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1509386_0 | The Return Of Captain Kidd | ON a foggy Friday evening, six rowdy pirates roamed the piers along the Thames River in New London as their captain bellowed demands: ''Gold. Silver. Your children.'' When the pirates spotted a woman wearing rings, the captain noted how easily they could remove them, by cutting off her hand. ''We'll be back for you, love,'' he told the woman. By Sunday afternoon there were nine pirates roaming the pier. They were all part of a group called Free Men of the Sea -- which includes women, too -- and they were performing at the New London Downtown Association's annual Sailfest. ''We roam around, do pirate re-enactments, answer questions about piracy and privateering,'' said the captain, who, wearing a bandana, a vest and striped pants, gave his name as Captain Kidd. Otherwise, he is known as Neal J. Kirk of East Hampton. About nine years ago, Mr. Kirk organized the Free Men, which regularly performs at festivals, schools and other events and does historical re-enactments. The group includes about 20 people -- teenagers to grandparents -- from Connecticut and Rhode Island who holler, mingle, chuckle, chat, demonstrate weaponry and sing about life at sea. Their ad reads: ''Captain Kidd and his rogues at your service!'' At Sailfest last month, they swaggered about in front of the visiting ship Providence, a replica of an 18th-century sloop, as Mr. Kirk savored the thickening fog. ''Perfect for scooting past a blockade,'' he said. Growing up in New London, he loved the sea and the pirate tales he heard. ''They stayed with me,'' he said. When he was earning an associate degree in criminal justice, he wrote a paper on piracy. Then, he said, ''I just continued.'' He kept doing research, became involved in historical re-enactments, and amassed some 200 books on piracy and 20 or so more on privateering. A privateer carried a letter of marque from a government, authorizing the privately operated vessel to attack and capture vessels belonging to the government's enemies. Pirates tended to work without official letters. But the line between privateering and piracy was often ''extremely fine,'' Mr. Kirk said. ''Once you got out onto the open sea, it blurred rapidly,'' he said. ''One nation's privateer was another's pirate.'' Mr. Kirk is the head custodian at Center School in East Hampton. He has served as a consultant on piracy for films by Turner Productions and other companies, and writes |
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1509125_2 | As Numbers of Screeners Fall, Airport Lines Grow | be pressured by the length of the line. The agency plans a 19 percent cut of passenger- and baggage-screeners at the Denver airport, part of a nationwide effort to cut 6,000 screeners that began on April 1, when there were 55,600. The cuts are supposed to be completed by Sept. 30. Announcing the cuts, the T.S.A. promised that wait times would ''remain low.'' But results are obvious around the country. At Dulles International Airport near Washington on the Sunday afternoon of the Independence Day weekend, lines at the security checkpoints stretched to more than a half hour, but at one checkpoint with three scanning lanes, two of them stood empty because of a lack of personnel. In other places, the problem involves equipment. Mr. Johnson said that on Monday mornings the lines at Hartsfield Atlanta Airport sometimes stretched for an hour and a half, although all the lanes were staffed. In Atlanta, as at other airports, it is difficult to add more lanes for screeners. Airline executives, who are reluctant to appear publicly critical of the T.S.A., say that problems have cropped up for a mix of reasons, not all of them the agency's fault. One problem is that in the rush to install baggage screening systems by Dec. 31 of last year, the deadline set by Congress, the agency resorted to screening many bags by having technicians wipe them with pads, and then analyze the pads for signs of explosives. The job could be automated by using scanning machines instead, but installing those giant machines, and the conveyor belts needed to make effective use of them, has lagged, partly for budget reasons. The airlines also say that the Transportation Security Administration, as a federal agency, is not as attuned to the peaks and valleys of passenger traffic as the airlines are, and has hired too many full-time workers and not enough part-timers, who could be brought in for peak periods. The agency said it is planning to hire such workers. The airlines, wary of giving up competitive information, do not provide real-time data on their passenger loads to the federal government. But lately they are trying to keep the security agency advised of passenger levels, on an airport-by-airport basis. And the summer may be inherently more difficult, because of ''once-a-year travelers, who bring everything but the kitchen sink on the plane,'' one airline executive said. TRAVEL ADVISORY: CORRESPONDENT'S REPORT |
1509394_5 | Treasures Under the Lawn | pastures and lumber from its forests was regularly shipped to the West Indies. The ships would return with some of the Caribbean plantations' sugar, salt and rum, which was also being exported to Europe. Return voyages from Europe would bring manufactured goods from there. ''It was a very effective network of people traveling to Europe, Africa, Barbados and New England,'' said Mac Griswold, the director of archival history at Sylvester Manor. ''This was really the beginnings of global capitalization.'' The Sylvesters were a generation after those who settled Jamestown, Va., in 1607 and Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. By the end of the 17th century, there may have been as many as 30 plantations across southern New England and Long Island, Dr. Mrozowski said. Sylvester Manor is unusual because it has not been covered over by layers of development over the centuries and has an extensive collection of historical documents. ''The beauty of it is that there are so many points where the documents intersect with the information underground,'' Ms. Griswold said. For example, documents from a 1666 court case show that Nathaniel Sylvester was withholding 125 hogsheads of salt from someone on the Caribbean island of Nevis. Ms. Griswold reasoned that even though Mr. Sylvester's will did not indicate a large warehouse on the plantation, such a building had to exist to hold the 125 hogsheads, each of which weighed some 1,000 pounds. So when Kenneth Kvamme of the University of Arkansas arrived at Sylvester Manor in the summer of 2000 to conduct remote sensing at the site, he used ground-penetrating radar and measured soil electric resistivity to identify a possible location for the warehouse.. Each summer, the students have also dug holes across the estate to try to find new areas for excavation and have so far been unable to find the remains of any slave quarters. Dr. Mrozowski surmises that unlike slaves in Southern plantations who lived in slave quarters, the Sylvesters' slaves probably lived in the manor house and in work buildings like a barn or a shed. His hypothesis is supported by an inventory that list rooms in the manor house where slaves probably lived, including a ''dark room'' and a ''clossit'' which held beds and a third-floor granary that had a cot. In 1984, Andrew Fiske had just started organizing the vault that held the family's documents when Ms. Griswold, who is a historian of |
1509441_0 | Page Two: July 27 - Aug. 2; TECHNOLOGY: SPAM'S COST | ''A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you have real money,'' the House speaker Sam Rayburn said decades before e-mail. He could have been talking about spam. Any one little message is a tiny drop in the vast ocean of information on the Internet. But the combined cost of the trillions of unsolicited e-mail messages sent each year is adding up to a significant economic burden. Can the costs be quantified? Not easily. The Radicati Group, a research company, says handling spam increases the cost of technology that provides e-mail access by $49 a year for each employee. Never mind the hardware, says Nucleus Research. Employees spend 1.4 percent of their working day reading and deleting spam, amounting to a wasted $874 a year in labor costs. These estimates do not capture the cost of chasing down spammers, or the cost of the confusion when legitimate e-mail is blocked by spam filters. Saul Hansell Correction: August 10, 2003, Sunday A brief article last Sunday about the cost of mass e-mailings to businesses and consumers misattributed a quotation, ''A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you have real money.'' It was from the former Senate minority leader Everett M. Dirksen, not the former House Speaker Sam Rayburn. |
1509231_3 | Upstairs, Downstairs On the High Seas | 228-foot boat Aussie Rules, for example, cost about $45 million, and yachts over 120 feet easily cost more than $100,000 a week just to charter -- and have high expectations, sometimes with harrowing consequences. Michael Eudenbach, 33, a yachtie and a nautical photographer from Newport, once helped deliver the Netscape co-founder James H. Clark's 155-foot sailing yacht Hyperion from San Francisco to Tahiti. The passage was slowed by tropical storms in the Pacific, Mr. Eudenbach said, but Mr. Clark, fearing his yacht might not get to Tahiti in time for his vacation, demanded from California that his crew forge on. ''We ended up dodging and weaving through three storms,'' Mr. Eudenbach said. ''It was the first time I felt really uncomfortable at sea.'' Noting that Mr. Clark's yacht cost $30 million and carried millions in artwork, he added, ''I thought if I go down, I'm grabbing a Picasso.'' Sometimes it's not the rich guy on board who causes the trouble, but the rich guy next door. Mr. Eudenbach said that one night in St. Barts aboard the classic yacht Endeavor, owned by L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former Tyco chairman, he was sent to keep watch with a hose because revelers on a yacht chartered by Sean Combs were tossing burning cigar butts onto Endeavor's wooden decks. Relations between owners and crews, perhaps always difficult, are growing more complex. Under the traditional European model, strict boundaries separated them. The crew entered at the forward hatch and the owners, who spoke only with the captain, entered aft. Yachts had parapets around the sides, so crews could walk the length of the boat without disturbing the owners inside. In the last decade, though, the number of superyachts -- boats over 80 feet -- has doubled, to around 8,000, according to Mr. Mullen, many of them built by younger Americans who made quick fortunes in technology. The boats have wider cabins with no balconies, and the crews -- who are increasingly educated to handle the high-tech systems on board -- are in closer contact with the owners, many of whom share their backgrounds. With boundaries blurred, crews of American-owned yachts often don't know where they stand. ''The Europeans don't know your name,'' said Betsy Millson, a former yachtie. ''You're just there to serve them. Americans want to be your friend, they want to know where you went to college and they want to buy |
1509068_7 | Cons In Class | to it, and that means more jobs,'' says Stephen J. Steurer, executive director of the association. ''When we had Pell grants people were getting A.A. degrees and B.A. degrees, but you got this whole public 'I work to put my kids through college and these bums are getting free help.' I understand it. I also understand the other viewpoint about public safety and reduction of crime.'' Study after study has shown that education improves the chances that inmates will not return to prison. A 2001 study sponsored by the federal Department of Education reported a 20 percent drop in recidivism rates among more than 3,000 inmates in Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio who had participated in an academic or vocational program. Another study, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, found that 65 percent of those with some high school went back to jail, compared with 57 percent of high school graduates and 52 percent of those with some college. ''It's the college experience -- and particularly graduation or completion of any diploma, some sense of walking down the aisle and completion -- that significantly decreases recidivism rates,'' says Michelle Fine, a professor of psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. ''The evidence is strong for any educational intervention. Our analyses, however, suggest that with a liberal arts degree students gain the skills that are necessary for work situations -- persistence, social analysis and surviving on the outside, the skills of 'reading' the social situation, knowing how to overcome in the face of daunting obstacles, and how to consider alternatives.'' Dr. Fine is an author of a study in 2001 that tracked about 2,300 women for three years after their release from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, which re-established a program in 1997 through a consortium of private New York colleges and universities and with donors like Glenn Close and Paul Newman. Nearly 30 percent of those who hadn't taken classes wound up back in jail, compared with 8 percent of those who had. Dr. Fine says each inmate who returns to prison costs $25,000 a year. ''Incarceration of 100 prisoners for four years costs the state $10 million; college in prison for four years costs the state $1 million but recidivism rates drop dramatically, yielding a cost savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.'' Ultimately, it is up to each state to determine |
1509458_0 | Arts Council Headquarters To Undergo Restoration | As two new 35-story residential towers soar next door to the Westchester Arts Council's headquarters in downtown White Plains, the nonprofit group is spending $1 million to keep its nine-story, 74-year-old home much the same as it has always been. The Arts Council will restore the double bronze front door on the former Peoples National Bank & Trust Company; rehabilitate its granite, limestone, brick and terra cotta exterior; restore, repair or replace old bronze windows; and uncover three walled-up windows in the lobby. In 1929 when the neo-classical bank was built, it was the tallest building in the city. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Next door to the building, Cappelli Enterprises of Valhalla is building a $320 million City Center where a Macy's department store once stood. Besides residential towers, the project includes space for retail stores, restaurants and a 15-screen movie theater. Janet Langsam, the executive director of the Arts Council, said the organization is pleased to be restoring ''a treasure that reminds us about the way White Plains used to be.'' Elsa Brenner IN BUSINESS |
1509120_1 | Cuba Tour Companies Add New (Last) Trips | The following are among those programs with space remaining. The Center for Cuban Studies, (212) 242-0559, www.cubaupdate.org, a New York-based research group, offers weeklong Cuba Update trips examining the country's political, economic, religious and artistic institutions. Trips depart from New York City on Sept. 6, Oct. 11 and Nov. 8 and cost $2,500 a person for double rooms and $2,700 for singles. The Center also offers itineraries focusing on performing arts (Sept. 13 to 20; Oct. 18 to 25; Nov. 22 to 29), film (Sept. 20 to 27), architecture (Oct. 18 to 26) and the visual arts (Nov. 1 to 10; Nov. 10 to 20). Rates include air fare and some meals. Elderhostel, (877) 426-8056, www.elderhostel.org, offering trips to travelers 55 and over (and younger companions), has four Cuba programs and more than 15 departures scheduled between October and December. There is a waiting list for double rooms on all trips, but single rooms are still available. The 11-night Cuba: Key to the Americas trip visits Havana, Viñales and Santiago de Cuba; participants study the country's cultural, geographical, agricultural and religious history. Eight departure dates are available between Oct. 20 and Dec. 8; the single-room rate is $3,375. A tour called An Exploration into Cuban Culture and History goes to Santa Clara, Trinidad and Havana and focuses on political, economic and cultural history. Five departures are offered between Nov. 8 and Dec. 6; single rooms are $3,101. Rates include air fare from Cancún and all meals. Insight Cuba, (800) 935-2822, www.insightcuba.org, a program of the international volunteer organization Cross-Cultural Solutions, has more than 20 trips remaining. A one-week Havana-based jazz trip departs Sept. 13, Oct. 11, Nov. 8 and Dec. 13; prices start at $2,299 a person, double occupancy, including air fare from Miami, a Cuban visa and two meals a day; single supplement $175. Perspective, a two-week cultural tour, visits Havana, Pinar del Río, Santa Clara, Trinidad, Remedios and Santiago de Cuba. Departures are Sept. 20, Oct. 25, Nov. 15, Dec. 6 and Dec. 13; rates start at $2,899, double occupancy, including two meals a day but not air fare or visa; single supplement $490. There is also a one-week Perspective trip departing Sept. 6, Oct. 18, Nov. 22, Dec. 6 and Dec. 20; $1,799 a person, including two meals a day but not air fare or visa; single supplement, $245. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, (800) 944-6847, |
1513861_2 | Marketers Say They Intend To Join Effort To Fight Spam | is a serious concern, but we understand that the issues of terrorism are more important,'' he said. ''This will allow for an increase in the resources available.'' He said that the initiative was in no way an attempt to prevent all spam legislation; his group, he said, supports reasonable and effective legislation that would, for example, require all e-mail advertising to provide recipients with the opportunity to opt out of future mailings, and would require those choices to be honored by marketers. He said that legislation and self-regulation should go hand in hand with enforcement and improvements in technology that would allow spam to be blocked effectively. Mr. Wientzen said he was worried about some state laws that he called ''totally ineffective'' and ''detrimental to good marketers.'' Ill-conceived legislation, he said, ''really will only hurt the good guy.'' The new organization is intended to help law enforcement ''identify the bad guys who are responsible for the vast majority of this stuff, and will stop them.'' As for whether there is any paradox in the notion of the direct mail industry helping to block unwanted e-mail messages, he said: ''I don't think it's at all ironical. It's about us acting to preserve a legitimate marketing channel that people do respond to.'' Many of the world's most successful and respected companies, he said, communicate via e-mail messages, and consumers look online for information about shopping and bargains. Microsoft was one of companies the Direct Marketing Association contacted. Tonya Klause, a Microsoft spokeswoman, said that the new initiative could help in the fight against spam but was ''not a panacea.'' She added that Microsoft ''is very interested in working with the F.B.I. to develop the right method of investigating and prosecuting spammers,'' but that ''at this point the company has not committed to any particular strategy like the D.M.A.'s.'' The news comes at what could be a pivotal moment in the spam wars. Congress is expected to consider at least eight different bills when it returns from recess after Labor Day. But the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, which has taken on the spam issue, expressed doubt this week about the effectiveness of legislation to address the problem. The F.T.C. chairman, Timothy J. Muris, told an audience at the annual Aspen Summit of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a free-market-oriented group, that ''no one should expect any new law to make a |
1510812_1 | A Parrot's Life for Me | in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), an import license from the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (three categories Parrot disdains), a certificate of health from a veterinarian and approval stamps from the Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Agriculture. These we duly obtained. But when I came to confirm our reservations, all had changed. Though United's Web site still assured customers that pet birds could travel in a carrier, and though we indeed had such a carrier in which Parrot had consented to perch while traveling around Manhattan collecting its papers, everyone I now spoke to at United insisted that Parrot was not a pet bird but a tropical bird, and as such could travel only in the hold. They had a point. Parrot rarely behaves like a pet. It -- we call it ''it'' because parrots keep their sex to themselves and manifest no sign of difference -- can give a powerful bite even to the hand that feeds it, and generally sees no reason to comply with the wishes of the overlarge, dull-plumaged beings it has to spend its time with. As a yellow-naped Amazon, it is by nature curious, mischievous and destructive, and I concluded that now, with security tightening, it was being classified as a hazard. Nor could I quarrel with its official airline status as tropical. It belongs to a species originating on an island off Nicaragua, and it looks flamboyantly exotic. Its feathers range through vibrant greens, with yellow on the head and bands of bright red and blue when it opens its wings, which it regularly does in the shower, a weekly treat when it runs through its repertory of warbles, electronic alarms and car-horn sounds while remembering its ancestry in the rain forest. Nearly all the other major carriers shared United's distrust of such a creature. Only Air France was a possibility, if I first gained further licenses through the French consulate and did not mind that Parrot would have to be quarantined in France for 40 days before we could take it on to Britain. That was when we gave up, and decided that next time we would go by sea. Booking with Cunard early this year was a breeze. For a mere $200 Parrot would travel in the QE2 kennel with other nonhuman passengers. There it would have to stay, but we could visit |
1510931_4 | Awaiting the Iraqi Framers, A World of Constitutional Lessons | economy, the fundamental consideration will be fulfillment of the material needs of man in the course of his overall growth and development. This principle contrasts with other economic systems, where the aim is concentration and accumulation of wealth and maximization of profit. In materialist schools of thought, the economy represents an end in itself, so that it comes to be a subversive and corrupting factor in the course of man's development. In Islam, the economy is a means, and all that is required of a means is that it should be an efficient factor contributing to the attainment of the ultimate goal. While the Equal Rights Amendment never passed in America, the topic of women's equality is a subject other nations have formalized, including Italy, in Article 37, ''Equality of Women at Work'': Working women are entitled to equal rights and, for comparable jobs, equal pay as men. Working conditions have to be such as to allow women to fulfill their essential family duties and ensure an adequate protection of mothers and children. Unlike the United States, many international constitutions contain specifics about national symbols, as in Article 7 of Nepal's Constitution: The rhododendron arboreum shall be the national flower, crimson color shall be the national color, the cow shall be the national animal and the lophophorus shall be the national bird of Nepal. Privacy is covered in many constitutions. In Russia's, however, it seems as if the document protects it in a way that is almost impossible to enforce. From Article 24, ''Data Protection'': It is forbidden to gather, store, use and disseminate information on the private life of any person without his/her consent. Opponents and proponents of abortion in the United States have long debated adding something to the Constitution on the topic. In Madagascar, the Constitution makes it very clear where the state stands on the issue in Article 19, ''Health, No Abortion'': The State shall recognize every individual's right to protection of his health, starting from conception. In the end, religion will probably be the most prickly area for Iraq's framers. The American advisers, presumably in favor of some semblance of separation between church and state, may well hope that Fiji remains off the Governing Council's radar. In Section 5 of their Constitution, the Fijians try to have it both ways: Although religion and the state are separate, the people of the Fiji Islands acknowledge that |
