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Credit...Sait Serkan Gurbuz/ReutersJune 29, 2018WASHINGTON The National Security Agency has purged hundreds of millions of records logging phone calls and texts that it had gathered from American telecommunications companies since 2015, the agency has disclosed. It had realized that its database was contaminated with some files the agency had no authority to receive.The agency began destroying the records on May 23, it said in a statement. Officials had discovered technical irregularities this year in its collection from phone companies of so-called call record details, or metadata showing who called or texted whom and when, but not what they said.The agency had collected the data from a system it created under the USA Freedom Act. Congress enacted that law in 2015 to end and replace a once-secret program that had systematically collected Americans domestic calling records in bulk. The National Security Agency uses the data to analyze social links between people in a hunt for hidden associates of known terrorism suspects.The program traces back to a component of the once-secret Stellarwind surveillance program that the Bush administration put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The data collection eventually came to be justified under disputed interpretation of a law known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act and was exposed in 2013 in the leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor.The disclosure caused an uproar, and Congress eventually enacted the Freedom Act to end and replace the program. Under the new system, the bulk data about Americans phone calls and texts has instead remained in the hands of telecoms, and the National Security Agency may collect only specific sets of records from it: the phone logs of a surveillance target and of everyone that person has contacted. A judge must also agree that there is reason to suspect the target has links to terrorism.Under the Freedom Act, the agency took in 151 million call-detail records in 2016 and 534 million such records in 2017, according to government reports.David Kris, a founder of the Culper Partners consulting firm who led the Justice Departments National Security Division in the first term of the Obama administration, called the disclosure a failure of the implementation of the USA Freedom Act, which is set to expire next year if Congress does not enact new legislation extending it.The fact that they need to purge all of the data they received pursuant to queries over the last three years is evidence of that failure, said Mr. Kris, adding that the errors illustrated how new problems can sometimes crop up when the government makes systems more complex in an effort to better balance security and privacy.The National Security Agency did not explain what technical irregularities caused the problem. But an agency spokesman, Chris Augustine, said the problem did not result in any collection of location records from cellphone towers. Under the USA Freedom Act, the agency is not permitted to gather that type of record using its system.Glenn S. Gerstell, the National Security Agencys general counsel, said in an interview that because of several complex technical glitches, one or more telecom providers he declined to say which had responded to court orders for targets records by sending logs to the agency that included both accurate data and also some numbers of people the targets had not been in contact with.As a result, when the agency then fed those phone numbers back to the telecoms to get the communications logs of all of the people who had been in contact with its targets, the agency also gathered some data of people unconnected to the targets. The National Security Agency had no authority to collect their information.If the first information was incorrect, even though on its face it looked like any other number, then when we fed that back out, by definition wed get records back on the second hop that we did not have authority to collect, he said.In a statement, Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is often a critic of surveillance programs from a privacy rights perspective, blamed telecoms not the government for the problem.Telecom companies hold vast amounts of private data on Americans, Mr. Wyden said. This incident shows these companies acted with unacceptable carelessness, and failed to comply with the law when they shared customers sensitive data with the government.The agency worked with telecommunications companies to figure out the sources of the problem, Mr. Gerstell added, and was satisfied that it was fixed going forward. But because it was deemed infeasible to try to identify and selectively delete the contaminated records in the database, he said, they instead decided to purge all of them.The National Security Agency said in its statement that it had separately reviewed and revalidated its intelligence reporting to ensure that the reports were based on properly received data. Mr. Gerstell said that vetting process had been done manually. | Politics |
Global SoccerCredit...Albert Gea/ReutersFeb. 16, 2014LONDON The intensity and joy are back with Barcelona. The intensity and belief are back with Manchester City. And there could be few better ways to welcome back the Champions League than when these two meet in Manchester on Tuesday night.If Bara is back on full throttle, that means Lionel Messi is over his injuries and scoring again at a rate that eclipses the greats. The little Argentine chipped in two goals, exquisite of course, in Barcelonas 6-0 obliteration of Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.Earlier that evening, City eliminated Chelsea from the F.A. Cup, scoring only twice in a performance so strong that Chelsea was not allowed a shot on goal in the 90 minutes.This, said City captain Vincent Kompany, was vengeance for Chelsea winning at the Etihad Stadium in the league two weeks ago. No it wasnt, City Coach Manuel Pellegrini said; it was the fact that his team did not want to lose twice in its stadium to the same opponent.The best sound of all at the postgame news conferences was the muted acceptance of Chelseas coach, Jos Mourinho. Simple, Mourinho said. City played much better than us, and when the best team wins, I think football is in peace. It is at peace when this particular man is not bad-mouthing his fellow managers, as Mourinho did so often when his path crossed Pellegrinis in Spanish and English soccer.The game has another dimension when Baras stars are in good health. Two weeks ago, when Messi was tenderly feeling his way back after months of rest for his tired and torn hamstrings, a coach whose team took full advantage of Barcelonas wounds last season made a significant observation.When all your players are fit, Jupp Heynckes told a Barcelona board member, you still have more talents than us. Heynckes retired after his Bayern Munich side cleaned out the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League last season. His acknowledgment that Bayern finished off a weakened Barcelona came two weeks ago, when he met Barcelonas vice president, Javier Faus.That is how sportsmen with some exceptions talk when the microphones are switched off. Heynckes left Munich in great shape, and Pep Guardiola, the former coach at Barcelona, has added talents to Bayern since replacing him.Meanwhile, not only has Messi needed a prolonged timeout, but the captain Carles Puyol, the dynamic inventor Andrs Iniesta and the galvanic left back Jordi Alba have been nursed through strains and nagging pains. It hasnt always been appreciated, but Tata Martino, the coach in his first season after coming over from Argentina, has juggled maintaining results at the top while rotating and resting senior players.Some fluency was lost. Critics accused Martino of tampering with Baras intrinsic tika-taka pass-and-move style by trying to persuade players to mix up their approach, to make long diagonal passes from time to time.The coach had one purpose. He sought to arrive at the business end of the European season with a team fit enough and fresh enough to take on the best in Europe. There might, as people have suggested, be another motive.Martino is Argentine. Messi and another Barcelona player, Javier Mascherano, are also Argentine. There is a World Cup coming, and Argentina wants to be a force in that, just as Spain and Brazil and Germany intend to be.Even if it is done subconsciously, players do hold something back through the long season to be ready to take on the World Cup. If anyone is to blame for that, it is FIFA and the clubs for filling out the now year-round calendar with ever more lucrative tournaments.How thrilling, then, it is to see Messi et al. discard their cautious winter coats and turn on their skills again. With his first goal, an audacious flick of the ball over the head of the on-rushing Vallecano keeper on Saturday, Messi tied Alfredo Di Stfanos career mark of 227 goals that he scored between 1953 and 1966.One great Argentine player eclipses the record of another.But Messi wasnt finished. He was involved in more of the goals, scored by Adriano, Alexis Snchez and lastly by Neymar, the Brazilian returning from an ankle injury with a stunning run from the halfway line before he finished with his right foot.Messi, though, gave one more exhibition of his predatory art, his insatiable appetite for scoring, his joy. His second goal of Saturday night a low, precise placement from the edge of the 18-yard box, typical for Messi took him past Di Stfanos career total.There are other records on Messis radar. He is now level with Ral Gonzlez, and Hugo Snchezs mark of 234 is within reach. After that is the Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra, who scored 251 goals from 1940 to 1955. The difference is that those were career tallies, while Messi, who is 26, has plenty of time to add to his 337 total goals in 436 appearances in a Bara shirt. Moreover, in modern soccer not all players get to play 90 minutes every game. Martino did on Saturday what he has done before he substituted the greatest player in the world to spare his legs and his energy for Tuesday in Manchester.City awaits him in better heart. The 2-0 victory over Chelsea was achieved without the midfield presence of Fernandinho and the scoring threat of Sergio Agero. Both are injured, and both make a big difference to City.However, David Silva was impishly creative on Saturday, and Pellegrini outfoxed Mourinho with his use of substitutions. The first goal was a delightfully quick and precise low cross shot from Stevan Jovetic, the Montenegrin who has had few opportunities to show his class in Manchester.The second was worked by Silva and scored by Samir Nasri within minutes of Nasri replacing Jovetic.Pellegrini did not crow. His side was in better shape than it was when it met Chelsea 12 days before. A refreshed Bara will be a different dimension altogether. | Sports |
Kesha Powerful Grammys Performance ... After Janelle Monae's Time's Up Intro 1/28/2018 CBS Kesha just rocked the Grammys with an incredibly moving performance after Janelle Monae introduced her and shouted out the Time's Up movement, too. The pop star took the stage Sunday in what was a highly anticipated performance and possibly the biggest moment of the night to belt out her song "Praying" -- which is rumored to be all about her long legal battle with her producer, Dr. Luke. In light of the current cultural climate, Kesha's song resonated perhaps even more so with the Grammys audience -- as seen in their standing O and emotional reactions. CBS Meanwhile, Janelle delivered the most explicit call for Time's Up through the night so far -- and she had a powerful message of her own. | Entertainment |
Credit...Kevin Finnigan/Tropic Maritime Images, via Associated PressMarch 14, 2017MOGADISHU, Somalia Pirates off the coast of Somalia have seized an oil tanker with eight Sri Lankans on board, in what is believed to be the first hijacking of a large commercial vessel in the region since 2012, officials said on Tuesday.The merchant ship was intercepted while en route to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, from Djibouti, and was diverted toward Alula, a port in the semiautonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia, Ali Shire Mohamud Osman, the district commissioner in Alula, said in a telephone interview.The ships crew sent a distress signal on Monday evening, saying the vessel was being approached by high-speed boats.Abdikamil Moalin Shukri, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior and Security, said the agency was awaiting more details.The chairman of Puntlands antipiracy operation, Abdirisak Mohamed Dirir, denied that any of Puntlands troops were involved in the seizure of the ship. He said it was hijacked by Somali pirates.The vessel, the Aris 13, was a small tanker delivering fuel, according to John Steed, a retired British Army colonel who is now the Horn of Africa regional manager for Oceans Beyond Piracy, a program based in Colorado that works to combat piracy.The local authorities up there confirm pirates have a ship they are holding, and are holding the crew against their will, Mr. Steed said in an interview on Twitter.The Sri Lankan government acknowledged that eight of its citizens were aboard the ship.While the vessel involved is not registered under a Sri Lankan flag, it has an eight-member Sri Lankan crew, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The ministry continues to remain in touch with the shipping agents, concerned authorities, as well as relevant Sri Lanka missions overseas to ascertain further information on the matter in order to ensure the safety and welfare of the Sri Lankan crew.Chulpathmendra Dahanayake, the head of mission at Sri Lankas High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya, said by telephone that he had asked officials from the United Nations and Somalia to investigate the matter and get back to us.In case this is true, he said, we will probably be asking for a heavy-handed interference from U.S. forces for their release.A United Nations report last October found that the number of Somalia-based piracies had plunged to 15 in 2015-16 from 237 in 2011.Progress in building a federal state in Somalia, combined with collective international naval efforts and antipiracy policies from the regional states, such as Puntland, has contributed to the reduction of onshore safe havens for pirates along the Somali coast, the report found, crediting warships, the use of armed guards on commercial vessels and international deterrence efforts.The report warned, however, that although significant, such progress remains fragile and reversible. Credible reports indicate that Somali pirates possess the intent and capability to resume attacks against large commercial ships, should the opportunity present itself, and to endanger smaller vessels, which remain particularly vulnerable.The uncertain political situation in the central region of Somalia, the report said, coupled with the finite mandate of the international naval force stationed off the coast, has the potential to become a security vacuum that could trigger a resurgence of piracy.The United Nations report concluded: The ultimate solution to the problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia lies in a stable and secure future for Somalia.The ship made a sharp turnabout just after it passed the Horn of Africa on its way south to Mogadishu, Reuters reported.The ship is owned by a Panamanian company, Armi Shipping, and is managed by Aurora Ship Management in the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters.United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which coordinates the management of all merchant ships and yachts in the Gulf of Aden area, was monitoring the situation.Michael Howlett, the deputy director of the International Maritime Bureau, an agency based in London that gathers piracy data, said he could not comment because investigations are still ongoing. | World |
Credit...Alexandros Avramidis/ReutersDec. 14, 2015ATHENS Greeces leftist-led government on Monday signed its first major privatization deal, granting a German company the right to lease and manage more than a dozen regional airports.The contract, worth 1.2 billion euros, or $1.3 billion, is part of an effort to privatize state assets and adopt economic changes demanded by international creditors under Greeces 86 billion bailout program. Some other measures are under debate in the Greek Parliament and are scheduled for a vote Tuesday night.The airport management contract had been under negotiation with the German company, Fraport, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his leftist Syriza party stormed to power in January. The party pledged to end years of austerity and foreign oversight by the countrys creditors: the other nations that use the euro, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.The airport contract talks were revived only after Mr. Tsipras capitulated to creditors during the summer as Greece teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, accepting the countrys third bailout since 2010.The governments debt problems have for years deprived many Greek airports of sufficient money for maintenance and modernization. One exception is the Athens airport, which has already been partly privatized and generally lives up to its role as a modern international hub.Under the accord, Fraport and its Greek partner, the energy firm Copelouzos, have secured a 40-year lease on 14 provincial airports, including those on the popular tourist islands of Corfu, Mykonos, Rhodes and Santorini.The consortium, which is to assume management of the airports in the fall of 2016, has agreed to pay annual rental fees of 23 million and to spend 330 million over the next four years to revamp the facilities, which in many cases are dilapidated and substandard. The consortium said it planned to invest 1.4 billion over the life of the lease.Commenting after the signing, Stergios Pitsiorlas, the head of Greeces privatization agency, described the deal as a very significant development and a strong message, in all directions, that the Greek economy is winning the trust of markets and entering the road toward growth.Since 2010, when Greece signed its first international bailout, its creditors have pushed it to privatize state assets as a way of raising much-needed revenue and spurring growth. However, several governments displayed little appetite for selling assets, and only around 3 billion in revenue has been raised so far through privatizations.The current bailout program calls for the government to raise an additional 6.2 billion from selling or awarding management contracts for state-owned assets over the next three years, money that is to go toward reducing national debt and increasing sorely needed investment.The latest package of economic measures now under debate by Parliament includes the creation of a new privatization fund that would be jointly supervised by Greek and foreign officials. Other actions on the list include overhauling the Greek energy sector and allowing the sale of delinquent loans held by Greek banks to so-called distressed debt funds. (Greeces creditors are particularly concerned about an estimated 107 billion of nonperforming loans that are sapping the countrys banks.)The new measures are widely expected to pass in Tuesday nights vote because the governments Syriza-led coalition has a majority, albeit by three seats, in the 300-member Parliament. The package must be approved if Greece is to receive its next allotment of 1 billion in bailout money.A series of austerity measures and economic overhauls adopted over the last two months has fueled public anger and prompted two general strikes. Mr. Tsipras, who once railed against austerity, has insisted that Syriza has not forgotten its pledges to restore social justice.The government will face a much tougher test next month when it tries to overhaul Greeces costly and dysfunctional pension system. Greek officials are resisting calls for more cuts to pensions, noting that payments have been cut more than 10 times in the last six years. They are seeking other ways of bolstering the system, notably by imposing higher social security contributions for employers and workers.The idea is said to have been greeted with skepticism by creditors, though, as unemployment remains high and thousands of businesses are struggling to remain afloat.Securing support for an overhaul of the pension system is likely to be the biggest challenge yet for Mr. Tsipras. | Business |
NFL Network Denies Sexual Harassment Claims ... She Was Cool With It!! 1/25/2018 The NFL Network is firing back at the former wardrobe stylist who claimed she was sexually harassed by on-air talent like Marshall Faulk and Donovan McNabb ... saying she approved of the inappropriate behavior. NFL Enterprises -- which runs the football network -- filed its response to Jami Cantor's lawsuit on January 18 ... denying all of her claims and asking the court to throw it out. As we previously reported ... Cantor made several claims of sexual harassment from 2006 until she was fired in 2016. She alleges Faulk pulled out his genitals in front of her and asked invasive questions. Cantor also claims McNabb sent texts to her asking if "she was a squirter" and telling her she "looked like the kind of girl that squirted when getting f***ed," ... and accused Warren Sapp of urinating in front of her. Ike Taylor, Eric Davis and Heath Evans were also named in the suit. The response claims Jami "approved, consented to, authorized, and/or ratified" all of the misconduct ... translation -- she was cool with it. The response also claims the network properly addressed any concerns that may have been raised by Cantor during her time with the company. NFL Network has suspended Faulk, Taylor and Evans in wake of the lawsuit ... and McNabb and Davis were fired from their gigs with ESPN. | Entertainment |
Inside WealthCredit...Thomas PitilliDec. 12, 2015When Graham Lefford started working as a butler in 1989, his daily tasks usually involved planning formal dinners and carefully arranging the daily breakfast tray with coffee and a newspaper.But on a recent afternoon, Mr. Lefford had to tackle a more modern butler problem: a giant TV screen that had failed to descend from the ceiling. He spent nearly an hour troubleshooting the electrical system, testing the drop-down motors and scrolling through the multimedia TV controller before finally rebooting the homes universal software interface to get the screen to pop down.These homes are so complicated and filled with so much technology, said Mr. Lefford, who works for a wealthy family in New York. If you dont have basic tech skills, you cant do the job anymore.The life of the butler has been transformed by the digital age. As the homes of the rich become filled with new status symbols of technology such as retinal scanners, iPad-controlled door locks, hidden flat-panel screens and underwater lighting shows butlers are becoming more like one-man I.T. departments.Rich homeowners are increasingly looking for house managers and butlers with corporate technology experience or engineering degrees. Butler schools are teaming up with home-software companies to better train students, while home-staffing companies are increasingly recruiting from tech departments at big companies and hotel chains. Butlers themselves who were transformed into more corporate-style household managers in the 1990s and 2000s are now struggling to balance their core job of pampering their finicky bosses with managing temperamental smart-home systems.There is no silver tray anymore, said David N. Youdovin, chief executive of Hire Society, a household staffing firm based in New York. If you cant set up a secure wireless network or sync an iPad or use the Crestron or Savant, its hard to be considered for these jobs, he said, referring to two home-automation brands.Granted, even the nonrich struggle with increasingly complicated home technologies. But in recent years, the rich have taken smart homes to a new level and assigned their household staffs to keep them running. Weber Tysvaer, an estate manager and chief of staff to several rich families, said one home he worked in had so many motherboards and servers in the basement, the connecting wires formed giant, multicolored columns along the walls.It looked like a cathedral organ, he said. It was actually quite beautiful unless something went wrong.Mr. Tysvaer worked in a Manhattan triplex, owned by a Middle Eastern prince, that was loaded with state-of-the-art technology and security. Yet systems were often crashing: The Wi-Fi rarely worked, the home-software system always had to be restarted, and a set of Star Trek-like doors designed to open and close with a smooth whoosh at the push of a button that often failed to close. The entire tech system for the home had to be redone, at a cost of about $500,000, a little over a year after it was built.Mr. Tysvaer has worked in other homes where an iPad can be used to dial up a movie, change the music, set the lights, turn on a waterfall or have special custom-made scents pumped through the ventilation system. But many times the systems dont work together, he said and finding the root of the problem can take hours of calls with product manufacturers and software teams.The buyers may not realize that these systems are far more powerful and complex for what they really need, he said.Mr. Lefford, who travels between his home in Michigan and his employers home in New York, said technology had given him more freedom, but also more headaches. He can manage his employers New York home remotely with an iPad, setting the heat, shutting the blinds, turning off the lights and locking the doors with the tap of a screen. He even accepted a flower delivery at the home in New York, and selected bouquets for each room, while sitting in Michigan.But one Sunday night, when Mr. Lefford was off duty, his boss couldnt turn on the lights on an upper floor of the house. To fix it, I would have to remove a panel from an electronics cabinet, unplug something else and hit a reset button, he said. They just decided to leave them off till I came back the next day.Butler training schools and associations are forging closer ties to the companies that make tech gear for high-end homes. The Domestic Estate Management Association says its working with Crestron and Savant to create training programs to teach butlers how to run and troubleshoot smart-home systems. Other schools are adding courses in I.T. networking and programming.Its part of the standard training now, said Matthew Haack, president of the association.In many homes of the superrich, technology is so complicated that owners are hiring specialized techies to work alongside butlers and household managers. Kevin G. Johnson, founder of Green Baize Door, a London-based placement agency and advisory firm, said he recently placed two I.T. specialists in mega-homes in Britain. One had been the chief engineer for a big London hotel group while the other came from a corporate I.T. department. They are now earning higher salaries, in the six figures, according to Mr. Johnson.Mr. Youdovin of Hire Society also recently helped place two personal I.T. experts. One was for a hedge fund manager in New York who has a sophisticated trading system set up in his home. The other was for a Hamptons homeowner who wanted a searchable video system allowing him to watch certain moments from scores of professional sports games. Both workers are making over $150,000 a year.Sometimes a butlers toughest tech task is to get rid of technology. Mr. Lefford said a previous employer got so frustrated with his remote digital thermostat systems that when he started planning a new state-of-the-art home, he requested the old-fashioned Honeywell dials. But the company installing the homes heating and cooling system kept pushing for a more expensive digital controller.My employer insisted on the dial, Mr. Lefford said. He said, I want to be able to change the heat in my own damn house. | Business |
Its the first time underwear has been authorized for this purpose, and it provides a new choice for protection where the few options have been unpopular.Credit...Jovelle Tamayo for The New York TimesMay 12, 2022This is a story about infections, sex and underwear. More specifically, its about sexually-transmitted infections, oral sex and ultrathin, super-stretchy, vanilla-flavored panties.The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the panties to be considered protection against infections that can be transmitted from the vagina or anus during oral sex. It is a first for underwear.The undies are part of an understudied but important area of sexual health where the few options for protection are considered cumbersome and hardly used.Oral sex is not totally risk-free, said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She said the need for protective methods was of growing importance because more teenagers are initiating their first sexual activity with oral sex. For people of all ages, she added, a protective barrier that is enjoyable to use could reduce anxiety and increase pleasure around that particular behavior.Infections like herpes, gonorrhea and syphilis can be transmitted through oral sex, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The risk of transmitting H.I.V. from a vagina through oral sex is considered very low, the C.D.C. said. But HPV human papillomavirus is more easily transmitted that way, and mouth and throat infections from some types of HPV may develop into oral or neck cancer, the agency said.How often people transmit infections in this manner is unclear and difficult to study because most people who have oral sex have vaginal or anal sex in the same encounter, said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, the medical research director for Fenway Health, a community health center in Massachusetts that focuses on patients who identify as L.G.B.T.Q.The F.D.A.s authorization of this product gives people another option to protect against S.T.I.s during oral sex, said Courtney Lias, director of the F.D.A. office that led the review of the underwear.The only product previously authorized for protection during oral sex was a dental dam a thin, rectangular sheet of latex (or sometimes polyurethane) that typically must be held in place with ones hands to form a barrier between the mouth and genitals.As the name suggests, dental dams, invented in 1864 and originally made of rubber, were designed to isolate teeth during dental procedures. But the AIDS crisis ignited concern about sexual transmission of infections, and in the early 1990s an Australian company, Glyde Health, created a dental dam that was primarily inspired by concerns of women who have sex with women, an official with the company has said.Although several brands of dental dams have received F.D.A. clearance for protection against sexual disease transmission, the devices have not exactly been a hit.Theyre extremely unpopular, Dr. Marrazzo said, adding: I mean, honestly, could there be anything less sexy than a dental dam?ImageCredit...Jovelle Tamayo for The New York TimesImageCredit...Jovelle Tamayo for The New York TimesTheres little data on how widely they are used, but a 2010 study of 330 Australian women who had sex with women found that only 9.7 percent reported ever using a dental dam, and just 2.1 percent said they used dams often. A 2021 C.D.C. report said use of dental dams and other safe-sex methods was infrequent among women who have sex with women.Dams are sold online and in sex shops, but are not widely available at pharmacy chains, and are usually more expensive than condoms. The C.D.C.s web page on dental dams shows how to cut a condom to make a dental dam, but this doesnt appear to be popular either.Many people report that dental dams are awkward and take all the pleasure out of oral sex for both the giver and receiver, said Chris Barcelos, an assistant professor of womens, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. They are hated even more than condoms.The idea for dam-like undies struck Melanie Cristol after an experience in 2014 during her honeymoon in Mexico with her then-wife. Ms. Cristol, then a corporate lawyer, discovered she had an infection that could be sexually transmitted.Realizing how limited the protection options were, I was just so discouraged, said Ms. Cristol, who recalled that when she was a sex educator in college and taught about dental dams, people looked at me like I was crazy.I wanted to feel sexy and confident and use something that was made with my body and actual sex in mind, she said.Ms. Cristol formed a company that in 2018 began selling single-use underwear for people with vulvas. She said she named the product Lorals partly because the L sound evokes words like love and lust, and it feels a little bit like a movement that you use during oral sex.The panties available as bikinis or shorties are made of latex thats about as thin as condom material and forms a seal on the inside of the thigh to keep fluids in, Ms. Cristol said. The company markets their use for a range of reasons, including during ones period, when a partner has a scratchy beard or when a person has experienced previous trauma and doesnt want to be too exposed.Ms. Cristol said that, responding to customer feedback, the company lessened the intensity of the vanilla taste, added more cornstarch to prevent stickiness and will introduce a sheer version in addition to the current opaque black version.On Thursday, the company will begin selling undies explicitly for infection protection, which Ms. Cristol said would resemble its other products but would meet the more rigorous uniformity standards required for F.D.A. authorization. Whats interesting about this is that they have basically eroticized protection, which is something that condom companies have struggled with for years, Dr. Marrazzo said.The F.D.A. said it did not require human clinical trials but, as it does with condoms, gave Lorals authorization after the company submitted extensive documentation about thickness, elasticity, strength and other measures. Within the past year, the F.D.A. has also given clearance to two new dental dam companies, possibly suggesting increased consumer interest.Sexual health experts said they welcomed the additional option, but some were unsure it would be popular and said more medical information was needed.Dr. Mayer said hed like to see real-world data from peoples actual experience to substantiate the underwears ability to block infection transmission.The F.D.A. clearances and increased product development seem to signal a greater potential market, but I dont see a ton of demand, Dr. Barcelos said, but added that such products can be an important way to show a sexual partner that you care about them and take sexual health seriously. ImageCredit...Jovelle Tamayo for The New York TimesTwo Lorals customers, whose contact information was provided by the company and who asked to be identified by their first names because of the sensitive subject matter, described various motivations for using the underwear.Wisty, 28, who identifies as pansexual, has had sex with men and women, and uses they/them pronouns, said the panties were a solution I didnt know I needed.A dancer and Reiki energy healer in the Boston area, Wisty said they had herpes simplex, a common infection that in rare cases can cause serious inflammatory conditions. I wanted to find something that makes it easier for me to enforce the boundaries that I wanted to, Wisty said. To be able to still play and explore while having that comfort and safety of knowing that Im protected from my fluids going everywhere.Shelly, 29, a nurse in Washington State, said she saw the panties on TikTok at a time when she and her fianc, Ashton, were struggling to re-engage in oral sex after cancer requiring reconstructive surgery had caused changes in his tongues mobility and ability to taste. In the aftermath of his cancer treatment, oral sex once their favorite sexual activity made Ashton feel like he was choking, and they had not done it in nearly two years.It was such a huge thing that hed enjoyed over penetrative sex or anything, Shelly said. Without it, she experienced a lot of insecurity, feeling that maybe he doesnt have interest for me in that way anymore.After ordering the panties, we spent a couple hours just looking at it, Shelly said. Were like What are we dealing with here? It smells like vanilla, it stretches to kingdom come like, what is this?Wearing them during oral sex worked very well, said Shelly, who added that she could barely feel the panties and that Ashton said the texture resembled skin and the taste was like youre eating a cookie.She said she appreciated the new clearance for infection protection because Ashton is likely vulnerable to cancers that can be triggered by sexually transmitted infections.The sexual experience was especially important, she said. I never thought I would feel that again, Shelly said. And he was very like gung-ho about it when he realized that: Oh, I can do all the things. | Health |
Credit...Julian Stratenschulte/European Pressphoto AgencyDec. 16, 2015FRANKFURT European anti-fraud investigators said on Wednesday that they were looking into whether Volkswagen misused hundreds of millions of dollars in low-interest loans threatening a significant source of funding for the crisis-struck automaker.Volkswagens admission this year that it rigged 11 million diesel engines to fool emissions tests has raised questions about whether it misused loans made by the publicly financed European Investment Bank and intended primarily for projects meant to reduce the carmakers environmental impact, investigators said. The loans have totaled 9.5 billion euros, or $10.4 billion, since 2000.The investigation, which is in a preliminary stage, is looking into whether the loans could be linked to the production of engines or devices implicated in the manipulation of the real level of gas emissions of vehicles, according to a statement from the European Anti-Fraud Office. The loans were meant to be used to develop engines that were more fuel-efficient and produce less carbon dioxide, according to Silvana Enculescu, a spokeswoman for the European Union fraud office.The new inquiry follows one underway by the European Investment Bank itself, which is funded by European Union countries. In October, the bank said it was looking into whether any of the loans it provided to Volkswagen were used to develop illegal software to evade emissions tests. The bank said on Wednesday that it would not disburse more money to Volkswagen or approve new loans to the company until its own review is completed.Volkswagen has admitted programming millions of diesel vehicles to cheat on tests for emissions of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant linked to lung ailments.Volkswagen said on Wednesday that it had been in talks for months with the European Investment Bank about the loans but had not been informed of the investigation by the anti-fraud office. We are perplexed that the agency went to the public before informing the affected party, the company said. Of the 9.5 billion in loans that Volkswagen received, 1.9 billion is still outstanding, the bank said.The anti-fraud office, which has the power to investigate but not to prosecute, said it would refer any evidence of crimes to law enforcement authorities.In separate developments on Wednesday, prosecutors in Stuttgart, Germany, said they had begun investigating whether employees at Bosch, a major Volkswagen supplier, had played a role in programming VW vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. And another public lender, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development which is partly financed by the United States government put a hold on credit that had been earmarked for a new Volkswagen plant in Poland.The development bank had planned to contribute 300 million toward construction of a 1.1 billion factory near Wrzesnia, Poland, that would produce lightweight commercial vehicles. A development bank spokesman said talks about disbursement of the money were postponed without giving a reason.The bank provides loans for former Soviet bloc nations, as well as some countries in the Middle East. The United States is the largest shareholder among the 64 countries that own the development bank.Volkswagen said that despite suspension of the loan, it planned to complete work on the Polish factory, which began in 2014. The plant is scheduled to be finished by the middle of 2016 and will employ 3,000 people to build Volkswagen Crafter cargo vans.Volkswagen so far has set aside 9 billion to cover the cost of repairing the vehicles affected by its emissions-cheating scandal. The company also faces several investigations in the United States and Europe into its practices, as well as lawsuits from customers.In a cost-cutting move on Wednesday, Volkswagen said it would temporarily cease production of the Phaeton, a vehicle meant to challenge Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the luxury market. Built at factory in Dresden that has glass walls to enable the public to watch the cars being made, the Phaeton failed to enthrall consumers. It had sold poorly since its introduction in 2002 and was regarded as a financial drag on the company.The car, which could be ordered with a 12-cylinder engine, became a symbol of the engineering overreach of Ferdinand Pich, the Volkswagen chairman and scion of the Porsche family who pushed for the Phaetons development. Mr. Pich was ousted this year, before the emissions cheating came to light.Volkswagen said that production of the Phaeton would end early next year. The factory will reopen at an unspecified date to produce a new version that will be powered solely by batteries, Volkswagen said.The investigation into parts supplier Bosch will focus on whether employees of the parts supplier played a role in the emissions cheating by Volkswagen, according to prosecutors in Stuttgart, where the company is based. Claudia Krauth, a spokeswoman for the Stuttgart prosecutor, said authorities were alerted by news reports that had proved substantial enough to warrant a formal investigation.Prosecutors have not identified any suspects, she said. Under German law, only individuals can be charged with crimes, not companies.Ren Ziegler, a spokesman for Bosch, said the company was cooperating with authorities. Bosch was a major supplier to the family of diesel engines, known as EA 189, that is at the core of the emissions scandal. Bosch is a critical player in the German auto industry, developing and producing a wide range of sensors, pumps, fuel injectors, batteries and other components.Volkswagen, even as it faces legal problems, is also obliged by regulators in Europe and the United States to repair or alter the deceptive diesel cars to make them comply with air-quality standards. The company said it would begin recalling cars in Europe in late January to make the necessary changes.The company had said previously that cars with 2-liter or 1.2-liter diesel motors could be fixed with a software update. Cars with 1.6-liter motors will get a software update and a plastic part known as a flow rectifier that the company said would improve the intake of air to the motor and allow more precise regulation of the fuel injection, reducing emissions.The company is still negotiating with United States regulators on how to bring about 500,000 cars into line with air-quality rules. The repairs are likely to be far more costly for Volkswagen in the United States than in Europe because of stricter limits on emissions of nitrogen oxide. | Business |
Porn Star Alana Evans Melania Probably Knows About Donald's Affairs 1/26/2018 TMZ.com Alana Evans isn't shying away from the story about Donald Trump's alleged tryst with fellow porn star Stormy Daniels back in 2006 ... because she thinks it's par for the course for guys like him. We got the porn Hall of Famer at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo Thursday night in Vegas, and asked her about Stormy's alleged romp with the Prez. Alana suggests we all know what went down, even though Stormy's not talking. More interesting, though, is how Alana feels about the First Lady. She believes Melania should stick with Donald despite his alleged affairs, and says it could be part of their arrangement. Oh, and if the Trumps ever want to party with her, Alana's down ... especially with Melania. | Entertainment |
Experts report that similar technologies were developed by Russia and the United States starting more than a half century ago.Credit...Mark Schiefelbein/Associated PressPublished Oct. 19, 2021Updated Nov. 3, 2021The news report that emerged over the weekend sounded alarming: China, a rising military power, had unexpectedly fired a novel space weapon two months ago. It circled the planet and then re-entered Earths atmosphere, gliding at velocities far faster than the speed of sound toward a destination on Chinese territory.As a military capability, bombarding a target from orbit in this way could overcome existing missile defenses. But many experts expressed doubts about the report.Theres nothing we know from reliable sources, said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks global space launches. The U.S. military unit that reports on orbital events had made public no information on an August launch by China that matched the reported claim about a weapons test, McDowell said.Every aspect of this story has question marks, he added.Did China really test and develop a surprise space weapon? Here are some of the military and technical points that are known about the system, as well as some of the responses to and uncertainties about the flight test.What was reported about Chinas flight test?The Financial Times on Saturday reported that China in August had flight-tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that circumnavigated the globe before speeding toward its target. The paper, giving one of the scarce details about the test, said the weapon missed its target by about two dozen miles.The report relied on a variety of anonymous sources, including one that said the weapon test caught U.S. intelligence by surprise. We have no idea how they did this, the newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying.Did China acknowledge carrying out the test?On Monday, Chinas Foreign Ministry said there was a flight test of a reusable space vehicle, not a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile. At a regular news briefing, Zhao Lijian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, called it a routine test.There are many companies all over the world that have conducted similar tests, he said.Previously, Mr. Zhao has been criticized by Western experts on China for making unsubstantiated claims and laying out conspiracy theories.China initially gave August as the test date, but later said the vehicle test happened in July, according to Bloomberg News. Last year in September, the state-owned company that oversees Chinas space industry announced a test of an experimental reusable spacecraft that completed a flight in low Earth orbit.Is it true that this test launch was a surprise?Probably not. The storys most eye-catching aspect that Chinas weapon circled the globe before speeding toward its target is old stuff. The technology was pioneered in the 1960s by the Soviet Union. Then it was known as the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, or FOBS. It is so named because it never achieves a complete orbit of the Earth but only a fraction.David Wright, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has long studied space developments, said that some descriptions of the test launch have been alarmist.Any country that can put something into space could do this, he said. And we certainly should not be surprised that China could do this given the sophistication of its space program.Some experts see China as challenging U.S. dominance in space exploration. In the past year alone, the country has returned soil samples from the moon, set down a rover on Mars and launched two crews of astronauts to the countrys new space station.The nation is also digging hundreds of new silos for long-range nuclear missiles, building an arsenal of antisatellite weapons, and routinely firing more rockets into space than any other country.That the weapon was identified as hypersonic meaning that it flew at more than five times the speed of sound is also unsurprising. The United States began investigating that technology more than a half century ago, and a RAND Corporation report in 2017 said more than two dozen nations, including China, were experimenting with how to achieve hypersonic flight. North Korea also claimed that it had tested such a weapon recently.How did the Biden administration react?The Pentagon spoke of Chinas military strides in general but did not discuss the claimed test. We will not comment about the specifics of these reports, John F. Kirby, the Defense Departments chief spokesman, said in a statement. We have made clear our concerns about the military capabilities China continues to pursue capabilities that only increase tensions in the region and beyond.A senior U.S. official, who spoke anonymously to describe confidential intelligence assessments, said there was some skepticism over how the Financial Times had portrayed the Chinese test. Its not the case that a flight test didnt happen, the official said, but rather the trustworthiness of the newspapers depiction.Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, echoed the Pentagon in giving no specifics but at his daily briefing Monday said: We are deeply concerned about the rapid expansion of Chinas nuclear capabilities, including its development of novel delivery systems.Eric Schmitt and Michael Crowley contributed reporting from Washington. | science |
Tech FixCredit...Minh Uong/The New York TimesJune 20, 2018Do you ever feel that the web is breaking?When shopping online for a toaster oven, you can expect an ad for that oven to stalk you from site to site. If you have just a few web browser tabs open, your laptop battery drains rapidly. And dont get me started on those videos that automatically play when youre scrolling through a webpage.The web has reached a new low. It has become an annoying, often toxic and occasionally unsafe place to hang out. More important, it has become an unfair trade: You give up your privacy online, and what you get in return are somewhat convenient services and hyper-targeted ads.Thats why it may be time to try a different browser. Remember Firefox? The browser, made by the nonprofit Mozilla, emerged in the early 2000s as a faster, better designed vessel to surf the web. But it became irrelevant after Google in 2008 released Chrome, a faster, more secure and versatile browser.Mozilla recently hit the reset button on Firefox. About two years ago, six Mozilla employees were huddled around a bonfire one night in Santa Cruz, Calif., when they began discussing the state of web browsers. Eventually, they concluded there was a crisis of confidence in the web.If they dont trust the web, they wont use the web, Mark Mayo, Mozillas chief product officer, said in an interview. That just felt to us like that actually might be the direction were going. And so we started to think about tools and architectures and different approaches.Now Firefox is back. Mozilla released a new version late last year, code-named Quantum. It is sleekly designed and fast; Mozilla said the revamped Firefox consumes less memory than the competition, meaning you can fire up lots of tabs and browsing will still feel buttery smooth.Most notably, Firefox now offers privacy tools, like a built-in feature for blocking ad trackers and a container that can be installed to prevent Facebook from monitoring your activities across the web. Most other browsers dont include those features.After testing Firefox for the last three months, I found it to be on a par with Chrome in most categories. In the end, Firefoxs thoughtful privacy features persuaded me to make the switch and make it my primary browser.Heres why you should consider it, too.Privacy FeaturesBoth Chrome and Firefox support thousands of extensions, which are add-ons that modify your browsing experience. Chrome wins in terms of numbers, with hundreds of thousands of extensions compared with Firefoxs roughly 11,000.But in months of using Firefox, there wasnt anything I wanted to do on Chrome that I couldnt also do on Firefox. Both browsers support 1Password, the popular password-management program. Both support extensions that prevent videos from automatically playing when you visit websites. And both support uBlock Origin, the ad blocker recommended by many security experts.Mozilla also offers a Firefox extension called Facebook Container. Normally, Facebook can track your browsing activities even outside its social media site by using trackers planted on other websites like web cookies. With Mozillas extension, when you open Facebook in a browser tab, it isolates your Facebook identity into its own container, making it difficult for the social network to follow you outside its site.Firefox especially stood out for some privacy features that are baked into the browser. Inside the privacy settings, you can turn on tracking protection, which blocks online trackers from collecting your browser data across multiple websites. With Chrome, you can install a third-party extension to block trackers but the fewer add-ons you have to tack onto your browser, the better.Security experts applauded Mozilla for stepping up its efforts on privacy.Firefox does seem to have positioned itself as the privacy-friendly browser, and they have been doing a fantastic job improving security as well, said Cooper Quintin, a security researcher for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the digital rights nonprofit. On the other hand, Google is fundamentally an advertising company, so its unlikely that they will ever have a business interest in making Chrome more privacy friendly.Google said that privacy and security went hand in hand, and that it led the industry on both fronts. The search giant said it had the only browser with a method for reliably addressing Spectre, the security flaw that was revealed this year and that cannot be completely fixed. Spectre affects the microprocessors in nearly all of the worlds computers, and it can allow the theft of information from one application so that it can be shared with another. Chrome also includes a built-in filter that blocks inappropriate, malicious ads from loading.You cant have privacy without security on the web, said Parisa Tabriz, a director of engineering for Google who specializes in security.In fact, both Chrome and Firefox have tough security. Both include sandboxing, which isolates processes of the browser so a harmful website doesnt infect other parts of your machine. So if you loaded a website with malicious code, it would be contained within the webpage so it couldnt infect your files, webcam and microphone.Google said there was one thing it could do better on: the inclusion of privacy settings to block tracking technology, similar to the tools that Firefox includes.I think thats something that we can improve on, Ms. Tabriz said. Firefox has some settings that were also exploring.Speed and Battery TestsWhich browser is faster?Some benchmark websites, which determine the speed of a browser by measuring the responsiveness of different web elements, say Chrome is faster. But some other benchmark sites say Firefox is faster. In my anecdotal testing as someone who juggles more than a dozen web tabs at a time, both were very speedy. Lets call it a draw.Mozillas promise that Firefox consumes less computer memory raises hopes that it should also use less battery life. Yet in my tests on a laptop running a script that automatically reloaded the top 10 news sites, Firefox lasted only a few minutes longer than Chrome before the battery was depleted. On another test, which involved streaming a Netflix video on a loop on each browser, the battery lasted about 20 minutes longer when the Chrome browser was used.Resurrection Is Just BeginningFirefox is the No. 2 computer browser, with about 12 percent of the desktop browser market, lagging far behind Chrome, which has about 67 percent, according to StatCounter. Microsofts Internet Explorer and Apples Safari browsers are even farther behind in the desktop market, with Explorers share about 7 percent and Safaris about 5.5 percent. On Android phones, the Chrome browser is still far more popular than Firefoxs mobile browser. And only lightweight versions of Firefox are available for Apples iOS devices.Yet the path forward for Mozilla looks increasingly promising for consumers.In addition to the normal Firefox browser, Mozilla offers Firefox Focus, a privacy-centric mobile browser that blocks trackers by default and purges your web browsing history as soon as you close out of a page.These are privacy-conscious web products that Mozilla is in a position to expand on in the long term. The nonprofit has no direct relationship with advertisers; it gets a small sum from search providers like Google and Bing when a search is conducted through their sites using a Firefox product.For Mozilla, theres a plus side to being the underdog.The advantage of when you get beaten down is you kind of drop some of your own ego around your decisions, Mr. Mayo said. We had a lot less to lose. | Tech |
Jamie Foxx, Katie Holmes Tight and Together At Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Bash 1/28/2018 Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes were not hiding Saturday night ... staying close to each other and circulating among the celebs at Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party. Clive's been hosting bash every year since 1976, and this year didn't disappoint. As we've already shown you, Jay Z, Beyonce, and a slew of other celebs hit up the Sheraton in New York City. We're told Jamie and Katie had a few drinks and were super tight the whole night. As you know, they've been together for years now but with a few exceptions they've kept things on the QT ... not anymore. | Entertainment |
Business BriefingDec. 11, 2015Fosun International said on Friday that its chairman, Guo Guangchang, the companys founder and one of Chinas best-known entrepreneurs, was assisting authorities with an investigation after a report said the company had lost contact with him. Fosun said that Mr. Guo, 48, a self-styled student of Warren E. Buffett, would still be able to take part in major company decisions through appropriate means, without elaborating. Fosun officials said its shares and convertible bonds, which were suspended in trading on Hong Kong and the mainland earlier on Friday, would resume trading Monday. Chinese authorities have been clamping down on corruption in the financial sector. This year, several senior executives have been missing temporarily in the crackdown, in a sign of how serious China is about increasing scrutiny of its financial sector. Guo is one of the high-profile Chinese entrepreneurs, and this incident will raise eyebrows among foreign regulators, as Fosun has been aggressively expanding its global insurance footprint, said Sally Yim, senior credit officer at Moodys Investors Service. | Business |
Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesMarch 3, 2017Ren Prval, the former president of Haiti who led his nation out of turmoil after a coup but stumbled through the trauma of the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the Americas, the earthquake of 2010, died on Friday at his home in Port-au-Prince. He was 74.The current president, Jovenel Mose, confirmed the death in a Twitter message on Friday. The cause was not immediately known.Mr. Prval was the first and so far only Haitian president to be elected, serve out his term and hand over power to an elected successor, an extraordinary accomplishment in a fragile democracy besieged by decades of turmoil.And he did it twice, serving from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2006 until 2011.A man of quiet demeanor in a country with a politically raucous history, he was best known for what did not happen to him: He was neither assassinated nor overthrown. Indeed, he was regarded as a pragmatic consensus builder.But his reputation was severely bruised after the earthquake, which killed an estimated 100,000 to 316,000 people. He was roundly criticized for not reassuring his stunned nation that help was on the way, either from other nations or his own battered government.As a person, I was paralyzed, Mr. Prval told The Los Angeles Times that year. I was much criticized for not having spoken.But he added: To say what? To the thousands of parents whose children were dead. To the hundreds of schoolchildren I was hearing scream, Come help me! I couldnt find the words to say to those people.Ren Garcia Prval was born on Jan. 17, 1943, in Port-au-Prince and raised in Marmelade, a town in a mountainous coffee and rice-growing region of north-central Haiti. His father, Claude Jules Prval, was an agronomist and a government official until the family was forced to scatter under the dictatorship of Franois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc.Mr. Prval went to Belgium, where he followed in his fathers and grandfathers footsteps and studied agronomy at the Gembloux Agricultural University. He later studied geothermal science at the University of Pisa in Italy.In 1970, Mr. Prval moved to Brooklyn, where he worked as a waiter and messenger. He returned to Haiti in 1975. By then it was under the less openly violent, though still authoritarian, rule of Mr. Duvaliers son, Jean-Claude, known as Baby Doc. Mr. Prval worked in low-level government positions, including in the agency overseeing mining.In 1988, two years after Baby Doc was ousted, Mr. Prval opened a bakery that provided bread to poor children in Port-au-Princes slums, including in an orphanage run by the charismatic Roman Catholic priest and political activist Jean-Bertrand Aristide.The bakery would change the direction of Mr. Prvals life.He and Father Aristide became friends, and Mr. Prval rose in prominence in Father Aristides Lavalas movement, which was popular with Haitis quickly growing urban poor and fiercely opposed by the countrys tiny ruling elite.After Mr. Aristide became president in 1990, having left the priesthood, he appointed Mr. Prval as his prime minister, placing him in charge of the governments operations.But the Aristide government lasted only a few months before it was overthrown by the military. The two went into exile.Mr. Prval later returned and was elected president, but he did not have the charisma of his political benefactor, and Mr. Aristide was considered the true power behind his presidency. When peasants asked how they could survive under United States trade policies and soaring fuel prices, he notoriously told them to swim their way out.Mr. Prval organized new elections in 2000 that returned Mr. Aristide to power. The ensuing inauguration was a Haitian milestone: Mr. Prval became the first Haitian leader to be freely elected, serve a full constitutional term and then peacefully hand power to a successor. But Mr. Aristides term was cut short again in a bloody 2004 coup.Mr. Prval was elected again two years later.Mr. Prval, whose first two marriages ended in divorce, is survived by his wife, Elisabeth Delatour Prval, two daughters, Patricia and Dominique, and two stepsons.It was in his second term that Mr. Prval escaped Mr. Aristides shadow and emerged as a force of his own. After breaking with Mr. Aristide, he used his quiet manner and diplomatic charm to encourage the soft support of the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.Mr. Prval was never one to stir up the masses with oratory flair, or one to bother stumping on the campaign trail. When the earthquake 7.0 magnitude toppled the capital on Jan. 12, 2010, Mr. Prval did not emerge in public for hours.Reporters later learned that he had spent the night anonymously touring the devastation on the back of a motorcycle. Close associates described him as falling into a state of shock from which he never fully recovered.Jocelerme Privert, a former provisional president who was a member of Mr. Prvals cabinet and a longtime friend, said Mr. Prval was known for daily 8 a.m. cabinet meetings that actually began on time. He patiently listened to each cabinet member and made decisions by consensus, Mr. Privert said.He is not a demagogue, I can say that, Mr. Privert said by telephone on Friday from Port-au-Prince. He always believed: If you have to build a bridge, build it. Dont announce it. | World |
