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1197729_0 | April 30-May 6; A Taste for Safety | The Clinton Administration announced it will strengthen its rules on regulating the safety of genetically engineered foods because of growing consumer concerns. Under the plan, biotechnology companies will have to talk to regulators about the safety of their new foods before putting them in supermarkets. That discussion is now voluntary. But consumer groups, who said the plan does not go far enough, want the government to require each food to be labeled and thoroughly tested for safety. MELODY PETERSEN |
1197692_4 | Being Heard In a Church That's Changed | alienate Catholics. ''If a bishop communicates in a pastorally sensitive way, it will have an impact, and people's minds and hearts will come around,'' Mr. Hudson said. Liberals in the church disagree, arguing that no archbishop in the United States is likely to attain real national influence unless he can somehow close the gap between papal doctrine and the spiritual demands of the laity. ''Catholics can't help but see that institutionally the church is still very clergy-oriented,'' said Paul Baumann, executive editor of Commonweal, a liberal Catholic magazine published in New York. ''It is impossible for bishops to get the kind of loyalty they had unless there is some sign of change on contraception, mandatory celibacy for priests and the role of women in the church.'' The kind of archbishop most likely to win a national following, several Catholic historians said, is one who plays down divisive issues like abortion and eloquently articulates a Catholic position on larger social questions. What are the spiritual costs of pursuing material wealth? What is the role of the state toward the vulnerable and dispossessed? How do Americans square their rising affluence with poverty elsewhere in the world? ''The fundamental question that the leader of Catholics in America has to address is why do Americans need a permanent community of faith to fulfill their spiritual lives,'' said Professor Appleby at Notre Dame. ''The answer cannot just be a sound bite that says no to abortion or premarital sex. It has to be a whole story that puts the noes in context and in which Americans recognize their own lives.'' Given the weaknesses of the Catholic church in the United States, Dr. O'Brien said, ''authority is a real tough thing to maintain'' for any archbishop in the country. ''It has to come from personal charisma or from pastoral care,'' he said. ''Much of Cardinal O'Connor's authority came from charisma. But there are not a lot of charismatic successors out there. They are not in large supply in the American clergy.'' The alternative, then, is pastoral care, which church intellectuals define as listening to the deepest yearnings of believers and challenging them with the teachings of the Gospel. ''Our time calls for dialogue, not confrontation,'' said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit who is editor in chief of America, the Catholic magazine. ''That is what people are used to.'' The Public Mourning TODAY 1 p.m. Mass |
1197684_5 | Dam in Turkey May Soon Flood A '2nd Pompeii' | ''We were comfortable and prosperous until the government came. Now even old stones are considered more important than we are. People are working to save the stones, but no one's doing anything for us.'' The dam that stands just half a mile from the site is part of the multibillion-dollar Southeast Anatolia Project, which is a centerpiece of Turkey's development plans. Some of the dams envisioned by the project's planners, especially one that would lead to the flooding of the Kurdish town of Hasankeyf, 200 miles east of here on the Tigris River, have become the focus of international protest. Dams in places like Hasankeyf, however, are not yet built. The one here is complete. Most of its gates were shut on April 29 to begin the process of creating the artificial lake whose water will be used for power generation. The director of the massive project, Olcay Unver, an American-trained engineer, said in a telephone interview from his office in the capital, Ankara, that he was not familiar with details of the archaeological discoveries here. ''Unfortunately, all infrastructure projects are interventions with the physical system, and in some cases that does affect cultural or historic sites,'' Mr. Unver said. ''The bottom line is to put in a sincere effort to minimize loss. When that's not possible, you have to take precautions either to move what's there, or at least to establish a complete documentation of what is being lost.'' The local governor, Muammar Guler, said he was powerless to stop the inundation, but added that less than half of the site would be flooded, and that he hoped the rest would be excavated and ultimately become an open-air museum. ''Besides, the dam only has a life span of 50 years,'' he said. ''So our grandchildren will be able to see the part that is being flooded this month.'' Several of the mosaics that have recently been removed from Belkis are lying under tarpaulins in the front yard of the archaeological museum in Gaziantep. The museum's director, Hakki Alkan, said there were plans to build a new wing to house them, but he conceded that the government's apparently limited interest in classical art made the project uncertain. ''We did everything we could to preserve the site, but no one was listening,'' Mr. Alkan said. ''The state has made its decision. Energy policy is more important than cultural and historical projects.'' |
1197332_8 | What Do We Talk About When We Are Paying Someone to Listen | of marital tensions. I think that is a very important part of our culture. Also the whole question of to what extent libidinal satisfactions are obtained outside of personal realms. Lear: What do you mean by that? Bergmann: Well, let's say a professional whose satisfaction is entirely in terms of her relationship to her clients. That is her personal value system. Whatever operates there is the equivalent to what one used to call love life. There is less separation between personal and professional, and for many people the professional has become the personal. So I see it in two ways: I see it in terms of the professional invading the personal to an enormous extent, and I see it also in terms of new problems created within the couple as a result of the changing position of the woman in the marriage and the inability of the man to live up to these expectations or to be able to do justice to it. Person: You're not saying she's more consumed than male professionals, are you? Bergmann: No. In the lives of many males, the professional was always really the dominant place where most of their ambitions, most of their love needs and most of their hostilities were expressed, so that by the time you came home at 7:00 to your family in Westchester, you know, you read The New York Times and you went to sleep. It is now also much more characteristic of women. I don't mean that it's getting better or worse. Lear: There's a theme I hear emerging. I think the issues that are being raised in the social sphere, issues about ambition, striving, competition, both in the workplace and at home, have been undertheorized by therapists and analysts. Something strikes me -- you know, Aristotle says that philosophy begins in leisure. It's only when people are freed up from just struggling for survival that they can think about the meaning of life. And I think something's very similar in psychotherapy. This is a very wealthy society. And -- a similar point -- when people get freed up via drug therapy from the acute crisis of mental illness, they're freed up to worry about the meaning of their lives. I mean, to worry, ''Am I capable of a deep, intimate relationship?'' is to some extent a luxury. So it's possible that there's going to be a freeing |
1197601_0 | For Biotech Food, We Need Full Labeling | To the Editor: The Clinton administration's new proposal regarding agricultural biotechnology (news article, May 4) is a welcome acknowledgment that current oversight needs improvement, but the proposal is inadequate. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed making consultations mandatory for institutions that are seeking to commercialize genetically engineered crops, but has failed to announce a system for comprehensive pre-market safety testing. Allowing companies to voluntarily label their products as ''free of genetic engineering'' is a bad idea. What we need is labeling for all genetically engineered ingredients, and the proposal undercuts that. We and others recently filed a petition calling on the administration for mandatory pre-market testing of all genetically engineered foods, mandatory labeling and full environmental review. This is the only system that would effectively serve the public's best interests. RICHARD CAPLAN Environmental Advocate U.S. Public Interest Research Group Washington, May 4, 2000 |
1197614_3 | Ideas & Trends: All Connected; Cellular Phones: The Weapon of Choice for Self-Defense | who are being required to install bulletproof partitions that separate the front seat of the car from the back. A criminal sociologist at San Diego State University, William C. Kennedy, said perception in crime fighting is often as important as reality, noting that cell phones make people feel safer -- whether on highways and in alleys -- and may make criminals more hesitant to strike. Professor Kennedy said that once a crime is under way, the phones often do little more than create ''a false impression of safety.'' Some people ''say they would never walk down a certain street without their cell phone,'' he said. ''Unless you are going to use it has a hammer, it is probably not going to do you much good.'' Most criminals act quickly, preventing people from using their phones to call for help, he said. The phones are most effectively used to report crimes being committed against another person, Professor Kennedy said. To many young people, a cellular phone is the latest high-tech toy offering entree into the cool club, much like the beeper craze of the last decade. But others see it is as essential for safety. Jaimie Kent, a 21-year-old Duke University junior from River Vale, N.J., bought her cell phone about four years ago, around the same time she received her driver's license. ''It was mainly a safety thing -- just when I was driving on the highways by myself,'' Ms. Kent said in an interview last week. ''I could call if my car broke down.'' On Jan. 3, 1999, while home on winter break, Ms. Kent was driving on a rural road when, she said, she ''literally got a stomach flu that came over me as I was driving home and I started to pull over to stop, and I blacked out.'' THE next thing she remembered was the sound of tapping. ''Someone was knocking on my window, I woke up, and she was able to use my cell phone to call my mom,'' Ms. Kent said. It took all the strength she could muster, Ms. Kent added, to give her Good Samaritan the telephone number to reach Ms. Kent's mother, who came to get her. Ms. Kent understands the limitations of her phone, she said. But regardless of whether it will protect her from a criminal, she says she sees it, in many ways, as her digital security blanket. |
1197353_1 | 'The Oresteia,' Bearer of Many Agendas | original, undiluted form. Of course, the Greek classics are always in style and always relevant. But ''The Oresteia'' occupies a privileged position in the Western canon, in part because it is the only surviving example of an ancient Greek tragic trilogy. Factor in the work's profound themes -- guilt, the legacy of violence, the role of law, the burden of individual conscience -- and it is easy to understand why the three plays are considered by many to be at the summit of dramatic literature in the West. And like most classics, of course, the themes lend themselves to productions that take the material in diverse directions, as can be seen already this year. In January, the Clarence Brown Theater Company in Knoxville, Tenn., mounted ''The Millennium Project,'' a group-developed variation on ''The Oresteia'' that will travel to a festival in Bratislava, Slovakia, in June. In February, the Sledgehammer Theater in San Diego presented a premiere of Kelly Stuart's ''Furious Blood,'' a savage comedy that tackled the ancient text from a feminist standpoint. ''Agamemnon vs. Liberace'' was presented at the Here Arts Center in New York in March, the same month that Mark Jackson's class-conscious ''Messenger No. 1'' made its debut in San Francisco. At the same time, other companies have been hewing more closely to Aeschylus' original, which was itself a treatment of pre-existing material: the dark, mythological stories that, by Aeschylus' day, had already figured in the works of Homer and the sixth-century B.C. poet Stesichorus. In April, a production of ''The Oresteia'' by the Royal National Theater of London, using a translation by Ted Hughes, Britain's late poet laureate, visited the Du Maurier World Stage festival in Toronto. In New York, the Pearl Theater Company is presenting a new translation by the classics scholar Peter Meineck in a production that opened last month and runs through May 28. These artists are riding a wave of interest, across the theater world, in staging Greek classics. It is a development that has been particularly visible in high-profile revivals like last year's ''Electra'' on Broadway. This popularity has been attributed by critics to a variety of factors, including the plays' openness to nontraditional casting, the major roles they offer to actresses, and the appeal of stark themes at a time of end-of-the-millennium angst. Contemporary fears may find deep echoes in ''The Oresteia'' because it is, arguably, about civilization itself. During |
1197673_4 | Charles Boxer, a Legend in Love and War, Dies at 96 | after a long convalescence was sent to a prisoner of war camp for the war's duration. His rare book collection, which centered on the Dutch and Portuguese empires, was sufficiently celebrated in East Asia to be seized by the Japanese for the Imperial Library in Tokyo. He was able to recover most of it after the war. That library became the nucleus of a much larger collection that he sold to the Lilly Library of Indiana University in the 1960's. In 1947, just as Mr. Boxer was realizing that he had little chance of advancement in the military, he was offered the position of Camoens Professor of Portuguese Studies at King's College, London. While he had no academic degree, his expertise was well known. Except for two years he spent at the London School of Oriental and African Studies in the early 1950's, he held the chair for 20 years. From 1967 until 1979, he taught at Indiana University, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He also taught at Yale for three years beginning in 1969, serving as professor of the history of the expansion of Europe overseas. His best known works included, ''The Christian Century in Japan,'' published in 1951; ''South China in the Sixteenth Century,'' 1953; ''The Dutch in Brazil,'' 1957, and ''Race Relations in the Portuguese Empire,'' 1963. The race relations book, as well as some of his lectures, challenged the conventional wisdom that there was little racial prejudice in the Portuguese colonies. After retiring, Mr. Boxer continued writing and lecturing on Dutch and Portuguese colonial and naval history. He also pursued his interest in ceramics, coins and shipwreck relics, while continuing to add to his collection of rare books and manuscripts, which include the collection now at Indiana University. Mr. Boxer favored natty attire and was given to a salty wit and firm opinions. Despite his imprisonment, he harbored no resentment toward the Japanese whom he continued to admire. According to The Times of London, his personal philosophy was one of stoicism. The Times said he tried to believe that ''nothing matters much; most things don't matter at all.'' He had an extraordinary memory for bawdy limericks and barracks-room ballads and a taste for poetry ranging from Pope to Kipling. Both, the Times said, ''were best displayed when, in congenial company, the glasses were raised shoulder-high.'' |
1197682_4 | IN BREAKTHROUGH, I.R.A. WILL ALLOW ARMS INSPECTIONS | talks began. ''There is now very little violence, tourism is beginning to flourish, and economic activity is moving up,'' he said. ''People want to move away from the past.'' The British and Irish, who are sponsors of the talks that resulted in the April 1998 peace accord, announced that the promised inspections of the arms dumps would be led by two outsiders. They are Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president who served as a special United Nations peacemaker during NATO's war with Yugoslavia over Kosovo last year, and Cyril Ramaphosa, former secretary general of the African National Congress in South Africa, who helped to end apartheid. The two men will report to the independent international commission that has been charged with supervising the disarming of the paramilitary groups. ''The dumps will be re-inspected regularly to insure that the weapons have remained secure,'' the I.R.A. statement said. The naming of two foreigners as third parties continued a tradition in the continuing effort to end the conflict in Northern Ireland where outsiders are called in to mediate the major disputes between the province's two deeply distrustful communities. The head of the disarmament panel is a Canadian, Gen. John de Chastelain, and the broker of the original agreement was former Senator George J. Mitchell. The Northern Ireland peace settlement is an attempt to balance the desires of republicans, most of whom are Catholics, to draw closer to and one day merge with the Irish Republic, with those of the largely Protestant unionists, who want Ulster to remain part of Britain. The original agreement and the referendums and votes that followed have brought a large measure of political stability to Northern Ireland and have drastically reduced violence. The I.R.A. and the Protestant paramilitary groups have maintained cease-fires for nearly three years. In its statement, the I.R.A. said it would make sure that there was no ''misappropriation by others'' of its weapons, a reference to public concern over renegade guerrilla groups that object to the cease-fires and seek to bring the whole peace settlement down with acts of violence. Four months after the signing of the accord, one such group, the Real I.R.A., set off a car bomb in the town of Omagh that killed 29 people and wounded more than 200. Progress has continually come to a halt over the issue of disarmament, with unionists arguing that they cannot serve in government with Sinn |
1200661_1 | Disabled Girl Is Found Dead, Amid Signs of Malnutrition | official said. ''We don't know if this was neglectful, if it was a mother incapable of doing the right thing, or if it was a mother who was doing the right thing.'' Late yesterday evening, Alberta Hanley of Harlem, the child's paternal grandmother, whose call brought the police to the child's death bed, provided a copy of a long e-mail letter she said she had sent more than a year ago to Nicholas Scoppetta, the commissioner of the city's Administration for Children's Services. In the letter, she accused the mother of a systematic pattern of abuse and neglect, and said that the agency's caseworkers had repeatedly failed to take action, and she begged for help. Starting in 1996, ''I personally witnessed forms of abuse,'' the grandmother wrote in the e-mail message, which was posted to the city's official Web site on Feb. 22, 1999. It goes on to refer to numerous calls made to the state child abuse hot line. ''The outcome is always the same,'' the e-mail message said. ''Services are offered to the mother. She complies as long as an A.C.S. worker is assigned to her, her case is closed. The abuse begins again.'' The agency's Web site notes that complaints cannot be accepted by e-mail, but must be called in. Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that the surviving children had been placed in foster care and that the way the case had been handled was under investigation. Based on court records and interviews with child welfare officials, lawyers and police officials, Ahsianea Carzan's short, difficult life had become a source of angry charges between her estranged parents and had been the subject of at least two court-ordered investigations by the city agency responsible for protecting the well-being of the city's most vulnerable children. As recently as last December, a law enforcement official said, the mother took the child to a doctor. Ahsianea then weighed less than 17 pounds, the official said, but given the great difficulty of nourishing a child with her severe disabilities, the doctor found no reason to suspect neglect. Cerebral palsy, usually caused by lack of oxygen and nutrition to parts of the brain before birth, can cause a wide range of problems, including a failure to grow normally. Twice, the child was the focus of inquiries by the Administration for Children's Services. In November 1998, child protective workers checking a |
1200583_0 | Frederick Coggan, an Archbishop of Canterbury, Dies at 90 | Frederick Donald Coggan, a former archbishop of Canterbury and the first spiritual head of the Church of England to support the ordination of women, died on Wednesday night in a nursing home in southern England. He died after a long illness, according to a statement from Lambeth Palace, official home of the archbishops of Canterbury. He was 90. From 1974 to 1980, Archbishop Coggan brought progressive ideas, scholarly training and passionate evangelism to his leadership of the 30 million Anglicans in Britain. He proposed the ordination of women at the Lambeth Conference of the world's Anglican churches in the 1970's, despite fierce opposition from other denominations. He had broached the topic with Pope Paul VI in 1975, in a letter asking for the pope's views. Paul wrote back that it was impossible ''for truly fundamental reasons,'' citing the example of Christ in choosing male apostles. The Church of England did not ordain women until 1994. The archbishop used his training in Semitic languages to improve relations between Christians and Jews. ''He will be remembered particularly for his remarkable contribution to the New English Bible and Revised English Bible, and for his unfailing support for the Council for Christians and Jews,'' said the Most Rev. George Carey, the current archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Coggan, a slim, bespectacled man, cleaved to broad themes in the pulpit. He denounced racial intolerance and nuclear weapons and promoted a renewal of faith -- calling on churches to train ''Christian commandos'' -- but did not immerse himself in the myriad smaller conflicts of the church. In sermons, he urged bishops not to be merely ''superexecutives,'' despite the many administrative demands upon them, but to be ''on the lookout for the surprises of the spirit.'' Born in London on Oct. 9, 1909, he became an accomplished student at Cambridge University, receiving honors in Oriental languages. He went on to become a lecturer in Semitic languages at Manchester University from 1931 to 1934. A prominent biblical scholar who wrote nine books, he became a professor of the New Testament at Wycliffe College in Toronto from 1937 to 1944, then was principal of the London College of Divinity until 1956. He undertook religious duties even as he pursued his scholarly career, having been ordained in 1935. For three years, he served as curate at St. Mary's Church in Islington, North London, where he allied himself with the evangelical wing |
1200620_2 | Southern Baptist Consider Check on Women as Pastors | of faith is a very concrete representation of what Baptists believe,'' Mr. Mohler said, adding that it was ''appropriate that every generation'' be able to consider such revisions. ''One of the issues that is important here is that the opposition to the idea of a woman serving as pastor is not culturally driven,'' he said. ''It is a matter of biblical conviction.'' But Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, a former executive director of Woman's Missionary Union, the major women's organization in the Southern Baptist Convention, said she would not support the proposed revision. ''I think it's a misinterpretation of Scripture,'' said Mrs. Crumpler, who is also a former moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a network of theologically more moderate congregations in the denomination. The Rev. Daniel Vestal, the fellowship's top official, said the proposed revision ''is based on a bad interpretation of Scripture, an insensitivity to the Holy Spirit and an unwillingness to see what God is doing in the world today.'' He said that were the clause against women as pastors to be incorporated into the faith statement, it would have a profound effect among the denomination's 40,000 congregations. ''Symbol is sometimes substance,'' he said. ''It will definitely affect the local congregation over time, because the document is a document for hiring and firing in all institutions. So it's going to affect faculty and it's going to affect missionaries, and that has an effect on all congregations.'' The faith statement was written in 1925 and revised in 1963. Since the last major revision, several Protestant denominations have ordained women. These days, women make up a significant proportion of clergy members in the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church. All three denominations also ordain women as bishops. In one small religious body, the Unitarian-Universalist Association, women make up a slight majority of clergy members. Sarah Frances Anders, a retired sociology professor who is moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said that in 1964, the first Southern Baptist woman was ordained since before the Civil War. But that woman, she said, found a job as a pastor in another denomination, the American Baptist Churches. Since then, she said, about 1,600 Southern Baptist women have been ordained, although many are chaplains, ministers of music or supervisors of educational programs. She said about 100 women were pastors and about 100 were associate pastors in Southern Baptist congregations. |
1200683_3 | Scientists Find a Particularly Female Response to Stress | nursing, both with maternal behavior and with social affiliation. And animals and people with high oxytocin levels, researchers have found, are calmer, more social and less anxious. But the effects of oxytocin during stress, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues found in their review, appear to vary between males and females. In males, male hormones like testosterone, which studies have shown increases during stress, seem to mitigate the more calming, affiliative impact of oxytocin. The female hormone estrogen, in contrast, appears to enhance the action of oxytocin. In a study at U.C.L.A., for example, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues found that postmenopausal women who were receiving estrogen therapy had more than three times the level of oxytocin as women not receiving hormone replacement therapy. ''This may explain why women are more likely to turn to others, both their children and friends, than men are in response to stress,'' Dr. Taylor said. The findings, she cautioned, should not be taken to mean that ''it is only or primarily women who can and should take care of children.'' ''I don't think there's any implication of that sort in this model,'' she said. She added that females of course also displayed aggression in some circumstances. But studies show that they are less likely to be physically aggressive, and more likely to express aggression indirectly. And while the revving up of the sympathetic nervous system that occurs during stress appears tied to high testosterone levels and aggression in men, the same mechanism may not be at work in female aggression. The researchers' study adds to the growing evidence that men and women differ markedly in the way their bodies respond to a number of health-related conditions, and in some cases may help scientists understand more about why this is so. Studies show, for example, that the ''classic'' symptoms of heart attack -- pain radiating down the arm, for one -- occur much more often in men than in women, who may experience shortness of breath instead. Still, not everyone is convinced that the differences in behavior that men and women show during stress are tied to physiology. Dr. Alice Eagly, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, said that the gender differences could be rooted in hormones but that alternatively, they could be a result of learning and cultural conditioning. ''I think we have a certain amount of evidence that women are in some sense more |