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1510928_0 | Ideas & Trends: Family Feud; For Episcopalians, the Price of Divorce May Be Too High | AFTER the Episcopal Church last week approved the election of its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, more than a dozen conservative bishops denounced the decision and threatened to leave the church. But it will be difficult to bolt. It has been tried before, without much success. Several obstacles -- legal, structural and financial -- lie in the way, not to mention the Episcopal distaste for indecorous behavior. Conservatives who want to leave the Episcopal Church USA still want to remain part of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, a federation of 38 national churches founded by the Church of England. But the Anglican Communion recognizes only one church in each country, so leaving the Episcopal Church in the United States would most likely mean breaking with the Anglican Communion. And leaving the Anglican Communion means giving up power and influence. ''If you pick up your marbles and leave the game, you're just another schismatic church listed in the Yellow Pages of any major city in America,'' said James Solheim, a spokesman for the Episcopal Church. It has happened before. In 1976, after Episcopalians voted to accept women as priests, a few hundred conservatives left to start the Anglican Church of North America. But that church then splintered into three tiny groups. Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church moved on, and women are accepted today as clergy members in most Protestant churches in the United States. Even leaders of splinter groups counsel caution. ''We wish them well, but we feel such a process is probably not going to be successful,'' said the Rev. Chandler Holder Jones, assistant to the dean at St. Albans Anglican Cathedral in Oviedo, Fla. His church, part of the 4,000-member Anglican Province of America, split in 1968 from the Episcopal Church over issues of modernization. ''We have suffered multiple internal divisions, and we replicated schism after schism in our ranks,'' he said. ''It would be a mistake to try to reinvent the wheel.'' Some conservatives have proposed permitting two Episcopal Churches -- one conservative and one liberal, like the Baptists. Both would align with the Anglican Communion, but not with each other. Theoretically, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the titular leader of the Anglican Communion, could work out a plan with the Anglican Communion's bishops. Indeed, the archbishop announced on Friday that he would convene an October meeting of Anglican leaders |
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1511111_0 | Page Two: August 3-9; IN BRIEF | * The police identified a 28-year-old recruit of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked closely to Al Qaeda, as the suicide car-bomber who killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 150 at the J. W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday. * Women who took combination hormone therapy were more likely to die from breast cancer than those who did not use it or took estrogen alone, a study of one million British women found. * Even with 2,300 marines offshore, and rising hopes in Liberia for an international peacekeeping effort with large numbers of Americans, Pentagon officials say they are determined not to expand the small contingent of American forces ashore. * The once-solicitous public relationship between Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York appears to be ending. Mr. Pataki's representatives on an obscure board voted to quash a five-year $2.4 billion aid package considered critical to the city's finances. Mr. Bloomberg called the action ''irresponsible.'' |
1511000_1 | In a Calmer Belfast, Surprising Violence Against Ambulances | paramedic based in Ardoyne, was shot at with an air rifle while helping an elderly patient walk out of her house. Charlie Wilson, 54, found his ambulance stuck between another vehicle and a crowd of rioters in the Whitewell area of Belfast. He said that he watched a young man stalk around his ambulance and look him in the eye before throwing a cinder block through the driver's window. ''I actually stared him in the face,'' he said, still incredulous. ''Gone are the attacks on the police and the army, and they've turned on us.'' In that incident, in March, Mr. Wilson was injured when shards of glass struck his eye. Another driver received 16 stitches after being hit in the head by a brick. In all of last year, ambulance crews were assaulted 95 times in Northern Ireland, which has a population of 1.7 million. That figure increased to 137 in the first six months of this year. But since then, this summer's ''marching season,'' which is normally fraught with tension, has been much milder than normal. The attacks on ambulances have coincided with cease-fires by paramilitary groups like the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defense Association, which once acted as local vigilantes and kept a rough peace in neighborhoods they controlled. ''When the violence from the Troubles ended, there seemed to be an uptake of violence against authority,'' said John Dempster, secretary of the Northern Ireland branch of the Ambulance Service Union, which represents ambulance workers. He himself was once threatened with a gun and a knife. ''The stress in this job now has come up in leaps and bounds,'' he said. Morale is ''in the gutter,'' said Mickey Hughes, a training officer based in Ardoyne, in part because the government-run Northern Ireland Ambulance Service does not help its staff prosecute attackers when they are caught. The Ambulance Service has provided some lines of defense, like shatterproof glass, onboard video cameras and an experiment in stab-proof vests. It also trains ambulance workers in self-defense and on how to restrain violent patients. Education has been the most successful tool in combating the hail of stones and bricks that afflict ambulances, according to Mr. Graham, the paramedic. In one neighborhood where ambulance staff members carried out an outreach program in elementary schools, ''You see the kids waving at you now instead of throwing things at you,'' Mr. Graham said. |
1510987_2 | Editorial Observer: HARVESTING POVERTY; Who Said Anything About Rice? Free Trade Is About Cars and PlayStations | of potential free-trade deals with resentful agricultural exporters. The farmers' aversion to regional and bilateral trade agreements has hurt Japanese manufacturers in dealing with countries like Mexico, where European and American competitors enjoy duty-free privileges. Over the long run, it could affect Japan's critical relationship with China, which is eager to sell Japan cheap rice. Japan now uses a quota system to import less than 10 percent of all rice consumed, tariff-free. The rest runs up against that whopping 500 percent wall. If the tariffs were abolished or significantly reduced, Japan would find itself importing more than half the rice it consumes, according to Keijiro Otsuka, an economist at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo and a leading proponent of liberalization. An open Japanese market would probably create a trickle-down effect for other rice-producing nations. Farmers in California, Australia and China, where producer prices are one-tenth those in Japan, would be the biggest beneficiaries. They produce the short-grain, stickier Japonica rice that Japanese consumers prefer. Poorer tropical countries unable to produce such rice would, in turn, probably sell more of their own rice to China, which would most likely shift some of its production over to Japonica for export. Japanese farmers equate that kind of change with the end of Japanese agriculture, but Mr. Otsuka and other economists here don't agree, especially if trade liberalization led to a restructuring of the farming sector. Ever since the implementation of American-prescribed land reform after World War II, farming has been organized around small-time producers. Corporations are literally banned from farming. An end to the current massive protectionism might mean that farms of tomorrow would be larger and more efficient. Mr. Seiwa sadly views the future in pretty much the same way. ''You should wait a few years and once this generation of farmers has all retired, you can then have a few companies here run everything, as they do in America,'' he said. For Japan, the question of how much to protect its farmers, and at what cost to its international interests and obligations, is a matter that straddles competing national identities. One is of Japan as an island striving for self-sufficiency, shutting out the rest of the world until well into the 19th century and Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival. Then there is the more contemporary idea of Japan, the world's second-largest economy and a nation that owes its |
1510864_10 | Moving Closer to Regaining a Riverfront | planning documents emphasize the importance of river and Palisades views, from the waterfront and the rest of the village. ''Structures and plantings should not wall off the river; some west views should be open even at street level,'' one declared. The regional plan group estimated the total cost of developing the waterfront after cleanup at about $45 million, about half from private developers. Those views of the Palisades will not come cheaply; the plan estimated that the town houses and low-rise residential building would sell at an average of $500,000 a unit. But the prices are probably realistic. Despite its industrial origins, Hastings has become an affluent bedroom community where 47 percent of the residents older than 25 are college graduates, over twice the national rate of 23 percent. More than half the working adults -- 53 percent -- hold jobs that are described as professional or managerial. Median family income in 2000 was $88,679. But as it has grown wealthier, Hastings has shrunk, mostly as a result of smaller families. In the 1960's, when the total population was above 10,000, the average family size was 3.1 persons. By 1990, that had fallen to 2.49 persons. The half of the costs not supported by private developers -- the parks and public amenities -- would have to come from state, county and private sources. The planning association noted that the nearby city of Yonkers has received $100 million from the state and county for the development of its waterfront. Mr. Kinnally said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said it is willing to extend the southbound railroad platform so that it is facing the one headed north to help create a transit center for the new area. The regional planners also call for two new pedestrian bridges over the tracks, to increase circulation between the newer and older sections of the village. The popularity of yacht and tennis clubs on the waterfront and the Harvest-on-Hudson restaurant, which is housed in a former garage of a fuel oil dealer, have demonstrated that people are willing to go to the waterfront if there are attractions, Mr. Kinnally added. Those attractions have been developing. A one-acre waterfront park was created on state-owned land in the early 1990's, which is suitable for picnicking and relaxing, but not for sports. The village is acquiring a 3.18 acre underwater cove immediately to the south, where it plans to |
1510940_1 | When the Bar Itself Has That Empty Feeling | by now a familiar tale but one with alternating villains. First there was Sept. 11, 2001, and days of cleaning up the terrible dust. But then followed six months of drawing pitchers and uncapping bottles for packs of rescue workers thirsting for distraction. ''Those six months after were the busiest of my life,'' said Karen Ulrich, a bartender at the Raccoon Lodge. ''We lost a lot of regulars. Then we got all the firemen, the cops and the militia. And the girls who came looking for them.'' But last summer the rescue workers left, taking with them their insatiable thirst. With their leaving and the citywide smoking ban that also hurt some business, bar workers in the area say, there emerged a new strongman of Lower Manhattan drinking: the Port Authority. The agency, which took over the rebuilding effort at the World Trade Center in mid-2002, let it be known to contractors that it would be exhaustively intolerant of drinking on the job, workers said. Soon after, word spread among construction crews that supervisors were even visiting local watering holes to catch workers in the act of washing down a brown-bag lunch with a brown-bottled beverage. A spokesman for the Port Authority did not return repeated calls for comment. But there was the day a worker was found with an empty beer can from lunch and was fired on the spot, two other workers recalled with awe as they themselves sat behind a row of empty beer bottles at a bar near the trade center site. They would not give their names, their employers or their hometowns. They did not want the bar to be named. They added, of course, that they were off duty for the day. It was 12:40 in the afternoon. Tongues loosened, one of the men told a story and promptly let slip his name and his hometown. His cellphone chirped and he shouted into it: ''Eight feet from the center! You go eight feet from the center! Straight down. Eight feet!'' It turned out that he was the one who told those guys down there -- he nodded toward two dusty middle-age men at the bar watching NY 1 News -- where to put the steel beams. An important job, he conceded modestly. ''Yeah, we don't want a leaning Tower of Pisa,'' his colleague joked. Another round was declined. MICHELLE O'DONNELL NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: LOWER MANHATTAN |
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1512893_5 | Where Dreams of Speed Meet Reality | ''I love being onstage,'' Alexandra said just before the dress rehearsal began. ''It's just so much fun. I'm not nervous in front of people.'' The play was the culmination of a five-week theater program for children with hearing impairments who fall into a category known as the speaking deaf. ''Not only do we want them to have a great show, we want them to have an enhanced language experience,'' explained Brian Adams, executive director of the Los Angeles-based group that brought the project to the Island this summer for the second time. Last year, Alexandra, who is learning Spanish and will be entering the third grade at Munsey Park Elementary School, had a role in the No Limits production of ''Mission Impossible,'' at the Cultural Arts Playhouse in Old Bethpage. Steve Germano is the director of children's theater for the Old Bethpage arena and artistic director of a Hicksville production company. Since he started working with No Limits last summer, the children have wowed him with their determination. ''They don't let their impairment affect them,'' said Mr. Germano, though he sometimes had to repeat instructions during rehearsals. He expected that some of the children would go on to perform with his mainstream theater groups. Assisted by speech teachers, the aspiring actors worked on vocabulary and learned how to project their voices on stage. Mr. Germano said they all knew their lines by the end of the first week. ''They are more dedicated,'' Mr. Germano said. ''They accept the challenge. Acting doesn't come naturally to them.'' Brian Adams, executive director of the summer theater program, said that the goal was to help improve the children's self-esteem, educate the community about their ability to speak and combat misperceptions that all deaf children only use sign language. At school, where most are mainstreamed, the children are often the last to be asked to speak in class and rarely are given roles in school plays. Jonathan Pollino, 12, of Plainview has a natural sense of comic timing. Though his impairment prevents him from hearing high pitches and whispers and the acoustics made it impossible for him to use his hearing aids at the theater, his diction is clear. Jonathan wants to be an actor and a singer. In the show, Jonathan played several roles, from a doctor who inadvertently invented Wheaties when he burnt some porridge to a ship's captain in a skit about |
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1512610_0 | Corrections | An answer in the Q.& A. column last Sunday about a co-op owner's right to evict a tenant misstated the area affected by a recent appellate court decision holding that tenants who rent from sponsors or other holders of unsold shares after a building has been converted may not be evicted if they agree to pay ''market rent.'' While the jurisdiction indeed encompassed Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, it did not extend to other areas of the city or state, including Westchester County. |
1512862_0 | Encounters With Bears | THE uninvited visitor rambled down the hillside behind Jan and Michael Galanti's campsite on the Delaware River, and then approached the tents and picnic tables. ''We were camping with friends, and there must have been about 12 kids,'' said Jan Galanti, of Red Bank. ''Suddenly, they were all shouting, 'Bear! Bear! Bear!''' Biologists say bears don't like loud noises. So perhaps it was the screaming that persuaded the bear to continue past the campers, slip into the river and swim across to Pennsylvania. That was two summers ago. But the Galantis, who are avid campers, recalled it vividly here on a recent Friday afternoon as they unpacked their cars for another camping stay at Worthington State Forest, just north of the Delaware Water Gap. ''I remember seeing its two little ears above the water as it swam across,'' Ms. Galanti said. ''It was exciting. The kids were very, very excited.'' ''It was scary,'' added her daughter, Sara, 9. Each summer, thousands of people go camping at New Jersey's state parks and forests, and for many of them the sight of a bear can be the highlight of the trip, at once exciting and scary. But as the number of black bears in New Jersey has increased - estimates range from 1,500 to 3,000, up from 100 in the mid-1970's -- state parks employees are in a constant battle to keep the bears and campers at a safe distance. It is a matter of changing behaviors in both species. Campers are required to adopt ''good housekeeping'' rules, like keeping food in airtight containers and out of sight. A camper who goes on a walk and leaves a cooler on a table could very likely find a $72 summons awaiting his return. As for the bears, park rangers are using sirens and fire rubber buckshot pellets or noisemakers to frighten away intruding bears. Some parks have even bought bear-proof Dumpsters and moved them away from the campsites. The efforts are not always successful. Last Sunday a hiker in Wawayanda State Park in Vernon was chased and knocked down by a bear, state officials said. The woman escaped with welts on her right side. On July 26, a bear at High Point State Park interrupted a family eating in a screened-in tent, pushing its way in to get at the food. No one was hurt, and a ranger fired rubber buckshot at the |
1512710_0 | Protecting Commercial Aircraft | Much has been done to tighten aviation security in the United States since Sept. 11, including the hardening of cockpits, more meticulous passenger screening and the posting of armed marshals on many domestic flights. Yet dangers persist. That was highlighted last week by the F.B.I.'s arrest of a man who was charged with trying to sell a shoulder-fired missile to a bureau informant who posed as a terrorist wanting to down a commercial jetliner. In an age of terrorism, Washington cannot afford to leave significant gaps in its efforts to protect commercial aviation. The threat from portable missiles is one such threat. Other risks, including lax cargo screening procedures, also require attention. Washington should identify the most pressing dangers and ensure that there is adequate financial help to meet them. More than a thousand portable, heat-seeking missiles developed by the Russians and Americans are now floating around the world unaccounted for. They could be highly effective against passenger planes during takeoffs or landings if terrorists managed to launch them near airports. That happened in Kenya last November. Fortunately, the two missiles fired at an Israeli charter jet missed their target. The Bush administration has warned that further attempts are likely, especially in countries where airport security is poor. Equipping the American passenger fleet with the kinds of antimissile protections now used by American military planes and some Israeli commercial flights would cost about $7 billion to $10 billion and could be accomplished quickly. Washington is now considering a plan for such protection, which includes flares, jamming devices and the scattering of metal debris as decoys, starting in 2006. That schedule should be advanced, with the added equipment phased in first on newly delivered aircraft, along with those flying the most vulnerable routes. The costs can be partially subsidized by restoring the federal security tax on air travel, now temporarily suspended, at a slightly higher level. Though the prospect of rising fares does not thrill the airlines, they will be better served by a small spike in ticket prices than the downing of a commercial airliner, an event likely to throw the industry into a new tailspin. |
1512711_1 | Politics and the Everglades | it becomes just another water supply project for Florida's booming cities and suburbs. Mr. Bush's personal intervention could keep the project from veering off course. It might also send a useful warning to his brother Jeb, whose commitment to restoration has wavered since his re-election as Florida's governor. The project, a joint federal-state undertaking, calls for capturing one trillion gallons of Florida's rainfall that is now wastefully flushed out to sea and rerouting it to the Everglades, which is dying for lack of fresh water. To that end, the Army Corps of Engineers has been instructed by Congress to replace the present flood control system with a new system of water storage reservoirs and canals to distribute water to the Everglades. Despite opposition from the sugar barons and the developers, Congress stipulated that restoration was to be the plan's overriding purpose, and that nature, not commerce, would have first claim on the water. The final blueprint that will guide the corps over the next 20 years is now under review in the Office of Management and Budget. The regulations restate the general principle that nature comes first. But they are alarmingly short on detail, and, worse, they fail to establish interim goals against which to measure progress as the plan goes forward. This gives the corps enormous leeway to decide, project by project, where the water goes and who gets it. Given the corps's vulnerability to local political pressures, the Everglades could again wind up getting the short end of the deal. Just how fierce these pressures can be was vividly demonstrated two months ago when Jeb Bush caved in to the sugar interests and signed a rewrite of Florida's basic law governing restoration, the Everglades Forever Act. The revised law would delay for 10 years the cleanup of polluted water flowing from cane fields into the Everglades. Congress was so angry at these shenanigans -- Florida is, after all, supposed to be a full partner -- that it almost cut off federal funding. Congress has made it clear that future funding will hinge on Florida's compliance with the original deadlines. All this suggests a need for White House intervention. The president's environmental advisers should make sure that the new regulations demand specific commitments of the corps. And the president himself might remind his brother that this project is aimed at benefiting all Americans, not just Florida's growers and builders. |