TrilobitesCredit...NOAAJune 9, 2017A decade ago, a group of scientists stumbled upon an octopus tending her eggs on a rocky outcropping off the coast of California, nearly 4,600 feet below the surface. They checked in on her every few months and shocked the world with their discovery that she had brooded her eggs for a record 53 months.This Octomom, as they called her, was a member of a genus of wart-covered octopuses called Graneledone, which live up to 9,500 feet below the oceans surface. These slimy sea aliens exist in great numbers in nearly all of the worlds oceans. But there are a handful of species within this particular octopus family that look very similar, which makes distinguishing them a challenge for marine scientists.If we cant tell them apart, how do we know anything about biodiversity? said Janet Voight, a biologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.Worried about how proposals for deep sea mining might threaten the oceans, including the habitat and behavior of these mysterious octopuses, she set out to devise a system to tell them apart. And in a paper published this week in Marine Biology Research, Dr. Voight and her colleague, Jessica Kurth, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, revealed how the distribution of warts on the bodies of at least two octopus species in this important genus might be their distinguishing feature.There are a variety of ways to distinguish one species of octopus from another: the length of their arms, the size of their suckers, the texture of their skin, the tip of the males sex arm or colors of the skin or around the eyes.But not in this group. Nothing works in these guys, Dr. Voight said.Members of Graneledone are actually kind of cute. They have two dark, big eyes mounted on a bulbous, head-like thing called a mantle with eight sucker-lined arms sticking out. They have no ink sac. Their colors, vibrant or pale, dont appear to be that important: Sometimes theyre pink or purple or orange. Dr. Voight has seen just half of the body of one blanch white when threatened.But then, like only a few other kinds of octopuses, they have all these warts covering the arms and mantle. Some of the warts are really like warts, like the caricatures of witches, Dr. Voight said, and others are really subtle.But its not the bumpiness of their warts thats special, the team found, after examining more than 70 dead specimens, as well as images obtained from deep sea dives. They found differences in how the warts spread out across the mantle and down the arms.In Graneledone pacifica, a commonly found species from the North Pacific, warts moved across the mantle, stopping abruptly at the back of it, like a clean line on a short haircut. But in G. verrucosa, another commonly found species from the northwest Atlantic, the warts gradually disappeared toward the back of the mantle like a smooth fade. The Pacific species was generally more warty, with its farthest arm wart from the body extending further out along the arm than was found on its Atlantic cousin.Dr. Voight acknowledges that this method may apply only to these two species at this time, but she remains hopeful that knowing more about aquatic creatures like Graneledone octopuses could increase knowledge of biodiversity in our threatened, mysterious oceans. | science |
Highway BR-262 is among the deadliest in the world for wildlife. Biologist Wagner Fischer has been monitoring its grim toll for more than two decades.Credit...Ricardo FragaNov. 12, 2018Whenever Wagner Fischer drives, he notices the roadkill.As a graduate student in the 1990s, Dr. Fischer, now a biologist with the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, traveled through Brazils Pantanal, a tropical wetland the size of Wisconsin, and the largest freshwater wetland in the world. From his motorcycle, he saw monkeys swinging from roadside trees; capybaras slept on the shoulder. He was looking for fishing bats, the subject of his graduate research. But he was fascinated and appalled by the roadside carnage: caimans, anacondas, giant black-necked storks called jabirus and, once, a dead giant anteater with her cub, still alive, clutching her back. The regions main road, the BR-262, is a long thread of tarmac through the carpet of green, connecting the growing cities of Campo Grande and Corumb, 430 miles apart. Dr. Fischer began taking photographs, thousands of them, and tallying the species along the road. He shared his unpublished results with other researchers and government officials. Everyone from the scientific community kept asking me, When are you going to publish that? Mr. Fischer recalled recently. Two decades later, he finally has. His paper, published on Oct. 19 in the online biodiversity journal Check List, is a grim tally. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Fischer counted dead 930 animals representing 29 reptile species and 47 bird species. A separate tally of mammals, to be published soon, includes more than 2,200 specimens. But even in its unpublished phase, his study inspired others like it, all of them confirming Dr. Fischers initial conclusion: that for wildlife, BR-262 is the deadliest road in Brazil and one of the deadliest in the world.The highway rises from the surrounding wetlands like an island, tempting wildlife, Dr. Fischer said: Its a trap for fauna, and they dont know the risk.ImageCredit...Carl De Souza/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThe Pantanal is filigreed with rivers and streams that flood during the rainy season. Much of it is enclosed in the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which increasingly is quilted with cattle ranches and soybean farms. Over the years, Dr. Fischers colleagues began noticing a steady rise in the roadkill figures.In 2014, a team led by Julio Cesar de Souza, of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, took another look at roadkill on the BR-262. Over 15 months, they found 518 carcasses from 40 species, and noticed a roadkill site every four miles a tenfold increase since 2002, when Dr. Fischer presented some of his findings at a transportation conference. That study, as well as a study in 2017 that counted more than 1,000 large mammals killed in one year on the BR-262, prompted Mr. Fischer to finally publish his data.By contrast, on Californias Interstate 280 in the Bay Area, the states deadliest road for animals, 386 creatures died in collisions between 2015 and 2016. In Britain, more than 1,200 animals died in road collisions across all major highways in 2017, according to a recent report.Throughout Brazil, roads are littered with carcasses representing the countrys 1,775 bird species and 623 mammal species. Large mammals are at greater risk in southern Brazil, including the Pantanal and dry savanna, whereas birds are at higher risk in the Amazon, according to Manuela Gonzlez-Surez, a biologist at the University of Reading in England. In a study published in August, Dr. Gonzlez-Surez and her colleagues built a computer model to predict where animals were most likely to be struck by vehicles. Using existing roads and roadkill counts, including Mr. Fischers data, her team found that as many as 2 million mammals and 8 million birds may be dying on Brazilian highways each year.When I got the total number, I was just completely blown away, Ms. Gonzlez-Surez said. Out of these 8 million birds, maybe some of those are fairly common ones, where maybe this is not a problem. But we dont know, exactly. Are we going to lose all birds in Brazil? Probably no. But it would be nice to know, what should we be worried about?Ecologists worry that the problem will soon worsen. Brazil is home to 20 percent of the worlds biodiversity, but the newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro, has promised to develop large tracts of the countrys most ecologically sensitive areas. ImageCredit...Ricardo Fraga and Wagner Fischer et al.Now that Mr. Fischers data are in the scientific literature, other researchers can more easily compare it with current data and identify trends, said Arnaud Desbiez, a conservation biologist with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, and a co-author of the 2017 study. Dr. Desbiez also runs Brazils Giant Armadillo Conservation Project and a related program called Anteaters and Highways. Ideally, he said, the data would inform government efforts to lessen the carnage. Over the years, Dr. Fischer has shared his unpublished data with state officials and urged them, to little effect, to build a system of bridges and underpasses that would let animals cross roads safely.Fischers data were very complete, and it was a very well done study, so its sad to see that it hasnt been used as much as it should have, Dr. Desbiez said. A lot of things he suggested have not been implemented. This is not a new problem, but something he demonstrated existed a long time ago.Dr. Fischer said: Ecologists are very worried. The authorities pretend to be worried.ImageCredit...Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesBrazilian officials have taken some basic measures. White metal signs, bearing silhouettes of armadillos and giant anteaters, appear on the roadside every few miles, advising motorists to Respect Wild Life and Preserve the Pantanal. But signs are easily ignored, especially in the rush of freight-hauling and daily life, ecologists say. Dr. Desbiez favors fencing that keeps animals off the pavement and guides them toward safe passages under or over the road.In the United States, fences, underpasses and bridges have been built along interstate highways to reduce collisions, which are costly for drivers and animals alike. In Wyoming, wildlife conservationists tracked pronghorn antelope to determine their favorite crossing spots, and then built sagebrush-lined bridges for the animals. In Colorado, a network of underpasses and bridges over a mountain highway has reduced collisions by 90 percent. Fraser Shilling, director of the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis, helped develop a real-time deer-collision map, which connects to a car or phone app that can warn drivers when to be on high alert. A recent seminar that taught other officials how to build their such maps drew representatives from 42 states, Dr. Shilling said.Dr. Gonzlez-Surez is now studying individual species to figure out the impact on local populations. For mammals, especially those who reproduce slowly and in small numbers, the loss of a few individuals could have devastating effects, Mr. Desbiez noted.Monitoring roadkill is important for more than accounting purposes, said Dr. Shilling. Roads are the primary way in which most people interact with wildlife, yet traffic collisions with animals are wildly underreported, he said. Measuring the scale of death is a way to remind people that our footprint is much larger than the carbon dioxide we emit or the waste we produce.ImageCredit...Helio SeccoThe first part is discovering that there is a problem, he said.Dr. Gonzalez-Suarez said that deforestation poses a greater threat to Amazonian biodiversity than a new road does, but the two are linked, she added; new roads are built to harvest wood, and to transport grain and livestock from expanding farmlands.For me, the biggest concern as a conservation biologist is the loss of habitat, she said. We see roads as necessary, but we need to acknowledge they come with a cost. These are animals that should not be killed. They are only dying because there is a road in there and we drive on it.Dr. Fischer so far has avoided hitting any large animals in his travels, but a couple of birds have not been so fortune. He once struck a seriema, a terrestrial bird that resembles a roadrunner on stilts, and he collided with a parakeet while riding his motorcycle. He hopes that his historical record can help other biologists, and other Brazilians, reckon with the destructive capability of the roads theyre on.Brazil is a big country with a lot of problems to solve, he said. But we are trying to make a difference.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.] | science |
The Beta Variant: What Scientists KnowThe variant can dodge some of the immune systems defenses, but is still vulnerable to vaccines.Credit...Matt Dunham/Associated PressJuly 19, 2021England lifted nearly all of its pandemic restrictions on Monday, which some Britons have hailed as freedom day. The British government, however, made a notable exception: People traveling to England from France must continue to quarantine upon their arrival, even if they are fully vaccinated.The rule, announced on Friday, was spurred by concerns about the presence of the Beta variant of the coronavirus in France and is intended as a precautionary measure, officials said.While vaccines are helping us turn the tables against this virus, we need to continue to proceed cautiously, Dr. Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency, said in a statement on Friday. That means maintaining our defenses against new variants and protecting our hard-won progress through the exceptional vaccination rollout.Here are answers to some common questions about the Beta variant.What is the Beta variant?The Beta variant, formerly known as B.1.351, was first detected in South Africa last year. It contains several mutations, in a protein called spike, that help the virus bind more tightly to human cells.It also contains the E484K mutation, sometimes known as the Eek mutation, which appears to help the virus partially evade antibodies. This mutation has emerged independently in multiple variants, including Gamma, which surfaced in Brazil, and in some samples of Alpha, which was first identified in Britain.The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both designated Beta as a variant of concern.Why are people worried about it?ImageCredit...Joo Silva/The New York TimesScientists and health officials became concerned about Beta because it spread quickly through South Africa and research indicated that some vaccines were less powerful against it.In February, for instance, South Africa stopped using the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine after clinical trials suggested that the vaccine did not provide good protection against mild or moderate illness caused by Beta. (Subsequent research has suggested that several authorized vaccines do provide strong protection against severe disease caused by the variant, however.) Britain has relied heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which may explain its caution around Beta. Some monoclonal antibody treatments are also less effective against the variant, although there are other authorized antibody treatments that appear to work well against it.Beta's ability to bind tightly to human cells may also make it more transmissible; the C.D.C. notes that it appears to be roughly 50 percent more infectious than the original strain of the virus. It does not appear to be as contagious as Delta, however.Where is it common?Beta has now been reported in 123 countries, but it remains far less prevalent than Delta.Initially, Beta spread widely through South Africa, where it once made up more than 95 percent of virus samples sequenced in the country.It is no longer so dominant. In the last four weeks, Beta has accounted for just 5.6 percent of virus samples sequenced in South Africa, according to GISAID, a repository of viral genomes. (This decline is most likely because of the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant, which now accounts for 77.6 percent of sequences.)Over the last four weeks, the variant has also represented 3.7 percent of virus samples sequenced in France, according to GISAID. It is especially common on Runion, a French island in the Indian Ocean where Beta accounts for 31.2 percent of sequences.Beta is not common in the United States, where it represents just 0.1 percent of infections, according to C.D.C. estimates. It has been detected in Britain, but accounts for a negligible share of infections there.ImageCredit...Benoit Tessier/ReutersDo the vaccines work against Beta?The vaccines seem to be less powerful against Beta than against other versions of the virus. But studies suggest that two doses of several widely used vaccines should still offer strong protection.Studies in Qatar, where the Beta variant once accounted for half of all infections, have found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are 72 to 75 percent effective at preventing infection with Beta, a lower degree of protection than the shots provide against other variants. But both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provided strong protection against the worst outcomes; a full course of either vaccine was more than 95 percent effective at preventing severe disease and death.Although Pfizer effectiveness was only 75 percent against Beta, and thus breakthrough infections with Beta are not uncommon, these breakthrough infections are mild, and it is very rare for someone fully vaccinated to require serious hospitalization or to die after a Beta breakthrough infection, Laith Abu-Raddad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar who led both studies, said in an email.In an additional bit of good news, he added, there is also no sign that the protection these vaccines provide against Beta has waned in the first several months after the shots.In a clinical trial in South Africa, conducted when Beta was dominant, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had an efficacy rate of 64 percent overall, but 82 percent efficacy at preventing severe disease. | Health |
TrilobitesCredit...Eric FishelJune 29, 2017The pin-tailed whydah is a spectacular little bird. Its also a parasite. And if you live near Los Angeles or some other parts of the United States, it could soon become a regular visitor to your backyard, says Mark Hauber, an evolutionary ecologist at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.In a study published Wednesday in The Condor: Ornithological Applications, Dr. Hauber and his colleagues used computer modeling to predict where you might spot them next. Their models suggest that potential sites for invasion include Californias Orange County, southern Texas, southern Florida, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and many of the Hawaiian Islands. If the birds are introduced in great numbers to these areas, they could have a damaging effect on the birds you know and love.During the mating season, a male pin-tailed whydah grows a plume of black feathers twice as long as his body. To impress a potential partner, he hovers in front her like a helicopter, flapping his wings and dangling his long tail feathers like luxurious locks of hair. He sings. After mating, the male leaves to breed more, and the female lays eggs in another birds nest.Credit...CreditVideo by Eric TanShe doesnt have to check. She doesnt have to feed the babies. She doesnt have to lead them to safety after fledging, Dr. Hauber said.The pin-tailed whydah is one out of only about 100 parasites of the 10,000 bird species in the world. In its native range in sub-Saharan and South Africa, it uses more than 20 other birds as foster mothers to care for its offspring.These birds dont look like a virus or bacteria, but they have the same impact, Dr. Hauber said.Brood parasites compete with their hosts. And the host birds must work harder to support themselves, their own young and the offspring they are tricked into fostering. Over time, it takes a toll on the hosts.Another brood parasite, the brown-headed cowbird, does the same thing to about 200 hosts. Some people think that its parasitism, along with habitat loss, contributed to the decline of the endangered Kirtlands Warbler in the Midwest, and other rare species.The cowbird expanded its territory naturally, but people introduced the whydah. Over the last century, it has made its way to North America and islands of the Caribbean via the pet trade. The whydah has now successfully colonized Puerto Rico and is starting to make a home in California, and Dr. Hauber is worried.ImageCredit...Justin SchuetzHosts that evolved with the whydah on the African continent some of which can be found here, too have learned to recognize foster babies by the spots inside their mouths, whats known as gape pattern recognition, and they feed them less than their own babies. But the whydah has also proven itself capable of switching hosts when its tricks dont work.Its basically like a virus jumping from a pig to a human or a bat to some domestic animal, he said. The virus would spread, potentially wreaking havoc on local ecosystems.After arriving in Puerto Rico in the 1960s and 1970s, for example, they learned to fool Orange-cheeked Waxbills. And in California, scaly-breasted munias have been found feeding young whydahs. Dr. Hauber is worried they could target native birds that never learned to identify whydah babies by their spots.Theyll try breeding and mating and sneaking their eggs into another birds nest, and at some point they might succeed, he said.ImageCredit...Eric FishelPeople buy pin-tailed whydahs as pets. But males and females paired together make poor feathered companions. When not breeding the male loses his elaborate tail feathers. And when his displays are not well received, he will pick on the female. Bored or frustrated pet owners or shopkeepers who cant sell their expensive pets may release them into the wild, Dr. Hauber said. Or they may escape while being transported.If enough birds are released, if the climate is right, and, more important, if a proper host is around, the whydah can persist. But the whydah is not a good flyer, does not migrate and may not be good at crossing bodies of water. Therefore, Dr. Hauber thinks any invasion will remain somewhat localized.A bird released in San Francisco is not going to fly to L.A., he said.If you spot a whydah in your backyard, dont try to capture or harm it, Dr. Hauber said. He recommends contacting the Fish and Wildlife Service or local Audubon Society who are better equipped to respond to this potential threat. And if you have a whydah youre trying to get rid of, Releasing them into the backyard is probably not the best way to do it, Dr. Hauber said. | science |
Credit...Brett Carlsen for The New York TimesFeb. 14, 2014PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. All off-season, family members and friends asked Ike Davis if he was going to be traded. He had heard the rumors and read the newspaper reports. He figured he might be, but no, he told them. His father eventually spoke out about how the Mets were handling the situation. All the while, Davis was busy rehabbing his oblique and working yet again on his swing.Ultimately, the Mets decided no trade offer was good enough, and so after they had essentially given up on him, Davis arrived here well before the official start of spring training. One day Manager Terry Collins asked to meet with him, presumably to talk about the open competition at first base with Lucas Duda. They set a time to meet later in the day, but after Davis finished his workouts he left the complex.Totally forgot about it, Davis said. That was my fault.Thus began his season. He met with reporters Friday to discuss the trade rumors and his competition with Duda, for what, he said, would be once and for all. He said he was a bit shocked he was not traded, and he insisted that the rumors were not a big deal. Being traded is part of baseball, he said. He seemed more upset with the sportswriters for reporting the rumors than the Mets for trying to trade him.He said he approached every season as if he were in a competition. But perhaps he would not be in one now had he played better last year. His batting average was anemic, so he was sent to the minor leagues at midseason to work out his swing.One National League scout, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Daviss swing as very complicated, with a lot of moving parts. His hands moved, his feet moved. It all had to go right for Davis to hit the ball properly. Then he was constantly fiddling with his swing.Its all in his head, the scout said. Hes got all the physical equipment. Hes athletic. Hes strong. He just has to listen to somebody he trusts and make the adjustments.Aware of this, Davis watched hours of film of himself from last year and from seasons prior, studying his swing. He found that his back leg was coming up, which had caused his hands to drop. It was one tiny detail that he kept doing wrong.He rehabbed the strained oblique that ended his season and started hitting earlier this off-season, in November instead of January. He corrected his back foot and got comfortable with what could be a new and improved swing.Not changing my swing 65 times might help, Davis said.Collins watched Davis hit a few days this week and said he was very impressed with him. Davis had arrived with a whole different approach, he said. Although he still had a bit of a hitch, to Collinss trained eye, his swing looked better positioned.Hes tried to fix it, Collins said, and he looks better. He really does.As for the competition at first base, Collins was not sure how he would decide between the two. He said if both were hitting well, he would want to find a way to have both in the lineup, meaning Duda would probably play the outfield. Davis is mostly a known commodity at this point. If his swing is going well, he could play the way he did in 2012, when he hit 32 home runs. Or his swing could be a mess, the way it was last season.I just see a different Ike Davis, Collins said. Last year he came in as the guy. Now hes fighting for his life. And I think that changes the way you go about things.INSIDE PITCHAbout one week ahead of schedule, Bobby Parnell threw off a mound for the first time since having surgery on Sept. 10 to repair a herniated disk in his neck. Manager Terry Collins reiterated that Parnell was expected to be his closer. | Sports |
A report to lawmakers from a watchdog in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence criticizes how threat intelligence was analyzed and presented.Credit...Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJan. 8, 2021WASHINGTON The Trump administration politicized the intelligence around foreign election interference in 2020, resulting in significant errors in its reports last year to Congress and the public, a report by the intelligence community ombudsman concluded.Barry A. Zulauf, the analytic ombudsman in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, found there was a loss of objectivity and politicization of intelligence in the election threat reporting last year.Analysis on foreign election interference was delayed, distorted or obstructed out of concern over policymaker reactions or for political reasons, said the report, which was submitted to Congress on Thursday.The formal validation dovetails with widespread perceptions about the Trump administrations handling of intelligence and underscores the challenge awaiting the Biden administration as it prepares to take over the nations spy agencies. The report will be sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Still, because it was completed under an intelligence director viewed skeptically by Democrats, it is unlikely to be seen as the final word on what happened.The Senate committee plans to review the report and will work with the new administration to stop any politicization of intelligence and rectify the failures of the Trump administration, said Rachel Cohen, a spokeswoman for Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, who is set to lead the panel after the inauguration.Some of the most damaging material in the report concerns a briefing to Congress in March, soon after Richard Grenell, then the ambassador to Germany, took over as the acting director of national intelligence.The March talking points, an unclassified version of which was made public, stated that the Kremlin was not aiding any candidates re-election a stance at odds with what intelligence officers had told Congress previously: that Russia favored President Trump.Mr. Zulauf said he was not able to determine who wrote the talking points for the briefing, but found they were shaped by Mr. Grenell and other officials in his office.Analysts point out that there were substantive differences between the talking points and what the I.C. actually thought, the report said, referring to the intelligence community.The reluctance of intelligence professionals to deliver the talking points should have been a red flag, Mr. Zulauf wrote, but did not stop the statement from being issued.The report also said that Mr. Grenell held up a memo in May from the National Intelligence Council about election security threats. His office revised a draft that emphasized intelligence gaps over what was known about those threats. Mr. Zulaufs report said the revised version buried the lead.Mr. Zulauf said he did not interview Mr. Grenell because he was no longer under his purview as ombudsman. Asked for a response, Mr. Grenell criticized the ombudsman for not talking to him.I never once made an edit to intelligence, he said. Any criticism of intel sharing or working during my tenure is a criticism of the amazing career officials in charge of the process.The intelligence ombudsman, established as part of a post-Sept. 11 overhaul, is charged with identifying lapses in tradecraft and practices. Unlike an inspector general, ombudsmen do not look for waste, fraud or abuse.Mr. Zulauf also examined how the intelligence agencies analyzed Russias and Chinas intentions and activities in relation to the 2020 election for a classified assessment in August of foreign election interference.Analysts believed that the classified document after interventions by John Ratcliffe, the current director of national intelligence, to add the warning about China was an outrageous misrepresentation of their analysis, he reported.They believed that during a drawn-out review process, senior leaders had watered down their conclusions about Russia to make it sound not too controversial while diverting attention to China by bolstering the perception of its threat.Still, some intelligence officials noted on Friday that a separate public statement in August issued in the name of William R. Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center accurately treated the two countries differently. It said Russia was taking steps to hurt the candidacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr.; while it also said China hoped Mr. Biden would win, it did not claim that China had similarly taken any steps to intervene.In his own letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. Evanina asserted that he accurately conveyed what I believed to be the intelligence communitys thinking, adding: I have never politicized intelligence during my career and any suggestion I would is a personal affront to me.In another letter, Mr. Ratcliffe defended his interventions, and argued that the intelligence assessment about Chinas election influence efforts fell short of the mark.Even as Mr. Zulauf reported that Russia analysts were upset that the agencies political leaders seemed to be delaying and suppressing their conclusions, he also suggested that there was politicization of intelligence not just from above but also from below.China analysts, he wrote, appeared hesitant to assess Chinese actions as undue influence or interference.These analysts appeared reluctant to have their analysis on China brought forward because they tended to disagree with the administrations policies, saying in effect, I dont want our intelligence used to support those policies, he continued.But Mr. Zulauf did not cite any evidence to support the striking notion that analysts underplayed China threat analysis for political reasons, and he later wrote that the differences between the two were not intentional, but a result of different collection and analysis rhythms and interpretations by analysts that do not cross-pollinate between regional issues.Some of the findings of the ombudsman, focused on allegations that intelligence about China was not properly examined, were earlier reported by The Washington Examiner.The ombudsmans inquiry appeared to be narrowly focused on the handling of information and analysis about Russian and Chinese actions related to the 2020 election, and the letter did not address other instances in which the Trump administration has drawn accusations of politicizing intelligence.It does not address, for example, a memo produced by Mr. Ratcliffes office over the summer, days after The New York Times reported that the C.I.A. had assessed that Russia covertly offered reward payments to an Afghan criminal-militant network to incentivize more frequent attacks on American troops but that the White House had not acted on that analysis.The new memo a so-called sense of the community memorandum produced by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to Mr. Ratcliffe contained no new information. Instead it reanalyzed the same data the C.I.A. had already examined and instead emphasized uncertainties and gaps in the available evidence, according to officials familiar with it, bolstering the administrations attempts to justify its inaction on the months-old assessment. | Politics |
Credit...Aly Song/ReutersMay 15, 2019One of the worlds leading internet giants appears to be feeling the effects of Chinas economic slowdown and the trade war with the United States.The Alibaba Group, Chinas largest e-commerce company, said on Wednesday that revenue increased by 51 percent in the March quarter from the same period last year. That topped Wall Streets expectations, and was a pickup from the quarter before. But it was still the companys second-slowest pace of revenue expansion since early 2016.For the full year that ended March 31, revenue also grew by more than half. The company said, however, that the increase was partly the result of adding several recently acquired businesses, such as the takeout delivery service Ele.me, to its sales computations. Without those, it said, full-year sales would have increased by just under two-fifths, the slowest growth in three years.Alibaba also said the number of customers on its Chinese retail marketplaces for the full year that ended in March had grown to more than 650 million, an increase of over 100 million.Chinas economy has slowed since the tariff fight with the United States began last year. Diplomacy with Washington has frayed. Alibabas enormous size makes the company a closely watched bellwether for consumer and business sentiment in China, even if its an obstacle to finding new ways to make money.Alibabas scale and breadth may also put it in a better position than many other Chinese businesses to weather the present choppiness.With services from commerce and food delivery to payments and travel booking now under its umbrella, Alibaba has built such a vast ecosystem of interconnected products and platforms that its hold on Chinese consumers and merchants is almost unassailable, said David Dai, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong.Alibaba is over all in a much stronger position as compared to any other internet or e-commerce company in China, Mr. Dai said.During a conference call on Wednesday, the companys executive vice chairman, Joseph C. Tsai, urged analysts to look beyond what he called the elephant in the room: Chinas economic confrontation with the United States.More important for Alibaba, Mr. Tsai said, is the long-term increase in consumer spending by Chinas middle class. The company would also benefit, he said, if China agreed to import more American goods as part of a trade settlement, because Alibaba is already a partner to global brands that cater to Chinas growing ranks of shopaholics.Those are the more significant drivers of our business, as opposed to quarter-to-quarter G.D.P. or industrial production, Mr. Tsai said.Yet in a season of high anxiety about the trade war and the global economy, Chinas entire tech sector is feeling the pressure.Leading companies have laid off workers. Start-ups, including some that Alibaba has invested in, are struggling. Coders are protesting long hours and unpaid overtime a sign, industry observers say, that the years of breakneck growth and boundless optimism for Chinese tech companies are past.Alibaba has said it will not lay off any employees this year. But the company has not been immune to strain. On Wednesday, Alibabas chief executive, Daniel Zhang, said the company would continue to hold off on charging merchants more to advertise on its shopping sites, despite the harm it would cause to revenue growth.Such ads, along with other services that help merchants reach customers, represent the biggest part of Alibabas sales, and nearly all of its profit. Unlike Amazon, Alibaba does not pocket proceeds from merchandise sales on its platforms. It makes money by charging third-party sellers to use its digital shelves and signboards.Alibaba has said it will avoid ramping up ad sales until it has collected more data about whether new personalized ads in its shopping app are successfully persuading customers to hand over more of their money.But Alibaba executives have also said the company does not want to add to its merchants expenses at a time when many of them are already jittery about the economy.Instead of trying to make more money by charging more for ads, Mr. Zhang said Wednesday, the company plans to invest in enticing more people, particularly those who live in Chinas smaller cities and towns, into conducting their lives within Alibabas consumer universe. More than two-thirds of the new users on Alibabas Chinese shopping platforms this past year lived outside the countrys megacities, the company said. | Tech |
Credit...Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesDec. 7, 2015Seven years after their dubious lending practices helped push the United States economy to the brink of disaster, the nations largest banks are closing in on a long-sought goal: to unseat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, and capture their share of the profits in the countrys $5.7 trillion home loan market.Taking place largely behind the scenes, the movement to take over the mortgage market has been propelled in part by a revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, an investigation by The New York Times has found.While the big banks effort to enshrine their vision into law has failed so far, plans to replace Fannie and Freddie which have long supported the housing market by playing a unique role as so-called government-sponsored enterprises, or G.S.E.s are still very much alive. The Obama administration has largely embraced the idea, and government regulators are being pushed to put crucial elements into effect.A review of lobbying records, legal filings, and internal emails and memorandums, as well as housing officials calendars and White House and Treasury visitor logs, illuminates the banks effort. Assisting in this work, the documents show, is a group of high-level housing finance specialists who have moved back and forth between public service and private practice in recent years.The charge began under Michael D. Berman, who has served not only as chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, one of the industrys most influential lobbying organizations, but also as a senior adviser to Shaun Donovan, who was the secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2014.Conversely, Mr. Berman recruited David H. Stevens who was one of the lead architects of the Obama administrations proposal to phase out Fannie and Freddie to the mortgage bankers group, where Mr. Stevens is now president and chief executive.Many in Congress believe Fannie and Freddie contributed to the collapse of the housing bubble, and they still rest on a shaky financial foundation, largely because of actions taken by the Treasury and the companies regulator.While they continue to pose a risk to taxpayers, Fannie and Freddie so far have not been replaced by Wall Street behemoths, partly because local banks popular with many lawmakers are resistant. Moreover, some members of Congress are concerned that low-income borrowers would not be well served by private lenders.For all the problems associated with Fannie and Freddie, some housing experts say, allowing the nations largest banks to assume greater control of the mortgage market would most likely increase costs for borrowers. It would also reduce participation and competition from smaller lenders, and could imperil taxpayers because of the potential for even greater bailouts for financial institutions that Washington considers too important to be allowed to fail.Elise J. Bean is among those who are troubled by the quiet advances Wall Street is making toward Fannie and Freddies turf. A former chief counsel for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Ms. Bean oversaw a bipartisan investigation into the causes of the financial crisis, playing a central role in the committees four hearings and helping produce a revealing 650-page report.Fannie and Freddie have their flaws, but that doesnt mean the answer is to hand over their business to the banks, Ms. Bean said. Their role in the mortgage market is too important to put under the thumb of banks with a history of toxic mortgages, structured finance abuse and consumer maltreatment.Behind the BailoutDecades ago, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by the government to provide prospective home buyers with financing in both good times and bad. Fannie was born in 1938 during the Depression, when bank lending dried up. The company didnt make mortgage loans outright; it bought them from other entities. Later, it pooled loans in securities that it sold to investors.If credit was scarce, the thinking went, banks would be more inclined to lend knowing they could sell a loan to Fannie or to Freddie, a competitor company created in 1970. A bank could then turn around and make another loan, earning fees while keeping the housing finance wheels spinning.In addition to benefiting borrowers, this system enabled small community lenders to sell their loans to Fannie and Freddie as easily as even the biggest guns in banking. This gave borrowers a choice of lenders, encouraging competition and keeping costs down.Although government creations, Fannie and Freddie also had public shareholders. Fannie sold shares for the first time in 1968 and Freddie followed suit two decades later. As the nations economy grew and homeownership expanded, Fannie and Freddie became increasingly powerful and profitable institutions.The unusual hybrid of shareholder-owned companies carrying the governments imprimatur worked well for a long time. But the combination turned sour in the 1990s when Fannie executives began using the companys lush profits to finance lobbying efforts that enhanced their stature and independence in Washington.Throughout these years, Fannie and Freddies mounting profits, generated in part by their special ties to the government, which put them at a financial advantage, also drew resentment from the nations largest banks.Fannies success wound up being a double-edged sword. Its enfeebled overseer, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, allowed its enormous operations to rest on the tiniest sliver of capital, increasing profits during the fat years. But when the financial crisis hit, expected loan losses at both Fannie and Freddie overwhelmed the small amount of capital the companies had on hand.About a week before Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, the government stepped in. It put Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship under the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a new and stronger regulator created that summer in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. The companies ultimately drew about $187.5 billion from taxpayers in the bailout. They were put on a tight leash by their government minders and were viewed as political poison by Democrats and Republicans alike.In an interview on CNBC on Sept. 8, 2008, Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, talked about the governments rescue of Fannie and Freddie as a steppingstone to a new housing finance system. Heaven help us and our nation if we dont figure out what the right structure is going forward, he said.Devising AlternativesImageCredit...Ryan Stone for The New York TimesThe ink was barely dry on the Fannie and Freddie bailout when the Mortgage Bankers Association got busy. Mr. Berman, then vice chairman of the lobbying group and founder of CWCapital, a commercial real estate lender and management firm specializing in multifamily housing projects, was tapped to organize a campaign to privatize the nations broken home mortgage system.With the housing market in collapse and Fannie and Freddie weakened and reviled, it was the perfect time to push the mortgage bankers plan to take over the companies business and divide their prized assets.But with banks popularity plummeting after the financial crisis, their proposal had to be carefully framed as a way to protect taxpayers from future bailouts.When President Obama entered office in 2009, taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off government life support was far down his administrations to-do list. But when officials began turning their attention to the matter in 2010, the industry-sponsored coalition was ready.Its answer was to create new mortgage guarantors, backed by private capital, to take the place of Fannie and Freddie. These entities would issue mortgage securities with government guarantees, a report issued by the 22-member Council on Ensuring Mortgage Liquidity in late summer 2009 proposed.The council, overseen by Mr. Berman, was made up of mostly large banks and mortgage insurers. It also recommended that assets belonging to Fannie and Freddie be used as a foundation by the new entities.Chief among these assets were the mortgage underwriting systems the government-sponsored enterprises had built to bundle loans into securities to be sold to investors.The M.B.A.s position literally was: Get rid of Fannie and Freddie and create these new entities, Mr. Berman said in a recent interview. But there were extraordinary amounts of value in the enterprises to be reused in different ways in the new system.ImageCredit...Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly, via Getty ImagesAt first, the industrys views gained little traction. The economy was in tatters, and lawmakers were not yet ready to tackle the nations enormous and complex housing finance system.Besides, Fannie and Freddie were providing virtually the only access American borrowers had to mortgages during this period. Yes, they were still drawing money from taxpayers, but at least the companies were financing loans as they always had, while big banks were withdrawing from the market.Throughout 2009 and 2010, Mr. Berman and his colleagues pitched the mortgage bankers ideas, saying that their plan would prevent the need for future bailouts and keep the home loan spigot open.As Mr. Berman made the rounds, administration officials at Treasury and HUD began working on their own plans regarding Fannie and Freddie. A primary participant in these discussions was Mr. Stevens, then commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration, a part of HUD.Mr. Stevens had joined the housing administration in mid-2009 from the private sector, where he had been president of Long & Foster, the largest privately owned real estate company in the nation. Previously, he had been an executive at Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo.Working on the future of Fannie and Freddie at HUD, Mr. Stevens attended large meetings of G.S.E. principals, according to his calendars, which were obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act.At the same time Mr. Stevens was working on the administrations policy, he often interacted with high-level executives in the mortgage industry, his calendars show.ImageCredit...Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg, via Getty ImagesThere is, of course, nothing unusual about government officials meeting with various interest groups affected by potential policy changes. And during this time, Mr. Stevens was tasked with other matters involving big banks.But Mr. Stevenss calendars show far fewer meetings with other groups in the mortgage arena, such as advocates of low-income housing or those representing middle-class borrowers.Mr. Stevens said he recalled meeting with every type of stakeholder during this time. My own view is you meet with everybody to get as much input as you can, he said.But Robert Gnaizda, general counsel for the National Diversity Coalition, and former general counsel to the Greenlining Institute, a nonprofit consumer organization in Berkeley, Calif., said he ran into a wall of disinterest within the Obama administration when he tried to raise issues important to his constituents.Its been a long time since HUD was an effective advocate for homeowners, much less low- or moderate-income homeowners, Mr. Gnaizda said.A Bank-Centric ModelMr. Stevens was certainly not the only official meeting with the big banks and their advocates to discuss issues related to Fannie and Freddie. Executives were fanning out across Washington to educate and influence members of the government charged with devising the administrations new housing policy.Four meetings on the topic took place at the Treasury Department in late 2010, records show. One hosted by Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, included Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America, and two founders of giant private equity firms: Stephen A. Schwarzman, head of the Blackstone Group, and Leon Black of Apollo Management Group.Just before Christmas that year, the Treasurys staff finished fashioning a framework for resolving Fannie and Freddie, an internal document shows. The recommendations became public in a 31-page report to Congress, titled Reforming Americas Housing Finance Market, issued jointly by the Treasury and HUD on Feb. 11, 2011.After all the meetings and discussions, the administration laid out three options for housing finance reform. But the message was clear: Fannie and Freddies days were numbered. Working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the administration would reduce their role in the mortgage market and wind them down.The policy to eliminate Fannie and Freddie was a page out of the mortgage bankers playbook. And like the authors of that plan, the administration emphasized that taxpayers would be protected and that a new, level playing field would benefit all participants in the housing market.In private, however, officials cited another group of beneficiaries under the plan: big banks.An internal Treasury memo written on Jan. 4, 2011, to Mr. Geithner by one of his top deputies characterized the administrations first option to wind down Fannie and Freddie as a bank-centric model that benefits larger institutions with the capacity to hold mortgages on their books.But this raw assessment didnt make it into the final report. While the report acknowledged that smaller lenders and community banks could have a difficult time competing for business, the bank-centric nature of the plan was for internal consumption only.Playing for Both SidesRoughly a month after the administration published its long-awaited recommendations, Mr. Stevens agreed to become chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association. He had been hired away by Mr. Berman, who was promoted to chairman in 2010.Mr. Berman proposed the move over dinner in early March 2011, according to a report in The American Banker.It wasnt until March 15 that Mortgage Bankers announced the appointment. Mr. Stevens continued as commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration through March 31, 2011, his termination documents show. On March 14, for example, he met with Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of F.H.F.A., the conservator of Fannie and Freddie.ImageCredit...Photo Illustration by The New York TimesAt the lobbying organization, Mr. Stevens continued to argue for a smaller role in housing finance for Fannie and Freddie and a bigger role for companies backed by private capital. Although the mortgage bankers group represents both large and small lenders, under Mr. Stevens it has been an advocate more for big institutions, smaller members say.In an interview, Mr. Stevens said he joined the government from the industry to try to help at a time where I thought I had some value.When youre picking people for technical roles in the government, he continued, they have to have some experience.The movement between government and business has gone both ways. Mr. Berman eventually found his own lofty perch in the Obama administration at HUD, the same agency from which he had recruited Mr. Stevens. In November 2012, Mr. Berman signed on as a senior adviser to Mr. Donovan, the HUD secretary.My company gets sold and Shaun Donovan asked me to join him as senior adviser, Mr. Berman recalled in the interview. He said to me in our first conversation that my major focus would be on G.S.E. reform, to work with him and be his liaison to the White House and Treasury and the National Economic Council as well as Congress on that issue.In February 2014, Mr. Berman returned to the private sector, where he now advises real estate lenders. He said he has also informally consulted for the F.H.F.A.A Rotating Cast at HUDA revolving door between business and government is nothing new. But President Obama criticized the practice and in his first month in office issued an executive order intended to inhibit it. Many of the abuses of the past had ostensibly been outlawed by legislation.Another former HUD official who worked on housing finance policy also consults for organizations that stand to profit from eviscerating the mortgage giants.He is Jim Parrott, a research fellow at the Urban Institute and an adviser to financial entities. A confidant and colleague of Mr. Stevens at HUD, Mr. Parrott counseled Mr. Donovan from July 2009 to December 2010. He then moved to the National Economic Council at the White House, where he led housing finance policy until January 2013.After leaving the White House, Mr. Parrott set up Falling Creek Advisors, a consulting firm whose clients have included Bank of America and a mortgage insurer.Mr. Parrott said that when he left Washington, he planned to set up an institute of politics at the University of North Carolina. But financial institutions began asking for his help on housing. I advise five or six companies; each of them are in different parts of the housing finance ecosystem, Mr. Parrott said. These folks are by and large thoroughly confused about what policy makers are trying to do.Michael Smallberg, an expert on ethics and until recently an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan independent watchdog group, said he was particularly disturbed by the comings and goings at HUD.This is a classic example of the revolving door at its worst, he said. These are large financial institutions that already have an edge when it comes to getting their voices heard on Capitol Hill and at their regulatory agencies. When you hear they are hiring the key policy makers to represent them, it raises serious questions that these decisions are being made not on the merits but on those personal connections.The Code of EthicsAfter leaving their government posts, Mr. Berman, Mr. Parrott and Mr. Stevens all continued to work on housing finance. Meeting logs and calendars received under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the three men have met with government officials in charge of matters involving Fannie and Freddie.Mr. Stevens met or talked with housing policy officials most frequently: 19 times between February 2012 and April 2015. Since leaving the government, Mr. Parrott has had six meetings with housing officials at the White House; Mr. Berman has had two since starting his own firm, including one this past June.Meeting logs show that Mr. Stevens met 13 times with officials at the White House working on Fannie and Freddie policy. He also met five times during the period with Mr. DeMarco, the former acting director of F.H.F.A., and had one phone call with him, Mr. DeMarcos calendars show.ImageCredit...Photo Illustration by The New York TimesMr. Stevens said that his work at the Mortgage Bankers Association is being an advocate not on behalf of individuals or specific companies but for an industry on a broad set of policy issues.In the interview, Mr. Berman said he kept working on the project with administration officials not as an advocate but because of his contacts and granular knowledge of what was going on.Mr. Parrott also said his meetings did not involve advocacy on behalf of his clients. I give them a sense of how people are thinking and how things are likely going to develop in their world, he said.Under federal law governing conflicts of interest, former federal officials must take care that their actions in the private sector do not violate the rules. For example, a violation could occur if a former official who worked on a particular matter circled back to the government on behalf of another person or organization to try to influence officials thinking on that issue.Richard W. Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former chief ethics lawyer at the White House under President George W. Bush, is an authority on this section of the law. He was provided a list of the housing finance meetings.ImageCredit...Tim Gruber for The New York TimesWith respect to Stevens, Parrott and probably Berman, it appears that these officials participated personally and substantially in the administrations decisions about resolving the financial difficulties of Fannie and Freddie, Mr. Painter said. This means that they each have a lifetime ban on representing back to the United States government on either of these two particular party matters involving Fannie and Freddie.Mr. Stevens and his lawyer, Scott Fredericksen of Foley & Lardner, disagree. They contend that his work in the government involved developing public policy, not a particular matter, as specified in the law. The law is clear that Mr. Stevenss activities involving development of public policy and even proposed legislation are not encompassed within the prohibited activities outlined in the statute, Mr. Fredericksen said.Mr. Berman also said that housing finance reform is a general matter that does not fit in the laws definition of a particular matter. In any case, he said, Since leaving HUD, I have not attempted to influence any employee of HUD or any department or agency on policies regarding housing finance reform and specifically G.S.E. reform.Mr. Parrott said that before he left the White House, he had careful consultations with the counsels office about what he could and could not do in the private sector. They were very clear that the statute does not prohibit me from talking to government officials about general policy issues like housing finance reform, he said. I dont advocate for anyone, so Im also not communicating or appearing on behalf of another, as is also required to be in breach of the statute.The United States Office of Government Ethics holds executive branch agencies accountable for carrying out effective ethics programs. Asked whether Mr. Stevens, Mr. Parrott or Mr. Berman had consulted ethics officials at HUD for legal guidance on their meetings, a spokesman for the agency, Cameron R. French, said he could not comment. However, political appointees and career senior executives are required to meet with the ethics office before departing the department, he said.Mr. Painter said that in his view, anyone who participated personally and substantially in decisions having to do with the governments financial relationship with Fannie and Freddie was working on a matter involving particular parties and governed by the law.Mr. Painter said it was hard to know what was said at the meetings. But if Mr. Stevens, Mr. Berman and Mr. Parrott, made statements at these meetings that were intended to influence government decisions in these two particular party matters involving Fannie and Freddie, he said, they violated the statute.The Case for RecapitalizationImageCredit...Drew Angerer for The New York TimesFannie and Freddie, still dominating the American mortgage market, not only have returned to the Treasury the $187.5 billion they received in the bailout, but also will have contributed another $53.8 billion by the end of December. Even so, an array of administration officials at both the Treasury and the White House have insisted in recent weeks that the government-run companies should not be allowed to recapitalize and emerge from conservatorship.Despite generating huge profits since 2012, Fannie and Freddie have been kept financially weak, hobbled by their government minders during their years in conservatorship.The argument against Fannie and Freddie rests on a powerful point: Radically reducing the governments footprint in the mortgage market could help protect taxpayers. Right now, with Fannie and Freddie backing 80 percent of the nations mortgages, those risks sit squarely on the governments shoulders.The ideal version of housing finance reform is one in which we are clear about whats worked in the current system and what needs to be overhauled, Mr. Parrott said. What you want to avoid, he continued, is a market duopoly thats got an implied government guarantee. It creates such a toxic mix of incentives where profit-seeking shareholders maximize risk and profit at the expense of taxpayers sitting there waiting to hold the bag if the thing goes south.But bringing private capital into the mortgage securities market poses perils of its own, other housing experts say: Allowing too-big-to-fail banks to dominate the nations mortgage market would crowd out smaller lenders and expand the federal safety net, putting taxpayers at greater risk of funding bailouts in a downturn. Relying on mortgage insurers to provide that capital also seems dubious given how badly these companies performed in the 2008 crisis.Moreover, private capital would probably flee the mortgage market at the first sign of trouble, as it did during the recent credit debacle. This raises questions about the availability of home lending when such a system goes through a rough patch.Lost in the debate over the future of Fannie and Freddie is the role Congress had in mind for the F.H.F.A. when it passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Under the law, a conservator is supposed to put the regulated entities in a sound and solvent condition and preserve and conserve their assets and property.Proponents of eliminating Fannie and Freddie say that allowing them to survive would also mean letting them go back to their abusive ways. The companies were a huge source of capital for reckless loan products, in Mr. Stevenss view. We risk going back to that system, he said, because the public cannot count on regulators to protect us going forward and constrain these guys.But those who favor recapitalizing the companies a group that includes hedge funds and other speculators that stand to gain, as well as supporters of low-income housing say that the past need not be prologue. They contend that the companies could be restructured in a way that would prohibit dubious activities, and that allowing Fannie and Freddie to rebuild capital would reduce taxpayer risk.The banks are continuing their push for access to Fannie and Freddies assets and profits. But they are not putting all their eggs in the legislative basket. In recent months, they have urged Melvin L. Watt, director of the F.H.F.A., to put at least some of their recommendations in place administratively.They are making inroads. The design of the new mortgage securitization system being built by Fannie and Freddie at significant expense $146 million so far allows for future access to outside institutions like the big banks. And Fannie and Freddie are being increasingly pressed to sell off portions of their securities to private entities. Big banks will benefit most from both arrangements.Mr. Berman is encouraged by these moves.Over the last couple or three years under acting director DeMarco and following through with Mel Watt, from a regulatory standpoint the progress has been quite positive, he said. | Business |