1200559_4 | When Americans Awoke to Modern Styles | a designer of productions for the theater, the opera and films, later did streamlined cars for Chrysler and Plymouth and the Futurama Pavilion for the '39 World's Fair. In 1940 he designed what has become the show's icon: the cheerful little ''Patriot'' radio for Emerson, a plastic portable whose grille is striped in red and white like the bars of an American flag. No less celebrated a design brain was Dreyfuss (1904-1972), a pioneer in the field of ergonomics, who redid the 20th-Century Limited train for the New York Central Railroad and produced such iconic mass-manufactured items as the thermos bottle (1937), which appears in the show. The skyscraper, a native American product whose soaring height and bold architecture seemed to speak optimistically of the future, was a design inspiration, affecting everything from furniture to lamps to cocktail shakers. Among the show's most engaging objects are the ''skyscraper'' desk and bookcase, designed around 1927 by the Viennese-born Paul Frankl (1887-1958) in wood, Formica and Bakelite, an early plastic. Their geometric modules were staggered and set back, like the real thing. Streamlining, with its rounded, rocket-shaped forms that symbolized speed, was yet another American contribution to the design field, although its roots could probably be traced to Italian Futurism of an earlier date. From trains, cars and planes, streamlining spread to ordinary household objects, like desk lamps, clocks, radios and tableware. Its effect can be seen on such disparate items in the show as the ''Radio Nurse'' (1937), done by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi for the Zenith Radio Corporation, a sleek, helmetlike contraption of black Bakelite meant for monitoring sounds in another room, and the ''Airline'' armchair (circa 1934) by the German-born Karl Emanuel Martin Weber (1889-1963), whose loungey seat and back of Naugahyde are counterpoint to an aerodynamic-looking wood frame. It would be nice to see a Hupmobile designed by Loewy (1893-1986) instead of just the dinky little chrome-plated hood ornament he designed for the car, or Dreyfuss's 20th-Century Limited in the flesh, so to speak. But even at the Met, space limitations prevail, and besides neither object is in its collection. Because it is a collection show, ''American Modern'' does not have the sharp point of view of ''Packaging the New: Design and the American Consumer,'' mounted in 1994 by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Covering 50 years of the 20th century, that show presented stylistic change |
1200618_4 | Scientists Offer a Vision of New Tools to Explore Space | really helps to hear that that is the No. 1 priority of this extremely distinguished group of astronomers.'' The telescope, which Dr. Kinney said could be launched by the end of the decade, would cost roughly a billion dollars and involve gossamer-like materials that would fold up on launching and be unfurled to create a mirror perhaps 20 feet across once the instrument was in space. The needed technology for this feat is still in development. The NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center is developing one design, while two contractors, TRW and Lockheed Martin, are working on two others. The Hubble carries a much more conventional mirror, which is about seven feet across. Detectors on the telescope would also be sensitive to radiation that is much farther into the infrared, or long-wavelength, part of the spectrum than Hubble can see. Because the universe is expanding, light from more and more distant objects gets stretched farther and farther into this regime. The new telescope's keener infrared eyes would let it see objects shining just a few hundred million years after the universe was born, compared with one billion or two billion years for the Hubble. The earlier time is thought to mark the end of the ''dark ages,'' before the light from stars began penetrating the universal murk. Both the search for small planets and the probe of radiation emitted in the warped space around black holes would involve several satellites flying in formation and working in tandem. The huge telescope on the ground would call upon yet another type of futuristic technology, involving mirrors built of moveable segments rather than in one continuous piece. Other suggested projects would look for waves in the fabric of space, gravity waves, that arrive at Earth from collisions of black holes and other processes, and radio emissions from objects deep in space. For Dr. Geoff Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California who discovered by indirect evidence a number of the 40 planets much larger than Earth that are now known to orbit other stars, the search for life elsewhere in the universe carries the greatest excitement. ''What we would love to know is whether a blue dot orbiting a yellow star has the building blocks of life,'' Dr. Marcy said. The space-based instrument the panel recommended to make that search, he said, ''is the most glorious telescope that has ever been conceived by humanity.'' |
1200611_1 | Conflicting Views Hinder Dissidents on China Trade Vote | China stops listening to what the United States says about human rights,'' said Wei Jingsheng, one of China's best-known dissidents, who spent 18 years in Chinese prison before becoming an exile in this country. Mr. Wei, 50 years old, said he moved temporarily to Washington from New York so that he could lobby full-time to defeat permanent trade ties, one of the Clinton administration's top foreign policy priorities. Congressional opponents of the trade bill staged a rally on Capitol Hill today in which they introduced several dozen Chinese workers, student leaders and veteran activists who urged Congress to vote down permanent trade ties. But President Clinton is also pointing to support from well known opposition leaders in China and abroad. He has cited on opinion piece written by Dai Qing, a Beijing-based human rights and environmental activist. He asked Martin Lee, a leading Hong Kong democrat who supports permanent trade ties, to help him lobby Congress. And the White House has distributed copies of a pro-trade message from what it called an underground democracy activist in the Chinese province of Zhejiang. Several Tiananmen Square student leaders, including Wang Dang and Chai Ling, have also said that they support granting China permanent trade status. ''I believe that permanent normal trade status, with its implication of openness and fairness, is among the most powerful means of promoting freedom in China,'' Ms. Dai wrote in an essay published in The Los Angeles Times. Ms. Dai is best known for seeking to stop China's giant Three Gorges Dam construction project and for investigating corruption within the ruling Communist Party. The Clinton administration today sought to build momentum for the vote after two Congressional committees strongly endorsed the measure Wednesday. The White House said President Clinton intends to make a short, prime-time television address on China Sunday night. But of the major national networks, only NBC has agreed to grant air time to the president, while CBS, Fox and ABC declined, network officials said. In a highly unusual move, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan joined Mr. Clinton in the White House Rose Garden to lend his support. Though Mr. Greenspan has weighed in on legislation before, especially on fiscal and financial matters, the Fed chairman usually maintains impartiality on White House foreign-policy goals. Mr. Greenspan, who was asked to speak out on China trade by Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, said he supports the bill |
1199000_0 | Roundworm Study May Raise Doubts About Cell Phone Safety | British scientists report that microwave radiation can indirectly damage roundworms. Their data, the investigators say, bear on the question of whether cellular telephones are safe. But several American scientists questioned whether the worm experiments had anything to do with cell phone safety. The study, by David de Pomerai of the University of Nottingham and his colleagues, will appear in the May 25 issue of Nature, a British science journal. The journal's editors decided to release it yesterday because they thought that it might be important in discussions of a report by a committee of scientists convened by the British government to assess the safety of cellular telephones. On Thursday, that committee reported that while there was no direct evidence of danger from the popular devices, there were some worrisome findings, like the study with worms. To be on the safe side, they said, children under age 16 should limit their use of cellular telephones. The problem with positing dangers from the phones, scientists say, is that the microwave radiation emitted by them is too weak to break bonds in molecules. It has been hard to figure out how the microwaves would produce damage other than by heating tissue, which does not seem to occur. While microwave ovens can heat tissue, the power from the phones is too low to produce heating. In their new report in Nature, the scientists say that the worms exposed to microwaves produce a type of protein, called heat shock proteins, that they and other species, including humans, make in response to injuries, like heat or certain toxins. But, they say, the microwave radiation did not heat the worms. As evidence that there was no heating, the investigators measured the temperature in the petri dishes where the minuscule worms floated in liquid. Since temperature probes are larger than these worms, it can be hard to know what the actual temperatures of the worms are as they bounce around in the dishes. But, the researchers wrote, they compared the heat shock proteins made by unexposed worms that served as controls, with those made by worms that were bombarded with microwaves. The investigators kept the fluid in the petri dishes at various temperatures and noted when the worms made heat shock proteins. At a certain temperature, all the worms make the proteins. But those exposed to microwaves made them when the fluid was slightly cooler by about three |
1198993_3 | Homer Thompson Dies at 93; Led Excavation of the Agora | taught his classes at the University of Toronto. In 1947, he was appointed professor of classical archaeology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., where he spent the rest of his scholarly life. He was named director of the Agora excavations the same year. In 1949, with the end of Greece's civil war, he returned to Athens to reopen the excavations. Meticulous research allowed him to pinpoint the location of major monuments, which were quickly uncovered. As thousands of relics accumulated, it became clear that the old storage and study areas were inadequate. There was also no museum space to display the finds to the public. Dr. Thompson decided to do an exact reconstruction of one of the ancient buildings in the Agora. Through the use of ancient building materials and a full floor plan that had been unearthed, a two-story-tall stoa, a form of ancient Greek public building, was erected. Financed by the Rockefeller family, the Ford Foundation and others, the stoa, which now houses a museum, was the first step in a continuing plan to make the exposed remains of the ancient city into an archaeological park planted with the species used in antiquity. Dr. Thompson oversaw the development of two series of publications on the Agora, one aimed at a scholarly audience and the other for the public but written by scholars. He wrote the definitive analysis of Greek pottery from the end of the fourth century B.C. to the end of the second century B.C. This was the period of the red-figure style, used on the most famous of ancient potteries. His own books were often applauded by critics. Writing in the American Journal of Archaeology in 1941, Oscar Broneer wrote that Dr. Thompson's 1940 book ''The Tholos of Athens and its Predecessors'' exhibited ''the author's methodical observation and careful recording of all the evidence bearing on the subject; and, on the other, his ingenuity and the soundness of his judgment in the interpretation of existing remains.'' In addition to his wife, Dr. Thompson is survived by three daughters, Hope T. Kerr of Cedar Grove, N.J., Hilary T. Kenyon of West Hartford, Conn., and Pamela Sinkler-Todd of Philadelphia; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His work in Athens continues, as excavations are being done and more are planned on the northern part of the site. Dr. Howland said that archaeology had entered its ''post-Thompson era.'' |
1198984_0 | WORLD BRIEFING | ASIA INDONESIA: ACEH TRUCE -- The government and representatives of separatist rebels from Aceh Province signed an agreement described as a ''humanitarian pause,'' resulting in the first cease-fire in more than two decades. While both sides welcomed the truce, signed at an undisclosed location in Geneva, as a milestone, both sides were quick to qualify it. The rebels pledged to continue pushing for independence, and Jakarta ruled out recognizing the insurgents. The cease-fire will begin June 2. Elizabeth Olson (NYT) INDONESIA: SUHARTO PROTEST -- The police fired tear gas at hundreds of student protesters who gathered outside former President Suharto's home demanding that he be put on trial for corruption. The students responded by throwing rocks and gasoline bombs. Mr. Suharto, 79, has been charged with corruption but not yet put on trial. He has lately refused to be questioned by prosecutors, saying he is too ill. (AP) SRI LANKA: TIGERS ADVANCE -- Tamil Tiger rebels warned civilians to flee Jaffna as they advanced to the edge of their former capital and the government retreated. Sustained bombing was seen as delaying the rebels' final move into the city, which the government won control of five years ago, but aid agencies said civilians were seen moving out with their belongings when a curfew there was briefly lifted. (AP, Reuters) EUROPE NORTHERN IRELAND: CONCESSIONS SOUGHT -- David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists, said he would press Britain for concessions on keeping the Royal Ulster Constabulary name for the province's new police service and on flying the Union Jack from government buildings before deciding whether to recommend at a meeting next Saturday that the Protestant party go back into government with Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army. Warren Hoge (NYT) IRELAND: ROMANIANS TO BE DEPORTED -- Justice Minister John O'Donoghue announced that Ireland would begin deporting illegal Romanian immigrants under a treaty concluded between the two countries. Romania will station two police officers in Ireland to further the process. The government estimates that 95 percent of the 5,500 Romanian immigrants in Ireland have no claim to political asylum. Brian Lavery (NYT) FRANCE: CASH MACHINES RUN DRY -- Cash machines began running out of money as a strike by armored car guards entered its fourth day, and shops complained they were running out of change. The guards struck after a series of attacks left one guard dead. They want |
1198976_0 | Amid a Thaw, Cuba Studies Get Hot; Suddenly Researchers Are Flocking to Long-Closed Archives | Rebecca J. Scott, a history professor at the University of Michigan, had just finished presenting a paper at a conference in Cienfuegos, a provincial capital in central Cuba, when one of the translators suggested that she might like to meet his grandfather. A few hours later, Ms. Scott was introduced to 96-year-old Tomas Perez y Perez, who had been a laborer at a nearby sugar plantation where his mother had been a slave. Ms. Scott, who won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1990 for her writing on the aftermath of slavery in Cuba, had spent hours combing through records about the plantation in the local archive. Her paper, which she presented in 1998, had been on the 1899 efforts of Ciriaco Quesada, a former slave and a veteran of Cuba's War of Independence from Spain, to reclaim a mule that had been left behind when he went off to fight. It turned out that Mr. Perez y Perez had known Quesada and many other people Ms. Scott had read about. ''It was as if the documents woke up and spoke,'' Ms. Scott recalled recently. ''Researchers on Brazil can talk to descendants of slaves, but I always thought that in Cuba I had come along too late. It was a miracle for me to find him.'' Such discoveries have now become possible for a broad range of scholars from the United States as Washington and Havana have eased restrictions on research in Cuba. The improved access and the widely held belief that Cuba is on the cusp of another historic change has led to a rebirth of Cuban studies while public fascination with the country is on the rise, as evidenced by the popularity of Cuban music and the national obsession with Elian Gonzalez. Senior scholars are turning or returning to Cuba after focusing their research on other areas of the Caribbean and Latin America. A new crop of doctoral candidates, many with roots in Cuba, are completing their dissertations and beginning to teach. And a few adventurous undergraduates, who until recently were barred from extended study there, are now spending their semesters abroad in Cuba. Much of the new research is due out soon or is still in progress, but in the last year a few influential books have appeared that have challenged previous scholarship largely by adding the texture made possible by extensive research in the country. An especially active |
1201395_2 | The Fresh Air Fund; Weekend Is Interlude For Serenity | at camp was a peek at a very different world. ''In the city you don't have a place to walk to go get breakfast,'' he said. ''Here you do, and they have a pool.'' The families who went to the 25 acres of forest and fields in Camp Hidden Valley visited the arts and crafts cabin, where the children made Mother's Day cards, went hiking and fishing and took a tour of the camp's small farm. About half of the 132 children, ages 8 to 12, who attend the camp during its four summer sessions are disabled. Last weekend, parents of 16 potential campers visited to see if Hidden Valley was a good fit for their children. ''We wanted to know what type of counselors they have -- how interested they are,'' said Sophia Morales, a resident of the Gun Hill section of the Bronx who visited with her son Michael. Another mother, Robyn Collins, a corrections officer on Rikers Island who lives in a housing project near Lenox Avenue in Harlem with her 9-year-old son, Jvon (pronounced Jay-von); an 8-year-old granddaughter, Ayana; and three foster children, said her children needed a break from the video games they frequently played, Resident Evil and Parasite Eve. ''They need a break from the violence,'' she said of the games. ''It's very peaceful and very relaxing here.'' As she watched her children row their boats in the pond, Ms. Collins shared reflections on her son, who has a speech impediment that makes him a little shy. ''He's opened up some since he's gotten here,'' she said. ''He's got a big old Kool-Aid grin, and he's already talking about when he comes back.'' After seeing the cabins where their children would be staying and meeting some of the camp counselors, Ms. Collins, Ms. Morales and Ms. Anderson all said they hoped that their children would decide to attend the camp this summer. ''When I put them on the bus in July, I'm going to be content,'' Ms. Collins said. Families who wish to inquire about registering their children for a Fresh Air summer vacation can call (800) 367-0003. Anyone interested in making a tax-deductible contribution can send a check to the Fresh Air Fund, 1040 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10018. It costs the fund $1,036 to provide a summer camp vacation for a child, but donations of any amount are welcome. |
1201277_9 | Spoonfuls of Hope, Tons of Pain; In Brazil's Sugar Empire, Workers Struggle With Mechanization | road on his plantation at 80 miles an hour in his alcohol-powered Volkwagen sedan, one hand on the wheel, the other motioning in the air. ''What do they want us to do, flood the world market with sugar?'' Actually, that is exactly what is happening. As the usineiros wade their way through the free market, many of the 120 sugar-producing countries around the world that cannot effectively subsidize or shield their sugar industries from foreign shocks are increasingly concerned about the changes in Brazil. In what analysts have called the ''alcohol bomb,'' Brazil has transferred sugar to export markets that was previously used to produce alcohol. The price of raw sugar has plunged by 40 percent during the last year, to about 6.3 cents a pound from 10 cents, as international markets have struggled to absorb Brazil's rising exports. During the last few years, the country's annual sugar production has risen to 20 million tons, from 13 million, as wider use of mechanization has both increased efficiency and cut costs. By contrast, Cuba, another country with a large sugar industry, produces 4 million tons. The devaluation last year of the Brazilian currency, the real, made the price of the country's sugar more competitive in foreign markets. But the downward pressure on prices continues to mount, with dampened demand in countries like Indonesia and Russia. so Brazil's producers are enticed to export even more. ''It's like watching a Greek tragedy unfold, witnessing today's situation,'' said Tony Hannah, an analyst at the London-based International Sugar Organization and co-author of ''The International Sugar Trade.'' ''The bomb just keeps on exploding.'' LAWS here that still require small amounts of alcohol to be added to gasoline have eased the situation a bit. But it is difficult to discern whether the legal protections that produced the alcohol industry will survive much longer. ''I don't want to fire my cutters,'' Mr. Biagi, the usineiro, said. But he added that such layoffs are a growing trend ''and the government needs to be prepared to help them find other jobs.'' And, in a thinly veiled warning to the authorities, he said that if growers were to use all of their cane to make sugar, they could produce 40 million, doubling Brazil's production, an increase that would have dire consequences for the world market. The government must come to realize that possibility, Mr. Biagi said. ''I don't think it does.'' |
1201043_0 | An Antique Galley For Lake Geneva | Maritime history buffs and the just plain curious have been trickling into the Lake Geneva town of Morges, Switzerland, for the past four years to witness an odd bit of living history -- the construction of a 17th-century-style galley powered in part by sails and up to more than 200 oarsmen. The brainchild of Swiss shipbuilding enthusiasts, the 180-foot-long wooden vessel -- named La Liberte -- is being built by about 500 people, each of whom works on the project for an average of six months. After its completion and launch, planned for June 2001, the galley will be used for cruises on Lake Geneva and as a floating venue for cultural, sporting and educational activities. La Liberte's design is based on 17th- and 18th-century plans and documents from the Musee de la Marine in Paris, with the addition of two motors for precise maneuvering. Sails and motors will be used on most voyages, but for nautical parades and shows the galley will be propelled by rowers. La Liberte's hangarlike shipyard is open to the public every day between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., and guides are on hand to answer questions. Admission is $2.90, free for children under 16. The shipyard is next to the lake on the east side of Morges, a picturesque town of 14,000 about 10 minutes by car from Lausanne. Information: (41-21) 803-5031. CHRISTOPHER HALL TRAVEL ADVISORY |
1202168_0 | Europe Refuses to Drop Ban on Hormone-Fed U.S. Beef | The European Union decided today to extend its ban on beef produced with growth hormones, rejecting demands by the United States and the World Trade Organization to drop the prohibition. The decision reignites an ideologically charged battle between American cattle ranchers, most of whom use hormones to accelerate beef production, and European consumers, who generally distrust food additives. Nearly three years ago, the World Trade Organization ruled that that European prohibition was illegal because it was not based on scientific evidence that hormones endanger human health. Today, European officials in Brussels released what they described as a new review of scientific studies that concluded that one popular hormone causes cancer and that others are ''likely'' to pose increased health risks. Armed with the new opinion, European trade and health officials said they would extend the ban on hormone-treated beef. ''We believe this proposal will bring us into line with the W.T.O.'s findings, and definitively resolve this dispute,'' said Anthony Gooch, a spokesman for the European Commission's trade ministry. American officials, who were still scrutinizing the new pronouncements today, said they were not impressed. ''We were of the view from the beginning that they didn't have the science to back them up, and we don't see any new science now,'' one official in Brussels said today. The United States is currently imposing punitive tariffs of $117 million a year, an amount that the World Trade Organization says is equal to the lost American beef exports, on European products ranging from Danish ham to Italian tomatoes. In an effort to intensify the pressure, President Clinton recently signed legislation that requires American trade officials to rotate the penalties to different industries every six months. But there is little likelihood that the two sides will reach an accord anytime soon, in part because many Europeans have a deep mistrust of anything that smacks of genetically modified food. Just last week, farmers from Scandinavia to Britain and Italy found themselves in the middle of a political uproar after a company admitted that it had accidentally mixed a small percentage of genetically modified rapeseed from Canada into seed shipments sold across Europe. Genetically modified crops are common in the United States and Canada and only about 0.4 percent of the seeds mixed into the shipments that arrived in Europe appeared to have been genetically modified. Nevertheless, the slip infuriated officials in several countries and Swedish farm |