1512519_0 | I Say It's . . . Broccoli? | FOOD, INC. Mendel to Monsanto - the Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest. By Peter Pringle. 239 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $24. IT'S hard to believe that in the comparatively simple days before 9/11 the nation's leading thinkers were preoccupied in a mighty battle over . . . a grain of rice. By that I refer to golden rice, the genetically altered, Vitamin A-enhanced plant that its boosters claimed would save the eyesight of hundreds of thousands of poor kids every year and that its detractors counterclaimed was nothing less than genetic imperialism run rampant. Remember golden rice? While you're at it, conjure up some of today's other high-tech lip-smackers, like Bt corn, Flavr-Savr tomatoes and, well, let's make the salad complete, herbicide-resistant soybeans. ''Food, Inc.'' is the veteran journalist Peter Pringle's rendering of the wars over these scientific wonders. This he does with the eye of a curious traveler; he's a man who sees this colorful cast of academic climbers, corporate suits, English seed-huggers and Indian firebrands as a giant circus of savants -- folks so intent on their own little world of passionate specifics that time and time again they fail to see the larger and more important picture. Consider, for example, Ingo Potrykus, one of the inventors of golden rice. It was Potrykus's brilliant and dogged pursuit of a way to coax beta carotene out of the common rice plant that led to biotech's one discovery (so far) that might actually benefit the third-world poor. Yet this same genius professed to be ''upset'' when, after having entered an agreement with the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to continue his work, he discovered that his new partner would actually assert ownership rights. Fortunately, Potrykus eventually got the company to allow him to give the seeds away to farmers making less than $10,000 a year, leaving all those $10,001 fat cats ripe for AstraZeneca's plucking. Pringle also ministers a well-earned cuffing to the many activist academics whose narcissistic politics helped cloud public understanding of genetic modification. Take the British geneticist and biophysicist Mae-Wan Ho. It was Ho's much publicized, and, as it turned out, utterly unfounded contention that so-called promoter genes inside a cauliflower virus could cause otherwise benign veggies to become carcinogenic. As a result of such claims, Pringle writes, ''consumers lurched from complete ignorance about such matters . . . to a full-blown panic that |
1512519_1 | I Say It's . . . Broccoli? | and more important picture. Consider, for example, Ingo Potrykus, one of the inventors of golden rice. It was Potrykus's brilliant and dogged pursuit of a way to coax beta carotene out of the common rice plant that led to biotech's one discovery (so far) that might actually benefit the third-world poor. Yet this same genius professed to be ''upset'' when, after having entered an agreement with the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to continue his work, he discovered that his new partner would actually assert ownership rights. Fortunately, Potrykus eventually got the company to allow him to give the seeds away to farmers making less than $10,000 a year, leaving all those $10,001 fat cats ripe for AstraZeneca's plucking. Pringle also ministers a well-earned cuffing to the many activist academics whose narcissistic politics helped cloud public understanding of genetic modification. Take the British geneticist and biophysicist Mae-Wan Ho. It was Ho's much publicized, and, as it turned out, utterly unfounded contention that so-called promoter genes inside a cauliflower virus could cause otherwise benign veggies to become carcinogenic. As a result of such claims, Pringle writes, ''consumers lurched from complete ignorance about such matters . . . to a full-blown panic that the tools of biotechnology might be poisoning them today, and tomorrow destroying the means of producing enough food to keep the world's population alive.'' Pringle rightfully saves his biggest blasts for the Monsanto Company crowd. Time and time again, he shows how the behemoth and its minions tried to counter legitimate concerns. Once, when the Environmental Protection Agency asked the company for samples of the Bt toxin in its new potato to determine if the substance would harm friendly insects and birds, the company submitted samples drawn not from potatoes but from Bt inserted into E. coli bacteria. The reason? It was cheaper. The agency approved the test. (Note to Monsanto and Washington: Potato and E. coli -- not the same thing! You cannot deep fry E. coli.) Pringle shows that the corporate heavyhandedness didn't end there. When scientists raised a number of concerns (ultimately disproved) that Bt corn might be damaging the monarch butterfly population, Pringle notes that the industry sent out bulletins asserting that more monarchs are killed by car windshields than corn pollen. It had no more backup than it had for many of its counterclaims to other environmental worries. While focusing on the players and their |
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1514692_5 | Study Spurs Hope of Finding Way to Increase Human Life | will be split evenly between their parent institutions, Harvard Medical School and Biomol. Resveratrol is synthesized by plants in response to stress like lack of nutrients and fungal infection. It exists in the skin of both red and white grapes but is found in amounts 10 times as high in red wine as in white because of the different manufacturing process. According to ''The Oxford Companion to Wine,'' pinot noir tends to have high levels of the chemical, cabernet sauvignon lower levels. ''Wines produced in cooler regions or areas with greater disease pressure such as Burgundy and New York often have more resveratrol,'' the book says, whereas wines from drier climates like California or Australia have less. Besides resveratrol, another class of chemical found to mimic caloric restriction is that of the flavones, found abundantly in olive oil, Dr. Howitz said. The enthusiasm scientists are showing for the discovery, despite its preliminary nature, stems in part from a train of discoveries stretching back a decade. In 1991 Dr. Guarente decided to study the basis of aging, then considered an intractable and unpromising field of research. He spent four years searching for strains of yeast, a common laboratory organism, that lived longer than others. By 1997, he and Dr. Sinclair, who worked in his laboratory at the time, had discovered the reason for the new strains' longevity. It centered on a gene called sir2, for silent information regulator No. 2. Dr. Guarente next found that when yeast cells live longer because of starvation, sir2 is the gene that mediates the response. His research then started to fuse with longstanding work on caloric restriction as he and others showed that starvation is sensed by sir2, which sets off the cellular changes that lead to increased life span. Dr. Sinclair and Dr. Howitz took the human version of sirtuin, the enzyme produced by the sir2 gene, and devised a test to tell when the enzyme was activated. They then screened a large batch of likely chemicals to see if any made the enzyme more active. Their screening produced two active chemicals, both belonging to the family known as polyphenols. That led them to expand the search to more polyphenols. The most active compound in the second screen was resveratrol. Dr. Sinclair said he was amazed ''that in an unbiased screen we pulled out something already associated with health benefits.'' Much attention has been |
1514646_1 | How much can the Department of Homeland Security do about cyberattacks? | versions of Microsoft Windows, the operating system used on most PC's. So far, the attacks smell a lot more like vandalism than terrorism. But the potential for serious disruption of electronic commerce has nevertheless prompted Secretary Tom Ridge's Department of Homeland Security, among other organizations, to dispense several advisories. Not to put too geeky a point on it, but I am wondering whether the cyber-G-men in Mr. Ridge's department are in a position to do the homeland much good, wormwise. Late last month, as the Blaster worm was emerging, but before it had made headlines, the Department of Homeland Security issued a timely warning, ''Potential for Significant Impact on Internet Operations Due to Vulnerability in Microsoft Operating Systems.'' The warning was posted on the department's Web site, and bulletins were e-mailed to security professionals. In that two-page note, the department suggested that Internet service providers and other corporate network administrators should shut off several network ports to block the spread of the Blaster infection. Each of the 65,000 ports on a server computer is used by a specific software application to communicate across the Internet. The identifying number of the port can be used to keep track of which application is being used by worms and viruses. As a result of the Homeland Security advisory, administrators at Internet service providers, including Cox Communications and AT&T Broadband, decided to cut their systems off from inbound access to the three ports recommended in the advisory: numbers 135, 139 and 445. Unfortunately, blocking these ports cuts off several other legitimate applications, including the ability of remote users to get their e-mail from Microsoft Exchange servers across the public Internet. Despite such drawbacks, did the advisory make sense? At least one outside expert says it did, given the department's need to offer warnings without being so specific as to invite further attacks of the same sort. ''You are always balancing how much do you really say in the advisory,'' said Howard Schmidt, a network security specialist who has worked for Microsoft, was a cybersecurity czar in the Bush administration and now is the chief information officer at eBay. ''If you say too much, then people can exploit it. If you say too little, then you are practicing security by obscurity.'' Other experts say that the Homeland Security Department has begun collaborating with private industry on network security issues, but that there is room for |
1509620_5 | Looking Backward and Ahead at Continent's End | exploring the coast, but no country had claimed absolute sovereignty. The United States gained control of what is now the Pacific Northwest after a treaty with Britain in 1846 established the boundaries. Now the years force new perspectives. The Indians who loomed so large in Jefferson's projections and Lewis and Clark's encounters have been erased from the start and the finish of the route the explorers took to the Pacific. The Osage were removed from their home in Missouri shortly after the expedition ended in 1806, and the Chinook, a maritime trading nation whose members still live here at the Columbia's mouth, were turned down by the Bush administration in their most recent effort to be formally recognized as a tribe. Today there is a town of Chinook, a river named Chinook, a helicopter, a type of wind, the biggest of salmon and a dialect, all named Chinook. But here where the Chinook live, scattered in small communities on each side of the lower Columbia River, there is no Chinook nation, or reservation. Trespassers or not, Lewis and Clark were impressed by the slot in the Cascade Mountains, the river gorge where the Columbia broke through the mountains long ago. It is desert on one side, now stocked with wineries and orchards, misty forest on the other. The long-vanished rapids of the Columbia frightened and amazed the explorers. Near The Dalles, on what is now the Oregon side of the river, Clark described a river ''boiling & whorling in every direction.'' The corps prepared to run the rapids in their dugout canoes. The Indians lined the river to watch the spectacle -- what could have been a mass suicide. They made it through what would be considered Class V rapids -- which only the most daring of canoeists would try today -- without injury. Now the Columbia River Gorge is a National Scenic Area, which gives it protection from development excess, and the elements provide a year-round tourism industry in a place that calls itself the windsurfing capital of the world. Where the corps shot rapids in canoes, people now ride big kites attached to boards. It took Lewis and Clark barely three weeks to scoot down the Columbia from the desert to the coast. But once they came within sight of the river's mouth, the expedition slowed. The rain came in sheets. The tidal currents made river travel dangerous. |
1509605_1 | Episcopal Leaders Give First Approval For a Gay Bishop | this out.'' The House of Deputies, which includes more than 800 lay and clergy leaders from every diocese, approved Bishop-elect Robinson in a complicated count of the vote that has, in past elections, made the most controversial issues more difficult to win approval. He won majorities among the lay leaders, and among the clergy leaders. The House of Bishops, which includes more than 100 leaders in each diocese, is expected to take up the matter on Monday. ''They have a big decision to make,'' said Bruce E. Mason, a spokesman for the American Anglican Council, a group of conservative clergy members that have opposed Bishop-elect's Robinson's ratification. ''We pray that they will choose to uphold the traditional historic Christian faith. The unity of the Anglican Communion hangs in the balance, at the hands of the bishops.'' Mr. Mason and others say the selection of Bishop-elect Robinson threatens to divide the United States church, which includes 2.3 million people, as well as the larger Anglican Communion, an association of 70 million people in churches in 164 countries. The debate has been especially troubling to some Anglicans in Africa and Asia, where the religion is growing rapidly and where conservative views are more prevalent. ''We just hope and pray that the Episcopal Church doesn't choose to step outside of the family,'' Mr. Mason said. ''We're very confident that we will remain part of the Anglican family. The question is what will this church do.'' In addition to Bishop-elect Robinson's selection, Episcopalians here are deciding whether to create a liturgy for blessing same-sex unions. The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, said approval of either provision would amount to a ''fatal bullet'' for the conservatives. Conservative leaders have said they would appeal any such decision to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, who is the senior bishop and titular leader of the Anglican Communion. But supporters of Bishop-elect Robinson, who has been with his partner for 13 years, say they doubt so many warnings of division. They say there have been gay bishops before but none who made their sexual orientation known before being elected. And they point to earlier controversies -- the ordination of women in 1976, the ratifying of a woman bishop, Barbara Harris, in 1989 -- as events that were also supposed to have split the denomination. Today, dozens of ordained women |
1509588_4 | Airports Ready for Impact Of Tightened Visa Rules | added. Ms. Bernaldez said that some of the more popular routes through Houston whose passengers are likely to be affected by the change, included Tokyo to Cancún, Lima to Tokyo, Brazil to Canada and Mexico to London. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the largest number of people using Transit Without Visa, the most popular of the two programs being suspended, are from Brazil, followed by Mexico, Korea, the Philippines and Peru. That program allows travelers to leave the airport where they arrived and make a connection on a domestic flight within the United States. At Houston's airport, as at Miami's and several others, connecting international passengers in the program allowing brief layovers at the airport are closely watched, confined to secure lounges and escorted to their gates. If they have long layovers they are usually allowed to wait in transit lounges. In Houston, such lounges are under the purview of United States customs and immigration, Ms. Bernaldez said. At Los Angeles International Airport, there was scant evidence that the new restrictions were creating problems. Though scores of passengers were walking through the in-transit exit on their way to connecting flights, few appeared to be getting special attention from airport personnel. A Transportation Security Administration guard said that passengers connecting to other international flights normally went to a lounge to await their next flight. The guard added that on the rare occasion that a foreigner with no visa had to leave the terminal to catch a flight at another terminal, at least one customs agent would accompany the passenger, as would a privately contracted security officer who would hold onto the passenger's travel documents. Over a three-hour period, three passengers went through the in-transit exit accompanied by customs officials. But officials would not confirm whether the passengers had been affected by the new rules. Several hundred unaccompanied passengers left from the same door. Carl Fogg, an Immigration and Naturalization Service official, would not say how many Los Angeles passengers would be affected by the new rules, but he said the number was ''very low.'' The federal government estimates that the new restrictions will affect 600,000 travelers nationwide. ''If I were under this rule,'' Mr. Fogg said, ''and it had an effect on me, I might be pretty upset. But the bottom line is that life will go on for these people we've inconvenienced, and for the airlines as well.'' |
1513649_2 | Questions Haunt a Saddened Annan | outside the United Nations. The name most often on people's lips was that of Sergio Vieira de Mello, Mr. Annan's special representative in Iraq. In a telephone interview from London, Ahmad Fawzi, the former press secretary to Mr. Vieira de Mello, said that Mr. Vieira de Mello, ''was conscious of the security concerns that we all had and that the security officials passed on to him on a daily basis.'' He added that Mr. Vieira de Mello ''had a military adviser, a U.N. military adviser who was liaising with the coalition military and was reporting several times a day to Sergio and his team.'' ''We would take that into account,'' he said. ''We were concerned about the security situation, but he went about his business.'' The larger ramifications that the attack will have on the organization were only beginning to become clear today. As Mr. Annan told the Security Council: ''Yesterday's events have broader implications for the United Nations beyond Iraq. Wherever the United Nations goes in to help and whatever measures are taken for staff security it is sustained by the perception among the local population that the United Nations is there to help them. ''The blue flag has never been so viciously assaulted as it was yesterday.'' The determination to continue the mission was another central theme of statements made here today. Mr. Annan told the Council today that he had appointed the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, as acting head of the operation. A United Nations spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the remaining staff members in Baghdad had been offered a chance to return home. Two have accepted the offer. The Syrian ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, whose country holds the Council presidency for August, said in a statement that the Council ''reaffirms its determination to assist the Iraqi people to build peace and justice in their country and to determine their own political future.'' In perhaps the most eloquent of his five separate public statements today, Mr. Annan, in a taped, televised address to United Nations staff members worldwide, said the victims of the blast ''have been taken from us, and from the people they were working to assist, by an act so savage and senseless that we can hardly believe it really happened.'' ''It feels like a nightmare, from which we are still hoping to wake. If only it were.'' AFTER THE WAR: UNITED NATIONS |
1513568_2 | Church at a Crossroads And Its Future at Stake | amounts of misguided energies denying. (They were able to do this, by the way, only because so many Catholics had accepted what the authorities were forbidding them to recognize.) Catholics have overwhelmingly reflected the shift going on all around them, and are ignoring the Vatican's increasingly shrill orders to pay it no mind. Over 90 percent ignore the papal ban on contraceptives. A priest who had counseled young adults for 23 years told Mr. Steinfels that not once, not ever, did those people raise the subject of contraception with him. Over 60 percent of Catholics favor the ordination of women. More endorse the removal of mandatory celibacy in the male priesthood. As the number of priests falls dramatically, lay ministers have taken over many parish duties -- there are more lay ministers now than priests, and more than 80 percent are women. Women make up a substantial number of qualified theologians in the church. The Catholic Theological Society was founded in 1946 by priests, who alone could be members of it. By 1995 one out of every five members was female, and now the society's new president is a woman. Will women be ordained? Mr. Steinfels thinks so, because the alternatives are either a) an impossibility or b) a disgrace: ''There are three possible outcomes: Women will be ordained, or the church will render its teaching convincing, or Catholic commitment to equality and justice for half the human race will be in doubt.'' A sensible leadership would be thinking of careful steps to make the transition -- trial ministries, changes in the seminaries, theological reflection on the meaning of the axial shift (instead of ineffectual bans on addressing it). But Vatican officials try to pretend the shift is not occurring, and to prevent discussion of what is settled (but only in their own minds). The Vatican dismisses the vast social change as a scatter of pesty little isolated fires, to be sluiced down with ancient formulas. Mr. Steinfels calls this a Maginot line approach, referring to the ineffectual fortifications built on the eastern frontier of France before World War II. After the people have swept around and past the old fortifications, Rome says they will be called back and reassembled outside the fort if the fort is just strengthened with new rigidity. The result, as Mr. Steinfels carefully documents, has been a disjunction between the life of the church and |
1513114_3 | From Way on High, Help In Fighting Forest Fires | make morning and afternoon observations daily of almost every point on Earth, and the Modis instruments keep track of the extent and intensity of fires. They also provide altitude estimates of smoke plumes. Modis data processed and transmitted at the Goddard center, and computer models and software developed at the University of Maryland to use it, goes into updating active fire maps three to four times a day. The maps and other information, which is shared with a number of government fire monitoring and fighting agencies, are available on http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/ index.html and http://rapidfire. sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/. To expedite making maps available to help in fighting current fires, the Forest Service built its own receiving station to retrieve Modis data in real time directly at its Remote Sensing Applications Center in Salt Lake City. The center prepares active fire maps three times a day for the entire country. ''Yesterday's fire map has very little value to a fire manager making a decision today,'' said Thomas J. Bobbe, the center's manager. However, he said, some satellite imagery is useful after a fire to assess damage and plan recovery efforts. The Forest Service and other land management agencies prepare emergency response plans to stabilize soils, protect water supplies and replant vegetation to prevent erosion and use the satellite data to help determine which areas should be dealt with first, Mr. Bobbe said. Dr. Christopher O. Justice of the University of Maryland, a member of the Modis instrument science team specializing in application of the data to land issues, said fire had a major impact worldwide. Fires not only greatly impact atmospheric chemistry, he said, but are also a major factor in land use. While most wildfires are caused by lightning, Dr. Justice said, human activity is a big influence. ''As humans move into an area, you see changes in fire frequency,'' he said. ''There is active deforestation, where people start fires to make and maintain pasture. In other cases, people moving into a forested area, just building more homes and living there, cause a change in fire frequency and the impact of fires.'' Monitoring by satellites is a key to understanding the impact of fires, Dr. Justice said. ''Fires in Africa produce plumes that go out to Brazil and fires in Brazil the other way,'' he said.''Smoke spreads the effects to places far away and we have to look at this on a broader scale.'' |