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 |
News AnalysisCredit...Jonathan Ernst/ReutersDec. 17, 2015WASHINGTON The Federal Reserves much-anticipated liftoff, its first interest rate increase since the financial crisis, unfolded as quietly and smoothly as Fed officials could possibly have wished.For the Fed, however, the hard work now lies ahead.The Fed persuaded participants in the financial markets that a quarter-point increase in its benchmark interest rate didnt matter much. But the big questions about the American economy havent changed.Its not clear whether steady-but-lackluster growth is now as good as it gets, or whether the economy is just starting to heat up. Its not clear why inflation is so sluggish, or how many people without jobs would like to return to work.In short, its not clear how quickly the Fed should raise rates.Nothing is really resolved about the normalization process except that weve moved through this first tiny step, said Tim Duy, an economist at the University of Oregon who follows the central bank closely.The Fed said on Wednesday that it would raise its benchmark interest rate to a range of 0.25 to 0.5 percent, ending a seven-year period of near-zero interest rates. By keeping rates low, the Fed has sought to encourage borrowing and risk-taking by businesses and consumers. It will reduce those incentives as it pushes up rates.The Fed is raising short-term rates in a new way, by paying banks and other financial firms not to offer loans at rates below the bottom of its benchmark range. To set the new base line, the Fed said it would borrow up to $2 trillion at a rate of 0.25 percent. On Thursday, however, firms offered only $105 billion to the Fed less than the $114 billion average daily sum offered to the Fed during testing over the last two years. Janet L. Yellen, the Feds chairwoman, emphasized that the central bank planned to move gradually, a term she has previously suggested means that the Fed will raise rates by about one percentage point per year. But there is already considerable divergence among Fed officials. Seven of the 17 members of the policy-making committee said the Fed should move more slowly, raising rates as little as 0.5 points next year.Jon Faust, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University and former adviser to Ms. Yellen, said Fed officials were basically trying to discern which of two possible versions of the economic reality was correct.In the first version, low interest rates have helped the economy build up some significant momentum, and the Fed needs to raise rates more rapidly to keep a lid on inflation and financial excess.Alternatively, low rates are necessary to preserve the modest pace of economic growth, and increasing them too abruptly could push the economy into recession.I think one of the trickiest and most important parts will be trying to figure out whats going on with inflation, Mr. Faust said.Prices climbed slowly in recent years, suggesting that the economy remained weak. The Feds preferred measure of inflation an index of personal consumption that excludes volatile food and oil prices rose just 1.3 percent in the 12 months ending in October. But Ms. Yellen and other officials have argued that temporary pressures like the fall of oil prices and the strength of the dollar are suppressing inflation, and that the strength of the labor market is a more important indicator.The Fed said in its policy statement on Wednesday that it would carefully monitor actual and expected progress toward its inflation goal. Analysts described that as a higher bar than the Fed had previously established, indicating that it wants to see evidence that inflation is meeting its expectations before it presses too far ahead in raising rates.Andrew T. Levin, a professor of economics at Dartmouth, said that change was important because the Feds forecasts had been persistently mistaken in recent years. It will be helpful for policy makers to explain what sorts of inflation readings over coming months would make them comfortable, said Mr. Levin, who has argued that the Fed should be careful not to raise rates too quickly.Policy makers would be grateful for a clear-cut answer, but they probably wont get it. Their choices would become more difficult if inflation remained sluggish even as other economic indicators continued to gain strength. A deepening divergence between the Feds models and reality would make it harder for Ms. Yellen to maintain unanimity about the central banks path.The Fed has other reasons to press ahead with raising rates. One longstanding concern is that low rates will distort investment decisions, encouraging excessive speculation and even asset bubbles.Regulators have pointed to a number of worrisome signs in recent weeks. A federal agency said on Tuesday that credit risks were elevated and rising for American corporations and many foreign borrowers, even as investors are demanding significantly higher interest rates on junk bonds and foreign debt. The report, by the Office of Financial Research, however, said overall risks to stability remained moderate.Banks, too, are taking larger risks, according to a semiannual report published on Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The report said banks struggling to hit profit targets were loosening underwriting standards, particularly in high-growth areas like auto and construction lending.In the area of credit risk, the warning lights are flashing yellow, Thomas J. Curry, the comptroller, said in a speech on Wednesday. We cant afford to wait until the warning lights turn red.Ms. Yellen and other officials have emphasized that they would prefer to address such risks through tighter regulation. But they wont mind the incremental benefits of raising the bar for new lending. Jeremy Stein, a former Fed governor who has returned to teaching at Harvard, has observed that higher rates have the virtue of addressing even unknown problems. Raising rates gets in all the cracks, Mr. Stein said in a 2013 speech. Changes in rates may reach into corners of the market that supervision and regulation cannot.Higher rates also reduce the incentives for risk-taking by banks and other lenders by fattening their profit margins. Banks were quick to take advantage of the Feds announcement on Wednesday to raise the rates they charge on many loans but not the rates that they pay to depositors.William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has emphasized that the Fed needs to make sure that changes in its benchmark rate are indeed influencing broader financial conditions.But Ms. Yellen, asked about that on Wednesday, suggested she did not see great reason for concern. We have a far more resilient financial system now, she said, than we had prior to the financial crisis. | Business |
Technology|Disinformation Moves From Social Networks to Textshttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/technology/disinformation-moves-from-social-networks-to-texts.htmlOct. 28, 2020, 1:36 p.m. ETOct. 28, 2020, 1:36 p.m. ETLast week, a political action committee called the American Principles Project unveiled a new video on Twitter falsely claiming that Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. supported sex changes for 8-year-olds.Since Friday, a similar video has also appeared on Facebook as many as 100,000 times primarily in Michigan, a swing state in the Nov. 3 election.What has been harder to pinpoint is how widely the video has been spreading through text messages.Though companies like Facebook and Twitter have developed tools for tracking and policing disinformation on their social networks, texting activity is largely a free-for-all that receives little scrutiny from tech companies and government regulators.There is no way to audit this, said Jacob Gursky, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin. Organizations are just collecting cellphone numbers from data brokers and mass-texting people.The video circulated in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as part of a coordinated texting campaign, according to a study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. Over the weekend, it reached a reporter who covers online disinformation for the news site Protocol. The reporter had a Pennsylvania cellphone number.ImageCredit...handoutTwisting the meaning of Mr. Bidens statements during a recent town hall event which condemned discrimination against children who identify as transgender but did not address sex changes the campaign was a high-profile example of increasingly widespread efforts to distribute disinformation through text messages.During a recent town hall, Joe Biden endorsed giving 8- to 10-year-olds sex change treatments, the texts read. This is way too extreme for me. I cant support him.The texts tracked by Mr. Gursky and his fellow researchers said they were sent by the American Principles Project, but they referred to the organization only as the APP PAC. The texts purport to arrive from a Democratic volunteer.The American Principles Project did not respond to a request for comment.Data on texting campaigns is hard to come by. But Robokiller, a company that blocks automated phone calls and texts, said Americans received 2.6 billion political text messages in September, a 400 percent increase since June. The company estimated that since June, Republication-affiliated organizations have sent roughly six times more messages than their Democratic counterparts.The Texas researchers said texting campaigns are in part a reaction to increased scrutiny on social media services. As Facebook and Twitter have pushed disinformation networks off their services, the networks have resurfaced on private texting apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, where they can continue operate without being monitored.Private disinformation networks are prevalent in places like India and Mexico, the researchers said. But they are becoming more common in certain parts of the United States, such as southern Florida, where apps like WhatsApp are popular. | Tech |
Credit...Charlie Riedel/Associated PressFeb. 14, 2014N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell was paid $44.2 million in 2012, making him among the best-paid executives in the country and perhaps the highest-paid leader of a nonprofit organization.The amount of Goodells compensation increased about 50 percent from 2011, largely because of a bonus and pension payment of $9.1 million that he deferred two years ago after a labor dispute between the league and its players. The deferral ensured that other league employees were paid in full.While Goodells pay is a sliver of the roughly $10 billion that the league generates annually, it exceeds the amount paid at far larger businesses and highlights the tax-exempt status that the leagues head office though not its teams has had for decades.In 1966, when the N.F.L. agreed to merge with the American Football League, Congress gave the N.F.L. certain antitrust exemptions and confirmed that the leagues office was entitled to the same benefits as business trade groups and chambers of commerce not organized for profit. The N.H.L., the L.P.G.A. and other sports groups have similar status.But even some of the largest nonprofit trade groups paid their executives far less. The chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, for instance, was paid $5.6 million, according to the latest government filings. Goodells pay was large when stacked against executives pay at for-profit businesses, too. According to Equilar, a compensation research company, the median salary for chief executives at companies listed on the Standard & Poors 500-stock index was $9.7 million, less than one-quarter of what Goodell was paid in 2012.Michael T. Duke, the chief executive of Walmart, the nations largest private employer with sales of about $470 billion, was paid $20 million. Lawrence J. Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle, was the highest-paid executive at a public company, having received $96.2 million in 2012.Goodells pay, which was first reported by Sports Business Journal on Friday and will be disclosed in the N.F.L.s annual filing with the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday, reflects the leagues continued growth. Lucrative broadcast deals, concessions won from the players in the most recent collective bargaining agreement and an increased presence overseas have helped push the leagues annual revenue higher.Goodell has also helped steer the league through a legal minefield. In August, the N.F.L. agreed to pay $765 million to settle lawsuits brought by about 5,000 retired players who accused the league of hiding the dangers of concussions. Some analysts believe the deal could have been for far more.Perhaps most important to the leagues owners, 23 of the 32 franchises are worth more than $1 billion, and every club is profitable, according to Forbes.As we have previously discussed with all owners, Commissioner Goodells compensation reflects our pay-for-performance philosophy and is appropriate given the fact that the N.F.L. under his consistently strong leadership continues to grow and is by far the most successful sports league, the N.F.L.s compensation committee wrote in a memo to all owners.Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and a member of the compensation committee, added: Its competitive with what is happening in major American corporations. Given the complexity of his job and reach of it, I think hes worth it.The N.F.L.s filing next week will also show that Jeff Pash, the leagues general counsel, was paid $7.86 million in 2012, while Steve Bornstein, the leagues outgoing executive vice president for media, was paid $26.1 million.Without his one-time deferred bonus and pension payment from 2011, Goodells compensation was $35.1 million in 2012, about as much compensation as Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, received, said Marc Ganis, a consultant to several N.F.L. teams who is familiar with the compensation figures.They believe the N.F.L. is the best-run league and has the brightest future, so they rewarded him based on his results, Ganis said of Goodell, adding, These numbers put Roger in the same ballpark as Bud.Selig made $17.5 million in 2006, the last year for which public filings are available. M.L.B. has given up its nonprofit status, and a spokesman for the league declined to comment on Seligs current compensation.The N.B.A. is not a nonprofit organization, so it does not have public filings. News media outlets have speculated that David Stern, who recently retired as commissioner, was paid as much as $23 million.Gary Bettman, the N.H.L. commissioner, made $8.3 million in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012. Michael Whan, the commissioner of the L.P.G.A., received $636,000 in 2011.Jeremy Spector, outside counsel to the N.F.L., wrote in U.S. News and World Report in November that the league paid taxes on every dollar of income it earned.Claims that the N.F.L. is using a tax exemption to avoid paying the tax due on these revenues are simply misinformed, he wrote. The confusion arises from the fact that there is one small part of the N.F.L., unrelated to all this business activity, that is tax-exempt: the N.F.L. league office.The league office, he said, acts no differently than a trade association that promotes its member companies, and has never claimed to be a charity.Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner of the N.H.L., said his league had nonprofit status because it acts on behalf of its clubs. N.H.L. Enterprises, the merchandising and licensing arm of the league, is a taxable business entity.The L.P.G.A. had no comment.Nonprofit status is typically given to groups that deliver services that private-sector companies are unwilling or unable to provide, said Ken Berger, the president and chief executive of Charity Navigator, the nations largest charity evaluator. The N.F.L. stretches that definition, he said.The idea that a person becomes a multimillionaire running a nonprofit that is supposed to provide a service that cant be provided by the market is absurd, Berger said. The notion that every taxpayer is subsidizing an organization whose leader is making $30 million or more is a waste.A committee that includes several N.F.L. owners among them Kraft, Arthur Blank of the Atlanta Falcons and Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers sets Goodells compensation, which included just $3.5 million in salary. Most of his compensation comes from the annual dues that each team pays to cover the leagues operating expenses, including salaries. Some of it also comes from N.F.L. Ventures, a for-profit subsidiary that handles the leagues marketing, media and other businesses.In 2012, the owners extended Goodells contract through the end of the 2018 season.We look at the numbers and go crazy, but we need to ask ourselves, How many people are there who can do this job, and what is the going rate? said Rodney Fort, a sports economist at the University of Michigan. People dont go to watch owners own; they go to watch players play. But that doesnt mean that what a commissioner does isnt more valuable, given all the zeros he produces. | Sports |
H-Town Singer Busted for Being A Deadbeat Dad 1/25/2018 H-Town's Solomon "Shazam" Conner just got arrested, and it should teach him an important lesson -- if you're gonna knock boots, you better pay for the kids you might end up having. Conner was busted Wednesday in Texas for failure to pay child support ... according to court docs. It's his second arrest for this. He and his twin brother founded the R&B group H-Town back in the '90s. It's unclear how much Conner allegedly owes this time around -- but when he was arrested in 2015 for back child support, he'd racked up a $170k tab. | Entertainment |
Terrell Owens to Eagles: Wanna Beat Brady? 'Put Your Foot on the Throat' 1/28/2018 TMZSports.com Terrell Owens has some savage Super Bowl advice for the Eagles before his former team squares off with Tom Brady and the Patriots. "Don't ever think you got 'em beat -- gotta put your foot on the throat," Owens told TMZ Sports. T.O. knows what he's talking about ... the 6-time Pro Bowler balled out against the Pats at Super Bowl 39, but the Eagles let the game slip away after a back-and-forth battle. So, when their big day arrives ... Owens -- who played his Super Bowl on a broken leg -- says they gotta go in with the mentality to kill or be killed. "There is no tomorrow ... gotta put it all on the line." | Entertainment |
As a doctor, he saw the inequities in the system at first hand; as a writer and administrator, he called them out. Credit...via Mullan familyDec. 10, 2019Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, who as a physician, administrator and professor spent a lifetime pushing back against what he saw as inequities in the health care system that left minority groups and low-income people underserved, died on Nov. 29 at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 77.Kathy Fackelmann, director of media relations at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, where Dr. Mullan had been a professor since 1996, said the cause was lung cancer. Dr. Mullan had an earlier encounter with cancer in the mid-1970s, when he was 32. He turned that experience into a book, Vital Signs: A Young Doctors Struggle With Cancer, and in 1986 he was among the founders of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.But his main interest was in bringing social justice to the health care system, which he saw as fundamentally flawed both in how it recruits, trains and motivates doctors and in how it delivers care. It was a passion he developed in the summer of 1965, after his first year in medical school, when he spent several months in Durant, Miss., working with impoverished black residents.A simple choice presented itself in my mind, Dr. Mullan wrote in White Coat, Clenched Fist: The Political Education of an American Physician, a sometimes blistering memoir published in 1976. Either their poverty resulted from their being black and, therefore, inadequate (the racist explanation), or their poverty derived from their being black and therefore segregated, exploited and oppressed. While I was in Mississippi I saw enough to persuade me forever that the squalor of the black community was caused by the system and not the people.That revelation, eye-opening at the time for a white Northern medical student from a relatively privileged background, defined the rest of Dr. Mullans life.In the woods of Mississippi, he continued, away from the medical center, far away from the labs and lecture halls, well outside the standard avenues of medical approbation, I discovered why I wanted to be a doctor.He carried that inspiration into his career in pediatrics once he graduated from medical school in 1968, and then into top administrative posts, including at the United States Public Health Service and, from 1991 to 1996, as an assistant surgeon general. And he imparted a social-justice ideal to countless students and health professionals. One is Susan Hassmiller, senior adviser for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whom he mentored when she was a doctoral student 30 years ago.He always gravitated to the less fortunate, Dr. Hassmiller said by email, and always became the voice for those who had no or little voice.Fitzhugh Seumas MacManus Mullan was born on July 22, 1942, in Tampa, Fla. His father, Hugh, was a physician. His mother, Mariquita MacManus Mullan, was a poet and a daughter of Seumas MacManus, an author famed for his interpretation of Irish folk tales.Dr. Mullan grew up in New York City and attended the Dalton School. After graduating from the Pomfret School in Connecticut, he enrolled at Harvard, receiving a bachelors degree there in 1964.He graduated from the University of Chicagos medical school in 1968 and did residencies at Jacobi Hospital and Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, where he encountered an urban version of the inequities he had seen in Mississippi. Lincoln, where he was a resident in 1970 and 1971, mostly served black and Puerto Rican patients.We still had a diarrhea room, he said in an interview with Kaiser Health News in 2009. They didnt have enough resources to do anything other than put anybody with any type of diarrhea in one part of the general ward. This was not 1970s medicine; this was very primitive, he added. And it was part of the disequities that were built into the health care system. In 1972, under the newly formed National Health Service Corps, which places health professionals in underserved areas, Dr. Mullan began practicing medicine in New Mexico. It was the beginning of a decade-long association with the corps that saw him become its chief medical officer and then, from 1977 to 1981, its director.In the 1980s he held posts with the state of New Mexico and the National Institutes of Health, as well as academic positions at the National Academy of Sciences and Johns Hopkins University. While assistant surgeon general, he was also director of the Bureau of Health Professions at the Health Resources and Services Administration.ImageCredit...via Mullan familyDr. Mullan wrote prolifically books, scholarly articles, essays and he was outspoken about the problems he saw in the health care system and the medical profession. One problem, he said, was what kinds of doctoring were rewarded and respected.The prestige walks of medical life today are research and the subspecialties, he said in a 1978 essay in The New York Times, adding, No one gets a Nobel Prize for ghetto medicine.He advocated neighborhood clinics staffed by doctors with a sense of mission practitioners, as he put it in the same essay, for whom medicine is something more than a meal ticket or an exercise in technobiology.We will never improve the infant mortality rates or the longevity statistics of the inner city by hunkering down among the radioisotope scanners and incubators of the large hospitals, he wrote.He bridled at the term health care safety net when it came into vogue to describe the last line of defense for societys disadvantaged.It seemed to me an insult to the dignity of patients that they would get no more than uncertain, makeshift, last-resort medicine, he wrote in a 2009 article for the website and journal Health Affairs. Worse, the term, trotted out antiseptically in policy circles, seemed a capitulation to doing anything better for the medically disenfranchised and a happy codification of the idea that haphazard, second-class care was part of the American way of life.His interests extended beyond the United States. A study he led found in 2005 that Africa and the Caribbean were losing large numbers of their trained doctors to four developed countries: the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. The abandoned countries were left drastically underserved, the study found, and Dr. Mullan called on the United States to increase its supply of homegrown doctors.In April, the George Washington University Health Workforce Institute, which examines issues like the recruitment and distribution of health workers, was renamed the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. Dr. Mullans first marriage, to Judy Wentworth in 1968, ended in divorce in 1998. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Irene Dankwa-Mullan, whom he married in 2007; a sister, Quita Mullan; two brothers, Anthony Mullan and Alex Cohen; three children from his first marriage, Meghan Mullan, Caitlin Crain and Jason Mullan; a stepdaughter, Perpetua Buadoo; and four grandchildren. In a 2015 TED Talk, Dr. Mullan noted that life expectancy in the United States had increased by 30 years in the 20th century, to 77. But, he noted, that gain was not uniform black people, people in low-income states and people without insurance did not reap the full benefit. That, he said, presented a challenge for health professionals and policymakers in the future. Is our goal to see to it that the privileged people in the United States put 30 more years on, and live on average to be 107, he asked his audience, or should we think about our priority being the earnest, serious, durable disparities within this, and move the floor up? | Health |
TrilobitesA team of Italian scientists describe what they believe is a gaping scar from one of these ancient battles on the neck frill of the Triceratops.Credit...Zoic Limited Liability CompanyApril 7, 2022Thanks to dramatic museum displays, many of us can imagine a Triceratops wielding its horns and sprawling neck frill to ward off a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex. But some scientists believe that Triceratopses used their deadly headgear against each other, too. Like dueling elk brandishing their antlers, Triceratopses may have interlocked their horns to woo mates or vanquish rivals.While scientists have long speculated about such behavior, conclusive evidence of these clashes has proved elusive. But in a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, a team of Italian scientists describe what they believe is a gaping scar from one of these ancient battles on the neck frill of a high-profile Triceratops known as Big John.Discovered by commercial fossil hunters at work on a South Dakota cliff side in 2014 and named after the rancher who owned the land, Big John received little fanfare until an Italian fossil-preparation firm purchased and restored the dinosaurs remains in 2020. As the largest Triceratops specimen ever discovered (the skull alone measures more than five feet long), Big John was sold to an anonymous bidder last October for $7.7 million the highest price ever for a non-Tyrannosaurus rex fossil.In addition to its staggering size and price, the creatures skull sports a large, crescent-shaped hole at the base of its neck frill. While many Triceratops skulls bear similar holes, few have been studied in depth according to Ruggero DAnastasio, a paleopathologist at DAnnunzio University of ChietiPescara in Italy and an author of the study.There has long been a debate about what causes these gaps in a Triceratopss frill. Some believe they are scars of intraspecies tussles or close encounters with predators. Others think they may be signs of infectious diseases or potentially age-related breakdown of bone. In the case of Big John, the bone around the gap is caked in rough, plaque-like deposits, a sign that the area was once inflamed.But to determine if the inflammation was caused by disease or traumatic injury, the researchers had to dig deeper. They examined bone tissue samples from around the gap in microscopic detail, looking for telltale signs of healing and bone remodeling.ImageCredit...Zoic Limited Liability CompanyBy examining the samples under an electron microscope, the team observed that the bone closer to the opening was more porous and packed with blood vessels than the bone farther away, indicating that the gap was framed by newly formed bone. They also pinpointed tiny pits that commonly occur when bones are being reshaped by specialized cells, called osteoclasts.All these signs point to a Triceratops on the mend. The stages of healing of the bone are similar to those observed in mammals, including humans, Dr. DAnastasio said. We are certainly facing a traumatic injury, which did not cause the death of the Triceratops.The researchers believe that the keyhole-shaped gap was punched into Big Johns frill by the horn of another Triceratops. The unique position of the wound led the researchers to hypothesize that the frill was punctured from the back.However Big John was stabbed, the team estimates that the dinosaur survived for another six months based on the bones healing. When the plodding dinosaur died, some 66 million years ago, it was entombed in sediment in the Hell Creek Formation, a hotbed of fossils deposited toward the end of the dinosaurs reign.The Big John specimen is among a growing list of immense dinosaur fossils going for exorbitant amounts of money to private buyers. These staggering sums price out public museums and universities, creating barriers between exquisitely preserved specimens and paleontologists.With Big John, for example, the bone tissue samples analyzed in the new study are stored in the collection of the University Museum of Chieti, but the whereabouts of the larger skeleton remain unknown. That hampers paleontologists ability to accurately vet the new findings, according to Denver Fowler, the curator of the Badlands Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota. No one can actually go and see this pathological area for themselves, he said. Repeatability is the bottom line of science.These concerns have led the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology to discourage researchers from studying privately owned fossils. Dr. Fowler thinks that if even a fraction of the money and attention spent on Big John were given to paleontologists it would help them discover, prepare and study more scientifically important Triceratops fossils.I expect that many museums have unprepared specimens of better quality and greater significance than Big John, he said, but a shortage of resources leave these specimens in their field jackets. | science |
Credit...Family of Vice Admiral H. Arnold Karo/Coast & Geodetic Survey, via NOAA Photo LibraryThe Great ReadScientists are hard at work recalibrating where and how the nation physically sits on the planet. Its not shrinkage its height modernization.Topographic surveying by members of the National Geodetic Survey.Credit...Family of Vice Admiral H. Arnold Karo/Coast & Geodetic Survey, via NOAA Photo LibraryMay 22, 2020Height is height, right? Look at a Manhattan skyscraper, or the Washington Monument, or a mountain peak in California, and you imagine that it will be the same height tomorrow as it is today.But across the United States, the heights of structures, landmarks, valleys, hills and just about everything else are about to change, at least with regard to average sea level. Most will get shorter. Parts of the Pacific Northwest will shrink by as much as five feet, and parts of Alaska by six-and-a-half, according to Juliana P. Blackwell, director of the National Geodetic Survey. Seattle will be 4.3 feet lower than it is now.Thats because height is only height compared to a reference point and geodesists, who calculate the Earths shape, size, gravitational field and orientation in space over time, are redefining the reference point, or vertical datum, from which height is derived. It is a fiendishly difficult math and physics task that, once completed, will have taken a decade and a half to accomplish.The U.S., at the scale that it is working at, its a big deal, said Chris Rizos, president-elect of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and an emeritus professor of geodesy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.ImageCredit...Library of CongressThe grand recalibration, called height modernization, is part of a broader effort within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, to establish more accurately where and how the United States physically sits on the planet. This new National Spatial Reference System, encompassing height, latitude, longitude and time, is expected to be rolled out in late 2022 or 2023, Ms. Blackwell said. It will replace reference systems from the 1980s that are slightly askew, having been derived from calculations that were done before the advent of supercomputers or global navigation satellite systems such as GPS.The errors in height are magnified as one moves diagonally across the country from the southeast to the northwest. One of the few areas of the United States expected to either stay the same height or rise fractionally will be the toe of Florida. Theres really a tilt that shows that all of the accumulated errors in our vertical network are pushed up into the northwest, Ms. Blackwell said.But height has long been tethered to ego. Some Coloradans worry that a few of their mountain peaks will fall below a bragging-rights threshold under the new height system, Ms. Blackwell said.They are very proud of how high these things are, and I know that its going to be a bit of a bummer if they start to be a little bit shorter than they were thought to be previously, she said. She added that she is not yet sure precisely what the new measurements of Colorados peaks will be.And near Beaumont, Tex., citizens are grappling with the unwelcome news that certain areas have subsided so much since previous height calculations that these regions now sit in the floodplain. As a result, some landowners may now need to insure themselves against losses from floods, said Daniel R. Roman, chief geodesist at NOAA. They didnt want to know that the heights had changed, he said, because when they do floodplain mapping, theyre like, Well, Im this height it hasnt changed.A short history of heightThe United States has been measuring its own height since 1807, when Thomas Jefferson, then the president, established the Survey of the Coast, forerunner to the National Geodetic Survey, to chart the waters and coasts on the Eastern Seaboard. The survey was the nations first civilian scientific agency, and had the aim of making shipping safer.As the country expanded westward through the 19th century, so did the measuring, using the coast, a proxy for sea level, as the reference point for zero elevation. Surveyors planted metal benchmarks in the land as they traveled, describing each points height above sea level, often mile by mile. Anyone who wanted to measure the height of a building or hill measured it relative to the benchmark and, indirectly, to sea level.Geodetic leveling, as the process was called, was painstaking and expensive. The rationale was to make sure heights were measured in the same way right across the country over time, rather than each county or state having its own system. For example, if engineers from two states were building a bridge across state lines, they needed to know it would meet in the middle.ImageCredit...NOAA Photo LibraryImageCredit...NOAA Photo LibraryAnd by 1900, geodesy had become even more sophisticated. Instead of using a coastline as the stand-in for sea level, geodesists developed a mathematical model representing sea level based on readings from tides. They have adjusted the height reference five times since then, in 1903, 1907, 1912, 1929 and 1988. The 1988 model remains the standard in both the United States and Mexico.But the 1988 version was short on accurate information for California and parts of Texas and North Carolina, said David B. Zilkoski, a geodesist who is the former director of the National Geodetic Survey. That is because the crust there has moved up or down considerably, as a result of tectonic plate activity and the removal of oil, gas and water from beneath the ground.The solution, Mr. Zilkoski decided, might be to use the global navigational satellite system technologies, such as GPS, that were then beginning to proliferate. GPS is excellent at pinpointing where you are in a flat, two-dimensional system say, at the corner of Bank Street and Garden Avenue. But it is also capable of telling you where you are in a three-dimensional world: Bank Street and Garden Avenue at 40 feet above sea level. By the mid-1990s, Mr. Zilkoski said, the goal of using GPS to modernize height had caught on.It had the advantage of being inexpensive and easy. Satellites, and therefore global positioning systems, measure height relative to a smoothed out mathematical approximation of the Earths shape called an ellipsoid. (Picture a basketball squished at the top and bottom.)But there was a big catch. GPS doesnt know much about gravity, said James L. Davis, a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.A matter of some gravityGravity matters to a geodesist. Height is distance measured along the direction that gravity points, and the strength and direction of gravitys pull vary according to the density of what is beneath the terrain and near it. In other words, height is not merely distance or elevation above the ground; it is tied to gravity. Gravity, in turn, is related to the distribution of mass. Geodesists therefore use the term height rather than elevation.Whenever I give a public lecture on gravity, half the talk is getting them to think about it differently, Dr. Davis said.ImageCredit...Library of CongressAs a result, a height measured only by GPS could be badly inaccurate. An engineer who laid pipe only using GPS, without measuring local variations in the effect of gravity, might not get water to flow where it was supposed to go.But making highly detailed measurements of the gravitational field, in order to factor them into heights captured by GPS, is no small task. In 2007, the National Geodetic Survey launched an ambitious mission GRAV-D, for Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum to accomplish just that.Geodesists will then use these gravity readings to make a model that best represents average sea level everywhere in the world, even on land. Because the pull of gravity varies everywhere, this model, called the geoid, resembles a lumpy potato. All heights will subsequently be measured taking it into account.Once the new height system is in place, people will find unexpected uses for it, Ms. Blackwell of the National Geodetic Survey said. She invoked The Jetsons, the futuristic animated television sitcom from the 1960s that featured cartoon characters zipping around their cities in tiny spacecraft. The underlying technology the ability to calculate heights and other positional coordinates swiftly and accurately was unimaginable at the time. Today, with the proliferation of drones, self-driving cars and remotely operated aerial systems, the ability to navigate accurately in three dimensions is becoming paramount. I think its going to get adopted really quickly, she said.Our shifting shapeImageCredit...NOAA Photo LibraryEven as geodesists get better at calculating the shape of the Earth, humans are changing it. As we warm the planet, we are melting glaciers and ice sheets. Their mass shifts from the land to the ocean, raising sea level and, eventually, changing height, which uses sea level as the reference for zero elevation. The shift in mass also has an impact on the configuration of the planet.That mass on the surface of Earth pushes down on Earth and actually changes its shape, said Dr. Davis of Columbia University.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]In effect, through climate change, our species is altering gravity across the planet. Were doing it by making chemical changes in the atmosphere that cause mass to be moved around, Dr. Davis said. And the amount of mass now is tremendous. Its noticeable in the shape of the geoid. Its also noticeable in the Earths rotation.Dr. Davis and other scientists are scrambling to figure out more accurately how to calculate the impact of the human footprint in the coming years.A few hundred years ago, it was all about what is the shape of the Earth, he said. And now its: Can we measure Earths changing shape, and the amount of mass in the glaciers, and where it came from, well enough to say what will happen at this location in the next few years? Were in a race.ImageCredit...Library of Congress | science |
Joel McHale Aziz Ansari's Date Sounds Consensual to Me 1/22/2018 TMZ.com Joel McHale is a staunch supporter of the #MeToo movement, but has big issues with allegations like the one leveled against Aziz Ansari. We got Joel Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival when our photog asked about Aziz, who was a no-show Sunday night at the SAG Awards. He's on the Ashleigh Banfield train ... saying it sounds like a bad date rather than sexual assault. Joel seems to be saying a good number of the allegations against various Hollywood types are true, but not all, and he warns people not to jump to conclusions. | Entertainment |
Credit...Josh Haner/The New York TimesFeb. 16, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia Again, there was nothing in front of Lindsey Jacobellis but open snow, a finish line and a mountain of possibility. She was in the lead, a pack of women chasing with little hope of catching the most accomplished female snowboard-cross rider in history.In 2006, at the Turin Olympics, Jacobellis had a similarly wide gap in the final when, after launching off the second-to-last jump, she grabbed her board with her hand and twisted sideways, trying to punctuate her run with panache. She crash landed and was passed, turning gold into silver, the most heartbreaking feat of Olympic metallurgy.This time, it was the semifinals, and it was not a showy midair move that brought Jacobellis to earth. It was a couple of rollers, gentle but devious little humps near the bottom of the course, just above the final jump. Jacobellis came around a tight corner, rose off one roller, landed awkwardly on another and spun to the ground.She never reached the finish line, which meant she did not realize the elusive dream of turning her dominating career into Olympic gold. Four years ago at Vancouver, when she was again the gold medal favorite, Jacobellis lost in the semifinals, too. That time, in a crowd, she nearly landed on another competitors snowboard, wobbled off balance and went out of bounds.I dont think it has to do with the Olympics, Jacobellis said. Its just on a fluke of when things work out for me and when they dont. An eight-time winner of the event at the Winter X Games, Jacobellis, 28, was placed in the small final, a consolation run. She won that six-person contest, officially giving her a seventh-place finish at the Olympics.ImageCredit...Josh Haner/The New York TimesI was really happy with how the course was coming together for me, Jacobellis said glumly but without obvious signs of heartache. I wasnt scared. There were a lot of girls who were scared and not really putting it together. It just didnt work out. I dont know how else to say it.It was Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic who dominated the event, from timed qualifications to the final race, to win the gold medal. Dominique Maltais of Canada earned silver and Chlo Trespeuch of France captured bronze. As they crossed the finish in a line, each raised her arms triumphantly, pleased with the result, if not simply happy to survive standing up.I couldnt imagine this, said Samkova, who had painted a handlebar mustache above her lip in the national colors of red, white and blue.Faye Gulini of the United States finished fourth, an outcome charged with mixed emotions.Im happy with fourth, she said, pleasantly. But it is the Olympics. Being on the podium would have been nice.The topic turned to Jacobellis, and Gulini quickly came to the defense of her fallen teammate.People dont understand how much pressure is put on her, she said. It breaks my heart, because I think it takes the fun out of it for her. Just this event. She loves the sport. Shes a phenomenal snowboarder. But its in her head. With that much pressure on you Ive never had that kind of pressure on me but I know that it just breaks her, as an athlete.She added: Maybe it was just a fluke mistake. But its a bummer. She deserves more.The course of big jumps, knee-bending rollers and banked corners took its toll on the athletes from the beginning. Two of the first six women to take the course in timed qualifiers, the medal contender Helene Olafsen of Norway and Jacqueline Hernandez of the United States, were hauled down the course on sleds after nasty falls.Olafsen, who finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games, hurt her knee. Hernandez flew off a jump and landed sideways on her board, toppling onto her back and hitting her head. She sustained a concussion and was released in time to watch the end of the event.The womens snowboard cross arrived ripe in story lines. Torah Bright of Australia competed in her third snowboard event, after slopestyle and halfpipe, in which she won a silver medal. In snowboard cross, though, she was quietly ousted in the quarterfinals.And in August, in the aftermath of news about Russian legislation considered antigay, another Australian, Belle Brockhoff, announced that she was gay. One of seven known gay athletes at the Games (all women), Brockhoff said she would have some words for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.After I compete, Im willing to rip on his backside, she said. Im not happy, and theres a bunch of other Olympians who are not happy, either.Brockhoff missed out on the final, and finished behind Jacobellis in the small final, coming in eighth. Afterward, she offered few words on the subject of gay rights, suggesting that social media might be a better format for her views.That kept most of the attention on Samkova, the winner, and Jacobellis, the upended favorite. Samkova dominated her races the way Jacobellis, in a different semifinal, was dominating hers.Jacobellis carried more speed around a hard left-hand bend in the semifinal than she had in the quarterfinal. She hit the first roller of a short straightaway and flew past where she intended to land. She came down awkwardly on an uphill slope that faced the midday sun kind of like landing in mashed potatoes, Jacobellis said and slid into the courses final turn, a right-hander that led to a drop-off and the final jump.As it was eight years ago, it was a self-inflicted mistake in an unpredictable sport of collisions and wipeouts. As she was eight years ago, Jacobellis was philosophical about the result.Theres worse things in life than not winning, she said. A lot worse. Of course, its very unfortunate that this didnt work out for me, and I trained very hard for this moment. It doesnt come together, for who knows what reasons. | Sports |
Politics|Trump Is Said to Intend to Campaign for South Carolina Governor in G.O.P. Runoffhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/us/politics/trump-henry-mcmaster-south-carolina.htmlCredit...John Bazemore/Associated PressJune 19, 2018WASHINGTON President Trump intends to campaign Monday for Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, according to Republican officials familiar with the plan, putting his presidential prestige on the line for one of his earliest supporters a day before the states closely contested Republican runoff election.In a gamble that he can lift Mr. McMaster to the nomination at the 11th hour, Mr. Trump intends to join Mr. McMaster for a rally in the Columbia area hours before the polls open in the state.And this Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence will campaign with Mr. McMaster, who is locked in a close race for the Republican nomination with John Warren, a former Marine and political newcomer.The White Houses last-minute intervention amounts to political payback for the governor, who was among the first statewide Republican elected officials to support Mr. Trump. Mr. McMaster has been an outspoken ally of the president ever since. He has argued that Mr. Trump should receive a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations with North Korea, and this week he defended Mr. Trumps hard line on immigration and the separation of children from their families at the border.Mr. McMaster talked by telephone with Mr. Trump on Monday and asked him to come to the state, according to Republican officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made public. They said the president felt he needed to demonstrate his loyalty to the governor.The president may be feeling confident about his clout among South Carolinas Republican voters, who ousted a vocal critic of his, Representative Mark Sanford, in the primary last week. Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Sanford and endorsed his opponent, Katie Arrington, in a Primary Day tweet.Yet by flying into South Carolina the day before an uncertain vote, Mr. Trump is also risking embarrassment in a state that he carried by 14 points in 2016.Mr. McMaster, 71, fell short of winning a majority in the primary this month, in part because he is identified with a political status quo at the State Capitol that has become an easy target amid an open corruption investigation that has led to a series of indictments of Republican lawmakers. And in Mr. Warren, a 39-year-old businessman, the governor is facing an opponent with no voting record to pick apart.Mr. McMaster has scrambled to slow Mr. Warren during the two-week runoff, reminding voters of his support from Mr. Trump, but Mr. Warren has received endorsements from the other two leading Republicans who also ran in the primary race.This is not Mr. Trumps first gamble in a Republican nominating contest. At the urging of a host of senators last year, he went to Alabama to rally support for Senator Luther Strange during the special election there. But Mr. Trump was stung when Roy S. Moore easily defeated Mr. Strange in the runoff.As in Alabama, where the Senate was left vacant after Jeff Sessions became the attorney general, there is a competitive race in South Carolina because of an administration appointment: Mr. McMaster took office last year when Nikki R. Haley, then the governor, become the United States ambassador to the United Nations. | Politics |
Credit...Joshua Bright for The New York TimesMarch 10, 2017A bill in Congress could make it harder for workers to keep employers from getting access to their personal medical and genetic information and raise the financial penalties for those who opt out of workplace wellness programs.House Republicans are proposing legislation aimed at making it easier for companies to gather genetic data from workers and their families, including their children, when they collect it as part of a voluntary wellness program.The bill, the Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act, introduced by Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina and the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, would also significantly increase the financial costs faced by someone who does not join a company wellness program.The bill, which is under review by other House committees and has yet to be considered by the Senate, has already provoked fierce opposition from a wide range of consumer, health and privacy advocacy groups, as well as by House Democrats. Critics claim it undermines existing laws aimed at protecting an individuals personal medical information from use by employer and others.We strongly oppose any legislation that would allow employers to inquire about employees private genetic information or medical information unrelated to their ability to do their jobs, and to impose draconian penalties on employees who choose to keep that information private, a group of advocates, including AARP, the American Diabetes Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Epilepsy Foundation, the March of Dimes and others wrote in a letter this week to Ms. Foxx.As wellness programs proliferate across the corporate landscape, workers are increasingly being asked by their companies to undergo health screenings and medical assessments. Employees can opt out of these programs, and personal information specific to a worker is not supposed to be shared directly with the company. The prohibition is aimed at preventing someone from being fired or otherwise discriminated against because of a serious medical condition.The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has vigorously pursued legal action against some employers it claimed went too far and used these programs inappropriately, but the courts have largely been sympathetic to the employers arguments. Companies also complained that the regulations were confusing, and the commission issued final rules in May aimed at addressing some of their concerns.Companies defend the wellness programs, saying they keep workers healthier and help reduce insurance costs. But some studies have questioned the effectiveness of these initiatives.Critics argue that workers are essentially being coerced into giving up private medical information, such as their weight, their blood pressure and whether they are at particular risk for cancer. Under the Affordable Care Act, employers can entice a worker by offering as much as a 30 percent reduction in insurance payments. Although the financial incentives offered have typically been lower, an employee who refused to participate could lose as much as thousands of dollars in savings.The bill would also weaken the role of the E.E.O.C. in overseeing wellness programs and its ability to prevent violations of antidiscrimination laws established under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Employers would be generally governed by rules established by different agencies. The bill is trying to streamline the regulatory scheme, said Kathryn Wilber, a senior official at the American Benefits Council, which represents employers interests.She said that companies remain committed to protecting the privacy of this information and that employers take this responsibility very, very seriously.Bethany Aronhalt, a spokeswoman for the House committee, said the goal was to address employers concerns rather than to drastically change the laws protecting workers. We want to ensure working families can continue to benefit from these voluntary programs, and so did the Obama administration, Ms. Aronhalt said. This legislation will reaffirm existing law and provide regulatory clarity so that employers can have the certainty they need to help lower health care costs for their employees.Opponents contend that the bill would leave workers much more vulnerable because the rules under the antidiscrimination laws would not apply if someone volunteered personal health information under a wellness program. It just takes away the workplace protection, said Jennifer Mathis, the director of policy and legal advocacy of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.The E.E.O.C. does not comment on pending legislation, a spokeswoman said.The bill would significantly increase the amount of money at stake by allowing an employer to offer higher incentives, up to 30 percent of the cost to cover the whole family, as opposed to 30 percent of an individuals coverage cost. | Health |
Dr. Oz To Air Nicole Eggert Show 1/30/2018 The Dr. Oz Show Nicole Eggert will be featured on Wednesday's 'Dr. Oz Show' ... this after producers shelved the program claiming they had issues with Nicole's timeline. We've learned after Nicole appeared on Megyn Kelly's show Tuesday, Oz's producers called Nicole's lawyer Lisa Bloom and her manager David Weintraub, saying they had a change of heart and would air the program after all. As we reported, the show was filmed January 10 but after receiving a blistering cease and desist letter from Scott Baio's lawyer which, among other things, questioned her timeline for the alleged molestation, the show was put on ice. Nicole, Lisa and David went to Oz's studio Tuesday and shot some additional footage for the program. | Entertainment |
Lean on Me' Star Gets Smokin' Deal In Weed Bust Case 1/31/2018 "Lean on Me" star Jermaine Hopkins is becoming the king of big breaks when it comes to pot busts. Jermaine pled guilty Wednesday to felony possession of marijuana ... according to court officials in Wake County, NC. We're told Jermaine pled guilty and was sentenced to a minimum of 4 months in prison. Now, here's the break -- that sentence was suspended. That means Jermaine skates on jail time, and instead gets 24 months of supervised probation. If he screws up, though, he'll be headed to the slammer. TMZ broke the story ... Jermaine was arrested back in October when cops found 5.7 lbs. of weed in his trunk. Jermaine also got probation in 2011 after he was busted for buying 200 freakin' lbs. of ganja from an undercover cop. He'll now have to submit to drug testing as probation condition. FYI: North Cackalacky has not legalized marijuana, medicinal or recreational. | Entertainment |