1202182_2 | Economic Scene; Work visas are allowing Washington to sidestep immigration reform. | Going even further, Professor Borjas favors setting the threshold so that the number of immigrants entering the United States falls from about 900,000 to about 500,000 a year. The total number can be debated. If nothing else, this policy would be transparent. Who should become an American? The question is profound, involving more than economics alone. But economic considerations obviously play a role. Theoretically, the economics of immigration is straightforward. If more workers are admitted to the country -- as permanent immigrants or temporary workers -- the earnings of native American workers competing with them for jobs should fall. At the same time, the price of goods and services they produce should decline, and the profits of businesses should rise. The winners are employers, consumers and the immigrants themselves. The losers are workers in the same job market as immigrants. Economic research has not been able to estimate with any confidence the wage decline for native workers that results from immigration. Much solid research finds no effect. This suggests to me that any effect is likely to be small. Professor Borjas's evidence indicates that the skills of legal and illegal immigrants have slipped relative to those of natives since the 1970's. A third of employed male immigrants are high school dropouts. At the same time, the labor market increasingly demands more high-skilled workers, as suggested by the long-term rise in the number of workers with college degrees and their sharply increased pay compared with that of those with high school degrees. Therefore, it would be economically beneficial to admit relatively more highly skilled permanent immigrants -- not to mention that skilled immigrants are less likely to take advantage of the safety net. If immigration reform is off the table, it makes economic sense to increase the number of skilled immigrants by issuing H-1B visas -- through what might be called heaven's backdoor. Yet economic principles also suggest that the playing field between H-1B workers and the rest of the work force should be leveled. American workers are protected from exploitation on the job by three defenses: exit, voice and regulation. Exit entails the ability to move to a better job if one is available; voice results from representation by labor unions and other organizations; and regulation is a labyrinth of standards enforced by government agencies. These protections are deficient for H-1B workers. They cannot easily switch jobs because they must |
1200097_0 | World Briefing | EUROPE NORTHERN IRELAND: GOVERNMENT DELAY -- Britain dropped hopes of restoring the suspended power-sharing government in Belfast on Monday after leaders of the Ulster Unionists objected to proposals for restricting the flying of the Union Jack from government buildings and for changing the Royal Ulster Constabulary's name. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson agreed to hold up on starting the government until after the Protestant party votes on Saturday on whether to accept disarmament moves by the Irish Republican Army. Warren Hoge (NYT) TURKEY: PRESIDENT SWORN IN -- Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a former top judge, was sworn in as the new president and said in a brief speech after his inauguration that Turkey ''cannot remain closed within itself'' and should concentrate on ''securing the rule of law and democracy.'' Mr. Sezer, 58, replaced Suleyman Demirel, a veteran politician who had sought unsuccessfully to amend the Constitution so he could seek a second term. Stephen Kinzer (NYT) BELARUS: VOTE CHANGES PROPOSED -- The country's autocratic leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has agreed to negotiate changes in restrictive election laws next month with pro-democracy forces, an aide said. But some in the opposition, believing the move a feint, are demanding rights reforms and international supervision of any talks first. Michael Wines (NYT) FRANCE: INTERNET COLLEGE -- France will set up a college dedicated to the Internet and provide more money for technology research, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced. The school, near Marseille, will offer a university education to gifted students and to people seeking retraining in the growing Internet market. Mr. Jospin said France would make more cash available to researchers. Suzanne Daley (NYT) MIDDLE EAST PALESTINIANS: 'MOST WANTED' SEIZED -- Officials of the militant Hamas group have confirmed that the Palestinian Authority recently arrested Mohammed Deif, who has long headed Israel's most wanted list for terror attacks. He was seized and went quietly when Palestinian agents stormed a Gaza City house. Palestinian officials have refused to confirm the arrest publicly because, one official said, ''The people are giving us enough grief about refugees and prisoners.'' Deborah Sontag (NYT) LEBANON: DUBLIN INCREASING TROOPS -- Ireland is the first country to agree to bolster its troops serving in the United Nations forces in southern Lebanon before Israel's withdrawal, Israeli radio said. Denmark, Norway and Sweden have also been asked to send in more troops. Deborah Sontag (NYT) IRAN: ANOTHER PAPER CLOSED -- The hard-line judiciary shut |
1200119_3 | Delta joins the war of the carry-on bag by enlarging its overhead bins. | bag they can bring on -- or how many.'' The average business traveler made 21 trips last year and stayed 48 nights in hotels, according to the 1999 OAG Worldwide Business Travel Lifestyle Survey. Both averages are up from the year before. International business travel is also increasing, the OAG says. Focusing on the growth in international travel, and aware of how frustrating using a phone in a foreign country can be for those who need to stay in touch with the office or with far-flung customers facing what it politely refers to as ''local communications roadblocks,'' Sprint recently introduced a service called Sprint Business Traveler, which provides customers with phone card, personal conferencing, global dialing and Internet, e-mail, voice-mail and other features that work in 125 countries. Customers get a small leather carrying case that holds 13 assorted phone adapters to use with a wide variety of foreign systems. Looking at the same trends, Avis just added four more countries -- Latvia, Estonia, Morocco and Syria -- to its toll-free ''On Call'' service that links car renters in 25 countries to a United States-based Avis agent 24 hours a day. The agents are trained to help unsnag travel obstacles of all kinds and can also do things like help customers find medical services while abroad. Finally, a use for turbulence: Passengers on some United Airlines flights out of O'Hare Airport in Chicago get a new lunch item in United's economy and economy-plus seats -- a McDonald's Chicken Caesar McSalad Shaker. The chicken and greens come in a tall lidded plastic cup to which you add salad dressing. Then you shake it yourself. The promotion -- which has some United flight attendants worried that assembling salads for baffled passengers will become another inflight chore -- ends June 7. More women are traveling on business -- and they're more likely to fly in steerage than males. That's one of the findings in the latest Runzheimer Reports on Travel Management, an industry newsletter that surveys corporate travel managers. Among other findings: Women, who now make up about 25 percent of all business travelers, are most cost-conscious on the road, even though they're on the employer's nickel. Also, women chose hotels with greater care for safety and proximity to their destination, and tend to make their arrangements further in advance. BUSINESS TRAVEL Business Travel appears each Wednesday. Joe Sharkey's e-mail address is jsharkey@nytimes.com. |
1200091_0 | Discovering the Finer Side of Rum | A FELLOW on the Internet says that he has collected 3,688 different rum labels from 81 countries. If he's correct (and he offers to show his collection to anyone interested), then there are probably more rums than there are brands of beer. More conservative accounts put the number of rums around the world at about 1,500, which is still impressive. The point is that rum has become, in numbers at least, a major player in the spirits world, more in league with whiskey than with elegant rivals like Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados. Bacardi alone produces more than 20 million cases of rum a year in distilleries in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Spain and the Bahamas, at least half of them sold in this country. In fact, Bacardi rum from Puerto Rico is the largest-selling single brand of any kind of spirits, with white rum outselling the darker varieties by about three to one. Rum leads a double life -- triple, actually. There are dark, aged rums, prized by connoisseurs; there are white, almost flavorless rums, used for mixed drinks; and there are flavored rums, like Seagram's wildly popular Captain Morgan, which are livened up with spices and fruit flavors like banana and mango. Light rums, most of them from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, are made in big commercial plants. The connoisseurs' rums are often made in small stills and aged for years in oak barrels. Technically, these rums are brandies, like Cognac and Armagnac, and like fine brandies, they can improve for half a century or more. Some of the best include Bacardi Anejo; Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old, from Jamaica; Barbancourt 15 Year Old Reserve, from Haiti; Barcelo Grand Anejo, from the Dominican Republic; Mount Gay Extra Old, from Barbados; Flor de Cana Centenario 12 Year Old, from Nicaragua; St.-James Hors d'Age, from Martinique; and Demerara Eldorado, 15 Year Old, from Guyana. The price range is $30 to $250, depending on age and scarcity. This year, Bacardi will introduce 8 Millennium, a limited edition rum at $750 a bottle. What distinguishes these rums are smoothness, elegance and deep, rich flavor. Cuban rums are banned in the United States, but like Cuban cigars, they turn up in private collections. All rum is made from sugar or, more precisely and more often, from the molasses that is a byproduct of sugar production. It all started after the Spanish introduced |
1200040_2 | Tread Dread: Solving The Mystery of Tires | want more road grip, better mud-and-snow traction or a longer life span for tires. ''The replacement market is a different animal,'' said Robert Carroll, the vice president of original equipment marketing for Michelin. ''What you're looking at is trying to service a customer to meet his consumer needs.'' Getting a grip can mean sacrifices, Mr. Carroll and other tire experts point out. Speed-oriented tires may compromise fuel efficiency, tread life and all-season traction in favor of dry-pavement performance. To gain the latter, such tires often have more rigid sidewalls than their cushier brethren, meaning a harsher ride. ''Comfort is what Americans crave,'' Mr. Carroll said. But he also noted that Americans are very image-conscious. A fast driver may try to buy his way up the performance-tire chain but find himself sorely disappointed by what he gets. ''The normal American, who is buying that tire for image, perhaps, would find that car so nervous when he's driving down the highway that he couldn't even have a cup of coffee because he has to have both hands on the wheel,'' Mr. Carroll said. For the driving enthusiast who wants total road feel and catlike traction, the cost of high-end performance tires, like the $145-a-tire Goodyear Eagle F1, makes sense. Such a buyer may own a multiseason set of tires, and a winter set, perhaps Firestone's $80 FT 70 C cold-weather tire, with its special rubber compound, mounted on separate wheels. At the opposite end of the spectrum, customers who are looking for extremely long-lived tires -- those that guarantee 80,000 or even 100,000 miles of tread wear instead of 40,000 miles, or those that can run for miles even after the air has leaked from them -- may not realize they could be trading away handling and gas-mileage advantages by paying a premium for peace of mind. Michelin's X-1 tire shows one trend in long tire life: for $120 a tire, the company guarantees six years of driving with no mileage limit. Some tires may complicate driving in the name of safety. Take the case of what manufacturers call extended-mobility tires, commonly called run-flats. Such tires have been appearing recently in luxury cars; Chevrolet's Corvette comes with them. Extended-mobility tires are designed so that for 50 miles or so, the sidewalls can hold the weight of the car even after air leaks out. ''I don't think the problem has been with them |
1200138_2 | Lessons; The Internet and Schools: A Vision and the Reality | Internet effectively is a truly daunting management challenge -- a lesson that corporate America relearns daily at frightful cost. School districts are in way over their heads. As many of the technology vendors at the show readily agreed, teachers and students need more time and training than they are getting to exploit the computer's potential. Some of the strongest testimony came in offhand remarks by participants in model programs who displayed their projects at the show. ''A scattered few teachers outside of the technology teachers know how to take advantage of the capabilities we have,'' said Greg Ordun, a senior at Montgomery High School in Skilman, N.J., who is Webmaster for his school's Internet site. Moreover, although Skilman is a wealthy suburb of Princeton and is bristling with home computers -- the Ordun family has nine, with Internet jacks in every room -- Greg said that ''a small percentage'' of the high school's students pay attention to the Web site, and some do not even know it exists. Many teachers and administrators are overwhelmed by the rapidly changing landscape, said David F. Warlick, a consultant based in Raleigh, N.C. ''We all know the classroom is already full,'' said Mr. Warlick, after running through the problems of large classes and the many demands that teachers face. ''It is an overstressed puzzle. How do we fit more in?'' The dangers are frequently discussed in education circles. Linking schools to the Internet clearly presents new privacy issues, like controlling access to classroom chat sites and children's records. Teachers have to be sure that students looking for information about the president go to www.whitehouse.gov, not www.whitehouse.com, which is a pornographic site. Safety and decency concerns aside, while the Internet opens new vistas for research, it also creates new opportunities to waste time accumulating false or misleading information. Other problems are more subtle. As Jeremy Rifkin says in his new book, ''The Age of Access'' (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam), the Internet may link students to a wider world, but life online needs to be surrounded with physical activity connected to it. Otherwise, students are unlikely to develop empathy for other people or the environment, a connection that Mr. Rifkin rightly singles out as a prerequisite for a healthy society. The challenge of getting that balance right is why new technology cannot, in the end, compensate for a shortage of creative, motivated and well-trained teachers and administrators. |
1200128_0 | Corrections | An article by Reuters in Science Times yesterday about the latest government report on causes of cancer misidentified the cancer that has been linked to the breast cancer drug tamoxifen. It is endometrial, not ovarian. |
1196714_0 | Rural School Is Now Wired to the World | The day began as it always does in Mrs. Wetherbee's third-grade class at Willow Creek Elementary School, and it proceeded routinely, from the Pledge of Allegiance through reading, writing exercises, math, science, geography and phys ed. But the class itself was unusual in a striking way: Nine-year-old Diamond Forbes is the only pupil Kathy Wetherbee is teaching this year in the one-room school in a remote part of the nation's least populous state. Nonetheless, Diamond has a powerful tool in the classroom -- an iMac computer for class work, homework and e-mail to help her keep pace with schoolmates in larger, more privileged districts here and across the country. Unlike most states, Wyoming has not taken a big bite of America's booming economy. Faced with sluggish job growth and a steady exodus of college graduates to other states, state officials focused on Internet access in the classroom as a critical component in equalizing educational opportunities and developing job skills. As a result, Wyoming this academic year became the first state to wire all its public schools -- even those as small and remote as Willow Creek, here in central Wyoming. And there are quite a few others: Among Wyoming's 234 elementary schools, 19 have fewer than 10 students this year. The state average is about eight students for every computer. ''Every child in Wyoming now has the opportunity to develop to his or her own potential,'' Gov. Jim Geringer, who began the push for statewide Internet access in schools more than five years ago, said in an interview. ''By finding a way to touch every school, the next great leader from business or government could come from that one place.'' Given Wyoming's rugged terrain and the isolation of many schools, it has been an ambitious and expensive project, $25 million for the first five years. But in financing the connections, state leaders recognized a desperate need to keep Wyoming children competitive or watch the state's economy fade and the population continue to slip, as it has since 1996 to the current level of 479,602. The state Legislature approved for every school not only Internet access but also a two-way interactive video system that maximizes teacher skills by allowing, for example, a Russian language instructor to address students in his own classroom as well as those at distant locations at the same time. By next month, all the state's 78 high |
1196755_0 | U.S. to Keep a Closer Watch On Genetically Altered Crops | Trying to ease consumer fears about genetically engineered foods, the Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that it would tighten its review of the products and develop guidelines for companies wanting to label them. The food and drug agency's announcement is part of a broader plan by the Clinton administration that includes increased financing of studies on the potential risks of genetically engineered plants and a review of environmental regulations. Under the plan, the Department of Agriculture will also take steps that could lead to a system in which genetically engineered crops are kept separate from those that have not been altered. Now, the crops are commonly harvested together, which has caused some foreign importers to reject American crops. The measures were announced after the food and drug agency held hearings on the growing concerns of consumers. Dr. Jane E. Henney, the commissioner of food and drugs, emphasized yesterday that ''F.D.A.'s scientific review continues to show that all bioengineered foods sold in the United States today are as safe as their nonbioengineered counterparts.'' Nevertheless, the agency said it would strengthen its policies and would write guidelines for companies that want to label foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients. But consumer groups said shoppers in American supermarkets were not likely to see much change. Most processed foods include genetically engineered ingredients, but that is not disclosed in labels. Jean Halloran, director of the Consumer Policy Institute at Consumers Union, said she feared that few food companies would label their foods because of the expense of meeting the government guidelines. ''This will make very little difference for consumers,'' Ms. Halloran said. To strengthen its policy, the food and drug agency also said yesterday that it would propose that biotechnology companies be required to talk to regulators about the safety of their new genetically engineered products at least 120 days before they are sold. That discussion is now voluntary. The nation's largest food companies had asked the administration for the change to help calm consumer fears. To ensure that regulators are also monitoring environmental risk, the Clinton administration said it planned to begin a six-month review of its current regulations. The Agriculture Department said yesterday that it planned to increase the $1.7 million it spends on research into the crops. The department also said it would work with farmers and industry to create new systems for keeping genetically engineered crops separate. It is |
1196658_0 | As Gadgets Shrink, They May Wind Up in Surprising Places | THE standard advice may be ''take two aspirin and call me in the morning.'' But it soon may become ''take these tablets and they will call me in the morning'' -- and in the afternoon and evening. That is what some researchers are predicting for the fast-growing field of embedded computing -- a futuristic place of microscopic medical devices packaged in grains of medicine as small as grains of sand. Within the decade, some researchers say, patients will swallow these tiny grains, and down will go microscopic sensors, microscopic processors and microscopic radio transceivers, all part of a delivery and communications network. The devices will, for instance, track a medical condition and release drugs to treat it while constantly sending wireless data transmissions on the patient's physiological responses to a portable server in the home. The data will then be sent via the Internet to the doctor. This medicine will be more than smart -- it will be downright voluble. But it is only one practical application expected to come out of a future wave of embedded devices in wireless networks. ''Such applications are nearer to happening than even educated observers might think,'' said Dr. Gaetano Borriello, a professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a co-author of the article ''Embedded Computation Meets the World-Wide Web,'' which appears in a special section on embedded computing and the Internet in the May issue of Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. Embedded devices are already all around us. ''Ninety-eight percent of all processors we have on the planet are not in desktop systems,'' Dr. Borriello said in an interview. ''They are, in fact, in cars, on factory floors, in homes.'' For example, he said, a dozen or so processors are found in an older car, a hundred or more in a newer one. These embedded devices are task-specific computers, he explained, ''so tailored that you don't think of them as computers -- for instance, the computer that controls your antilock brakes.'' But in the future, embedded devices will become even smaller and communicate wirelessly, as well as through wires, forming a universe of ubiquitous networked computing, said Dr. Borriello and many other researchers writing in the special issue. And one of the many applications of such networks would be for monitoring, medical and otherwise. This future network of physically embedded |
1196722_0 | A Nature Group Contracts to Buy and Preserve One of the Last Pristine Pacific Atolls | In a bid to preserve one of the most pristine places left in the tropical Pacific, the Nature Conservancy has agreed to buy Palmyra atoll, a spectacular cluster of uninhabited coral islets 1,052 miles south of Hawaii, from the Honolulu family that has owned it for nearly 80 years. The conservancy plans to create a nature preserve for marine and climate research and limited tourism that would be sensitive to the ecology. The precise purchase price was not disclosed, but officials of the Nature Conservancy say they must raise $37 million to buy the atoll and establish operations and an endowment, making the atoll the single most expensive acquisition in the 49-year history of the nonprofit conservancy, which is dedicated to preserving wild areas around the world. Palmyra has five times as many coral species as the Florida Keys and three times as many as Hawaii. It is home to the world's largest land invertebrate, the rare coconut crab, and a population of red-footed booby birds second only to that of the Galapagos Islands. ''It is the last marine wilderness area left in the U.S. tropics,'' said Chuck Cook, the conservancy's project director for Palmyra. ''The fact that there are no human pressures to speak of is unique and the opportunity to protect this pristine reef is fantastic. It is one of the few nesting areas for seabirds in a 450,000-square-mile area.'' The conservancy has already raised about $10 million, Mr. Cook said, and hopes to raise an additional $8 million by selling part of the area to the United States Interior Department for use as a federal fish and wildlife refuge. With 15 feet of rain a year, yet as much sunshine as Hawaii, Palmyra is a rare, ''wet'' atoll able to sustain life and vegetation, including one of the last remaining undisturbed stands of Pisonia grandis beach forest in the world. Over the years, Palmyra has been a stopping point for Pacific yachtsmen, a United States Navy supply base in World War II, the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump, of an unsuccessful coconut plantation and of various development schemes that never got off the ground. Two years ago it attracted the attention of Microsoft's Bill Gates, who considered buying it as his private getaway. But it is perhaps most famous as the scene of a 1974 slaying in which a married couple were killed and their |
1196717_0 | Birthrate Dips in Ex-Communist Countries | The collapse of Communism in 1989 produced a sharp drop in the fertility rate throughout Eastern and Central Europe that could reduce the region's population nearly 20 percent by the year 2050, according to a United Nations report issued today. With political collapse and economic uncertainty, many women almost immediately stopped having children or decided to delay motherhood, according to the report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, part of a larger economic survey of Europe. And in more developed countries, the transition to capitalism has produced new economic opportunities for both women and men, making early childbearing less common. A result will be a smaller labor pool and a quickly aging population, said Miroslav Macura, the chief of the population unit that prepared the report. With the rise in emigration and at least temporary increases in mortality rates in large parts of the region, which includes Russia and the European parts of the former Soviet Union, he said, a population of some 307 million could fall to about 250 million in the next 50 years. With the fall of Communism, real incomes have declined in the region and are only slowly recovering, with larger gaps between rich and poor. At the same time, governments have cut back support for families with children, while services like day-care centers have become private or more expensive. ''People have been impoverished and decided that having kids at a time of poverty and misery is not the right thing to do, so they cut back,'' Mr. Macura said in a telephone interview from Geneva. ''This is family downsizing comparable to company downsizing.'' Western Europe is also facing reductions in the fertility rate -- which measures the average number of children born to women of childbearing age -- and an aging population, which is raising the prospect of an economy without enough young, skilled workers to grow and pay for the rising number of pensioners. The answer is likely to be more immigration from Central and Eastern Europe, which may create new political problems in Western Europe and further diminish the skilled work force to the east. In Eastern and Central Europe, the decline in childbearing is much sharper than in the West. When a population has a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, it replaces itself, Mr. Macura said. But by 1997, the average fertility rate in the transition economies was |
1198185_0 | In Quest of Help for the Autistic | To the Editor: Re your May 6 front-page article about people's moving to places like New Jersey to avail themselves of the generous support given to children with autism: I was in the position for my 30 years on a child study team in New Jersey to take part in these placements. While I acknowledge the high cost to the various districts, this expense does have the potential to save the cost of institutionalizing these children. But the real effect of the federal law protecting the disabled is the abuse of services demanded by parents of nonhandicapped students. That is to say, students who exhibit less severe learning disabilities for which a diagnosis of auditory processing or attention deficit disorder can be made are classified and serviced to the limits of the law. The number of truly disabled students is far less than the number of those classified and receiving services without justification. HELENE BROAD West Orange, N.J., May 7, 2000 |