1513280_0 | Metro Briefing | New Jersey: Vernon Township: Bear Goes Untrapped | The bear that chased an 18-year-old woman on Aug. 10 has avoided a trap set for it, said Elaine Makatura, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Environmental Protection. She said a trap was set in Wawayanda State Park in Sussex County the same day that the hiker was chased and knocked down by a black bear. The hiker, who elbowed the bear in the snout, suffered welts from the bear's paws. Ms. Makatura said the culvert trap was removed on Thursday after wildlife officials were unable to capture any bears. John Holl (NYT) |
1511570_0 | Mom's a Pepper, Dad's a Tomato: Baby Is a Sweetie, If a Tad Unlovely | The toma bella is the aptly named offspring of a tomato and a bell pepper. This hybrid, which originated in Japan, is now being grown in Mexico, California and Michigan and is sold with the Frieda's Finest label in supermarkets, including Food Town in New Jersey. Bright red and squat like a tomato, it has a somewhat milder, sweeter flavor than a bell pepper. But inside it is just like a pepper, so once the seeds and core have been scooped out it's ideal to stuff and bake. It can also be baked empty until the flesh softens, about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, then filled and served cold. Or it can be used raw to hold dips and sauces. In markets, toma bellas, which will be available through September, are about $6 a pound; they are $65.55 for five pounds, including two-day shipping, from Frieda's, at www.friedas.com or (800) 241-1771. FOOD STUFF |
1511587_0 | Rethinking Menopause | To the Editor: As an endocrinologist and a researcher, I find the debate over hormone replacement therapy spurious because it is predicated on menopause's being perceived as a ''disease'' rather than as a normal life-cycle process (news article, Aug. 7). Without further understanding of the role of menopause in aging, we cannot make rational decisions about hormone replacement therapy in either women or men. JOHN S. TORDAY Los Angeles, Aug. 8, 2003 |
1511708_1 | Bear Did Not Try to Eat A Hiker, an Official Says | Mr. Kaskey was quoted in news articles today as saying the bear had exhibited ''classic predatory behavior'' and was ''out to eat'' the young hiker. Mr. Campbell said today that the bear did not try to bite the hiker after chasing her from behind on a wooded trail and knocking her to the ground. Mr. Campbell called the animal's actions very aggressive and seemingly predatory. ''This is quite extraordinary atypical behavior for black bears,'' he said. The young woman told state biologists that she elbowed the bear in the nose and then ran a short distance from it and hid near a tree, Mr. Campbell said. The bear did not pursue her and wandered away into the woods, Mr. Campbell said. The only injuries the woman suffered were welts on her right side, apparently inflicted by the abrasive pad on one of the bear's feet. The young woman managed to run about three-quarters of a mile from the park to her home in Highland Lakes, a hamlet in Vernon Township, Mr. Campbell said. No one else witnessed the incident, Mr. Campbell said. He added that department officials had no reason to doubt the young woman's account. Mr. Campbell and his aides have declined to identify the teenager at her request, they said. Encounters between humans and bears are a politically fraught topic in New Jersey because the state has scheduled its first bear hunt since 1970 for next December. Animal rights activists often accuse advocates of the hunt of exaggerating the details of such encounters to create support for the hunt. The trail where the encounter occurred, called Wingdam Trail, has been closed since Sunday. A bear trap was placed in the woods near it then. But no animals have been caught. An employee in the heavily wooded, 16,000-acre park who insisted on remaining anonymous said bears were seen in it by park workers and visitors almost daily. The animals, the employee said, have never attacked anyone. Visitors questioned today said they had not heard of Sunday's incident but were not concerned about their safety. ''We see bears here all the time,'' John Foley, of West Milford, said as he, his wife, Dianne, and their children -- Marie, 11, and James, 5 -- arrived to fish. ''We try to give them wide berth.'' Mr. Foley said the bears always ran off at the sound of clapping or other loud noise. |
1511656_4 | California's Embattled Governor Gains a New Adviser: Bill Clinton | Republicans in Texas to redraw Congressional district lines in a way would eliminate some Democratic-leaning districts. ''There are a lot of people in the party who are connecting the dots: What's occurring is a conscious and well-heeled effort to try to undo traditional democratic processes,'' one of Mr. Clinton's associates said. Garry South, one of Mr. Davis's close advisers, said that ''the two people who have been most incensed about this are Bill Clinton and Dianne Feinstein.'' Ms. Feinstein, one of this state's senators, fought back a recall in 1983 when she was mayor of San Francisco. Mr. Clinton and Mr. Davis are not particularly close, though Mr. Davis and his wife have visited the Clintons at their home in Chappaqua, N.Y. But in 1992, when Mr. Clinton was first elected president, he camped out in California for much of the year and returned here often as president. His intense attention to California as president is one reason why many Republicans close to the White House view it as unwinnable in the 2004 election. And Mr. Davis is part of the reason why Mr. Clinton had so much success here. For one thing, he helped Mr. Clinton raise money in this state. For another, in the kind of gesture that politicians rarely forget, Mr. Davis appeared at Mr. Clinton's side when many other Democrats would not, after the 1994 Congressional elections swept Democrats out of power. Mr. Davis, than the newly elected lieutenant governor, made a point of meeting Mr. Clinton at the airport whenever he came into California, Mr. South said. In discussing the extent of Mr. Clinton's involvement in the California contest, one associate said that his time was limited because he was nearing the due date for submitting the manuscript for his book. He has been, or rather is supposed to be, spending much of this month writing on Martha's Vineyard. Some Democrats said that in this unsettled environment, it was not clear whether a visit by Mr. Clinton would be a help. ''He's a popular Democrat, but this is not your normal race,'' said Joe Lockhart, who was Mr. Clinton's White House press secretary. ''It's impossible to predict how anything would go.'' As it is, Mr. Davis's advisers are debating the extent to which they want to make this a national election, rather than a state one, and whether their effort to portray the recall effort |
1511922_1 | All Quiet on Campus Save the Click of Keys | technology, Blitzmail has its less appealing side. It has technical limitations. And Blitzmail can be annoying, even oppressive at times, occasionally prompting users to seek refuge from the constant flow of messages. Back in 1984, administrators at Dartmouth, long known for its innovative use of computers, decided that personal computers were a good idea and should perhaps even be a requirement for students. The campuswide e-mail system was established the following year. ''We decided e-mail would be the killer app,'' said Larry Levine, Dartmouth's director of computing. But when he and his colleagues looked for a commercial e-mail application to buy for the campus, none fit the bill. ''So we said, hell with it, we'll write one of our own,'' he said. The original program, written by Dartmouth students, was nicknamed Blitzmail because it was put together in a hurry, and the name stuck. Blitzmail quickly became an indispensable tool even among those who had never heard of e-mail. ''In the old days you could say, 'Blitz that to me,' and people would say, 'Sure,''' said Mr. Levine. ''But if you said, 'E-mail it to me,' they'd say, 'What's that?''' Everyone on the Dartmouth campus has a Blitzmail account. Sending a message does not require knowing the recipient's log-in name; the sender simply types in a name and the system can supply the moniker (for common names, it presents several choices). Blitzmail can be set so that messages pop up on the screen the way they do with instant messaging. New users take to the program immediately as they grasp that to live the Dartmouth life, constant use of Blitzmail is expected. Dartmouth designates one day each fall for distributing computers to freshmen who did not arrive with one. ''We watch the statistics,'' Mr. Brawley said. ''By midnight of the first day with the computer, 99 percent have logged in to Blitzmail.'' The program has become so ingrained on the campus that the word ''blitz'' can be used as a noun, a verb and an imperative. '''I'll blitz you this,' or, 'Please blitz me that,''' said John Winn, a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth. ''It's changed the way people talk.'' The system is students' primary means of contact with the faculty. If a class is canceled, a teacher conveys the message through Blitzmail, and it is the rare professor who does not encourage students to ask questions by Blitzmail. Tory |
1511900_0 | Hungary, Then and Now | To the Editor: You are right that the rerouting of the Danube into a concrete-sealed canal ''has been sharply criticized by environmentalists in Hungary and elsewhere'' (news article, ''Down the Danube'' series, Aug. 9). In fact, we are suing the Hungarian government, demanding that it return the case to the International Court in The Hague to save the unique species of the Szigetkoz wetlands. You are also correct in saying ''the question of the dam is not entirely over,'' because a revolutionary new design called the compromise plan has been prepared that would allow the Gabcikovo hydroelectric plant to continue its operation while the natural riverbed is reopened. BELA LIPTAK Stamford, Conn., Aug. 9, 2003 The writer is president, Foundation to Protect the Hungarian Environment. |
1511876_0 | Authorities Seize Times Newsmen Off J.F.K. | A reporter and a photographer for The New York Times and the captain of the boat they were riding in were detained by the authorities yesterday and were accused of violating the security around John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Coast Guard said. A police boat stopped the 24-foot boat about 100 feet from shore, the authorities said. The security zone around the airport extends 100 yards into Jamaica Bay, according to the Coast Guard and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Coast Guard said in a news release that the three had been cited with security violations. The reporter, Corey Kilgannon, the photographer, Librado Romero, and the captain, Lawrence Seaman, face fines of up to $50,000 and five years in prison, the Coast Guard said. Mr. Seaman also faces a fine of up to $25,000 for taking on passengers for hire without a license, the release said. But Mr. Kilgannon said he and Mr. Romero had not been notified of any citations while in custody. Mr. Seaman did not return a telephone message. A spokesman for The New York Times Company said that as of last evening, no charges had been filed against the reporter and photographer and that the company had not received any formal paperwork from the Coast Guard. ''They were not doing anything wrong, and there was no intent to violate any laws or any kind of regulations,'' said the spokesman, Toby Usnik. Mr. Kilgannon, 37, of Manhattan, a reporter for The Metro Section, and Mr. Romero, 61, of Riverdale, had enlisted Mr. Seaman, 59, of Freeport, to take them on a trip to research an article about fishermen and security in the area. Mr. Kilgannon had written an article about an incident on Sunday in which three fisherman -- two of them teenagers -- washed up on airport property and wandered undetected among the runways before turning themselves in. The fishermen were found not to be a threat to airport security, but only after causing a great deal of alarm and raising questions about security measures at Kennedy. They were not charged. Yesterday, around 10:20 a.m., the Port Authority Police saw the boat carrying the journalists in waters off Runway 4R and noticed that one of the passengers was taking pictures, said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. The |
1511944_4 | With the Apples Arriving by E-Mail, Teachers Adapt | site will attract more than a million visits this month as teachers prepare for school. One new member recently posted a plea in the site's chatroom for ideas on how to avoid the ''lovely task'' of making 180 booklets that could serve as ''passports'' for a sixth-grade geography class (students would get a stamp for every country they studied). Several of the suggestions involved getting the students themselves to make the booklets. Ms. Post referred the teacher to www.abcteach.com/countries/passport.htm, where a printable download of a passport cover was available. That site was created by Sandra Kemsley, who began running Abcteach out of her home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., three years ago as a retirement project after 24 years of teaching elementary school in nearby Waterford. ''Amanda helped me get started,'' Ms. Kemsley said. Unlike Ms. Post, who keeps her site afloat through a combination of advertising and commissions from a teachers' store at the site, Ms. Kemsley moved to a subscription model last year with limited advertising. Some 10,000 subscribers are paying $25 a year for unlimited access, she said. While such sites help teachers tap the potential of the Internet and new hardware and software, many experts in educational technology say that most teachers are understandably reluctant to explore all the possibilities. Teachers rarely receive enough training in the use of new technology, in part because the technology experts in many school systems are often swamped with demands for equipment maintenance. More recently, the pressure to link classroom instruction to questions on standardized tests is sending teachers a flashing yellow signal if not an outright red light about experimentation. ''There's a lot of hype about the educational value-added of technology in the classroom but not much scientific evidence, so it's getting harder for teachers to bet heavily on it,'' said Laurence Peters, director of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology in Education Consortium, one of 10 regional organizations set up under the Clinton administration to disperse research grants and help deploy new technology. At the same time, teachers are painfully aware of the downside of new technology, from battles over how to filter content available on the Internet to new forms of plagiarism and cheating. One of the latest problems confronting teachers is the practice of sending short text messages over cellphones to cheat on exams. ''I just heard about that one this spring,'' said Ms. Meyer, the teacher in Maplewood. |
1514765_1 | ARTS BRIEFING | event, which continues through Sept. 6. Among the stars expected to be on hand are Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Reuters reported. Woody Allen's comedy ''Anything Else'' is the opening night attraction. Other filmmakers whose works will be presented in Venice are Robert Benton, Bernardo Bertolucci, the Coen brothers, Peter Greenaway and Alejando González Iñárritu. LEANING TOWER EXHIBITION -- Right from the start, which was in 1174, this construction project went wrong. The foundations were unsound. By the time the work was completed in the 14th century, the 184.5-foot structure had begun to list. That structure is, of course, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Not only is it a Unesco World Heritage Site, but the Tower -- and the decade-long restoration begun in 1990 -- is also the subject of a free interactive exhibition that will run for only a few more days at the United Nations. Continuing through Friday, ''The Leaning Tower of Pisa: 10 Years of Restoration'' includes videos, film clips and a 3-D projection, as well as a scale reconstruction of the tower and fragments from the original. A JOHN O'HARA MYSTERY -- Where, oh where, is The Pottsville Journal for the years 1924 to 1926? Other years of the paper survive in bound volumes, and some issues from 1924 to 1926 exist, but is there a complete run somewhere? Pottsville and The Journal have been in the news lately because the centenary of the author John O'Hara, a Pottsville native and alumnus of The Journal, is coming up in 2005, and books and articles are beginning to appear. In his journalistic apprenticeship in Pottsville (which became O'Hara's fictional Gibbsville), he defended Red Grange's decision to turn pro and reported on the game between the Pottsville Maroons and a squad of former Notre Damers. Matthew J. Bruccoli, the Emily Brown Jefferies Professor of English at the University of South Carolina and an O'Hara biographer who has been searching for the complete files since 1970, is hoping to publish a collection of O'Hara's writings for The Journal in connection with the centenary. CASTING NEWS -- Mary Tyler Moore will star in the new Neil Simon play, ''Rose's Dilemma,'' which will be directed by Lynne Meadow. The comedy, which begins previews on Nov. 20 and is to open on Dec. 9 at the Manhattan Theater Club, deals with Rose Steiner, a celebrated writer who is running out |
1514847_5 | Tricking The Taste Buds: Science Seeks Sweet Disguise | Sinai Hospital's School of Medicine in Manhattan, discovered gustducin, a protein that is central to the human perception of taste. He founded Linguagen in 1995 to determine how his research could be used in product development. Linguagen has enlisted Beverly J. Tepper, an associate professor of food science at Rutgers University, to conduct tests to determine if their laboratory science meets consumers' approval in real food and beverages. On a recent afternoon, Dr. Tepper put sets of two glasses of grapefruit juice, salted crackers and water (to cleanse the palates) in front of three taste testers at her Rutgers lab. One of them, Natalia Ullrich, a dietitian and research assistant, tentatively lifted cup No. 793 to her mouth, sipped, then rolled her eyes. ''This one is nasty,'' she said. ''It's actually very sour.'' But the second sample -- in cup No. 862 -- was much milder. There was agreement among the two other testers in the room: Cup 793 bore the unmistakably acrid taste of some grapefruit juice sold in grocers' refrigerators. The other cup contained juice that tasted like a milder version of commercial grapefruit juice, tangy without the edge of the first version. The juice in the second cup was identical to that in the first, but it was laced with AMP. ''We've tried it in grapefruit. We've tried it in coffee. Our feeling is that it really does reduce the bitterness in those two products,'' Dr. Tepper said. ''It's a very exciting project because it really is brand new stuff.'' The pharmaceutical industry is another huge potential customer for the makers of bitter blockers. Oral medicines to treat H.I.V. and AIDS patients are excellent candidates for bitter blockers. The medicines, which must be taken several times a day, tend to be so severely bitter that many patients are reluctant or unwilling to take them, according to a Duke University study in 1999 on the effect of protease inhibitors on the sense of taste. Manufacturers of cough syrup and other liquid medicine for children, geriatric patients, pets and people who cannot swallow pills have expressed interest in putting bitter blockers into their products. In March, Linguagen announced an agreement with Perrigo of Allegan, Mich., a big maker of generic nonprescription drugs sold as store brands and of nutritional products. Pfizer has also expressed interest in Linguagen's taste technology. ''If approved, it's going to be a useful addition,'' a |
1510197_3 | U.S. Is Inspecting Overseas Airports for Missile Threats | upon what part of the country you are in.'' The first of the international airport inspections were organized this spring, without any public announcement, by the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which is part of the department. The overseas inspections mirror ones that were carried out at dozens of domestic airports in the United States in the weeks after the attack on the Israeli charter plane in Mombasa, Kenya's major coastal city. ''Mombasa was a wake-up call,'' Adm. James M. Loy, the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said in an interview. ''The potential for actual attacks is very real,'' he said. ''If I was a bad guy and I had access to that particular weapon, it would certainly be something that I know I would want to be part of my terrorist campaign.'' He said that the inspections were being carried out at a ''group of foreign airports that are important to us to have a good handle on.'' While he did not list them, other Homeland Security officials said that the initial inspections occurred this spring and summer at a dozen overseas airports that were considered prominent terrorist targets and that were located in foreign countries eager to cooperate with the United States on airport security issues. The officials said the inspections had been completed at Athens, Istanbul and Manila and were nearing completion at Baghdad and Basra. Al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates have long been known to operate in Greece, Turkey and the Philippines, and American air carriers fly to all three countries. They said they would not identify the other inspected airports until after the security reviews were completed. While the Greek government has often had a testy relationship with the United States, it has been eager to show that Athens, which will be the site of next year's summer Olympic Games, is safe from terrorism. The inspections are expected to result in a host of security changes at some of the airports, including tightened police patrols along flight paths used for planes on takeoff and landing, as well as the installation of electronic surveillance equipment. While administration officials stressed that the United States was not offering to assist foreign governments in paying for new security measures, the administration was offering the airports its continuing air safety expertise. Administration officials said that multiple intelligence sources suggested in the spring that Al |
1510206_7 | Episcopal Church Leaders Reject Proposal for Same-Sex Union Liturgy | Schori, Nevada; James L. Jelinek, Minnesota; Robert H. Johnson, Western North Carolina; James A. Kelsey, Northern Michigan; Chilton R. Knudson, Maine; Robert L. Ladehoff, Oregon; Jerry A. Lamb, Northern California; Peter J. Lee, Virginia; Edwin M. Leidel Jr., Eastern Michigan; Mark L. MacDonald, Alaska; Paul V. Marshall, Bethlehem, Pa; Larry E. Maze, Arkansas; Jack M. McKelvey, Rochester, N.Y., Robert M. Moody, Oklahoma; William D. Persell, Chicago; Steven T. Plummer, Navajoland; F. Neff Powell, Southwestern Virginia; Creighton L. Robertson, South Dakota; Stacy F. Sauls, Lexington, Ky.; Alan Scarfe, Iowa; Robert R. Shahan, Arizona; James J. Shand, Easton, La.; M. Thomas Shaw III, Massachusetts; Richard L. Shimpfky, El Camino Real, Calif; Mark S. Sisk, New York; William E. Smalley, Kansas; Andrew D. Smith, Connecticut; George W. Smith, Missouri; William E. Swing, California; Douglas E. Theuner, New Hampshire; James E. Waggoner, Spokane, Wash; Orris G. Walker Jr., Long Island; Vincent W. Warner, Olympia, Wash.; Catherine M. Waynick, Indianapolis; William J. Winterrowd, Colorado; Geralyn Wolf, Rhode Island; Wayne Wright, Delaware. BISHOPS VOTING NO Keith L. Ackerman, Quincy, Ill.; James M. Adams, Western Kansas; Lloyd E. Allen, Honduras; David C. Bane Jr., Southern Virginia; Peter H. Beckwith, Springfield, Ill.; Theodore A. Daniels, canon missioner and assisting bishop of Texas; Philip M. Duncan II, Central Gulf Coast; Robert W. Duncan Jr., Pittsburgh; Francisco Duque-Gomez, Colombia; Jean Z. Duracin, Haiti; Andrew H. Fairfield, North Dakota; James E. Folts, West Texas; Duncan M. Gray III, Mississippi; Dorsey F. Henderson Jr., Upper South Carolina; Bertram N. Herlong, Tennessee; Daniel W. Herzog, Albany; Julio C. Holguin-Khoury, Dominican Republic; John W. Howe, Central Florida; Gethin B. Hughes, San Diego; Jack L. Iker, Fort Worth; Russell E. Jacobus, Fond du Lac, Wis.; Stephen H. Jecko, Florida; Charles E. Jenkins III, Louisiana; Don E. Johnson, West Tennessee; Terence Kelshaw, Rio Grande, N.M.; William M. Klusmeyer, West Virginia; James E. Krotz, Nebraska; David Jung-Hsin Lai, Taiwan; John B. Lipscomb, Southwest Florida; Edward S. Little II, Northern Indiana; Henry Louttit, Georgia; D. Bruce MacPherson, Western Louisiana; Alfredo E. Morante, Litoral Ecuador; C. Wallis Ohl Jr., Northwest Texas; Henry N. Parsley Jr., Alabama; Robert D. Rowley Jr., Northwestern, Pa.; Edward L. Salmon Jr., South Carolina; John-David M. Schofield, San Joaquin, Calif.; James M. Stanton, Dallas; Herbert Thompson Jr., Southern Ohio; Charles G. vonRosenberg, East Tennessee; Keith B. Whitmore, Eau Claire, Wis.; Don A. Wimberly, Texas. BISHOPS NOT VOTING Neptali Larrea, Ecuador; Gordon P. Scruton, Western Massachusetts. |