Addiction specialists said it was possible for people who are drinking heavily and consistently during the coronavirus pandemic to develop a problem they did not have before.Credit...Olivier Douliery/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMay 26, 2020Quarantinis. Zoom happy hours. Easy front-door liquor delivery.The boredom of staying home and the intense anxiety produced by the pandemic have given rise to Twitter jokes about drinking before noon as alcohol sales have spiked.But addiction experts say they are worried it could also trigger more serious drinking problems and even create new ones for people who have never struggled with alcohol dependency before.I expect were going to see pretty significant increases in what I call unhealthy alcohol use, which means drinking above recommended limits, said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.It will be pretty unlikely for someone who has never tried alcohol before to start drinking for the first time and immediately develop an alcohol use disorder, Dr. Wakeman said. I would see this as a risk more in people who are already drinking and then their alcohol use escalates.Before the pandemic, Mhairi McFarlane, a 44-year-old novelist in Nottingham, England, had been thinking of cutting back. But the first weekend she was in quarantine, she said, she was cheerfully having three or four drinks a night, usually gin and tonics or very cold bottles of cava.It was very much not my style of drinking, she said. Ive always associated drink with going out and being social. I was never really one for opening a bottle of wine in front of the television.Drinking alone worried her. Then she woke up one Thursday with a headache and a sense that her body was unhappy with what she was doing. She decided to give herself a two-night break from drinking. To her surprise, she wanted to keep going. It has been two months since she had a drink.My brother said of all the shocks of 2020, none have been as great as you becoming the poster girl for sobriety, Ms. McFarlane said.Kelly Rubinsohn, an opera singer in Philadelphia, said she normally drinks wine. But in isolation she has been playing with cocktail recipes, making Manhattans and experimenting with barrel-rested gin.She was furloughed from her job as an office manager at an architectural firm, and a series of singing auditions she booked before the pandemic were canceled.Drinking has been a salve during a difficult time, said Ms. Rubinsohn, 32.There is literally nothing else to control, she said. I can at least make a cocktail.Alcohol sales spiked in late March, rising 55 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. But it was unclear if Americans were consuming more alcohol or if the jump in sales was indicative of a change in the way people were buying wine and spirits now that they could no longer drink in bars and restaurants. Analysts said that a change in shopping habits, as Americans took to stockpiling to limit the amount of time they spent in stores, most likely accounted for some of the increase.Sales of beer, wine and spirits have since slowed though they still remain much higher than a year ago, according to Nielsen, the market research firm.In April, Morning Consult, a digital media and polling company, found that only 16 percent of 2,200 respondents said they were drinking more, while 19 percent said they were drinking less. A narrow majority, 55 percent, said their drinking habits remained unchanged, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.Still, addiction specialists say they are watching carefully to see how isolation will affect drinking and drug use in general.Historically, drinking and drug use rise when people experience wars, terrorist attacks or natural disasters, but those are typically localized events, said Adam Leventhal, director of the University of Southern California Institute for Addiction Science.A pandemic of this magnitude affecting the entire globe is something weve never encountered before, he said. Every person is being affected by it.A study published last month in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry showed a sharp increase among people in China, where the pandemic originated, who reported harmful drinking during isolation. People between the ages of 21 and 40 were particularly susceptible, the study found.Harmful drinking is generally defined as drinking to excess in a way that leads to health problems. Alcohol dependency, or alcoholism, is characterized by cravings that are difficult to control and a preoccupation with alcohol that leads to continued drinking even when a person knows it will have negative consequences.Social isolation, limited interaction, financial distress are causing excessive stress, which has direct correlations with alcohol consumption, said Md Zahir Ahmed, an author of the study, which showed that the rate of harmful drinking and dependence went up 6.7 percent during the lockdown in China.The pandemic has reduced access to social support networks, while alcohol remains fairly easy to get. That combination means there remains a threat to develop new substance-use disorders, even among casual drinkers, Mr. Ahmed said.People should not feel shame or jump to the conclusion that they are addicted to alcohol because of a few nights of heavy drinking, Dr. Wakeman said.Everyone is cutting themselves some slack because these are crazy times, she said. But the same way we do with food and exercise and concerns about obesity, we want to have some benchmarks for how to stay healthy.People should seek help if family and friends express concerns about their drinking, if they continue to want to drink even if it causes problems, or if their drinking begins to get in the way of everyday responsibilities, like taking care of their children or working, Dr. Wakeman said.Members of Harm Reduction for Alcohol, a Facebook group that supports people who want to reduce how much they drink instead of abstaining, have traded ideas for how to curb drinking during the pandemic.One said he was measuring his drinks. Another quit buying vodka. Another started a garden to take her mind off alcohol.The groups founder, Kenneth Anderson, said he recently circulated a poll asking members if they were drinking more during the pandemic. Of the 187 who responded, more than half reported that they were drinking more than usual, he said.Most of our people are pretty aware of how much theyre drinking, Mr. Anderson said. They know theyre stressed. They know its a rough time.There are signs people want alternatives to alcohol. While wine, beer and spirits continue to sell at a much brisker pace than at this time last year, sales of nonalcoholic beer were up 42 percent in the week ending May 2 compared with the same period in 2019, according to Nielsen. Ritual, a company that specializes in alternatives to liquor, reported an 88 percent bump in sales in April.Andrew Beile, 31, a former bartender, started the Facebook page Quarantined Beer Chugs as a way to replace the bar culture he lost when the pandemic shut down pubs and breweries around Liberty, Mo., where he lives.The idea was for friends to film themselves drinking and then post videos online. Mr. Beile said he thought at most 50 people would join the group. The page now has 330,000 members.Once it got big, we decided we needed to encourage people not to drink seven times a week, Mr. Beile said. So we changed our motto to All chugs are welcome.Followers are encouraged to chug water three times a week on hydration days.I dont want people to drink themselves into a depression, Mr. Beile said. I know its unhealthy.When there is not a professional bartender pouring your drinks, he added, its very easy to overdo it very fast. | Health |
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/sports/ncaabasketball/stunning-first-loss-for-no-1-syracuse.htmlFeb. 19, 2014SYRACUSE Olivier Hanlan and Patrick Heckman hit 3-pointers in overtime, Lonnie Jackson made four straight free throws in the final 26.2 seconds, and lowly Boston College stunned top-ranked Syracuse, 62-59, on Wednesday night, ending the Oranges unbeaten run.Boston College (7-19, 3-10 Atlantic Coast Conference), which had lost five straight, rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to pull off the improbable upset. Syracuse (25-1, 12-1) travels to No. 5 Duke on Saturday night.The loss leaves No. 3 Wichita State, which beat Loyola of Chicago, 88-74, on Wednesday, as the lone unbeaten team in Division I.The Eagles came to town grieving but determined. Their longtime basketball media contact and sports information assistant, Dick Kelley, died last week after a two-year battle with A.L.S. Syracuse, which had won its last two games by a combined 3 points, shot a season-low 32.2 percent from the field.When you get in enough of these games, theres going to be one youre not going to make a play, Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. Thats what happens. C. J. Fair finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds for Syracuse. | Sports |
Many Virus Cases Go Uncounted. Are There Better Ways to Track the Pandemic?An increasing reliance on at-home testing and the closings of mass testing sites are making official case counts less reliable, scientists say.Credit...Etienne Laurent/EPA, via ShutterstockApril 14, 2022When the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus arrived in the United States last fall, it pushed new case numbers to previously unseen peaks.Even then, the record wave of recorded infections was a significant undercount of reality.In New York City, for example, officials logged more than 538,000 new cases between January and mid-March, representing roughly 6 percent of the citys population. But a recent survey of New York adults suggests that there could have been more than 1.3 million additional cases that were either never detected or never reported and that 27 percent of the citys adults may have been infected during those months.The official tally of coronavirus infections in the United States has always been an underestimate. But as Americans increasingly turn to at-home tests, states shutter mass testing sites and institutions cut back on surveillance testing, case counts are becoming an increasingly unreliable measure of the viruss true toll, scientists say.It seems like the blind spots are getting worse with time, said Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy who led the New York City analysis, which is preliminary and has not yet been published.That could leave officials increasingly in the dark about the spread of the highly contagious new subvariant of Omicron known as BA.2, he said, adding, We are going to be more likely to be surprised. On Wednesday, New York officials announced that two new Omicron subvariants, both descended from BA.2, have been circulating in the state for weeks and are spreading even faster than the original version of BA.2.The official case count can still pick up major trends, and it has begun to tick up again as BA.2 spreads. But undercounts are likely to be a bigger problem in the weeks ahead, experts said, and mass testing sites and widespread surveillance testing may never return.Thats the reality we find ourselves in, said Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. We dont really have eyes on the pandemic like we used to.To track BA.2, as well as future variants, officials will need to pull whatever insights they can from an array of existing indicators, including hospitalization rates and wastewater data. But truly keeping tabs on the virus will require more creative thinking and investment, scientists said.For now, some scientists said, people can gauge their risk by deploying a lower-tech tool: paying attention to whether people they know are catching the virus.If youre hearing your friends and your co-workers get sick, that means your risk is up and that means you probably need to be testing and masking, said Samuel Scarpino, the vice president of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundations Pandemic Prevention Institute.The trouble with testingImageCredit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesTracking the virus has been a challenge since the earliest days of the pandemic, when testing was severely constrained. Even when testing improved, many people did not have the time or resources to seek it out or had asymptomatic infections that never made themselves known.By the time Omicron hit, a new challenge was presenting itself: At-home tests had finally become more widely available, and many Americans relied on them to get through the winter holidays. Many of those results were never reported.We havent done the groundwork to systematically capture those cases on a national level, said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.Some jurisdictions and test manufacturers have developed digital tools that allow people to report their test results. But one recent study suggests that it may take work to get people to use them. Residents of six communities across the country were invited to use an app or an online platform to order free tests, log their results and then, if they chose, send that data to their state health departments.Nearly 180,000 households used the digital assistant to order the tests, but just 8 percent of them logged any results on the platform, researchers found, and only three-quarters of those reports were sent on to health officials.General Covid fatigue, as well as the protection that vaccination provides against severe symptoms, may also prompt fewer people to seek testing, experts said. And citing a lack of funds, the federal government recently announced that it would stop reimbursing health care providers for the cost of testing uninsured patients, prompting some providers to stop offering those tests for free. That could make uninsured Americans especially reluctant to test, Dr. Jetelina said.The poorest neighborhoods will have even more depressed case numbers than high-income neighborhoods, she noted.Monitoring case trends remains important, experts said. If we see an increase in cases, its an indicator that something is changing and quite possibly that something is changing because of a larger shock to the system, like a new variant, said Alyssa Bilinski, a public health policy expert at the Brown University School of Public Health.But more modest increases in transmission may not be reflected in the case tally, which means that it could take officials longer to detect new surges, experts said. The problem could be exacerbated by the fact that some jurisdictions have begun updating their case data less frequently.Dr. Nash and his colleagues have been exploring ways to overcome some of these challenges. To estimate how many New Yorkers may have been infected during the winter Omicron surge, they surveyed a diverse sample of 1,030 adults about their testing behaviors and results, as well as potential Covid-19 exposures and symptoms.People who reported testing positive for the virus on tests administered by health care or testing providers were counted as cases that would have been caught by standard surveillance systems. Those who tested positive only on at-home tests were counted as hidden cases, as were those who had probable unreported infections a group that included people who had both Covid-19-like symptoms and known exposures to the virus.The researchers used the responses to calculate how many infections might have escaped detection, weighting the data to match the demographics of the citys adult population.The study has limitations. It relies on self-reported data and excludes children, as well as adults living in institutional settings, including nursing homes. But health departments could use the same approach to try to fill in some of their surveillance blind spots, especially during surges, Dr. Nash said.You could do these surveys on a daily or weekly basis and quickly correct prevalence estimates in real time, he said.Another approach would be to replicate what Britain has done, regularly testing a random selection of hundreds of thousands of residents. Thats really the Cadillac of surveillance methods, said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University.The method is expensive, however, and Britain has recently started scaling back its efforts. Its something that should be part of our arsenal in the future, Dr. Dean said. Its sort of unclear what people have the appetite for.Disease burdenImageCredit...Shannon Stapleton/ReutersThe spread of Omicron, which easily infects even vaccinated people and generally causes milder disease than the earlier Delta variant, has prompted some officials to put more emphasis on hospitalization rates.If our goal is to track serious illness from the virus, I think thats a good way to do it, said Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida.But hospitalization rates are lagging indicators and may not capture the true toll of the virus, which can cause serious disruptions and long Covid without sending people to the hospital, Dr. Salemi said.Indeed, different metrics can create very different portraits of risk. In February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began using local hospitalization rates and measures of hospital capacity, in addition to case counts, to calculate its new Covid-19 community levels, which are designed to help people decide whether to wear masks or take other precautions. More than 95 percent of U.S. counties currently have low community Covid-19 levels, according to this measure.But the C.D.C.s community transmission map, which is based solely on local case and test positivity rates, suggests that just 29 percent of U.S. counties currently have low levels of viral transmission.Hospitalization data may be reported differently from one place to another. Because Omicron is so transmissible, some localities are trying to distinguish between patients who were hospitalized specifically for Covid-19 and those who picked up the virus incidentally.We felt like, because of the intrinsic factors of the virus itself that were seeing circulating in our region now, that we needed to update our metrics, said Dr. Jonathan Ballard, the chief medical officer at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.Until late last month, New Hampshires Covid-19 online dashboard displayed all inpatients with active coronavirus infections. Now, it instead displays the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients taking remdesivir or dexamethasone, two frontline treatments. (Data on all confirmed infections in hospitalized patients remains available through the New Hampshire Hospital Association, Dr. Ballard noted.)Passive surveillanceImageCredit...Jackie Molloy for The New York TimesAnother solution is to use approaches, such as wastewater surveillance, that dont rely on testing or health care access at all. People with coronavirus infections shed the virus in their stool; monitoring the levels of the virus in wastewater provides an indicator of how widespread it is in a community.And then you combine that with sequencing, so you get a sense of what variants are circulating, said Dr. Andersen, who is working with colleagues to track the virus in San Diegos wastewater.The C.D.C. recently added wastewater data from hundreds of sampling sites to its Covid-19 dashboard, but coverage is highly uneven, with some states reporting no current data at all. If wastewater surveillance is going to fill in the testing gaps, it needs to be expanded, and the data needs to be released in near real time, scientists said.Wastewater is a no-brainer to me, Dr. Andersen said. It gives us a really good, important passive surveillance system that can be scaled. But only if we realize that thats what we have to do.Dr. Scarpino, of the Pandemic Prevention Institute, said that there were other data sources that officials could leverage, including information on school closings, flight cancellations and geographic mobility.One of the things were not doing a good enough job of doing is pulling those together in a thoughtful, coordinated way, Dr. Scarpino said. | Health |
Fentanyl Tainted Pills Bought on Social Media Cause Youth Drug Deaths to SoarTeenagers and young adults are turning to Snapchat, TikTok and other social media apps to find Percocet, Xanax and other pills. The vast majority are laced with deadly doses of fentanyl, police say.Credit...Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York TimesMay 19, 2022Shortly after Kade Webb, 20, collapsed and died in a bathroom at a Safeway Market in Roseville, Calif., in December, the police opened his phone and went straight to his social media apps. There, they found exactly what they feared.Mr. Webb, a laid-back snowboarder and skateboarder who, with the imminent birth of his first child, had become despondent over his pandemic-dimmed finances, bought Percocet, a prescription opioid, through a dealer on Snapchat. It turned out to be spiked with a lethal amount of fentanyl.Mr. Webbs death was one of nearly 108,000 drug fatalities in the United States last year, a record, according to preliminary numbers released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Law enforcement authorities say an alarming portion of them unfolded the same way as his: from counterfeit pills tainted with fentanyl that teenagers and young adults bought over social media.Social media is almost exclusively the way they get the pills, said Morgan Gire, district attorney for Placer County, Calif., where 40 people died from fentanyl poisoning last year. He has filed murder charges against a 20-year-old man accused of being Mr. Webbs dealer, who pleaded not guilty. About 90 percent of the pills that youre buying from a dealer on social media now are fentanyl, Mr. Gire said.The phenomenon has led to disturbing new statistics:Overdoses are now the leading cause of preventable death among people ages 18 to 45, ahead of suicide, traffic accidents and gun violence, according to federal data.Although experimental drug use by teenagers in the United States has been dropping since 2010, their deaths from fentanyl have skyrocketed, to 884 in 2021, from 253 in 2019, according to a recent study in the journal JAMA.ImageCredit...Drug Enforcement AdministrationRates of illicit prescription pill use are now highest among people ages 18 to 25, according to federal data.Much as drug dealers in the 1980s and 90s seized on pagers and burner phones to conduct business covertly, todays suppliers have embraced modern iterations social media and messaging apps with privacy features such as encrypted or disappearing messages. Dealers and young buyers usually spot each other on social media and then often proceed by directly messaging each other.The platforms have made for a swift, easy conduit during the coronavirus pandemic, when demand for illicit prescription drugs has jumped, both from anxious, bored customers and from those already struggling with addiction who were cut off from in-person group support.Supplies of tainted pills, crudely pressed by Mexican cartels with chemicals from China and India, have escalated commensurately. Fentanyl, faster and cheaper to produce than heroin and 50 times as potent, made for a highly addictive filler. Last year, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized 20.4 million counterfeit pills, which experts estimate represent a small fraction of those produced. Its scientists say that about four out of 10 pills contain lethal doses of fentanyl.The result is that new waves of customers are swiftly becoming addicted, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. When you are putting fentanyl in pills that are sold as benzodiazepines or for pain, you are reaching a new group of customers that you wouldnt have if you were just selling fentanyl powder.ImageCredit...Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York TimesImageCredit...via Wendy PlunkIn a two-month span in the fall, the D.E.A. identified 76 cases that involved drug traffickers who advertised with emojis and code words on e-commerce platforms and social media apps. The agency has included a feature in its One Pill Can Kill public awareness campaign: a poster called Emoji Drug Code: Decoded, with images of drug symbols.There are drug sellers on every major social media platform that includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok and emerging platforms like Discord and Telegram, said Tim Mackey, a professor at the University of California San Diego who runs a federally funded start-up that developed artificial intelligence software to detect illicit online drug sales. Its an entire ecosystem problem: As long as your child is on one of those platforms, theyre going to have the potential to be exposed to drug sellers.At around 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2020, Zachariah Plunk, 17, a star high school football player from Mesa, Ariz., contacted a dealer through Snapchat, seeking a Percocet.As footage from the familys home security camera would reveal, the dealer dropped off drugs around 3 a.m. Zach went outside, swallowed a pill and fell to the curb. At 5 a.m., a 15-year-old neighbor found him dead.To Wendy Plunk, Zachs mother, the ease with which dealers can evade detection is particularly devastating. The man who sold her son the fatal pill remains on Snapchat, she said, adding, I keep an eye on the guy. Every time he gets kicked off, he changes his name a bit and gets on again, with the same picture.In January, parents of children as young as 13 who had died from pills protested in front of the headquarters of Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, in Santa Monica, Calif., with signs accusing the company of being an accomplice to murder. One speaker was Laura Berman, a relationship therapist and television host. In February 2021, her 16-year-old son, Sam, bought what he thought was a Xanax through a Snapchat connection, ingested it and died at home of fentanyl poisoning.Facing a barrage of criticism from law enforcement and grieving parents, social media platforms have been stepping up policing on their sites, shutting down dealers accounts and redirecting drug seekers to addiction services.ImageCredit...Apu Gomes/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesOn Monday, the Ad Council announced a wide-ranging campaign to roll out this summer, funded by three tech companies Snap, Meta and Google to alert teenagers and young adults about the dangers of fentanyl. Social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, Twitch and Reddit are expected to provide landing zones for the warnings.Snap and Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, report they are increasingly interrupting drug exchanges. Snap said it took action on 144,000 drug-related accounts in the United States from July to December last year. That figure doesnt include the 88 percent of drug-related content that was pre-emptively detected by artificial intelligence software, which monitors terms that could signify drug deals.Now, when Snapchat users search for fenta, xanax or other drug language, the results are blocked. They are redirected to an in-app video channel with content from nonprofit groups and the C.D.C. that addresses fentapills the dangers of purported OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax and Adderall.According to Facebooks latest community standards report, it took action on four million drug-related exchanges worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2021. Instagram took action on 1.2 million, figures which represent alerts from both users and pre-emptive detection technology.On Instagram, one recent search for Percocet did set off an automatic warning and an offer of help. But it also yielded numerous results, including an account that posted photos of the pills and contact information, with phone numbers on the encrypted messaging apps Wickr and WhatsApp.And when companies remove dealers from their platforms, many sellers simply leapfrog to another.We detect about 10,000 new drug-related accounts a month, said Dr. Mackey, whose software company detects illicit online drug trafficking for private and public organizations.Most drug seekers will not baldly search for a drug by name, he said. They may use a hashtag with a celebrity associated with it. Enterprising dealers troll comments for customers, inserting themselves in online exchanges among seekers of pain relief.During the pandemic, drug use has surged as mental health among young adults and teenagers has deteriorated, studies show. Young people tend to eschew heroin, not only because of its addictive properties but also because of a skittishness about syringes, say experts in adolescent behavior. Pills, with the false imprimatur of medical authority, appear safer. Moreover, to their generation, prescription medications for anxiety, depression and focus have become normalized.ImageCredit...Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York TimesImageCredit...Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York TimesBy the time the kid goes to college, his friends all have prescription bottles in their backpacks theyre used to sharing pills, Ed Ternan said. The drug traffickers know that. In May, 2020, his 22-year-old son, Charlie, three weeks away from college graduation, bought what he thought was a Percocet for back pain from a dealer he connected with on Snapchat. Thirty minutes after ingestion, Charlie, 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, was dead from fentanyl poisoning.Rather than sue Snap for wrongful death, Mr. Ternan and his wife, Mary, asked the company to step up monitoring.I said: If the kids were buying real Percocet on Snapchat, they wouldnt be dying. You guys need to escalate this problem right up to the same level as child sex trafficking, Mr. Ternan said.The Ternans formed Song for Charlie, one of many organizations of families who have lost children to fentanyl. Mr. Ternan has met with federal officials and has connected Snapchat with digital and drug treatment experts. His group creates cautionary content for TikTok and Snapchat.The rules of engagement in the war on drugs have shifted, Mr. Ternan said, adding: Its now about chemistry and social media distribution and encryption. We need different kind of generals, a more collaborative approach between Big Tech and the government.To fine-tune prevention messaging, Snap commissioned Morning Consult, the digital market research firm, to conduct a survey of drug knowledge. The results, from a random sample of 1,449 Snapchat users ages 13 to 24, underscore their vulnerability to misusing prescription drugs. They expressed feeling overwhelmed, anxious and depressed but also fearful of the stigma surrounding mental health challenges. Coping with stress was the top reason to turn to illicit pills, they said.But only half the respondents overall, and 27 percent of the teenagers, knew that fentanyl could be in counterfeit pills. When asked to rate the danger posed by certain drugs, nearly two-thirds were likely to rank heroin and then cocaine as extremely dangerous, but scarcely a third put fentanyl in that category. Overall, 23 percent didnt even know enough about fentanyl to rank its danger level, including 35 percent of adolescents.That ignorance is what drove Wendy Thomas, a substitute third-grade teacher from Sanford, N.C., to repurpose her grief over the 2020 death of her son from a counterfeit Percocet, and use it to reach teenagers. With her nonprofit, Matthews Voice, she has written health-class curriculums about fentanyl for high school freshmen and seventh-graders that are currently under final review by a large North Carolina school district.ImageCredit...Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesIt also motivates anguished parents like Elizabeth Dillender, who is Kade Webbs mother and the grandmother of his newborn daughter, Indigo Kade. Im not nave enough to think that social media is going away, she said. We have to work in conjunction with social media to get the word out to these kids.Ms. Dillender has taken her campaign to Spotify, where she has a fentanyl awareness podcast, and to social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook.Recently, her podcast featured Laura Didier, another mother from Mr. Webbs hometown, Rocklin, Calif. A year before Mr. Webb died, Ms. Didiers former husband found their 17-year-old son, Zach, in his bedroom slumped lifeless over his computer keyboard. Zach had bought what he thought was a Percocet from a dealer on Snapchat.You think if theres a problem, youll see red flags their grades are dropping, their disposition and friends are changing, Ms. Didier reflected recently. But thats old thinking about drug behavior. This can happen so quickly without your ability to predict. I just dont want families to be complacent and think, It cant happen to us.To underscore that message, at least one harm reduction network, the Santa Clara Opioid Overdose Prevention Project in California, has been promulgating the darkly instructive warning: #ExpectFentanyl. | Health |
Swaggy P & Draymond Bro Date to 'Hamilton' Here's the Review ... 1/19/2018 Draymond Green told Nick Young he needed to "expand [his] horizons" ... so he took his NBA teammate to see the play "Hamilton." Yep ... it was bros' night out at the CIBC Theatre in Chicago (since the guys were in town after playing the Bulls). So, how'd Swaggy like the play? He gives his official theater review before heading to the bar to have a drink called "Penicillin" ... and that's when he started cracking some jokes about having a few friends who could use it! | Entertainment |
Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 22, 2018WASHINGTON In a major statement on privacy in the digital age, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government generally needs a warrant to collect troves of location data about the customers of cellphone companies.We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carriers database of physical location information, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority.The 5-to-4 ruling will protect deeply revealing records associated with 400 million devices, the chief justice wrote. It did not matter, he wrote, that the records were in the hands of a third party. That aspect of the ruling was a significant break from earlier decisions.The Constitution must take account of vast technological changes, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, noting that digital data can provide a comprehensive, detailed and intrusive overview of private affairs that would have been impossible to imagine not long ago.The decision made exceptions for emergencies like bomb threats and child abductions. Such exigencies, he wrote, include the need to pursue a fleeing suspect, protect individuals who are threatened with imminent harm or prevent the imminent destruction of evidence.In general, though, the authorities must now seek a warrant for cell tower location information and, the logic of the decision suggests, other kinds of digital data that provide a detailed look at a persons private life.The decision thus has implications for all kinds of personal information held by third parties, including email and text messages, internet searches, and bank and credit card records. But Chief Justice Roberts said the ruling had limits.We hold only that a warrant is required in the rare case where the suspect has a legitimate privacy interest in records held by a third party, the chief justice wrote. The courts four more liberal members Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined his opinion.Each of the four other justices wrote a dissent, with the five opinions running to more than 110 pages. In one dissent, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the distinctions drawn by the majority were illogical and will frustrate principled application of the Fourth Amendment in many routine yet vital law enforcement operations.Cell-site records, he wrote, are uniquely suited to help the government develop probable cause to apprehend some of the nations most dangerous criminals: serial killers, rapists, arsonists, robbers and so forth.In a second dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote that the decision guarantees a blizzard of litigation while threatening many legitimate and valuable investigative practices upon which law enforcement has rightfully come to rely.The case, Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402, arose from armed robberies of Radio Shacks and other stores in the Detroit area starting in 2010.Witnesses said that Timothy Ivory Carpenter had planned the robberies, supplied guns and served as lookout, typically waiting in a stolen car across the street.At his signal, the robbers entered the store, brandished their guns, herded customers and employees to the back, and ordered the employees to fill the robbers bags with new smartphones, a court decision said, summarizing the evidence against him.Prosecutors also relied on months of records obtained from cellphone companies to prove their case. The records showed that Mr. Carpenters phone had been nearby when several of the robberies happened. He was convicted and sentenced to 116 years in prison.Mr. Carpenters lawyers said cellphone companies had turned over 127 days of records that placed his phone at 12,898 locations, based on information from cellphone towers. The records disclosed whether he had slept at home on given nights and whether he attended his usual church on Sunday mornings.Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the information was entitled to privacy protection.Mapping a cellphones location over the course of 127 days provides an all-encompassing record of the holders whereabouts, he wrote, going on to quote from an earlier opinion. As with GPS information, the time-stamped data provides an intimate window into a persons life, revealing not only his particular movements, but through them his familial, political, professional, religious and sexual associations.In dissent, Justice Kennedy wrote that GPS devices provide much more precise location information than do cell towers. Chief Justice Roberts responded that cell tower technology is developing quickly.As the number of cell sites has proliferated, he wrote, the geographic area covered by each cell sector has shrunk, particularly in urban areas. In addition, with new technology measuring the time and angle of signals hitting their towers, wireless carriers already have the capability to pinpoint a phones location within 50 meters.Chief Justice Roberts left open the question of whether limited government requests for location data required a warrant. But he said that access to seven days of data is enough to raise Fourth Amendment concerns.The legal question for the justices was whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches, by collecting without warrant vast amounts of data from cellphone companies that showed Mr. Carpenters movements.In a pair of recent decisions, the Supreme Court expressed discomfort with allowing unlimited government access to digital data. In United States v. Jones, it limited the ability of the police to use GPS devices to track suspects movements. And in Riley v. California, it required a warrant to search cellphones.Chief Justice Roberts wrote that both decisions supported the result in the new case.As his opinion in Riley pointed out, he wrote, cellphones and the services they provide are such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that carrying one is indispensable to participation in modern society.And the Jones decision, he wrote, addressed digital privacy in the context of location information.The question we confront today, he wrote, is how to apply the Fourth Amendment to a new phenomenon: the ability to chronicle a persons past movements through the record of his cellphone signals. Such tracking partakes of many of the qualities of the GPS monitoring we considered in Jones. Much like GPS tracking of a vehicle, cellphone location information is detailed, encyclopedic and effortlessly compiled.Technology companies including Apple, Facebook and Google filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to continue to bring Fourth Amendment law into the modern era. No constitutional doctrine should presume, the brief said, that consumers assume the risk of warrantless government surveillance simply by using technologies that are beneficial and increasingly integrated into modern life.Older Supreme Court decisions offered little protection for information about businesses customers. In 1979, for instance, in Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled that a robbery suspect had no reasonable expectation that his right to privacy extended to the numbers dialed from his landline phone. The court reasoned that the suspect had voluntarily turned over that information to a third party: the phone company.Relying on the Smith decisions third-party doctrine, federal appeals courts have said that government investigators seeking data from cellphone companies showing users movements do not require a warrant.But Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the doctrine is of limited use in the digital age.While the third-party doctrine applies to telephone numbers and bank records, it is not clear whether its logic extends to the qualitatively different category of cell-site records, he wrote. After all, when Smith was decided in 1979, few could have imagined a society in which a phone goes wherever its owner goes, conveying to the wireless carrier not just dialed digits, but a detailed and comprehensive record of the persons movements.When the government tracks the location of a cellphone, the chief justice wrote, it achieves near perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phones user.A federal law, the Stored Communications Act, does require prosecutors to go to court to obtain tracking data, but the showing they must make under the law is not probable cause, the standard for a warrant. Instead, they must demonstrate only that there were specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the records sought are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.That was insufficient, the court ruled. But Chief Justice Roberts emphasized the limits of the decision. It did not address real-time cell tower data, he wrote, or call into question conventional surveillance techniques and tools, such as security cameras.Nor do we address other business records that might incidentally reveal location information, the chief justice wrote. Further, our opinion does not consider other collection techniques involving foreign affairs or national security. | Politics |
Tech FixCredit...Jason Henry for The New York TimesJune 6, 2018Summer travelers who are planning vacations face a modern dilemma: Splurge on a traditional hotel, or potentially save a few bucks by renting someones home on Airbnb?By now, you have probably heard the horror stories about Airbnb, the tech start-up that connects travelers with complete strangers who are making some extra cash by renting out their homes. Scores of guests have groaned about hosts who have canceled reservations at the last minute. Some even say hosts falsely accused them of property damage, demanding compensation. And in rare cases, poorly maintained property has led to deaths.Yet Airbnb is proving an irresistible hotel alternative for travelers. Two million people worldwide stay at an Airbnb rental each night, according to the San Francisco-based company. The perks are enticing: Beyond savings, some homes are more spacious or in a better location than a hotel. But those benefits come with higher risk: You are at the mercy of a host who has less at stake than a commercial business.Fret not, frugal traveler. In a past life, I was a Superhost on Airbnb, meaning I hosted many groups that left me flawless reviews and I am well aware of the shortcuts and loopholes that some dishonest hosts take to maximize their profit at the expense of guests. So heres my advice for ensuring you have a smooth stay at an Airbnb, along with some tips on becoming a well-reviewed guest.Read Listings CarefullyThis may sound obvious, but bear with me: Read dont skim an Airbnb listing. Airbnb hosts and their homes vary widely in quality, and you can learn a great deal just from closely reading the listing and its reviews.Dont automatically assume that an Airbnb offering will have all the perks of a hotel, because, well, its someones house. Many hosts will be transparent in their listing and mention a lack of air-conditioning or a driveway that is difficult to find at night. Other hosts say they have strict house rules for example, no loud parties after 10 p.m. Sometimes, hosts will say up front that the night life on the street outside their home is noisy.Hosts, too, have imperfections, so read guest reviews to learn about them. Perhaps the sheets were dirty or the house was low on toilet paper. I recommend booking only listings with reviews that are at least 90 percent positive.ImageCredit...Jason Henry for The New York TimesIf you can live with an Airbnb lodgings flaws, go ahead and book the reservation. But if you cant, move on to the next listing or consider booking a hotel. Doing research and setting your expectations go a long way to having a good time at an Airbnb.Be Wary of Price FluctuationsTheres something that many Airbnb hosts have in common with hotels: They may raise prices during peak travel seasons. The savviest hosts use dynamic pricing tools that automatically hike prices when demand is likely to be high, similar to Ubers surge pricing.In some cases, Airbnb may be even pricier than a comparable hotel. If you find a listing you love and you are looking to save some cash, there are methods to determine when prices will be lower.By default, an Airbnb listing shows a base price. The simplest way to look at a listings fluctuations is to open its calendar and click on dates that will probably be in high demand, like the Fourth of July or New Years Eve. Weekend prices are also generally higher than weekday prices. From there, you can calculate a modest price for that listing and look for dates with that pricing.Protect YourselfA big trade-off with an Airbnb is theres no security personnel or hotel manager to help when something goes wrong. The onus is on you to protect yourself.For starters, try to keep all your conversations inside Airbnbs messaging app. This is a helpful safeguard in case something goes awry. For example, if a host said in the messaging app that the house is handicapped accessible but you find that it is not, send a photo to the host to complain. Likewise, if something appears to be broken, like the dishwasher, message the host with a photo to document the damage so you arent blamed for it later.If you fail to reach a resolution with the host, you can ask Airbnbs dispute-resolution staff to mediate and all your communications with the host will be visible to Airbnb.Airbnb has some other recommendations: Do a safety check after you enter the house and make sure there is a first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher. If something seems odd, contact the host and then, if necessary, call Airbnbs customer service line.Nick Shapiro, who oversees Airbnbs trust and risk management, said the company takes additional safety measures like performing background checks on American hosts and guests, and all reservations are scored for risk.We work hard to ensure that our guests have a positive and safe experience when traveling with us, he said.To play it extra safe, always have a backup plan. Jot down some attractive hotels near your reservation in case your Airbnb stay falls through. Hosts may cancel reservations for a variety of reasons. I once had to cancel a reservation for a family during the winter when a frozen pipe burst and flooded the house.Be a Good GuestAll of those tips are irrelevant if you cant book on Airbnb in the first place because hosts dont like you. Fortunately, being a superb guest is relatively easy.Jasper Ribbers, a co-author of Get Paid for Your Pad, a book about his experience as an Airbnb Superhost, recommends that guests fill out their profiles with as much detail as possible, including completing verifications of their identity. This helps give a host confidence that you are a real person with nothing to hide.The rest is common sense: Be communicative and polite, follow the house rules and treat the rental as you would a friends home. Thats usually enough to earn you a perfect review from a host.Mr. Ribbers noted that guests sharing a home with the host face more of a challenge. If you are visiting a foreign country, carefully research that countrys religious beliefs or traditions. In Thailand, for example, where people are accustomed to taking off their shoes in the home, its impolite to point your toes at somebody.So make sure your feet are pointing somewhere else, Mr. Ribbers said. Make sure that you understand what the preferences of the host are to make the experience for you and the host good. | Tech |
Out ThereThis weekend an ice cube from beyond our solar system made its closest approach to the sun, trailing mystery and dust.VideoA time-lapse sequence of the comet 2I/Borisov over a seven-hour period. It is the second known interstellar object to enter our solar system, passing through at 110,000 miles per hour. NASA, Images by ESA and J. DePasqualeCreditCredit...Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA, via Associated PressPublished Dec. 7, 2019Updated May 12, 2020It came out of the Northern sky, a frozen breath of gas and dust from the genesis of some distant star, launched across the galaxy by the gravitational maelstroms that accompany the birth of worlds.It wandered in the deep freeze of interstellar space for 100 million years or so, a locked vault of cosmo-chemical history. In spring 2019, this ice cube began falling into our own solar system. Feeble heat from the sun, still distant, loosened carbon monoxide from its surface into a faint, glowing fog; the orphan ice cube became a new comet. Six months later, Gennady Borisov, a Crimean astronomer, saw it drifting in front of the constellation Cancer and sounded the alarm.On Sunday, Dec. 8, the comet that now bears his name 2I Borisov will make a wide turn around the sun and begin heading back out of the solar system. As it departs, it will steadily brighten and grow in size as sunlight continues to shake off the dust from a long, cold sleep. On Dec. 28, the comet will pass 180 million miles from Earth, its closest approach to our planet.This procession is being greeted with hungry eyes by a species only just knocking on the door of interstellar exploration and eager for news from out there.Humanitys most distant artifacts, the two Voyager spacecraft, recently punched through the magnetic bubble that closes off the solar system from the rest of the galaxy. Meanwhile, a band of scientists and engineers are developing an extravagantly ambitious plan, called Breakthrough Starshot, to launch a fleet of butterfly-size probes all the way to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to our own.But whats Out There is already In Here. Nature, generous as ever, has been slinging Scientific CARE packages, as Gregory Laughlin, a Yale astronomer, put it, toward us in the form of interstellar comets.Two years ago, astronomers discovered an interstellar rock called Oumuamua cruising through the solar system. It caused a sensation, exciting talk of alien probes until further study concluded that it was actually a comet with no tail albeit a comet from reaches unknown. Now 2I Borisov has astronomers tingling again, ready to follow its outbound run with their telescopes.ImageCredit...W. O'Mullane/LSST Project/NSF/AURAI think the sense of excitement stems in part from the timing of these discoveries, Dr. Laughlin said. Oumuamua and Borisov, he added, augur well for a new telescope the National Science Foundation is building in Chile called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will sweep the entire sky every few days, producing in effect a movie of the universe.That telescope will be superbly positioned to find more interloper comets, perhaps even in time to send probes to greet them with Deep Impact-style missions. The situation is reminiscent of when the first exoplanets were detected, Dr. Laughlin said. That discovery occurred in 1995, shortly before the Spitzer Space Telescope, which was built without exoplanets in mind, was launched.Astronomers have long suspected that if anything came calling from another star system, it would be comets. New stars and planetary systems are surrounded by vast clouds of icy leftover fragments, so the story goes. These snowballs are easily dislodged by passing stars and knocked hither and fro many inward toward their mother star and its planets, but others outward across the galaxy.Until now, astronomers have lacked telescopes big and sensitive enough to detect them. Now, with telescopes like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and the Pan-STARRS in Hawaii, which discovered Oumuamua, they do.Thus far, the two examples of interstellar comets that humans have observed could not be more different. Oumuamua was mistaken for an asteroid at first because it had no cometary cloud of gas and dust around it, at least that could be seen. But as it was traveling out of sight, small perturbations in its motion suggested that in fact the rock was actually a comet, being pushed around by jets of gas shooting from its surface.ImageCredit...M. Kornmesser/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesEstimates of the objects shape long and cigarlike spurred speculation that it could be an alien probe or even a solar sail. Recent analysis by Sergey Mashchenko, an astrophysicist at McMaster University in Ontario, has concluded that Oumuamua was less a rod than a thin slab rocking back and forth as sunlight and radiation wore it away.It was vanishing as it went away, like a bar of soap in the shower, Dr. Laughlin said.Borisov, in contrast, is thriving, sprouting a typically bushy, radiant tail. As a comet, it would be utterly ordinary if not for its origin. Nothing about Borisov is weird, Dr. Laughlin said. With Oumuamua, everything was weird.Borisov looked like a comet from the start, enveloped in a cloud of gas, which is what enabled Mr. Borisov to recognize it so quickly. And everything the visitor has done since then has suggested that at least some comets out there are more or less like our neighborhood comets.Mr. Borisovs comet underwent an astronomical rite of passage of sorts in October, when the Hubble Space Telescope got a good look at it: a white knuckle at the head of a bluish fan of light.Subsequent observations by telescopes on Earth have confirmed the presence of alien water and carbon monoxide as well as a growing list of chemicals from another part of the universe. As of Nov. 24, the comets tail had grown to 100,000 miles long. The comets nucleus is only a mile across. Early in November, the Gemini observatory spotted the wanderer passing about a billion light-years in front of a spiral galaxy romantically known as 2dFgrS TGN363Z174, said Travis Rector, an astronomer from the University of Alaska Anchorage who was involved in taking the photograph. As if to tease us humans with a reminder of places unknown and unvisitable, the backdrop to the portrait is speckled with faint smudges of even more distant galaxies and stars.ImageCredit...NSFs National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/NSF/AURA/Gemini ObservatoryWhen December began, 2I Borisov was drifting through the constellation Crater. Its brightness in astronomical terms was magnitude 16, far too faint for the naked eye or even binoculars, but accessible to a modest telescope and a CCD camera. (You can track it in real time at SkyLive.) The comet is expected reach a peak brightness of about magnitude 15 around Dec. 20, plus or minus a week, according Quanzhi Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and another in the network of observers following the comet.The comet came from the general direction of Cassiopeia and will exit the Solar System through the southern constellation Telescopium, Dr. Ye said.But this is only the beginning of comet-tracking season, he added. Astronomers will be following Borisov through at least the end of next year. Anything could happen on this watch. As comets approach the sun, geysers of vaporized ice, gas and dust can spring forth. Subsurface gas can heat up and explode, ejecting huge plumes of dust, which would make the comet much brighter and more visible.ImageCredit...via Gennady BorisovSolar system comets often (but not always) display outbursts near perihelion, Dr. Laughlin said in a recent email. But so far Borisov has been boring in this regard. One of the astronomers waiting for action is Cheng-Han Hsieh, a colleague of Dr. Laughlin at Yale, who has been monitoring the comet daily with a worldwide network of robotic telescopes called the Las Cumbres Observatory, which has its headquarters in Goleta, Calif. Dr. Hsieh and his colleagues are also planning to observe the comet with a set of radio antennas, at Green Bank Observatory, the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the ALMA array in Chile, standing by for an outburst. Radio observations might be particularly revealing, Mr. Hsieh said. They could shed light on an age-old issue of whether this comet, as it tracks through our neighborhood, is shedding more than just dust and ice including, for instance, complex organic molecules that optimistic astrobiologists call prebiotic. The data could also reveal the signatures of the different isotopes of the atoms locked in Borisovs ice, which in turn might say something about the origin of the comet. What kind of star formed nearby? Was a supernova involved? With luck, we might learn which of those reddish smudges in the cosmic background our visitor once called home. | science |
On Politics With Lisa LererAfter years of excusing or ignoring President Trumps most inflammatory rhetoric, many Republicans are backing away at the last minute.Jan. 9, 2021Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your wrap-up of the week in national politics. Im Lisa Lerer, your host.Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday.ImageCredit...Jonathan Ernst/ReutersFirst came the mobs deadly rioting. Then the G.O.P.s reputation laundering.With less than two weeks left in the Trump administration, a number of Republicans are experiencing some last-minute revelations about the presidents character, inflammatory rhetoric and polarizing leadership of the country.All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. Ive tried to be helpful, said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of President Trumps strongest allies, who once promised earth-shattering revelations of voter fraud that he falsely argued had cost Mr. Trump the election. Now, after the violent breach of the Capitol this past week, Mr. Graham is refusing to rule out using the 25th Amendment to strip his former friend of his presidential powers.Mr. Graham is far from alone in scurrying away from all the praise hes lavished on the president over the past four years. As a shaken Washington recovered from the violent attack on the Capitol, Republicans embraced the traditional tools of political self-preservation, offering resignations and strongly worded letters, anonymously sourced accounts of shouting matches and after-the-fact public condemnations.Administration officials anonymously spread the word, through Axios, that they would defy any requests from Mr. Trump that they believe would put the nation at risk or break the law, raising the obvious question of whether they would have carried out illegal or dangerous orders over the past four years.Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos quit their posts, saying they were deeply troubled by the presidents handling of the riot. Ms. Chao, its worth noting, stood next to Mr. Trump at the 2017 news conference where he insisted that both sides deserved blame after white supremacists incited deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.At least seven lower-ranking members of the Trump administration also resigned, while many more fretted that they would be unemployable.Now it will always be, Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government, said Mick Mulvaney, the presidents former acting chief of staff who resigned Wednesday as special envoy to Northern Ireland.Mr. Mulvaney told CNBC that the president was not the same as he was eight months ago, when they spoke more frequently. Left unstated was whether Mr. Trump was the same as he was four years ago, when Mr. Mulvaney called him a terrible human being ahead of the 2016 election.Mr. Mulvaneys journey with the president highlights one of the most striking features of the ongoing Republican revisionism. Many in the G.O.P. warned publicly during the 2016 campaign that Mr. Trump was fomenting exactly the kind of violence that the country witnessed on Wednesday concerns that were quickly set aside once he took office.Of course, some Republican officials may be truly horrified by Mr. Trumps egging on of his supporters on Wednesday and his refusal to take immediate action to stop a violent takeover of the Capitol. Many of those same Republicans frequently offered private condemnations of his actions throughout his presidency objections they studiously kept off the record.But with less than 275 hours left in the Trump presidency, its hard not to see the political posturing embedded in their now-public condemnations.Many inside and outside Washington are setting their sights on the new political reality to come with a Democratic-controlled government. After years of declining to police Mr. Trumps falsehood-filled and threatening social media posts, Twitter on Friday permanently suspended his @realDonaldTrump account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. Mark Zuckerberg had earlier barred the president from Facebook and Instagram through at least the end of his term.Many of Mr. Zuckerbergs employees noted that Democrats had secured control of the Senate before he took the action.But at this point, its an open question whether any powerful Republicans will pay a serious price for their implicit or explicit support of Mr. Trumps inflammatory rhetoric and dalliances with violence. So far, the penalties seem to be measured mostly in bad media coverage.Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who championed efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election, was publicly disowned by his political mentor, disavowed by some of his donors and dropped by his book publisher a move he blamed on a woke mob. Other elected Republicans were condemned by their hometown newspapers in scathing editorials. Cracks even emerged in Rupert Murdochs media empire as The Wall Street Journals editorial page, which has been a regular Trump cheerleader for years, called on the president to resign.Meanwhile, Democrats are pressing for resignations and permanent bans from the public sector for Trump aides, supporters and allies. Many would like to see criminal prosecutions once President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Some are even pushing to rid the federal government of all political appointees and civil servants who supported Mr. Trump.Its unclear whether Mr. Biden will back such efforts. Tough investigations into the previous administration could complicate his campaign promise to unite the country and his ability to get Republican support for his legislative goals. On Friday, he avoided expressing views on specific punitive actions, saying that hed leave those judgments to his Justice Department and that voters should determine the future of politicians like Mr. Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, another Trump ally who backed the effort to overturn the election results.For all the Republicans attempting to distance themselves from the president, 147 of them still voted to reject the results even after the siege of the Capitol. Since then, a segment of the party has embarked upon an effort to reshape reality, downplaying the violence and suggesting that far-left activists had infiltrated the crowd and posed as fans of the president.This is obviously ridiculous: The rioters discussed plans to invade the Capitol for weeks in public social media posts. And Mr. Trump didnt blame antifa for the rampage instead, he told the mob, We love you. Still, those claims will echo through right-wing media, major news sources for the large number of activists and voters who remain loyal to Mr. Trump.Some Republicans may be trying to jump off the Trump train at the final station. But theyve already spent years helping fuel the engine.Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.Thanks for reading. On Politics is your guide to the political news cycle, delivering clarity from the chaos.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]. | Politics |