1198054_2 | The Pill at 40: New Uses for a Drug That Changed Society | warnings and stimulated research that resulted in safer products containing far smaller hormone doses, less than one-hundredth the amount of estrogen in the original pill. All the oral contraceptives work by suppressing the pituitary hormones that prompt the ovaries to release eggs ripe for fertilization. Most products contain synthetic versions of both estrogen and progesterone. The so-called minipills contain just synthetic progesterone (progestin). Although the minipill is slightly less effective than the combination pills, it can be used by women, like those who are breast-feeding, who cannot take estrogen. In both versions, the hormones are taken daily for 21 days, usually starting from the first day of a woman's menstrual cycle, then stopped to allow the built-up tissue lining the uterus to be shed as menstruation. Women can now choose from among 59 different products, all variations on the original theme. The types of synthetic estrogen and progestin, the dosages and the design of dispensing packets vary, and some products include seven dummy pills in addition to the 21 active ones to help women remember to take a pill each day. In 1984 Ortho Pharmaceuticals was the first to introduce a triphasic version of the pill, which provides three different hormone levels in the course of the month, more closely mimicking a woman's natural hormone cycle. Health Concerns The pill in its current formulations is a remarkably safe drug, and the overwhelming majority of women who take it experience neither minor side effects like breakthrough bleeding or serious health damage. Still, the pill today is sold with an insert mandated by the F.D.A. and filled with more facts, figures and warnings than most women would want to know but should know if they wish to avoid becoming a statistic. Blood clots, which can result in heart attacks, strokes, thrombophlebitis, pulmonary embolism or vision-impairing eye damage, are the most common serious side effect and are most likely to occur in women who smoke and in older women. A smoker in her middle to late 20's is seven times as likely to die as a nonsmoker from pill-related clots, and the older the woman, the more smoking increases her risk if she also takes the pill. Women who have already had a clot-related disorder are advised not to take the pill. For many years, women over 40 were told to avoid the pill because of clot-associated risks. Then, in 1989 an advisory |
1196545_1 | U.S. Plans Tougher Stance On Safety of Biotech Food | the safety of such foods, which are now included as ingredients in most processed foods sold in American supermarkets. ''The goal is to increase consumer confidence in the food supply,'' said the official, who would speak only on the condition of not being named. But some consumer groups criticized the plan last night, saying that it did not go far enough. The groups have demanded that such foods be labeled and tested for safety before they are approved for sale. ''Talking is not testing,'' said Andrew Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit group in Washington. The center has filed a lawsuit against the F.D.A., contending that its current policy on genetically engineered foods is illegal. The nation's largest trade group of food companies quickly praised the administration's plans. ''We believe the steps as they have been outlined to us are appropriate and responsive to the discussions that we've been having with F.D.A. officials and other government officials over the last few months,'' said Gene Grabowski, vice president for communications at the trade group, the Grocery Manufacturers of America. Dr. Jane E. Henney, the food agency administrator, is expected to announce the changes at a news conference that may also include Dan Glickman, the secretary of agriculture. The administration is also expected to ask for comments on new guidelines for food companies that want to label their products as being free of genetically engineered ingredients. Without those guidelines, regulators can easily challenge companies that try to label their foods. The administration has repeatedly assured consumers that all genetically engineered foods now being sold are safe to eat. But officials are under pressure to do more to reassure consumers because of a growing global debate over the safety of genetically engineered plants and the foods that are harvested from them. European countries no longer buy corn grown by America's export-dependent farmers because of the concerns. And consumer fears are now spreading to Asian countries like Japan, and more slowly to the United States. A few American food companies, worried that consumers could boycott their products, have decided to avoid genetically engineered ingredients. Frito Lay, for instance, has asked the farmers that supply it with corn not to plant genetically engineered varieties. Genetically engineered crops, first sold in 1995, have quickly become a success. Farmers have bought up the altered seeds, which can save them time and boost productivity. |
1196556_1 | Recalling a Victory for the Disabled | meeting the promises it made in the settlement, and no reparations, or even apologies, have been made. The participants acknowledged that the decree had succeeded, to a degree. Only 8 of the state's 20 mental institutions remain, and the number of people in such institutions has decreased to fewer than 1,000 from 25,000, according to the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which was created after the consent decree. The decree is considered to be one of the most successful social policy changes of its type, especially when compared with the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, in which services for those affected have lagged. But lawyers who represent the 3,600 remaining members of the Willowbrook Class said the case was technically still open, and that they often had to threaten to get an injunction to ensure that the state met its agreements. ''It's sort of a continuous game of chicken,'' said Beth Haroulas of the New York Civil Liberties Union, adding that she still saw reports of abuse, neglect and inadequate medical care in group homes. And, she said, Willowbrook Class members are better off than other mentally retarded people. Their case managers have lighter loads -- 20 as opposed to 30 -- and the quality of their care is more closely monitored. Many of the conference panelists made a point of saying there was room for improvement. One with a particularly dramatic story to tell was Bernard Carabello, who entered Willowbrook when he was 3, and stayed for 18 years, even though he was not retarded. Mr. Carabello has cerebral palsy, which does not impair mental functioning. Now a governor-appointed advocate for the developmentally disabled, Mr. Carabello said the main problems in the field today involved community relations: neighborhoods often do not welcome group homes and those who live in them are often isolated from their communities. During question-and-answer sessions, parents of school-age mentally retarded children said they, too, felt isolated. Without the rallying point of Willowbrook, one mother said, they lacked unity, especially since the group homes spread their children throughout the state. ''I feel like you hand the responsibility over to me as a parent, yet no one has ever backed me up along the way,'' one mother said. Present problems aside, the gathering was, for some, an emotional trip to the past. Several of the participants, including William Bronston, one of the Willowbrook doctors who |
1196424_1 | Why Are These Commuters Smiling? | spent an average of 45 hours a year sitting in traffic, up from 16 hours in 1982. Los Angeles had the highest average delay, at 82 hours. Users of mass transportation, though smaller in number, tell horror stories of delayed trains and overcrowded subway platforms. Yet, a breed of worker is flourishing that actually likes the daily commute. Some simply sit back and enjoy the ride; others have figured out ways to make the ride more interesting, and still others -- like Mr. Murray -- have switched from cars or trains to more exotic forms of transport. The common theme is to try, somehow, to make one of life's great frustrations one of the day's great rewards. Jacqueline Skinner, a travel consultant in Manhattan, is a traditionalist who has commuted by train since 1959. Her favorite commute, she says, began on ''the day Elvis died'' in 1977 when she first took the 8:03 a.m. Metro North train from New Canaan, Conn., to Grand Central. ''Everybody knows everybody,'' said Mrs. Skinner, who recently got a cake for her 70th birthday from the train's engineer and conductor. ''In the morning, it's like a kaffeeklatsch.'' In the 60's and 70's, she rode the 6:10 p.m. ''party train'' home and luxuriated in the smoky bar car, where bartenders hired three-piece combos on holidays. Every Christmas, Mrs. Skinner dressed up as Santa and handed out gifts. Though she has since switched to the more sedate 5:05 p.m. train, she still considers the ride a high point of her day. The three-piece combos are long gone, but long-running card games and bar cars endure as institutions on the Metro North line. Two years ago, Tom Skinner (no relation to Jacqueline), executive producer for Touchscreen Media Group, an Internet company based in New York, started the Web site www.barcar.com to give commuters a way to keep in touch once they left the train. Contributors post jokes and photos and comment on just about everything. One popular section, named ''The Blue Lagoon'' after a blue disinfectant used to clean the toilets, invites visitors to submit opinions of the train's restrooms. New Canaan bar-car riders have posted their own Web page on the site, decorate their bar car with lights each Christmas, are fiercely loyal to their bartender, Vinnie, and tend to be a little cliquish. ''If someone new walks in, they have to tell one good joke that |
1196574_0 | Maybe They Should Just Send In a Camera Crew | Keystrokes and phone calls, log-ons and e-mail messages -- increasingly, these workday activities are falling under employers' scrutiny. The number of companies that engaged in at least one form of surveillance of workers surged to 66 percent this year from 45 percent in 1999, according to an American Management Association survey. When monitoring of Internet use, new to the survey, is added to the mix, the proportion of companies that snoop on employees leaps to 74 percent. In fact, more companies are tracking Internet use than any other office activity, perhaps because the potential for visiting inappropriate sites is so great. Checking on telephone calls -- the number made and to whom -- comes in second place, though actually listening in on conversations is much farther down the list. Workplace monitoring can lead to disciplinary action. And though telephone misuse accounted for a larger percentage of punishments over all, misuse of e-mail or the Internet was more likely to result in dismissals. Eighty-five percent of the companies told employees of the monitoring, but Ellen Bayer, speaking for the management group, said workers should be reminded. It has to permeate more levels than just posting it in an e-mail, she said. You need to disseminate in numerous channels -- and then reinforce it. KATHLEEN O'BRIEN TRENDS |
1198355_0 | PATAKI PROPOSES A FISCAL BAILOUT OF NASSAU COUNTY | Gov. George E. Pataki went to Nassau County today offering a $100 million state bailout to help one of the nation's wealthiest counties avert financial ruin. In return, the debt-ridden county has to allow the state to monitor its finances and future budgets and agree to make large spending cuts over the next four years. If the county fails to make the required spending cuts -- $50 million this year and an additional $70 million in each of the next three years -- the state will withhold the aid and impose a more powerful financial control board with the power to tell the county what cuts to make and even to abrogate civil service contracts. ''It is a carrot and stick,'' Governor Pataki said as he announced the plan, which he said could restore the county to fiscal stability without raising taxes. His proposal requires the approval of county officials and the State Legislature; leaders of both parties on both levels of government reacted favorably to the plan today and said they expected it to pass. The governor took the extraordinary steps of intervening in the affairs of a local government -- and of pledging millions in state aid to the wealthy county -- after years of unbalanced budgeting left Nassau County running out of money during one of the longest periods of economic prosperity in the nation's history. The plan would include $100 million in state aid spread out over five years and would set up a financial authority with the ability to sell new bonds, guaranteed by the county's sales tax revenue. That would allow Nassau County to borrow money at a lower interest rate than the county, whose bonds are hovering just above junk status, can now get on its own. The arrangement is intended to buy the county time while it makes severe, long-term spending cuts. In announcing his fiscal recovery plan, the governor said that he wanted to ensure that a county of vital economic importance to the state did not go bankrupt. Credit rating agencies have already threatened to reduce the county's bond rating to junk status if it does not put a financial plan in place by June 30. Wall Street reacted guardedly. ''This gives them more time, but it highlights the necessity to come up with real, ongoing changes in the fiscal operation of the county,'' said Steven Murphy, a managing director |
1201527_4 | Renting Software and the Skills to Go With It | with USinternetworking to deliver application services over AT&T's planned high-speed networks through an AT&T program called Ecosystem. Eventually, analysts predict, buying a business network computing service will be like choosing a telephone calling plan. ''Businesses aren't going to say, 'I want a D.S.L. line,' '' said Kneko Burney, director of markets and computing for Cahners In-Stat, referring to a type of high-speed Internet connection. ''They'll say, 'We want these business services.' '' Analysts say another factor driving growth is an increasing confidence that businesses have with the security of online communications. Because of that confidence, they are willing to make the offerings of application providers available to more employees. And businesses say they are reaping substantial savings by renting software remotely rather than buying it and installing it on site. An e-mail system, for example, can cost a company several hundred dollars for each employee to operate internally each month. By contracting with an outsider, some businesses say they can get the cost down to about $100. Other services, like travel booking and expense management, are often priced for each transaction. Some analysts predict that only the most mundane and basic computing programs, like word processing, are likely to remain on the hard disks of office computers as A.S.P.'s gain momentum. Rave, with 55 employees, has contracted with Agiliti to provide and maintain the company's e-mail, accounting and order management systems -- all for a monthly per-employee fee. Mr. Golden, Rave's chief financial officer, says the Agiliti contract has allowed Rave to avoid hiring the additional technical staff the company would have needed to handle those activities. Because of the Agiliti deal, Rave's entire internal computing operations can now be performed by one staff member, working half-time. Rave's information-technology spending is only 2 percent of sales, rather than the 5 percent Mr. Golden had been budgeting before signing with Agiliti. Contracting with an application provider has also meant that Rave can afford to use the latest accounting software, which would otherwise have been too expensive to buy for each employee, Mr. Golden said. Among bigger businesses, the construction company Morrison Knudsen decided to farm out management of its e-mail system after its acquisition of another company required adding nearly 6,000 e-mail addresses virtually overnight. ''Imagine how long it would take to do that ourselves,'' said Brian Bertlin, information services director of Morrison Knudsen, based in Boise, Idaho. Morrison Knudsen also |
1201549_3 | Two inventors honored for seminal work on the balloon catheter and wireless communications. | hooked. By the time he was 12, he had patched together his own ham radio from junkyard parts. At age 16, he earned his amateur radio operator's license. But Mr. Gross was restless being anchored to the desk-bound ham radio. ''I wanted to be able to walk around and talk to other hams,'' Mr. Gross said. He experimented with a hand-held radio that made use of unexploited frequencies above 100 megahertz. By 1938 he had created a mobile ham radio that worked. He dubbed it the ''walkie-talkie.'' Soon came World War II, and Mr. Gross, who was then 22, was invited down to Washington to demonstrate his walkie-talkie in front of William J. Donovan, the founder of the Office of Strategic Services -- the precursor to the C.I.A. ''Donovan liked the idea,'' Mr. Gross said. ''He recruited me and converted me from a civilian to a captain.'' Mr. Gross's top-secret mission in the O.S.S. was to develop a two-way air-to-ground voice communications system so that spies in enemy territory could transmit information to allied pilots flying overhead. By 1941, Mr. Gross had perfected such a system. The Joint Chiefs of Staff later said the project, code-named ''Joan-Eleanor,'' was among the Allies' ''most successful wireless intelligence-gathering operations, saving millions of lives by shortening the war.'' Shortly before the end of the war, Mr. Gross demonstrated the O.S.S. walkie-talkie to the Federal Communications Commission's chairman, E. K. Jett, who was so impressed he wrote an article for the Saturday Evening Post titled ''Phone Me By Air.'' The article announced the creation of a Citizens' Radio Communications Service that would allow for private, short-range radio transmissions. In it, Mr. Jett marveled at the possibilities of what he referred to as ''handie-talkies.'' A staged photo accompanying the article featured a milkman talking into a radio that, minus the antenna, somewhat resembles a modern-day cell phone, except that it is about the size of a large loaf of bread. ''Handie-talkies may result in a civilian world seething with airborne languages,'' the caption predicts. ''Even the milkman can be reached en route and told to go back and leave an extra quart of Grade-A for Mrs. Ramsay.'' Mr. Gross, who left the O.S.S. to form his own electronics company, was the first to get a citizens' band license from the F.C.C. His target market was not milkmen but farmers who, while they were in the fields |
1201518_0 | Tinkering With Food | To the Editor: ''Crop Genetics on the Line in Brazil'' (Business Day, May 16) points to the need for all countries to ban genetically modified foods quickly. Such a ban should not be lifted until there is proof that tampering with the integrity of food will not adversely affect the health of those who are exposed to a steady diet of such products over a period of several decades or the health of their descendants. Nothing could be more foolish than to allow an industry's profits to take precedence over the entire population's health. With Brazil at the point of decision on legalizing this technology, the time for a multilateral ban is at hand. ELLIOTT ROBERTSON Jersey City, May 17, 2000 |
1201556_4 | Agent's Role In Music Site May Be Shift In Rights War | based in San Mateo, Calif., has been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for reportedly facilitating music piracy in a pending case that many expect to set a precedent. The association, and the five major record labels it represents, say its artists are losing tens of millions of dollars a year because of rampant music piracy on the Internet, a practice the trade group says threatens to undermine the very economics of the creation of music. Hilary Rosen, the president of the recording industry association, said the group was aware of Scour Exchange's activities and was considering its options. But she said the organization did not want to rush to file lawsuits against each Napster-like service, hoping the decision in that case case might dissuade copycats. ''We don't have any interest in litigating our way through the Internet,'' she said. But in reality, the industry association might simply lack the resources to file enough lawsuits given the boom in these services and the complexity of the attendant technology. Most recently, a 23-year-old Irish programmer created Freenet, which would enable people to share files online directly with one another in a way that would make it virtually impossible for copyright holders to find a central database or hub to blame for the interaction. Therein lies a key argument of Mr. Rodrigues and Scour Exchange. They contend that the free exchange of files online may be inevitable, so media companies might as well get on board. ''We're trying to work with entertainment companies to help them use it,'' Mr. Rodrigues said, adding, ''Ovitz has been instrumental to us in leveraging entertainment relationships he has.'' Scour has some agreements with other companies aimed at helping users to download multimedia files in a way that protects copyright. For instance, Liquid Audio, a company that makes technology to enable digital distribution of music in a way that protects copyright and that is a partner of some of the major record labels has a deal with Scour to enable it to sell several encrypted songs on the site. Andrea Cook Fleming, vice president of marketing for Liquid Audio, said Liquid Audio is providing an alternative to people who might otherwise pirate music, rather than pay for it. Another company that has signed a deal with Scour is Nettwerk Productions, an independent record label aiming to promote one of its up-and-coming artists, a musician named |
1203165_1 | ULSTER UNIONISTS BACK A JOINT ROLE WITH I.R.A.'S ALLIES | disappointment last November, when he won his party's support for agreeing to joint rule with Sinn Fein the first time. That government was suspended by Britain after only nine weeks, when the I.R.A. failed to respond with expected moves to begin disarming. ''We have operated in reliance on promises made by the republican movement, and let there be absolutely no doubt this time that my colleagues and I will hold the republican movement to the promises they made,'' he said. On May 6, the I.R.A. pledged to permit inspections of its secret arms supplies and to ''completely and verifiably'' put its arms ''beyond use.'' Its earlier failure to address disarmament had blocked progress in realizing the provisions of the peace settlement of April 1998. The growing opposition in Mr. Trimble's own party, bolstered by the hard-line Democratic Unionists led by the Rev. Ian Paisley, mounted a challenge that obliged Mr. Trimble to postpone the meeting, originally scheduled last Saturday, to today. Hours after this afternoon's vote, the British Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson, signed the order to restore home rule. The 10-man cabinet is to meet on Thursday, and the first session of the Northern Ireland Assembly is set for June 5. More than 3,600 people have died in the last three decades of sectarian violence. The 1998 accord is an effort to balance the interests of pro-British Protestants and pro-Irish Catholics and turn their dispute from a violent one into a political one. Mr. Trimble today said he expected to see action ''within weeks'' on the I.R.A.'s pledge to open its hidden arsenals to inspection by two monitors, the former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari, and the former general secretary of the African National Congress, Cyril Ramaphosa. They said they would visit arms caches to verify that weapons are locked away and disassembled, and would report to John De Chastelain of Canada, a retired general and head of an international commission overseeing the disarmament. In the last two weeks, there has been fevered campaigning by Trimble supporters and opponents. Across the province there were door-to-door visits, saturation telephone canvassing and leafleting. Some party members from farm areas complained of the aggressive tactics of the anti-agreement campaigners and said they preferred the quiet persuasion of Mr. Trimble. In an emotional appeal to the delegates at the closed meeting today, Mr. Trimble warned that a ''No'' vote would consign the party to |
1203163_0 | Cell Phones Proliferate on Highways, Raising Safety Concerns | As millions of Americans travel this Memorial Day weekend they are joined by family, friends and what has become for many an indispensable companion on a car trip, the cellular phone. Tens of thousands of other drivers will also be on the highways equipped with wireless and Internet hookups in vehicles that can deliver faxes to the driver's seat, provide maps to neighborhood streets or faraway destinations, or route hungry travelers to a good restaurant. The information highway is merging with the nation's highways at breakneck speed, and safety experts fear that with so many distractions -- even television -- the devices may lead to more traffic accidents. Some law enforcement officials say cell phones have become the most common distraction on the highway, and some have begun to note an increase in accidents caused by drivers using cell phones. But safety researchers say no reliable data exists that shows cell phone usage by motorists to be any more distracting than tuning car radios or drinking coffee while driving. In any event, the proliferation of cell phone use by drivers has raised the concerns of public safety officials and the telecommunications industry. A few communities, but no states, have banned the use of hand-held phones while driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a report two years ago, recommended more research about cell phones in cars, more education of drivers about their use and tracking by the police when phones are thought to be involved in accidents. Law enforcement officers say their experience tells them that drivers are violating common sense. ''Most of the communications found in the office and home are becoming commonplace in cars and trucks and there's no question they can be very distracting,'' said Col. Charles C. Hall, director of the Florida Highway Patrol. ''Put a telephone in the hand of a very aggressive driver and you have a greater problem.'' The industry estimates that Americans now own more than 92 million cell phones, up from 69 million in 1998 and about 6 million 10 years ago. Surveys show that four out of five cell phone owners will place or receive calls while driving. One out of four, however, phone frequently. Cell phones in use are expected to more than quadruple in the United States to about 235 million by 2005. Moreover, auto manufacturers are preparing to provide millions of new cars with voice-activated high-tech |
1175644_3 | Web Attacks Might Have Many Sources | e-commerce session. The large number of requests overwhelms the victim's servers, preventing customers from gaining access to the site. To prevent any tracing of these requests, the vandals employ a practice called spoofing, which alters the initiating address. The second type, known as a smurf attack, again involves the use of compromised machines, but it also employs a large third-party network of computers to ''amplify'' the data used in the attack and greatly increases the effectiveness of the assault. It is believed that Stanford's network of computers may have been used in this way in the attack on Yahoo. Security experts say it is simple to configure networks so they cannot be used in a smurf attack, yet many sites do not know to take these steps. Computer security experts noted that the large numbers of computers used to initiate the attacks this week made tracing those attacks very difficult. ''At this point, there's been so much traffic thrown at these people that it's pretty hard to do a trace,'' said Joel de la Garza of the Kroll-O'Gara Information Security Group, a risk mitigation company. Moreover, companies whose computers are hijacked and then used as platforms for an assault often have no idea of the problem, even as the assault is going on, computer security experts said. Vandals can activate the assault from a remote location, and to a company or an individual whose computer is being used, the only impact may appear to be a slowdown in the activity of the network. Victim companies and security experts said today that in some cases the attacks seemed more complicated than originally thought -- reinforcing how difficult they are to prevent. Excite@Home, for example, said it sought to take precautionary measures in light of the earlier attacks but was still unable to keep its Web site from being crippled for at least half an hour. ''To the best of our knowledge, a site cannot take preventative measures against the attacks without the help of others,'' said Kelly Distefano, an Excite@Home spokeswoman. She said the company would have needed more cooperation from the companies that provide Excite network services. Peter Neumann, principal scientist at SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif., reiterated that the success of the attacks had shown that Internet sites were not taking adequate precautions to prevent themselves from being used for attacks. ''It's time people woke up,'' Mr. Neumann |