1510158_3 | First Year of Hormone Treatment Is Found to Raise Risk of Heart Attack | to say that no hormones ought to be used. Anyone who says that has not spoken to a symptomatic patient who feels a lot better on treatment.'' The new data suggest that women who take hormones to quell hot flashes should take other steps to lower their risk of heart attacks, said Dr. Jennifer Hays, director of the Center for Women's Health at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, who is also an investigator for the Women's Health Initiative. ''You can take an aspirin a day,'' she said. ''You can lower your cholesterol and keep your blood pressure in the normal range with diet and exercise.'' The heart disease findings from the Women's Health Initiative have confounded the medical community because in past decades, observations of women who were taking hormone therapy suggested that the treatment might lower a woman's risk of heart disease by as much as 40 to 50 percent. Consequently, throughout the 1980's and 1990's, many doctors prescribed supplemental hormones to help lower their patients' risk of heart disease. The question remains whether hormone therapy with estrogen alone might have fewer ill effects -- or more benefits -- than therapy that also includes progestin. These risks and benefits are being studied in a second clinical trial by the Women's Health Initiative, which is to run until 2005. But a second study published in today's New England Journal casts doubt on the idea that estrogen without progestin could protect the cardiovascular system. This clinical trial included 226 postmenopausal women with atherosclerosis. Some were given estrogen and progestin, some were given estrogen alone and the rest were given no hormones. The researchers found that after three years, all the women's arteries continued to narrow. Those who took estrogen alone were just as likely to see their atherosclerosis worsen. After last summer's news about heart attacks, speculation arose that, if the data were closely reviewed, researchers might find the heart disease risk involved only older women whose heart health might already have begun to deteriorate. Some doctors also suspected that thin women might be more estrogen-deficient than others and that their hearts would benefit from supplements. Severe hot flashes, believed to reflect naturally low levels of estrogen, might also be a sign that supplements could help, some thought. The researchers looked at these and many other factors that they thought might play a role, including the women's age and ethnicity; |
1510160_1 | Regardless of the progress of a few, many nations still face economic despair. | sole reliance on per capita gross domestic product to include measures of education and health. The agency has added other formal indexes to measure gender equality, gender empowerment and poverty. The latest report emphasizes goals established by the United Nations in its Millennium Declaration of 2000, which ideally are to be met by 2015. They include halving poverty and hunger rates and reducing child mortality by two-thirds. It's easy to scoff at this seeming idealism. But many similar goals have been met in the past, like eliminating smallpox and polio and immunizing most infants against major diseases. So how has the world done since 1990? Fifty-four countries are poorer, as measured by per capita G.D.P. Sub-Saharan Africa is worst off, with per-capita G.D.P. falling in 20 nations. It fell in 17 nations in Eastern Europe, 6 in Latin America, and 6 in East Asia and the Pacific. The rate of hunger has increased in 21 nations. The proportion of children who die under the age of 5 has risen in 14 nations. The development index itself, which almost always rises over time, fell in 21 nations. In the 1980's, it declined in only four nations. Still, some countries, even poor ones, have done well by many measures. China and India stand out, of course. Ghana reduced its hunger rates greatly in the 1990's, and Vietnam's index rose significantly. And some take solace in the fact that only 23 percent of the global population lives on less than $1 a day, compared with 30 percent in 1990. But most of this improvement has to do with the stunning economic progress in China, a nation that conspicuously did not follow Western economic policies. In absolute numbers, more people are now extremely poor than in 1990 if China is excluded. Even in countries that have made significant progress on average, including China, the report notes that there are often large pockets of deprivation, especially in inland or rural areas. For example, only three nations with adequate statistics narrowed the gap in child mortality between the rich and the poor in the 1990's. The bottom line is that at this rate, some crucial goals set for 2015 will not be met by many regions for several decades, and in some cases not until the next century. What has gone wrong? Aside from generally slow growth, the spread of AIDS has been a tragic setback, |
1510202_2 | U.S. Court Rejects Tire Safety Rule, Saying Margin for Error Is Too Great | perfect decision for us,'' said Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety, a plaintiff and a frequent critic of the industry. In a statement, Mr. Ditlow added, ''This decision will block the pro-industry, anti-consumer, deregulatory campaign of the Bush administration.'' Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said yesterday that the agency had not yet reviewed the ruling and could not comment. Gloria J. Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry lobbying group, said she had not seen the decision. But she said her group preferred a system that would let automakers pick among technologies. She also said that the cost gap between the direct and indirect systems appeared to be wider than the federal breakdown cited in the court's ruling. ''While both tire monitoring systems provide comparable safety benefits to motorists,'' she said, ''the direct system would cost consumers an additional $500 million each year. That's a half a billion dollars a year premium for comparable safety benefits.'' Though the regulation came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the court ruling was more of a rebuke to the Office of Management and Budget. The agencies differed sharply on the course to take on tire pressure monitoring. In February 2002, the budget office took the unusual step of rejecting a proposal on the matter from the highway safety administration as too costly. The traffic safety agency had planned to mandate that automobiles phase in direct systems by the model year 2007. But Dr. John Graham, the regulations administrator of the budget office, wrote a letter to the agency urging it to allow indirect systems, too, because he said they would encourage greater use of antilock brakes. The highway safety administration subsequently submitted a rule that said both kinds of systems would be permissible in the short term and said that it would study what to do in the longer term. ''In light of the administrative record, which documents the relative shortcomings of currently available indirect systems, it was unreasonable for N.H.T.S.A. to adopt standards that allow automakers to install such systems in new motor vehicles,'' Judge Sack wrote, referring to the traffic safety administration. ''For each occasion on which an indirect system will detect the presence of one or more significantly underinflated tires, there will be an occasion on which it will fail to detect them,'' he added. |
1510137_0 | Equal Justice in Iraq | To the Editor: ''In Najaf, Justice Can Be Blind but Not Female'' (front page, July 31) reports that the United States has indefinitely postponed the swearing in of Najaf's first female judge because of protests by clerics and lawyers. Will we allow a conservative Islamic culture to prevent women from serving as judges in Iraq? Have we changed regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq merely to allow one form of despotism to be replaced with another (the Taliban replaced by the warlords, Saddam Hussein replaced by Islamic fundamentalists)? Shouldn't we instead commit ourselves, as we did in reshaping postwar Germany and Japan into modern democracies, to replacing an unjust, illiberal, tyrannical and antidemocratic culture and regime with freedom, liberty and the rule of law? We must confront the injustices of Islamic fundamentalism in Iraq head on if we have any real desire to mold Iraq -- for the sake of Iraqis and ourselves -- into a modern, just nation. RORY LANCMAN New York, July 31, 2003 |
1509724_2 | Fashion and Art Embrace, if Not Passionately | -- through installations by teams of artists and designers like Damien Hirst and Miuccia Prada -- but that magazines, he says, have generally paid lip service to. ''All too often editors make assumptions about their readers that are out of touch, out of date and condescending,'' Mr. Freedman said, arguing that audiences have become more visually sophisticated in the past decade and often don't see the lines between one form of expression and another. As it happens, the Museum of Modern Art plans to mount a show next April on fashion photography in the 1990's, focusing on the influence of the cinema and the snapshot. Although there is a long history of glamour girls' serving as muses -- Kiki of Montparnasse, for instance -- several of the artists admitted that they were initially skeptical of Mr. Freedman's proposal. Mr. Close had doubts about Ms. Moss's celebrity status. What if she got uppity? But he said he liked the idea of ''taking someone who is this glamorous person and seeing just a person, just a body, albeit a very nice body.'' And he was surprised that she had no trouble lolling around the studio naked between scorching bursts of his flash. ''She was totally comfortable,'' Mr. Close said. ''We talked about childbirth and raising children. It couldn't have been lovelier.'' For Mr. Prince, Ms. Moss posed in a kinky vinyl nurse's uniform. Mr. Weber said he pictured her as ''a girl in a tree,'' and to emphasize that side of Ms. Moss, he had a group of 10-year-old boys put on Chanel clothes while she wore a baseball cap and low-slung jeans. For Mr. Sachs, she pretended to sling hamburgers in his re-creation of a McDonald's. (''All his boys in the studio were laughing,'' she recalled. '' 'Oh, you're going to be squirting mustard. Heh, heh, heh.' '' So Beavis and Butt-head. They really got off on it.'') Mr. Close also expressed doubts about the commingling of art and fashion. ''Ideally, it should be a two-way street, because anything is fair game, but I don't know,'' he said. ''The kids today have a very different notion. It may be that I see a Maginot line, and, like the original Maginot line, it was never there.'' In fact, when you consider the work of artists like Cindy Sherman, it seems old-fashioned to make fashion the enemy of art. ''You could not have |
1509703_0 | $85 Million Project Begins For Revival of the Aral Sea | After nearly half a century of studying and deploring the drying up of the Aral Sea, one of the world's greatest environmental disasters, an international agency is building a dike to resuscitate part of the sea. There is broad agreement that it is impossible to return the sea level to its pre-1960 level, 72 feet higher than it is now. That was before the rivers that fed it were diverted to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. The World Bank is financing the next best option, an $85 million project to revive the northern part of the sea, known as the Small Sea, while giving up on the largely dead Big Sea to the south. Work on the project, an eight-mile dike, started here last month. Officials expect three miles to be completed by Dec. 31, with the rest to be finished next year, Yuri Ponomarev, the site manager for the main contractor, from Moscow, said in an interview here. At Kokaral, the uninhabited place where the Syr Darya flows into the sea, stand the remains of a dike that volunteers built 10 years ago. Made of sand, with no sluice to prevent the water from going over the top and no stone cover on the sea side to stop erosion, the dike repeatedly breached. The last time, in 1999, two people drowned. Now, contractors here said, the work is being properly carried out. The slope will be much shallower on the sea side, the sand will be covered in seashells and stones to resist waves, and the structure will stand 10 feet above what experts anticipate to be the future level of the sea. Syr Darya water will be prevented from flowing into the Big Sea, where it has been losing a battle with evaporation. Instead, it will flow to the Small Sea, which in four years or so engineers expect to rise 13 feet and recover 230 square miles of exposed former seabed. Then a sluice will be opened, and the excess water will be allowed to flow south again into the Big Sea. The World Bank project includes rebuilding waterworks along the Syr Darya to increase the flow of the waterway substantially. As a result of the two components, experts said, the salt content of the Small Aral should drop, to somewhere from 4 parts per thousand to 17 parts. It is now up to 35. Many |
1512370_3 | Getting Off the Ground Remains a Big Challenge | problem now is its backlog of flights and expectant passengers. ''This morning the terminal looked like Thanksgiving weekend,'' said Pat Smith, an airport spokeswoman. Delays and cancellations reached airports and cities that never lost power. At Los Angeles International, the delays required creative rescheduling. The Young Dubliners, a Celtic rock band from Los Angeles, stood around their instruments and luggage outside the Delta terminal. The group was scheduled to play this weekend at a music festival at Hunter Mountain, N.Y., but when its lead singer, Keith Roberts, called Delta yesterday morning he learned that the group's 12:30 p.m. flight to Kennedy was rescheduled for 8 a.m. today. ''I told them we'll miss the show,'' he said. ''All they told me was 'That's all we can do.' '' Using an online connection, the band managed to book a 1:30 p.m. flight to Atlanta and a connecting flight to Albany. US Airways canceled 100 of 1,300 expected departures yesterday, including 12 of 16 shuttle flights from La Guardia. United Airlines canceled 40 flights Thursday and yesterday. Catherine Stengel, a spokeswoman for Delta, said 140 flights had been canceled as of yesterday afternoon, mostly in New York and Detroit. Its Detroit flights were running inbound but still delayed outbound. At La Guardia and Kennedy, they were suspended until further notice. Northwest canceled 174 flights yesterday, three-quarters of which were flights from Detroit, Mr. Ebenhoch said. The airline stopped La Guardia operations yesterday, and had only a few Kennedy flights. Robert W. Mann Jr., an airline consultant, said the blackouts revealed vulnerabilities that the airports had overlooked as they increased security since the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He said screening areas run by the Transportation Security Administration did not have their own backup power supplies, one reason why airports had to close. Passengers focused on the plans they might have to cancel. Gina Elkin was supposed to be in Michigan, where her brother is getting married. Instead of arriving in Detroit with her husband and four children, though, Mrs. Elkin made it only as far as a luggage carousel in Atlanta. The Elkins, of Salem, Ore., checked their bags just before they learned there was no flight. If she got her luggage back, Mrs. Elkin said, she would be lucky to get to Cincinnati by last night, where she would have to drive the rest of the way. THE BLACKOUT: AIR TRAVEL |
1512293_1 | How India's Mother of Invention Built an Industry | are racing to set up biotech parks, hoping to mimic the success of the information technology industry that defined India as a global knowledge powerhouse. But biotechnology touches human lives in a way that information technology does not, and that is at the heart of the debate over its benefits and risks for developing countries. That debate heated up with President Bush's charge that Europe's resistance to genetically modified foods has made African countries reluctant to accept bio-engineered foods despite widespread hunger there. Similar concerns have arisen in India, which rejected a donation of a soy-corn blend this year because the United States could not certify that it had not been genetically modified. The worry in the developing world, said Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw, who does not share the concern, is this: ''Why has Europe banned it? It must be for a reason. Why are we being fools and embracing it?'' She passionately believes that India must embrace biotechnology, with the proper precautions. She believes it can change the way this country of more than one billion people, at least one-fourth of them deep in poverty, eats and farms, researches and cures disease. ''Today anything can be done -- we have the techniques,'' she said. Biotechnologists are working to develop high-protein potatoes and high-nutrient rice that could help address the country's malnutrition problem. They have developed a vaccine for leprosy, which was not being researched in the West, and are working on biofuels from local crops like sugar cane. But such ventures, if done badly, could also cause damage, sending new genetic strains into the country's basmati rice crop, for example, threatening a staple food. It is a new frontier characterized by excitement, but also uncertainty. MS. MAZUMDAR-SHAW seems well-suited to both. She is possessed of what she calls a ''spirit of adventure,'' along with a deep determination to succeed. Her family was unconventional, not least in her father's choice of profession as a master brewer. They were Brahmins originally from the state of Gujarat, which even today prohibits alcohol. ''My parents were today's people,'' she said. Unable to get into medical college, she focused on zoology and other biosciences at Bangalore University, and she became fascinated by fermentation science. She earned a scholarship to Australia, only to meet disappointment at home in her quest to become India's first female master brewer. But the setback was only temporary. Today she has capitalized |
1512313_3 | Shiite Group Plans Militia to Protect Holy Sites From G.I.'s | army, the Army of Muhammad. Sheik Daraji said in his sermon that it would consist of eight units deployed in different Baghdad neighborhoods. Women would be among the fighters. ''It is only to tell the enemy that we have the ability to respond,'' Sheik Daraji told reporters. ''That will prevent them from assaulting us.'' At the same time, he said, American forces should welcome the militia because it will give the clergy a means to control the inevitable anger of the crowds after any incident like to the one involving the helicopter. ''We think the situation has deteriorated, and I think people will move against the Americans whether the army interferes or not,'' the sheik said of the new force. ''One person could use a Kalashnikov to express his frustration, so how can we quell these masses?'' He told the worshipers to control their emotions, and they dispersed peacefully. Indeed, the powerful influence of the Hawza in telling the Shiites not to confront the Americans accounts for the minimal attacks against American and British troops in the predominately Shiite southern parts of Iraq. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people. But tempers are fraying given the heat, lack of electricity and rising prices needed for the fuel to power generators. No one interviewed in Sadr City today had ever heard one of the explanations by American officials, that a severely battered infrastructure suffering from years of neglect and recent sabotage would take time to revive. Some thought it was time to put the Americans on notice that they should leave. ''Confrontation, confrontation, we don't want them anymore,'' said Ghazak, a 23-year-old student who said he would join the Army of Muhammad because of the helicopter incident. ''When they assault the name of Muhammad's family, they assault all Muslims. This is the only response they could understand, confrontation.'' Others, happy to be free of Saddam Hussein, said they were willing to give the Americans the benefit of the doubt. The United States has been channeling its efforts for a security force into a civil defense force, discouraging or disarming previously formed private armed forces. There was no specific reaction to the proposal for a clerical-run militia. ''Our hope is that nothing is done to destabilize the country, because ultimately it is the Iraqi people who are the ones who suffer,'' said Capt. Jeff Fitzgibbons, a military spokesman. |
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1514559_7 | For $150,000, a Neo-Classical You | of doyens of the parterre. John Russell Taylor, art critic for The Times of London, likened Mr. Childs's technical ability to that of the Victorian painter Frederic Lord Leighton, adding that his work avoids sentiment but instead ''revels in the sensuous possibilities of embodying the ancient myths'' and also ''seeks to imbue them with a becoming gravitas.'' Ms. Roehm, on a visit to the studio in July, stood by a full-size reproduction of her 1991 portrait, which remains Mr. Childs's best-known work. (The original was destroyed in a fire.) ''All of us want to be the heroine of the opera,'' she said, explaining the attraction. ''We all want to see ourselves as heroic and unforgettable, especially if we think of ourselves as forgettable and not very heroic.'' Mr. Childs plans to close his atelier temporarily in the autumn to go to Greece and paint athletes training for the Olympic Games. Already he has sketched Paul and Morgan Hamm, twin gymnasts from Waukesha, Wis. Modern athletes have no trouble understanding his work, he said: they're raised on the fantasy of video games; compared to that, his fantasies are mild. When he returns from Greece, he said, he hopes to expand his school: ''There's dozens of small ateliers now teaching the classical style, in the tradition of master and protégé, that's been dead since the rise of the art school and the modernist idea.'' He also has a commission to paint a mural for the National Museum of American History in Washington. Mr. Childs said he considered himself a modern artist and his work of the moment. Yet there are times he feels like an outsider in the art world. His mentor, R. H. Ives Gammell, who introduced Mr. Childs to the uncompromising discipline of classical art in Boston, died in 1981. Before his death, Gammell used to lament the death of his own teacher, William McGregor Paxton. ''Gammell used to call Paxton 'the last of those who know,' '' Mr. Childs said, meaning the last true classicist. Gammell taught Mr. Childs without charge, and even flew him to Boston from Minneapolis for lessons. ''It's a lonely feeling sometimes,'' Mr. Childs said of life outside modernism. ''My ideals and interests have become specialized. I feel the way Gammell did. When I have a question about something, there's no one I can ask. All the people I look up to are dead.'' ART/ARCHITECTURE |