VideotranscripttranscriptTurning Oil Rigs Into ReefsEnvironmentalists disagree over whether outdated oil rigs off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., can become an addition to the marine ecosystem.NAEnvironmentalists disagree over whether outdated oil rigs off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., can become an addition to the marine ecosystem.March 7, 2016EUREKA OIL PLATFORM OFF CALIFORNIA COAST Eight miles off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., the oil rig Eureka, which has stood here for 40 years, is a study in contrasts. From a distance, it looks like just another offshore platform, an artifact of the modern industrial landscape.But beneath the waves, the Eureka and other rigs like it in the area are home to a vast and thriving community of sea life that some scientists say is one of the richest marine ecosystems on the planet.They are more productive than coral reefs, more productive than estuaries, said Milton Love, a professor of marine biology at the University of California Santa Barbara. It just turns out by chance that platforms have a lot of animals that are growing really quickly.Dr. Love, who has published research on marine life at offshore drilling sites, said the location of these rigs in marine-protected areas in a cold current that swoops down from British Columbia have made them perfect habitats for fish and other sea life.ImageCredit...Joe PlatkoScientists and divers have been aware of the abundant life here for years, but a 2014 paper that Dr. Love co-wrote, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirmed what many experts had already suspected: that most of the life was actually created at the rig rather than having come from other parts of the ocean and settled around the massive concrete pylons.For some of these major economic species like the rockfishes, theres no question that there are more of them out in Southern California waters because the platform is there, Dr. Love said.This insight is adding momentum to efforts to convert some of these rigs into artificial reefs once they are decommissioned. Blue Latitudes, an organization founded in 2014 by two young scientists with degrees from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, is trying to increase awareness of the value of rigs as permanent homes for sea life.I think its time for us to step outside the box and think creatively about the resources we have, said Amber Jackson, an oceanographer and conservation biologist who co-founded Blue Latitudes with Emily Callahan, a marine scientist. To lose these ecosystems just because they are on an oil platform structure, I feel, is shortsighted.While so-called rig-to-reef programs in the Gulf of Mexico have existed for decades more than 400 rigs have been approved for conversion since 1985 the idea of leaving rigs in place as reefs is controversial in California. So far, none off the coast of California have been converted into artificial reefs.Its seen as something which benefits the oil industry, and opposing the oil industry is the role taken by many environmental groups, said George Steinbach, the executive director of the California Artificial Reef Enhancement program, a nonprofit advocacy organization funded by the oil industry.The Eureka, owned by the Houston-based oil company Beta Offshore, is one of 27 oil rigs off the California coast. Several major oil spills have occurred since they were built half a century ago, giving rise to a passionate environmental movement that has long advocated complete removal of the rigs.People here have been waiting for these oil platforms to go away, said Linda Krop, an environmental lawyer with the Environmental Defense Center, an advocacy group based in Santa Barbara, where several offshore rigs can be easily seen from shore.Ms. Krop disagreed that the science is settled on the role of the rigs in fostering marine life. Regardless, she said, leaving the rigs up would be tantamount to rewarding polluters with the windfall of not having to pay to remove them.When they built those platforms, that was a cost that they took into effect, she said.An enormous oil spill in 1969 released 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude, leaving a slick over 40 miles of coastline and killing thousands of animals. The spill was national news and gave rise to powerful anti-drilling movement here.Subsequent spills have hardened opponents resolve. In 2015, a pipeline owned by Plains All American Pipeline sprung a leak that released 3,400 barrels of crude into the ocean, fouling several newly created marine protected areas.It was like dj vu all over again, said Kathryn Phillips, the director of Sierra Club California. I saw what it looked like, what it smelled like, and it was heartbreaking.But over the last decade or so, divers and scientists have discovered that the rigs harbor an unexpected bounty of life. Just beneath the surface at the Eureka rig, sea lions prowl in the crystal clear waters; half a dozen species of rockfish and bright orange Garibaldi swim in the swift currents; and florid carpets of invertebrates and crustaceans cling to the rigs pylons.Its the most amazing diving that Ive ever done, said Ashleigh Palinkas, a San Diego-based conservation biologist who came out to dive the rigs last October. Its like an oasis. The structure itself is really impressive. It gives you a sense of total weightlessness.Over the last few years, word has spread about the pleasures of diving the rigs. In 2014, Ms. Jackson and Ms. Callahan started advocating to allow oil companies to keep large sections of many of the rigs in place after they are no longer functioning.The process of removing a rig and cleaning the site, known as decommissioning, is complicated and expensive, and includes plugging and cementing wells to make them safe. A total decommissioning means the removal of the entire structure. In a typical rigs-to-reefs effort, only the top portion of the rig is removed, usually to a depth of about 80 feet, so that they dont pose any risk to ship hulls. The rest of the rig remains in place as a haven for sea life and for recreational diving or fishing.California has a law that allows rigs to be converted into reefs. In 2010, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill to allow partial decommissioning of rigs, but it immediately encountered resistance from some environmental groups that considered it too favorable to the energy industry.Companies never took advantage of the law anyway, industry experts say, in part because they found the laws requirements too byzantine and onerous. Another reason was that until recently, oil prices were high enough to justify keeping the rigs in place.But that may be changing. And an amendment to the 2010 law, seeking to streamline the approval process, was introduced in the California legislature last year and will be debated this year.I think with the current oil-price scenarios, there is an opportunity to try and establish a workable rigs-to-reefs program, Mr. Steinbach said, adding that many rigs were nearing the end of their productive lives, raising questions about their ultimate fate.The potential savings to the oil industry from converting all of the rigs off California to reefs, rather than removing them, could be more than $1 billion, by one estimate. But under the law, oil companies would be required to put at least half of the money they save into state coffers to fund conservation programs. That has some groups here speaking out in favor of the rigs-to-reefs program.Nobody wants to see more oil spills, said Mary Gleason, the lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy in California. But in some cases it may make more sense and have more environmental benefits if we could do a partial decommissioning and use any cost savings to fund more ocean conservation and management, and fill some of the important funding gaps we have in the state to manage ocean resources. | science |
Credit...Alex Hofford/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 23, 2018HONG KONG It was meant to be a peoples bridge a catalyst for Chinas efforts to draw Hong Kong and Macau closer to the mainland.But for the residents of the quiet Hong Kong suburb of Tung Chung, the initial fanfare following the opening of the worlds longest sea bridge last month has quickly given way to frustration. Its an early sign that it will take more than a 34-mile megastructure to overcome the resentment that is festering between Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese.Nearly a million mainland tourists have crossed the new bridge into Hong Kong in the month since it opened. Most of these tourists have then poured out of buses in Tung Chung, a mostly residential town close to the port with a population of about 45,000, for a quick shopping stop before returning home.The sudden influx of mainland Chinese has sparked a litany of complaints among Tung Chungs residents.Here they were, the locals complained, buying up all the infant formula and medicated oils in the local pharmacy. There they were, camping out at its doorstep and loitering in the shopping mall plaza. There was litter everywhere. The lines were longer. The noise levels were louder.They even brought their own food and snacks, locals sniffed, a telltale sign that these people from the bridge, as one person described them, were low-end tourists.ImageCredit...Alex Hofford/EPA, via ShutterstockI dont mind tourists from overseas or even mainland China, said Erica Wong, 46, a Hong Kong native and Tung Chung resident. But not that kind of tourist, if you know what I mean.Tensions peaked earlier this month when local activists showed up at the Citygate Outlets, a mall that has become the central gathering point in Tung Chung for the tourists. The activists sought to root out unlicensed tour groups by surrounding group leaders and demanding to see their operating permits. Using bullhorns, they gruffly urged elderly tourists resting on shop ledges to stand up.Shouting matches erupted between the activists and a local pro-Beijing group that had also showed up. Two people were arrested.There are so many mainland tourists invading our lifestyle and living space and we cannot tolerate that, said Roy Tam, a local activist who helped organize the protests. They are coming to our shops and buying baby milk powder, medicine and even menstruation pads. How could they buy those things in Hong Kong? They should buy them in their own cities.Not all locals were comfortable with how the tourists were being treated. Siu Wai-hay, 72, shook his head at the activists, saying they shouldnt humiliate the mainlanders.Were all Chinese people with yellow skin. Why are you discriminating against your own people? he asked, suggesting that more chairs be set up to accommodate the visitors.Still, the tensions in Tung Chung are the latest expression of growing concerns in Hong Kong about the mainlands growing influence in the semiautonomous city. Much of the anger has been directed toward the government in Beijing, but there has been no shortage of complaints about mainland Chinese over the years.Middle-class families and younger residents in particular have felt the squeeze as mainland Chinese have poured money into Hong Kong, sending prices and rents soaring.Some activists who argue that Hong Kong has a unique identity that needs to be protected known as localists have advocated independence for the city, a topic that has become increasingly taboo. At times, they have used rhetoric seen by many as bigoted, calling mainlanders locusts and invaders and using a derogatory term, Chee-na, instead of saying China.Fueling the resentment, experts say, is a widespread feeling that the vision originally laid out for Hong Kong residents in 1997, when the former British colony was transferred to Chinese rule, is quickly slipping away.Before 1997, the Hong Kong people believed that we were more advanced in terms of economic development and that China would make adjustments to be more like us, said Ray Yep, a professor of politics at the City University of Hong Kong. But no one expected China to grow that fast, and now its turned the other way around. We have realized that if we want to engage China, we are the ones that will have to make adjustments.The growing hostility between local residents and mainland Chinese has resulted in confrontations around the city, particularly on university campuses and in border towns like Tung Chung.ImageCredit...Kin Cheung/Associated PressMany mainland Chinese in Hong Kong have said they make an effort to speak English instead of Mandarin Chinese, believing that Mandarin speakers are often treated worse by locals.Some, like Liu Chang, 34, who moved to Hong Kong with her family from the mainland two years ago, say they sympathize with the locals.Ms. Liu recalled visiting the border town of Sheung Shui, which in 2012 was the site of angry protests over a competition for resources driven by the towns many parallel traders, who evaded taxes by buying goods to sell at a profit over the border.Seeing those traders, the litter on the ground and the suitcases blocking the path, she said, helped her understand why many Hong Kong residents had a negative view of mainland Chinese.It has really impacted their livelihood, I felt it very clearly, so I can understand where they are coming from, she said.But for some mainland Chinese, the backlash has only hardened the view that locals were not sufficiently grateful for the economic boost the mainland had given Hong Kong over the years.ImageCredit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMainland tourists accounted for three-quarters of all tourism to Hong Kong last year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Association.We are forgetting that Hong Kongs wealth didnt come from heaven, said Timothy Chui, director of the tourism association.In Tung Chung, many of the tourists have been arriving on day packages, paying mainland tour operators $14 to $72 for a ticket to ride the bus across the bridge and do some shopping before heading back to the mainland at night.He Shun, a retiree, paid $70 just to see the new bridge. Like others in his group, he had packed biscuits and fruit so he wouldnt have to spend money at the restaurants.Were not really here to buy anything, only to see the bridge and take a walk around, Mr. He said.In recent days, the local government has moved to divert tourists away from Tung Chung to other parts of the city. Tourism authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou issued an urgent notice this week saying that they would crack down on unregistered tour guides organizing trips to Hong Kong. The notice also told registered tour groups to avoid departing on weekends if possible.Experts say the measures provide short-term relief but do little to dispel the rising sense of helplessness among many Hong Kong residents.Deep in our hearts we know that Hong Kongs integration with China is important in an economic sense, said Mr. Yep, the professor. Its going to happen anyway we are a local government, so you cant avoid China.On the other hand, we are frustrated in many ways, he added. So we try to find a middle ground. | World |
O.J. Simpson Fred Goldman Loses Over Autograph Signing 1/30/2018 -- There was a hearing in L.A. Tuesday morning ... and the judge just made the ruling in Simpson's favor official. Score one for O.J. Simpson, who just won a legal round against Fred Goldman over autograph signing. Ron Goldman's dad went to court to get an order forcing anyone who profited from O.J. Simpson signing autographs to turn over the proceeds to him to satisfy the $33 million civil judgement that has swelled to $70 million. The judge has tentatively ruled Goldman messed up by failing to name specific people who profited. TMZ broke the story ... Simpson held a secret autograph session back in October -- signing helmets and other items -- and Goldman believes the man who killed his son profited from it. | Entertainment |
Credit...Bas Czerwinski/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 19, 2017Airborne drones carrying defibrillators could help revive people stricken by cardiac arrests far more quickly than ambulances can, a new study finds.Swedish researchers found that drones launched from a local fire station arrived within about five minutes at the homes of 18 people who had experienced cardiac arrests almost 17 minutes faster on average than ambulances.Heart attacks result from blockages in blood flow to the heart. Cardiac arrests are caused by disturbances in the hearts electrical rhythm, which impede blood flow or stop the heart altogether.In the United States, most cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital. The overwhelming majority of these patients do not survive. (A.P.) | Health |
N.B.A.|Bench Empty, the Lakers Are Saved by a Technicalityhttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/sports/basketball/hobbled-by-injuries-and-with-bench-empty-lakers-are-saved-by-a-technicality.htmlCredit...Mark Duncan/Associated PressFeb. 6, 2014There were 3 minutes 32 seconds remaining in the Lakers game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday when Los Angeles center Robert Sacre committed his sixth foul. Would the Lakers, who at the time had only five healthy players, be forced to play four on five? When I got my sixth foul, I was just like, Oh, dang! Sacre told reporters. Then I got to come back in, so I thought it was something special. I didnt know what was going on. While Sacre was confused, many fans watching on television probably wondered whether they were about to watch an N.B.A. game end in C.Y.O. pickup style. The officials, however, quickly informed Lakers Coach Mike DAntoni of a rule that is rarely invoked: No team can have fewer than five players on the court. So DAntoni could leave Sacre in the game, but any foul he committed would result in a technical foul.That was, by far, one of the strangest games Ive ever seen, DAntoni said. I didnt know about that rule, but its a nice rule. ImageCredit...Mark Duncan/Associated PressThe Lakers predicament started before the game: They had only eight players available. In the first half, Nick Young twisted his left knee, and Chris Kaman fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Then Jordan Farmar was sidelined with leg cramps, leaving the Lakers with five healthy players.Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, Jordan Hill and Jodie Meeks did not dress, all because of injuries.The situation grew even more bizarre when Nash quickly changed into uniform from street clothes and went back to the bench.I was not going to Nash it was not an option for us but the other thing we talked about was having Jordan go out there and just stand in the corner, DAntoni told reporters. When the officials came over to explain the options to me, we decided to keep Robert out there. I knew he would be smart and not commit.The Elias Sports Bureau could not confirm the last time a team was in such a predicament because there is no statistic for a team that has to play a player who, technically, fouled out of a game.Fortunately for the Lakers, Sacre did not commit another foul, and the Lakers won, 119-108. | Sports |
Science|What will it cost to fly on New Shepard?https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/science/cost-to-fly-blue-origin-bezos.htmlCredit...Blue Origin, via Associated PressPublished July 20, 2021Updated Oct. 13, 2021For the first flight, Blue Origin auctioned off one of the seats with the proceeds going to Mr. Bezos space-focused nonprofit, Club for the Future. The winning bid was $28 million, an amount that stunned even Blue Origin officials, far higher than they had hoped. Blue Origin announced it will distribute $19 million of that to 19 space-related organizations $1 million each.The 7,600 people who participated in the auction provided Blue Origin with a list of prospective paying customers, and the company has started selling tickets for subsequent flights.Blue Origin has declined to say what the price is or how many people have signed up, but representatives of the company say there is strong demand.Our early flights are going for a very good price, Bob Smith, the chief executive of Blue Origin, said during a news conference on Sunday.During the auction for the seat on Tuesdays flight, the company said that auction participants could buy a seat on subsequent flights. It has not publicly stated what it charged those who placed bids, or how many seats have been sold.Ariane Cornell, director of astronaut and orbital sales at Blue Origin, said that two additional flights are planned for this year. So we have already built a robust pipeline of customers that are interested, she said.Virgin Galactic, the other company offering suborbital flights, has about 600 people who have already bought tickets. The price was originally $200,000 and later raised to $250,000, but Virgin Galactic stopped sales in 2014 after a crash of its first space plane during a test flight. Virgin Galactic officials say they will resume sales later this year, and the price will likely be higher than $250,000. | science |
Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesJune 2, 2018WASHINGTON When President Trump unveiled his plan to lower prescription drug prices in a Rose Garden speech last month, he said he would inject more competition into the market by bolstering negotiating powers under Medicare. But experts analyzing the plan warn of a possible side effect: The proposal could significantly increase out-of-pocket costs for some of the sickest people on Medicare.At the heart of the presidents plan is a proposal to switch some expensive drugs from one part of Medicare to another part moving them from Part B, the medical benefit created in the original 1965 Medicare law, to Part D, the outpatient drug benefit added by Congress in 2003.Under Part D, the government contracts with private health insurance companies to manage the benefit and negotiate discounts with drugmakers. There is no such negotiation for the drugs covered by Part B, which are administered by infusion or injection in doctors offices or hospital outpatient departments.But Medicare beneficiaries typically pay a larger share of the costs for Part D drugs. Many beneficiaries have supplemental insurance, such as a Medigap policy, to help pay their share of the bill for drugs covered under Part B. Medigap policies are not allowed to cover Part D expenses.AARP, the lobby for older Americans, and advocates for cancer patients are already expressing concerns. The problems are not inevitable, they say, but will be difficult to solve.People may see a lot higher out-of-pocket costs if a drug moves from Part B to Part D, said David M. Certner, the legislative policy director of AARP.Under Part B, beneficiaries are generally responsible for 20 percent of the Medicare-approved charges for drugs and doctors services, but the most popular Medigap policies cover the beneficiarys share. By contrast, in Part D, beneficiaries may be responsible for 30 percent of the cost of some drugs, or more, depending on the terms of coverage set by their drug plan.Another potential problem is that nine million Medicare beneficiaries who are enrolled in Part B do not have drug coverage under Part D. The White House has not said how their drug bills would be paid.Administration officials and Republicans in Congress often describe Part D proposed by President George W. Bush and pushed through Congress by Republicans as a success that shows the value of competition. Benefits are delivered entirely by competing private health plans.President Trump has called on us to merge Medicare Part B into Part D, where negotiation has been so successful on so many drugs, said Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services.Dr. Steven B. Miller, the chief medical officer of Express Scripts, one of the nations largest pharmacy benefit managers, said he was confident that his company could save money for beneficiaries and the government if it could manage drugs now covered by Part B of Medicare.Part D has been under budget every year, and member satisfaction is extraordinarily high, Dr. Miller said. Its a very successful program. Thats why people are excited about moving drugs into Part D.Doctors, however, have doubts that shifting drugs from Part B to Part D of Medicare would bring the promised savings.If I were a policymaker, I might think it was a good idea, said Dr. Jeffery C. Ward, an oncologist at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Edmonds, Wash. But as a physician, Im convinced that it could be a disaster if done wrong. Im not convinced that switching those drugs will save the government any money. I dont think the Part D plans can dicker a better price than the average sales price now used as a basis for payment in Part B.Andrea J. Zlatkus, the practice manager for a group of rheumatologists in West Chester, Pa., was also skeptical. The prices of Part D drugs have increased over the years at a much faster rate than the prices of Part B drugs that we use for treatment of our patients, she said.Cancer drugs are one of six protected classes of drugs in Part D of Medicare. Prescription drug insurance plans must cover all or substantially all of these drugs.That may limit the ability of Part D plans to negotiate deals, said John F. Hoadley, a research professor at Georgetown University. Oncologists tend to expect access to most or all available treatments, so it would be harder politically to remove protection from that class.Dr. Ward, the oncologist, said: Part D has been helpful in lowering prices for senior citizens when there are generic alternatives or lots of competing drugs from which to choose. But in cancer care, we often have few choices. You cant exclude a drug if its the only right drug for a patient.The public has until July 16 to comment on ideas in Mr. Trumps blueprint and to recommend drugs that could be moved to Part D.Mr. Trump has proposed one change that would clearly help Medicare beneficiaries, especially those with high drug costs. He wants Congress to put a limit on beneficiaries out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs under Part D.Medicares catastrophic coverage generally kicks in after patients have spent $5,000 of their own money on drugs under Part D. They are then responsible for about 5 percent of any additional drug costs, and those bills quickly add up if a person is taking drugs that cost tens of thousands of dollars a year.Most cancer drugs launched between 2009 and 2014 were priced at more than $100,000 per patient for one year of treatment, the Presidents Cancer Panel, an independent federal advisory committee, said in a recent report, which noted that newer cancer drugs were even more expensive.Mr. Trump wants to give Part D plans more tools to manage the use of prescription drugs, including expensive specialty drugs and medicines in the six protected classes.That suggests that Medicare patients could face new limits or controls on their use of prescription drugs techniques widely used in commercial health plans.Many of the medicines in Part B are high-cost biologic drugs made from living cells. Shifting their coverage to Part D could speed the adoption of less expensive copycat medicines known as biosimilars. Indeed, that may be one of the administrations objectives, said Ronny Gal, a securities analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.The Department of Health and Human Services has previously considered the idea of shifting coverage of drugs from Part B to Part D, but concluded that the switch would be difficult.Such a change would not be desirable for most categories of Part B drugs, but may be worth considering for a limited number of categories, the department said in a 2005 report to Congress. A study in 2011 projected higher out-of-pocket costs for patients and said this could impede beneficiary access to needed medication. | Politics |
Credit...James Hill for The New York TimesFeb. 20, 2014SOCHI, Russia As the fans roared in the background at a recent curling match here, the Swedish skip, Margaretha Sigfridsson, examined the smattering of stones on the ice, her red hair pulled back and her face stern. Her team trailed Russia by 2 points in the third end. Sigfridsson, known for her active vocal cords on the ice, belted out Gooooooo as her three teammates glided toward her, but they were paying more attention to the calm movement of her hands, a wave to the left and a flick of the broom to the right, indicating her desired destination for the stone. Sigfridsson was relying on the chief language of curlers: hand signals, which have been more important than ever at this tournament. The Olympic curling competition in Sochi a relentless 10-team round robin staged over 11 days may set a record for loudness in a sport in which athletes are used to hearing only the hum of their stones gliding over the ice. At the Ice Cube Curling Center, noisemakers, air horns and voices ring out in an echo-prone arena, often at inconvenient times. Curling etiquette usually dictates quiet when a curler delivers a stone. Curling requires the ability to communicate with teammates at the other end of a 150-foot-long sheet of ice. But hand signals are second nature to most elite teams and are playing a crucial role here. Sitting in the hack during my last shot, I actually couldnt hear myself think, Britains skip, Eve Muirhead, said after a game against Russia on Monday. Muirhead credited the teams use of basic hand signals in a 9-6 victory. Britain went on to win the womens bronze medal on Thursday. Canada went through the tournament unbeaten and won the gold over Sweden.I was just hoping there wasnt a really important line call where the sweepers would have to hear me scream, Muirhead said, because theres absolutely no way they would have heard me.Arena managers in Sochi anticipated the noise problem and worked with the World Curling Federation to create Shhhh videos that play on screens in the Ice Cube, but to little avail. I think it was definitely harder when the Russian audience was there and the Russian girls were playing, the Swedish curler Maria Wennerstrom said. Of course, we prefer to talk to each other and hear each other, but we manage anyway. Unlike on-field communication in sports like football, curling signals are used in the open and are relatively standard from one team to another. Curlers may point high or low on their bodies to indicate how far to push a stone, a touch to the head indicating the desire for a hard chuck of the stone, a touch to the feet a softer delivery. Some teams use numbers to mark off the area beyond the hog line (the area with the big bulls-eye at the end): 1 is close to the hog line, and 9 or 10 close to the backboard. With the simple wave of a number of digits, teammates know precisely where in relation to the button, or the bulls-eye, to place a stone. For a draw a cast stone that does not hit another most skips use a broom to indicate where a teammate should place it. For a takeout when a stone bumps out an opponents a skip taps the enemys stone and holds the broom on the desired line. All of this must be executed delicately because it is forbidden for a broom or a foot to touch a stone in motion. Keith Wendorf, the director of competitions for the sports governing body, the World Curling Federation, said he was torn about what to do about the noise at the arena. On one hand, it represents precisely the kind of enthusiasm the sport aspires to cultivate. On the other, there is an etiquette, he said, noting that many fans dont know whats going on. People come for the Olympic spirit, and they come in and theyre only cheering for their country, Wendorf said. In other sports, youre yelling and screaming and constantly trying to motivate your team. Inadvertently, they hurt their own teams. They make so much noise in the hack that they cant concentrate and think about what theyre trying to do. Even with hand signals in use, many of the curlers here are unable to resist the urge to scream their lungs out as they gesture. In curling, you cant hit anyone, said Colleen Jones, an elite curler and a television commentator on the sport. In hockey, you can check someone. In curling, you yell. Thats where the adrenaline of the game comes from. When hands and brooms fail, Rasmus Stjerne of Denmark offers a piercing whistle to his teammates. You can definitely hear it, his teammate Johnny Frederiksen said. Its a good signal because youre not in any doubt whether its him or anyone else yelling. The American skip, John Shuster, cited the noise as part of a verbal miscommunication to his vice skip, Jeff Isaacson, in his final throw against Russia. The draw just missed its target and gave Russia a 7-6 win. There its curlers watching curling, and here its Russian Olympic fans cheering for Russia, Shuster said. You get this no other place than the Olympics. | Sports |
Europe|A Putin Opponent Is Doused in Green. He Makes It Work.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/europe/russia-alexei-navalny-green.htmlCredit...Alexei Navalny, via Associated PressMarch 20, 2017During Russias surreptitious invasion of Crimea, much was made of the little green men, soldiers without insignia who turned out to be Russian regulars.On Monday there was a new green man albeit one of a decidedly different political hue the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was doused with a bright green liquid in the Siberian city of Barnaul by an unknown assailant who had pretended to shake his hand.Mr. Navalny wrote on his Facebook page that he initially feared an acid attack after feeling a burning sensation. But relief appears to have given way to exaltation after he realized that the bright green liquid not only would not harm him, but even made him look like a superhero in his eyes, anyway. He can be seen mugging for the camera in a selfie taken after the fact.Referring to masked heroes in Hollywood films in a post on Twitter, he wrote: I will be opening a headquarters in Barnaul as if I am from the film The Mask! Cool. Even my teeth are green!Mr. Navalny, a charismatic critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, was a major driver of large street protests in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and has irked the Kremlin by shining a light on corruption. His bid to run for president of Russia was effectively derailed in February when a Russian court revived a four-year-old criminal conviction for defrauding a state company.But he has continued to campaign, with his supporters saying the charges against him are politically motivated.It turns out that being attacked with green substances is something of an occupational hazard for outspoken opponents of Mr. Putin. Late last month, Mikhail M. Kasyanov, another Putin critic, was spattered with green paint at a march in memory of the politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed on a Moscow bridge two years ago.After the Siberia incident, some Navalny supporters showed solidarity by painting their faces green and posting on Twitter (Alexey, Kazan headquarters is with you! We support!), and one prominent blogger was detained after being seen on Red Square with his face and hands painted green.Undeterred after the latest incident, Mr. Navalny suggested that his new look would help him stand out at rallies. Perhaps he was thinking of Britains Queen Elizabeth II, who wears pastel outfits and colorful hats to help onlookers spot her in a crowd.This strange assumption of the Kremlin: to pour brilliant green on me so that I dont travel around the country and call rallies, he wrote on Facebook. Its way cooler that way. Barnaul and Biysk volunteers (where we are opening two campaign headquarters these days) will get the most stylish selfies ever, and Ill be the star of any rally.He did, however, seem more concerned about his new green teeth. Lemon wont help you remove brilliant green, he wrote. Formic acid is way better. But Ill remain light-green for quite some time. What worries me is my teeth. They are also green so far, but I hope theyll discolor.Whatever his new appearance, he showed little sign of backing down. Our plans dont change, he wrote on Facebook. On 26th, turn out for rallies. | World |
(Sony)2009 (Apple)(Qualcomm) 2000 2016 iPhoneMate 10 TechInsights2.852% More on NYTimes.com | World |
Jordan Clarkson Hey, LeBron ... Pick Lonzo in the All-Star Draft 1/22/2018 TMZSports.com Here's Lakers star Jordan Clarkson doing his best LaVar Ball impression -- saying Lonzo Ball should be LeBron's 1st pick in the All-Star draft ... even though he ain't an All-Star. Right. We got Clarkson at Delilah over the weekend ... and asked him straight-up who Bron's #1 selection should be when him and Steph Curry choose their squad members later this week. Apparently, Jordan didn't get the memo that you gotta be an actual All-Star to qualify. Or, more likely, he just wanted to plug Lonzo and his venerable fashion brand ... with the help of the BBB entourage (which we're guessing JC inherits whenever Zo's out). The Ball-father would be proud. | Entertainment |
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said on Sunday that the virus was still a threat, but that people needed to decide for themselves what risks to take.Credit...Ashley Landis/Associated PressPublished April 10, 2022Updated April 11, 2022The uptick in new U.S. coronavirus cases in recent days is concerning, Dr.AnthonyS.Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, said Sunday. But he suggested that the rise was not yet cause for alarm and that officials were monitoring it very, very carefully.Across the country, there are an average of more than 31,000 new virus cases being reported each day, as of Sunday, a 3 percent increase from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database. But some regions and cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C., are experiencing sharper increases, though their average number of new cases remains far below peaks during the recent winter surge. In New York City, cases have increased nearly 40 percent over the past two weeks as of Sunday, and several officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, and Broadway stars have recently tested positive.Several lawmakers and Biden administration officials in Washington have recently tested positive, too. On Sunday, Representative Jackie Speier of California announced on Twitter that she had tested positive, too, and was experiencing mild symptoms. Im thankful to be vaccinated and double-boosted, she added.This rise is not surprising, given the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 and the easing of many public health measures, such as mask mandates, across the country, Dr. Fauci said on ABCs This Week.This is not unexpected that youre going to see an uptick when you pull back on the mitigation methods, he said.But, he noted, most areas of the country have low community levels of Covid-19, according to calculations performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are designed to assess the number of new cases in a community and the strain on its hospitals.Dr. Fauci said he was hopeful that the nation would not see a large surge in hospitalizations or deaths, which lag behind new cases and are still declining nationwide.If we do start seeing an uptick, particularly of hospitalizations, we may need to revert back to being more careful and having more utilizations of masks indoors, he said.In the meantime, Dr. Fauci encouraged all eligible Americans to get vaccinated and boosted and expressed hope that Congress would soon pass a $10 billion Covid relief bill.Congress adjourned for a two-week recess last week without voting on the package, which would provide more funding for treatments, testing and vaccines.We need this Covid funding, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on Fox News Sunday. And its really a huge disappointment to us that the Congress has left for two weeks without passing this into law.A small surge of coronavirus infections has swept through the halls of Washington over the last week. Dozens tested positive, including several administration officials and members of Congress, after attending the Gridiron Club and Foundations annual dinner on April 2.President Biden did not attend the dinner, but his sister, who did, tested positive; Mr. Biden appeared, maskless, at several public events last week, raising concerns about whether he might have contracted the virus.On Sunday, Dr. Fauci defended the procedures that are in place to protect the president.Hes fully vaccinated, Dr. Fauci said. Hes doubly boosted, and most of the time, people who get anywhere near him need to be tested. So we feel the protocol is a reasonable protocol.Dr. Fauci stressed that the seriousness of coronavirus infections should not be discounted and could still result in significant illness and long Covid, even if they dont lead to hospitalization. But, he said, people need to make their own decisions about the risks theyre willing to take.This is not going to be eradicated, and its not going to be eliminated, he said. And whats going to happen is that were going to see that each individual is going to have to make their calculation of the amount of risk that they want to take in going to indoor dinners and in going to functions. | Health |
Square FeetCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesDec. 29, 2015PHILADELPHIA To have any hope of reviving this citys many blighted streets, developers would have to purchase property like 1913 North 24th Street, an empty lot that is still officially owned by a man who died in 1969.Golden Eubanks, a former sharecropper who moved to Philadelphia from South Carolina in the 1920s, bought a three-story rowhouse on the lot for $4 on Sept. 1, 1929, and raised 10 children there while working as an operator for a public utility, according to city property records and the 1930 census.The house has since been demolished, and the Eubanks children, who were born between 1912 and 1926, have all died, leaving a property still in the name of their parents.All of his children were dead before Reagan left office, but the property is still racking up property taxes, said Garrett ODwyer, policy and communications associate with the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, a nonprofit organization that acts as an advocate for mixed-income neighborhoods.Abandoned properties, numbering an estimated 32,000 owned by both private and public sectors citywide, may be tempting targets for developers during a current real estate boom in some areas of Philadelphia. But potential buyers have often been deterred by delinquent taxes or by having to locate absent owners or determine that the owners are deceased.ImageCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesDevelopers and city officials hope that the Philadelphia Land Bank, a recently created city program, will help sift through the labyrinth of records on vacant and abandoned lots like the Eubanks property and make them available for sale and redevelopment.But some neighborhood residents and activists worry that developers efforts will lead to higher taxes and gentrification, forcing out longtime homeowners.On Dec. 9, Philadelphias mayor, Michael A. Nutter, announced the transfer of deeds for 150 properties owned by the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, a city agency, to the Land Bank. The transfer represented the first set of buildings or lots to be taken over by the new entity.A further 1,135 city-owned properties are to be transferred to the Land Bank by the end of 2015, beginning a process that could shift about 8,500 publicly owned vacant properties from a number of city agencies to a single entity that would become a one-stop shop for developers.While other United States cities have operated land banks for years, Philadelphia, with a population of about 1.5 million, is the largest to do so. Its program, created by a City Council resolution in December 2013, is expected to contain more properties than the others when it is fully operational.ImageCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesIf a private property becomes tax-delinquent, the Land Bank will get a right of first refusal to acquire it without a cash payment before it goes to a sheriffs sale. Any acquisition by the Land Bank will be subject to negotiation with other city agencies, especially the Department of Revenue, which may wish to prevent the property from entering the Land Bank in an effort to obtain unpaid taxes.In the case of the Eubanks lot, city records this year say property taxes owed amount to $4,406.81. Most or all of the amount probably accrued in the decades since Mr. Eubanks and his wife, Meta, died, but they are listed in city records as owing the amount. The lot has a market value of $21,100.The Land Banks first acquisitions from the public sector include 18 properties in the 1400 block of North Marston Street in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia. The street once contained 59 of the citys characteristic rowhouses but now has only 12 structures, six of which are occupied. The other six are boarded up and derelict. A total of 26 properties on the street are tax-delinquent.The streets privately owned properties include No. 1432, now a vacant lot, which was last sold for $3,750 in 1961, is now valued at $3,400, and owes city property taxes of $8,281, according to city records.On a recent visit to the street, discarded tires, cardboard boxes and an abandoned car were seen littering the overgrown lots, and a pile of loose bricks lay at the base of a wall of shattered stucco.ImageCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesThe blighted landscape, only two miles from the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Philadelphia, became an increasingly familiar sight as the decline of manufacturing drove out many residents starting in the 1960s, and it has become a longstanding challenge for city officials seeking to return large areas of the city to productive use.By consolidating vacant property, the Land Bank aims to free up adjoining lots that can be put together to create market-rate or low-income housing, commercial developments or green space.The Land Bank will determine whether developers plans are appropriate to local needs such as more affordable units in neighborhoods dominated by market-rate housing, or more market-rate development in a neighborhood that already has a good stock of subsidized properties, said Beth McConnell, policy director for the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, which advocates for the Land Bank.Ms. McConnell said the Land Bank had the potential to clear urban blight and return land to productive use in a way that conforms with neighborhood and citywide plans.Its different than the alternative of just making everything available at the market rate, and whoever the highest bidder is gets it, she said.ImageCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesThe Land Bank will not stop developers from acquiring private property, but it could make it easier for them to do so, Ms. McConnell said. Market-rate developers can continue to do what they do now, she said. If the developers can find the owners, they can buy the properties if the Land Bank doesnt get access to them first, she added.City officials hope that the new availability of property on streets like North Marston will spread development from adjoining neighborhoods that are already seeing new construction, and higher prices, as a real estate boom in central Philadelphia ripples outward.But on Etting Street, whose houses back onto North Marston, Lee Chamblis, a resident, fears that the arrival of developers will eventually drive out longtime residents.Improvement is a good thing but I really dont believe they are going to leave it as a community like it is, said Mr. Chamblis, 48, who inherited the house he has lived in all his life.I wholeheartedly believe this is about money. They are going to build condos and they are trying to chase the black people out, said Mr. Chamblis, who is black.ImageCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesMr. Chamblis, a self-employed electrician, said he would welcome new affordable housing if it came to the neighborhood but he does not believe it will happen. Its just unrealistic, he said. It doesnt work that way around here right now.Mr. Chamblis said the market value of his house had risen along with the development of nearby streets but so had his property taxes. He was worried that redevelopment like that sought by the Land Bank would price people like him out of the neighborhood.People will lose what they have lived in all their lives, he said. Its being taken from under them because they cant afford to maintain it.But developers who supported the Land Bank during its five-year creation welcomed its first acquisition of properties.For the development community, having the city understand what property it owns, exactly what that property is, and that there truly is clear title, is huge for our folks, said Anne Fadullon, president of the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, a trade group.Without the Land Bank, a developer seeking to buy vacant property in Philadelphia could be confronted with tax liens applied to the property during its public ownership, discouraging acquisition, Ms. Fadullon said.It was really a nightmare for the developer to work with the city to get rid of these liens, she said.Developers are looking forward to working with a single city entity rather than three or more agencies that made for a cumbersome acquisition process.We havent seen the first properties come out of the Land Bank yet but now that there are properties in, we are anxious to see that moving, she said. | Business |
Olympics|Costas Returns as Anchor for Olympic Broadcasthttps://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/sports/olympics/costas-returns-as-anchor-for-olympic-broadcast.htmlFeb. 17, 2014Credit...NBC Olympics, via Associated PressAfter being sidelined for six days by an eye infection, Bob Costas reintroduced himself as NBCs prime-time Winter Olympics host by saying from Sochi, Russia: Im Bob Costas, sitting in for Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira.Lauer, a co-host of Today, NBCs morning show, and Vieira, a special correspondent for the show, filled in for Costas from Tuesday to Sunday.Costas had hosted 157 consecutive prime-time Olympic programs, dating to 1992, until viral conjunctivitis infected his left eye and then his right. The eyes reddened and swelled. His vision became blurry and they were increasingly sensitive to light.At first, the hope was that it was a bacterial infection, he said Monday during a conference call with reporters. Not that you ever want to get one, but if youre going to have an infection, the bacterial infection would have had a shorter course.The virus meant that the symptoms the worst being the blurred vision and light sensitivity faded more slowly. He spent the first three days of his absence primarily in a darkened room.Costas said he thought there was only a small chance that he would not return at all.I always thought it was likely that I would be back, he said. I was hoping to be back on the weekend. I always thought it was likely, not certain, that Id be back today.The condition of his eyes was much discussed, particularly on social media, with Twitter accounts set up largely to poke fun at Costas. You know, I think it would have been water cooler talk no matter who the host of the Olympics was at any time because its such a front and center position, he said. If the same thing had happened to Jim McKay in 1984, people would have talked about it; its just that the Internet didnt exist then and there werent as many cable television outlets. | Sports |
The European Commission plans to bring charges that Amazon abused its dominance in e-commerce.Credit...Thomas Samson/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesJune 11, 2020LONDON European Union officials are preparing to bring antitrust charges against Amazon for abusing its dominance in internet commerce to box out smaller rivals, according to people with knowledge of the case.Nearly two years in the making, the case is one of the most aggressive attempts by a government to crimp the power of the e-commerce giant, which has largely sidestepped regulation throughout its 26-year history.The European Union regulators, who already have a reputation as the worlds most aggressive watchdogs of the technology industry, have determined that Amazon is stifling competition by unfairly using data collected from third-party merchants to boost its own product offerings, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private.The case against Amazon is part of a broader attempt in the United States and Europe to probe the business practices of the worlds largest technology companies, as authorities on both sides of the Atlantic see what they believe is a worrying concentration of power in the digital economy.Margarethe Vestager, the European Commissioner who leads antitrust enforcement and digital policy, is also examining practices by Apple and Facebook. In Washington, the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and Congress are targeting Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.William Kovacic, a law professor at George Washington University, said the tech industry was facing a striking critical mass of attention from governments around the world, including Australia, Brazil and India. He said that regulators in Brussels and Washington may deploy so-called interim measures against the companies, a rarely used tool that could force Amazon and other large tech platforms to halt certain practices while a case is litigated.This is a groundswell, Mr. Kovacic said.An announcement by European regulators about Amazon could come this summer, although the timing is still in flux, one of the people said. The Wall Street Journal first reported the expected charges.The European Commissions antitrust office, which started investigating Amazon in 2018, is planning to release what is known as a statement of objections against the company outlining its conclusions about how it has violated antitrust laws. It is just one step in what could be a yearslong process before final decisions are made about whether to impose a fine or other penalties on the company. A settlement could also be reached.Amazon declined to comment, as did the European Commission.The case stems from Amazons treatment of third-party merchants who rely on its website to reach customers. Investigators have focused on Amazons dual role as both the owner of its online store and a seller of goods that compete with other sellers, creating a conflict of interest.Authorities in Europe have concluded that Amazon abuses its position to give its own products preferential treatment. European officials have spent the past year interviewing merchants and others who depend on Amazon to better understand how it collects data to use to its advantage, including agreements that require them to share certain data with Amazon as a condition of selling goods on the platform.Many merchants have complained that if they have a product that is selling well on Amazon, the company will then introduce its own product at a lower price, or give it more prominent placement on the website.Bill Baer, the former head of antitrust enforcement in the U.S. Justice Department, said a challenge for regulators will be proving harm to consumers and rivals.It is not their success that justifies government intervention, said Mr. Baer, now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. It is when that success is used in a way that unfairly limits competition.This month, Ms. Vestager signaled more action against American tech giants, including giving her office added antitrust powers to address structural competition problems within an industry rather than just individual cases against a single company.The European Commission, the executive body for the European Union, is also debating a new digital services law that would include new regulations for large tech platforms like Amazon, Facebook and Apple that play a gatekeeper role. Other proposals under consideration include allowing regulators to step in even before a large tech platform has established dominance in a new market.It is not the first time the European Commission has targeted Amazon. In 2017, officials ordered Luxembourg to recover roughly 250 million euros from Amazon in unpaid taxes. That same year, the company settled an antitrust case concerning its contracts with book publishers for e-books.But otherwise, Amazon, whose chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is the worlds wealthiest person, has largely avoided tough regulation from authorities in the United States and elsewhere. This is despite criticism that it has crushed traditional industries like book selling and treated workers in its warehouses poorly.Yet as Amazons dominance has grown, and as it has become a gatekeeper for thousands of merchants selling goods online, critics have warned that it is abusing its power and that regulators must act before it is too late.In Washington, Amazon is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission as part of broader inquiries by the agency and Justice Department into the tech sector. A case against Google could be brought as early as this summer, people familiar with the matter have said.Amazon and other tech companies are also the subject of a congressional inquiry into their market power. So far, Amazon has resisted lawmakers attempts to bring Mr. Bezos to Capitol Hill to testify publicly.While European authorities have acted the most aggressively against the tech giants, many have questioned whether their approach is working. In three separate cases in recent years, the European Commission fined Google a total of 8.24 billion euros, the equivalent of about $9.3 billion today. But critics argue that did little to dislodge the internet giants dominant market position.The challenge is: Are you going to do something that makes a difference and that genuinely alters behavior? said Mr. Kovacic of George Washington.David McCabe contributed reporting from Washington. | Tech |
Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFeb. 8, 2014KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia Its hard enough skiing 15 kilometers at full throttle, but try switching your skis and poles in the middle of the race.That is what the skiers at the womens skiathlon did on Saturday at the Laura Cross Country and Biathlon Center high above the Olympic compound here. A relatively new Olympic event (it began in its current format in 2006), the skiathlon requires that skiers race the first half of the course on classic technique skis, then swap them for skating skis at the halfway point, and finish the race using the free technique.In the womens race, the skiers cover 7.5 kilometers in each half of the race. On Sunday, the men will ski twice as far in their event.The clock does not stop during the changeover, which gives that portion of the race the feel of a pit stop that adds drama to a contest that is largely out of view to spectators, who watch most of the action on a large television screen in the stadium.It also is a chance for racers to gain or lose a few spots depending on how fast they unclip their old skis and clip on new ones in small stalls that have the name and number of the skier on them.Elizabeth Stephen of the United States, for example, had the second fastest changeover at 32.7 seconds and gained ground before eventually finishing in 12th place.Justyna Kowalczyk, a four-time medalist who finished sixth, spent 39.6 seconds in the pit stop partly because she fell as she jostled with Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland.ImageCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesYou have to really keep your wits about you during the change zone, said Jessica Diggins of the United States, who finished in eighth place. You dont have to win the exchange to have a good race, but if you lose it, or kick your ski out, or fall, that can really hurt you.The disarray at the pit stop seemed to break Kowalczyks rhythm. She finished more than 20 seconds behind Saarinen, who recovered enough to lead the race at one point before finishing in fifth place.Of course, seconds matter everywhere on the course.Marit Bjorgen of Norway won her second consecutive gold medal in the skiathlon in an electric sprint to the finish, getting to the line 1.8 seconds ahead of Charlotte Kalla of Sweden. Bjorgen led for most of the race, but heading down the final slope into the stadium, Kalla surged ahead, must to the delight of the sizeable number of Swedish fans there.On the second to last turn, though, Bjorgen passed Kalla on the inside and pushed ahead, never looking back. Both skiers fell to the ground gasping for air.She attacked me in the last climb and got a few meters on me I was 10 or 15 meters behind, Bjorgen said. I thought maybe my legs are better than hers, and I pushed hard until the end.Bjorgen earned her fourth Olympic gold medal, passing Sonja Henie for most gold medals by a Norwegian woman in the Winter Olympics. Overall, it was Bjorgens eighth Olympic medal in four Winter Games, and she is entered in several more events this year.Even though Saarinen of Finland did not win a medal, her coach, Magnar Dalen, was encouraged by his teams performance and optimistic about the mens skiathlon on Sunday.My girls fought like terrier dogs, he said. I think that tomorrow will be big dramas, with broken poles and traumas. | Sports |
Credit...The Competitive Enterprise InstituteNov. 11, 2016The mug-shot posters, pasted on walls and lampposts around Paris by an activist group during the United Nations climate talks last year, were hardly flattering. They depicted Myron Ebell, a climate contrarian, as one of seven climate criminals wanted for destroying our future.But in his customary mild-mannered way, Mr. Ebell, who directs environmental and energy policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian advocacy group in Washington, brushed it off.Ive gotten used to this over the years, he told an interviewer at the talks. But I did go out and get my photo taken with my poster, just so I have it as a memento.In looking for someone to follow through on his campaign vow to dismantle one of the Obama administrations signature climate change policies, President-elect Donald J. Trump probably could not have found a better candidate for the job than Mr. Ebell.Mr. Ebell, who revels in taking on the scientific consensus on global warming, will be Mr. Trumps lead agent in choosing personnel and setting the direction of the federal agencies that address climate change and environmental policy more broadly.Mr. Ebell, whose organization is financed in part by the coal industry, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the linchpin of that policy, the Clean Power Plan. Developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the plan is a far-reaching set of regulations that, by seeking to reduce carbon emissions from electricity generation, could result in the closing of many coal-burning power plants, among other effects.Mr. Ebell has said that the plan, which has been tied up in the courts since it was finalized in 2015, is illegal. In the interview in Paris last year, he said he hoped whoever was elected president would undo the E.P.A. power plant regs and some of the other regs that are very harmful to our economy.As the person Mr. Trump has chosen to lead the transition at the E.P.A., Mr. Ebell, 63, will be in a position to begin to do just that.Mr. Ebell, who did not respond to a request for an interview, grew up on a ranch in Oregon. He got his undergraduate degree at Colorado College and masters at the London School of Economics, where he studied under the conservative political philosopher Michael Oakeshott. He has described himself as sort of a contrarian by nature and upbringing, and has said he was very strongly influenced by the question authority ethos of 1960s and 70s countercultureI really think that people should be suspicious of authority, he told an interviewer last year. The more youre told that you have to believe something, the more you should question it.Mr. Ebell leads the Cooler Heads Coalition, a loose-knit group that says it is focused on dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis. He has been one of the nations most visible climate contrarians, known for dispensing memorable sound bites on cable news shows and at events like the annual conferences sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based group that rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.Mr. Ebell has said that a lot of third-, fourth- and fifth-rate scientists have gotten a long ways by embracing climate change. He frequently mocks climate leaders like Al Gore, and has called the movement the forces of darkness because they want to turn off the lights all over the world.No one, it seems, is immune to his criticism. He called Pope Franciss encyclical on climate change, issued in mid-2015, scientifically ill informed, economically illiterate, intellectually incoherent and morally obtuse.It is also theologically suspect, and large parts of it are leftist drivel, he added.Mr. Ebell cut his teeth in Washington working for Frontiers of Freedom, a research group founded by former Senator Malcolm Wallop, a Wyoming Republican, to advocate for limited government. He also worked for a Republican congressman from Arizona, John Shadegg, on an effort to revamp the Endangered Species Act to make it more respectful of property rights.In interviews and speeches, Mr. Ebell comes off as amiable and calm. But he is hardly shy about lobbing verbal grenades, sometimes directly at scientists and environmentalists.He clashed with Kevin E. Trenberth, a senior researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in an appearance on Fox News in 2009 after the unauthorized release of emails from a server at an English university set off a battle over the integrity of leading climate scientists.Mr. Ebell called Dr. Trenberth part of a gang that had been cooking the data on climate for years, accusations that Dr. Trenberth strenuously denied.During an August 2015 appearance on C-Span with Jeremy Symons of the Environmental Defense Fund, Mr. Ebell did not deny Mr. Symons assertion that the Competitive Enterprise Institute receives money from the Murray Energy Corporation, one of the nations largest coal producers. He countered that his groups total budget, of about $6 million, was far smaller than that of Mr. Symons group.I would like to have more funding, Mr. Ebell said, so that I could combat the nonsense put out by the environmental movement. | science |