1180293_5 | Return Passage to India: Emigres Pay Back | magnetic pull on Indian students and other Indian professionals. Last year, a third of the 115,000 visas the United States issued to skilled workers went to Indians. ''Can I be frank?'' asked Suman Kar, a 20-year-old senior at the Bombay institute, as he explained why he has accepted a job in Silicon Valley. ''It's the money.'' He said his new job will pay about $60,000 a year, seven times what he would have earned here. Graduates of the institutes have been the most sought-after Indians in Silicon Valley -- and Indians there have done very well, indeed. AnnaLee Saxenian, an economist at Berkeley, documented in an analysis of a Dun & Bradstreet database that 750 companies there are run by Indians. Those companies produce more than $3.5 billion in sales and employ more than 16,000 people. And as Indians have risen to positions of influence in corporate suites throughout the American economy, they have played a crucial role in giving credibility to business people based in India who are selling software services to American companies. ''When the Indian guy comes knocking at your door, selling something, the first thought on your mind isn't snakes and elephants,'' said Mr. Singh, formerly of Microsoft. Software exports from India grew by more than 50 percent a year in the 1990's as businesses here found a niche in employing high-skilled, low-wage computer engineers in India to write computer code for businesses abroad. The industry now employs 280,000 people and is expected to have $4 billion in revenues this year, a majority from sales to American companies, according to the New Delhi-based National Association of Software and Service Companies. Professor Saxenian had once thought that few of them would take their money or themselves back to India, but a recent visit to Bangalore changed her view. She ran into an Indian entrepreneur from the valley, Sanjay Anandaram, and learned that he had returned to help start a new company that will develop and finance Indian technology ventures -- and he was not exceptional. ''Change is happening fast,'' she said. ''At every level, you see personal and business connections to India that were not there even two years ago.'' The declining financial situation of the institutes is one of the factors drawing them back. In 1993, the government cut its funding of the institutes and for the first time allowed individuals to donate money directly to |
1180165_1 | New Method of Altering Plants Is Aimed at Sidestepping Critics | over the role of genetic engineering in agricultural biotechnology. Dr. Jefferson argues that the high degree of genetic overlap between the plants -- indeed, among all living things -- suggests that much of the gene swapping among species that has stirred up so much opposition to genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Perhaps, instead of moving a valuable trait like resistance to cold from a fish to a plant, genetic engineers could achieve the same result by goading the plant into a mutation that activates genes for cold tolerance already present in its DNA. Dr. Jefferson, a native of Berkeley, Calif., is not opposed to moving genes among different forms of life. In fact, he first made his mark in biotechnology at the University of Colorado in 1985 by inventing a way to track the location and activity of genes as researchers moved them from one species to another. In 1987, in one of the first field tests of a genetically altered food crop, he raised genetically altered potatoes at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge, England. Today, though, Dr. Jefferson's nonprofit research center, known as Cambia, is pouring resources into a project to jumble and rejumble the on-off patterns of rice genes, hoping to unleash traits buried in rice that evolution might not get around to exhibiting for millions of years, if ever. Promising mutants -- say rice that produces vitamin A in the grain -- could be developed into viable crops in developing countries within four or five years by crossing them with existing crops, according to Dr. Andrzej Kilian, who was hired to run the research. And Cambia is working with partners to apply the same concepts to cassava, cowpea and other plants vital to food supplies in developing countries. ''Evolution uses random forces all the time,'' Dr. Kilian said. ''We are trying to speed it up and make it manageable.'' Laboratory-driven mutation work is just one of many Cambia projects aimed at the needs of farmers in developing countries. Dr. Jefferson hopes such efforts will create a way for small businesses and developing countries to exploit biotechnology while skirting the fortress of patents that Monsanto, DuPont and other multinational giants have assembled. And that, in turn, could please some current critics of biotechnology. ''It's a noble effort,'' said Hope Shand, research director of the Rural Advancement Foundation International U.S.A., a group based in Pittsford, N.C., which has |
1180275_3 | WORLD BRIEFING | pages in a prison cell as he awaited execution. (Reuters) ISRAEL: ENVOY GOES HOME -- With negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians still at an impasse, the State Department's chief Middle East peace negotiator, Dennis Ross, said he was returning to Washington to consult with the White House. His week of meetings with leaders on both sides did not succeed in ''overcoming the difficulties'' that have deadlocked the talks, Mr. Ross said. William A. Orme, Jr. (NYT) IRAQ: AIR STRIKES RESUME -- American and British warplanes struck targets in northern Iraq and an Iraqi spokesman accused them of bombing civilians. The United States said the warplanes hit Iraqi air defenses after antiaircraft guns fired on them. There were no reported casualties. (Reuters) AFRICA SENEGAL: ELECTION RUNOFF LIKELY -- For the first time in its history, Senegal was expected to hold a run-off election to choose a president for the next seven years. Results from voting on Sunday were not expected to be finalized until later this week. Neither President Abdou Diouf nor his main rival, Abdoulaye Wade, appeared to be able to garner the 50 percent of the votes necessary to win in the first round. Norimitsu Onishi (NYT) NIGERIA: MORE RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE -- At least 50 people were killed in riots in the southeastern city of Aba as local Christian Ibos battled Hausa-speaking immigrants from Muslim northern Nigeria, city residents said. They said the riots were a direct response to the violence that killed hundreds of people in the north last week. The fighting erupted last Monday at a protest by Christians against Muslim demands for the introduction of Islamic law in Kaduna state. (Reuters) ASIA CHINA: DEATH FOR EMBEZZLEMENT -- China has sentenced a local official to death for embezzling funds from the massive Three Gorges dam project, state radio said. Huang Faxiang, director of the land management bureau in Fengdu county, was found guilty of misappropriating $1.88 million earmarked for the resettlement of people displaced by the project, it said. China has been waging a campaign to halt corruption. (Reuters) INDONESIA: KISSINGER AS CONSULTANT -- Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said he had accepted a job as adviser to President Abdurrahman Wahid in an effort to assist Indonesia in its transition to democracy. The appointment appeared to be a gesture by Mr. Wahid to boost confidence in his reform program. (AP) Compiledy by Joseph R. Gregory |
1178710_2 | City's Rules For Shelters Held Illegal | today isn't about whether work is good or bad for people. It's clearly in no one's interest to have New Yorkers who suffer from mental or physical or social dysfunction on the sidewalks of the city, and that's what today's decision prevents.'' Lawyers for the city had argued that safeguards would distinguish between people who were capable of meeting the requirements and those who were too mentally or physically impaired to do so. But Justice Sklar found this confidence misguided and noted that the regulations did not include an exemption for those impaired by ''social dysfunction,'' a category specifically protected by the decree. ''Defendants have suggested that the change in social climate, and the demonstrably better system which has developed since 1981 to aid and shelter the homeless, constitutes a significant change in circumstances'' that legally justifies modifying the decree, Justice Sklar wrote. ''However, as admirable as the new system is in comparison to the old,'' Justice Sklar wrote, '' 'socially dysfunctional' people continue to exist, and to inhabit the streets of New York in fair weather and foul, and no change in circumstance, social or otherwise, warrants that these individuals should no longer receive succor.'' The decision was not an easy one, Justice Sklar wrote. Among the affidavits supporting the Giuliani administration's position, he noted, were those of people passionately committed to improving the lives of the homeless, who believe that the regulations can compel some people to change their behavior and end their dependency on the shelters system. But equally compelling, the justice said, was testimony from mental health and medical experts that the difficulties of diagnosing illness and treating some of the most vulnerable people, combined with the ''innumerable bureaucratic requirements'' in the regulations, ''will result in an explosion of homeless individuals, banished or barred from shelters, risking their health, and perhaps their lives, on the often bitterly cold, and palpably dangerous streets of a sadly indifferent city.'' The 1981 pact, known as the Callahan decree, was named for Robert Callahan, a hard-drinking, homeless short-order cook who was one of the original plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit the city settled after hard-fought negotiations. He died on a street in Lower Manhattan before the decree was issued. A city lawyer, Leonard Koerner, chief assistant corporation counsel, agreed with Mr. Banks that yesterday's decision was a forceful reaffirmation of the court decree. ''They won,'' he said of the plaintiffs. |
1178772_0 | Women's Earnings: What a Difference a Degree Makes | For women, the pay gap between the educational haves and have-nots has widened inexorably over the last two decades. In 1980, high-school dropouts earned 57 percent as much as college graduates, but by 1998 that ratio had slid to 40 percent. Minority women are catching up in education: in 1998, almost as many Hispanic women (41 percent) and black women (56 percent) had at least some college, as did white women (60 percent). Minority women have continued to lag in terms of their incomes, no matter what their education, but Hispanic women have done significantly better than black women. While the mean income of white women with college degrees rose 48 percent from 1980 to 1997 and the income of Hispanic women was up 42 percent, the income of black women with college degrees rose only 21 percent. On the other hand, for women with less than a high school diploma, the income gap narrowed during the same time period. The mean income of white women fell 18 percent while that of Hispanic women rose 7 percent and that of black women rose 16 percent. Mary Mattis, senior research fellow at Catalyst, a research group in New York, said that although white women are not part of the network of white male power brokers, minority women are even less so. ALISA TANG TRENDS |
1178664_2 | MANAGEMENT: Joy for Second-String M.B.A.'s; Elites and Internet Change Face of Campus Recruiting | last year as the booming economy has kept in the work force people who might otherwise have taken time off to give their careers an M.B.A. boost. Many deans also fret about the long-term threat of the top schools' cutting into the second-tier schools' revenue by offering programs over the Internet. The prestigious additions to their recruiting lists, the deans said, will help their marketing efforts. Life just got easier for the recruiters, too. Accustomed to wooing freshly minted Harvard and Stanford M.B.A.'s caught up in dreams of Internet riches, they are suddenly encountering students who are generally thrilled to see them and eager to sign up at their firms. ''I'm tremendously excited,'' said Vivian Chen, 29, a second-year student at Washington University who recently accepted a job at Salomon Smith Barney. When recruiters for the firm came to her school in St. Louis for the first time this year, but did not interview for the kind of job Ms. Chen wanted, she used connections through an alumnus and her internship at another firm last summer to land an interview at a Salomon office. ''It was a joint effort,'' Ms. Chen said, a combination of ''a firm willing to expand its horizons'' and ''my tenacity.'' When recruiters do find what they are looking for, a bonus often comes attached: cheaper labor. Students at lower-ranked schools -- whose average starting pay packages are about $80,000, some $30,000 less than the typical student at the top schools would draw -- are less likely to have lucrative competing offers that would force a firm to bid up their salaries. The big uncertainty now is whether the trend will reverse when the economy slows or Internet businesses go through a retrenchment. Deans at the second-tier schools say that the students of today are the recruiters of tomorrow and that the current wave of hiring will allow the schools to establish a long-term presence at the firms. ''Once I have my people on the inside,'' Professor Greenbaum said, ''I don't expect to get pushed out.'' If that is the case, middling students at the top schools could eventually lose out to star performers at lesser-ranked institutions. Others looking at the trend are not so sure, though. ''I'm hoping they'll come back to us'' and try to hire as many graduates in future years as they now are, said Roxanne Hori, the director of career management |
1173262_1 | British, Irish and Americans Scramble to Save Ulster Power-Sharing | a midnight deadline Monday night. But he said that whatever language General de Chastelain used could not mask the fact that no destruction of weapons had taken place. The I.R.A. issued a statement in Belfast tonight that made no mention of arms turnovers but pledged its belief in a ''permanent peace.'' The clandestine organization said the fact it was holding to its cease-fire was proof of its commitment. ''The I.R.A.'s guns are silent and there is no threat to the peace process from the I.R.A.,'' the three-paragraph comment concluded. Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the I.R.A.'s political wing, warned that the entire peace undertaking in Northern Ireland was now in jeopardy. ''If the Ulster Unionist party either walks away from the process or forces the governments to collapse this process, then I don't see how we are going to put it together again,'' he said. Mr. Adams contests Mr. Trimble's claim that the I.R.A. is obliged to start disarming now, saying the only operative deadline is the date of May 22 in the original peace agreement. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson, locked in intense discussions in Dublin with the Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, continued to keep the language of the report of the weapons monitoring agency private, saying, ''We need to create a small breathing space to see if we can find a solution to the crisis we are facing.'' In Washington, Mr. Clinton said the White House was ''heavily involved'' in trans-Atlantic talks. ''It would be a tragedy if it were derailed,'' he said of the peace settlement. ''But in order to keep it going, everybody's going to have to, you know, honor the terms of the agreement.'' Mr. Blair's spokesman said London and Dublin would decide their next moves during the coming days, adding, ''There are clearly difficult judgments to be addressed.'' He said, ''You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that we are not as far down the road as we would like to be, but that doesn't mean we are at he end of the road.'' London and Dublin are sponsors of the April 1998 agreement brokered by former United States Senator George J. Mitchell that created the new assembly in Belfast and a group of other governmental bodies devised to balance the desires of the Protestant majority that Ulster remain part of Britain and of the Catholic minority that the |
1173259_0 | A Wedge in the Cuban Embargo | Cubans have been told for many years that the decades-long American trade embargo against their country prevents them from buying even aspirin from their northern neighbor. President Fidel Castro has long used American restrictions on the sale of medicines and medical supplies to Cuba as an example of Washington's apparent inhumanity -- and a source of his own legitimacy. So last week's American health care exhibition in Havana raised eyebrows, if not actual sales. The exhibition was evidence of incremental changes in the embargo over the last few years that suggest the Clinton administration knows what ought to be done even as it avoids actually doing it. Nearly 100 companies sent representatives to last week's exhibition, the first American trade show in Cuba since the embargo was imposed four decades ago. In turn, some 8,000 Cuban medical professionals got a look at everything from sophisticated surgical equipment to Pepto-Bismol. Under the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, medical supplies are technically eligible for sale to Cuba. But they are subject to a complex web of licensing and certification requirements that have made it all but impossible to make an actual sale. Over the last several years the Clinton administration has quietly eased some of these requirements. But significant obstacles remain -- not least the embargo's prohibition against direct banking relationships between the United States and Cuba. The exhibition shows that American businesses are eager to open the Cuban market. The administration's policy of nibbling away at an obsolete embargo merely cedes a potentially lucrative market to foreign competitors. The time is long overdue for a bolder form of engagement. |
1173328_0 | NEWS SUMMARY | INTERNATIONAL A3-13 House Votes to Expand Military Ties with Taiwan The House voted overwhelmingly to expand military ties between Taiwan and the United States, a move that China and the Clinton administration warned could exacerbate regional tensions and jeopardize a landmark trade agreement. A1 Austrian Coalition Forms The anti-immigrant Freedom Party of Jorg Haider and the People's Party, ignoring threats of diplomatic isolation by the European Union and the United States, said they would form a government. A1 Chechen Rebels Leave Capital Separatist rebels said they were abandoning Grozny and would carry out attacks on Russian forces from the mountains and countryside. A3 Russian Leader Drops By Acting President Vladimir V. Putin made a surprise appearance at a Middle East conference in Moscow attended by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Mr. Putin used the occasion to deliver his first foreign policy statement, making a pointed reference to the Clinton administration's desire to modify the major arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. A5 Trying to Save Ulster Peace Britain, Ireland and the United States struggled to preserve the power-sharing government in Belfast after David Trimble, the first mnister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said shutting down the two-month-old government was inevitable. The crisis developed when the I.R.A. signaled its unwillingness to begin disarming. A13 Fighting New French Workweek French subway and bus workers joined truckers in protests that disrupted transportation systems across France, in a dispute over a shorter workweek. A10 Denial by Indonesian General General Wiranto asserted that that he was not responsible for human rights abuses in East Timor and sidestepped a suggestion by the president that he resign. A8 World Briefing A6 NATIONAL A14-20 McCain Romps Over Bush; Gore Edges Out Bradley Senator John McCain trounced Gov. George W. Bush in the New Hampshire Republican primary, defeating him by a margin far wider than anyone in any either campaign had anticipated. A1 Vice President Al Gore held off a stiff challenge by Bill Bradley, but the narrow result seemed to point to a long, contentious fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. A1 Sensitivity Training for Military Every member of the armed forces will have to undergo training by the end of the year to prevent anti-gay harassment, the Pentagon said, acknowledging that its ''don't ask, don't tell, don't harass'' policy was poorly understood in the ranks. A15 Defending C.I.A. Inquiry The director of central |
1173328_1 | NEWS SUMMARY | two-month-old government was inevitable. The crisis developed when the I.R.A. signaled its unwillingness to begin disarming. A13 Fighting New French Workweek French subway and bus workers joined truckers in protests that disrupted transportation systems across France, in a dispute over a shorter workweek. A10 Denial by Indonesian General General Wiranto asserted that that he was not responsible for human rights abuses in East Timor and sidestepped a suggestion by the president that he resign. A8 World Briefing A6 NATIONAL A14-20 McCain Romps Over Bush; Gore Edges Out Bradley Senator John McCain trounced Gov. George W. Bush in the New Hampshire Republican primary, defeating him by a margin far wider than anyone in any either campaign had anticipated. A1 Vice President Al Gore held off a stiff challenge by Bill Bradley, but the narrow result seemed to point to a long, contentious fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. A1 Sensitivity Training for Military Every member of the armed forces will have to undergo training by the end of the year to prevent anti-gay harassment, the Pentagon said, acknowledging that its ''don't ask, don't tell, don't harass'' policy was poorly understood in the ranks. A15 Defending C.I.A. Inquiry The director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, left, responding to reports about the handling of an internal inquiry involving a predecessor, John M. Deutch, said he took ''decisive action'' after receiving a finding that Mr. Deutch had mishandled classified documents. A15 Early Findings on Jet Crash The Alaska Airlines MD-83 jet that plunged into the Pacific while trying to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles appears to have suffered a progressive failure of a control system at the tail that controls how the plane pitches up or down, according to a sketchy chronology by a senior investigator. A14 At least 35 of the 88 people aboard the plane, all believed dead, were connected to the airline or its commuter affiliate, Horizon Air. A14 Challenge to Church Leadership The top officials of two Anglican church provinces overseas, in Africa and Asia, have consecrated two conservative American priests as bishops to minister to Episcopalians in the United States who feel alienated from their denomination. A14 Survey on Net Privacy Internet health sites collect some of the most personal information about their users, but few follow their own declared policies about maintaining the privacy of that data. A19 NEW YORK/REGION B1-7 Biracial Jury Is Chosen |
1173278_0 | Consecrations of U.S. Bishops by Episcopal Officials Overseas Challenge Church Hierarchy | In a highly unusual challenge to the Episcopal Church's leadership, the top officials of two Anglican church provinces overseas, in Africa and Asia, have consecrated two conservative American priests as bishops to minister to Episcopalians who feel alienated from the denomination in the United States. The action, which took place in Singapore on Saturday, was taken without the knowledge or approval of the church's top officer, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold III. Bishops are elected by their own diocese and confirmed by the church's other bishops. The consecrations, which might be likened to a county sheriff's appointing a deputy to work in another county, led to questions as to who would recognize the men as having the authority of bishops. A statement released by the two new bishops said the consecrations were intended to help ''lead the Episcopal Church back to its biblical foundations,'' from which some conservatives say it has strayed, especially over such questions as the support by some liberal bishops for ordaining gay men and lesbians. The action represents a serious breach of protocol within the worldwide Anglican Communion, an association of 38 church provinces with more than 70 million members. The Episcopal Church is the communion's American member. Bishop Griswold, in a letter to his church's bishops, said he learned of the consecrations on Monday and was ''appalled by this irregular action.'' The two priests consecrated are the Rev. Charles H. Murphy III, a parish rector in Pawley's Island, S.C., and the Rev. John H. Rodgers Jr., a retired seminary president from Ambridge, Pa. The ceremony took place in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore, led by Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of the Province of Rwanda and Archbishop Moses Tay of the Province of Southeast Asia. Because the consecration was done outside Episcopal Church procedures, the two men hold an ''irregular but valid'' status, as prelates whose authority is not recognized within the area they have said they will work, according to R. William Franklin, dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University. He said the two bishops could only be recognized for work within the Episcopal Church by the church's General Convention, its legislative body, which is to meet this summer. ''I think the General Convention could pass a resolution condemning this action,'' Dean Franklin said. The consecrations come at a time of tension within the Anglican Communion, particularly between older churches like the Episcopal Church |