1514618_0 | The Way We Live Now: 8-24-03; We're All Connected? | 'The future belongs to crowds,'' Don DeLillo declared in his novel ''Mao II,'' and at the time he was writing it -- the end of the 1980's, when packs of soccer hooligans were rampaging in Europe and masses of undifferentiated couples were getting married in stadium-filled Moonie wedding ceremonies -- that sounded pretty scary. But it turns out, now that the future is here, that the mobs aren't quite so frightening after all. Indeed, a pro-mob culture is forming -- one made up of the individualism-obsessed techno-futurist set. These mostly young, educated, vanguardish men and women have been countering technologies of control (databases, ubiquitous surveillance, etc.) to turn the crowd, paradoxically, into a forum for idiosyncratic behavior. ''Flash mobs'' consist of dozens or even hundreds of well-wired folks who gather suddenly, perform some specific but innocuous act, then promptly scatter. A few weeks ago, for instance, a mob formed at a Toys ''R'' Us in Times Square, stared at an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex, then fell to the floor with screams and a waving of hands before quickly dispersing. Such events, which have also taken place in San Francisco, Minneapolis, London and Berlin, are getting attention partly because they're weird and partly because the ''mobs'' organize by way of mobile phones and pagers and Web sites. Some observers have written off the phenomenon as a slightly annoying fad, the techno equivalent of streaking. Others detect a ''social revolution'' in the offing. Well, the blackout of Aug. 14 didn't do much for any revolutionary claims. For all the bravado about our deeply connected world, the blackout showed how quickly it can all come undone. For starters, it takes old-economy power to keep many of the new-economy nodes of connection open. The failure of cellular networks meant long lines at those pay phones still in operation (the spread of cellphones having greatly reduced the number of pay phones in recent years). Citizens connected -- but they did so by crowding around individuals with radios, or simply by talking to whichever strangers were physically proximate. The techno-linked hive mind was not really in evidence. Yet despite technology's failure and the fleetingness of youthful fads, flash mobs are worth paying attention to. They offer a lesson about the evolving nature of networks: from Friendster, a six-degrees-of-separation dating service, to the ''relationship mining'' software that combs through employees' electronic address books to identify which of their |
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1514326_3 | At Home (of Course) With a Telecommuter | a full kitchen or bathroom. In the early 1990's, the office operated by phone and by fax. His colleagues were scattered around the area -- one in Baltimore, one in Annapolis, one in Columbia and one in Washington, D.C. To allow them the same flexibility he had, Mr. Apgar provided them with desktop computers, fax machines and a furniture subsidy. ''We learned some basic lessons then,'' he recalled of that time, which preceded the rise of e-mail. ''We talked every day by phone, but I soon learned that a faxed agenda was more effective'' than spur-of-the-moment contacts. Even so, he and his team found that something was missing. ''Ultimately,'' he said, ''the creative process does indeed need creative interaction'' -- a problem solved by holding face-to-face sessions weekly. Mr. Apgar left his consulting firm in June 1998 to spend two and a half years as an assistant secretary of the Army, managing one of the nation's biggest real estate portfolios. He joined Boston Consulting nearly two years ago and has continued to work from his home office. Claudie Fanning, his research assistant, said practical problems could arise when working outside the office. ''When you have to send things or make certain copies, then you have to get in your car and go to Kinko's,'' he said. ''Then there is technical support -- what happens if your hard drive goes, or you have a problem with your broadband connection. It can chew up half a day.'' BUT some of the biggest challenges are not readily apparent, Mr. Fanning said. ''You lack a water cooler so you have to plan interactions, to make people aware of you,'' he said. ''And you have to be very intentional about career development because out of sight is often out of mind.'' Still, telecommuting has become more popular over the years, and interest spiked after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. According to an estimate from the International Telework Association and Council, which tracks telecommuting, the number of wage earners who work exclusively from home has increased to roughly 17 million from 5.5 million a decade ago. Like many companies Mr. Apgar has advised, I.B.M. has adopted his strategies to save money. By the end of the 1990's, I.B.M.'s entire sales force could operate independently of the traditional workplace, eliminating travel time. From 1992 to 1997, the company's office costs dropped 42 percent, and real |
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1511275_1 | Napoleon's Bittersweet Legacy | in a perverse reversal of traditional trade patterns, Europe ranks among the world's leading sugar exporters. To protect its sugar growers, the European Union mandates that farmers like Mr. Duez get paid 50 euros per ton of harvested sugar beets, or five times the world market price, up to an allotted quota. Mr. Duez runs a well-diversified farm, but the 1,600 tons of sugar beets he sells every year at an inflated price is by far his most profitable crop. The European Union's extravagant contortions to remain in the sugar business may be the hardest of all its farm policies to defend, much like the United States' irrational protection of its cotton growers. (An official at the French Agriculture Ministry, the most zealous champion of the protectionist status quo within Europe, candidly referred to sugar as ''Europe's cotton'' when discussing farm policy.) Yet so powerful is the sugar lobby in Brussels -- representing not just farmers, but also monopolistic processing companies -- that the crop was excluded from the European Union's recent modest reform of its $50-billion-a-year common agricultural policy. European trade and agriculture officials are sensitive to powerful criticism by the likes of Oxfam and the World Bank, on behalf of farmers in the developing world. They are quick to note that in an effort to even things out, the E.U. does import some cane sugar at its own inflated internal price from developing nations. That is a bit disingenuous. Not all poor countries get this special access and those that do are subject to strict quotas. Meanwhile, European farmers, eager to profit from the inflated price, produce far more sugar than European consumers can use. The rest is dumped on the international market, depressing commodity prices for farmers elsewhere. (The United States, which has its own politically connected sugar producers, is Europe's co-conspirator in this indefensible system.) Mr. Duez's good fortune, in other words, comes at the expense of farmers in countries like Mozambique, Brazil and Guatemala, who are being denied their chance to reap the benefits of globalization. Europeans' sympathy for the travails of farmers in poor countries creates a kind of split political personality when coupled with the desire to see their historic -- and picturesque -- rural communities stay just the way they are now. Mr. Duez himself has traveled to Burkina Faso to teach farmers in that poor West African nation how to build |
1509004_0 | Corrections | An article in Business Day on Monday about the economic costs of unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam, referred imprecisely to an estimate by the Radicati Group, a research company. Its $20.5 billion figure referred solely to corporate information technology globally. It did not include losses of worker productivity. |
1508877_1 | A Bioethicist's Take on Genesis | secularists alike. A few years ago, in a series of television discussions led by Bill Moyers, Genesis seemed little more than a postmodern novel, meaning just about anything. But Mr. Kass -- drawing on interpretations by scholars like Robert Alter, Leo Strauss, Umberto Cassuto and Robert Sacks (along with the work of numerous, generously cited students) -- has something else in mind. It would be worth attending to for its source alone: Mr. Kass has inspired controversy as chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics and has sought a temporary ban on human cloning research. Trained as a biochemist and physician, he was a founding fellow of the Hastings Center, the country's first bioethics institute. As a professor on the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago (where I studied with him), he has broadened his perspectives on medicine by an intimate acquaintance with philosophy and the Greek classics. These perspectives are also reflected in Mr. Kass's commentary, which grew out of 20 years of teaching a seminar on Genesis. He includes fascinating asides comparing, say, Jacob's limp and Oedipus's leg injury, or ideas of vengeance in Genesis and Aeschylus. Mr. Kass's conservative position on bioethics is also related to his interpretation of biblical views about human life. Put aside, for a moment, those controversies, for Mr. Kass's dense book is extraordinary. It soberly works through the text and demands comparable labors from its readers, piercing through two millenniums of commentary. It may not always convince and more historical background would help at times, but its analyses and hypotheses will leave no reader's understanding of Genesis unchanged. So what sort of inquiry does Genesis pursue? Mr. Kass argues that even the creation story, which appears historical, is actually philosophical. First, it denies the eternal, divine character of heavenly bodies -- one of the axioms of the Mesopotamian world. It defines creation as an intellectual process requiring conceptual distinctions and categories. During the first days, for example, objects that lack a defined and specific place (light, heavens, sea) are created. On the third day, objects that exist in a particular place but lack motion are created: plants. The following day, objects that exist in a particular place and possess motion but lack life are created: the heavenly bodies. Man is the climax of this creative distillation: a moving, living, terrestrial creature created in God's image. But then the Eden |
1510439_0 | Episcopalians Approve Local Option on Same-Sex Unions | Episcopal Church leaders approved a landmark resolution this evening stating that local dioceses are within the bounds of the church when they allow clergy members to bless the unions of gay or lesbian couples. ''What this says is that these blessings are within the embrace of God,'' said the Rev. Francis H. Wade, chairman of the committee that helped write the resolution. His statement -- greeted with dismay by church conservatives -- was intended to clear up a semantic disagreement that had clouded debate over the resolution on Wednesday night, when it was approved by the House of Bishops, one of the church's two main decision-making bodies. The question was whether the resolution merely acknowledged that blessings of same-sex unions took place, or actually affirmed the blessings' doctrinal soundness. Father Wade declared tonight that the resolution did the latter, though others read it differently. Supporters of the resolution, which was approved tonight after a brief debate by the House of Deputies -- a body of more than 800 clergy members and lay people -- said the measure sent a message of openness to gays of all faiths, in the same week that the church approved its first openly gay bishop. Episcopal parishes around the country already perform such rites, and have for years, but the church leadership had never before taken an official stance on the question. ''This is a huge victory,'' said the Rev. Michael W. Hopkins, the president of Integrity, a group of gay Episcopalians. ''This says that priests who perform such rites no longer have to do what they're doing right now -- which is essentially a don't-ask-don't-tell situation.'' Father Hopkins said the decision was certain to encourage more priests to conduct such rites, and will free more bishops to formally permit such blessings. The resolution essentially creates a local option: Bishops in the church's 110 dioceses may allow such ceremonies, but are not required to. Opponents of the measure said it only further alienated the American church, with 2.3 million members, from many congregants and from the broader Anglican Communion's 70 million members around the world. ''It reveals the full extent to which this convention has drawn and embraced a new theology of sexuality,'' said Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina and a member of the House of Deputies. All day, the bishops, members of the House of Deputies, and church |
1510420_0 | New Study Links Hormones to Breast Cancer Risk | A study of one million British women has found a higher death rate from breast cancer among those who took combination hormone therapy than those who did not use it or took estrogen alone. The study is by far the largest to determine the effects of hormones on breast cancer. The findings, which are being published in London on Saturday in the journal The Lancet, build on compelling evidence from studies in the United States that the risks of invasive breast cancer from combination hormone therapy were greater than many doctors had predicted. American experts not connected with the study said the new findings also strengthened recent recommendations against using long-term combination hormone therapy to prevent chronic conditions like bone fractures from osteoporosis. ''This is a big study that generally supports everything we have said'' about the risks of hormone therapy, said Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski of the Research and Education Institute at Harbor-University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center in Torrance, Calif. He added that ''it makes it harder for critics to argue that there was something wrong with'' earlier studies, as some have done. Dr. Valerie Beral of Oxford University led the new study, which was paid for by the British government and Cancer Research UK, a charity, at an estimated cost of $10 million. The study involved about one-fourth of British women between the ages of 50 and 64 years. Women were invited to take part in the study at the time they were scheduled to have a regular mammogram. About half the women in the study took hormonal therapy. Women who took hormones at the time the study began in 1996 had a 66 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer and a 22 percent greater risk of dying from it by 2002. The risk of developing breast cancer was especially high for women taking an estrogen-progestin hormone combination, roughly double those of not taking hormones. For those taking only estrogen, the increased risk was 30 percent. The risks were about the same as found in earlier American studies, the experts interviewed said, but direct comparisons cannot be made because of differences in the ways the studies were designed. The risk of breast cancer increased over time. Dr. Beral's team calculated that after 10 years, there would be 5 additional breast cancers per 1,000 estrogen users and 19 additional cancers per 1,000 women who used |
1512151_3 | U.S. Apologizes for Baghdad Mosque Incident | fly helicopters up to communications towers to take down flags. And my understanding at this point is that, in fact, there has been an apology issued by the commander on the ground because of this incident that blew down that flag.'' News agencies reported that an American commander in the area had distributed a letter today vowing to punish the soldiers responsible as well as to reduce the presence of American troops in the area. However, a military spokesman said he could not confirm the authenticity of the letter. General Sanchez also said today that military forces would improve the visibility of traffic checkpoints so that ''we have enough standoff so that people that are getting close to it will know that it's there and can slow down and comply with the hasty checkpoint.'' The new procedures, he said, are an effort to ensure that ''what you don't have is a vehicle that's coming up to the checkpoint has no idea that it's there, and the first time it knows that the checkpoint is there is when it starts getting warning shots.'' -------------------- U.N. Welcomes Iraqi Council UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 14 -- The Security Council passed a United States resolution today establishing a formal United Nations mission in Iraq and welcoming -- but not formally recognizing -- the recently established Governing Council. The measure, which called the Governing Council ''an important step toward the formation of an internationally recognized representative government that will exercise the sovereignty of Iraq'' passed by a vote of 14 to 0, with Syria abstaining. Eight Security Council members co-sponsored the resolution, a show of support that underlined the strong desire for consensus on the volatile questions surrounding the Iraq occupation. But some of the comments after the vote indicated that rifts remained. After the vote, the American ambassador, John D. Negroponte, said ''this helps pave the way toward the peace, stability and democracy that the long-afflicted Iraqi people so richly deserve.'' Most of the ambassadors who followed also couched their remarks in terms of the goal of returning the government of Iraq to the Iraqi people, but some made it clear that their top priority was to bring an end to the foreign military presence. After the vote, the Syrian ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, told the Council that his country's abstention reflected how troubled the Arab world was by the presence of foreign troops in Iraq. |
1512074_1 | Problems With Pirates Continue in Sea Lanes of South Asia | urged vessels passing through the strait to stay close to the Malaysian side. With half the world's oil shipments by sea passing from the Gulf through the Strait of Malacca to east Asia, the strait trails only the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf as an oil shipping lane. Fears that pirates and terrorists might join forces have been high since last autumn, when a speedboat packed with explosives hit a French tanker, the Limburg, off Yemen, in an attack attributed to Al Qaeda. The first of the two most recent attacks took place last Saturday night, when a large Taiwanese fishing trawler, the Dongyih, was fired upon by two tugboats at the northwestern entrance to the strait, off the northern coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The ship's captain, Lo Ying-shiung, was shot in the leg, but the ship made it safely to Singapore, where the captain has been hospitalized, said Noel Choong, the director of the piracy center of the maritime bureau, a non-governmental agency run by commercial interests that works with Interpol. Pirates have stolen six tugboats so far this year. Other vessels' crews, including the Dongyih's, seldom pay attention to tugboats and let them come close, making them attractive vessels for criminal activity. Mr. Choong said that the second attack was more alarming, because it took place in a narrow area of the strait where ships have little room to maneuver and where attacks had been uncommon. Seven or eight pirates in a fishing boat armed with grenade launchers and M16 and AK47 assault rifles boarded the Penrider, a small tanker carrying 1,000 tons of fuel oil, when it was close to the entrance of Port Klang, the main port for Kuala Lumpur. The attackers steered the ship across the strait into Indonesian waters while looting the crew's cabins, then took the captain, chief engineer and an assistant engineer with them when they fled in another, waiting fishing boat, Mr. Choong said. The pirates have since sought a $100,000 ransom for the three. John Fawcett-Ellis, the regional manager for Asia and the Pacific at the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, said the attack on the Penrider showed that protection was insufficient. Pirates with assault rifles attacked three chemical tankers in the Strait of Malacca in February and March. One attacked vessel traveled for an hour with no one in control. |
1512090_2 | A Perfect Summer, if You're a Fungus; Record Rainfall Transforms City Into a Wonderland of Mushrooms | ecologist who works with the Parks Department. Another type -- Woodsia obtusa, or blunt cliff fern -- turned up in Central Park just last month. And there are enough mushrooms to kindle memories of ''Anna Karenina'' -- Tolstoy mentioned mushrooms at least eight times -- or of afternoons squandered on Super Mario video games. Consider the ghoulish white mushroom the size of a football growing in a hard-packed square foot of dirt on 104th Street near 94th Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens. Or the rocket-shaped ones, traffic-light yellow, from flower pots in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Or the ones that look like something from a dead tree in the forest, except that they have taken up residence around a rooftop planter on the Upper West Side. ''It's a big splash of mushrooms,'' said Deborah Sale, who discovered them yesterday when she returned home from a couple of weeks on Martha's Vineyard. ''It looks as if you had thrown paint at it and it had splashed on the floor.'' In Central Park, Ms. Hobel did not find any mushrooms with basketball-size caps, just what she called ''the teeny-weenies.'' One patch was beneath a locust tree, near rock formations in the northern end. Marielle Anzelone, a plant ecologist with the Parks Department, said she had identified 12 separate types of mushrooms in a section of Staten Island where she had never seen them before. Mr. Halling, the curator who picked the chanterelles, specializes in mushrooms that grow in oak forests in Costa Rica. The Central Park variety are not that different, he said. The last few days notwithstanding, there are statistics to explain the abundance of umbrella-like clusters at ground level or the bushiness of ferns usually more at home in tropical rain forests. June dumped 10.27 inches of rain on Central Park and became the wettest June on record, beating June 1903 by 0.49 inch. July had 14 days with more than 0.01 inch of precipitation. August is already a record-setter. It began with 12 consecutive days of measurable rain; the old record was 9 days, in August 1915. Of the last 12 weeks, 7 have been rainy. Precipitation has fallen on 49 of the last 84 days. To Nancy Chambers, the director of horticulture at New York University Medical Center, this summer's wetness does have its benefits. ''I don't have to send people out to water all the time,'' she said. |
1512099_3 | U.S. Apologizes for Baghdad Mosque Incident | fly helicopters up to communications towers to take down flags. And my understanding at this point is that, in fact, there has been an apology issued by the commander on the ground because of this incident that blew down that flag.'' News agencies reported that an American commander in the area had distributed a letter today vowing to punish the soldiers responsible as well as to reduce the presence of American troops in the area. However, a military spokesman said he could not confirm the authenticity of the letter. General Sanchez also said today that military forces would improve the visibility of traffic checkpoints so that ''we have enough standoff so that people that are getting close to it will know that it's there and can slow down and comply with the hasty checkpoint.'' The new procedures, he said, are an effort to ensure that ''what you don't have is a vehicle that's coming up to the checkpoint has no idea that it's there, and the first time it knows that the checkpoint is there is when it starts getting warning shots.'' -------------------- U.N. Welcomes Iraqi Council UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 14 -- The Security Council passed a United States resolution today establishing a formal United Nations mission in Iraq and welcoming -- but not formally recognizing -- the recently established Governing Council. The measure, which called the Governing Council ''an important step toward the formation of an internationally recognized representative government that will exercise the sovereignty of Iraq'' passed by a vote of 14 to 0, with Syria abstaining. Eight Security Council members co-sponsored the resolution, a show of support that underlined the strong desire for consensus on the volatile questions surrounding the Iraq occupation. But some of the comments after the vote indicated that rifts remained. After the vote, the American ambassador, John D. Negroponte, said ''this helps pave the way toward the peace, stability and democracy that the long-afflicted Iraqi people so richly deserve.'' Most of the ambassadors who followed also couched their remarks in terms of the goal of returning the government of Iraq to the Iraqi people, but some made it clear that their top priority was to bring an end to the foreign military presence. After the vote, the Syrian ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, told the Council that his country's abstention reflected how troubled the Arab world was by the presence of foreign troops in Iraq. |