Credit...Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CorbisMarch 28, 2016Deadly summer heat waves in the eastern United States may be predictable nearly two months before they occur, giving emergency planners and farmers more time to prepare, scientists reported on Monday.The key to such an advance forecast, scientists said, is the occurrence of a distinctive pattern of water temperatures across a wide stretch of the North Pacific Ocean. While the existence of the pattern does not guarantee that a heat wave will occur, it significantly increases the odds of one happening as much as 50 days later.From 1999 to 2010, about 620 people died each year, on average, from heat-related illness in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some heat waves have been especially lethal, like the one in Chicago in 1995 when more than 700 people, most of them old or infirm, died over five days.Given more lead time, emergency planners could take measures like establishing more cooling centers at schools and other buildings, and stepping up programs to track homeless people and homebound, chronically ill older Americans. Farmers could arrange for more irrigation for crops and extra water and shade for livestock.In a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers first identified extremely hot summer days in the eastern half of the country from 1982 to 2015. Then they looked at temperature data for sea surfaces specifically, the extent to which temperatures were above or below normal for the same period.The pattern popped out at us really clearly, said Karen A. McKinnon, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colo., and the lead author of the study. Not only did it exist on those hot days defined as about 12 degrees hotter than normal summer temperatures but importantly, up to seven weeks before, Dr. McKinnon said.Randall Dole, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who has studied heat-wave predictability but was not involved in the study, said the results provided a tantalizing hint for more long-lead predictability of some extreme weather events than we might otherwise have anticipated.Heat waves can be predicted with confidence in short-term forecasts, but these become increasingly unreliable beyond several days. Most longer-term, seasonal forecasts, which look at weather probabilities a month or more in the future, do not focus on heat waves or other extreme events.The new technique may help with those seasonal forecasts. Weve really gone in with a focus on these high-temperature extremes, Dr. McKinnon said. If we do see the pattern, we can say how similar is this to the one that leads to a heat wave.To test their approach, the researchers looked at the summer of 2012, when three heat waves occurred in the East in June and July. Seasonal forecasts had predicted that normal temperatures would be most likely that summer in the Northeast and Midwest. But in examining the ocean data retroactively, Dr. McKinnon said, as early as mid-May, we saw the imprint of this pattern in the Pacific.Peter Huybers, a climate scientist at Harvard University and an author of the study, said that it was not yet clear why there was a connection between temperatures in the North Pacific and heat waves in the East. One possibility, he said, is that the temperatures on the sea surface lock in undulations in the jet stream that lead to a large mass of high-pressure air settling over the region, allowing it to bake. | science |
Credit...Emmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 6, 2017BRUSSELS Foreign and defense ministers of European Union members reached a deal on Monday to create a headquarters for military training operations setting aside, at least for now, concerns that the step might lead to the establishment of a European army to rival NATO.France and Germany support the proposal and have pressed the European Union to do more to ensure its own defense and counter the threat of terrorism.Britain has long opposed anything that resembled a European military command but it has voted to leave the European Union, and that has altered the dynamic of the debate. With the United States appearing to take a step back in its role in the world, the core pair of France and Germany is pushing the European Union to take greater responsibility for its security.The European Union and NATO have overlapping memberships: Of the 28 nations in the European Union, all but six Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Malta and Sweden also belong to NATO. Albania, Iceland, Norway and Turkey are in NATO but are not part of the European Union, as are Canada and the United States.The creation of the unions headquarters is specifically intended not to undermine NATOs role.To placate countries like Poland and the Baltic states that look to NATO as a counterweight to possible Russian aggression, the mandate of the so-called Military Planning and Conduct Capability office is expected to be relatively modest.The European Union always takes a soft approach to hard security, but we also have some hard power that we are strengthening, Federica Mogherini, the European Union foreign policy chief, said on Monday. The new office is not the European army I know there is this label going around but its a more effective way of handling our military work, she added.In a second announcement, in the early afternoon, Ms. Mogherini said that ministers had agreed to the step unanimously, without a vote.Its a first step, said Didier Reynders, the Belgian foreign minister. As for a European army, maybe later, he said.Michael Fallon, the British defense minister, said he would urge the European Union to cooperate more closely with NATO to avoid unnecessary duplication and structures.The Military Planning and Conduct Capability office will be based in a building in Brussels that is already used by European military experts, and it will have a core staff of about 30.Its first job will be to take over the direction of training missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Somalia that are currently overseen by commanders in the field, an arrangement that European Union officials say poses strategic challenges. Under the existing system, field commanders often must return to Brussels to handle matters like administration and funding. The new structure should ensure more support and guidance from Brussels so that those commanders could remain in the field longer.The three missions are expected to come under new command from Brussels in the next month, European Union officials said.Ministers also discussed a separate initiative that could allow member states to join a permanent structure to develop equipment or even to engage in combat operations. A so-called Permanent Structured Cooperation was included in the Lisbon Treaty, which went into force in 2009, but the structure was never established.Stepping up efforts to set up the permanent structure is a response to what European Union officials have said are decreasing levels of military cooperation among member states despite repeated promises in recent years to do more together. But the structure would be voluntary, and member states may not qualify if they lack the military capabilities and equipment, or if they are unable to make certain investments.The approach of allowing member countries of the European Union to proceed at different speeds, even in major policy areas like security and defense, is a new reality for the bloc, which is facing enormous internal strains as a result of factors including the unresolved debt crisis in Greece and a large influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.Last week, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, the blocs executive arm, set out five possible paths for the blocs future. Though some of the avenues envision things continuing as they are, or even tighter integration, others acknowledge that Europe can work at different speeds and would roll back powers exercised from Brussels. | World |
Little Women' Atlanta vs. Dallas Wet 'N' Wild Fight 1/24/2018 Lifetime A clash has been a brewin' between the casts of "Little Women: Atlanta" and its Dallas sister show thanks to a bunch of online trash talking, and -- no surprise -- things got real physical. The fight broke out between Atlanta's Sam Ortiz and Dallas' Caylea Woodbury during a talent showcase being thrown by Ms. Juicy for the new season of 'LW:ATL.' Caylea, who raps under the alias Lil Twrk, came up from the Big D with her rapper BF D'Quan Cage to participate, but things got outta hand. The casts from the 2 cities have been going at it for awhile, and while D'Quan gets points for chivalry, someone's not leaving with a dry eye ... or rather, just dry. | Entertainment |
White-tailed deer could become a reservoir for the virus, putting people and animals at risk, health experts say.Credit...Hannah Yoon for The New York TimesFeb. 7, 2022In late 2020, the coronavirus silently stalked Iowas white-tailed deer. The virus infected large bucks and leggy yearlings. It infiltrated a game preserve in the southeastern corner of the state and popped up in free-ranging deer from Sioux City to Dubuque.When scientists sifted through bits of frozen lymph node tissue harvested from unlucky deer killed by hunters or cars they found that more than 60 percent of the deer sampled in December 2020 were infected.It was stunning, said Vivek Kapur, a microbiologist and infectious disease expert at Penn State, who led the research.Dr. Kapur and his colleagues have now analyzed samples from more than 4,000 dead Iowa deer, diligently marking the location of each infected animal on a map of the state. Its completely mad, he said. It looks like its everywhere.From the start of the pandemic, experts were aware that a virus that emerged from animals, as scientists believe SARS-CoV-2 did, could theoretically spread back to animals. Mink have garnered much attention after the virus spread through mink farms in Europe and North America, leading to massive culls of the animals. But white-tailed deer, which may wander into urban and rural backyards, are also easily infected.Infections in free-ranging deer, which display few signs of illness, are tricky to detect and difficult to contain. Deer also live alongside us in dizzying numbers; about 30 million white-tailed deer roam the continental United States.ImageCredit...Hannah Yoon for The New York TimesIf white-tailed deer become a reservoir for the virus, the pathogen could mutate and spread to other animals or back to us. Adaptation in animals is one route by which new variants are likely to emerge.This is a top concern right now for the United States, said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, who directs the One Health Office which focuses on connections between human, animal and environmental health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.If deer were to become established as a North American wildlife reservoir, and we do think theyre at risk of that, there are real concerns for the health of other wildlife species, livestock, pets and even people, she added.The virus is likely to continue circulating in deer, many experts predicted. But crucial questions remain unanswered: How are deer catching the virus? How might the pathogen mutate inside its cervid hosts? And could the animals pass it back to us?White-tailed deer are a black box for the virus, said Stephanie Seifert, an expert on zoonotic diseases at Washington State University: We know that the virus has been introduced multiple times, we know that theres onward transmission. But we dont know how the virus is adapting or how it will continue to adapt.Cervid surgeImageCredit...Sergio Flores for The New York TimesThe coronavirus enters human cells by attaching to what are known as ACE2 receptors. Many mammals have similar versions of these receptors, making them susceptible to infection.Early in the pandemic, scientists analyzed the genetic sequences for ACE2 receptors in hundreds of species to predict which animals might be at risk. Deer ranked high on the list, and laboratory experiments later confirmed that the animals could become infected with the virus as well as transmit it to other deer.The U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service began looking for coronavirus antibodies in blood samples from deer in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania. In July, the agency reported that 40 percent of the animals in those areas had antibodies, suggesting that they had already been infected by the virus.Some months later, Dr. Kapurs team, which partnered with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, reported that active coronavirus infections were common in Iowa deer, and another group announced that more than one-third of the deer they had swabbed in northeastern Ohio were infected. Genomic analysis suggested that in both Iowa and Ohio, humans had passed the virus to deer multiple times and then the deer readily passed it to one another.The early detections in companion animals, in mink farms, in zoological collections those were all different because those were confined populations, said Dr. Andrew Bowman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Ohio State University, who led the Ohio research. We didnt really have a natural setting where the virus could run free.Whether the virus makes deer sick remains unknown. There is no evidence that infected deer become seriously ill, but humans might not notice if a wild animal was feeling slightly under the weather.And these early studies which have largely relied on pre-existing disease surveillance or population control projects in deer provided only a snapshot of what could be a sprawling problem. I wouldnt be surprised if more sampling uncovers the fact that these are not necessarily sporadic events, said Dr. Samira Mubareka, a virologist at Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto.In Canada, reports of infected deer are beginning to trickle in from Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. When Dr. Mubarekas team sequenced virus recovered from Canadian deer, the researchers found it closely matched sequences in Vermont. Deer dont respect borders, said Arinjay Banerjee, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan.ImageCredit...Hannah Yoon for The New York TimesNo masking, no social distancingHow humans are transmitting the virus to deer remains an open question. Its definitely a mystery to me how theyre getting it, said Dr. Angela Bosco-Lauth, a zoonotic disease expert at Colorado State University.There are many theories, none entirely satisfying. An infectious hunter might encounter a deer, Dr. Mubareka noted, but if theyre good at hunting, she added, its a terminal event for the deer.If an infected hiker sneezes and the wind is blowing in the right direction, it could cause an unlucky event, said Dr. Tony Goldberg, a veterinary epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Or if people feed deer from their porch, they could be sharing more than just food.And white-tailed deer are expert leapers, reaching heights of eight feet. If you want to fence deer out of a place, you have to be trying very hard, said Scott Creel, an ecologist at Montana State University. Deer would have no trouble jumping into alfalfa fields to graze alongside cattle, perhaps inviting a close encounter with a farmer, Dr. Creel said.Transmission could also happen indirectly, through wastewater or discarded food or other human-generated trash. Deer, like most other animals, will sniff before they eat, Dr. Kapur said. And deer release their feces as they feed, creating conditions where other deer might forage in areas contaminated with waste, or snuffle around waste that has feed mixed in, experts say.But its not clear how long the virus would remain viable in a polluted water source or on the surface of a half-eaten apple, or whether enough of it would be present to pose a transmission risk.An intermediate host, such as an itinerant cat, might ferry the virus from humans to deer. Farmed deer, which have frequent contact with humans, might also pass the virus to their wild counterparts through an escapee or their feces, Dr. Seifert said. (More than 94 percent of the deer in one captive site in Texas carried antibodies for the virus, researchers found more than double the rate found in free-ranging deer in the state.)ImageCredit...Sergio Flores for The New York TimesIt may not require many spillovers for the virus to take off in a herd. Infected deer, which shed virus in nasal secretions and feces and have an infectious period of five to six days, can readily spread the virus to others, said Dr. Diego Diel, a virologist at Cornell University.Wild deer are social traveling in herds, frequently nuzzling noses and engaging in polygamy and swap saliva through shared salt licks.And unlike humans, deer have no tools for flattening the curve. They dont have rapid antigen tests, Dr. Banerjee said.Dr. Kapur added, No masking, no social distancing.Dr. Sarah Hamer, a veterinary epidemiologist at Texas A&M University, is seeking funding to start contact tracing of deer to understand how their social interactions influence viral transmission. She hopes to use proximity loggers to record the time and duration of the animals interactions with one another. What deer are hanging out with what deer? Dr. Hamer said. Are there deer superspreaders?Research is still in early stages, but understanding how the virus is spreading is essential both for slowing transmission in deer and for protecting other vulnerable wildlife. Deer may graze alongside other cervids, such as boreal woodland caribou, which are endangered in Canada and are a traditional food source of First Nations peoples.And if humans are contaminating the wilderness with the virus, it could threaten other, highly endangered species, such as the black-footed ferret, which experts fear may be vulnerable to the virus. If its in the environment, and we dont know exactly how its in the environment or how its spreading, all of a sudden we have these endangered animals that are at even higher risk, said Kaitlin Sawatzki, a virologist at Tufts University.Knowing how we are giving the virus to deer is also crucial for assessing the risk that they may pass it back to us. The metaphorical window is open, and we dont know where, Dr. Bowman said.ImageCredit...Sergio Flores for The New York TimesHerd immunityThe virus is clearly spreading in deer. But what happens next, and how worried should we be?Many experts said they expected the virus to become established in deer and circulate indefinitely. If its not already established, its heading in that direction, Dr. Mubareka said.Still, scientists said they needed longer-term data to be sure, and the outcome was not a given. Currently, people appear to be reintroducing the virus to deer frequently; but if human case rates fell substantially, and people stopped spreading the virus, it could disappear from deer populations.Moreover, deer do develop antibodies to the virus; if the antibodies are strong enough and enough deer develop them, literal herd immunity could squelch the spread. But scientists know very little about deer immunity. Does exposure to one variant protect the deer population from subsequent variants? Dr. Banerjee asked.If the virus does establish itself in deer, it is likely to evolve in ways that help it thrive in its new hosts.A deer-optimized version of the virus would not necessarily be more dangerous for people; the virus might adapt in ways that make humans less hospitable hosts. If this became Deervid, then that would be great, Dr. Goldberg said. (Hopefully it would stay benign in deer, he added.)But the virus could retain its ability to easily infect humans while picking up more worrisome mutations, including ones that might allow it to evade our existing immune defenses.Even if you got the human population immune and fully vaccinated, if theres still a reservoir persisting in the animals, then that can allow the virus to continue to evolve, said Linda Saif, a virologist and immunologist at Ohio State University.There is not yet any evidence that deer are infecting people, and for the foreseeable future, experts agreed, humans are far more likely to catch the virus from one another than from anything with hooves.Even if deer were infecting people, its largely inconsequential in the grand scheme, because millions of people are getting infected from human-to-human transmission, said Dr. Scott Weese, an infectious diseases veterinarian at the University of Guelph in Ontario. But it becomes more of a risk as we start to control it.Hunters, who handle deer carcasses extensively, could be at higher risk for contracting the virus from deer, scientists said. (There is no evidence that people can be infected by eating deer meat cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.) People who hand-feed their local deer a practice experts warn against could also be at risk.An abundance of ungulatesImageCredit...Sergio Flores for The New York TimesOther animals, too, may be at risk from infection from deer. Predators such as mountain lions which kill deer by biting into their trachea or over their nose and mouth, could be infected while feasting.Scientists were relieved when early research suggested that cattle and pigs were minimally susceptible to the virus. But inside the bodies of white-tailed deer, the virus could morph into a pathogen capable of infecting such livestock.That could be a big problem for food production stability, Dr. Seifert said.Health officials must stay vigilant, experts said.The U.S.D.A. is now working with state agencies to collect blood samples and nasal swabs from dead deer in more than two dozen states. The work should help experts estimate how many deer have already been infected and whether certain characteristics, from age to habitat type, put some deer at elevated risk.As we learn more, we will continue to refine and target our surveillance, said Dr. Tracey Dutcher, the science and biodefense coordinator for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at the U.S.D.A.Long-term genomic surveillance is also needed, experts said. If we start to see some really divergent viral variants popping up in deer in certain places, that would be a red flag, Dr. Goldberg said.Depending on what scientists learn in the near future, officials could consider a variety of potential mitigation measures, including vaccinating captive deer, thinning infected herds or cleaning up whatever environmental viral contamination is giving the deer the virus in the first place.I think weve got to get our hands around the situation before we really make plans on where to go, Dr. Bowman said.For now, scientists also advise keeping a close eye on other wildlife. If the virus is so prevalent in deer, which are relatively easy to sample, it could be silently spreading in other species, too.After all, the only reason scientists found the virus in deer is because they thought to look. We hadnt realized it was spread in deer at all, Dr. Kapur said. We had no clue. | Health |
Deaths among people who have been fully vaccinated remain rare, but older adults and those with compromised immune systems are at much higher risk.Credit...Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesOct. 18, 2021The death of former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday from complications of Covid-19 has provided fuel for vaccine skeptics and opponents, who immediately seized on the news that Mr. Powell had been vaccinated to stoke doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccines.But Mr. Powells immune system had quite likely been weakened by multiple myeloma, a cancer of white blood cells. Both the disease and the treatment can make people more susceptible to infections.His age, 84, may also have increased his risk, scientists said.Mr. Powell received his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in February, said Peggy Cifrino, his longtime aide. He was scheduled for a booster last week but fell ill before he received it, she said. Mr. Powell had also undergone treatment for early stage Parkinsons disease, she said.Although Mr. Powells death is a high-profile tragedy, scientists emphasized that it should not undermine confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines, which drastically reduce the odds of severe disease and death.Nothing is 100 percent effective, said Dr. Paul A. Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. The point of getting a vaccine is that you want to know that the benefits clearly and definitively outweigh the risks. And we know that for this vaccine.The vaccines are highly effective, even against the more contagious Delta variant, which is now responsible for nearly all coronavirus infections in the United States. People who are fully vaccinated are roughly one-tenth as likely to be hospitalized and even less likely to die from Covid-19 than those who are unvaccinated, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.A New York Times analysis of data from 40 states found that fully vaccinated people have accounted for 0.2 to 6 percent of Covid-19 deaths.Among the more than 187 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated, there have been 7,178 deaths, according to the C.D.C. Eighty-five percent of those deaths have been in people 65 or older.Breakthrough deaths with vaccinated individuals do occur, said Dr. Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. But there are certain groups that are at greater risk.Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been clear that older adults are the most likely to develop severe Covid-19. They also have less robust immune systems in general and mount a weaker immune response to the vaccines.In one recent study, which has not yet been reviewed by experts, researchers found that residents of Canadian long-term care homes, who had a median age of 88, produced levels of neutralizing antibodies roughly five- to sixfold lower after vaccination than did staff members, who had a median age of 47.This puts them at risk for not only getting infected by Covid but also having severe consequences, said Anne-Claude Gingras, a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and the lead author of the study.Mr. Powell had undergone treatment for multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells, which are a type of white blood cell. Plasma cells make antibodies and thus play a critical role in the immune system.Both the disease and the treatment which may include chemotherapy, immunotherapy and steroids can leave patients more vulnerable to infections.Colin was undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma but seemed to be responding well, Kathy Giusti, who founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and met Mr. Powell when he spoke at a foundation event, said in a statement. Immunosuppression is a well-known side effect of cancer treatment and a reminder that as patients, we are at high risk, especially if also over 65 years of age.Vaccines are also likely to be less effective in people with multiple myeloma.The treatments were using are indiscriminately knocking off both the malignant and the normal immune cells, said Dr. James R. Berenson, the medical and scientific director of the Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research in West Hollywood, Calif.That puts patients at double risk for getting no response to a vaccination and also not responding as well once they get the disease, he added.In a study published in July, Dr. Berenson and his colleagues found that just 45 percent of those with active multiple myeloma developed an adequate response after receiving the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.People who received the Pfizer vaccine had lower antibody levels than Moderna recipients, on average, the researchers found. Older patients and those who were not yet in complete remission also had lower antibody levels.It is unclear what kind of treatment Mr. Powell received for his multiple myeloma or whether he was in full remission. But even patients who are in remission may have compromised immune systems, Dr. Berenson said.They usually not in all cases, but usually maintain an immune-suppressed state even if theyve had a good response to their treatment, Dr. Berenson said. Their antibody levels in most cases dont go back up to normal.In a new study, scheduled to appear on Monday in the journal Cancer Cell, researchers report that some people with multiple myeloma also have weak T cell responses after vaccination. T cells can help reduce the severity of disease in people who contract the virus.The study included 44 people with multiple myeloma who were at least two weeks past their second Pfizer or Moderna shot. Seventeen of those people produced no detectable antibodies against the virus after vaccination. These patients had significantly fewer helper T cells, which activate other parts of the immune response, to the virus compared with multiple myeloma patients who had produced antibodies after vaccination.The good news, said Dr. Samir Parekh, a hematologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York who led the research, is that research suggests that booster shots are looking extremely promising for people with multiple myeloma.Patients who havent received them should do that immediately, he added.The best way to protect older adults and others with compromised immune systems is for everyone else to be vaccinated, said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.When there are large numbers of infections happening in the community, it spills over into vaccinated people, he said. And the vulnerable are really at risk.Eric Schmitt and Christine Hauser contributed reporting. | Health |
Science|Mercury Is Shrinking, a Great Valley Showshttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/science/mercury-great-valley.htmlTrilobitesCredit...NASANov. 21, 2016A colossal canyon on Mercury may provide evidence that the tiny planet is shrinking.Using data from NASAs Messenger spacecraft, researchers have discovered a 620-mile-long, 250-mile-wide and 2-mile-deep valley on the planets southern hemisphere. Its about the size of Montana and twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. In the elevation map above, the dark-blue chasm leads to a large purple crater known as the Rembrandt impact basin.The researchers believe the great valley formed as Mercurys interior cooled, which caused the planets crust and upper mantle to contract and bend. The findings appeared Wednesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.Unlike Earth, which has multiple tectonic plates, Mercurys lithosphere is made of a single plate. As it cooled, it buckled like a grape shriveling into a raisin.Researchers are still piecing together all of the clues about how Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, cooled. Some scientists think it may have also undergone a more recent warming period after it formed.Mercury might have shrunk by nearly nine miles in diameter in the past four billion years, according to previous research, and might still be getting smaller. | science |
Credit...Rachel NuwerNov. 14, 2016LAKE BAIKAL, Russia Yury Azhichakov set out early by bike for Senogda Bay, his favorite beach, on the northwestern shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. The worlds oldest, deepest and most voluminous lake, Baikal holds 20 percent of the planets unfrozen freshwater. It is often described as the worlds cleanest lake.As Mr. Azhichakov discovered, that is no longer the case. Senogdas once pristine sands were buried under thick mats of reeking greenish-black goo.This stuff stretched far into the distance, for several kilometers, said Mr. Azhichakov, 61, a retired ecological engineer. The beach was in terrible condition.The muck, scientists have discovered, follows mass algal blooms at dozens of sites around Lake Baikals 1,240-mile perimeter. Confined to shallow water and shores near towns and villages, the problem seems to stem from an influx of untreated sewage the result of inadequate wastewater treatment.Algal blooms threaten iconic freshwater bodies around the world, including the Great Lakes, Lake Geneva, and Lake Biwa in Japan. But Lake Baikal is especially precious: a World Heritage site home to more than 3,700 species, more than half found nowhere else.People are dumping sewage, waste and rubbish around the lake, creating pretty appalling conditions in some places, said Anson MacKay, an environmental scientist at University College London.Runoff from fertilizers and other pollutants leads to so-called eutrophication, an excessive growth of algae. These blooms eventually deplete the water of oxygen, suffocating aquatic plants and animals.Russian scientists had assumed that Lake Baikal is simply too vast to suffer such a fate, but recent growth in tourism and development seem to be changing the calculus.ImageCredit...Rachel NuwerWe have a saying in Russia: A clever person is trained on the mistakes of others, said Oleg Timoshkin, a biologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences Limnological Institute in Irkutsk, 40 miles from Baikals southwestern shore. Unfortunately, were now repeating the mistakes of so many other countries.Dr. Timoshkin and his colleagues have found that Spirogyra, a type of green algae that had rarely grown in Lake Baikals shallow zones, accounts for the outbreaks.In Severobaikalsk, Mr. Azhichakovs town, the researchers traced Spirogyra blooms to locations downstream of the towns wastewater facility, as well as to an illegal sewage dumping site.The researchers also found little difference in phosphorus and nitrogen content indicators of synthetic detergents and fecal material in treated and untreated water entering the lake. And, as it turned out, Russian Railways had been adding industrial-grade waste to the towns sewage system, overwhelming it.Despite remedial action, high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in Severobaikalsks wastewater persist even today, and fecal bacteria in treated wastewater have turned up at various sites around Lake Baikal. Dr. Timoshkins team is trying to figure out which nutrients are fueling Spirogyras growth.Spirogyra smothers other species of algae, and thousands of empty snail shells gastropod cemeteries, as Dr. Timoshkin calls them regularly wash up alongside the blooms. But the damage is more extensive than that.Underwater forests of native Lake Baikal sponges have begun dying off. In nearly 90 dives around the lake, researchers have found that 30 to 100 percent of sponges are affected in a given area. The green stalks some a century old are turning a dull brown, reminiscent of cattails.The cause of death is unknown, although Dr. Timoshkin and his colleagues suspect that pathogens from sewage may be causing disease outbreaks, or that the influx of nutrients is causing symbiotic algae to vacate the sponges.Without intervention, the researchers believe that the environmental damage will worsen. Algal blooms, for instance, can produce neurotoxins that are harmful to fish and crustaceans and the humans who consume them. Last year, the largest algal bloom ever recorded shut down the crab and clam fisheries along the West Coast of the United States.ImageCredit...Rachel NuwerAlong Lake Baikal, some locals say they can no longer drink water from their taps during blooms. Fishermen complain of Spirogyra tangling in their nets.Will Baikal be able to attract the same amount of tourism, which is a major part of the economy, if tourists show up and see a green lake? said Ted Ozersky, a limnologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth.In 2014, Dr. Timoshkin testified before the Duma, Russias Parliament, about Lake Baikals problems. Earlier this year, he and his colleagues also published their findings in The Journal of Great Lakes Research. They are calling for an immediate ban on synthetic detergents and for help from the federal government in reforming sewage facilities around the lake.But such fixes will probably be slow to come.Some government officials and academics insist that the problems are caused by climate change, not pollution; others blame mud volcanoes, or even say that Lake Baikals eutrophication is a lie made up by scientists to gain funding. Russias Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has yet to formally acknowledge that the lakes health is in question at all.One of the tragedies of Baikal is that top-level, senior scientists who are themselves never on a field expedition mistakenly believe that the lake can never be eutrophied because it is too huge, too pure and full of too much water, Dr. Timoshkin said. Its an easy idea to have, but its wrong.Even as federal aid stalls, some people are attempting to address the problems where they live, organizing beach cleanups and trying to find ways to put the thousands of pounds of washed-up Spirogyra to use as fertilizer or material for making traditional Siberian paper.Marina Rikhvanova, an award-winning environmental activist in Irkutsk who helped raise initial awareness about the Spirogyra outbreaks, persuaded a local investor to fund a plan for a prototype sewage treatment plant. More and more people with various specialties and interests are working together for the lake, she said. This, at least, is a source of optimism.Eutrophication, however, is not the only threat to Lake Baikal.Mongolia is planning to build up to eight hydroelectric dams on the Selenga River and its tributaries, the source of 50 percent of Lake Baikals surface water. Despite hearings and protests in Russia and Mongolia, the Mongolian government which imports around 8 percent of its energy from Russia and 12 percent from China argues that the dams will help achieve energy independence and cut back on coal use.Some experts think there must be a better way. Mongolia can technically produce around 100 gigawatts of power from wind and solar in their part of the Gobi Desert alone about 90 times the countrys current capacity, said Eugene Simonov, an international coordinator with the nonprofit Rivers Without Boundaries Coalition.Instead, the plan is to first build dams, then to develop a huge capacity to produce thermal energy from coal, then to build the next generation of big dams to offset the negative effects of coal on the climate and then, finally, to use some of the proceeds to build true renewables.Researchers predict that Mongolias dams would have significant ecological effects on Lake Baikal, including disrupting the flow of water and sediment into the lake, effecting the quality of breeding sites for birds and fish, and blocking migration routes.This is likely to be yet another step toward biotic homogenization, where widely distributed, cosmopolitan species like pike increase while unique endemic species like taimen lose ground, said Olaf Jensen, an aquatic ecologist at Rutgers University. Its kind of the ecological equivalent of Starbucks replacing the local bodega.Heeding such warnings, China, which is funding the largest of the projects, in July froze all dam construction until Mongolia and Russia jointly assess potential effects on the lake. This is important, but just a small step in the right direction, Dr. Simonov said.In October, however, Russian and Chinese tourism firms announced intentions to invest $11 billion in developing new hotels, attractions and infrastructure around the lake a plan that Marianne Moore, an aquatic ecologist at Wellesley College, called chilling.Even if the project is tightly regulated by the government, Im unsure whether the coastal zone could be developed sustainably without harming it, she said. Nutrient pollution from human waste and shoreline erosion will be enormous problems.Overshadowing the threat of pollution and dams, however, is climate change, the effects of which are already being felt at Lake Baikal. Summer surface waters lake-wide have warmed about two degrees Celsius since 1977, and winter ice cover has decreased in duration and thickness compared with a century ago.Plankton species associated with warm water have also increased in summer months. The question that many ecologists are asking now is whether the endemic, cold-loving species will be able to adapt and persist if warm-loving species begin increasing in abundance, Dr. Moore said.Another unanswered question is how the triple stressors of pollution, dams and climate change might combine to produce even greater effects on the lake. As Dr. Moore said, Correcting the problems that we do have control over will help the lake respond as best it can to climate change.But that first requires acknowledging that Lake Baikal is absolutely ill, Dr. Timoshkin said.Will we Russians be able to show the world that Baikal can avoid the common fate of so many other lakes? That is a question I ask from the bottom of my heart. | science |
Credit...Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMarch 20, 2017WASHINGTON It was July 2014 when the Syrian defector, using the pseudonym Caesar, last slipped into Washington. Wearing a hood to hide his identity, the defector, a former Syrian police photographer, explained to a congressional committee how he had smuggled photographs out of the country that documented how thousands of Syrians had perished in President Bashar al-Assads prisons.Caesar had hoped the revelation would spur the Obama administration to take action against Mr. Assad, and he has acknowledged that he was bitterly disappointed when the United States and its allies refrained from intervening.Undaunted, Caesar and a fellow defector, a relative who identified himself as Sami, have returned to make a fresh appeal to a new commander in chief. Caesar is scheduled to go to the White House this week to urge President Trumps advisers to follow through on a pledge to establish safe zones in Syria and take other steps to assist the Syrian opposition.We are hopeful that President Trump will do what President Obama refused to do, Sami said. I do not believe the time is too late.The two defectors, who live in an undisclosed location abroad, made their case on Monday to small group of human rights experts and reporters in a private meeting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and in a brief interview afterward. Neither photographs nor recordings of the session were allowed, to help protect their identity. They and their extended family are presumed to be at risk from the Syrian government and its agents.VideoThe Syrian conflict marks a grim anniversary on March 15, as the country enters its seventh year of civil war. The past year has been the deadliest for children since the conflict began, according to Unicef.CreditCredit...Joseph Eid/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesCaesar has supporters in Congress, but whether he will be able to make inroads with the Trump administration is far from clear. The defectors spoke Monday with Michael Ratney, who has served as the United States envoy on the Syria crisis, and they are scheduled to meet this week with senior aides at the National Security Council.But no meeting has been set with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Mr. Trumps national security adviser, or with the top echelons of the State Department or Pentagon.In a retrospective moment, the two defectors said they did not regret taking enormous risks to spirit the photos out of Syria even though they had discovered that the international community was better at expressing outrage than agreeing on measures to quell the fighting and to press for a more inclusive government that did not include Mr. Assad.For years, Caesar explained, his duties as a police photographer required him to document bodies that were often battered beyond recognition, a gruesome procedure mandated by the Syrian government. Determined to expose the torture and killing to the world, he smuggled thumb drives with the digital photos in his shoes and socks as he passed through government checkpoints.Nor was the government the only worry, he said. For a while, the opposition Free Syrian Army had controlled much of his neighborhood, and Caesar had been afraid that he would be in danger if the rebels found out he worked for the police. He handled that risk by making a fake civilian ID.By the end of 2013, he said, he had enough photos to document the murder and torture of more than 11,000 people and was ready to flee and make the evidence known. Caesar said his greatest worry was that the government would retaliate against his extended family.My life is not more valuable than the many who are being killed inside the country, he said. I died a hundred times a day. Looking at those bodies broke my heart.Navigating American policy on Syria has not been easy for the two defectors. While Mr. Obama declared that the Assad regime had lost the legitimacy to lead the nation and authorized a covert program to assist Syrian rebels, he was reluctant to take more direct action to compel the Syrian president to hand over power.The Trump administration has neither spoken out forcefully on the Syria crisis nor promised fresh action, beyond a pledge to establish safe zones to try to stem the flow of Syrian refugees.Mr. Trump indicated during the campaign that he has little interest in confronting Mr. Assad and has flirted with the idea of partnering with Russia, one of the Syrian governments main backers, to press the military campaign against the Islamic State. At the same time, however, Mr. Trumps vow to establish safe zones has given the defectors something of an opening.Establishing safe zones in the northern and southern parts of the country would do much to mitigate the suffering of the Syrians who oppose Mr. Assad, Sami said.American lawmakers, meanwhile, have been promoting legislation that would impose sanctions on anyone who provides financing or does business with the Assad government, which has also given the defectors a measure of hope. The legislation also calls for an assessment of how to set up safe zones or no-fly zones, and for an investigation of war crimes.The United States does not need to send troops, Sami said. It could sanction the Central Bank of Syria. | World |
TV SportsCredit...John Berry/Getty ImagesFeb. 18, 2014Even as the Winter Olympics have added ultra-acrobatic sports familiar mainly to X Games fans, figure skating has remained a bedrock event for the network that carries the Winter Olympics.Figure skating suits a networks need for lavish prime-time extravaganzas that can be apportioned like chapters in a story.Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill skated to gold medals on ABC. The Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding reality series played out to enormous ratings on CBS 20 years ago.In Sochi, Russia, NBC has increased figure skating volume by using an array of technology that was unavailable to ABC in its Olympic heyday, or even to NBC just eight years ago. It is streaming all the events live online, televising it live on cable on NBCSN and broadcasting key dances and programs on delay in prime time on NBC. Prime time was once the only place to watch any Olympic programming.This was an opportunity to help develop NBCSN by putting a lot of live hours on it, said Jim Bell, the executive producer of NBC Olympics. In London, we took a step forward and put a lot of live hours on NBCSN. In Sochi, the one sport that we could push the envelope with was figure skating. Its weatherproof and there are a lot of hours. One of the eureka moments of the 2012 London Games was that live television and online coverage helped push viewership upward in prime time.So NBCSN was endowed with live hours to show team figure skating, pairs, ice dancing, and the mens and womens programs. And it got its own announcers: Tara Lipinski, the 1998 womens gold medalist, and Johnny Weir, a two-time Olympian, along with Terry Gannon, who called figure skating for ABC.NBC uses its old reliable prime-time crew: Tom Hammond, Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic and Tracy Wilson. They work in different perches, far away from each other, at the Iceberg Skating Palace.NBCSNs announcers call every skater, every pair and every dance team. NBCs team calls a sampling. For example, NBCSN showed all 30 competitors in the mens short program. NBC taped eight or nine of them.Prime time is so time-structured, said David Michaels, the coordinating producer of figure skating for NBC Olympics. We do so much juggling. But with such a continuous flow on NBCSN, Weir and Lipinski have more time to tell stories, often about skaters who never show up on NBC. Asked if he wanted to call every skating routine, Hamilton said, with a laugh, Im not sure Id want to work that hard.Weir said that his skater-after-skater-after-skater schedule has been exhausting. Tara and I take our work seriously, he said. Shes my work wife. And shes a slave driver, so we sit up and study until shes satisfied. We not only plan how we look, but were up until three in the morning looking at all the skaters backgrounds and biographies.The textures of the two productions are distinct. By design, the NBCSN version is plainer because it uses the broadcasting feed transmitted worldwide by the International Olympic Committee. NBC mixes its cameras with the world feeds, and stitches together a fairy tale with features and cuts to backstage scenes, as it did when the Russian Evgeni Plushkeno withdrew from the short program. As different as the productions are, so are the announcers personalities. Hamilton can be as dramatic as he was more than 20 years ago, when he started broadcasting at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.Weir is generally calmer yet colorful. And his chemistry with Lipinski suggests an ongoing, enthusiastic conversation among confidants.Were very good friends, and we have the best time educating people about our sport, Weir said. Asked if he thinks he has surprised viewers who might have expected analysis as flashy as his wardrobes, he said: I come from a small town in Pennsylvania, so Ive spent a lot of time educating my family about my sport. Its something Ive learned to do without being aggressive or arrogant.Hamilton, who won the mens gold in 1984 and is calling his seventh Olympics, said: Johnny and Tara have brought a new and fun energy with them. Theyve bonded. Theyre of one mind.Michaels hired Weir initially to call selected events on Universal Sports and then on NBCSN. There was so much chemistry that I felt, wow, Johnny tours with all these people and he knows everybody, and Tara is one of the hardest-working analysts Ive ever seen, he said. Ive been producing this for 30 years and they put a smile on my face.It is possible that Weir and Lipinski will move into prime time when the Winter Games shift to Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018. NBC executives declined to speculate. But there is a rhythm to such things. Dick Buttons analysis of Olympic figure skating on ABC gave way to Scott Hamiltons on CBS and NBC. And Hamilton seems prepared for that eventuality.I consider my role at NBC for as long as Ive had it to be an incredible blessing, he said. Weve been doing a pretty good job, but however this works, if they go live in prime time in four years, NBC will still need two teams. | Sports |
Credit...Joshua Lott for The New York TimesFeb. 1, 2014PLYMOUTH, Mich. Thirty minutes west of Detroit, at an indoor sports complex that could otherwise pass as a warehouse, several of the more intriguing members of the Mets gathered to train this off-season. Inside the complex, framed jerseys hung on one wall. N.F.L. players and other athletes milled about, stretching, pulling their limbs every which way with elastic bands. Rap music was thumping. A giant American flag hung to the side, and next to it was a quotation from General George S. Patton.May God have mercy upon my enemies, it read, because I wont. Amid it all, Mike Barwis barked orders in a loud, raspy voice. About six years ago, Jeff Wilpon, the Mets chief operating officer, introduced himself to Barwis on the sideline during a Michigan football practice in nearby Ann Arbor. The Wilpon family has strong ties to the university Fred Wilpon, a Mets co-owner and Jeffs father, is a graduate and, at the time, Barwis was the football teams strength and conditioning coach. Jeff Wilpon and Barwis hit it off, and eventually, the Mets hired Barwis as a consultant. Fast forward a few years. Sandy Alderson, the Mets general manager, and other team executives decided after the 2013 season that they wanted to offer a more regimented off-season training program for some of their younger players. The Mets suggested the idea to Ruben Tejada, the shortstop who fell from grace last season, and Wilmer Flores, one of the teams top position prospects. Lucas Duda, who missed a good chunk of the 2013 season with an intercostal strain, also signed on, as did Dominic Smith, who as a first baseman just out of high school was taken with the Mets first-round pick in the 2013 draft. Patrick Biondi and Phillip Evans, two recently drafted players, became part of the group, as well. The program was voluntary, the cost split between the organization and each player. The players came for about four weeks in the fall and returned recently to put in a few more weeks before spring training. Juan Lagares, the center fielder who dazzled at times in his 2013 rookie season, joined the others this time around and quickly learned what it was like to deal with Barwis.Barwis is always on the move, hand-slapping and hugging. He says he rarely sleeps. He refuses to discuss his background in mixed martial arts. He will talk about the two wolves that he said he raised years ago, bottle-feeding them as cubs and eventually taking them on hikes. He studied exercise physiology at West Virginia and then became a strength and conditioning coach for the university, eventually working with just about every varsity team. When Rich Rodriguez left to coach the Michigan football team, Barwis followed. And when Rodriguez was fired after three seasons, Barwis departed, too, although he decided to stay in the area and start his own business.ImageCredit...Joshua Lott for The New York TimesThe place seems to have taken on his persona. It appears loud and harried, but with a plan. When the various young Mets arrived, Barwis would evaluate them and come up with a nutrition and workout regimen. He wanted them to work on their balance, explosiveness, strength, speed and flexibility.He tutored them on running and cutting. Or, as he put it, How to place your foot, angle rotation of your shoulder. Whether or not my hand clears my hip to open up my hip when I make a cut. You know, redirection. Is my toe pointed in the right direction, at the right time, to make sure my pelvis engages properly? Am I engaging the right muscles to get the most power out of my body in this situation?Going through a speed and agility drill last Tuesday, Duda tapped his toes through a ladder-style obstacle, cut around five cones, and then smoothly caught a football at the end. He looked like an N.F.L. tight end, although it would help the Mets a lot more if he looked as if he belonged at first base. He has lost about 10 pounds. I feel like Im more coordinated, Duda said. In spring training, Duda and Ike Davis will apparently compete for the starting spot at first base, although its possible the Mets will seek another option. Whether Duda really is more agile and quicker in the field after working with Barwis will be known soon enough. Among those Mets who showed up, it was Tejada who clearly has the most to prove. Last season was a disaster for him. After a solid 2012 season in which he hit .289 in 464 at-bats, he came to spring training in 2013 overweight, played poorly to start the season, was injured and was essentially banished to Class AAA Las Vegas, with the Mets making it clear they were unhappy with his attitude. In a radio interview, Alderson said it was like pulling teeth to get Tejada to do extra work. Alderson, Wilpon and John Ricco, the teams assistant general manager, visited Barwiss facility recently, watched the players work out and were pleased with Tejadas renewed commitment to be better, Alderson said in a phone interview. This is my career, my future, the 24-year-old Tejada said as he worked out last week. Thats why I came here.The others have much to prove, too. If Flores can improve his agility, he could be in the mix for second base, a position he played in the minor leagues, but not impressively. For all these players, being here this past month was striking if for no other reason than the hostile climate. It was so cold last week that the University of Michigan canceled classes for weather reasons for the first time since 1978. But Alderson said he liked the frigid, remote location of the workouts; it meant fewer distractions. And then there was the testimony from Smith, who is only 18. Working out here, he said, his chest grew, his belly shrunk, his legs thickened. Smith hit .301 in 51 games of rookie league ball this past summer. He would seem to be at least a few years away from Citi Field; meanwhile, he says he plans on future trips to Plymouth. Unless, of course, it keeps getting colder. | Sports |
Chicago West Approval from Chicago Bulls Legend EXCLUSIVE 1/19/2018 TMZSports.com How does Scottie Pippen feel about his good friend, Kim Kardashian, naming her baby after his beloved Chicago?! Scottie loves it!! Go Bulls. Share on Facebook TWEET This See also Scottie Pippen Kim Kardashian Kim Kardashian Baby Chicago Bulls TMZ Sports Basketball NBA Exclusive The Kardashians | Entertainment |
50 Cent Rakes in Millions Thanks to Bitcoin!! 1/23/2018 50 Cent took a chance on bitcoin years before anyone knew what cryptocurrency even was ... and it's paid off more than 7 million times over. Rewind to 2014 and 50's album, "Animal Ambition," when the rapper became the first to accept bitcoin -- which was then valued at around $662/bitcoin -- as payment for his work. We're told customers could get a copy of the album for just a fraction of a whole bitcoin. Our sources say "Animal Ambition" pulled in about 700 bitcoin in sales ... over $400k. We're told the cryptocurrency sat dormant in his account for years. Fast-forward to today -- when bitcoin's value has fluctuated between $10k and $12k per coin. Turns out 50 is a money genius ... sitting on anywhere between $7 million and $8.5 million. The market has steadily declined over the last few weeks, so 50 might wanna think about unloading soon while the gettin's still good. | Entertainment |
The patient showed no sign of rejecting the genetically modified organ, but suffered numerous complications before dying.Credit...University of Maryland School of Medicine, via ReutersPublished May 5, 2022Updated May 9, 2022Traces of a virus known to infect pigs were found in a 57-year-old Maryland man who survived for two months with a heart transplanted from a genetically altered pig, according to the surgeon who performed the procedure, the first of its kind.The disclosure highlights one of the most pressing objections to animal-to-human transplants, which is that widespread use of modified animal organs might facilitate the introduction of new pathogens into the human population.The presence of the viruss DNA in the patient may have contributed to his sudden deterioration more than a month after the transplant, said the surgeon, Dr. Bartley Griffith of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.But there was no evidence that the patient developed an active infection with the virus, or that his body had rejected the heart, Dr. Griffith added.The patient, David Bennett Sr., had been extremely ill before the surgery and suffered numerous other complications after the transplant. He died on March 8.Dr. Griffiths revelations about the viral traces found in the patient, made last month during an American Society of Transplantation meeting, were first reported by MIT Technology Review.In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Dr. Griffith and his colleague, Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the scientific director of the cardiac xenotransplantation program at University of Maryland School of Medical, said that they were saddened by the loss of Mr. Bennett but that they were not deterred from their goal of using animal organs to save human lives.This doesnt really scare us about the future of the field, unless for some reason this one incident is interpreted as a complete failure, Dr. Griffith said. It is just a learning point. Knowing it was there, well probably be able to avoid it in future.The pig, which had been genetically modified so that its organs would not trigger rejection by the human immune system, was provided by Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Blacksburg, Va.Company officials declined to comment on Thursday, and officials with the Food and Drug Administration, which gave the transplant surgeons emergency authorization for the operation on New Years Eve, said they could not immediately respond to questions.University officials said that although the pig had been screened several times for the virus, the tests pick up only active infections, not latent ones in which the virus may hide quietly in the pigs body. (The tests were done on nasal swabs, but the virus was later detected in the pigs spleen.)The latent virus might have hitched a ride into the patient on the transplanted heart, Dr. Griffith said.ImageCredit...University of Maryland School of Medicine, via EPA, via ShutterstockMr. Bennetts transplant was initially deemed successful. He did not show signs of rejecting the organ, and the pigs heart continued to function for well over a month, passing a critical milestone for transplant patients.A test first indicated the presence of porcine cytomegalovirus DNA in Mr. Bennett 20 days after the transplant, but at such a low level that Dr. Griffith said he thought it might have been a lab error.About 40 days after the surgery, however, Mr. Bennett suddenly became acutely ill, and subsequent tests showed a precipitous rise in viral DNA levels, Dr. Griffith said.So we started thinking that the virus that showed up very early at Day 20 as just a twinkle started to grow in time, and it may have been the actor it could have been the actor that set this all off, Dr. Griffith told other transplant scientists at the meeting.At Day 45, Mr. Bennetts health abruptly deteriorated.Doctors treated Mr. Bennett with antiviral drugs and intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), a product made of antibodies, but the new heart filled with fluid, doubled in size and stopped working, and he was eventually put on a heart-lung machine.The heart transplant was one of several groundbreaking transplants in recent months that offer hope to the tens of thousands of patients who need new kidneys, hearts and lungs amid a dire shortage of donated human organs.Surgeons in New York in October successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a brain-dead patient, and found that the organ worked normally and produced urine.In January, surgeons at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that they had transplanted kidneys from a genetically modified pig into the abdomen of a 57-year-old brain-dead man.But the prospect of unforeseen consequences and particularly the potential introduction of animal pathogens into the human population may dampen enthusiasm for the use of genetically modified organs.The coronavirus that set off the global Covid pandemic is believed by many scientists to have originated with a virus that was transmitted from an unidentified animal to people in China.Porcine cytomegalovirus has not been a major concern, since it is a herpesvirus, which tend to be species-specific, said Dr. Jay Fishman, associate director of the transplantation center at Massachusetts General Hospital, who studies infectious diseases.They will replicate only in the host with which they are associated, Dr. Fishman said.Nevertheless, the virus could infect the transplanted animal organ, leading to a cascade of systemic effects that ultimately harm the patient.Did this contribute to the patients demise? The answer is obviously, we dont know, but it might have contributed to his overall not doing well, Dr. Fishman said.Dr. Jayme Locke, a transplant surgeon who is director of the Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program at University of Alabama at Birmingham, said genetically modified pigs whose organs are to be used for transplantation must be raised in a pathogen-free facility and weaned from their mothers within 48 hours of birth, in order to prevent transmission of porcine cytomegalovirus during lactation.The university has such a facility, and Dr. Locke said she was still planning to start a small Phase 1 clinical trial in which she will transplant kidneys from genetically modified pigs into people with end-stage kidney disease.More sensitive screening of the animals for the virus will be required, she added.From my perspective, its not slowing down what we need to do, but further emphasizing that data showing our herd is free of that virus will be critical for regulatory permission to move forward, she said. | Health |