1174882_0 | Another Setback for a Much-Delayed Road | Dealing a new delay to a proposed highway link in central New Jersey that has been stalled for decades, the Army Corps of Engineers said today that the much-studied Route 92 plan would require still more study: an environmental impact review that could take up to a year and a half. The proposed road, a high-speed, $300 million limited-access toll road, would run 6.5 miles, from the office parks and corporate headquarters along Route 1 near Princeton, east to the growing warehouse center at the Jamesburg exit, 8A, on the New Jersey Turnpike. The corps' decision to undertake the environmental review comes after the agency has already spent a year reviewing the project, which is favored by the state, a number of local elected officials and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, but which has been opposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a number of residents in the area. It is the corps' job to resolve issues in the case of such an impasse between state and federal regulators. James Haggerty, who is in charge of the corps' permit section, said today that although there had been at least three previous state and federal studies of the proposed road's impact on wetlands and traffic flow, they had all looked at other versions of the much-changed highway plan. ''But the bottom line is that it is a significant project that will have significant impacts,'' Mr. Haggerty said. The central issues to be examined, he said, include the impact of the road on wetlands, the impact on traffic patterns in an area that is growing rapidly, the effect on the village of Kingston, which has several sites on the National Register of Historic Places, and possible alternatives to the link. Supporters of the plan, which was conceived more than 60 years ago, expressed disappointment in the decision by the corps. They had hoped the army would side with them in their long battle with the E.P.A., which rejected the proposal in 1998 as unnecessary and too destructive to wetlands. But Tony Pizzutillo, spokesman for a coalition of labor, business and local elected officials, said the group would continue to push for the road. The coalition sees it as a way of easing growing traffic along Route 1 and its feeder roads. ''Development will continue while they are doing more studying, and they will see the creation of even more traffic justifying |
1174820_2 | WORLD BRIEFING | families. Carlotta Gall (NYT) FRANCE: MAD COW REPORT -- France, which defied a European Union decision to lift a ban on British beef, has come under fire for its own efforts to prevent mad cow disease. A European Union report found that France has failed to properly impose controls on cattle feed agreed to in the wake of the mad cow disease scare. The report also found that while the incidence of the disease in France appeared to be moderate, a study showed that underreporting of suspected cases could not be ruled out. Suzanne Daley (NYT) AFRICA RWANDA: GENOCIDE SUSPECT DENIES ROLE -- A Rwandan genocide suspect, Tharcisse Muvunyi, 46, arrested in London and facing extradition to the United Nations war crimes court in Tanzania, denied in court any involvement in the 1994 mass killings. Mr. Muvunyi, who has been living in Britain for nearly two years, is accused of being the army commander of two provinces where at least 100,000 people were killed. His lawyers have two weeks to file an appeal. (Agence France-Presse) DJIBOUTI: A CEASE-FIRE -- Djibouti's last remaining rebels have signed an accord to end a decade-old uprising by ethnic Afars in this tiny Horn of Africa nation, a former French colony. The accord, signed in Paris, calls for reforms to improve democracy and provides for the immediate release of all prisoners on both sides. Suzanne Daley (NYT) ASIA INDIA: PAKISTAN DENOUNCED -- Amid increasing rancor between India and Pakistan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee denounced Islamabad's failure to endorse a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons. ''Pakistan is threatening a nuclear war, but do they even know what it means?'' he said. ''They think they will drop one bomb and they'll win and we'll lose. This won't happen. We have said we won't be the first to use nuclear weapons, but if anyone uses them against us, we will not wait for our annihilation.'' Barry Bearak (NYT) JAPAN, RUSSIA: ISLAND PLEDGE -- Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said he intended to try to settle a dispute with Russia by the end of this year over four small islands that has been a major sticking point in the signing of a World War II peace treaty by the two nations. Just days before the arrival of Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, Mr. Obuchi said he would do his best to resolve the issue of sovereignty over the Kurile |
1174915_0 | Assessing Risks | To the Editor: The article ''Hormone Replacement: Weighing Risks and Benefits'' (Feb. 1) repeats the oft-quoted statistic -- heart disease ultimately kills six times as many women as breast cancer -- as a main argument in favor of hormone replacement therapy. I am 59. In the last 10 years, dozens of friends and relatives my own age or younger have been diagnosed with breast cancer, had lumpectomies or mastectomies followed by debilitating radiation and chemotherapy that, at best, put their lives on hold a year or more. I know not a single woman under 80 who had a heart attack or stroke. Why would women do anything to increase the risk of this disease, whose treatment so totally disrupts one's life? I'll deal with night sweats, try to exercise and eat right, and take my chances on Alzheimer's and heart disease later. I choose health now while I am still productive and enjoying life. BARBARA JAY Westport, Conn. |
1174875_1 | Palestinians Freeze Peace Talks And Release a Militant Leader | or Party of God, in retaliation for fighting that left five Israeli soldiers dead in the last two weeks. According to the news service reports, warplanes made three strikes on a power station in Baalbek city in the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon. Eighteen Lebanese civilians were wounded, one of them seriously, and 11 were taken to a hospital, according to Agence France-Presse. All the wounds were caused by flying glass or debris from about a dozen missiles. The escalation of the conflict in southern Lebanon may well affect -- some say jeopardize, others say kick-start -- the resumption of talks with Syria, which Israel holds responsible for the recent fighting in southern Lebanon. Israeli-Palestinian relations began to cool last week when a summit meeting between Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, and Mr. Barak ended in deadlock, despite the fact that they have held regular and generally productive meetings. And although the Israelis predicted late last week that the negotiations would resume as scheduled on Sunday, the Palestinians did not show up. Finally on Monday, they indefinitely suspended their participation. ''We have no desire to return to the table in order to go around in empty circles,'' said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the chief negotiator. ''That gives a tricky impression that the peace process is still going on and is only facing small problems. In truth, the crisis is a deep one.'' On Monday, Palestinian negotiators said they were awaiting answers from the Israelis on three key questions before they would resume talks. The questions were tough ones, and it seemed unlikely that answers from the Israelis would be imminent or to the Palestinians' liking. The issue that drove a wedge between them concerned the next transfer of West Bank land, which was supposed to take place this week. The Palestinians wanted the Israelis to include villages near Jerusalem, and the Israelis refused, maintaining that the fate of Jerusalem needs to be negotiated separately. That land dispute made it clear that the larger issues of the ''final status'' talks -- borders, settlements, Jerusalem and refugees, among others -- would not be resolved even broadly by the original target date of Feb. 13. That was a written goal for a framework agreement; the full, detailed treaty is supposed to be completed by mid-September. So the Palestinians, in a meeting with Israelis on Saturday night at the home of Martin Indyk, the new |
1174824_0 | Gad Rausing, 77, Swedish Innovator of Beverage Containers | A milk carton made Dr. Gad Rausing, who died on Jan. 28 at the age of 77 in Montreux, Switzerland, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The Swedish-born Dr. Rausing, along with his younger brother, Hans, helped develop their father's idea for a new type of paper carton that extended the shelf life of milk into a global packaging empire, the privately held Tetra Laval Group in Lausanne, Switzerland. The secretive billionaire died after a brief illness, said a company spokesman, Jorgen Haglind, who did not disclose the cause of death. Gad Rausing's personal fortune -- an estimated net worth of $9 billion, according to Forbes magazine -- grew from the 1952 invention of a tetrahedron-shaped milk carton by his father, Dr. Ruben Rausing. The Swedish-born Ruben Rausing studied economics at Columbia University and while there took note of the advanced food packaging methods he saw in the United States. Company legend has it that in the 1940's he was watching his wife, Elizabeth, make sausages by tying off the ends, and he wondered if a similar system could be applied to milk. His attempts, aided by an engineer, Erik Wallenberg, led to a Tetra Pak, a carton made of paper, plastic and aluminum, that eliminated the need for refrigerating milk. The cartons, now usually shaped more like a small brick and called Tetra Brik, are ubiquitous in Europe. In the United States, the packages are better known simply as the small rectangular juice containers, usually with a built-in plastic straw, that children often take to school. Dr. Gad Rausing and his brother joined their father's company shortly after the Tetra Pak was invented. Over the next 10 years, they helped the company grow into a conglomerate, selling water purifiers, bank-note dispensers and other products, as well as other types of containers, like Tetra Rex, the gable-topped carton for refrigerated milk that is common in the United States. In 1965, the family sold every part of the company except for the Tetra Pak. Then, in 1991, the Rausing brothers bought Alfa-Laval, a large packaging group in Sweden, and created Tetra-Laval. Today, the company, which moved to Switzerland in 1981 to escape Sweden's high inheritance taxes, produces about 85 billion Tetra Paks, Tetra Briks and Tetra Rexes a year, collects about $6.5 billion in sales and has operations in 170 countries. Gad Rausing was born on May 12, 1922, |
1174787_2 | At Yellowstone, an Ecosystem Teetering on a Tree | of winter fat, and research shows they are important for fertility. Humans have become an integral part of this ecological relationship between bear and tree. When the nut crop is poor, the bears search out alternative sources to tide them through the winter's sleep. Instead of climbing into the high country, they often head into low-lying areas inhabited by humans, where they find dog food, beehives full of honey, garbage -- and trouble. There is a correlation between poor nut production and grizzly bear mortality, experts say. More bears die from ''human induced'' causes -- for example, being shot -- when there are not enough nuts. ''Pine nuts are more than a food,'' said Louisa Wilcox, project coordinator for the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystem Project in Bozeman, Mont. ''They are a shield for bears against human-caused mortalities.'' Because nutrition affects reproduction rates, a drop in nut production can also affect birthrates, lowering the number of new cubs. The exact number of bears in Yellowstone is not known, but is estimated at 200 to 400. So a modest increase in deaths could have serious effects. Enter the global warming factor and a disease that affects whitebark pines called European blister rust. The rust, a fungus brought over from Europe, was discovered in North America in 1906. Windborne spores spread through the whitebark pine forests, through Idaho and into Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, where the disease has killed 43 percent of the whitebark pines, and will probably kill 90 percent of those remaining. Fortunately for the grizzlies in Glacier, there are other fall food sources, mainly huckleberries and thimbleberries. Berries are rare in Yellowstone. Blister rust, first noted in the park in 1948, is now present throughout Yellowstone. Until very recently, the disease was present at low levels and did not kill trees. The spread of rust is dependent on moisture. Fogbanks must envelop the trees for 48 hours for the rust to spread. Those conditions are common west of the Continental Divide, where warm, moist air flows inland from the Pacific Ocean. But those conditions stop as they bump into the wall of the northern Rockies. The east side of the divide, the Yellowstone side, is cooler and much drier. As the earth's temperature rises, the atmosphere can hold more moisture and becomes wetter as more water evaporates from the surface. Some scientists say that in general this |
1173970_0 | I.R.A. and the Arms Principle | The Irish Republican Army, now in the third year of a cease-fire, is trying to convince people of its peaceful intent by not using its guns. But it has cast doubt on that objective by insisting on keeping them. The power-sharing Northern Ireland government, only two months old, faces being suspended next week because the guerrilla group refuses to start disarming. The British and Irish Governments announced on Thursday that the I.R.A. must start scrapping its arsenal now. The I.R.A. shows no signs of yielding, and Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, said today that he did not expect them to do so in time to avert a shutdown of the Belfast government. ''No undefeated army ever acted on the back of a series of demands to do certain things,'' he said. In those words lay a telling reference to the thinking of the I.R.A., which could start disarming immediately and still have an enormous arsenal left. The force also has bomb-making equipment to enable it to speedily replace whatever arms it sacrifices. ''When people ask why can't they just give in a gun or a bullet or a wheelbarrow of weapons or whatever, that's the wrong question,'' said Dominic Murray, the director of the Center of Peace and Development Studies at the University of Limerick in the Irish Republic. ''It's an understandable question, particularly from outsiders, but it misses the point.'' ''It's not whether you decommission a ton or a ha'penny's worth,'' he said. ''It's not the amount; it's the principle.'' The I.R.A. equates disarmament with surrender. The group stresses, as Mr. Adams's words point up, that it is not an army that lost a war. It is taking part in the peace settlement out of choice, not force, and disarming must be voluntary, it insists. ''People say, 'Why don't they hand over a small amount, make a gesture,' '' said Brian Feeney, author of ''Lost Lives,'' a book detailing the lives and deaths of 3,637 people who have been killed in sectarian violence since 1966. ''The gesture as they see it would be symbolic of their being the bad guys, their struggle the one that was illicit and wrong.'' Add to this sense elements of tradition, suspicion, fear and national myth-making, and no amount of logic can overcome it. Republicans, the largely Catholic movement that wants closer links to the Irish Republic, generally recognize that the arrangements that |
1178929_2 | Cramped Gaza Multiplies at Unrivaled Rate | a challenge, although one that has not been publicly acknowledged. Officially, Palestinian leaders have long advocated population growth as a way to outnumber the Israelis on the land the two groups share. On the ground, however, Palestinian health and education officials, working with foreign donors and international organizations, quietly support family planning through a steady expansion of clinics and community outreach services. Women are taught about the different methods of contraception that are acceptable under Islam -- anything except permanent means, like sterilization or tubal ligation. ''Politically speaking, our leadership believes very strongly that the demographic route is the way to settle the score with the Israelis,'' said Dr. Hassan Abu Libdeh, director of the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. ''In their speeches, they are in favor of more children,'' he said. ''But practically speaking, they are trying to promote the opposite. The Health Ministry and the Education Ministry are doing a lot.'' Studies show a growing acceptance and use of birth control over the last few years, especially the IUD, or intrauterine device, followed by birth control pills. Few women bother to bring home condoms from the clinics, because men in Gaza refuse to use them. Health and education officials are careful not to advocate population control. They refer delicately to the ''spacing'' of children, underscoring that they are not talking about placing limits on family size, which would violate Islamic teaching. ''We tell them it is normal and natural to take at least three years between babies,'' said Dr. Amna Abed, who runs a clinic at the Red Crescent Society in Gaza City. ''We tell them that it is written in the Koran. Our God orders us to breast-feed for two years. And then follows nine months of pregnancy.'' Sheik Abd Al Karim Kahlout, the mufti of Gaza, is just as involved as the health officials, an advocate himself of ''spacing.'' At his office in Gaza City, he offered a discourse on the side effects of the IUD and the pills. He is an older man and blind, and it was an unexpectedly frank speech, which his personal scribe interrupted several times to make sure he understood. ''Excessive bleeding?'' he asked, his pen poised. ''Lactating?'' The mufti said that he receives at least 20 calls a day from couples seeking birth control advice. He recommends the imperfect method of suppressing fertility through continued breast-feeding, which many Gazan women had |
1178984_0 | Directing Traffic in the Radio Spectrum's Crowded Neighborhood | IT is a growing, although invisible problem. In the past decade, an explosion in the number of wireless devices -- cellular telephones, satellite television dishes and pagers, to name just a few -- has led to crowded airwaves. So far, the range of radio frequencies, which lie between audible sound and infrared radiation on the electromagnetic spectrum, has been able to accommodate all the increased uses. More and more, though, ensuring that different devices can be used without interference from others is a high-wire act achieved only through technological advances and the careful management of the radio spectrum. Different uses are allotted different portions of the usable spectrum, from relatively low frequencies (measured in thousands of hertz, or kilohertz) to high-frequency microwaves (measured in billions of hertz, or gigahertz). The result is a crazy quilt of frequency bands reserved for a variety of civilian and military applications, like conventional AM and FM radio, television, ham radio, mobile phones, aircraft and ship communications, and navigation systems. Some frequency bands are left unused to avoid interfering with radio astronomy and other scientific efforts. The International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations organization that is the intergovernmental rule-making body for the radio spectrum, used to review how radio frequencies were used every 20 years. Since 1992, though, it has stepped up its reviews to every two years to keep up with the demand. In the United States, the agencies responsible for managing the spectrum have never been busier. They are the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which handles the parts of the spectrum reserved for the government's use, and the Federal Communications Commission, which keeps watch over private use. Both agencies are in the Commerce Department. As you make more of the spectrum available, more people want to use it, said Norbert Schroeder, a program manager in the office of spectrum management at the national telecommunications agency. Decisions about how to use the spectrum hinge on practical questions -- what it is possible to do -- as well as on public policy, international regulations and economics, Mr. Schroeder said. Technology has come to play a crucial role. It is only because of the developing technologies that the spectrum has become available at the higher frequencies, Mr. Schroeder explained. But tapping into ever-higher frequencies has its own problems. The signals at higher frequencies are more easily obstructed by buildings and other structures. To use these |
1178900_0 | Disarmament Deadlock in Ireland | The peace that has prevailed in Northern Ireland for the past two and a half years will not be truly secure until the Irish Republican Army and Protestant paramilitary forces give up their weapons. But bitter differences over disarmament, which may take months to resolve, should not be allowed to upend the rest of the carefully constructed peace effort. Regrettably, through a series of miscalculations by all sides in recent weeks, that is just what has happened. The impasse over disarmament has already led to the suspension of the power-sharing government and threatens to undermine other gains as well. Before the Good Friday understandings unravel any further, Northern Ireland's political leaders, the British and Irish governments and independent monitors of the agreement like Gen. John de Chastelain need to step in with imaginative new proposals to rescue the original vision of peace. The heaviest responsibility lies with the I.R.A., whose refusal to make any meaningful move on disarmament until recently is the most important factor in the crisis. Sinn Fein, the organization's political wing, must press the I.R.A. to resubmit the disarmament proposal it briefly offered earlier this month. That still-secret offer apparently accepted the necessity for disarmament and discussed a ''context'' for carrying it out. General de Chastelain, who heads the independent monitoring panel on disarmament, called it ''valuable progress'' offering ''the real prospect of agreement.'' The de Chastelain panel, which all sides recognize as independent, is the best judge of further disarmament progress. London, Dublin and the various Northern Irish parties only complicate matters by trying to manage disarmament questions that are better left to the judgment of General de Chastelain. Three related steps need to be taken in the coming days. The I.R.A. should commit itself to resubmitting its disarmament plan in coordination with the restoration of local rule in Northern Ireland. Ulster's leading Protestant politician, David Trimble, should withdraw his threat to resign his party leadership over the disarmament issue. Based on these moves, Britain can then revive the power-sharing government institutions in Ulster. Mr. Trimble's threats and deadlines have proven counterproductive. His early February deadline for disarmament to begin, a date that appears nowhere in the Good Friday agreement, set off the latest crisis, and his resignation threat triggered Britain's decision to suspend local governance. Mr. Trimble's tactics have helped him consolidate his party leadership, but the larger cost has been high. He should recognize |
1178998_0 | All's Not Fair in E-Mail | To the Editor: The frustration experienced by Dina Dudarevitch in not being able to excise her husband's name from her e-mail account after he moved out because so many people know that e-mail address for her is not necessarily a new phenomenon. I remember back in college (more than 20 years ago) when the first A.T.M.'s were installed. You could always tell when a hapless sophomore had chosen a freshman love's name as a password by the way the student was angrily punching it in the following year! ANDREA CARLA MICHAELS San Francisco |
1176807_1 | Hey, You Gotta Be Philosophical, Plato | charged with ''corrupting the young by spinning lies and fables'' and is put on trial. Mr. Ackroyd, in other words, winks at the reader with references to the history of classical philosophy: Plato, for example, discovers Plato's cave, the world of shadows whose inhabitants believe they dwell in the world of reality. Still, while ''The Plato Papers'' does make you wonder what the hidden message may be, it fails to be interesting as narrative, satire or philosophy. Perhaps, as one of the several enthusiastic blurbs that adorn the dust jacket would have it, Mr. Ackroyd has intended a Swiftian commentary on the creation of myths and beliefs about ourselves and others. But while one reads ''The Plato Papers'' expecting some scorching or learned light to illuminate our consciousness, Mr. Ackroyd's message seems both contrived and trite. He has not so much executed a fully imagined work of fiction as produced a series of coyly underweight fragments that do not a vision make. He alternates supposed public orations by Plato with comments about him by a small group of characters with dreamy names like Sidonia, Madrigal and Ornatus who have known him since they were all schoolmates at what they call ''the Academy.'' The early portions of the book have some wit to them, especially Plato's misconceived analyses of the literary fragments that have survived from our time to the 37th century. He offers a kind of literary-critical analysis, for example, of a book called ''On the Origin of Species,'' which he attributes to Dickens and characterizes as ''a comic masterpiece'' in which the putative Dickens lampoons the ''eccentric hypothesis'' of a character known as ''the naturalist.'' Plato's lesson on that book lampoons literary scholarship. It illustrates the ease with which historical fragments can be woven into a tapestry of somebody else's misunderstanding, and Mr. Ackroyd continues on this theme until it becomes tiresome. His Plato creates a glossary of terms of the Mouldwarp era that contains entries like: ''rock music: the sound of old stones'' and ''see red: to see into the fire at the heart of all things.'' Mr. Ackroyd also provides similar riffs on Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock. Then Plato enumerates the various ages in human history: the Age of Orpheus, the Age of the Apostles, the Age of Mouldwarp and so forth. Aside from being less intellectually compelling than his glossary of Mouldwarp expressions, this |
1176918_0 | In New Blow to Peace in Ulster, I.R.A. Quits Arms Talks | The Irish Republican Army retaliated tonight for Britain's shutdown of the power-sharing Northern Ireland government by ending its contact with disarmament mediators and withdrawing newly offered proposals to abandon its weapons. It was a dismaying development for supporters of the peace plan who had been holding meetings throughout the weekend hoping that the new I.R.A. arms initiative would be a basis for restoring the home rule government that was suspended on Friday. But though the I.R.A.'s move constituted a grave setback for the already battered peace accord, it did not appear to signal any return to violence by the I.R.A. Sir Ronnie Flanagan, chief of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, said security forces had no intelligence to indicate that the clandestine army ''intends to re-engage in acts of violence contrary to their stated cessation.'' The British and Irish prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, planned an emergency meeting at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday to try to decide how to move forward. They hope to put to rest differences that have arisen between the two governments, both sponsors of the peace talks, over how to deal with the I.R.A. John Hume, the Nobel Prize-winning head of the moderate Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party, who inspired the current peace effort, sought to put tonight's development into perspective, saying, ''It is not a death knell for the process, but a stumbling block.'' The I.R.A. announced its decision in a statement defending its resistance to dismantling its arms stockpile. It contended that the real responsibility for the breakdown in the peace plan lay with Britain and the pro-British Ulster Unionist Party, who, it said, have ''no desire to deal with the issue of arms except on their terms.'' Britain justified its suspension of the two-month-old government on Friday by citing the I.R.A.'s failure to move on weapons even after members of Sinn Fein, its political wing, had been admitted to their ministerial posts in the new administration. The I.R.A. maintains that its cease-fire, now in its third year, is proof enough that it is cooperating and argues that as an undefeated army it has no obligation to surrender weapons. ''Those who seek a military victory in this way need to understand that this cannot and will not happen,'' the statement said. ''Those who have made the political process conditional on the decommissioning of silenced I.R.A. guns are responsible for the current crisis |