1512141_0 | People With Radios Suddenly Find an Eager Audience | Good days often find Mark Barney quietly perched on a green fire hydrant outside his 42nd Street apartment, a battery-operated radio pressed to his ear. Untold thousands of New Yorkers have passed him by, perhaps only vaguely attuned to the tinny reports of Knicks and Mets games emanating from his palm-size Panasonic. But yesterday, the thin bleat of Mr. Barney's trusty radio stopped them in their tracks. ''People have been coming up to me for hours, wanting to know what's going on,'' said Mr. Barney, 44, who is blind. ''This is usually how I get my news, but I guess for most people, they don't.'' As he spoke, a panicked-looking Stephanie Cheung, 25, broke from the swarm of passers-by on the sidewalk and approached Mr. Barney and his radio. ''What is it saying?'' asked Ms. Cheung, who then received an executive summary of the latest news from Mr. Barney. For a few anxious hours yesterday, strangers turned to blind men, children, anybody they could find, for help feeling their way through the information void. Good portable radios seem to be scarce these days, so aside from car radios -- which afforded pedestrians fleeting snatches of news -- boom boxes and tiny transistor sets were eagerly sought. It wasn't exactly like the golden age of radio, when Americans would crowd around the wireless sets to be reassured in a crisis, but it was pretty close to it, as strangers were drawn to the nearest antenna. Bil Chamberlin said he bought a small, portable radio after the 2001 terrorist attacks left him feeling vulnerable and ''in the dark.'' But yesterday, even he found himself huddling around Mr. Barney for information. ''Wouldn't you know it, the one day I need, I don't have it on me,'' Mr. Chamberlin said. ''I've been stopping at car windows and listening when I can, but you can't do it for long.'' On Eightth Avenue, adults tagged along behind Kim Liu, 13, straining to hear the boy's battery-operated radio that was tuned to a local news station. Kim's mother, Lilly Liu, said the radio was a birthday present. ''He carries it with him everywhere,'' Ms. Liu said. ''Today, I'm glad he has it.'' Outside the Green Symphony restaurant on West 43rd Street, Jay Shim, the owner, enlisted the services of his boom box to help sell cold bottles of water to sweaty New Yorkers. Like moths to a |
1512185_0 | World Business Briefing | Africa: Uganda: Dam Plan Pullout | The world's largest independent power producer, the AES of Arlington, Va., said that it would not build a $500 million dam at Bujagali Falls on the Nile. Frustrated by protests and a nearly decade-long delay, the company pulled out of what would have been the largest foreign investment project ever in East Africa. Environmental advocates celebrated but the World Bank said that it continued to thing that the dam is the best way to increase Uganda's power supply. Marc Lacey (NYT) |
1512176_0 | People With Radios Suddenly Find an Eager Audience | Good days often find Mark Barney quietly perched on a green fire hydrant outside his 42nd Street apartment, a battery-operated radio pressed to his ear. Untold thousands of New Yorkers have passed him by, perhaps only vaguely attuned to the tinny reports of Knicks and Mets games emanating from his palm-size Panasonic. But yesterday, the thin bleat of Mr. Barney's trusty radio stopped them in their tracks. ''People have been coming up to me for hours, wanting to know what's going on,'' said Mr. Barney, 44, who is blind. ''This is usually how I get my news, but I guess for most people, they don't.'' For a few anxious hours yesterday, with no cable television or Internet, strangers turned to blind men, children, anybody they could find, for help feeling their way through the information void. Good portable radios seem to be scarce these days, so aside from car radios -- which afforded pedestrians fleeting snatches of news -- boom boxes and tiny transistor sets were eagerly sought. It wasn't exactly the golden age of radio, when Americans would crowd around their wireless sets to be reassured and informed in a crisis, but it was pretty close, as strangers were drawn to the nearest antenna, like Mr. Barney's. A panicked-looking Stephanie Cheung, 25, broke from the swarm of passers-by on the sidewalk and approached him and his radio. ''What is it saying?'' asked Ms. Cheung, who then received an executive summary of the latest news from Mr. Barney. Bil Chamberlin, said he bought a small, portable radio after the 2001 terrorist attacks left him feeling vulnerable and ''in the dark.'' But yesterday, even he found himself huddling around Mr. Barney for information. ''Wouldn't you know it, the one day I need, I don't have it on me,'' Mr. Chamberlin said. ''I've been stopping at car windows and listening when I can, but you can't do it for long.'' On Eightth Avenue, adults tagged along behind Kim Liu, 13, straining to hear the boy's battery-operated radio that was tuned to a local news station. Kim's mother, Lilly Liu, said the radio was a birthday present. ''He carries it with him everywhere,'' Ms. Liu said. ''Today, I'm glad he has it.'' Outside the Green Symphony restaurant on West 43rd Street, Jay Shim, the owner, enlisted the services of his boom box to help sell cold bottles of water to sweaty New Yorkers. |
1515022_2 | U.S. Corn Subsidies Said to Damage Mexico | put changes in farm practices and trading rules at the top of its agenda during the current round of talks, which are dedicated to the developing world. Mexico, the birthplace of corn, opened its borders to American corn exports after signing the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Within a year, corn imports from the United States doubled and today nearly one-third of the corn used in Mexico is imported from the United States. The United States is the biggest exporter of corn in the world and the biggest exporter of corn to Mexico. The report said the price of Mexican corn has fallen more than 70 percent since Nafta took effect, severely reducing the incomes of the 15 million Mexicans who depend on corn for their livelihood. But Bush administration officials said the Mexican government gave some price support to its corn farmers. The support is minimal, however, since the entire Mexican agricultural budget is only one-tenth the size of the subsidies given to American corn farmers alone, according to the Oxfam report. Trade officials said today that agricultural trade had increased in both directions under Nafta, noting that Mexico's total agricultural exports to the United States had doubled under the agreement. ''The U.S. has been at the forefront working for ambitious and substantive global agricultural reform; we look forward to Mexicans joining us,'' said Richard Mills, the spokesman for the office of the United States trade representative. A new statistical analysis of global subsidies released today argues otherwise, and says the wealthier nations have been undermining agriculture in the poor and developing world. According to a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization, the agricultural policies of wealthy nations -- including tariffs, export subsidies and direct farm subsidies of over $300 billion every year -- cost developing nations about $24 billion every year in lost income. Latin America and the Caribbean lose $8.3 billion each year, the largest sum of any region, according to the institute's report. While both reports acknowledge that Mexico and other developing nations fail to provide enough support to their rural communities, their focus was to encourage wealthy nations to cut their subsidies. The institute's report concluded, ''The fates of hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers and poor consumers in developing countries struggling to survive on a dollar or two of income a day hang in the balance.'' |
1513436_0 | Old Virus Has A New Trick: Mailing Itself In Quantity | If the e-mail message offers ''details,'' ''That movie'' or ''Wicked screensaver,'' don't open the attachment. (And why are you still opening unsolicited attachments, anyway? Don't you ever learn?) One of the most common rogue computer programs on the Internet made a virulent reappearance yesterday. The virus, known by security companies as SoBig.F, spread rapidly by e-mail messages across computer networks. MessageLabs, an e-mail security company that described the virus in an alert yesterday, said it was ''spreading very vigorously.'' Other virus experts were more blunt. ''It's shooting off like a rocket,'' said Ken Dunham, malicious code intelligence manager for iDefense Inc. in Reston, Va. The flood of e-mail does not necessarily mean that especially large numbers of machines are infected, he said. This bug is simply more efficient than previous programs at sending itself around. The mail program that the virus uses is ''multithreaded,'' which allows it to send out many copies at once. But the creator of the program appears to have gone a step further, Mr. Dunham said, using computers that were taken over by previous versions of the SoBig virus to mass-mail copies of the program, as spammers do. Like many other mass-mailing viruses, SoBig comes with its own mail program that trolls through the victim's address book, stored Web pages and other files, picking up e-mail addresses. It then sends itself to every address it finds, and often disguises the sender's true identity by substituting an address from the victim's machine. Once the program has infected a machine, it will download a Trojan horse program that could allow an attacker to take over the target PC. The new SoBig comes during a busy time in the malicious software world. Computer users have had to deal with onslaughts from several new programs lately, including the Blaster worm and another called Nachi or Welchia, which has been marauding through corporate computer networks. Like most rogue programs, this latest virus affects computers running versions of Microsoft operating systems. With SoBig, many computer users whose machines become infected often bring the problem upon themselves by trying to open the attachment that comes with the e-mail message. It might be called ''your _details,'' ''thank_you'' or other names, but almost always ends in the file extension ''.pif'' or ''.scr.'' Infection can be prevented by deleting suspect e-mail messages without clicking on the attachments, virus experts said yesterday, but ''once somebody lets that |
1513426_0 | Milwaukee Priests Seek Marriages in Clergy | More than 160 Roman Catholic priests in the Milwaukee Archdiocese have signed copies of a letter calling on the church to allow married men to join the priesthood. The letter, which the Rev. Joe Aufdermauer of Milwaukee mailed today to the leader of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, cited the shortage of priests as a central reason to make celibacy optional. The letter was described today in an article in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. ''The primary motive for our urging this change is our pastoral concern that the Catholic Church needs more candidates for the priesthood, so that the church's sacramental life might continue to flourish,'' the letter stated. ''We speak out at this time also because of the ever-growing appreciation of marriage and its many blessings so compatible with priesthood and even enhancing of priestly ministry.'' Father Aufdermauer, who is 61, said he did not expect that the Catholic Church would change the celibacy requirement during his lifetime. But he said the size of the support -- nearly 30 percent of diocesan priests in the Milwaukee area -- seemed certain to draw notice from church leaders, generate discussion and, perhaps, even create similar movements in other dioceses. ''I hope that they take it and they have the courage to say, 'Sure, let's talk about this,' '' said Father Aufdermauer, the associate pastor of St. Matthias Catholic Church in Milwaukee, who organized the campaign with two other priests. ''We're hoping to start a conversation. We're thinking about the next generation of priests.'' Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the bishops' conference, had not yet received the packet, his aides said. But the Rev. Robert J. Silva, who leads the National Federation of Priests' Councils, said he planned to ask that it be forwarded to a conference subcommittee for review. Regardless of the actions of the American bishops, matters like celibacy are decided by the pope. Priests take vows of celibacy, though there are exceptions. More than two decades ago, the pope allowed Episcopal priests, who were already married, to become Catholic priests. And, in Eastern Rites Catholic churches, priests may marry. The question of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests has been weighed many times before and was vigorously debated within the American church in the late 1960's and early 1970's. But the size of the clergy's support for the Milwaukee letter is notable, Father Silva |
1513480_1 | Venture to Drill for Gas and Build Pipeline Off China | of eight companies dominated by PetroChina, with a 50 percent stake, is building a 2,500-mile pipeline from much larger gas fields in the deserts of northwestern China to Shanghai, passing through or close to several large cities along the way. Western analysts have questioned whether that project makes financial sense because of the distances involved, but Beijing has made the trans-China pipeline a strategic priority. Shell is also a partner in the trans-China pipeline, sharing a 15 percent stake with Hong Kong China Gas. Mark Qiu, the chief financial officer of CNOOC Ltd., a publicly traded unit of CNOOC, said that the Xihu pipeline and the trans-China pipeline could both be completed because there would be enough gas demand in Shanghai to keep both pipelines busy. An energy analyst at HSBC in Hong Kong, Gordon Kwan, agreed that there would be adequate demand to draw gas from both pipelines but said that gas from the Xihu project would probably be much cheaper to deliver because the pipeline would be much shorter. Laying the pipeline underwater will not be a problem, he said, because the Xihu Trough and the seabed to the coast are less than 300 feet deep. Philip Andrews-Speed, a former BP geologist in China who runs an energy policy study center at the University of Dundee in Scotland, said that the Xihu Trough formation is actually a series of small gas fields instead of a single large one. ''If you link a number of modest accumulations into a single pipeline network, that's reasonable,'' Mr. Dundee said. The Xihu Trough should probably have been developed sooner, Mr. Andrews-Speed said, but the project was stalled for many reasons, mainly political. Part of the Xihu Trough is claimed by Japan; today's deal involves drilling on the side of the formation closer to China. The bigger political issue has been a struggle for two decades within China over who would control the gas fields. CNOOC, short for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, does most of the country's offshore drilling. But China's ministry of geology and mineral resources explored the East China Sea in the 1980's and found many of the fields in the Xihu Trough. The ministry spun off its rights to develop the gas fields into a separate company nearly a decade ago, and then the ministry itself disappeared in a bureaucratic reorganization. Sinopec, which is short for the China |
1511344_0 | OBSERVATORY | Color Them Old Fashion-wise, most fossils are color-challenged, having lost their original pigments in favor of the drab minerals that fossilized them. With most fossils it's impossible to know precisely what color the organism was in life. But not with all. For instance, 50-million-year-old beetle fossils found in Germany retain a bluish sheen as long as they are kept wet. The cause of this color has not been known, but now scientists from Oxford University and the University of Sydney in Australia have the answer. No pigments are involved; rather, the color is a function of structure. The researchers studied an elytron, or wing case, of an unidentified beetle from the well-known fossil site at Messel, Germany. Through electron microscopy and X-ray analysis, they discovered that the elytron's surface consists of layers of very thin films that act to refract light to alternating high and low degrees. As a result, light reflected off the elytron peaks at blue wavelengths. (The low-refraction layers contain a large amount of water, which is why the color disappears when the fossil dries out.) Such multilayer reflectors are common in modern birds, butterflies and other animals, giving them bright iridescent colors. But the researchers report in Biology Letters, a publication of The Royal Society, that this is the first known example in an extinct species. They suggest that by examining the structure of reflectors in other extinct species, even those where the layers have become opaque or completely desiccated, it may be possible to reconstruct their original colors. Underwater Hot Spots The concept of biodiversity hot spots has become a fundamental one among conservationists in recent years. The idea is that in an era of limited resources it is better to concentrate conservation efforts in those parts of the world with the richest troves of unique species. So far, most of the work in identifying hot spots has focused on land. But since about three-quarters of the earth is water, it makes sense to see where there are hot spots in the open oceans as well. Biologists from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia have taken a stab at this. They've studied reports from scientific observers on long-line fishing boats in the Atlantic and Pacific to map areas with the most diverse numbers of predator species like tuna, swordfish, sharks and sea turtles. Independent observers are required aboard boats of some countries to monitor the numbers |
1511344_2 | OBSERVATORY | is the first known example in an extinct species. They suggest that by examining the structure of reflectors in other extinct species, even those where the layers have become opaque or completely desiccated, it may be possible to reconstruct their original colors. Underwater Hot Spots The concept of biodiversity hot spots has become a fundamental one among conservationists in recent years. The idea is that in an era of limited resources it is better to concentrate conservation efforts in those parts of the world with the richest troves of unique species. So far, most of the work in identifying hot spots has focused on land. But since about three-quarters of the earth is water, it makes sense to see where there are hot spots in the open oceans as well. Biologists from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia have taken a stab at this. They've studied reports from scientific observers on long-line fishing boats in the Atlantic and Pacific to map areas with the most diverse numbers of predator species like tuna, swordfish, sharks and sea turtles. Independent observers are required aboard boats of some countries to monitor the numbers of each species caught, including the bycatch, those fish and other animals taken unintentionally. The researchers used observer data from American and Australian fisheries between 1991 and 2000, compiling it with a computer mapping program. Their results, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that hot spots (defined as 13 to 18 species per 50 individuals, depending upon region) peak between 20 and 30 degrees latitude (north and south), where tropical and temperate waters meet. Specifically, they found hot spots near reefs, undersea mountains and at places where the continental shelves drop off. The researchers suggest that as on land, these ocean hot spots could become the focus of conservation efforts because many species would benefit. Views From a Telescope The world's largest autonomous telescope is now operating, on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The two-meter instrument, called the Liverpool Telescope and owned by Liverpool John Moores University in Britain, recorded its first images last week, and is being fine-tuned. Robotic telescopes, designed to be scheduled and operated from afar, are particularly useful for observing sudden celestial events like supernovas, and for regular tracking of objects like Earth-crossing asteroids. About 5 percent of the observing time on this telescope will be reserved for schoolchildren's projects. Observatory |
1511356_1 | With E-Mail, It's Not Easy to Navigate 6 Degrees of Separation | of the small number of participants and other shortcomings of the experiment. The advent of the Internet enabled the researchers to more carefully explore the problem, which is part mathematical -- the structure of the network -- and part psychological -- what motivates people to participate or not, and how do people decide whom to send the message to? The answers are of interest both to computer scientists studying the ebb and flow of information on the Internet and sociologists studying the spread of gossip and cultural trends. In this global study, more than 60,000 people tried to get in touch with one of 18 people in 13 countries. The targets included a professor at Cornell University, a veterinarian in the Norwegian army and a police officer in Australia. Despite the ease of sending e-mail, the failure rate turned out much higher than what Dr. Milgram had found, possibly because many of the recipients ignored the messages as drips in a daily deluge of spam. Of the 24,613 e-mail chains that were started, a mere 384, or fewer than 2 percent, reached their targets. The successful chains arrived quickly, requiring only four steps to get there. The rest foundered when someone in the middle did not forward the e-mail. As in most social networks, it is not just a question of who knows whom, but who is willing to help. ''Just because President Bush is six degrees from me doesn't mean I'm going to be invited for dinner at the White House,'' said Dr. Duncan J. Watts, a professor of sociology at Columbia and senior author of the Science paper. ''You can ask a friend of a friend for a favor, but that's about it.'' Of the people who received an unsolicited e-mail message in the experiment, 37 percent sent it on, a relatively high participation rate. But with nearly two-thirds of the recipients not forwarding the message at all, the number of continuing e-mail chains dwindled quickly with each successive step. When the researchers asked people why they did not participate, less than 1 percent replied that they could not think of anyone to send the e-mail message to, suggesting that most simply did not want to be bothered. Thus, the researchers assumed that many more of the e-mail chains could have been completed. They calculated that half of them would have been finished in five steps or less |
1511348_1 | Common Sense For Cooling Down | Washington University said. ''Only symptoms that are bothersome need to be treated with anything.'' *Try new herbs or supplements by themselves first, rather than in combinations, so that you know what is responsible for an adverse reaction. Always let the physician know what is being taken. That is especially important for older women, who may also be taking pharmaceuticals for chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. *If you are ready to move to combinations, go to a licensed practitioner of Chinese or herbal medicine who knows how different plants work -- and how they interact. *Stick to well-known manufacturers or distributors when buying over the counter. Black cohosh, for example, can be found in dozens of products of varying quality. Check for dosages, too. The standard quantity in most clinical trials has been 40 milligrams a day. The most tested brand has been RemiFemin, made by Schaper & Brummer and distributed in the United States by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. *Although mounting evidence indicates it is safe, use black cohosh no more than six months, because it is just now being studied for longer periods. Reassess regularly the need for any treatment, as menopausal symptoms last a few months to a couple of years for a majority of women. *Eat well and eat as much soy as wanted, including tofu, edamame beans, soy milk and soy shakes. Beans of any kind and flax seeds contain similar plant estrogens. All are foods that cannot hurt, and they just might help, though studies have been mixed. But stick to real food and beware of extracts, whose safety remains untested. *Use caffeine and alcohol in moderation. Both can set off hot flashes and affect mood. *Dress in layers, carry a pocket fan, and make the bed so that one half is just sheets and the other half has a blanket. You can roll from one side to the other, as body temperature dictates. *Look at menopause as another chance to assess general well-being and practice good habits, including a healthy diet and exercise. ''We as a culture are really quick to say, 'Well, if I can't take Prempro, what other pill can I take?' '' said Dr. Tracy Gaudet, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke who is director of the Center for Integrative Medicine. ''It's much more important to take a whole life approach that optimizes your health.'' |