DealBook|Hedge Fund Manager Steps Up Criticism of Dow and Its C.E.O.https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/business/hedge-fund-manager-steps-up-criticism-of-dow-and-its-ceo.htmlDec. 13, 2015Credit...Steve Marcus/ReutersThe hedge fund manager Daniel S. Loeb stepped up criticism of Dow Chemical over the weekend, calling on the chemical maker to bar its chief executive, Andrew N. Liveris, from having any role in the company after its merger with DuPont, people briefed on the matter said Sunday.In a letter to Dows board, Mr. Loeb, chief executive of Third Point, questioned the hastiness of the transaction and suggested that Mr. Liveris may have accepted a lower price for the company to retain a role there. Dow and DuPont announced on Friday that Mr. Liveris would become the executive chairman of the merged chemical manufacturer, to be called DowDuPont.Mr. Loeb has been a persistent thorn in Dows side for more than a year. Late last year, he publicly criticized the company and Mr. Liveris for failing to meet financial performance targets and questioned whether the company was being run efficiently.The two sides settled, with Dow adding four new independent directors and Mr. Loeb agreeing to a so-called standstill, which prevented him from publicly criticizing the company. The standstill expired on Saturday.A spokeswoman for Mr. Loeb declined to comment. A representative for Dow, Rachelle Schikorra, issued a statement from Dow board members saying they were unanimously and fully supportive of the announced merger of equals with DuPont and intended separation into three companies.News of Mr. Loebs letter was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. | Business |
Credit...Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMarch 16, 2017PARIS A letter bomb exploded in the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund on Thursday, lightly wounding one person and prompting the French authorities to announce an investigation of the incident as a possible terrorist attack.The explosion came one day after the German authorities in Berlin discovered a parcel bomb apparently sent by a Greek terrorist organization to the office of the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schuble, and there were indications that the Paris device also was sent from Greece.Although there were no fatalities, the episode at such a high-profile target in Paris renewed jitters in France, which remains under a state of emergency after terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 and in Nice last year.Michel Cadot, the Paris police chief, told reporters at the scene that the explosion at the monetary fund occurred just before noon when a secretary, who has not been identified, opened an envelope addressed to the funds representative in France.The explosion wounded the secretary, who suffered injuries to the face and eardrums, but two other people who were nearby were not hurt, Mr. Cadot said. The parcel, he said, contained what appeared to be a handmade pyrotechnical device, or a big firecracker that caused only limited damage.A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutors office said it was opening an investigation into the attack, specifically into attempted murder in relation to a terrorist undertaking, terrorist conspiracy and destruction with explosives in relation to a terrorist undertaking.Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the monetary fund, said in a statement from Frankfurt that the organization was working closely with the French authorities to investigate the incident and ensure the safety of our staff.The attack occurred in western Paris, not far from the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-lyses, one of the most famous streets in Paris.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Paris device, but a Greek terrorist cell claimed responsibility on Thursday for the parcel bomb addressed to Mr. Schuble that was discovered in Berlin the day before.That package contained a mixture of explosives that could have caused considerable damage and injury if anyone had opened it, the Berlin police said.The German police said that the homemade bomb included material used in the production of pyrotechnics, and the German news media confirmed that the package bore Greek stamps and was sent from Attica, in the Athens area.The package was marked as if it had been sent by Adonis Georgiadis, a prominent lawmaker and spokesman for the main Greek conservative opposition party, New Democracy. He is broadly perceived as backing some of the painful economic changes imposed on Greece by its international creditors led by the monetary fund and Mr. Schuble.A spokesman for the Greek national police, Theodoros Chronopoulos, said it was too early to link the blast at the monetary funds Paris offices to the Greek terrorist group, which calls itself Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire.But the Greek minister for public order, Nikos Toskas, said on Greek television that the French authorities had found similarities between the Paris and Berlin parcel bombs. Mr. Toskas said the Paris device had also been found to have come from Greece, and that it, too, was marked as if it had been sent by a New Democracy politician this time, Vassilis Kikilias, a party spokesman and Mr. Toskass predecessor at the ministry.The militant group that claimed the Berlin attack has described itself as a nihilist guerrilla operation, and it has been designated as a terrorist organization by Europol, Europes law enforcement agency, and by the United States Department of State.The group has claimed responsibility for sending parcel bombs to several European leaders since the beginning of Greeces economic crisis, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in 2010. It has condemned the austerity measures imposed on Greek society and pledged to fight the system of power. In its statement on Thursday, it claimed that it would continue stronger. But it did not mention the Paris attack.Ms. Lagarde, in her statement, reaffirmed the I.M.F.s resolve to continue our work in line with our mandate.The Greek government is in the middle of negotiating terms of its third international bailout since 2010, this one valued at 86 billion euros, or about $92 billion.Greeces creditors have been pushing the government to pass further austerity measures in exchange for the release of funds that the government needs before July in order to avoid defaulting on its debt.Greece has been asking for additional debt relief in exchange for adopting further austerity measures, while the monetary fund and Germany have been at odds on whether such relief should be granted; the fund has advocated a more forgiving approach.Were still targeted, here, unfortunately, it is the I.M.F., but this is France, and I want to tell all those working in that great institution that were with them, President Franois Hollande said during a visit to Toulon, on Frances Mediterranean Sea coast, alluding to the fact that France has been targeted more frequently in recent years than any other country in Europe.He added that the authorities would track down the persons responsible, and we will do it with tenacity, perseverance and until the end.The police and firefighters were quick to arrive at the monetary funds offices on Iena Avenue, which was temporarily closed to traffic while the authorities secured the area. People who had been working in the building waited outside a perimeter, unsure what to do next.They told us to leave, and we left, and here we are learning about things, said Anneke Slob, a consultant visiting from the Netherlands to advise the International Finance Corporation, a sister agency to the monetary fund.She said her consulting team was in a meeting with employees of the finance corporation when they realized something was wrong, but there was no panic at all.We didnt stop our meeting, Ms. Slob said as she stood near luggage that the police had retrieved from the building. | World |
Imagine Another World. Now Imagine 5,000 More.NASA recently announced that it had detected more than 5,000 exoplanets, so we asked astronomers, actors and an astronaut to share their favorite worlds orbiting distant stars.Credit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. HurtPublished April 2, 2022Updated April 5, 2022In January 1992, a pair of astronomers reported a discovery that changed the course of scientific history: They found planets outside our solar system.The detection of the first confirmed exoplanets the term for worlds that orbit other stars validated dreamers who for centuries believed that innumerable celestial bodies, stars, globes, suns and earths may be sensibly perceived therein by us, in the words of the Renaissance polymath Giordano Bruno. One such detection the world 51 Pegasi b in 1995 led to the award of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz.Now, 30 years later, the list of known exoplanets has just topped 5,000, according to NASA. This dazzling abundance and variety of worlds has come into view with the aid of ever-more sophisticated space telescopes. There are hot Jupiters that orbit scorchingly close to their stars and beefed-up versions of our planet known as super-Earths. Rogue planets, unmoored from their stars, wander interstellar space. And some worlds show signs of habitability, meaning they could host alien life.To celebrate the milestone, experts and enthusiasts shared their favorite exoplanets or exoplanetary systems among the thousands of worlds to choose from.A Dead Stars WorldsImageCredit...NASA/JPL-CaltechPoltergeist and Phobetor were the first confirmed exoplanets ever spotted. Alexander Wolszczan and Dale Frail detected the planets orbiting a neutron star, a type of dead star, using the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.Not only did this discovery precede further confirmed exoplanet discoveries by three years, Poltergeist and Phobetor were the first exoplanets with Earth-like masses and the first multiplanet system, said Dr. Frail, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.This discovery suggested that, if you can make planets around a neutron star, they should be common around all kinds of stars, said Dr. Wolszczan, a professor at Pennsylvania State University.No Doubt About ItThough Poltergeist and Phobetor were the first confirmed exoplanets in history, an absolutely humongous gas giant nicknamed Tadmor was spotted in 1988 by scientists based in British Columbia. The existence of Tadmor was disputed for years, even by its own discoverers, but was eventually confirmed in 2002.Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, said that firsts are always important to him, which is just one of the reasons that Tadmor is his favorite exoplanet.Part of the reason I like it is that it was detected by three Canadians, said Mr. Hadfield, referring to Bruce Campbell, Gordon Walker and Stephenson Yang, and they just couldnt believe it.To me, since its the first one, its the one I think ends up being the most historic and at this point, the most interesting, he added.Seven-in-OneImageCredit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. PyleWith seven rocky planets and a location just 40 light-years from Earth, the TRAPPIST-1 system is a fan favorite.Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, noted that the system had four planets in the habitable zone the region around a star where liquid water could potentially exist.Wouldnt it be incredible to find more than one habitable world around one star? Dr. Kaltenegger said.Tim Pyle, a multimedia producer who helped create some of the well-known visualizations of TRAPPIST-1 for NASA, noted that the view from these planets would be surreal.Having seven roughly Earth-sized planets around a single star excites my imagination, Mr. Pyle said. And theyre so close together that they would be looming fixtures in each others sky in a breathtaking way. Imagine lying on the deck of a boat on a TRAPPIST-1e ocean, looking above you, and seeing other planets as large as we see the full moon from Earth!Precocious PlanetsImageCredit...NASA/JPL-CaltechTOI-1233, a sunlike star more than 200 light-years from Earth, contains five known exoplanets. Four of these worlds were spotted in 2020.TOI-1233 is an outstanding planetary system with its high number of transiting planets, sunlike host star and its proximity to the solar system, said Tansu Daylan, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Dr. Daylan detected the system with Jasmine Wright and Kartik Pingl, who were both high school students at the time.This system is dear to my heart because it represents my first hands-on research experience in astrophysics, said Ms. Wright, who is now studying the subject and computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Since I was 7 years old, its been my goal to become an astrophysicist and work for NASA, and discovering this system brought me that chance sooner than expected.Mr. Pingl, a senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Massachusetts, added that there was much still to be discovered at TOI-1233.It is a prime candidate for follow-up observation, particularly from the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, he said.A Super-Saturn, MaybeThe possible exoplanet J1407b is nicknamed super-Saturn and Lord of the Rings because its ring system appears to stretch as far as Earth is from the sun.Ann Druyan, who created the original television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage with her husband, Carl Sagan, and is the creative force behind its two recent iterations, said this world made an impression on her.It was an indication of what the variety of worlds, similar to the variety of life, could be, she said.Doubts have been raised about the original detection of J1407b. That also appeals to Ms. Druyan.I love the idea that it might be there and it might not be there, she said. Its a product of this relentless searching, this sacred searching, weve been doing for roughly 400 years.An Ancient Super-EarthImageCredit...NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/Tim PyleOver half of the 5,000 known exoplanets were spotted by Kepler, a workhorse NASA space telescope that retired in 2018. Out of them all, William Borucki, Keplers principal investigator, has a clear favorite: Kepler-62f, a super-Earth about 1,000 light-years from Earth.It is in the habitable zone. It is similar in size to the Earth. It could be a rocky world or a water world, he said in an email. It orbits a star similar to but older than our sun.He added, Any life on the planet could be much more advanced because the planet and any life on it would/could be that much older than terrestrial life and therefore be of special interest.Crazy Ex-Lava MonsterKepler-10b was the first rocky planet to be discovered by the Kepler telescope, in 2011. The planet is slightly larger in size than Earth, and about four times as massive. But its temperature exceeds 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit because of its close orbit around its star, making it a nightmarish world.I love Kepler-10b because its the size of Earth but with a lava ocean, so I like to imagine its an alternate version of Earth with an alternate version of myself living on that planet, said the actress Rachel Bloom. But instead of being the co-creator and star of the TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Ms. Bloom said the Kepler-10b version of herself would be a fearsome lava monster who still likes show tunes.So Close, Yet So FarImageCredit...ESA/Hubble & NASAProxima Centauri, a red dwarf that is part of the three-star Alpha Centauri system, is our stars closest neighbor, just four light-years away. Over the past few years, scientists have spotted three exoplanets, Proxima b, c and d which are especially captivating to Sharon Xuesong Wang, a scientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing.I think within our lifetime, theres a chance that we could see a mission actually flying somewhere closer to the system to study the planets in more detail, Dr. Wang said. It is not very likely there is life on any of these planets though, but who knows the universe likes to surprise us.Abel Mndez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, chose Proxima Centauri b as his favorite.Dr. Mndez said that with new telescopes, we should be able to see land and ocean areas. Information about the atmosphere and surface properties would provide definitive evidence to confirm whether these are really habitable worlds.Two Hot JupitersImageCredit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaKelt-11b is a hot Jupiter that was first reported in 2017 with the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope. The planet is special to Kate Isaak, project scientist for the European Space Agencys CHEOPS spacecraft, launched in 2019, because it was the first light curve, a measurement of a stars brightness that reveals exoplanets, ever studied by the observatory.We were able to determine its size with an accuracy five times better than from Earth, measuring its roughly 180,000-kilometer diameter to within 4,200 kilometers, Dr. Isaak said, adding that it proved the scientific potential of the CHEOPS space telescope.Luis Calada, a science visualization artist who works with the European Southern Observatory, chose another hot Jupiter: Vega b.This star, which is only 25 light-years away from us, is central to Carl Sagans novel Contact, Mr. Calada said. He said the book sparked an interest that led him to pursue a university degree in astronomy. After that, I built a career as a science illustrator. So this book, Carl Sagan and Vega have been present in a defining moment of my life. So seeing a planet being discovered around it was very exciting.Small but FascinatingDuring his years on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wil Wheaton became familiar with fictional worlds and new forms of life. He picked YZ Ceti b, which is slightly smaller than Earth and orbits a red dwarf located 12 light years away, making it tantalizingly close for further study.It doesnt make sense that, in a universe as vast as ours, we are the only intelligent (sentient) species, Mr. Wheaton said in an email. So when I look out into the night sky, I dont just imagine that someone else is looking back. I know they are.He added that proof was unlikely to come in our lifetimes, so our most urgent challenge as a species right now is to take care of the only planet we can live on so that generations from now, in a future so far away we cannot imagine what it will look like, our descendants can make first contact.Puff Up Your ImaginationAt just 500 million years old, Kepler-51 is among the youngest star systems on this list. But though it is still a baby in astronomical terms, the system is already home to multiple planets with enigmatic properties, said Peter Gao, a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science.Dr. Gao said the systems three planets were nicknamed super puffs, with extremely low density that brings to mind Styrofoam or cotton candy and challenge our understanding of how planets form and how they evolve.He added that, I like them because I like a good mystery, and their existence has shown that the universe is always more imaginative than we are. | science |
Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York TimesFeb. 21, 2014Jonathan Halpert has coached at Yeshiva University for 42 years, the longest tenure of any mens basketball coach in New York City history. But even Division III Yeshiva, which has not had a winning season since 2007, is not immune to the pressures that much larger N.C.A.A. institutions face.Late last year, Richard M. Joel, the universitys president, told Halpert that his contract would not be renewed for next season. When Halpert informed his current and former players by email this month, messages of support soon poured in.On Feb. 11, 320 of Halperts former players, managers and assistants, as well as fans, paid to publish a letter to Coach Johnny in Yeshivas student newspaper, The Commentator. We were terribly saddened to hear that Y.U. has decided not to renew your contract, they wrote.Lior Hod, a captain on the 1988 team, wrote an email expressing his outrage to a network of Maccabee alumni. Hod called the universitys handling of Halperts contract an injustice.There are so many different ways for him to phase out, different ways to go out, Hod said in a telephone interview. This is not the way.David Kufeld, the only Yeshiva player ever drafted by an N.B.A. team (the Portland Trail Blazers in 1980), said, My first instinct was to send back my old jersey.ImageCredit...Karsten Moran for The New York TimesHe added: What happened here youd expect at some faceless, large university, where people come and go. There couldve been a better way to make a bridge to the next phase of coaching. Halpert, who has more than 400 coaching victories entering the Maccabees season finale, on Saturday night against SUNY Maritime, is not ready to retire. On Dec. 10, he self-published a memoir, Are You Still Coaching? It poked fun at his longevity, but he wrote that he was still chasing dreams. During a two-hour interview last week at an Upper East Side cafe, Halpert mentioned how much basketball in the city had changed since 1966, when he began coaching the junior varsity at Yeshiva University High School in Manhattan. I want to make sure people understand, Im not here because Im bitter, he said. Im not here because Im angry. Im disappointed.He added: Theres been a Halpert at Yeshiva University for 83 years. They took my father; they educated him; they clothed him; they fed him. I went to school there; my brother went to school there; my children went to school there. I love the place.Other alumni, however, expressed frustration with his basketball program. Some with ties to the board of trustees questioned why Halpert had been unable to continue the success the team had in the 1980s and 90s. A Yeshiva spokesman declined to comment, citing the universitys policy regarding personnel matters. In a statement, Joel said that Halperts legacy and lasting contribution to the university will be remembered each time our student-athletes step onto the court that carries his name.ImageCredit...Karsten Moran for The New York TimesYeshivas team had no permanent home until that court was built in 1985. And from 1986-87 to 2001-2, the Maccabees did not have a losing season, while competing against far larger universities with more resources and a wider recruiting pool. But there was no avoiding the athletic hurdles.Yeshiva, a Modern Orthodox institution in Washington Heights, never holds practices or plays games on Fridays or Saturdays, to observe the Sabbath. The team does not play during the universitys nearly monthlong break in January. Halpert said his players once left pregame warm-ups to recite an afternoon prayer, congregating in the gyms parking lot on a frigid December evening.Halperts players attend classes from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. Practice starts at 7:45 p.m., but I never have a full roster until five after 8, he said.Other teams have walk-throughs, he added. I cant have a walk-through at 5 p.m. in the afternoon; theyre all in class. If I called a walk-through, no one would show up.Richard Zernick, Yeshivas athletic director from 1997 to 2005, said sports were secondary by a wide margin to academic pursuits.You always want to win, Zernick said. But the reality is reality. This reinforced that this was the right kind of program.Sometimes, Halpert said, he daydreams about coaching at a higher N.C.A.A. level, on national television, in front of capacity crowds. But I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world, Halpert said. I was representing Yeshiva University. I was representing the Jewish people. | Sports |
Politics|Pence rejects Trumps pressure to block certification saying he loves the Constitution.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/pence-rejects-trumps-pressure-to-block-certification-saying-he-loves-the-constitution.htmlCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 6, 2021Vice President Mike Pence, in a bold statement on Wednesday afternoon, rejected President Trumps pressure to block congressional certification of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s victory in the presidential election, claiming that he lacked the unilateral authority to decide the outcome of the presidential election.As a student of history who loves the Constitution and reveres its Framers, Mr. Pence wrote in a two-page letter, I do not believe that the Founders of our country intended to invest the vice president with unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during the Joint Session of Congress, and no vice president in American history has ever asserted such authority.The letter was released by the White House as Mr. Trump was speaking to a group of supporters at the Ellipse, where over and over he implored Mr. Pence to have the courage to do what he has to do.Mr. Pence does not have the unilateral power to alter the results sent by the states to Congress.But Mr. Trump, listening to the advice of allies like Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer, has been convinced that the vice president could do his bidding. If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election, Mr. Trump said Wednesday, claiming inaccurately that the vice president has the absolute right to throw out the election results.Mr. Pences defiance the first in his four years as a deferential No. 2 created a remarkable and uncomfortable split screen, as the president continued the public pressure campaign even as Mr. Pence arrived at the Capitol to preside over a joint session of Congress where the Electoral College vote will be certified.On Tuesday night, after The New York Times reported that the vice president in a private meeting had informed Mr. Trump he did not have the authority to change the results of the election, Mr. Trump released a statement disputing the story. He never said that, the statement said. The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the vice president has the power to act.The vice presidents advisers have been eager to find some middle ground where Mr. Pence could mollify Mr. Trump by acknowledging some of his concerns. In the letter, Mr. Pence indicated that he shared the presidents concerns about integrity of this election and would make sure that challenges received a fair and open hearing in Congress. Releasing the letter ahead of his arrival at the Capitol took some of the drama and suspense out of Mr. Pences largely ceremonial role, and the swirling questions about how he would play the awkward moment. But his aides expected him to be on the receiving end of the presidents ire for not complying with his wishes. They expected him to underscore his loyalty to the Trump agenda in other ways, over the coming days.On Wednesday, Kelli Ward, who chairs the Arizona Republican Party, also joined a group of far-right Republicans that petitioned the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to grant Mr. Pence the authority to reject some state electors, after lower courts rejected the request. One of the attorneys who wrote the petition is Sidney Powell, a longtime member of Mr. Trumps legal team.On Wednesday afternoon, as Mr. Trumps supporters left the rally and stormed the Capitol with rioters entering the building and Mr. Pence being quickly evacuated from a building that was on lockdown, the president did nothing to quell the disorder that he had encouraged earlier in the day. Instead, he focused his ire on the vice president.Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth! he wrote on Twitter. | Politics |
DealBook|The Logic in AstraZenecas Buying Spreehttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/business/dealbook/the-logic-in-astrazenecas-buying-spree.htmlBreakingviewsDec. 17, 2015AstraZeneca is increasing risk with its merger splurge. The phamaceutical company is spending $4 billion on a stake in the cancer specialist Acerta, taking its total to more than $7 billion this quarter. But while AstraZenecas deals arent cheap, they do seem to clear the value hurdle.The acquisitions reflect AstraZenecas position as the European drug company most exposed to patent losses. It recently lost exclusivity on the blockbuster heart drug Nexium, and will lose a further 17 percent of sales through 2017, according to Fitch. Pascal Soriot, the chief executive, thinks the company can nearly double sales to $45 billion by 2023, but that requires investment. Bringing new drugs in-house makes sense.The flurry of mergers and acquisitions also reflects industry pressure. Governments are being ever more demanding on prices, particularly in the United States, where insurers and payers are consolidating. That leads pharma companies to specialize. For AstraZeneca, that means getting out of areas like gastroenterology, and bulking up in oncology.The danger, though, is that the acquisitions increase financial leverage at a time when AstraZenecas cash flows are already challenged. UBS expects net debt to hit almost one times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization this year, from 0.1 in 2014. The rating agencies Fitch and Moodys already have the group on negative outlook and its single-A rating lags peers Sanofi and Novartis. AstraZeneca is not an expert in the blood cancer area it is buying into. Recent divestitures, meanwhile, have raised concerns over the sustainability of AstraZenecas earnings.Still, the Acerta acquisition looks reasonably priced. AstraZeneca is paying $4 billion for a 55 percent stake in a company whose acalabrutinib blood cancer drug is expected to generate $5 billion in peak annual sales. It still needs regulatory approval, though.Risk-adjusted by 50 percent to reflect the possibility that the blood cancer drug goes nowhere, the purchase price is less than three times sales. That is in line with the sector average. It looks like a good value beside AbbVies recent purchase of Pharmacyclics, whose main drug is similar to Acertas. There are notable differences not least that the Pharmacyclics drug has approval. But that went for nearly five times as much. | Business |
Credit...Patrick Seeger/EPA, via ShutterstockNov. 13, 2018BERLIN Fresh from another strained international gathering with President Trump intended to remember the devastation of World War I, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said Tuesday that Europes future should include a real European army.Ms. Merkel, who announced last week that she would not seek another term, spoke more forcefully than ever about the European Unions need to pull together and to depend more reliably on itself, without dependence on the United States, when defending its interests. She did so in a speech about Europes future before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, which was seen as an effort to leave a legacy as her own power slowly fades.Her comments came hours after President Trump launched a blistering personal attack on President Emmanuel Macron of France, who also has proposed a European army.The days where we can unconditionally rely on others are gone, Ms. Merkel said in a speech televised around the Continent. That means that we Europeans should take our fate more into our own hands if we want to survive as a European community.That language echoed comments Ms. Merkel has made before. But in the current climate and in the twilight of her chancellorship, there was a new urgency to her call, analysts said.We should work on a vision to create a real European army one day, Ms. Merkel said. Such an army, she said, would show the world that there will never again be war between European nations.Stressing that such an army would not be against NATO but complement it, the chancellor also proposed a European Security Council with rotating seats for member states that would make speedy foreign policy decisions without the need for unanimity.It is remarkable to hear the German chancellor, leader of the most Atlanticist country in the world, talking about European defense and Germanys responsibility toward it like this, said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.Whether this language is backed up by actual institutions is an open question. Many see a European army as a distant ambition.Calling for a European army is a bold long-term vision, said Guntram Wolff, director of the Bruegel research institute in Brussels, but lets acknowledge that its long-term.The political authority and legitimacy to send soldiers into a fight still resides firmly within national parliaments, he pointed out.Others see an opportunity for Germany to escape its traditional unease about taking on a leadership role in foreign and defense policy by rooting such a role firmly in a collective European effort.ImageCredit...Laetitia Vancon for The New York TimesAs Mr. Leonard put it: A European military operation might be an easier sell than a German military operation.At best, a European army can be considered an aspiration. Some European governments, including Germanys, require parliamentary approval each time their national armies are deployed abroad, let alone fight. How any European army would be organized, led or governed let alone financed when so many countries cannot even spend 2 percent of GDP on defense are questions few advocates have even tried to answer.It has long been a French idea, one that Charles de Gaulle tried to organize unsuccessfully in the 1950s. For the most part, European nations have been content to participate in NATO for collective defense, with an American guarantee under an American nuclear umbrella. Even France returned to the NATO command structure in 2009, 43 years after Mr. de Gaulle pulled it out in 1966 and sent NATO packing off to Belgium.With Mr. Trumps criticism about NATO, which he has portrayed as a club in which member countries somehow pay dues to the United States, there has been renewed interest in a more forceful European defense capability, but within NATO, not in opposition to it.Think-tanks debate the idea of European strategic autonomy, a label American policymakers resist because it implies separation.Europeans argue that strategic autonomy simply refers to their own capacity to collectively do small-scale military operations that NATO does not want to do. Then there are the debates about whether European defense spending would be designed to promote European military manufacturers at the expense of American ones, one of the Trump administrations criticisms of any efforts toward more European defense.A year ago, in response both to Mr. Trumps criticism and new Russian military actions in Ukraine, the Europeans created a program called Pesco, designed to promote greater efficiency among European militaries, and put more money jointly into a European defense fund to promote European research and development and equipment. But even then Ms. Merkel emphasized that these efforts should be done in coordination with both the United States and Britain.Ms. Merkel is said to have been deeply moved by the weekend centennial events for World War I in France, much of it spent by the side of Mr. Macron. He has regularly supported the idea of a European army and a European intervention force, designed to handle sudden conflict outside of NATO.Her speech came after the summit meeting in Paris that displayed many of the strains between Mr. Trump and European allies. An interview given by Mr. Macron was misinterpreted by some journalists to suggest that he favored the creation of a European army to defend against Russia, China and even the United States. In fact Mr. Macron discussed the need for France to defend itself against cyber attacks and cyber espionage involving those countries.Only later in the interview did he discuss a European army, but that was without any direct reference to competition against the United States. Instead Mr. Macron emphasized how Europe must do more for its own security, which Washington has regularly urged.We need a Europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the United States, in a more sovereign way, he said.Ms. Merkel, wearing a blue blazer echoing the color of the European flag, won a standing ovation in the chamber on Tuesday but also copious amounts of booing and heckling.Europes soul is tolerance, she said. That tolerance has been strained in recent years, she said, as one crisis after another pulled at the social fabric of the Continent. | World |
Credit...Dustin Franz for The New York TimesMarch 9, 2016The first uterus transplant in the United States has failed, and the organ was surgically removed on Tuesday, officials at the Cleveland Clinic said on Wednesday.The recipient, a 26-year-old woman, suddenly developed a serious complication on Tuesday, according to Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the clinic. She did not specify the nature of the problem but said the uterus was being analyzed by pathologists to determine what went wrong.The transplant, which used a uterus from a woman in her 30s who had died suddenly, was performed on Feb. 24. It was the first of 10 uterine transplants planned by the clinic, in an experimental program meant to enable women without a uterus to become pregnant and give birth. In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, the clinic said it would continue that effort.The study, which has been planned to include 10 women, is still ongoing with a commitment to the advancement of medical research to provide an additional option for women and their families, the clinic said.The failure occurred only a day after the clinic held a news conference to describe what had seemed to be a successful transplant, with remarks from members of the surgical team and a brief appearance by the patient, who asked to be identified only as Lindsey. In an interview after the session, the lead surgeon, Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, said that Lindsey had already undergone one biopsy to check for rejection, and that there were no signs of it.In its statement announcing the failure, the clinic said: While this has been difficult for both the patient and the medical team, Lindsey is doing well and recovering.Lindsey, who was born without a uterus, and her husband, Blake, also released a statement. I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude towards all of my doctors. They acted very quickly to ensure my health and safety. Unfortunately I did lose the uterus to complications. However, I am doing O.K. and appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts.Doctors at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have performed nine uterus transplants, resulting in five births. Two of the nine transplants failed during the first year after the surgery and had to be removed.Three other medical centers in the United States are also planning to perform uterus transplants on an experimental basis: Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston and the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.Dr. Alexander Maskin, from the University of Nebraska, called the failure in Cleveland disheartening. He said he knew the surgeons there well, and described them as talented and thoughtful. Regarding why a transplant might fail, he said there were several possibilities, including rejection by the patients immune system, infection or a problem with the veins and arteries that were connected to the uterus to provide it with blood flow.I figure in the next few days or weeks theyll figure out what happened, Dr. Maskin said. I think when the Cleveland team is ready to discuss it with others, Im sure well share and learn from it. Its a steep learning curve.He said that the various medical centers working on uterus transplantation had been sharing information, and that the four teams from the United States and 15 from Europe attended a conference about the procedure in January in Gothenburg, sponsored by the Swedish team.Were still moving forward, Dr. Maskin said. Sweden had such a positive experience, we hope it will translate to future positive experiences. | Health |
The missions failure to reach orbit highlighted the challenges of breaking into the space business, especially for companies that are publicly traded on the stock market.VideotranscripttranscriptAstra Rocket Launch Fails to Reach OrbitMinutes after the rockets launch, as its second stage booster was supposed to break off for its trip deeper into orbit, onboard cameras showed the booster tumbling out of control.Five, four, three. [ignition] Zero. [crowd clapping] LV0008 has launched and is on its way to space. That was fairing separation and stage separation. And you can see that the upper stage ether engine has lit. [crowd clapping] Unfortunately, we heard that an issue has been experienced during flight that prevented the delivery of our customer payloads to orbit today. We are deeply sorry to our customers: NASA, the University of Alabama, the University of New Mexico and the University of California, Berkeley.Minutes after the rockets launch, as its second stage booster was supposed to break off for its trip deeper into orbit, onboard cameras showed the booster tumbling out of control.CreditCredit...Craig Bailey/Florida Today, via Associated PressPublished Feb. 10, 2022Updated Feb. 14, 2022Four tiny NASA-funded satellites were lost on their way to space on Thursday after launching atop a rocket built by Astra Space, a small, publicly traded rocket start-up based in Alameda, Calif.The satellites were small experimental devices called cubesats, and their loss may set back the research projects of the institutions that built them. But for Astra, the setback could be more significant. A successful flight on Thursday would have helped it step further into a growing cadre of launch start-ups jockeying to offer cheaper methods of lofting objects into space. And the companys latest launch failure shows how difficult it is to join the club.The companys 3.3 rocket lifted off from a launchpad from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 3 p.m. Eastern time, sparking cheers from a crowd of Astra employees streamed on a live video. But a few minutes after launch, as the rockets second stage booster was to break off for its trip deeper into orbit, onboard cameras showed the booster tumbling out of control.Unfortunately, we heard that an issue has been experienced during flight that prevented the delivery of our customer payloads to orbit today, said Carolina Grossman, the director of product for Astra who was providing commentary during a company-sponsored livestream of the launch.As the spinning spacecrafts onboard camera captured glimpses of Earth and space, the stock market went through its own gyrations. Astras stock price fell so rapidly that the New York Stock Exchange halted trading of its shares for about 22 minutes, then halted it again shortly after trading resumed for about five minutes.The botched mission comes nearly three months after the company reached orbit for the first time and about six years since its founding, in 2016, putting its campaign of test launches and string of failures under a quicker timeline than that of other launch companies.We experienced an issue in todays flight, Chris Kemp, Astras chief executive, said on Twitter. Im deeply sorry we were not able to deliver our customers payloads. Im with the team looking at data, and we will provide more info as soon as we can.With Thursdays launch for NASA, Astra has effectively started its launch business and was attempting to join more-established players in the field like SpaceX; Rocket Lab, the California-based company that has completed roughly two dozen launches from New Zealand since 2018; and Virgin Orbit, the company founded by Richard Branson that drops a rocket from a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet to reach orbit.The Astra flight was to be a key demonstration of the companys goal to launch its rocket from more than one launchpad in the United States; all its earlier missions lifted off from Alaska. The flight also launched using new Federal Aviation Administration licensing procedures. The agency, which oversees launch safety on the ground, has sought in recent years to modernize its oversight duties amid a surge in spaceflight activity brought on by an array of new rocket companies.ImageCredit...Gene Blevins/ReutersImageCredit...Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesMany more companies like Astra are aiming to reach orbit and kick off their own commercial satellite launch businesses.Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based start-up, conducted an unsuccessful test launch last September in California. Since then, its progress has been paralyzed by a U.S. foreign investment panel, which late last year expressed national security concerns over a Ukraine-linked investor that is being forced to sell its stake before the company can resume test launches.Other companies are further from the launchpad. Relativity Space, a firm based in Long Beach, Calif., will rely on a small 3D-printed rocket called Terran 1, which aims to launch from Florida later this year. ABL Space Systems, another small-launch company based in El Segundo, Calif., is targeting mid-2022 for the launch of its RS1 rocket.While NASA was Astras customer on Thursday, the U.S. national security apparatus has played a key role in shaping the ambitions of these small-launch firms. As Earths orbit becomes a battleground for military and geopolitical dominance, Astra and other companies seek the ability to launch on short notice from multiple potential sites. That would support a Pentagon goal of having the capability to launch spy satellites or other closely held military assets to space in emergencies.Astras botched trip to orbit on Thursday highlights the daunting challenges for all these small companies. It reached space on its second launch test in late 2020, but failed to go into orbit. In its next test months later, the rocket waddled sideways on the launchpad before taking flight, failing again to go to orbit. The company finally reached orbit in November 2021, deploying a test payload from the U.S. Space Force.Its incredibly difficult, said Bradley Smith, NASAs director of launch services who oversees the program that funded Astras mission on Saturday. When a company publicly says they are 12 months from launch, theyre typically two and a half years away from getting to the pad. Thats what our metrics tell us.And, within the first three launches of a particular payload, one of those three launches is going to fail one-third of the time, he said.Bringing a rocket to commercial operations for a diverse landscape of customers is no easy task, and many companies have crafted new sources of revenue to stay afloat. Astra, Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit have all gone public in the past year through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. Astra reaped a cash boost of approximately $500 million when it listed its stock. Virgin Orbit brought in $228 million.After we demonstrated our technology and got it to operation, Dan Hart, Virgin Orbits chief executive, said of his companys LauncherOne rocket, it became clear that we needed to ramp, and we needed capital to make that happen.Mr. Hart added that going public through a SPAC opened up other opportunities. It puts us in a place that can give us other tools and flexibility, he said.But going public during a rocket companys infancy also adds more pressure for success at a time when engineers are still experimenting and learning about a rockets development and when failure is expected. Investors, however, may potentially view incidents on and off the launchpad as business risks, as the brief Thursday freeze of Astras stock implied.While companies like Astra have barely gotten off the launchpad, they may be also be looking to diversify their business.Caleb Henry, a launch industry analyst at Quilty Analytics, said that some of the companies that had gone public using SPACs see a need to buy other companies in order to get anywhere close to the revenue projections that they have put out into the market.Mr. Kemp of Astra has said purchasing smaller companies that specialize in building high-tech spacecraft components will be critical to many small-launch companies growth after going public, a strategy he suggested was aimed at expanding business services.Astra last year acquired Apollo Fusion, a company specializing in small, electric propulsion systems for satellites in space. Rocket Lab, which has many successful launches to date, made similar moves last year when it acquired three companies after going public in August, spending roughly $162 million in all.Those recent efforts to expand revenue sources are partly a result of changing launch demand from satellite companies. Companies developing vast networks of thousands of internet-beaming satellites, like Amazons Kuiper project, seek more and larger rockets to boost large payloads of satellites to space at once. Some companies, like Relativity and Rocket Lab, plan to build larger rockets to tap into that demand.Its a big audacious bet, but I think its the right one, because its very clear thats where the market opportunity truly is, Tim Ellis, Relativitys chief executive, said of his companys plan to start developing a larger rocket, Terran R, even before its first rocket launches.ABL Space Systems could follow the trend in designing larger rockets. We see the same sources of demand that are driving those decisions, and we expect to respond to it, Dan Piemont, the companys chief financial officer, said. The companys first launch of its smaller rocket may be delayed from early 2022 after a test accident in January.Astra has not revealed any plans for a larger rocket. But it has maintained a goal of being able to launch up to 1,102 pounds of satellites to low-Earth orbit in the future, more than double the capacity of its current rocket. | science |
Africa|8 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Congo in Area Facing Ebola Outbreakhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/world/africa/congo-ebola-united-nations-peacekeepers.htmlCredit...John Wessels/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 15, 2018Eight United Nations peacekeepers and at least 12 Congolese soldiers were killed in a joint military operation against rebels in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is facing a deadly Ebola outbreak, the Security Council said Thursday.Ten peacekeepers were injured and one was missing after Wednesdays operation that targeted Allied Democratic Forces rebels, said the United Nations spokesman, Stphane Dujarric.The Security Councils statement said seven of the peacekeepers who were killed were from Malawi and one was from Tanzania.The joint forces were attacked while conducting operations to dislodge the rebel fighters from a stronghold in Kididiwe, near the regional capital of Beni, a United Nations official said. The mission succeeded and a number of rebels were captured, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.Congos volatile east is home to many armed groups vying for control of the mineral-rich region, and the Allied Democratic Forces are especially active in the Beni area.The Security Council called on all armed groups to stop the violence immediately and lay down their arms. It also urged Congolese authorities to apprehend and bring to justice the perpetrators of attacks on civilians, national security forces and the peacekeepers.The Security Council emphasized that deliberate attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.The Allied Democratic Forces group originated in Uganda as a rebel movement against that countrys government. A military campaign forced them to relocate to eastern Congo.Since October 2014, the groups fighters have killed more than 1,500 people in the Beni region. United Nations investigators blamed the Allied Democratic Forces for the deadliest single assault on the peacekeeping mission in Congo in almost 25 years, an attack last Dec. 7 at a base near Beni that killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers and wounded 43 others.In recent attacks, the group has also killed civilians and abducted children in the Beni region.Rebel attacks have forced suspension of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in some areas.Dr. Peter Salama, the emergencies chief for the World Health Organization, predicted Tuesday that Congos Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 200 people, will last at least six more months.The outbreak is arguably the most difficult context that weve ever encountered, Dr. Salama said, pointing to activities of the armed rebel groups in the region. | World |
Credit...Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesNov. 16, 2016As negotiators meet in Morocco to hammer out details of the landmark global climate change accord reached in Paris almost a year ago, the independent International Energy Agency warned that the nearly 200-nation deal was too weak to meet its avowed temperature target.The I.E.A.s annual World Energy Outlook stated that reaching the Paris targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was possible, and that meeting those targets would slow climate change. Yet the agencys estimates also showed that the result of those reductions was not likely to keep the temperature increase beyond preindustrial levels well below 2 degrees Celsius, as hoped. Instead, the reports authors estimated, meeting the national commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would still allow temperatures to rise 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100.Meeting the most ambitious temperature goal discussed at the conference would be next to impossible, the report stated: The transformation required for a reasonable chance of remaining within the temperature goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius is stark.A shifting mix of energy sources that favors renewable energy and more efficient energy use are putting those targets within reach.The annual report of the International Energy Agency, based in Paris, noted that renewable energy was booming, with more capacity added in 2015 than for coal, oil and nuclear power combined. Still, fossil fuels will have a substantial role to play in the global energy mix for many years to come especially natural gas, which is rapidly displacing coal.The era of fossil fuels is far from being over, even if the Paris pledges are fully implemented, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the agency. Today, he said, the share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix is about 81 percent; if Paris goals are met, the share will drop only to 74 percent by 2040. This is in part because even though renewable energy sources are finding their way into electricity generation, oil is still an important source of power for transportation and petrochemical production.Still, there are winners and losers within fossil fuels, Dr. Birol said. The biggest winner worldwide in the groups projections is natural gas, and the biggest loser is coal. China, the worlds largest coal producer and user, has been pulling back and appears to have reached the peak of its coal use in 2013.Dr. Birol declined to discuss the effect on the groups projections of the election of Donald J. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, and pledged to abandon the Paris deal and to promote a revival of coal.We are a technical organization, Dr. Birol said. Governments come and go around the world, and this is a perfectly normal thing. He said the group would be watching the actual policies and actions that emerge from the Trump administration, since these changes may have global implications. Once the policies do emerge, we will include them in future reports, Dr. Birol said.The report predicted that by 2040, 80 percent of the new energy generated to meet global demand would come from natural gas and renewable sources like solar and wind power.A push to use energy more efficiently is expected to help in the fight against climate change, Dr. Birol said, citing predictions that world energy use is expected to rise more slowly than in the past, even in the face of continued economic growth.Tim Buckley, an analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a progressive research organization based in Cleveland, said that the decline of coal and the explosion in low-cost renewable energy provided a simple lesson: Those who exit fossil fuels and embrace solar and wind will reap financial rewards and avoid stranded assets.Stranded assets is a term applied to fossil fuel reserves such as oil, coal and natural gas that are still in the ground; in many scenarios of addressing climate change, companies would not be able to exploit their reserves. Oil companies like Exxon Mobil have disputed the issue. The new report states that unless governments work hard to address the issue for a smooth and orderly transition away from fossil fuels, there is a risk that major losses will be incurred. | science |
