tuned machines with software that must be constantly adjusted by skilled medical workers to ensure that patients receive the right combination of oxygen level, pressure, breath volume and breathing rate. but ventilating a patient is far from a guaranteed fix. Non-coronavirus patients on ventilators have about a 50 percent survival rate. The mortality rate for coronavirus patients on ventilators is not yet clear in part because, with no proven method of treatment for the virus, coronavirus patients are often being kept on these machines for weeks in order to keep them breathing long enough to give their lungs a chance to heal. Intubation is fraught. Patients must be heavily sedated to allow doctors to insert a breathing tube into the lungs and to prevent them from waking up and pulling out the tubes. Because too much air pressure can damage the lungs, intubated patients must be constantly monitored. Health care providers are exploring new techniques ... Fears of a ventilator shortage in New York and the poor prognosis for intubated patients have helped spur innovations for sustaining patients without relying on critical care ventilators. Health care providers have embraced a maneuver that has long been used for ventilated patients periodically turning them on their stomach to increase lung capacity. Proning, as its called, opens up areas of the lungs that are normally compressed by the weight of the heart when lying on ones back. Doctors are currently studying whether using proning for some patients in respiratory distress can allow them to recover without being placed on ventilators. Flipping over patients in acute respiratory distress, doctors have discovered, can markedly increase oxygenation. The process can be labor-intensive, however, requiring staff to turn over patients several times a day. ... and less expensive treatment alternatives. Medical workers have increasingly turned to CPAP and BiPAP machines, inexpensive air pumps used by millions of Americans with sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other breathing disorders. Hospitals have been repurposing unused machines and using them both with or without intubation to send pressurized air into the lungs of coronavirus patients. To reduce the risk of infection for hospital workers, doctors have also been fitting patients with jury-rigged helmets that deliver oxygen via CPAP machines while filtering out exhaled viral particles. The helmets were pioneered by Italian doctors forced to improvise because of a shortage of intensive care ventilators. | Health |
Credit...Lucas Jackson/ReutersJune 27, 2018WASHINGTON Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who was close to Roger E. Ailes, the networks ousted chairman, is expected to be offered the job of White House communications director, according to four people familiar with the decision.Mr. Shine, who was forced out as co-president at Fox News last May for his handling of sexual harassment scandals at the network, has met with President Trump in recent weeks about taking the West Wing communications job, which has been vacant since Hope Hicks left the job in March.Four people familiar with the decision said it was likely to be announced and that the president had offered him the job. But the move has not been finalized, in part because of the presidents mercurial decision-making process and also because of Mr. Shines reluctance to walk into a chaotic West Wing.As recently as a month ago, Mr. Shine didnt want the job, according to a person familiar with his thinking. The former television executive was reluctant to deal with all the scrutiny, part of which could focus on his own connection to the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News, the person said.On Wednesday, Mr. Shine did not respond to a request for comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.Mr. Shine was a central figure at Fox News during the era that the late Mr. Ailes was the companys dominant player, helping to turn the broadcast network into a powerful conservative force in television and politics.He started as a producer at Fox News, but nearly two decades later, Mr. Shine had become co-president at the network, widely seen as one of the top executives and protg to Mr. Ailes.A Long Island commuter and son of a New York City policeman, the unassuming Mr. Shine was viewed inside Fox News as embodying the networks typical viewer, urging producers to run segments on bread-and-butter issues that would appeal to conservatives. He was also known as a loyal taskman for Mr. Ailes, so devoted to his bosses that Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, once privately described Mr. Shine to other executives as a fine company man.Mr. Shines stature at the network weakened in the wake of the revelations against Mr. Ailes, which included multiple allegations of sexual harassment and several multimillion dollar settlements with the women who made the accusations against him.Mr. Shine was accused in several lawsuits of covering up Mr. Ailess behavior and dismissing concerns from women who complained about it. Mr. Shine has denied any wrongdoing or knowing about Mr. Ailess behavior.Several former employees at Fox News reacted with alarm but not surprise to reports that Mr. Shine may move into the top communications job at the White House.Several who spoke on the condition that they remain anonymous said they were aghast that Mr. Shine would receive an offer to work in the White House while women who came forward to accuse Mr. Ailes of harassment have seen their television careers founder.Mr. Shines connection to the accusations against Mr. Ailes could be particularly sensitive for the president, who was also accused of sexual misconduct during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump has denied those accusations, and officials at the White House said they are aware that they may face blowback for appointing someone so closely tied to Mr. Ailes and the culture of harassment toward women at Fox News.One senior White House official said that few people internally were concerned about the accusations that Mr. Shine played a role in concealing Mr. Ailes behavior, in part because some staffers think Mr. Shine was just doing his job to protect the company. That official said Mr. Shines background in managing large groups of people while working for the presidents favored network kept his name in circulation for the role.Mr. Shine has no previous political experience, but he enjoys powerful allies inside the presidents inner circle.He is close with Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, who is said to have advocated for him inside the White House. Ms. Conway, who is focused on the opioid crisis and who frequently travels, declined the job, according to two people close to the White House.Mercedes Schlapp, a communications adviser to the White House, was seen initially as a favorite for the job, in part because of her good relationship with the chief of staff, John F. Kelly. But Mr. Trump did not offer it to her.Mr. Shines appointment may ultimately do little to calm the infighting and ongoing battles over leaks that have defined the communications office since Ms. Hicks left.But it would add to the ties between Mr. Trump and the Fox News network, which the president watches religiously.Mr. Shine is also close to Sean Hannity, the Fox News host who has the presidents ear. In recent months, Mr. Shine was spotted at the presidents golf course in Florida with Mr. Hannity.The United States attorneys office in Manhattan last year was conducting a criminal investigation into Fox Newss handling of sexual harassment complaints. The status of that investigation is not clear. | Politics |