1511421_0 | In a Post-9/11 World, Corporate Travel Is All Business | FOR nearly two years now, we've all been exposed to intense security procedures, many of them clearly sensible, but a good number of them questionable and evidently vaguely conceived. For example, a recent Congressional study found that the public was largely baffled by, and dismissive of, the Department of Homeland Security's widely ridiculed color-coded security alert system, to the point where the system itself might be counterproductive as a security measure. But here at the annual gathering of the National Business Travel Association, where corporate travel managers network for three days with travel suppliers and other industry representatives, there is a lot of talk about travel security -- and scant evidence of vagueness. Rather, there is ample evidence that a good portion of corporate America is carefully evaluating security concerns and rapidly refining travel procedures to help better predict, evaluate and respond to emergencies. In turn, business travelers are increasingly expected to pay attention to those plans, and respond accordingly. The emphasis is on heads-up contingency planning for what Dean R. Radford, the vice president for security at International SOS, said would be ''a sustained period of increased and varied threats'' facing many business travelers. International SOS, a worldwide company that provides emergency medical and evacuation services for more than 300 international corporations, had been on the scene in recent terrorist incidents like the deadly bombing earlier this month at a Marriott hotel in Jakarta, where SOS workers used a Hercules C130 to fly out many of the wounded. The company also had a Boeing 737 standing by ''in case there was a follow-up incident,'' Mr. Radford said. In fact, one disquieting trend the company anticipates is a need to have larger aircraft available for quick dispatch. ''We're thinking on a bigger scale,'' he said. ''We're constantly tracking the availability of air assets, especially larger aircraft. We're tracking the availability of every single wide-body worldwide'' that could be chartered for fast emergency response. Business travelers, especially those who routinely travel abroad, will probably find it reassuring to know that many corporate travel departments, once exclusively the domain of travel bookings and expense accountings, are moving forcefully to merge company travel policies with security policies, and ensure that both have real teeth. After 9/11, when corporate travel managers found themselves scrambling to assist the tens of thousands of business travelers who were stranded in the United States and all over the |
1511365_3 | Herbs for Hot Flashes: New Attention, Mixed Results | ginseng showed no benefit for hot flashes, the survey in The Annals of Internal Medicine found. Neither did oil of evening primrose or red clover, another Indian folk remedy. One of the most recent studies, published last month in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the effects of two brands of red clover on hot flashes were just slightly better than that of the placebo. In urging a cautious approach, Dr. Fugh-Berman cited the roller coaster ride of the hormone replacement therapies that the herbs could in theory replace. Millions of women began taking replacements after studies found an association between good health and their use. It was not until vast studies like the Women's Health Initiative applied more rigorous methods that the picture began to change. ''Herbs have not come out looking very good for the treatment of menopausal symptoms so far,'' Dr. Fugh-Berman, an assistant clinical professor of medicine, said. ''One thing the Women's Health Initiative should have taught us all is don't trust observational studies for ascertaining the benefits of anything.'' Even soy, now being sold in pill form, is not the miracle cure originally believed, and it may affect the body differently as an extract than as a food, several experts said. A staple in Asian cuisine for thousands of years, soy foods are considered a possible reason for the lower prevalence of menopausal symptoms reported by women in China, Japan and Korea. The bean has gained popularity on American tables, and its active ingredients, a group of plant estrogens known as isoflavones, have been turned into an extract that has become the biggest-selling dietary supplement in the so-called menopause market. Sales of soy supplements have quadrupled for five years, to $102 million last year, according to The Nutrition Business Journal. But of eight studies of soy or isoflavone supplements that lasted more than six weeks, three showed significant improvement in hot flashes, according to The Annals survey. The longest study showed no benefit for hot flashes or other menopausal symptoms at 24 weeks. Other published results showed only modest benefits. All beans contain plant estrogens, not just soy, and eating more of them is a harmless way to try to manage menopause, several experts said. But the same presumption of safety, they added, cannot be made for extracts sold over the counter, many of which are packaged in high concentrations. ''Soy foods |
1513000_2 | On a diet and craving French fries? Inventor has a low-carbohydrate version that contains cauliflower. | and ranging from tater tots and latkes to twice-baked potatoes and batter for fried foods. Ms. Blaun is essentially trying to patent a recipe for a dough, made from a powder, which is then shaped and baked into potatolike form. If the dough has the cancer-fighting sulfur compounds present in cauliflower, doesn't it also have the strong odor associated with cruciferous vegetables when they are cooked? ''Once it has been cooked thoroughly enough and puréed, it becomes a nice bland substrate,'' Ms. Blaun said. ''It doesn't smell like cauliflower.'' To mass-produce French fries with her dough, Ms. Blaun said, ''you have to squirt it out of a little nozzle shaped like a French fry, then you flash-fry it.'' But can any fried food really be healthy? Ms. Blaun says as long as it is fried in canola oil. French fries, however, will probably not be her first product on the market, given that the extrusion equipment is a $25 million investment. Does Ms. Blaun see a future in, say, green French fries made of broccoli? After all, green ketchup is the rage among the playground set. ''We could make even them into confetti colors,'' she said. ''The sky is the limit.'' Several other inventors seem to want to catch the low-carbohydrate wave as well. A least a dozen new low-carbohydrate ideas have been published in patent applications in the last six months. Which is not to say that inventors aren't pioneering other artillery in the war against fat. In July, for example, a group of inventors in Israel patented a method of weight loss that involves attaching electrodes to the stomach. In June, a California inventor patented a weight-loss laxative whose main ingredient is E. coli, a bacteria that causes food poisoning. Dr. Atkins died earlier this year so Ms. Blaun said she did not have the opportunity to have him try her products. Patents Correction: September 26, 2003, Friday The Patents column in Business Day on Aug. 18 about a patent application for french fries that are low in carbohydrates referred incorrectly to a patent for a separate invention, a weight-loss laxative developed by a California inventor. According to the patent, the laxative uses a form of E. coli bacteria that exists in the human body and does not normally cause illness -- not the form that causes food poisoning. (The inventor telephoned The Times recently about the error.) |
1512995_3 | The Bits Are Willing, but the Batteries Are Weak | ration the battery power on their portable devices like water. Lorna Keuning, 35, of Park Slope, Brooklyn, forced herself to shut down her iBook on Thursday night when the battery meter was in the red so she would have enough charge to check the Internet in the morning. Her first act on waking up to find the power back on was to plug it in. ''From now on, I'm always going to make sure it's fully charged,'' Ms. Keuning vowed. The longer-term significance of such temporary inconveniences may be negligible, but experts on Internet infrastructure say it is increasingly important to strengthen the link between the dual grids of electricity and information that power the economy. Jessica Litman, a law professor who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., said she kept going halfway up the stairs to her computer to get blackout news online before remembering that her sole news source at that point was the car radio. The experience made her appreciate both the luxury of electric power and the ability to tailor her Internet news delivery. ''A car radio tells me what it wants to tell me,'' Ms. Litman said. ''One of the things I realized was how differently I think about the news.'' Sapped of their potency, the sights and sounds of digital devices can become even more conspicuous. In the dark, cellphones served as pale blue flashlights even when they would not connect their callers. Strangers debated the merits of calling plans while constantly hitting redial. ''Verizon works, Cingular doesn't,'' declared Paul Likens, 38, holding one phone to each ear at a table outside a Chelsea restaurant. Their batteries dying, some people plugged cellphones into the cigarette lighters of their cars to make calls. The lucky owners of BlackBerry devices, which rely on an older network than mobile phones, occasionally sent text messages for the less fortunate. George Nemeth, of Painesville, Ohio, learned of the blackout during a cellphone call with a friend whose power supplies, connecting several home computers, started beeping the alarms of an unexpected surge. Mr. Nemeth, who keeps an online journal known as a Web log or blog devoted to Cleveland-related news, said his immediate impulse was to post the news. But when he got home, there was no power at his house either. ''It was disturbing,'' Mr. Nemeth said. ''But my wife enjoyed it because we actually talked for the whole time. |
1512984_3 | Helped by Technology, Piracy of DVD's Runs Rampant in China | punishment. American film companies once hoped that the shift from VCD technology to the more heavily encrypted DVD would stem piracy. But bootleggers in China and elsewhere cracked the new technology, and the spread of video technology seemed to make unauthorized copying easier than ever. ''Today's pirates have evolved from backroom operations into technology-driven criminal syndicates organized into business units,'' said Marta Grutka, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America, which has pressed the Chinese government to act more forcefully against piracy. The syndicates, she said, often steal advance copies of films, or sneak camcorders into advance screenings. The syndicates find a ready audience in the emerging generation of Chinese who are relatively affluent, technologically sophisticated and hungry for fresh cultural experiences. Shen Sheng, for example, started his heavily visited Web site, Shooter.com, three years ago as a way of communicating with other Internet-fluent film fans. It began as a site for swapping information about DVD technology and Web broadcasting, he said, but grew into a site where Chinese fans of foreign films can swap subtitles and software for copying films from the Internet. Now Web sites like his have become hubs for thousands of Chinese film enthusiasts who offer free subtitles and free advice about downloading and copying films. ''Most of my visitors are people on broadband connections who love films; they're mostly into mainstream American films,'' he said in a telephone interview from his home in Shanghai. ''I want to encourage people to freely swap the subtitles they've done themselves.'' The abundance of pirated films here has also spawned a subculture of Chinese Internet sites devoted to discussing the latest releases. ''I often go on the Web to see what's new,'' said Cherry Ma, a Guangzhou college student who would be identified only by her English name. ''You can check out on specialized sites what's out, what the subtitles are like, the packaging.'' She added that she had not been to a cinema this year. She and several other devotees of the film Web sites said that the variety of DVD films available in legitimate versions was far more limited than in pirated versions. ''There's growing interest in art films, not just big Hollywood films, especially among educated youth,'' said Wang He, also a student at a Guangzhou college. ''But you just can't buy legitimate copies; there's only pirated versions to turn to.'' Much of the |
1508749_2 | Vatican Exhorts Legislators To Reject Same-Sex Unions | first predominantly Roman Catholic nation to recognize homosexual unions. Just this year, Belgium began registering gay partnerships. Germany, which also has a large Catholic population, grants gay couples protections, benefits and responsibilities traditionally reserved for married men and women. Similar measures are being considered in Britain. Two Canadian provinces also recently legalized same-sex marriages. Homosexuality is the dominant issue at a convention this week of the Episcopal Church USA, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The convention is deliberating whether to confirm an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire and whether to develop a blessing for same-sex unions. Conservative Episcopalians and Anglicans have threatened a schism if the convention votes in favor of those measures. A final resolution is expected within the next week. The practical effect of the Vatican document was uncertain, as one Vatican official acknowledged today. ''We have to preach our principle, even if we know that many people won't abide by it,'' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''The Vatican is worried, because we think marriage should be between a man and a woman.'' Many Catholic lawmakers in the United States and Europe have long bucked the church on a range of issues, including abortion, which the church opposes. Many of the estimated 65 million Roman Catholics in the United States -- almost one in four Americans -- pick and choose which of the pope's pronouncements to obey. ''Vatican officials seem to think that they still have the same kind of credibility they once had, and they don't,'' said the Rev. Andrew Greeley, a prominent Catholic sociologist in the United States. ''I'm not saying that's good or bad, but that's certainly what the evidence seems to show.'' Father Greeley added that there was much greater acceptance of homosexuality among American Catholics today than there was a decade ago, but he said he was not certain if that acceptance extended to approval of same-sex unions. Congress is unlikely to entertain any legislation that supports such unions, although some states are grappling with the issue. Three years ago, Vermont passed a law that recognized gay couples. In Europe, the limits of the Vatican's influence, as well as one of the seeds of its frustration, were made clear in the pope's failed campaign to have a reference to Christianity inserted into the preamble of the current draft of a European Union constitution. The |
1497796_0 | French Arrest 150 From Iranian Opposition Group | French authorities today arrested more than 150 members of a long-established armed Iranian opposition group, accused them of organizing terrorist acts, and seized $1.3 million in $100 bills. The move against the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Mujahedeen, as the group is known, effectively shut down its operations in France, while the timing of the action seemed to send conciliatory signals to Iran. Senior French officials insisted that the crackdown was not linked to events inside Iran. But it coincides with demands by the United Nations chief nuclear weapons inspector, the European Union, the United States and Russia that Iran allow international weapons inspectors to conduct more intrusive examinations of its nuclear sites. It also coincides with a wave of student protest in Iran. On Sunday, President Bush encouraged antigovernment demonstrators in Iran to continue their protests for the sake of creating ''a free Iran.'' Today in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell encouraged Iranians to protest for their rights, dismissing Tehran's charges that Washington was interfering in its domestic affairs. Also today, a 38-year-old Iranian protester set himself on fire outside the French Embassy in London. Early news reports indicated that the man, whom a guard and police officers tried frantically to save, was angered by the French raids. The police said his injuries were not life-threatening. The French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, told members of Parliament today that the broad crackdown was necessary because the Iranian opposition group wanted to use France as an international base of operations to supplement their activities from their headquarters in Iraq. ''The Mujahedeen wanted to make France their rear base,'' Mr. Sarkozy said. ''We couldn't accept that.'' The top antiterrorism judge in France, Jean-Louis Bruguière, ordered the raids after uncovering a ''criminal conspiracy with the intent to prepare acts of terrorism and financing of a terrorist enterprise,'' Gérard Laurent, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said in a telephone interview. The Iranian government praised the French action. ''We have been waiting for a long time for the French authorities to act against them and conform with the decision of the European Union, which had declared this small group to be terrorist,'' said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. The People's Mujahedeen, based in Baghdad, has long been the best-organized political and military operation fighting to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1997, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright designated the group |
1497881_0 | Technology Briefing | Internet: Clamping Down On Fraud | The United States and 29 other countries have developed a ''framework for international cooperation'' to curb cross-border fraud, officials said yesterday. The agreement is intended to make it easier for governments to investigate and shut illegal Internet and telemarketing operations involving multiple countries. Some mass e-mailers in the United States, for example, frequently route messages through overseas computers to make it harder for authorities to trace them. Officials from Britain, France, Canada, Australia, Japan and Finland joined officials from the Federal Trade Commission to announce the agreement. |
1497837_0 | Microsoft Sues 15 Organizations In Broad Attack On Spam E-Mail | Microsoft, the world's largest provider of e-mail accounts, filed lawsuits yesterday against 15 groups of individuals and companies that it says collectively sent its clients more than two billion unwanted e-mail messages. Unwanted e-mail, commonly called spam, has been a fast-growing problem for many e-mail users. The Hotmail service from Microsoft, with 140 million users, has been a fat target for spammers. The company estimates that more than 80 percent of the more than 2.5 billion e-mail messages sent each day to Hotmail users are spam. It now blocks most of those spam messages. All of the large Internet service providers, including America Online, Earthlink and Yahoo, have started filing lawsuits against e-mailers that they say are sending spam. Microsoft's suits represent the largest number filed at one time, and reflect Microsoft's willingness to devote some of its considerable resources to fighting spam. It promised more such actions to come. ''We at Microsoft are ramping up our efforts to combat spam,'' said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, at a news conference yesterday. But many spam experts say that these suits do little to actually prevent spam. ''At the end of the day, this is a drop in the bucket,'' said Ray Everett-Church, the chief privacy officer of the ePrivacyGroup, a consulting company. He said that the several dozen suits against spammers so far have had no noticeable effect in deterring other spammers. ''Right now the big service providers see spam as a point of differentiation,'' Mr. Everett-Church said. ''And these suits are much more of a marketing campaign than an anti-spam campaign.'' Mr. Smith of Microsoft, however, argued that the lawsuits were an important part of a multipronged approach to fighting spam. In addition to lawsuits, Microsoft has introduced software to filter out spam for its MSN Internet access service and will include similar software in the next release of its Outlook e-mail program. Twelve of the suits filed yesterday were in state court in Washington. They brought claims under both the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and a Washington State anti-spam law. One suit was filed in California state court, and two were filed in Britain. The defendants include many different business involved in e-mail marketing. Email Gold Inc. and NetGold, both of Dayton, Ohio, are accused of using spam to sell tools for other marketers to get into the spam business. VMS Inc. and Proform4life Inc., both |
1497778_0 | Plan to Block North Korean Nuclear Shipments Gains Support | Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that the United States had lined up broad support to press North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, but an American initiative to interdict shipments of nuclear materials brought a new threat of retaliation. Speaking to reporters on his plane before arriving here for a meeting of 20 envoys from Asia and around the world, Mr. Powell said the United States had ''aligned the international community in a way that makes it clear to North Korea that they will not have any support or friends helping them.'' The drive against North Korea is expected to be discussed by the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Asian Regional Forum. Mr. Powell said Japan and South Korea had frozen their initiatives to improve economic ties and provide aid to North Korea. The United States, he said, had committed itself to 40,000 tons of food but was waiting to see how it would be distributed before considering more. The most controversial part of the American campaign emerged from the summit meeting of leading industrial nations in Évian-les-Bains earlier this month. There, a small group of nations agreed to take steps to monitor and perhaps intercept shipments of nuclear materials and rockets to and from certain countries. Last week the United States led a group of 11 countries meeting in Madrid to begin discussing the interdiction program, which could bring about more incidents like the one in December when a ship carrying North Korean missiles was stopped by the United States on its way to Yemen and was then allowed to proceed. Japan has also tried to block shipments of cash and illegal contraband between North Korea and Japan. Australian officials identified the 11 nations at the meeting as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Australia and the United States. Mr. Powell said the program was aimed at ''the problem of interdicting weapons of mass destruction and making it more difficult for them to traverse the airways, seaways and land ways of the world.'' Word of the meeting brought a stinging retort from North Korea, which declared today that any blockade would result in limitless retaliation and the spread of war to Japan. Mr. Powell said the issue of interdicting materials related to weapons of mass destruction was separate from the issue of trying to crack down on piracy, |
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