Credit...Jack Taylor/Getty ImagesNov. 15, 2018LONDON Theresa May rose to her feet before the British House of Commons on Thursday to make the sales pitch of her life, promising that the United Kingdoms departure from the European Union would be smooth and orderly.It was not supposed to be a laugh line.But the members of Parliament laughed out loud at Mrs. May. They laughed uproariously, and for long enough that she had to pause, eyes flickering over her papers, and wait for them to stop, so she could continue.Over the past two and a half years as prime minister, Mrs. May, 62, has plenty of experience being derided and conspired against. On Thursday, the day she publicly presented her long-awaited, 585-page deal to withdraw from the bloc, or Brexit, she took such a pummeling that her survival as prime minister was in question.The morning papers announced horrific, humiliating surrender, Brexsh*t, and a stitch-up that doesnt have a hope in hell. By breakfast time her chief negotiator for withdrawal from the European Union had resigned in protest, followed by her work and pensions secretary.When members of Parliament were given the chance to comment on the agreement, it was one withering blast after another. Fully 57 minutes of denunciation passed before a member, Peter Bottomley, offered Mrs. May a few lukewarm words of support, saying she was good-natured and answers questions, however insulting, with calmness, which I find is admirable.Shortly thereafter, a high-profile Conservative announced he had submitted a letter of no-confidence in Mrs. May, the first step in an obscure party process that could trigger her ouster. She was left to contemplate the obvious: Having taken office with the single goal of negotiating the withdrawal, she may not remain in power long enough to finish the job.Am I going to see this through? Yes, she told an evening news conference, repeating it later, for good measure. Then she compared herself to the dogged, unglamorous cricket player Geoffrey Boycott, known for reliably and heavily scoring runs. And what did you know about Geoffrey Boycott? Geoffrey Boycott stuck to it, and he got the runs in the end, she said.The draft plan was bound to disappoint many Britons who voted for Brexit hoping for a clean break. To avoid border checks between Ireland, which is part of the bloc, and Northern Ireland, which will not be, the deal calls for the United Kingdom to abide by European Union customs rules until future trade deals are worked out.ImageCredit...Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesThis compromise went over badly with hard-line Brexiteers. One Conservative lawmaker described the draft as a Hotel California Brexit deal, which ensures we can never truly leave the E.U.Even if Mrs. May survives an attempt by rebels within her own party to oust her, she now seems unlikely to win parliamentary approval for her agreement.If she doesnt see this through, she will go down in history as a poor leader, said Rosa Prince, the author of a May biography. When Mrs. Mays predecessor, David Cameron, stepped down, Ms. Prince said, everyone thought, Whos a safe pair of hands? If she cant survive the chaos, the whole reason she was there falls down. She fails on her own terms, and on everyone elses as well.If Mrs. May is removed from office in the coming months, Ms. Prince added, she will be one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in British history.She wants to be remembered for something, Ms. Prince said.Mrs. Mays gravest challenge on Thursday came from Jacob Rees-Mogg, a bespectacled Tory who styles himself after aristocratic gentlemen in the novels of P.G. Wodehouse. Mr. Rees-Mogg, a backbencher who opposes abortion and gay rights, and supports welfare cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy, was for years one of British politics favorite eccentrics, described by some as the honorable member for the 18th century.But in the more fiercely ideological age ushered in by Brexit, Mr. Rees-Mogg has emerged as a charismatic leader, vigorously advocating for a full break from the European Union. And it was he, on Thursday, who most theatrically vowed to block the plan his right honorable friend Mrs. May had put forward.My right honorable friend and she is unquestionably honorable said we would leave the customs union. Annex 2 says otherwise, Mr. Rees-Mogg said in a sonorous voice, referring to a provision of the deal regulating trade with Northern Ireland. My right honorable friend said that she would maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom. A whole protocol says otherwise.He went on, with dramatic effect, to directly threaten Mrs. May: As what my right honorable friend says, and what my right honorable friend does, no longer match, should I not write to my right honorable friend, the member for Altrincham and Sale West?He meant a letter to the chairman of the 1922 Committee, a secretive body with the power to trigger a vote of confidence in the party leader at the request of 15 percent of its membership. If a majority of Conservative lawmakers then were to vote against her, Mrs. May could be compelled to resign, a procedure that has been used only once.ImageCredit...Simon Dawson/ReutersMr. Rees-Mogg, who addressed reporters at Westminster on Thursday, took umbrage when a journalist described his parliamentary speech as a coup.This is working through the procedures of the Conservative party, therefore it is entirely constitutional. Dare I say to Newsnight, he went on, addressing a journalist. Coup is the wrong word.Tim Bale, the author of a history of the Conservative Party, said the no-confidence process was intentionally designed to be secretive. To make a letter public, as Mr. Rees-Mogg did on Thursday, is highly unusual, he said, and a sign of a party that had become a much more ideologically febrile institution than it used to be.You used to be able to rely on Tory MPs to be broadly loyal, said Mr. Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. I think now you have a bunch of people who are actually prepared to die in a ditch for an idea, or a principle, and that is a big, big change.In his years observing the party, Mr. Bale added, he had never seen anything like this the absolute multiple pileup were seeing in terms of the ideological problems, the personnel problems, the disloyalty, the willingness to make peoples feelings public, its just unprecedented.When Mrs. May held her news conference on Thursday evening, the strain of the last 48 hours a tense, five-hour negotiation with cabinet ministers on Wednesday night, followed by hours of one-on-one talks and a three-hour grilling in Parliament showed on her face, but she vowed to keep fighting.A naturally reserved person, hard-pressed to project warmth, and uncomfortable in the spotlight, she faces the monumental task, in the days and weeks ahead, of persuading lawmakers and their constituents to support a plan many find disappointing.Its the biggest act of persuasion, said Alasdair Palmer, who worked briefly as a speechwriter for Mrs. May when she served as home secretary. She cant do it on the force of personality. The only thing she can do it on is a sober assessment of the alternatives.He added, however, he was astounded by her stamina.Shes just able to grit her teeth and get on with it, Mr. Palmer said. She feels the countrys on the line. | World |
DealBook|Bank of America Gets Feds Approval of Resubmitted Capital Planhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/business/dealbook/bank-of-america-gets-feds-approval-of-resubmitted-capital-plan.htmlCredit...Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesDec. 10, 2015Bank of America executives can breathe a sigh of relief.The Federal Reserve said on Thursday that it had approved the banks resubmitted capital plan, allowing the bank to continue paying its 20-cent annual dividend and buy back $4 billion in shares.But the regulator noted that Bank of America had to continue to make steady demonstrable progress in its risk management and capital planning processes commensurate with the size and complexity of its operations and systemic importance.Banks have to submit their 2016 capital plans in the first quarter.Bank of America released a short statement on Thursday saying the Fed had not objected to its plan.But behind the scenes, the bank has been working for months to improve coordination between its business units and the people charged with overseeing its stress testing and capital planning processes after the Fed granted only conditional approval for its 2015 plan in the spring. The bank said this year that it was spending $100 million to fix its processes.At an investor conference in New York on Wednesday, Bank of Americas chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, said that executives wanted to make sure we really nail this thing.We took an army and went after it, Mr. Moynihan said, and we have now broadened that army out to drive it across the enterprise to make sure we get it right.In the banks original submission in March, the Fed found weaknesses in some of its loss and revenue projections and in its internal controls. On Thursday, the Fed said the bank had made progress in fixing the deficiencies.Shares of Bank of America rose 0.6 percent on Thursday.Since the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed has required the biggest banks in the United States to submit plans for dividend payouts and share buybacks, along with stress-testing situations, to make sure they can weather another economic downturn.Bank of America has stumbled more than others in trying to get its processes aligned with the regulators expectations.It passed its 2014 stress test, then discovered weeks later that it had erred and overstated its capital by $4 billion. Those mistakes forced it to suspend its plans to buy back shares last year.The Fed also rejected Bank of Americas capital plan in 2011, forcing it to resubmit that year. | Business |
Heat 106, Knicks 91Credit...Rich Schultz/Getty ImagesFeb. 1, 2014Just when the Knicks were starting to build momentum, the Miami Heat cooled them off.That four-game winning streak the Knicks had? Its over. What about the torrid stretch of explosive offense from Carmelo Anthony? It ended.LeBron James was the star Saturday night, Super Bowl eve at Madison Square Garden. James (30 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists) took center stage, the Heat took control in the fourth quarter, and the Knicks took it on the chin, 106-91. Anthony (26 points, 8 rebounds, 7 turnovers) shot just 1 of 4 from 3-point range, and had to work for his points against the defense of Shane Battier (16 points), who had an excellent game at both ends. The Knicks sabotaged their chances with 17 turnovers.Some of them were just unforced turnovers where we just didnt see the defense and threw it away, Knicks Coach Mike Woodson said.At least it was entertaining. The Heat led, 77-71, after three quarters, but the Knicks kept in striking distance largely because of J. R. Smith (20 points). The Knicks asked plenty of Smith in this game as the primary defender against James. Smith did a decent job at times, but Jamess combination of strength and quickness is hard to contain for four quarters.Hes so talented right hand, left hand, vision is unbelievable, speed, Smith said. Hes got the total package. Hes a tough check for anybody.The Heat gradually pulled away, and James punctuated the night with a ferocious dunk, followed by a jumper that put the Heat ahead, 96-81, with four minutes to play. Miami (33-13) remained a threat to win its third consecutive N.B.A. title. The Knicks (19-28) remained in danger of missing the playoffs.James said he was satisfied with his performance and the outcome.We got stops, we forced turnovers, and we defensive rebounded, James said. On the offensive end, we executed. When we do that, we are a good team.ImageCredit...Jason Decrow/Associated PressI feel great. I am in a great groove right now. Hopefully, it translates for us to win ballgames. It was more than a one-man show. Dwyane Wade had an efficient game, scoring 22 points and shooting 10 of 15 from the field. Wade never forced the action, but picked his spots to pick up the offense, usually when James was on the bench. The Knicks began the night with confidence, but their four-game winning streak was built against teams with losing records. Stepping up in competition made a difference. The Knicks have played well against the Heat in recent seasons, but Miami shared the basketball well Saturday, making it difficult for the Knicks to contain the Heats offense.The Knicks had won four in a row against the Heat, and had been playing well with Anthony at power forward since an elbow injury sidelined Andrea Bargnani. But the Heat had an answer for whatever combination the Knicks put on the floor. The Knicks never led in the second half, and with Anthony unable to carry them for long stretches, the Knicks had too many offensive dry spells.The Heat led by as many as 14 in the second quarter, and the Knicks trailed at halftime, 53-46. It could have been worse from their perspective. Anthony struggled from the start, shooting 3 of 8 in the first half, including 0 for 3 from 3-point range. The free-throw line was of no help to Anthony. He was fouled attempting a 3-pointer late in the first half, and then missed all three free throws.Somebody needed to pick up the slack for the Knicks, and Smith tried, with 13 first-half points. But the Heat had more people clicking. Battier did not play against the Knicks the last time they faced the Heat, but in this game, he was an important factor.Finishing an eight-game homestand with a 4-4 record, the Knicks hope to rebound Monday night at Milwaukee.I dont think its a setback at all, Smith said. We got to regroup and get ready for Monday.REBOUNDSIman Shumpert (sprained right shoulder) did not play on Saturday. ... The guitarist and former Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams played the national anthem. | Sports |
Middle East|Ancient City of Palmyra Swings Back to Syrian Government Controlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/world/middleeast/palmyra-syria-control.htmlMarch 2, 2017ImageCredit...Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesPalmyra, the storied ancient city that was among prewar Syrias leading tourist attractions, swung back under government control on Thursday, state media reported, as soldiers and their allies evicted Islamic State militants who had made a sport out of pilfering the citys antiquities.This was the fourth time in the past two years that control of Palmyra, a Unesco World Heritage Site, changed hands between government forces and Islamic State fighters, who vandalized the citys historic sites and used its famed Roman stone amphitheater for public executions.ImageCredit...Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and MuseumsThe groups fighters first seized Palmyra in May 2015, routing Iraqi security forces who fled in a chaotic retreat. The fighters were expelled by Syrian forces and their Russian allies a year ago, in what was seen as an important victory by President Bashar al-Assad. But they recaptured Palmyra nine months later when the Syrians and Russians were preoccupied with retaking the northern city of Aleppo, another front in the war.ImageCredit...via Associated PressPalmyra is particularly valuable to the Islamic State because the group regards the citys artifacts as sacrilegious symbols. Control of the city gave Islamic State leaders a grand propaganda stage on which to destroy and kill.After Russian forces helped the Syrians expel the Islamic State from Palmyra the first time, the Kremlin painted the effort as a victory of civilization over barbarity. The Russians even organized a televised concert in May from the amphitheater, the same one used for executions by Islamic State militants. A symphony orchestra was flown in for the occasion. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said the performance reflected hope for Palmyras revival as the heritage of the whole humanity.ImageCredit...Olga Balashova/Russian Defense MinistryA photographer for The New York Times, Bryan Denton, was one of the few outside journalists able to get a close view of the damage done by Islamic State fighters during their first, nearly yearlong period of occupation. Last April, escorted by militiamen belonging to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia allied with Syrian government forces, Mr. Denton chronicled the demolition in a series of photographs.ImageCredit...Bryan Denton for The New York TimesIslamic State propagandists considered Palmyra a bonanza for promoting their vision of a strictly religious caliphate devoid of homage to other cultures or religions. They publicized the work of their demolition teams with graphic photographs.ImageCredit...via Associated PresBut Palmyra, which attracted many thousands of tourists annually until the Syrian conflict started in March 2011, began to suffer war-related damage well before the Islamic State arrived in 2015. A visit in 2014, after three years of war, revealed scars from mortar shells and pockmarks from bullets, as well as illegal digging at ancient tombs.ImageCredit...Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesIn Geneva, where the United Nations is attempting to hold negotiations to halt the war, Syrian opposition representatives dismissed the recapture of Palmyra by Mr. Assads side and suggested that Islamic State militants could seize the site again. Nasr al-Hariri, the main opposition negotiator, was quoted by news agencies as saying that observing the seesaw battle was like watching Tom and Jerry. | World |
Politics|Defense Dept. to Help Justice Dept. Prosecute Immigration Caseshttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/us/politics/immigration-justice-defense-department.htmlCredit...Lucy Nicholson/ReutersJune 21, 2018WASHINGTON As federal prosecutors face skyrocketing immigration caseloads along the southwestern border, the Defense Department agreed Wednesday to help the Justice Department prosecute the cases.Twenty-one lawyers for the Defense Department will work full time, assisting in prosecuting reactive border immigration cases, with a focus on misdemeanor improper entry and felony illegal re-entry cases, the department said in a statement. The assignment is to last for about six months.The Justice Department had asked for the help in anticipation of a surge in cases after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy in April.A crisis has erupted at our southwest border that necessitates an escalated effort to prosecute those who choose to illegally cross our border, Mr. Sessions said at the time.To those who wish to challenge the Trump administrations commitment to public safety, national security and the rule of law, I warn you: Illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice, he said.In a memo to federal prosecutors along the border with Mexico, Mr. Sessions said they should request additional resources as needed to enforce the new policy. Our goal is not simply more cases. It is to end the illegality in our immigration system, he said.The Justice Departments hard line on immigration has elicited strong opposition in recent weeks. Immigration judges fear that the attorney general wants to prioritize speed over due process for immigration and amnesty cases.Protests against a decision to enforce separation of children from parents who seek to enter the United States reached such a fevered pitch that President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday meant to end the practice.Yet criminal prosecutions for illegally crossing the southwestern border jumped to 8,298 in April, the month Mr. Sessions announced the zero-tolerance policy, an increase of 30 percent from March, according to data from TRAC, a research institute at Syracuse University.Curbing immigration has been a signature issue for Mr. Sessions throughout his career, which has included stints as a federal prosecutor and state attorney general in Alabama, and nearly 20 years in the Senate.In speeches this year, Mr. Sessions has said that the zero-tolerance policy would hopefully deter immigrants from entering the United States.The world will know what our rules are, and great numbers will no longer undertake this dangerous journey, he said in a speech this month to immigration judges.The number of illegal aliens and the number of baseless claims will fall, he said. A virtuous cycle will be created, rather than a vicious cycle of expanding illegality. | Politics |
Credit...Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse Getty ImagesNov. 7, 2018MARSEILLE, France The death toll in the collapse of two dilapidated buildings in the southern French city of Marseille rose to six on Wednesday, drawing outrage from residents who say the authorities routinely ignore warnings about the state of housing in low-income neighborhoods.Rescue workers sifting through the rubble of the adjacent buildings, which crumbled Monday morning in Noailles, near the citys Old Port, have so far retrieved the bodies of four men and two women, said the Marseille prosecutor, Xavier Tarabeux.The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said that 120 police officers and 80 firefighters had joined the search-and-rescue operation, and that they had identified air pockets in the debris that meant there could be survivors.Were working hard, so theres still hope, a rescue worker said at dawn on Wednesday as his team, which included sniffer dogs, searched the rubble. No survivors have been found so far.One of the buildings that collapsed, on the rue dAubagne, had been condemned, but local officials could not rule out that squatters might have been living there. The second building was inhabited, although it is not clear by how many people.Among its residents was Sophie Dorbeaux, 25, a philosophy student who said she left the building Sunday night to stay with her parents because her door, like those of several other apartments, was not closing properly.The walls had been moving for several weeks and cracks had appeared, Ms. Dorbeaux said. It could have been me.Google Maps images taken in recent months show large cracks and other signs of deterioration in the facades of the two buildings.Emergency crews later tore down a third building for fear that it, too, would collapse. The authorities also evacuated and rehoused 100 residents from buildings near the diaster site.Residents of the neighborhood say that it was widely known that there were structural problems with the buildings on the narrow shopping street, but that city officials had done little when the dangers were raised with them.Everybody knew about the problems, said Patrick Lacoste, a spokesman for a local housing action group. People died for nothing.Toufik Ben Rhouma, who lives in the area, said the neighborhood was hell, and declared that the disaster was 100 percent the fault of City Hall.Mr. Castaner, the interior minister, told lawmakers in Paris on Tuesday that he had ordered a safety audit of Marseille housing. Nearly 6,000 properties have been identified as at risk in the city, he said, representing a total of 44,000 residential units in lower-class neighborhoods.But a 2015 government report said that some 100,000 residents of Marseille lived in housing that put their health or security at risk.Its unthinkable that such things happen in our time, said Christian Gouverneur, who owns an apartment across the road from the disaster site. | World |
Credit...Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMarch 16, 2017MOSCOW Before United States prosecutors accused him of having orchestrated one of the largest computer thefts, Dmitry A. Dokuchaevs legal problems were deepening in Russia, where he was once known by the hacker alias Forb and specialized in purloining credit card numbers.Mr. Dokuchaev, a stocky 33-year-old who appears on an F.B.I. wanted poster wearing a blue suit and with a mop of sandy hair, is emerging as a central figure in fraught relations between the United States and Russia on cybersecurity issues.Those relations went into a deep chill in December, when the Obama administration accused Russian intelligence agencies of having meddled in the 2016 election by hacking computers of the Democratic National Committee to help Donald J. Trump win.Mr. Dokuchaev, a hacker-turned-security-officer in Russia, is a villain in the narratives of both countries about this conflict, for different reasons.The Russians have accused him of becoming a double agent for the United States. The American authorities say he doubled as a cybercriminal while working for Russias Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main security and intelligence agency in the country.Mr. Dokuchaev, who was arrested four months ago in Russia, is accused of treason, punishable by 20 years imprisonment, on suspicion of having passed information to the United States.While the precise nature of that information is unclear, signs have emerged that it may be related, at least indirectly, to the American accusations of electoral hacking.On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco announced an indictment identifying Mr. Dokuchaev as one of the defendants in the theft of half a billion Yahoo accounts.Hes a guy without many options, said Pavel Vrublevsky, a computer entrepreneur and owner of an online payment processing company in Russia who was investigated in 2011 by Mr. Dokuchaev when he worked as an F.S.B. officer.The Kremlin on Thursday denied ties to criminal hacking. We have repeatedly stated that there can be absolutely no question of any official agency, including the F.S.B., in any unlawful actions in cyberspace, said Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman.Mr. Dokuchaev was arrested in December along with another officer in the Center for Information Security, the cyberintelligence wing of the F.S.B. The Russian authorities have offered no details of the charges, but Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper, reported they had been arrested in an investigation into leaks that had led the F.B.I. to Russian servers linked to electoral hacking.Regardless of the details, the Russian and American cases portend a bleak future for Mr. Dokuchaev, whose career encapsulates ties between criminal hackers and the security services in post-Soviet Russia.By his own account, he once went by the hacker nickname Forb. According to a 2004 interview he gave to Vedomosti, a Russian newspaper, Mr. Dokuchaev, then 20, worked from home in the provincial city of Yekaterinburg, taking orders from anonymous clients to crash websites and steal passwords.I always believed that information should be free, he told the newspaper. He also said carding, the online theft of credit card numbers, was the most profitable activity for Russian hackers, up to $30,000 a month, but was the most dangerous cybercrime, punished mercilessly.Vitali Kremez, director of research at Flashpoint, a cybersecurity company in New York that monitors underground hacking forums, said that until a few years ago, Mr. Dokuchaev had been actively involved in the world of stolen credit cards.On those forums, Mr. Dokuchaev inquired about buying skimmers, devices that allow thieves to steal credit card numbers as the cards are swiped. He also sought to buy encoders, used to transfer stolen card numbers onto new plastic cards.In January, RBC, a Russian newspaper, reported that Mr. Dokuchaevs prosecution for credit card fraud had been averted when he agreed to work for the F.S.B.The evolution of a hacker into an F.S.B. officer was all but an open secret in Moscow. Until at least 2011, Mr. Dokuchaev was an editor of a Russian magazine titled Hacker, and he edited a section known as Breaking In under the byline Dmitry Forb Dokuchaev.By 2010, Mr. Dokuchaev was already working for the F.S.B.s Center for Information Security and aiding the prosecution of hackers accused of crashing the online payment system of Aeroflot airlines, according to Mr. Vrublevsky, who was a defendant in that case.At the time, Russia was under diplomatic pressure from the United States and Canada to prosecute Mr. Vrublevsky on an unrelated charge of selling counterfeit Viagra pills to Americans through websites. Mr. Vrublevsky has denied ties to that scheme.In the indictment unsealed on Wednesday, the United States authorities indicated that Mr. Dokuchaevs group also had dabbled in spam marketing for erectile dysfunction drugs.The American indictment contains no indication Mr. Dokuchaev played any role in Russian electoral hacking. But it identified him as having overseen the work of one of three others named in the indictment, a suspected cybercriminal, Aleksei Belan, whom the Obama administration had sanctioned in December after the United States intelligence agencies concluded Russia had tried to meddle in the election.Mr. Vrublevsky said he believed the treason arrests that halted Mr. Dokuchaevs career had been related to the Aeroflot case and other events predating the presidential election.Amid diplomatic pressure from the United States and Canada to shut down the Viagra scheme, Mr. Vrublevsky said, Mr. Dokuchaev and a colleague had passed information about Russian hackers to the United States, later deemed treasonous.The information included data on payments through WebMoney, a Russian version of PayPal, used later by American law enforcement investigators to follow the trail to Russian hackers, Mr. Vrublevsky said.That data, he said, sharpened the Americans understanding of Russian hacking, which later aided the investigation of electoral hacking during the campaign.America calling him a cybercriminal doesnt rule out his being a spy as well, Mr. Vrublevsky said. | World |
Politics|As Congress meets to certify Bidens victory, Trump addresses protesters calling on Pence to overturn results.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/as-congress-meets-to-certify-bidens-victory-trump-addresses-protesters-calling-on-pence-to-overturn-results.htmlCredit...Pete Marovich for The New York TimesJan. 6, 2021Washington girded for the volatile final act of the Trump presidency on Wednesday, as President Trump unwilling to cede the limelight or his fantasy of victory transforming a moment of Democratic triumph into a day of defiance by summoning supporters to his backyard for an airing of grievances.We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesnt happen, Mr. Trump told a gathering of die-hard fans at the Ellipse behind the White House on Wednesday essentially foreclosing any possibility he might opt for a conventional path from power.In a fitting bookend of his presidency filled with bravado and falsehood, Mr. Trump spoke at length about the size of the crowd gathered to greet him much as he obsessed over the turnout of his inauguration four years ago.And he continued to keep up his pressure on his own vice president, Mike Pence, who has rebuffed his attempts to block the certification in Congress of President-elect Joseph R. Bidens election on Wednesday in his role as the Senates presiding officer.I just spoke to Mike, he told the crowd. I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump watched from the White House residence, according to aides, as the Rev. Raphael Warnock claimed victory and Jon Ossoff led in the Georgia runoff elections on Tuesday night, smarting over a report that Mr. Pence told him that he had no authority to intervene and reverse the election results.On Wednesday, he seemed to concede that the Republican Senate candidates had lost, telling his supporters they never had a shot.The Georgia results, if their trajectory holds, would deliver to Mr. Biden control of both chambers of Congress, a staggering loss many Republicans blame on the presidents tardy and tepid efforts on behalf of the incumbents in the runoff election.Unable to win his race and unwilling to set aside his personal grudges for his partys greater good Mr. Trump has chosen, as he often has when cornered, to distract, disrupt and upstage his opponents.Mr. Trumps rally may overlap with a gathering of greater importance at the eastern end of the National Mall. The House and Senate will convene Wednesday afternoon for a remarkable joint session to formalize Mr. Bidens Electoral College victory, as Trump allies plot to hijack what is typically a mundane, ceremonial exercise into a last stand a move opposed by a growing number of their fellow Republicans and doomed to failure.Bipartisan majorities in both chambers are prepared to meet late into the night to beat back the challenges and confirm Mr. Biden as the winner. But by using the proceeding as a forum for trying to subvert a democratic election, Mr. Trump and his allies are going where no party has since the Reconstruction era of the 19th century, when Congress bargained over the presidency. | Politics |
Politics|George W. Bush will attend Bidens inauguration, while Carter will miss it.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/george-bush-biden-inauguration.htmlCredit...Andrew Gombert/EPA, via ShutterstockJan. 5, 2021Former President George W. Bush, who became one of the first key Republicans to acknowledge the electoral victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. in November, will attend Mr. Bidens inauguration later this month even as President Trump and his G.O.P. allies refuse to accept the results.A spokesman for Mr. Bush, the only other living Republican president, announced on Tuesday night that Mr. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush would travel to Washington for the Jan. 20 ceremony.I believe this will be the eighth inauguration theyve had the privilege of attending President Trumps being the most recent and witnessing the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy that never gets old, the spokesman, Freddy Ford, said on Twitter.On the same day that Mr. Bushs office confirmed that he will attend Mr. Bidens swearing-in, a spokeswoman for the oldest living former president, Jimmy Carter, said on Tuesday that the Democrat would miss the inaugural.President and Mrs. Carter will not travel to Washington for the inauguration but have sent their best wishes to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and look forward to a successful administration, Deanna Congileo, a spokeswoman for the Carter Center, said in an email on Tuesday night.Traveling to Washington for the ceremony, one that has been significantly scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic, would likely pose a considerable risk to the 96-year-old Mr. Carter.In 2019, Mr. Carter underwent surgery for a broken hip after a fall at his home and needed stitches above his brow later that year after another fall.In 2015, Mr. Carter announced that he was cancer free after undergoing treatment for metastatic melanoma that had spread to his brain.Four years ago, Mr. Carter, whom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported has attended every inauguration since his own in 1977, went to Mr. Trumps swearing-in ceremony.It was still unclear whether Mr. Trump would attend Mr. Bidens inauguration. | Politics |
Credit...Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesApril 3, 2016BRASLIA The silver-haired senator from Brazils western frontier was still in his pajamas when federal police agents banged on the door of his suite at the Royal Tulip, the futuristic luxury hotel that serves as a bastion for much of Brazils political elite. It was 6 a.m.The agents were armed with a secret recording that sounded like the plot for a Hollywood thriller. The senator, Delcdio do Amaral, had been caught detailing an elaborate plan for an oilman ensnared in Brazils spiraling graft scandal to flee the country on a private plane.Mr. Amaral, 61, was until his arrest in Braslia that morning in late November the governing partys most powerful leader in the Senate. He quickly sought a plea agreement, but prosecutors let him fester in prison for weeks, making a deal only after the disgraced senator provided one stunning disclosure after another that betrayed his former comrades and brought the government of President Dilma Rousseff ever closer to collapse.I felt like I had just crashed into a wall after a high-speed chase, recalled Mr. Amaral, who was freed in February. I messed things up, so I figured I needed a chance to make them right again. You need to be pragmatic.Seeking to turn Mr. Amaral definitively against Ms. Rousseff and their Workers Party, investigators toyed with code-naming their operation Catiline, after the renegade patrician whose conspiracies roiled the Roman Senate in the first century B.C.The senators accounts of colossal bribes, back-room oil deals and desperate cover-ups pieced together from interviews, leaked intercepts of telephone conversations and court filings offer a rare glimpse into how a leftist party that rose to power vowing to stamp out the corruption of a privileged political elite ended up embracing its predecessors practices. His testimony has accelerated Brazils political crisis, in which fearful rulers are masterminding power grabs, secretly recording each other and preparing for the day that they, too, might find themselves on the wrong side of an early-morning police raid.Even the judge who at first was heralded for fearlessly pursuing the powerful now stands accused of breaking the law for releasing evidence from the investigation.The upheaval began two years ago when prosecutors discovered a scheme inside the national oil company, Petrobras: Contractors had paid nearly $3 billion in bribes to executives who in turn channeled money into the campaigns of parties in Brazils governing coalition. Nearly 40 politicians, business moguls and black-market money dealers have been jailed since, and the list is expected to grow, with prosecutors investigating suspects including the leaders of both chambers of Congress.Scholars say the corruption scandal ranks among the most far-reaching in the developing world, likening it to an earthquake hitting the nations privileged elite. It has unspooled alongside crushing economic challenges, as falling commodities prices have sent unemployment soaring to 9.5 percent from 6.8 percent a year ago. In 2015 alone, Brazil lost 1.5 million jobs, a stunning turnabout from the nations 7.6 percent economic growth in 2010.The double whammy of political and economic meltdown has devastated the global ambitions of Latin Americas largest nation at the worst possible time: Brazil is simultaneously grappling with an epidemic of birth defects linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus and preparing to host the Olympic Games this summer.That the heart of the scandal is Petrobras, founded in 1953 and surrounded by a mythical nationalist aura, has only multiplied its ripple effect. The company is the centerpiece of a web of state-controlled energy companies and banks that form the cornerstone of Brazils economy, projecting power across the nation and abroad. It also financed an array of arts programs including a symphony orchestra, modern dance troupes and painting exhibitions, activities the company has slashed along with its own jobs.Brazilians often joke about corruptions deep roots here, tracing it back to when the Portuguese navigator Pedro lvares Cabral arrived in 1500, bearing gifts as a strategy to lay claim to lands inhabited by indigenous peoples. It was only a quarter-century ago that another president, Fernando Collor, was forced to resign over an influence-peddling scandal, lapses that seem bush league in light of what is happening today.It was when Senator Amaral began wrecking the government he once loyally supported that many Brazilians began to grasp how pervasive the skulduggery had become.He testified that Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, the former president and founder of the Workers Party, had arranged to purchase the silence of a businessman convicted of running a vote-buying scheme.ImageCredit...Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesHe contended that Vice President Michel Temer, who is maneuvering to impeach President Rousseff, was involved in an illegal ethanol-purchasing operation. He also targeted Acio Neves, the opposition leader who narrowly lost the 2014 election, revealing that his family had a secret bank account in Liechtenstein. (Mr. Neves said his mother had opened the account to pay for the education of her grandchildren.)Before Mr. Amarals revelations, Ms. Rousseff had largely managed to stay above the fray, in part by boasting of bolstering judicial independence by allowing prosecutors to pursue graft in her own party. Then the senator claimed that the president had instructed him to sabotage the investigation into Petrobras by persuading a high-ranking judge to seek the release of construction tycoons charged with corruption.Both Ms. Rousseff and Mr. da Silva say Mr. Amaral is lying. More broadly, Ms. Rousseff said in a recent interview that she had not known about the corruption at Petrobras, despite serving as its chairwoman from 2003 until 2010, when she was elected president, a period when graft was thriving. She also insists that her campaigns got no illegal financing.Mr. Amaral, assailed by leaders across the spectrum as a fabulist, smiled through interviews like a Cheshire cat. A gifted orator, he intersperses his accounts with sayings from the Pantanal, the vast wetlands where his family owns cattle ranches. Reaching for ways to explain the political maelstrom, he at one point recited a verse from an old Brazilian song.Im just doing my part to help the republic, the senator said.An Actor Dupes a SenatorIn hindsight, Mr. Amaral said, he recognizes that he never should have trusted Bernardo Cerver, a struggling young actor from Rio de Janeiro.The senator, who had been director of gas and energy at Petrobras in 2000 and 2001, said he had agreed to meet with Mr. Cerver, 34, in November because of his friendship with the actors father, Nestor, who was sentenced to prison on corruption charges stemming from his own tenure at the oil company. The younger Mr. Cerver, an actor in an experimental theater troupe, surreptitiously recorded on his phone their conversation at the Royal Tulip, the horseshoe-shaped hotel where the senator lives in Braslia, a short drive from the presidential palace.Mr. Amaral first assured Mr. Cerver that he would persuade justices on Brazils highest court to release his old friend on house arrest. Then he explained how he would arrange to pay the Cerver family $1 million plus a stipend of about $13,000 a month, which prosecutors suspect was to ensure the family did not inform on his own dealings at Petrobras.And Mr. Amaral laid out how he would help the elder Mr. Cerver flee to Spain, including details like deactivating his electronic monitoring device. The actor suggested an escape by boat, but the senator said a private plane was preferable, adding: The best way for him to leave is through Paraguay.That was enough for obstruction charges against both Mr. Amaral and Andr Esteves, the billionaire banker the senator said would finance the journey.Before his arrest, Mr. Amaral was known in Braslia as a skilled behind-the-scenes negotiator, drawing from his long experience in the oil business.Schooled by Jesuits and trained as an engineer, he worked in the Netherlands for the energy giant Royal Dutch Shell in the early 1990s. Back home, he climbed the bureaucracy of Brazils government-controlled energy industry.It was while serving in the Energy Ministry in 1993 that he got to know Ms. Rousseff, an obscure functionary in charge of energy policy in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.I met Dilma during a fight, he said, recalling his first meetings with Ms. Rousseff when she was seeking to renegotiate the debt of a public electric utility with the federal authorities. Shes extremely aggressive. Always has been.Mr. Amaral joined the Workers Party in 2001 and won a Senate seat the next year, when Mr. da Silva ran successfully for president.As Brazil grew richer with the discovery of deep-sea oil fields, so did Mr. Amaral.Some colleagues in the Workers Party still recoil at the quinceaera that Mr. Amaral and his wife hosted in 2011 for their daughters 15th birthday. Comparing the event, in the western city of Campo Grande, to the balls organized by European nobility, society columnists fawned over every lavish stroke: 240 bottles of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, and a gown made from Givenchy crystals for the birthday girl.In December, while the senator languished in prison, his old friend from Petrobras, Nestor Cerver, told investigators that Mr. Amaral had pocketed a $10 million bribe back in 2001, during a deal to buy turbines from Alstom, the French power company.Mr. Amaral denied that and all accusations that he had illegally enriched himself, declaring: I am not a corrupt man.Panic in the Workers PartyMr. Amaral was the first sitting senator to be arrested since Brazil re-established democracy in the 1980s, and his jailing spawned panic and outrage in the Workers Party, which Mr. da Silva and other union leaders founded in 1980 in resistance to Brazils military dictatorship.The senators readiness to double-cross his colleagues made one thing certain: More secret recordings were about to enrich the saga of Brazils political impasse.Shortly after the arrest at the Royal Tulip, Education Minister Aloizio Mercadante, one of Ms. Rousseffs top aides, contacted Eduardo Marzago, a confidant of Mr. Amarals, offering to help defray his familys legal expenses.Hell, Marzago, you tell me how I can help, Mr. Mercadante said. Thats what Im here for, to help.He was unaware, of course, that Mr. Marzago was recording the call; prosecutors now have Mr. Mercadante on their target list, too.The education minister maintains that he was acting on his own. But other powerful people in the Workers Party were also scrambling.Jaques Wagner, Ms. Rousseffs former chief of staff, was recorded discussing the situation with Mr. da Silva. He expressed alarm at Mr. Amarals testimony that Ms. Rousseff was aware of graft involved in the 2006 acquisition of a Houston oil refinery by Petrobras.I never imagined he was such a scrotum, Mr. Wagner said, using a popular slang term of disgust to describe Mr. Amaral.The Judge and the Former PresidentFor more than a year, Sergio Moro, a crusading judge in southern Brazil, had overseen the Petrobras inquiry. He seized on new anticorruption legislation allowing defendants to reduce their jail sentences in exchange for information, helping prosecutors jail one powerful figure after another.The labyrinthine inquiry eventually led to Mr. da Silva, universally known as Lula. It was clear that the former president had profited from connections to magnates at the helm of construction companies, which paid him millions of dollars for speeches.Then prosecutors found that such companies had paid to renovate a country estate near So Paulo and a beachfront apartment in the city of Guaruj, two properties they contend he controls. (Mr. da Silva denies owning either one.)ImageCredit...Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesAt the country house, police agents found a mug with the logo of Corinthians, Mr. da Silvas favorite So Paulo soccer club, engraved with the words to the illustrious President Lula. The wine cellar had bottles dedicated to the former president. Docked at a wharf in the lake, pedal boats were inscribed with the names of his grandchildren, Pedro and Arthur.As the investigators encircled him, Mr. da Silva grew increasingly alarmed, according to intercepts of his phone calls obtained in the inquiry. He disparaged the Supreme Federal Tribunal, used vulgar epithets to describe the heads of both houses of Congress and called on his comrades in the Workers Party to ratchet up pressure on prosecutors.Why cant we intimidate them? the former president asked one congressman. Instructing him on how to irritate an investigator, Mr. da Silva said: He needs to go to sleep knowing that the following day hell have 10 legislators irritating him at his house, irritating him at his office, facing a case at the Supreme Federal Tribunal.In another conversation with a union leader, Mr. da Silva, like the prosecutors chasing him, also drew on ancient history, specifically the emperor accused of starting the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D. to rebuild the capital to his liking.Im the only person who could set this country on fire, he said. But I dont want to do what Nero did, you know?As the pressure mounted, Mr. Amarals 255-page plea deal was leaked into the news media in early March, provoking a round of angry denials and desperate moves. Ms. Rousseff nominated Mr. da Silva, her predecessor and patron, to be her chief of staff, which would give him broad legal protections.For a few hours on March 16, the audacious plan seemed to work.Brazils Game of ThronesThat same day, Judge Moro released recordings of Mr. da Silvas phone calls with Ms. Rousseff and an array of other politicians. The calls depicted a former president seeking to salvage his heroic narrative alongside a sitting leader trying to stave off impeachment proceedings she has likened to a slow-motion coup.Justices on the Supreme Federal Tribunal suspended Mr. da Silvas nomination. But the soft-spoken judge also faced recriminations, for revealing conversations of the nations leader without the authorization of its highest court, leading to accusations that his once-admired inquiry had become a partisan witch hunt.As the legal case grinds on, more allies are abandoning Ms. Rousseff with an eye on seizing power for themselves. They say she should be impeached for violating fiscal laws by using funds from state banks to cover budget gaps.Led by Vice President Temer, whose cryptic, closemouthed demeanor has his rivals comparing him to a butler in a horror movie, the centrists anchoring Ms. Rousseffs coalition broke away last week.In Congress, lawmakers accused of immense personal corruption are speeding up the impeachment process of the president, who has not been tainted with claims of illicit personal enrichment.Mr. Amaral, whom the Senate ethics committee is trying to expel from his seat, has not watched this spectacle from the sidelines. On March 13, he revved up a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and joined hundreds of thousands of antigovernment protesters in So Paulo. But he did not remove his helmet, wary of how the angry crowd might react.Days later, during an interview in the comfortable villa in So Paulo where he is now under house arrest, Mr. Amaral turned to song to try to capture the political upheaval that he helped create.Specifically, he invoked the 1978 song Fortune Teller, by Ivan Lins, about the targeting of dissidents by Brazils military dictatorship. Only instead of dissidents tumbling from the perch, today it is leaders of nearly every ideological stripe.Gazing out the window, Mr. Amaral voiced the lyrics:The King of Diamonds is falling,The King of Spades is falling,The King of Clubs is falling, Theyre all falling, Nothing remains.Thats right, the senator said. Everyone is falling together. | World |
Credit...Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom, via Getty ImagesFeb. 4, 2014KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia Alpine skiing has long been the sport that best defined tiny Slovenia, whether it was during its years as part of Yugoslavia or in the go-go years after independence in 1991.Not for nothing does its flag feature an image of snow-covered Mount Triglav, the nations highest peak. Slovenias list of excellent skiers is long: from Bojan Krizaj, Jure Franko and Mateja Svet in the 1980s to Jure Kosir, Alenka Dovzan and Katja Koren, who all won bronze medals at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, causing the Olympic Committee of Slovenias fax machine to break amid the congratulatory onslaught. But there has never been a Slovene skier like Tina Maze, a five-event threat who crushed the suspense out of the womens World Cup last season with a record total of 2,414 points, performing cartwheels in the finish area after her victories as the video of her song, My Way Is My Decision, cracked 400,000 views featuring lyrics like Im a woman on fire!The big item remaining on her wish list is Slovenias first Winter Olympic gold medal, but Maze, 30, has gone cold at an inconvenient moment.Cartwheels have been exceedingly rare this season. There have been coaching and equipment changes, edginess at the top of the runs and occasional tears at the bottom. Though Maze (pronounced MAH-zeh) shook free of her funk by winning the downhill in Cortina dAmpezzo last month, she did not appear to be skiing free and easy in Slovenia last weekend in her final appearance before the Sochi Games.Im too honest, Maze said after her latest setback. Maybe I should hide my feelings more.The giant slalom in Kranjska Gora was canceled Saturday when heavy snow gave way to rain. When the women finally raced Sunday, no more than a thousand fans were on hand to cheer for Maze. Their roars turned abruptly to murmurs in the second run of the slalom when she missed the penultimate gate and crossed the finish line looking as if she had swallowed something bitter. ImageCredit...Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom, via Getty ImagesIt has been a season for such grimaces.Its tough when the weather is like this, and everybody is thinking about the Olympics, Maze said. Its like your head is somewhere else and your body needs to be here.The crux of the problem, according to those inside and outside her camp, remains last season. This is normal after one makes a big record, said Andrea Massi, her team manager, fitness coach and boyfriend of seven years. I checked other sports. I learned that about other records in other sports. In America, many years ago, Bob Beamon made a 8.90-meter jump. After this season, finito.Beamon, who set his world record at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City at high altitude, never jumped past 8.22 meters again. That is surely not the template Maze and Massi wish to follow.In an attempt to right the ship before Sochi, Maze fired her coach, Walter Ronconi, last month after less than a year together and hired Mauro Pini, a Swiss who was once the private coach of one of Mazes emerging rivals, Lara Gut.When things around me arent working like I want them to, its hard for me to give my best on the slopes, to risk, to be fully motivated, Maze said. Pini tan, tousle-haired and possessed of a soothing manner has known Maze for years.With such athletes, you have to be, as a coach, really careful how you come in, how you make comments, when is the right moment, Pini said.O.K., its not the best season for her, he added. But she did already four podiums in four different disciplines, so she didnt lose her speed.Tone Vogrinec, a longtime coach of the Yugoslav and Slovene ski teams, said Maze was pressing. He used his hands to demonstrate the change in her style, carving a tight, fast-paced path in the air to represent Mazes former approach to slalom and then making abrupt, sharply angled movements to represent this season. If you look at Mikaela Shiffrin, its very quick, very short turns, very direct line and very important, not too much pressure on the skis, he said of Shiffrin, the 18-year-old American who leads the World Cup slalom standings. Tina has at the moment, in my opinion, too much power.Maze comes from the modest iron-mining town of Crna na Koroskem, which is near the Austrian border and has a population of about 3,700 and just one ski lift. It is, in a sense, a microcosm of Slovenia, a nation of two million that punches above its weight in world sports.Tinas village is a small village with many Olympians, Vogrinec said. Its very good for children. The ski area is in front of the school, and in small villages like that, you dont have all the distractions.Vogrinec said Slovene skiing was suffering now because of competition for athletic talent, and fewer parents are willing to finance their childrens pursuit of an increasingly expensive sport. Independence opened the door for other sports, he said. Because in Yugoslavia, which was a very high quality sports country, Slovenes didnt have much chance to compete in soccer or athletics for the national team. In principal, our sport was skiing.He said Maze had been exceptional from an early age. Tina was No. 1 in all the categories, Vogrinec said. Shes not coming from just anywhere to the top of the world. The way was very long.ImageCredit...Marco Tacca/Associated PressThe turning point came in 2008, when she and Massi, an Italian who is 16 years her senior, broke away from the Slovene team after officials resisted their relationship.Massi, a former fitness coach for the Slovene team, created an independent structure for Maze, which was risky and costly but allowed them to tailor training and travel to her needs. Their hard-driving approach has generated turnover in personnel but also undeniable success. Maze went from 28th in the World Cup overall standings in 2008 to fourth by 2010, when she also won two silver medals at the Olympics. She then finished third over all in 2011, second in 2012 and first in 2013, with the highest point total amassed by a woman or man.Despite all of its mountains, Slovenia does not have a downhill course, but Maze has managed to thrive in the speed events as well as the traditional Slovene strengths of slalom and giant slalom. Her best chances in Sochi appear to be in the speed events.Whats good is she has five disciplines, which takes off some of the pressure, said Dovzan, whose bronze medal in the combined in 1994 was the first Olympic medal for independent Slovenia.The country will have other Olympians to follow in Sochi. Slovenias ski jumpers are flying high, and its underdog mens hockey team has qualified, led by Anze Kopitar, who plays for the Los Angeles Kings and is the only Slovene in the N.H.L. But Maze remains the main focus. Her face starts and ends the Olympic promotional clip that is running on Slovene television, and Maze makes it clear that even in a down season, only gold will be good enough. She needs to ski with the right emotions, going through the race instead of against the race, Pini said. If she does that, then everything is still possible. | Sports |
Credit...Ben Solomon for The New York TimesFeb. 7, 2014The loss was only seconds old when Amare Stoudemire, a towel draped around his neck, approached Giannis Antetokounmpo for a congratulatory handshake and some unsolicited advice. Antetokounmpo, 19, had helped the Milwaukee Bucks defeat the Knicks on Monday with a smorgasbord of post moves and up-and-under layups, and Stoudemire told him to keep working hard, a painfully tired trope among athletes but a line that still means something to Stoudemire.Those are my motivational words to younger players, he said after a recent practice. Pretty simple, but its true.Stoudemire, 31, said he saw flashes of his former self in Antetokounmpo: the energy, the excitement, the easy athleticism, all of the familiar currencies of youth. The game was once effortless for Stoudemire, too, back when he was a teenage forward with the Phoenix Suns who turned the basketball court into his own trapeze set. Seldom celebrated for his defense, he was more than capable of making up the difference in other areas. He dunked. He dazzled. He dominated.With the Knicks, Stoudemire has become someone else, a veteran with an onerous contract who has been left to wage a public battle against the corrosive effects of time and injury. His opposition has come in the form of occasional stiffness and swelling, and he sticks to a routine that includes everything from science (high-tech compression sleeves) to spiritualism (four-hour Bible studies) in an attempt to slow the erosion of his game.Few people believe that is possible, though Stoudemire, even after all of the knee surgeries, has no doubt that he can still perform at a high level. Just listen to him. With the Knicks laboring to stay out of the Atlantic Division dungeon, with Mike Woodson trying to survive as the head coach, Stoudemire continues to describe himself as feeling incredible and phenomenal. His collection of adjectives is limitless. I feel better than I did when I first got here, he said, referring to 2010, when he signed a five-year contract with the Knicks worth $100 million. My body feels just as strong. My game even feels like its polished a little bit more since that first year.On Wednesday, Stoudemire finished with 15 points and 7 rebounds in the Knicks 94-90 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. He slipped on a black T-shirt that read Spiritual Gangster a company that makes yoga clothing before bemoaning another loss in front of his locker. Still, he said he was looking at the glass half full. He and his teammates needed to get back in the gym, he said, and continue to work. It was that simple.Stoudemire, at this stage, could be a motivational guru or a life coach. Instead, he is an aging basketball player who seems determined to recover everything that he has lost or at least convince himself that it remains a realistic goal.Stoudemire, who was averaging 9.5 points and 4.3 rebounds in 19 minutes per game ahead of Fridays meeting with the Denver Nuggets, was asked how long he could see himself playing in the N.B.A. He sounded jarred by the question, as if he had never considered the end of his career.Oh, man, I got a lot of games left in this body, he said. Steve Kerr, an analyst for TNT and a former general manager of the Suns, said he had a lot of respect for Stoudemire, who has endured hardship most recently, the death of his brother in a car accident in 2012. And while Stoudemire is still an adept scorer, Kerr said, he struggles with his lateral movement and no longer possesses the physical gifts that separated him from many of his peers.One of the things Ive learned and I couldnt relate to this as a player because my whole existence was just about survival is that star players have to convince themselves that theyre dominant, Kerr said. Because once you lose that belief, it can all slip away from you.More than once this season, Stoudemire has referred to himself as the hardest working player on the team, if not the league. On practice days, he typically arrives at the teams training facility at 8 a.m. for a half-hour of physical therapy. He proceeds to hit the weight room for a 90-minute session that he describes as high-intensity no breaks between sets, the emphasis on dynamic movement.Only then does he join his teammates for practice before a detailed recovery process begins: the ice, the stretching, the full-length sleeves that massage his muscles. He often multitasks by reading or by studying game film. He seems to expect that others should be willing to do the same.ImageCredit...Ben Solomon for The New York TimesThats probably why hes been so good since I was in middle school, the reserve center Cole Aldrich said.Stoudemire also changed his diet five years ago, adopting a lifestyle that includes what he calls eating clean. He has experimented with veganism, he said, though his meals prepared by a personal chef now include lean proteins like fish and chicken. He said he was influenced by Understanding Nutrition, a 928-page book by Eleanor Noss Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes that examines food on a molecular level. Just being aware of the genetic makeup of the body, I think that all plays a very, very big part of my recovery, Stoudemire said.He has been on an endless mission to undo damage already done. It all started with microfracture surgery on his arthritic left knee in 2005, an operation that involved punching tiny holes into the bone to increase blood flow and promote the growth of new cartilage. But there are always limitations, said Dr. Alexis Colvin, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The new cartilage is never as good as the cartilage you were born with, said Colvin, who was speaking generally and had no direct knowledge of Stoudemires case. Since October 2012, Stoudemire has undergone three additional surgical procedures debridements to clean up loose cartilage in both knees last season, and another operation on his left knee last summer that he assessed as minor. The Knicks declined to make a member of the teams training staff available for an interview.Most young men in his position would have already given up, said Burney Hayes, a former police officer from Lake Wales, Fla., who mentored Stoudemire when he was in high school. You learn a lot about yourself when the world has no answers for you.After facing playing-time restrictions at the start of the season, Stoudemire was able to shed them before he sprained his left ankle against the Indiana Pacers on Jan. 16. Woodson said he would continue to monitor Stoudemires minutes.Were gradually moving in the right direction, Woodson said. I got to still be careful with him. You play him 40 tonight, you might not have him tomorrow.Given the changes to his diet and the preventive measures he now takes, a natural question is whether Stoudemire thinks he could have done anything to avoid his knee problems in the first place. What if, for example, he had started eating clean when he was younger?I dont think there was any way around the injuries, he said. If there was, I wouldve done it. But I have no understanding of what I could have done. I cant really dwell on the past. I feel like, right now, I can play at a high level. Its just not happening here so far.And why not? Because he needs more minutes, he said. He added: I got room to still improve as a player and become my dominant self again, even though I feel that Im that way now. So when that opportunity presents itself, Ill show you guys what I can do.It sounded odd for Stoudemire a six-time All-Star and one of the highest paid players in the league to talk about needing an opportunity. He desperately wants to be self-sufficient, but he has little say when it comes to lineups and how much playing time he receives, at least not anymore.Stoudemire, who has four children with his wife, Alexis, recently purchased a 190-acre farm in upstate New York. Stoudemire Farms, he said, should be up and running by next year. He plans to grow crops veggies and fruit, he said and raise livestock.I feel its my responsibility to be able to take care of my family by living off the land, he said. Thats the ultimate goal for a man.Working on that farm might be the best thing for him. Stoudemire, after everything else, can finally be in control. | Sports |