1176968_0 | INSIDE | New Blow to Peace in Ulster The Irish Republican Army ended its contact with disarmament negotiators to protest Britain's suspension of self-rule government. PAGE A12 Vatican-P.L.O. Accord The Vatican signed an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization to protect the legal status of the Roman Catholic Church in areas under Palestinian control. PAGE A7 Community Garden Razed The city sent bulldozers and the police to clear a tiny community garden on the Lower East Side, and 31 protesters were arrested. PAGE B1 Dropping a Cancer Therapy One of the nation's largest insurers has decided to stop paying for a grueling breast cancer treatment, bone marrow transplants, that has not been proved to work. PAGE A24 A Wide-Open Oscar Field ''American Beauty'' received the most nominations, but there were no clear favorites, meaning that this year's Academy Awards will be hard-fought. THE ARTS, PAGE E1 |
1176860_0 | WORLD BRIEFING | ASIA BANGLADESH: STRIKE LEADER The opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia began the latest of the dozens of strikes she has led in recent years to try to bring down the government of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed. The latest started as a new law takes effect that would impose jail terms of up to 14 years for blocking transportation and destroying property -- acts common during the strikes. Celia W. Dugger (NYT) INDIA: POPULATION POLICY The government proposed a population policy that would freeze each state's number of seats in the lower house of Parliament until 2026 so that a state like Uttar Pradesh that has not got its population growth under control is not rewarded politically, while a state like Tamil Nadu that has done a good job of controlling its population is penalized. A commission headed by the prime minister will review the proposed policy. Celia W. Dugger (NYT) CHINA: STATE AIDE TO DIE A deputy governor of Jiangxi Province, Hu Changqing, was sentenced to death, convicted of taking more than $650,000 in bribes, the New China News Agency reported. Mr. Hu was previously deputy director of the Religious Affairs Bureau in Beijing. State media have not been allowed to report on another large-scale corruption case that has reportedly led to the detention of many high police and party officials in Fujian Province. Erik Eckholm (NYT) CAMBODIA: KISSINGER'S RIPOSTE Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger dismissed a suggestion that he should be a defense witness at a Khmer Rouge genocide trial. The lawyer for one of the leaders, Ta Mok, has said Mr. Kissinger's bombing campaign in the 1970's ''encouraged the Khmer Rouge to kill two million people.'' Mr. Kissinger replied, ''I would be a much better witness for the prosecution than I would be for the defense.'' Seth Mydans (NYT) AFRICA LIBERIA: HUNDREDS EXPELLED Hundreds of people living near President Charles Taylor's house in the capital, Monrovia, have been expelled from their homes. Officials charged with protecting the president took over about 50 houses, citing security concerns. Norimitsu Onishi (NYT) SUDAN: OIL AND WAR Money from the new oil industry is worsening Sudan's civil war, a Canadian government report said. But the report stopped short of recommending sanctions against Talisman Energy Inc., the Canadian oil company that operates in Sudan. Talisman and Canada have been under pressure because of worries that oil revenues would go largely |
1176860_2 | WORLD BRIEFING | to buy weapons for Sudan's government in its 16-year war with rebels. Ian Fisher (NYT) THE AMERICAS COLOMBIA: REBELS AT VATICAN In their latest stop on a tour of Europe, leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have met with Vatican officials in an effort to obtain greater involvement of the Catholic Church in Colombia in peace talks. But the six commanders, all of whom face murder, kidnapping and terrorism charges, have so far not been granted an audience with Pope John Paul II. Larry Rohter (NYT) MIDDLE EAST IRAQ: 2ND U.N. AIDE QUITS A second United Nations agency chief, Jutta Purghart, head of the World Food Program in Iraq, has quit to protest against what she regards as the failure of relief programs in Iraq, Western diplomatic officials said. Her resignation follows that of Hans von Sponeck, the top United Nations official in Iraq, who said he had stepped down for the same reason. (Reuters) EUROPE KOSOVO: G.I. HEARING SET Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi, charged with the murder of an 11-year-old Albanian girl, is to appear at a hearing on Friday at the American base, Camp Bondsteel, south of Pristina, Kosovo. He will appear on charges of premeditated murder and committing indecent acts with a child on Jan. 13 in Vitina, southern Kosovo. The hearing is to determine whether the case should go to court-martial. Carlotta Gall (NYT) RUSSIA: VODKA PRICES STAY With a presidential election barely six weeks away, President Vladimir V. Putin backtracked furiously from earlier indications that his government would increase the minimum price of vodka by nearly a third -- to $2.20 a liter -- to reflect new excise taxes. ''Any issue concerning vodka cannot be considered a joke,'' he said, labeling reports of the increase premature. Michael Wines (NYT) BRITAIN: KEY ARCHBISHOP PICKED Pope John Paul appointed Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, 67, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, left, to English Catholicism's most prominent post, Archbishop of Westminster. He replaces Cardinal Basil Hume, who died in June. Widely regarded as a reformer, the bishop is co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, pursuing improved relations with the Church of England. Warren Hoge (NYT) BELGIUM: IMMUNITY LIFTED The European Union's executive lifted the immunity of a former French prime minister, Edith Cresson, to allow Belgian prosecutors to question her on allegations of fraud and mismanagement. Mrs. Cresson was a member of the European Commission from 1995 |
1175841_0 | Northern Ireland's Reversal | The Irish Republican Army's delays in spelling out a clear plan for turning in its vast store of hidden weapons led Britain to take the regrettable but necessary step yesterday of suspending Northern Ireland's 10-week-old power-sharing government. The launch of that promising experiment in local self-government last December was one of the most significant achievements produced by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. For more than two months, representatives of the province's main Protestant and Catholic parties, including the I.R.A.'s political wing, Sinn Fein, worked side-by-side on a regular and constructive basis. Though British rule has temporarily resumed, the Good Friday agreement and its hope for a fair and lasting peace remain alive. A last-minute proposal on weapons from the I.R.A. led Gen. John de Chastelain, the man in charge of the disarmament process, to speak optimistically of a ''real prospect'' for eventual agreement. Britain, Ireland and the political parties representing most of Northern Ireland's Catholics and Protestants have worked tirelessly to induce the I.R.A. to end the disarmament impasse. Last night the I.R.A. finally proposed a process for putting its arms ''beyond use'' to achieve the disarmament provisions of the Good Friday agreement. That is a welcome advance, but would not have been enough for David Trimble, who leads Ulster's main Protestant party, to win endorsement from his party's ruling council today for remaining in the government. If Mr. Trimble and his party had withdrawn, local rule would have been more seriously and lastingly damaged than it is likely to be if the current government suspension proves brief. If the peace effort is to succeed, London and Dublin also need the continued involvement of Sinn Fein and its leader, Gerry Adams. The longer the government remains suspended, the more difficult Mr. Adams's position is likely to become. All of Northern Ireland's paramilitary groups must disarm. Of these, the I.R.A. is the most important, and has been the most intransigent. Everyone, the I.R.A. included, now acknowledges that the arms issue must be resolved. The way to do that is for the I.R.A. to present a firm timetable for destroying its explosives, hand grenades, assault rifles and pistols. The time to do so has come. |
1175844_3 | BRITAIN SUSPENDS SELF-GOVERNMENT IN NORTH IRELAND | hands of people determined to bring down the peace settlement. Sinn Fein has argued that the deadline for a start to disarming was an artificial one, outside the terms of the peace agreement that put into motion the creation of the assembly. But Mr. Trimble's gamble provoked a widespread expectation of a matching move by the I.R.A., and there was keen disappointment among backers of the peace accord this month when nothing materialized that Mr. Trimble could present to his party as evidence of a start to disarmament. The implied timing of the reciprocal moves was Jan. 31, the date by which General de Chastelain had to make a report on the progress of weapons turnovers. The report said, ''To date we have received no information from the I.R.A. as to when decommissioning will start.'' Decommissioning is the word used in the agreement for disarmament. The report said Protestant paramilitary groups would not move on weapons until the I.R.A. did. It also addressed Sinn Fein's argument that the only meaningful deadline for disarmament is the May 22 date in the original agreement. The general's report further read: ''Given our understanding of the quantity of arms held by the paramilitary groups, and the dispersed nature of their locations, we believe a time will soon be reached beyond which it will be logistically impossible for us to complete our task by May 22.'' In the pendulum swings of favor and disfavor in the politics of Northern Ireland, it is the unionists these days whose frustrations have been getting a more sympathetic hearing in places like Dublin, Washington, London and Belfast where their resistance in the past was often seen as knee- jerk negativism. Unionists draw support from the Protestant majority who want to keep the province part of Britain, while republicans, most of whom are Catholic, represent those wanting to see Ulster establish stronger links with Ireland. The peace settlement and the related cease-fires by the I.R.A. and other paramilitary groups that began in 1997 represented the best hope for ending three decades of sectarian violence that have cost more than 3,600 lives over three decades. The last two months have produced the unaccustomed sight of the two sides functioning together with notable comfort and competence as legislators. The old freighted debates over the threats to the survival of their separate traditions were replaced by the normal assembly chamber cut and thrust |
1175829_2 | New Violence Ends Lull in South Lebanon | time shelled civilian targets in retaliation for attacks on its soldiers in the war zone. Since Israel occupied the zone, a nine-mile-deep swath of southern Lebanon, to protect its northern border from attack, guerrillas have been seeking to oust its forces. Indeed, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli Army chief of staff, said on Thursday that Israel would no longer tolerate attacks on its forces and would respond harshly. If Hezbollah fires from civilian villages, the Israelis will target guerrillas in those villages, he suggested. In an interview with the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, General Mofaz said the army was working on ''a method for hitting those who fire at us from civilian buildings, to deter the local populations from giving them cover.'' ''We don't plan to hit innocent civilians,'' he said, ''and we'll act only when the conditions are right for a surgical strike at the shooters. But we won't allow Hezbollah to exploit that fact that we cannot hit the civilian populations.'' In Washington, American officials defended Israel and blamed Hezbollah for using violence to disrupt the meeting in Naqura. The Americans ''interpret this action as a deliberate attempt by Hezbollah to wreck the prospects for peace in the meeting,'' said James P. Rubin, spokesman for the State Department. ''Hezbollah's action is particularly egregious in the context of Israel's repeated commitment to withdraw from southern Lebanon by the middle of this year.'' Mr. Barak has pledged to pull out of southern Lebanon by July. ''The battle is entering its very final stages,'' Mr. Barak said tonight. ''What I'm telling you is that I'm determined to end the tragedy that is Lebanon, which has gone on for 18 long years.'' Mr. Barak had hoped to withdraw troops in the context of a peace agreement with Syria. But the hopes for renewing peace talks with Syria, suspended last month, may have grown dimmer in the face of this week's violence. In Washington, Mr. Rubin said the violence did not help the peace effort. ''It was difficult enough in a calm environment,'' he said. Mr. Rubin also said that the United States had asked Syria to ''exercise its influence'' over Hezbollah to get them to restrain themselves. Today's monitoring committee meeting, gathering delegates from the United States, France, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, was to have addressed violations of the rules of engagement in the conflict. The rules, set in 1996 after an |
1177347_0 | Excerpts From Greenspan Remarks at Congressional Hearing | Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, presented his semiannual report on the economy to the House Banking Committee yesterday. Following are excerpts from his testimony and an exchange between Mr. Greenspan and Representative Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the committee, in a question-and-answer session that followed the testimony, as recorded by Federal Document Clearing House, a private transcription agency: There is little evidence that the American economy, which grew more than 4 percent in 1999 and surged forward at an even faster pace in the second half of the year, is slowing appreciably. At the same time, inflation has remained largely contained. . . . Underlying this performance, unprecedented in my half-century of observing the American economy, is a continuing acceleration in productivity. . . . Yet those profoundly beneficial forces driving the American economy to competitive excellence are also engendering a set of imbalances that unless contained threaten our continuing prosperity. Accelerating productivity entails a matching acceleration in the potential output of goods and services and a corresponding rise in real incomes available to purchase the new output. The problem is that the pickup in productivity tends to create even greater increases in aggregate demand than in potential aggregate supply. This occurs principally because a rise in structural productivity growth has its counterpart in higher expectations for long-term corporate earnings. This, in turn, not only spurs business investment but also increases stock prices and the market value of assets held by households, creating additional purchasing power for which no additional goods or services have yet been produced. . . . Imbalances in the labor markets perhaps may have even more serious implications for inflation pressures. While the pool of officially unemployed and those otherwise willing to work may continue to shrink, as it has persistently over the past seven years, there is an effective limit to new hiring, unless immigration is uncapped. At some point in the continuous reduction in the number of available workers willing to take jobs, short of the repeal of the law of supply and demand, wage increases must rise above even impressive gains in productivity. This would intensify inflationary pressures or squeeze profit margins, with either outcome capable of bringing our growing prosperity to an end. . . . The recent good news on the budget suggests that our longer-run prospects for continuing this beneficial process of recycling |
1177347_3 | Excerpts From Greenspan Remarks at Congressional Hearing | and the F.O.M.C. [Federal Open Market Committee] will have to stay alert for signs that real interest rates have not yet risen enough to bring the growth of demand into line with that of potential supply, even should the acceleration of productivity continue. Achieving that alignment seems more pressing today than it did earlier, before the effects of imbalances began to cumulate, lessening the depth of our various buffers against inflationary pressures. MR. LEACH: If I could turn to another subject, oil is on the minds of many people, with the price of oil going above $30 a barrel. And you've indicated that in a percentage basis, some of that was factored into the last half of last year's inflation index. Are you concerned that another oil shock could have deterring effects on our economy? MR. GREENSPAN: Mr. Chairman, I've been through too many oil shocks to take them unseriously, even if the evidence does fairly conclusively indicate that the proportion of both the American economy, and indeed the rest of the world, that is dependent on oil for energy sources, is declining and has declined very measurably. The problem that I think we have is that even in its reduced status, it is a very important element within an industrial system. And if the price changes fairly rapidly, it has a major impact on the structure of our economy. I think we're all acutely aware that the inventory levels of oil, both crude and products, in the United States has been driven down very substantially, well below normal. Indeed, some are joking that we need to measure the fumes to get any measurable inventory at all these days. And what we know about very low inventories of any commodity is that if an untoward pressure, an unexpected pressure of demand, surges there is no buffer. And the result is a very substantial spike in prices with fairly substantial negative consequences to the economy. I don't forecast that; I merely recognize that the inventory levels worldwide -- the so-called commercial stocks, which is those stocks available as a buffer to unexpected demands -- are exceptionally low. And even though we are moving into a period when the normal pressures begin to ease, we're starting from a very low base. And the simple answer to your question is, yes, I am concerned about what's happening to oil prices. . . . |
1178013_1 | The Invisible Children | made by exploited children. But these efforts will backfire if children kicked out of these factories drift to more hazardous occupations. Helping children in these dangerous jobs -- where they are isolated and invisible, and have no champions overseas -- is far more complex than keeping them out of factories. Fortunately, the Clinton administration is taking a sophisticated and constructive approach. Earlier this month the White House proposed doubling Washington's spending to fight child labor. The child labor division of the International Labor Organization, which is based in Geneva, would get $45 million next year, up from $30 million this year and only $3 million three years ago. Washington is now by far the group's largest and most influential donor. An additional $55 million would go to American programs overseas. Both efforts would attempt to provide the most effective antidote to child labor -- schooling. The vast majority of child labor occurs in places with high levels of rural poverty and lax legal enforcement. Virtually every country bans hazardous child labor and most underage labor. In most nations, however, poor enforcement leaves children to be exploited by employers -- who often prefer to hire children because they are cheaper and more docile workers than adults. But economic development and effective law enforcement are not likely any time soon. For now, the best way to reduce child labor is to make primary education cheaper, better and more accessible. Most children who work either have no school nearby or cannot afford to buy uniforms and textbooks and pay school fees. The education available is often so terrible that parents do not believe it worthwhile to send their children to school and forsake the few dollars a month they could earn. The I.L.O.'s flagship program, in Bangladesh, works with the government, manufacturers and citizens' groups to establish special schools for children who worked in garment factories. Their families receive a small stipend to keep them in school. About 10,000 children have attended these new schools, and child labor in the garment industry has dropped sharply since the program began. Much child labor would be prevented if governments emphasized basic education for all. Countries that keep children in school, like Sri Lanka, have relatively low levels of child labor. But many poor nations are actually cutting education budgets and raising school fees, in part because they have overwhelming foreign debts. They, and the nations |
1177771_18 | The Second Sexual Revolution | we passed through a number of security checks. We stepped into a recovery room, where two surgeons were working on one of Dr. Berman's projects. Five white New Zealand rabbits had just undergone oophorectomies to surgically induce menopause. A sixth was feeling the anesthesia take effect. Her head was flopped forward, now too heavy to lift. Her eyes had gone slack. Afterward, Berman will test a new treatment. A lot of Sexual Pain Disorder is caused by ''inadequate secretion in the vaginal canal,'' Berman said. So she will administer an agent that will naturally switch on the body's mucosal membranes to start producing lubrication. In another wing of the lab, she opened a refrigerator and pulled out a tray holding a few dozen capped test tubes. ''These are rabbit cervixes that were removed after the drug test,'' she said. ''They'll be tested to see if there's been an increase in mucosal activity.'' She then showed me an ''organ chamber.'' In outsize tubes are clips that hold stretched segments of the smooth muscle from the clitorises, vaginas and penises removed from animal specimens or discarded human tissue after surgery. ''I can do any kind of smooth muscle test,'' Berman said. ''The tissues are placed in these chambers and you look at how they respond to drugs. I can show you how tissue contracts or relaxes. I can stimulate it electronically and look at the reactions in the presence or absence of different drugs. And it's all recorded here.'' She pointed to a needle scratching across an unscrolling cylinder of paper, like a seismograph. These tests represent the experiments now being conducted in university labs and corporate R-and-D facilities all over the country. The cumulative lesson of much of this research is leading to two categories of treatments -- hormone therapy, which restores desire, and various drugs, which amplify the sensation of arousal. Many companies are researching hormone medicines. Solvay already markets one called Estratest. Organon is in trials with a treatment called tibolone, which is believed to increase desire. Dr. Glenn Braunstein, an endocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is working on a ''testosterone patch'' under grants from the marketing giant Procter & Gamble. But the real gold rush is occurring in the other field of research -- creating a drug to increase blood flow to the genitals. And just as Viagra as a pill was a kind of |
1178032_0 | Health Is the Issue In Cell Tower Dispute | As an adamant opponent of the cellular antenna to be placed at Ossining High School, I feel compelled to respond to one of the letters on Feb. 6 [''Questioning the Aims of Tower Opponents'']. It is true that many people who oppose the antenna have cell phones. There was no need to ask this question, as this has never been a secret. In any event, the question of who uses cell phones is beside the point. Failing to listen to members of the community who asked them to put off the vote in September 1998, the Ossining Board of Education ignored the public. When opposition became widespread, they finally heard the public and asked Sprint to evaluate other sites. While many opponents would welcome a breach of the contract by the board, they have failed to correct their unfortunate decision. I do not have to support a board of education who pretends they never heard negative comment before the contract was signed. If they didn't hear it, it is because they didn't listen! Sprint, a multimillion dollar company claiming it wants to be a good neighbor, is ignoring the feelings of numerous Ossining parents and continues to put profit before ''neighborly'' behavior. While no one can fault Sprint for pursuing their business interests, asking them to consider a site other than my child's school is hardly a sacrifice. All of this for no benefit to any student. That the antenna would produce less emission than the F.C.C. safety standard is of little consolation to those who have done their homework. There is ample evidence of the possible negative health effects of very low levels of radio frequency emission. The fallout can have an umbrella effect. You can get significant concentrations anywhere from 200 to 1,500 feet from the source, and there are also ''hot spots.'' The board held Sprint to a specific standard in the contract, not the F.C.C. standard, but never bothered to find out what monitoring the emissions would cost each year? This antenna could wind up costing us money! When our board of education chooses to make the public aware of an issue, they find a way. Many of the individuals who oppose this tower are current and immediate past P.T.A. volunteers who have generally supported board of education initiatives in the past. Many attend school board meetings on a regular basis; most are involved with the |
1177860_0 | How to Add New Dog To Resident Dog's Turf | THERE can be repercussions when another dog or puppy enters an existing dog's household. How best to deal with them? Coexistence is complex. Appropriately timed eye contact, words spoken and mutually recognized can bridge the gap of understanding, but mystery overlays each relationship between the person and a pet. A large part of the interspecies attraction is the discussions that cannot be shared and actions that cannot be dissected. The decision to add a second pet invites the study of animal behavior. Two or more dogs under the same roof will interact in an unusual way. Undemocratically, dogs relate in a group in terms of hierarchy, where all members are ranked. The prospect of adding another dog to a household is exciting, and the assumption is often that the resident dog will share the same enthusiasm. But this often is not the case. A new dog or puppy signifies a shift in the hierarchy, divided attention and confrontation over coveted objects and sacred sleeping quarters. Human understanding of canine behavior and predictions about conflicts will affect the developing relationship. To shower a new puppy with affection, toys and play time is understandable, although not sensible. This can lead to deeply harbored resentment. You may have anthropomorphized your first dog's behavior, but the truth is a dog can never be human. To avoid tensions, grant all special privileges to the resident dog, including first feeding and the right to a treat, petting and praise. Greet the dog first and foremost and always defer petting to the older dog, and respect toy or bone takeovers and boundary scuffles. Though a dog's growl may sound vicious, it is rarely so. A dog's growl says, ''That is enough'' or ''Give me space.'' Disciplining the older dog would make matters far worse as it would communicate disrespect for its authority. You can help, however, by remaining calm and separating the puppy in a crate or gated area when the older dog's patience is thin. In addition, time should be spent alone with each animal. Initially, your dog's established walks and playtime should continue one on one. The puppy can be cuddled when the older dog is preoccupied or attended to elsewhere. Bringing a mature dog into a household will cause friction. Although it might work out and will grant a solitary dog companionship, there are no guarantees. Well-thought-out selection, proper handling and respect for the |
1177855_5 | Shared Activities Bridge the Chasm Between Generations | woman's college,'' said Donna Sangi-Vallario, executive director of Just Like Home. ''She was playing with a small child and right away got down on her knees and tried so hard to be understood. She spoke more clearly than ever, asking, 'Want me to get you a cookie?' You can see what kind of parents and grandparents they were.'' Many professionals who bring children together with the frail elderly say that the encounters help build sensitivity in children about the aging process. Ms. Sangi-Vallario said: ''It's time kids realize that just because Grandma takes her teeth out at the dinner table or can't find her car keys, or even if she comes out of the bathroom stark naked doesn't mean Grandma isn't an important, valuable person and maybe once did an the important job.'' At Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, children 2 through 5 from the Montessori Children's Center on the hospital grounds have regular play sessions with patients. They color pictures, paint, sing songs and tell stories with adults who have physical disabilities. Before the children visit for the first time at the hospital, they are given an orientation session in which they get to see and touch some of the equipment used in therapy, including wheelchairs, walkers, oxygen tanks and prosthetic limbs. ''Usually, because they have been briefed, the children are more concerned about whether this person will help me with my art project or read a story to me than whether the chair they happen to be sitting in has wheels or not,'' said Joanne Auerbach, director of therapeutic recreation at Burke. Young children seem particularly guileless among the disabled. Ms. Auerbach said that one child approached a patient with a tracheotomy tube in her neck and asked, ''What's that?'' The woman explained she needed it to help her breathe better. The child thought about it a moment and then said, ''Oh, like my Mommy needs glasses to help her see.'' At a recent play session at Burke, a group of five children sat around a table, playing a game with five women in wheelchairs. Derrick Phisterer, 4, was holding his game card upside down. ''If I can't read this, maybe I could pass it over to this girl,'' he said, looking over at Mary Gillespie, who is 82. The two quickly struck up a conversation about Disney World. Many women in the group are grandmothers and |
1177750_0 | Warm Welcome in the Jungle | SURINAME'S rain forest, one of the least traveled places in the world, spread out beneath my airplane like a great green sea with island mountain ranges and gray granite outcrops rising like surfacing whales. Water glinted through the trees. Few people had been here, and the immensity of it was exhilarating and daunting. While rain forests all over the world are imperiled, Suriname's has been protected until recently by its remoteness and inaccessibility -- and the country's low profile. Tucked between Guyana and French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America, it's known as the Alternative Caribbean by those who don't venture beyond the coast. But that's like judging Brooklyn from the bridge. Four-fifths of the country, an area about the size of New England, is roadless, pristine jungle with much of the biodiversity of the Amazon. The people who live here are as interesting as their natural setting, but their cultures are threatened as they become part of the 21st century. In late August, Russ Mittermeier, a friend who is president of Conservation International, a Washington-based organization concerned with preserving biodiversity, was headed on a weeklong trip to visit some of its field programs. He knew of my interest in the area and said that if I could sleep in a hammock, I was welcome to come along. Since tourism is in its infancy in Suriname and tours are rare, I quickly accepted. We arrived in Paramaribo, the coastal capital, at night and I was surprised by the dim outlines of Hindu temples that lined the road into town. Suriname's population of 412,000 is an odd mix of Hindus, Africans, Javanese, Chinese and Europeans whose ancestors arrived over the last 300 years to work in a plantation economy under the Dutch. More than 90 percent of the people, who gained full independence in 1975, live in in or near the capital. Our driver boasted that they prided themselves on getting along. He detoured to show us a mosque and a synagogue standing side by side and said that they shared a security guard. We flew the next day to Asindohopo, a village 135 miles south in the interior. Its African founders had fled slavery on the Dutch sugar, coffee and timber plantations in the 17th century. They learned how to survive in the forest from the Indians and fought pursuers until they won their freedom in 1762. Living |
1173052_0 | Hospital That Suspended Doctor Met Him Later About Joint Project | Two months after an obstetrician was suspended from Beth Israel Medical Center for carving his initials into a patient's belly, hospital officials met with him to discuss sending nurse midwives to work at a Queens clinic where the doctor had a new job, the hospital acknowledged yesterday. The obstetrician, Dr. Allan Zarkin, met with Dr. Daniel Saltzman, chief of obstetrics at Beth Israel, and other hospital personnel in mid-November to talk about setting up a midwives program with Choices Women's Medical Center, which offers abortions and gives prenatal care. On Sept. 7, Dr. Zarkin carved his initials into a patient, Dr. Liana Gedz, a dentist, after performing a Caesarean section delivery of her first baby. Administrators immediately suspended Dr. Zarkin, who later resigned. Dr. Zarkin's lawyer has said that his client, 61, is impaired by a frontal lobe disease. Dr. Zarkin was hired as medical director at Choices by Merle Hoffman, the clinic's president, and began on Nov. 1. Ms. Hoffman has acknowledged that she knew of the doctor's mental condition, but said she did not learn of the carving until Dec. 28, when she fired Dr. Zarkin after reading court documents. ''What I find interesting is that while Dr. Zarkin was here, he was talking about doing an arrangement with Beth Israel where Beth Israel would send over nurse midwives,'' Ms. Hoffman said. She added that although Dr. Zarkin was giving prenatal care to her patients, she did not learn that he could no longer work at Beth Israel until she received a letter from the hospital in late December. ''The chairman of our department of obstetrics and gynecology had one exploratory meeting with the clinic in question to discuss a possible clinical affiliation,'' hospital officials said in a prepared statement. ''For a variety of reasons, Beth Israel did not pursue this matter further.'' |
1173068_1 | Dangerous Stall by the I.R.A. | completely, a monitoring panel is expected to report that the I.R.A. has yet to turn in a single gun or bomb. By failing to take that modest but symbolically important first step, the I.R.A. has pushed Northern Ireland's mainstream Catholic and Protestant parties, along with the Irish and British governments, into an extremely difficult position and jeopardized the progress that has been made toward a fair and durable peace in Northern Ireland. The basis for progress has been the agreement that Northern Ireland's main parties signed on Good Friday, 1998. The text fixed no starting date for I.R.A. disarmament, but committed the I.R.A.'s political wing, Sinn Fein, to undertake its best efforts to see that disarmament was completed by May 2000. In a further agreement last year, Sinn Fein indicated that disarmament would begin once London shifted authority over Northern Ireland to a new power-sharing executive in which Sinn Fein representatives would play an important role. On the basis of Sinn Fein's assurances, Northern Ireland's main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, agreed to participate in the new executive, to which Britain transferred authority early last December. Two months have now gone by, the I.R.A. has not turned over any weapons, and the Ulster Unionists, quite rightly, are feeling abused. Unless the I.R.A. takes some concrete step toward disarmament by Feb. 12, the Unionists' leader, David Trimble, says he will withdraw from the executive, bringing Northern Ireland's experiment in self-government to a halt. He has also said he would be forced to resign his party's leadership. That would bring a more militant faction to power and could lead to the unraveling of the whole Good Friday agreement. To keep Mr. Trimble from having to follow through on these threats, London may pre-emptively suspend the executive. Some in Sinn Fein argue that as long as the I.R.A. continues to abide by its current cease-fire, disarmament is a merely symbolic issue. But the symbolism is crucially important. The Good Friday agreement guaranteed the Catholic minority equal political representation and full civil rights. In return, Sinn Fein provided assurances that the paramilitary I.R.A. would permanently abandon violence and turn its energies to electoral politics. By refusing to turn over its weapons, the I.R.A. puts those assurances, a central element of the peace agreement, in doubt. It also risks reawakening a conflict that almost all of Northern Ireland's people want to see ended for good. |
1173137_0 | Estrogen Offers Hope Against H.I.V. | Estrogen strongly protected against infection by the simian AIDS virus in experiments with female monkeys, offering hope that it might be used to protect against the human AIDS virus in women, researchers have reported here at a meeting on the disease. In the study, estrogen injected into a small group of female monkeys produced a thicker layer of cells in their vaginas. That acted as a protective barrier against infection when S.I.V., the simian AIDS virus, was squirted into the vagina to test the effectiveness of the therapy. ''The results were striking,'' said the head of the research team, Dr. Preston Marx of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City. Dr. Marx and public health officials cautioned that much more research was needed to prove that a topical estrogen cream applied to the vagina could protect women against H.I.V. ''We can't assume estrogen would have the same effect in women'' or that topical application would be as effective as injected estrogen, Dr. Marx said in an interview today. A reason for cautious optimism, though, is that S.I.V., which Dr. Marx has been using in work with monkeys for more than 10 years, has proved a valuable model for studying its human cousin, H.I.V. Dr. Fred T. Valentine, an AIDS expert at New York University, said that ''estrogen use might become a very important method by which women could reduce their chances of becoming infected with H.I.V. through sexual intercourse.'' Dr. Valentine is one of those attending this meeting, the Seventh Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, where scientists said that if estrogen protected in human studies, women might be freed of having to rely on men to provide safety against H.I.V. through use of condoms. Further, estrogen could be particularly useful as an inexpensive method of protection in third-world countries, home to an overwhelming majority of H.I.V. cases. In the last five years, Dr. Marx's team has used monkeys to study the role of different sex hormones in vaginal transmission of S.I.V. In 1996, the team reported that in a similar monkey experiment, injection of progesterone had increased the risk of transmission of S.I.V. by seven times because that hormone thinned the layer of vaginal cells, making it easier for the virus to reach the body's supply of blood. Since progesterone and estrogen usually oppose each other's effects in the body, ''the obvious prediction was that if |
1172983_0 | Trying to Reproduce Engineering Feats of Long Ago | In a five-part series beginning tonight, ''Nova'' applies a technological spin to some celebrated engineering accomplishments of centuries long past. The ingenuity of engineers well before their profession had been accredited is brought back with explorations, explanations and demonstrations of what the program calls ''Secrets of Lost Empires.'' Tonight's opener, ''Medieval Siege,'' looks into how an early 14th-century English army captured Stirling Castle in Scotland with the help of a powerful catapult nicknamed Wolfwar. On succeeding Tuesdays are an effort (a second by ''Nova'') to figure out how ancient Egyptians erected a famed granite obelisk; how, for still mysterious reasons, the inhabitants of tiny Easter Island in the South Pacific moved gigantic stone statues here and there; how the Romans went about creating their salubrious baths; and how Chinese bridge-builders of 900 years ago produced their remarkable ''rainbow bridge.'' The ''Nova'' consultants, inspired by a Sung dynasty painting of a rainbow bridge and using techniques that the Chinese might have used, manage to make an elegant and sturdy arch. Near Rome, they recreate a model bath, with its temperature-regulated tepidarium (warm room), caldarium (hot room) and frigidarium (cold room), an accomplishment of the Roman plumbing fraternity. The ''Nova'' team also casts a 15-ton concrete replica of an Easter Island monolith. And they figure out a plausible way for the ancient Egyptians to have managed to lug a 30-ton shaft of granite into an upright position. Their ventures begin tonight as experts in medieval warfare join 40 carpenters specializing in timber framing (without the help of heavy machinery) to test competing theories of how the formidable Wolfwar, also known as a trebuchet, was built. ''We've got all the trades going at once,'' a planner says. ''We have the stone masons busy; we've got the carpenters and the axes flying and the chips and smoke and the mud. If it weren't for the jets flying overhead occasionally, you'd think you're in the 12th century.'' One device, credited to a design by Leonardo da Vinci, is an enormous seesaw-like catapult, suitable for throwing dead horses at the enemy. Another is a sort of swinging box loaded with tons of loose rock and dirt put together by a contemporary French architect. Whatever version of a missile launcher was actually used seems to have worked: the Scots gave up at the first strike on their theretofore impregnable walls. SECRETS OF LOST EMPIRES Medieval Siege PBS, |
1172980_1 | Hormone Replacement: Weighing Risks and Benefits | conducted among 46,355 postmenopausal women, found that in lean (but not in heavy) women, taking estrogen with progestin was associated with an 8 percent increase in breast cancer risk with each year of use, as opposed to a 1 percent increase when estrogen alone was taken. Likewise, a study conducted in Los Angeles County by Dr. Ronald K. Ross and colleagues at the University of Southern California among 1,900 postmenopausal breast cancer patients and 1,600 healthy postmenopausal women found a substantially higher risk of breast cancer when progestin was combined with estrogen for hormone replacement therapy than when estrogen alone was taken. This study is scheduled for publication this month in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Women may rightly regard these findings, which confirm several previous studies, as a cruel twist of fate, since progestin has been included in the regimen specifically to prevent estrogen from inducing endometrial cancer, a cancer of the uterine lining. Endometrial cancer is much rarer than breast cancer and has a very high cure rate, but the treatment for it can be quite debilitating. When a woman with a uterus takes estrogen without progestin, the risk of endometrial cancer is increased as much as 14-fold. The situation is further complicated by the fact that all of these studies have flaws. Many of them rely on women's memories of what hormone treatments they took, and memories can be imprecise. The studies are not controlled clinical trials -- that is, women are not randomly assigned to receive hormones or placebos. A large placebo-controlled clinical trial, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health is under way, but results are not expected until 2006 and even then may not answer all the questions. Over all, studies have shown, women who have used hormone replacement therapy tend to live longer than women who do not. But these studies too are flawed, in that hormone use is most common among well-educated, better-off women, who may be more likely to follow healthy diets and exercise regularly. As a result of this uncertainty, doctors have long advised women to weigh their individual circumstances -- their own health and their family histories of cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and so on -- in making the decision on hormone replacement. The main reason women start hormone replacement is to counter the symptoms of menopause, primarily hot flashes that disrupt sleep and cause daytime discomfort |
1174329_0 | Cell Phone Cautions | Recent studies in The New England Journal of Medicine show that drivers using mobile phones are four times more likely to be involved in a collision, the county's Office of Consumer Protection reports. Elaine Price, the office's director, is urging Westchester motorists to limit cell phone use while driving, especially in bad weather. Weather conditions and shorter daylight hours already contribute to the season's usual increase in fatal car accidents, she said. Laws against using hand-held telephones while driving exist in several countries, including Brazil and Switzerland. Last year Brooklyn, Ohio, banned them except to contact public safety personnel. Ms. Price called on the industry to include warnings and advice with their products and to issue warnings with monthly bills. She also suggests that cell phone companies provide easy-to-dial toll free numbers for reporting road hazards. Parents in particular should refrain from using cell phones when driving children to and from school -- particularly around playgrounds and schoolyards where students can be inattentive to their surroundings, Ms. Price said. IN BRIEF |
1174138_0 | Sailing the Caribbean With a Few Pals | THE name tags scared me. They were the first thing I saw -- lined up neatly in alphabetical order on a table -- when I entered the observation lounge of the Nantucket Clipper on Sunday afternoon. Uh-oh. I was here to cruise the Virgin Islands for the beaches, for the swimming and snorkeling in jewel-blue waters, for the Caribbean's gentle wind in my hair, not to make new friends. So I silently vowed to be polite but retiring, to commune only with a good book, to smile and nod and keep to myself. Famous last words. By Wednesday, I didn't know how I'd ever gotten along without Anne and Dave from Buffalo. I'd bonded with Jane the naturalist from Seattle (even if I did skip her lecture on hummingbirds). I'd watched myself on a land tour, one of a dozen rowdy cruise-ship passengers in an open-air minibus, smiling and waving at strangers. Cruises as a vacation form inspire mixed feelings in me. Traveling by water, I have always thought, should mean either making the trans-Atlantic crossing in evening clothes or hugging the coast of Ischia, stretched out on the sun deck of a friend's yacht, getting up only when a cold chicken salad and white wine lunch is served at a table 20 feet away. But this time I was seduced by the experience and came away with the conviction that the cruise is an art form -- and the fastest, purest wind-down possible for the chronically stressed. Maybe it was because this cruise was called the Yachtsman's Caribbean. The brochure promised I'd be able to swim and snorkel directly from the ship. Things went well from the beginning. American Airlines got me from New York to the St. Thomas airport nonstop in four uneventful hours flat. The Clipper's dock was five minutes from the airport, but it was too early to board, so the ship's representative whisked my luggage away (it appeared magically later that afternoon in my cabin) and sent me in a taxi to the Island Beachcomber Hotel, about three minutes from the airport. In fact, on the way back, some people actually walked from there to the terminal. The Beachcomber is a simple place and the sound of airplanes landing isn't particularly tranquilizing, but there is a gorgeous little beach and the requisite open-air restaurant and bar. (A pleasantly chatty American bartender pointed out that some |
1174497_3 | India Tries to Plug a Cash Drain: Its Power System | there would be no real money for education, health and poverty programs unless the financial hemorrhaging of power could be stopped, nor could the reliability and adequacy of the power supply be improved. The state had no money of its own to invest in upgrading its power services, and private companies were unwilling to invest in new plants because the electricity boards had no money to pay for the power they generated. The bankrupt power system had helped cripple both antipoverty measures and economic growth in Uttar Pradesh, a particularly grave situation in this fast-growing state whose population is expected to rise to 250 million in 25 years. If Uttar Pradesh goes forward now with plans to turn over power distribution to private companies -- which would be unwilling to tolerate unbridled thefts of power that would endanger their bottom lines -- the World Bank is likely to loan the state billions of dollars over the next 5 to 10 years for a wide variety of development projects, bank officials say. And more states are showing an interest. In recent months, since Andhra Pradesh's chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu -- known for having taken politically unpopular steps to curb subsidies and reform the power system -- won re-election, other state leaders have gone to the World Bank. ''Over the last few months, we have observed real competition among states for going ahead with reforms,'' Ms. Chassard said. ''We are facing a problem now of having to say no to some requests for help because we have more than we can handle.'' Change will not come without opposition. Over the years, thievery has become entrenched because so many have benefited: the consumer whose meter is slowed to give a lower reading, the worker who collects bribes for tinkering with the meter, and the politicians and bureaucrats who sell jobs to supervising engineers. As power workers poured out of a jail in the town of Dasna in western Uttar Pradesh last week, where they had been held for taking part in a strike the state had declared illegal, the men -- wearing garlands of marigolds to celebrate their release -- bitterly blamed the politicians for the corruption and insisted that it could be cleaned up if the political will were there. But their descriptions of the problem only underlined the pervasiveness of the corruption -- and how hard it would be for anyone |
1174439_0 | Jobs Outside the Ivory Tower | To the Editor: In the last 25 years, I've hired an average of 10 postgraduates a year for investment and securities positions. I'm sorry, but humanities graduates simply cannot compare to finance/business graduates in credentials. Most of the latter also bring related experience to the table, too. Every year, university placement directors from humanities disciplines plead for me to interview their graduates. And every year I ask them why, if the graduates want jobs in the securities industry, they didn't major in what they know we want? The usual answer is that they can't get a tenured teacher position, and that reality has set in. I say: No, thanks. J. H. NOONAN Chicago, Jan. 16 The writer runs his own money management firm. |
1174415_1 | We Can Engineer Nature. But Should We? | offer the promise of increased food output and of vaccines incorporated into bananas rather than syringes, making them cheaper and easier to deliver. Swiss researchers have already used genetic engineering to develop a strain of rice with vitamin A, a lack of which now causes millions of cases of blindness. So far, there is no evidence that any of the genetically engineered foods now on the market have harmed anyone, or have much of an impact on the environment. But such engineering seems to conjure up images of mad scientists playing God. Opponents have been quick to use the label ''Frankenfoods.'' Proponents of biotechnology argue that mankind has long been manipulating genes through conventional plant and animal breeding. If anything, they say, genetic engineering is more precise because it introduces just one or two known genes into a plant. With conventional breeding, thousands of unknown genes are transferred in order to get the one with the desired trait. BUT cross-breeding works only between plants or animals of the same or closely related species. Genetic engineering allows species barriers to be crossed in a new way -- to put bacterial genes in corn or fish genes in tomatoes. Even biotechnology supporters concede that genetic tinkering can have unanticipated results. It is possible that unexpected toxins or allergens can be introduced into crops through genetic engineering, though the Food and Drug Administration insists all modified crops are now screened for adequately. There is more evidence to support the possibility of negative effects on the environment. A plant with a gene to fight off insects might spread that gene through pollination, creating, say, weeds that can no longer be controlled. Genetically improved fish might drive native species to extinction. And a study has shown that genetically altered corn plants can harm monarch butterflies. What is particularly worrisome is that because biological systems reproduce, such genetic pollution cannot be cleaned up like a chemical spill or recalled like a defective automobile. Once the gene is out of the bottle, so to speak, it cannot be put back in. In Europe, where opposition to genetically modified foods has been strongest, other factors are also at play. There have been food scares unconnected with genetic engineering, such as mad cow disease and dioxin-contaminated chickens, which have contributed to unease. IT is also true that consumers do not yet see the benefits of genetic modification. The products |
1174324_0 | Questioning the Aims Of Tower Opponents | In presenting the view of Ossining cell tower opponents (''Suit Filed Over Plan for School Antenna,'' Jan. 30), your article failed to ask if the opponents themselves used cellular telephones. You would have discovered that many of them do. These opponents are urging the Ossining Board of Education to break its contract and risk expensive litigation. They are asking taxpayers to underwrite lawsuit costs. They demand that Sprint sacrifice its business interests even as they hang on to their cell phones. Cell phones are the only reason cell towers exist. These opponents create this hullabaloo in the name of health risks to high school students, which, because the cell tower emissions are 13,000 times lower than the safety standard and because the emissions beam outward and not downward, are virtually nonexistent. KAILA EISENKRAFT Ossining |
1174325_0 | The Health Hazard From Cell Phones Is Real | The general public is unaware of the significant weaknesses underlying the wireless industry's claims that cell phones and their base station antennas are safe. The industry's current safety standards are based on a ''thermal standard,'' which presupposes that radio frequency radiation too low to heat tissue is, by definition, safe. This standard cannot explain the many scientific studies that have shown increases in tumors in mice and rats, increases in DNA breaks in animals' genetic material, increases in cancer rates in workers, changes in blood pressure and sleep patterns and other biological effects in humans and animals. We in Ossining recognize our responsibility to our children. We will not allow our students to become the prey of corporations willing to put profits before health. A full discussion of the health effects of radio frequency radiation and cell phones, with detailed references, can be found online at www.OssiningNewYork.org. DR. LESLIE PLACHTA Ossining |
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